The Reaper's Wicked Obsession-Chapter 188: The Hollows

Isadora yelped, struggling to maintain balance in mid-air, but the force dragging her downward was far too strong.

Her body twisted, facing the endless abyss below, her dagger spinning wildly through the air as she stretched for it, but the unseen power slammed her sideways, and before she could react, her back collided with the ground.

Isadora released a strangled breath as the pain shot through her like a tide.

Just forcing her body to sit caused a gut-wrenching scream as the shock exploded through her.

"Dear Alda!" A voice exclaimed to the Allfather.

She turned sharply to it and found Logi lurching from the dark, unable to stay on his feet properly.

"Logi," she voiced in relief at the sight of him. She thought Solin had hurt him or worse.

Logi gulped like he was trying to hold in vomit. "You better heal that before I..."

Isadora leveled her gaze to where he pointed. Her leg was turned at an unnatural angle, the inner flesh and bone sticking out.

"Too late..." Logi turned and puked out the contents of his stomach.

Isadora’s shaky hand moved, the sight of her wound disturbed her too, but letting it linger was asking for a death sentence.

Her weaves materialized on her fingertips, gliding into her wound as her pained screams filled the air. The terrifying sound of her bones snapping back in place caused a chill down her spine.

Her teeth gritted as she healed the open flesh and the blood vessels until it closed shut, leaving behind not a single trace of it.

Logi’s pained groans pulled Isadora’s focus.

"Logi!" She hurried to her feet and rushed to his side.

Logi leaned against the wall, hugging himself as he shivered from an unknown cold. "I-I was hoping you wouldn’t be here too, you must have made an impression on Solin like I did."

"What’s wrong with you?" She asked worriedly, noting how pale and sweaty he looked.

"It could be several things..." he replied with a frown. "But I have a best guess. The food, drink..."

Isadora’s features ran pale. "Are you poisoned?"

"If I were you would be too," he reasoned before gulping as the urge to vomit overwhelmed him again.

Isadora placed her hand on his forehead to feel his temperature. "You’re burning up!"

"My body is fighting through it but I don’t know how long." He groaned. "Turns out I was wrong. This is a warp tunnel."

"Like the ones that lead to the Sigil beasts and Bone Eaters?"

He nodded, grimacing in pain. "Warp tunnels can lead to several dimensions, and each of them shelters various beings. We wound up in..." He groaned.

"Is there something I can do?"

"You’re the healer, don’t ask me," he growled as the pain became unbearable. "You know what? Just fucking heal me!"

Isadora quickly summoned her weaves. She didn’t know what exactly she was healing, but what she did caused more pain to Logi.

He collapsed on the ground.

"Logi!"

"Don’t stop! Pull it out!"

"Pull what out?" she panicked even more.

Logi roared, as his body convulsed, reminding her of what happened to that boy’s body.

"Logi!"

His bones twisted in an unnatural angle, his eyes going completely blank.

"Do it!"

"Do what?"

The response she got was more pained groaning, each sound increasing in volume.

Isadora couldn’t take anymore, she summoned her weaves again, the red thread slipping into his body. He shook more until it got too fast for her eyes to keep up.

The strain got to her as well, forcing her to her knees, but she was determined to keep going, despite the blood trailing from her nose.

Suddenly, Logi’s body went still, then jerked violently as his eyes snapped open. His mouth stretched wide, and a dark fluid erupted from his throat, spilling in a horrific rush and hanging in the air.

Isadora watched in horror as the thing materialized; it was shapeless yet moved like it was alive.

Logi shot to his feet, placing his hands against the earth as his weaves slipped in, the earth underneath them jostled and split open just under the dark fluid.

Logi concentrated fiercely, his connection reaching to the depths of the earth, as then, in a heartbeat, vines emerged and wrapped around the dark fluid.

As if discerning the threat, the dark fluid responded and forged into spikes.

"Get down!" Logi yelled.

Isadora ducked just when the spikes pierced through everywhere.

Logi growled digging his fingers into the dirt as his weaves went deeper, the vines clasped more around the dark fluid and propelled it down beneath the earth, the ground collided.

"Phew! That was intense..." He faced Isadora, still in shock. "If it weren’t for you, I would have become a Hollow and that, little one... would have been very tragic."

He withdrew his fingers from the ground, but green weaves still connected, and yanking more, it snapped off and vanished into the earth.

"A H-Hollow?"

Logi sat on the ground, running a hand through his inky dark hair, drenched in sweat. "Hollows are creatures known for their insatiability; they feed off anything or anyone, and they are more difficult to handle than any warp-dimensional creatures." He spread his arms. "This place... this Mossvale, is a mirage to lure the unfortunate, in this case... we’re the unfortunate."

Isadora gulped his words. "That’s why you couldn’t pinpoint our location."

"We went through a warp tunnel and ended up here," Logi said, frowning upon this. "I don’t know how..."

He still couldn’t understand why... when he knew he didn’t make a mistake when crafting the tunnel.

Then what caused this?

"I ate the food here too... I-Is that thing inside me too?" Isadora asked, suddenly frightened.

"Don’t worry, you didn’t go all gluttony on the food here like I did..." Logi waved his hand. "You should be okay."

He rose to his full height. "Gods! I can’t believe I forgot my encounter with Solin. When I scouted the area for the old tunnel, I figured it out. That’s the thing about Hollows: they mess with your head. Our luck is so unfortunate that we stumbled upon one who’s obsessed with keeping a persona of a perfect village."

"The denizens," Isadora found her voice. "Are they Hollows too?"

"Yes," he replied. "They were once unfortunate souls who stumbled here a long time ago. I don’t think anything here aside from us is alive."