"According to this," Greg muttered, tapping the parchment with a thick finger, "the Crimson Hollow was once a sacred druidic reserve. Untouched, pure magic… until the world broke."
"And now the abyss won't go near it," Elena added, eyeing the crimson-marked zone on the map. "That's saying something."
Kael didn't speak. He stared at the shifting sands in his hourglass, waiting for them to change. But they didn't. That was what disturbed him most.
"Time refuses to flow inside the Hollow," he finally said. "No future. No past. Like something... eats time in there."
Seraphina frowned. "What could do that?"
"I don't know," Kael said. "But we're going to find out."
---
They entered the Crimson Hollow at dusk.
The moment they passed its edge, everything changed.
The sky faded into a deep, eternal red. The trees were tall—unnaturally tall—with bark black as coal and leaves that shimmered with blood-like fluid. The wind didn't move. The air didn't breathe.
Kael stepped forward and immediately felt it.
A tug at his chest. Like something pulling at his memories.
"I can't sense any flow of time here," he whispered.
Greg glanced back. "That's not normal, right?"
"No. It's... dangerous."
They pressed forward.
Every step seemed to stretch.
The path twisted, looping around ancient stones carved with faces. Each one was weeping—tears carved deep into stone, as if the statues themselves mourned.
"Are those… grave markers?" Elena asked.
Kael studied one. "No. They're... warnings."
Suddenly, the forest spoke.
A voice—dozens layered into one—whispered from the trees.
"Return what was taken..."
The group froze.
"What the hell was that?" Greg hissed, gripping his hammer.
Kael didn't answer. He was staring at a clearing ahead.
In it stood a tree.
Massive. Twisted. Its bark etched with glowing crimson runes. At its base, a pool of perfectly still water reflected not the forest—but the sky of another world. A sky Kael recognized.
"The Game World," he whispered.
A rift... beneath the tree.
And beside it stood a figure.
A man in tattered robes. His skin was pale. His eyes—empty. He held no weapon, no armor—just a black rose in one hand.
Kael stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The man turned slowly. His voice was soft. "I was the first."
Kael blinked. "The first what?"
"The first soul ripped from your world and placed in the Game. A test... before the veil collapsed."
Elena gasped. "You're from Earth?"
The man nodded. "I was. Now I am the Hollow's Warden."
Greg raised his weapon. "That doesn't sound friendly."
Kael raised a hand. "Wait. Let him speak."
The Warden continued. "I survived what came. The system, the resets, the endless war. I abandoned humanity to protect what remained here. The forest remembers pain. And it remembers you."
"What do you want?" Kael asked.
"To see if your soul has not yet rotted."
The Warden pointed, and shadows erupted from the trees.
Twisted reflections of Kael, Elena, and Greg—mirrors of their worst memories.
Kael faced himself, cloaked in voidsteel armor, slaughtering innocents. Eyes dead. Voice devoid of compassion.
"You're a monster," the shade said.
"I won't become you," Kael growled.
"You already have."
Kael lunged. The hourglass flared, but time snapped. No dilation. No inversion.
The Hollow suppressed time.
So Kael used strategy.
He lured the shade toward the edge of the pool, forcing it to reflect over the rift.
And then he lied to it.
"You're not the worst version of me," he whispered. "He is."
The shade turned.
And the reflection in the rift pulled it in.
It screamed—shredded between mirrored futures.
Elena and Greg defeated theirs through memory—each facing past regrets and forgiving themselves.
The Warden watched.
"You have chosen differently," he said quietly. "Perhaps there is still hope."
Kael approached him slowly. "Can we close this rift?"
The Warden nodded. "Only if you give the Hollow a new memory."
"What kind?"
"One strong enough to rewrite the pain it was born from."
Kael turned to Elena and Greg.
Then he did something he hadn't done in a long time.
He spoke truth.
He told the Hollow about his brother—killed in the first Game Incursion. About how Kael had traded away emotion to win. How he feared he would lose everything again.
And how he refused to let that happen.
The Hollow listened.
The red sky began to clear.
The trees stopped whispering.
And the rift... closed.
The Warden faded.
As the forest returned to silence, a new ley-line glowed in Kael's hourglass.
One that hadn't existed before.
A fifth node.
Unmapped. Unknown.
It pulsed from the Veil Scar.
Kael stood still. "They've begun opening the final gate."
Greg tightened his grip. "Then we better close it first."
---
Character Sheet Update (Kael - Reflection):
Reflected Name: Void Kael
Abilities:
Chrono Lock: Stop a person's time entirely for 3 seconds.
Detachment Protocol: Immunity to emotional magic and manipulation.
Abyss Link (Corrupted): Can summon abyss echoes from alternate timelines.
Psychological Profile:
Cold, ruthless. Sacrifices anything to win.
Believes all attachments are weaknesses.
Haunts Kael's visions as a warning.