Chapter 45: The Hollow Sprawl
The Hollow Sprawl wasn’t on any modern map.
It existed in whispers—a stretch of ruined spires and inverted towers suspended above a scar in the earth. A forgotten sector of the Empire lost during the first Cataclysm. No supply routes. No sanctioned access. Just walls of mist, a dead zone for mana, and stories of hunters who vanished without a trace.
And yet that’s exactly where Valerian and his group now traveled.
Their path wound through the broken eastern ranges, past the last imperial outposts. The further they went, the more nature twisted. Trees stood still despite the wind. Birds circled, but never entered the clouds above the Sprawl.
As they reached the ridge overlooking the Hollow, Lira let out a breath.
"That’s not just corruption," she whispered. "That’s void."
Below, the Hollow Sprawl stretched endlessly—a city of impossible angles. Upside-down buildings clung to the underside of floating plateaus. Inverted staircases curled into empty sky. Ruined towers bled shadows upward instead of down. Gravity here seemed like a suggestion.
Even Selene looked shaken.
"This place wasn’t built. It was... warped."
Valerian stepped forward, wind tearing at his cloak. He could feel it now—deep in his bones. The same echo from Glairemoor. That same cold hum.
There was another Wraith down there.