Chapter 52: Whispers
The Hollow came at him in a wriggling mess of tendrils, of shadows crossed into a hideous freak that hissed, and screeched, and stabbed with nails sharper than daggers. Its presence was little over the Resonance, like that of a passing cloud too thin to hamper the sunlight, a mere spectator glaring down upon the unknowing masses.
I hate myself for being right… Turns out that God’s men do have their expectations met exactly the way they wished!
A reek of burnt flesh splashed across his face as Valens kept the Inferno active. He stretched a tongue of flame up its wavering head, forked it round, and sent it drilling into its hollow eyes. The spell found purchase against the rotten flesh, corroded by foul acid that dripped down the edges of the creature’s billowing cape.
Its mouth opened with a soundless scream as it leaped at Valens. Didn’t care much for the pain. Dove straight into the flames. The frequencies of its existence shifted subtly as it tried to worm its way from between the holes across the burning net, but with a flick of his wrist, Valens tightened the seams.
‘Ding!’ You have managed to defeat [Hollow - lvl 127]! For killing a creature above your own level, you are granted bonus experience.
[Your 1st Trial hasn’t been completed yet. The gained experience has been stored.]
“Stored?!” Valens gawked at the sudden notification before flinging himself backward as another Hollow tried to take a sweep at him. The narrow tunnel was swarming with these damned things, and for some reason, most of them tried to reach for Valens as though they had a bone to pick with him.
Damnit!
He managed a hasty Lifesurge over his right arm, flushing his burnt skin with a wave of lifemana to fix the wound. Apathy muted the pain, but he could still feel the foul mana trying to seep into his core. Like a wriggling worm, it squirmed across his veins, up his chest, aiming for the chest cavity until the Lifesurge plucked it off with its sharp tips.
Blinding lights exploded a few paces ahead of him, sprinkling in a shower of holy rain that hissed against the swarm of Hollows. Smoke wafted off from their half-material bodies, mouths stretched wide open in whispers only Valens could hear through the Resonance.
‘Mistress…’
‘Mistress…’