The Elder's reply was lost as the Hollow One suddenly moved. With unnatural speed that belied its size, it covered half the distance to the wall in a single bound, then stopped again, still staring upward. Now closer, Arashi could see more details, the way its skin seemed to ripple and shift as if something moved beneath it, the faint luminescence of its eyeless face. The air around it distorted, like heat rising from summer-baked stone, and the ground where it stood began to wither visibly, vegetation blackening and crumbling to dust.
"They need to see," Arashi whispered, though he wasn't sure where the words came from. His voice felt strange in his throat, resonating differently. "It's a harbinger."
"What are you talking about?" Kira asked, grabbing his arm. Her fingers dug into his flesh, betraying her fear despite her attempt to remain calm. "Arashi, you're scaring me."
The pain in his head intensified, and with it came a certainty he couldn't explain, knowledge that felt both alien and familiar, like a memory from a dream long forgotten. He stood, ignoring Kira's attempt to pull him back down, his movements driven by something beyond conscious thought.
"Elder Takuma!" he called out, his voice carrying across the wallwalk.
All eyes turned to him, including the Elder's, whose expression shifted from surprise to alarm, then to a grim resignation that Arashi had never seen before.
"Arashi! I told you to, "
The Hollow One moved again, this time launching itself directly at the wall with frightening speed. But instead of attacking, it stopped at the wall's base and threw its head back in a wail that shattered the morning air, a sound that contained both agony and triumph, that seemed to exist simultaneously in the physical world and somewhere beyond it. The sound bypassed Arashi's ears entirely, reverberating directly in his mind, carrying fragments of meaning he almost understood.
Then it placed one grotesque hand against the ancient stone, and where it touched, crimson energy began to spread like veins through the wall's surface. The stone itself seemed to groan in protest, a deep subsonic rumble that Arashi felt in his bones. The scent of burning metal and something sweeter, almost like incense, filled the air.
"Everyone off the wall! Now!" shouted Captain Hiro, as cracks began to appear in the stone beneath their feet. His voice, normally controlled and authoritative, held an edge of genuine fear. "Move!"
Chaos erupted. Guards rushed to evacuate the wallwalk while below, villagers scattered, screaming. The sound of crumbling stone and panicked shouts created a cacophony that should have driven Arashi to action, but he remained transfixed, unable to tear his gaze from the Hollow One.
Kira pulled at Arashi's arm again, her fingers digging into his flesh. "Come on!" she urged, her voice tight with fear. "This whole section could collapse!"
But Arashi couldn't move. The Hollow One had tilted its head up again, and somehow, impossibly, he felt it was looking directly at him, not just seeing him, but recognizing him. A connection formed between them, an acknowledgment that transcended the physical divide.
In that moment, the world around him seemed to slow. Sounds became muted, movements sluggish, as though time itself had thickened. The crimson light spreading through the wall shifted, forming patterns that stirred something deep in his memory. They weren't random; they were words, written in a script he shouldn't know but somehow understood as clearly as his native tongue.
"The Fallen Awakens," he read aloud, his voice sounding strange to his own ears, deeper and layered with harmonics that made the air itself vibrate. "The Choir Approaches."
The wall groaned beneath them, stone grinding against stone as ancient mortar crumbled. Kira screamed as stones began to fall away, her hand finally releasing his arm as she struggled to maintain her balance on the shifting walkway.
Elder Takuma was suddenly there, moving with a speed and agility that belied his years, pulling both of them toward the stairway. His grip was iron, his eyes wild with an emotion Arashi couldn't immediately identify, not just fear, but something deeper. Something like recognition.
"Move!" the Elder commanded, shoving them ahead of him toward the stairs. The authority in his voice broke through Arashi's trance, compelling obedience.
They fled down the stairs as sections of the ancient wall began to collapse. The Hollow One's wail rose to an impossible pitch as they reached the ground, the sound boring into Arashi's skull like a physical thing, driving white-hot needles of pain through his temples.
And then, silence.
The sudden absence of sound was almost as shocking as the wail had been. The world seemed to hold its breath, suspended in a moment of terrible anticipation. Dust hung in the air, illuminated by the crimson light from above, dancing particles frozen in time.
Arashi turned back to see the eastern wall still standing, though badly damaged. Huge cracks ran through the ancient stonework, and a section near where the Hollow One had touched had partially collapsed, leaving a jagged wound in the village's primary defense. Of the Hollow One itself, there was no sign, only a lingering trace of crimson energy that faded even as he watched, like embers dying in a night wind.
"What was that?" Kira asked, her voice shaking. She had lost her usual composure, her face pale and eyes wide. A small cut on her forehead trickled blood down the side of her face. "What just happened?"
Villagers were emerging from shelter, approaching the damaged wall with cautious steps and fearful expressions. Captain Hiro was already organizing a defensive perimeter, directing his guards to positions around the breach while sending runners to bring materials for temporary repairs.
Elder Takuma's face was grave as he looked at Arashi, studying him with new eyes, as though seeing him for the first time, or perhaps seeing someone else entirely. "A warning," he said quietly, pitched for Arashi's ears alone. "And a summons."
"I saw writing in the light," Arashi said, the memory of it still burning in his mind, impossible to dismiss as imagination or trick of the eye. "Words in a language I shouldn't know."
"You understood it?" Takuma asked sharply, his gaze intensifying. When Arashi nodded, the Elder closed his eyes briefly, as though confirming a long-dreaded suspicion. "That... complicates matters."
Mei had approached while they spoke, her healer's instincts drawing her to Kira's injury. She produced a small cloth from a pouch at her belt and dabbed at the cut with practiced efficiency.
"It's minor," she assured Kira, though her dark eyes kept darting to Arashi with undisguised curiosity. "But I'd like to apply a proper dressing at my hut later."
"Thank you, Mei," Kira said, wincing slightly at the healer's touch. "But what was that thing? I've seen Hollow Ones before, but never anything like that."
Mei's lips pressed into a thin line as she exchanged glances with Takuma. "Something that should not be," she said finally, her voice carrying the weight of deeper knowledge. "Something from the old stories."
The Elder's expression tightened. "We need to talk, but not here." He raised his voice to address the gathering villagers. "Everyone return to your homes! The danger has passed for now, but we must prepare. Captain Hiro, organize repair teams for the wall. Mei, attend to any injuries."
The healer nodded, giving Kira's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before moving to tend to others who had been caught in the panic. Shen hurried past, scrolls clutched to his chest, mumbling about recording the incident while details were fresh.
As the crowd dispersed, Takuma gripped Arashi's shoulder with surprising strength, his fingers digging in with barely restrained urgency.
"Come with me," he said in a tone that brooked no argument. "You too, Kira. You've seen too much to be left uninformed now." His gaze lingered on the blood still streaking her face. "And we should have Mei look at that cut properly once she's done with the others."
As they followed the Elder back toward the archive, Arashi noticed the sky above them was still stained crimson, though the color seemed concentrated now, a dark smear against the blue like a wound in the heavens themselves. The air tasted of metal and ash, and somewhere in the distance, a bell began to toll, the village's warning system, signaling residents to be prepared for possible evacuation.
The Harmonic Convergence was still two days away, but something had already begun, something connected to him, to the dreams, to the crystal Takuma had hidden for so many years.
And whatever it was, Arashi knew with certainty that the Hollow One had been only the beginning.
Captain Hiro watched them go, his weathered face unreadable as he directed repairs. But as Arashi glanced back, he caught the captain's gaze following him specifically, clouded with something like concern, or perhaps suspicion. The captain had always treated him differently from other villagers, with a distant respect that seemed at odds with his gruff demeanor toward everyone else.
Now Arashi wondered if there was more to that distinction than he had realized, if perhaps the captain knew something about him that he himself was only beginning to discover.