The inner region of the Hollowlands stretched endlessly in all directions, a wasteland of jagged ice and swirling white mist that devoured sound and hope alike.
The ground beneath was treacherous, frozen stone that cracked and shifted with each step, as if the very earth resented the presence of the living.
"RUN!"
"KEEP MOVING!"
"DON’T LOOK BACK!"
Dozens of figures fled across the corrupt expanse, their forms barely visible through the perpetual blizzard. Resonators, adventurers, and even princes and princesses of the kingdom, all united now in their desperate flight from death. Their enhanced bodies, strengthened by years of training and augmented by precious artifacts, pushed beyond mortal limits.
Yet... it wasn’t enough.
Behind them, something massive moved through the mist. Its outline was impossible to define, a shadow within shadows that seemed to bend the very air around it. Only glimpses were visible: the gleam of ancient ice, the suggestion of enormous limbs, and eyes that burned like frozen stars in the eternal twilight.
"I can’t... I can’t keep going!"
"My aura... it’s gone!"
One by one, the fleeing figures began to falter. The Hollowlands drained everything: strength, aura, and... hope.
What should have been massive reserves of power were reduced to nothing in this cursed place. Enhanced reflexes slowed to mortal speed. Artifacts dimmed and failed. Even the most powerful among them were reduced to mere humans running for their lives. With the exception of those who focused on honing their bodies to the limit.
"*****!"
The beast’s hunting cry echoed across the wasteland, a sound like breaking glaciers and screaming wind. The ice beneath the fleeing group erupted without warning, massive shards the size of spears shooting up from below. From above, more projectiles fell like frozen rain, each one capable of piercing through enhanced flesh.
"WATCH OUT!"
"INCOM-ARGH!"
Bodies fell.
"RUAAGH!"
Screams cut short.
"..."
The white snow turned red as those who couldn’t dodge in time were impaled, their precious powers offering no protection against the Hollowlands’ twisted physics.
The survivors pressed on, their numbers dwindling with each passing moment.
At the far right edge of the fleeing mass, five young figures moved in tight formation. At their head, two young men cut a path through the chaos. One possessed eyes like burning coals, his red gaze scanning constantly for threats. His companion’s slate gray eyes held a calculating coldness as he moved with deadly precision.
Between them ran two young women. One bore auburn hair that caught what little light filtered through the mist, while the other’s violet eyes reflected a desperate determination. Behind them all, a fifth figure weaved shadows like living things, his hands dancing in complex patterns to deflect the worst of the falling ice.
The red-eyed youth moved in perfect silence, his blade carving through obstacles with mechanical efficiency. No words passed his lips, but his movements spoke volumes as he carved a path forward. His gray-eyed companion called out warnings and directions, coordinating their desperate flight.
"Left! Three shards coming down!"
"Behind you!"
"Keep the formation tight!"
But even their coordination couldn’t overcome the inevitable. The beast was gaining ground easily, its massive form becoming clearer through the mist. Worse, its attention seemed to have focused entirely on their small group, as if drawn by some invisible force.
The ice around them began to shift, rising in jagged walls that cut off escape routes. What had been open wasteland became a maze of frozen barriers, each path leading deeper into a carefully constructed trap.
"It’s herding us!" the gray-eyed youth called out, his voice tight with realization.
The beast’s form loomed larger now, close enough that they could see the ancient malice in its burning eyes. Ice crystallized in the air around it, forming geometric patterns that hurt to look at directly. The very space around the creature seemed to warp, bending reality to its will.
SWOOSH-!
The walls closed in, forming a rough circle around the five fleeing figures. There was nowhere left to run.
"Argh-!"
The auburn-haired girl stumbled, exhaustion finally claiming her enhanced stamina. The violet-eyed youth beside her caught her arm, both of them breathing hard.
"!"
The beast reared up, its massive form blotting out what little light remained. Ice gathered around its maw, coalescing into a beam of absolute zero that could freeze matter at the molecular level.
The red-eyed youth saw it first. Without hesitation, he threw himself toward the two girls, his enhanced strength carrying them both out of the projected path of the attack. But his action ended up putting himself in their place.
The gray-eyed youth saw his friend’s motion and understood instantly. His own body moved before conscious thought, hands extending to push his red-eyed companion clear of the beast’s targeting.
"VANCE!" he shouted, the word torn from his throat by desperate urgency.
His push sent the red-eyed youth tumbling away from danger, rolling across the ice while hitting the two girls who were clutched each other in their arms. The shadow-weaver behind them had already begun to move, darkness coiling around his form as he prepared to leap clear.
But physics and timing are merciless masters.
The gray-eyed youth’s momentum carried him directly into the beast’s line of fire.
He had a single moment to realize what had happened, to see the beam of concentrated winter death racing toward him.
His slate gray eyes widened, not with fear or regret, but with the bitter understanding that his calculation had been perfect for everyone, well, except for himself.
"BOOOM-!"
The world exploded into white.
It was the empty white of absolute cold, of heat death, of entropy given form.
It consumed everything: sight, sound, sensation, thought. There was no pain because pain required nerves to function, and nerves required warmth that no longer existed.
In that final moment, suspended in the crystalline emptiness between one heartbeat and the next, consciousness lingered just long enough to register a single, terrible truth.
He was watching.
Watching from eyes that were his own but not his own. Feeling the desperate urgency to move, to act, to save his friends, but trapped behind glass that no will could break.
A passenger in his own body, helpless to change the course of events that had already been written in ice and inevitability.
The white consumed everything, and in its wake, only silence remained, leaving a lingering thought of the mysterious ’passenger’.
’...I really was a sacrificial background character, huh.’