The world was no longer the same.
As the final streams of light and shadow merged into one, the new reality was fully formed. What had been separate now existed together. But balance did not mean peace.
Emiren felt it immediately.
Something had changed in the very structure of time. Its threads no longer flowed continuously but pulsed, intertwining as if weaving an endless pattern. This was not the chronological order he had known before.
— What now? — Flamen asked, glancing around. — We changed the world, but we don’t know what exactly we created.
The Hollow remained silent.
He stood slightly apart, and for the first time, Emiren noticed something strange about his form. The space around him seemed to ripple, like a reflection on water.
— Do you feel it too? — Emiren asked.
The Hollow slowly raised his head. His eyes, usually dark and empty, now glowed with a faint light.
— I wasn’t meant to remain here, — he said. — This world… it does not accept me.
A Tear in Reality
The moment those words were spoken, something terrible happened.
The air around the Hollow shuddered, and suddenly, a dark stream of energy burst from his body. It was not just power—it was the very essence of his existence, torn from him and mixed with the new world.
Flamen stepped back, instinctively raising his hand, but hesitated to unleash his fire.
— What’s happening?!
Emiren rushed forward, trying to hold onto the Hollow, but his hands passed right through him, as if through a shadow.
— Do you understand what has happened? — the Hollow asked, his voice beginning to blend with the whisper of time.
Emiren remained silent.
His mind rapidly sorted through all possible explanations. The Hollow had never belonged to the past or the future. His existence was tied to the old order, to the world that no longer existed.
And now, he was an outsider in the new reality.
A Choice That Shouldn’t Exist
— You can’t stay here, — Flamen said, and there was no malice in his voice, only a cold statement of fact.
— I know, — the Hollow replied. — But the real question is—what will happen to me?
Emiren took a deep breath.
There weren’t many options. The Hollow could simply be erased, like an error in the fabric of the new world. Or he could become part of the chaos beyond time once again.
But there was a third way.
— I can find a place for you, — Emiren said. — If you agree to change.
The Hollow looked at him.
— Change? You mean… abandon myself?
— No. But you must accept a new essence. If this world rejects you, then you must become someone it will accept.
Flamen gave him a skeptical look.
— And how do you plan to do that?
— I will create a new place for him, a new knot in time where he will not be a stranger.
The Rebirth of the Hollow
Emiren knew he was taking a risk. For the first time, he was not just altering history but creating something entirely new without disrupting balance.
He closed his eyes, concentrating.
Time once again began to flow around him, shimmering threads wrapping around his hands, intertwining, responding to his will. He searched for an empty space where the Hollow’s new essence could take root.
And he found it.
Light flared.
The Hollow screamed—not in pain, but in realization. His body began to change, dissolving and reforming, shaping into something new.
Flamen watched, not fully understanding what was happening.
Emiren opened his eyes.
Before him stood the one who had once been the Hollow, but was no longer.
— Who are you now? — he asked.
The new gaze met his—now filled not only with darkness but also with light.
— I am the one who was forgotten. But no more.
Light and shadows wove around him, and the new reality accepted him.
But what did this mean for the future?
Emiren did not yet know the answer.