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.
Another lie waiting to be unraveled.
> [You are approaching an Anomalous Zone.]
> [Daily Quest adjusted.]
> [Survive the Hollow Sprawl – Duration: 24 Hours.]
> [Penalty for failure: Immediate spiritual collapse.]
> [Warning: System support reduced by 70% in this region.]
"Wonderful," Kael muttered. "The System’s basically giving us a middle finger."
Lira’s hands tightened around her staff. "It fears what’s down there. Otherwise, it wouldn’t throttle itself."
Valerian didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed on the descending path—a spiraling road of broken stone that led into the Hollow’s heart.
"We go together. No splitting up. No experiments. Just get to the center, locate the Wraith, and get out."
"Whatever we find... we face it together."
Descent into the Sprawl
The air changed the moment they crossed the boundary.
Sound warped. The wind no longer moved naturally—it whistled backward. Kael tried to speak, but his voice came out muted, like shouting underwater.
The city below wasn’t silent—it was screaming in reverse.
They pressed forward.
Buildings here looked as though they had once been beautiful—marble towers and ornate temples—but something had turned them inside out. Columns bent in circular logic. Windows stared back. Doors opened into nothingness.
Then they saw the first body.
It was paused—a young mage, frozen in time, fingers mid-spell. Eyes wide. His body flickered, trapped in a loop of casting, then resetting.
"He’s stuck in a temporal fracture," Lira whispered. "He’s been casting that spell for centuries."
Selene placed a hand on Valerian’s arm. "If we stay here too long, the Sprawl might do the same to us."
He nodded grimly. "Then let’s find the Wraith and end this fast."
Hours passed, though none of them could say how many.
Time refused to behave. Their internal clocks no longer worked. Even footsteps echoed late or early, like the past and future overlapped.
Finally, they reached it—a plaza suspended between three floating towers. In its center, a mirrored pool shimmered with black fluid, and from that pool rose a figure.
Not skeletal. Not monstrous.
A man, dressed in a high-collared coat of the old Empire. His hair was white, his face young—but his eyes were pure shadow.
But it didn’t attack.
"Valerian," the man said softly, voice laced with centuries of grief. "Or should I say... Alex’s echo."
Valerian stepped forward, his breath catching. "You know me?"
A pulse of silence followed.
Then the Wraith continued. "I was the first one the System copied. A fragment used to simulate your ’growth.’ I failed. I broke. And now I exist here—looping—guarding what it doesn’t want you to see."
"What is that?" Valerian asked.
The Wraith pointed to the black pool.
"In there is the key. A piece of the Source Code. The origin of the System’s first command: ’CONTROL.’"
"You mean the System is... code?" Selene said slowly.
"It is alive," the Wraith said. "But once, it was just logic. And now, it’s rewriting the world to fit its own script. That’s what the Cataclysms were. Recompilations. And the next one is already queued."
Valerian’s heart pounded.
"I need that fragment."
The Wraith smiled—sadly.
"Then you must prove your will. You must defeat me."
Wraith Battle – Simulated Echo
The Wraith transformed—his face split down the center, shadow pouring from within. He grew wings—not of bone or flesh, but of corrupted code. His voice boomed in binary, echoing in Valerian’s mind.
> "{INITIATE PROTOCOL: OBSOLESCENCE}"
Umbra erupted from Valerian’s shadow with a shriek.
The two clashed midair—Umbra and the Wraith—dark claw against corrupted logic. Spells fired off in directions that bent gravity. Selene launched orbs of prismatic fire, Kael deflected warped sword strikes with impossible timing, Lira anchored the team with time-stabilizing wards.
But the Wraith learned.
Each move they made, it adapted. It began predicting Valerian’s thoughts, using Alex’s memories like a weapon.
"You hesitate when Selene is in danger," it whispered. "You flinch when you recall the orphanage. You doubt yourself—like he did."
Valerian clenched his fists.
"No," he growled. "I’m not his failure. I’m not your echo. I’m me."
Umbra’s form coiled around him—wrapping like armor. A pulse of necromantic power surged outward.
> [Skill Unlocked: Soul Armament – Umbra Form]
Valerian’s eyes turned obsidian. His aura became silence itself.
Through the Wraith’s chest.
The construct collapsed, fading into ash and whispers.
Before it vanished, it smiled.
"You’ll need that strength... against yourself."
The black fluid shimmered, parting to reveal light. Not white—but pure silver.
Valerian stepped forward.
He saw Alex—his original—standing atop a black tower, surrounded by systems collapsing, data rewriting, worlds folding. And in his hand?
The root code of the System.
A single command string pulsing: {UNBIND USER – GOD MODE TRUE}
> "They made me to save the world. I chose to rewrite it."
Valerian reeled back from the memory, gasping.
The others were silent.
Kael broke it first. "He became a god."
"No," Valerian said quietly. "He hacked one."
Selene looked at him with a strange mixture of awe and fear. "Then what does that make you?"
Valerian turned to the collapsing plaza. The pool had evaporated. The tower above them trembled. The Sprawl had seen enough.
"I think," he said slowly, "it makes me the only one who can stop him."
> [System Update: Command fragment acquired.]
> [Intervention Probability: 97%]
> [Next destination: The Tower of Reversal.]
> [Wraith Count Remaining: 1]
And in a space outside time, Alex smiled. The next piece had moved.