After torturing his fingers yet again with the specific knock pattern, Lucien finally heard the mechanism shift inside the wall.
The hidden stone door groaned open.
He stepped through with a tired exhale and immediately found Ava no longer lounging against the barrels. She was already standing a few meters away, arms loosely crossed as her crimson eyes swept over him from head to toe.
For a brief moment, surprise and concern flickered across her face before she smoothed it over with her usual easy amusement, though the shift still looked slightly awkward on her.
“…You look miserable,” she said, one brow lifting slightly. “I heard some manic screaming earlier. I’m guessing that has something to do with your condition?”
“Unfortunately,” Lucien sighed, flexing his right hand carefully. The torn skin across his palm had already stopped bleeding as the compound slowly did its work. “Ran into an Ambusher-type Stage 4 Hollow. It uses these spider-like threads that covered half my escape route.” He grimaced faintly while rolling his sore shoulder. “Fast too. Really damn fast.”
“Fast, huh?” Ava gave a low whistle beneath her breath. “Sounds like it’d have fun with me.”
Lucien glanced over her build briefly.
A slender rapier rested at her hip alongside the stiletto dagger from earlier. Most of her protection came from fitted leather around the torso, light enough not to interfere with movement. Strange bracers wrapped around both forearms as well, etched with faint patterns he didn’t recognize. Weave Instruments, probably.
“…Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’d deal with it a lot easier than I did,” Lucien muttered with a click of his tongue. “Too bad it caught me from a distance, so I can’t really scream for help.”
The Hollow itself hadn’t actually been overwhelmingly strong physically. Its attacks carried force, sure, but not enough to crush stone apart through raw muscle alone.
The real problem was its speed.
That horrifying speed, those blade-like claws, and the webbing that controlled movement through the alleys.
Against someone like Ava, who looked specialized for mobility and precision, the fight probably would've been far more manageable.
Lucien let out another tired breath before looking back at her.
“I’m honestly surprised you’re still here,” he admitted. “Thought you would've abandoned me by now.”
It had been well over half an hour since he’d left her behind in the warehouse.
Most of that time had been spent limping through hidden underground routes that felt more like a maze designed by paranoid lunatics than actual escape paths.
Ava let out a soft laugh under her breath.
“I was considering it after an hour,” she admitted casually.
Her crimson eyes swept over Lucien again, lingering briefly on the torn coat.
“So are we still continuing the mission? Or should we just call it here?” She tilted her head slightly. “You clearly didn’t know that Stage 4 was lurking around here if it managed to do this to you. I’m pretty sure that information alone is valuable enough to bring back.”
Ava glanced toward the ceiling for a moment, mentally checking the time.
“Better than getting stuck out there until nightfall.”
Lucien understood the implication immediately.
At night, Hollow patterns became less predictable. Their movement ranges expanded, their aggression shifted erratically, and some types behaved entirely differently after dark. On top of that, Corruption levels always worsened once the sun disappeared.
Most people with functioning survival instincts avoided staying outside after nightfall whenever possible.
Lucien shook his head.
“No, we can keep going.”
He opened his coat slightly and checked his remaining supplies with practiced movements. He still had one vial each of Healing Compound, Pain Suppression Tincture, and Hollowed Disruption Compound.
Not ideal, but manageable.
“It’s not often we run into a Stage 4 Hollow,” he said while resealing the pouch. “And our job is just reconnaissance.”
Honestly, he could count the number of confirmed Stage 4 Hollow in Vel’Sharim on one hand.
He had simply been spectacularly unlucky.
Ava studied him for another second before shrugging lightly.
“If you say so.” A faint smile tugged at her lips again. “Lead the way, then.”
***
The Garden District had once been the wealthiest area in Vel’Sharim.
Nobles, merchant princes, high-ranking officials—people with enough money had once lived there behind polished gates and gardens.
Now nearly eighty percent of the district lay in ruins.
Collapsed mansions leaned into shattered streets. Dead fountains sat clogged with debris and blackened water. Marble statues had cracked apart beneath months of neglect and Corruption.
Lucien and Ava moved carefully through the remains of the district, slipping between broken structures and ruined alleyways while avoiding the scattered Hollow roaming the area.
The deeper they went, the quieter the world seemed to become.
At some point while crossing through the remains of a collapsed courtyard, Lucien glanced toward Ava beside him.
There was something he’d been wondering about for a while now.
“By the way,” he said quietly, stepping over a fractured section of stone, “how do you manage your Corruption?”
They were currently moving through an area known as Garden Circle in the northwestern part of the district. Large noble estates surrounded the circular plaza, many of them partially collapsed or swallowed by creeping vegetation darkened by Corruption.
Even the outer ring of the area carried Corruption levels of at least forty percent.
Further in, it climbed as high as eighty.
Lucien’s eyes swept quietly across the ruined streets as he kept track of their route.
Spending four hours inside a sixty-percent zone could already raise someone’s Corruption by around seven percent. At eighty percent, however, just one hour was enough to increase it by nearly nine.
The previous scouts had probably failed to map the Wandering Hollow’s patrol route because they simply couldn’t afford to remain inside the deeper zones long enough.
Lucien himself had roughly twenty percent more resistance than the average human, which gave him more breathing room. On top of that, the System continuously converted ambient miasma into CP over time. Apparently, miasma didn’t translate directly into CP itself, which explained why his unusually high reserves didn’t come with obvious signs of advanced Corruption.
From what he could see with Corruption Detection, Ava's Corruption was only around one percent.
“By relying on Zoḗgennis’s worshippers,” Ava replied casually.
She stepped over a cracked marble slab before brushing a strand of white hair behind one pointed ear.
“They’re surprisingly accepting toward me. I had my doubts when Razor told me to go to them for purification yesterday, but it turned out I was worrying for nothing.”
“Ah. The people from the Temple District, huh?”
Zoḗgennis was the title used for the Progenitor of All-Living.
Lucien knew their followers regularly provided purification aid to every faction in the city, including the Twilight Covenant and, by extension, the people living in the Eastern Slums.
He held a fairly favorable opinion of them. In the middle of an apocalypse like this, they were among the few groups who could genuinely be described as kind. Which was probably why every faction, regardless of ideology, made an effort to keep them protected.
They had even treated Lucien dozens of times before, helping him maintain the illusion that he required regular external purification.
“You do the same?” she asked.
“Yeah. Pretty often, actually.” Lucien kept his voice low out of habit. “I usually get assigned to scouting work in high-density Corruption zones because of my resistance.”
Ava raised a brow slightly.
“There aren’t others with high resistance?”
“I barely know most of the Covenant’s scouts,” he admitted with a small shrug. “But considering how often I get sent out, probably not many.”
As they continued moving through the district, Lucien suddenly slowed near the perimeter of a large estate whose outer walls had partially collapsed inward. Thick bushes crawled along the remains of the southern wall, dense enough to provide cover.
He stopped there abruptly.
Ava noticed immediately.
Her ears twitched once, and the relaxed look on her face sharpened into alertness.
“You hear that?” Lucien asked quietly.
She gave a small nod.
Clank.
A faint metallic sound echoed from somewhere deeper inside the estate.
Clank. Clank.
It was getting closer.
Lucien lowered himself slightly behind the overgrown wall and gestured for Ava to stay low as well.
“Let’s wait it out,” he whispered.
This time, Ava didn’t joke around.
The estate courtyard stretched roughly forty meters across, centered around a cracked stone fountain stained black by years of miasma exposure.
Then something emerged from the mansion’s front entrance.
Lucien instinctively held his breath for half a second.
...So that’s the Hollow?
Even after hearing the description beforehand, seeing it in person felt completely different.
To start with, the thing was enormous.
Even from dozens of meters away, its presence felt oppressive enough to tighten his chest slightly.
The Hollow stood nearly 7.6 feet tall, its body encased in silver-blue full plate armor scarred by age and battle damage. A massive greatsword nearly two meters long rested in its right hand, while a heavy heater shield was strapped to its left forearm. Broad pauldrons extended from its shoulders, making its already imposing frame look even larger. Its helmet concealed everything beneath it; there were no visible eyes, no exposed skin, only darkness sitting behind the narrow visor slit as the thing moved with a heavy metallic clank across the courtyard stone.
Clank.
The armored Hollow approached the center fountain with slow, deliberate steps that echoed across the ruined courtyard. It stopped there briefly, helmet turning slightly as though scanning the surroundings.
Lucien stayed perfectly still.
Beside him, Ava’s expression had lost most of its earlier playfulness as her crimson eyes carefully tracked the Hollow’s movements.
After several long seconds, the Hollow turned away and began walking toward another exit of the estate grounds without making a single unnecessary movement.
Ava glanced sideways at Lucien before silently mouthing:
“Let’s follow it.”
Lucien nodded.
“Sure.”
The two of them followed from roughly fifty meters behind, moving carefully through the ruined district while keeping the Hollow Knight within sight whenever possible.
The thing wandered through the Garden District in a slow, methodical pattern. Sometimes it stopped near old fountains, cracked statues, or abandoned benches where several Stage 3 Hollows lingered aimlessly nearby. Even without stepping into the deeper center of the district, Lucien could already feel the pressure of roughly sixty percent Corruption hanging in the air around them like invisible humidity pressing against his skin.
The Knight remained in that zone for over half an hour before eventually moving toward Heritage Road, the massive avenue that stretched east to west across the district. From there, it continued toward Heritage Crossing, where the road connected to Noble’s Way leading toward the Contested Zone and deeper into the Southern Ruins.
As they tracked it from rooftop ruins and collapsed streets, Lucien gradually began noticing a pattern.
It always checks noble estates…
And not casually, either.
Every time it entered one, it searched thoroughly, disappearing inside for at least ten minutes before emerging again.
Because they were forced to move through rubble, broken interiors, and unstable structures to avoid being seen, keeping a consistent distance proved difficult. Sometimes they managed fifty meters. Other times the gap widened closer to sixty or seventy.
Right now, the Knight had moved farther ahead again.
Lucien and Ava crouched behind the broken wall of a ruined second-floor room overlooking the street below. Several sections of the floor had already collapsed into the building beneath them, leaving jagged openings between exposed beams and cracked tiles. Lucien stayed mindful of his footing while peering through the damaged wall, his left hand still firmly gripping the Wayfinder Compass.
Below them, the Hollow Knight had just entered yet another estate.
Ava slowly lowered herself beside him, one knee touching the fractured floor as she brushed a strand of white hair behind her ear. Her crimson eyes stayed fixed on the estate entrance while her expression turned more thoughtful than before.
“That thing’s thorough,” she murmured quietly.
Lucien gave a faint nod, his gaze never leaving the building.
“That must be the reason the previous scouts couldn't map its patrol route.”
A faint metallic clank... clank... echoed from somewhere inside the estate grounds.
As they waited for the Knight to finish searching the estate, Ava rested one arm across her raised knee while keeping her voice low.
“So,” she murmured, eyes still fixed on the estate below, “what’s the plan if we get caught? I barely know this area.”
Lucien stayed quiet for a few seconds, mentally tracing routes through the district before answering.
“Well… We can’t retreat through the western side of Heritage Road—the same route we used into the Contested Zone. We’d have to pass way too close to the Knight.” His brows furrowed slightly. “The other underground passages aren’t a good option either. Most of the nearby entrances are either collapsed or surrounded by too many Hollow.”
He exhaled softly through his nose before continuing.
“Our only realistic option would be making a straight run for the Contested Zone border. It’s around half a kilometer from here.” His tone carried a faint hesitation now. “There’s a stretch of ruined road along the way that might slow it down a little... assuming it’s fast.”
Ava immediately caught the uncertainty in his voice and glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
“What is it?”
Lucien grimaced faintly.
“There’s an open section near the border. About sixty meters with barely any cover.” His fingers tapped lightly against the compass casing. “If that thing’s fast enough, crossing it could become a problem.”
Thankfully, their current position was still closer to the Contested Zone than the Knight’s patrol path, which at least gave them some kind of head start if things went bad.
As the thought crossed his mind, the Wayfinder Compass suddenly trembled faintly in his hand.
Lucien frowned and glanced down, noticing a crack spreading beneath his footing. He quickly shifted his weight, trying to ease the pressure—not realizing his next step would land on nothing.
“—!”
Ava reacted instantly. Her eyes widened slightly as she grabbed his arm and yanked him hard toward her, pulling him against her chest before he could fully drop through.
Unfortunately, the sudden movement only finished what the cracked floor had started.
KRRRSHHH—!!
The entire section beneath them collapsed.
Both of them crashed down into the room below in a mess of dust, broken wood, and shattered stone. Lucien hit first with a pained grunt while Ava landed half on top of him a second later, one hand braced against the floor beside his head.
For a brief second, neither of them moved. Then, very slowly, they both turned toward the estate outside.
…Maybe it didn’t hear that?
A deafening BOOOOM—!! answered him immediately as part of the estate wall exploded outward.
Stone and debris blasted across the courtyard while the Hollow Knight burst through the structure with terrifying force, greatsword dragging sparks across the ground as its helmet snapped toward their position.
Lucien closed his eyes for half a second.
Yeah. That’s a no.