Lots of people wanted to see Hiki go dark!
Then of course I have to do it!
Hiki Corruption side story, starting now!
*******
*******
Itsuka-kun was dead.
Because of me.
Because I got captured.
Itsuka-kun tried to save me, and Ellen cut his head off.
"......"
Wasn’t it said that when people feel overwhelming rage, they become calm?
"Ah..."
The person who said that had probably never been truly angry in their life.
"Ahahaha...!"
Even though I felt like absolute shit.
Even though I wanted to kill the bastard standing right in front of me.
"Ahahahahahaha!!!"
Even though I wanted to kill myself.
"Hahahahahaha..."
First my parents, and now someone close to me too.
Why was the world so cruel to me?
Why, when I had the power of Dark Souls, could I not protect even one person around me?
Why was I so weak?
As my emotions spiraled out of control, I sank deeper and deeper into the abyss.
"It’s about time I got some peace. Let’s just be done with it."
The moment that thought crossed my mind, something inside me snapped.
*******
When Ellen cut off Shido’s head, Hieta laughed like a madman.
"Ahahahahahaha――!!!"
At behavior bordering on insanity, everyone except Isaac froze.
Even Ellen herself stiffened and stared at Hieta.
"Hahahahaha..."
Hieta, who had been laughing wildly, closed his mouth and muttered softly.
"Now, let’s give up."
It was a small voice, but in the silence it rang louder than anything else.
Everyone there heard his muttering.
And that was all he said.
Fwoosh!
Then something burst out of his body.
Seeing that, Isaac smiled and shouted, "Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!!! This, this! At last! The kingdom has reversed itself!"
As he said that, the dark energy pouring from the black hole in Hieta’s body began to surround him.
"Now then, humanity, bow down. The Demon King has retu—"
That was as far as Isaac got.
With a single swing from Hieta, after the black energy vanished, Isaac’s head was severed from his body and rolled across the floor.
"―!!!"
Everyone there felt fear.
Even Ellen, who had cut off Shido’s head. Even Shido, who had somehow revived. Even Miku and Tohka, who had watched everything from behind.
For an instant, they all felt the urge to bow their heads.
A presence so overwhelming it could only be called demonic poured from Hieta’s body, instilling terror in everyone around him.
Hieta, the one at the center of it all, simply turned his head slowly and looked at Ellen as if nothing had happened.
"Hk!"
The moment Ellen met Hieta’s eyes, she lost her breath.
Because there was nothing in his gaze.
No anger toward her. No despair at seeing Shido, who had died once already. No guilt over failing to protect him.
Nothing at all was contained in Hieta’s eyes.
Emptiness.
His gaze was empty, devoid of any emotion.
"Ike!!!"
Only after realizing Isaac had died did Ellen fly at high speed toward his corpse.
And then she saw that Isaac’s eyes had completely lost their light.
"No—"
Before Ellen could even rage at Isaac’s death, her own head came off too.
Her head came to rest beside Isaac’s, its eyes losing all life.
The culprit was, of course, Hieta.
The Hollow.
The being an Undead in Dark Souls becomes when their mind is completely worn away.
A transformation born from the darkness that is humanity’s essence.
Hieta had now become a Hollow.
Because he had been captured and Shido had died, the small crack in his mind had widened and widened until it shattered completely.
And once Hieta became a Hollow, there was no more reason left.
The disaster born from the malice of two humans would only destroy the world.
Having killed Ellen with a single slash once again, the Hollow turned his gaze toward Shido.
"Ghk!"
The moment Shido saw Hieta, he understood.
That was no longer the person he knew.
That thing was not a human being, but a calamity descended upon the world.
Shido’s legs trembled.
Under that overwhelming fear, his mind felt like it was going blank.
"What the hell is going on!?"
Kotori, watching the situation from [Fraxinus], shouted too, trying to drive away the fear that gripped her just as tightly.
But no one answered her cry.
"Ah... O king..."
Only the Fire Keeper clasped her hands together and prayed, honoring the calamity that had returned to the world through the malice of two humans.
When the Hollow swung his sword at Shido, the flames at its tip engulfed him.
"Shido!"
Thankfully Tohka swung [Sandalphon] to block it, but that was not the end of his attack.
Fwoosh!
"Gah!"
"Tohka!"
As flames crawled across the floor again, Tohka’s [Sandalphon] began to melt.
"S-Sandalphon..."
"Watch out!"
While Tohka was still stunned by [Sandalphon] melting, the Hollow closed in on her.
Then came the spinning sword as it swung down.
Clang!
"Miku!?"
This time Miku summoned her organ to block the attack aimed at Tohka.
"Tch...!"
But even that was not enough.
Once his spinning sword had begun to burn, its intense heat melted the Diva’s angel as it pressed forward.
[Shido! I’m retrieving you now!]
Judging that they could not handle it, Kotori immediately retrieved Shido, Tohka, and Miku.
"What the hell is that thing...?"
The three who returned to [Fraxinus] stared at the world on the monitors.
The Japanese branch of DEM Industries had already burned to ashes, and all the Wizards outside were dead.
Some of them had been lucky enough to die with their heads cut off; others had resisted pointlessly until they were reduced to charcoal.
"That’s just a disaster, isn’t it...?"
No one objected to Kannazuki’s words as they looked at the screen together.
Because that was what it looked like to them too.
"...Sachi."
With the situation growing more serious, Kotori called out to the Fire Keeper in a low voice.
The Fire Keeper, who had been kneeling with her hands clasped in prayer, slowly opened her eyes and looked at Kotori.
"...Do you know anything about that?"
That thing.
She meant the Hollow.
At Kotori’s question, asking whether she knew anything about Hollows, the Fire Keeper gave a small nod.
"That is a Hollow."
"A Hollow?"
"Yes. A curse that occurs when an Undead’s mind has completely worn away. They lose their consciousness and come to crave only souls."
As Kotori listened to the Fire Keeper’s explanation, a question arose in her mind.
If it only craved souls, then why was it attacking the others?
"...You said it only craves souls, so why did it attack Shido?"
"That’s probably because he has spirit power."
Hearing the Fire Keeper’s words, Kotori recalled the past.
From the moment she had called Hieta a spirit, to when spirit waves were detected from him and they confirmed that spirit power was inside him.
And now the Hollow was said to crave souls.
That meant this calamity was perceiving spirit power as souls.
Then one more question followed from that.
Why had it attacked the ordinary Wizards?
The reason was simple.
"He is different from other Hollows."
Hieta was different from the others.
A Hollow born from rage at the world that had taken something precious from him, and despair at himself for failing to protect something precious.
The duty of that Hollow was to destroy the world.
"Because he is a Hollow with nothing left but his mission, he is even more dangerous."
As the Fire Keeper finished explaining, a sobbing sound came from somewhere.
"H-Hieta..."
"......"
Yoshino, tears streaming down her face, called out the Hollow’s name on the screen.
At her quiet voice, everyone fell silent.
No one there did not understand Yoshino’s feelings.
Right now, Kaguya and Yuzuru were wearing the same expressions as Yoshino too.
They were just holding it in, keeping it from showing on their faces.
"Seriously..."
Just as Kotori opened her mouth in anguish, [Fraxinus] suddenly shook.
"W-What!?"
"Commander! We’re under attack! The Hollow is attacking the ship!"
The moment Kannazuki finished speaking, [Fraxinus] split in two.
*******
As [Fraxinus] split apart and fell, Tengushi was annihilated.
In the process, the Hollow found the spirits one by one and killed them.
Around him rolled countless ashes and charcoal, along with the corpses of humans and spirits alike, and the only living beings near the Hollow were the Hollow himself and the immortal Fire Keeper.
*******
"Hah!"
What the hell kind of nightmare was that?
"Uweeegh!"
I ran straight to the bathroom and threw up.
The scenes from my dream were still vivid in my head, and I couldn’t hold the nausea back.
"I, I went around killing Yoshino and everyone else...?"
It was unthinkable.
Probably because I had witnessed Itsuka-kun’s death when Tohka reversed last time, I’d had a nightmare like this.
"Hah, damn it. I’m really not forgiving DEM for this."
It was a night when my hatred for DEM only grew deeper.
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