Vazir took the guard with him to his private chamber; which was adjacent to the town hall.
Vizer's chamber was very similar to Kaz'er's; but, it was a bit smaller and he had no blanket to take. The lantern was also smaller in size.
There he was briefed over of the events that took place; it sure as hell took time as the guard couldn't stop trembling and stuttering recalling the events that transpired.
"Sigh...the fuck is going on?" Said Vizer as he massaged his temples out of frustration.
This..thing.. whatever it was, definitely is not something they had encountered before.
'I immediately need to report this to Kaz'er.' he said to himself.
"You can leave, go home to your wife and kids. They are lucky to not have been deprived of a husband and a father." Said Vazir as he pushed the door of his chamber and stepped out.
He decided to break the news to the guard's family before heading to the Town hall. 'Why do I have to do this?' he asked himself.
He headed towards the outskirts of the village, near the forest.
'The house left to the village's entrance; that's his house.' he recalled the address of the deceased guard's house.
He reached the door and was about knock but then stopped. He heard creaking noises coming from inside; and....a woman moaning.
'For God's sake, your husband just fucking died and your having sex with another man.' he felt very angry for some reason.
'Ah wait, wrong house...' he said, slapping himself on his cheek.
He was standing right to the entrance of the village.
He approached the house; the correct one this time. As he leaned closer to the door, he heard the noise of a baby crying. Accompanied by a woman speaking. "It is alright litte one, daddy is going to be back any minute now."
The baby's cry was replaced with a joyful giggle; this melted Vazir's heart. 'Why?.. why do I have to do this fucking job?' he asked himself again.
'I am one of the councilmen, these are our people. If not me, then who will do it?' he steeled his resolve and knocked on the door.
"Ah, this must be him." He heard the woman's voice full of anticipation as she approached the door.
When she opened the door, well..she was surprised to say the least.
"M-mr. Vazir, what pleasure do we owe you?" She asked as she went into a respectful bow.
"Are..you expecting anyone?" He asked her not bothering to answer her.
The woman was perplexed; she replied hesitantly -feeling ominous from the way Vazir was acting- "Yes..my husband, he is supposed be back by now."
Vazir averted his gaze "He won't be coming." He said looking at the ground; his voice carrying a mixture of emotions.
"Huh?.. is he working a double shift tonight.." she asked, her chest tightening as that eerie feeling kept on intensifying.
"No..he is dead, he died somewhile ago." Vazir said, with a soft voice, which resembled a whisper.
"Where is his body?" Asked the woman, already tearing up.
"We will bring it from the forest tomorrow and give him a proper burial." He replied and turned on his heel; not wanting to spend another second here.
The woman fell to her knees, crying and shouting "why". Her child, thinking of this as some queue, starting crying too.
With the ,now widowed wife and fatherless child, the night also wept. This was a death in the village, and they didn't had any of those in a while.
This too wasn't of any natural cause; if Vazir's guess is right, the Hollows are already here. But they aren't attacking, that would mean there is a stronger one here.
Maybe the weaker one's are following it's orders or...the stronger one is the only Hollow; he hoped it wasn't the latter.
Because, that single Hollow would as strong as or even stronger than a 'Elite' ranked human.
'Our village is doomed if that's the case.' he admitted.
He increased his pace as he walked towards the Town hall; on his way, he decided to take the guard with him.
He collected the guard from his house before entering the Town hall. The Town hall was very big compared to the other infrastructure here.
There was a waiting lobby, and a door by the reception. That door opened into a hall, the hall was littered with doors on its left and right
These doors lead to different rooms; rooms with different purposes. For example, one of the doors led to a dinning room, one led the council gathering room, which had a large circular table in the center of the room.
Kaz'er's room was at the back end of the hall. Vazir approached his room, he left the guard at the reception since he can't come in without a permission from Kaz'er himself.
Vazir had knocked the door, and waited a few seconds before it was opened. Kaz'er stood, with clear signs of fatigue on his handsome face.
But before he could say anything, Vazir spoke" The guards have something they would like to report."
Ka'er was surprised to say the least, 'At this hour?' one must be informed, they never had such a situation transpire before. Kaz'er's reaction was warranted.
He signaled Vazir to lead him, and started following two steps behind him.
After somewhile they reached the reception where they saw the guard, who still seemed a bit shaken by the whole ordeal.
Kaz'er sat down and asked him to reiterate the whole account of what happened.
After the guard explained everything for the second time, still trembling while recounting the experience.
"Sigh...this is not good." Kaz'er said as he let out a defeated sigh.
The room was under pin-drop silence; which was broken by Kaz'er.
He told the guard to leave, and ordered Vazir to assemble the council in the room appropriate for hosting.
Vazir nodded and went to collect the counsilmen, the situation was becoming increasingly.
....
In the depths of the forest
A few silhouettes could be seen standing around a figure; the weren't really standing, rather they were kneeling.
The figure in the middle was a boy, with raven black hair and red eyes. Yes, this was Valour.
Valour examined the Hollow creatures kneeling around him.
"Why did you divide yourself? Stand a whole, 'Martial'." He said to the figure, who was scattered in smaller versions of itself.
The silhouettes started fusing with eachother; a tall creature, about 15 feet stood Infront of Valour.
The figure was slender, had grey skin, a bulb like head, with a black orb embedded in the middle of it. It's claws, each being 6 inches, and he had 4 of these on both hands.
"Remember, do whatever you would If I wasn't here. I am only here to observe." Said Valour looking at the beast.
Martial just nodded and disappeared from Valour's sight like he was never there to begin with. Some Hallows could teleport, albeit the one's over a certain rank and of a certain class.
There were 7 Hollow ranks, which corresponded to the 7 Human ranks.
The Hollow ranks were as the following: Vermin, Beastial, Martial,Monarch, Duke , Abyssl and lastly Overlord.
It is said that the Hollow king is of 'Overlord rank', which was believed to be 4 times stronger than an 'Apex'-with a talent 'SSS+' and a domain-.
So yes, Hollows were stronger than the humans of the same rank; albeit, the disparity was different for each rank.
For example, a 'Martial' was similar in strength to an 'Elite', well a bit powerful.
Hollows don't have abilities similar to Humans. Their abilities were based on the nature of Hallow energy and darkness; some Hollows were an exception and had abilities somehowat similar to Humans.
The also were divided into classes, each class predetermined the abilities they could technically have.
The class are the following:Fighter, Berserk, Assassin and tank.
Each of these distinct classes unlock abilities only limited to their class as they increase their major rank.
Once every major rank breakthrough, they unlocked a new ability. There was nothing like aspects or sub-ranks.
Hollows also didn't possess a core, and they didn't need atmospheric Hollow energy to execute moves.
They can also release Hollow energy in the atmosphere, and then use it to power their attacks.
Albeit, Hollow energy could only be released by a Hollow ranked 'Martial' or higher. That too wasn't of significant amount.
Only Hollows ranked 'Abyss' could release significant amounts of Hollow energy. And the number of Hollows at 'Abyss' rank could be counted on one hand.
This is to be noted, these 'Abyss' ranked Hollows were twice as strong than the strongest humans. Similar in strength to the highest ranked Celestials, albeit a bit stronger.
'Monarch' ranks and above were reserved for the Hollows who had some leadership role in the army. Soldiers themselves, weren't stronger than 'Martial' rank.
So a small-medium sized rift can't spew monsters with the strength of a 'Monarch' or higher.
Hollow was essentially corruption. These beings had given themselves up, selling their souls, having nothing but a hollow deep within.
Anyways, the presence of a 'Martial' ranked Hollow was as a result of Valour's teleportation. He was the prince of Hollows, he caused a rift to open when he arrived here.
'Great thinking mother, I thought we were supposed to be discrete about it.' Valour said in his head.
.....
In the counsil hall
"We should immediately notify 'The Belmouth family'." Suggested Vazir.
Everyone nodded in union, Kaz'er however was under deep contemplation.
"We have two choices: 1) We fight that being head on, it can't be over 'Martial' rank. Probably is even lower than that. 2) We inform the nearest border control squad; they should be able to dispose of it even if it was 'Martial' ranked." Kaz'er said calmly.
However, to his dismay, no one seemed to go with the first option.
"Then it is decided, we will send a scout party first thing at dawn." Kaz,er said and a brief moment of silence.
Vazir raised his hand, wanting to say something. Kaz'er nodded, signaling him to go ahead and speak.
"I would like to invite the councilmen and the Tribal leader to attend the funeral of the fallen guard." He voiced in a solemn tone.
The rest of the councilmen nodded in response.
The reason Kaz'er knew the Hollow couldn't be of a rank higher than 'Martial' is because of the Celestials.
They left humans with an artifact; it prevented the formation of any rifts containing beast over the 'Duke' rank.
Also if a rift of 'Monarch' or 'Duke' Hollows opened, the Union would be rushing their asses over here to fight it.
And how would they know? Due to the sudden influx of Hollow energy. Although, anything below 'Abyss' rank couldn't release significant amounts of Hollow energy, it doesn't mean the lower ranks from 'Monarch' to 'Duke' wouldn't release enough Hollow energy to be picked up by the Union.
Rifts have teirs : 1-6
1-2: contained monsters from Vermin to Martial rank. The latter (2) contained a single 'Martial' ranked Hollow leading a dozen Vermin ranked Hollows
2-4: these rifts included Hollows from the ranks of 'Martial' to 'Monarch'. Only teir 4 rifts had a 'Monarch' guiding an army of 'Martial' ranked Hollows.(Army=12)
4-5: contained only a single 'Duke' ranked Hollow, this rift opening would cause 2 'Apex' ranked Humans to rush their ass over. Albeit, a single 'Apex' with a domain unlocked could deal with it. It would take 2 'Apex' ranked Humans without a domain to deal with it.
6-7: well this rift contains a single 'Abyss' ranked Hollow accompanied by a 'Duke' ranked Hollow. This would take take 3 'Apex" ranked humans with domains to deal with.
An 'Abyss' is 4 times stronger than an 'Apex' ranked human without a domain and two times stronger than a 'Apex' with a domain.
Such a rift opening would result in catastrophic damage to the human continent-Antla.
....
P.s
Hope y'all liked the chapter, sorry if the story seems a little slow. I am going to give this disclaimer: If you are expecting an overpowered face slapping shit fest then you're at the wrong place.
I've made the power system with the intention to eventually scale the main cast. As you've already figured out, the disparity between ranks is very notable.
I have made the Hollows and Celestials stronger than Humans, albeit I kept the gap somewhat fair, by limiting the number of Hollows and Celestials ranked 'Abyss' or whatever I would call the highest rank for the Celestials(excluding the rank reserved for the kings of these respective races.)
I will be keeping 10 Humans with SSS+ ability and 8 of them will have domains. I will be limiting the number of Abyss ranked Hollows or the highest ranked Celestials to 5. These creatures will be twice as strong as the highest ranked Humans- with domains-
Meaning it would take 2 of these Humans to beat a single Abyss ranked Hollow or the highest ranked Celestial.
The power systems are more nuanced and things may defer in some fights; but, for the most part, this is where the humans rank.
I didn't want to make them completely weak or obsolete in the latter parts of the story.
Sorry for those who were expecting the MC to solo everyone; although he might, near the end of the Novel but I have planned out how to make it fair for the good guys.
For those wondering, no MC is not a good guy. He is a Hollow, more so specifically the prince of Hollows.
I won't spoil the rest, watch as the story unfolds. I promise not to disappoint when It comes to the ruthlessness of the MC , remember, he is a Hollow.
And yes there will be a love story, but it's not going to happen anytime soon, the MC has no feelings. Will he ever truly have them? Or will the love story be nothing but a game of chess for him, to aid him in his mission.
Wait to find out, sorry for the long ass Author's notice