The walls shook fiercely.
The impact of Dante's fists sent shockwaves ripping through the lecture hall, tearing through rows of seats and shattering overhead lights. The room was already falling apart—chunks of debris littered the floor, cracks spiderwebbed across the walls, and the once-polished marble was now a battlefield of destruction.
And the Hollow?
It was untouched.
Dante exhaled sharply, rolling his shoulders as his gauntlets hummed with residual energy. His punches had landed, but they hadn't done enough. The damn thing wasn't just evading—it was adjusting. Every time he swung, the Hollow would shift at the last possible second, letting the force of his strikes barely graze it.
And now, as it loomed before him, its shifting black tendrils writhing unnaturally, he could tell.
It wasn't just dodging.
It was playing with him.
Dante clenched his jaw. This thing isn't just strong. It's thinking.
Across the room, Kairan was still on the ground, body weak, breath shallow. He forced his arms to move, pushing himself up, but every inch felt like he was dragging weights tied to his bones. His head was still buzzing from earlier—his body reacting to something he didn't understand.
He needed to get out.
His fingers scraped against the floor as he forced himself to crawl toward the exit. His muscles screamed in protest, but he didn't care. Move. Just move.
The Hollow shifted.
Kairan's breath hitched.
Its hollow, glowing eyes glanced toward him.
And in that moment, his vision distorted.
The world around him blurred, then sharpened. The Hollow's limbs flickered—too fast, too smooth, too unnatural—but somehow, before it even moved—
He saw it.
The exact angle of its next shift. The way its body would turn. The fraction of a second before it would lunge again.
His chest tightened.
"Did I just… see its next movement?"
His body trembled. That wasn't normal. That wasn't something a human should be able to do.
Dante caught the shift. He had been focused on the Hollow, watching its every move, but for half a second, he saw Kairan's entire body tense unnaturally.
A question formed in the back of his mind.
What was that?
But he didn't have time to dwell on it.
A sudden wave of pressure crashed through the room, like a pulse of energy spreading in all directions.
Reinforcements had arrived.
The doors to the lecture hall slammed open, and within seconds, the entire space was flooded with high-ranking students, instructors, and security Resonants. Golden insignias flashed on their coats, their footsteps strong, confident, ready for battle. The air crackled as energy surged from dozens of abilities, all locking onto a single target.
The Hollow reacted instantly.
It was expecting this.
Before a single Resonant could attack—it moved.
Not teleported. Not flickered.
Just—gone.
The very second multiple enemies had entered the room, it had already decided to leave.
Kairan barely had time to process it. One moment, the thing was there. The next, it wasn't.
Dante cursed under his breath. The room, which had been a war zone only seconds ago, now felt too empty. The only sound left was the quiet flickering of the few remaining lights still hanging from the ceiling.
For the next few seconds, no one spoke.
Then, the interrogations began.
Thirty minutes passed before Kairan realized how much trouble he was in.
They had separated him from Dante almost immediately. His legs still felt shaky as he stood before three professors, his mind still running in circles over what had just happened.
"Tell us exactly what you saw."
"When did you first encounter the Hollow?"
"What were you doing in that area at that time?"
The questions kept coming. He answered them as best he could, but his thoughts were still jumbled.
He told them when and where he first saw the Hollow. He told them how it chased him into the lecture hall. He told them how Dante had arrived after hearing the fight.
But he didn't tell them everything.
He didn't tell them about the moment his vision distorted.
He didn't tell them about the hum that had echoed through his bones.
Because he didn't have an answer.
Dante, on the other hand, wasn't as cooperative.
He sat across from the professors, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
"You're wasting time questioning us," he said bluntly. "We need to talk about the actual problem."
One of the professors, an older man with sharp silver eyes, let out a slow breath. "You're not being accused of anything, Dante. But we need to understand—"
"You want to understand?" Dante interrupted, leaning forward. His voice was calm, but his knuckles were clenched. "Then answer me this—how the hell did that thing get in?"
The professors glanced at one another.
For a second, no one spoke.
Dante's expression darkened. "You already know, don't you?"
The silver-eyed professor exhaled. "It wasn't a breach."
Dante narrowed his eyes.
"There was no sign of an external break-in. No barriers were shattered. No alarms were triggered. But…" The professor's lips pressed into a thin line. "There was… an anomaly."
Dante didn't blink. "Explain."
There was another pause before the professor finally spoke.
"A wave of unknown frequency lagged most of the academy's security. Sensors, energy barriers, even internal surveillance—all of it was momentarily disrupted. We're still analyzing the data, but…" His voice dipped slightly, like he didn't want to say it. "It also created a zone where no sound could escape."
Dante's fingers twitched.
A soundless zone? That explained why no one had come earlier. Even if Kairan had screamed, even if the fight had been loud as hell—no one outside would have heard anything.
"That's not all," the professor added. "Given its movements and abilities, we suspect the Hollow to be a Lurker-type."
Dante scoffed. "That wasn't a Lurker."
The other professors shifted. One of them frowned. "Dante, you're a second-year student. We've been researching Hollows for decades—"
"I don't care what your books say." His voice was sharp now, edged with something almost dangerous. "I've seen Lurkers. I've fought Lurkers. I know how they move. And that—" His gaze was unwavering. "That wasn't one."
The professors exchanged glances again, but this time, Dante caught something in their eyes.
They weren't just confused.
They were hiding something.
Dante leaned back, his arms still crossed. "You already know what it is, don't you?"
Another silence.
Then, finally, the silver-eyed professor spoke again.
"We don't have an official classification for it."
Dante exhaled, shaking his head.
Of course they didn't.
That thing was something else.
And if the academy didn't even have a name for it—
Then this wasn't the first time they had seen one.