Chapter 105 The Guardian of the Hollow and the Fractured Flame
I used to think the Void was just silence.
Now I know it’s noise—a thousand broken thoughts echoing at once, none of them mine.
We stood at the edge of Milo’s rewritten reality, where the Rift had twisted into something unrecognizable. The stars above us blinked like they were trying to forget their own names. The ground beneath us pulsed with a rhythm that didn’t belong to time.
Milo had changed the rules.
“Be careful, I am not sure what the rules here are,” I call to the rest of my friends.
“I don’t think he knows what the rules are.” Talon mutters
“You're not wrong. We need a villain that follows villain rules, not makes it up as they go. It makes fighting them so much harder,” Kael mutters while taking a bite of a cookie.
And we were about to play his game. Taking a deep breath, I was unsure whether I really wanted to play, but I knew it was the only way to get Milo back.
Yuel was the first to speak, because of course he was.
“This place is metaphysically unstable. The ley lines are inverted, the glyphs are refusing to bind, and I think the moon just insulted me.”
Kael squinted at the sky. “It did. It called you ‘a walking footnote.’”
“I am a footnote,” Yuel muttered. “But I’m a well-cited one.”
Thessa rolled her eyes. “Can we focus? Milo’s rewriting reality, and we’re trading insults with celestial bodies.”
Zeke adjusted Gerald’s new Void-resistant armour. “Gerald’s ready. He headbutted a shadow earlier. It screamed.”
Gerald snorted proudly.
Quacknor flared his wings and dive-bombed a floating glyph that looked vaguely like a frown. It exploded in feathers and dread.
Lira and Ellira were sketching a new spell circle, their hands moving in perfect sync.
Aine stood beside me, her silver flame steady. “This place is dangerous. Not just magically—emotionally. It’s built from Milo’s pain. His hate and disappointment.”
I nodded. “Then we walk carefully. Don’t touch anything.”
“It was one time,” Kael, Zeke, and Yuel mutter at the same time.
“Yes, one time that made everything so much worse, we barely escaped the cursed library”. Thessa growls while making the sign that she was watching them.
We stepped into the Hollow.
The first layer of Milo’s rewritten world.
It was shaped like a memory.
But it felt like a wound.
The trees were made of broken promises. The wind whispered regrets. The sky was stitched from things Milo wished he’d never said.
And in the center—
A guardian.
Void-forged.
Tall.
Twisted.
Its body was stitched from shadows and flame, its eyes glowing with the same black light that now lived in Milo.
It didn’t speak.
It just watched.
Thessa drew her blade. “I hate when they don’t talk. It’s always a bad sign.”
Kael readied a glyph. “I vote we name it. Something dramatic. Like ‘Regret Beast’ or ‘Emotional Tax Collector.’”
Yuel frowned. “It’s a manifestation of Milo’s internal fracture. Naming it trivializes the metaphysical weight of—”
“Regret Beast it is,” Kael said.
“Any objections?” Zeke asks as they continue to stare at the beast that is watching them.
“Going once,” Kael says
“Going twice” Zeke calls
“Going three times,” Kael adds
“Sold! Regret Beast,” Zeke says.
The guardian moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
It struck Thessa first, knocking her back with a wave of shadow.
Zeke fired a bolt—it dissolved midair.
Gerald charged—it was thrown aside.
Quacknor dive-bombed—it was caught mid-flight and hurled into a tree.
Ellira and Lira activated the spell circle—it flickered, then shattered.
Yuel screamed something about “dimensional collapse.”
And I—
I stepped forward. Shaky at first, then with more conviction.
The Forgotten Flame pulsed in my chest.
Five shards.
Five truths.
One unbearable silence.
I raised my hand.
The flame surged.
And the guardian paused.
It looked at me.
And for a moment—
It was Milo.
Then—
It attacked.
Aine stepped in front of me.
Her silver flame surged.
She blocked the blow.
Barely.
“You can’t fight him with anger,” she said. “You have to fight him with memory.”
I closed my eyes.
And I remembered. Using the forgotten flame to boost my memories.
Milo’s laugh.
Milo’s fear.
Milo’s love.
Milo’s pain.
And the flame responded.
I struck.
Not with fire.
With truth.
The guardian screamed.
And shattered.
The Hollow trembled.
The sky cracked.
And Milo’s voice echoed.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
We collapsed.
Breathing hard.
Broken.
But together.
Thessa groaned. “I hate metaphysical combat. It’s exhausting and emotionally manipulative.”
Kael sat beside her. “I think I cried mid-fight. I’m not sure if it was mine or the guardian’s.”
Zeke checked Gerald. “He’s fine. Just offended. Anyone got any cookies left?”
Quacknor limped back, dragging a piece of the guardian’s shadow like a trophy.
Yuel was scribbling again. “We’re inside a recursive memory loop. Milo’s rewriting the past to protect the present.”
Ellira and Lira were already sketching a new spell circle.
Aine turned to me. “He’s watching. He knows you won the first fight.”
“I know,” I said. “And he’s angry. But I can’t leave him here.”
The ground pulsed.
The sky dimmed.
And Milo’s voice returned.
“I don’t care anymore.”
I felt it.
The shift.
He wasn’t just lost.
He was choosing the Void completely.
I knelt.
Placing my hands in the dirt like Thessa taught me.
“Milo, please. Please remember. Please remember me.”
No answer.
Just silence.
And then—
A whisper.
“You’re too late. Milo is gone, and you're not welcome here. The more you fight to bring him back, the more he will lose. By the end of this month and Flameborn, you will regret every decision that you have made and make Milo your biggest enemy.”
“Well, that is comforting,” Kael mutters
“Less comfort, more like an unwelcome promise,” Yuel says
“When evil starts to promise things, it's time to get out of dodge,” Ellira mumbles, looking around, watching, and waiting for the next attack.
“Goodbye, Mo. And thank you.”