Chapter 108: HollowWood!

Chapter 108: HollowWood!

When Albedo said that, everyone immediately focused back on Persephone who finally spoke in a measured and unhurried tone of voice, "I already have a mission chosen. Class S+. Approaching SS."

A small silence followed those words. S+ missions, especially those on the threshold of SS, were ones usually done by the best Second Years and Third Years, due to their danger as many could be killed if they aren’t treated with noticeable care.

Albedo’s gaze sharpened as he finally spoke, "That’s a rather ambitious choice for a four-man team comprising of mostly First Years,"

Elara’s eyes flicked between them. She wasn’t a coward, but even she couldn’t hide the quick spark of hesitation that entered her voice, "What sort of mission?"

Persephone tilted her head slightly, almost curious that they had to ask, "A cleansing."

Her hand rose, and with a flex of her fingers, a paper shimmered from the mission board behind her, gliding through the air as if space itself bent to her will. The parchment folded neatly into her palm, then unfurled.

She passed it forward, not to Albedo but to Elara.

Elara blinked, then scanned the mission:

[ S+ Rank ] – Purge of the HollowWood Shrine

Details: An abandoned shrine deep within Hollowwood has reportedly become a nesting ground for Abyssal Worshippers conducting a dark ritual. The local wardens lack the manpower to intervene. The Shrine must be purged before the ritual is completed.

Suggested Team: 3 - 5.

The silence that followed Persephone reading out the mission details hung around for a couple seconds, almost seeming to hollow out the air and dim the other sounds of students bartering, arguing or celebrating their completed missions in the background.

A few nearby students glanced over after seeing Persephone take that mission and read it, their gazes quick, sharp, curious as it was a mission that had been there for quite a while. Word of such a mission finally being accepted would ripple through the Academy by sundown.

Morgana stepped in, perhaps sensing Elara’s hesitation, "We can do this. Especially with Albedo."

She smiled faintly, shy, yet sure. Her glance darted to him for only a heartbeat before returning to Persephone. "And Persephone and I... we’ve worked together before. We know how to cover each other’s weaknesses."

Persephone’s black eyes lingered on Albedo for a moment longer than necessary before she gave the barest nod, "We leave now."

The four moved quickly, weaving through the bustling hall toward the teleportation chamber. The Mission Overseer, a middle-aged woman with silver-threaded hair, verified their parchment with raised brows.

"S+?" she muttered, her eyes flicking from the mission to their youthful faces. "Bold choice."

Persephone slid the paper back into her cloak. "Approved choice."

The Overseer studied her for a moment longer before sighing and motioning to the glowing circle etched into the marble floor. Its runes pulsed in a steady rhythm, alive with restrained mana.

"Very well. Coordinates attuned for Hollowwood Outpost. Step through together. Try not to die."

Elara muttered under her breath at what she heard, "Encouraging."

The air thickened as they stepped into the circle. Light flared, and the world dissolved in a rush of pressure—space folding in on itself, their bodies compressed to threads of light, then snapped outward.

When the glow faded, the group stood beneath a gray, sunless sky. The air was damp, heavy with the scent of moss and loam. Towering trees rose all around, their bark warped and knotted, branches twisting toward one another like skeletal fingers. Hollowwood.

Ahead, crude palisades marked the boundary of a small warden outpost. Smoke drifted from chimneys, and a few armored figures lingered by the gates.

"Students," one of the guards muttered as they approached, his voice thick with skepticism. "Don’t tell me the Academy actually sent First Years for this."

Albedo stepped forward before Elara could bristle. He offered the mission parchment, voice level, "We are here under official sanction to complete the Hollowwood Shrine purge. Team of four. Registered and approved."

The man scanned the document, then looked between them again. His gaze lingered on Persephone a second too long, then returned to Albedo.

The guard didn’t know why, but when he stared at Albedo in particular, he felt a kind of domineering pressure that seemed to want to will him to recognize the student.

After glancing at Morgana and Elara, the guard eventually grunted and handed the parchment back "You’ve got more guts than sense, maybe. But we won’t complain if you succeed."

He gestured toward a squat, timber-built hall at the heart of the outpost, "Commander Yorrin’s in there. He will brief you. We’ve been holding the line here for three weeks since sensing Abyssal activity,"

"Thanks," Albedo nodded and the group walked off, heading towards and entering the hall at the center of the outpost.

Inside the hall, maps and scrolls covered a broad wooden table. The man behind it was thick-shouldered and scarred, his hair shaved close to the scalp. He looked up as they entered, his eyes sharp but tired.

"Academy brats," he said, voice gravelly, "Thought they’d send us more warm bodies. Didn’t expect green ones."

"We aren’t green," Persephone said quietly, unleashing her latent aura that caught Yorrin’s incoming words in his throat.

Amethyst Rank.

It was undeniable, her aura shimmering and suppressing any disrespect as she proved she was a Low Amethyst rank fighter.

Even a-lot of the guards outside sensed this aura and shut their mouths, beginning to recognize the strengths of the students who had arrived to help them.

Meanwhile, Persephone ignored Yorrin’s surprise and just spoke, "Brief us."

Yorrin gave a short, humorless laugh as he recognized her power, "Straight to it, eh?" He tapped a calloused finger on the map, where a red circle marked a clearing deep within Hollowwood.

"This is the Shrine. Used to be a warding post centuries ago. After another incident with the Abyss, it became long abandoned, really only used by certain people for...let’s call it get togethers,"

"Couple weeks back, some Hunters were passing through HollowWood and went missing nearby. When we sent men to check, none of them came back. Eventually, we started seeing smoke & fires. Heard chanting when the wind carried right and there’s only one group that could be. Abyssal Worshippers. They’ve been fortifying, guarding the place."

His finger tapped again, this time to a wider circle surrounding a decent chunk of the forest around them, "And, they’re spreading a noticeable amount of corruption. Trees near the shrine are rotting more and more, the air’s grown sour. Wild Animals and Monsters won’t go near. Whatever ritual they’re cooking, it’s close to finishing."

Elara leaned over the map, her lips pursed. "Do you know how many?"

"Too many," Yorrin said flatly. "At least fifty, maybe more."

The silence that followed was heavy. Even Albedo’s brow furrowed.

Persephone finally spoke, her tone even. "Numbers don’t matter. The heart of the ritual does."

Yorrin studied her, then gave a slow shake of his head, "You’ve got iron in your spine, girl. But don’t mistake it for armor. Abyssal Worshippers aren’t like bandits. They don’t break. They don’t run." His eyes darkened. "And if you fall into their hands, you’ll beg for death."

Albedo’s eyes glinted faintly with purple light, Source Code stirring. "That won’t happen."

The warden commander’s gaze lingered on him, then flicked to each of the others in turn. Finally, he grunted and sat back. "Fine. You’re either going to save this place... or burn with it. Either way, it’ll end soon."

When they stepped back into the gray air, the group paused outside the outpost’s gate.

Elara hugged her arms against herself, staring into the forest. "Fifty Worshippers and who knows what else,"

Morgana touched her shoulder lightly, her smile faint but reassuring. "We’ll manage. We have to."

Persephone said nothing, her gaze fixed on the twisting treeline, her expression unreadable.

Albedo studied the group, his mind already turning through scenarios, contingencies, outcomes as they stepped into the forest.

The moment they left the protection of the outpost’s palisade, the air changed. It thickened, damp and almost viscous in their lungs, laced with an acrid tang that set teeth on edge.

The trees loomed taller the deeper they pressed on, their bark blackened and slick, their roots swollen like veins trying to burst from the earth.

Elara’s nose wrinkled as she scanned her Battle Map

She kept her voice low, "The forest itself feels... diseased."

Morgana nodded, her hand brushing against her cloak where a dark spell circle shimmered in readiness. Her obsidian eyes darted left and right, narrowing at the writhing shadows between trunks. "This is what corruption looks like when it feeds too long. The Abyss is feeding on the land."

A crow croaked overhead, its feathers oily with some slick sheen. When its cry echoed through the woods, the sound wasn’t natural, it fractured, breaking into whispers that coiled around the group like threads of smoke.

Elara shivered. "That wasn’t just a bird."

Persephone’s measured tone cut through the unease. "Ignore the voices. They’re lures, distractions. The Shrine is ahead. That is where they are strongest."

Her aura flared briefly, Amethyst strength rippling out in a pulse that burned away the whispers for a heartbeat. In that flash, the others caught sight of shapes moving along the treeline, too still, too jagged, like figures half-formed from bark and bone. Then, with the blink of an eye, they vanished back into the trees.

For Albedo, he remained quiet as they walked, the faint purple flicker of Source Code lingered at their edges as he studied every distortion, every unnatural twitch in the forest.

Finally, he spoke, "Stay close. Don’t separate. The forest will try to scatter us."

They pressed on, deeper. The light dimmed as though the sun itself had abandoned the Hollowwood, every step carrying them further from the world they knew.

Soon, the ground itself began to shift, patches of moss sloughed away like rotting flesh, revealing earth blackened and pulsing faintly, as if alive.

Then, faintly ahead, they saw the Shrine, or what remained of it.

The clearing opened before them like the wound of the forest itself. A crumbling stone arch jutted upward, cracked and streaked with black ichor. Weathered statues of forgotten guardians lay toppled, their faces marred by deep gouges as if clawed apart by unseen hands.

In the center, an altar of pale stone stood buried under heaps of charred bones, every surface carved with crawling Abyssal runes that shifted and writhed if stared at too long.

Around it, the forest was dead. The trees had withered into hollow husks, their branches bent inward, almost bowing toward the altar.

And beyond the altar, faint flickers of torchlight moved. Hooded figures paced, their chants carrying on the still air. The voices were low, discordant, but each syllable scratched at the edges of thought like a blade scraping against bone.

Fifty? Maybe more.

The sight rooted Elara in place. Her hands clenched at her satchel straps, breath hitching. So many...

Persephone, unflinching, stepped past her, eyes like black glass fixed on the altar. "There. The heart of the corruption. The ritual is nearly complete."

Morgana touched her shoulder again, voice hushed but steady. "We’ll stop them. Together."

Albedo finally moved forward, his voice quiet but carrying a weight that cut through the whispers of the Shrine.

"Then we strike."