Tribal

46 (Edited)

"D-Dad? Wh- huh? We thought you were dead!" Hollow exclaimed

"I was. But it seems I am no longer deceased. Now I must ask you, who do you think you are giving orders like that?" Wyrm spat, with a malicious undertone to each word.

Hollow stuttered over every word, barely coherent. He had always sought his father's approval, but having Wyrm confront him like this turned him into a mess.

"Well? I am waiting for an answer." If looks could kill, Wyrm would be a murderer. He always gave such hard stares at people he disliked; currently, Hollow was one of them.

Ghost did not care nearly as much as Hollow did about their father's opinion, so he spoke up instead.

"Someone had to take over after your colossal failure Wyrm." Ghost spat back.

"What did you say to me?" Wyrm looked at Ghost, shocked that he spoke up.

"You heard me Wyrm." Ghost stood his ground, not stuttering or acting nervous in the slightest.

"You dare address me like that? You are a vessel. I am your creator, you are beneath me!" Wyrm's voice was beginning to rise.

"You are our creator, but you are not above us. Not in the slightest." Ghost countered.

"Let's see you talk like that after you're laid on the floor!" Wyrm charged at Ghost, readying a magic blast in his hand.

Wyrm held his hand up and Ghost froze in place.

"You are a child. I am a god. You should know your place." Wyrm clenched his fist and Ghost fell to his knees.

"Ghost!" Acacia made a move to try and go to Ghost, but Root stopped her.

"Child, you must run. I will get Ghost and meet you at the gate." Root commanded, her voice shaky with fear.

Acacia wanted to help, but Wyrm glanced in her direction and she felt nothing but utter fear. But she couldn't just leave her beloved husband to fend for himself, she had to do something. Acacia tried to take a step forward but Root wrapped silky white vines around Acacia and threw her out of the room, shutting and warping the door in vines.

"No!" Acacia tried to open the door, but the vines would not budge.

She had no choice, she had to trust that Root would save Ghost. She began making her way to the front gate, only to be stopped by two kingsmoulds.

"And where are you going?" One asked.

"I'm leaving," Acacia said with a stern look.

"The king has ordered your death." The other kingsmould said coldly, the two readied their scythes.

Acacia summoned her glaive to her hand, preparing to defend herself. The kingsmoulds charged in unison, weaving their attacks together perfectly. Acacia was forced to remain on the defensive, blocking and deflecting the rapid swings of the kingsmoulds. In her current state, she would be down and out for the count very shortly. The kingsmoulds were almost robotic, they didn't run out of energy ever and hit like rolling boulders. Acacia could only block and dodge for so long before her strength began to give out on her, all it took was one misstep and she was on her knees. The kingsmoulds held their scythes around Acacia's neck, one tug, and Acacia's head was coming clean off.

Acacia prepared herself for the end, a single solitary tear rolled down her cheek and she closed her eyes. But just then, the kingsmoulds fell to the ground headless. She turned around to see a vessel, he had three horns and a cloak much longer than his body. He smiled at her and made his way over to her.

"Who are you?" Acacia asked.

"I am Ghost's younger brother. My name is Kin, a pleasure to meet you." The little vessel was taller than the average vessel, but not nearly as tall as Ghost or Hollow.

"How did you know to come find me?" Acacia asked as Kin helped her to stand.

"I was in the basin when I awoke, the Shade Lord's voice absent from my mind and I could feel everything. I had assumed something had to have happened to the void because there was no longer a door to the Abyss. My next bet was the White Palace, I was hoping to find someone here who could explain what was going on." Kin explained as he helped support Acacia to the front gate.

"The Shade Lord is dead. We killed them, and with their death, all the things they did were erased as well. So all the vessels are no longer empty, and entities the void killed like Wyrm and the Radiance are alive again." Acacia summed up.

"That's not good. Father will likely try to find any way to solve the problem against the Radiance, and without the void to create vessels to contain her who knows what horrible things he will concoct to defeat her." Kin looked off in the distance worriedly.

"Wyrm is currently in the meeting room battling against Root, Hollow, and Ghost. I am worried about what will happen to them." Acacia said.

"Mother and my siblings are very powerful. With all three of them together they should stand a chance against Father, but I worry for them also. Father is known to be an underhanded fighter and likely will not play fair." Kin looked ahead at the front gate they were slowly approaching.

"Why did you save me?" Acacia asked.

"You are my brother's mate, I had to." Kin looked up at her and smiled.

"How did you know that?" Acacia asked.

"It's a combination of things. For one, you are covered in his scent. So even if you weren't his mate, you still mean a lot to him. Secondly, we vessels inherited a unique skill from mother. Mother has the innate ability to sense where anyone who shares her blood is. We vessels can do the same, we all know exactly where each other is no matter what." Kin explained.

"I wonder why Hollow didn't use that ability when he was hunting us." Acacia wondered.

"He likely didn't know about it. He didn't spend much time with mother when he was being trained to be the Hollow Knight, Father didn't want to risk Hollow being "corrupted" by Mother's love." Kin explained.

The two hobbled out of the front gate, when five kingsmoulds dropped from the ceiling and surrounded them.