My Post Infection AU [Hollow Knight]

Prologue + A/N

It hurts to be betrayed by people who you thought didn't even know you existed. Not as much as what they do to you, but it hurts.
It hurts to be shoved down a very deep hole full of money made from literal corpses, especially when you already know that this "sacrifice" will do absolutely nothing in the long run.

But I've tried to move past that. I've failed. I can never forgive them, they're dead anyway so it doesn't really matter, but I can never trust another with my safety again. I've always hated people and now I have an even better excuse to.
I know that it's a silly grudge, it doesn't hurt anyone but me, but I can't seem to let go of it. I still dream of falling down that hole, the spec of light from the opening getting farther away as I descend into the darkness, and it certainly doesn't help that the statue above that stupid fountain is my father. He was often disappointed in me so every time I see his face I have difficulty imagining anything but his disgusted and condescending look he gave me, like he was trying to burn me to death with nothing but his eyes.

But enough about that, let's try to think of something more cheerful...

...

All of my friends are dead...

Dang it- I said cheerful!

I suppose that happy thoughts are something I don't particularly have though, all of them involve someone who is either dead or I know doesn't care about me at all... or both.
Some of them are still alive, like my mother but she's too ashamed of what she's done to leave her prison, and Ogrim who lives in the sewers, protecting what's left of Isma... I suppose I didn't know too many people though. Just the 5 great knights, the Seer, the Pure Vessel, my parents, and I did meet the Radiance a few times. There were others, but I don't care to list their names, they probably forgot about me anyway, that's what time does to people's memory after all.

I suppose the only person who really remembered me was Stardust. She did make and give me my dream nail after all. I suppose that's why she's one of the few people I still trust, even if it isn't a lot of trust.

But I suppose most don't know who I am without seeing me in context. Allow me to introduce myself. I wasn't the chosen vessel, but I escaped with them. Now many call me the Hallowed Knight left by the great wyrm to rule in his stead so Hallownest could be eternal like he promised. Many still don't understand what a liar he was I suppose. But I am Vessel, and I have ascended to become a higher being thanks to the void within me, and a promise I made to one now consumed by the Voidheart.

[this is literally the one of the stupidest things I've ever written on this site. Obviously none of it is canon, but I do try to keep canon characters in character, though some of them are not, please keep that in mind. It's not going to fully be written in first person because I realized how annoying that was as I was writing the first actual part of the story.

This timeline is after a 112% play through with the Dream No More ending. The Godseeker gets a very special fate though >:)
Anything that can give you an achievement-even if it doesn't give you percentage- like Witness or finishing the hunter's journal was also completed.

Have fun! There are appearances of my OCs very frequently, that makes sense because this is literally from one of their perspectives. There are also just random bugs thrown in to fill up gaps. Also a few parts of this story are inspired by some of my friends. This story will probably move very slowly and never get updates because the typical chapters are like 5000 words long.]