Chapter 100: Hollow Soul – The Queen’s Madness [2]

She began to dance, arms spread wide as her body grew larger and more monstrous. Louis stepped back, gripping Gungnir tightly. His Soul Essence surged, coating the lance in Ashen Frost.

She waved her hand. A towering pillar of salt rose into the sky. Then a castle emerged. With a snap of her fingers, hundreds of salt soldiers rose, clad in hard armor and wielding salt weapons.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, right? Yeahhhh… Well, they’re all salt anyway. Every single one of them is one with the salt. I have cured humanity. Now everyone can be happy, as salt.”

Louis gave a light smile and nodded. “I see. So you’re going to let my mind go, Hollow Queen? I don’t care about your boring backstory.”

“Heheheh… if I eat your soul now, your body will be mine… Soooo… I can’t! Now… why won’t you come to me instead?!”

The Hollow Queen laughed maniacally. Her hands elongated into long salt-crystal claws, unleashing shockwaves of distorted Fantasium energy. Louis dodged swiftly. The attack struck a building behind him, reducing it to a pile of salt boulders.

Louis understood the danger. Though he pretended to be indifferent, her backstory had drawn him in. Often, turning to salt served as punishment for gazing upon the divine and forbidden. In the Bible, Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom’s destruction and became a pillar of salt.

As salt slowly crept over half his body, he realized the truth: the more he learned of her past, the more he turned to salt.

The secret was knowledge.

Whatever the Cirque had given her was forbidden knowledge so potent it turned everything to salt—and granted her power over it.

Now, how could he escape?

He analyzed his surroundings while dodging. Pillars of salt surged around him, trying to crush or trap him. Salt soldiers charged, but Louis shattered them with precise thrusts of Gungnir. The lance gleamed brighter with each kill, absorbing their energy.

“Are they made of Spiritual Energy? Soul Essence? Can Gungnir absorb Soul Essence? Since when?!”

As he pondered, thorny vines coiled around Gungnir. A red rose bloomed, its eye fixing on Louis.

“You again?!”

Furious, Louis tried to burn it with Nirvana Flames, but the attempt only strengthened Gungnir. It grew longer, gleaming with crimson light.

“I FOUND YOU.”

“Ngh?!”

Louis had been distracted for only seconds. The Hollow Queen seized the moment, swinging her claws with mad laughter. But Gungnir resonated. Louis thrust forward, piercing her chest and unleashing a massive explosion of Nirvana Flames.

BOOOM!

“Gaaaahh?!”

The Hollow Queen vomited white blood. Her giant body collapsed, crumbling into fragments. Louis watched as her soldiers rushed to her, merging to help her regenerate and grow even larger.

“YOU WILL TURN INTO A BEAUTIFUL PILLAR OF SALT, LOUIS!”

“What’s wrong with all of you Grievances wanting to turn me into some weird, abstract bullshit?!”

Louis had had enough. He charged her. The salt coating half his body responded to his will, melding with Ashen Frost to form wings that propelled him forward.

Gungnir blazed with Nirvana Flames that bloomed into beautiful roses. Louis wasn’t sure how all these powers connected, but they resonated more strongly than ever. Perhaps his Fake Dragon Heart was the key—the more it beat, the better it fused these forces.

“Nnnggaaaahh!”

The Hollow Queen screamed monstrously, swinging massive claws. Louis crushed them with sharp thrusts of Gungnir, using her arms as platforms to run toward her face while dodging rising pillars of salt.

He pointed Gungnir directly at her.

“I am sorry, but I cannot let you take my body. Why won’t you rest in peace, Hollow Queen?! Here, let me make that decision easier for you!”

Gungnir flared bright red, transforming into a pillar of flames that descended toward her face, obliterating it and scattering fragments everywhere. Burning cracks spread across the rest of her body as it crumbled.

BOOOM!

An explosion of Nirvana Flames swept outward, burning the souls of every creature nearby and rapidly killing them. The Hollow Queen’s Soul writhed in agony, melting as she tried to revert to her human form—only to dissolve faster.

“A-Aaaahhh! My ideal…! My ideal world…! Aaaaahhhh!”

Louis stood in silence as she died. The flames turned into blooming red roses of fire before scattering into burning petals. Slowly, the world returned to peace and quiet. Everything began to scatter like ashes.

“Ah!”

When he opened his eyes, he was back in reality—inside the Hollow Queen’s throne room. A small bonfire burned beside him for warmth.

It felt like a long dream, but judging by the sky and the position of the sun and moon, only about an hour had passed.

“I’m back… And the pain’s gone too. I am not salt either, thankfully.”

He stood and looked around. Zorba was in the distance, searching for something to eat—but the First Layer offered nothing but salt. He returned empty-handed.

“Were you hoping to cook me a soup or something?”

“Lord Louis! You’re awake! A-Are you alright now?!”

“I’m fine.”

Louis stopped Zorba before he could touch him. He walked back to the fire and sat down. He took out another Fantasium crystal, ate it, and felt satiated. Then he assumed a lotus position and began to meditate.

“Are you sure? I was worried. I was thinking about bringing you back home…”

“And how would you do that if you don’t even know where the portal back home is, fool?” Louis shook his head. “You’re truly hopeless on your own, aren’t you?”

“That’s not true…” Zorba looked embarrassed and glanced away. “But what happened? What attacked you?”

“Hm…” Louis sighed. “I accidentally consumed that Soul and my Mind was pulled into a Fantasy Realm made from the Hollow Queen’s Memories. I learned about her past, then I destroyed her soul. Now I am here.”

“So you won?!” Zorba’s mouth fell open in awe. “A-Amazing…! You won in a battle of souls against a Level 3 Entity?!”

“Yeah,” Louis said. “Now, I need some peace and quiet. Leave me alone for an hour or two.”

“Yes, I will go repair my Golems in the meantime,” Zorba nodded. He ate a Fantasium Core and left Louis alone.

Finally by himself, Louis deepened his meditation and examined the changes within him. He first looked into his Fantasy Heart Realm. In the east, beyond the ashen desert, a field of salt crystals had appeared. They grew into long pillars that reached the starry sky.

It remained far from the garden of White Lilies—the “seed” left by the Gardener that had become that creature. Speaking of which, Louis inspected it. The flower had fallen into deep slumber after devouring and fighting. He tried burning it with Nirvana Flames, but nothing happened.

That confirmed one thing: this creature, this flower, had become part of his own Soul.

“Damn it, one thing after another…” he groaned, clicking his tongue.

“But isn’t that flower good, though?”

Niflheim’s voice interrupted his thoughts, echoing from within his Fantasy Heart. Louis looked toward her. She sat atop a vast mountain of salt and ashen frost. Beside her rested the glass-like sword he had refined using Ashen Frost and his understanding of Sword Breathing—containing shifting shadows of everyone he had imagined during training.

“Niflheim. At this point, you must have already guessed what’s happening, right?”

“I do. I am fairly sure you died, Louis. I was very sad, actually. And now, you’re alive again… I can already guess you’re doing something that completely ignores all the laws of reality.”

“Hm. Let’s not talk about it directly.”

“Why?”

“If you know, that’s good. Let’s keep it that way. I have a strange feeling—a foreboding whenever I’m about to speak about my secret.”

“…?”

“I feel like if someone learns the truth and it’s spoken aloud; it could bring immense misfortune to me.”

Louis had never shared this with anyone before.

But he had felt it since his first regression.

Something—or someone—watched him from beyond the boundaries of this world.

If they learned the truth about his power, that being would do anything to stop him forever.

For now, he entrusted the secret to Niflheim. She was only a fragment within his Fantasy Heart—a separate place from the outside world.

“Do you understand?”

“…I do. I will keep it a secret, Louis. However… I am simply incredibly awed. You can really do something like this… Doesn’t that mean you can… save Tisha?!”

“Yes… but… there’s something else you must know, Niflheim.”

“…?”

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