Chapter 99: Hollow Soul – The Queen’s Madness [1]

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“The Hollow Queen’s Soul?”

Louis stared in bewilderment at the translucent white soul floating before him. It was the Hollow Queen’s—massive, radiant with soul essence. He wondered if he could enslave it… or if he even should. Souls could exceed his authority and fight back. He had mostly dealt with weak creatures before; he had never attempted something this powerful.

“Master Louis? What’s wrong?” Zorba approached, noticing the immense soul. He lacked the power to claim it himself, but Louis clearly held the authority. “Is that the Hollow Queen’s Soul?! Incredible! It’s so massive and brimming with soul essence! That alone could power a gigantic golem!”

“You think so?” Louis murmured, lost in thought. “I don’t want to enslave it and get attacked from within… And I don’t even know what would happen to this place if I took the Boss’s Soul. Would it prevent her from respawning? It’s better to leave her be.”

“A-Are you sure?!” Zorba stared at the soul with raw greed, practically drooling.

Louis considered it deeply. In the past, when he was more reckless, he might have seized it without a second thought. This time he tried to think ahead and weigh the consequences. “Yes. Leave it.”

He waved his hand to dismiss the soul, but something inside him stirred violently. His eyes widened as a crimson rose suddenly bloomed from his chest, swelling to three times its size and sprouting sharp fangs.

“Wait!”

He tried to stop it, stepping back, but it was too late. The creature lunged and devoured the Hollow Queen’s Soul in an instant, crushing and swallowing it whole.

“Nnggh?! What are you…! I see. So I should have destroyed you already!”

Fury surged through Louis. He grabbed the flower, but sharp, agonizing pain lanced through him the harder he pulled. His soul cracked under the strain.

“Milord!”

Zorba gasped, sensing something terribly wrong. He rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside Louis. He couldn’t see the flower consuming the soul; he only saw the soul vanish and assumed it had disappeared elsewhere.

Zorba fumbled for a tonic or Fantasium Injection, but Louis knocked them away, groaning as he clutched his stomach and chest, teeth clenched tight.

The more he tried to rip the flower free, the deeper the cracks spread through his soul. If he kept going, he would die.

“I can’t die… yet…”

He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to calm. A powerful surge of Soul Essence spread through his Soul and Body. His Mind expanded, merging with his Fantasium and forming a small Fantasy Domain around him.

“Haaa… What is this?”

He looked around and found himself in a world eerily similar to the First Layer of the Dimensional Labyrinth. Yet unlike the vast but limited First Layer, this place truly felt like an entire immense world.

Louis rose slowly and walked forward. He reached out to touch the salt flowers and trees, but his hand passed through them. He was clearly inside some ethereal domain—perhaps the interior of a Fantasy Heart.

He kept walking, but no matter the distance, he saw only endless salt: forests, grasslands, and… entire cities. He approached an abandoned metropolis of towering skyscrapers, shops, and vehicles—all petrified in salt, along with the people.

“Uuuhh… Aahh…”

“…?”

A child’s weeping reached him. Louis hurried toward the sound. Anything that could help him escape would do. But when he arrived, he found not a child, but a woman.

She was tall and beautiful, with long white hair, strikingly similar to the Hollow Queen—yet not made of salt. She towered over four meters, with elongated arms, legs, and fingers.

She clutched her face, weeping. Her tears crystallized into salt the moment they touched the ground. Louis stayed silent, watching from behind a salt-covered car. This felt eerily like his encounter with the Gardener.

One wrong move, and he could suffer the same fate as before, all because of the flower that had merged into his soul, driven by an insatiable hunger for souls.

The Hollow Queen wept for minutes, then hours. Each tear became salt crystals that spread, covering the world. The crystals broke down into grains carried by the wind, saturating every corner until the air grew unbearably dry and arid.

“Is this her past?” Louis wondered, eyes narrowing. “Am I witnessing her memories… or something else?”

He grew weary but realized confrontation was the only way out. He summoned Gungnir—it answered. But no one else appeared: not Handy, Belladine, nor the flower. Even his Incarnations were blocked.

“You’re the Hollow Queen, right?”

“Uuuhh… Aahh… My people…”

“Why did you turn everyone into salt?”

“Aahhh… Uuhh… Hm?”

Slowly, she stopped crying. Her massive hands fell away, revealing a face half-crystalized in salt. Her eyes gleamed like white diamonds; strands of her hair shimmered like transparent crystals.

“Who… are you?”

“I am Louis.”

“…Louis.”

“A thing inside my Soul ate yours, so here I am. Now tell me how to get out of this Fantasy Realm.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying…”

“What?”

“I… everyone… why…”

“…You didn’t want to do this? When I fought you outside, you felt resentful and full of hatred. Now you regret what you did?”

“There is not a single day I don’t regret what I did… Regret is everything I have now, and sorrow…”

“I suppose you have yet to become mad. Your other self, that monster, was utterly mad.”

“Madness, huh?”

The Hollow Queen gave a faint, trembling smile. She approached Louis and placed her hands on his shoulders. He did not resist, choosing to observe.

“Do you think I am not mad already?!”

“If you regret what you did, there’s still not enough madness to overtake your heart. But with enough time in solitude, you too might become a Grievance.”

“…Grievance.”

“You know them?”

“Yes…” She turned away, gazing at the sky with crystalline eyes. “There was once a time when they came to our world. But they… brought us happiness.”

“What?”

“It was called the Cirque. A group of Otherworldly Entities dressed like circus performers. They brought laughter to people, they brought happiness. A world full of war and despair became one of eternal joy. Wars stopped; conflicts ended overnight. Humanity was saved!”

Louis stepped back as something burned fiercely in her heart. Her Madness was rising faster than he expected.

“But… some people still hated each other and despised our new friends. They called them monsters and attacked them. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen. Eventually, many of our friends died, and they had to flee…” She wept again. “But then… they left me a gift… because they said I was such a nice girl…”

Louis’s eyebrows twitched as he saw her body crystallizing further.

“They said I was a princess, and that I had to be a princess to this entire world, to rule over everyone… So I didn’t know… I didn’t know it would turn me into this… That little gift turned my sorrow into power… it made… salt. Beautiful, pristine salt. It is often considered the purest element, you know? Salt.

So I decided to rule the world as a princess… no, a queen. And it went horribly wrong. Everyone hated me. They said I couldn’t rule over them!

Can you believe it? I just wanted to make everyone happy like the Cirque did. And now… look. LOOK!”

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