Ancient Temple - Hollows [1]

Hollows. Creatures of chaos, darkness, destruction. They were created thousands of years ago, or rather appeared. Their appearance varied. Some were black, some had human like skin, but what never changed was their mask.

Every Hollow, without exception had a mask. And most of the time it was white, never was there a Hollow with a different color mask. Their height differed, some were really large, some were really small, but rarely was a hollow smaller than a human in height.

Like Human Slayers, Hollows were classified in ranks. The rank depended on the amount of lines in it's mask. No lines equaled an newborn, one line equaled the weakest Slayers and so it went.

Hollows were not capable of speech, their intelligence was lesser than that of a insect, and they only acted on their senses. There was no known way of controlling a Hollow, well at least to the public.

They were simply, empty shells, without an actual mind, who only knew to attack humans and nothing else. Weapons of chaos, and Slayers were given the job to kill and destroy any Hollow in sight.

Ren, was facing a Hollow by himself. He did not hesitate. This creature, this being, was evil. He could feel it just by looking at the two holes of it's white mask. It's red eyes were shadowed by darkness and evil.

There was only one thing he wanted to do to this Hollow currently. Crush it. Destroy it to dust, cut it into pieces. He had done it many times, yet no matter how many times it did it, he was never satisfied.

"Soul Reaper! Here's your breakfast!" Ren grinned as he swung his sword at the Hollow who tried to dodge it, but as a Hollow with no lines, it was merely too weak to compare to his sword speed.

The hollow let out a cry of anguish out, before it was cut in two. It exploded in white light, and fathered together to form a white orb, which flew towards the Soul Reaper, entering the blade.

"A weak Hollow Soul, but a soul it is… At least Soul Reaper got it's meal for now…" The more souls his sword ate, the stronger it became. A Newborn Hollow was weak, but it still gave it some powers.

Ren started walking slowly, as if he was taking a stroll outside his house. He was extremely relaxed. That moment he supposedly relaxed, a Hollow with the form of a Leopard jumped at him, releasing a roar as it opened its mouth, ready to eat Ren. (The mask opens with the mouth).

The said Slayer grinned as he extended one arm and muttered.

"Let the Gods judge you. Void Burial." He said as a bit of his Exo Particles left his body through his palm ,and formed a beam of Exo, which took the form of a dark purple like color energy. The Hollow didn't know what hit it, as it got consumed until nothing was left.

"That is, if there is anything left of you." Ren yawned as he muttered something.

"Sorry my companion, I wanted to try if this Hollow was any different, after all it did hide from me." He said as one of his hands reached for his sword, patting it. He continued walking forward, as if the previous scene never happened.

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Alice played with her hair, as her companion and she walked in the forest. She was in deep thoughts. She still remembered how badly she had lost to Ren, she still felt fear from that duel, She did not understand why either.

It was something to lose, it was normal, but why did she feel like she lost far more?

She still remembered the dark aura Ren had at that day. It felt as if she was in the presence of Death itself. As if her life was not in her hands.

As a proven prodigy, one of the best in the Celestial Academy itself, she felt as if her life had been sucked out by him. Her entire life had been destroyed in front of her, she had not used her strongest technique, that was true, however she lost.

By a single move that is.Every word and sentence which Ren had muttered, were still imprinted in her mind.

But she was improving. Ever since she meet this boy… Covered in an aura of sunshine, it was as if he really was innocent, wanting to help everyone, to the point he'd let himself get injured at a price of that.

She could not understand this boy her age. Why? Why waste your time you could train in, to help others? Why, why would you do something so pointless. Truly, how dense can a person be?

She thought she had forgotten the duel, but when she saw Ren day after day, she felt scared. She still was influenced by a mere duel, by mere words. She even tried finding out who he was, but failed badly.

Any information she got, was useless. It was as if someone covered him, in a thick shell, no matter how much she tried to cut the shell, it was impossible. But she no longer cared, or so she thought.

This boy she had meet, Alex was his name, was really a ball of sunshine, which healed everyone around him. She smiled, yes, she was falling in love. Not that she would admit that though.

"Alice, are you okay? You really haven't been responding to my words in the last few minutes?" Alex said, waving his hand in front of Alice.

"Yes, I'm… Okay. No need to worry." Alice just brushed it off, with a smile and laughed. Alex looked suspicious for a moment before shrugging it off.

"Fine, but don't cut off like that again, we are not in a really safe place, Y'know? We'll need to protect each other."He said with a bright smile. She looked at him and mentally smiled, he really was handsome.

"A Hollow!" Alice shouted the next moment as a large bear-like Hollow appeared before them, and swung it's claws at them. She was not caught unprepared as she swung her sword, Astaroth at the Hollow, releasing a gust of wind, pushing the Hollow behind, stopping the attack.

"Alex, quickly use your Exo Source!" She shouted at Alex, who was the one caught unprepared.

"Eh? Yes!" He shouted as he started focusing, and a pair of gauntlets appeared in his hand, covered in a black color, with yellow lines.

"Take this!" He shouted as he thrust his fist forward, punching the hollow, pushing it several meters away.

Alice's eyes closed slightly," It has no lines, so this is a Newborn Hollow, I could use one of my best attacks, and it would probably take it down. But this one seems to be capable of withstanding strong raw attacks."

She looked at Alex and yelled," Cover for me for a second, I'll use a strong attack to knock it down!" The boy nodded at her, and started a combo of punches at the Hollow who growled, caught unprepared at this barrage.

Alice started chanting.

"Ruler Of The Skies, Your Eyes survey the world freely, Give me the power to defeat the evil!"

Wind started to gather around Astaroth.

"For, I am your friend! Wind Of The Skies! SOAR!" She finished as she slashed her sword forward, an immense amount of wind following forward. Alex noticed that and immediately jumped away, leaving the hollow who was dizzy to deal with the attack.

The Hollow was defeated, however it was not easy to defeat it, as Alice was panting slightly, while Alex took a long breath. While the Bear-like Hollow was a Newborn too, it was quite strong for one.

Alice exhaled, now feeling more comfortable. " Man, that was a bit unexpected, wasn't it?" Alex nodded, also doing the same as her. He withdrew his gauntlets and took a bottle of water, which was tied at his waist.

She did the same. " We should be pretty close to the Temple, let's not rush. We can rest a bit, otherwise the Hollows in the Temple will be too powerful for us." Alex said, and his companion shared the same thoughts.

Together, Alice felt like they were invincible. Or were they? Would their bond shatter? Who knew?

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"Ren will be surprised when he will see us. Who'd have thought Boss would receive a mission for the two of us to accompany Ren?" Albion grinned, looking at Laura, who grumbled.

"I already feel annoyed at joining such an Academy where the number of Slayers besides the Staff is probably 0. Imagine how Ren feels, he who likes fighting strong opponents… He's probably bored."

Laura said with a sigh. "Besides, what's up with this Ancient Temple? What if we reach it before Ren does! He'll kill us if we join another team, without him knowing!" She added. " I don't want him to get mad at me…" She added with a lower voice.

"Aww, lovebird don't worry, I'll make sure you and Ren are never separated! It's an oath, from Albion! " Albion teased again. Man, how much did he love doing this sort of stuff? Laura's face was covered in a hint of red.

"Besides, I can sense that Ren already knows we are here, and I'm communicating with him through my Exo Particles, we both agreed on a time to reach the Ancient Temple." Albion added, making Laura sweat.

Only Albion and Ren could communicate using Exo Particles… It was a weird thing to see and do.

"Anyway, It's about a hour or two before the time me and him agreed, so let's just chill. I even brought chips!" Albion continued as he pulled out chips and drinks from his bag. Laura grinned," I want that one, it's my favorite!" She shouted as she grabbed a bag of chips.

"What! That was my favorite!!!"

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Ren released a slight smile. If he at least knew that from 4 teammates, he'd know 2 of them, that would make him feel more comfortable. He didn't have to hide every ability of his like a prey. A Newborn revealing abilities of a C or B Rank Slayer was just terrifying to think of.

He would probably be called a prodigy or something by people his age, if not a monster. He didn't particularly care either way, he was forced to join the Academy. Not by choice, his uncle forced him to.

Ren swung his Soul Reaper playfully, as he killed another Hollow, with no lines of course. As of this moment, he had killed 15 such Hollows, 14 of them becoming food to his sword, while the remaining one had turned to dust.

His sword, was quite satisfied with eating so many souls, but it wanted a stronger hollow, for dessert. Ren was looking for a low level Hollow, one comparable to the weakest actual Slayers, but it was difficult, as Olsen had made sure to get rid of any of those Hollows, besides a selected few, which were in the Ancient Temple.

But Ren was suspicious, how the heck was an Ancient Temple being used as an Examination Area? That sounded oddly weird. He doubted it was constructed with that in idea. So did Olsen do something to it…

"That's a problem for another time…" Ren said as he lowered his bag and took out a few stuff, to eat. He was a bit hungry. He had fought a lot of Hollows, so hungriness was natural. He started eating the food.

It was cold, but that barely made a difference to him. Food was food. Although if possible he'd want to eat hot and delicious food all the time, in a time like this, when fighting Hollows, he didn't have much of a choice.

He quickly filled his stomach. Ren looked at the time and grinned. It was about the exact time he and Albion had agreed on. Time to act.

He stood up, wiped the few remaining pieces of the food and walked towards the Ancient Temple. His friends were waiting for him. For the best or for the worst, he had no other choice but to form a team!