The first sign that something was wrong came three weeks later.
It was a scream.
Leo was halfway through his morning training when he heard it.
He stopped immediately.
The training grounds went silent.
Celine, who had been sparring with another young warrior, turned toward the sound.
Catherine was already moving.
“That came from the eastern gardens.”
Leo dropped his practice sword.
“Come on.”
The three of them ran.
They found several servants gathered outside one of the clan’s smaller courtyards.
Nobody spoke.
Leo pushed through them.
Celine followed.
Then stopped.
“Catherine.”
Her sister was standing in the middle of the courtyard.
Alone.
Her face was pale.
Her hands were trembling.
And in front of her lay a shattered stone lantern.
Leo approached carefully.
“What happened?”
Catherine looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
“You screamed.”
“I know.”
She looked around.
“I felt something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Celine stepped closer.
“Did someone attack you?”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
Catherine closed her eyes.
“I saw something.”
Leo frowned.
“Like before?”
She nodded.
Her temporal affinity had always been strange.
Unlike ordinary elemental abilities, Catherine didn’t simply manipulate time.
She could sometimes perceive echoes of moments outside the present.
Most were insignificant.
A forgotten conversation.
A movement that had happened seconds before.
Occasionally, something that hadn’t happened yet.
But the visions had become stronger recently.
And more disturbing.
“What did you see?” Leo asked.
Catherine hesitated.
“You.”
Leo’s expression changed.
“Me?”
She nodded.
“You were standing in darkness.”
“Was I hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was anyone else there?”
Catherine looked toward Celine.
“You were.”
Celine’s face became serious.
“What was I doing?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Then how do you know it was me?”
“Because I knew.”
Celine stared at her sister.
Catherine looked back at Leo.
“There was something else.”
“What?”
“A door.”
Leo frowned.
“What kind of door?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did it lead?”
“I don’t know.”
Catherine’s frustration showed.
“I can’t explain it.”
Leo placed a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“It’s not.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“It felt like something was waiting for us.”
Leo didn’t know what to say.
He looked at Celine.
Celine looked just as worried.
Then footsteps approached.
Lance entered the courtyard.
His eyes immediately went to Catherine.
“What happened?”
Nobody answered.
Lance looked at the servants.
“Leave us.”
The servants obeyed.
Soon only the four remained.
Lance looked at Catherine.
“Tell me.”
She did.
He listened without interrupting.
When she finished, Lance’s expression was unreadable.
“You’ve been having these visions often?”
Catherine nodded.
“How often?”
“Every few days.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Catherine looked down.
“I didn’t think they meant anything.”
Lance stared at her.
“Next time, you tell me.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
He turned toward Leo.
“You too.”
Leo frowned.
“What?”
“If Catherine sees something involving you, I want to know.”
Leo nodded.
“Okay.”
Lance left.
Celine watched him go.
“That was strange.”
Leo nodded.
“Very.”
Catherine looked toward the eastern wall.
“Something is coming.”
Leo turned.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
That evening, the twins’ parents arrived at the training grounds.
They had heard about Catherine’s vision.
Both were visibly concerned.
Their father approached Catherine.
“You should have told us.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
He knelt beside her.
“Did the vision hurt?”
“No.”
“Did you recognize the place?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
Catherine shook her head.
Her mother looked at Celine.
“And you?”
“I didn’t see anything.”
“You weren’t in the vision?”
“I was.”
“But you didn’t see yourself?”
“No.”
Their mother frowned.
The twins had always been connected.
Everyone knew that.
They had been born minutes apart.
Celine’s spatial affinity had manifested first.
Catherine’s temporal affinity appeared shortly afterward.
Their abilities seemed almost designed to complement one another.
Space.
Time.
Two sides of reality.
Some elders believed that together, the twins could eventually achieve something no other elemental users had ever managed.
But there was another possibility.
Their abilities might make them targets.
Their father clearly understood that.
“We’re increasing your security,” he said.
Celine immediately protested.
“No.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“I’m not a child.”
“You’re seventeen.”
“So is Leo.”
“Leo isn’t my daughter.”
Celine crossed her arms.
“Exactly.”
Her father sighed.
Catherine quietly smiled.
Celine always argued when she was frightened.
Their mother recognized it too.
She approached her daughter.
“You’re afraid.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Celine looked away.
Her mother hugged her.
Celine resisted for a second.
Then gave in.
“I don’t want anything to happen to Catherine.”
Catherine stepped closer.
“And I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
The twins embraced.
Leo watched from a short distance.
He understood them.
Perhaps more than they realized.
After losing his parents, he had become terrified of losing anyone else.
Celine and Catherine were the closest thing he had to family.
The thought of something happening to either of them made his chest tighten.
He didn’t say it.
But he made a silent promise.
He would protect them.
The next morning, Leo began training harder.
Celine noticed immediately.
“You’re doing it again.”
Leo continued punching the training post.
“What?”
“Trying to solve everything by becoming stronger.”
He struck the post again.
Lightning traveled through his fist.
The wood cracked.
“I need to be stronger.”
“Why?”
“In case something happens.”
“To who?”
Leo stopped.
He didn’t answer.
Celine sighed.
“You can’t protect everyone.”
“I can try.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Leo turned.
“I wasn’t strong enough before.”
She knew what he meant.
His parents.
Celine approached him.
“Leo.”
“I’m not letting it happen again.”
“You don’t know that something is going to happen.”
“Catherine does.”
“She had a vision.”
“Exactly.”
“She doesn’t even know what it means.”
Leo looked away.
“I can’t take the chance.”
Celine grabbed his arm.
“Then don’t.”
He looked at her.
“Train with us.”
“What?”
“If you’re determined to become stronger, then stop doing it alone.”
Leo hesitated.
Celine smiled.
“You’re part of our team.”
“Since when?”
“Since we were children.”
Catherine walked up behind them.
“She’s right.”
Leo looked at both sisters.
“You two are serious?”
“Very.”
Celine held out her hand.
“Together?”
Leo looked at it.
Then smiled.
“Together.”
He took her hand.
Catherine placed hers over theirs.
Three hands.
Three friends.
One promise.
None of them knew how important that moment would become.
Over the following months, the three trained constantly.
Celine taught Leo how to move through space.
Not by using his own affinity, but by teaching him to recognize spatial distortions.
Leo helped her with close combat.
Catherine focused on timing.
She taught them how to anticipate movement rather than simply react to it.
Their fighting styles began to complement one another.
Celine could open short spatial gaps.
Catherine could slow the perception of time around an opponent for fractions of a second.
Leo could exploit those openings with lightning-fast attacks.
Their coordination became frighteningly effective.
Even experienced warriors began noticing.
One instructor watched them spar and shook his head.
“They’re becoming dangerous.”
Another smiled.
“They’re becoming warriors.”
Lance heard those reports.
He wasn’t pleased.
But there was something else bothering him.
Catherine’s visions continued.
Every few weeks, she would describe another fragment.
The door.
The darkness.
Leo.
Celine.
And always the same sensation.
Something waiting.
Lance began investigating.
Quietly.
He searched old clan records.
Ancient texts.
Reports of unusual elemental phenomena.
Nothing.
Then he found something.
A reference buried in an old document.
A place.
A dungeon.
The name had been partially destroyed.
Only two words remained.
The Hollow.
Lance stared at the page.
He had heard the name before.
Everyone had.
The Hollow was a legendary dungeon said to exist somewhere beyond the northern mountains.
No map showed its location.
No expedition had returned with reliable information.
Most scholars believed it was simply a myth.
Lance wasn’t so certain.
He closed the book.
For the first time, he wondered whether Lawrence’s death had really been as straightforward as everyone believed.
The beast wave.
The unusual number of creatures.
The catastrophe-class beast.
And now Catherine’s visions.
There were too many coincidences.
He needed answers.
But before he could investigate further, another report arrived.
This one was different.
A group of travelers had disappeared near the northern mountains.
Then another.
Then another.
And witnesses reported seeing strange lights in the forest at night.
Lance stared at the reports.
He thought of Leo.
He thought of Catherine.
He thought of Lawrence.
Something was happening.
And this time, Lance couldn’t simply ignore it.
That night, Catherine woke suddenly.
Her room was dark.
She sat upright.
Her heart was racing.
The vision had been stronger than any before.
She had seen the door.
Clearly.
Ancient stone.
Covered in symbols.
And standing before it were three people.
Leo.
Celine.
And herself.
But this time, there had been a fourth figure.
A man.
Catherine couldn’t see his face.
He had been standing behind them.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then he had spoken.
Only one sentence.
“The bloodline must return.”
Catherine’s eyes widened.
She immediately left her room.
She ran through the halls.
“Celine!”
Her sister woke instantly.
“What happened?”
“I saw him.”
“Who?”
“The man.”
Celine sat up.
“What man?”
“The one from the vision.”
“What did he say?”
Catherine stared at her.
“The bloodline must return.”
Celine’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
They ran to Leo’s house.
When they arrived, Leo was already awake.
He was standing outside.
Lightning surrounded his hands.
He looked at them.
“You’re here.”
Celine stared.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Leo looked toward the forest.
“I felt something.”
Catherine stopped.
“You felt it too?”
Leo nodded.
“The air changed.”
The three stood together.
Beyond the clan walls, the forest was silent.
Too silent.
Then something moved between the trees.
Leo raised his hand.
Lightning gathered.
Celine’s spatial energy began forming around her.
Catherine closed her eyes.
She reached into the flow of time.
For one brief instant, she saw the next few seconds.
Her eyes snapped open.
“Run.”
Leo looked at her.
“What?”
“NOW!”
The forest exploded.
A massive beast tore through the trees.
Then another.
Then another.
Leo’s eyes widened.
A beast wave.
But this one was coming directly toward the clan.
Celine stepped forward.
“How many?”
Catherine looked into the darkness.
Her face went pale.
“Too many.”
Leo smiled grimly.
Lightning crackled around him.
“Then we fight.”
Celine looked at him.
Catherine looked at him.
The three moved forward together.
And somewhere far beyond the battlefield, beneath an ancient mountain, something opened its eyes.
The Hollow had awakened.
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