Killian watched as the second monster he had seen since coming to The Elder Realm pulled itself through the doorway. It wasn’t much better than the Nightmare he had fought previously. Whatever it was now, it was clear that it used to be human. The creature had to be the result of some twisted person weaponizing their insanity. The once dark skin was now devoid of the healthy glow of normal people; flesh pulled tight to its thin, almost empty frame. Ribs pressing painfully against taught skin, hips looking as if they could pierce the pale leather wrapping the horrible creature's body. It wore no clothing; it's shriveled and deflated genitals, looking as if they were left simply because they were forgotten during the monster's terrible transformation. It pulled itself through the doorway with disgusting additions to its anatomy, thick praying mantis-like appendages that came from its palms. A two-foot-long limb ending in a joint connecting another, just like it capped with what looked like a knuckle that jutted with a three-foot-long scythe-like blade made of bone. Similar appendages protruded from its shins, pointing downward, that it seemed to use to walk; its human feet looked vestigial and shrunken.

All of this would be enough to cause anyone nightmares for days, but the poor creature's face is what brought Killian up short. A thin neck was topped by a bald head. Empty eye sockets scanning the positions of Killian and his friends, as if it could still see regardless. It had no nose or ears. The mouth, spread wide with an almost perfectly circular opening, had no lips. The taught and pale skin was simply pulled over any teeth it may have and continued down into the throat; a ghastly and pain-filled moan emanated from within. The wrinkled and callused flesh making up its mouth quivered and twitched, like the creature had no control over it.

Killian took all this in and was struck with one more horrible realization. He had reflexively sped up his mind when first gazing upon the creature, and it was fast. It was only at a rate of 1.5 normal speed or so, but the thing moved faster than his friends did during the slow motion he perceived.

Killian let go of his cognitive magic as the monster slammed into Arden. The warrior seemed unaffected by its horrid visage as crimson power glowed from his shield, and he bashed it into the creature, sending it reeling as he stepped backwards to make more room. Two more creatures burst from the doorway, crashing into the first and stopping it's backward trajectory, pausing for only an instant before the three of them threw themselves at Arden as even more began to emerge. Killian, eyes going wide, had just how fast things spiraled, raised a hand, and let loose a searing white beam of energy. The beam struck the first monster, burning a semicircular hole on the left side of its ribcage. It didn’t seem to care.

"Hold on!" Imari shouted as she gathered magic from the air.

She pointed her staff towards the pile of bone and flesh and let loose a bolt of lightning. It stuck true, and the creatures began to twitch violently in place. Arden, taking advantage of the opportunity, tapped deep into his fury and slammed his right foot into the floor. A blood red pulse sent the convulsing monsters away from his position. Flashing past Killian's face, Nahlen flit in between the group of creatures as the lightning finally wore off. Shan began to send arrows into the group as she called out, "I'll see if I can find a weak spot!"

Killian shook his head, clearing the shock holding him in place. He blinked to a space next to Arden as one of the creatures raised its bladed arm into the air for a strike to his undefended side. Killian swung his razor before he appeared, lopping the thing's arm from the elbow before sending another beam of power lancing into a second creature's head. He had to blink away as the third monster charged towards him, Arden easily absorbing the impact on his shield.

For a brief moment, the four adventurers paused, watching in horror as the creature, whose head was seared from its shoulders by Killian's beam, didn’t go down. Instead, it began to violently swing the blades on all four of its limbs wildly in every direction. The moment ended as three more of the creatures poured into the room.

"I can't find a weak point!" Shan shouted. "My arrows don’t seem to do much damage!"

"Use Nahlen!" Arden replied. "That magic sword Killian used seemed to work! If we chop off the blades, they shouldn’t be a threat anymore! Imari, support how you can! Lightning could give us some breathing room!"

Before Killian had a chance to respond, Nahlen flashed past him again as Killian could feel Shan's magic fill the falcon. With beautiful grace, the bird flicked its talons at the forearm of one of the creatures, and the limb fell to the floor. As two more monsters fell into the space behind the others, Killian knew he had to act quickly. The others were professionals, and he couldn’t be a burden. Pumping ether into his spatial sense, he pushed it to take in the entire room. A headache began to pulse in his skull, but he ignored it and began to blink.

The others watched as Killian appeared and disappeared in less than a second. Everywhere the dusk elf blinked, an arm of a leg was separated from a monster. Imari quickly calculated the rate of his blinks and began sending bolts of lightning into the creatures on the periphery, teeing up Killian for easier strikes. Shan, in the meantime, had her falcon stay near Arden. She used the bird with deadly efficiency, clearing up spaces for the warrior to focus on the creatures that strayed too close to his allies. Arden made judicious use of his fury, balancing it between enhancing his shield and empowering his sword to cleave the limbs from multiple bodies at once.

At some point, as Killian flickered across the room, he noticed more were coming into the room as quickly as the party delt with the ones already inside. Taking a risk, Killian shouted, "I'm blinking into the next room! We got to know how many there are!"

"Be careful! And come back if you can't handle it!" Arden shouted as he cleaved a creature down the middle.

Not giving himself any more time to think about it, Killian blinked into the next room. His spatial sense instantly informed him that he was surrounded by three of the creatures, but more worryingly, a hallway filled with even more lay in front of him. The amount of monsters was enough that they went beyond the range he could currently sense. Blinking behind one creature, Killian swung his razor; he didn’t need to use it skillfully; he just needed to take these things apart. Blink, swing. Blink, swing, Blink, swing. By the time the third creature fell, the others in the hall were nearly at the entrance to the room where he stood. Seeing he had an opportunity, Killian tapped deeply into his internal well of power and willed his laser to drink it all in. Raising his right hand, he let loose a beam that filled the room with harsh white light. Killian raked his hand from side to side to ensure he hit as many of the things as he could. He got to experience an interesting dichotomy between his two primary senses. His eyes were closed, but he could still see the light behind the protection of his eyelids, but his spatial sense didn’t need light, and thus he watched as the horrible aberrations fell into pieces.

Killian paused for just a few moments to see if any more of the things would emerge from down the hall; none did. Turning, Killian was about to blink back into the other room as Arden rushed in, ready to deal more death but finding no more enemies. The figures of the other two peaked around the doorway, and Killian sighed in relief.

"That was just as bad as Morrachel." He said, "No wait, it was worse. Much worse."

The warrior lowered his shield and seemed to deflate, some of the power he held fading away, as he allowed himself to wind down from the fight.

Imari spoke into the space behind Killian's words, saying, "I have never heard of anything like these things; come back into this room; I'd like to examine them before we move on. Might be able to learn something that will help us deeper inside."

--------

Shan leaned against the table on the side of the room opposite the pile of corpses. Well, they were corpses now. She and her friends had filed back into this room only to find the chopped-up pieces left behind still alive. She had just finished off the last one, needing to take a moment to herself to process what had just happened.

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She had learned Killian could sense magic like she could. The magic in this place was... wrong. Old and stagnant but clearly holding pain. These… things, these empty creatures felt wrong. That fact Shan could feel anything from them at all was worrying in the first place. Many of the people of The Elder Realm were born with magic inside them, but to feel it to any real degree would mean they would be absolutely saturated with it. These creatures were. It was hungry, like something was taken from them, something important and intrinsic to the very nature of being a person. With that thing gone, it left them empty, Hollow.

That was a good name for these pitiful beings, Hollows.

Shan came back to herself and lifted her head to check on her friends. Arden was good, solid. She gave him more shit than anyone, but she knew he would be a rock they could lean on during times like this. He was the pillar She and Imari could rally around. If Arden stood next to you, everything would turn out okay. Imari looked focused for now, bent down using some spell to try and learn whatever she could to try and provide even an ounce of help as we continued. Shan knew that would fall away later though, that when it was time to sleep, she would crawl into her or Arden's bed and weep into their chests. Her lifelong friend was brilliant, talented, and amazing, but like everyone else, she had her weaknesses too. Imari cared too much for people. Shan knew that thought made her sound cold, but she thought it true none the less. She loved her all the same; the care is the reason why the three of them are together now.

She glanced over to the newest addition to their friend group. Killian stood to the side, staring into the air deep in thought. She swore sometimes it looked like he was having a conversation with himself in his head. That's something he and Imari had in common; they were thinkers. Trying to analyze everything before moving ahead. She had to admit that it was a good quality when combined with the rest he showed. He cared like Imari. Was as solid as Arden. And his magical capabilities were honestly terrifying. But for all of that, most of the time he was just a friend. He kept an eye out for Nahlen, doing it like it was never a question he should make sure her bonded bird was taken care of. She grinned to herself thinking about it.

Shan leaned forward off of the table, beginning to walk in Killian's direction. The look on his face had shifted downward, like he had realized something terrible.

--------

"Killian"

The voice in his head brought Killian to a halt, letting go of the remnant of the monster he was pulling to the side for Imari to examine. He sent a questioning feeling back down his link with Amy.

"I have your first task as my contractor. I want to kill the thing at the bottom of this dungeon."

Killian blinked slowly in response before thinking back, "Ok, is there anything else you can tell me?"

"The world this dungeon comes from is in itself nothing remarkable. The vile thing that called this facility home, however..."

Amy trailed off, whether because she couldn’t say more or something else Killian didn’t know. He simply remained quiet, waiting to see if she would continue. She did.

"The walls and floors of the facility you are standing in are steeped in pain and suffering. So much so, it is warping the local magical environment, at least inside the dungeon. I can't give you anything more specific, for reasons I also cannot go into. What I can tell you is that there is nothing alive in this dungeon that should ever leave its confines. I would prefer you clear the dungeon entirely; it would do the creatures themselves and the world at large a service to be put down. Clearing would be a bonus, but the main priority is to eradicate the creature in the bottommost room of the dungeon. I can't tell you more, but know that everything you see as you delve deeper can be laid at the feet of the thing itself. By the time you reach it, you will kill it willingly. As for a reward, I don’t have an idea for one yet. If you are ok with it, I will spend the time thinking and working on something worth the task I wish you to accomplish. I didn’t expect the dungeon to be so... vile, so I apologize for not having a suitable reward in mind ahead of time."

Killian's face held a deep frown by the time Amy finished speaking. If the goddess felt so strongly about the place he found himself in, it must truly be bad. He couldn’t begin to comprehend what the goddess's life could be like, being a tiny mortal and all, but he had resonated with her enough that he felt a kinship with the angel. He knew, at least in broad terms, they cared about the same things. So whatever had gone on in this "facility" before breaking away from whatever plane it came from must have been really horrible. With how disgusting the magic in the place felt, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were to learn that the awful magic was the reason the place became a dungeon in the first place.

Shan sidled up next to him, bringing him back to the present moment, asking, "You okay?" Seems like you figured something out."

Killian hadn't realized the ranger was watching him. Thinking quickly, he raised his voice so the others would hear and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Guys, I’d like to say something. No matter what we do here, I want—no need—to reach the end of this place. Something unspeakable was clearly done here, and if these things-"

"Hollows," Shan cut in.

"Ugh, ok," Killian replied with a raised eyebrow and continued, "If these Hollows are just what was in the beginning of the dungeon, I imagine there is worse deeper inside. I'm all down for loot and whatever, but this place is dripping with pain. Pain that in no small part I can feel coming from these things."

Shan nodded as he pointed to the Hollows on the ground, saying, "I can feel it too."

Imari glanced towards Arden, seeming to see what she was looking for, before saying, "Ok. If that's what you think is right, I agree."

Arden finishing "If there is worse deeper inside, we can't allow for the chance anything gets out into the world at large."

Killian felt a bud of warmth bloom inside his chest, the quick trust from his friends shaking the remnants of horror from the earlier fight away. The three of them readied themselves to move on without any more thought on the matter.

With Arden leading the way once more, the party entered the next room. Killian had been so focused on the Hollows that he hadn't gotten a good look at it before. It appeared to be something like a holding area. Benches with shackles were lined against the left and right walls, with doors to rooms flanking either side of the hallway in the back of the room. The smell of burned flesh hung heavy in the air, and worse, so did the sound of pained groaning from the Hollows left alive but in pieces in the hallway. To the right by where Killian stood was a table, a scattering of disintegrating papers and folios laid atop it. A ring of iron keys, clearly meant for the dozens of sets of shackles, hung about the table from a hook. As Imari created her ball of light once more, the four of them held their breath at the sight revealed before them.

Old blood coated the entire floor and much of the walls. Enough that there could be no question about what the substance could be. "There's no drain in the floor," Killian thought to himself, "to coat the floor and walls this much, frequent slaughter has to be done in here." The group spread out to look over everything in plain sight, Imari striding to the papers on the table.

Arden peaked into the lefthand door at the back of the room before grunting aloud, "Cages, about ten of them. No bodies inside them, though. Don’t know if that's a good or bad thing."

"Pretty sure no matter what, the answer would be bad," Shan agreed as she pushed a set of shackles off a bench onto the floor with a loud clatter.

Killian began the grisly work of ending the lives of the Hollows still animate in the hallway. By the time he was done, Imari began to read aloud from the only paper that didn’t crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

"The newest crop of materials hails from the Cressing region. I believe the residents there are invested with a higher amount of The Pale and thus should provide more efficient results for transmogrification. I have almost finished processing the last batch you clued me into last time; by the time I finish with the newest, I should have enough done for your next order. I have stabilized the drain to end at the perfect moment to begin the process, allowing me to make the adjustments you asked for. Without The Pale inside them, their every moment should be spent in agony, which of course can never be ended, but the hope of taking what they lack from the closet living being is the perfect driving force for violence. I could create a transport device if you would like to drop them in the middle of population centers without anyone the wiser. Next time if-"

The unsent letter cut off abruptly. Killian was almost glad as Imari shook in place, not knowing how to deal with her rage and disgust. There was still much the note didn’t explain, like what "The Pale" is, but it did confirm what all four of them already expected. The Hollows had been normal people before.

Arden opened the second door at the back of the room, dropping into a ready stance when a familiar groan emerged from behind the door. The rest of the group fell in behind him, ready to unleash violence. Arden moved forward slowly and pushed the door open. The group saw they were not in danger but couldn’t relax at the sight of a Hollow strapped to a table, arms and legs locked down tightly against the metal surface. Killian saw, after fully entering the room, that it was a woman this time, her deflated and empty breasts laid against her chest at odd angles.

Imari bent down, retching as she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor. The others were sanding, staring in abject horror at the final detail they could see about the Hollow. Her stomach was cut open and held in place with clamps and pins. The tools laying on a tray next to her and the shriveled insides left in the open cavity, showing them a single undeniable and terrible truth. Whether before or after she was turned into this pitiful creature, she had been pregnant.

And someone had cut out her baby.