"You're saying — that Dead-End Butcher from Dead-End Hollow?"
After listening to Geno's full explanation, Eous had exactly one thought: disbelief.
"I mean, you make it sound perfectly logical, but how is that even possible?"
It wasn't that Eous doubted Geno specifically — it was simply that the whole thing shattered every framework she had for understanding the world.
"How could an Ethereal cross between Hollows?!"
Etherals cannot leave a Hollow. That was common knowledge, a universal truth accepted by every living person in this era.
But the moment the words left her mouth, Eous — Belle — caught herself. The guy standing right in front of her was living proof that the rule had exceptions, wasn't he?
"Fair point. No matter how you look at it, something's off."
The rest of the Bai Zhi Heavy Industries crew nodded in agreement. None of them were deep experts on Ethereals, but this was the kind of basic, universal knowledge you simply didn't get wrong.
"I do have a theory, though."
Every head in the room turned toward Geno the moment he spoke.
He was the one who had faced the Dead-End Butcher head-on and come out on top. If anyone here had the most insight into what had happened, it was him.
Feeling the weight of everyone's attention settle on him, Geno cleared his throat and laid out his thinking.
As far as he could see, there were only two possible explanations.
One: the Dead-End Butcher standing before them wasn't the same one he'd encountered before. After all, the Dead-End Butcher wasn't a unique Ethereal — there could be more than one.
But the sheer amount of aggro that thing had for him? That was unmistakably personal. It was the same one. So that possibility didn't hold much water.
When Geno reached the second possibility, his brow furrowed.
The Crete Hollow had expanded — without anyone noticing — and swallowed Dead-End Hollow whole. That was why the Butcher had ended up here.
The group heard him out, and their collective reaction was that Geno had let his imagination run a little too wild.
"Honestly? I still think the first option is more likely. Are you sure you didn't just mistake it for a different one?"
Even Eous — Belle — leaned that way. A Hollow silently expanding on its own and absorbing an entirely separate Hollow without anyone catching on?
Unless the Hollow Investigation Association, the Public Security Bureau, and the Defense Force had all had their detection networks go dark simultaneously, something like that simply couldn't happen.
But Geno was certain. He would never misidentify an Ethereal.
Faces could change. Ether signatures never did.
That Dead-End Butcher was absolutely the same one he and Nekomata had run into before.
Still, Eous had a point. Hollow monitoring was a top-priority operation for all of New Eridu. Something this massive couldn't have happened without leaving a single trace — or so it should have been.
[Cross-referencing the Hollow Investigation Association's database, the Public Security Bureau's dedicated surveillance network, and the New Eridu Defense Force's civilian reconnaissance reports — no significant signs of expansion have been detected in the Crete Hollow where Master is currently located.]
"See? Even Fairy says so."
Eous spread her small hands in a 'told you so' gesture. Trusting Fairy over anyone else in the room was a no-brainer — Fairy's capabilities spoke for themselves.
But Fairy wasn't done.
[Based on the most recently acquired detection data, Ether density and Ether activity levels within the Crete Hollow are both trending upward, showing significant deviation from certain figures in the investigation reports. It is hypothesized that someone has used technical means to conceal the Hollow's true readings.]
"What?!"
The moment Fairy finished speaking, the room went dead silent with shock.
The most far-fetched excuse had turned out to be the truth.
"The data's been falsified — meaning the Crete Hollow really is expanding?!"
A Hollow expansion was an earth-shattering event for all of New Eridu under any circumstances. But this was the Crete Hollow — one of the oldest and most established native Hollows in existence.
And beyond that, there was something else no one had seen coming.
"Fairy — you said someone tampered with the data. Which means the expansion isn't natural!"
Eous had spotted the blind spot immediately. If there was a discrepancy in the data, it meant someone was actively concealing the fact that the Crete Hollow was expanding.
Or rather — whoever was doing the concealing was the one who had caused the expansion in the first place.
"Who would do something like this? Don't tell me it's the Hollow Choir again?"
A Hollow that hadn't changed in over a decade, suddenly shifting — it was impossible not to think back to the fall of the Old Capital ten years ago.
The shadow of the Hollow Choir had hung over that disaster.
At the thought, the siblings Wise and Belle — far removed from the Hollow itself — each fell into a distracted silence.
Because woven into that catastrophe, alongside every trace the Hollow Choir had left behind, was someone who had a direct connection to them.
"Teacher…"
---
The scene shifted — deep within the Crete Hollow.
Here, a heavily armed group had made camp once again. Their gear was a patchwork of styles: some wore pristine, matching uniforms; others were ragged and mismatched, as though multiple entirely different squads had been cobbled together into one.
At the center of the encampment, inside a tent, a masked man whose face was impossible to make out had both hands flying across a keyboard at blinding speed — so fast his fingers left afterimages.
The screen before him blazed with a dense, incomprehensible torrent of data. His eyes were locked on it, unblinking.
"Bai Zao. How's the job coming along?"
A woman in full combat gear strode into the tent. Her gaze swept over Bai Zao as he worked, and her face betrayed not a single flicker of emotion — replaced entirely by cold, absolute rationality.
"Almost there. All that's left is feeding in the fake data, piece by piece, layer by layer. By the time it's done, those idiots in New Eridu will think the Crete Hollow has always looked like this."
A confident smirk tugged at the corner of Bai Zao's mouth.
In his own estimation, no one alive could match his technical skill. New Eridu's entire digital infrastructure was nothing but his personal playground — somewhere he came and went as he pleased.
"Good. Once you've finished this, remember there's still something the Hollow Choir needs your help with."
"The Hollow Choir? Ah — the operation targeting the Proxy? I'll take care of it."
The woman gave a single nod at his reply, then turned and walked back out of the tent.
After she left, a strange expression flickered across Bai Zao's face.
Only for an instant. Then he was right back to work.
"Heh. A handful of numbers — and the whole world stays blind. Deceiving everyone… even a god of trickery couldn't do much better than this, could they?"
Something about the thought seemed to amuse him, because his hands moved faster still.
He was already impatient to see how this farce would end — what kind of chaos it would finally produce.
"Don't disappoint me now… little pups of Arna."
____
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