The echo of countless footsteps drifted through the long corridors of the Hollow King's castle.
The tall figure of the King of Hollows, surrounded by his subjects in the form of the faceless attendants, together with them, Cale made his way towards the War Council's room.
He was the first one to arrive, sitting down on the seat closest to him, waiting for the other two Entities to enter.
He was already acquainted with both and also read all the available information on both of them.
I'm so tired.
Holding back another yawn, he looked back at the two maps he had taken to the meeting with him.
He didn't have to wait for long, as around him the shadows began to stretch weirdly all over the place, some reached inwards and some outwards, some grew darker while some almost disappeared.
From a distance, relaxed footsteps could be heard, and a faint swirling cloud could be seen gradually drawing closer.
The shepherd class entity of the Fourth Tier, the Shadow of the Past, Renoir.
One of the two sole nobles of the Kingdom of Nothing and a close confidant of the previous king of Hollows, Just for this meeting, Cale was forced to read even more about these entities to learn as much as he could about them.
The second pone soon followed, and with her presence, the temperature in the room lowered.
The wolf class Entity of the Fifth Tier, Winter's chill, Lady Eleanor.
"Greetings, Sire." The two greeted in unison with a deep bow before they sat in their own seats, leaving the three alone in the room of the war council, not even the hollows were allowed in, even if they were just a part of the King of Hollows.
With everyone present, the council started its meeting with the King pointing at the map already placed in the middle of the desk.
After learning about this kingdom and its nobles all night, Cale had a small inkling of how he should act amongst the two nobles of his nation.
Because there were only two of them, it was clear that they were faithful to the king of hollows, and after his meeting one-on-one with Renoir, it also dawned on him that both of them were possibly close friends of the king.
Thus, the mask he had to wear was supposed to be relatively laidback yet still dignified enough to have the air of a monarch.
"If we can believe Renoir's spies, we have three weeks to a month before the Deadman reaches our borders, we have to ambush them either before they reach the borders, or right when they cross it."
Spoke the frozen wraith, Eleanor, while pointing at possible ambush points on the map, highlighting different placements for their own troops.
As a Wolf Class, Eleanore had no flock of her own; meanwhile, Renoir had two hundred highly mobile dark phantoms of his own.
However, most interestingly, Cale had a flock of his own, at least something that could be compared only to a Flock of his own.
The hollows themselves.
But he couldn't use the whole population of the Kingdom of Nothing, as each hollow had its own profession and its own role to play.
Hollows that he could weaponise only numbered in the three hundreds, and even they were weaker compared to the phantoms of Renoir.
But that was only because of the new owner of the crown; his soldiers were much weaker than those of the former king of Hollows… but no one knew that yet.
"Why not confront them directly before they even enter our borders?" Renoir pointed at a section right before the borders. "Those cave systems run deep. With my phantoms, we could lure them into favorable terrain for us and unfavorable terrain for them."
"Letting all of your phantoms into a tunnel in the kingdom of our enemies. That's out of the question." Eleanor protested completely.
"What if you lose connection to them again?"
The Hollow King's grey eyes passed over the two of them at the sound of that.
"Did you lose control over one of your phantoms?"
The countless eyes of the swirling black cloud looked back at the king of hollows, while others cast a side glance at the frozen wraith.
"Several, in fact. They were killed without me ever knowing what struck them down." Admitted Renoir.
Cale, whose knowledge about the Kingdom of Lunacy was still fresh, sensed something unnerving about Renoir's words.
As if the former King of Hollows was still alive, Cale replicated his otherwise nonchalant tone of speaking, turning it serious enough just to be believable.
"Are you sure that they were killed?"
The fog swirled backwards this time, taking the form of a question mark. "Not exactly, but it was the same sting pain—"
The swirling black cloud didn't finish his prior words; instead, it had taken the form of an exclamation mark.
"Origin of Lunacy?!" Lady Eleanor exclaimed in a mixture of shock and fear.
The reason for her visceral reaction was simple. The attack solely done by the Deadman was enough reason for the council to be worried, but there was only one entity capable of cutting connections in such a manner.
Origin of Lunacy, Prophet class of unknown tier.
"That's not possible, the king should still be locked in combat in the Shifting Gorge against the Mother; if he is coming directly at us, that means he already overtook the Gorge."
The frozen wraith interjected, "Or he failed to conquer their territories, they are weakened and exhausted, and lashing out at us, now that…"
She paused for a while, her wraith face was unraveled, but the human side showed… sorrow?
"… we have been severely weakened."
There wasn't enough time to learn everything about the history of this kingdom… I should only speak when I must.
Perfectly replicating Gilran's behavior, Cale leaned forward with his fingers interlocked and offered an option.
"While we can't send any flock members to scout ahead, I have a solution for that."
***
Leaving the council meeting, Cale heaved an exhausted sigh before heading back into his new room. His vision was blurry, and he felt shivers all over his body.
From this point onwards, every three days, there would be a council meeting, discussing the details of the oncoming attack from the kingdom of madness.
If the kingdom of Madness was about to do an all-out invasion, the kingdom of Nothing had nothing to repel them with. All he could do now was establish connections and form an alliance against the Kingdom of Madness.
But what could he even give in return?
They had… nothing.
With a deep sigh, he opened the hard wooden door of his new bedroom before struggling straight to the side of his bed, and before he would have taken off his tarnished bronze crown, the lips of the Hollow King parted.
"No one is to enter this room until I leave it."
Before he would have placed the crown on a nightstand or somewhere close to him, the crown erupted in a gentle white light and disappeared into the space conjured by the Aberrant power of Cale — Covenant.
It went over drastic changes, maybe even too drastic.
It suits me perfectly, maybe too perfectly.
But as soon as it came up, he discarded the thought just as fast and collapsed onto the warm and soft surface of the white fur blanket. His head hit the pillow, and strangely, it wasn't as soft.
There was something underneath it.
Raising the pillow, Cale reached underneath, only to find a leather-bound notebook.
Huh?
Cale opened the notebook without a second thought at a random page, only to see a hardly readable sentence where some lines or words were too heavy with ink.
Squinting his eyes and trying to decipher the atrocious handwriting of the former king, Cale was able to read the line.
"She cannot be allowed to be whole again."