Hollow Ascending
HOLLOW ASCENDING
The Peeling
Seven years ago, reality fractured in an event known as The Peeling. Vertical rifts tore open across the world, exposing a lightless underlayer of existence called the Hollows, where human fear manifests as living entities. When the rifts appeared, entire cities were erased in minutes. Conventional weapons failed. Survival depended on those who could enter the Hollows and return alive.
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Betrayal
Shin Jiwoo, an E-rank Descender, is betrayed during a routine Hollow expedition by Park Minho, the only person he trusted. Minho seals Jiwoo and other low-ranks inside a collapsing Hollow to erase evidence of his illegal operations. One by one, the others are consumed. Jiwoo is left to rot as the dimension destabilizes, realizing he was never a friend—only expendable labor.
As his body dissolves, Jiwoo falls through a fracture in reality into The Womb, the deepest layer of the Hollows.
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The Void Seed
Within The Womb, Jiwoo encounters the Mother of Hollows, an ancient consciousness at the core of the dimension. She offers him survival through the Void Seed, a crystallized fragment of her essence. Accepting it binds Jiwoo to the Hollows permanently. The Seed merges with his heart, halting his death and rewriting his existence.
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His Ability
Jiwoo awakens with a power unique to him alone:
The Hollow Warrior System.
Unlike ordinary Descenders, Jiwoo can deliberately absorb, analyze, and integrate Hollow essences, shaping his evolution instead of relying on chance. Each absorbed essence grants specific abilities and advances him through Layers, a measure of how far he has descended into Hollow nature.
Power comes with clarity.
Progress comes with loss.
His strength is not a blessing.
It is a descent born from betrayal.
