"Everyone, new Ethereals are still forming inside this newly-born Hollow—please remain on high alert!"
Somewhere within the Hollow, a squad of heavily armed investigators clad in protective suits was carrying out the rescue mission issued from above.
Their objective: evacuate civilians who had not yet been corroded into Ethereals and failed to escape in time.
Most of those they saved had Ether compatibility scores above 50—otherwise, they wouldn't have survived in the Hollow for this long.
Later, the Hollow Investigation Association would extend offers to those who met the qualification threshold. With their homes and jobs lost, most of them ended up choosing to become Hollow investigators themselves.
This formed a rather discreet industry chain within New Eridu. It wasn't that the Association deliberately left behind those who didn't qualify—it was simply that they couldn't rescue everyone before the Hollow's corruption turned them into Ethereals.
...
Back to the present—the squad continued advancing in formation. Not far off, behind a crumbling wall, a pair of feline ears suddenly popped into view.
As the camera zoomed in, it became clear the ears belonged to the Thiren girl who had stealthily followed the squad into the Hollow—Nekomata.
Rather than tag along with the investigators, Nekomata turned and slipped into a spatial node she had scouted beforehand.
Shortly after her departure, one sharp-eyed member of the squad spotted a figure slowly rising from the rubble nearby.
But no—that wasn't a person. It was a humanoid being.
Driven by curiosity, the team member stepped closer—and soon got a good look.
The creature was taller than an average adult, its body composed of gray crystal, parts of which were veined with green Ether Crystals. Draped across its back was a mantle—silver-gray on the outside, pale green on the inside.
Then there was the unmistakable core—a defining feature of Ethereals.
The moment he saw it clearly, the investigator froze, stunned.
"C-Captain!"
His panicked shout quickly drew the rest of the team's attention.
Everyone turned to look—including the captain, who was about to scold him until he saw what was in front of them.
His face instantly contorted with alarm.
In the next second, his voice roared through the speaker in his protective helmet: "It's a Thanatos! Everyone prepare for combat!"
As the captain's warning rang out, tension spread like wildfire through the squad.
None of them were strangers to the name Thanatos—an upper-tier Ethereal documented by the Hollow Investigation Association.
Its specialty was extreme mobility. It could disappear in an instant and reappear behind its target with lethal precision.
This kind of attack pattern often left rookie investigators completely helpless. Even veterans found it nearly impossible to take down a Thanatos one-on-one.
There were confirmed cases of entire teams being wiped out by a single Thanatos.
"Don't panic! Thanatos has low resistance to Ether-type attacks. Keep your weapons ready—if we can land our hits, we can win!"
The captain tried to calm his squad, seeing the fear clearly written across their faces.
Thanatos' Ether weakness was well-documented in the Association's files—and luckily, all of them were equipped with Ether-based weaponry.
Still, as a flicker of hope surfaced in the captain's heart, he spotted something else beside the Thanatos—another Ethereal, tall and monstrous, standing up.
It was another Thanatos.
But this one was different—its previously green crystals were now a vivid, blood-red hue. Even the inner lining of its mantle had turned crimson.
It was a variant: Thanatos - Energized, another entry in the Association's database.
This form differed from standard Thanatos in a single crucial way—its resistance to attributes.
There were many known variants of Thanatos, and nearly all shared the same Ether weakness... except for the Energized Form.
In other words, against this variant, they no longer had the advantage of elemental counters. And now they were facing two Thanatos.
In that moment, an overwhelming sense of helplessness—and despair—began to weigh on the captain's heart.
He knew now: there might not be a single survivor from this rescue team.
...
While the squad faced annihilation by the two Thanatos, elsewhere in the Hollow, Belle and Nicole were still trying to pinpoint where Zhong Yan and Anby might be.
Without the Hollow Investigation Association's advanced equipment, they couldn't use life signals to track them precisely. Finding two people in a Hollow was a massive time sink.
Unless they'd had incredible luck at the start and run into them immediately—which clearly hadn't happened.
"Proxy, we've been in here over an hour already. Still nothing?" Nicole frowned slightly, eyes scanning the streets still crawling with Ether Crystal growth.
Walking ahead, Belle glanced back while piloting Eous through the HDD system. "Can't be helped. I'm the only one running the system. My brother has to stay behind to support you guys. And given the timing, there's no way he can make it back in time."
She sounded a little frustrated—Belle had been operating the HDD system all night, draining nearly all her energy. The fact that she was still awake was already a feat in itself.
Still, for Zhong Yan and Anby's sake, she gritted her teeth and pressed on.
Then, without warning, the air before them trembled.
A spatial vortex began to form—and before they could react, a figure clad in a deep blue cloak and a white mask stepped through it.
"U-Uchiha?!" Nicole recognized him immediately. This was the very same mysterious figure she had once collaborated with.
She was clearly surprised—Uchiha was infamous for being elusive, appearing and disappearing at will.
Unless he wanted to be found, locating him was next to impossible.
But Uchiha didn't respond to Nicole's shock. He stood there, silent for a moment, before speaking in a low, steady voice.
"I come at the request of another—to lend you aid."