Hollow Knight: Hallownest

In the black egg, every time the White King and the White behind him took a step, strange patterns under their feet would glow white, briefly dispelling the darkness around them. The stone pillars of varying lengths and neatly arranged on both sides also revealed their outlines when the three passed by, adding a contradictory sense of order and solemnity to this chaotic and silent space.

Compared to the coldness that the void gave to King Bai and Wu En, Bai's body paused after he stepped into it, and he felt the warmth given by the origin for the first time in a long time...

And the vague calling.

The shadows that were wrapped around it now pierced into its body like silver needles, triggering the terrifying power that was suppressed by Bai Jie's armor. Even Bai himself did not notice that its shoulder armor and cloak had gradually turned black, and even its body had grown uncontrollably. There was a hint of mania in its usually empty pupils.

Just as the black lines continued to spread upwards along the armor and cloak, and were about to climb up to Bai's mask and dye it pure black, the White King's body paused, and a white light suddenly appeared in his pupils.

The light intertwined, as if a pair of huge hands had pulled off all the black lines entangled on Bai's body and replaced them with new ones attached to its body surface. Everything returned to normal, and the change happened in just a moment.

Wuen had already jumped down from the White King's shoulder. Her body had grown larger but had only recovered half of its original size. She was perched at the very center of the black egg. Her eyes slowly closed, and the bright green light began to spread out from her, seeping into the array patterns carved on the ground and flowing all the way to all the stone pillars.

The stone pillars that were barely visible before now all lit up, emitting an emerald green glow. The invisible vitality they exuded was constantly counteracting the void power that wanted to invade them, flickering like breathing.

When the White King saw this scene, he turned around and continued to move deeper into the black egg.

"Bai, do you know your mission?"

Bai Momo followed behind King Bai and also moved towards the darkness.

"Father, what is the mission?"

"The mission is..." The White King paused slightly, and countless scenes flashed through his mind, connecting the past and the present.

"It is you who have the ability to spread wisdom that saw a vast, desolate and primitive land. It is you who have the ability to use force to establish order that encountered an endless riot and war. It is you who have the power to protect all living beings that built a kingdom of peaceful coexistence..."

"As a king, you have encountered an unprecedentedly powerful enemy that has put your people in dire straits."

"Father, I don't understand."

The White King was still walking, and each step was apparently extremely light, but there was a heavy sound coming from under his feet.

"Shiro, mission is the price you pay for your abilities."

“Nothing in the world can escape its mission, no matter if it is a weak reptile or a god that looks down upon all living things, they are born with a mission.”

“When you are called upon to fulfill your mission, it is a given. Even if you do nothing, fate will push you in the right direction.”

"Bai, I have a mission, and you, too, have your own mission."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them walked to a closed stone door. The White King raised his hand slightly, and the stone door opened in response to his movement.

Inside the stone door was a spacious secret room, not much different from the environment behind them, but the array patterns carved here were more intricate and complex, covering almost every corner of the stone room. The moment the White King's figure was exposed, the entire stone room shrouded in shadows was instantly illuminated by the array patterns.

"Father, what is my mission then?"

The White King continued to walk forward, leading Bai to the center of the stone chamber and standing there. He turned around, and his eyes met the latter's empty gaze.

"Bai, do you love the land beneath your feet?"

"Father, what is love?"

"Love means you want to be with it all the time and are willing to give everything for it."

"Does father love this land?"

"of course."

“Then I love this land, too.”

After Bai finished speaking, he looked at Bai Wang and added, "I love everything my father loves."

The White King looked at those eyes that had never shown any emotion, and the words he wanted to say were stuck in his throat for a moment.

"But if the land beneath your feet falls into suffering, are you willing to save it?"

"I can. The knights told me that my martial arts skills are for protecting this land."

"But even if you are a skilled warrior, you still can't protect this land. What should you do?"

"Father, I don't understand."

Bai didn't understand. His current strength was unmatched by the four knights. Apart from his father, who else could compete with him?

The White King seemed to have heard his inner voice, and his face was solemn: "White, it's just like I said before."

"We are now facing a powerful enemy that we cannot defeat with force alone. If we want to defeat him, we need more than just force."

"Father, what else do you need?"

King Bai did not answer this question immediately. He looked at Bai and thought of everything from the time he met him in the Abyss until today.

Madam was right, the Container Plan was never a correct plan. It deprived itself of most of the emotions in its divinity and invested them in this, and then accumulated countless corpses, and finally exchanged them for an empty soul.

He thought he would never have any personal feelings for anything after that, but he found solace in this empty soul.

Perhaps on its way up, it brought up some of the emotions that it had abandoned into the abyss. The way to awaken them is very simple. You just need to utter those two words in your heart.

"Bai, your mission is to put an end to this disaster that even I am helpless against."

"What you need to pay is your life."

The Holy Nest is the result of countless days and nights of hard work, a beautiful creation that carries all my hopes and prayers, and a precious treasure in my life that cannot be ignored.

Hallownest was his pride, and he could not let it go.

"Can we destroy the powerful enemy that is destroying this land by sacrificing our lives?"

"Yes, but would you like to..."

"I do, Father."

Bai Wang's words were interrupted by Bai lightly, the latter's eyes were still as dull as dead water, as if what he said was just a trivial matter.

"Father, you just said that love means being willing to give everything for it. I love this land."

The White King lowered his eyes, remained silent for a while, then raised his arms and waved.

In an instant, several chains suddenly rose from all over the room, wrapped around Bai's body with a metallic luster, and tightened in an instant, binding him tightly. The chains moved, lifting Bai into the air, and it was at this moment that the array patterns engraved on the chains took shape.

"Bai, are you ready?"

Bai didn't say anything, but just nodded silently, his expression remained calm. Even though he felt his life was threatened, he didn't show any change.

The White King raised his head, looked up at the White who was lowering his eyes and focusing all his attention on him, and took a deep breath.

A huge magic circle lit up under his feet, and the light flowing between the lines was a completely different golden color from the pure white. The light became increasingly intense, and under its illumination, the White King's entire body looked like a golden statue, majestic and dignified.

"Despicable Intruder!"

"The light will not be swallowed!"

A sharp, long whistle instantly hit the surrounding walls, making the robes of the two men rustle. A completely different sacred aura suddenly burst out from King Bai's body and condensed into the shadow of a huge moth in mid-air.

Feeling this heart-pounding power, Wu En outside the door's expression changed drastically. She hurriedly urged the stone pillars, pouring out all her divine power to consolidate the seal, looking anxiously at the stone door in the distance.

"Worm, if this fails, there will be no name for you or me on this land anymore."

Radiance was extremely angry at this time, with the burning orange light in his pupils swinging outwards like a tail, the sun wheel behind him was shining brightly, and his wings were spread wide, looking down at the White King condescendingly.

Ever since she was attacked by Nightmare and luckily allowed the White King to seal her, she has been trying to break through his body all the time. Even though the sealed space is extremely vast, she only feels that it is so narrow that it suffocates her.

How can a god be subject to the feet of an invader!

The White King's expression remained unchanged. He knew that the radiant shadow was still sealed and could not attack him at all. It acted like this just to shake his will and make the sealing process go wrong.

But how could I make such a mistake?

"Radiant, you spread the plague wantonly, endangering countless people in Hallownest. I thought that as a god, you would have some repentance during this period, but I didn't expect you to be so stubborn!"

"In that case, I will seal you here today!"

With both palms pushing together, the radiant shadow floating in the air seemed to be swept by an invisible storm, torn, dragged and pressed into Bai's body.

"Uh!"

Under the violent collision of energy, a slight groan of pain was suppressed the moment it was uttered. Bai's head suddenly raised up and twitched, and orange light penetrated from its body, dyeing the white armor and cloak golden in an instant.

Upon seeing this, the White King immediately put his palms together, and the final seal started rotating.

The array patterns flickered, and the energy contained in it did not suppress the orange light. Instead, it immediately mobilized the power contained in the surrounding void matter. Those thick substances were pulled into lines and pierced into Bai's body in the same way as before.

This time, the White King did not try to stop him, but just stared at Bai's changes.

The moment the power of the void invaded, the golden color on the shoulder armor and cloak suddenly fluctuated, constantly colliding with the black lines that followed. Every inconspicuous place seemed like a long-lost battle, and no one was willing to give in.

It’s a pity that this is not the home ground of light. In just a few breaths, the black line took over the light’s home with absolute advantage and dyed the entire body of white black except for the mask.

The radiance screamed and resentful, and was ruthlessly pressed down by the power of the void into Bai's body.

What made her even more miserable than being sealed by the invader was that the former actually used the power of her old enemy.

She was unwilling to remain silent like this!

How could she watch helplessly as her land was completely occupied by a despicable person!!!

Under the white mask, a dark eye suddenly turned golden. Its head stopped shaking and suddenly stopped, then it lowered its head to look at the White King below.

The expression in that eye was exactly the same as the resentment that Radiance had revealed before!

boom!

King Bai's pupils suddenly contracted. He didn't expect that the radiance in this state could actually control Bai's body to break the chains!

"You want it to be a container to seal me, but today I will use it to take your life!"

boom! boom! boom! ——

The sound of chains breaking rang out like popping beans. Bai, who was originally hanging in the air, was suddenly unrestrained and fell to the ground. His arm, dyed golden, stabbed towards the White King with the last of his long-accumulated divine power and arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, the White King was already panicking, and his brain went blank for a moment.

He had predicted the outcome of this seal, and it was not a sign of failure. But now he was alone in supporting the seal array, and could no longer stop the attack of Radiance. From now on, there was only one outcome -

The seal failed and all lives were lost.

The collapse of the Holy Nest seemed to be imminent, but at this moment, a flash of cold light flashed from the flank like lightning and slashed straight towards the golden arm!

"Do not!!!!"

The orange-yellow pupils were bulging with blood and roaring madly.

pat-

The arm fell to the ground powerlessly, and the divine power contained in it was slowly eroded by the void matter, and finally it turned into a pool of black water and melted into the ground, as if it were nothing.

The White King came back to his senses at this point, but completely lost his mind again.

He looked at Bai who was kneeling on the ground in front of him, holding tightly in his hand the bone nail he had given him.

It cut off its arm that was possessed by the Radiant Will with its own hands.

"white......"

"What are you doing?! This despicable man wants to seal me at the cost of your lives! Why are you still helping him!!!"

Radiance was puzzled, and there was even more resentment in his voice.

Bai raised his head, and his other eye had already climbed up the orange line, still staring at the White King with the same empty gaze as before.

"Father, do it."

The childish voice echoed in the White King's heart. He clenched his fists and raised them again. This action seemed to have exhausted all his strength.

The sealing chains came from all directions again, lifting Bai back into the air.

This time, Radiance, having used up all of its remaining divine power, had no possibility of resistance anymore and could only shriek. It was constantly suppressed by the power of the White King and the Void. Its spirit became increasingly weak and its will gradually declined.

When the soul is exiled to the void, all it faces is endless darkness.

You can't live, you can't die.

The same is true for Bai's soul.

At this moment, the White King could feel that the breath of the little figure who had crawled out of the abyss and followed him ignorantly in his memory had gradually faded away, and was so faint that it was almost inaudible.

Such is the fate of containers.

The pair of pupils that were originally as dark as ink were now completely filled with a dim orange light.

The most important step has been completed, and the sealing issue has been settled.

The White King looked at the pair of empty eyes staring at him, slowly lowered his head, and decisively turned around and walked towards the door.

The moment he pushed open the stone door, his body trembled violently. He turned back in disbelief and looked at the lifeless stone chamber. Finally, a tear could no longer be stopped and dripped from under the mask.

He seemed to hear a childish question -

"Father, am I your pride?"