Chapter Text
There were more and more reports of the Infection spreading through the kingdom. More and more bugs succumbing to the Radiance’s influence, and more and more bugs found dead. No, not dead. Reduced to shambling husks that needed to be burned so that their souls found peace. And every single citizen of Hallownest looked to him, the Pale King, their god and king, to fix this. The Pale King rubbed his face with one hand. He only hoped that this particular plan would work. Even though it would take years to come to fruition.
He… was not entirely happy about this plan. But he had tried everything else to stop the Radiance. He had even sought out the Nightmare King and begged him for his help to build a bridge between him and the Radiance so that he could negotiate with her. He had offered her elegant temples and large statues built in her name, festivals celebrated nation-wide dedicated to her, if only she would just stop .
The Radiance had only laughed.
“I desire no great gifts or festivals,” she purred. “Only the complete destruction of everything that you have built, usurper. If the people will not love me, they will then have to fear me.”
The Pale King had then tried to fight her. But for all that he was a god, he was relatively young for one. And the Old Light was a veteran of many a divine battle. He had been lucky to escape with his life.
Some would say that he only had himself to blame for stealing away the moths from her. But was it his fault that they had liked a more present god? One that could give them more than just dreams? He remembered what the bugs of before-Hallownest had been like under her influence. Half-asleep and going through their lives in a daze. He had done them a <i>favour</i> by waking them up and bringing them into his fold.
The Pale King had expected resistance back then. He had expected the Radiance to appear and drive him out for his insolence and theft. But she had not. Slumbering within her own dreams, the Pale King had faced no resistance in creating his kingdom. And after many generations of bugs had come and gone, he had assumed that she had simply faded away in her sleep.
But even sleeping gods wake up eventually. And when the Radiance had woken up, she had been furious over the loss of her worshippers. The Infection was her divine punishment on those who had dared to turn away from her. A punishment for him as well, for if things went on like this, he would have to watch everything he had built, everything he had worked so hard on, collapse before him.
At least he had his Root with him. She had assured him that he had her full support. Unfortunately, her powers were limited to the growth of this land. She had no offensive or defensive skills against the Radiance. The same went for Unn. And as for the Nightmare Heart, he had only pointed out he had been called for help to enter the Dream Realm. He had no desire to fight a battle with the Radiance, especially not for his sake. Before he had departed, the Nightmare Heart had smugly assured him that he would return to Hallownest once his kingdom had fallen into ruins to gather the Nightmare Flames for his child.
Asshole. The Pale King then and there decided to prove him wrong. His Hallownest would remain eternal.
The Pale King had then delved into research regarding the Radiance, in the hopes of finding a way to get rid of her for good. At last he had managed to find an arcane egg that contained priceless information.
Apparently, there had been an ancient civilisation predating the Radiance’s rule which had worshipped the god of the Void, a being they named the Lord of Shades. The Radiance had come a-conquering and after a long and furious battle with the Lord of Shades, she had ultimately triumphed. Upon her victory, she had ordered for the extermination of the Lord of Shades’ worshippers. Only the snails had escaped her wrath, and they were a much-diminished people, with only a handful left.
The god of Void might have been dead, but the Void itself was still around. There, not far from his palace, deep with the Abyss, laid a sea of Void. Without a god to unify it, it was largely inert and little resistance had come when the Pale King had taken much of it for his experiments. He had created Kingsmoulds and Wingsmoulds from the Void to serve him, but while the Void might be opposed to the Light, by itself, it could not defeat the Radiance. No, something more was needed.
The Pale King had paced the floor of his workshop for hours thinking of a solution when a terrible, brilliant idea had come to him. Before the Infection had appeared, he and his wife had been considering having children. Little ones to brighten their lives and enrich their kingdom. Considering how fertile his Root could be, the Pale King had ordered the building of extra quarters in preparation. The first of the cradles had just been installed in a newly-furnished room when the Radiance had brought down her wrath.
Void alone might not be able to defeat the Radiance, but what about something created of two gods, instilled with the essence of the Void? Void and Soul combined with the full force of divinity, might be enough to contain the Radiance.
His Root had not been happy at all about the plan, but at last she had acquiesced. And so, millions of their eggs had been secretly lowered into the Abyss. The Void would seep into the eggs, creating beings that were filled with Void but had an outer shell of divinity. Hollow things that would have no voice, no thoughts or will of their own. The perfect prison for the Radiance.
Of course, most of those eggs would fail. The equilibrium between Void and Soul would be a precarious one. A little bit to one side, and the result would be Vessels that would hatch only to die shortly after their birth. If there were even ten thousand viable Vessels out of the millions of eggs laid, the Pale King would consider it fortunate.
Of course, he didn’t actually need ten thousand thousand Vessels. No, he just needed the best and strongest one to seal away the Radiance for good.
The chime of the clock reminded the Pale King of the time. According to his calculations, the last of the eggs should have hatched by now. Time for him to pick his Pure Vessel.
The Pale King left his workshop and walked towards the Abyss. He waved off offers for guards to accompany him. He wanted no witnesses for this.
The journey towards the Abyss was both longer and yet shorter than he liked. The Pale King rested his hand on the door. Time to get things over with.
One push and the door to the Abyss opened. The Pale King walked onto the platform and peered downwards. As he had expected, the floor of the Abyss was littered with the masks and corpses of failed Vessels. And yet, there were small figures walking about or sitting on the corpses, either by themselves or in little groups. His children. No, not his children. Vessels. His real children had been smothered in their eggs and what walked around now in their bodies were more akin to Corpse Creepers than proper bugs.
Hundreds of tiny faces looked upwards into his light. The Pale King flared out his wings, making himself glow all the brighter. He then used some of his divine power to issue out a summons.
“COME,” he called.
Compelled by his summons, every single living Vessel swarmed onto the lowest floating platforms and started to climb. It was not an easy feat for an adult bug to make their way up from the Abyss as he had learned when he had the lighthouse built, much less for Vessels that had just hatched, but climb they did, jostling each other for space.
And fall most of them did. The Pale King watched as many of the Vessels misjudged their steps or the distance between platforms and fell either to the hard bottom or to lower platforms. Some were unlucky enough to fall onto the sharp spikes jutting out from some of the platforms and yet others fell through no fault of their own, but because another Vessel had fallen right on top of them, knocking them from their platform. Despite all of this, the Pale King heard no screams of despair or pain from below – only the sharp crack of bodies hitting the unyielding rock. They were truly voiceless then. Good.
The Vessels continued to press onward. But fewer and fewer were reaching the higher platforms. Finally, one tenacious Vessel pulled itself up onto his platform. The Pale King studied it. It was about the size of a five-year-old grub with a dark body and a white expressionless mask. Two long horns with four spiky points graced the top of its head and Void swirled within its eyeholes.
The Pale King’s heart eased. This was the one. His Pure Vessel that would seal away the Radiance once and for all. He opened his mouth to give it his speech.
“No cost too great,” he began.
The little Vessel stared at him.
“No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry out suffering. Born of God and Void. You shall seal the light that plagues their dreams. You are the Vessel. You are the Hollow Kni–”
The Pale King was interrupted by a thud. A pair of black paws scrabbled at the platform. Another Vessel. Unlike its sibling, it hadn’t jumped far enough to land on the platform but only just enough to grab the edge. Its mask was as expressionless as the first, but as it stared at him while clawing at the platform’s surface, a more imaginative bug would believe that it was pleading for his help.
The Pale King made no move to help. He already had his Vessel. In a few minutes, this Vessel would eventually lose its grip and fall to the bottom of the chasm like all the others had. He had no need to concern himself with one failed Vessel.
As if to prove him wrong, the second Vessel somehow managed to find its footing and pulled itself to the top of the platform. Its shoulders moved up and down in a way that an ordinary bug would pant for breath and then it looked up at him.
The Pale King gave the Vessel a long, considering look. It was almost identical to the first, but its curved horns were forked at the tips. He resisted the urge to massage his temples. He only needed one Vessel, not two. Perhaps he should push this one back down? But then again, there was no harm in having a backup. Just in case something happened to the first or if it proved itself unworthy. What was the phrase the nobles used for this again? An heir and a spare? Yes, that sounded right.
“The two of you are now candidates to become the Hollow Knight. The one who will seal away the Old Light,” he told the listening Vessels.
The Pale King turned around and started walking, confident that the two Vessels would follow. And true enough, he soon heard the patter of two pairs of little feet behind him. Good. Now all that was needed was for him to seal up the Abyss forever and take these two back to the White Palace. Tomorrow, their training would begin.