Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest Chapter 2000: Against The Mutated Hollow

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"That’s because they are only partially undead," Blank explained calmly. "They’re something else entirely—creatures born directly from the darkest and most twisted human emotions. They aren’t spirits, ghosts, or traditional undead. Instead, they seize a physical body as a vessel and permanently bond with it, using it as a foundation to grow and evolve at an exponential rate. Under normal circumstances, such a process would take them eons... but this one has somehow accelerated dramatically."

"What do you mean?" Granny Yaga asked, her voice laced with concern as she clung to his shoulder.

"Hollow Evolution is normally an incredibly slow and tedious process," Blank continued, his tone growing more serious. "They must devour vast amounts of energy to accelerate their growth—souls, other Hollows, ambient mana, and more. Consuming souls, in particular, allows them to grow the fastest. They can also endlessly cannibalize other Hollows to fuel themselves."

"Hollows! Wait, I remember them now!" Granny Yaga exclaimed. Her encyclopedic mind clicked into place the moment she heard the name. "Yes, beings born from negative emotions—hatred, despair, fear, and agony given physical form!"

"I know," Blank replied. "And these ones... they’ve been forcefully evolved and pushed to their absolute limits. This creature is likely the result of a rapid, artificial Evolution."

"A-Already?!" Granny Yaga gasped in disbelief.

"Most likely thanks to all the powerful souls it has already consumed," Blank said, his voice heavy with caution. "Souls from noble races, no doubt." He stared warily at the motionless woman standing before them, her presence radiating an unsettling aura. "Stay behind me."

Granny Yaga quickly leaped down from Blank’s shoulders and landed on the ground, ready to move at a moment’s notice. "Is it just going to stand there staring at us? What’s wrong with it?"

"Even if it has evolved, it’s still essentially a newborn," Blank reasoned. "I believe it is observing us... studying and learning from our movements, our power, our very presence."

"T-Then can’t we make her a good person? Maybe recruit her?" Granny Yaga suggested hopefully.

"..." Blank narrowed his eyes sharply. "Old woman, don’t be foolish. Perhaps your senses aren’t sharp enough to detect it, but can’t you feel the immense bloodlust pouring out of that thing? It doesn’t want to talk. It wants to devour us."

"!!!"

The instant Granny Yaga heightened her senses by circulating her flowing energy through her body, a wave of overwhelming bloodlust crashed into her like a crimson ocean. She let out a horrified scream, her eyes widening in sheer terror at the sheer depth of malice radiating from the creature.

"J-Just what kind of grudge does this thing have against us...?" she cried out, voice trembling. "I just wanted to take it easy in this peaceful little town, and now everything has gone completely to hell—"

"?!"

In a blinding split second, the Hollow moved. White, razor-sharp claws streaked toward Granny Yaga’s face, aiming to seize her head and rip it clean from her shoulders.

At the very last moment, Blank’s White Void Spear intercepted the deadly bone claw with perfect precision. The two combatants locked eyes, the air between them crackling with lethal tension.

Granny Yaga screamed, scrambling away as fast as her legs could carry her.

"I know she can be quite annoying with her endless talking," Blank said coldly, his voice steady, "but she is still someone valuable to me. Keep your filthy hands off her."

"..." The Hollow stared directly into his eyes. Slowly, her mouth opened, and a haunting, childlike voice emerged. "Hungry..."

"?"

"Hungry... so... hungry..." she whispered, her voice gradually distorting. Her skeletal helmet began fusing with her flesh and skull, transforming into a full monstrous jaw lined with jagged teeth.

She unleashed a massive, earth-shattering bite. Blank barely managed to step back in time. The ground where he had been standing vanished completely, replaced by a horrifyingly clean, crater-like bite mark.

"What the...?!" he muttered, eyes widening in disbelief as he glanced back at the destruction.

The Hollow woman dropped to all fours, her bone-plate armor rapidly spreading across her entire body. Her skeletal tail elongated, ending in a razor-sharp bladed tip. It was clear now that her previous humanoid form had been incomplete—this was her true battle mode, savage and optimized for slaughter.

She burst forward at blinding speed, appearing behind Blank in an instant. Her sharp bone claws dug deep into his back, slashing viciously and drawing ghostly blood.

"You’re fast," Blank remarked, almost impressed.

He twisted his body with supernatural agility and released a cloud of white mist toward her, marking her body with glowing white runes at the same time. In response, the Hollow planted her hands on the ground and spun her legs like a whirlwind, delivering dozens of devastating kicks in rapid succession.

Blank sneered as his ghostly power surged. He dissolved into white mist, vanishing from sight, only to reappear as dozens of silver eyes materialized in the air around her. They fired powerful white void beams simultaneously.

"?!"

The explosions slammed into her, severely damaging her shoulder. Black miasma leaked from the wound as chunks of her bone armor disintegrated.

However, the pain only fueled her rage.

With a furious roar, she opened her monstrous jaws and bit straight through Blank’s mist domain, tearing apart the ground and terrain around her in a frenzy. In mere moments, nearly half of Blank’s aura had been devoured.

He swiftly reappeared above her, his White Void Spear humming with lethal energy as he unleashed a barrage of hundreds of thrusting strikes at once.

The evolved Hollow growled defiantly. She hardened her bone-like armor to its limit, clenching her teeth as her arms began shattering under the relentless assault. Black muscles were exposed, riddled with holes and cracks.

She screamed in agony, hissing wildly before kicking the ground with explosive force. She launched herself upward, meeting Blank in mid-air and opening her jaws wide. With terrifying power, she bit through half of his body in a single crunch.

Blank’s eyes widened in shock as a massive bite mark tore across his left side. His arm, leg, and half of his face had been violently ripped away. Ghostly blood poured freely from the gruesome wounds.

Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, he activated one of his secret techniques. His White Ghost Nether Core flared to life, flooding his body with revitalizing energy and rapidly regenerating the missing parts at a visible rate.

"?!"

The Evolved Hollow’s eyes widened in genuine surprise as she watched Blank recover from the devastating injury almost instantly. He spun gracefully in mid-air and descended like a falling star, delivering a powerful kick that smashed her face-first into the ground.

Both combatants crashed down with cataclysmic force. A massive explosion of white void flames erupted like a volcanic blast, completely evaporating the entire street and dozens of surrounding buildings in an instant.

"You forced my hand, fiend!" Blank roared.

He leaped high into the air once more, bringing his hands together. His aura surged with overwhelming power, fusing with the very space around him.

The beast recovered with shocking speed and leaped even higher, closing the distance. Her aura exploded outward, fueled by the immense power of thousands of devoured souls. Their accumulated suffering and negative emotions provided her with seemingly endless energy.

In that very instant, both the beast and Blank vanished from sight. Granny Yaga gasped in awe and fear as a gigantic barrier rapidly expanded across the surroundings, warping space itself and completely rewriting reality within its confined domain.

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