’Run. Unless you’re planning to help, in which case I sincerely hope you’ve brought something sharper than that charming little toy knife.’

’It’s not a toy knife. It’s a kitchen knife.’

’Yes, Bearer, I noticed. That is rather the issue.’

He wanted to argue. Wanted to say something brave—something about not leaving her behind, about standing and fighting together.

But he couldn’t.

He was level one. Worse, half his health was already gone, and every breath felt like broken glass in his chest. He could barely stay upright, let alone fight. The most useful thing he could do right now was get out of the way.

’Don’t die on me!’

Then he ran.

He tore through the back of the shop, through a storeroom heavy with the cloying scent of perfume, then out a fire exit that dumped him into a narrow alley behind the building.

His ribs hurt more than anything he had ever known. His HP kept ticking downward, drained away by the blood soaking through his shirt.

Behind him came the sounds of chaos: the Hollow Knight smashing through shelves and displays, and the rapid, stuttering flicker of Shadow Steps as Nyx led it in circles, buying seconds with a body that looked like it might snap in a stiff breeze.

’Stop fretting,’ Nyx said. ’You’re giving me a headache, and I’ve only just arrived.’

’Sorry.’

’Oh, don’t apologise. I find the devotion endearing.’

’Can you take this seriously?’

’Only if you keep running, Bearer.’

He burst out of the alley onto a side street and saw it.

A field of soft blue light encircled the car park of a Tesco Express, stretching wider than he’d expected.

A Safe Zone.

It repelled hostile entities—a sanctuary in the middle of the city’s collapse. The problem was that it was far too far away. At least a mile down the block, maybe more.

And then it got worse.

A red notification flared across his vision, and his stomach dropped.

[Bond Distance: 180m / 200m — WARNING: Bond severance imminent as the bond has yet to be sealed.]

Finn stopped so abruptly his knees nearly gave out.

He stared at the message. Read it once. Twice. Three times, because surely—surely—his eyes had given up at last along with the rest of him.

’This has to be a joke.’

’Ah,’ Nyx said, in the tone of someone mildly inconvenienced by a spilled cup of tea. ’That would explain the unpleasant sensation.’

’What unpleasant sensation?’

’The one suggesting I may shortly stop existing. Quite novel, really. Not a fan.’

The distance counter kept climbing.

182m. 184m.

Each step he’d taken toward the Safe Zone had stretched the invisible thread between them thinner and thinner, until now he could almost feel it fraying somewhere deep inside his skull.

He looked at the Safe Zone in the distance.

’It’s too far.’

Nyx couldn’t disengage from the Hollow Knight and catch up to him. The thing would gut her the second she turned her back. If he kept running, the bond would snap and likely kill them both. If he stopped and hid, and the Knight found them, they would both die anyway.

And if he went back—

Which was obviously insane.

He had a kitchen knife and forty HP.

He’d probably die.

But at least he’d die doing something other than running.

’You’re thinking very loudly again, Bearer.’

’How loud is very loud, exactly?’

’Like a toddler with a drum.’

A breath of laughter escaped him.

Then he turned around.

’Okay,’ he said to the empty alley. ’Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Think. Think, Finn. You’ve read every post on that forum. You’ve written tier lists about this monster.’

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could almost hear Darren from the warehouse saying, There he goes again.

The Hollow Knight.

A mini-boss introduced in week one of the closed beta. The devs had intended it to be taken down by a balanced party of five beginner players.

Finn closed his eyes for half a second and dug through memory.

— The Twelfth Gate Guild killed theirs with a four-man team. Their rogue, forum handle Pincushion, went for the dorsal nexus.

The dorsal nexus.

A cluster of nerves between the Hollow Knight’s shoulder blades, where the extra limbs emerged from its spine. The chitin plating over it overlapped so tightly it was practically bulletproof—but every time the Knight raised all four blades at once, the plates shifted to allow the movement.

For less than half a second, the nexus was exposed.

— Twelfth Gate couldn’t reach its back, though. They had to stagger it first. Pincushion said the only thing that broke the Hollow Knight’s rhythm was ’a sharp concussive event at close range.’ Everyone on the thread thought he meant a grenade.

Finn’s eyes snapped open.

They hadn’t meant a grenade.

He looked down.

A crack ran along the centre of the alley, thin as a fault line, bleeding pale blue light that pulsed like a heartbeat.

A mana vein.

The forums had fought endlessly over mana veins when the beta first launched. Were they just environmental detail? Decorative set dressing? Or were they actually interactable?

A week after launch, someone had finally tested it.

If you stabbed one with something sharp, it vented a concentrated pulse of raw mana. It didn’t deal damage. It was basically just a flash of pretty light and a wave of dizziness for anything standing on top of it.

Completely useless.

Unless all you needed was to break a Hollow Knight’s rhythm.

’Oh,’ Nyx murmured, suddenly interested. ’Have you had an idea, Bearer? I can feel it from here. It’s giving me goosebumps.’

’Do vampires get goosebumps?’

’Only during interesting ideas. Go on.’

The crashing was getting closer. One street away now, maybe two. Somewhere to his left, a chimney collapsed, roof tiles skittering across brick and slate like spilled dice.

He had thirty seconds. Maybe less.

’You can sense where I am, right? Lead it here. There’s a mana vein running down the middle of the alley. I’m going to rupture it the second the Knight steps over it. That should disorient it—break its rhythm long enough for—’

’—me to put a blade through its back. Yes. I see it.’

She went quiet for a beat, considering.

When she spoke again, her voice held a note of amused approval.

’Bearer. I confess, I underestimated you.’

’Don’t. I’m terrified.’

’Terror and intelligence are not mutually exclusive. Some of my finest ideas were born in the middle of panic.’

Finn dropped into a crouch beside the crack in the tarmac. The mana vein pulsed beneath his hand like a living thing.

’You’ll need to strike at exactly the right moment,’ Nyx said. ’Too early, and the Knight adjusts. Too late, and my spine becomes decoration.’

’How will I know?’

’I’ll tell you. Don’t worry. I have excellent timing.’

’Do you?’

’Well,’ she said lightly, ’we’re about to find out together, aren’t we?’

The brick wall at the far end of the alley exploded.