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Chapter 30 - Chapter 30 – Throne of the Hollow King

"You wanted a god. Now you've got a nightmare."

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Throne of Flesh and Steel – The Hollow Kingdom Rises

The world screamed as it turned.

From the veins of the Black Bloom, a city bloomed—if it could be called that. It wasn't built. It grew. Towers of fused bone and machine, bridges spun from arteries, statues carved from screaming memories.

At its heart stood the Throne of the Hollow King.

It wasn't a seat. It was a wound. A gaping ulcer of power where reality had tried to correct itself and failed.

Jin sat atop it.

No longer a god. No longer human. No longer definable.

He was a concept given purpose: the final refutation of salvation.

Behind him, the sky stitched itself into a tapestry of suffering. The sun wept rot. The air cried names that had never existed.

And below him, the world awaited judgment.

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First Pilgrims – Broken Believers

From the edges of fractured dimensions, survivors began to crawl into his world. Players, monsters, ex-gods—those who had escaped the Collapse.

They came hungry. Bleeding. Hopeless.

And they knelt.

> "Is this… the end?" one asked.

Jin stared through them.

> "No." "This is your beginning."

He touched the ground. The earth moaned.

The pilgrim's body twisted. Bone bent backward. Skin unraveled like parchment. He became something else—something that could survive here.

Not a reward. Not a punishment. Just adaptation.

Others followed. All were reshaped. All were marked.

The world did not love them. It tolerated them.

Because he willed it.

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New Doctrine – The Creed of Hollow

> "There are no gods." "Only masters and meat." "There is no truth." "Only the word of the Hollow."

Etched into the sky in black lightning. Tattooed on the skin of the wind.

Jin did not speak it. The world screamed it for him.

Temples rose—monoliths shaped like agony incarnate. Their priests did not pray. They bled.

And the more they bled, the more Jin smiled.

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End of Light – The Last Collapse

Elsewhere in forgotten planes, the final bits of resistance stirred. A handful of angels. A flickering deity. A remnant of the Maker's will.

They watched as the Hollow King raised his hand.

And they saw that even hope now bowed.

> "He's not ruling them." "He's remaking them."

> "We must stop—"

They were already unraveling. Just seeing him was enough.

The last god died screaming a prayer.

The prayer turned to ash before it left his lips.

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Throne Eternal

Jin looked out over his kingdom. He spoke only once more that day.

> "This is not your world." "This is mine." "And I'm not finished yet."

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