"Ah, little ghost. I was thinking about your situation when you startled me."
The Knight stared straight forward. Their posture was oddly stiff, and their eyes were unblinking. Not a single movement came out of the vessel as they sat in stoic silence. Hornet stared at them, expression becoming confused, then worried. "Little Ghost? Is there something the matter?"
They continued to stare forward for another excruciatingly long second. Then, their head slowly pivoted to face her. Their eyes remained still and unblinking. Hornet shifted around in the bench uncomfortably as she lowered her eyes from their strangely intense gaze. It felt like she was staring straight into the eyes of the Hunter.
"Is the little one… okay?"
Hornet jumped as she hears a voice come from behind her. She whirled around to find that it was just Elderbug; In his silence, she had entirely forgotten that he was there. She huffed and glared at him. "Do you always just stand there for the entire-"
The Knight jumped down from the bench, suddenly filled with movement. They had drawn their nail and were gripping it so tightly that it was shaking. They took a few steps forward in a frantic, jittery manner. Then, before Hornet could react, their body starts glowing and pink crystals form around their feet. They exploded, shooting crystal fragments at Hornet, and their body is sent flying towards the well.
"Ghost! What are you doing?!" Hornet shouted after them, but it's too late. They had already gone down the well. Hornet groaned in frustration and sprinted after them, leaving behind an extremely confused Elderbug.
As she descended down the well, a frantic worry gnaws at her mind. Why the Knight was acting like this, she couldn't fathom. The only thing that she knew was that they were heading towards the temple - pink crystals littered the path leading to it. Did something in the temple call the Knight to it? Had the infection somehow managed to muster enough strength to summon them, even through its bindings?
Already, visions of disaster run through her mind. She saw the Knight running recklessly into the chamber of the temple, only to be impaled by the Hollow Knight's nail. She saw the Knight becoming filled with infection and chained up like in their vision.
Hornet ran into the temple, but stopped when she saw the Knight. They were at the foot of the entrance to the temple's chambers, and were staring into it. They held their nail loosely, but even from several meters away, she could see that their entire body was trembling.
"Ghost?"
They turned to look at her. Their gaze seemed softer somehow, more thoughtful. Then they blinked and looked down at their hand, which was holding their nail. They stare at it for a few seconds before sheathing it and walking towards her. They walked so unsteadily that Hornet was afraid that they might stumble and fall flat on their face.
"What's wrong?" Hornet asked in an uncharacteristically soft voice.
They held out their hand. Hornet took it without hesitation.
The Radiance.
Hornet stared it at uncomprehendingly.
It spewed bright, godly essence that could only illuminate the void an insignificant amount.
The Abyss creeped closer, and Hornet saw the Knight's shade. Their eyes glew with ferocity, but were soon swallowed by the dark fog of the void. Not long after, Hornet's vision grew dark as well.
She heard the Radiance scream once more before her voice gradually faded away as her body and mind was claimed by the Abyss.
After that, there was nothing. Just darkness.
Then, a different kind of darkness. Pitch black, but not as consuming as the Abyss before it. There, it appeared again. The symbol of Hallownest, shining brightly before the black. At the sight of it, Hornet felt her head suddenly thump, and if she would have cried out in pain if she were able. It felt like her brain was folding in on itself, and her skull was trying to follow suit. It flashed once, and then vanished, leaving behind nothing except the remnants of her headache.
Then, she saw the bench at Dirtmouth, and the Knight sitting on it, and herself, and her mouth was moving but she couldn't hear her own words. Everything was in black and white. There seemed to be thin black veins around the edges of her vision, almost like collagen.
…
She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.. The sickness passed, much quicker than the last two times she had gone through this ordeal. Maybe I'm getting used to it. Hornet thought. I hope so.
"That… was… the Radiance. That's her name, isn't it? That's the infection's name, isn't it?" Hornet opened her eyes and looked down at them. "What happened? What did you do?"
They pointed towards the inside of the temple. Then, they took something out from under their cape; It looked like an empty hilt of a nail. With it in their hand, they swung it into the empty space in front of them.
"You… You used that to kill the Radiance? Or the Hollow Knight?" She guessed.
The Knight drew their nail and scratched something into the floor. She looked down and saw a messily scrawled oval shape with four thick dots in the middle. It was only after a full thirty seconds of staring did she realize that it was supposed to be a dreamer mask - Monomon's.
They kneeled down and brought their handle down on their drawing. It looked like they were stabbing at it
"You used that thing to kill the dreamers, then?" Hornet asked. "Does that handle somehow bear the power to access their dreams?"
They nodded and stood back up. Then they pointed at the temple again, this time using their hilt. Hornet looked at the temple, then back down at the mask. "Then, you went into the dreams of the Hollow Knight? And the infection was contained within their dreams? The Radiance, that is?"
They nodded again.
"So, you went into their dream and… You managed to defeat the Radiance." Hornet said, staring at the Knight with increasing awe. The Radiance. The infection. Not even the Pale King, a specially crafted vessel made to contain it, and a magical seal created through the sacrifices of three powerful bugs could defeat it. And yet, the little Ghost in front of them had apparently killed it.
That is, according to their visions. They had killed it… and nothing happened. The Knight returned back to Dirtmouth, and the Hollow Knight was still alive along with the infection inside of it.
They slowly nodded. Their face remained as impassive and stoic as ever, but Hornet could sense an aura of confusion surrounding it. Twice now, it had reached the end of its quest. Once, through absorbing the infection. And then by killing the infection itself.
But nothing came out of it.
One of the Knight's eyes twitched. They withdrew their nail handle and brought out their pure nail. They had to find out. They had to find out if it would keep happening, and they had to find out now. They could feel all of the deaths they had experienced threatening to crush him. Had they come so far and done so much, only to be stalled right before the finish line? Had they caused the deaths of so many, such as Quirrel and the Nailmaster to aid themselves in their quest? A quest with a seemingly meaningless outcome?
A heavy blanket of dread settled over them as they sprinted inside of the temple. They heard Hornet yelling after them, but they didn't care. It would take too long to explain everything all over again. They couldn't do that, not with the temple right there. They had to find out, find out now, or else these thoughts wouldn't go away. The Knight could feel the weight of hundreds of corpses hanging above them, threatening to crush them.
'No cost too great.' The Knight thinks as they approach the Hollow Knight.
That was what their father said when they left the Knight, and thousands of their siblings to die. The outcome of all of those sacrifices was nothing. He had done all of it to save his kingdom and utterly failed.
They knew that now, and they knew that their father died with thousands of dead bugs on their soul.
Would that how they would end up too? Would their quest end in vain? Their quest built on corpses?
They wouldn't accept that. They couldn't accept that.
They saw the Hollow Knight grip their nail tightly as they approached. They drew their nail too, and prepared to fight their sibling once again. It still hurt, seeing them like this, with their damaged body only held together with infection.
They just hoped that this would be the last time.
As they marched on, they heard a voice inside of their head. It was trying to tell them to stop, to turn back. That if this worked, then they would be infected, and forced to the confines of this chamber. They would die.
The Knight ignored these thoughts and readied their nail.
Plot's been moving along kind of slowly but I promise it will speed up in the future.