Chapter 1
The little knight woke up to the sounds of water droplets hitting its shell. Its shell and cloak were covered in muck and grime from laying down in the muddy Junk Pit. The knight felt strangely invigorated after waking up from its latest dream. As it surveyed its surroundings, it noticed the large bug the knight found in that cocoon had left. All that remained was the delicate flower the knight gave to the bug as a token of friendship. It was just lying there on a pile of trash. Strange. Even Master Oro kept the knight's gift, as reluctant as he was to accept it. It wasn't a problem for the knight though. It simply got up and was carefully holding the flower in its childlike hands.
It stood there for a minute, pondering where and how the bug could've gone to. It looked far too plump to have navigated through the humid and quite smelly tunnels of the Royal Waterways. The knight quickly banished these thoughts from its head and it finally tells itself to stop stalling. There's some unfinished business to take care of.
...
It remembers back to when it finally found all three dreamers and it was on its way to the Temple Of The Black Egg. It had finally made peace with its siblings and the Void itself. It had explored almost every nook and cranny in this entire dead kingdom and it thought it was ready. But as it stood outside the infected temple, the source of all the infection, it felt something. It hesitated to walk inside the infected temple. Then it simply ran away from the area. It couldn't do it. I mean, how could it? It just felt something right then and there, the knight couldn't save this kingdom as much as it wanted to.
Want. It wanted to save this kingdom. That was when the knight realized it truly couldn't. This desire. It would doom them all. The knight knew this because it already happened before. Back when the knight first tried to escape the Abyss, it saw its older sibling's spark when they first saw each other. Then the knight remembered that it felt emotion, way before it even crawled out of the abyss and entered Hallownest.
Anger. Dread. And sorrow. Anger over their heartless creator. The dread of what would become of its sibling. And sorrow that it knew its sibling wouldn't live up with their father's impossible expectations. The knight didn't realize this before, but it first got to Hallownest, it knew that it felt emotion. It felt emotions it couldn't describe. Emotions it couldn't express. Emotions it couldn't show. If you were there with the knight as it explored the old ruins of Hallownest, you would know what it had felt.
Wonder, as it explored the beautiful ruins of Hallownest. Curiosity, as it explored its depths and secrets. Fear, as it anticipated for the next scary monster that would pop out. Accomplishment, as it defeated truly terrifying and difficult opponents. Sadness, as it once again explored the graveyard of its discarded siblings. And finally, hope, as it spoke and bonded with the few friendly faces spread across Hallownest.
The knight knew that it couldn't take on the mantle of Hollow Knight. It knew wasn't hollow, far from it. It would simply doom itself a life of isolation and loneliness until the Infection would inevitably burst out of him. So it ran. Even if the knight could contain the Infection, it didn't want to. It realized that it wanted to keep exploring Hallownest and maybe the kingdoms beyond Hallownest, but it couldn't. But as the knight walked familiar paths, it knew it had done all it could. The knight constantly tried to find excuses for itself to keep exploring. It simply couldn't however.
It knew couldn't run away from this forever, but it desperately tried to find new areas to explore. But as it explored the Royal Waterways, it found a strange new area it had never seen before. It was filled with mountains of junk and trash. How did the knight miss this?! But it happily began to explore the newly dubbed Junk Pit.
There wasn't much, but there was a strangely large cocoon in the Junk Pit. The knight didn't know what it was, but it saw a simple lock wrapped around the cocoon and it knew it had to find another key for this. It explored Hallownest, its entire layout remembered by heart, and it leads to him going back to the Coliseum of Fools. Again, there was a whole new area that the knight never knew about but would happily take the chance to explore. It eventually got a simple key from a strange fanatic bug that seemed to have gone insane without the Infection's help.
Eventually, it went back to the Junk Pit and unlocked the cocoon and it revealed a very large bug. It was still alive and the knight wondered what would happen if it hit the bug with its Dream Nail. What happened next would change the knight's life and maybe the entirety of Hallownest forever.
The knight was transported to a strange new realm called Godhome and it was there when the knight faced its greatest challenge yet. The knight was put through a deadly trial where it would fight the Gods Of Hallownest, most of which wore familiar faces. Pantheon after pantheon, the knight valiantly fought and attuned with the gods. It had died dozens of deaths as it fought through the pantheons with bindings that made the knight feel like the bug it truly is. After the knight thought he had finally defeated the fourth pantheon, the true and final pantheon revealed itself to the weary knight.
It didn't know if it can handle it anymore, but it wanted closure and so it fought the fifth and final pantheon of Hallownest. There, it had fought every single god it had ever fought. With no charms, it's nail severely weakened, it's shell ever so delicate, and capacity for soul reduced. It had died dozens of more deaths, each one getting further and further into the pantheon, only to be struck back down to the start.
The knight wanted to give up. It wanted to leave Godhome. But didn't have anything else left to do besides going back to that cursed temple. So it kept fighting. Over and over, he had attempted to fight the fifth pantheon. When it finally reached its elder sibling, the knight defeated the Pure Vessel and it had thought it defeated the pantheon. All its hard work had finally paid off. Or so had it thought.
The knight had a vision, a vision that involved the knight, the Pure Vessel, and their siblings. It was confused about what this vision meant, but it felt a form of kinship and comradery until they were all blinded by a bright light. A thundering screech roared throughout the vision before they were all consumed by darkness and a new guttural roar overpowered the screech.
That was when the knight was transported into a strange new room it had never seen. The light that illuminated Godhome could be seen by the knight. It was blindingly bright, but the knight could see the bright orb form wings. Then suddenly a large bug appeared in front of the knight. It appeared vaguely similar to the Seer. With a loud and mighty roar, the large bug began to attack and the knight was in the fight of its life.
The Absolute Radiance, Forgotten God Of Light
The knight wasn't prepared for this, but it quickly drew its nail and began fighting this new foe. It had never seen such a powerful foe before. This god was unrelenting, merciless, and above all, angry. The knight could barely keep with this god's attacks and it quickly fell to the god's light.
What was that? Why is it so powerful? Why did its presence feel so familiar? These were questions the knight was asking itself when it woke back up. Instead of feeling frustration or anger, it felt curiosity. The knight wanted to know what that god was. In all its time exploring Hallownest, it never encountered this being before.
It's newly invigorated curiosity soon drove the knight to challenge the pantheon with gusto. It soon began fighting the pantheon and because of all its practice, it was able to get to the last god of the pantheon quicker and quicker. After only five failures, the knight had finally triumphed over this god. But something strange happened. Instead of returning to Godhome, its shell shattered into pieces and the knight's shade was soon absorbed into a growing ocean of Void.
The mass was shapeless, without form or posture. But when the knight's shade was absorbed into the Void, it was given form. The form was given focus. All of a sudden, everything was finally clear to the knight. This god. This... monster. This was the reason why Hallownest had fallen. It was the source of the Infection and the sole reason why knight was created in the first place. The all-powerful god whose bright light was overtaken by a more paler one.
This god was now trembling in fear in the Shade Lord's hands, like a doll in the hands of a child. Guided by an unrelenting fury, the Shade Lord began tearing through the forgotten god. Essence began pouring out of the god as it screamed out in pain. With one last slash, the light was snuffed out and the Void began to leak and spread throughout Godhome. All of the Godseekers of Godhome was finally attuned with the God Of Gods.
...
Now in the present, the knight walks many familiar paths as it slowly ascends to the Black Egg Temple. But something strange has happened. The pulsating orange bubbles of the Infection were no longer present. No longer did the knight hear the large booming heartbeats. No longer were there horrifically mutated bugs that roamed the Forgotten Crossroads. Most of Hallownest was empty for the most part. The knight didn't encounter any other bugs or creatures during its trek to the Black Egg Temple. Everywhere the knight walked, everyone has gone into hiding. The ones the knight did find were also sound asleep and the knight didn't want to disturb them.
After hours of walking from the Junk Pit to the Forgotten Crossroads, it was finally standing right outside of the Black Egg Temple. As it entered inside, the knight walked along a dark hallway that was only illuminated by white lights. As it walked, it was reflecting on its journey and it felt no regrets. Ever since the knight was thrown down into the Abyss, it wanted nothing but to get out. Somehow, someway, the knight got its wish. It was able to muster the willpower to escape and its reward was to explore the majestic fallen kingdom of Hallownest.
As it bravely walked into the chambers of the famed Hollow Knight, it steeled itself for one last battle and drew its nail, ready for combat. But as it entered the room, it found out that the room was empty. The knight saw that its chains were broken somehow and it escaped! It didn't know where it could've gone, but as it ran out of the Black Egg Temple to find its elder sibling, Hornet was outside to greet the knight.
Though this wasn't the diligent and poised Hornet the knight has been seeing since Greenpath. She looked tired and it looked as if Hornet could collapse onto the ground any moment, but before she could fall, she used her nail as support.
"Little ghost, I was waiting all night for your return. I have been waiting for hours, but you did not come back. I thought you have perished, but as I was about to leave, the Infection began dying out. The orange bubble of Infection began to shrink and the beasts I have slain did not bleed of the Infection. Soon, I have been seeing creatures slowly be cured of the Infection. When I went out to the City of Tears, its residents were cured as well. I assume your absence may have something to do with this?"
The knight shrugged and gestured to Hornet it doesn't know.
"Well, whatever you were doing, the Infection seemed to have died off. I scoured all across Hallownest to see if the Infection had truly died out and it did. I could barely sleep and the few precious moments I did have, I saw you in the brief dreams I've had. Strange, don't you think?"
The knight pondered over that statement for a while until it decided to show it the strange mask it found in Godhome. Hornet looked surprised to see the mask and said, "That is impossible! Were you also in that arena fighting for all of those strange bugs?"
The knight nodded.
Hornet was thinking about something and said, "Was that where you were this whole time?"
The knight nodded again.
"Hmm. Do you mind recounting your adventures there? I have a black map chart you can use to write down what you did."
Hornet offered a black chart to the knight. The knight nodded and took the chart, writing down what it was doing at Godhome. It wrote of its countless battles, about the Godseeker, and the Absolute Radiance. After the knight was done writing, Hornet was reading over the chart with shock. She soon put the chart back into her cloak and said, "Thank you for doing this for me. I need to leave and go back to my mother's libraries. I think they might have the answers I need."
Hornet bowed to the knight and the knight returned the gesture. Before they left their separate ways, Hornet soon asks, "So what did you find in the Black Egg Temple?"
The knight shrugged and shook its head. Hornet looked concerned with the knight's answer but soon walked away into the distance. The knight soon began going back the Dirtmouth to check up on Elderbug. If Hornet was this tired, then the knight must've been in Godhome for a long time.
When it went to the chain leading up the Dirtmouth however, it saw that the light was a lot brighter this time. The knight needed to cover its eyes as it climbed up the chain and it was completely blinded by a flash of light when it ascended to Dirtmouth.
The knight quickly unsheathed its nail thinking it was the Radiance, but there were no ear-shattering roars. After a few seconds of getting used to the sudden light, the knight saw that the entire sky was a bright blue with white clouds. The sun was shining brightly and there was a strange chirping sound coming from a nearby tree. The loud winds that once blew through here are nothing but a gentle breeze now. It went around Dirtmouth trying to find the Elderbug, but no such luck. Zote wasn't here spouting out random nonsense either.
The knight soon went to Iselda and Cornifer's home, but the door was locked. Even with the locked door, the knight could still hear Cornifer's loud snoring, along with snoring that sounded like Iselda.
Dirtmouth was emptier as usual and there was nothing for the knight here now. It soon left Dirtmouth, leaving the small fading town a little emptier now. Just one more traveler who breezed right through this town without even saying goodbye.
...
The knight stood at the edge of Hallownest, the strong winds that prevented the knight from leaving were now dead. The knight could finally leave this dead kingdom. As beautiful and mysterious Hallownest was, the knight had already explored all it could. There were no other bugs to meet, no other monsters to slay. The Infection was seemingly cured and Hornet was off to find answers.
But the knight? There was nothing else for the knight to do. Ever since the knight put the Dreamers to rest, the knight thought its final fate was to replace its elder sibling's mantle as the Hollow Knight. But the Hollow Knight was nowhere to be seen and the Infection seemed to have died off.
It felt free.
It felt happy.
As the knight took its first steps out of Hallownest, it could only dream of what new adventures lie for it next!
The only question that plagues the knight's mind though, was this: Where did the Hollow Knight go?
Author's Note: Howdy everyone and welcome to the new rewrite! Now, as I said in the Rewrite Announcement, I'm going to set some rules for what you should expect in this story. I'm also going to answer a few questions I feel like I'll get so you don't have to wait for the answer in the next chapter.
The Rules
Rule #1: The knight completely absorbs aura. Once the knight hits someone with its nail, their aura is gone forever. For example, if the knight hits Cinder with its nail and takes 5% of her aura, she will never heal back that damage.
Rule #2: The knight cannot control the Grimm with the Void Heart. Since I consider the Grimm a completely different entity from the void, they cannot be controlled by the knight.
Rule #3: The knight can absorb the semblance of anyone it kills. Using a semblance will be similar to using a Soul Spell, but will require 3 charges of soul to use a semblance ONCE.
Rule #4: The knight won't get an aura. End of discussion.
Rule #5: Once aura breaks, that person is completely useless in a fight. I always get frustrated at the constant inconsistencies with aura breaking and I want to stop that incontinency now. Once aura breaks, the victim will collapse to the floor IMMEDIATELY and will need to rest 5-8 hours before they're ready to fight again. They can also no longer use their semblances, they'll be too weak to use their weapons, and can barely keep their eyes open.
Rule #6: There are two different states of aura, passive and active. Passive aura won't drain your stamina, but characters will be more susceptible to attacks and characters can't use their semblance more effectively. Active aura will drain a character's stamina, but they'll get the full protection from their aura and can use their semblances more aggressively.
Now to answer some questions I feel will be asked.
The knight is around the height of an average human child.
The knight is not a bug. The vessels are a completely different species than bugs. Humans and faunus will not compare the knight to a bug.
The knight cannot speak, but it can quickly learn to write in any language.
The knight has Grimmchild as a charm.
The knight leaves Hallownest before RWBY begins, but will not be at the Dust Shop Robbery. Team RWBY will already have been assembled by the time the knight gets to Beacon.
...
Now that the rules have been established, I can finally start writing this fanfic now! Yay! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I hope to see you relatively soon.