My Post Infection AU [Hollow Knight]

Part 5: Golden Face, Shrieking Void

"And yet your power exceeds that of many who came before you. Even that brilliant being of dreams."

"Wait... you met the Radiance?" Vessel inquires now giving this bug her full attention.

"Yes, it was quite difficult to tune ourselves to her glory and power. We required the help of that little cringer."

Vessel is good on her word and smacks the bug right in the face, almost knocking the mask clean off. "No one insults my siblings like that."

"My apologies, oh great queen." the figure bows even further, fixing the mask's position on their face. "They invaded our home and challenged our gods, only to abandon their quest and destroy the glorious being of light and dreams."

"I suppose glorious is one way to describe her..." Vessel says to herself, "Why should I believe your story?"

"You do not need to, you have a key inside. The nail powered by the essence of dreams." They point towards Vessel's dream nail, clasped on her sash.

"Oh, right, I forgot about that..." Vessel drew the dream nail, allowing it to awaken before piercing it into the bug and finding herself on a golden platform, surrounded by pink tinted clouds. Climbing across she made her way to a group of three doors, each with four symbols across the top; charm, nail, mask and, soul, with a large golden stone in the middle.

"Huh..." Vessel stared at them for a long moment, before she was approached by a bug that looked suspiciously like the one she was speaking to outside this golden refuge.

"Oh blessed day. The glorious being of void and light has come into our home of the gods." the figure bows their head to her. This didn't do much for the ridiculous height gap between them, the masked golden figure begin almost half her height taller than Vessel. Vessel's eyes narrowed as she watched the golden figures around her that she hadn't noticed had congregated in a circle about ten feet away. They were all whispering to themselves.

"Ok, what?" Vessel asks.

"A dreadful long time we have waited for one stronger than most," they ignored Vessel's question, "And now that the day has finally come, we shall celebrate! We shall sing praises to our new god! A being of pale origins and reborn of the unity of light and void."

Vessel could sense the void all around desperately wanting to be allowed inside. She began to focus on the dark substance leaking into the bright home of these golden god seekers, not listening to the words their apparent leader was saying. And she called out to it with an Abyssal Shriek causing the ground to quake beneath them. The void wraps itself around the edge of the dream and peers inside at them, two enormous hands clinging to the outside while two more attempt to reach the inside.

"I am no god!" Vessel demands, "I am not a creature worthy of worship! If you wish to worship any being, it should be the Shade Lord itself, not me!" a pair of identical faces roar in unison as sixteen white eyes stare into the crowd of golden figures. The larger dark shadow manages to grab the one closest to Vessel and holds them in their hand angrily. It causes Vessel to have a headache again and grip her horns in pain. The true being of void seems to sense Vessel's distress and lowers the figure, before focusing themselves to the being unaware of her actions. Vessel raised her dream nail, hoping to simply get out of the bright realm of the god seekers. The void follows her in her exit.

Vessel regained consciousness after an unknown amount of time. She felt stronger, and possibly slightly taller, renewed almost. Maybe the Shade Lord's presence in wherever she just was did something else to her. There was no time to think about this. Taking a glance at the bug next to her, a shocking sight met Vessel's eyes.