The Suntower spiralled up and up while cambering staircases connected each level, leaving the middle a plummeting void. Dust collected everywhere as far as Kazuki could see and webs wove discontinuously around chipped bookshelves and deformed stands. The tiled ground was littered with sand, glass, piled tomes and torn parchment. Rising crevices within the walls apportioned short amounts of the sun-star's translucent burning rays to filter inside as sand forced itself slowly within.

Dust floated listlessly in the air, causing them a difficult time breathing, and every step put more of it into the air. All Kazuki could hear, and smell were the faint wisps of sand blustering about in the outside desert, the scampering feet of unseen reptiles, and the rustling of papers catching the draft.

A bald cleric wrapped in silken amaryllis-dyed vestments that sagged over his feet and hands made his way to the front entrance, where Kazuki and Lilith had been standing in amazement. Osamu came in from behind them and distributed a pleasant bow to this antediluvian cleric.

"Did you find the archive I asked for Hirota?" Osamu asked politely.

Hirota beamed. Kazuki could tell this elder never spoke much, but when he did it was as if he was foreign to communicating with another person.

"Follow me," he said.

Lilith, who was still fighting her urge to see Angelo in the medical tower, followed behind Kazuki, like a lost pet glancing all around.

What a mess, she thought.

Osamu smirked back at his little brother as they continued up the curving staircases, ascending higher into The Suntower. He pointed at Hirota.

"He's not used to having visitors. The scholars are always on the top level with their faces in ancient texts. Sadly, we're not to disturb them today, but Hirota here has been kind enough to show us a journal which should explain more about the hollow portal's location. It was documented by Emerac Sirus himself. The leader of The Azmorian Twelve and the first to bear the core Celestite of the Mind," Osamu clarified.

Kazuki huffed as they scaled another set of stairs. Looking up, it almost seemed endless.

"Does this tower have an end?" he complained.

Osamu chuckled. "It's called The Suntower for a reason brother."

Reaching not even one-fourth of the way to the top of this spiralling library, Hirota stopped. Just like the rest of the tower's shelves, the bookcase was just something you would select at random. The yew wood was rounded and touched the ascending staircases as webs wrapped themselves around each tome inside it.

Hirota cycled his fingers along the spines, stopping for but a moment, he pulled a book from its mealy webbed placement. It was archaic and dense; the leather appeared soft and delicate as he ran his fingers over the faded cadmium orange bindings. He fingered the gold lettering carefully before opening the cover. Paper rustled as he thumbed through the book to find what he was looking for.

"Here," he said, pointing, passing it to Osamu. Kazuki looked over Osamu's shoulder as Osamu began to read aloud.

"I have found it. What I have been searching for, for more than a hundred years. The torrid cataracts of Dalrith Casopia held more secrets than The Oracle even realized. I have just come back from a world that thought fable. Upon a poisoned mountain filled with destructive fire, a golden gate shimmers with wonder over a lake of magma. Within, there it swayed, like an angry aqua cloud hanging but inches off the ground," Osamu read, flipping the page.

"As I drew closer to this cloud, it began to fill me with a new sense of power. Was I dead? No, it was something more. As I stepped through the cloud, I became enshrouded by nonexistence, until I was greeted by a harrowing figure at which he did not tell me his name. He had led me deeper into this vast blackness of empty spacetime, telling me I was the second to visit him. I asked him what this dark realm was. He told with a sinister grin, telling me that he would have to show me," Osamu, again, flipped the page and continued.

"After our discussion about my mind-powers. He had agreed to show me his ancient secrets and begun to train me abusively in the art of the shadow-dancer. Upon him teaching me abilities I couldn't have dreamed of having I became unaware of the time that seemed to pass by far too quickly. Upon asking if I could then leave, I was denied. He told me I could only leave when my new soul had made its mark. So I waited... for over five years."

Osamu finished reading with a stunned look.

"He was trapped inside for five years?"

"Turn the page Osamu, there's a bit more," said Hirota.

Osamu flipped the page in a hurry.

"When I was allowed to go back into the mortal realm from once I came, I was more potent than I had ever felt upon my return. But the effects of gaining such power have taken away my longevity. When I returned home, I thought it to be in ruin from years of neglect. I was so astounded to learn that It had only been two weeks. I Emerac Sirus, have instated it to forever be an S-Class crime to seek this realm. Anyone who is caught searching for them will answer to the council. There are many other's at which I believe to exist. I have come to give this forsaken place a name. I am calling it, The Hollows."

Lilith's apple-green eyes were as wide as an owl's.

Hirota finally smiled in everyone's presence for the first time.

"That is one of our greatest chronicles," he said proudly.

Osamu closed the ancient journal; dust flew all around as he handed it back to Hirota.

Hirota held up his palm.

"Give it to Kazuki. It is his now. Not much anyone can do if he is to break this sacred rule. He is the council after all."

Kazuki crossed his arms in thought.

"Dalrith Casopia," he hummed.

"That must be where he found it," said Osamu.

"I wish I knew where it was," Kazuki frowned.

"Even our greatest scholar does not know where it is. Nobody does, and it was better that way. But as a kingdom under Osamu's leadership we heartily agree that if we have any chance against the return of Olomaris, you must find this place and speak with this spirit," Hirota said, sweeping sand off a nearby bookshelf.

Lilith captivated a grin that filled the room with sparkling hope. It was the first smile she held all day.

"I do," she said.

Kazuki and Osamu looked at her with distraught. Even Hirota let a look of surprise hint from his emotionless face. Kazuki grabbed Lilith's shoulders with both hands and looked straight into her bright virdian eyes.

"Where!"

"It lays deep in the Mountain of Varis, near my home. My mother and my grandmother," she hesitated, "and Angelo, use to go to train there. I have never been inside. My grandmother would never allow it. But I know for a fact that she called the place, Dalrith Casopia."

Osamu grumbled. "But how would such knowledge be lost? How did she know it was there?"

Lilith shrugged. "She used to speak in riddles mostly, an odd woman really. Perhaps she read this archive herself and secretly sought for it?"

Kazuki hugged Lilith in excitement.

"Can you bring us there?"

Lilith began to blush but quickly caught herself. She cleverly pouted to hide it.

"I could, but its all the way past The Everstorm, which is almost a hundred miles from Ashinburn. It would take us weeks to get there on foot."

Osamu draped his arms over Lilith and Kazuki's shoulders while allowing a cocky smile to cross his lips.

"I can help with that," he remarked, "I think it's time I introduced you to Mr. Halidar."