The Hollow Rank

In the kingdom of Ardenmere, power defines worth. Measured by the Resonance system, every person is ranked from the useless Dim to the legendary Sovereigns. Those who fail the system are discarded. Noctis was never even given a chance. Branded Hollow at seven years old, his Shard does not store power, it devours it. To the world, he is a defect. A void. A mistake best ignored. For twelve years, he survives in silence. Until the night everything breaks. A dungeon rift tears open, destroying the estate that owned him. In the chaos, Noctis does something impossible something that should not exist within the laws of the world. And for the first time, he runs. But the world is watching. As Noctis struggles to survive on the frontier, he begins to uncover the truth of his condition. His Hollow Shard is not empty it is something older, something hidden. A force that doesn’t follow the rules of Resonance… but erases them. And he is not the first. Across the kingdom, a shadow faction hunts people like him, erasing them before the world can notice. Because if the truth comes out, if the system itself is questioned, everything holding Ardenmere together will collapse. Caught between a rigid world and a buried secret, Noctis must decide: Stay invisible and survive… Or become the one thing this world cannot contain.