The Hollow Ascension

The Hollow Ascension: Book I — The Maw That Remembers Elias Thorne was supposed to die only once. Instead, he wakes in the Maw — an endless, living underworld beneath reality where broken souls rot into Hollows, memories are traded like meat, and weakness is not forgiven. Branded as a failure by the divine Codex, Elias is cast into the lowest Depths with no power, no answers, and only fragmented memories of fire, smoke, and the locked door that ended his life. But the Maw does not simply devour. It remembers. To survive, Elias is forced onto a forbidden path: Vestigial Anchoring, the act of stealing power from the dead by taking pieces of their souls into himself. Each Vestige grants strength, instincts, memories, and abilities — but every stolen soul leaves a voice behind. Every victory makes him stronger. Every power drags him further from the boy he used to be. As hunters descend to erase him, tyrants tighten their grip over the broken Hollows of the Scar Quarter, and ancient secrets stir beneath the Maw, Elias becomes something the Codex was never meant to allow. Not a hero. Not a monster. Something Hollow. And if the forgotten want to survive, they may have no choice but to follow the boy the system tried to bury. Power is taken. Identity is forged. And only the Hollow can defy the system.