Hollow Knight: Hallownest

The first thing Marcos did after leaving Kingdom's Edge was to flash to the top of Crystal Peak and stumble towards the giant stone statue.

Using the Dream Gate almost drained away the little strength he had just recovered, and now even walking was difficult for him.

"No... I won't..."

There is a different kind of desire for the truth in the whispers, but this truth is not real; it is constructed relative to imagination.

The back of the radiant stone statue gradually enlarged in Marcos' eyes. It still stood there, weathered by wind and sun, with mottled marks on it, but now it lacked a certain charm, making the complete stone statue appear incomplete.

This almost imperceptible tiny change might not be noticed by other insects even if they stared at the stone statue for years, but to him, it was as obvious as if the stone statue had directly broken.

The robes were rustling in the strong wind from the top of the mountain, and the beads hanging around the necks were colliding with each other, but their owners were the only ones standing there motionless, like a painted stone sculpture, exquisite but soulless.

"how so......"

Marcos muttered in despair and placed his palm on the bottom of the stone statue. No matter how he felt, he just couldn't feel the ancient warmth that had been precipitated by the years.

King, if you still exist, please give me guidance, even if it is just a thought, please let me bathe in your glory...

The statue did not answer, but looked down at the land below as usual, and seemed to respond to him in some mysterious way.

Marcos stood there in a daze for a long time. His pupils, which had been dilated due to his absent-mindedness, suddenly focused and the blurry scenery in front of him suddenly became clear.

"Mark of Light, oh, there is also Mark of Light..."

The panic in his words was like a person falling off a cliff grabbing the last straw to save his life. Marcos staggered away from the edge of the cliff and walked in the opposite direction of the statue.

Tick...tick...tick...

His steps were very slow, perhaps because of the previous reason, or perhaps for some other reason. It took him a full cup of tea to walk a distance of more than a few dozen steps.

The scattered stone tablets glowed, just like the scene Mo Rong saw when he came here long ago, except that when the latter touched the stone tablet, the light flashed white, slow and even, while when Marcos passed by, the light flashed orange, rapid and dazzling.

Finally, he stopped in front of another cliff on the top of the mountain. There stood a group of huge stone tablets that were no less magnificent than the stone statues. What he was looking for was the largest and most mysterious stone tablet among them.

He raised his palm and gradually touched the indentations along the stone wall that was roughened by wind and sand. What was different from before was that this stone tablet did not emit such a dazzling light, but the color changed and emitted a light like the warm sun.

"Mark of Light, you will guide me to find the king, right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Marcos' eyes widened instantly, his eyeballs seemed to be about to pop out of their sockets, veins bulged on his forehead, and his expression of pain was almost twisted into a ball, making his whole face look somewhat hideous.

His already weak body suddenly lost its strength, and his legs that supported him became limp. He then fell to his knees, his hands supporting himself on the ground, his entire body shaking.

The brilliance in his eyes gradually faded, and his aura was only one tenth of what it was. At the same time, his body began to emit an extremely bright orange light, like a layer of gauze draped over his body.

As the panting became heavier, the gauze-like orange light gradually moved towards one point, condensed towards the center of his eyebrows, and finally turned into a light dot the size of a grain of rice, floating quietly in front of his eyebrows.

The light emitted by just that one point of light is as bright as the sun and is difficult to look directly at.

After the light spot appeared and solidified, it slowly floated towards the huge stone tablet in front of Marcos, and then completely merged into the strange glowing patterns.

The Seal of Light is a stone sculpture of the same level as the Statue of Radiant Light. Both are divine objects created for it by the Moth Clan in ancient times.

The former is a defensive formation that protects the moth clan, while the latter is an offensive formation that stores the power of the gods. It is because of these two stone sculptures that their territory has never been invaded by the void during that ancient war between gods. Their importance is self-evident.

However, after the War of Gods, the gods of both sides fell into a deep sleep, and the Seal of Light lost its divine power supply, and gradually lost the effect of its defensive array. The same was true for the Radiant Statue, and ultimately it could only serve as a spiritual representative for the tribe to worship.

Different from the pouring supply of the Radiant Statue, there is an extremely subtle connection between the Mark of Light and Radiant Light.

In order to prevent the two gods from being unable to take care of the tribe in the war, Radiance made drastic modifications to it, allowing the Mark of Light to actively connect with her dreams, and thus obtain a constant supply of divine power to prevent the magic circle from suddenly shattering and the territory from being lost.

This subtle connection still exists in the Mark of Light, but it is difficult to activate again unless a price is paid -

The origin of light.

Every moth born in the light possesses the origin of light, which is the source of all their unique powers. It is also the heart of every moth and the foundation of life.

In order to actively activate the light imprint, a certain amount of light origin is needed. For ordinary moths, at least three-digit insects must sacrifice their lives. This is also a line of defense set up to prevent internal strife among the moths.

As time went by, the scale of the war was almost reduced to nothing, and the number of times the Light Mark was activated became less and less, and it dropped drastically to almost zero. But it did not mean that it had not been activated. At least it lit up again a long time ago.

At that time, Marcos was also in charge.

"Light... Seal... Please... Grant me... Peace..."

With a thud, Marcos finally couldn't withstand the pain of being stripped of the source of light and fell to the ground, groaning hoarsely.

No one in the world can activate the Mark of Light by his own strength except him, and he is the only one who can survive after being stripped away. However, it is ultimately a move that hurts the foundation. Even though he absorbed Kalina's Light Source a while ago, the latter's strength is too weak and cannot be compared with his own original power. Therefore, even after recovering until now, he has not been able to maintain his dignity after being stripped away.

After the light spot was completely integrated into the bright imprint, the lines suddenly shone brightly, flickering at a certain frequency, as if looking for a being that could resonate with itself.

However, the flashing did not stop for a long time, and instead became dimmer and weaker.

"Dream......"

"This is all...a dream..."

Seeing this scene, Marcos understood something. The fire of hope in his eyes gradually went out, and he finally fainted completely.

However, the moment after he closed his eyes, the flickering light suddenly paused, faded away and completely illuminated the top of the Crystal Mountain.