It had many names: Void, Abyss, Dark Realm. Each had its justification.
Accounts of its origin varied wildly, but none who offered them had lived even a millionth as long as it had. The only points of agreement were its uncontrollable nature and the terrible threat it posed.
It was the Sea of the Unlight.
In the world of Hollow Knight, it lay at the deepest point underground. This ancient, pitch-black substance, almost as old as the world itself, devoured any life that approached it.
Fortunately, so long as no one interfered with it, it would remain quietly in place, posing not the slightest danger to the life above.
After all, the Void was far too dangerous. Who would be reckless enough to meddle with it?
Yet beneath this land lay a different answer, one that perhaps no being would find satisfactory.
A ripple passed through the Void, almost as though it had been startled by some sudden presence or realization.
It began to churn in fear, swirling within its consciousness, yet allowing itself to be driven.
It boiled, then emerged.
A wave of Void rose from the misshapen black lake and crashed violently against a distant patch of land composed entirely of refuse.
Within the wave, clawlike fingers burrowed into the polluted ground like sprouting roots.
Though their grip was tight, the arms attached to them were relaxed, swaying lazily in the gentle torrent of black liquid.
Another wave tore through the lake's glasslike surface, revealing another hand, which dug its sharp claws into the distant ground.
But it did not stop there. Another black shape surfaced from the darkest depths of the Royal Waterways' blackened waters.
It was its head.
The head, crowned with enormous, pitch-black curved horns, rose high, then slowly sank toward the ground, pressing