Seven Hollows for Seven Hunters
Published on HivePostify by @inotia-king · Sun Aug 23 2026
-and of these, the Professor is nearest unto Hell. (this is a play on a quote from Genshin's Zhongli who said about the Raiden Shogun: Seven Ideals for Seven Gods and of these, Eternity is nearest unto Heaven.)
Ok it's six hollows but who's counting? Hi guys! I am Inotia King a [youtuber](https://t.ly/we8Tl "This link will take you away from hive.blog"), [redditor](https://t.ly/pVfdM "This link will take you away from hive.blog") and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game [Genshin Impact](https://t.ly/oe-Fc "This link will take you away from hive.blog") and [Star Rail](https://t.ly/s6pb "This link will take you away from hive.blog") that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories [here.](https://t.ly/hQVT "This link will take you away from hive.blog") I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
I've tossed out a few Hail Mary theories with this company. A few of them have paid off too like noting that the [gods and dragons of Genshin are no different than the angels or Seelies or slimes and specters](https://hive.blog/hive-157640/@inotia-king/archon-101-2026-edition), that the other Gnoses besides Zhongli's would be [queen chess pieces just like Venti's](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin\Lore/comments/zcxmxg/one\last\lap\around\the\track/) rather than knights, bishops or another rook and that [all of the Fontainians were actually Oceanids](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin\Lore/comments/167kxxj/furina\rejects\your\reality\and\substitutes\her/). I haven't had as much luck with Zenless but recently, I've been accurately predicting things about the [Season 2 Epilogue](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZenlessZoneZeroLore/comments/1sw838z/thats\how\you\tell\a\story/) and [Season 3 so far](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZenlessZoneZeroLore/comments/1v74lf9/we\thought\taking\back\the\world\was\a\matter\of/). Therefore, let's crank it up a notch again and go for another big theory. What is the Creator's endgame?
And when I say "Creator" I of course mean the Zenless dev team. Remielle is already released and Sunbringer is likely to be this Season's last Void Hunter. Then we'll have Season 4 and right now we've been getting more and more details about Joyous so I think it's a safe bet he'll release then. I've then suggested that Vike being a Mei expy is likely not actually dead and her having already become an Enchainer is a shoutout to Mei having turned into the Herrscher of Thunder very early on in Honkai Impact 3rd. She got better so so can Vike which might even be part of the climax to Season 3. She'll need time to recover of course so Season 4 would be a good fit for her. Perhaps she'll finally be fighting fit for the climax while Joyous will reveal his survival in the Epilogue of this season.
Two Void Hunters per season though. If this is the pace the devs have set for this group of seven, Miyabi's already our Swordmaster replacement since we know she's dead and Miyabi's her descendant. I'm then going to say that Shunguang who was chosen by the Qingming Sword is the replacement for the leader of the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe given we see him saving Sarah in a flashback during Season 2's climax. Sarah and Shunguang's stories are intricately tied together since Sarah became her replacement as the Creator's Messenger when Phaethon interfered with Shunguang's conversion. The Intelligent Construct may even still be alive though without any memory of who he is given the Qingming Sword removes memories and senses before removing existence. It could then be that because he's mechanical, only his memories were taken and not his existence since his body isn't organic. Otherwise maybe he just lost the sword once he lost all data regarding owning it and how to use it which inadvertently saved it.
Wait, so we have Swordmaster and the robot. We've gotten Remielle with Sunbringer this year and Vike and Joyous are set to make their debut. That's six. Am I saying Arche was replaced by Yixuan? That doesn't sound right does it? But then again, the Professor is the issue isn't he?
Did you guys notice this? Remielle brings up Arche a few times. She talks about it like he's just there with the rest of them. They joke about how he gets annoyed at Joyous. But in all of the memories Remielle thinks back on, the man's never actually shown once. And that brings us further back. In the Where the Miracle Began trailer, they noticeably pause before bringing up Arche. The girl in the video comments about all of the other ones but once we get to Arche there's a pause, the video even breaks up between announcing the other six and him and then he shows up in an ominous animation. I think that's meant to mean something. I think it means that-
Remielle believes he might have known all about how the Karma Cores would corrupt them, maybe even planning for it. If that's the case then not only should we not be getting a playable version of him, he should turn out to be one of the major enemies going forward. (look at that, I did count the Hollows)
If that's the case, doesn't it actually ruin the pacing? It turns out no. Season 2 started out with a Void Hunter Agent but she's not actually a Void Hunter. Yixuan if anything is also related to the Qingming Sword. Her research into it is what gave her the Auric Ink she uses as her weapon. It is powerful enough to be a match for other Void Hunters as shown by her teaser trailer where she matched Miyabi move for move but Auric Ink isn't a Void Hunter Weapon. In other words, Yixuan is actually a Void Hunter level fighter who doesn't need a Void Hunter Weapon. [I have another theory on why that is](https://hive.blog/hive-157640/@inotia-king/the-kiana-sisters-arc) but as it relates here, I think she replaces the Professor in the sense that since he's an enemy, we'll need an equally powerful ally to compensate. Arche plans meticulously. He probably knows all the weaknesses and exploits of the other six weapons and has even prepared for future encounters against them in order to provoke their Enchainer conversions. Without a wild card, humanity would lose that confrontation and the Creator would destroy the Zenless universe. Yixuan gives us a fighting chance. And I say that even with Pyrois now on the team. After all, Pyrois and the experiments done on Phaethon were part of Arche's plans too. The only one who likely wasn't is Yixuan since she's technically a discarded failure. (check out the linked theory)
But there's another issue right? If we do go at this pace of two per season, we're about to run out of Void Hunters. Season 4 will end with all of them out. What then? Are we really going to take the fight to Arche next season? That might be a little soon after just finding out that first gen Void Hunters are still alive and kicking in the present day. Well, let's just say Season 4 will end it for now. Again, I believe that Joyous will appear first at the end of this season and release as our first Void Hunter in Season 4. Vike will then appear for the climax. Honestly, it could work out. Season 3 is set to explain Sunbringer's regrets over her plans to protect Eridu from the Creator. Part of that was assisting in the Professor's plans meaning we should find out that he's been playing for the other team. Perhaps his Karma Core was corrupted right from the start or very soon after he fused with it. Perhaps he was always corrupt and manipulating the others which is why Sunbringer failed. In any case, if we find out about him then we should also find out about all of the crimes of Helios Academy which was the central plot for our protagonists. There wouldn't be much more story to tell after that. In fact, my other prediction for Season 3 was that the TOPS plot would be revealed in v3.2 and resolved by the end of the Epilogue. (since v3.2 is actually the Flint Workshop instead I guess the TOPS stuff will just be the Epilogue) It could be that TOPS was working with Arche or at least for him. Maybe that's what Joyous has been doing this whole time, perhaps even with Vike since she was directly impacted by his schemes. It would fit with her expy role given Mei had joined World Serpent only to rejoin Kiana and Bronya for the final battle against the Cocoon of Finality and over in Star Rail, Acheron fell into becoming a Self-Annihilator of IX only to defy it and the Path of Nihility.
Side Note: Speaking of which, when it was announced that we would go to Roscaelifer this season, I also thought it was too soon. Roscaelifer is to Zenless what Celestia is to Genshin. However, if the central plot is already going to be fully revealed next season, it's not too soon at all.
If Season 4 is the finale, does that mean the game will end? Of course not. My overarching prediction then takes place: [branched time](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZenlessZoneZeroLore/comments/1ajt9at/getting\the\ball\rolling/). The fact that this game's main city, also the world's final city, is named Eridu points to the Sumerian myth about the five cities. Eridu's only the first. Nippur is the one that ultimately succeeds in the end. Given the trajectory of the story so far, it's likely Season 4 would only end the "first city" section. I've predicted that [Phaethon will be forced to become the true Enchainer and the vessel for the returning Creator](https://www.reddit.com/r/ZenlessZoneZeroLore/comments/1sjh8l8/wait\thats\whats\getting\rewound/). However, thanks to our growth over these last four years, Phaethon will overcome the Creator's pull and reject becoming its vessel. In that case, maybe Arche himself might take on the role just like Sarah before him. Sadly the damage would already be done. I mean first of all, we'd seen visions of Phaethon becoming the Pyrois Ethereal and then by v2.8 they did transform into it. Pyrois itself warned that it would take over one day so that transformation will likely be irreversible. We can't exactly play as a big scary glowing monster so that needs to be fixed. It could also be that since Arche plans meticulously, he'll successively corrupt all the other Void Hunters first and that would just leave Phaethon as the Pyrois Ethereal and Yixuan. I've suggested that maybe Yixuan's role will be like Sirin in Honkai Gakuen and she'll need to merge aka sacrifice herself to give Phaethon the power to reset the world so they can try again. If they don't do it, we'd be left in a world where all the Void Hunters are now fully powered Enchainers commanding the Six Great Hollows, New Eridu'd probably be flattened, Arche is dead, Helios is in ruins and our player Proxy is a big scary orange demon creature with its consciousness back thanks to Yixuan who'd also be dead. So to save all the lives lost and return Phaethon to their human form, we'll need to get to the "second city" section of the game. With all the knowledge we've gained over these four years, this "Bad-tibira" timeline will diverge significantly and so it can play out like its own game. Maybe we might even save Yijiang by converting her from the mangled Miasmic Fiend that Isolde resurrected. Maybe we could free Remielle and find Sunbringer sooner, telling them what we now know thus giving our side a better chance at victory. Of course, these big moves should also alert Arche and we may not have had the chance to defeat the Exaltists yet so Arche might unite them with TOPS, fortifying his position too. The story would be far from over even if the base scheme is already known.
That said, there's nothing saying we can't push it off to a Season 5. Even if Vike releases as the final Void Hunter, the season could just end with the stage set for the final battle. Season 5 would then be a whole year dedicated to that grudge match and then it would still lead to the reset. However, we'd be out of Void Hunters by then so what might we be expected to get? I think we've already gotten the answer twice now. In Season 1's Epilogue we got an S-Rank upgrade to Anby. In Season 2, we got one for Billy. I've already predicted that Nicole's presence in Roscaelifer and now her noshow since the start of Season 3 means she'll be the one getting the upgrade this Epilogue. In that case, by Season 5 there's no reason we couldn't get an upgrade for the Void Hunters too. Season 5 will be three and half years since Miyabi's release. The girl's become a little antiquated already so by then she'll be ancient. Maybe she'll gain tails like her ancestor. Yixuan was the next Void Hunter to debut and while she's still very much meta (don't leave for Papago without her) if my prediction about her role in the finale is correct, she'd still be due an updated form. Maybe she'll gain full access to her Herrscher of the Void expy abilities like "Cubic Auric Ink" or something. Maybe she'd get space manipulation abilities like Asmoday, the expy from Genshin or a one winged angel look like Phainon, the genderbent expy from Star Rail. (Phainon is based on Kevin Kaslana a genderbent version of Kiana) Maybe this Yixuan will demonstrate what a true emissary of the Imaginary Tree should look like, perhaps awakening the first Enchainer-level being that's entirely inaccessible to the Creator's corruption. This could be how Phaethon breaks free too.
Given the pace of Void Hunter releases in this game, it's likely we'll get the final two of the seven next year. That could lead to the finale but it only needs to be the finale of Part 1 to this game. Arche is likely not playable and will be the true enemy that's been working to restore the Creator this whole time and so in his place we received Yixuan Shifu who is the only person with the powers of a Void Hunter that doesn't need a Void Hunter Weapon to reach that level. She may play the role of Sirin to our Kiana as we become the Enchainer version of the Herrscher of the End and reset the Zenless timeline to do better next time.
Will this come true? I have no idea but this is the theory I'm going with. Let's see what happens!
Tags: #hive-157640#zzz#zenless#gaming#hoyoverse#mihoyo#hivegc#timeline