Every city hides skeletons in closets. Nocturne buries entire civilizations beneath its streets—and tonight, the dirt gives way.
The chanting grew louder.
Not just in volume, but in presence—like a fog creeping under doors, seeping into lungs, wrapping itself around the ribs and whispering to the heart.Low at first—like wind slipping through broken glass—but rising now with every passing second until it rattled Asher's bones.
He yanked the window open.
Neon light from the alley below flickered across his face. His breath caught in his throat. Shadows moved down there—six figures, clad in tattered robes the color of spoiled ink, circled an open manhole. Their movements were wrong. Not inhuman, just... incorrect. Like they were pantomiming humanity but kept forgetting how joints worked.
Their hands rose as one, smeared with thick black ichor that shimmered despite the darkness.
Behind him, Lilith was no longer lounging.
She stood now—spine straight, crimson eyes glowing faintly, her tail lashing once before vanishing under her borrowed hoodie.
"Asher," she said. Her voice had lost all its usual teasing lilt. It was flat now. Cold."Close that window."
He didn't ask why. He just did it.
Glass thudded shut. The sound of the chanting dampened slightly, but the pulse of it still vibrated in his skull like a headache made of sound.
"They're priests," Lilith continued, pacing toward him. "Of the Eye. They're not here to chant. They're here to open it."
Asher's fingers moved to his side instinctively. The cold metal of his sidearm gave no comfort, but habit was hard to kill.He pulled it, thumbed the safety off, and stared at the locked window—like it was a dam holding back a flood that didn't care about matter.
The neon outside flickered again.
And for a moment—a brief, heart-piercing second—reality shifted.The entire skyline of Nocturne lurched, as though the city had blinked. Or hiccupped. Buildings stretched, then compressed, then snapped back to normal like rubber bands under tension.
The robed figures below screamed in joy."Ashevora… Vell-K'ra… Ash'keth!"
A pulse rippled through the alley.
Beneath them, inside the open sewer mouth, something moved.Something massive. And wet.It gurgled like a dying god trying to remember how to breathe.
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Cut Scene: The City's Forgotten Heart
Velvora.Beneath an abandoned subway station where no track had run for seventy years, another ritual reached its apex.
Hundreds of robed worshippers packed the tunnel—chanting, trembling, writhing in unified ecstasy. In front of them, a colossal mural stretched across the curved wall, made of gold leaf, dried blood, and something that still pulsed faintly.
It showed Nocturne's skyline—only inverted.Upside down.Crumbling.Collapsing into a spiral pit filled with open mouths and unblinking eyes.
At its center loomed a symbol older than the city's foundations:A great lidless eye, black as starless space, surrounded by concentric rings of flame.
A priest stepped forward. His skin was grey and cracked like burned bark. His eyes were sewn shut with red thread, but he moved as though he could see everything.
He raised a jagged dagger.
"Tonight, the wall between Velvora and Nocturne cracks! The surface shall bleed, and the Eye shall consume the false light!"
The cult screamed in approval.
The dagger fell—slashing open the chest of a chained sacrifice with a wet crack. Blood spilled across the floor and into the mural.
And the mural… moved.It pulsed.Not metaphorically.
The colors shimmered like oil, shifting in patterns no eye should follow.
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Back to Asher & Lilith
The alley outside shuddered again.
Asher slammed the window shut as a burst of kinetic force cracked the pavement below. Trash cans flipped end over end, their contents scattered. The six figures below convulsed—twisting unnaturally. Joints popped, spines stretched. One of them let out a scream that was all vowels and teeth.
Lilith didn't flinch.She stepped forward, grabbing Asher's shoulder. Her nails bit through the fabric of his coat."You need to get to the Gate."
He blinked. "What Gate? Where?!"
Her eyes flared. "Velvora's main gate. The old Cathedral beneath Saint Draven's Square. That's where it's anchored. That's the lock. If that thing breaks—Nocturne and Velvora will merge. No more borders. No more up and down. Just… one city."
His gut turned.
He'd spent months surviving Nocturne's urban nightmares—dodging demons, gangs, blood cults, rogue mechs, and gods-pretending-to-be-men.He couldn't even imagine what it meant to combine that with the madness lurking beneath.
But some part of him had always known.
Velvora wasn't just the underbelly of Nocturne. It was the disease festering under a too-perfect bandage.And now? The boil was about to burst.
As he turned toward the door, Lilith grabbed the back of his coat again.
"You're going like that?"
He glanced down. The same long black coat he always wore."Yeah. What's wrong with it?"
She arched a brow. "It's got dried demon guts on the collar. And cigarette burns. You're facing an apocalypse cult, not playing bass at a vampire dive bar."
Asher opened his mouth. Closed it.
"…Fair point."
She tossed him another jacket. Slightly less cursed. Still had pentagram patches and smelled faintly of brimstone, but hey—cleaner.
He grumbled. "I hate this city."
Lilith flashed a grin. "Yeah. But it loves you, detective."
As he grabbed his keys and holster, Lilith's voice dropped.
"The Eye only opens every few decades," she said.
Asher turned. "So this isn't new?"
She didn't answer at first.
Then:"Last time it almost broke through, Nocturne lost half its population. They called it the Night of a Thousand Screams."
His hand froze on the doorknob."When was that?"
She looked away."Before your time. Before even mine."
Her eyes met his. All traces of playfulness gone.
"If the Eye fully opens this time? It'll make that night look like a birthday party."
Rain slicked the streets of Nocturne as Asher stepped outside.Thunder cracked, distant but rising.
Above him, neon signs sputtered.
Below, under Saint Draven's Square, the Gate began to hum.
And across the twin cities, cultists howled in blood-drunk joy as the Eye stirred.
The skyline shimmered.Reality thinned.And the Gate cracked louder.
[End of Chapter 99]
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Next Chapter:Chapter 100 – The Cathedral Beneath the SquareThe door between cities has always existed. Tonight, Asher finds out what happens when it finally swings open.