Beneath the smiling heart…Older things wait.Things that even Velvora fears.
The earth didn't shake—it shuddered. As if something buried beneath the crust of Nocturne had drawn breath after a long, painful silence.
With a splitting, wet groan, the grotesque Heart of Velvora peeled apart. Its smile, once twisted and jagged, now tore wider, revealing a descending passageway framed in rot and rust.
A staircase spiraled down — bone-white steps fused with rusted steel, crusted over with black ichor. From within the new chasm, a breath like rotting perfume wafted up.
Lucien winced. "Oh, that's not ominous at all."
His voice trembled just slightly. He ran a hand through his silver-streaked hair, then adjusted his glasses. "Classic horror move. Big fleshy demon heart says 'Step inside,' and the idiot teens oblige. Guess we're the idiots."
"Damn right," Asher muttered, cinching his jacket tight. "But we've already seen too much to walk away."
Rosa's expression was grim, but unwavering. Her pistol clicked as she loaded a fresh mag. "We end this. Or we die trying."
They stepped onto the stairs.
And Velvora swallowed them whole.
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Descent Into the Forgotten Layer
Each step down into the spiraling abyss made breathing harder. The air thickened into syrup, warm and almost sweet—like overripe fruit beginning to ferment. The walls around them pulsed faintly, flesh-like, exhaling damp heat.
Strange symbols lined the staircase walls—glyphs carved into the marrow of the bone. They glowed faint amber as the trio passed.
Lucien trailed his fingers over one. "Old Velvoran. Pre-Nocturne dialect. Hold on…" He squinted, lips moving as he translated.
"Bound in joy, fed by sorrow…Keepers of the city's breath,Watchers beneath the pulse…"
"That supposed to be a warning or a prayer?" Asher asked.
Lucien deadpanned, "Yes."
Rosa scoffed. "Just another Tuesday in urban hell."
But none of them laughed.
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Flashbacks: The Founders of Velvora
Without warning, the stairwell blurred.
Asher gasped, grabbing the railing as his vision twisted. The world melted—and then returned as a memory not his own.
— A priestess with crimson eyes stood at the center of a barren crater, carving the first glyphs into the earth with a knife of bone. Black vines burst from the soil, wrapping her in a loving embrace.
— A robed figure bowed before the Heart in its infancy, offering bloodied cloth and bones. "Feed, and the city shall never hunger."
— The founders—masked, graceful, and serene—rocked the pulsing, infant Heart like a child, singing lullabies in a forgotten tongue.
Lucien came to first, stumbling slightly as he shook off the vision. "They didn't just find the Heart. They grew it. Designed Velvora to be a living organism—a parasite-city."
Rosa's knuckles whitened as she gripped her necklace. "And we kept feeding it. Every war, every murder, every broken family…"
Asher didn't speak. He just kept walking.
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City Above: Goofy Chaos Continues
Back in Nocturne…
— Juno's Soup Stand put out a chalkboard special: "Heart Broth! Grin While You Sip!" The line wrapped around the block.
— Detective Malone, soaked in sweat, was chasing a three-legged, glowing cat through traffic. "COME BACK WITH MY BADGE, YOU LITTLE DEMON!"
— Atop a roof, a trio of cultists were mid-argument.
"I say we keep worshipping the Heart!"
"But the Predator King is way cooler!"
"We can't afford another schism, Gary!"
Nocturne stayed ridiculous, even as doom loomed like a smog cloud on the horizon.
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The Chamber of Echoes
After what felt like hours, the stairs ended.
Before them stretched a vast underground cathedral, lit by bioluminescent veins crawling across the ceiling like constellations.
At the chamber's center: a fossilized version of the Heart. Hardened, grey, still breathing. As if sleeping. As if waiting.
All around it stood statues—towering humanoid figures. They looked human… but weren't. Too tall. Too thin. Smiling far too wide.
Their faces stretched with unnatural joy.
Lucien whispered, "These aren't statues. They're Echoes."
Rosa tilted her head. "Echoes?"
"Failed iterations. Past attempts to make the Heart something greater. Discarded skins. Sentient memories."
The ground shook—softly at first, then harder.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the grinning statues.
They Awaken
A voice—many voices—screamed inside their heads:
"INTRUDERS."
Stone snapped. Flesh peeled back. The Echoes awoke.
Their bodies half-rock, half-living sinew. Limbs lengthened, blades made of their own ribs erupting from cracked torsos. Grins split wider than possible.
Asher's dagger was already out. "Of course. Creepy basement. Smile monsters. Let's go."
Rosa shot first—three rounds sparking off one Echo's face before one found soft meat beneath its jaw.
Lucien slashed the air, drawing a blood-glyph mid-motion. Golden chains erupted, binding one Echo in place.
Asher darted between them, blade flashing. "Our city now, freaks!"
The chamber exploded in violence—chaotic, primal, desperate.
But the Heart wasn't done.
As the last Echo stumbled, the voice returned. Wet. Loving. Mocking.
"You kill them… but you are them. Every scream, every blade, every rush of violence — it brings you closer to me."
Asher faltered mid-step.
In a pool of blood, his reflection grinned back at him. It wasn't his face. It wasn't right.
"No…" he breathed, staggering back.
"Yes," the voice crooned. "Your pain feeds me. Your victories are my seeds. The chaos you love makes me whole."
Lucien threw a glyph into the stone, burning it bright white.
"Don't listen to it!" Rosa yelled, blasting an Echo apart. "You're not this city's toy. You're its goddamn cure!"
The final Echo fell, crumbling into smiling dust.
Silence.
Then—
The fossilized Heart at the chamber's core pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A new beat, deeper and angrier, throbbed through the floor.
The ground cracked. The walls trembled.
Above, in Nocturne's skyline, buildings shivered. Windows burst. Black vines erupted from the streets.
Something older than the Heart… was waking up.
[End of Chapter 96]
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Chapter 97 – "Velvora's True Face"
They've seen the smiling heart.Now they face the architect of the city's curse — the being that built Velvora to bleed.The truth of the city's birth, the cost of its survival, and the choice that could end it all.Will they destroy the city to save it?Or will the city finally devour its children?