The Aether's Echo: Witness of the Brass City

Elias "Ash" Thorne is just a cynical, struggling man in the sprawling, smog-choked Brass City—a metropolis powered by steam, clockwork, and industrial grime. He wants nothing more than to survive the week, but fate has other plans. When a seemingly ordinary murder leads him to a blood-soaked brass locket, his world shatters. He doesn't gain a cheat system or a magical potion; instead, he unlocks The Witness, a terrifying Aetheric Frequency that attunes his mind to Truth and lets him see the echoes of gruesome past events. Power, however, is a corrosive poison. Each use of his ability brings him closer to succumbing to the Echo—a unique, Cthulhic madness that promises complete, terrifying Existential Doubt. If he ascends, he will lose his mind and believe the world is a lie. Hunted by the secretive Order of the Scribe and the anarchic Cult of the Echo, Ash is thrust into a millennium-spanning conspiracy. He must solve the Bloody Locket mystery, uncover the horrific Sealing Rituals of the ancient past, and face the immortal Ancient Beings whose existence warps reality itself—all before the relentless, escalating horror of his own power devours his sanity. In a city built on brass and fear, the pursuit of truth might be the fastest way to the grave.