Zhang Lu's grip tightened around Merlina's hand as they burst from the apartment, the door slamming shut behind them with a hollow finality.
Nocturne City swallowed them whole.
The streets lay beneath an eternal twilight, bathed in bruised purples and muted blues. Mana lamps drifted overhead like lazy fireflies, their glow casting long, wavering shadows—shadows that moved just a fraction too independently.
First field trip in a new world, Zhang Lu thought grimly.
Running from eldritch sludge. Five stars. Would recommend to no one.
Whispers slithered at the edges of his mind.
Fragments of failure. The echo of Orion's laughter. The familiar weight of unpaid bills and closed doors. The Murk's scouts—testing, tasting.
"Left," Merlina hissed.
She yanked him into a narrow alley as her illusion snapped into place. Three phantom versions of them split off at once, sprinting in different directions, their outlines shimmering like heat haze.
The shadow tendrils hesitated.
One illusion shattered with a wet, soundless collapse, darkness recoiling as if burned.
"Nice trick," Zhang Lu panted, lungs already screaming. Lewis's body was far fitter than his old one, but the earlier mana surge left him jittery, overstimulated—like chugging far too much caffeine. "You're carrying this team, Lina."
She flashed him a quick grin over her shoulder, hair whipping behind her. "Someone has to. Your shadows are more… dramatic flailing than precision."
Ouch.
Fair.
They weaved through the undercity sprawl—slick cobblestones perpetually damp with mist, gothic arches dripping condensation, spires stabbing into a starless sky. Vendors hawked glowing charms from rattling carts, either oblivious or willfully blind to the creeping darkness.
A patrol of Dark Castle enforcers clanked past in black armor.
Zhang Lu dragged Merlina into a recessed doorway, heart pounding.
Father's people, his mind supplied automatically.
Note to self: avoid family reunions.
When the patrol passed, they slipped onward and dropped through a rusted service grate. The journal's map burned clearly in Zhang Lu's mind now, guiding his steps through forgotten maintenance tunnels beneath the aqueducts.
The descent stole his breath.
The tunnels were vast, ancient. Walls etched with runes pulsed softly, glowing like veins beneath translucent skin. Water channels ran alongside them—once pristine, now tinged black, rippling upward as though gravity had lost its authority. Bioluminescent moss clung to the ceiling, bathing the stone in ghostly greens and blues.
Magic here was alive.
Breathing.
Beautiful, Zhang Lu thought. And terrifying.
Merlina's hand in his grounded him.
"You okay?" she whispered, noticing his stare.
"Yeah," he murmured. "Just admiring the plumbing from hell."
She snorted quietly. "You're strange tonight."
If only you knew.
They emerged at the aqueduct gate—a crumbling stone arch spanning a subterranean chasm. Vines as thick as serpents coiled over the structure, their veins pulsing faintly. Below, the main channel roared, black water churning as shadows pooled like oil slicks.
Someone waited.
Or what remained of him.
A hooded figure slumped against a pillar, robes torn, skin pale and webbed with creeping darkness.
"Lewis…" he rasped as they approached. "Too late. The breach… it hungers."
The shadows erupted.
Tendrils burst from the water, whipping through the air, whispering secrets and regrets. One sliced across Zhang Lu's cape, fabric sizzling as it tore.
"Down!" Merlina shoved him aside.
Illusions bloomed instantly—mirror images fracturing the space, confusing the surge of darkness.
Zhang Lu rolled to his feet, lantern flaring blue as he swung it instinctively. The flame disrupted a tendril mid-lash, forcing it to recoil.
Come on, he thought wildly. I've read scarier fanfiction than you.
He tried to form a shadow ward.
Too much.
Mana surged violently, exploding outward in raw, uncontrolled bursts. One severed a tendril cleanly. Another scorched the air dangerously close to Merlina.
"Sorry!" he shouted.
"Focus!" she snapped, weaving more decoys.
His gaze snapped to the environment.
Rusted levers—ancient flood controls.
Memory clicked. Purification runes tied to flow.
Zhang Lu sprinted, dodging lashes, and threw his weight onto a lever. It groaned, then gave. Clear water surged from side channels, diluting the black.
The shadows shrieked, thinning.
Merlina amplified the effect with illusionary light, blinding and disorienting.
The informant slumped, gasping his final words. "Seal… blood and light. Mother's orb…"
Then the breach widened.
Something vast rose from the chasm.
A humanoid silhouette of writhing darkness, eyes burning crimson like twin moons.
It lunged.
Merlina threw up a barrier illusion—shimmering, radiant. It held for seconds before fracturing. A tendril slipped through, grazing her arm.
Black veins spread instantly.
"Lina!" Zhang Lu shouted.
Pain flashed across her face, but she clenched her teeth. "Seal it. Now."
Zhang Lu didn't hesitate.
He pressed his still-bleeding finger to the lantern's brass, chanting words he half-remembered, half-felt—ancient syllables pulled from Lewis's muscle memory.
The lantern erupted.
A beam of blue fire tore through the avatar, unraveling its form.
The backlash hit instantly.
Mana overload surged through him. A final tendril slashed across his chest—white-hot pain exploding outward.
The avatar imploded.
The breach snapped shut.
Silence fell.
Zhang Lu staggered.
Merlina caught him as he collapsed. "Lewis—stay with me."
Darkness took him.
He drifted into indigo.
Not void, but a vast dreamscape—twisted black trees arching beneath a massive crimson moon reflected in mirror-still pools. Glowing particles drifted like ethereal snow.
A presence approached.
She emerged from the trees, tall and terrible, draped in flowing black robes edged with shimmering silver fur. Chains and talismans adorned her clawed hands. An ornate staff crowned with an unblinking eye rested in one grip.
In the other pulsed a crimson orb.
A heart.
A moon.
A judgment.
Her face was veiled in chains and shadow, pale skin luminous beneath. Her eyes unseen—yet felt.
Divine.
Maternal.
Terrifying.
She stopped before him and lifted his chin with gentle claws.
"Brave little intruder," she murmured, voice sliding through his soul.
Her lips brushed his ear, power radiating warmth and frost.
"I know you. Not my son… yet you wear his shadow convincingly."
Zhang Lu swallowed. "Bad cosmic matchmaking?"
A low, dangerous chuckle.
"You shift the flows," she whispered. "Play the part well… or rewrite the tale. My death was a veil. The Castle hungers. And you… are the wrong reflection it fears."
The orb pulsed, searing a subtle rune into his chest.
"Why me?" he asked.
"Because weakness births wit," she replied softly. "And wit unmakes gods."
She faded into starlight.
Zhang Lu gasped awake.
Merlina hovered over him, bandaging his chest. Relief flooded her face when his eyes opened.
"You're back."
"The breach?" he croaked.
"Sealed. For now."
He felt the rune beneath his skin. Mana steadier. Changed.
He stood slowly, offering his hand.
Whatever game the goddess was playing—
He would play it too.
For Merlina.
For survival.
And maybe… to win.