Story 783: Beneath the Screen

The Rotting Cathedral lay in eerie silence. The battle had ended, yet the war still breathed. Selene Nocturna stood alone, her bloodied lips curved into something unreadable—neither a smile nor a scowl. A thin stream of dark ichor dripped from her side where Kruger’s dagger had struck her, yet she seemed... unbothered.

She slowly raised her hand, pressing her palm against the wound. Dark tendrils of necrotic energy slithered beneath her skin, sealing the injury. The pain was nothing. A mere reminder of his resistance.

Her fingers traced the edge of her hood as she lowered it, revealing hollowed cheekbones, veins blackened like cracked marble, and eyes that burned with an unnatural glow. This form—this face—was not the one she once had.

Not the one she was born with.

She tilted her head, whispering incantations into the stale air. The shadows around her pulsed in response, writhing like living things. The walls of the cathedral groaned as if awakening from a long slumber.