The air inside the Rotting Cathedral thickened, as if reality itself struggled to contain the darkness seeping from its cursed walls. Selene Nocturna stood before her grand mirror, fingers delicately tracing the worn silver edges. A flickering greenish mist swirled within the glass, shifting like restless souls trapped between worlds.
She adjusted her hood, pulling it over her head as she admired her reflection. Her lips curled, smeared with the remnants of old blood, her pale skin a canvas of corruption and beauty alike. The brooch at her chest pulsed faintly, the alchemical vial within it glowing with sickly green light.
"Tonight, the veil shall lift."
Her voice was a whisper, yet it carried through the cathedral like a command. Shadows slithered at her feet, obeying an unheard call. She turned away, striding towards the massive double doors of the cathedral, their rotted wood creaking as she pushed them open.
Beyond, the world lay cloaked in eerie twilight, the moon a sickly shade of violet. Her domain stretched far—villages lost to plague, forests now gnarled with death, rivers turned stagnant with poison. Yet, even with her dominion expanding, there were those who still resisted.
And tonight, she would remind them why they feared the dark.
From the twisted trees emerged her creations—plagueborn revenants, their hollow eyes alight with green fire. They knelt before her, their movements eerily synchronized, their armor rusted but unbroken. Selene lifted her arms, her voice cutting through the silence.
"The living dare whisper rebellion. They think light still shines through this filth-ridden world."
Her nails scraped against her palm, black ichor dripping onto the ground. The earth trembled beneath her.
"Let us remind them who truly reigns."
The revenants rose as one. The night itself seemed to bow to Selene, her cloak billowing like the wings of a dark goddess. With a slow, deliberate movement, she reached into the air and twisted reality itself—a rift forming, revealing a village on the edge of her territory. Torches flickered in the distance, voices rising in fearful murmurs.
Selene stepped forward.
The night would not end in silence.