Sky was calmer than usual. Night was slowly approaching. Coming back from work, Marcus suddenly searched for his gloves. It was nowhere to be found. I had kept it under the table, he thought. After a thorough search, he realised he was already wearing them.
After finding his gloves, he urgently left the house with a banging sound of the door. It was the first day of October. Roads were awfully lonely. The evening sun was radiating red light. His house stood far from the city, where the glow of neon faded and the shadows grew deeper.
The car he drove was one of the cheapest models available at that time — "Zephy V-9". Even though it was cheap, it was far faster than older models. Its maximum speed was clocked at 400 km/hr. The roads were untouched by city lights.
Marcus entered the car and activated the system. The engine responded instantly. He didn't waste time. The car accelerated smoothly, cutting through the empty road with precision. The surrounding environment gradually darkened as the last traces of sunlight disappeared. For a while, there was nothing but the sound of the engine and the cold air sliding past the glass. The road was long, straight, and empty, and Marcus kept moving without stopping.
Two hours after leaving the home, he reached the outskirts of the city. It was already night. Sunlight had completely vanished. Unlike rural areas, the city was filled with artificial light.
Marcus drove the car at 350 km/hr since it was a straight road passing through the center of the city. Traffic was low. As he entered deeper, the surroundings changed rapidly. Darkness was replaced by a uniform glow. The roads were perfectly illuminated. The buildings rose in structured alignment, each one positioned with unnatural accuracy. Even the air seemed different here. It was cleaner, colder, and strangely still.
Buildings here were built with a highly durable nanomaterial called Aetherium. In the entire world, Virelia had the highest production level of Aetherium. It made the city more engineered than anything built in the last 450 years. At night, pure Aetherium emitted a blue light. Some buildings which were made of pure Aetherium gave the city a cold blue artistry. The glow spread across the roads, reflecting from windows, walls, and tall structures, giving the city a strange beauty that was hard to ignore.
Marcus looked at the structures briefly. There were no visible imperfections. No cracks, no irregularities. Everything appeared as if it was constantly maintained. It was not just well-built — it felt controlled. The roads, the lights, the buildings, even the movement of people seemed to follow an invisible pattern. Nothing here felt random.
He didn't stop to think about it.
The car eventually stopped in front of a medium sized building. The building didn't glow blue. It was a bar.
Marcus stepped outside the car. He checked his pockets and pulled out a card. He showed this to the guard standing beside the door. The guard looked at it carefully and allowed him to pass without asking any questions.
Inside, there was a long helical pathway which led to underground floors of the bar. There were more than 70 floors within that medium sized building. 60 of them were under the ground, which made it appear smaller than its actual size. The deeper one went, the less ordinary the place seemed. The walls changed their texture slightly as he descended, becoming smoother, harder, and darker. There were lights placed at regular distances, but they did not illuminate the space fully. Instead, they seemed to cut the darkness into sections.
Marcus moved along the pathway and reached the lift. On the side of the pathway, there was a lift whose speed was greater than 10 times the speed of sound.
He stepped inside.
The door closed instantly, and the descent began. Inside the lift, there was a field generator which kept the passengers fixed to the floor even under extreme acceleration. The force field adjusted itself continuously while descending, ascending and stopping. As a result, the person inside the lift didn't feel any movement. The only thing one could feel was pressure, and even that was barely there.
Marcus stood still. The silence inside the lift felt heavier than expected. For a brief moment, a thought appeared — to turn back. But it disappeared just as quickly. There was no point in hesitating at this stage. He had already come this far, and the city above was no longer part of his immediate concern.
The lift reached the 70th floor.
The door opened.
Two blaster-bearers stood outside. They were the most effective firearm users currently in use. Their expressions were cold and neutral. They asked for identification.
Marcus took out another card. This one was different from the one he showed at the entrance.
The moment they saw it, their attitude changed. Respect replaced suspicion. They stepped aside without saying anything.
Marcus walked forward. His mind was determined, but there was a slight anxiety he couldn't completely ignore. He wore a brown jacket that showed signs of long use. Beneath it, a plain white baniyan clung to him. Combined with his cream-colored pants, it gave him a simple appearance. Nothing about him looked extraordinary at first glance, and that was the kind of appearance most useful in a place like this.
While walking, he thought about the answer he was going to give.
His steps slowed slightly.
Then stopped.
There was a door in front of him.
It was made of one of the hardest materials ever known to mankind. The surface was smooth and flawless. The door was red in colour. Around the middle, there was a newly designed touchpad and identity verifier. It was the latest biometric scanner that had been released just 2 days ago. Even from a distance, it looked far more advanced than most systems used in the city.
Marcus stood still for a moment and then pressed his thumb on the touchpad.
Within an instant, a metal alloy covered his entire body, leaving just enough room for a finger. The process was extremely fast and precise. A green light passed across the entire surface of the alloy. It scanned, checked, and measured in a way that felt almost too complete. The alloy wrapped around him only for a moment before retracting.
Verification was completed.
The door didn't open.
But Marcus was already inside.
A man sat on a black chair with his legs resting on top of a table. He had bronze tanned skin and a light V-shaped beard that was carefully maintained. His hair was combed back, revealing a wide forehead. A black tuxedo fitted perfectly over his well-built body.
He looked relaxed. Too relaxed.
The man laughed lightly. "Long time no see, Marcus. Have you decided on the matter?"
Marcus didn't hesitate. "Yes," he replied. "Your wish will be granted. The world shall start fearing its new Basileus."
The man's expression didn't change. "No Marcus," he said calmly. "The prophecy of Nyxora will come true. People of this land will find happiness again. Virelia always had its politics. Suburbs where the blue light spectrum gets dissected, nights where people preach about an upcoming prince. It all sounds good until you know the truth. That truth is where priests kneel and the king's crown starts to shake."
Marcus remained silent.
The room became quiet.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then they stood.
No more words were necessary.
They had already understood each other.
Marcus turned and walked out.
He passed the guards and entered the lift again. The ascent was as fast as before. This time, however, he noticed something subtle. For a brief moment, there was a slight distortion in his perception. It lasted only an instant, but it was enough to be noticed. He looked around but found nothing. The lift remained the same. The walls were intact, the force field was active, and the speed did not change. Still, something felt off, like the space inside had been stretched and corrected without anyone noticing.
The lift reached the surface.
Marcus stepped outside.
The city looked exactly the same — bright, stable, perfect.
Marcus turned his head slightly. His gaze contained a depth that was often interpreted as lifeless. He did not smile, nor did he show any reaction to the people moving around him. The roads were smooth. The lights were strong. The city was beautiful in a way that almost made it hard to suspect anything was wrong. But Marcus was no longer able to see it in the same way. The more he looked, the more the perfection felt artificial.
He returned to the car and drove into the alley beside the bar. There was a house glowing blue. This was a place where Marcus and his friends often gathered. The car didn't stop. It continued forward. He had no reason to stop there tonight. The visit to Kael had already changed something in him, even if the change was not obvious yet.
This was a journey he never thought he would take. There was no coming back. Not with life. Only corpses had a return.
He drove out of the city.
The more he moved away from Virelia, the more the bright blue glow faded behind him. The streets became thinner. The lights became fewer. The buildings were no longer lined with the same precision. The city behind him still glowed, but the glow was now distant, like a separate world that had chosen not to follow him.
After several hours, Marcus reached Eternum Peaks. Cold breeze enveloped the region. The mountain range was covered with blue-tinted snow. A narrow road spiraled through the peaks. The air here was colder than anything inside the city. It was not just winter cold. It was the cold of places that had been untouched for too long.
Marcus continued driving.
The further he moved away from the city, the weaker the artificial influence became. The blue glow disappeared completely. Darkness returned, broken only by the car headlights.
After some distance, Marcus began to feel something unusual. It wasn't something visible at first. It was a disturbance in perception. The road ahead appeared normal, but the sense of distance felt inconsistent. The mountain path should have been open, but the space ahead seemed to fold oddly, as if the road were longer in some places and shorter in others.
A metallic pole stood on the side of the road. Marcus passed it. After a few minutes, another pole appeared. It looked exactly the same — same structure, same angle. Marcus frowned. He checked the rearview mirror. The previous pole was still visible. However, the spacing between the two poles didn't feel correct.
Marcus slowed down.
The road ahead remained straight, but something about it felt distorted.
He stopped the car and stepped outside.
The cold wind hit him immediately.
He walked towards the pole. Each step felt slightly heavier than expected. The snow beneath his feet made a faint sound, and the mountain air pressed against his skin with unnatural force. When he reached it, he touched it.
It was solid. Real.
At that moment, a faint pulse passed through the surroundings.
Marcus noticed it instantly.
The pole didn't move physically, but its position relative to the environment felt incorrect for a brief moment before returning to normal.
Marcus stepped back.
His expression changed.
This was not an illusion.
He looked ahead again.
The road appeared stable.
But now he knew it wasn't reliable.
Marcus returned to the car and started the engine again. This time, he drove forward more carefully, paying attention to the structure of space rather than just the road. The deeper he went, the more the environment felt detached from normal rules. The mountain looked the same, but the distance between objects no longer felt trustworthy. The air itself seemed to carry a light pressure, as if the region was resisting his presence.
Marcus didn't turn back.
Because now he understood something clearly.
The world outside Virelia was not stable.
And whatever Virelia was doing, it was not just maintaining a city.
It was holding something together.
Something far larger than the city itself.
And if that stability failed, Marcus could already imagine what would happen.
The blue light of Virelia was not just beauty. It was structure. It was control. It was a boundary. Beyond that boundary, reality began to bend in ways that ordinary people would never notice until it was too late.
Marcus drove through the mountain road without stopping. The night around him was silent, but it was not peaceful. It felt watchful. Somewhere deep in the dark, something was waiting. He did not know what it was yet, but he knew one thing with certainty.
The answer was not in the city anymore.
It was deeper.
Far deeper.
And Kael had already known that.
Marcus tightened his grip on the steering wheel and kept driving into the darkness.