Chapter 13 — The City That Forgot to Wake
Dawn never came.
At six a.m., every clock in Azure City struck the hour—then stopped. The sky remained the bruised violet of perpetual twilight. Streetlights hummed on despite the power grid being perfectly fine. People awoke but couldn't remember the night before; half the city moved through the morning like actors without a script.
Gu Tian stood on a rooftop, wind tugging at his coat. From here the city looked normal—but he could feel it: time dragging, the rhythm of the world uneven. The Netherworld System recorded it in sterile pulses.
> [Dimensional Stability: 88 % → 77 %]
[Cognitive Contamination Index: Rising]
His senses pierced the veil between soul and stone. Behind each building's facade, faint silhouettes of something else stirred—echoes of people who shouldn't exist. The Abyss was writing over reality line by line, as if testing how much the world would tolerate before breaking.
A vibration ran through his bones. The heartbeat again—closer now, synchronizing with his own pulse.
Gu Tian exhaled slowly. "So this is how it spreads."
He leapt from the rooftop. The moment his feet touched the street, the illusion cracked. Cars sat idle, engines running but drivers asleep with eyes open. A newspaper vendor stared blankly at the horizon, murmuring, "Still dreaming… still dreaming…" over and over.
Gu Tian passed him. Every step sent a faint glow rippling across the ground—Netherlight, purging the invisible corruption clinging to space.
> [Abyssal Signatures Neutralized: 47 %]
[Warning: Core Source Not Found]
A child's laugh echoed behind him. He turned.
A girl stood in the intersection, no more than ten years old, holding a paper crane that bled ink. Her shadow stretched far too long, bending against gravity. She looked up, eyes empty.
"Big brother," she said softly. "The night won't end until you wake up."
The words struck him like a spell. For a heartbeat the world inverted—the sky below, the ground above—and he saw through her: a rift blooming in her chest, a portal into the Abyss itself.
Gu Tian extended his hand. "Sleep, not dream."
The Netherworld flared through him, wrapping her in silvery mist. The girl dissolved, the paper crane fluttering down and turning to dust. Reality righted itself, though darker clouds gathered overhead.
---
Hours passed. The city kept functioning—shops open, traffic lights changing—but no one remembered doing anything. Memories reset every fifteen minutes. News channels repeated the same broadcast endlessly. It was a perfect simulation of life without consciousness.
Gu Tian sat at a bus stop, listening to the silence between breaths.
> [Abyssal Layer Penetration: 2.1 % → 4.8 %]
[Netherworld Sync Progress: 37 %]
He understood now: this wasn't random. The Abyss was testing him, feeding off the balance he maintained. Each time he purified a distortion, the infection adapted. Evolution without form.
A distant rumble shook the street. The river in the center of Azure City began to boil—not with heat, but with memory. Faces formed in the steam, fragments of forgotten dreams whispering his name.
"Gu Tian… Gu Tian…"
He rose. "You found me."
The water split apart, revealing a spiraling void beneath. Out of it climbed a figure clad in obsidian armor, its surface crawling with constellations that weren't from any known sky.
"Herald of the Abyss," Gu Tian identified calmly.
The armored being's voice was like static through broken glass. "You who call yourself the Netherworld… the Abyss has deemed you its equal."
Gu Tian's eyes gleamed. "Then let's see whose dream ends first."
He raised his hand. The city lights dimmed as every shadow bowed toward him. The Netherworld within expanded, linking each soul in Azure City—living or otherwise—into a single, protective web. The Herald struck, shattering space with a blade of nothingness.
The impact collapsed half the skyline in silence.
Yet when the dust settled, the buildings were intact again—restored by Gu Tian's will.
Time itself refused to move without his permission.
He whispered to the System, "Lock the dream. Rewrite the law."
> [Command Accepted]
[Executing Temporal Seal: Azure City → Protected Domain]
A ring of light enveloped the metropolis, freezing the contagion mid-spread. For now, the people would live—trapped in endless twilight, but safe.
The Herald fell to one knee, its armor fracturing. "The Abyss… will remember you…"
Then it shattered into motes of ash, scattering into the still air.
---
Gu Tian looked out across the motionless city. His heartbeat matched the distant one no longer; he had silenced it—temporarily.
But he knew this was only the opening act.
> [System Notice]
Abyssal Activity Suspended: 72 Hours
Recommendation: Investigate Origin of the Pulse]
He gazed toward the horizon, where the sea met the endless twilight.
"Seventy-two hours," he murmured. "That's all the peace we get."
Somewhere beyond the clouds, something vast stirred, amused.
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