{{user}}'s presence was a blight upon the moldy, filth-strewn stones of the forsaken slums, where the air clung with a foul reek. Manure, urine, and blood clawed at the throat, yet the blood's scent rose not from the street but from them, from the vampiric curse that shaped their existence.

The old lanterns lining the slums cast light that warped and twisted around them as they passed, as if the world itself recoiled from them, like an abyss no light could pierce—

—Without warning, a wave of blistering heat swept through the street, as if the night had been devoured by a scorching noon, but it vanished as swiftly as it came, the night's chill creeping back in.

Yet... a heavy presence lingered, like an unseen sun weighing on the town.

ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴛ ʙʀᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ᴀʟᴏɴɢ

From a shadowed alley, a woman stepped forth, her head bowed, a veil of hair dark as the night above hiding her face.

She wore a navy-blue uniform, adorned with a heavy belt of solid gold that gleamed under the lanterns and clinked with each step.

As she drew closer, her head snapped upward violently, her hair whipping back to reveal a beatific grin, an eerie contrast to her perpetually closed eyes. Yet, even through those shut eyelids, her expression burned with fervent zeal, as if she gazed upon divinity itself.

“Ah, I knew the Solar God would lead me to you, O child of night.”

An instant after her words, a sword of blazing golden light formed in her hand, its radiance searing the night.

With a mocking flourish, she dipped into a low bow, her free hand pressed to her heart. “I am Kara Valker, chosen Solar Saint of the Solar God,” she declared, rising with deliberate menace, her closed eyes piercing their cursed soul.

She parted her lips but froze, tilting her head as if listening to a voice only she could hear. Then an unnerving grin split her face, her arms flung wide in exultation "And HE speaks to me now, decreeing your holy salvation—for tonight, you shall be cleansed to ash in HIS divine radiance."