Next? My gaze locked on the platform’s center.
Pillars circled a floating metal ball.
Under, hundreds of paths led to it.
I turned around, looking at the city.
It’s unnecessary to go that far.
Answers hid closer—else this place would overflow with seekers.
With my eyes closed, I focused on the sounds.
Complete silence.
That’s never good.
I saw skyscrapers with missing parts.
The breakage left some halved, with the missing pieces forming bridges to other areas.
Marks of slashes, smashes, cracks, blasts and many attacks told the story of the city.
It was surprising.
How many people were here?
The sight was depressing.
Anger filled my mind.
Not even plants remained.
It was a completely dead zone.
Concrete and destruction.
No water, plants, or at least small animals.
The city felt cold.
Such a place evoked me slow walking.
It mattered not; the same walls, the same air.
The city was indeed massive.
Sour, I continued exploring the city.
It would be inaccurate to say I walked the streets.
The resemblance flickered in fragments.
Yet, everything was full of debris.
It was impossible to determine which were the original streets and which “streets” formed after the destruction.
I need a better plan; I’m getting lost.
Scanning the buildings, I found a decent enough path.
“So a couple of jumps.”
After whispering to myself, I heard a sound in the distance.
Huh?
I snuck in that direction, careful of not making a sound.
At the end of the trail, a knocked down shop sat.
A shop in poor imitation.
The insides were empty.
Not even a single shelf.
Is this really a city?
I ran towards other buildings.
They were all the same.
They appeared as buildings on their exterior, but their insides were empty.
The skyscrapers didn’t have floors.
What the hell is happening?
No, that’s not right.
I remember seeing something inside.
I grabbed a fallen piece of a broken window.
What is this?
One side of the glass showed the interior of a house.
An utterly ordinary home - living room, kitchen, the expected spaces.
I flipped the glass piece and there was nothing, a regular glass.
The glass slipped from my hand, leaving a cut.
It had to be on my already wounded hand.
The glass fell and shattered.
The illusion was broken, and only pieces remained.
It was subtle, but the glass lost its shine.
Not far away.
Crash.
A young man hit the ground in the middle of a grass field.
He laughed.
Quite the feisty newcomer we have.
He stretched his body and looked around.
Where am I?
He looked from left to right.
Okay, so there’s Gray Void. I’m on Green Fields. And to my right is Shark Reef.
He paused, considering his next move.
I’d better recharge.
The man dropped his bag on the floor and leaned back.
He laughed again.
I didn’t expect him trying to grab me.
He stood up, laughing.
Worse, I didn’t expect it to pull it off.
From the direction he had come from, he calculated where Kai should have ended.
Gray Void. Not the most welcoming place here.
I can only imagine his surprise by now.
Now that I think about it. Where did that guy go?
He looked around.
From his right side, he felt a presence coming.
No way. Nah, there’s no way.
He waited while gazing, however he got inpatient.
He murmured. Charybdis?
Yet, nothing happened.
Umm?
He raised his voice by a bit.
Charybdis?
No-one heard him, but he appeared.
Reallyyy? Who do you think you are, a third rate villain?
Wait, he’s coming from Shark Reef?! Not good, not good.
He grabbed his backpack.
It’s too late to go back to the containers; my backpack is still half empty.
Should I just fight him?
He turned around to face Charybdis.
Charybdis closed-in.
Hell no! Looks like we’ll be seeing again soon, newcomer.
He shot off without noticing his backpack fell off.
I was so distracted by the discovery that I forgot the initial sound.
Even now that I remembered it, the shock prevented me from caring enough.
This must be it.
The answers must be here.
I left the shop and entered a skyscraper.
Of course, something destroyed it; however, it remained awe-inspiring.
I posed a hand on a window frame.
Sturdy.
Compared to hanging from the side of a container, the window frame was like having a security rope.
Not my first time doing it.
I stopped climbing halfway through.
I wanted to see outside, but I couldn’t.
The building’s interior, forced into my view, left me thinking.
It really is empty.
Other than the window frame, only pristine white walls stood.
The contrast with the destruction was remarkable.
Honestly, even without the complete destruction, the interiors were surprising.
The world outside was nothing more than an illusion.
The buildings were proof enough.
I continued climbing in silence.
There was no need to look up.
I had already confirmed the skyscraper’s roof was gone.
My head crept out from the big hole in the building.
I went up and stood on the fallen half.
That’s precisely why I choose this place.
It was as if something or someone cut it exactly at the half.
Half standing, with not much damage to it.
Half fallen into the other edifice.
I suspected as much, but it really was stuck between the two buildings.
I exerted pressure on the “floor”.
No reaction.
Yeah, that makes sense.
How could a 1.75 (at best) guy make half a building react?
I stopped playing with the floor and looked at the city.
Even if broken in half, the skyscraper was tall.
I was standing at a height that let me observe most of the city.
The city was uncanny.
It was gray in the outside, but the interior of buildings were completely white.
Because of the destruction, both colors were fused.
Bits of white covered bits of gray and vice versa.
I was already convinced, however, if there was any doubt remaining, this confirmed that no one had lived here.
Just what is this place?
The city looked as if it had some plan behind it.
Clearly, there were stores, houses, departments, and many constructions.
Maybe this was built based in a proper city.
That would make sense.
I sat down at the edge.
The city was tall, yet compact.
I didn’t imagine it while inside.
It was a depressing sight for anyone that saw it, but not so much for me.
A smile drew on my face.
I was tired, in a good way.
I could finally sit down in complete silence and enjoy the view.
No matter how depressing of a view, with enough peace, everything can become beautiful.
I was just missing a bird or two.
Some singing crickets would be fine too.
Maybe I should sleep some.
Now that I think about it.
It’s still morning?
The insides of buildings were even brighter than the outside.
Strange.
I don’t like it.
I stood up and wondered where to go next.
I don’t want to go to the metal ball too far.
But it doesn’t seem that bad of an idea to go in that direction.
Getting out of the city is easy.
Although those grass fields to my right look much better.
While wondering, I heard another sound.
Again?
It came from my left.
Contrary to the other directions, skyscrapers clouded the left was side.
Only way to know what was there was physically going.
The destruction seemed even more severe on that side.
I grew restless.
Was it worse to leave that thing as it is, or is it more dangerous trying to identify what’s happening there?
I took a breath and enjoyed the views for one last time.
Damn, I’ll go.
Reluctantly, I went back.
Near the border of the building, ready to climb my way down, I mis-stepped.
I wasn’t clumsy or anything; the floor literally moved.
The floor quaked.
The half fallen skyscraper I was standing on tilted, leaving an inclination I couldn’t stand in.
Because I turned backwards to look at what was happening, I lost my chance to climb back down.
My body slipped with the new inclination degree.
I tried to use, to no avail, my hands and feet to stick myself to the building.
Sliding down ruins wasn’t my idea for the day.
Suddenly, I was over a quarter of the broken building and still gaining speed.
For a moment, I noticed what looked like an old man running away.
Maybe the source of the noises?
The building was too flat for me to damage my hands, yet that meant it was also too flat to generate enough friction to stop my descent.
In the blink of an eye, I had already passed halfway.
Continuing this path, a big smack was the final destination.
It was technically safe, but I’d rather avoid that.
I waited for the right moment and leaned my body back to decrease the speed.
Now.
I jumped and grabbed a window frame in the building I was going to crash.
I failed to secure the frame, yet I hung from one hand.
Still, better than nothing.
After looking down, I left myself go and grabbed a window frame at a lower height.
I repeated the process again, again, and again; and I was at ground level.
Yeah, I prefer this floor.
I thought the building I was standing would fall, yet it stayed at an uncanny inclination.
That doesn’t look even slightly safe.
I walked away from the dangerous-looking thing.
I’m pretty good with directions.
I placed myself so that both the metal ball and the grass terrains would be in the same direction I saw.
I walked towards the location where I saw the old man.
Unpleasant circumstances forced me to learn how to hide.
Not my favorite thing to do, but a skill that had proven its worth.
Hiding my presence, I walked near the old man.
The silence hinted that there was no old man anymore.
I relaxed a bit and went back.
The building I went up on was intact.
It took some damage because of the quakes, but clearly it wasn’t the cause.
I went to the other building, and my expression soured.
Marks big enough to not be human.
They seemed like bashes; however, I couldn’t make out if they were intentional or a byproduct.
Just… what happened here?
I found the final clue close.
Dented marks on a near building.
I wasn’t sure of the details, but now I had a rough idea of what had happened.
And of course, the old man's trajectory, the marks, even my thoughts.
They all led leftwards.
No point in delaying the inevitable.
While I started running towards it, cautiousness got the better of me and my running turned into walking.
I couldn’t be too rough on myself, though.
I wasn’t expecting the left side of the story to be so different.
It was a dark place.
Although the light remained technically the same, dark gray and black colors tainted the city.
Bodies decorated the streets.
Bodies of what?
I’m not sure.
They seemed too old, deformed, and consumed to identify.
Plus, debris from the buildings was scattered everywhere.
Mud, which I suspect was dried blood, stained the pristine white fragments.
The scene was disheartening.
Yet, it was worse knowing that it felt like home.
Sour as I was, I dispersed my thoughts and focused on the pressing matter.
I couldn’t find the old man.
The thought came, going to an elevated place and inspecting; however, I was reluctant.
This place feels dangerous.
I could feel the cold rising.
A cold I was very familiar with.
That’s really bad. I need to get out of here.
Preparing to run, someone tackled me.
I didn’t feel danger and my shield didn’t activate.
Yeah, I didn’t feel any danger and my shield didn’t activate, not because of him.