Sunlight filtered through the canopy, casting speckled patterns across the dirt path as our group pressed deeper into the forest. The ground gradually shifted beneath our boots, soil giving way to broken stone and creeping roots as remnants of old streets began to emerge.
"Hey, how about chess?" Henry said again, as if the thought had just occurred to him. "I bet I could beat you in chess."
I groaned, not even trying to hide it this time. "Henry, let it go. You lost one game of checkers."
"Three games," he corrected. "But only because you play like some kind of calculating warlord. I mean, who sacrifices their own pieces like that unless they've got something diabolical in mind?"
"Someone who understands how checkers works," I replied dryly, brushing a branch out of my way. "And no, we're not stopping for a rematch. We'd be left behind."
He waved a dismissive hand and walked backward now, careful not to trip over the uneven stone. "We wouldn't need to stop. You can summon stuff, right? Just conjure up a floating chessboard."
"Absolutely not."
"Imagine it," he pressed, hands raised as if presenting something grand. "The whispers of the wind. The quiet tap of pawns. The agony of your inevitable defeat."
I opened my mouth to respond, but the words died as soon as the trees thinned out around us.
The city rose ahead, climbing higher the farther we went. Buildings crowded in, broken towers and fractured spires leaning toward one another like tired giants. By the time we reached what must have once been the city's heart, Henry had finally fallen silent.
Stonework etched with worn inscriptions lined the streets, their meaning dulled by centuries of rain and wind. The architecture was intricate in ways no one practiced anymore, yet here they were, cracked and overgrown as nature reclaimed everything. Roots split marble plazas, trees burst through old windows, and vines wrapped iron railings rusted nearly to nothing. Faded murals peeked through cracked plaster, fragments of stories no one remembered how to read.
Our boots scraped softly over loose gravel, crushed tile, and dried leaves. Wind threaded through hollowed corridors, humming through shattered arches and ivy-choked balconies.
Ahead, a narrow passage opened between two leaning towers, their spines crooked and groaning whenever the breeze picked up.
Emily, walking just ahead of me, stopped, her eyes fixed on the fractured arch overhead.
"Are we sure this is safe?" she asked, a bit uneasy at the sight.
Amelia glanced back. "It's held this long, so we'll be fine."
Emily nodded, though she pressed herself closer to the wall in an attempt to be out of the way, just in case.
Then we reached it.
A massive space opened before us, slightly lifted above the ground around it and ringed by the shattered remains of once-grand columns. At its center stood a towering fortress, its metal exterior scarred and blackened, as though fire had raked across it again and again. The massive doors were buckled outward, forced open from the inside, where the distant darkness had already begun to consume the first to venture through.
After taking a moment to absorb it all, I started after the others, only to pause when I noticed someone slowing behind me.
Turning, I caught the tail end of something as Amelia helped Emily to her feet, whose skin was pale and damp with sweat despite the cool morning air. But the moment our eyes met, for the briefest second, she looked utterly terrified.
Then it was gone.
Whatever it had been slipped behind a mask she quickly pulled back into place the moment she realized someone was looking. With Amelia's gentle urging, she moved forward again.
Though the moment we passed beneath the archway and into the waiting abyss below, Emily couldn't suppress the horror etched into her expression.
Inside, the temperature dropped, and the air thickened with dust and damp earth, then faded as we ventured deeper into the tunnel, where the distant elements seemed to fade, swallowed by the widening darkness.
But before it could fully envelop us, a voice cut through the silence.
"Light it up."
On command, dozens of orbs ignited, floating into the air like awakened stars and pushing back the gloom as the passage continued downward at a slow, steady slope.
The farther we went, the more surreal it all became. The orbs drifted beside us, illuminating ancient etchings embedded into the support beams that kept the halls from collapsing despite the depths we continued to descend. Little by little, the warmth of the twin suns abandoned us as the chill of the depths began to settle in.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, the space started to widen. Our steps slowed as the glow of the orbs ahead stretched into distant lights, revealing something vast.
An underground city, gleaming with metal untouched by time.
Towering structures of silver and steel rose from the cavern floor, lit by soft lights embedded high along the curved ceiling. Unlike the ruined buildings above, these stood firm, adorned with strange sigils, smooth glass, and intricate designs that caught the light like art.
The ceiling above seemed to curve endlessly, held aloft by massive support columns as thick as buildings.
"Well… you don't see that every day," I muttered, utterly in awe of the vastness of the place.
Ahead, Thorian's voice echoed softly through the chamber. "Stay sharp."
"How can anyone stay sharp when there's so much to explore?" Ella wondered aloud.
"Remember, these cities were built to keep people out," Benjamin reminded her, "so I wouldn't be so relaxed. We don't even know if their defenses are still active."
"Yeah, I know. But it's not like—"
Then, as if in response to his words, the nearby wall exploded in a shower of sparks. An entire panel ruptured outward, sending debris scattering across the floor, and from the smoke emerged something like a beast waking from hibernation.
An ancient sentinel stepped into view, its body supported by four thick legs. Gun-like appendages unfolded from its back with eerie precision, locking into place as its glowing optics came online.
I stood there, stunned, until Henry's voice broke the spell.
"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?"
Just then, the mec spoke up as the gun-like attachments began to spin. "Intruders detected."
Yet before the guns could fully charge, an energy dome snapped into place around our expedition force, projected by a select group among us. A moment later, the barrier shuddered as the projectiles struck it, sparks skittering across its surface before the sentinel was forced to recharge.
In response, the shield vanished, and attacks of every kind tore through the air, lighting the underground passage in a mesmerizing blend of colors before slamming into the towering machine.
But it seemed we weren't the only ones with a shield.
The moment the first attack made contact, it exploded against a glowing hexagonal barrier, which only grew brighter as more skills slammed into it.
Though it could only take so much.
Fractures began to spread rapidly across its surface, branching like spiderwebs under pressure.
And through the chaos, I managed to identify it.
[Terravault Enclave, Class 6 Protector.]
Huh… no level?
I frowned. But then again, considering its power, it could just be far higher in level. But then another thought crept in. What if it didn't have a level at all? Could it just operate on something else entirely?
A flicker of movement pulled my attention back just in time to see its shields sputter, the glow dimming unevenly. Showing that even this thing had limits.
The final volley hit all at once. With a sharp crack, followed by the sound of shattering glass, what remained of the barrier exploded outward, leaving the machine fully exposed as the storm of spells came crashing in.
Still, it didn't fall. Not right away.
Even stripped of its protection, it withstood the barrage for what felt like forever.
Then something deep within its frame began to glow.
The light grew brighter, building in intensity until—
Boom!
The sentinel erupted in a cataclysmic explosion, a blinding flash of light followed by a deafening roar that shook the enclosed space. Jagged shards of metal and debris were flung in every direction, becoming a deadly rain of destruction.
Instinctively, I braced for impact, only for the shimmering blue shield to reappear just in time. The blast struck the barrier with a thunderous wave, sending bursts of blue light sparking across its surface as smoke and shrapnel slammed against it.
For a few moments, there was only chaos.
Then, at last, the flames began to dissipate, and the shield faded with them, leaving us all staring in awe at the devastation left behind. Jagged remnants of hissing metal were embedded deep into the walls, and the once-imposing sentinel had been reduced to ruin.
Letting out a breathless "wow," I looked over the carnage around us, unable to tear my eyes away from the scene.
"That was something else."
Henry let out a dry laugh, the sound cutting through the heavy air. "No kidding."
For a moment, none of us moved, the sheer scale of destruction rendering us silent. But at Thorian's direction from the front, the expedition resumed its march toward the massive opening that led deeper into the city.
As we descended the towering walls enclosing the underground city, the full extent of the destruction unfolded before us. Evident in the waves of Thousands upon thousands of mechs that lay strewn across the expanse like the casualties of a long-forgotten war. Twisted limbs and shattered torsos of mechanical giants were scattered as far as the eye could see, some piled high in grotesque mounds, their metal shells riddled with rust and decay.
"What happened here?" I found myself whispering, though I wasn't expecting an answer as the expedition carved a path through the graveyard of mechs. The sound of boots crunching over metal fragments was a stark reminder of how fragile our footing was in this mechanical wasteland.
Ella walked ahead of me, her gaze darting from one ruined mech to the next, her expression a mix of fascination and sorrow. "Such a waste, a whole civilization just gone," she murmured, almost to herself. Her fingers brushed the surface of a rusting arm, the metal flaking beneath her touch.
Nodding along, we soon reached the bottom of the chasm, where the city's gates loomed before us. But any sense of peace we might have expected died the moment we saw them.
They had been burst outward, like pressure had built from inside and torn them apart. Deep claw marks scored the metal, raking across the surface with the fury of some caged beast finally unleashed. The steel was bent and twisted in ways that didn't make sense for an invading force.
No… this wasn't something trying to get in.
Something had broken out.
I swallowed hard but said nothing as we crossed the threshold, descending into the city's metallic heart. But what waited on the other side only deepened the unease.
The streets were a graveyard.
Much like the valley outside, the city lay strewn with mechanical corpses, leaving behind a grim picture of what must have happened here.
But as we pressed on, the air began to change. What started as a subtle chill soon thickened into something heavier, almost like an ancient rot that stung the eyes and dragged at our steps.
Then a strong gust of wind swept through the street, scattering the stale air for a brief moment.
It might have been the first breeze to touch those ancient roads in untold years.
The streets narrowed after that, winding deeper into the collapsed heart of the underground city. Our footsteps echoed off cracked metal and crumbled concrete, each one a stark reminder of the silence pressing in around us.
Then the movement up ahead stopped.
The people at the front rounded a corner and froze. It didn't take long to see why. The moment we pushed through the stalled crowd, we stopped dead.
High above us, atop a twisted monument of rusting mechs, rose the body of something impossible, impaled on the jagged remains of a sword.
Its body—an unholy mass of muscle and deformity—was frozen in death, yet still radiated menace. Misshapen limbs jutted out at unnatural angles, and dispersed in between each were dozens of mouths filled to the brim with teeth, and what should've been eyes were nothing more than hollow, gaping sockets.
No one spoke.
Even in death, it was horrifying enough to steal the breath from your lungs. An aberration so alien, so wrong, it made everything else feel almost ordinary by comparison.
Covering his nose, Henry looked away. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
He wasn't the only one. A few people nearby had already doubled over, their retching echoing softly through the ruined street.
"You can't handle a corpse, man," I teased, although I knew it went way beyond just the feeling of a corpse. It was almost like my very existence was repulsed by it.
"Yeah, man, I'm honestly surprised you can handle all this," Henry said, eyeing the carnage around us. "I mean, look at Ella—she's pale. Like, really pale. Actually… you good, Ella?"
She didn't answer, just doubled over and vomited onto the ground.
"…Right. Never mind," he muttered, wincing. "For the record, I'm barely hanging on myself."
"Yeah, and now the air smells like stomach acid," I muttered, stepping back and covering my nose.
As if on cue, Thorian's voice rang out through the gloom, amplified by the silence. It carried through the group like a jolt of electricity, spurring the frozen crowd into motion.
"Well, you heard the man," I added. "Let's go."
But moving forward wasn't as simple as that.
The path was choked with wreckage, twisted heaps of mangled machines and rotting, nightmarish corpses. With no way around it, we were forced to climb.
It quickly became a slow, awkward ordeal. The mechs were bad enough, their rusted frames creaking beneath our weight, but the abominations were worse.
It was like we all shared the same instinctive knowledge not to touch them, as if the very act would infect us with whatever diseases festered inside their bloated, malformed corpses.
At one point, I could've sworn I saw one of the swollen limbs twitch, but when I turned back, the body lay motionless.
Still, that didn't make it any easier.
People moved with visible dread, grimacing at every wet squelch beneath a boot or accidental brush against something unrecognizably organic.
As we descended the far side, the horror didn't ease. The streets were lined with mummified humans, frozen mid-scream, their flesh twisted into grotesque parodies of life. Whatever had killed them hadn't done so quickly. It had taken its time, reveling in cruelty.
Ella was ghost-pale, her eyes vacant, barely blinking. Henry kept his gaze locked to the ground, deliberately sidestepping anything that even resembled a face. Around us, everyone wore the same look of revulsion etched deep into their features, as if the city itself was pressing down on them, daring them to keep looking.
But then there was Benjamin.
His jaw was clenched so tight I was afraid he was going to chip his teeth as he looked at all this destruction with a searing gaze that refused to look away, as if doing so would allow the continuation of such suffering. And when his eyes found mine, I saw no fear. Just rage.
His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles had gone bone-white, veins bulging along his forearms like cables ready to snap.
I turned away, forcing myself to keep walking as the city transformed all around us. What had once been homes, businesses, ordinary lives… now lay buried beneath the weight of giants.
Then the skyline opened.
We emerged into what must once have been a plaza, or maybe an intersection, its original shape unrecognizable beneath the chaos. The ruins stretched outward in every direction, but more than that... upward. Towering shadows leaned against shattered buildings. Monstrosities—half-organic, half-machine—slumped like gods brought to ruin, their colossal limbs draped over steel towers like discarded puppets. We had to crane our necks just to see the curve of a shoulder or the edge of a jaw.
They were everywhere.
Massive frames of broken mechs lay tangled with them, their armor split open, reactor cores long gone cold. Steel bones jutted from the earth like rebar in a wound too wide to ever close. It was impossible to tell where one thing ended and the other began. Flesh fused to alloy. Buildings wrapped in cables like vines. Arms the size of train cars lay reaching across avenues that no longer had names.
I stopped in my tracks, drawn to one of the creatures, if that word even still applied.
Only half of it remained. The rest had been carved away. I could trace the invisible line through its ruined torso, following it along the streets where stone had been scorched black and glass had melted into slag. The upper floors of the surrounding buildings curved inward, as if pulled toward the center of some cataclysmic blast. Together, the ruins formed a shallow, circular wound in the skyline.
And above it, high in the cavern's ceiling, a dark, circular hole gaped through the stone like a bullet through bone, leading to nothing but darkness.
I couldn't look away. The sheer power of whatever had torn through this city left me trembling.
Standing there, beneath the corpses of machines and beasts, I felt the truth of our place settle over me.
We were ants.
Not soldiers or seasoned explorers, but small and insignificant ants.
We crawled through the ruins of titans, passing beneath bones that rose over us like abandoned monuments. Their broken limbs bridged the streets. Their skulls rested against towers. Their shadows swallowed us whole. Every step we took felt small. Every breath felt stolen. Each footfall was a trespass across a graveyard built for gods.
And then… The door.
It stood at the far end of the devastation. Twin slabs of impossible metal reaching to the very peak of the cavern, so tall they seemed to vanish into the rock itself. Lights traced faint lines across its surface, pulsing ever so slightly, as if the door was still breathing beneath the weight of centuries.
Sprawled before it lay a final abomination. Its front had collapsed against the gates, arms lying limp, as though it had died in a single attack. Much like the abomination before it, a part of its body just ceased to be.
Yet as I stood frozen before that massive gate, something within my body lurched forward, like a thread had been yanked taut inside me.
It wasn't painful exactly, but it was jarring. Enough to snap me out of my awe like a gasp of cold air after surfacing too fast.
I staggered half a step back, a hand pressed to my sternum.
The feeling was impossible to explain, like part instinct and part recognition, as if some part of me knew that gate.
It clawed at my chest, subtle at first, then growing more insistent like stepping into a river and only realizing too late that the current was pulling you under.
Before I was fully aware of it, I'd taken a step forward.
Then another.
My hand twitched, reaching for something that wasn't there.
Then someone brushed past me, muttering an apology as they went. The contact snapped me out of it. I blinked, suddenly aware of how much time had slipped by.
The expedition was already moving on without me. People were unpacking gear, pitching tents, and sorting salvage into rough piles as a camp was being set up.
The pull was still there, but muted now. A faint buzz at the back of my skull, whispering that I should be heading toward the doors. That I belonged there. That something behind them was waiting for me.
But what would I even do if I reached them?
The doors were enormous, mountain-sized slabs of metal and stone. I couldn't open them. The thought was ridiculous.
That logic helped. It gave the feeling less room to breathe. The pull dimmed, like a signal losing strength, until I could finally shove it into the back of my mind.
I turned away and got to work.
The next hour blurred into motion, clearing space for the camp and helping drag decommissioned mechs into organized piles. My arms burned from the effort, but it was something to focus on.
Something real.
However, the mummified abominations were another thing entirely. Since no one wanted to touch them, the task was soon pushed onto anyone with earth manipulation, telekinesis, or enough raw strength to move them without getting too close. One by one, the corpses were dragged and shoved into a pile for later disposal.
Burning them had already been ruled out. Too risky in an enclosed environment.
So instead, they began organizing people capable of decomposing organic matter.
Which was how Henry got volunteered.
Apparently, his poison still had some effect on the corpses, though he didn't seem thrilled about it. Even if they were going to be taught erosion techniques to help with the process, Henry wasn't convinced he'd get the hang of it, and from the look on his face, he wasn't eager to try, either.
I couldn't help feeling bad for him. Hell, I didn't even want to look at those corpses longer than I had to. Luckily, with the use of his vines, he didn't exactly need to touch them.
So I didn't worry too much about him before catching sight of Ella as she was dashing between groups, pointing out where to place salvaged mechanical parts, barking instructions with a confidence that seemed to energize the people around her, some of whom I didn't even recognize.
"You look excited," I called out, picking up a weird, arm-like attachment and giving it a lazy swing.
Ella spun around, eyes wide, before marching over and snatching it from my hands like it was made of glass.
"Please don't touch anything," she scolded, gently placing it back down. "That's one of the most intact pieces I've found."
I raised my hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. No touching the precious artifacts."
A grunt behind me caught my attention. Emily was struggling across the clearing, dragging a heavy chunk of metal armor with both hands. She dropped it with a loud thud and collapsed onto her butt, panting.
"Thi… this thing's way heavier than it looks," she gasped.
I walked over, bent down, and lifted it. She wasn't exaggerating. The thing was heavy. With effort, I hoisted it onto my shoulder, carried it to one of the tables, and set it down a bit too hard, as the table beneath it groaned ominously.
Cringing, I looked over at Ella. "Hey, it didn't break."
She just shook her head and turned away, muttering something under her breath. Emily, on the other hand, looked relieved as she pushed herself up and brushed dust off her pants.
"Thanks," she said, catching her breath.
"Not a problem."
That's when I remembered something I'd overheard earlier. I turned back to Ella.
"Hey, Ella, did you hear they're sending out teams to scout the city?"
She glanced over at me like she was finally acknowledging my presence, then gave a small smile. "Yeah, I actually heard a bit from some of the people dropping off parts. Apparently, they're giving out tokens as some kind of safeguard for the scouting teams."
She placed the final piece onto the table, then looked toward a tent set up in the distance. "Amelia and Benjamin went to pick them up, so we'll be heading out soon."
"Huh... I guess I'm the last to know," I muttered, following her gaze to where groups were already forming around a tent.
It wasn't long before everyone was gathered. Well, almost everyone. Emily had let us know she'd be staying behind to help organize the equipment.
"I just… I can't go back in there. Not with all that death," she said quietly, eyes downcast.
I couldn't blame her. Just thinking about the bodies, the way they died, it still sent chills crawling up my spine. The others agreed without protest, and Amelia gave her a reassuring nod, visibly relieved.
Once the tokens, which looked like some kind of guild pins, were handed out, one last question remained.
"Alright," Henry said, crossing his arms and glancing around with a faint smirk. "Are we finally ready to head into the city, or are we still arguing about it?"
"I still think it makes more sense to check the wall first," Ella countered, tilting her head toward the towering structure in the distance. Her arms gestured animatedly as she laid out her argument. "Think about it. The wall's probably intact. In the city, everything's in ruins, and most of it will already be picked clean. But at the wall? You might find passages, equipment, maybe even some intact mechs. And let's be real, everyone's going for the city. So, do you really want to fight over scraps with seasoned scavengers?"
Henry raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by her reasoning. "So, you're saying all the good stuff is at the wall, huh?"
"Yes, exactly. Someone has to think strategically here," Ella shot back, pointing a finger at him. "But sure, go ahead and run straight into the chaos if you're so eager to get trampled."
Henry chuckled, clearly enjoying the banter. "Okay, okay, I'll give you that. But…" He leaned in a little, lowering his voice like he was letting us in on a secret. "I know you might not have noticed it, but most, if not all, of the mummified corpses we came across had this small plastic thing hanging from their necks."
I frowned. "Plastic thing?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "I'm guessing some kind of ID." He straightened, warming to the idea. "Which got me thinking. How do the mechs even tell who's a resident and who's an intruder? No way they're doing facial recognition or something, right?"
Ella blinked, caught off guard. "Huh. That's… actually a good point," she admitted, reluctantly.
"Wow, Henry," I grinned. "Look at you, paying detective."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he replied, shrugging, though he was clearly pleased with himself. "But it makes sense, right? No ID, you're toast. So we head into the city, find one of those things, and suddenly we're a lot harder to shoot at."
He spread his hands. "Seems like a solid plan to me."
Ella groaned, rolling her eyes but eventually relenting with a wave of her hand. "Fine, you've got a point. But once we're done here, we're heading to the wall. I'm not missing the chance to find something untouched."
Henry threw up his arms in mock surrender. "Fair enough. We'll do it your way... eventually." His grin turned smug. "See? Compromise. I'm a natural at this."
Ella narrowed her eyes but smirked. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get moving before you throw your shoulder out, from patting yourself on the back."
We set out again, but this time, the mood was different. As we pushed deeper into the city, the playful banter faded, giving way to a silent unease.
The deeper we went, the more the city revealed its truths.
Bodies lay where they had fallen. Some were huddled in corners, arms wrapped around children. Others were slumped against doors they had never made it through.
Henry's bravado wavered. He stared too long at a collapsed stairwell, where half a family still sat together, fossilized in their final moments.
Hours dragged on as we were forced to climb over barricades just to get into some buildings, sift through decaying belongings, and unearth what people had once called home.
It felt disgusting to sort through their belonging as if we were disturbing graves.
Sometimes, we found preserved items. Sometimes, just bones. Other times… nothing but the desperate attempts at life.
And then, I stopped as a sudden chill swept over me. My senses dulled, and then my mark vibrated as the world around me blurred at the edges, colors bleeding into shadow. The muffled echo of rapid footsteps reached my ears, getting louder.
Slap-slap-slap.
Then the slam of a door.
I blinked, but I wasn't in the hallway anymore. I was standing inside a room filled with terrified people. They were huddled together, faces pale, whispering desperate reassurances to one another.
"We're safe," someone murmured. "They can't reach us up here. We're too high."
Another voice: "We locked the door. It can't get in."
Then the sound.
A soft, deliberate tapping on glass.
Tck—tck—tck.
Heads turned, and then they screamed at whatever they had seen, and just as suddenly as the vision had begun, it faded, leaving me standing alone in that same room… only now in the present.
My body trembled at what I had seen, my mind scrambling for an explanation. But the moment it dawned on me that I was having another vision. I froze, bracing myself for more gruesome images to spill out like before.
But as the time passed, nothing happened. It became clear that the vision was over. And only then did I allow myself to breathe and focus on the room all around me.
It matched the vision I'd seen, only far older. Where their eyes had been drawn, a shattered window gaped open, the glass long since broken inward. Dust clung to the jagged frame like ash, and a trail of dried blood streaked across the floor in brittle brown smears, leading straight to the ledge beyond.
I took a slow step forward, fearing what I thought I would see, only for it to be confirmed.
Far below, nearly ten stories down, two skeletons lay twisted among the rubble, their bones bleached and picked clean by time.
My heart pounded even faster at the realization that it wasn't a hallucination.
It had actually happened.
Looking down at my trembling fists, I tried to take back control by clenching them, as if that alone could ground me. But no matter what I did, I couldn't shake the horror of it, so I shoved my hands into my pockets.
The last thing I needed was to lose it in front of the others.
Especially not at a time like this.
With another deep breath, I took it all in, then—
"Guys! Over here!"
Amelia's voice cut through the silence.
I turned toward her, still disoriented. She was kneeling beside a pile of debris, holding something up that resembled a plastic-encased key card.
I stared for a second longer before joining the others. But part of me was still back in that room, hearing the tapping on the glass.
Still wondering what had been on the other side.
Henry gave a weak chuckle. "You can always count on plastic to survive the end of the world."
Ella crossed her arms tightly. "So... can we go to the wall now? It's suffocating in here."
"Yeah," Amelia said softly, rising to her feet. "Let's go."
No one argued.
We left the shattered room behind, but I couldn't shake the sensation that something unseen was still watching from the shadows. My steps felt unsteady, like I hadn't fully returned to the present.
I barely heard Henry's footsteps ahead of us or the crunch of debris under our boots as we made our way toward the city's outer wall. The air here felt heavy, but a far cry from the inner city, where every collapsed path and sealed corridor whispered of horrors.
We searched for a while, picking through crumbled structures and rusted machinery, until we finally found it: a sealed entrance, untouched by time or looters.
Eyeing the opening, a dull ache pulsed in my head. The remnants of the vision still lingered behind my eyes, replaying like a broken film reel.
I stepped forward before anyone could speak. "Alright," I muttered. "Let's see if we can crack this open."
I summoned the gauntlet with a flash of Void, feeling its weight settle around my arm. And before I could stop myself, or second-guess it, I threw a punch at the door.
I knew it wouldn't break, but that wasn't the point.
The impact landed with a deep, vibrating thrum that rattled up my arm. The metal barely gave, but it was something real. A sharp reminder that I was still here, not stuck in the past.
"Hu… barely a dent?" I muttered.
"No duh," Henry quipped, stepping up beside me. "Last time I checked, you weren't exactly made for breaking steel."
"Got a better idea, genius?" I shot back. Though I knew he was right, but punching things always helped clear my head a little.
"As a matter of fact... yeah." He grinned.
But a moment later, the door slid upward to reveal a sterile workshop seemingly untouched by time.
I looked from the door to Henry and back, a smug grin spreading across my face. "Huh… would you look at that?" I laughed. "It worked."
Rolling his eyes, Henry stepped forward. "Oh, get over yourself. You got lucky, that's all."
But when he took another step, a sudden chime broke the silence as his foot grazed what looked like a faintly glowing sensor embedded in the tile. A second later, a low rumble followed, like ancient gears awakening, sending vibrations through the chamber.
"Uh… what did you do?" Ella asked, her voice rising an octave.
Before anyone could respond, a panel on the far wall hissed open, revealing a towering mech much like the one from before, only smaller, with lower arms that looked designed to grab things.
"Resident detected… five unreadables accompanying. Assessing threat level," the mech intoned.
Bladed appendages shot out from either arm, their edges radiating a reddish heat.
The mech's voice returned, more forceful this time.
"Step aside, Joseph."
We froze.
"Uh… guys?" Ella whispered. "What now?"
I nudged Henry forward. "Say something."
Henry's face had gone pale, sweat beading on his forehead. But after a moment's hesitation, he lifted the card a little higher and blurted out, "We're residents! We just… lost our cards."
For a moment, nothing happened. The mech stood still, systems humming low, as if weighing his words.
Then, shockingly, the weapons retracted.
"Proceed to receive your new identification cards," the mech announced. Its voice remained flat, but the threat had vanished.
Without another word, it pivoted with uncanny precision and stomped toward a nearby terminal, heavy footsteps echoing through the silent room.
"Follow," it ordered, not bothering to look back.
Henry turned to us, his face caught somewhere between triumph and disbelief. "I can't believe that worked," he muttered.
We exchanged looks, but none of us argued. As surreal as it was, we moved quickly to follow the mech's command.