I followed her gaze and immediately noticed the figure depicted at the beginning of the mural.
It was a child.
The artist had deliberately left his features indistinct, showing him only as a small silhouette standing in the middle of a barren landscape, but there was one detail that stood out with absolute clarity: engraved upon his chest was the familiar emblem of interlocking gears.
My eyes narrowed.
The same symbol covered my own chest.
We moved slowly along the wall, following the story as it unfolded. The child was shown growing up in a world filled with danger, initially relying on crude weapons and physical strength simply to survive.
He fought enormous beasts, crossed hostile lands, and repeatedly found himself facing opponents far beyond his level. In some scenes he was victorious, while in others he was shown collapsed beneath mountains or lying wounded among the ruins of destroyed cities.
