The Silent City – Central Ruins Sector. Midday – 30 Minutes After the Gate Opened.
The landscape that stretched beyond the massive black gate was not the glittering gold palace or the ancient stone temple typically found in adventure novels. It was something far more haunting, far more alien. It was the Grave of the Future.
Rhea and Arvid walked along a road made of cracked, grey asphalt that had long since surrendered to the encroachment of time. To their left and right, the skeletal remains of gargantuan structures reached toward the pale sky—buildings made not of masonry, but of steel, reinforced concrete, and shards of shattered glass. These skyscrapers, partially collapsed and leaning like tired giants, were strangled by thick, metallic vines that pulsed with a faint, rusted orange light.
