He passed through the city's entrance, which was a large black stone frame that had collapsed. Part of the arch now lay on the ground, broken and shattered.
Just like at the beginning, the city revealed itself as a silent titan, filled with empty houses, with no visible belongings of any kind. Each house was perfectly aligned with the neighboring ones, creating a series of straight, well-structured paths.
The streets within the city were paved with round cobblestones in shades of amber and black, decorating the entire place and giving it the air of a human civilization—no matter how impossible that seemed.
Along the sides of the streets, spread across the black sidewalks, lay countless sandstone lampposts, embedded with the same amber stones set into the black stone columns that supported the vast, towering ceiling above the city.
Many of these lampposts had fallen to the ground, broken and consumed by sand, yet the stones still shone regardless.
Nova crouched down to examine one of them.
'This will be very useful.'
With the help of his staff, he broke apart the remaining sandstone of the lamp and pulled out the stone, which was about the size of his hand. It glowed slightly brighter than the faint light of his communicator's screen.
'Now I don't have to keep wasting battery.'
He stored the stone in his improvised backpack and lifted his gaze to continue admiring the ruined city.
He was barely at the city's entrance, yet he had already found something extremely useful.
'There may not be people here, but maybe I can still find more things that'll help me.'
Although he felt irritated knowing there was no intelligent life in this place—much less rational life—he also felt a hint of hope at the thought that there might be items more useful than a simple staff.
He advanced through the center of the wide streets. His single eye wandered across the landscape, searching for weapons or anything that gleamed with potential use.
The houses, mostly cubic and single-story, had no doors. Perhaps these old walls, corroded by time, once had doors, but they had surely lost their battle against it.
Now there were only ruins—houses with broken walls and thick layers of accumulated dust.
It was a depressing sight for someone who had lived his entire life in a large city.
As he observed the walls with curiosity, Nova stopped. He closed his eyes and imagined something.
He imagined himself at home, surrounded by long roads filled with vehicles moving back and forth. People walked along the sidewalks, filling the air with noise. Birds flew across the sky, and the pleasant climate gently soothed the soul.
When he opened his eye, Nova was met with the harsh, lonely reality.
There was none of that here—only a solitary, empty place without purpose.
Just like him…
***
He continued his journey, exploring the main houses, finding nothing of importance. Eventually, he entered one of the largest buildings, which stood three stories tall.
The interior was partially empty, but there were interesting things inside. Tables, chairs, and polished sandstone shelves still remained, and though they were in ruins, they held items that weren't completely deteriorated.
It was as if…
'It's as if humans once lived in this place.'
It was impossible for there to have been humans on the other side of the portal. They must have all died—killed by Aberrations, or dead from hunger and thirst. Perhaps they had lived their entire lives here, dying in solitude, unable to return home.
Nova began to wonder if that would be his fate as well.
He approached one of the shelves on the first floor. He brushed it with his fingertips, imagining that everything here held a history as hidden as the city itself.
There, on the shelf, on the second support, lay a small stone sphere.
He picked it up and examined it. A strange eye was carved into the black stone.
Nova formed a crooked smile.
'You've got to be mocking me, bastard!'
It was as if the world itself were playing a joke on him. If the world had a voice, it would have said, "Kukuku… where's your right eye, huh?"
For the first time in his life, Nova felt angry. He threw the sphere to the floor, but instead of breaking, it rolled across the black stone ground until it reached the stairs leading to the second floor.
Nova pressed a hand to his temple. He took a deep breath and calmed himself.
"I'm starting to lose it."
How many days had passed? Fifteen? Time flew by. Not just anyone could endure more than fifteen days in a desolate and dangerous world—let alone keep their sanity.
Ignoring his earlier outburst, he climbed the stairs to see if there was anything else. Maybe something else that would truly make him angry.
On the second floor, he found two rooms. The first held nothing of note—only a ruined bed that had crumbled into sand. The second contained three large chests, made of a type of wood that looked like it could fall apart at any moment.
Nova was surprised that the wood had resisted the corrosion of time, unlike the doors. Still, where had they even obtained wood in this desert world? That was another mystery to solve.
'Let's see if there's anything interesting.'
He opened all three chests. The first one was empty. He wasn't disappointed—given everything that had happened, disappointment had already become expected.
In the second chest, he found ten different types of fabric. Most of them disintegrated the moment he touched them, but one remained intact. It was a thick piece of sand-colored cloth, shaped like a hooded cloak.
'Nice. Will this protect me from the sun?'
There was only one way to find out. The cloak was very thick, though it already had several holes from corrosion. It was surprising that it had survived this long.
Without waiting any longer, he put on the cloak and moved on to the final chest. When he opened it, the lid shattered into pieces, but what mattered was inside.
Nova's single eye widened in shock.