The eerie purple light from the "moon of catastrophe" in the sky cast down like a veil of tragedy, bathing Owen's body as he still sat leaning against the container wreckage amidst the ruins and a silence that consumed everything.
His eyelids twitched slightly before slowly prying open. The first sensation he registered was the chill of the steel plate against his back and the burnt smell of ozone that still hung in the air, a reminder of the fierce battle that had just passed.
The excruciating pain from the high-voltage electric shock had subsided to a mere occasional twinge. The mana in his body had recovered to almost full, allowing him to feel the current of power circulating throughout his body once again. But what had changed the most was his mind... The final memory of "Unit 734" had transformed the flames of rage into a cold determination to "liberate" this nightmare-filled place, not just to "destroy" it anymore.
He inspected the minor and major wounds on his body and found they were almost healed, thanks to the amazing regenerative power of the parasite king's body that Iris had given him. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, gazing at the wreckage of the iron beast, which had now cooled and gone still, before giving it a slight nod, a sign of respect for its final will.
After collecting his thoughts, he decided to walk out of the warehouse.
And the moment he stepped past the warehouse's boundary... the air around him suddenly changed. It was several times colder and heavier than before, as if he had walked through an invisible curtain. The atmosphere was eerily silent... It wasn't a silence of peace, but a complete absence of life.
And then... he saw the full view of the "Necropolis of the Sky" for the first time...
It was a scene of a catastrophe so grand and tragically beautiful... it was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Before him were the ruins of once-beautiful skyscrapers, which were now no different from the skeletons of titanic beasts. They were twisted and bore massive scars as if clawed by the talons of a god. Their broken tops leaned against each other like the branches of dead trees. Below, the multi-layered roads had collapsed into a heap, becoming a ravine of steel and concrete. The wreckage of flying vehicles was sunk in the ruins like a school of fish beached on a shore of devastation.
Around him, damaged holographic advertisements still flickered with distorted, repeating images... images of the smiling faces of people from the past, torn and flashing intermittently in the darkness, like digital spirits trapped in a loop of memory. And above... was the same purple "moon of catastrophe" that cast its cold light down, bathing everything in an atmosphere that seemed to have been torn from a nightmare.
Owen stood stunned by the immense scene of devastation. He felt small and powerless compared to it.
'This is... too vast... If I just wander aimlessly, I'll get lost and die in here for sure...'
He realized instantly that he could no longer rely on his ordinary sight or instincts. He decided to try the new power he had just received... the power of the [Essence of Dreams].
He closed his eyes... cutting himself off from the despair-inducing scene of devastation...
He focused all his concentration on the core of his mind... and tried to "listen" to the voice of this dimension... not with his ears... but with his soul...
At first... there was only a cold vacuum and a silence that tried to consume his consciousness...
But then he began to feel it... a "vibration" as faint as a whisper... It was a symphony of pain and despair that still lingered and echoed in every particle of this place...
And among the millions of echoes... there was one "voice" that was the most powerful and clear... It wasn't a scream... but a faint "call"... an invisible "pull"... a feeling as if a thread of fate was tied to his soul and was gently but firmly pulling him in a certain direction... It was a compass pointing to the "epicenter" of all the despair.
Owen opened his eyes again. His gaze was no longer confused. It was sharp and full of purpose. He looked straight in the direction the pull was leading him... deep into the heart of the necropolis... before he began to walk forward with a steady stride...
He stepped on the ruins of the main road, which was shattered to pieces. Every one of his footsteps echoed in the uncomfortable silence, as if it were the only sound confirming that life still remained in this graveyard.
The moment he stepped past the wreckage of an overturned flying vehicle... the scene before him was suddenly overlaid with a faint blue holographic light...
He saw the image of a small "little girl" in a brightly colored dress, giggling and chasing a tiny "mechanical butterfly" that sparkled in the air... The image was beautiful and full of life... The little girl's smile was of the utmost purity and innocence. Her clear laughter wasn't just heard, but was a feeling that echoed in his head for a moment... a sound of happiness that was a complete contrast to the current silence of death.
But then the image flickered rapidly before dissipating into the air... leaving only the ruins and the coldness as before. Owen stood still, his heart jolting... This was what was lost... This was the price of tragedy... The heart-wrenching sense of loss made his determination as strong as steel that had been repeatedly forged.
And as he was lost in that beautiful memory... the black shadows on the ground and on the walls of the nearby ruined buildings began to move... They stretched and flowed together... forming distorted, translucent, human-like shapes. They had no faces... only empty white eyes and mouths agape as if in a silent scream... They were the "echoes of despair" of the citizens who had died that day.
These shadows shot towards Owen silently... but their movements weren't filled with hatred... but with confusion and pain... as if they were looking for someone to release them from their suffering.
Owen didn't see this as a fight... but as a "liberation."
These enemies were weak and fragile. Even though his body wasn't at a hundred percent, he could still handle them with ease. He smoothly dodged the slow attack of the first shadow figure before countering with a mana-infused punch to its torso.
Fwip!
There was no sound of impact... only the feeling of punching into a mass of cold smoke. The moment his fist made contact, the distorted shadow figure disintegrated into motes of pure white light that floated up towards the purplish-black sky... like a soul that had just been freed from its bonds.
'Rest in peace…' Owen thought, before turning to face the remaining shadow figures.
His journey continued... and it became a pathetic cycle. He walked past the wreckage of a roadside café and saw the image of a "young couple" sitting, sipping drinks, and laughing together under a holographic parasol... and the moment that image dissipated... the distorted shadows of the couple appeared and rushed at him... forcing him to release them to their peace.
This cycle of past happiness and present pain made Owen understand the depth of this tragedy even more. It wasn't just a fight with monsters... it was the healing of the wounds of a shattered world.
Owen continued to follow the "pull," which was now so strong it was almost "yanking" his soul forward. The atmosphere around him changed completely... The ruins grew denser until there was almost no path, the once-beautiful holographic illusions now became images of people fleeing for their lives, and the desperate screams grew continuous and clearer in his head, as if he were walking back in time, closer and closer to the tragedy.
He walked past the wreckage of an energy barrier that was shattered like glowing glass and stepped into the innermost area... "the central plaza of Arcadia."
The moment he stepped in... the sight before him made him stop and almost hold his breath...
It wasn't just ruins... it was a "graveyard of beasts" so grand and horrifying it was beyond imagination.
Across the once-beautiful plaza... were now the corpses of "monsters from another dimension," piled as high as small hills. They had shapes so distorted and terrifying they shouldn't have existed... Some had claws as sharp as blades, some had tentacles that still twitched lightly even in death, some had hard, insect-like shells that were riddled with holes...
The entire area was filled with the signs of a fierce battle... The plaza floor was split with long, deep gashes from an energy sword, the walls of the surrounding skyscrapers had large holes from explosions, and the corpse of every monster was in a pathetic state... Their bodies were covered in grievous wounds from a powerful energy weapon.
But the most chilling thing was the "silence"... It was the silence after a storm had passed... a silence that told the story of a war that had ended in a complete defeat.
And at the very center of that beast graveyard... at the point where the corpses were piled the highest... he saw her...
The "female Sentinel" in her shining silver armor was "kneeling" on the corpse of the largest monster. She was looking down... One of her hands gripped the hilt of a broken energy sword that was still embedded in the corpse... Her other hand rested limply on the ground...
Her once-beautiful and shining armor was now dull and covered in battle scars. Some parts had shattered, revealing the artificial skin under a torn and blood-like-fluid-stained black suit.
Even from a distance and without seeing her face... Owen could feel a wave of sorrow, guilt, and immense despair radiating from her body like an invisible storm... It was so intense it made the air around him heavy and hard to breathe...
This was the epicenter of all the despair... and she was its source.
Owen stood motionless at the entrance to the plaza. He gazed at the image of the Sentinel before him... a lone knight, kneeling amidst the works of war and her own failure...
'So this is it... the center of everything…' he understood instantly... This wasn't a "monster" he had to kill... but a "shattered soul" who was both the cause and the victim of this tragedy.
He slowly began to walk into the corpse-strewn plaza... Every step was filled with respect and understanding... He wasn't walking in as an "enemy"... but as a "visitor" who would bring liberation...
His feet stepped on the fragments of broken armor and over the corpses of monsters from another dimension. It was a walk through the final battlefield of the "Guardian of Arcadia."
Owen walked until he was standing about ten meters from her... a distance safe enough not to be a threat, but close enough to clearly show his intent.
Silence fell for a moment... There was only the sound of the wind whistling through the ruins like the cries of a dead city...
And then... there was a sound...
It wasn't a voice... not a roar...
But a faint and cold "click..." the sound of a mechanism inside a damaged helmet that began to work again after being silent for so long.
The Sentinel's once-still head slowly lifted... Every movement was slow and painful... like a doll with rusted joints...
She turned to face him... revealing the state of a helmet that was more than half-shattered... and in the darkness beneath the shadow... a single red lens that was still working... slowly lit up... and fixed directly on him...
Instantly, her cold and sorrowful synthetic voice sounded in Owen's head... not a shout... but a faint and broken whisper...
"...Invader... Have you... come to destroy what remains...?"
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