Nael was surrounded by emptiness.
An interstellar void.
It stayed that way for quite a while. Then, a blinding light appeared. Nael squinted, disoriented, as a wave of heat brushed against his skin like a summer breeze — strange, almost human. The world beneath him began to reassemble itself.
In a strange silence, the sun rose and fell in the sky, followed by the moon and its blanket of stars. It was both an eerie and beautiful sight. After some time watching the scene unfold, chunks of concrete rose from the ground, growing before his eyes. The earth solidified, and the concrete blocks rose skyward and beyond, emerging from nothingness. Nael thought of the golden towers of the Ring and their shining stained glass. The landscape at his feet was vastly different from what he was used to. Moreover, there were no holograms in the sky. No cleaning drones roaming the streets. The sky looked nothing like that of the High District — nor the Low, for that matter. On the contrary, there was no starlit firmament, nor a devastated Earth. This detail added to Nael's discomfort.
Below, the streets teemed with tiny silhouettes that appeared little by little, as the concrete blocks continued to rise and scratch the sky.
Mouth agape, Nael couldn't look away. He had never left the Low District. Everything he knew was limited to soot and the suffocating heat of the Furnace forges. But here, it was another world. Another era, maybe.
'What the hell's happening!'
Suddenly, after some time, the sun stopped abruptly, frozen in the sky like a painted backdrop.
A familiar voice — the one he had heard earlier — echoed in his head, calm and icy:
[Staging complete.]
[Directive]: Survive.
'Survive !? What am I even supposed to survive ?!'
The ground was rushing toward him. Fast. Very fast.
His breath caught, Nael plunged headfirst into the void in a dizzying fall. The wind screamed in his ears. Tears streamed from his eyes. Air blasted down his throat in scorching gusts. He couldn't scream. Couldn't think. His body plummeted, again and again. Rooftops rushed closer with terrifying speed. He could now make out the faces of passersby, shop windows, antennas, and finally... the ground.
The bare and solid ground.
' Ahh, sh*t! I'm too young to die!'
Nael didn't have time to raise his arms in front of his head for protection — the impact was softened.
In fact, he slowed down a split second before the crash. Nael realized then that the Codex had reduced his fall. Without it, he would've splattered like an overripe fruit.
The shock threw him to the side. He rolled across the asphalt, groaning, his breath ragged. Bystanders froze around him, staring with curiosity, some with suspicion, even disdain. Some stepped back, others approached, eyes narrowed.
Nael winced, rose slowly, and stood up, staggering.
The city around him was immense, noisy, and oppressive. Electronic voices repeated incomprehensible announcements on loop. A siren wailed in the distance. The air smelled of rust, humidity, and people. The ground trembled slightly under the relentless footsteps of the crowd. Children ran along the sidewalks, merchants shouted prices, and screens exploded with noisy, colorful broadcasts.
Nael walked, hypnotized. He blended into the crowd, avoiding eye contact, dodging shoves. A bemused thought crossed his mind:
'Kind of remind me the High District...'
The thought made him smile despite himself.
But this city was even stranger. Not a single light interface, no Codex signal. People here wore simple cotton or synthetic leather clothes, sling bags, worn-out shoes — no ubiquitous white uniforms. And above all, nothing seemed automated.
He stopped, intrigued, when a strange machine sped past him. It was a large metal box on wheels, with windows behind which people were sitting. Nael blinked, confused.
'They're… inside the machine?' he thought, alarmed.
He lowered his head, thoughtful:
'I should be careful. It'd be dumb to end up like them.'
He resumed walking, more cautiously this time. He tried not to draw attention, but he could feel eyes on him.
Then suddenly…
A dull, brutal, and tearing sound. As if the sky had just exploded.
Nael clutched his ears, a grimace of pain on his lips. The sound came from everywhere at once.
From that moment on, everything changed.
The passersby, who had been calmly walking just seconds earlier, suddenly scattered in all directions. Some screamed, others tripped. Children were pulled by the hand, bags were abandoned, panic painted every face. A sudden, uncontrollable stampede.
Someone shoved him hard.
"Watch where you're going, idiot!" growled a male voice.
Nael spun around, ready to reply, but the man had already passed. He was shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Move, damn it! The quake's coming!"
He vanished into the crowd.
Nael stood there, frozen. He tried to understand what that word meant.
Quake?
And then, he understood.
The ground beneath him began to shake violently, then roared with fury.
A deep rumble, like a gigantic beast awakening beneath the surface of the earth. The windows of the buildings trembled. Lampposts swayed. Chunks of façades fell into the street, smashing the pavement in a terrifying crash.
Nael staggered.
He looked up. The sky was cracking. Or was it his imagination?
The whole world was trembling.