"Do you want to go up?" Cairn said, staring at the metal ladder leaning against the edge of the wall. The iron was rusted, as if it hadn't been touched in a century, but it still stood, staring into the sky like a dreamer.
Alicia looked at him, then at the ladder, then raised an eyebrow.
"You mean the wall?"
"Yes."
He smiled lightly. "If this is where Raynor comes from... I want to see."
"Even if we can't go all the way down?"
"It doesn't matter. I just want to see... something else. Different from everything else in this damned neighborhood."
She studied his face for a moment, as if weighing his decision, then nodded. "Then... let's go up."
Each step on the ladder creaked, as if groaning, complaining about the weight, or the memories.
But they climbed.
And when they reached the top...
They didn't speak.
The Upper City stretched out before them, its houses arranged, its walls shining, its trees standing erect as if they never withered.
"Wonderful... How beautiful..." Alicia said in amazement, her eyes shining.
Cairn didn't answer.
He kept staring at the horizon, as if trying to believe this wasn't just another dream.
Then he muttered:
"This... is another world."
At that moment...
A faint sound echoed behind them.
A roar.
Then a scream.
Then... an explosion.
Smoke suddenly rose from the heart of District Six, followed by a red flash, then a shockwave that shook the entire wall.
Alicia turned quickly. "What was that?!"
Cairn had already started running toward the stairs without answering.
They descended quickly.
Each stair was almost the last.
And when they reached the ground...
Hell had begun.
The street was no longer a street.
The houses were burning.
The walls were cracked.
And people... were screaming.
Blood.
Children's screams.
The smell of burning human flesh.
In the right-hand corner, the headless body of a woman.
In the middle, a small child crawled on one hand, crying, shouting, "Mama!!"
And at the far end of the alleyway... a human hand protruded from the rubble, unmoving.
Cairn shouted, "Nero!! Nero!!!"
And Alicia shouted with him, "Nero!! Where are you?!"
They ran through the smoke and ash, searching, calling, screaming, stumbling over bodies.
But no sign.
A ten-year-old girl ran toward them, her mouth covered in blood, her eyes lifeless. She bumped into Cairn, then kept running... as if she didn't know him, as if no one knew anyone anymore.
Kairen looked right... left... breathing heavily.
"Nero... where are you?!"
Alicia fell to the ground, then crawled on her knees, turning over bodies, searching through the rubble, sobbing as she whispered, "Impossible... impossible..."
A man covered in soot walked among them, half burned, not speaking, just walking... until he suddenly fell without a sound.
District Six was no longer alive.
It had become a mass grave.
Or worse.
Kairen looked at the face of a dead child on the ground... For a moment, he thought it was Nero. He ran over, turning the trembling body over... but no.
It wasn't Nero.
But the resemblance was painful.
He ran again, his eyes watering despite the smoke.
"Nerooo!!!"
"Answer me!! Where are you!!"
Alicia was beside him... until...
... until...
Suddenly, without warning, a portion of the wall of one of the shattered buildings collapsed.
A huge boulder slammed down like a hammer...
It struck Alicia's foot with such force that it instantly collapsed.
A scream escaped her, loud and ragged... but it was lost.
Her voice was swallowed by the chaos.
The sounds of screaming and collapse screamed louder than her.
Fire, corpses, a succession of collapses... everything screamed.
Alicia remained on the ground, screaming, reaching out, trying to crawl, pulling herself up, but the pain was too much.
The boulder clamped her leg like an iron chain.
And the blood... poured out quickly.
"Kairen..."
She whispered, her voice breaking, straining to lift her head so he could see her.
But no one turned around.
Everyone around her was running in a different direction.
Hell was everywhere.
Alicia tried to push the boulder away with her hands.
She cried.
She screamed.
She crawled with her hands, her nails breaking as she scratched the ground.
"Cairn… Nero… where are you?"
Suddenly, a shard of wood fell from a nearby wall, penetrating the dirt near her cheek, and she shuddered.
The neighborhood itself was an enemy.
And the sky… became blind.
As she tried to push herself up… her hand slipped on blood.
Her head hit the ground.
She saw herself spinning… then she couldn't see anymore.
She closed her eyes.
Maybe from exhaustion.
Maybe from the bleeding.
Or… from reality.
Elsewhere in the Sixth District, Cairn was running without pause.
His vision was blurry, the ground beneath his feet was unsteady, and inside him was fire.
And not a metaphorical fire… something literal, glowing, rising from his soul.
Another scream... from the right.
He ran.
Remains.
He returned to the center.
The body of a young man burned, laughing.
He turned his back.
A child walked over the rubble... barefoot... his eyes rolled back.
- "Nero... Nero!!!"
But no one responded.
Cairn ran toward a collapsed wall, climbed onto it, and looked down at the neighborhood.
The sight? The end of the world.
Streets cut off, bodies strewn about, and hysterical voices filled the air like a chorus of death.
**
"Where are you, Nero...? Where are you...?"
Then...
Cairn fell to his knees.
His breathing ragged.
His hands trembled.
Everything slowed down.
Blood, fire, people screaming, bodies scattered...
Everything went cold.
Except for one thing.
His chest.
First… a prick.
Then heat.
Then… actual fire.
"Aaaah!!"
Cairn suddenly screamed, clutching his chest, as if someone had plunged a burning knife into his ribs.
His knees hit the ground, his nails digging into the dirt.
"What… is…?!"
**
Then… came the voice.
Quiet.
Deep.
Full of something indescribable.
The voice of someone… inside him.
> "Wake up."
Cairn gasped.
– "W-… who?!"
> "I've always seen you, behind your eyelids… behind your screams… behind your fear."
Then… his temperature rose even more.
His skin began to crack.
From inside him… a dull red light, as if his skull was on fire.
– "Enough!!!"
He cried out, the sound of stones breaking around him.
> "Soon… the chains will be broken."
> "And soon… it won't be you, it will be us."
The ground beneath him began to crack.
People began to run away from him.
One of them shouted:
– "That boy… his eyes… are burning!!"
But Cairn could no longer see anything.
He could see fire Only.
Fire in his memory.
Fire in his bones.
Fire… in his blood.
> "Remember my name… even if you're not ready yet…"
> "…Ener."
Cairn gasped… one last time.
Then…
He went out.
He fell to the ground.
His eyes were open, but there was no light in them.
And in the distance…
A tall shadow watched him.
He stood on the roof of a shattered building.
His face was covered by a white mask, nothing visible… except a small, crooked smile.
At Alicia's side:
She opened her eyes for a moment.
With only one eye.
Fire raged around her, smoke filled her chest, the blood beneath her rising.
Then she looked up at a tall shadow… standing a few steps away.
It wasn't a human.
It wasn't a monster.
It was… something in between.
With a voice barely escaping her lips, she muttered:
– "Arkham... is that you?"
"We've been waiting for this moment... Alicia."