To the earth we return our dead.
To the sky we return our names.
May their hunger end where ours could not.
May their souls find peace for the struggles they have fought.
May they walk beyond the walls we could not cross.
May they receive warmth for their boundless loss.
May their cries be put to an end, And let it be replaced with salvation in Eden where they would be sent.
Amidst the dying cold, May their tragedy be told.
As we sing the eternal facade.
The heart of God.
…
As I unclasped my hands, finishing the prayer, I looked to my left.
Stephanie was holding onto my leg with her small hands.
She stared at his tomb with no particular expression.
As expected, she was too young to understand.
Good.
It was strange though.
Staring at his grave, I wondered…
He was our father…mine at least.
I doubt he was my real father though.
With everything gone and said, he was the closest thing to a father I have ever had and probably will ever have.
And yet, I did not know his name.
No one did.
He was a strange man who just happened to appear with me in the Ruins seemingly out of nowhere.
As I stared at his tomb, a feeling of deep sorrow washed over me.
I dug his grave.
I buried him with my own two hands.
And strangely, I did not feel compelled to cry, nor did I feel compelled to mourn.
I simply took Steph’s little hand and started to walk away.
“Come on…Let’s go.” Her reply stunned me however.
“Why?
Isn’t faddar coming with us?” I smiled.
“No, father is sleeping.
We mustn’t disturb him.
Come on now.” As we slowly walked to together towards the long rotten entrance of the graveyard, I suddenly froze for some reason.
All humans are created equal, and perish as equals.
At the center of the garden of death, amidst ramparts of eternal beds and the tragic fragrance of all demise, There I stood…surrounded by corpses.
PRESENT DAY After burying Murphy’s body, Kuon did not feel particularly sad or in grief.
Instead, what he felt was guilt.
That guilt bit into him, yet failed to pierce through.
He had done this countless times before.
What was any different this time?
Suicide was an extremely common cause of death in the Ruins afterall.
Kuon exhaled.
He was currently walking home.
Far into the horizon, the sun began to set.
It was quite the view.
It was breathtaking even.
As Kuon passed the weathered fortress, he halted and stared at the colossal iron leviathan looming over the Ruins.
Curiosity, hesitation, and something nameless flickered across his face.
Then he turned and walked toward it.
All his life, he had seen the fortress only from afar, never daring to approach its abandoned grounds.
So it was for everyone in the 242nd District, each for reasons of their own.
Some said it was cursed.
Others swore they heard voices in the night.
Most simply felt that something about it was wrong, as though it had no right to exist in this world.
Whatever the cause, no one dared to cross its ruined perimeter, which was exactly what Kuon was doing.
Passing through the remains of the enormous long rusted titanium gates, he felt a strange pressure settle over him.
Not physical, but deeper—a silent warning, urging him to turn back.
He ignored it.
Within the grounds, the pressure only deepened.
The fortress stood about a hundred meters ahead, dwarfing everything around it.
Up close, it seemed almost alive, as if the centuries had failed to strip away the dreadful presence lingering within its withered walls.
Scattered across the grounds were watch posts, crumbling towers, and elevated walkways, like the bones of some forgotten giant.
All of it was just too ominous.
Which is the reason why Kuon’s curiosity grew larger.
The sensation continued to become more and more insidious the closer Kuon came to the main body.
The pressure was so intense now that Kuon’s skin grew slightly pale.
‘It’s nothing.
It’s nothing.
It’s just a very…very big and monstrous…and scary cottage…’ Persevering through the pressure, Kuon practically sprinted up the withered stairs and made his way to the main entrance.
As expected, the fortified metal gate had long since rusted away, revealing the inside of the massive iron construct.
And inside…
‘Huh…’ Kuon saw nothing but darkness.
It was impossible to see anything no matter how hard he tried.
The inside was shrouded with unnatural darkness that even the light coming from literally every collapsed section of the walls failed to illuminate.
But that was not the strangest thing Kuon noticed.
Taking a step back, he realised that the insidious pressure on his mind had completely vanished and what replaced it was another kind of sensation.
The sensation to go inside and explore the dark abyss.
Unlike the previous one, this pressure was much more intense and…encouraging?
Kuon felt a strange premonition.
He knew something would happen to him if he entered, and yet he was not sure.
That uncertainty only fueled his desire to walk in.
After a long moment of silence, Kuon closed his eyes and let out a slow, weary sigh.
Curiosity won, and before he could think better of it, he took a step forward, allowing the boundless darkness before him to swallow him whole.
His foot landed on stone…
Kuon opened his eyes and found himself standing at the foot of the staircase leading to the fortress entrance.
“…What?” His brow furrowed as he stared ahead, confusion tightening in his chest.
He could have sworn he had already stepped into the darkness beyond the doorway, that he had crossed that threshold and vanished into it.
So why…
Why was he back here?
He looked behind him, half expecting to see something different, but the courtyard was exactly as he had left it.
The rusted gates stood where they always had, the broken watchtowers loomed in their usual places, and the dead silence pressed in around everything without mercy.
Everything was the same.
Had he imagined it?
Was he hallucinating?
No…
Kuon was certain of what he had done.
He had walked into the darkness.
He remembered the sensation of it wrapping around him, cold and absolute, and he remembered taking that step…
Didn’t he?
‘This…this is so weird…’ Kuon shook his head, banishing the thought entirely and started making his way to the entrance once more.
However, as he reached the rusted metal doors and looked inside, his expression grew even more puzzled.
First of all, the insidious sensation was completely gone.
That…was a relief.
Second of all, the boundless pool of darkness that seemed to devour the inside of the iron leviathan…
Was completely gone aswell.
Pale moonlight came from the collapsed sections of the wall, making the interior perfectly visible to the naked eye.
It was as though the abyssal darkness had never existed and had only been a fragment of Kuon’s imagination.
His right eye twitched slightly.
“Maybe I should get some sleep…”