CH593 Dark Choice I
***
A black-haired, middle-aged man rode atop an emaciated horse, his head hanging low.
If not for his faint, ragged breaths, one might have mistaken him for a corpse slumped in the saddle.
Suddenly, a cloud of dust swept past, and the man instinctively drew in a breath.
'Cough—!'
His head snapped up as he choked, coughing violently as the dust filled his lungs. The bitter taste of ash coated his tongue.
His eyes opened, revealing deep crimson pupils.
They gleamed like polished gemstones, yet beneath that beauty lay an unmistakable melancholy.
The man lifted his gaze to the sky… and the land beyond.
What greeted him was a world in ruin.
The sky was the colour of rusted iron. The wind carried the stench of decay. And the land itself… was utterly lifeless.
There was no sign of flora nor traces of fauna.
Not even the faintest movement of insects.
There was nothing.
No sound of life at all— save for the laboured breaths of the man and his ragged party.
