"The sky hasn't changed. It's just a gray, black sky filled with stars that seem ready to close in on this land," said a boy with light blue hair and yellow eyes. He glowed in the darkness, wearing glasses, thick protective clothes, and black gloves. Shivering, he walked through the white snow.
He glanced at the stars, then looked ahead. He couldn't see anything, not even a few meters in front of him, and the snow kept falling.
"The people of Craters were right. It's so cold up here, I might die from this weather," the boy said to himself.
He kept walking, not sure where he was headed.
"Did they lie to me about the treasure being in the deadlands? They did say to walk straight, looking at the Ursa Major, and I will find out the power related to that zodiac power."
He pulled some papers from his pocket and checked the maps.
The map pointed him in the same direction he was already going, toward the zodiac. "Everything seems fine, but when will I find the place they told me about?" He put the map away, took out a thermometer, and saw that the temperature was rising. It was still -100 degrees Celsius.
Mist escaped from his gas mask with every breath, turning into snow. He wore the mask so he could breathe in the freezing air.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a glass tube glowing bright gold, making the snow around it look yellow.
"Sigh..." he muttered, then broke the test tube. It gave off a wave of heat around him.
"This could have fed me for a day, but now I'm using the lumen shell for heat," he said.
He rechecked the temperature. The meter now reads between -30 and -50 degrees Celsius.
The lumen shell kept him warm for about ten minutes, but it wouldn't last the whole journey. He still hadn't found the zodiac power, and he had a long two-hour walk ahead to the crater. He wasn't safe anywhere. His father used to tell him stories about monsters living above the ground. "I don't think I can survive if I encounter one here," he thought.
"If that part is also a lie."
He walked ahead, checking the map from time to time until he saw something blurry in the distance.
It was a blurry image of a building he had never seen before, towering over the dark, black sky. As the mist was thick, the boy was having a hard time figuring out what it was, so he moved closer and closer to what seemed to be some building.
Kael...
A familiar male voice sounded in the ear of that boy as he stopped and looked back to see if what he heard was right or wrong.
He turned his head back to see nothing, just the snow falling and thick snow and mist.
Pfft... he let out a small laugh.
"What am I even thinking about? There's no way my father is still alive."
Kael turned again and went toward the source, taking out the map and seeing.
It was the place his friend was talking about.
"Finally, I can be a stargazer," Kael thought happily, "just like my father."
He lifted his right hand and said,
"Don't worry, Father, I will protect your honour."
He moved closer and closer as he approached the destination. He saw lots of buildings destroyed over time.
All the buildings were now covered by snow.
He looked left, he looked right, he looked down, but he couldn't find the trees or what he had learned from the older adults from the craters.
Since he didn't know what green trees looked like,
he assumed what they could have been.
It was just white everywhere.
He went to the marked area on the map to look for any markings or treasure.
As he walked, he listened to a faint sound from behind his head again, as if someone was following him.
He looked back, but he couldn't find anything again.
"Am I dreaming?" he thought.
Ignoring it again, he moved.
When he reached the said marking, he saw some laboratory, or what it had been before the sun was still a thing in this world.
It was an old building covered with snow. Its upper roof was destroyed. He moved slowly, carefully looking back at some point to be sure whether his friend was following him.
"I am foolish. Why will anyone want to come to the ground?" He pushed the door, which was, of course, covered with snow. Kael just touched the snow-covered door, and it was destroyed with such little force.
The inside of the laboratory surprised and angered him at the same time. All he saw was snow everywhere—no powers, not even a lumen shell—nothing, just snow.
"Why did I follow them? Did they see me listening to their conversation?"
His legs gave out as he lost all motivation to search for anything there.
He took out the maps and tore them into pieces. The torn paper fell on the ground like snow.
Slowly landing on the snow.
"Fuck!"
"Why would they prank me?"
"But why did I listen to them?"
"Why?"
He raised his hand and punched the ground hard two times until red blood flowed from his black gloves.
"Am I really worth nothing in this world?"
He posed the question to no one in particular.
"My heating is almost over as well.
I will feel cold again, even if I survive somehow.
I will die without the food."
Ahhhhh!
He screamed hard enough that it vibrated through the surrounding area.
After a long silence,
He stood up and left the laboratory, feeling the cold inside him.
His hands were trembling. He tried to squeeze and rub them together to generate some heat, but it wasn't enough in this kind of temperature.
Finding nothing, he started to move from where he came.
As there was no sun, there was no cycle for day and night.
It was dark and cold everywhere. While walking, he heard the same faint sound from behind him again, as if he was being followed.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Stop this bullshit at once!" he shouted angrily, looking back abruptly to find no one.
Then, suddenly, he saw a figure appearing slowly from the mist.
Before his mind could react, his body did instead, and he started to run.
"This is the monster they talked about, I am sure of it."
"This is real."
"The story is..."
Before he could complete his sentence, the monster also lunged at Kael.