We fell into the dark abyss hoping to reach the City.
Time passed by but we were still falling.
It felt endless, like the world had forgotten how to stop. The air screamed past my ears, pulling my skin taut, freezing my thoughts. I couldn't tell how long we'd been plummeting—it could've been seconds or hours. My stomach had long since given up trying to keep up with the motion.
"Why aren't we landing?" Kaelen shouted somewhere beside me, his voice barely audible over the rush.
"This can't be right!" Seonwoo's voice cracked. "There's no bottom!"
I couldn't answer. I was too busy questioning the same thing.
What if I was wrong? What if the book lied?
What if we'd just leapt into a grave carved out by my own hands?
The air started to thin. My chest burned, vision flickering black at the edges. I could feel panic crawl up my throat.
But then—I saw it.
A shape, far below. The faintest hint of ground. A shimmer. We weren't falling into nothing. We were falling to something.
"There!" I screamed. "Look!"
The others twisted midair. Kaelen's eyes widened. "It's real?"
"Get ready—brace!" Seonwoo yelled.
We curled into ourselves, instinct taking over. I clutched my arms around my head, closed my eyes, braced for bones to shatter, for pain, for death.
And then—
A burst of blinding white light.
Not impact. Not splatter. Light. All-consuming, searing, like lightning had cracked open inside my chest.
Something slammed into us—not the ground, but force, like a punch straight to the gut. My breath left me in a single violent gasp.
Then silence.
I blinked through the light.
I gasped, curling tighter around my ribs as the shockwave settled in my chest. It felt like my lungs had been kicked out of place.
For a moment, none of us moved.
The silence was too complete. The kind that didn't belong in any living place.
I slowly opened my eyes again, blinking through the spots still swimming in my vision. My hands were shaking. Every muscle felt like it had been turned inside out.
"Is everyone... alive?" I croaked.
Kaelen groaned beside me, rolling onto his side.
"I think so. I can't feel my legs—but they're still there."
Seonwoo sat up with a wince, brushing dirt off his clothes.
"What the hell was that?" he muttered, eyes scanning the city. "We hit the ground and didn't die."
"That light... it wasn't normal." I pushed myself upright, palms stinging from the impact. "It protected us—or something else did."
We all sat there for a moment longer, catching our breath, unsure whether to feel relief or dread.
I looked around. Dust settled quietly in the still air. No movement. No noise.
Just that gate looming in the distance.
"I expected more," I admitted, my voice quieter now. "A city lost to time... I thought it would be filled with something. Anything."
Kaelen stood, swaying slightly. "Feels more like a tomb than a city."
"Maybe that's exactly what it is," Seonwoo muttered.
I didn't argue.
We brushed ourselves off, one by one, grounding our feet against the strange stone beneath us. The fall was over.
Now came the part that truly scared me.
And there it was.
The city.
We stood at the edge of something massive, an ancient metropolis sprawled beneath a hollow sky. Towers that scraped nothing. Roads wide enough for armies. Buildings crafted from stone that shimmered with forgotten power.
And no one. Not a soul.
"This is it?" Kaelen whispered, stepping forward slowly. "This is the legendary city?"
Seonwoo stared around, his brows drawn tight. "It's... empty."
"It's not what I imagined," I murmured. "The stories made it sound so grand."
In the distance, a gate loomed—taller than any of the buildings, made of some dull metal that seemed to hum. It stood open, silent and still, casting a shadow that stretched too far.
"Is that the exit?" Seonwoo asked. "Or just another trap?"
None of us answered.
I didn't know anymore.
We moved cautiously.
The stone beneath our feet was warm, unnaturally so, and unnervingly smooth—like it had never been touched by wear, time, or footsteps.
"There's no dust," Kaelen muttered. "No debris. Nothing's broken."
"No people," Seonwoo added. "Not even bones."
We walked between towering structures shaped like temples and halls, their walls inscribed with symbols I couldn't recognize. They shimmered faintly, reacting to our presence. Not enough to glow—just... enough to notice us.
Every window we passed was empty. Every door was shut. Nothing moved. There were no birds, no insects, not even the wind. Just the sound of our footsteps echoing far too loudly.
"It's like someone wiped this place clean," I said.
"Or like it's waiting," Seonwoo replied darkly.
Kaelen glanced up at the towers. "Do you think people ever really lived here?
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know.
Every turn we took revealed more of the same: emptiness dressed as grandeur. Monumental halls with no purpose. Statues with no faces. Fountains filled with crystal-clear water that didn't ripple when touched. It all felt staged—like a memory someone wanted us to find.
We entered what looked like a plaza, wide and circular, with concentric rings etched into the ground.
In the center stood a pedestal, broken at the top.
"There was something here," I said, walking toward it. "Something important."
Kaelen knelt beside it, running his fingers along the edges. "Recently broken. This wasn't age. Someone took it."
"Then someone was here," Seonwoo said sharply.
I looked around again, heart beating faster.
Still no signs of life. Just silence pretending to be peace.
And beyond it all—that gate. Still open. Still humming.
"We need to figure out what this city really is," I murmured. "Before we walk through anything else."
Because one thing was clear:
This wasn't salvation.
It was something else entirely.
Kaelen stood from the pedestal, brushing his fingers clean.
"If someone took it, maybe they didn't get far."
I turned my gaze toward the massive gate beyond the city.
It loomed like a final warning.
"Let's check it," I said. "If that was a key, there has to be a lock."
None of us spoke as we walked. The path leading to the gate was wide, lined with statues—each faceless, like they'd been carved without ever knowing who or what they were meant to be. Their heads tilted downward, hands outstretched. As if offering something long lost.
The gate towered above us by the time we reached it, larger up close than I ever imagined. It was built from some dark metal, veined with thin, glowing threads that pulsed faintly. Not magic. Not exactly. But something.
"Look," Seonwoo said.
At the base of the gate, set in a small recess, was a hollow.
The size and shape matched the broken pedestal exactly.
"So it was a key," Kaelen whispered.
"And we need it to open this."
I knelt in front of the slot, running my fingers over the edge. It was smooth, recently touched—like something had been here only days ago. I could almost imagine the object it held. Tall. Slim. Maybe a rod or crystal. Definitely important.
"We're not getting through without it," I muttered. "And we can't leave until we find it."
Kaelen's voice dropped low. "What if the person who took it is still here?"
Seonwoo shifted beside me, his hand instinctively falling to his weapon. "Then we find them before they find us."
I stood slowly, eyes scanning the dead city once more. The silence was no longer still—it felt expectant, like the buildings were holding their breath.
Waiting for us to move.
"Let's start searching," I said. "This place has secrets. One of them has to be holding that key."
And we walked back into the hollow city, knowing that the gate behind us was watching