From the snowy boundary, the view plunges toward the towers and geometric avenues of an immense Xeno city stretching as far as the eye can see, surrounded by mountains.
The buildings are of smooth stone, green, sometimes black, between which the gnarled trunks of vegetation wind about, as though some crawling monster were trying to flee the center of this place.
For at the center rises, immense, singular, cyclopean, the inverted Tower of Babel that haunted the dreams of Xeno civilizations and Ada's dreams as well. As large as an entire city, monstrous in its proportions and in the impression it casts upon its surroundings, it is completely black. Thinner at its base than at its summit, it is encircled by a vast staircase carved into its flank, slowly spiraling upward toward the top.
Ada is not in the best shape, but her eyes are fixed on her goal. She staggers, and, freed from her pack, begins descending toward the warmth of the plain.
On the ground, the roots of plants seem to climb the path she is following in reverse, as though life itself were fleeing this abandoned and, it must be said, perfectly silent place. Sometimes a drop of condensation falls in the distance into a puddle. A pebble splinters and falls with a thunderous noise. But there is only silence.
Ada is now in a broad avenue, flanked by Alpha. Kukth rummages with curiosity through the empty buildings. The openings are polygonal-pentagons, octagons, whether doors or windows-and far too large for humans. The Xenos who lived here must have been two or three times taller than a man raised on a station.
Sometimes, between two famished bushes that have clawed their way painfully through a road over the centuries, there are strange objects: metallic spheres, abstract statues. No visible inscription has survived the passage of time.
Ada is hungry and thirsty, and she has walked far too much for her own health, but she decides to explore a large building that could have been a ship hangar. There are no vehicles inside, or at least no machine that appears to be a vehicle, but rather sorts of enormous grinding stones that must once have rolled to accomplish some unimaginable purpose.
" What is this place, Alpha? "
He never answers, but this time he replies with a single sign:
- TEMPLE
- HOME HERE, TEMPLE, QUESTION
- TEMPLE. EVERYTHING. TEMPLE.
She thinks she hears a rumbling outside and approaches the entrance while remaining hidden in the doorway.
The sky thunders. Rain? she wonders, licking her lips. The sky thunders and glows. Orange lights, the glow of fire.
A world-ending whistle, and a streak of fire from the sky: a rock pierces the cloud layer and falls onto the city with a cataclysmic sound, making the ground shake and a building collapse. It was tens of kilometers away, and yet Ada feels the shockwave…
Then others, a rain of fire, asteroids heated white-hot, flayed by the dense atmosphere until they become mere stones-but mere stones capable of killing in an instant… one of them crashes a hundred meters away and an earthly wave throws Ada to the ground.
The ceiling cracks and begins to crumble… Kukth trembles with fear, but he and Ada are pulled outside by Alpha.
The rain of stones gives way to a rain of wreckage: flaming carcasses of Ravens and Ozys cross the sky everywhere the eye turns, on flat trajectories, sometimes passing from horizon to horizon, before crashing all around.
A massive ship (an Anicroche? It was the same as Andreï's) screams overhead above them. The hull has a gaping hole through which sunlight passes, and it leaks sparks and blood, gliding toward the tower, mortally wounded. Ada starts running toward the tower as well… these ships, whatever they are, wish to reach the Gates of Empyrea! Quickly, Alpha, quickly! But Alpha is already running faster than Ada's trembling strides.
Silence has been replaced by omnipresent fury. Far to the west, an unimaginable wave seems to surge from the ocean, so high it pulverizes itself into clouds that fall as drizzle upon the city. A drizzle that condenses into a sudden waterfall lasting ten seconds, washing the streets; Ada is carried by the current, clings to a sculpture, and holds on. She quenches her thirst after emptying her lungs of the water she had swallowed despite herself.
"It's war, Alpha. It's war, old friend. It's the race to the Gates of Empyrea."
She touches the explosive bar she has brought with her and hidden beneath her tunic. She will arrive first and take care of those gates before Aleph's henchmen open them.
She walks with rapid, exhausted steps-the time passes horribly fast and terribly slow.
A rescue pod, immaculate white, falls from the sky to crush a statue at the center of an intersection ahead of her. In black letters, a word: ASTRAPÉ.
Ada approaches cautiously, and with a sigh of decompression, the door opens. A single officer, protective helmet on his head, puts one foot outside, an automag in his hand. From here, one can hear the filtered breath of his mask, between two thunderclaps of celestial debris.
Ada takes her rifle in hand but does not shoulder it.
" Who are you, kid? " he asks, curious and wary.
" Gorylkin, " she replies, with a wild look and a hoarse voice.
At this name he freezes for a moment, as if facing a hallucination, then levels his weapon. But Ada fires first, and faster-he falls to the ground. Another one.
Ada approaches the lifeless body at the entrance of the capsule… he has a hole where his shoulder should be, and has fainted from shock. He is losing too much blood to be saved. She bends over to see if he has food, and another shadow suddenly leaps from inside: a soldier, this time, who with a sweep of his blaster knocks Ada to the ground.
A professional soldier, who has managed to stun and topple the legend: Gorylkin. He shoulders his blaster and steps back to finish off the killer of Antioch and make a name for himself, and Alpha leaps too late to save her.
But the shot comes from the side: another man, stocky and sturdy, drenched in blood, grabs the soldier by the neck before knocking him down as well and making him lose consciousness. He turns around, limping on one foot-he is tense but his eyes are laughing. It is Tohil.
"The cup of betrayal to the dregs-here I am saving Gorylkin from the hands of the Stellar Fleet!"
Ada, who had seen herself die, trembles slightly from body to mouth before throwing herself at Tohil to wrap her arms around him. She says nothing, but he bounces on his good leg to keep his balance.
"M'lady, we have to go to the top of the tower immediately."
"I quite agree, my dear."
Alpha supports the hobbling admiral, and painfully, they continue climbing through the arteries toward the center. Ada and the admiral share energy rations found in the capsule. She asks no questions, and so much the better: he did not feel capable of telling her that Andreï had perished with the entirety of the Fleet, and that truth be told, with a handful of sailors caring for the wounded near the wreck of the Anicroche, he was almost the only survivor.
The sky then lights up with numerous immense, blinding suns-nuclear weapons, Tohil thinks; the city turns from green to dazzling white and they are blinded. With his other arm, Alpha guides Ada, completely lost in the dark.
They are hot-Tohil knows they are taking in enough radiation to drop dead within a week. But they advance, they endure, they head toward the objective-that is the practice of war. And you as well, Gorylkin.
Vision returns… night has fallen, and cold slides down from the mountains. The rain of asteroids continues on the horizon. The tower is close now… they are in its colossal shadow, like that of a giant god. A kilometer away, perhaps.
An asteroid falls again, right in the middle of the road, ahead of them. The impact is so strong they are thrown to the ground. A five-meter-wide crater.
They stand back up… resume the path. And the asteroid rises as well. It has two legs. And the stature of a giant. For an instant, Ada hears her heart beat louder than the fury of war because she sees golden armor: but the Wau has a golden face and a black body, and this one is the exact reverse.
It approaches with a threatening posture-slow steps, as if to regain its balance after the fall. It scans them-it knows everything about Tohil, but worse, in the confusion emanating from Ada, it learns everything about her special bond with the Wau. It therefore decides to kill her to weaken its adversary.
Tohil pulls from his suit an unknown sidearm that fires a golden flash-it seems to electrify the Anti-Wau, but it regains its posture and accelerates. Ada pulls the explosive bar from beneath her tunic and throws it as best she can at the Anti-Wau's feet.
To assert its absolute power, it does not deviate from its slow path. It wants to terrify her and then recount this terror to the Wau. It will break him psychologically before defeating him physically. Tohil fires upon the explosive bar, triggering a destructive blast and a deafening sound. They are hurled backward, sliding along the wet avenues.
When Ada gets up, she is in the cottony ambiance of silence. She has lost her hearing. Part of her clothes is torn. She is dizzy. Tohil is somewhere, but she cannot see him. She has a bad feeling, for Alpha is also out of sight.
A shadow makes her turn around. She lifts her eyes. The Anti-Wau is there, before her. He forces her psyche and gives her the certainty that he will crush her with a single blow and kill her forever. She is paralyzed. She searches for her rifle-it is not there. The giant slowly raises his hand above her… and she cannot even flee.