"Ouch."
When he saw the debris, an untimely sharp pain shot through his head. It felt as if a stake had been driven into his eye.
He looked at his hand to see if the bleeding had slowed. He realized that it hadn't. The wound was still there, blood still spilling out. Nova, however, remained eerily calm. His one good eye had the dullness of a living corpse.
He took a step forward on the sand and thought:
'This place is... Were there people here?'
Perhaps not people in the human sense, but intelligent life, or partially intelligent life. Skilled hands were needed to build something like this.
A sandstone temple. Its style was similar to those of ancient Rome in Earth's past history, but with some different details on the columns. The inscriptions in another language remained illegible.
'Did someone build this place?'
The ruins also showed that the construction was intended to be underground, surrounded by the black stone of the cave, which rises in the form of different peaks of varying shapes and sizes.
If Nova had fallen a little closer to the walls, his fate would have been certain death. His entire body would have been blown to pieces by the fall.
Imagining that did not generate the slightest feeling in him.
He continued moving forward through the rubble. A single broken pillar was as thick as his body, and the pillars that were still standing, barely, were between six and seven meters high.
The walls were broken and revealed something of the interior.
Covering the wound with his palm, he entered the hellish scene. Darkness spread around the edges, while the dim light from the communicator grew larger in the narrow area.
'Nothing special seems to be here.'
Just more rubble. Everything is in ruins. The history? Buried with this old, mysterious temple. Did the people who built this thing here at the bottom worship some kind of god? Are the inscriptions on the walls and pillars related? Why did they build this with sandstone? Is there more than just desert in this place?
So many questions and no answers. That's stressful.
The interior of the ruined building is a long, broken hallway. It's empty. There are no materials related to other beings or any other clues apart from the inscriptions on the walls.
'I wish there was something here to heal me, like one of those legendary weapons that appear in web novels, or a strange system that helps me level up.'
Disappointed, the sparkle in his one eye returned. He looked at the ground and shook his head.
'There's nothing here.'
He left the temple and pointed the light outside.
'If there's nothing here, then I have no more time to waste. Now I should look for the Sweet Flakes.'
He set out to search the sand. He knelt on the ground and began digging with one hand, following the faint trail of energy from the fruits.
Blood dripped down his cheek every time his hand dug into the sand.
After a few minutes, Nova managed to find the backpack and the walking stick. He didn't hesitate to do something to hold his wound with the remains of his trench coat. A black bandage with a little bit of fabric rolled up to absorb the blood. There is nothing to disinfect the wound, so he will have to pray that it doesn't get infected.
When he finished bandaging his wound, he sat down on the sand and ate two pieces of fruit in a row. Then he lay down on the sand and looked up at the faint trail of light shining high above.
'It's daytime up there, huh. Looks like I was unconscious for a long time.'
It's a shame that little bit of light doesn't reach down here, because there's nothing but pitch darkness.
'I get out of one mess and into another. You're great, Nova!'
He covered his face with his forearm.
'I'm great at having the most random luck ever.'
He closed his eye. He felt that deep, stabbing pain. It pierced his skull, slid down his cheek like blood, and hurt like hell.
As the minutes passed, thinking that the fruit would slowly begin to close the wound, he fell asleep.
The silence in the cave was still chilling, but nothing mattered anymore, not now.
Nova's breathing became soft. That made it clear that he was really asleep, and dreaming of something, it seemed.
In his dreams, he saw a distant memory from his childhood. He remembered himself. He was sitting on a rock under the shade of a tree, away from the other children in his class, who were laughing and playing at being heroes and Aberrations. Meanwhile, he watched the little spiders walking one behind the other, carrying all kinds of organic materials.
At that time, Nova wasn't curious, nor was he grumpy or whiny. He was just very bored. And it wasn't that he minded being alone.
In silence, he could better appreciate nature doing its work. However, one day that tranquility was broken when a mysterious little girl with cat ears and a tail approached him.
She was red-haired and adorable.
She asked Nova something.
"What are you looking at? Little spiders?"
Nova looked at her and nodded silently. The expression on his face is... depressing, as there is not a single hint of emotion.
The girl, unlike little Nova, smiled happily.
"Okay, can I see too?"
He looked at the arthropods. Then he nodded again. The little girl sat down beside him, and together they watched the spiders in silence.
Suddenly, Nova opened his eyes and woke up. A little sand fell on his face. It seems like something is moving up there.
"What? Are you going to throw me a rope?"
There was no one. Just the wind above, pushing sand into the hole.
Seeing that no one was responding, Nova sighed.
He relaxed and did a quick check of his body. He had to make sure that no weird creature had torn off any of his limbs while he slept. This world had already proven crazy enough for things like that to happen.
After patting his legs, arms, torso, face, and his entire body in general, he came to a conclusion.
'Maybe there's no rope, but my body is still intact. Well, intact isn't quite the right word anymore.'
He paused. He continued.
'My eye. It doesn't hurt anymore.'
The fruit had done its job. The bleeding had stopped, the pain had vanished. It had finally healed, but...
'My eye…'
There was no eye. The wound was gone, but the eye would never return. This is what happens when there is no healing Empath nearby. There are people with the ability to regenerate the most deadly wounds, but without one nearby, regenerating the eye was impossible. Besides, the wound had already healed, so now there was nothing left to heal.
Nova accepted this fate silently and stood up again.
'From now on, I'm going to have to get used to this.'
Various scenarios appeared in his mind where having only one eye would be a disadvantage. With this, his logical and cold thinking proved to be above his emotions.
But when it comes to emotions, one must never overlook Serenity, which is one of the rarest Spectrums of the Emotional Spectrum. It could be said that such a Spectrum forces its user to be in a deep state of constant calm.
As is normal, there are those who learn to live with it, and over time they manage to feel emotions like everyone else. Nova is one of those people, but not enough. Although over the years he learned a lot thanks to the people around him, that didn't mean he understood what he was feeling.
To this day, he has led a full and fun life.
No. Not to this day. Until a few days ago, his life was fun and full of people. Now he is in a damn hole in the ground with no apparent chance of escape.
He turned on the communicator once more.
'There's a path to the side of the temple. Let's start there.'
Just a dark, large, circular shadow about two meters in diameter, extending to the edge of the light. The secrets it hides will surely reveal more about the ancient civilization that once stood here.
'I hope it doesn't take me to another Aberration.'
It's always okay to dream. In hell, even those who dream of heaven have hope. So, he moved forward again. This time, without stopping.
He ventured into the unknown and hoped to find something good and useful. By the new nightfall, surely everything would be better. Darkness would spread across the surface, but he would remain partially safe down here.
***
The communicator didn't have much battery left. A quarter of the charge was shown on the screen. Nova looked at it silently.
'How I wish I had bought one with a flashlight.'
When buying the communicator, Nova thought that a cheap one would suffice. All he needed was to make calls and send messages. The rest of the features didn't matter.
'When I get back, I'll buy another one.'
He continued walking through the long tunnel. The sharp rocks, jagged on the walls, were faintly illuminated by the glow of the screen. Every step he took echoed in the place, an echo that traveled to the end of the tunnel and faded into the mystery on the other side.
Minutes passed. The tunnel wound from side to side, revealing different paths and intersections. Nova simply followed the energy signature. That's what will lead him to the end. At least, that's what Nova hopes will happen.
"Another dead end," he said, stopping in front of a wall.
It happened constantly. Whenever he reached a place, he would encounter a wall that prevented him from continuing. The tunnel had quickly become a maze.
'Where should I go now?'
He looked behind him. He continued back, but a soft hissing sound echoed in the depths.
He immediately raised his guard. His staff in front of his face, and his shield on his back. He looked to the sides, waiting for danger.
'What was that?' he finally asked himself. He frowned, dismayed. "It sounded a little far away."
Whatever it was, staying here was not a good idea.
"Damn it. I have to go. They'll kill me if I keep wasting time."
He quickened his pace. He continued through the winding tunnels. Some tunnels went up. Others went down. Others led nowhere. Darkness spread between them, deep down; it seemed as if something was watching from there, but it was just dark thoughts filling the boy's mind.
Hours passed. The hissing sound could be heard from time to time, distant but terrifying. His footsteps continued to echo. His breathing could be heard between the walls.
Suddenly, he looked at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately, there was a little light on the other side.
Curious, he moved forward silently, on guard in case of danger. As he emerged, he frowned with his one eye. Beneath his feet, large mounds of stone scattered down a steep slope.
Then, the light showed him something different from what he had seen in this desert.
In front of him lay what is probably the greatest discovery in this world. The end of the tunnel connected to a large "empty" expanse, with black stone columns supporting the high ceiling.
'A city…' Nova said, surprised.
Small sandstone buildings were scattered geometrically across the ground, giving way to a small town large enough to be called a city. Large shiny stones were embedded in the columns and some of the houses, illuminating the area with their dim amber light.
'But... it's empty.'
There was nothing but buildings. No sign of life was shown. Silence clung to the houses, giving the feeling of a chilling ghost town.
Without much hope, Nova descended the cobbled slope, his boots sliding on the uneven path.
As he stepped onto the city floor, he confirmed that the place was completely empty.
"Yes. There's nothing."
He clenched his fist tightly. He felt a stupid urge to punch a wall. It's irritating not to be able to find anything, let alone a little hope.
They're just ruins from the past.
At the same time, deep in the tunnels, that faint hissing grew louder, but Nova couldn't hear it, as he was more focused on calming the stress that the whole situation was causing him.