The Outlaws scattered throughout the ruins.
Some climbed collapsed towers.
Others pried loose metal plates from half-buried buildings.
A few shouted whenever they found something valuable.
"Got another conduit!"
"Don't bend that!"
"Persia! Is this worth anything?"
Persia adjusted his glasses before taking a glance.
"Keep it. Munnu can probably turn it into something."
Munnu laughed.
"See? I told ya. Even dead cities pay taxes."
His men laughed along.
Kai forced a smile.
His attention, however, wasn't on the ruins.
Ever since arriving...
He had been feeling it again.
That faint sensation.
The same one that had guided him through the laboratory hidden within the Forest.
Not a sound.
Not a smell.
Not even an instinct.
It felt...
Like something was calling him.
He quietly stepped away from the group.
Nobody noticed.
Or perhaps they simply assumed he had gone looking for salvage.
The further he walked...
The stronger the sensation became.
The buildings around him slowly changed.
Most of the ruins the Outlaws searched were broken almost beyond recognition.
These...
Were different.
Tall structures leaned against one another, half-swallowed by dunes.
Fragments of glowing blue lines still traced across cracked stone walls.
Broken windows reflected nothing but sand.
Collapsed bridges connected buildings that no longer stood.
Kai stopped.
His fingers brushed one of the walls.
The texture...
The faint glow...
The strange patterns engraved beneath centuries of dust...
He had seen them before.
His eyes widened.
"...The laboratory..."
He looked around again.
"The walls..."
"The conduits..."
"The magic circuits..."
"They're the same..."
He slowly lowered his hand.