"So that laboratory..."
"...was connected to Oheyo."
The realization settled quietly within him.
He continued walking.
The feeling grew stronger.
Step after step...
Until the ruined streets suddenly ended.
Before him lay a massive crater.
Its edges were uneven.
As though something unimaginably powerful had exploded from its center.
Sand had filled much of it over the years.
Yet even now...
The destruction remained impossible to ignore.
Kai slowly climbed down.
The air felt strangely still.
No wind.
No voices.
Only silence.
He reached the center.
And stopped.
"...Here."
He couldn't explain why.
He simply knew.
This was the place from his dream.
He knelt.
Closing his eyes.
The strange sensation beneath the sand pulsed faintly.
He placed his gloved hand against the ground.
Mana flowed naturally.
Not because he intended to cast magic.
But because his body simply...
Responded.
The sand shimmered.
The faint pulse beneath the earth answered.
And then—
Pain.
A violent headache exploded inside his skull.
Kai grabbed his head.
"Ngh...!"
The desert vanished.
...
......
.........
Heat.
Wind.
Voices.
He stood beneath a blazing sun.
Not as himself.
But as someone else.
His clothes were different.