Morning came quietly.
The desert was cold.
Far colder than Kai expected.
He rubbed his hands together while watching the camp wake up.
One outlaw stretched.
Another yawned.
Someone had already started cooking.
Munnu emerged from his tent carrying a dented metal mug.
"Morning."
Kai nodded.
"...Morning."
Munnu took a sip.
Then pointed east.
"We'll be there before noon."
Kai's heart skipped a beat.
---
The convoy departed shortly after sunrise.
Hours passed.
The landscape slowly began to change.
The dunes became smaller.
The sand became harder.
Pieces of carved stone occasionally jutted from the ground.
Kai frowned.
"...Those aren't natural."
Persia nodded.
"No."
Another hour passed.
More ruins appeared.
Broken pillars.
Collapsed walls.
Statues buried up to their shoulders.
Fragments of roads.
The sand had swallowed almost everything.
Yet traces remained.
Like bones refusing to disappear.
Kai stared in silence.
"..."
"This was all... Oheyo?"
Munnu nodded.
"The outskirts."
Kai couldn't imagine how large the city must have been.
---
Eventually—
The hovercrafts stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Kai climbed off.
Then followed everyone's gaze.
His breath caught.
On the horizon—
Something rose above the sea of sand.