Chapter 3: 3 | Used to believe

We are defenseless, but not dishonourable

(Wir sind wehrlos, aber nicht ehrlos!)

—Gustav Bauer

 

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In the morning, I set off again. 

The sun, unlike the stars that came before it, was partially obscured by layers of gloomy clouds. Rarely did its pallid rays of gold pierce the thick veil and caress the arid earth with its meagre warmth. 

I curiously gazed up at the sky as I continued my lonely journey. The clouds that hung low to the ground looked off; they were the colour of sickly yellow ochre, a colour I had never seen in rain clouds before. Though there was little wind, they billowed and grew in odd, lurching increments, consuming the edges of the sky in a swirling ashlike blanket.

By the time I finally arrived at the shore, the sun had completely disappeared and the clouds threatened to burst. The vast ocean spread out beyond the bloodied beach where I stood, fierce and wild and unceasing. 

In the end, there wasn’t a single place on this continent that satisfied me. I absent-mindedly strolled along the beach while contemplating where I should head next. I could travel across the ocean to the next continent via levenslied, but without Life, my limited power couldn’t be replenished. Was it worth the effort to do so? Should I head down south instead to continue my search?

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A wet drop on my forehead shook me out of my thoughts. The sky opened up, and it began to pour a torrent of brackish yellow rain. It smelt of rotten eggs and death, familiar smells that I knew shouldn’t be present in rainwater. But what stopped me in my tracks was the sudden intense light and heat that erupted next to me. 

The ocean was on fire. 

Deep violet-blue flames boiled and bubbled as they engulfed the turbulent ocean surface. It was a terrifying yet oddly captivating sight to behold—the rain evaporating into fumes as soon as it came into contact with the ocean, fanning the flames and intensifying the blaze. A strong pungent sour smell choked the air and burned my eyes. 

After watching the unnatural fire for a few stunned moments, I hastily retreated from the shore and chanted a levenslied. In an instant the world around me changed to a completely new sight. The sun was now visible over the horizon, its pale light casting dark shadows on the tall concrete structures lining my left and right. The bloodstained sand beneath my feet had been replaced by the crumbling asphalt of what appeared to be a highway. 

I didnʼt have a particular destination in mind when I initiated the teleportation, but I wasnʼt expecting to find myself in a place which still somewhat resembled a human civilisation. The device likely didnʼt detonate directly over this city, I figured; instead, it must have slowly killed off the inhabitants with its cruel poison, while Life desperately sacrificed herself to prolong their delicate lives as much as she could.

I didnʼt want to imagine how painful their inevitable deaths were. 

“There should still be corpses around here…” I mused, surveying the silent ruins. If I could find corpses with their threads of life—the so-called soul of a human—still intact, I could regain the power I had expended little by little. Hopefully, I would be able to recover enough power to initiate a stable connection with the orb. 

Wielding my scythe in my hand, I chose a random direction and began my search.