He had never felt so small.

He could never believe that these magnificent structures were built by humans, of human height and his own.

Why are they doing this?

Perhaps, the generation before the last war has degraded, they have become shallow and ignorant......

The natural environment has transformed them to adapt to the harsh environment of underground tunnels and stations.

But such buildings were built by the grandparents of these little human beings, proud, strong, tall, and of great stature, just like the buildings they inhabited.

He came to an open place, where the buildings were very wide, and the ground was covered with a hard shell like a stone with gray cracks.

The world presented in front of him became even wider.

With his gaze so far away, Artyom's heart began to tighten and his head began to glow.

Artyom sat against the moss-covered walls of an ancient castle whose bell tower was not sharp but towering.

Artyom tried to imagine what the city would have been like before it had lost its life.

The road was walked – no doubt it was once a road – and was frequented by tall, beautiful people dressed in brightly coloured clothes.

If the most costumed residents of the All-Russian Exhibition Hall stand beside them, they will suddenly be overshadowed, like beggars.

The car shuttles between the brightly colored crowds, not much different from the carriages of a subway train, but it is much smaller in size, and only four passengers can fit inside.

The room was not so dim then, and the window openings were not black holes, but inlaid with clean, glittering glass.

Artyom also saw a strange, lightweight bridge that could connect buildings at different heights that stood in completely different directions.

The sky wasn't so empty then, and there would be indescribable planes flying by every now and then, and their bellies almost touching the roofs of tall buildings......

His father had explained to Artem that planes did not have to flap their wings during flight.

Still, Artyom depicts them as behemoths with waxy wings—wings that flicker, glistening in the greenish sunlight.

And the rain that once fell.

In fact, it is water falling from the sky, but it gives people a different feeling.

It washes away dirt and dust, and it can also wash away people's fatigue.

In addition to the rain, the only thing that does this is the trickle of heat from the rusty faucets in the shower.

Water that falls from heaven purifies people from the inside out and cleanses them from their sins.

The miraculous rain can wash away the bitterness in the soul, inject new vitality into the soul, make it young, and give people the will and motivation to continue living.

These are all words that the Khan once said......

Artyom believes that despite the spell he was cast on his childhood, the world will eventually appear around him. @*~~

No, he seemed to have heard the hum of transparent wings from high in the sky, the pleasant chirping of the crowd, the rhythmic crash of the wheels, and the muffled dripping of rain.

Artyom thought to himself and interwoven the music he had heard before leaving the subway...... Suddenly, something stabbed him deeply in the chest.

He jumped up and began to run against the flow of people in the middle of the road, through the traffic, the bustling crowd, and raised his face to feel the raindrops falling.

Khan was right: everything here is like a fairy tale, amazingly beautiful.

All that's needed is scraping away the patina and green mold of time, and the good past will begin to shine – like the colorful mosaic puzzles and bronze reliefs in abandoned subway stations.

He stopped on the bank of a green river, the bridge over which had long since collapsed, and it was no longer possible for him to go to the other side of the river to take a look.

The painting, which had been real and vivid just a few seconds ago, suddenly faded, and the light it emitted was extinguished.

Empty houses have fallen into disrepair, cracks in the cement and asphalt on the pavement, barren grass on the roadside is up to two meters high, and dark primeval forests gnaw away at what little remains of the riverbank——。

The world that was beautiful a second ago has changed a second later.

Artyom suddenly became angry, he had never seen the city with his own eyes, and he had to choose between dying and returning to the subway in order to see it, but there was not a living person on the ground with a good face and a bright dress......

Moreover, on such a wide road that stretched from the horizon, there was no second living person but him.

The weather was clear.

No rain ......

Artyom didn't even have the strength to cry a lot, and now it would be better if he could die.

The heavens seemed to hear his heart, and a huge black shadow flapped its wings and approached the top of his head.

His stepfather firmly believed that people would be instructed by some symbols. One should learn to spot these symbols and learn to interpret them correctly.

Artyom looked up and froze, stunned.

If someone wants to give him a hint of a symbol at this point, it simply can't be more expressive.

Not far from the abandoned bridge, in the thick and gloomy undergrowth, a round wooden tower with a strange spire stood out from the surrounding buildings.

The years have not spared it either: deep cracks have appeared in the walls, and the towers themselves are dangerously tilted.

If there had not been a miracle, it might have collapsed long ago.

Why hadn't he noticed it just now?

The towers were entwined with huge morning glory vines, and its flares were certainly many times more slender than those of the towers, but they were thick and powerful enough to support the crumbling building.

The astonishing plant wrapped the tower around the tower with vines that, though slender, weaved a large net that supported the building from collapsing.

Yes, once upon a time, the morning glory was as delicate as the youngest branch it now had.

Once upon a time, it had to hang the protrusions of the tower and the balconies growing upwards, because for it the tower would never fall. @·error-free start~~

If the tower hadn't been that tall, the morning glory wouldn't have grown the way it is today.

Artyom looks obsessively at the morning glory and at the entire building it has saved.

All this had a special meaning for him, and he regained the courage to fight.

Strangely, nothing had changed in his life, except that through the gray shell of despair, the branches of the little morning glory had pierced into his heart and ignited his hope.

Even if some mistakes can no longer be corrected, what he has done can never be erased, and what he said can never be taken back, he still has the right and opportunity to change many things, although he does not know how to change them.

The important thing is that now he has gained a whole new strength.

Why did the trolls acquiesce to him traversing their lair unscathed?

Artyom now seems to have guessed the reason; An invisible man held them back in order to give the boy a chance.

He was grateful for all this, he was ready to forgive everything, he was ready to prove himself, he was ready to go and fight.

And from Colonel Miller, he only longed for a small hint, and a symbol.

The sun was setting and the light was extinguished, but the place was lit up again.

Artyom raised his back, and suddenly caught a swift black shadow approaching him.

He quickly extinguished the flashlight, and the shadow became invisible.