In the deserted ruined city, Vana walked cautiously, her invisible traveling companion walking beside her, always happily introducing her to this bustling, lively and beautiful place.

It's the most prosperous city on the whole continent, it's known to almost everyone, and most people live here or at least pass through it on their journeys, the guards are dutiful, the people here are friendly and generous, and it's home to all the world's new and interesting goods, and all the world's new and interesting ideas and stories.

"Everybody loves it, and so do you," the cheerful voice said beside Vanna, "just stay here for a few days and you'll know how appealing it is!" ”

Vanna listened to the enthusiastic guide beside her for a while, but her mind was spinning around with something a little strange but very practical...... Idea.

She wondered if she couldn't see the "people" in the city at all, but could occasionally hear the voices of other people next to her, so to the inhabitants of this place (who may really exist), she was the equivalent of a blind man with a big sword? Such a dangerous militant walks down the street with his eyes closed and swaggers around...... Is there really no reaction from the invisible inhabitants?

She thought of the noisy guide beside her—judging by the voice, she was a young girl—and she couldn't see her, or even touch her, so it was naturally difficult for her to "visit" the place according to the other party's guidance, so Vanna just explored between these ruins and walls according to her own judgment along the way, basically ignoring whether the "companion" next to her was following her, and whether the other party could follow, but the "Miss Guide" didn't seem to feel anything wrong with this.

She just naturally followed her side at all times, and no matter which way Vana suddenly walked by, her voice remained at a distance, communicating with Vana smoothly and naturally, as if this was the route she had planned for her "new friend".

Vanna stopped near an intersection, silently gathering her thoughts.

What kind of existence does this "stranger" have for the inhabitants of this invisible city and the invisible traveling companion beside him?

The moment this doubt popped up, a trance that was even stronger than before suddenly hit her heart, and Vana suddenly felt that her head was blank for a moment, as if she was ...... Forgot something very important.

She looked up suspiciously, looking at this strange and desolate ruin, vaguely remembering that she had noticed something "unreasonable" before, but now this sense of unreasonableness has vanished.

"Would you like some fruit?" A voice suddenly came from a nearby roadside, interrupting Fanna's thoughts, and the voice sounded like a gentle old woman, "They were all sent to the city this morning, fresh and thirst-quenching, I think you must have been on the road for a long time, right?" ”

Vanna followed the prestige and saw a pile of planks and stones on the side of the road that were more than half buried by the yellow sand, and a vague black shadow was sitting in the ruins, and the black shadow reached out to her, like a vendor selling goods—a cloud of yellow sand was swept away by the wind and slid from the black shadow's hands, and there was only sand on the plank in front of him.

Vana blinked, and the shadow vanished in an instant.

She stood alone at the crossroads, with only the hollow sound of the wind in her ears, and after a while, she realized that even the voice of the "invisible traveling companion" was gone, and it had not sounded for a long time.

Vanna turned her head, looked in the direction where she had last felt the other party's breath, and asked tentatively, "Are you still there?" ”

She didn't get a response.

A little dust was swept up by the wind and fell from a nearby ruined wall, and a faint and intermittent familiar sound came from the wind and sand—ding, ding......

Vanna placed the greatsword in her left hand and used her right hand to sketch a familiar symbol on her chest—she couldn't remember the meaning of the symbol, but her body did it naturally, as if it had been a habit she had developed a long time ago, some kind of ...... The act of praying for blessings.

Then she cautiously grasped the greatsword in her hand and walked deeper into the city.

She walked in this ruin for a long time, and the wide and complicated roads in the city seemed to be endless, and there were buildings and paths buried in the yellow sand everywhere, and even if the broken and collapsed buildings were buried in the sand, they could still vaguely see a little bit of the exquisite appearance of the past.

It occurred to Vanna that this might really be the liveliest and most prosperous city in the world, and I don't know how many lives exist in this huge city, and I don't know how many busy caravans travel through the city, supplying it with supplies from all over the world and stories from afar.

But that was when it wasn't scrapped yet.

What is the reason why such a prosperous city was abandoned? When was it abandoned? And at the end of the day...... Why did you come here?

Vanna crossed a fork in the road, continuing on her way with the occasional question, and just as she passed a building, she stopped abruptly.

There was a strange sound of Kerala in the wind, and then a piece of paper flew out of the wind and sand, swirling past her eyes, and words were faintly visible on the paper.

Paper? Is there any paper left in this sandstorm?

Vanna's heart moved, and her body had already reacted before she could—she grabbed the piece of paper flying in front of her eyes, and then looked at its contents with consternation.

It turned out to be a broken newspaper, and the words related to the masthead could still be seen in the upper part of the mutilated part, and in the lower part of the paper were many badly worn and eroded handwriting, and Fanna carefully recognized it for a long time before she found a relatively complete sentence:

“…… A fire broke out in Purand, the fire spread from the upper town to the lower town, several factories and neighborhoods were damaged in the fire, and the number of casualties among residents was ......"

Vanna looked at the words on the paper that seemed to have been baptized by the years, and her mind was confused for a while, and it was a long time before a question popped up:

What is Purand?

The next second, she saw the fragments of newspaper in her hand silently turn into yellow sand, drifting in the air with the wind.

Vanna stood there for a moment, patted away the remaining sand from her hands, and slowly walked forward.

After walking a long way forward, she suddenly stopped in front of a building again.

In the floating dust and mist, the appearance of the building seemed very abrupt, as if it had suddenly emerged from the wind and sand, and stood somewhat incongruously in the middle of the surrounding pile of broken and collapsed building debris, like a giant beast, watching Vanna in silence.

It was a small church with multiple spires, and for a church, it was not grandiose, but it was also very solemn.

It was clearly ruined, its exterior cracked, its doors and windows shattered, its roof tiles peeling, and it looked derelict for a long time, but it at least kept its main structure intact compared to the surrounding ruins, which had completely collapsed into broken bricks and had been buried in sand—and what Vanna was concerned about was that there was a small flower bed in front of the church.

The flowerbed had been destroyed, and there were only some dead plants in it, but it was strange that there was not a grain of sand in the flowerbed, and even in this place where the yellow sand was everywhere and the wind never stopped, the flowerbed looked clean.

It was as if someone was still tending to the cracked flower bed and the withered plants inside.

Vanna paused in front of the flowerbed, looked up at the dilapidated chapel, and walked forward after a moment's hesitation.

The moment she stepped through the church door, she felt something change—the eternal heat of the desert seemed to be cut off from another world for a moment, and the next second, she saw the lights in front of her.

Outside, the church, which looked ruined for an unknown number of years, was neatly kept, with its doors, windows, and roof intact, and bright lights illuminating the main hall, rows of empty wooden benches neatly lined up in the hall, and at the end of the benches was a tall pulpit, which shone from above the wooden pulpit, bathing it in soft light.

Vanna frowned, vaguely feeling that the place was somewhat familiar.

She'd seen it, or at least heard it mentioned.

But she couldn't remember, she couldn't even remember what life she had been through before stepping into this endless desert.

She gripped her broadsword and walked down the aisle in the middle of the hall, and after checking her surroundings, she finally stopped in front of a bench.

She'd been trekking for so long that she felt she needed to sit down and rest, even if only for a few minutes.

She sat down on the bench, the old chair creaking slightly, and she exhaled long, feeling her joints creak like the old chair, as it was filled with sand.

Then, suddenly, she heard the sound of slight breathing.

There was a man sitting next to her.

Vanna snapped back.

It was a young nun dressed in a black church gown, looking about Vanna's age—she sat quietly next to her, her head bowed, as if in prayer.

Alone! A visible, tangible person?!

Vanna had almost forgotten the last time she had seen "the other person", and in all her memories, she seemed to have been trekking through this never-ending journey, accompanied by sand and strange sounds, and she had even begun to feel that the world was like this, and that she was the only "human" in the world, but now...... She saw a man!

The excitement was irrepressible, and at the same time, a wisp of imperceptible confusion and familiarity surfaced in her heart, and Fanna subconsciously spoke: "You are ......"

"You've been here too long, sister," interrupted Vanna, the young nun in prayer, who looked at the latter calmly, "Ash, easily assimilated by ash. ”

(End of chapter)