Chapter 04: Lost in Eulark
It had been an hour since Kandril learned the truth about the shop owner's real identity.
What a shock. Well, actually, no. He understood.
Many Astralis, himself included, hid their true identities for their own reasons. But the one thing he couldn't understand was why the shop owner kept letting those scum walk all over him. He literally floored Gabron with a wok.
Right?
So why?
Strange. Genuinely strange.
But that was a puzzle for another time, because right now, Kandril had a much bigger problem.
He was lost.
He was in the middle of nowhere. He had no information. No destination. No idea of his whereabouts. And he just kept walking, as if moving long enough might magically lead him somewhere familiar.
"Where the hell am I?" he muttered under his breath.
As he looked around, this place was nothing like the First District. The buildings here looked like they could fall apart at any moment. The roads were uneven and pitted with cavities filled with murky water. And the people... they all muttered in different foreign tongues, making any attempt at communication pretty pointless. Well, he tried talking to a few of them. Asked for directions. But he really couldn't understand a word they said.
Strangest of all, not a single Sentinel in sight.
No patrol. No uniform. Just... nothing.
Was this even Eulark?
But as Kandril's gaze drifted to the colony's wall, Eulark's emblem stared back at him: a shield with a rose burning bright red at the center, flanked by two crossed swords.
So he was still in Eulark.
But… where exactly?
Kandril stopped. Not that he had a choice. His body had officially ceased moving. He was just too exhausted to go on after nearly an hour of walking. Add to that, he hadn't eaten yet. He'd gotten a pretty rude interruption from that fight against Gabron and his weird henchmen earlier.
Right now, he stood on the pavement, scanning his surroundings, hoping to find a place to eat or at least rest. And then, just his luck. He spotted a small, quiet park wedged between two aging apartment buildings.
He shuffled toward it, thoroughly drained, and dropped onto a wooden bench, sprawling across it. His backpack became an impromptu pillow.
While resting, he had nothing on his mind aside from obsessively overthinking where he was. Just staring blankly at the sky.
Then, as if on autopilot, an old habit kicked in.
FWU—
Like a child, he blew at the hair falling over his forehead.
FWUU-FWUUU!!
Classic copium. Didn't help. Of course it didn't. But he did it again. And again. And again.
Until—
SMACK!
"MAN!!!" he groaned, burying his face in his hands. "This is officially the worst!"
He pushed himself off the bench and scanned his surroundings with a deadpan stare.
All he could see was cracked pavement, a trashcan overflowing with waste, and some dumb pigeon aggressively pecking at what looked like an empty chip wrapper.
"Of all the places," he muttered. "Unc literally had to teleport me here."
Then the memory hit him. The stinky alley flashed before his eyes.
"Keh—!" He scoffed. "That's even worse."
With a tired sigh, Kandril slung his backpack over one shoulder and pulled his phone out.
CLICK.
No service. No connection. Nothing but empty bars.
But a terrifying sight on the screen suddenly made him freeze. His eyes bulged, his mouth hanging open.
[Where the hell are you? I've been waiting here at the port for almost thirty freaking minutes!]
It was his brother's message.
There were more.
[KANDRIL JACOB ZIEN!!!]
[ANSWER THE GODDAMN PHONE!!!]
[I SWEAR! I'M GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE WHEN I FIND YOU!!]
Four messages. Ten missed calls.
Ooof—y'all already know what it means.
His hands flew to his face. A nervous laugh slipped out.
"Ha–ha-ha-ha. I am so dead. I am so incredibly, monumentally dead."
He knew Ayson's temper.
It was the worst.
And yeah, he really needed to get moving before his brother decided to personally hunt him down and make him regret everything.
With a shaky breath, Kandril straightened up and adjusted the strap of his backpack.
He stepped out of the park feeling oddly drained. Like his life expectancy had just dropped by ten years. His brain, unhelpfully, kept listing all the creative ways his brother might torture him.
But just as he stepped onto the pavement—
BUMP!
He accidentally slammed into someone.
He stumbled back slightly, but the person in front of him took the brunt of the crash and went sprawling onto the ground.
"Oh—!" Kandril froze.
He looked down to see who it was and quickly prepared an apology. But when his eyes met the person he had bumped into, he paused in surprise.
It was a girl. A teenager like him, smaller, around five feet flat. She was blonde and petite, with bangs peeking from beneath an olive-green cropped hooded coat. Her upper body was covered in bandages up to her right hand. An intricate sun tattoo was etched on her navel. She wore dark cargo pants covered in patches and dark high-top boots, completing her look.
Kandril extended his hand to her. "Uhh... sorry. You alright?"
The words left his mouth before his brain caught up.
'Ke~'
His face stiffened.
'Ah... right. Why did I even ask? She probably can't understand me.'
But before Kandril could say anything else, the girl pushed herself up and brushed the dust from her clothes.
"I'm fine," she said quietly.
Kandril froze.
'Wait, what?'
His brows lifted in surprise.
"Y, you... understand me?"
The girl looked up at him, slightly confused by his reaction.
BLINK.
"Of course I do," she replied. "Why wouldn't I?"
For a moment, Kandril just stared. Then he let out a small breath of disbelief.
"Wait... hold on," he said, raking a hand through his hair. "Everyone's been jabbering in some strange tongue, and now you're saying you actually understand what I'm saying?"
The girl studied him for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then, almost dryly, she said, "Because this is a refugee district. Most people here are outlanders or Wastelanders, like me."
"A r-refugee district?" Kandril blinked, taken aback. He hadn't even known such a place existed within Eulark.
The girl's gaze didn't waver. "Why are you surprised? Aren't you from here? You should've known that."
Kandril shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. "Uh... well... no. I only knew a little about this colony. But... My brother works here, so... yeah. I think he knows about it."
A beat.
Then—
"Hehe~ Yeah..."
Kandril let out a high-pitched scoff, awkward, given that the girl said nothing in return.
She looked at him with a steely face and a cold stare.
Kandril cleared his throat to cut the cringe moment.
"Uh, Ahemmm—"
"By the way..."
"Since you can understand me, can I ask for a favor?" he asked, forcing a smile.
No reply from the girl. The same stern expression.
Kandril pressed on. "I really, really need help. I have to get back to the First District. D-Do you know the way?"
The girl didn't answer. She just stared at him for a long moment, as if deciding whether he was stupid or just ten times stupid.
Then she asked, "How did you even get here if you don't know how to get back?"
Straight to the point. No nonsense. You could tell just from her voice. Flat and faintly annoyed.
Kandril flinched. Her bluntness caught him off guard. He scratched the back of his head and let out a forced, awkward laugh.
"A-haha-hahaha-haha..."
"Well... you know... it's... kind of hard to explain. Y-you probably wouldn't believe me anyway."
That same impassive expression.
A beat.
Then she exhaled.
"There's a train station ten kilometers north of here." She pointed. "Walk straight down this street and you'll see it. The train only goes to the Eighth District, but from there you can catch another line to the First."
Relief washed over Kandril's face. He clapped his hands together, practically bouncing. "O, really?!"
Without thinking, he reached into his wallet and held out some money toward her.
But the girl glanced at it, unimpressed, and simply walked past him, continuing on her way without a word.
Kandril blinked, still holding the money. "Well... okay then. Not exactly what I expected."
He slowly lowered his hand, watching as she walked away.
She didn't look back. Her small figure moved steadily down the street until she reached a corner and turned. Just like that, she was gone.
For a moment, Kandril stood there, still holding his wallet, staring at the empty corner. Then he slipped the money back in and let out a small breath.
"Well... straight to the point," he muttered to himself. "No nonsense."
"Then thanks for the directions, mysterious bandage girl!!"
With that, Kandril adjusted his backpack and started walking in the direction she had pointed.
North. Toward the train station.
When suddenly—
TREMBLE!!!
The ground shuddered, intense and sudden. Around the street, buildings shook violently. Streetlights rattled while the pavement beneath his feet wobbled.
As the tremor intensified, a web of fractures snaked through the pavement. They reached toward the park, where the ground was already giving way, the soil riven by jagged splits.
Not long after—
CRASH!
The entire park collapsed inward.
Trees, benches, grass, everything vanished as the earth gave way, swallowed by a massive sinkhole. Dust and debris rose into the air.
Kandril had been mere inches from it. Almost dragged down.
Then—
Everything stopped.
Silence. Wreckage. Destruction.
Kandril stood gasping, startlement and dread flooding in as he stared at the dark hollow where the park used to be.
A breath.
For a moment, nothing happened except the faint creak of shifting earth beneath the sinkhole.
Then he saw something in the darkness.
Something shifted.
Something... was moving.
Then—
BWOOOSKK!!
A tentacle burst out of the sinkhole. Thick. Covered in jagged spikes.
It was not alone. Another followed. Then more.
That wasn't all.
Two massive legs emerged, thin, jointed like a grasshopper's. They drove into the ground and anchored.
Then—
KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A roar erupted. A massive silhouette, cloaked in dust, rose from the sinkhole, like a demon clawing its way up from hell.
Kandril stood unmoving as it loomed before him. He knew what it was. He had no reason not to.
He had faced them before.
"...You've gotta be kidding me."
TBC…