Gu Jun looked blankly at the ruined city under the terrace. He glanced around and saw no moving figures. The tall figures from the Sunset City Foundation were standing on the street beside the terrace talking to him.
The figures... all disappeared.
The once vigorous vitality was replaced by desolate death, a dead city.
His heart felt like it was splitting in pain.
What happened?
The weak steps slowly lifted up, and Gu Jun stepped on the still intact stone slabs on the terrace and walked towards the steps. In the past, he could not walk down the long stone steps, not even one step, and the closer he got, the closer he got.
As I climb the stairs, I feel more mentally stressed, as if I am about to wake up from a dream.
This time was different. He walked through the middle of this huge terrace, dozens of steps away, and the mental pressure he felt remained unchanged.
It's just that the confusion in my heart is even greater.
When Gu Jun stood on the edge of the steps, a cold wind seemed to blow by, or maybe it was just him who was shuddering.
The City of Sunset was destroyed?
But this place... is it the City of the Sunset?
The power of the yellow light seems to be contaminated by the dark atmosphere... Could it be that because of this, he has actually arrived in another place?
But why are the two so similar? He can tell that those ruins originally belonged to some grand and beautiful building... Mirror image? Reflection?
Of course, Gu Jun didn't want to think that Sunset City was destroyed, but his reason was pulling him, and his reason was saying that it didn't seem like there was any chance of luck...
He stood for a while, then finally took out his right foot and landed on the first step. He stepped firmly and went down without waking up from this nightmare.
The second step, the third step, the fourth step...the nightmare is still there.
He didn't know how he existed here. If this was a dream, why all the scenes were so clear, why the turbid air he breathed into his lungs was so real, making every pore of him feel the deathly silence here.
Gu Jun walked down step by step, and walked for about an hour before he reached the end of the stone steps. The street was the next step.
He noticed along the way that the stone steps became more and more dilapidated as he went further down. The last hundred or dozens of steps were full of cracks. Several times he heard the sound of cracking deep under his feet.
The stairs are crumbling, and soon a strong wind will blow, adding a pile of broken stones to the ruins.
It was also on the road that he had a new idea.
Time is not a straight line, the universe is full of various dimensions...
Could it be that this was always the case? The City of Sunset originally existed in the past? The distant past?
The previous connections and help... were all the product of crossing time and space in the past, but now, the Sunset City no longer exists.
Still, the City of the Sunset and the Black Goat are inseparable from the negative choice of life. If the earth world cuts off its connection with the latter two, it also cuts off its connection with the City of the Sunset... Neither light nor darkness is possible.
Exist alone...
Could this be the case?
Gu Jun's head felt swollen and painful, too many chaotic thoughts were entangled together, strangling him like a rope. The air became increasingly turbid, and the air below had a rancid smell.
He took the last step, left the steps, and stood on the city streets that were previously out of reach, but the exquisite cobblestones and marbles were covered with cracks and dust, and large chunks of broken stones and collapsed stone pillars blocked the way.
The road was cut off and he had to go around.
"Is there anyone? Is anyone here?"
Gu Jun asked while looking around, his voice not loud, maybe because he didn't think there would be any response.
The houses on both sides of the street were once very lively. Some were residential buildings, some were libraries, some were pubs... Even if they were not bustling, they were not so desolate and silent. The fountains that once sprayed clear spring water were blocked because no one took care of them.
Just a pool of dirt has accumulated; the flower bed that was once full of flowers has accumulated another pool of dirt; the once beautiful river has accumulated another pool of dirt...
"Is there anyone? Is there anyone..."
Gu Jun walked past the collapsed arch bridge and arrived at a wide square. The statues that originally stood around the square were all reduced to piles of fragments.
He looked to the left, to the right, to the front, and to the back.
It is no different from what you see from the balcony, but it is clearer.
Everything in sight is in ruins.
I don't know if all the strength in his body was taken away by the journey or swallowed up by the loneliness. After Gu Jun let out a long sigh, he could hardly stand still.
He stretched his legs and feet and held his forehead, but all the old injuries on his body were reappearing, the mutilated skull, the scarred face, the mutilated little finger of his left hand, the recently healed right calf... He couldn't tell whether it was pain or pain.
Numb, or both, he was a little out of breath.
Has the City of the Sunset been destroyed?
Have organizations and forces like Sunset City been destroyed...
Keep your heart towards the light and never despair...
Who destroyed Sunset City? By what organization? What force? When?
Gu Jun clenched his slightly trembling fist and punched his heart. If this is a nightmare, wake up!
But the loud bang did not let him leave. The vortex held him tightly.
Just as Gu Jun was about to sit down on a large piece of gravel lying next to him, suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to see a dark shadow flashing past a pile of statue gravel in front of him. He didn't care if this was an illusion or not.
He mustered up all his strength and ran over, "Stand! Who is it?"
However, when he ran over and took a look, it was empty.
The black shadow just now might just be the reflection pulled out by some piece of gravel.
But Gu Jun discovered something else, a split cross symbol carved on the ground here.
The split cross symbol... The split cross symbol has been gone for a long time, but has never gone away...
He seems to have seen this one, in... the Arkham Miskatonic University Library in the world of "The King in Yellow"...
At that time, with the help of three guard dogs, the Dividing Cross and the City of the Sunset, he broke away from Dr. Armitage's ritual and the shackles of Nyarlathotep, and arrived at the City of the Sunset for the first time.
On the terrace, I returned to my home world.
Why, there is a dividing cross symbol on the ground here...
There are no symbols carved in other places in this square, next to other statues.
The more Gu Jun looked at that symbol, the more thoughts came to his mind. Could it be left to me?
However, how come they only left a mark on him when the City of Sunset was destroyed? Besides, those people don’t know what happened in the end...
The more he looked at it, the more he felt that the symbol had a strange attraction.
"Perhaps, when different people come here, they will see different imprints? The imprint left by the Sunset City for themselves?"
Gu Jun thought, "Maybe, I can try to contact it? Just like opening a letter...could there be some information or something buried for me?"