Niko crossed the bone bridge, joining Hana on the other side. When he saw her, she was looking ahead, her eyes filled with awe and curiosity.
Niko followed her gaze, his eyes settling on the sight of the ancient city that lay ahead.
They both took a moment to take in the view of the city, mysterious and massive, easily seeming several times the size of the cities in the kingdoms of the living.
Then, nodding at each other, the two of them moved forward, entering the city.
Hana walked through its metal roads, curiously looking around at the buildings surrounding them.
Niko walked slightly ahead of her, his gaze as cautious as it was curious. There was still no telling what kind of things they would find here, so he tried to remain vigilant.
There were houses on either side of the road and they, too, seemed to be made of some kind of metal, with their entrances sealed shut by odd looking doors.
Niko walked up to one of the doors, noticing a familiar glass panel connected to it. He placed his hand on it, but to no avail.
This one seemed to be completely broken.
He tried it with a few other houses, but the result remained practically the same.
Some of the panels were damaged far too badly, and either didn't turn on at all or flickered on and off erratically.
Even those that did work simply flashed red and beeped loudly, as if refusing to open the door.
He scratched his head and sighed.
Well, it was no surprise that the panels didn't work, considering how ancient everything here was.
The metallic houses, which might have seemed indestructible in the past, were now covered in rust and dents, with terrible claw marks marring their surface.
Whatever strange mechanism controlled these glass panels must be damaged beyond recognition by now, too.
Niko sighed before stepping away, trying to assess their surroundings better.
They were in the ruins of a strange city, and there were clear signs of monsters of some sort having roamed free through it. If those monsters were still around, then he couldn't afford to let his guard down.
So, he'd have to remain on high alert and make sure to keep Hana within his sight at all times—wait...where was Hana?
Niko looked all around himself, unable to see the girl anywhere.
He panicked, trying to figure out where she could have gone.
But a sudden shove from behind made him flinch, and he turned to see Hana standing behind him, covering her mouth with her hand as she laughed, before running off to hide once again.
Niko sighed, covering his face with a hand.
Looking at him from behind her hiding spot, Hana got worried.
He seemed really annoyed. Did she go too far with the joke?
Oh no, she didn't mean to make him angry! Now what should she do?
But then she felt a clawed hand tap her on the shoulder, and she jumped back with a start, vines sprouting wildly around her as she prepared to defend herself—oh, wait a minute.
Hana looked at it in disbelief.
It was a skeleton, its body covered in faint green light and its eyes filled with a red glow.
It was one of Niko's.
He pranked her!
Hana turned around, looking at where Niko was standing with a smile on his face.
She shook her head with a scoff, before narrowing her eyes at him and running off to hide again.
Niko watched her run off, the smile still tugging at his lips.
He had decided to go along with Hana's game, knowing that the girl needed some way to recover from the horrifying experience she'd had recently.
Yes, it was definitely just that, and it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that he had wanted to get back at her for scaring him.
After waiting for a few more seconds, Niko dismissed the dead he had summoned, before running off to find Hana again.
While looking for her, Niko also got to get a better look at the state of the ruined city.
It truly was ruined. The ground was filled with pits and trenches and many of the houses had partially sunken into the ground, tilting to one side.
There were also the claw marks and scorch marks marring the entire place.
At first he had thought that these were from random monsters that had roamed around the city after it was deserted, wrecking the various structures in their frenzied rage.
But looking closer, he realized that that wasn't the case. He could trace a pattern between many of the marks, meaning that they were left by an actual fight, not just a monster randomly clawing at the metal structures.
Maybe the city had actually been attacked, and these marks were caused by the fight between the attackers and the residents.
He didn't know much about who the residents might have been, but he could tell who the attackers were.
Because all of these claw marks carried traces of a familiar, repulsive power — the power of the Abyss. This was done by Abyss Spawns.
He walked towards one of the claw marks, trying to get a closer look at it.
Or at least, he pretended to do that as he walked towards Hana's hiding spot.
The girl was hiding in one of the pits.
As soon as Niko got close enough, he jumped into the pit to catch her.
Hana squealed and quickly ducked, causing Niko to miss. She then ran off at full speed, giggling as she tried to find another hiding spot.
She tried to hide in another ditch, but Niko summoned another skeleton from the ditch, which almost caught Hana, but she jumped away in the nick of time.
She turned around, seeing Niko almost catching up to her, and summoned her vines to bind his foot and cause him to fall over, before running away again.
She eventually found a dilapidated house that was missing a large part of its walls and roof. Hana jumped in through the large opening, with Niko following in after her.
Niko tried to grab her, but she jumped to the side, and he ended up hitting a pot instead, causing it to fall to the ground.
When he turned around to try to catch Hana again, his foot got stuck in the pot and he tripped, giving Hana time to climb on to the roof with her vines.
She clutched her stomach and laughed as she watched him stumble around as he tried to free his foot.
Seeing her get distracted, Niko used the opportunity to free his foot and jump at her, reaching the roof in a single leap.
He caught onto Hana as he landed, and both of them tumbled back, sprawling onto the metal roof.
Hana kept laughing for a few more moments, before letting out a soft, content sigh. Then, she turned her face towards Niko and gave him a warm smile.
Niko gave her a small smile of his own. It was nice to be like this, laughing and playing together without a care of the world.
It was nice...to be a kid again.
Then, they both turned their heads towards the sky as they lied in place for a few more moments.
Then, springing back to her feet, Hana looked down into the house that they had found, scanning the room below to see if there was anything interesting.
She turned towards Niko, gesturing for him to follow her, and jumped back down inside the house.
Niko thought for a moment. He was curious to see what the houses of the ancient city were like on the inside. So, he decided to jump in after her.