Azure: Gunner

The Remnant, capital ‘R’, is the single most impressive reminder of the prowess and technology of pre-System Earth – and yet it is also a lie. That is to say, it did not exist in such a form before the Wasted War. While pre-War depictions of Los Angeles, as it was then known, are very rare, they universally fail to include a single structure rising well over a mile from the ground, towering over everything nearby.

Perhaps the Remnant is an amalgamation of the idea of the so-called ‘skyscraper’, for surely, no construct built by man today could reach so near the heavens.

- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System

The view from the edge of the cliff was breathtaking. I stopped in shock as my gaze rose from the river gorge cutting through the valley to the hills beyond. Raylan nearly ran into me from behind, cursing, but I barely noticed. In the distance, I could see a monumental thing reaching into the sky. Around me, the others stumbled to a stop as well, joining me in staring. It has to be the Remnant. The Fucking Remnant sounds better… It’s huge! There’s no way people could build something that big, is there?

It didn’t loom over us the way the Angel’s Spine did, but instead reached into the pale blue sky like a finger of steel and glass. Parts of it reflected the late-morning sun back brilliantly, shining like no building I’d ever seen before. Other parts of it were dark, giving it a patchy, diseased look.

The ancient structure, more than four hundred years old, was a breathtaking sight. I had thought the bridge we’d crossed into East Bank had been impressive, but it was nothing on the scale of the Remnant.

I looked at Raylan, who was standing there with his arms crossed, pretending he wasn’t affected by the sight too.

“I’ve seen it before,” he shrugged, and then dodged as I attempted to punch him in the shoulder.

“It’s even more impressive the closer you get,” Block added, his tone unusually serious. “A mile and half tall, if you can believe it,” – and I could, looking at the thing – “we’re around thirty-five miles away, and yet you can’t miss it.”

“That’s the center of the quarantine zone?” I asked curiously.

”It’s not the actual center of the QZ, and no one knows if it has anything to do with the QZ itself, or if it just happens to be nearby. Either way, no one has ever been inside it and made it out to tell the tale. The mana levels around it are extremely high, and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of high-Tier undead you’d have to fight through to get there. Not to mention the countless thousands of low-Tier undead surrounding them,” Mason told me seriously.

“And the undead just stay there? All by themselves?” I asked.

“The Army has a network of watchtowers all the way around it, with the exception of the north which is blocked off by the Griffin Range. If they spot any undead wandering out, they sortie from the towers and destroy them, but some occasionally get through.”

“Remember what I told you about undead?” Hassan asked. “Our main protection comes from the fact that the strong ones get weaker if they travel too far away from the high-Tier mana near the center of the QZ. It gets really dangerous if some of that mana drifts far enough south towards the city, because then the undead can get closer without losing their strength.”

“Does that happen often, Archer Hassan?” Zaire asked.

“Let’s just say that Lost Angels used to be about fifteen miles further north when it was first established after the Wasted War. The undead destroyed it once, forcing people to move south away from the Remnant.”

Between us and the Remnant, the river cut through the land, narrow strips of green plants lining both sides. The water level was still well below the height of the land around it, but the gorge wasn’t nearly as deep as at East Bank. Directly below us was a good-sized town. We could see right down into it from our position as if we were standing on the town walls, except much higher up. The actual walls of the town, wrapping around the two sides that weren’t already protected by the cliff and the gorge, looked about the same size as Sunland’s.

Beyond the town walls were farms, surrounding the town in an arc to the east and south. They were significantly greener and richer than Sunland’s farms. The town itself was similar in construction to the others I’d seen so far, with a mix of one and two-story stone buildings. Finally, to my left, the Eastern Range rose off into the distance. It looked more comparable to the Shadow Hills than to the Angel’s Spine in size, but I didn’t know much about how big it got the further you went.

“Where’s the city?” I asked Vale, who happened to be the closest to me.

“It's too far t’ see, we’re about seventy-five miles still,” she said, pointing roughly in the direction the river was flowing. Slightly disappointed, I followed the others down the steep, stone path that snaked back and forth several times before depositing us in the town. It was well past noon, and we were all hungry, so while Mason headed off to speak with the Mayor, the rest of us headed into the inn.

I stopped suddenly in the doorway, causing Alex to run into my back with a muffled curse. Flushing, I stepped quickly aside, staring in shock at a group of orcs sitting around a table covered in empty plates and pitchers of beer. I abruptly noticed that I was holding my gun, and I quickly vanished it back into my Inventory, hoping no one had noticed. From the way Vale was looking at me, I’d failed.

This is so fucking weird! They’re sitting around, drinking and talking like everyone else, and I know I should treat them just like people, but fuck… the only orcs I’ve seen before were the ones in the dungeon, and they tried to kill me. Repeatedly.

There were eight of the huge, green skinned creat – people. Sitting around a table that could probably seat a dozen humans, they made it look awkwardly small, like it was a table for children being used by adults. They were talking in loud, deep voices, seemingly in good spirits. Wearing a variety of armors, like any group of combat Classes, they looked rugged and intimidating. I focused on the largest one, sitting at one end of the table. Identify.