Chapter 87: Speed Run: Boss Room
He’d expected a city, but what he saw was unlike any city he’d known in his past life or on Ayther.
The warrens of each building stretched upward, nearly uniform arcs supporting a lattice of interconnected roofs, all made of weathered, grey stone. Everywhere he looked at his level, the floor was covered in fine blue sand out of which ruined shapes and dunes jutted.
A cool wind blew, gently enough that he could hear the resonance of the megastructure he was standing in as he climbed onto the floor.
"Wow. This place is big... but pretty boring," Stella said, returning to her normal form as she investigated a small mound of sand with a poke of her tail.
"I think whoever built this place lived on top," Kir said. "But I don’t see any stairs or signs of elevators..."
"Uhh... I don’t think they needed any," Stella said. She lifted her tail, the end of which was inside the rough eye socket of an avian skull. Some of the sand had crystallized onto it, holding it together enough for Stella to pluck it and show Kir.
In Kir’s hands, it felt fragile.
He dimensionally stored it, thinking Kordia might enjoy analyzing it, assuming he made it out. After the pain passed, he spread his wings and flew with Stella toward the nearest opening in the ceiling.
As they crested the top of the structure, a subtle but rancid smell became too obvious to ignore. Looking down, he saw that the rooftops contained what looked like self-contained, swampy pools. Most were dried out, little more than bowls of ancient dust, but there was a line of dots with darker soil that led off into the distance, something dark connecting them.
"Ugh, what is that?" Stella asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Kir answered as he began to circle the area with Stella.