“So, you are one of the survivors?” the kid sat on the fountain’s edge at the middle of the square. The water crept down the head of the fountain like a water membrane. It was supposed to be sprayed high enough to make four thin streams, but it was already too old and worn.

“Well, I’m an outsider of this…….” Glanexeem ambled to the front of the teen.

The teen put his baton aside on the fountain. He propped his elbow on his thigh and looked at Glanexeem, “City? So you’re from places like Peakland?”

“Not really. It’s the first time that I entered this iron plateau.” “And you decide to help us.” The teen chipped in as Glanexeem took a short pause.

“I will help more if you can tell me about that survivor thing,” Glanexeem sat next to the teen, ignoring his suspicion.

The teen turned at the man and sniggered with melancholy in his voice, “It’s not like you can blow me up whenever you want, right? So here’s the story.”

Glanexeem didn’t make a sound. He just listened.

“The council invented a new tech around eleven or twelve years ago. You know it, right? That cassette.”

Glanexeem took that audiotape he found from the jetpack out and oscillated it in the air.

The boy glanced at the cassette and continued the story, “They stole our heart to produce it.” “Heart?” “It’s the core of the city. It activates every machine in the city and controls all the pipes and circuits in the city.”

“It does make sense if they use this power source to make this kind of…… knick-knack,” Xilix speculated with his hand caressing his smooth chin. “Then, the massacre happened,” the teen ignored him and continued, “They killed most of us. Those Guardians massacred us under the council’s command. I was there. I was there in Inrua, but I survived and ended up here eventually.” The teen stared at Xilix as he finished his story in despondency.

“That’s why mom and dad left this place, huh,” Xilix stood up and thought of it silently. “I will help you, tough boy. This place needs a clean-up, doesn’t here?”

“Still, why should I believe you,” the teen sat up straight and propped his palm on the fountain. The teen looked up and saw Xilix standing in front of the sun. The glow of the tangerine sun surrounded Xilix and went through from the edge of his silhouette. Glanexeem turned back and said, “Because I am your only hope.”

Wasn’t it true? After a decade of fighting, nothing was done, nothing went good, and everything went bad. How could he refuse this man who could do what he just did?

“Oh god! Did you see that?” Sky Passerby was standing on the margin of a three-floor building. “What?” Tireless replied and knocked a Guardian off with a rifle butt. “A hovering mage split the crowd apart with amazing magic.”

“I don’t understand,” Tireless oriented toward Sky Passerby. His upper face was covered in a forest green ski mask, and the lower part was in a same-colored scarf mask.

“Nuh, I think we should get me back to Epiorchard first,” Sky passerby slowly jumped down the building floor by floor cautiously with its rotten outdoor stairs. He was in a leather white tight pilot jacket and a pair of white compact cargo pants, which made him quite hard to stretch his limbs.

The jacket wasn’t pure white. A blue painting of a sharp inverted triangle was in front of his chest. The vertex of the triangle was covering the zipper in front of his stomach cardia. Another same one was on the back of Sky, and the bases of the two isosceles triangles were overlapping at the shoulder.

“If your helmet blocks your sight, you should probably change to a lighter one like mine,” Tireless strode in front of Sky and teased him with his unqualified way of climbing.

“Well, I fly most of the time, and it does prevent wind,” Sky Passerby chased to the side of Tireless, “and by the way, are you certain that the council stole the heart?”

“‘I witnessed it’ isn’t going to convince you, does it?” Tireless started scurrying as Sky caught up.

“Don’t worry, we will find it out,” Sky ran at his fastest speed, but he could barely follow. “It’s hard to team up with a guy who can only stroll,” Tireless slowed down his pace a bit but was still always a few steps ahead of him.

“I wish I could have your muscle,” Sky pointed at Tireless’s vaguely disclosed muscle beneath his green tight. “I wish I could fly,” Tireless tittered as the two quickly passed through the slum city.

Trashes were everywhere. A skinny man was lying on the floor. No one knew if he was still alive. Houses were dirty and forced-thrifty like empty matchboxes. A thin woman was embracing a child in her arm and sitting on the street with eyes full of despair.

“This place’s a disaster,” Sky peeked at the surroundings under his full-face motorcycle helmet. His pity sight stopped at the skinny body for the longest. “Can’t see this in Epiorchard, can you?” Tireless ignored those that he had been seeing for his whole life.

“It does look more shocking when it is seen by bare ey….….” “Hey! Stop there!” a thin short man with small but apparent muscle stood up as they went to the entrance of an alley. The man was wearing a ragged gray coat that barely covered his upper body. “Don’t you know the rule here?” the short man stroked the only pinch of hair on his Mohegan-style head and popped out the blade from the knife hilt in his hand. Many other men came out as the knife appeared. Some were initially sitting on the street; some came from another alley a few paces in front of this one; some came out from the building around the path.

“You know them?” Sky whispered at Tireless. “Just a small gang. Blow up that dwarf and run. I will handle the rest,” Tireless quietly answered back and immediately exchanged their front and back.

Sky Passerby drew out his pistol from the belt. It looked like a long golden revolver, but the cylinder was replaced by a long glass barrel full of light blue compressed air, and the hammer was replaced with a socket and a battery cassette. The glass barrel replaced both the cylinder and most of the metal barrel. Compressed air and mana gushed out from the 1.6-inch metal barrel when Sky pressed the trigger.

A light royal blue gust pounced toward that thin man and knocked him down like a car smashing into a pencil-thin timber. He lay on the floor and got lost in a coma. The two men quickly sprinted through the narrow path. Sky even stepped on him accidentally.

Sky Passerby kept running, and Tireless stayed. The closest two men went into the alley, too. Fat man number one stroked his metal rod toward Tireless. His rod was caught and taken by Tireless’ left hand, and his head got pressed onto the wall by Tireless’ right hand, while Tireless kicked man number two’s knee at his left rear.

Another stick swung toward Tireless’ head from the rear of man number one. Tireless quickly strode back and fought the stick back with the reverse gripped rod in his hand. Man number one fell to the ground, man number three with a dagger jumped up from the back of the half-kneeling man number two.

Tireless’ left foot bounced from the ground. He rushed and collided into man number three before he could ever use the dagger in his hand. Man number three hit the corner of the alley wall and got elbowed again on the head to the corner. Tireless kept stepping at man number two to keep him on the floor and roughly pitched the rod to man number four, standing at the rear of man number one’s body, to block his move for a second. He wished to stride back and keep a distance from his last two enemies to prepare for the final fight. However, man number five dashed and outstretched the knife in his right hand before Tireless could do anything else. Tireless quickly drew back his left hand and pushed man number five’s arm away before reaching his stomach. He squatted down and let his right elbow, which had just knocked off man number three, elbow at man number five’s nape. With a tread on man number two’s head and picking up the knife on the floor, Tireless sighed and leisurely rotated his body to the direction of the last man standing.

“Huh, huh… Uh, please,” man number four dropped his stick and raised his hand to the air, “We don’t have to……..” He ran toward the direction Tireless and Sky came as Tireless gradually walked closer. An unfortunate dagger flew past in front of him and stuck on the wall next to him. He slowly turned, and the last thing he saw was a forest green fist.