I was laying on my back for a good minute, waiting for something to happen.

But nothing came.

I only felt the warmth of the sun, sometimes only disturbed by a few grains of sand hitting my body, picked up by the wind.

After five minutes, I slowly sat up, waiting for any reaction.

Still nothing.

Was I alone…? Did it end…?

Seemed definitely like it.

Good. Time to get myself fixed up.

Main problem: lack of head. Or rather, lack of vision.

Without my head, using just my ability, I was barely able to recognize the ground, or rather the sand, since it was pretty dead: not much mana to speak of neither in the air nor anywhere else.

What had mana, though, were the parts of the tools that were still here. Plus the whole pickaxe that the second one brought.

Not wasting time, on all fours, I dragged myself towards the pieces and gathered them together.

I ended up draining everything from the stuff I gathered, reducing it to ashes, that quickly mixed with the sand abundant here and that was about it from my plan.

I still got some energy back, but not enough that it made a significant difference.

What I was aiming to do was to try and remake my head, or at least a part of it from the remaining pieces of my own body that would indubitably be embedded in the tools they brought, but that did not work out.

Since there still was no signs of life anywhere nearby, I decided to check on my captors. Or at least on what remained of them.

Still not standing up, I dragged myself to the closest one, that being the first one that I managed to get my hands on.

The only thing I managed to find was a hole: where sand was moved by the blast. There was nothing else there.

I found the exact same thing with the second one.

Not like I expected something else, but was disappointed nonetheless. Why in the hell were they so keen on killing themselves over here…? Maniacs.

With nothing else, I decided that I should probably move on.

For the first time, I kneeled and slowly raised up, standing up. I was a bit wobbly, after so much lying down, but I managed to keep my balance well enough to not eat shit immediately.

I picked a direction randomly, since there was absolutely no difference to me, and proceeded to carefully walk.

You’re probably gonna say: what if someone sees you? Your captors? Anyone else?

Yeah, I was worried about that as well.

But what else was I supposed to do?

To stay there was to be surely discovered. After all, someone would definitely notice those two missing and send someone.

I could definitely repeat the process, but what then…?

Actually, that wouldn’t be the worst idea.

I could hide under the sand and, using my ability to sense mana, grab whoever appears and regain more of my power.

I decided to keep that tactic in my back pocket for later, but since I was already past the point of no return: as if I lost track of where exactly was the spot I was kept before, I just moved forward, hoping to discover… something.

But I did not. Not for a long time.

I was slowly wandering the desert, wondering what in the hell happened and where I was.

Sure, right, Wildnorth was supposed to be a vast and empty desert. I get that. But I figured that after a day or so I would’ve sensed something.

But that was a problem.

While I definitely spent more than a day out there, walking, sometimes straight up collapsing and even fainting, yet the heat was not letting up.

That was not really the problem for me, but it was definitely throwing off my perception of time.

Was the sun never setting?

Impossible. What, am I now on a different planet or some shit? Yeah, right. I could buy that I got moved to another world. I could buy that it was flat. But a perpetual day?

I mean, it would explain the desert though, and overall lack of people. But wasn’t Wildnorth supposed to be still here? I mean, in the same world I was?

After all, who the hell knows? I wouldn’t be surprised that For’s information was incomplete or straight up incorrect.

What was less likely though, was the fact that they had to somehow move me here. And judging by my own “transport” I was betting that it would be pretty resource intensive, if possible at all.

None of those did matter though if I was not able to recover my head. Or at least my normal vision. That was my main issue.

The overall environment was not rich enough in mana for me, so I had to keep moving.

If I was back in the forests near Axelrod’s domain, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, I could move full speed and on my way regain mana without issue.

Here, I was barely able to get equal.

It was half because of the sand making me double my efforts and half because of the thin mana. But at least I could move indefinitely forward.

And so I did.

I walked and walked, constantly with heat burning inside me, probably thanks to the sun shining on me, until I finally reached something.

A wall.

Not the most exciting thing to find, sure, but nevertheless, as soon as I managed to realize that something different was on the edge of my range, I immediately fell on all fours and waited.

Did I reach some kind of an oasis? A town?

Lying down I was trying to feel out my surroundings, find any sign of life nearby, but nothing. Did I find some ruin?

I started slowly crawling towards the wall, trying to prod deeper and deeper inside whatever was in front of me with my mind.

It wasn’t that hard.

There was literally no resistance, and while I didn’t manage to assess what exactly was in front of me, I was sure that it had to be deserted.

I could recognize random walls of different shapes and sizes, but nothing that would scream to me “human presence”. Or any other, in that matter.

I was lucky that I managed to feel out the walls at all.

I was not sure why it was the case, but I was thankful nonetheless: if I was oblivious to this structure, I would just slam my body right into the wall, not expecting it. I guess I could attribute it to my ability to sense mana slowly improving, as it was the only sense I had left. And good that it did, I didn’t need yet another avalanche of stuff falling on top of me, be it rocks, bookshelves, or brickwork rather, of which the wall was definitely made of. That I only realized when I was close enough to touch it.

As I haven’t felt any presence, I stood up and now, leaning on the wall, I started exploring the immediate area, looking for entrance.

I found it soon enough, but not in the shape of some gate or door, instead it was just a large hole, where it felt like something had to break through. Hard to tell which way, though.

Feeling my surroundings with both my mana sensing and manually, with my hands, I started stumbling through the sand-covered remains of the buildings, and something akin to town.

Even though it was full of sand, I could tell that before it got deserted, it had to be a pretty popular one. Under my feet I felt brickwork, a rather sturdy and flat paved road, that even when under constant barrage of sand and wind, still was in decent shape. Probably the best shape of all of the town, to be honest.

Buildings were a bit worse.

While exploring was pretty hard to efficiently do, I managed to gather that most of the buildings had random holes within them. Some collapsed, some still standing, but every single one was made out of stone, or rather brick.

Inside there were also signs of the old inhabitants: broken furniture, something that felt like pottery, maybe glasswork? I wasn’t sure, it was hard to tell using just the limited mana that they were passively infused with, spending an indefinite amount of time in this environment.

Speaking of the environment, that was actually the most interesting part of this place.

Sure, there was no sign of living people, but there was some residual mana hanging in the air.

At first, I was wary, thinking that it might have been some remains from people that used this place as some kind of oasis, a stop during their path through the desert or something, but nope.

The mana was old. And already well on its way to disperse, as it was thinly spread all over the place.

What was interesting though was the places where the residue was thicker.

You’d think that it would be the densest inside, or in spots that were still covered, roofed or in some cellar, but no. It was quite the opposite: the mana was most prevalent in spots where the holes were. And I don’t mean windows or doors, it was right where the broken parts were.

It was quite obvious: it meant that the holes were made with magic.

Someone attacked this place?

It seemed likely.

But for what?

I mean, sure, there are plenty of people and a lot of them are aggressive, but to attack this place? What important things could be here?

Or was it just something as mundane as “you still have water and we don’t, give us yours”?

Yeah, that was a good question. If that used to be a town, where was the source of water in here?

Sure, it was deserted, but it at least had to have something, right?

But, as hard as I could try, I wouldn’t find a thing that would resemble a well or something like that. I could blame it for my scuffed senses, or the age of the village, but who knows.

Honestly, the place was kind of a disappointment.

I expected that it would be some kind of hideout for someone, maybe my captors, but apparently not. Did I just walk the other direction?

Maybe.

Nevertheless, I intended to spend quite a bit of time here.

And not just to slowly explore and search the place. I was more interested in the spots that were still infused with mana.

Yeah, it was not much, but it was a lot better than being forced to drag myself all over the desert, blindly looking for anything that would regenerate me.

Even those small spots were better than just absorbing mana passively, hoping to gather enough after… I don’t know, weeks?

This way I at least could hasten the process a little bit.

With nothing much to do, I picked one of the houses at random and sat down at the opening where mana seemed to be the densest, and waited.

I planned on patiently meditating in one spot until mana would be fully exhausted, while keeping vigil to not get surprised by anything or anyone, but it didn’t even take a few minutes for me to completely drain the remaining residue. I guess I was a bit mana-starved… Well, no wonder. I was missing a full head.

But, since the town was full of holes, I had plenty to absorb anyway, so I just moved to the next spot.

I might have overestimated the amount of mana this place had, because after draining about twenty of the holes, I barely was able to feel the difference at all.

But, I was making some progress. At about thirty I finally could tell for sure that my neck was again present back on my shoulders, with something that probably was going to form into a chin.

It would be a peaceful and uneventful time, if not for one thing: every now and again, I felt an itch on my arm.

First time I just brushed it over, thinking that it was just some sand or something that was bothering me, but when I moved behind some walls, hiding from wind and sand, and it did not leave I started getting concerned.

And it was constantly repeating. From scratching to poking, and I swear I even felt like someone tried to tickle me once or twice.

Fucking weird.

I was just hoping to regain my sight sooner, so I would maybe be able to inspect myself a bit better.

Ten more holes.

My mouth started to form.

I assume that it had to look horrible. I could feel that I already had a lower part of my jaw back, but that was about it. Well, if someone was to see me now, they’d definitely bolt as far away as possible, so I guess I had that…

Fifteen more.

Mouth was fully formed.

I am not sure if those holes were more potent or something, but now I could spend a lot more time draining them.

Fuck, what am I talking about. Of course those were the same, it was just my body that was absorbing everything slower and slower. I could only assume that was good news, because I wasn’t feeling weaker and my regeneration wasn’t slowing down either.

I think it was just that I finally managed to “charge up to full” so to speak, and only was using mana to rebuild myself.

Not like I was able to control it, really.

I did try, but halfheartedly. It didn’t matter to me how everything would form, and since everything seemed to go smoothly, I was happy to just let the process continue by itself. Hopefully that would just make me be the same as before.

Another ten.

I was starting to get low on mana rich spots. But, that was not a problem, because I could tell that soon I would be back fully healed.

My head had already formed, or at least the shape of it. Nothing was working though, nor formed completely, but it was just a matter of time.

Funnily enough, both hearing and sight came back to me at the same time.

I honestly didn’t expect either, so a sudden soundl of wind made me jump and hide behind a wall that I suddenly realized could see this place in its full mundane self.

Holy shit. It’s been a while.

As soon as I realized that just happened, I started looking myself over, to see how exactly my body was looking now, after that much abuse.

And I did change.

My arms… were completely see-through.

And I don’t mean just a bit. It definitely looked like just glass.

The same with legs. And hell, even torso. I was completely glass-like now. Even my organs… If I even had those, really. There was only a bit of a matte part of me where my heart used to be, but even that was like glass. Well, maybe it was tinted just a tiny bit yellowish-red.

Maybe from the mana of this place?

-Damn.

That was also when I realized that my voice was back.

I mean, obviously. My throat formed a long time ago, but it never came to me to attempt to speak.

And it’s not like I was going to be heard by anyone.

The place was as empty as it was before.

Speaking off. I finally was able to see where exactly I holed up, and boy, it was something.

I expected it to be some kind of old, weathered down stone oasis or something, but what I’ve seen was regular concrete.

Yep. Concrete and bricks. Modern architecture. It was hard to make a mistake.

But how?

The only place I have seen something similar was MIRE, but it was far away and even then it was an anomaly. How the hell did a modern town get here? And how did it get abandoned?

I wasn’t going to waste time and decided to put my new head to good use. I started exploring every single ruined building again, this time actually using regular senses, to maybe gather something more than just mana.

I found some interesting things.

First of all, the place was mostly looted.

Every house was empty, every single piece of furniture that was not bolted down was missing, and even then some were removed. Only things left were broken. Even heavy duty stuff, like fridges and so on, were gone. And yes, I could tell that they were missing. It was hard not to recognize rooms even with that much damage, and kitchens and bathrooms were the most obvious, as they included plumbing.

Of course there was no water, nor was I even suspecting that the place used to be connected to any piping. Like where, under the desert? Yeah, right.

While I didn’t want to believe it, there was only one explanation that immediately popped into my head.

This city appeared here out of thin air just like MIRE did.

It would also explain the random mana anomalies. At least somewhat. That kind of magic would’ve definitely had some lasting effects…

It was strange though that it was completely different than in “the bowl”. There, the greenery got fueled by mana, and what, did this place get drained instead? Only remaining spots that had mana were just old explosions or something…?

Fuck if I know. And it didn’t look like I was going to learn any time soon, because even though I explored most of the buildings, I never found anything that would help me figure out a better theory.

But there was one thing that was constantly gnawing at the back of my mind.

This whole place… I don’t know why… It just felt like I’ve seen it before.

It wasn’t the architecture… nor the layout of the buildings…

I am not sure what it was, but something constantly was telling me that I’ve either been here before, or at least seen the place.

But where?

Somewhere on the continent?

Nah. I would’ve remembered a city like this.

In a memory?

Maybe…? I did see a bunch of visions both from different people, so even though I couldn’t remember myself, it was not implausible.

Back in my world?

I mean, possible.

I’ve been to some small towns before, and if that place was indeed teleported here from my old world… Who knows?

That brought me a different question though.

Before, I was thinking that our experiment was responsible for my appearance here in the first place, as in this world. So how would some other random village appear here as well?

The fact that it was full of holes also gave me a chilling feeling that I could’ve been on the right track. After all, during the failure of our experiment, there’s been reported explosions just as shit was going down… so those small anomalies that I’ve been draining would’ve been just remnants of that…

Sure, they were smaller… but that might have been because of distance… or just because of the passage of time. It’s been… who the hell knows how long since that incident.

If there’s indeed something similar that happened here, that would mean that this place also had to have an Origin Crystal. Or at least that it was connected to the same leyline that we were.

The first one was definitely not it, though.

Aside from the possibility that someone made an artificial Origin Crystal, the ones that existed to my knowledge were only in major cities. Capitals of magic, so to speak.

Where were those exactly…? Sydney, Washington, Rome… I think Japan had two or more… somewhere in Syberia also… where else…

Nonetheless, all of those were very recognizable. Well, maybe besides the last one, but the architecture didn’t strike me as “utilitarian” so it was not it.

So what, some random city that was connected to the same leyline? Or maybe, somewhere close to our leyline rather, since all of them would connect to each other sooner or later.

That did not help much, only made me worry even more.

It meant that our failure was uncontained. That the destructive explosions spread from MIRE further than just our city.

Fuck.

If that shit reached some random town that I’ve never heard of, the calamity had to spread pretty far…

What were the casualties…?

Out of my meditation I was snapped out by a ping on my mind-radar, so to speak.

A presence appeared just at the edge of my range, coming from the direction opposite of which I came, I think.

And whoever that was, was not alone.

Finally.

To be honest, it was rather fortunate that I found this place at all. Without this I could wander aimlessly and never spot a person at all, judging by how things were going, but here we were. A full group was now for sure walking right towards the place I was at.

First things first, I needed to hide.