At that moment, Anke finally understood what it meant for the world to spin—and he meant that literally.
The cloud-covered sky spun, revealing the horizon. Then the entire sky was "replaced" by an endless expanse of land, hazy and stretching beyond sight.
Anke could even see the mountain near where they had landed the Floating Fighter Jet. He had used it as a landmark to remember the landing site. Now that mountain hung directly above their heads.
Or rather, the mountain had not risen above them. They had turned upside down.
Anke finally understood what He Ao had meant when he said, "We're rising."
Directly overhead, above the entire city,
hung an enormous pit.
It was deep, with sheer, smooth walls on every side. Anke guessed those walls were at least a hundred meters high.
Only one part of the pit protruded: a stone pillar rising from its center.
A vast structure seemed to have stood there once, but it had now been torn out by the roots, leaving only the pit. Yet the pit was not empty. A crisscrossing network, seemingly made up of streets, showed faintly inside it.
Even the protruding pillar was faintly scored with intersecting channels.
At its top, Anke could just make out a few structures of steel.
They looked like buildings.
As Anke stared, realization seemed to dawn. He glanced cautiously at the man beside him and asked, "Old Master, is that...?"
He Ao looked up at the enormous pit in the sky, at the buildings crisscrossing its depths.
After a brief pause, he said with a trace of nostalgia, "That's Kwotela."
"Kwotela was buried..." Anke stared at the pit, a hundred meters deep or more. "That deep?"
He paused. "But why has Kwotela been revealed?"
"Perhaps they left the city there precisely so