The sculptures standing silently in the darkness had been left behind by the earliest builders of Twilight City. Once they had finally stabilized the city's structure inside the barrier and gained reliable control over opening and closing it, the people who had once been cut off inside the city left these things outside the gates. Two thousand years had passed since then. The sculptures had been rebuilt and replaced countless times, yet they still retained exactly the appearance they had had back then. Standing in the darkness, they constantly reminded Twilight City's survivors to remember everything they had once lost—the entire world beyond the barrier.
Many versions of the story behind these sculptures circulated now, but even without knowing any of them, Hao Ren could see a great deal in the sculptures' varied expressions. It was said that each statue depicted a real person—the last ancestors to fall outside the gates when the Twilight Barrier rose. Wendell knew the stories behind the sculptures by heart.
Thus, as Wendell recounted the history of the sculptures, the group passed through the halo gate.
Hao Ren felt as if he had passed through an indistinct wall of wind. The luminous shield protecting the entire city was actually only a thin layer, and he could barely sense its thickness as he walked through. The instant he crossed the barrier, he felt the scorching air and harmful radiation filling the atmosphere completely cut off outside, while an unpleasant smell of smoke and dust rushed toward him.
He looked around and found that the city entrance was even more desolate and dilapidated than he had imagined. Though it was an important gate to the shelter, there was not even a decent sentry post nearby, much less any sign of people. Everywhere he looked stood tall, shabby,