Windblown sand swept across the vast wasteland.
A young white girl with choppy short blond hair stood dazed on a slope of yellow earth for a long while. The regret and helplessness in her eyes were nothing a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child should have possessed.
The woman beside her came over and patted her shoulder. Her thick black hair fluttered lightly in the dusty wind, and her denim jacket, trousers, and short boots suited the Western wilderness-like surroundings particularly well.
The little girl suddenly held both hands flat before her. Countless golden lines flickered into existence in the air, joining together one after another to form the outlines of buildings, pavilions, trees, and flowers.
The next instant, a towering, ancient yet incomparably magnificent hanging garden appeared out of thin air.
Lush grass and exotic flowers flourished beneath pure white, marble-like pillars and walls covered in elaborate patterns and carvings. Human and animal sculptures looked vividly lifelike. Among them was a short-haired girl in a tunic, hopping about—and she looked remarkably similar to the little girl on the wasteland.
"Ajak, it's been five centuries, hasn't it? Ever since everyone went their separate ways in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, we've never come back here."
"Yes. That was in 1521, when the Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire. I didn't expect the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to have left such a deep impression on you. I'd almost forgotten how prosperous and magnificent this place once was."
Ajak, who looked somewhat like an Indigenous woman, gazed at the ruins of the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq after the illusion vanished, unable to suppress a sigh.
It was now nothing but wilderness. Not even half a stone pillar or broken wall remained.
The rumble of a Jeep engine came from the distance,