Sir Awen's words and those final images he had left behind were like steel knives, cutting into Lynn's heart again and again.
Yes.
She had finally found this place.
But that wall had also become the final destination of her journey, barring her from going any farther. Even so, she had used that trident to forge one last barrier before him.
She had stayed there with him.
And whispered those last words to him.
"Don't let everyone... look down on you again..."
Vmmm-
He plunged into Dark Night City. The devastation, the ruins and dying embers stretching before him, left him standing there hollow-eyed for an instant, unable to take another step.
The wind howling through the void swept over the withered districts.
The High Tower that had once pierced the clouds, the magnificent Temple that had once embodied all the glory of Dark Night City, building after building reduced to rubble, district after district reduced to ashes.
He moved forward, step by step.
He walked among the shattered walls.
Like the last wandering soul this city had left behind, he trudged on, gazing at the place in which he had anchored his heart.
Empty.
Gales swept through the broken buildings, their echoes sounding like sobs.
The silence was like death.
At last, he quickened his pace. His steps grew faster and faster as he rushed toward the Royal Court, until he abruptly stopped.
As far as he could see, the Royal Court was long gone. All that remained before him was an enormous, torn-open abyss.
All of Dark Night City.
Had become a dead city.
He lowered his head and sank helplessly to his knees at the edge of that pitch-black chasm. Wind blowing from the hollow lifted his disheveled hair. He forced his dry eyes wide, held them