Dim, gloomy, deathly still.
For millions of years, this had been the unchanging refrain of the Wilderness. There was almost nowhere safe on this barren land.
No life other than bugs could possibly survive here.
Even so, the only thing mortal bugs could do was dig underground.
For one thing, the surface was desolate. Only by digging down could they find somewhere to live.
For another, there were the beasts.
To survive, some bugs on the surface had evolved stronger bodies, but abandoned their intelligence in the process.
Aboveground, there was nothing but yellow sand and scorched earth. Only these mindless beasts would choose to remain here.
Day after day, they hunted, migrated, and bred.
So it had been in the past, and so it would be in the future.
Today, however, something changed.
A sandstorm.
In this particular stretch of the Wilderness, that meant death.
Yet beneath the gray sky, a creation utterly out of place in this world was pressing resolutely onward, braving the gale and resisting the sandstorm.
--༺༒Sky Explorer༒༻--
A week had passed since they set out.
Amid a tremendous roar, the six engines mounted on each side of the Airship were running at full power.
Its outermost sheet-metal plating held up well against the abrasive wind and sand, protecting the structure inside.
Only after they had passed completely through this region was the result finally confirmed.
With the power of technology, even the Wilderness could be tamed.
The mindless beasts on the ground roared in fear.
They did not understand what the enormous thing in the sky was. They merely took it for a predator countless times stronger than themselves.
They tried to drive it from their territory with their howls.
Even after the thing in the sky had drifted far away, they still dared