-I have to say, this place is really something - said Mike while walking through the deserted streets of this city.

  -True… I saw it from above, but for it to be this preserved…

  -Yeah…

  The city, despite the fact that it was a deserted ruin, was in surprisingly good shape.

  Sure, most of the buildings were gone, but the streets themselves were still mostly intact. Not even a patch of grass poking through a hole in the sidewalk.

  And, the buildings that did survive, their interiors were still there, to the point where I could recognize what they were used for.

  A store, a bar, a gym. Hell, I think I even found a pool.

  The place we landed at was in the outer part of the city, where the buildings were in the best shape. I say “best shape”, but they were ruined as well.

  But, the deeper we were going towards the middle, the worse it was getting.

  From recognizable shops to only walls standing.

  From walls standing to just singular bricks. Roads were gone as well, cracked and turned into devastation.

  But still, no plants.

  -This looks… familiar… - muttered Mike.

  -You know this city…?

  I didn’t say, but I also had that uneasy feeling that I’ve seen something similar before, although I couldn't place where or when.

  -Not really a city. The pattern.

  -Pattern…?

  For a second I was confused, but slowly started understanding.

  Looking closer, I started understanding.

  The destruction, all the ruins… it had a certain shape to it.

  -An earthquake or something…? No…

  -I am not so certain…

  -But…

  -It probably all will make sense when we move further in…

  -Right. Let’s go.

  That was definitely an understatement.

  As I noticed before, the closer we were to the middle, the larger the devastation was. But I was not prepared for what was at the core.

  A crater.

  A large hole, the size of a large building, a couple meters deep. In the nearby vicinity there was nothing standing, nor even a sign of anything being there before, besides some melted slag, now long cooled down, creating new “carpet” for the streets. Or rather raw earth.

  -Ah.

  -Yeah. Ah.

  I wanted to see it up close, so started approaching, but Mike stopped me.

  -What?

  -You still don’t feel that?!

  Again with his senses?

  -Nope. Nothing at all - I replied, briefly checking. - Are you sure that’s not you overreacting?

  -Hell no! It’s… I feel…

  He wanted to say something, but instead puked.

  -Oof… Okay, I guess you might be right.

  Besides the contents of his mostly-empty stomach, he also had spilled from within himself copious amounts of blood.

  That was not normal.

  -You better step away then. I can check it myself.

  -Yourself? But you…

  He stopped mid-sentence, almost puking again.

  -Shut up and… I don’t know, conjure some water?

  He nodded.

  -I get it, this place is weird, but I guess my body is not something that would be affected. Crystal wins. Again.

  He was about to say something, but decided not to, in case he’s about to turn his stomach inside out again.

  -Just say here.

  I walked past him and towards the large hole in the ground.

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  I am not sure what I was expecting to find. Okay, that’s not true.

  I was looking for Crystal shards.

  I was pretty sure that I knew the reason for this hole and destruction of the city. And that would be me.

  Or rather us, the MIRE, that is.

  So you can imagine my surprise when I found absolutely none.

  And not only in the crater. As we were walking through the ruined city, I was keeping my eye out for any signs of magical spots, be it increase in magic or a void, but there was none of that.

  No sign of magic.

  I mean, even in my time, there was just no way for the city to be completely magic-free. The moment it appeared and was made public, it spread like a flood.

  Can you blame people? Who wouldn’t try and mess with magic themselves?

  But… time.

  Yeah, time was the issue.

  If we were to believe what we said earlier, that meant we were a bit… late for the party, let’s say. That would mean most of the enchanted items would be straight up used up and completely mundane now, right?

  Well, depends.

  Some items, no matter how old, would still retain some of its enchantment. Maybe not working, but at least detectable. Especially to me, that is.

  So when I found nothing at all, it deeply confused me.

  I mean, I sort of understand the lack of such items near ground zero. But no magic signatures at all? There should be some remains of whatever the source of this was, and since I assumed that was the Origin Crystal, or at least something connected to it, there should be plenty of shards, right?

  Why there’s none, then?

  Was there a way to wipe them all out…? Maybe…

  Technically, a person could be a reason.

  Or rather a crystal like me.

  It’s not impossible, right?

  But then, what was up with Mike and his sickness?

  If we were in some immensely magical zone, I’d say that his sickness was somewhat understandable. He’d definitely be dazed and nauseous.

  And the blood… I guess I could try to think of an explanation, but all of that only mattered if you were just a regular bag of flesh and bones. Not some weird crystal abominations like ourselves.

  True, he had more flesh than me, but I’ve been to a lot of places as a similar creature as him and been absolutely fine. Absorbed a lot of mana too.

  And, of course, this was not the case in the first place. Mana here was normal. Ish. Definitely within normal human limits.

  So what gives?

  I climbed out of the crater while thinking about this conundrum.

  When I approached Mike, I realized that he seemed a bit better, sitting next to a piece of broken building a bit further away. He was not puking any more and cleaned himself up, while next to him was floating a ball of water that I assume he was drinking from every now and again.

  -You better? - I asked, a bit relieved but a lot more perplexed, seeing as he was in a better condition.

  -I think so - he nodded, standing up. - So, what did you find?

  -That’s the problem. Nothing at all.

  -What?

  I briefly explained what I saw, or rather what I didn’t see.

  I also did share what I thought about his sickness.

  He furled his brow as he started thinking.

  -I must admit - he said - I had a similar hypothesis. I did think that the timing was a bit off, but that can be explained by MIRE repeating their mistakes.

  -They did try to replace us.

  -Right.

  -And if those people failed, that would add more reasons for their relentless pursuit.

  -True. But that doesn’t seem to be the case any more.

  -There has to be something that survived this… - mumbled Mike.

  We left the crater and started going to the opposite side of the city, to the part where stuff was still standing.

  At first, he wanted to go back and search again through where we came from, but when I told him that I was scouring our surroundings with my senses he changed his mind.

  -”This”... Wonder what “this” even was.

  -Explosion for sure.

  -Don’t need to state the obvious - I sighed. - If it wasn't an “accident” similar to ours, then, was it just a regular bomb or something?

  -”Accident”... Hah.

  -Okay then. Crystal-based explosion.

  -If that was a regular bomb… I mean, maybe? But what, does that mean that this city fell to a terrorist attack? That’s not it…

  -Right… Sure, the city had plenty of infrastructure destroyed. And most likely plenty of people killed. But that’s not a reason to abandon it, right?

  -True. Some buildings did survive. But how are we sure that it got abandoned at the same time as… this - I gestured towards the crater far behind us - happened. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that…

  -You think they wouldn’t clean this up and rebuild? What, they wanted to have a monument to destruction or something?

  He was right.

  The cleanup of something like that would be the first thing that people would do. If they survived, of course.

  There had to be some survivors, right…?

  -Hm. If we think that was the bomb… - I started thinking out loud. - Or something… that might mean we had a war.

  -”We”?

  -Oh, you know what I mean - I scoffed at him. - Pfeh. So, if there was a war, the people would at least try to hide, right?

  -A bunker…

  -Might be a good start to look, yes.

  -It would also explain the skeleton in the basement.

  -Skeleton? That guy is so far away from us…

  -Yes. But, if we assume technology was still… well, normal, the internet or something would still exist. So the’d know.

  -And presumably hide in the basement. Or bunker. Or whatever that was.

  -Yeah.

  -But how did they get trapped? There was no sign of explosions or anything nearby.

  -Beats me. But it could just mean that the terrain had eroded. And that the place wasn’t a focus of the attack.

  -I guess… It’s not that far-fetched to think that they were just living in the woods alone, right?

  -Eh…

  -Okay, maybe it is. Some summer retreat maybe…

  -We are grasping at straws here. We need to find some source of information here, in the city.

  -But where? You’d think a large city like this would have at least one bunker, but…

  -Yeah. But what would we even find there? A working PC with the latest news?

  -I thought maybe an old newspaper… But that’s even more stupid.

  -Ha.

  -Yeah, I realized as soon as I said it out loud.

  -If the buildings are in this state, do you think a piece of paper would survive? And besides, who even uses newspapers anymore?

  -Yeah…