They moved deeper into the labyrinth of the city's ruins, where light struggled through shattered windows and the air was thick with dust and forgotten memories. The streets twisted like veins in a dying organism, lined with buildings that leaned like weary sentinels, their facades cracked and peeling.
Keil's footsteps echoed softly against the cracked pavement, each step stirring up faint clouds of dust that lingered like ghosts of the past. The hum of broken neon signs buzzed faintly in the distance, flickering like tired fireflies struggling to survive.
Ray walked close beside him, her eyes scanning every shadow, every flicker of movement. The city was alive in its silence, breathing through the broken pipes and rusted metal, whispering secrets in the language of decay.
Ahead, a faint glow shimmered through a gap between two collapsed walls — a pool of faint blue light that pulsed rhythmically, like the heartbeat of the forgotten city. Keil's hand instinctively reached out, feeling the electric charge in the air.
"Do you feel it?" Ray asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Keil nodded. "It's the pulse of the TechnoWind. It's waking."
They approached cautiously, the blue glow casting long, trembling shadows. Around them, the ruins seemed to lean in closer, as if listening.
A broken hologram flickered to life nearby — a fractured image of a girl holding a book, her eyes wide and filled with a strange, ancient sorrow. The image shimmered and fragmented again, the code behind it unraveling like thread.
Keil reached out, fingertips brushing the cold surface of a rusted control panel. Lines of glowing code spiraled across the metal, cryptic and alive. His mind raced with fragments of forgotten algorithms, half-remembered spells encoded in binary.
"TechnoWind isn't just a system," Keil murmured. "It's something… more. Something that remembers."
Ray looked at him, eyes wide. "And it's calling to you."
"Yes," he said, swallowing hard. "But I don't know what it wants."
The ruins around them whispered, the city itself stirring from its long slumber. Somewhere deep beneath their feet, the pulse grew stronger — a fragile heartbeat against the endless night.
And Keil knew their journey was only just beginning.