The Love of Worlds (English Version)

Rising Memories from the Ground

As the ship made its descent to Earth, the tension within me grew. The chill in the air barely lessened the exhaustion and anxiety in my eyes, and the unease in my heart remained unchanged. The closer we got, the more real everything became, making me even more tense. The interior trembled continuously; the metal walls groaned as if alive. For a moment, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, but images I couldn't place suddenly flashed before me.

People screaming, a small child crying over a dead woman, a girl falling into a chasm but a boy holding her hand, not wanting to let go. The girl sobbed, begging him to release her. "Why am I seeing these images? Have I gone mad, and is my mind playing tricks on me?" I thought. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, trying to steady myself, but the cries and pleas echoed in my ears.

My breathing quickened. As my heart pounded, I momentarily thought it all had disappeared. But no—the sounds, the images were real. What was happening? Was this Earth, this place showing me these things? My entire body shook, but amid this visual chaos, I felt there was more than met the eye.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and stared at the trembling metal walls of the ship. How cold and foreign they were. Familiar yet so distant. A single tear rolled down my cheek. The images kept replaying in my mind, but one question gnawed at me more than any other: "Is my mind playing tricks on me, or is this world trying to tell me something?"

What was that silhouette we saw below? Or was it even human? We had no way of knowing if it was a threat. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like they were truly waiting for us. Were they trying to communicate? Or were there secrets, things we should know but didn't?

Even after the silhouette disappeared from sight, those thoughts wouldn't leave my head. They seemed to have taken up residence in my mind. At every step, that silhouette, those waiting entities... The fear of the unknown. I felt as if they were trying to tell me something. But what? Why here, and why now? Perhaps the state of Earth was not only about us but a message from those long gone.

Everything felt slightly out of place. This was not the Earth we knew. But after that silhouette vanished, something within me shifted. An emptiness, a void... or perhaps a meaning that I wasn't yet ready to comprehend.

"Jayla," said Jack, touching my arm.

I flinched, and Jack looked surprised, slowly withdrawing his hand. As I emerged from my thoughts and looked around, I realized we had reached the ship's doors, now opening. The tension inside me momentarily eased, only to be replaced by an even more intense anxiety. Lost in thought, I realized we had come this far. Can you believe it? For the first time since the destruction, we were stepping foot on Earth.

"I'm fine," I said, turning to Jack. "Come on, let's see what awaits us out there, but we need to be careful. I don't think we're going to find anything good." With those words, I was the first to step onto the ground.

The moment my foot touched down, my entire body shuddered. But this time, I kept it hidden. Outwardly, everything seemed normal, but inside, something was trembling. As I took my first steps on this world, everything felt different. It was as if this Earth itself wanted to speak to us. To tell us something, to reveal a secret... I could feel it.

And there was something out there, waiting for us. Certainly not with good intentions. The heavy, oppressive cold of the air pressed down on me like a threat. I took one step, then another. With each step, the inner turmoil grew.

The silence around me was deafening, yet within that silence, I sensed a storm brewing. This place was no longer as it once was. This world was not yet ready to share itself with us. But I was here. Whatever secrets it wanted to reveal, I was determined to uncover them.