Nick woke up a few hours later, roused from slumber by light shining in his face, even though nothing had triggered his alarms. When he opened his eyes and stepped out of the hollow, he was in for quite a surprise. The strange aura that had enshrouded the moon was gone, the sinister feeling it had evoked vanishing along with it like the memory of yesterday’s dream. Instead, something truly wonderous met his gaze when he stared up at the sky.
It was still the middle of the night, but the heavens were no longer black. Instead, a river of scintillating color flowed across the brilliant starscape above his head. His eyes widened in astonishment, drinking in the sight of vivid bands of yellow and orange spanning the horizon, woven together with threads of fiery red, along with the occasional ribbon of purple or green.
He laughed in delight, marveling at the sight, because the sky had become a vast canvas upon which a marvel of natural splendor was painted. And this was no static display, but a work in motion, a glowing flowing river of the most vivid hues that Nick had ever seen. He had the sense that mana was woven into the atmosphere far above his head, reacting with the energy emanating from the planet’s sun to form this extraordinary latticework of radiant pigment.
But the spectacle above was only half the show. He lowered his gaze and cast it across the marsh, which had been completely transformed by the magic above. The living lightshow threw patches of ever-shifting neon and shadow across the bog, forming mesmerizing, dazzling patterns. Each time he thought that it couldn’t be more beautiful, the array shifted, forming a conflux of color and light even more gorgeous than the last.
The aurora of planet Drezen reminded Nick of the northern lights, but with a warm color palette instead of cool, and the wild bands of pigment were even brighter and more vivid. The twisting ribbons of amber and ginger surging across the night sky were utterly captivating, the heavens awash in otherworldly beauty that took his breath away.
He laughed in delight as he left the canopy to get a better look, having found another experience to treasure when he least expected it. Nick leaned against a boulder, looked up, and took it all in, intent on committing every second to memory.
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He was glad for the tangible reminder that for each new horror the System had added to his life, there was a mind-blowing new wonder to match. Shocking moments of awe-inspiring beauty to make the tragedy humanity had suffered seem a little less bleak.
It didn’t come close to balancing the scales, not by a long shot. He would never forgive the System or the Mad God for the suffering they had inflicted to the people he loved. For the lives they had cut short and the civilization they’d erased without any sign of remorse.
But Nick had to admit as he stared at the sky that it was one hell of a view.
Since it was bright enough to draw, he took out his journal and a nub of charcoal and started to sketch. He would have to add the color later, when he found the right materials, but he still wanted to capture the moment as best he could. When he was satisfied, he put them away and let his mind go blank, thinking of nothing at all as he absorbed the magnificent sight.
The intensity of the aurora began to wane an hour later, dispersing completely when the sky lightened with the coming of dawn. He had slept for nearly four hours and wasn’t too tired, so Nick decided to get an early start on his day.
As color bled back into the terrain around him, he gathered his gear and slid on his pack, ready to face the word with a smile on his face.
By the time that the noonday sun was hanging high in the cloudless sky, Nick found himself walking along a series of peninsulas and isthmuses that crisscrossed the middle of a swampy biome that he hadn’t been able to find a way around. He crossed the marsh with a spring in his step, hoping to end his solo trek before the sun set this day.
He had spotted his first signs of other people a few hours earlier, a series of tracks leading away from a small firepit. He was eager to run into whoever had left them, but he’d lost the trail despite his best efforts. At least he knew which way they were headed. Everyone in the bog would be traveling to Darkstone Tower, moving as fast as they could. But before he was ready to pick up his pace, he had one small diversion to take care of first.
Over the last ten minutes, he had been trying to track down a pair of the rabbit-like creatures he had caught earlier. Nick didn’t like walking so close to the waterline, but the terrain was wide and open. The adjacent waterways were shallow, so at least nothing large should be able to sneak up behind him or ambush him from the water’s edge. I’ll make this quick and then head for defensible ground.
A frustrating half hour later, he was ready to move on. He had managed to catch one of the agile animals, but the other had proven remarkably difficult to pin down. It would be good enough for his next meal, but since his provisions were running low, Nick would have to do some hunting and foraging whenever he made camp.