He left the place after Faust was done examining the piece. He had a job to do and thus left towards a location that was recently found by him. Adey was an explorer and a courier, it was part of his duties to tell Dedra about the things he would find in his travels.
The ruin was like a black coffin made of concrete. He didn't know how this place was able to stand still despite the years that have passed. There was rust, strange buttons, engraved words, and symbols that he could at least figure out. He followed the symbols and signs until he found a pull-lever, he pulled the lever and twisted it.
Then a door popped out four feet away from Adey. He took hold of the piece and took it out, approached, and examined the corners of the door. Inside, he saw a narrow and small hallway with a ladder leading down at the end. He followed the hallway and climbed down to witness another layer of passages with strange wires that seems interconnected.
He followed the wires until he found himself in a chamber with a box of levers. He operated the levers with his knowledge of the old ones. Tinkering with the machine allowed him to open three passages that lead to other rooms.
The first passage led to a chamber filled with beds and rusted equipment that has long crumbled. The second passage was an empty room filled with a disgusting smell of oil and rotting meat. The third passage led to a strange chamber made of metals that have not rusted despite the years.
"What is this place?" he thought. He examined the chamber. There were wirings on the right along with panels, levers on the uppermost left of the chamber, a ladder that leads up a box of buttons.
He clambered up, took a stand near the box, pushed the buttons. Some of the buttons could not escape time. He was not able to press the buttons but found one single button that rocked the whole chamber.
Loud sounds of metal clanging happened around the room. It resembled the churning of an animal's stomach. Adey took three paces back from the buttons. He then heard air rushing out of a chamber that popped out with a screeching sound. The locks of this chamber made incredible sounds. The lights turned on and suddenly a glass coffin moved out of the chamber and yet again air rushed again. He started to his feet and eyed the glass coffin. There was a voice that spoke unknown words and he could only stare at the glass coffin slowly opens up with this hissing sound. Adey's heart's remained still but for the next moments, he thought that his heart pounded so hard and loud. It was then that the glass coffin slowly opened with a loud metallic clang.
Adey took a step back and saw foggy reds eyes looking at his direction. The red eyes seem like it didn't understand what was happening. Adey was able to perceive the person before him. She was a red-eyed beauty with a black flowing hair that reaches up to her buttocks. She wore a dress that was old and peculiar to him. What made this person stand out was the slightly visible fangs that she had. Her skin was like snow and one look at her was enough for Adey to know that she was a beautiful woman.
There was this peculiar sad aura on her. She looked like she was lost for a moment until she saw Adey who was standing still with a gun in his hand. Her reaction was to stand to her feet, her legs creating a small crack as she leaps up the ceiling with a single move. Her red eyes glowed and her busty figure showed ferocity as she started speaking an unknown language.
"Who are you?" asked Adey. The woman stopped for a moment to ponder Adey's body language. She felt like his words resonated. Her foggy red eyes glowed coldly as she leaps away from the ceiling and tried to pounce at Adey.
Adey, calm as water, dodged three paces back and pointed the tip of his piece at the woman, his eyes cold. He let the woman attack her, she was fast and agile, Adey knew that she could not be human with her superhuman abilities.
The woman kept her furious flurry of attacks. Adey blandly analyzed his opponents and studied her way of fighting. He was a man of the barren lands. It was in his blood to keep calm and look for any weakness that he could use. So he just let the enemy do what she wanted until he was able to reach the next passage.
He eyed the woman. He led her slowly out of the ruin until her pounce at him ended in her landing outside the ruin. Her eyes widened as she saw the barren wasteland that looked like a place of monsters to her.
She spoke words that Adey could not understand. He stood still with his hands on his back, observing the woman whose beauty was quite shocking. He could only stare at her tamely without any hint of what she was and who she was.
The woman stared at the world until she kneels with a distraught expression. Tears came out of her eyes and Adey could only take a pocketbook filled with the native tongue that is understood by the population. He had it in him out of practice when he visits a village where he's invited to teach little children who might survive this wasteland with no fertile grounds.
She hesitantly accepted it. Her eyes stared at the words as if she was analyzing the words written on it. Adey walked towards a wall and leaned his back on it. He folded his arms, the piece still on his right hand.
Adey was rational enough to know that however, this woman was. She's part of the ruin and he could not allow her knowledge to go to waste by killing her. He believed that everyone has something to offer and he was not fond of killing those who are inhuman to the humans. She wasn't able to harm him anyway.
...
The two sat upon the crimson-colored sky. Where the natural gasses of the barren lands meet with the chaotic energies of the land itself.
"What are you?"
"Elvish."
"Elvish?"
"You don't know that? Understandable, you're smart enough to learn the language by examining the structure of the book - though I think that your pronunciation could be a bit better."
He said that while keeping his eyes locked with hers. She coughed and covered his mouth with his right hand. She adjusted her obsidian hair and beamed at him.
"I understand now. What is this place?"
"The Barren Land," he said. "You are in this continent where no edible plants live above the surface."
"Is the world like this?"
'No," he shook his head. "There are other lands such as this one. It is just that this place has been burned upon a long time ago and started healing."
Adey stopped talking as if that was all he could give her. The woman with blood eyes stared at the pale, long-eared Adey and said.
"I see. It looks like this world has been ravaged by something familiar — this smell in the air is— what do you call this smell?"
"Miasma."
"Is that so?" she shook her head. "I do not know why you all named it like that. Is it really okay for you to smell this?"
"My ancestors have long adapted to it."
"Certainly, I can see why."
"I can see that you have wariness in your eyes."
"You tried to attack me. I am wary of those who attack me."
She coughed lightly. She brushed her hair and placed it on the side.
"I will not attack you. I have no habit of killing the inhuman."
"Thank you, it is pretty nice to be treated as a person. So what do you plan to do to me now?"
"I can tell you about this world. I can see that you have no idea of what to do. I'll have someone to mark you as a citizen of this barren-land or you could leave this place and go to the human side."
"The human side?" she said with a high tone. "Why would I go to the people that have hunted me down and possibly turn this world this land into what it is and used me as a tool because I do not age and I live longer than them?"
"You are immortal?" asked Adey in a bland tone.
"I can die," she said. "But I have my own ways."
"I see." He nodded while turning to the sky. "So I would like to tell you again. Do you want to live in our cavern cities? You can look the part of a human and I doubt they would mind it. In the cavern cities, I would recommend looking like an inhuman person."
"Is that it?" Her eyes glow monstrous and her fangs were now emphasized.
"That'll do. But are you really sure that you'd like this place?"
She smiled, "No matter how burned it is. I can tell that this place is still home. It doesn't matter much how it changes. Home is still home you know?"
Adey softened his expression for a bit, "I am impressed by your ability to learn a language. What is your name?"
She looked at him with her eyes smiling, "I am Machina, and you are?"
"Adey's my name," he said.
"Adey?" she laughs slightly. "I thought you'll have an elvish name!"
"I don't get it."
She stood up, "So what do you plan to do, Adey?"
He placed his hands on his hips. He looked at the colorful sky sparkling as it rumbles and creates sounds. The barren land sounded like it was coming to an end. But it was a natural occurrence that it does not bother Adey anymore.
She noticed the happening above the sky. She followed a trail of the wisp. Adey was alarmed that she went off on her own and followed her trail. He started to his feet and chased after the curious Machina. He whistled for the mount he borrowed and went to where Machina was heading. It took him a minute before he spotted Machina at the edge of a cliff, looking at the wide world that was in front of.
He walked near her. He eyed where she was staring and saw the view that captured her eyes. The wide sky was dotted with bright colors. The galaxies and the constellations seem to clash over, the energies that were around mixed and sparked together in this chaotic beauty. Flowers made of light bloomed and streams of red energy flowed endlessly upon them.
He was rooted to where he was standing. It was like he was reminded that there was beauty in this barren land. He was able to think that maybe this home that many of his peers seems to spite at had something worth in it.
But it was not just the view that made Adey stop. The lonely figure of a black-haired woman with watery eyes. She was looking up the heavens and she had this aura of sadness that it was hard to near her. It was the look of someone who knew that she was alone in this world.
Everyone she knew had long passed away. Every friend and enemies have long died and there was nothing he could do. It was this tranquil sadness along with the view of the sky and barren land that made Adey feel a bit of sympathy upon Machina. He could not imagine sleeping for many years and awakening to find out that the world you once lived has turned into what he was seeing.
Machina stared endlessly at the colorful sky. Her heart tightening madly as the memories of what happen flashes upon her eyes. She has outlived all of them. She was fairly calm but the thought that years have passed made her incredibly lonely. She could not describe the reason that pains her heart.
Machina, the Old One felt alone and helpless below the skies of the barren lands. She, a citizen of an old past stood but yet there was a desolate loneliness that she could not explain.
Alone in a world that has changed for too long. This was her life now and there was nothing that Machina could do.