"What is..."
Stepping past the massive gates, I didn't expect anything particularly mind-blowing, perhaps just a city protected by towering walls, with people living in fairly normal conditions like the other cities I had been to.
No, maybe that was a little too much.
I understood from the start that life in the Mirror Dimension wasn't easy. I knew that the people were struggling, and I was prepared to see some of that struggle.
But what I was greeted with was something that I had never expected in a million years.
"What is this place?"
"...Are we really in the right place?"
It was dark.
The streets were wide and dim, but trash littered the surroundings in uneven piles. Corpses lay by the roadside, their bodies slowly decomposing under the relentless heat, a faint stench lingering in the air as the heat beat down on the silent streets.
"Ukh—!"
The smell was strong. Enough to make any of us feel like puking.
I just barely held myself back while I looked up.
