My next journey was drawing to a close. I closed my eyes, dropped my hands, and flew.

There was a black sky all around me, filled with millions of shining stars. I did not see them, but I felt the light they reflected.

I opened my eyes and noticed that this was not just simple light, but a living light, iridescent with different colors and intensities. I discerned in it an unusual brightness, movement, and other phenomena inaccessible to a person's usual perception. At first glance, it was a motionless, very complex, and infinitely diverse world. But it was not supposed to be this way.

Something had made it that way. I suddenly realized it. This "something" was right in front of me, and I flew right at it. Something huge and inky was approaching me from the darkness.

Babah! And my consciousness, along with my ship, flew somewhere far away.

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.

I woke up on the second day after the collision with the asteroid (if that's what it was).

"He opened his eyes!" a woman's voice suddenly called out.

"Are you awake? Does it hurt?" the same voice asked.

I thought about it. As I opened my eyes, my mind was floating. Suddenly, I felt a burning pain in my leg.

“Ah,” I mumbled. "What's wrong with my leg?"

I tried to get up, but I felt dizzy and fell back on the bed.

“You have to lie down for now,” a man's hoarse voice said. “When we found you, you were unconscious in your vehicle. We thought you were dead, but it turned out you just passed out. We tried to get you out, but your leg was trapped under the rubble. It took a long time to lift the pieces of iron to carry you here."

"What happened to me?" I asked with displeasure. "And where am I?"

“I don’t know what happened to you. But I can say that the gods sent you."

"Gods? What gods?"

"The same heavenly gods who rule the giants."

At that moment, there was a terrible crash. Despite my lack of strength, I jumped out of bed and looked outside. Through the hole in the wall, which could hardly be called a window, a real explosion was visible—tongues of orange flame reaching for the sky. A huge snow tower fell to the ground, broken by a gigantic black creature as tall as a skyscraper. It slowly smashed the tower, then suddenly stopped and began to move in the opposite direction.

"What is that? Where am I?"

"You are in Zroseth. At least that's what we call our planet. And those are the giants, sent by the gods to punish us for our sins. But don't worry, the destruction will not reach our home. But..."

At that moment, I felt a terrible cold.

"Don't you have any heating here?" I asked.

"No, the giants broke our thermal station. And until we atone for all our sins, they will not restore it," said the woman. There was so much sadness and confusion in her voice.

I looked out the window again. A huge black cloud of smoke billowed above the ground.

"Why don't you restore it yourselves?" I asked.

"How can we?" the man said, his voice rising. "That is not our will. It is the will of the gods. We cannot change anything. It is left for us to do good and wait for mercy," he said, his voice growing desperate.

"What nonsense are they talking about," I thought.

“But sir, we don't know where you came from. Are you our savior, a messenger from heaven?"

"And really, where did I come from? I urgently need to figure this out," I thought.

“I don’t think I’m anyone’s messenger. But I am ready to help you, because you saved me. How can I repay you?"

"We don't need anything. Stay here until you feel better. We will help you in any way we can,” the woman said.

“There is always a place for kind people in our house,” the man added.