The deeper they ventured into the Wasteland, the quieter the world seemed to become. Not peaceful. Not calm. Just... silent in a way that made the skin crawl.
The sand crunched beneath Aryan's boots. Each step stirred up gritty clouds that clung to their clothes, dried their throats, and veiled the dying sun overhead. The landscape around them stretched in every direction—endless dunes broken only by jagged bones and rusted remnants of a world long abandoned.
Aryan walked beside Kat, both of them alert but worn. The Wasteland didn't drain energy the way battle did. It was worse. It drained will—bit by bit, breath by breath.
Then, it happened.
Aryan paused mid-step.
His skin prickled. The hair on the back of his neck stood like blades drawn in warning.
Kat slowed too, his hand instinctively resting on the hilt of his blade.
"…Do you feel that?" Aryan muttered, eyes narrowing.
Kat didn't answer right away. He turned his gaze toward the dunes. Nothing but rippling sand and the distant shimmer of heat.
But the feeling wouldn't leave.
Like something watched them.Like the Wasteland itself was breathing around them.Watching. Waiting.
"…We're being followed," Kat finally said, voice low and sharp.
Aryan scanned their surroundings again. "But there's nothing here."
"Exactly." Kat's grip tightened. "That's what makes it worse."
The silence settled again—thicker, heavier, unnatural.
Then Aryan shook his head. "Could be the air. Could be… exhaustion. Let's rest. Regain strength before it's real and not imagined."
They stopped beside the jagged husk of an overturned war caravan, now half-buried in sand. Aryan sat with his back against the rusted metal, wiping sweat from his brow, trying to push the paranoia away.
That was when the ground rumbled.
Not subtly. Not gently. But with a deep, bone-shaking groan that made Aryan's heart skip a beat.
"…You hear that?" he said, voice sharp.
Kat stood up fast, eyes wide and searching.
Then the sand to their left erupted.
From beneath the dunes, a massive form burst upward in a cyclone of grit and shrieking wind. A sand worm—at least ten feet long, its body segmented, armored in thick natural plating, and its gaping mouth lined with concentric rings of teeth that twisted and pulsed like a meat grinder.
It screamed—a horrible sound, like metal tearing through bone.
Aryan staggered back. "By the Void—!"
Kat didn't hesitate.
His sword was already drawn, humming with dark energy. He stepped forward without fear, planting his foot deep in the sand as he raised the blade over his shoulder.
"Black Slice!"
The blade sang through the air.
A flash of shadow surged from the arc—faster than Aryan's eyes could track—and the worm's shriek turned into a choked, garbled death rattle. A clean cut split its grotesque body in half, and both pieces fell to the sand with a wet, disgusting slap.
The desert grew quiet again.
Aryan stared at the twitching corpse, stunned.
Kat stood there, motionless, his blade now humming low and steady. His hair and cloak fluttered in the heated wind. His eyes were calm. Deadly.
Aryan swallowed hard.
Kat had changed.No… he had evolved.
This wasn't the same swordsman who had struggled in the C-rank ambush. This was someone forged sharper by loss and vengeance. Someone pushing past his limits.
And Aryan?
He clenched his fists.
If he didn't grow… if he didn't fight… he would be left behind. Forgotten.Or worse—buried in this endless sand, just another nameless corpse.
Kat turned back, sheathing his blade. "You alright?"
"Yeah," Aryan replied, though his voice was quiet. "I just… didn't expect it to end that fast."
Kat offered a faint grin. "Out here, hesitation kills. You'll get there."
Aryan nodded slowly.
He would. No matter what.
But before either of them could speak again, Kat froze.
Aryan noticed it too. A figure—walking.
Not running. Not sneaking. Not hiding.
Just calmly approaching across the dunes, as if the monster attack had never happened. His clothes fluttered like tattered flags. His face obscured by a long hood.
Aryan stood up. "…You see him too, right?"
Kat stepped forward, eyes locked. "Yeah."
"Another traveler?"
"Or a ghost."
Aryan narrowed his gaze. "We should talk to him."
Kat gave a slight nod. "Let's go."
They stepped toward the stranger, moving carefully across the sand.
The Wasteland was never kind. And those who walked it alone…Were either lost souls.
Or monsters wearing human skin.