Lune pushed forward, time slowing to a crawl as exhaustion and dehydration weighed him down. His feet were barely dragging now, the crimson sand clinging to his boots with every step. Every inch forward was a battle in itself.
'I wonder how grandma's doing…'
She was the only family he had left. Both his parents had died in the Expeditions, and she had raised him. The days before his 18th birthday hadn't been easy. Being born on the day of the Harvest meant he had no extra time. The Realm Beyond had taken his mother, and now it had take himn on the very same day.
He knew it was hard for her. His grandma couldn't stop her tears whenever she saw him, which was why he had spent his last day alone. He knew she couldn't bear to watch him disappear. But now, exhausted beyond reason and dying of thirst in this endless desert, he began to question if he should have seen her one last time.
But then, a sudden tremor shivered through the soles of his boots.
He paused, his attention snapping back to the present.
He looked around, but there was still nothing. He noticed the sun had fallen, the moon beginning its ascent.
'Am I hallucinating…?' he wondered, as the second tremor never came.
Before he could take another step, another tremor, this one stronger, shook the ground beneath him.
This time, he was certain he wasn't imagining it.
His head snapped around, heart pounding faster and faster, anticipating the worst. But he saw nothing.
Unsure why, he began to run.
Whatever it was, he didn't want to find out.
But at that moment, the sand around him stirred.
Like an earthquake, everything shook violently. He fell to his side, the crimson dunes twisting all around him. Before he even had a chance to get up, the sand surged upward.
It began to coalesce, forming a massive figure, taller than any building or mountain he had ever seen. All the sand for miles began surging toward it.
He kept stumbling backward as the ground itself heaved, his vision swallowed by a storm of grit that left tiny, stinging cuts across his face and arms.
And between that sand, he saw it.
Four limbs and a head.
The sand… this wasn't a desert. This whole thing was one big monster.
'Dammit!'
He tried to curse, but sand filled his mouth, choking him. He tumbled over and over, suffocating in the gritty torrent.
Then, after what felt like an eternity—but was no more than ten seconds—he hit the ground with a loud thud, spitting the sand from his mouth.
His gaze lifted.
The monster standing above him was beyond enormous. It looked like it could reach the moon. It lifted one leg, and though the motion seemed slow, he knew it was just the creature's immense size creating the illusion. In truth, the step came down faster than he could comprehend.
The ground around him shook violently, sending him stumbling. The creature was facing away, completely unbothered, or even unaware, of his insignificant presence.
Lune had seen depictions of Cursed, even Corrupted Soul Creatures, but that thing? That was something beyond any textbook. No one who had seen it had probably survived.
Then, his gaze dropped to his new surroundings.
The ground was now damp, clay-like earth. But that wasn't what stole his breath. It was the ruins.
Countless remnants of a city surrounded him. Broken walls jutted from the ground like jagged teeth, and a few half-standing buildings leaned stubbornly in the gloom, their dark stone scarred but unyielding.
He got up to his feet and continued to look around.
A few steps away, the clay dipped into a shallow hollow where water had gathered in a slick, trembling pool. He hesitated, questioning if his exhausted mind was playing tricks, then took another step forward.
The water was dark, but not stagnant. A thin trickle seeped from a cracked wall nearby, feeding the pool with a quiet, steady drip.
His mind barely began to question if the water was safe before his body moved on its own—exhaustion and dehydration taking over.
He fell to his knees beside the pool and scooped a small sip into his mouth. It was cold, bitter with stone and iron, but he didn't care. He drank greedily, the terrible ache in his throat easing with each swallow.
Then, after a fourth or fifth sip, a sudden, skittering thud froze him in place.
He looked back to see a skeleton-like scorpion crawling over a ruined wall, its chitinous body clicking as it moved.
His eyes widened. He sprang to his feet, dashing into one of the ruined buildings, pressing himself against a half-standing wall.
His heart raced, each low thud of the scorpion's steps sending a fresh tremor down his spine.
'What the fuck is that?!'