The desert wind howled like a creature starved. Dust swirled endlessly, clouding the sun into a dull orange haze. Aryan and Kat trudged forward, their eyes narrowed against the biting air, toward the faint silhouette of a crumbling stone structure in the distance.
The Ancient Wasteland Temple.
They were nearly there.
"Keep your guard up," Kat muttered. "This region's marked as red-level danger. Monsters. Cursed beasts. Magic anomalies."
Aryan grunted. "We've faced worse."
But then—Kat stopped suddenly.
"…Aryan."
Aryan turned, raising a brow. "Yeah?"
"Do you see that?"
Ahead of them, a figure walked alone through the dust. Cloaked in brown, faceless from a distance, but approaching with eerily steady steps.
Aryan squinted. "I see it. But… I can't make out who or what it is."
And just like that—
The figure vanished.
Gone.
No wind, no sound. No teleportation magic. Just... nothing.
Both of them stiffened.
"…Did we just hallucinate that?" Aryan asked, glancing at Kat.
Before Kat could answer, a shadow loomed behind them.
"Too late," Aryan whispered.
They turned—and froze.
He stood there. A creature in human form. Not tall, not muscular. But wrong.
His body was pale and smooth like sculpted stone. He had no ears. No nose. No mouth. Only two glowing red eyes, blazing like cursed rubies beneath the hood of the storm.
"What… is this thing?" Kat muttered, stepping back.
Aryan raised his fists. "I don't think it's human."
Neither of them moved.
And neither did he.
Not until—
In a blur, the being struck.
His arm twisted like liquid shadow, slamming into Kat's stomach with a dull, brutal thud that sent him flying backward.
Before Aryan could react, a kick landed square in his ribs, hurling him through the air like a ragdoll.
CRASH.
Both hit the sand, bouncing against jagged rocks, blood spraying from their mouths. Their limbs twitched.
The pain was unbearable.
Aryan groaned, vision spinning, dust choking his breath. "Wh…what was that speed?"
Kat lay across a dune, coughing blood. "He didn't even—move his legs. It's like his body just… glided."
And then, once again, he was gone.
Vanished.
The air stood still for a second.
Then a new sound rolled across the desert.
A deep, rising rumble.
Aryan, half-conscious, turned his head painfully.
A sandstorm.
Massive. Roaring. A wall of wrath.
It approached fast—thick as smoke and twice as deadly.
Kat struggled to rise, only to collapse again. He turned his head to Aryan—
And froze.
Aryan was lying near the edge of a crumbling cliff, the ground beneath him already fracturing.
"No… no, no!" Kat growled, trying to crawl. "Aryan!! Get up!!"
Aryan blinked, weakly trying to move. But his limbs wouldn't listen.
The storm hit.
WHOOSH!
The wind screamed, pulling the very earth upward. The force began lifting Aryan into the air, his fingers scraping for grip.
Kat watched, helpless.
"Aryan!!"
Aryan's body began slipping.
Sand whipped past them like bullets. His hand finally lost his Grip.
He fell.
"ARYAAAAAAN!!"
Kat screamed, reaching with everything he had left. He ran toward the cliff, his legs trembling, bones screaming in protest.
But fate had more cruelty left.
A sharp rock, flying through the storm, struck Kat's .
His eyes rolled back.
He collapsed.
The sandstorm raged on, swallowing everything.
And down below the cliff—Aryan fell into darkness.
Chapter End.