Chapter 41 — Sand Scars
Elsewhere on Wister, beneath a sky that had forgotten mercy, Nark and Sera ran.
They did not run like soldiers retreating from a lost battle. They ran like prey that had glimpsed the shape of its extinction.
The Red Desert stretched to every horizon, an endless ocean of iron-colored dunes that breathed heat and silence. Wind scraped across the land like a blade across bone, dragging sheets of sand across ancient rock. For days the wasteland had seemed empty—dead even.
But something vast had been moving beneath it.
And now it had risen.
The Dreadwrym tore through the desert like a god of burial awakened from the grave.
The sand erupted behind the two girls as the creature dove beneath the surface again, its colossal body tunneling through the dunes like a spear through water. Entire ridges of red earth lifted and collapsed in its wake. The ground trembled violently, the desert quaking under the weight of something far too large to belong to the living world.
Then the beast burst upward.
A monstrous serpentine body exploded from the sand in a cyclone of shattered earth. Wings—if such skeletal horrors could be called wings—spread across the sky like torn stormclouds. Its scales were the color of scorched iron, each one the size of a shield. Lightning crawled across its hide as if the sky itself had chosen it as a throne.
Its roar did not sound like an animal.
It sounded like mountains grinding together.
"MOVE!" Sera shouted.
Nark ran beside her, breath ragged, her boots kicking up streaks of crimson sand as the desert howled around them. Ether flared faintly around their bodies—thin veils of power barely enough to keep them alive under the crushing pressure of the battlefield.
Behind them the Dreadwrym dove again.
The ground shook.
A ripple raced through the sand toward them.
Then—
Nark's foot struck something solid.
A jagged stone jutted out of the dunes like the broken fang of some ancient titan. Her balance shattered. She pitched forward, crashing violently into the sand.
Pain exploded through her shoulder.
"Nark!" Sera spun around.
But it was already too late.
The sand behind them burst apart.
The Dreadwrym surged upward, its colossal head rising from the desert like a rising apocalypse. Its eyes burned with molten gold, ancient and furious. Rows of serrated teeth unfolded inside its cavernous jaws.
The beast descended.
Nark rolled onto her back, instinct overtaking terror. Ether gathered in her palm like a compressed star.
She fired.
The blast screamed through the air and struck the creature directly in its eye.
For a heartbeat the world froze.
Then the Dreadwrym convulsed.
A roar of impossible rage split the sky as the monster recoiled, its head thrashing violently. Lightning arced across its scales, ripping through the air like celestial whips.
Sera didn't waste the opening.
She shot forward across the sand and grabbed Nark by the arm.
"Idiot!" she snapped.
Ether surged through her body.
The desert exploded beneath her feet.
Sera launched into the sky.
The air cracked as the two of them rocketed upward, carried by a violent surge of controlled ether propulsion. Sand blasted outward in a spiraling crater beneath them as they rose.
Nark blinked in disbelief.
"You didn't tell me you could fly," she gasped.
Sera grimaced, focusing as the winds battered them.
"I was conserving energy for the last days of the war."
Her voice carried irritation—but also strain. Maintaining sustained ether flight was no small feat, especially after days of combat.
Nark twisted midair and pushed away from her grip, stabilizing herself in the air beside her.
Ether gathered around her boots like crimson fire.
"Well that would've been useful earlier."
Before Sera could respond, the sky changed.
A distant rumble rolled across the desert.
Then another.
The sunlight dimmed.
Both girls looked up.
Storm clouds were gathering—vast walls of swirling grey that swallowed the sky in minutes. Lightning flashed inside them like the pulse of a living heart.
Sera frowned.
"What the hell…"
Thunder cracked.
"What the hell when does it EVER rain in a desert?!"
The answer arrived immediately.
From the clouds descended pillars of spinning wind.
Tornadoes.
But these were no ordinary storms.
They twisted downward like celestial drills, ripping through the desert with horrifying violence. Sand spiraled upward in towering cyclones, entire dunes disintegrating into airborne oceans of red dust.
Ether control shattered instantly.
The storm didn't just disrupt the air.
It scrambled the very currents of power around them.
"SHIT!" Nark shouted.
Their flight collapsed.
Both girls plummeted.
They slammed into the desert.
The impact detonated the sand beneath them in a violent eruption. Red dust exploded outward like a bomb had gone off beneath the surface.
Nark rolled across the ground and pushed herself up, coughing.
"The environment…" she muttered, staring at the sky.
Another bolt of lightning struck somewhere in the distance.
A human silhouette vanished instantly.
The air filled with the smell of burning flesh.
"…it's trying to kill us."
She spat sand from her mouth and forced herself to stand.
"We must've gotten too comfortable."
Across the battlefield, players were dying.
Figures sprinted across the dunes only to be torn apart by lightning strikes. Others were sucked into the spinning tornado pillars and flung hundreds of meters into the air before vanishing into the storm.
This was not weather.
This was a massacre disguised as nature.
Sera scanned the dunes anxiously.
"Where'd that damn overgrown snake go?"
As if answering her question—
The desert exploded.
The Dreadwrym erupted from the sand like a rising mountain.
Its enormous body twisted through the storm clouds, spiraling through the sky with terrifying grace. Lightning struck its wings and flowed across its scales like obedient servants.
The beast had not been harmed.
If anything—
It looked stronger.
The thunder amplified its roar until the sound became a living force pressing against the world.
Nark froze.
For a moment she truly believed this was the end.
The monster's shadow fell over them as it turned its colossal head downward.
Waiting.
Judging.
The storm roared.
Nark closed her eyes.
In the darkness behind her eyelids she felt something strange.
Peace.
So this is it.
After everything…
This is how it ends.
A sharp smack struck her face.
"HEY!"
Nark's eyes flew open.
Sera stood over her, glaring.
"Wake up and get your shit together!"
Nark blinked.
"What… happened?"
Sera jerked her chin upward.
The Dreadwrym was no longer diving.
Instead it had risen higher into the storm clouds, its massive body weaving through the thunder like a phantom serpent. Only flashes of its silhouette appeared between lightning strikes.
It was hiding.
Waiting.
Its roars echoed through the clouds, shaking the air like distant artillery.
Nark slowly stood.
Her expression hardened.
"We have to kill it."
Sera looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
"If we don't," Nark continued quietly, "it will kill us."
The truth hung in the storm between them.
Nark suddenly grabbed Sera's arm and pulled her closer.
Before Sera could react—
Nark kissed her.
The contact lasted only a second.
But when Nark pulled back she was staring intensely into Sera's eyes.
Sera stared at her in stunned silence.
"…Hey!!"
She shoved Nark backward.
"Hold up!"
Her face was flushed with confusion.
"Look I get that you're under pressure and maybe emotions are doing weird things but I don't swing that way—"
"What?!" Nark snapped.
"No you idiot!"
"I'm using Whispers!"
Sera blinked.
"The Vallenian fracture," Nark explained quickly. "My ability. I can control someone with my voice—but the condition requires erotic physical contact."
Sera's brain visibly rebooted.
"…Oh."
She crossed her arms.
"You couldn't think of literally anything else?"
"No time!"
Thunder boomed overhead.
"Listen carefully," Nark said urgently. "You need to concentrate ether around your throat, lungs, mouth, and tongue."
Sera stared.
"…Are you serious right now?"
"If we don't do this we die!"
Another bolt of lightning split the sky.
Sera groaned.
"Fine!"
Nark leaned close.
"Repeat after me."
Both girls closed their eyes.
Ether gathered around their throats like glowing red halos.
"You feel no pain," Nark whispered.
Sera repeated the words.
"And you possess full mastery over power greater than a God King."
Their voices overlapped.
The air shuddered.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then Nark reached into her coat and produced a small red marble.
Sera's eyes widened instantly.
"Condensed Nirvra?!"
"How do you have that?!"
Nark smirked faintly.
"I'm a Game Guardian."
"We have access to resources players don't."
She popped the marble into her mouth.
Sera hesitated only a moment before doing the same.
The reaction was immediate.
Power detonated inside their bodies.
Ether erupted from their skin like wildfire.
Red lightning crackled across the air around them as their irises ignited into glowing crimson.
The desert trembled.
"With overcharge," Nark said through gritted teeth, "our reserves multiply against themselves."
Her voice vibrated with raw energy.
"Right now… we both have enough power to erase this entire island."
Sera looked down at her hands as arcs of lightning danced across her fingers.
"…Holy shit."
Nark pointed upward.
"But we still need to go all out."
The storm screamed around them.
Sera grinned.
"Say less."
Both girls launched into the sky.
The sand exploded beneath their feet as they rocketed upward like twin comets of red lightning.
The storm swallowed them instantly.
Wind howled like a thousand demons inside the clouds. Ether currents twisted violently, shredding normal control.
Sera shouted over the roar.
"What about the sand messing with ether control?!"
Nark laughed.
"With this much power?!"
A bolt of lightning split the sky between them.
"It cancels out!"
Then the storm moved.
The Dreadwrym appeared.
The colossal serpent spiraled through the clouds like a god of storms reborn. Thunder crawled along its wings as it twisted through the air with impossible speed.
The creature was feeding on the storm.
Every lightning strike that touched its scales made its aura swell larger.
The bastard was evolving.
Its wings beat once.
A spear of lightning shot toward them.
Sera blurred sideways, leaving a trail of red light.
Nark raised a hand.
The bolt struck her palm—
—and shattered into a thousand sparks.
The two girls hovered in the heart of the storm.
Below them the Red Desert stretched endlessly.
Above them the sky roared.
Between them—
A monster that could swallow cities.
Sera cracked her knuckles.
"Well…"
Her grin widened.
"Let's kill a god."
They shot forward.
Two blazing streaks of crimson fury.
And the sky exploded.