They stood shaken by the sheer magnitude of the colossal sand worm, yet they knew this was precisely what they had prepared for. As the Sand Worm dove back beneath the dunes, Tristan drew the Star Divider from its sheath, its cold gleam pushing Amelia and Garfield summoned their weapons from their Celestial Forge. Amelia's rapier and Garfield's axe were weapons forged for the sole purpose of cleaving down beasts of overwhelming size. Perhaps not creatures of such extraordinary scale, but monsters nonetheless.
They tapped their brooches, summoning their armor in a shimmer of astral light. Then they stood back to back, resolute, bracing themselves as they awaited the Worm to slither forth from the desert shroud that camouflaged it.
Silence returned, and the only sound that lingered was their steady, uneasy breathing.
"We must be strategic about this. It is most likely a high-end one star," Amelia murmured.
The two boys nodded, and the three of them continued to wait. They looked to either side, but all they could see was sand stretching endlessly toward the horizon.
Suddenly, the sound of spinning metallic blades—like a chainsaw ripping through stone—trembled across the wasteland, and from beneath them erupted the Sand Worm. In that heartbeat of danger Garfield manipulated the earth beneath their feet, propelling them out of the creature's immediate path. With its monstrous body fully revealed, they were granted their chance to strike. Garfield conjured a massive cube of stone and hurled it with tremendous force, the impact sending the Worm reeling and seemingly disorienting it. It toppled backward, crashing into the sand and throwing clouds of dust skyward with its fall.
Amelia summoned a towering shard of ice from the earth and sent it spearing upward into the belly of the beast, extinguishing its life in an instant.
"That was easy." Tristan said, bewildered, as he approached the fallen creature.
"It should not have been that easy," Amelia replied, her voice laced with unease.
Garfield shrugged as he neared the massive carcass. "We should be glad it was."
Tristan pressed his hand to the Worm's hide and felt something unsettling. Something was moving within its stomach—several things.
"There's something inside its stomach!" he shouted.
"Yeah, our stuff," Garfield replied dismissively.
Tristan shook his head. "No. That's not it."
He drove his blade into its abdomen, slicing through the Worm's rough exterior. As the wound peeled open, the afternoon sun flooded the exposed cavity, and in that harsh illumination Tristan finally understood.
Inside the beast, baby worms—slimy, writhing, yet each the size of a grown human—twisted weakly within the fading warmth of their mother's corpse.
"Amelia, you need to see this!" Tristan called.
She approached, and the sight struck her at once. She covered her mouth, her expression shifting from confusion to deep sorrow as realization settled upon her.
"She was just trying to provide food for her children… and we killed her."
Tristan rested a gentle hand on the girl's trembling shoulder and spoke softly, "It was not your fault. It was kill or be killed."
Her head bowed as she turned away, unable to look any longer. Tristan glanced back at the dying brood and immediately saw their movements slowing; they were starving, frail, and fading.
He knew what had to be done—but he also knew Amelia would not endure witnessing it. Tristan stepped toward Garfield and whispered for him to take her away from the carcass.
"I'll find the bags and bring them when I'm finished."
Garfield nodded solemnly, guiding Amelia away from the fallen creature and the tragedy within it.
Tristan knelt at the open cavity of the beast, retrieved his blade, and stepped inside the glistening chamber of its stomach.
He gazed upon the dying creatures with a solemn, almost emotionless expression.
"I take no pleasure in killing children, but I can see you are suffering. So I will grant you mercy," he whispered as he drove his blade through the skull of the first infant worm.
[Death Shard Collected.]
[Death Shard: 91/100]
"Six more to go."
He moved swiftly, ensuring that each remaining creature died quickly and without pain. Regret washed over him with every strike; though they were beasts, they were innocent—far too innocent to die so soon.
After the final worm fell, the familiar words echoed before him.
[Death Shard Collected.]
[Death Shard: 97/100]
"I'm almost there," he breathed.
Tristan steadied himself with a slow exhale and began searching for their lost supplies. He navigated through the slippery interior, stepping over slick membranes as he moved. Eventually, he found their tents—ripped apart and unusable. Inside the debris, however, their bags remained intact. Gathering all three, he prepared to make his way out of the beast's stomach.
But as he turned to leave, a soft voice—barely above a whisper—called out to him.
He raised his lamp, its faint glow illuminating the shadows.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
He dropped the bags, raising his sword with his free hand.
"Show yourself!"
He shone the light deeper into the abyss and noticed something—something black, unmoving.
He approached cautiously, only to find a black fur cloak draped over a protrusion of flesh.
Tristan sheathed his blade and reached out. The moment his fingers brushed the cloak, a notification materialized before his eyes.
[You have found a relic of Thanatos.]
[Cloak of the Shadow Wolf]
[Description: Death is silent, and so are you.]
[Do you wish to equip this relic?]
Tristan hesitated briefly before answering with certainty.
"Yes."
The cloak surged upward in a swirl of shadow and wrapped itself around him. He ran a hand along its surface, then sniffed it—and grimaced. It reeked of decay, fitting for an artifact birthed within a corpse.
But one phrase lingered in his mind—this relic.
Those were the exact words.
"Does that mean there are more of these relics?" he wondered aloud.
There was no answer, of course. So he simply lifted the bags, turned toward the light of the opening, and made his way out of the beast's enormous carcass.