The wind changed as soon as they stepped beyond the glowing forest.
It wasn't just hot—it was hungry, dry in a way that scraped the lungs. The sand stretched endlessly ahead, shifting like breathing skin. Each dune whispered as it moved, as though something massive slept beneath it and turned in its sleep.
Kasai wrapped a cloth around his face. "Why does this place smell like burnt bones?"
Ayo snorted. "Because it probably is burnt bones."
Reina eyed the horizon. "No… something else. This desert feels wrong."
Kaito walked ahead, calm as always, but even he pressed his lips into a thin line. "The old stories say this desert buries the names of gods. If a deity lost their worshippers, their last ashes ended up here."
Kasai laughed softly. "Great. A graveyard of forgotten gods. So if we die here—"
"We'll be forgotten too," Ayo finished.
They weren't joking. Not really.
The sand thickened beneath their feet, clinging to their boots like glue. The wind hissed—almost like a warning—but none of them turned back.
Their map, drawn reluctantly by Sensi himself, showed a single marking ahead:
The Whispering Obelisk.
Their mission: infiltrate the ruins, retrieve the relic sealed inside, avoid drawing the attention of the desert's gods-cursed guardians.
Simple on paper.
Deadly in reality.
The desert shifted around them.
At first it was subtle—the dunes changing shape in ways that didn't match the wind. Then the mirages came. Not shimmering illusions but voices, faint and familiar.
Reina froze mid-step.
She heard her mother calling her name.
Kasai shivered.
He heard the roar of the beast that killed his family.
Ayo stiffened.
He heard himself—his own voice, old nightmares replaying.
Kaito… didn't react. Or if he did, he buried it beneath that calm, unbreakable mask.
But Kairo—
Kairo heard whispers he had tried so hard to forget.
"Son of the Hollow Star…"
"Last blood of a dying clan…"
"…the thief walks among you…"
He stumbled slightly.
Reina caught his arm. "You good?"
He nodded.
He wasn't.
Not even close.
They pushed deeper until the sun melted into dusk. The sky shifted from gold to crimson, then to a strange violet that felt unnatural.
Then the sand moved.
Not from wind.
From something rising beneath it.
Kaito stopped. His fingers drifted to his dagger. "Don't move."
The dune in front of them collapsed outward as a massive shadow crawled from the depths. At first it looked like a serpent. Then a centipede. Then a scorpion. But it wasn't any of those.
It was all of them.
A god-fragment.
A creature born from the corpse of Serket, the forgotten desert guardian.
Eight legs like curved blades.
A torso that shifted with every breath, changing shape like molten flesh.
Eyes—too many eyes—blinking in scattered patterns across its form.
Reina's jaw dropped. "What… the hell… is that?"
Kasai whispered, "Please tell me we can outrun it."
Ayo swallowed. "We can't."
The creature screamed—an ear-splitting shriek that sounded like sand grinding against bone.
Then it charged.
Kaito moved first.
"Kairo, left! Reina, support! Kasai—burn it if you can!"
Ayo leapt forward with a battle cry, fist sparking with compressed Aether as he slammed a punch into the ground to kick up sand.
The creature dodged effortlessly, its body flowing like liquid.
Kairo darted forward, Mark glowing faintly beneath his skin. He felt Aether rising—a pulse begging to be released.
Not yet.
He whispered the chant anyway.
"Astra."
Speed surged through him.
Kairo became a blur in the night.
He struck the creature's side, forcing it off balance. Reina followed instantly, unleashing black-purple spikes of condensed Aether that shredded part of its lower shell. Kasai inhaled, fire trailing from his fingertips as he exhaled a blade of pure flame.
The creature screeched.
It turned its many eyes toward Kairo.
And for a moment—they weren't the creature's eyes.
They were Sensi's.
Cold.
Silent.
Calculating.
Kairo's heart slammed against his ribs.
He stepped back.
No—he stumbled back.
Reina noticed instantly. "Kairo!"
But the creature lunged at him.
Ayo intercepted with a flying knee.
Kasai melted part of one leg.
Kaito severed another.
The beast collapsed inward, screaming as its body crumbled like dried clay.
Then it dissolved, turning into white dust carried away by the desert wind.
The silence afterward was suffocating.
Reina touched Kairo's shoulder. "You froze again."
Kairo didn't answer.
Kasai brushed sand from his hair. "What happened? You looked like you saw your father's ghost."
Kairo clenched his jaw. "Nothing."
Kaito didn't believe that for a second, but he let it go—for now.
They reached a ridge overlooking their destination:
The Whispering Obelisk.
A towering black spire rose from the desert like a sword stabbed into the world. Runes crawled along its sides like living serpents. The air around it thrummed with energy.
This was no ruin.
It was a scar.
Ayo exhaled. "This is where the relic is?"
Kaito nodded. "Yes. Inside the chamber under the obelisk."
Reina frowned. "Why is it called the Whispering Obelisk?"
Kasai grinned. "Because it talks, obviously."
"Actually," Kaito murmured, "because it remembers every lie ever told in the desert."
A cold shiver ran through Kairo.
A structure that remembers lies…
He didn't know why, but he felt as though it had been waiting for him.
Ayo cracked his knuckles. "Alright then. Let's do this."
But as they descended the ridge toward the relic…
Kairo heard it again.
Faint.
Cold.
Accusing.
The obelisk whispered—
"Your clan did not fall by fate…
…it fell by the hand you trust most…"
Kairo stopped breathing.
But he said nothing.
Not yet.
Not until he knew whether the desert was lying…
…or telling the truth.