...
"De" continued walking through the sands. His steps carried no urgency, nor deliberate slowness.. just a steady rhythm, as if the sands themselves were parting to clear his path.
The sky was calm, and the sun hid behind gray clouds, as if distancing itself from a world on the verge of collapse.
De had made his decision. There was no point in fighting a meaningless battle. Returning to the city.. even if seen by others as retreat.. was, in his eyes... a step toward something greater.
His thoughts were silent, yet heavy, filling his mind like smoke rising from embers that had not yet died.
**
After a fair distance, a scattering of large rocks appeared ahead of him, tossed across the land as if an ancient hand had hurled them from the heavens. Some looked like bony fingers reaching for the sky, others rested like sleeping sentinels.
De stopped for a moment.
There was nothing outwardly threatening... But instinct.. that unerring guide.. whispered for him to be cautious.
He looked around, then back at the rocks. There was no movement. Yet the air felt... heavier.
Calmly, he approached. Each step cut into the stillness, each shadow whispered secrets too quiet to speak.
Something waited behind those stones... Something unrelated to the battle he left behind.
...
Among the shadows, De could be seen standing.. expressionless like a statue, yet something strange flickered in his eyes. It wasn't fear, nor tension. More like... curiosity tinged with caution, or perhaps a deeper kind of awareness.
He lifted his head slightly and inhaled slowly. Then frowned.
"Blood..." he muttered inwardly, his tone calm.. like a whisper from within.
But it wasn't old blood, And it wasn't accompanied by the scent of beasts. This... was fresh. Human.
He said nothing, but a dark, twisted glint flickered in his eyes.. like an old flame suddenly reignited.
Without a sound, he vanished into the shadows.. as if his body had melted into them.
**
De moved through the rocks.. not following a set path, but something else... The scent.
It was as if the air itself was painting him a hidden map.
His footsteps made no sound, even the sand seemed to embrace him rather than announce him. The deeper he went, the more the silence grew... as if the place awaited something to break it.
**
After a short distance, he reached a cluster of medium-sized rocks.. arranged in circles and random shapes. They weren't eye-catching... in fact, a passerby might not notice them at all.
De stopped and looked around.
"Strange..." he whispered.
No sounds. No signs of life... But the scent was stronger.
He approached with measured steps, eyes scanning for the slightest disruption in nature.
**
Suddenly... A crack between the stones appeared like a closed mouth slowly opened by time.
An entrance.
Narrow, as if the earth had tried to conceal it.
But De didn't hesitate. He stepped closer and stood before the crevice.
The air there was different... colder. As if behind it lay a world of ice.
...
He paused before the narrow gap, his gaze laced with subtle hesitation. The darkness within slipped out like the cave was exhaling slowly.. but that didn't stop him. He stepped inside.
Despite the pitch-black, there was no need for light. His eyes had grown used to things worse than darkness... and the monsters that lurk within it.
The air was thick with the scent of earth and moisture... But what stopped him wasn't that.
It was a feeling... A faint presence, like the echo of a dying breath deep in the silence. It wasn't far.
He moved soundlessly, as if he had become a part of the very shadows.
Everything about him was silent.. his breath, his thoughts, even his presence.
**
Minutes passed as he crept forward, following the trail of the presence... until he saw something.
A human form, cloaked in stillness.
A tall man, his body draped in a black robe laced with golden threads.. interwoven like ancient tattoos on war-worn cloth. At his waist... A sword with a strange blade, its color a mix of crimson and blue.. like frozen blood.
But the body was riddled with wounds. Blood dried across his robe. His breathing was heavy, like his chest was fighting off death with all its fading pride.
De moved closer, his eyes widening slightly.
He had seen him before.
It was him… the caravan master.
The man who once led them across the desert... The one who had been chased by two Lords of the second layer.
And now, here he was.. broken, as if the desert had finally spat him out.
**
De stood in silence, eyes moving from the sword... to the wounds... then to the man's face, which still held traces of former grandeur.
What had happened here? How did it end like this?
...