Garden Of The Abyss

The path forward became anxious; swallowed by the horizon of dark tides of abyssal sediment left no room to turn back. Vibrations under the soles of their boots became more frequent, listening to sand being tossed at the movement of the surface. 

"It's cold…"

Aiko muttered, hugging herself as she tightened her white robes in an attempt to garner some warmth.

"Akitein doesn't get like this?"

"…It does, but it's mostly springy weather year-round."

Speaking through the uncomfortable cold, Aiko replied to Ren, who seemed unbothered by the change in temperature. 

It was something he noticed not too long after entering Obsidreen's Frontier: the region was almost like the polar opposite of a normal desert. The black, somber sand that was damp and moist rather than dry,  a total lack of any sunlight, a bitter cold that set in—a peculiar, charcoal smell filled the air. 

A sudden warmth embraced Aiko, touching her shoulders to feel the presence of a soft, smooth fabric covering her.

"Huh?…"

The black and crimson design of the cloak around her shoulders rang a bell in her mind, looking up at the boy next to her to see a red tint on Macheo's painfully stoic expression as he kept his eyes forward.

"I—"

"Goddamn hot! I'm used to the snow in Lucrauv, so the cloak was just making me too damn hot anyway."

Quickly coming up with his explanation for covering her with his cloak, Macheo bursted out his answer without so much as looking at her, the pink on his cheeks deepening into a crimson. 

"Hah. Such weaknesses are unknown to one with blood such as I; the true grace of one born with the blood of a dragon."

The uncalled for smugness of Valerie as she touted her bloodline was not something new to their ears at all. 

"Is that so? Amazing as always, Valerie."

Choosing to play along, Ren has other motives, knowing full well Valerie was only used to boasting and not receiving the same words.

Just from his simple compliment, the draconic mage's tail began to rapidly wag left and right as if she were a canine. 

She's a total glass-cannon! Ren thought. 

Overlooking their path was a crossing of two rock formations, forming an overhead ring that looked too perfect to be the result of natural erosion. 

"I've been wondering…How the hell was this place built?"

"Huh? You really came here without knowing a single, damn thing, didn't you?"

Macheo matched Ren's walking pace, holding the dour resting face that was expected of him. 

"Excuse me for not being very Gaia-suave, I've spent one year in this world either fighting for my life, training, or both." 

Folding his arms across his chest, Ren rebutted with a cheeky tone, looking at the younger, noble-blooded boy with a reprimansive gaze. 

"You do know what Purgatory is, right?"

Giving a slightly concerned look to the snow-haired, somberly dressed young man, Aiko asked with a bit of hesitance to her voice. 

"Of course I know that much, it's—"

"Oh, me! Me!"

Raising his hand if it were some sort of pop quiz in a classroom, Hongse interrupted before Ren could even give his answer. It only took a nice serving of meat to set the panda back to full capacity, bubbling up with boundless energy. 

"… Okay."

Aiko hesitantly gave the panda full authority to answer, not knowing exactly how to respond. 

"It's built by the Old Gods, after a world-shaking revolt led by all mortal races and the New Gods alike, they retreated into this realm, made by the King of the Old Gods!…I learned this all in my adventurer exams."

"Sounds crazy. That explained absolutely nothing for me."

Ren responded stoically to Hongse's passionate explanation as he kept his gaze on the enormous ring of stone, making him feel miniscule in its size and grandeur. 

A feeling that came to coexist with his heart was finally noticed; the calmness, a sensation that, if anything were to go wrong, he had them by his side--it was something he didn't realize he had lost; taken for granted. 

I'm finally starting to feel like I belong in this world. Not that I'm some outlaw deemed to be a plague on the world, not some devil thought to want the destruction of it all--I'm just...me. They know me, they know who I am, yet they don't mind at all. Smiling and laughing in the face of this hellish trial; what more could I ask for? He thought. 

As they continued to traverse the many dunes piled up by the ethereal, cold winds, it began to pick up rapidly--the whispers of the desert liting the obsidian sands from their resting place. 

"Oh shit."

"Why "Oh shit"? That doesn't sound good."

Ren looked back at Macheo, who held a worried look over his regal, fair face at the sight of the winds carrying sand in their passing. At the rising tension of the weather itself, a roar resounded from the bowels of the wind, increasing in intensity as the dark sand began to pelt against them. 

"...That. A sandstorm is coming."

"Coming? It looks like it's already here!"

Valerie remarked with a wide smile, unbothered by the shower of obsidian that now surrounded them. It wasn't just that--the periodic vibrations coming from beneath seemed to spike up in intensity as if a tremor had suddenly conjured itself. 

"That doesn't seem good…"

Looking down, Iris commented as the sand bounced up and down from the new vibrations cascading through the surface. 

"Nope, not at all!"

Belus was quickly drawn from its sheath as Ren prepared for whatever was coming, unable to focus his attention on one spot as everything seemed to dissolve into utter chaos under the quickly-formed sandstorm. 

"Obsidian worms; they're a pain in the ass!"

"...Worms? Did I just hear him say worms? It wasn't just me, right?"

Hearing Macheo's warning, Ren panicked, looking back and forth between his companions as they all naturally formed into a circle; covering each other's backs as they prepared for the supposed worms burrowed within the abyssal sand. 

"I heard it too."

"Yup."

Hongse and Iris both affirmed Ren's fears, sending a disgusting itch over his body as he imagined the appearance of the enemy that lurked underneath his feet. 

Okay, focus, Ren, focus! We can't afford to lose anyone right now--there hasn't been a fountain in this desert yet and going back would be a trial in and of itself, he thought. 

"Macheo, support us from up above!"

Calling out to the Lucrauv prince, Ren's command temporarily confused Macheo before he slowly nodded his head, realizing what he wanted. Without wasting any time, Macheo was already in the air above them, standing on one of the platforms native to his ability. 

"In front of you, Ren!"

Taking advantage of his bird's eye view of the battlefield now, Macheo called out to Ren, drawing the snow-haired man's gaze to the spot just in front of him. A section of the sand seemed to cave into a sort of small whirlpool before suddenly--the form of something made itself known. 

Its body blended in perfectly with the rasp material that made up the desert, wiggling around before it stood up with its limbless body. A large, gaping maw was the only discernible part of its body, displaying rows of sharp teeth with four, large fangs occupying each corner of its enormous mouth. 

Gross! Gross! Gross! He thought. 

Swallowing his complete disgust, he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword as he watched the obsidian worm propel itself towards him, compressing its body before launching like a spring.  As it let out a high-pitched screech while its maw constricted at the sight of his flesh, Ren thrusted his blade towards its body, scraping the side of it without penetrating. 

The force from the blade thrust was still enough to send it back, letting him watch as it wiggled against the sand before fixing its position. 

"It's tough! Felt like I hit solid rock!"

"Do you have it covered?!"

Aiko yelled out, having to overpower the roars of the powerful gusts carrying waves of sand throughout the series of dunes. 

"Of course! Focus on your area!"

Preparing for the obsidian worm to strike once more, Ren assured the girl as he heightened his reinforcement, extending it through Belus. Watching it limblessly swim through the dark sand was unnerving, but he locked his nerves tight as the human child-sized worm lept at him once more.

"...Got you!"

Using an overhead strike, the sharpened swing bisected the monstrous inhabitant of the sand cleanly, spraying its bright, yellow interior fluids all over the sand. Seeing the two, separate pieces of its body convulse on the sand as it screeched out made him want to puke, but his priorities were set on the danger posed to his group. 

"Iris! Valerie!"

Another call came from Macheo, turning the attention of the two mages to the newly appeared holes in the ground. 

"Come on, I've been itching to burn something up!"

Letting her lance-staff manifest to its true form, Valerie slid her forearm under its metallic lid, gripping onto the handle as the underside-caliber began to radiate with a new heat. The same moment the worm breached the surface, a volley of acorn-sized fireballs began to fire from the barrel formed out of the underside of the ivory lance, exploding into miniature explosions of heat.