Chương 37: Sand Crawlers

"Whether she wants to help you or not is her decision," Liesel said. Liesel shifted her attention away from the mage, towards the endless wasteland. She hadn't asked Fiya how she had come to her rescue with a healer after Liesel had killed the Door Guardian. She was self-absorbed in her own trouble, and a part of her knew it was Auram. She had hoped that would not be the case. It was Auram's decision, but Liesel would've preferred not to be the center of the spirit's consideration.

"But is she not yours?" Fiya asked.

"What does being mine mean?" Liesel asked. Her tone was a bit sharp. Perhaps it was because of how much Auram emphasized that she was not anyone's pet. Or if it was just exhaustion and hunger finally betraying her calmness.

"Do you mean she is my pet? Or my partner? Or something else?"

"Tha... I didn't mean to suggest—I meant she is your friend," Fiya said, stumbling over her words. Liesel breathed, closing her eyes.

"It's fine. She can hear our conversation, so if she wants to help you, she will come to you."

"I am sorry," Fiya said. She withdrew after a few minutes of silence. Liesel was grateful that Yehia and Healer Borran were helpful in more than just their roles suggested. They kept the team somewhat motivated and jovial, despite their dire situation. Auram teleported in front of Liesel. Her wings were naked of their golden luminance. She was small, and since Liesel's back was facing the rest, they wouldn't be able to see the spirit.

"I was worried you wouldn't survive if we waited for them to check on you naturally. It would've been hours, and you wouldn't let me heal you," Auram said.

"I didn't do anything wrong." The spirit folded her arms over her chest and wore a stubborn expression.

"In hindsight, I agree I might have cornered you to take a desperate action," Liesel nodded.

"But I never implied you were wrong. You feel that way because you understand what you did was reckless and extremely dangerous."

"It's because you are upset," Auram said.

"I am exhausted, that is all." Auram pursed her lips, grumbling under her breath.

"What kind of help will you need from me?"

"Fiya. I imagine she'd ask you to deliver a letter to the Seer or the Chancellor, and hope they'd open the door from the other side."

"Delivering it... won't be wise, right?"

"Frankly, I do not know," Liesel said.

"Do you want to?" Auram considered for a moment.

"I don't want you to die here."

"Informing the Seer wouldn't do much. Unless they can bring someone from the Imperial Core, a Crusader General, for example, the sealed entrance will remain as it is. Perhaps the scholars who are to arrive might be able to create a spell that breaks it, but other than that, there's nothing they can do."

"Then, there's hope if I inform them?"

"I doubt the Scholar would put their life at risk by entering this unsolved Necropolis." Liesel shook her head.

"Not to mention, if the Seer doesn't receive any message in the next two days, he will be suspicious. It wouldn't matter whether you deliver a message or not."

"Should I ask... the Custodian?" Auram asked after a long moment of inner contemplation.

"I appreciate your willingness, and feel free to do anything you want," Liesel said.

"However, he would not help. This is the situation he wanted, this exact situation for me to be in, well, without ten other Ascendants who might help me. So any help he is going to provide is a demon that would kill them all."

"That might be true," Auram's frown deepened.

"If you are hungry, I can bring those meals from the base." Liesel's first instinct was to deny. The spirit had no obligation to help Liesel after all. She had been doing too much for nothing in return. But Liesel would need some help. She could find a way to repay it later.

"How big an object can you take with you while teleporting?"

"Anything I can lift," Auram said.

"And how much weight can you lift?"

"I have no clue," Auram grinned. Liesel had seen Auram take a vial of solution, which would almost weigh half a kilogram, so that was somewhat possible, the first good news of the day.

"You don't need to bring us food right now," Liesel said, "But if we don't find the vein by tomorrow, we will have no other option."

"Should I look for it from above?" Auram asked. Liesel looked up at the sky and shook her head.

"That doesn't mean much. It will be at the edge of the realm; whether you can see it or not is immaterial. We will continue while preserving our strength, and if we fail, you can teleport some food and water for us." They had special bars of highly concentrated nutrients at the base, which should keep them functional for half a day. And they didn't weigh much. Still, Auram might have to use teleportation more than twice if she were to bring food for everyone.

Liesel didn't feel it would be kind to tell Auram that if they were going to rely on Auram's magic for food, they were most likely going to die. There was only one stable source of sustenance in the Necropolis, and it would be the Promordial Vein. If they cannot even reach it, Auram's help would only stretch their life needlessly and tire the spirit for no purpose.

"Something's coming," Auram said, turning her head towards the skull. Before Liesel could ask what, she felt it in her soul. The Materiality in the realm shook. With a howl, the ash and sand began rippling. It rose from the ground like an ocean wave, and it came towards her.

"Leave," Liesel uttered as she climbed back to her feet, turned around, and started sprinting towards the wall. Running on the sand was very tiring. The wave was coming towards the expedition team, who huddled together as Yehia began creating a ward to protect them. Liesel managed to stop before she ran face-first into the wall. Yehia's ward manifested, and it shook and cracked in several places from the weight of the sand. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent.

Report any sightings. Liesel heaved, turning around to face the sand again. It completely blanketed the transparent barrier. She could see tiny things moving in it, or perhaps it was Materiality that made it seem that way. Time stretched as the sand hummed through the wall, jolting the core of their bones. Yehia's hand began to shake from the sustained maintenance of the ward. Her wards were usually quick. Sustaining one was a much harder task.

Liesel could hear Yehia's teeth creak as the spearwoman did everything she could to maintain the ward. And she was succeeding, regardless of how haphazardly it seemed at first glance. After another long minute, the sand slipped off the barrier. And they witnessed the same ash storm as the one the Ash Lord had created. There was still a ten meters gap between them and the storm wall. Yehia undid her barrier, heaving as she fell to her knees. She was bleeding from her nose due to the exertion.

"I feel like shit."

"We should start moving," Liesel suggested, feeling a little bad for their warder.

"We are incapable of observing the storm wall, and staying in one place might attract something towards us." There were some complaints, naturally. Everyone was exhausted, and they were on their last bit of water. After walking for an hour, Farki Jan stopped in his tracks. He looked down at his feet and grimaced.

"Run!" he shouted as he channeled Materiality into his feet and started dashing backwards. The sand beneath their feet began shifting, and a dune rose from the ground. Everyone raced away from it. The sand dune exploded like a volcano. And a sand centipede loomed there, like an ancient god submerged in the river of sands. Its mandibles clicked, sending a ripple of jolt no different than the hum of the ash storm. Its entire body seemed to be made of limestone.

"Jaisel! Get its attention!" Liesel shouted, shifting her eyes to Yehia, who was already preparing her spear. As Jaisel's barrage of arrows fell on its head, the demon screeched at him. Yehia's spear hissed through the air. The centipede blinked at the last moment, and the spear's tip struck the eyelid. It was not enough to take one of its eyes, but its head was knocked to the side. Yehia's spear bounced in the air and ratcheted back to her hand.

She had a piece of her ward inside a hollow compartment in the shaft that made it possible to call it back. Since she had embraced her role as a secondary warder, she hadn't tried to engage in confrontational battles.

"Should I?" Fiya asked.

"No!" Liesel shouted. They didn't know how strong it was for Fiya to risk her safety with the binding chains. The centipede landed on the sand, emitting a vibrating hum from its body. Its body began to sink into the sand. In the blink of an eye, it had vanished.

"It's coming for you!" Farki Jan shouted at Jaisel. Jaisel created a spell circle over his palm and slapped it onto the ground. A wave of energy rolled from his arm. And it spread through the barren desert. The sand rose again, only a few meters away from Jaisel, and from it leapt out the sand centipede, hissing and snapping its mandibles in pain. Jaisel dashed to the side. The arthropod chased. It sank its mandible into the ground.

When it clicked underneath the calm ground, a wave of sand exploded, catching Jaisel by surprise. He was knocked forward and rolled on the sand. Charbil intercepted the centipede from the side, his enforced sword hitting the right mandible. The energy exploded into it, and the arthropod shook its head in frustration rather than pain. Charbil jumped away as the left mandible almost stabbed his chest. He looked down at his sword, shouting, "Its hide is thicker than those spiders." That was alarmingly worrying.

The momentary distraction from Charbil allowed Yehia to strike the centipede's eye once again. The projectile did nothing, but it had distracted it enough for the beast to shift its attention towards Yehia. Verka had caught up to them by now and created a barrier around Jaisel to protect him from another sand explosion that the centipede had left before shifting its target to Yehia. Kurvam climbed the invisible construct in the air, charging his blade with Materiality. He lunged down, aiming for the demon's head.

The centipede was moving too fast, and he ended up landing somewhere in the middle, and his strike cracked its stone shell, bending the body like a twisted twig. It screeched, twisting its head, and sprayed a venomous cloud at Kurvam, who had just landed on his feet, barely away from the steel blade-like limbs of the centipede. It wouldn't work with Verka behind him. He created a barrier around Kurvam to protect him.

And Yehia created the blanket ward that captured all the visible venom and tied it into a small pouch that she threw into the storm wall. Noticing that it was surrounded again, it emitted a high-pitched hum. Its body vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Now we kill it," Liesel said, as she conjured an Impact Rune.

"Wait for my signal," she said to Fiya. Farki Jan predicted it was coming towards Yehia this time.

"I am gonna hit him so fucking hard," Yehia grinned. She didn't try to run away. Not that it was necessary. Her spread was burning with energy, ready to take the first stab. Jaisel was creating the same spell again, and this time, it was more complicated and larger. This one would paralyze the insect for a moment long enough for Liesel to use Shade Severing Strike to cut its soul.

"Now," the Observer shouted, and Jaisel slapped his hand onto the ground. The sand shook. The Materiality coursed through it. However, the centipede didn't leap out again to escape the currents. Only a moment after, Yehia's eyes widened as the pair of mandibles came out and, in an instant, they were snapping around her waist. Did it adapt to the spell after only one experience?

"Verka!" Liesel threw her rune-enchanted sword at it, burning Materiality in her arm. The blade's tip struck the side of the demon's head. The impact momentarily sapped away most of its jaw strength as its mandible clamped. Verka's ward stopped it from touching Yehia, allowing the lady to step out, stabbing the spear into its mouth as well. She yanked her spear immediately, but the tip of the spear was crushed like brittle stone.

"What the fuck are these demons?!" Yehia shouted as the demon sank into the ground again.

"Isn't it a bit too strong for an overgrown sand centipede?"

"The tomb's influence," Liesel said, "And it might also mean we are closer to the Primordial Vein." The second part of her hopefulness. It would've had a different feature if it had been absorbing energy from the Source of all creation. Liesel replenished her Materiality and conjured another Impact Rune. Yehia wrapped her warding construct around Liesel's sword and brought it back to the vice captain.

"Do you have any other spells?" Liesel asked Jaisel.

"Not inside the sand," Jaisel shook his head.

"It's coming back," Farki Jan said. He pointed at Liesel.

"For you." Liesel paused, and she dispersed the Impact Rune.

"Fiya, get ready."

"You can't be serious..." Yehia frowned.

"Markil, Garvin, take a stab from above," Liesel said as she started running away from the group.

"I need an opening to cut down its soul." Verka created platforms for the duo to climb. Unfortunately, Kurvam knocked Markil to the side and took his spot. Liesel was uncomfortable. As she stopped, a barrier construct twisted around her collar. It was Yehia's doing, and Liesel didn't mind the additional safety. Kurvam and Garvin remained steady ten meters above her. Their swords charged.

"Don't jump if you want to keep your limbs," Kurvam said, grinning. He might not be wrong. Unlike Markil, Kurvam vastly outweighed Garvin in terms of strength. Liesel and Yehia exchanged a glance. They were expecting Kurvam to interfere and let the demon possibly cripple her or kill her. The sand rose from the ground. The mandibles were already snapping when they came for her face. Fiya's chains tied the centipede to the ground in an instant. Kurvam jumped from above, cracking the hard shell of the demon.

Blood spurted out from it. Liesel was half expecting him to try and kill the demon by himself since he didn't break the chain and allowed the demon to kill her, but he gave her space to cut its soul with her sword. [Shade Severing Strike Executed!] The centipede stopped moving. Liesel started at Kurvam suspiciously. That was an odd behaviour. But it could be his desperation to survive. Liesel couldn't see it any other way.

"Next time, don't meddle with my plan unless I tell you to," Liesel said. Perhaps he wanted to win her trust to betray her later. As the Materiality racing in Liesel's Soul Veins calmed, the ground rippled once again. Another pair of pincers rose from the ground on the other side. Farki Jan felt it first and started running. He was too slow, though. Verka turned around, creating a ward to yank the Observer away, but he, too, wasn't fast enough.

Farki Jan's ankle was caught, and in the blink of an eye, snipped from his leg. He fell onto the ground and began crawling away, leaving a trail of blood behind as the demon rose again, now its death snippers tainted with blood.