Chapter 113: ONE
Outside stretched a valley of scorched sand and broken earth, where the sun blazed without mercy, like it had forgotten how to set.
In the far distance stood the colossal skull of a long-dead godbeast, half-buried in the dunes. Seven hollow eye sockets stared blankly at the heavens. Bones. Jagged and sun-bleached. jutted from the ground like broken spears around its base.
A flock of pale-winged scavenger birds nested in the hollows of its cranium, feathers stained with dry blood. One of them let out a shriek and took flight, the others following, disturbed by something unseen.
Below the skull, in the shallow basin of the valley, lizard-like creatures moved on two legs, hunched and sinewy. They tore at a carcass. its limbs stretched wide, half of its skull caved in. A few snapped at each other, fighting over gristle and cracked bone. Others chewed without pause, red dripping from their jaws.
Then, one froze. Its head twisted unnaturally to the side.
The ground behind them shifted.
A ripple passed through the sand. Every creature stopped. The two that had been fighting dropped the bone between them.
The sand bulged upward, slow and deliberate. A groan rumbled beneath the earth. A hidden hatch hissed open as sand poured down its rising edges. Then something emerged cold and unnatural.
A thick, metal cylinder rose from beneath the desert like a relic of the gods. Black steel, scarred and ancient, its sides almost look like it was marked with forgotten runes. At its front, a seamless door came into view, smooth like obsidian glass. A pulse of blue light flickered across its surface.
The creatures didn’t wait.
They bolted, scattering across the sand like rats from fire. No growls or warning. Like they knew what that thing meant.
A single beep rang out. The door split open with a hiss of pressure.