CHAPTER 701: WHEN THE SKY TURNED GOLD

"Is this place... even inhabited?"

The whisper came from somewhere in the ranks.

Doubt spread like a shadow through the squad, creeping from one wary face to the next.

At the front, Ethan narrowed his eyes, scanning the golden dunes that rolled endlessly ahead.

"Keep moving," he murmured. "There’s something... shifting beneath us."

The scouts barely had time to react before a dry, slithering sound rose from the sand.

It was the kind of noise that made your teeth itch—something thick and wet dragging itself just out of sight.

"Everyone, on alert!" Elira snapped.

Even as the words left her mouth, the desert erupted.

A massive tentacle burst from the sand with a shriek of air, slicing skyward like a whip. The stench that followed was sharp and metallic, like blood left too long in the sun.

Shhhhk—

Ethan moved in a blur. A flash of steel carved through the air.

The Blade of the Fey traced a clean arc, and the tentacle dropped, severed in a single stroke. A spray of greenish-blue ichor hissed as it hit the sand, eating into it like acid.

"What the hell is that thing?" one of the soldiers shouted.

The answer came from below, deep and guttural—a roar that seemed to shake the dunes themselves.

Then the ground gave way.

A monstrous shape surged up from beneath, tearing through the sand in a geyser of grit and fury.

It looked like some nightmare octopus—its skin a cracked, ashen gray, its limbs writhing in every direction. Dozens of tentacles lashed the air, each one thick as a tree trunk and alive with whip-like motion.

"Intruders!"

The voice didn’t come from its mouth. It slammed straight into their minds, raw and thunderous.

"You dare trespass in the Ashveil Desert? Die!"

The tentacles rose in unison, like a forest waking all at once.

Two soldiers were snatched up before they could scream, their cries cut short as they were dragged toward the churning sand.

Ethan let out a low growl and launched himself into the air.

His blade came down hard—twice—shearing through two more limbs. More of that searing green fluid sprayed across the dunes, hissing and smoking where it landed.

The creature shrieked, thrashing in pain. Then it lifted off the ground entirely, its massive body hovering above the battlefield.

Power gathered around it like a storm.

The sand twisted upward in spirals, forming a cyclone around its bulk. In the center of its many arms, a sphere of blinding white energy began to form—huge, radiant, impossible to look at directly.

"Master!"

A clear, ringing voice cut through the chaos.

Feylora burst from the ranks, silver hair whipping wildly in the wind, fists clenched tight.

No magic shield. No summoned power. Just raw, unrelenting will.

"This one’s mine!"

She launched herself into the air.

Her fist met the blazing white energy sphere mid-flight.

BOOOOM—

The desert shook.

Golden winds howled, kicking up walls of dust. White arcs of energy tore through the sky like lightning gone feral.

For a heartbeat, it felt like the world split in two.

The collision between Feylora and the energy sphere unleashed a shockwave that rippled across the heavens.

The orb shattered—splintering into a thousand shards of light.

They scattered around her like stardust caught in a storm, flickering and fading as they fell.

Before the monster could even react, Feylora was already in front of it.

Her fist came down again—hard.

The blow carried the weight of the sky behind it, slamming the octopus-like beast straight into the sand.

The ground buckled. A crater bloomed beneath them, swallowing dunes whole.

Ethan looked up, eyes wide.

Feylora hovered in the eye of the storm, suspended in the air.

Her eyes burned with an otherworldly light. Power surged from her like a rising tide, gathering above her head into the shape of a massive energy bow.

FWIP—

She loosed the string. The arrow streaked down like a falling star.

"—Die!"

The shot punched through the dunes and straight into the creature’s core.

A burst of white fire erupted, swallowing everything in its path.

The monster shrieked as it disintegrated, its body reduced to ash and scattered by the wind.

But Feylora didn’t stop.

She spun, drew again, and fired—one arrow after another.

To the others, it looked like she was shooting blind into the sand.

But every time an arrow struck, the ground convulsed—

And another massive beast exploded from below, roaring and writhing under the sun.

Ethan’s eyes lit up.

"She’s... synced with the pulse of the sand sea."

He didn’t hesitate.

"All units—attack! Target: underground!"

BOOM.

In an instant, the entire Emerald Castle legion surged forward.

Magic beams, energy slashes, and the roar of aerial units filled the air in a deafening crescendo.

The desert erupted in waves. The heat shimmered white-hot.

From beneath the sand, the creatures came—dozens of them.

Tentacles lashed out like a nest of serpents, each strike leaving afterimages in the air.

One soldier wasn’t fast enough.

A tentacle speared through him—clean.

In a blink, his body shriveled, drained of every drop of life force. Even his soul energy was sucked dry.

"Rear guard, form up! Defensive formation—now!" Elira’s voice cracked like a whip over the chaos.

The battlefield had devolved into a storm of sand and screams.

High above, Feylora was still raining hell from the sky. Her arrows streaked downward in blazing arcs, each one trailing a comet’s tail of light. They slammed into the dunes like thunderbolts, igniting the desert with every strike.

Each shot screamed through the air, tearing the very fabric of space.

The sand sea split beneath her barrage. The shadows lurking below grew fewer, their numbers thinned by the relentless assault.

And then—finally—

As the army pushed deeper into the heart of the desert, the ground began to rumble.

A low, ominous growl rolled up from the depths.

RUMMMMMMBLE—

The entire desert heaved, as if some colossal beast had stirred beneath it.

Waves of sand exploded skyward, blotting out the sun.

Then came the pressure—crushing, suffocating. A force that made the air itself tremble.

Above, the sky twisted.

Energy surged upward, coalescing into a swirling vortex of blood-red light.

From that vortex, something began to rise.

A shadow. A shape. A giant.

It had the form of a man, but from its back sprouted a writhing forest of octopus-like tentacles.

It had only one eye—but that eye glowed with the color of congealed blood.

And when it opened—

The entire desert dimmed.

VMMMMM—

A beam of crimson light erupted from the cyclopean eye, sweeping across the battlefield like a scythe.

In a single breath, five thousand soldiers were reduced to ash, their screams snuffed out mid-air.

"Wh—what...?"

Ethan’s breath caught in his throat.

That aura—he knew it. Too well.

"It’s... Dragon God blood," he whispered.

His gaze locked on the towering figure, heart pounding.

"A hybrid... Octopoid and Dragonkin? No wonder it’s this powerful..."

A cold dread coiled in his gut.

If that thing evolved any further, it wouldn’t just destroy the army—it could swallow the entire desert whole.

"Looks like—" he tightened his grip on the Blade of the Fey, the hilt warm in his palm, "—we have to kill it. Now."

He drew in a deep breath.

Golden light began to ripple across his skin, flowing like liquid fire.

VMMM—

Behind him, Idra’s form shimmered into view—no longer flesh, but pure energy.

Threads of gold streamed from her fingertips, weaving into Ethan’s aura, binding their powers together.

Their energies fused in a heartbeat.

And then—

The sky lit up in gold.

...