"Where are we actually going?" Clara asked as they moved through the ruined street.
The road becos farther from a normal city path. Patches of strange flesh-like material clung to the asphalt. Giant mushrooms towered between broken vehicles. Segnts of architecture from another world had fused with concrete buildings, bending walls at unnatural angles and replacing windows with organic mbranes that faintly twitched every few seconds.
The others glanced toward Myles, waiting for direction as well.
"Michael only gave a general route," Myles replied while scanning ahead. "The western sector beyond the camp hasn’t been explored yet. The northern zone is Red’s territory. We’re not heading there for now."
Everyone already knew the na of Red and his gang. A hostile faction that had grown powerful in a short amount of ti.
"Then why haven’t they attacked the camp yet?" Daniel asked. "If they’re that strong, shouldn’t they have tried already?"
Myles narrowed his eyes slightly. He realized he had not asked that himself.
"I heard sothing," Samantha said. "People said Red and his group are digging for sothing beneath their headquarters. No one knows what it is. But rumor says whatever they’re excavating is giving them strength."
The group fell silent.
Their boots pressed against soft, unfamiliar terrain as the corrupted street gradually gave way to foreign growth.
"Maybe it’s another Ether Rift," Lilian said, breaking the silence.
George glanced at her. "How can you be sure?"
"It’s a hypothesis," Lilian replied calmly. "There are limited phenona that produce rapid power growth on this scale. But if it is a Rift, I thinkbit’s different from the ones you’ve encountered."
"Different how?" Clara asked.
"Stronger," Lilian answered. "And likely connected to sowhere far more dangerous."
The implication settled heavily over them.
"That gives us even more reason to kill this Red and his group," Myles said.
His voice remained steady, but his eyes sharpened.
Power. Every path seed to lead back to that single word.
His companions felt it too. His resolve influenced them so it made the desire to grow stronger was no longer his alone.
For now, they dropped the topic.
They continued west.
The buildings gradually thinned.
Concrete structures beca sparse and fractured. Entire blocks had collapsed or dissolved into sothing else entirely.
Soon, the cityscape gave way to a wide open area.
The ground changed and beca a bright brown earth stretched across the expanse, replacing asphalt completely. The soil did not resemble normal dirt. It emitted a faint amber glow from within as if light pulsed beneath the surface.
Veins of luminous lines ran across the terrain in irregular patterns, expanding and contracting slowly like breathing arteries.
The air felt warr here as well. Strange particles drifted upward from the soil, dissolving before reaching head height.
Fragnts of alien structures protruded from the ground like arched pillars made of layered mineral and bone-like material.
So of them curved inward toward the sky and so others leaned at strange angles that shouldn’t be possible for them to still be able to stand. They were half-lted into the glowing earth.
A low vibration humd through the area. It was not loud but constant.
The few remaining city buildings at the periter looked consud, their foundations embedded into the foreign land as if the other world had swallowed them.
No monsters were visible for now. But the environnt felt weird.
Myles turned his head slightly toward Lilian.
"What do you see here?" asked Myles.
Lilian closed her eyes for a brief mont.
"I feel movent beneath the surface," she said after opening her eyes. "There are multiple life signatures under this soil. They’re not small and they’re waiting underground like predators."
The companions exchanged glances.
At least they were not walking blindly into unknown territory. Having Lilian with them really gave them a critical advantage that could determine their lives and death.
Myles stepped toward the edge of the glowing brown earth. He bent down and lifted a massive boulder from the side of a ruined structure. The stone asured nearly a ter in diater.
However, he raised it with ease.
Without hesitation, he hurled it forward.
The boulder slamd into the shimring soil.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then the ground trembled.
A deep rumbling sound rolled beneath their feet.
The amber veins brightened sharply. The earth bulged. Sothing tore upward from below.
A creature burst through the surface a mont later.
It resembled a worm, having a thick and elongated form, its pale segnted body slick with viscous fluid. But at the front was a human head.
Its skin looked stretched and weird, its eyes were sunken yet wide open. Its mouth twisted unnaturally as if sewn into a permanent grin.
The creature’s total length matched the height of an adult human.
"Shit. That thing is disturbing," Ethan muttered, already raising his pistol.
The worm-like monster lifted its upper body above the glowing soil instead of retreating back underground.
Its human face tilted slightly.
Then it smiled at them.
A cold shiver ran down their spines.
Ethan pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The gunshot cracked sharply through the open field.
The bullet struck the monster’s forehead, tearing flesh and snapping its head backward.
But it did not die yet instead it shrieked.
A high-pitched, distorted scream erupted from its mouth as it lunged forward. Its body propelled itself in a sudden violent thrust.
"Well, were we planning to ask for sothing from it or what?!" Ethan said dryly.
Myles moved.
He stepped forward in a clean motion and drew his blade in one fluid arc.
The slash cut through the creature’s neck.
Its human head separated cleanly from its body.
The worm’s corpse collapsed onto the glowing soil.
Two notifications appeared before Myles and Ethan.
[You have killed a C-Rank Aberrant Burrower]
[ 56 EXP]
Myles narrowed his eyes.
"Ready to kill," he said calmly.
The soil beneath them trembled again and more movent erged.
The amber veins pulsed brighter.
The companions tightened their grips on their weapons.
Underneath the foreign earth, multiple shapes began shifting toward the surface.
—
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