Chapter 53: Beneath the Shifting Sand

The moon hung pale and fractured above the dunes, casting eerie silver over the group's camp. Sleep did not come easily. Airenne's words haunted each of them—especially Liam.

A god's soul?

And he was the vessel?

The weight of it crushed his chest. He sat with the fragment in hand, staring at the soft glow, waiting for it to speak again.

But tonight, it stayed quiet.

Instead, the sand answered.

A rumble.

Then a tremor beneath them.

"Everyone, up!" Kael shouted, leaping to his feet, blade already in hand.

The oasis they camped beside twisted—water turning to black sludge, palm trees withering and falling inward. The entire dune beneath them shifted, and from the sands below, a monstrous shape began to rise.

"Another guardian?" Nyra gasped, readying her summoning ring.

Aeris grabbed Liam by the arm and yanked him back. "No… this one isn't guarding the fragment. It's guarding a memory."

The creature that emerged was serpentine—its body made of segmented obsidian plates, glowing faintly with red runes that pulsed like veins. Its head had no eyes, only a jagged mask-like skull and a gaping maw that opened with a deep, mechanical hiss.

"The Sandwrithe," Airenne's voice echoed from nowhere.

It lunged.

Kael met it mid-charge with a wind slash, striking one of its armor plates—but the blade bounced off with a metallic clang.

"Too strong!" Kael shouted.

Nyra slammed her palm to the sand. "LIVETH—FANG OF THE GOLDEN LION!"

A golden spirit burst forth—a massive lion made of ember and sand. It clashed with the serpent, pinning it down momentarily, but its body began dissolving under the serpent's heat.

"Even spirits burn here!" Nyra cried out.

Liam felt the fragment in his pocket hum again.

He reached into it.

It pulsed—then his vision twisted.

[FLASHBACK: The Sixth Memory]

He was standing on a stone platform in the middle of an ancient citadel buried beneath dunes. The skies above were blood red. People screamed as the earth shattered below them.

A cloaked figure stood at the center, arms raised. His voice was like thunder as he cast a massive spell.

Then Liam realized—he wasn't watching from afar.

He was the cloaked man.

And in his arms—he held something glowing.

A woman. Bound in magic. Crying.

"Don't!" she screamed. "Please!"

But he didn't stop.

He whispered the spell.

"Split thy soul to save the world."

And the world exploded into sand.

Liam jerked awake as the Sandwrithe coiled above him, ready to strike.

He raised his palm instinctively—and the fragment flashed.

A massive pulse of raw energy burst outward, forming a dome of light.

The serpent crashed into it and recoiled with a hiss.

Aeris looked at him, stunned. "That was not normal."

"I… I remembered something. I think I saw the moment the soul was split. I was him. I think I was the one who cast the spell."

Nyra paled. "You were the one who broke the god?"

Kael shouted, "That's something to talk about after we don't die!"

The serpent roared again and dove underground.

Then silence.

Liam stepped forward slowly. "It's hiding now."

"No," Aeris said. "It's hunting."

The sand beneath Kael erupted, and the creature lunged upward. Kael was thrown across the dunes, rolling but landing with his blade up.

Liam felt something shift in his chest.

That memory—it had unlocked something.

He held the fragment close and whispered, "Let me remember more."

The wind responded, spiraling around him, and suddenly glyphs appeared in the air—a forgotten incantation.

He raised his hand, the spell completing itself in his mind.

"Lightbind: Crescent Spiral."

A glowing circle of white-hot sigils spun out from him, catching the Sandwrithe mid-charge and slicing through two of its armored plates.

The beast shrieked.

Kael took the chance, striking with a wave of wind pressure. The exposed flesh cracked—and Aeris followed up with a precision ice javelin, striking deep into its neck.

Finally, Nyra shouted, "One more!"

A beam of golden energy fired from her palm as her lion spirit reformed behind her. The beam pierced the Sandwrithe's skull, and it finally collapsed into the sand, dissolving into dust.

Silence returned.

The oasis was gone.

But left in its place was a staircase, leading downward into the desert itself.

Aeris stared into it. "The sixth fragment… is below."

Liam didn't move yet.

He looked to the others. "Before we go further… you need to know something. I don't think I was chosen just to restore this god. I think… I was the one who broke him in the first place."

No one spoke.

Kael rested a hand on Liam's shoulder.

"Then maybe this journey… is your redemption."

Liam nodded.

And together, they descended into the ruins buried in the sand.