Several figures stopped a few meters from the base of the Ziggurat.

  "Kaelen, are you sure about this?"

  One of them asked, his voice muffled by the wind whipping against his face.

  The figure who spoke had a robust build. Nearly two meters tall, his thick tail and scaled body blended into the darkness, giving him a threatening presence.

  A cloth was tied around his snout to filter the dust, leaving only his amber eyes exposed.

  The group, made up of five members, looked identical.

  On their bodies, they carried bluish crystals that emitted just enough light to keep them from losing sight of one another in the darkness of the desert.

  Besides allowing them to see where they stepped, avoiding traps and pockets of quicksand, the crystals also helped repel monsters that lurked beneath the gray surface of the dunes.

  "We have no other choice. We are under direct orders from the Tribal Chief." The leader replied without taking his eyes off the objective.

  Even as he said that, hesitation was clear in his voice.

  Kaelen didn’t want to be here either.

  Two weeks ago, what happened in this place was enough to frighten every local inhabitant of the desert.

  The Ash Desert, always silent and unchanging, had been shaken by an earthquake that nearly collapsed the underground chambers and living quarters of his people and other tribes that dwelled beneath the sands.

  When the dust settled, it was already there.

  An immense artificial mountain had appeared in the heart of the desert as if by magic.

  After two weeks of absolute vigilance, nothing had entered or left those walls, and the tension reached its limit.

  The tribal leaders could no longer ignore the mountain of black stone.

  They needed to know whether it was a threat.

  Because of that, it didn’t take long before they began sending their own scouts to observe it more closely.

  Yet no door opened.

  No army marched out.

  For fourteen days, nothing happened.

  And the silence only made it worse.

  Today, that was about to change.

  Kaelen’s group wasn’t there just to look again. The tribe had given clear orders to attempt direct contact with whatever was inside that thing.

  But deep down, he knew they were the first sacrifice to discover whether the structure was inhabited, and whether its owner was a silent neighbor… or the end of their species.

  His job today was to knock on the gate and wait for an answer.

  Or for death.

  His attention returned to the gigantic gates, feeling like a worm before a mountain.

  "It’s huge..." one of them whispered, touching the cold surface of the gate with the tip of his bone spear. "I’ve never seen anything like this. Not even the deepest chambers of the nest come close."

  Before the group, the colossal iron gates remained closed.

  They were massive, forming a metal barrier that made the scouts look tiny.

  There were no signs of guards, no sound of movement from within.

  Only silence.

  Kaelen nodded, staring toward the top of the wall kilometers above, trying to catch any movement in the heights, but it was far too distant to see anything.

  The structure of black blocks rose toward the sky, its gigantic, smooth walls without a single groove, preventing them from peering inside.

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  "Prepare yourselves." Kaelen ordered, his hand tightening around his own spear. He raised his arm, hesitating for a second.

  He was about to knock on the door of something unknown.

  Gathering his courage, he struck the gate once.

  The impact produced a dull sound that seemed to be swallowed by the immensity of the black metal.

  He waited, his heart pounding in his chest.

  Nothing happened.

  The wind was the only reply.

  Kaelen struck a second time, harder now.

  The sound echoed a little farther, but the structure felt like a dead mountain.

  He stopped, his hand trembling slightly on the weapon’s shaft. Kaelen glanced back at the other four scouts.

  Uncertainty was clear in their amber eyes.

  He hesitated — should he knock a third time, or was the silence an order to leave?

  CREEEEEAAAACK!

  Suddenly, the sound of the iron gates opening exploded outward, tearing through the air like the roar of a colossal beast awakening.

  The vibration in the ground was so intense that the sand beneath their feet jumped. One of the scouts swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple moving visibly beneath his scaled neck.

  The group clenched their spears so tightly that the leather grips creaked. They stepped back three paces in unison, eyes locked on the crack in the gate that was beginning to open.

  Then, a figure stepped out.

  The figure was so small it barely reached Kaelen’s knees. It looked like some kind of bat-homunculus. Its skin was pale, almost translucent, with disproportionately large ears drooping to the sides.

  It wore a strange uniform with silver buttons that gleamed under the moonlight, and a small crooked top hat that looked ready to fall off its bald head.

  Its eyes were enormous and milky, with no visible pupils, giving it a permanently dazed and pitiful expression.

  There was no aura of death, no bloodlust.

  It was just a thin, small servant.

  The scouts froze.

  The confusion was so great that their combat posture faltered.

  "We were so afraid just to see… this coming out of there?" one of them said, letting out a nasal laugh full of scorn.

  "The great terror of the desert is guarded by a top-hat rat?" he said loudly, relaxing his shoulders and lowering his spear.

  The creature ignored him and stopped in front of Kaelen.

  It tilted its head at an odd angle and opened its small mouth, revealing teeth like glass needles.

  "Why do you disturb the Sovereign’s territory?"

  The voice was shrill, but the tone wasn’t threatening—it sounded more like bureaucratic annoyance.

  Before the arrogant scout could speak again, Kaelen acted.

  He stepped forward and bowed deeply, lowering his snout almost to the gray sand in a gesture of total submission. "Forgive the insolence of my subordinates."

  Kaelen said, his voice firm but respectful. "We are Cindralisks, the desert lizards and scouts of the Obsidian Fang Tribe. We come in the name of our people to offer greetings and request an audience with your… Sovereign."

  Even without knowing what or who the ‘Sovereign’ was, he understood the meaning.

  The shriveled creature didn’t blink.

  It looked at Kaelen, then at the other four still standing. "Wait." That was all it said. The small servant turned around and walked back inside. The gates closed again with a heavy crash.

  BOOM!

  The impact thundered through the desert, leaving the group alone once more in the darkness.

  "Don’t say anything." Kaelen whispered with a frown at the scout who had spoken earlier.

  The scout shut his mouth.

  The minutes that followed were the longest of Kaelen’s life.

  No one dared speak.

  About ten minutes later, the vibration returned. The gates opened again, but only enough for the small creature to pass through.

  "The Sovereign has agreed to see you." the servant announced, adjusting the crooked top hat on its bald head. "Follow me."

  It gestured with a three-fingered hand and turned its back without waiting for a reply.

  "Let’s go." Kaelen whispered.

  The group of scouts quickly followed the servant inside the gates, crossing the immense thickness of the wall.

  Kaelen froze for a moment.

  They were inside!

  Beyond the wall, what he found was a biome completely different from the desert outside. The sky within was a glowing iron vault that cast a constant orange light.

  The interior was nothing like his underground world.

  The servant kept walking, guiding them along a side path. Despite its small stature, the group found it hard to keep up.

  They followed the side path and crossed into a tunnel, sudden cold flooding over their skin. Now Kaelen and his group found themselves in a forest stretching as far as the eye could see.

  The ground was covered in thick mist hiding piles of bones. There was only a pale, motionless moon trapped in the chamber’s ceiling, illuminating the gigantic space like an empty city.

  The smell of wet earth and decay was paralyzing, and the only sound was the trees creaking under the icy wind.

  "..." Kaelen looked at his companions, but no one spoke.

  After walking for a while, the group emerged into yet another biome of nocturnal gardens and crystal palaces.

  The ceiling shimmered with thousands of gems that mimicked perfect stars, and the air was sweet, soaked in the fragrance of flowers.

  The farther they walked, the more strange things they saw.

  They walked.

  Walked.

  Walked a little more, and the scenery grew increasingly surreal and silent.

  They entered a world of mist and mirrors. The floor was made of dark glass that perfectly reflected the group, creating the illusion that they were walking over an abyss.

  There was no wind, no heat, no cold.

  Finally, after losing track of time and feeling their legs grow tired, the small servant stopped before two large, luxurious doors.

  "The Sovereign awaits." the servant announced. When pushed open, the doors revealed a vast dark hall lit only by the faint glow of scattered crystals.

  The place was the culmination of everything they had seen. The black marble floor was so polished that it felt like walking over an inverted starry sky.

  Obsidian columns supported a ceiling that vanished into absolute darkness.

  At the far end, seated upon a throne that seemed to devour the surrounding light, was the figure of a man.

  Below him, kneeling in silence, were four other figures.

  Kaelen felt his legs grow heavy, as if the gravity there were ten times stronger.

  He looked at the man and, for the first time in his life, felt… fear.