Chapter 243: Third Layer (1)

The Spider centaur collapsed into the sand.

Its body dissolved into motes of pale light. Its four broken blades lay scattered across the ground. Its eight legs twitched once, twice, and then went still. The silver forest around them was wrecked trees shattered, webs torn, the ground gouged by the creature’s final charge.

Goliath stood at the center of the destruction. His chest was heaving. His blade was chipped and dull. Blood ran down his arm from a wound on his shoulder. He didn’t wipe it away.

"Report."

"Two dead." The answer came quiet, reluctant. "Orin... and Sela."

Goliath didn’t react. He just stared at the bodies. Orin had been impaled by one of the centaur’s blades. It had gone through his chest and out his back. He had died before he hit the ground. Sela had been caught in a web and crushed when a tree collapsed on top of her. They had heard her scream. Then they hadn’t heard anything at all.

"That’s eight now," Rell said quietly. "Eight of us. Since we started."

Goliath turned to look at him. "We knew there would be losses."

"Yeah. We didn’t know it’d be this many."

Rell was tall and lean. His horns were longer than the others’, curved and sharp. His eyes were dark, pupil-less, like all of theirs. He was the group’s second in command. He had been the one to suggest the ritual in the first place. He had been the one to find the Shepherd’s notes. He had been the one to convince them all that this was possible.

"We are close," Goliath said. "The Tower has seven layers. We have cleared two. The Lord is waiting."

"The Lord is being created."

Shinny was sitting on the ground, her knees pulled to her chest. Her horns were shorter than the others’. Her eyes were wide and wet. She had been crying. She had been crying since Orin died. She hadn’t stopped.

"That’s... that’s what the system said," she continued, her voice catching. "’Lord Creation.’ We don’t even know what it’ll be when it’s... when it’s finished. We don’t know if it’ll listen to us. We don’t know if it’ll even be alive."

"It will be ours," Goliath said.

"Will it?"

He looked at her. His expression didn’t change. His face was hard, like stone. He had always been hard. Even before their world died, he had been hard. It was why they had chosen him to lead.

"We didn’t come this far to give up," he said. "We lost our world. We lost our families. We lost everything. But we found a way out. We found the loophole. We found the Shepherd’s secrets. And now we have a chance to become something more. Something powerful. Something that can never be destroyed again."

Shinny didn’t answer. She just looked at the ground. At the bodies.

---

They buried Orin and Sela in the silver forest.

There was no ceremony. No words. Just two shallow graves and a pile of stones to mark them. Goliath said nothing as he worked. Rell said nothing. The others said nothing. They just dug and covered and moved on.

Shinny watched. She wanted to say something. She wanted to say that this was wrong. That they shouldn’t be here. That the Lord wasn’t worth this. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.

She tayed by the graves after the others had already turned away. She crouched between the two piles of stone and pressed her palm flat against the sand, like she was trying to feel something still warm underneath.

Orin had laughed at her once, back before the world ended, when she’d tripped over her own spear during training.

Sela had braided her hair the night before they entered the Tower. Small things. Stupid things. The kind of things you don’t know you’ll miss until they’re the only things left. She pulled her hand back and stood. The stones didn’t move. The sand didn’t answer.

They moved on.

---

The third layer was a few hours’ walk from the second.

The forest thinned as they advanced. The silver trees became smaller, sparser. The glowing leaves dimmed. The purple sky faded to a pale grey. The air grew warmer. Drier.

And then the trees stopped altogether.

The group emerged from the forest and found themselves standing at the edge of a wasteland. Sand stretched in every direction. Not golden sand, grey sand. Ash like. Dead. The sky above was a flat, featureless white. No sun. No clouds. Just an endless void of pale light.

"It’s different," Rell said.

He stepped onto the sand. His boots sank slightly. He bent down and picked up a handful. It was fine, like dust. It slipped through his fingers.

"The Tower is changing."

"Layers are different environments," Goliath said. "We knew that."

"We didn’t know it would be this different."

Shinny walked forward slowly. She looked at the sand. At the sky. At the endless emptiness ahead. She wrapped her arms around herself. The air was warm, but she was cold.

"This doesn’t feel like a Tower," she said. "It feels like... like a grave."

No one answered her.

---

They walked for an hour. Then two.

The sand never changed. The sky never changed. The only sounds were their footsteps and the wind, a low, mournful sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Goliath walked at the front. His wound had been bandaged. His blade had been cleaned and sharpened. He didn’t speak. He just walked.

Rell walked beside him. His eyes were scanning the horizon. He kept his hand on his weapon.

"We’re being watched."

"I know."

"How long?"

"Since we entered the desert."

Shinny walked at the back. She kept glancing over her shoulder. She couldn’t see anything. But she could feel it. Eyes on her back. Eyes in the sand.

"There’s something here," she whispered.

"Stay calm," Rell said.

"I am calm."

"You’re shaking."

She looked at her hands. She was shaking.

---

The first sign came from the sand itself.

A shape moved beneath the surface. A ripple. Then another. Then a dozen. The sand shifted, undulated, rose. Something was swimming through it. Something large.

Goliath stopped. The others stopped behind him.

"Formation."

They formed a defensive circle. Seven of them. Weapons drawn. Eyes on the sand.

The ripples circled them. One. Two. Three. Then they stopped. The sand went still.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then the eyes appeared.

They rose from the sand, not bodies, just eyes. Glowing eyes. Pale blue. Dozens of them. Hundreds. All around the circle, all at once. They hung in the air, unsupported, unblinking. They watched.

Shinny’s breath caught in her throat.

"What... what are they?"

Goliath didn’t answer. He didn’t know.

The eyes stared at them. They stared back.

Then the sand beneath Goliath’s feet shifted.

Something was coming up.

---

The first scorpion erupted from the sand.

It was massive, larger than any scorpion had any right to be. Its body was the size of a horse, its tail arched over its back, its stinger dripping with pale venom. Its claws were the size of shields. Its eyes, the same pale blue eyes glowed in the white light.

Goliath swung his blade. The scorpion’s claw caught it. The impact sent him sliding backward across the sand. He dug his heels in and pushed back.

"Kill it!"

Rell charged. His blade flashed. The scorpion’s tail whipped toward him. He dodged, rolled, came up swinging. His blade carved into its leg. The leg buckled. The scorpion screeched.

Another scorpion erupted to the left. Then another. Then another. The sand boiled with them. Dozens of them. Hundreds. They swarmed out of the ground, claws snapping, tails striking, eyes glowing.

The group formed a tighter circle. They fought back-to-back. Goliath’s blade carved through a claw. Rell’s blade severed a tail. The others fought with spears, with axes, with magic. Shinny raised her hands and sent a wave of force into a cluster of scorpions. They were thrown backward. They landed and kept coming.

"There’s too many!"

"Hold the line!"

A scorpion lunged at Shinny. She dodged, barely. Its claw caught her shoulder. She screamed. She fell. The scorpion raised its stinger.

Goliath was there. His blade severed the stinger. His boot crushed the scorpion’s head. He pulled Shinny to her feet.

"Stay behind me."

She nodded. She was crying again.

---

The battle raged.

The scorpions kept coming. For every one they killed, two more took its place. The sand was littered with broken claws and severed tails and dissolving bodies. The air was thick with the smell of venom and dust.

Goliath fought at the center. His blade was a blur. His movements were precise. He had been a warrior before their world died. He had been the best warrior in their city. He was still the best.

But even he was tiring.

A scorpion lunged at him from the side. He turned, too slow. The claw caught his leg. He stumbled. Another scorpion lunged. He raised his blade. The claw caught the blade and wrenched it from his grip. He fell.

The scorpion raised its stinger.

Rell appeared. His blade severed the stinger. His boot crushed the scorpion’s head. He pulled Goliath to his feet.

"Still think this is worth it?"

Goliath didn’t answer. He picked up his blade.

"Formation! Back-to-back! Don’t let ’em separate us!"

The group reformed. They fought. They bled. They killed. The scorpions kept coming.

And somewhere in the distance, the eyes kept watching.