Chapter 538. Sand Creature
The car pulled up at the edge of the desert. Before anyone could alight, Charles spotted a flicker of yellow moving on a distant dune. His heart started racing with anticipation. This was the first sign of life he had encountered on the surface this time.
Patting Lily on her back gently, Charles instructed, "Time to get to work. Get your mice friends to scout for any dangers in the sand."
"Got it!" Lily nodded excitedly before hopping onto the car window's edge and letting out a series of squeaks.
Soon, a small mischief of mice with varying colors leaped off the vehicle and scurried toward the desert. They swiftly made a quick circuit before rushing back to report their findings to Lily.
"Mr. Charles, there are no threats in the vast beach ahead of us. There are also no other scents apart from that of the earth itself," Lily interpreted for the mice.
By now, the distant creature had shrunk to a speck, almost invisible to the naked eye.
Pressed against time, Charles pondered briefly for a couple of seconds before abruptly opening the door and pushing Dipp out. "Take the cook and ship's doctor with you to the other vehicles. Move quickly, don't waste time!"
Dipp seemed to have an inkling of what Charles planned to do. He hurriedly offered, "Captain, let me lead the way instead."
"Stop the nonsense. There's not a single drop of water here; what use would you serve? I can fly and in the case of any danger, I can escape immediately. Hurry up, that's an order!"
Dipp could only comply reluctantly, and soon enough, Charles was left alone in the vehicle.
The car roared to life once again and drove into the desert sands. The tires scattered the grains of sand in a wild dance around them. However, the vehicle didn't sink into the sandy terrain and could speed up in the desert.
Charles's car had ventured five hundred meters into the desert before the other three cars swiftly followed suit. They maintained a wide distance from each other as a precaution against any potential threats. Although judging from the earlier semi-desert, the risk seemed minimal.
The dangling compass on the rear mirror swayed erratically as the vehicle moved. Charles' gaze was fixed on the moving object in the distance through the windshield. Its form was becoming clearer.
Though he still couldn't identify the entity, Charles didn't want to give up. After all, this was the sole clue he could find so far.
As long as it was alive, no matter what it was, Anna could potentially extract memories from it. Perhaps, it might have even caught glimpses of where the darkness had drifted to.
The cars were evidently faster than the mysterious yellow entity and were gradually closing the distance between them. With a surge of power, the vehicle leaped over a modest dune and landed with a thud, kicking up bursts of sand around it.
"This should be close enough," Charles muttered to himself before releasing one hand from the steering wheel and extending his open palm to the side.
"Lily, telescope!"
A gleam of gold blitzed out of Charles' embrace, and clutching a monocular in her mouth, Lily scurried back to him in a flash.
The moving figure' full form was revealed through Charles' lens.
A half-buried sand creature was Charles' first impression of the entity. The mysterious figure dragged itself across the desert floor with its hands propping its weight up. Yellow grains of sand slipped out continuously from an opening in its abdomen and merged seamlessly with the desert sand around it.
As the sand creature was back facing Charles, Charles had no idea what the wretched creature looked like.
At this moment, Charles wasn't overly concerned about the creature's potential threat. Rather, he was worried as the entity appeared to be a less intelligent lifeform with no memories.
Doesn't matter if it has any memories or not. Let's get closer first. Charles thought to himself and stepped down on the gas pedal. The vehicle surged forward at maximum speed.
The silhouette of the sand creature grew clearer to everyone. They could see its staggered steps as it moved awkwardly through the sand.
Click!
Charles grabbed the intercom in front of him and instructed, "Ready your weapons. Hold fire until I give the command."
"Aye, Captain!"
"Roger!"
Charles' full attention was on the sand creature, but just then, the creature seemed to be slowly growing in size. Initially, he thought that it was merely due to them closing the distance. But soon, the sand creature towered as high as a two-story building, and Charles immediately realized something was amiss.
Given the distance between them, if the sand creature now stood that tall, then it had to be at least a hundred meters in height.
"Stop!" Charles hollered into the intercom, and all four vehicles screeched to a halt.
He watched as the sand creature continued its slow trek in the distance, seemingly oblivious to their presence.
"Captain, what's the matter? Did something happen?" Second Mate Conor's anxious voice crackled through the intercom.
Charles lifted the monocular to his eye once more and studied the mysterious figure.
This time, he got an even clearer view. He noticed the dark, gaping holes that pockmarked its entire body, and golden sand cascaded from those voids to the desert floor below.
"Stay back first, everyone. That thing looks odd. It doesn't seem to be something normal," Charles warned into the intercom.
Charles started his car again and inched closer to the sand figure at a slow pace of fifty kilometers per hour. As he drew nearer, the sand creature swelled in size once again. Now, it was towering nearly as high as a five-story building. If the creature's height was linearly proportional to the distance, the creature had grown dozens of meters in a very short time frame.
The phenomenon of the sand figure growing in size as the distance was being closed sent a chill down Charles' spine and all his hair to stand.
We can't get any closer. We'll be in deep trouble if it notices us.
After swiftly weighing the risks against the potential gains, Charles made a decisive call to retreat. No matter what this entity was, the danger of approaching further was too great.
They only needed to find a living creature. There was no need to risk everything for one of the highest danger levels.
Taking one last glance at the creature's massive silhouette, Charles took out the camera and snapped a few photos before turning the steering wheel to retreat.
"Let's go look for other clues," Charles commanded through the intercom. The convoy of vehicles quickly followed his lead, their tires rolling back across the sandy tracks they had made.
Charles took a quick glance at the rearview mirror and saw that the sand creature did not turn back and was continuing its relentless march into the distance. The anxiety in his heart was slightly eased, and he slightly lowered his guard.
Faced with the swirling sand in the air, a hint of discouragement crept into his heart. If there were one thing more discouraging than danger, it would be returning empty-handed.
This exploration seemed to have yielded no results, apart from discovering the abandoned body of the Light God.
Flooring the accelerators, the four vehicles sped forward, away from the sand creature. Just as they reached the smooth, flat expanse of the semi-desert, a colossal shadow blocked the violet light overhead and enshrouded all four cars. The darkness was gradually gaining more territory ahead.
A rhythmic, pulsating sound accompanied the incoming darkness.
Darkness? Has the darkness returned?
Charles' heart skipped a beat at the realization. He swiftly poked his head out of the window and looked backward. Instantly, a chill ran up his spine from the base all the way to the back of his head.
The darkness of the Subterranean Sea had not returned. It was the sand figure blocking the purple light in the sky. The darkness was its shadow!
It was now larger than the body of the Light God, and the figure grew in size regardless of whether they narrowed or widened the distance between them and the figure.
Sand particles slid off its body, forming new dunes throughout the desert. Just then, a bizarre thought struck Charles: this desert was formed from the sand leaking from that creature!
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