HUH?

The storm vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Charlotte stood alone in the middle of the endless desert, chest heaving as her ether flickered weakly around her fists.

The dunes stretched out in every direction under the merciless sun and the storm has already vanished.

And worst of all... no sign of Brandon.

Her gaze quivered, and a cold, creeping fear slithered into her heart, squeezing tight.

"N-No... Kael?"

Her voice cracked.

"KAELLL!"

The scream tore out of her, echoing across the dunes before being swallowed by the vast emptiness.

She spun around in panic, looking in every direction.

Nothing.

At this time, she heard a broken, wheezing laugh coming from somewhere behind her.

Lyssandra was lying on her back in the sand a short distance away.

She was laughing "Yes... Suffer... just like when you took Maevrith from me..."

Charlotte’s expression shattered.

Pure blinding rage flooded her veins.

She dashed forward in a blur of motion, crossing the distance in less than a heartbeat.

Her hand shot down and her fingers closed around Lyssandra’s skull.

"You-"

She didn’t finish the sentence.

With a single motion, Charlotte crushed Lyssandra’s head.

CRUNCH.

Blood and brain matter exploded outward in a gruesome spray across the sand.

Lyssandra’s body twitched once... twice... then went still.

Charlotte stood over the corpse, breathing hard as blood dripped from her fingers.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing herself to calm down.

Her hands were shaking ’Focus. Find him. He has to be here.’

She launched herself upward, shooting into the sky.

From high above, she looked around at the endless desert in every direction.

Dunes. Rocks. More dunes.

No sign of Brandon.

She flew faster, circling wider and wider.

Hours passed.

Charlotte searched relentlessly, diving low over dunes, circling rock formations, and even digging through sand where she thought she saw movement.

Nothing.

Just empty, endless sand.

Finally, she dropped back to the ground near where the storm had first appeared.

*thud* Her knees hit the sand hard, and she was breathing heavily.

Her hands clenched into fists "Kael... where are you?"

Tears of frustration and fear burned in her eyes as she looked around desperately.

At that exact moment, the ring on her finger began to glow with a soft, warm light.

A portal of energy rippled open in the air beside her.

Elize stepped through, still in her casual clothes, looking confused as she glanced at the desert surroundings.

She blinked in surprise, noticing the devastated look on her face.

"Charlotte? What- where are we? Where’s Brandon? It’s been hours... so I came to check on you."

Charlotte looked up at her, and her voice cracked "He’s gone."

Elize’s face paled in horror "What do you mean ’gone’?"

Charlotte stood slowly, sand falling from her clothes.

"Lyssandra... she used the artifact gem of this tower. It brought us into the Dead Clock Spire. A time storm appeared. I tried to reach him but..."

Her voice trembled "I can’t find him, Big Sis. I’ve been searching for hours. There’s nothing."

Elize’s expression hardened in panic, but her eyes were filled with worry.

She stepped closer and placed both hands on Charlotte’s shoulders "Breathe. We’ll find him."

Charlotte swallowed hard and gave a faint nod.

Elize looked around at the endless desert, then back at Charlotte "Tell me everything that happened."

---

*cough*

Brandon rolled onto his back, coughing violently as sand poured out of his mouth and nose.

His entire body burned from the heat of the sun-baked sand beneath him and countless shallow cuts that covered his arms, chest, face, and legs.

The time storm had torn at him apart, its grains acting like tiny razors while the temporal distortion twisted his perception of pain.

"Ughhhh..."

A low, guttural groan escaped his lips as he forced himself into a sitting position.

The scorching sun beat down on his exposed skin, making every wound sting even worse.

Sweat mixed with blood and sand, creating a gritty, stinging paste that clung to him.

"Shit... it hurts."

He sat there for a moment, breathing hard, trying to orient himself.

The desert stretched endlessly in every direction.

Brandon clenched his jaw and activated Dhayun’s skill.

A soft, familiar warmth bloomed inside his chest.

It spread through his body like liquid, knitting together the worst of the cuts, closing the deeper gashes, and soothing the raw, sand-blasted skin.

The pain dulled from a sharp burn to a manageable throb.

He let out a shaky breath of relief as the healing took hold.

Still sitting on the scorching sand, he tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.

"This isn’t a normal desert," he muttered to himself.

He pushed himself to his feet, brushing as much sand as he could from his torn clothes.

His black t-shirt was in shreds, his pants ripped in several places.

Blood still stained the fabric, but the wounds underneath were mostly closed now thanks to Dhayun’s skill.

Brandon turned in a slow circle, scanning the horizon.

Nothing.

A knot of unease tightened in his stomach.

"Charlotte!"

The sound echoed strangely before fading away.

He tried again, louder.

"CHARLOTTE!"

Still nothing.

Brandon exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his sand-filled hair "What the hell am I doing..."

He forced himself to stand straighter, rolling his shoulders and testing his balance.

"Alright... think."

He closed his eyes for a moment, forcing his mind to settle "She said this is the Dead Clock Spire. So the time flow here in this tower might be different too."

"And that storm..."

Brandon opened his eyes and scanned the horizon again, and he could feel the faint residual distortion in the air "I feel like I got caught up in some fucked up thing."

He glanced down at himself. The cuts and scrapes had mostly closed thanks to Dhayun’s regenerative skill, but the fabric was ruined.

’Guess I will need to walk from here on.’

He took a deep breath, trying to center himself ’I need to save as much ether as I can... after all, I can’t replenish my energy source like women.’

That was the harsh reality. He has to rely on what he has absorbed, and once it’s gone... It’s gone.

’And who knows what I will face in this desert...’

Brandon started walking.

There was no clear direction, so he chose the one that felt slightly less oppressive.

His boots sank into the hot sand with every step, making progress slow and tiring.

The sun beat down relentlessly, drawing sweat from his skin almost immediately.

As he walked, the desert began to play its games.

The dunes shifted when he wasn’t looking directly at them.

A rock formation he had been heading toward suddenly appeared much farther away.

At one point, he could have sworn he saw footprints in the sand ahead... his own footprints leading in the opposite direction.

"Fucking hell..."

He kept moving anyway.

Hours seemed to pass... or maybe only minutes.

His sense of time was already unreliable.

Thirst crept in slowly, and his tongue felt thick and dry. He used Dhayun’s healing skill sparingly to fight off dehydration, but he knew he couldn’t rely on it forever.

Eventually, the rock formations he was chasing grew closer. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Up close, they were massive, towering black stone pillars etched with faint, glowing runes.

Between two of the largest pillars, there was a weathered stone archway, half-buried in sand.

Brandon approached cautiously ’An exit gate... or might be a trap.’

*THOOM* Suddenly, the sand around it exploded upward.

Three enormous guardians rose again, which looked like humanoid figures made of swirling sand with glowing, eerie eyes.

Brandon stared at them and sighed deeply in his heart ’Are you for real?’

He didn’t have time to complain out loud.

SWOOOSH-

Without wasting a single second, the first guardian lunged forward.

Its right arm elongated and hardened into a massive blade of compressed sand, slashing toward Brandon’s chest with terrifying speed.

Brandon sidestepped at the last moment and the blade whistled past him, slicing through the air with a vicious hiss.

He jumped upward, twisting his body mid-air, and drove his fist straight into the guardian’s face with raw power.

CRACK!

The guardian’s head detonated into a shower of sand, its body staggering backward from the force.

For a brief moment, it looked like it might collapse.

But the sand didn’t stay scattered.

The exploded face began reforming almost instantly as grains swirled back together like a reversed video.

Brandon’s gaze condensed slightly, ’I can damage it with my raw strength... but it’s reforming way too quickly. Guess I have to one-shot it with one attack before it can recover.’

He planted his feet firmly in the sand, his muscles tensing as he prepared to launch a heavier strike.

But before he could move-

A deep, clean slash tore through the air.

*SHING-*

The enormous guardian was split cleanly in half from shoulder to hip.

*THOOOM* The two halves exploded outward in a violent burst of sand, the particles scattering wildly before they could reform.

Brandon’s gaze trembled ’Someone is here...’

As the guardian’s remains fell amidst the swirling sand, a figure emerged from the cloud of dust.

Beautiful, flowing white hair fluttered gracefully in the hot desert wind, catching the sunlight like fresh snow.

A pair of striking sky-blue eyes, calm yet filled with quiet intensity, looked at him.

Her white dress flowed around her, and in her right hand, she held a long, slender blade that shimmered with faint light.

Brandon’s eyes widened in utter shock looking at the familiar face.

’Rheanne Himelle...?’