The path ahead became steadily more treacherous as Cain journeyed deeper into the barren land.
Massive pits lay waiting to trap the unwary, and strange beasts stalked the dunes, ready to devour intruders. After narrowly avoiding a pit viper's venomous strike, Cain realized he would need to be much more vigilant in this bleak place. He couldn't rely on his mist; the conditions were against its use. Only his bare body could protect him.
Danger was everywhere, but it wouldn't stop him. He would triumph over anything that dared stand in his way. But he had to remember he was weakened. Unless he became a skilled gatherer, he couldn't recover his immortality.
Although he could still heal at a rapid rate and age slower, he now had a finite lifespan due to his cells slowly degrading.
He guessed he had double the normal human lifespan at best, and the worst part was he now needed to sleep and eat.
Without these necessities, he could die faster, especially if he didn't have water. The once unkillable Cain was now in such a state.
"It will all be worth it. I would rather die than remain in Netherane; anything worth something to me is gone. All that's left is to find answers to my questions and decide what to do after that."
Mocking his weakness Cain felt despondent, yet it meant he could improve in other ways.
The environment was truly against him; the dry heat made his mist incredibly ineffective, and with the powerful winds, he couldn't even gather his mist. This so-called dried land of scorn was a nightmare tailored for Cain.
The only other life he found so far lived in the cracks; they were strange vipers with coloring similar to the ground and extremely long fangs.
It took a while before Cain made it out of the territory; dust storms occurred at random, and he would have to hide in the crevices while fighting its inhabitants. Thankfully, the vipers couldn't pierce his flesh easily; as long as they didn't get a good bite, they couldn't break the skin.
It was about a week's worth of traveling before he made it to the desert of black stingers, and he soon understood why it got its name.
Stepping onto soft, fluid sand, he saw dune after dune lining the horizon, with black plants poking up.
The air was dry as a bone, sucking the moisture from Cain's cracked lips with each breath. Sandy winds whipped at his face, carrying grains that stuck to his sweat-slicked skin.
The dunes stretched as far as the eye could see, an ocean of undulating gold and orange.
He stepped up to the plant and studied it; he had to keep moving, otherwise, his feet would sink into the sand. Walking around it, he cautiously touched it to see what material it was made of. This is when he realized the plant wasn't a plant; it was as hard as steel.
The ground shifted and lifted Cain as it rose. To his surprise, the plant was the stinger for a giant black scorpion.
"Interesting, though it doesn't know I'm on it."
Cain stayed on the creature's back as it walked around, scouting the area. Its stinger would bend past Cain as it shoved it into the sand; from what Cain could assume, these scorpions hunted each other. This was evident when another scorpion emerged from the sand with a stinger in its carapace.
"Time to go."
Cain jumped off his ride as it began to fight. Claws ripped at one another while the stingers looked for an open area to shove themselves in. Cain was interested, but his life was more important; he was confident he could kill one wounded, but that didn't mean this fight wouldn't end in a draw.
Continuing, Cain made sure to avoid the stingers coming out from the ground. From time to time, he would be attacked by one hiding fully in the sand, but all he needed to do was bring it to another; the scorpions were extremely territorial.
While Cain wasn't focused on his surroundings, he would be researching, specifically seeing if the weird energy was present in this place as well.
"Just like the corrupted land that was part of the Duchy. This place doesn't have that energy either; seems I made the right assumption. Now I need to find out how the absence of a core changes the land so drastically... the curiosity is killing me!"
Just as Cain finished his internal thoughts, he heard squawking from above. He looked up to see three odd birds circling a dune with holes in it.
"Birds? No, they look too ugly to be birds. But they're flying?"
As Cain's words left his mouth, the vultures dove down and into the holes. All around the dune, small groundhog-like creatures ran out to escape. The other vultures swooped down and killed the slow and weak ones, feasting on them as the others ran and dug holes into the sand.
"Ah, seems they are hunting those small animals. If I'm near these dunes with holes, then it's only a day's travel to the next zone; I should double-time it."
A vulture's shadow crossed over Cain seconds before its talons did. He rolled away just as the razor-sharp claws sunk into the sand where he had lain. The vulture flew around for another pass.
Just before it reached him, Cain thrust his dagger upward into the vulture's breast before its talons could rip him apart.
The vulture's oily, ragged feathers and protruding ribs hinted at its malnutrition. Satisfied with his examination, Cain retrieved his blade.
The other vultures ignored Cain as he passed; they feasted on the leftovers. Only these groundhogs who didn't put up a fight could be hunted; this weird creature before them was too dangerous to eat.
Cain smirked as he journeyed on.
...
By the time it was night and cool, Cain entered the next degraded zone, the wasteland of dead deities.
Surprisingly, the land was much better than the other two. It was a desert, yes, but it had plants here and there; he even spotted an oasis where he refilled his water.
As for animals, he saw a few of those vultures from before, but also lizards and some spider-like creatures. They were the size of a young adult, with a round body held up by eight legs.
Cain cut into the spider-like creature, examining its internal structure with a clinical eye before moving on. The mouth on its underbelly hinted at its hunting habits, while the gland atop its body likely helped snare prey.
Satisfied he understood its anatomy, Cain withdrew his knife. The vultures could finish the dissection. He had lingered here too long already.
Cain dubbed them "snatchers," and with his curiosity satisfied, he left the remains to the vultures.
The layout of this place was strange; it seemed to be a valley with cliffs above him even in this desert environment.
Strange rubble and toppled statues littered the valley below. Eroded remains of idols, broken and weathered. This place was the remains of whatever used to exist here.
Cain made a decision and spent some time climbing up and reaching the top of one of the cliffs by night. What awaited him was the same dry air and exhaustion.
He witnessed the light from above bleed from orange to red, painting the undulating dunes in rich hues.
Shadows flowed like rivers of ink through the canyons below. All fell silent but the keening wind which whispered secrets none could comprehend.
Night draped a veil over the ancient land, rendering it more alien, more mysterious.
Cain gazed at the eerie, glowing dunes as he lay on the ground and fell asleep.
...
Hours later, he awoke to a dark sky. Under the cold light of the moon, the towering dunes around him took on an eerie glow, their winding shapes resembling a landscape from another world entirely.
Adrenaline flooded Cain as he sat up, his vision straining to see into the darkness. He was awoken by a sound echoing ominously in the distance.
Something sinister approached, jingling ever closer...