"Mister Mykel! Please give us a few words about the portal and what's your plan when you get inside!" A reporter asked as she followed Mykel before they entered the restroom area. "Are you going to bring back the Chosen Ones that have been missing for a few weeks?" she asked and pointed the microphones at Mykel.
"The plan is to gather as much information about the portal and what kind of world is inside. We tried to ask the Chosen Ones to come back after they gathered anything, but it appears it doesn't go well," Mykel answered as he looked at the portal behind the fence with barbwires on top.
"Are you confident with yourself and your team?" Another reporter asked.
"Yes," Mykel answered.
"I don't think confidence alone is enough because they made a huge mistake by only relying on confidence. Not only they were confident, they also had artifacts on them to help, but this time, you and your team don't have that. What do you think about that?" The reporter asked.
"Artifacts are just tools. What can a tool do if the wielder isn't competent? That's exactly what happened to them," Mykel answered and then entered the restricted area where the reporters stopped following him because it was forbidden.
Mykel and his team stood in front of the portal that they didn't know what was coming for them there. Lyneth and Edith were there as well, but they didn't join them because they had to take care of the guild's affairs.
"Mykel," Lyneth said as she held Mykel's right hand from behind. "Please be careful," Lyneth looked worried.
"I will. Just wait for me, it won't take long," Mykel replied and then kissed Lyneth on the lips as the reporters recorded and took photos of them. "Are you guys ready?" Mykel asked and looked at everyone.
All of them nodded their heads and then Mykel entered the portal without hesitation. Jeanne and the others followed his steps as Lyneth and Edith waved at them and watched them disappear.
Mykel's face was struck by strong heat, a heat that was similar to when he was brought to hell by Lucifer. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the endless desert with no end to it. The sky was as red as blood with dark clouds rumbling and flashes of lightning underneath them.
"The portal is still there, and we can go back whenever we want. The problem is that we might lose our way back once we explored further," Jeanne looked at the portal behind her. "The weather here is rough as well, and we might get a heatstroke if we don't bring enough water," Jeanne said as her mouth started to feel dry.
Mykel looked at his hand and he tried to use his magic to cool down the surrounding area. The wind started to give a cool breeze and everyone started to feel a bit at ease, but slowly the cool breath started to hurt their skin because of how cold it was. He realized that his magic was powerful enough and decided to fly with wind magic to look at the area.
"What do you see?" Aurea asked as she covered her eyes to prevent the sunlight from blinding her.
Mykel landed and didn't say anything, and then he started walking hurriedly. The others followed him and were curious about what he saw, and after they walked for half an hour, they found skeletons buried in the sand.
"Who are these skeletons belong to?" Rozan asked as he looked at Mykel dig up the sand.
"Who else?" Mykel asked as he showed a necklace made of fangs that were hanging on his hand. "They're the Chosen Ones," Mykel answered.
They were surprised when they realized that those skeletons were in fact the Chosen Ones. They collected all the artifacts that were buried underneath the sand. They couldn't believe that their bodies had turned into skeletons in less than a month. Even if the weather was a bit extreme, it shouldn't decay bodies that fast.
"I don't know what kind of world this place is, but this place isn't for the living. When they died, I think their skin and flesh were absorbed by this place. You can see there isn't a single skin around," Mykel said as he looked around and saw nothing but dried skeletons.
"That's one, but what bothers me is that they're not even that far from the portal. Did they die from the weather? Did something ambush them? Or they died from something else?" Aurea said as she looked at the portal that was still visible in the distance.
"I guess we will find out, but one thing for sure they're too weak to be here," Mykel said as he put the necklace in his suit's pocket.
"Something is coming," Jeanne said as she looked at the distance.
Everyone looked in the direction Jeanne was staring, and they saw the sand was sinking. Something was moving underneath the sand and it looked big since the sand was sinking quite deep into the ground. They readied their weapons and waited for that thing to get closer to them.
The moment the thing was close enough to them, the sand stopped sinking. They all looked down and started to leap away from where they stood. A giant sandworm appeared with its mouth wide open.
Gerrard knew it was impossible for him to use the bow and arrows he brought with him. He then looked at the bow artifact that he took from the skeleton and decided to use it. When he was about to put an arrow on the bow, the arrow was covered in roots that appeared out of nowhere.
Gerrard released the arrow and when the arrow hit the sandworm's body, the roots started to spread and entangled the sandworm's body. He was surprised that a single arrow was enough to stop the sandworm's movement.
"Nice call!" Sven tapped Gerrard and ran past him with Vincze and Gunnar followed Sven from behind.
Sven stabbed his scythe and started to get pulled by the sandworm, but Gunnar and Vincze grabbed his legs so they could join him. Sven offered his hand to Vincze and then threw Vincze up high onto the Sandworm's neck. Gunnar also got a boost from Sven, but Sven threw him too high that he ended up right above the Sandworm's mouth.
"Sven! Why?!" Gunnar asked as he readied his shield because he was about to get swallowed by the Sandworm.
Gunnar was ready to get swallowed by the Sandworm, but then an arrow hit the Sandworm's chin. The roots made the Sandworm close its mouth and Gunnar landed right on the Sandworm's mouth.
"You want to eat me? Eat this!" Gunnar held his shield with both hands and then slammed it right onto the Sandworm's mouth.
At the same time, Sven and Vincze slit the Sandworm's body open with their scythe and spear. The others were watching from the sides and watched both Sven and Vincze cut the Sandworm's body open. Jeanne, Aurea, and Bhatmelec suddenly ran toward the Sandworm and stabbed their swords into the Sandworm's body.
The Sandworm kept wiggling to the surface, but Jeanne, Aurea, and Bhatmelec kept pushing their swords down until its whole body was cut open. The Sandworm lost so much blood and started screeching in pain, but then it collapsed and died.
"Well, that was easy..." Rozan said as he looked at the dead Sandworm.
"I forgot how disgusting it is to be dealing with creatures that have so much blood..." Aurea said as she looked at her whole body covered in blood.
Rozan helped Jeanne, Aurea, Bhatmelec, Sven, and Vincze clean off the blood on their bodies. They were checking the Sandworm's skin because it was so thick that it brittled their weapons. They had to repolish their weapons before they could go any further.
"Where's Mykel?" Jeanne asked.
Elena pointed her thumb behind her back, and then Jeanne saw Mykel standing on top of the sand dune. She looked at Mykel clenched his fist and in a blink of an eye, he punched the sand so hard that it created a shockwave that sent them flying, even the Sandworm's dead body got pushed quite far away.
Everyone slowly stood up and then saw something that baffled them. Dozens of Sandworms, or at least pieces of them got launched off the ground and floated in the air from Mykel's punch. He killed all of them by crushing the Sandworms in the sand.
Mykel squinted his eyes because he saw the sand was sinking, but this time it looked different from earlier. He could see the sand was bulging and something was slithering underneath it. A giant Sandworm, five times bigger than the others just showed itself to the surface.
"Now that's more of a challenge," Aurea smiled in excitement.