After the fiasco with the cactus, they continued their journey toward the end of the Blood Desert, albeit more cautiously.
They continued their travels, and the warrior trio had not shown any more open hostility towards Vikram openly, nor had they shown any insidious intent towards the group of women.
Vikram was now walking beside the head of the slave group, and a couple of conversations had done a lot of good to Vikram.
The Old Slave who was the head of the slave group had a daughter the same age as Vikram, and the old man was clearly afraid of Vikram doing something insidious to her, which made the old man exceptionally obedient.
Vikram looked at the Old Slave for a moment, which was equal to eternity to the old man, and shifted his eyes to his daughter, who had covered her body and face with cloth due to the blowing sands, but he knew that that was just an excuse.
The truth was something else, but Vikram didn't have any interest in finding out what all the things his old self had done.
Vikram looked at the scorching sun and the orange clouds surrounding them like bandits, and Vikram felt the effects of lacking supplies acting on his body.
He was not feeling hungry, not after what he had seen. But he was feeling thirsty. His throat was running dry, and saliva was not cutting it.
But he couldn't show weakness, Vikram thought as they fought through every grain of sand that was going against them.
Suddenly, the Old Slave stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened so much as though Vikram felt as though the eyes were going to pop out of his sockets. The old man looked towards the sand that was on his foot.
He instantly squatted down, removed the sand, and took the sand that was buried below. Instantly, the old man turned pale.
"I-It's... No, w-why is it here?" Vikram instantly felt that something was wrong with the old man and looked at the sand that was in the hands of the old man and looked at it. He couldn't find anything odd.
But when he looked at the sands closer, he saw that the sands were weirdly sticky. It was not to the extent of the whole desert being sticky, but when he picked a handful of sand, the sand on the hands would stick onto his hands, forming a layer upon his hands.
Suddenly, the sands in the whole desert trembled. It was as if the whole desert was trembling from what was about to happen.
Vikram felt as though the sand that was below his feet was rapidly retreating somewhere. He saw that a swirl was forming on the left side of the desert. It was quite a distance away from them, but Vikram couldn't feel a bit relieved about it.
"It's coming..." The old man collapsed to the ground as he pointed at the whirlpool of sand colliding.
"S-Shai-Hulud." The old man pointed at the center of the whirlpool of sand as his body trembled. "The Lord of Sands is coming..."
Vikram didn't understand one bit of what the old man was saying, but he wasn't an idiot when he saw a giant whirlpool of sand churning and turning. So what he did next was simple.
He grabbed the collar cloth of the Old Slave and lifted him up with ease. He took the daughter of the old man and tossed her to his shoulder like a sack of potatoes... and ran with all that he had in the opposite direction.
Vikram had found out that his body right now had extraordinary strength, which was why he could run like this despite taking the weight of two people.
Vikram felt that the girl that was on his shoulders was definitely going to squirm about. But to his surprise, the girl did nothing about it.
'She is either intelligent or has given up on herself,' But Vikram felt that the former was more true and factual than the latter.
Vikram took a glance behind, and what he saw made his heart tremble and his feet a little weak.
What he saw rising inside the sands was a worm.
A gigantic worm.
The worm had an enormous mouth that could fit whales as though they were popcorn. It had a round mouth with serrated teeth adorning its whole mouth. Vikram hadn't seen any eyes, but that didn't stop him from running faster.
The creature possessed yellow skin, yet within its mouth lurked pure and absolute darkness. The reason behind this anomaly remained unknown, but whenever the sun's light approached the creature's mouth, it inexplicably vanished, as if the creature had the ability to consume light.
Vikram ran as if there was no tomorrow. Well, there would be no tomorrow if that thing had caught the slightest interest in Vikram...
Interest?
Wait, what was that creature doing?
Vikram came to a halt as he drew heavy breaths and looked at the creature. The creature was on a small slope, so Vikram's vision had a vantage point. That was the only reason why he could see the creature.
It was that far away from them.
"N-No, Master! Run! Run as far away as you can! It will catch you despite any distance!
Vikram didn't stop after hearing that, the old man had the experience that was far more than him in this world.
'Maybe, the... thing has absolute mobility inside sand? Yeah, maybe that's why it's called Lord of Sands... But why is it stopping and rising up? Shouldn't it chase prey underground or something?'
Vikram had numerous thoughts running inside his head as he looked at his backside. Suddenly, a bloodcurdling screech emanated from the gigantic worm. Vikram side-glanced at the worm as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
The roar was too fear-inducing!
The creature was looking at the orange sky as it gave another roar. But when Vikram heard another roar from the creature, Vikram felt as though he understood what the creature was going through.
Helplessness?
It was as though the creature was looking at the heavens, asking for justice for the cruel fate it had.
Vikram was very familiar with the despair that came with helplessness on Earth. But why was this creature feeling helpless when it had a size of a Titan?
The answer came quickly.
The creature's bloodcurdling scream came again, but this time it was clearly different. It was a scream rather than a roar. A scream filled with pain and anger.
'What the...'
Even though Vikram was so far away from the creature, he could see what was happening to the creature clearly. The creature's yellow skin was bubbling as though something was boiling inside.
It was as though maggots were crawling inside the creature's body...
The creature gave another fearsome scream that grated one's ears. The creature's body looked as though someone was having a disco party inside stopped as it concentrated on its throat area, by Vikram's standard.
The creature's area around the throat was bubbling furiously its skin was acting like waves of the ocean. The bubbling around the throat area spun around, forming a ball, and then, the creature gave a final grating scream and... spit out the ball.
The 'ball' was spat out, traveling in a straight line until it reached its maximum height. At its peak, it overlapped with the scorching sun, and Vikram initially assumed this phenomenon was an ability of the gigantic worm—something akin to a black hole..
The 'black ball' hung around the place for an extended second. The 'black sun' was moving from the inside, as though the black sun had maggots inside them.
Wait, don't tell me...
And then burst apart.
Vikram gluped again, but this time, it was not because of thrist, but dread.
Pure dread.
The black sun was not a black hole or anything like that.
It was just a ball of younglings of the gigantic worm...