As Gus zipped through the stone floor with his own body turning intangible, the world turned dark and devoid of light. All he could feel was the sense of falling as his body plummeted endlessly downwards.
By the stars! Where am I going!?
The sense of falling persisted as Gus glided through the stone with an immeasurable amount of speed. But after some time, he finally saw something else other than stone and darkness. A gray sky underneath the stone ceiling. Devoid of color, the sky was littered with dark gray clouds that were teeming with what appeared to be electricity. Yet even the streaks of lightning were devoid of color, each one consisting of only a dull light gray.
Great…going from gray to even more gray.
As Gus continued to fall towards the clouds from the ceiling, he noticed that the spell of intangibility the Merchant had placed on him had disappeared as he felt the air resist his fall. With the clouds rapidly approaching, the golem braced himself for any harm as his body crashed into the gray storm.
His vision turned dark once again, the storm snuffing any light from entering. Only streaks of gray lightning danced in the thick clouds that were inexplicably dry and devoid of water. Instead of moisture, it was like the clouds were made of liquid gray sand that hovered in the air.
Oh, don’t tell me that below is…
Emerging from the clouds with a fast descent, his view of the ground below returned along with two horrible realizations. The first, and most dire, was that Gus was currently plummeting at extreme speeds to a ground very far below him, with no way of saving himself.
The second terrible realization was that the ground below consisted of just gray dunes of sand, spanning into a massive, empty desert.
AND IT’S ALL GRAY!
Just as Gus thought he was free of his faded, stony library, he found himself plummeting towards another land devoid of any color but gray.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! I swear to the stars that I will end you, Merchant!
A harrowing drop into a boring colorless world. The golem was greatly disappointed with the turn of events.
But never mind that! How am I going to survive?!
With no way of stopping the fall, Gus could only pray to the stars that he wouldn’t be turned into gravel when he hit the sandy dunes below.
Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me—
Plop!
Plop?
Upon impact, the sand bent like rubber to catch the golem, sending it flying back upwards with a bounce.
Is this…what humans call a trampoline?
After a couple of high bounces into the air, the elastic ground below Gus eventually returned to the loose gray sand that covered the desert, no longer rebounding the golem. Landing into the sea of sand from a comfortable height, it took only a few seconds for Gus to emerge from the ground and wipe the grains of sand off him.
That was…oddly fun. Hopefully, the rest of the lesson is like this.
Observing his surroundings, Gus could find nothing but desert in almost all directions. The only noticeable sight was what appeared to be a large stone fortress in the far distance containing a singular, revolving gray tower that pierced the very skies itself. It was a magnificent sight…other than the fact that it was gray just like the rest of the world was.
Truly a shame. There should be more flair with giant towers. But I imagine that is the destination…yet is that all there is to this?
The Merchant had mentioned that the humans were required to do a chore for it, so the idea that their only assigned objective was to simply walk towards the fortress was highly implausible. Though, if that wasn’t the mission, what else was there to do in this desert? Confused, Gus tried to pull up the Merchant’s system to view his new current duty to see if it would give any hints. But what he saw surprised him.
‘Unable to access, outside of the registered area’
The system only read one singular line, with the rest of its functions all grayed out just the world he was residing in.
Damn it! Is this color infectious now?
All out of ideas, Gus decided that heading to the fortress was the only choice he had unless he wanted to get lost in the forever-expanding gray dunes. Solemnly walking through the hills of sand, he noticed that the sky above him continued to rumble and shake from the lightning building up in the clouds. Even though there was no sunlight, the desert below somehow remained dimly filled with light as if the gray world refused to be covered in darkness.
It’s like a world of ash…
Yet what was most unnerving about it was how empty it appeared. The desert was empty and quiet except for the occasional sound of thunder in the sky. There was not even wind blowing across the desert, nor did there seem to be heat or coldness from at least what the Golem could tell. The more he trudged through the dunes of ashen sand, the more he felt it was harder and harder to call this place a desert. Could the sand not actually be sand? Gus could not help but feel an instinctual fear of this world. But as much as this world scared him, there was, more importantly, another thought that worried him more.
Where are the humans? Shouldn’t they be around where I dropped in?
The desert had been oddly empty of any other lifeforms, which shouldn’t be possible as the humans must have dropped into the same area as he did from the library. Nonetheless, there was not even a single sign of their existence.
Could they have not survived that fall?
But such a premise didn’t make sense. Why would the Merchant just kill the humans like that without giving them a chance? Even then, Gus would have seen their mangled corpses once he dropped in if that were true.
Is there…a time difference? Maybe I was falling slower through the stone floor than they had…or faster?
Unnerved, Gus looked up at the skies every so often for any signs of falling humans during his journey through the desert. Only after what felt like hours, did Gus finally notice something different in the empty desert. Footprints, more importantly, human footprints. And that was not all. Accompanying the herd of footprints were two tracks of long slopes that appeared to be created from wheels. The humans had flanked whatever was on these wheels, walking side by side with it on their journey.
That’s good…oh thank the stars they are still alive.
But then Gus’s mood immediately soured. Off on the side of the path, lay what appeared to be an ashed-covered body that faced the ground idly.
Is that…is that a corpse?
Walking closer to the body, Gus noticed how there were no footprints surrounding it. It was almost as if the humans had avoided the gray corpse. But before he could make a connection as to why they avoided it, Gus was already reaching his hand towards it to see if it was a human he knew.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
But if it's not them…then who else could it be?
Yet before he touched it with his hand, Gus noticed that there something was wrong with the corpse. There was something latched onto the neck of the body, small but still visible on the back. It was a tiny creature resembling a crab mixed with some other alien form which was made of the same ashen sand as the surrounding desert. And it was not just the creature made of sand, but also the corpse itself. There was no flesh, only form on both organisms.
Something is wrong—
Yet before he could react, the hand of the ashen body lurched out and grabbed Gus’s leg. The sandy alien creature on the body’s neck suddenly vibrated with movement and a few of its small needle-like limbs could be seen moving through the skin of the corpse. Gus tried to move his leg from its grasp but was met with a tight and strong grip abnormal for a human to possess.
Uh oh.
It appeared Gus had fallen for a trap. Looking around, Gus could count nine other similar bodies of sand emerging from the dunes with zombie-like movements, all of their gazes focused on him. But before Gus could properly register the new threat, he felt something bite into his stone leg. Looking back down, he noticed the corpse that was grabbing onto his leg had revealed its hidden razor-sharp teeth and sunk them into his stone leg, currently trying to take a large chunk out of him with much effort. Yet while it couldn’t rip his outer stone layer to shreds, the corpse was not about ready to give up on its prey.
You nasty fiend!
Jerking his leg back with more vigor than before, Gus freed himself from the fangs of the sand corpse and its embrace. Then, in anger, he immediately brought the newly freed leg back down on it, crushing the head in of the monster. Yet despite getting its head caved in, the body let out only spurts of ashen sand from its insides, signifying that the aberration was more than just a normal corpse. It was oddly like Gus in that idea, being made up of only a specific type of mineral like a golem.
Meaning it will require more than just a head crush to kill this monster.
Just as he thought, the headless corpse resumed its movement by picking itself on the ground and standing up. The human golems of sand surrounded the standing Gus like a pack of wild animals, watching the much larger stone creature with their lifeless eyes as the small crabs on their necks squirm with excitement for combat.
You know what…I think I’ll enjoy this. I needed something to hit something for a long while.
Clenching his stone fists, Gus eyed each ashen fiend with a similar excitement for combat as he took a fighting stance he had learned from Syuna.
Come at me…
Both monsters were thirsty for violence and with the challenge accepted, it was only a matter of who moved first for the carnage to begin.
Using his flames at their maximum, Gus could manage a 360 view of the herd of lesser sand golems as he waited for the first one to make a move. Finally, the headless one charged first, throwing its hands out like claws. Preparing for the incoming corpse, Gus was going to step back to counter the charge until he noticed that from his backside there were three more launching at him too. Deciding to use this information to his advantage, Gus waited for the headless one to get closer before twisting his body away from it to catch the three behind in surprise. Remembering the feeling of when the Merchant had taken over his body to kill Primis, Gus tapped into the chopping hand form and unleashed it in one swift cut. Before the three aberrations could react to the change, Gus’s hand flew out in one precise chop that severed the trio from their legs. But by exposing his back, the headless one reached his back and clawed at it with furious savagery. Fortunately, the headless one did not have the strength to cut through Gus’s stone layer with its loosely formed hands, so it could only leave a few scratch marks before Gus’s right leg reacted and donkey-kicked the corpse backward.
Yet before he could recover from the leg extension, four more of the lesser gray sand golems charged forth at his sides, leaving only one of them behind who was watching the scene passively.
That one…I hear something familiar coming from that
one. It might be the leader of this group. It has a presence, unlike the rest of its minions, which radiates strength.
Mentally taking note of the leader, Gus split his attention to the four attackers, two coming from both sides. With no time to think carefully, Gus decided to use the backward momentum he already created to retreat quickly so that his foes would be forced to attack from only his front side. But such an action used up his remaining time before the corpses reached him, allowing one of them to strike his left side with its sharp teeth. Feeling the fangs of condensed sand pierce his sides was unpleasant for Gus but with his ability to not feel pain, the actual recognition of the wound did not hinder his ability to stay calm and collected. Using his left arm, Gus wrapped the biting corpse in a headlock as he used his right arm to fend off the remaining attackers by swatting at them with his mighty strength. While they were distracted, Gus began to increase the strength of his headlock on the corpse that was still clenching its teeth on him, squeezing it until finally he heard a pop.
* < | Existence Consumed… | > *
So you even consume these fiends too, huh?
Feeling a familiar rush of power enter his flames, Gus felt the corpse in his eyes fade away. In his peripheral view, he noticed that the ashen lesser golem was collapsing back into the gray sand that littered the ground.
Yet if you were my first kill…?
Using his flames to navigate the battlefield, he noticed that the four damaged lesser golems had begun to regenerate from their fatal wounds with the sand from the desert. It appeared that only a particular kind of attack could fully destroy these corpses, but fortunately for Gus, he already had a clue about what it was.
It's those crab-like aliens on their necks…yet there’s something strange about that.
For some reason, the creatures made of sand that resided in the corpses’ necks were familiar to Gus. There was a resemblance to something…but to what Gus couldn’t put a finger on it. That was until he heard the leader let out a recognizable click.
That’s Stageneer!
Despite the speaker having a rough and mumbled voice that sounded foreign to the real thing, Gus was still able to tell what the golem was ordering with its unique language of clicks. And more importantly, he knew what species the golems were representing. They were the ashen depictions of Domineers, an alien species with features relating to that of a bug mixed with a crab that will latch itself onto other species to puppet them like hosts through their ability of domineering.
‘Stall’ ‘Evade' 'Heal’
While battling the three attackers who no longer charged recklessly for attacks, Gus realized the leader of the Domineers had ordered them to stall and evade the golem instead of outright fighting. The last order, however, was not intended for the three current fighters, but for the injured four behind him. While the headless corpse had already buried its head in the sand like an ostrich, the other three who were split in half were currently reattaching their bottom limbs.
Damn it, I need to end this quickly…
Yet whenever he tried to move for a finisher on the wounded, the three current attackers would intercept his path and harass him enough to stop his efforts.
If things continued like this, Gus would soon be overwhelmed by a group of enemies that were slowly adapting to his tactics, which would potentially spell his doom if the lead Domineer made a move during that moment of weakness. However, that was the case until…
“Got you,” Gus said triumphantly as if he was snarling.
Abandoning his prior tactic of targeting the injured golems, Gus continued to force the sand Domineers to attack him until one of them got a little too close to the mighty stone golem’s reach. When he saw his chance, Gus gripped the arm of the sandy aberration and drew it closer to him. With no way to escape, the domineered corpse attempted one last gambit of using its fangs to free itself, but before it could move its head, it was already gone.
* < | Existence Consumed… | > *
Choosing to slice the neck off flawlessly with his other hand, Gus made an effort to also destroy the Domineer residing on the back of the corpse’s neck so that the golem would be fully extinguished. Seeing Nova’s confirmation of the kill, Gus broke into an inner joy that his plan had worked and looked at the remaining lesser golems with his hollow eyes.
Maybe this ability is not as bad as I once thought it was…
The two remaining Domineers stood no chance now they lost their triangle formation, and quickly fell to the rampaging golem as he shredded their necks into grains of sand.
* < | Existence Consumed… | > *
* < | Existence Consumed… | > *
Watching their bodies fade into the sand, Gus adjusted his body to face the remaining five lesser golems who were now done healing and reinvigorated with strength. Even the leader was done watching, taking their own stance to fight among its minions.
That one is dangerous.
Observing the leader Domineer, he noticed that its golem form was more detailed than its minions, showing more characteristics of what the host was in its figure made of sand.
That…is not human.
At first, Gus assumed that the corpses that were being controlled by the golem Domineers were humans but after looking at the leader whose characteristics were more prominent under the ashen sand, he realized that they were a different species. The leader’s corpse had no nose, instead having a third slanted eye in its place. Its arms were more slender and longer than a human's, and its nails were shaped into blade-like talons. Even the ears of the aberration were different with them being more slanted and narrow than a human’s.
By the stars…what is this place?
But before he could think more, the leader Domineer issued a loud click to its remaining four minions.
“Charge”
Studying the approaching enemies, Gus raised his hands in preparation for an attack by assuming a boxing stance this time to handle his attackers.
Come at me, you pathetic sand castles. I’ll show you how a true golem fights…
In a World of Ashen Gray, the battle between gray stone and gray sand resumed on the endless dunes, under the foreboding storm of gray lighting.