It was passed three over midnight. A low rumbling sound was heard with a small tremor in the desert. Devoid of life forms, what's little left in the desert like lizards, snakes, and desert ants ran out of their burrows and rushed to safety. Their instinctive sensation told them it was best to leave their homes in the impending calamity.

However, the highest lifeforms living in the middle desert, near an oasis, failed to notice it. Most of them were passed out due to the tiring day and the late-night drill.

After Cleo had proven that the members of Revenant still lacked discipline, the responsibility was put on Luther's shoulders. Strength wins the battle, but discipline wins the war. In the face of certain death, even the strongest warrior would falter and break away from the line, if discipline wasn't ensured. As a military man, it was Luther's job to put a sense of discipline inside their heads. And he started it immediately as soon as Cleo left for the cargo.

"Formation. Line up! Stand an arm apart." Luther ordered his new class. The members of Revenant followed the order but they didn't bother to do it quickly. For them, Luther was a commander but an outsider who had never fought back-to-back with them. They didn't see him as a comrade or respect him. Luther also noticed he hadn't established his authority yet.

"Lukandi, you are more on the left. Makal, you are leaning right. Push up twenty times." He punished them right away. The two looked around and admitted their faults so they obediently lay on the ground for push-ups. Luther stopped them and told the rest to follow. "Do your lazy asses think I am talking only to these two? I mean ALL! Lie on your bellies and Start!"

His order riled up the men. They believed it was absurd that they were all punished for something they didn't do. One of the men revolted. He threw away his spear to the ground and took off his shirt to intimidate Luther. He was a big man just like Dovos. He showed his biceps and abs, challenging Luther. Luther, calmly, stared back at him and called him near. As soon as the rebellious man approached him, he took him down instantly by striking him in the jaw. Signard joined in the rebellion and fought but Luther dealt with him quickly too by tripping him and pressing him down from above. Signard wanted to tell that he wasn't part of Revenant but he was taken down before he could explain. Luther set his authority. "Now, push up!" He ordered them. The men followed. Signard did the push-up while Luther was sitting on top. He wanted to complain but he was scared to be hit again.

"Listen up! You guys are one. Not individuals but a unit. Like an arm and leg, fingers and toes to form a body. If one of you fucked up, you all suffer. Understand!? Let me restart the drill."

It was the night time and the men were still dealing with staying sober after drinking for two days straight, yet Luther pushed them hard. The women couldn't stay idle either. They were ordered to craft a thousand arrows and made tons of dry rations for the upcoming war, even Sincyll was forced to. When she complained, Luther answered, "You ate and drank with them. You sang and danced with them. You laughed and slept with them. You are part of them now." Luther shut Sincyll down. Sincyll walked away while muttering curses, "damn that annoying overconfident bastard."

Since there were no trees or birds in the desert, Luther had already told Madame to deliver the woods and feathers from Indran before he went to the desert. They reached by the night when the moon was high. One passed after midnight, they went to sleep. And while the tiredness was just about to slip away, another problem came upon them.

The ground shook more violently as time passed. The sands on the dunes fell in fissures. The main building which was built with blocks of bricks to withstand any attacks was shaken. The walls cracked and the sand from the ceiling fell. Luther was woken up by it. He brushed the sand off his face. He felt wobble even while lying on the sheath of the bed. The people around him also woke up one by one and started to feel it. "A quake. Get out of the building now!!" Luther told them. "Alert the camp!!" He ordered as he rushed upstairs. Louise and Maria were placed on the second floor.

When he reached the next floor, he was relieved to find Louise in the corridor safely. He told him to get out of the building quickly but Louise refused. "I won't go without Maria. Which room was she?" Luther didn't know which room Maria was in either. He looked around the rooms but she wasn't found anywhere. He didn't see her at the stairs or on the first floor either. 'Where is she? It is like she just disappeared.' he thought.

Then, suddenly, the quake intensified. The ceiling started to fall in pieces, and so was the floor they were standing on. Luther believed the building was done. It was no longer safe to be inside. "Your majesty, you must get out of here." He told Louise to get out quickly. Louise insisted that he wouldn't leave without Maria. It made Luther lose his patience. He grabbed Louise by the collar and yelled, "Damnit, Louise. You are a king. So, act like one. Get out of here. I will bring her for you."

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For the first time, Louise saw the mad eyes in Luther. He had never seen Luther that angry or addressed him by name. He saw the seriousness in his eyes. "Okay. I will get out so please find Maria for me."

When he saw his king leaving the floor, Luther felt like a load of burden was relieved from his shoulders. "At least Louise is safe. Now, I gotta find Maria. Where is that bitch? I will kill her if she is sleeping over this mess." He went to the final room at the end of the corridor. Suddenly, a man ran out of the door and brushed him hard. The force put both of them down to the floor.

It was Signard. He was sleeping until a block of roof fell by his bed and woke him up. He ran out of the room in a rush by himself without helping his cousin's sister who was staying in the same room. When Luther got into the room, Sincyll was desperately lifting a big block of brick off her feet by herself.

"Commander Luther!" Sincyll called his name. Her eyes were refilled with hope when she saw Luther by surprise.

But Luther had another mission, a mission given to his king. The building was collapsing. He didn't have time to save Sincyll and find Maria. It was either to save Sincyll and leave Maria or leave Sincyll and search for Maria. He had to choose. And as a king's guard, the king's order came first. He averted his eyes and left to search for Maria instead.

However, he couldn't step any further when he heard a desperate wailing from Sincyll. His heart wasn't steel enough to ignore it. He could ignore a person knowing that she would die if he left. He felt like committing a murder. "Forgive me, my king." He turned back to Sincyll immediately, "I will lift it in three so pull out your feet at that time." He instructed her. Sincyll nodded in tears.

"One, two, three!" Luther counted and lifted the block. Sincyll tried to move her leg but it didn't move. When Luther lifted the block, the blood reflowed into her leg and dissipated the numbness. She screamed her lungs out as she witnessed the pain she had never felt before. Luther put down the block carefully and tried to calm her first. "I know it hurts like hell. But you must bear it. Or you will be stuck here and lose your life. You don't want to die, do you?" "No, I don't. I don't want to die."

Sincyll answered back. There was no energy left in her voice. Her face turned pale and her lips were trembling. She knew that that unbearable pain would return the moment he lifted the block. She gritted her teeth. Her hand, shaking, grabbed Luther's clothes shyly in an attempt to gain courage from him. "Do it." She murmured.

Luther lifted the block with all his might. When the block moved up and freed her feet. Blood poured out from the crushed wound and Luther stopped it immediately by wrapping tightly in clothes. He lifted her on his back and got out of the building while dodging the falling pieces of bricks.

He and Sincyll were the last ones when they reached the open ground. Everyone had already gathered near the oasis. They watched in horror as their headquarters collapsed into a pile of brick.

However, the quake didn't stop or lessen. Suddenly, the pile dropped to the ground as a gigantic hole appeared below it. Luther also found a tunnel near it. A frightening thought abruptly came into his mind. "This is not a quake. This is ...an attack!! We are UNDER ATTACK! Ready your arms!" He alerted the camp. The rest were perplexed by him. They didn't see any enemies. How were they attacked?

They didn't find an answer until a giant creature appeared out of the water. The lights from the torch reflected on its thousand teeth before they were washed out by the rain of water from the splash. Fear and darkness supported by a chilly desert air embraced the living.

Revenant was a force renowned for exterminating monsters. Yet when they met an absolute beast, the king of monsters, they failed to stand. Some wobbled and dropped on the spot. Some lost their minds and ran away. Only a few stood against the monster alongside Luther.

"Centuriworm. The very first monster that destroyed Rombit in a flash. How could it still be alive?" Louise mumbled in awe. Just like Louise, it was their first time to witness the legendary monster which they only heard over the nighttime story of their grandparents which passed on through generations.

"Louise, get out of here!" screamed Luther. Even he wasn't confident that he could beat it.

The monster dived toward a cluster of people running away. Luther told them to spread out but it was too late. It got them whole.

As soon as the flesh of people met the razors of its teeth, they were minced into pieces and swallowed into the cavity of absolute darkness.

Before it pursued another group of people, Luther and a few men attacked the monster from the middle. However, the blades from the swords and the tips of spears did not harm its shell which was harder than steel. After it devoured the whole pack of people, it went back into the sand.

Luther noticed it went after the clusters so he told the people to spread out as thin as they could before the monster came back again. He also instructed Louise to keep himself away from groups.

"Our weapons won't work. We can't defeat it unless we are the spellcasters. We must strive to survive as much as we can before Cleo comes back." He told Louise.

But he wasn't sure if they could survive until that time.