The black sand trembled as a loud creak echoed around the desert, the sky covered by a massive object. Glenn could only hold his breath at the sight of the absurdly massive structure they were standing under and its name engraved on it.

W.O.R.M.

The characters were written in Common Tongue, but it was translated to. W.O.R.M.

"What the hell is this...?" Sahro muttered, his eyes wide open. He was holding his mechanical arms tightly while gasping for air. Milena was similarly silent, still taken aback by Javier's betrayal. Liara had drawn her sword, expecting a fight, but had dropped the weapon the second she looked up.

How could they even fight something this huge? Glenn tightly hugged Lina against his chest, his teeth gritted.

'Wake the hell up, Glenn You need to get the hell out of there!' Diamanes' words finally connected with Glenn's brain, startling him. He blinked and shook the confusion and shock off, his resolve steeled once more.

"Shit! Fuck Javier!" Glenn yelled out in anger, "...We need to make a break for it!" he shouted to the others, waking them up from their trance.

Sahro closed his fists, jaws clenched. A bolt of blue lightning flickered through his left arm and he uttered an audible curse. In one swift movement, he grabbed Liara and Milena by the waist and threw them onto his shoulders.

"Hey! Get—" "!" Milena and Liara's protests were drowned under the crackling thunder coming off Sahro's body.

The Black Heir looked at his friend and nodded, before shooting off in a blue line of energy. Glenn almost smiled, but instead dedicated this energy to running away, using Gravity Manipulation to accelerate his movements across the dunes. Even though the W.O.R.M. structure did not look like it had moved, it was still creaking with ominous, loud sounds reminiscent of an earthquake.

"ARGH!!! VADO MORI!" A voice suddenly roared right beside him, startling him. Glenn looked to the side, his eyes widening as he watched Decimius—the orc—running with everything he had right beside him, his legs covered in golden Aura.

"Shit, why are you following me, you dumb green ass!" Glenn yelled as he jumped in the air, floating lightly thanks to Gravity Manipulation. Decimius left a crater in the black sand as he jumped too and followed Glenn while looking behind him in fright.

"Sancta shit!" The orc cursed, before accelerating and leaving Glenn behind. The latter grimaced and doubled his efforts to flee away from the structure. Something was making him feel like he didn't have a lot of time to get to safety—

Ting!

Glenn almost paused at the slight, easily missed sound, but didn't. Instead, his Recorder appeared before him, the screen flashing red with a warning.

[WARNING! EXAN THE OMNISCIENT IS LANDING. BRACE FOR IMPACT!]

"...What—?" Glenn's confused words were drowned under the sound of a massive explosion behind him. The sun appeared once more, revealed behind the massive structure previously covering the Ink Dunes. He couldn't help but pause, enduring the shockwaves with a combination of Gravity Manipulation and the Saturn Rings. The black sand flew around him in a massive dust storm, yet it failed to hide the two giants standing in the Ink Dunes.

No.

They weren't giants.

Titans...even Titans seemed too little of a word to describe those two things.

Colossi. They were Colossi, their height so ridiculously tall they could block the sun and create an artificial night. One was a humanoid of white stone, and the other...a dark, massive worm. A worm with a spinning jaw, filled with teeth made to carve through the ground and dig into the depths of the land.

Glenn gasped. Everything suddenly made sense. How he ended up in that structure, what it was, and how it was moving now.

It never was a structure. It was a machine. A machine that needed a Driver.

A harvester with world-ending capabilities.

And Javier, who consumed the Seed of Darkness, was at the helm of this machine.

“Holy shit...” Diamanes murmured in stupefaction. Glenn wanted to echo him, but couldn't. He could only stand there, watching the two Colossi staring down at each other, one pulling out a massive rifle from his back, and the other's mechanical teeth spinning ominously with an air-ripping sound. Glenn crouched and covered his sister's ears, his teeth clenched.

The humanoid Colossi suddenly kicked forward, his movements atrociously slow and predictable. Yet the Worm couldn't dodge it, only go head to head with it, trying to eat the white stone boot. The Worm shrieked as it stumbled back, its slithering body shaking the Ink Dunes down. Glenn cursed and soared through the air, watching as a ripple cut through the black sand in the form of a massive wave.

Glenn flew back, pushed by the powerful shockwave that followed. The white Colossi aimed his rifle at the Worm rising back and pushed on the trigger. The Worm shrieked and threw itself at the Colossi, narrowly dodging a massive ray of orange light that carved through the sky and into space. The Worm bit down on the Colossi's arm, its massive, building-sized mechanical teeth ripped down on the white stone, until the white Colossus forced it back. It knocked the Worm away with the butt of his rifle and pulled back a gigantic bold handle, the loud clink and shink echoing through the desert. An enormous brass casing fell off the rifle and into the desert. Finally, with an agile movement that appeared impossible for such a creature, it shoved the absurdly massive cannon in the Worm's jaw.

A loud click echoed through the desert as the white Colossus pulled the trigger. A short, yet infinitely long second of silence passed. Glenn held his breath, his back drenched in a cold sweat as his heart missed a beat.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Like this, the world came still, for the short moment of a single second.

The Worm Colossus exploded in a burst of white light, debris exploding in every direction hazardously. The Ink Dunes caved inward, the black sand pulled into the hole created by the powerful rifle shot of the White Colossus. Countless shockwaves rippled onto Glenn's Saturn Rings, making his eardrums explode under the pressure. Glenn concentrated everything that was left of his Mana onto his sister, reinforcing the shield as best he could while keeping the bare minimum for himself. The remains of the Worm collapsed to the side in a thunderous crash, creating a massive sand cloud around it. The white Colossus calmly pulled back the bolt handle once more and watched as the enormous casing fell into the hole it created in the desert.

Glenn gasped for air like a drowning man, drenched in sweat.

"...So this is Exan?" He muttered in complete awe, trembling from top to bottom.

How could this be human? This wasn't possible. He couldn't see himself fighting something so...colossal. This...This wasn't the realm of humans.

No, this was a power that could eradicate nations, that could create and destroy civilizations.

A God's power.

Glenn's Recorder suddenly flashed red once more, drawing his attention away. His already wide eyes widened even more as he read the new notification.

[WARNING! YOU ARE STANDING IN A RULER-LEVEL BATTLEGROUND! EXTRACT OR SURVIVE UNTIL THE MAIN FORCES ARRIVE! E.T.A. FIVE MINUTES!]

"This is too fucking much!" Glenn heaved as he shook his head and got rid of his shock. He couldn't stay here. It was too dangerous, be it for himself or Lina. He needed to leave this damned desert NOW. Without a second of hesitation, he darted off using Gravity Manipulation to navigate the shaken dunes once more.

Behind him, the white Colossus crouched and reached for the Worm's remains, looking through them. After a dozen minutes of search, it turned back, its intentions unknown, and jumped in the air. It soon disappeared beyond sight, flying away in an oddly casual way.

Glenn continued to run with all he had, his Mana almost bottomed out, 'And here I was, thinking my reserves were infinite. I was just playing in the damned kid's pool!' He thought angrily, hugging Lina tightly while hiding her face away from the wind.

'This was terrifying. I rarely witnessed human creations of such size,' Diamanes remarked from within Glenn's mind, still bewildered by what he watched. Nelg remained silent, still recovering from his time spent in the Void Gate. Glenn nodded with a gulp, shivering as he thought back to the two Colossi.

And here he was, thinking he was stronger than most if not the strongest.

How complacent.

"...I'm fucking stupid, damn it...I need to work harder..." He hissed through his clenched teeth. It took him the rest of the day before he came in sight of the Dark Wall and the Black Gate. He glanced at his Recorder's map, sighing in relief when he saw that he was in the so-called "safe zone".

He barely had the time to sigh when a hole opened under his feet and swallowed him and Lina up. He blinked and landed straight into an enclosed room with four walls and no door. One of the walls suddenly opened up and revealed a charging black knight covered in a chilling Aura, his war hammer gleaming under the Aura.

"WHICH REGIMENT ARE YOU IN?!?" The knight roared as he tried to stab Glenn's throat. The latter narrowly dodged and hurriedly pulled out the INK-DEF emblem, which made the knight freeze. Which in turn allowed Glenn to punch the hell out of him, sending him flying back the way he came from.

"Shit, what the hell was that? I'm on your side, you fucking dumbass!" He yelled in protest while making sure Lina was fine. She wasn't wounded, but she hadn't regained consciousness either. Glenn could barely believe his eyes when he looked down at her. How did she end up here...in this damned world?

"Cough...cough...Phew, you have a mean punch, Mister ~Devil's Hand~" The knight pushed himself up with a cough as he threw his ruined helmet away. He had flowing brown hair and a handsome face ruined by a mean scar crossing both his eyes horizontally.

Glenn blinked before dashing and grabbing the knight by the collar, "So you attacked although you knew who I was?!?" He hissed with hatred, "...Do you want to die that much?"

The knight pushed him back with a snort and dusted his shoulders off, "Well, it ain't my fault for sure. It's protocol, you know? Even more in urgent situations such as this one. Ah, man, it's a shame I missed it..." he trailed off with a dejected look. Glenn shook his head confusedly and adjusted his hold over Lina.

"Wait, no, this isn't important. I need a healer immediately."

The black knight raised an eyebrow and looked down at Lina, "For you, or for...her?"

Glenn restrained the primal need he felt to punch that idiot's head in and grunted, "Her. Move it, damn it!"

The knight rolled his eyes and gestured at the opening in the wall, guiding him through the Black Gate. Glenn followed nervously, looking at Lina with his Mana Sight. She was a blank slate, with no trace of Mana nor Aura in her body.

'Well, it does make sense. If she landed in the Ink Dunes somehow and was gobbled up by that W.O.R.M. machine, no one could have taught her either Mana or Aura...' Diamanes trailed off and grumbled, '...I mean, there's still that other part of me she seems to have, but...you know how I am, right?'

Glenn could only sigh in reply and hope that Lina would be alright. After all he went through, he didn't want to lose someone else again. Redan was already a lot to handle, and let's not even speak of Javier's betrayal...

"...But are you sure he betrayed us?" Nelg asked with a small voice. Glenn paused and considered the question.

'What do you mean?'

Nelg remained silent for a minute or two before replying, "...He did not go after us, and even freed us from the Worm. Isn't that proof enough already...?"

Glenn chewed down on the inside of his cheeks, uneasy, 'I'd like to think that, but...He ate a Seed of Darkness. If we trust the intel we received, he's going to become a Tree of Chaos and spawn a shitload of monsters. A walking Rift. Shit.'

Nelg sighed and did not add anything else. Diamanes was also silent, thinking about this whole ordeal. The annoying black knight eventually led him to an infirmary, where multiple priests and priestesses were running around while healing wounded. A priestess stopped in front of him and gasped in awe.

"G—Glenn?!?" Astrid Di Forte stammered as she looked down at the girl in his arms, "What are you doing here?! This is the Eastern Front!"

Glenn scoffed and pushed Lina into her arms, "I should ask you this question. Can you help her?"

Astrid glanced down and grimaced, "...She has severe frostbite and malnutrition. And..." She frowned and glanced up at Glenn's face, "...why does she look so much like you? Ah—!" She looked at Lina's purple right hand in amazement, "She even has that same purple! Are you from the same family?"

Glenn nodded casually, "Yeah, she's my little sister."

Astrid paused.

"...Really?" She pushed Lina's dark brown hair from her emaciated face and smiled, "...You do look alike."

Glenn groaned, "Whatever. Please, can you make her better?"

Astrid smiled and transported her to a nearby bed, "Yeah, of course. Give me a second, I'll go find a chair for you to look upon her—"

Someone suddenly kicked open the door to the infirmary and ran up to Glenn, "No can do, he's coming with us. Send her to his residence in the Bourgeoisie once she's better, priestess!"

Neither Glenn nor Astrid had the time to blink before the first was teleported away by that unwelcomed newcomer. Glenn ripped his hand out in protest, "Who the f—" He paused and his eyes widened, "—Veil?!?"

Veil smiled under the bandages covering his face and patted Glenn on the shoulder, "Sorry about that, but we don't have time. There's a highly critical target that has been eliminated by Exan, and we need to go pick up everything valuable before the other side does it. This is a full-on war, so prepare yourself. Oh, and your teammates are already fighting. Ready?"

Glenn blinked, "Wait, what—"

Veil grabbed him and once more teleported away, leaving the Black Gate behind without leaving him the time to complain.

And with that, Glenn was back in the Ink Dunes, right in the middle of a raging battlefield.

His day wasn't over yet.