By the dawning of his second day in what Vaile assumed to be an almost perfect copy-paste of the Neon Genesis Fantasia’s in-game area known as the Sea of Glass, the attempts at extracting himself from his nearly-complete prison of sand had borne fruit. Now all that Vaile had to do was find a way to leave the expansive and dangerous desert he had been whisked away to by his own gambit. He had also, during his nearly 19.5-hour struggle to unstick himself, decided on a secondary objective that he figured he may not have the capacity to fulfil.

“I’m gonna find those ten bastards and bury them up to their chins and see how much they like it!” Vaile shouted to the heavens. However, the heavens either were on another call, had not learned that voicemail was a thing or were otherwise indisposed, so Vaile’s declaration and demand for revenge fell on deaf ears.

Deciding that he could not simply stick around and hope that someone would come and show him the way out, Vaile began to trudge forwards through the sand, figuring that if he went in one direction and only one direction he would eventually reach the end of the oversized sandbox he found himself in. As the sun beat down on him from above, cooking the sand beneath his feet into a state that could sear the meat from a man’s body, Vaile thanked the devs and other people behind the game that he didn’t have to suffer such torments. He could only guess how horrible the heat would be to those unused to it, let alone those without the top-tier gear that he possessed.

The [Environmental Hazard Immunity] passive ability he had picked up during his time in the game along with the passive buffs placed upon his equipment rocked. He was thankful he had stored a metric butt-load of food and drinks in his Item Storage, as he doubted that there was much of anything in the way of food and water that would be readily available. This was a desert, after all, and most water that one could see would be mirages.

With his feet burying themselves deep with every step and the temperature being either brutally hot in the daytime and brutally cold in the night, Vaile sighed and muttered to himself as he crested a dune.

“This is going to be a long trip…”

…

Meanwhile, a skirmish was taking place on the edge of the ever-shrinking Solusand Dominion. Around twenty trained warriors and just about the entire village’s populace were squaring off against a foe whose numbers and training were vastly superior.

“Bastard children of the Sun, hear my words!” cried a Desert Elf, otherwise known as a Sand Elf, who rode atop a palanquin carried by the brutally beaten bodies of his foes. “You and your homes are forfeit! Surrender and accept your place willingly, lest I be forced to make you do so! Your menfolk will be slaughtered, their bodies left to water the sands with their blood and bile while the women will be made our eternal servants. If you refuse this magnanimous offer of mine, know that death will claim all of you, but only after days of torture and torment the likes of which you cannot imagine! Yield or face a cruel end; these are your only choices!”

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The villagers did not speak a word. They knew that in the end the only thing waiting for them was death, as the monster of a man who sat just out of arrow range never intended to show even the slightest sliver of mercy. They had all heard the stories told by the handful of people who were allowed to walk free after being brutalized and having their homes razed, and not a soul believed that the women would not be brutally slaughtered after the surrender. The women would not even be raped beforehand, just cruelly tormented, and then garroted to death by their own intestines.

“You refuse to submit? Then face the judgement we bestow upon you. I, Melark the Great, gave you a chance to settle thing peacefully, but you have made your choice. Now, die like the deranged animals that you are!”

…

Another day had passed for Vaile as he continued his march through the Sea of Glass, and now the merciful in-between period of the day where the temperature was neither overly hot or cold had settled in. He still had enough energy to continue his march for another day or so, but he was slowly wearing through the absurdly high stamina that even a specially built Max Level Player like himself would have in reserve. He was just about to crest another dune when he noticed a blackish-grey pillar of smoke coming from just off his 2 o’clock.

“Finally!” he thought aloud. “Some trace of civilization in this sandy hell!”

Throwing caution to the wind, he picked up the pace and trudged ever faster through the dunes, hoping that he would reach his target destination before the signal faded away and left him without any guiding landmarks once again.

…

When the Sand Demons came, her mother had instructed her to hide and not come out until she had come to take her. However, a long time had passed, and her mother had still not come to tell her that it was safe. Now she was getting worried, for the smell of iron and charred meat filled her nose along with the scent of burning wood. The already uncomfortable heat of the day was now added to by the heat of what she assumed were fires, and the sounds of battle that had once rung out were now long gone, replaces by the crackling of lames and the noise of the Sand Demons looting everything they could get their hands on.

So, like the good and smart little girl that she was, she kept herself concealed until the majority of the sounds died down. She figured that by now the Sand Demons had moved on, and now was a safe time to leave her hiding spot.

She was sorely mistaken.

As she poked her head out from under the lid of the hollowed rock that she had concealed herself in, she found herself face to face with a Sand Demon. Its bright green eyes locked onto hers and the pointed ears that barely poked out from under its headwear twitched with what she assumed was excitement. The Sand Demon reached out and yanked her from her hiding spot, and as she was pulled out, she noticed that the heavily tanned skin of the Sand Demon had flecks of red all over it. She instinctively knew what that red substance was, and as she looked around, she saw the aftermath of the attack on her village.

Houses were burned out and collapsed while the torn remains of people of all of the Races lay about, all equally on fire. She struggled against her captor, but to no avail; the Sand Demon was far stronger than she was. She saw the twisted smile of the Sand Demon and, in that moment, cried out to the Pharaoh, the incarnation of the Sun-Goddess herself, to send a Divine Warrior to avenge the fallen.

The Sand Demons heard her pleas and laughed, but their laughter was cut short when one of them pointed towards something off behind her. The Sand Demon threw her to the ground and drew its kopesh, only for its head to explode and its body fall backwards as if something had slammed into its uppermost portion. Slowly turning her head, she looked and beheld a being clad in an outfit that was mostly white with red accents. There was a mask covering its face, but even then, she felt a sense of courage rising from within her every second she gazed at the figure.

Without a word, the figure moved forward and began to fight the Sand Demons.

And the fight was glorious.