The man struggled to open the giant door. He was still weak, but slowly,he created enough space to slip through. He hesitated a little before finally crossing the door.

There was no other place to go after all.

As soon as he passed to the other side a cold gust of wind hit the man's face, making him gasp.

"Why in hell is it so much colder than the tunnel? " The man muttered angrily to himself before gazing at the environment. As he looked down he realized he was in a black, metallic platform, similar to the door.

There, he gazed towards the horizon and saw a barren land of sand and jagged rocks. Further up , between the stormy clouds, a faint glow pulsed in the sky, casting shadows of a massive city over the desolate landscape.

The man realized the sky lights were moving, and for a fraction of a second he saw a giant insectile wing emerge from the clouds.

The man shivered—not just from the cold, but from the sheer scale of the sight before him. What was that giant creature and the place on top of it?

The air was thick with the scent of iron and something faintly acidic. He took a cautious step forward, his feet clanking against the metal platform, the sound swallowed by the howling wind.

His gaze drifted back to the horizon, where uneven rock formations jutted from the sand like broken ribs. Some were smooth, eroded by time and sand, while others stood sharp and angular, as if violently torn from the earth.

Beyond, distant shadows slithered between the dunes—too large to just be illusions created by the wind, yet too far to make out clearly.

A sense of unease gnawed at the man's gut.

He wasn't alone here.

The man trembled as he felt the unforgiving winds pierce his skin.

" I need to find clothes or I won't get far".

He looked through his surroundings, grabbed a sharp rock and returned to the fleshy passage. There, he steeled himself and pushed his revulsion back as he carved through the fleshy wall. After some time he had managed to fashion a cloak out of skin. A rather disgusting one , he thought, but it was better than succumbing to the cold. He covered himself in this strange habit, trying not to gag.

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The man had not only fashioned clothes, but also cut some meat out of the corridor for sustenance. He didn't plan on staying any longer in that place. He needed answers, he needed to explore this strange world. The loneliness was getting to him too, so he hoped to find other people.

Steeling himself, he pressed forward, each step leading him further into the unknown.

Yet, as he started his journey through the rocky and cold dessert he saw a shape come closer from the distance. At first it was barely noticeable, a speck on the horizon. Then, it got closer and closer.

It was too fast to be a human.

The man panicked and started running back to the safety of the rocky landscape. While escaping, the man turned his head to see what was chasing him. The thing was still quite far away, but he could make out its shape. It had an arachnid body, with three pairs of legs and one pair of arms.

It was grotesque, somewhere between an insect and a human nightmare given flesh. The creature's arms were unnaturally long, each ending in claw-like fingers that twitched as if eager to grasp something. A bulbous torso covered by a black and chitinous caparace gleamed under the pale sky. Its head resembled a mans, but it had many eyes, similar to a spider and two nostrils instead of a full nose.

The thing moved with terrifying speed, skittering over the jagged terrain as if it was a mere inconvenience.

The man's heartbeat pounded in his ears. He didn't know where he was, who he was. Yet his body was giving him a simple message.

"Run."

He forced his legs to move, stumbling at first before pushing forward with everything he had. The cold bit into his lungs, his breath ragged as he weaved through the rocky landscape, searching for anything, anything that could hide him.

A sharp screech tore through the air behind him. He didn't dare turn around. He could hear it, the clicking of its limbs, the scraping of its claws against stone.

Then, just as he felt the thing closing in, his foot caught on a loose rock. He fell hard, tumbling onto the ground, the impact knocking the air from his lungs. Pain flared through his body, but before he could rise, a shadow loomed over him.

The creature had stopped a few meters away, its massive body twitching, its nostrils writhing as it sniffed the air, saliva dripping from its sickening mouth.

The man held his breath. He knew it had seen him.

The creater approached, its many unblinking eyes staring deep into the man's soul. But just as it was starting to strike with its maw and claws something crashed down at full speed and grabbed the creature.

This other creature was a huge bat of sorts? It was even more imposing than the horrifying thing that had chased him, yet also beautiful in a way. Blue fur adorned its body and fin like structures covered its back. Its face resembled a mix between a bat and a wolf.

It took off with the creature without much trouble and the man saw how it dropped the humanoid spider from a great height, breaking its shell as a horrifying crunch resounded throughout the valley. The bat then slowly descended before feasting on its corpse.

Taking advantage of the situation the man sprinted far away from that brutal scene. He didnt even know where he was going, he was just trying to escape. Only after the sounds of that creature feasting were no longer heard did the man stop.

He couldnt even feel scared anymore, he laughed hysterically at the absurdity of the situation. The man wasn't alive because he had fought, or escaped.

It was just because something worse had found its meal.