149 - The Oncoming Dread
Added 2025-02-08 22:36:58 +0000 UTC“Grandpa! Are you really going to trust an Avaad?”
Qin Yun couldn't comprehend what made her so mad. While he understood the friction between their two races, this was much more than that. It was personal. Still, he couldn't just come out and ask for fear of worsening the current situation. He could see the old man was receptive to what he offered.
"Enough!" the old man said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "While in the presence of others, you will observe proper decorum and calm me, elder. Is that clear?"
The old man's tone was stern, yet Qin Yun could feel the softness hidden beneath. Besides, the man's eyes barely hid the affection with which he gazed at the young woman. However, she was too taken by her emotions to notice. She opened her mouth to protest, yet the old man was quicker.
“Is that understood, young lady?!” the man said rather harshly.
She slowly nodded, yet Qin Yun saw tears welling in the corner of her eyes. Her visage had turned slightly red, and she had bitten her lips hard enough to leave a mark. She threw Qin Yun a look he could hardly forget before storming off the other way, disappearing into the lush jungle.
“Do not mind her. Your presence only brought bitter memories to the surface. Give her some time, and she'll understand the necessity," the man said to Qin Yun.
Qin Yun nodded, yet he was mostly uninterested in her story, as it was most likely all too common. These types of outbursts were often the result of repressed emotions bubbling to the surface born out of loss—and losses were all too common in wartime. However, something the old man had said piqued his interest.
“Necessity?” he asked. “Are you agreeing to the terms?”
Qin Yun grew slightly hopeful. While the negotiations hadn't been as easy as he once thought, they mainly went as he expected. Fortunately, he had encountered someone who could think rationally and wasn't completely blinded by past hatred. However, the old man's answer wasn't exactly what Qin Yun had hoped for.
"Do not get excited," he said. "This isn't something I can decide on my own. I need to report this to the Council of Elders to be put to a vote, for this concerns the very future of this land. I couldn't possibly take responsibility for this alone."
Qin Yun understood, yet he couldn't help but show his disappointment. Still, he urged the man to do so with haste, as he had already wasted enough time reaching them. If they were to delay further, there was no telling if many tribes would remain to oppose the ruling one.
As Qin Yun was a foreigner in these lands, he wasn't allowed to follow them further and couldn't even remain within this sub-dimension. While he wasn't exactly thrown out, the man had made it clear that he wasn't welcome in these isolated lands. Even if they were to work together on this endeavour, that would be the extent of their relationship, for the other tribes couldn't know where these resources came from.
Qin Yun’s contribution to this cause would have to remain hidden, but honestly, that suited him just fine. He had no intention of playing the hero. He was merely forced to walk this path by an entity he couldn’t oppose just yet. Given the chance, he wouldn’t have left his wife behind and embarked on this foolish quest. It had been just a couple of months, yet he already missed her so.
Qin Yun was alone for the first time in a while, seated beside the sheer cliff that overlooked the dry desert. Behind him was the same rock that served as a portal to that isolated dimension. When he left, he had tried to reenter, yet he had been denied. No matter how strongly he pushed where he remembered the portal to be, his hands couldn't plunge in more than a few centimetres.
The existence sustaining that world now rejected him. So, he waited—waited for them to reach a consensus. He remained seated for over a day and night, never rising as he looked into the distance.
As a token of his trust and to prove his commitment, Qin Yun had left the ten dark bracelets with the old man. Upon seeing them, they may choose to keep them and rid themselves of Qin Yun, but that was a risk he was willing to take. Besides, if the old man wished to rob him, Qin Yun had no way to defend himself.
Even if he had once said he could escape from that place, it was at most a half-truth. Yes, he could have left by piercing a hole through that dimension with his sword intent and left, but he would have surely been caught just as soon by the old man. This whole thing was just one big gamble, yet it paid off.
I guess it was worth it to believe Nalia wouldn't have given me her emblem if they were simply going to kill me on the spot. Still, I hope they make the right choice in the end.
Qin Yun was looking towards the West, following the massive flowing river with his eyes, but despite his current height, he had yet to see the edge. There was only sand as far as the eye could see. There were still a few oases on the way, yet all signs of life disappeared past a certain point. This seemed to be the edge of the deep desert where he intended to go.
But then, he saw something shimmer in the distance. At first, he believed this to be heat radiating from the desert sand as it was burned by the sun’s intense glow. But, as he squinted further, enhancing his sight with all he could, he finally saw the origin of this motion against the peacefulness of this desolation.
It wasn't the breeze rushing through the dunes but the signs of a living being rampaging through the desert. It was massive, easily the most enormous creature Qin Yun had seen roam this land. From head to tail, it was at least a few miles in length, with a maw able to at least engulf the giant rock mountain he now stood on.
This creature was an impossibility taken form, for nothing in the deep desert should be able to sustain its existence. No amount of food would be enough for the furnace, which was this creature's metabolism. And yet, its existence was a fact, just as the sun shone overhead. Qin Yun couldn't deny what his eyes could see.
This was most likely the giant sandworm Kerak had mentioned when they spoke of the two ancient artifacts made of sandworm teeth. Having now seen it, even from this distance, Qin Yun couldn't help but be in awe. Even a simple swipe of its tail was enough to bring mountains crashing down. The simplest of wriggles of its body as it dragged itself through the desert was enough to create rains of sand for a few miles around, creating unending dust storms each time it exhaled from its gaping maw.
Such a force of nature, and it has yet to breach the divine threshold...
Indeed, this creature had yet to take that final step and was still bound by the world. It made sense. One needed the world's approval to reach that step, yet it existed in a dead zone where nothing grew but the Corruption lingering in the air. Without going further inland, this creature would never have the chance to break the chains of its own mortality.
Why doesn't it do so? What is keeping it there? Does it believe the world isn't ready to grant its wish, or has it lived too long already and found its consciousness eroded by time? One may never know... It seems to only wander away without purpose... or is there one?
As Qin Yun pondered all this, trying to pass the time, the giant worm returned underground. It created an explosion that rose so high into the sky that it resembled clouds, only to fall back down like rain.
Despite the distance, Qin Yun felt the explosion's shock wave reach him a few minutes later, along with its sound. A low note rang in his ears, akin to thunder after a flash of light and then silence. Only the dull sound of the wind striking against the rock mountain remained.
"Have they reached a consensus?" Qin Yun asked without turning around, as he felt a presence at his back. This presence suddenly appeared from thin air, making the hidden portal the only possible origin.
Kerak walked from behind him, only to take his place at his side. He squinted as he looked in the distance, as Qin Yun did, yet he saw nothing but sand stretch on for hundreds of miles. He only sighed as he gazed at the vastness of it all.
“They are still deliberating, but from what I’ve seen, the tribe seems most uneasy. Rumours of fallen tribes have already reached the exiles,” he replied.
"So, as expected, they have spies all across the desert," Qin Yun said, giving Kerak a knowing look. The man could only give him back a wry smile, for he couldn't hide anything from him.
“Forgive me for keeping it a secret. This isn’t something I could share with a foreigner.”
“Were you one?” Qin Yun asked, yet he did so dismissively, almost as if the answer didn’t matter.
Upon hearing his question, Kerak could only lower his gaze. As for what went on through his mind then, Qin Yun didn't know, nor did he care, for the answer was obvious. For him to be the only one who survived such a massacre and return alone when no one else did, he was either aware of what was happening to a certain extent, or everything was just a big coincidence, and Qin Yun seldom believed in coincidences.
After a long pause, Kerak opted to ask a question.
"If they agree to your terms, what then? Will you also participate in it?"
“You mean this conflict?” Qin Yun shrugged as he faced the young man. “I couldn’t care less who wins or loses, whether my people or yours. It makes no difference to me. I only want to secure this world’s continued existence. As long as the Corruption isn’t eradicated, the threat of world destruction will always remain, so I hope to find a way to purge it, and if it can’t be done, at least seal it.”
“You hope to do something that not even the will of this world could achieve? You seem to think highly of yourself,” the man said derisively.
Yet Qin Yun only returned him a smile and a chuckle, for he knew how insane it must have sounded. Kerak, too, burst into unbridled laughter, for he too knew how absurd it was, yet he knew it needed to be done. He didn't know if everything Qin Yun had told him was true, yet he somehow felt it was. It was merely a feeling, an instinct, yet it felt too real to ignore.
"So, tell me. You said you wish to journey to the World's Edge. What are you hoping to find? We probably won't see each other again, so it should be fine to tell me, right?"
Qin Yun hesitated momentarily. He hadn't known the young man for long, yet some sort of camaraderie had been born between them. Despite being from two entirely different worlds, supposed enemies, they were able to talk as if no barriers existed between them.
“If you must know," Qin Yun relented. "They call it the World's Edge, but is it really? What if there exists something beyond— a world engulfed by Corruption so long ago that no one even remembers anymore? What if we are just the last island free from its grasp, yet soon to be inevitably consumed—the last bastion of life free from its tyranny. This is what I must ascertain."
Qin Yun looked closely at Kerak’s change in expression. It shifted swiftly between surprise and disbelief, but after a long, peaceful moment where all that could be heard was the wind, all that remained was dread.
