The transition from the Stratosphere Layer to the Red Desert Layer was not a gentle descent. It was a drop into an oven.
The Void Shark, the flagship of Vikram's newly formed aerial fleet, groaned as its hull transitioned from the cool, thin air of the Sky Domain into the oppressive, dry heat of the Desert Domain. The fifty accompanying ships, retrofitted with Storm Hearts and Levitation Cores, shuddered violently.
"Temperature rising!" shouted the First Mate, wiping sweat from his shark-like brow. "External hull temp is at 80 degrees Celsius and climbing! The Levitation Cores are overheating!"
Captain Great Tooth was running around the deck with a bucket of water (which was evaporating rapidly). "Boss! The magnetic field in this desert is messing with our navigation! If we drop any lower, the sand will eat the engines!"
Vikram stood on the prow, unbothered by the heat. His Titanium Skin and Ocean God resistance regulated his body temperature perfectly. He wore his new black armor, the Wings of Asura Monarch folded neatly against his back like a metallic cape.
"Steady," Vikram commanded. His voice was calm, cutting through the panic of the crew. "We are not landing yet. Follow the signal."
He looked at the holographic map projected by his system. The signal from General God-Killer was pulsing weak red, emanating from a sector marked "The Sea of Rust."
"A sea of rust?" Mira stepped up beside him, her blue dress shimmering with a cooling enchantment that she extended to the crew nearby. "I sense no water there. Only... death and metal."
Seraphina landed softly on the railing, her six light-wings glowing dim to conserve energy. "The Red Desert is known as the graveyard of the Second Sanctuary. It is where failed evolutions and broken machines go to die. Even the Sky-Wing Clan never ventured this deep."
"Perfect," Vikram smirked. "I love a good scrapyard."
The Ambush from Below
As the fleet moved deeper into the desert, the sand below changed color. It went from a dull ochre to a deep, blood-red. The dunes weren't just sand; they were composed of rusted iron filings and crushed bone.
RUMBLE...
The ground far below began to shift. It wasn't the wind.
Elara, perched in the crow's nest, shouted into her comms. "Movement! Six o'clock! Something massive is burrowing under the sand, matching our speed!"
"Altitude!" Captain Great Tooth screamed. "Pull up!"
But the magnetic interference was too strong. The ships were locked at a height of two hundred meters.
BOOOOM!
The desert surface exploded.
A creature erupted from the sand, leaping high into the air. It was a worm, but titanic in scale—easily three hundred meters long. Its mouth was a circular grinder of rotating saw-blades, and its skin was armored with rusted metal plates salvaged from centuries of wrecks.
[Monster Detected: Iron-Skin Sandworm (Dune Eater)]
[Level: Diamond (Mutant)]
[Ability: Sonic Scream, Acid Spit.]
The worm lunged at the rearmost pirate ship. Its maw opened wide, swallowing the entire vessel whole.
CRUNCH!
Wood, metal, and screaming pirates disappeared into the grinder. The ship exploded inside the worm, but the beast just burped smoke and dived back into the sand.
"Ship 42 is down!"
"There are more of them!" Elara shouted. "Dozens! It's a nest!"
Around the fleet, the sand exploded again and again. Five more massive worms leaped into the air, aiming for the main flagship, the Void Shark.
"They think we are flies," Seraphina drew her sword of light. "I will incinerate them!"
"Save your energy," Vikram said, stopping her. "You are the Queen of the Sky. Digging in the dirt is beneath you."
Vikram stepped onto the railing.
"Elara, cover fire. Mira, shield the engines. Shadow..."
The Void-Glutton Beast (the little black furball) popped its head out of Vikram's pocket, chewing on a piece of dried Kraken meat.
"...it's lunchtime."
Vikram jumped.
The Asura of the Desert
He didn't fall. The moment his boots left the ship, the mechanical wings on his back snapped open.
SNAP-HISS!
The Wings of Asura Monarch extended to a span of ten meters. Black energy vented from the thrusters.
BOOM!
Vikram broke the sound barrier instantly, diving straight toward the leading Sandworm that was rising to eat the flagship.
The worm roared, a sound like grinding gears. It opened its mouth to swallow Vikram.
Vikram didn't dodge. He flew into the mouth.
"Is he crazy?!" The pirates screamed.
Inside the worm's gullet, surrounded by spinning saw-blades and acid, Vikram's eyes glowed purple.
"Void Art: Internal Collapse!"
He slammed his hands against the fleshy, metallic inner walls of the worm.
"Gravity Crush!"
He reversed the gravity inside the worm. The massive creature, hanging in mid-air, suddenly convulsed. Its own weight turned against it.
SPLAT!
The worm imploded. Its armored skin buckled inward, crushing its own organs. It fell from the sky like a limp sock, crashing into the dunes below with an earth-shattering thud.
Vikram burst out of the carcass, covered in green ichor. He didn't stop.
He flew toward the next worm.
He drew the Ocean God Trident. In this dry desert, water was the ultimate weapon.
"Ocean Art: High-Pressure Cutter!"
A thin, concentrated beam of water sliced through the air. It cut through the second worm's metal plating like a laser through butter. The worm was bisected in mid-air, both halves falling harmlessly away from the ships.
"Two down," Vikram muttered.
The remaining worms hesitated. They sensed the predator.
"Run!" Vikram roared, amplifying his voice with the Asura Armor. "Or become fertilizer!"
The worms screeched and dived back into the sand, retreating deep underground.
Vikram hovered in the air, the black wings beating slowly. He wiped the slime off his visor.
"All ships," he commanded. "Full speed to the coordinates. I'll clear the path."
The Sea of Rust
An hour later, the fleet arrived at the source of the signal.
The "Sea of Rust" was exactly what it sounded like. It was a massive valley filled not with sand, but with the wreckage of millions of machines. Robots, mechs, starships, ancient weapons—all piled up in mountains of scrap metal.
In the center of this metallic graveyard stood a structure that didn't belong.
It was a pyramid, smooth and black, untouched by rust or time. It hummed with a low frequency that made Vikram's teeth ache.
At the base of the pyramid, there was a small, makeshift camp protected by a flickering energy shield.
"Set us down," Vikram ordered. "But keep the engines running."
He landed near the camp, followed by Mira, Seraphina, and Elara.
As they approached the energy shield, a turret gun swiveled toward them.
"Halt!" A voice crackled through a speaker. It was distorted, robotic, yet familiar. "One more step and I detonate the EMP charges. Your fancy armor will turn into a coffin."
Vikram raised an eyebrow. He recognized that arrogance.
"General God-Killer," Vikram called out. "Is that how you greet the man who saved your life... well, technically, the man who ended your life, but who is counting?"
The turret lowered. The energy shield flickered and died.
A figure stepped out from the shadows of the pyramid entrance.
Vikram and his queens paused.
This was not the General God-Killer they remembered.
The 9-foot tall giant in platinum armor was gone. Standing there was a ruin of a man. His head—the same head Vikram had cut off in the First Sanctuary—was attached to a mismatched, cobbled-together body made of rusted droid parts, scrap metal, and wires. He had one tank tread for a leg and a hydraulic claw for an arm. He looked like a cyborg zombie built in a junkyard.
Only his face remained somewhat human, though half of it was metal plating.
"Dollar," God-Killer rasped. His mechanical lung wheezed. "You actually came."
"You look... terrible," Vikram said honestly. "I thought I cut your head off. How are you breathing?"
"I am stubborn," God-Killer tapped his metal chest. "And I had a Life-Sustaining Chip implanted in my brain stem. When my body died, my head went into stasis. I fell through a rift caused by your battle with the system... and landed here."
He gestured to his scrap body. "I built this from the garbage around me. It took me six months to crawl ten miles."
Vikram felt a strange pang of respect. This man was an enemy, a tyrant, but his will to survive was S-tier.
"Why did you call me?" Vikram crossed his arms. "I assume it wasn't for tea."
God-Killer pointed his claw at the black pyramid behind him.
"That," God-Killer said, fear creeping into his voice. "This isn't a ruin. It's a server. A backup server for the Second Sanctuary."
"So?"
"So," God-Killer limped closer. "Three days ago, the server woke up. It started broadcasting a signal. Not to the Sanctuary... but to Earth."
Vikram froze. "Earth?"
"Yes," God-Killer nodded. "It's opening a bridge. A permanent bridge. But it's not to let humans in. It's to let 'The Glitch' out."
"The Glitch?" Seraphina stepped forward. "What is that?"
God-Killer looked at the angel, then back at the pyramid.
"Before the Sanctuaries were perfect, the creators made mistakes. Failed biological experiments. Corrupted AI programs. Monsters that defied the logic of the System. They couldn't be killed, so they were locked away in these Data Pyramids."
God-Killer's single organic eye widened.
"The entity inside this pyramid... it calls itself 'Subject Zero'. And it has hacked the gate. It wants to go to Earth to feed on a planet that has no System protection."
Vikram's blood ran cold. If a creature from the Second Sanctuary—a creature too dangerous even for this world—went to Earth, humanity would be wiped out in hours. His friends, his old life... everything would be gone.
"How do we stop it?" Vikram asked, his grip tightening on his trident.
"We can't destroy the pyramid from the outside. It's indestructible," God-Killer explained. "We have to go inside. Into the Digital Dungeon. We have to find the Core Processor and manually shut it down."
He looked at Vikram. "I called you because you are the only anomaly I know. You break rules. Subject Zero is made of broken rules. Only a monster can kill a monster."
Vikram looked at the smooth black surface of the pyramid.
"A dungeon inside a computer server?" Vikram smirked, though his eyes were serious. "Sounds like a video game level. I'm good at those."
He turned to his team.
"Captain Great Tooth, keep the fleet in the air. Bombard anything that tries to leave this valley."
"Aye, Admiral!"
"Mira, Elara, Seraphina," Vikram looked at his queens. "This environment might limit your elemental powers. Inside a digital space, physics might not apply. Are you ready?"
Mira stepped forward, her hand glowing with blue light. "Where you go, we go."
Vikram turned back to God-Killer.
"Lead the way, Scrap-heap. But if you try to stab me in the back..."
"I have no back to stab," God-Killer grunted, turning around. "And frankly, I'd rather die by your hand than let that thing out."
God-Killer placed his claw on a panel.
HUMMM...
A section of the pyramid wall dissolved into digital pixels, revealing a dark corridor illuminated by red binary code floating in the air.
[System Alert: Entering Instance Dungeon - The Corrupted Server.]
[Difficulty: Nightmare.]
[Restrictions: Physical Attacks -50% Damage. Mental/Soul Attacks +50% Damage.]
Vikram stepped into the darkness.
"Soul attacks buffed?" Vikram touched the Soul Gene in his chest. "Subject Zero is about to have a very bad day."
The entrance sealed behind them, trapping them inside the belly of the machine.
Inside the Server - The Glitch Hallway
The interior didn't look like a building. It looked like a wireframe reality. The floor was a grid of neon light. The walls shifted and flickered.
Suddenly, a shape materialized in front of them. It looked like a knight in armor, but its texture was missing—it was just a purple silhouette of static noise.
[Enemy: Glitch Knight.]
[HP: ???]
The Knight raised a sword made of static.
"Allow me," God-Killer stepped forward. His mechanical arm whirred. He didn't punch. He plugged a data cable from his wrist into the air.
"Hack: Firewall Breach!"
The Knight froze, jittered violently, and then shattered into pixels.
"I may be ugly," God-Killer muttered, retracting the cable. "But I learned a few tricks while I was rotting here. I can manipulate the code of low-level mobs."
Vikram nodded approvingly. "Not bad. You might actually be useful."
They moved deeper. The corridor opened up into a massive chamber.
In the center, suspended in a beam of red light, was a Human Heart. A real, beating biological heart, connected to thousands of wires.
"That's not the Core," God-Killer whispered. "That's the Lock. It requires a bio-metric key."
Vikram approached it. As he did, the heart beat faster.
A voice echoed in the chamber. It wasn't robotic. It was the voice of a child.
"Daddy? Is that you?"
Vikram froze. The voice... it sounded exactly like his little sister back on Earth. The sister he hadn't seen in years.
"Vikram... help me..." the voice cried.
Mira grabbed Vikram's hand. "It's a trap! It's reading your memories!"
Vikram's eyes narrowed. The Eye of the Demon God on his chest flared purple, cutting through the illusion.
He didn't see a heart. He saw a grotesque, fleshy blob of eyes and mouths, mimicking human speech.
"Nice try," Vikram said coldly.
He raised his trident.
"Soul Art: Silence!"
He thrust the trident into the blob.
SCREEEEEEE!
The illusion shattered. The "heart" exploded into data fragments. The red beam of light turned green.
CLICK.
The massive door at the far end of the chamber unlocked.
"That was the First Gate," God-Killer said, wiping oil from his face. "Subject Zero is testing us. It knows we are here."
Vikram stared at the door.
"Let's go say hello."