The second Objective of the Sixth Floor also included 'traversing the Shifting Sands'. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on Nove1Fire.net
Unlike the situation back then, however, an unrelenting sandstorm was raging. Still, it appeared the destination must have been at least somewhat similar, as was indicated by the ascended sign of a flame, flickering faintly to pierce through the darkness.
Following that, the ground proceeded to quake with motion, living up to its name and evoking memories of back then.
Of colossal waves of sand thrashing like tsunamis, washing over the desert as if to wipe the slate clean, caring not for all the countless undead ending up swallowed for the sake of its unquenchable thirst.
Nevertheless, I firmly persevered, marching towards the distant flame one step at a time.
It's not like it was so impossibly hard to withstand the tides, anyway, especially not compared to how crazy it was the last time.
Besides... Things still seemed like they were taking their time to cook.
The waves were relatively gentle yet, so there was no real need to mind them, and that lasted all the way until I reached the goal.
Arriving at a giant stone block, requiring me to crane my neck up to see the flame all the way up, it only served to confirm the information I already knew.
Hopping onto the base of the pyramid, I climbed up its extensive steps, quickly reaching the top, where a single, golden goblet stood planted firmly within the flat-topped peak, roughly the size of an older child about a meter and a half tall.
Contained within the goblet was, of course, the flame I had seen from afar.
With no other source of light in this endless darkness, this single flame was all there was, to serve as a shining beacon for those lost to the vast, unforgiving, Shifting Sands.
'...It's still building up.'
Standing beside the goblet, there was a subtle shift in the atmosphere, and then I noticed the emergence of a second flame beginning to rise and flicker in the distance once more.
Evidently, things were only just beginning to get interesting... Although, I'm not quite sure I would use the same vocabulary.
'What a damn pain...'
At the same time, the whistling wind carried to me signs of the far below desert growing ever more tempestuous, becoming truly akin to that of the waves on the far-out sea during a stormy night.
I didn't need to be present down there to hear it, and even my Heightened Senses were warning me to be a little more cautious of the desert's swelling wrath.
Now, I plainly saw where this was headed. It was practically being screamed at me.
Traverse the Shifting Sands and light all of the Desert Beacons.
I didn't grant myself the time to spew verbal complaints.
Taking one step forward, I had no choice but to descend the pyramid from its opposite side, preparing to take myself once again through the hazardous desert squall to the next site of grace.
Let's hope there weren't close to a dozen.
It was by the time I reached the third beacon that I thought things couldn't have possibly gotten any worse.
The world was naught but a tempest of merciless winds and battering sand.
The atmosphere was so nonsensically thick with it, even, that it might as well have been the case that the whole desert had flipped upside down, the sheer density of it all surely being enough to suffocate any ordinary human unlucky enough to wind up here merely by breathing.
All of its thickness also served as heavy insulation, and despite the sun being gone for hours on end, the world bleached with pure darkness in its stead, the heat did not dissipate for a second.
I was fortunate enough for that not to be a concern of mine, but I could only imagine how torturous the experience would be for anyone without such gracious temperature regulation, and I certainly wasn't envious of it.
Moreover, that was only the passive state of things.
――This desert could no longer be considered as such.
The Shifting Sands had completely over-ridden what was, and what was supposed to be, having completely taken over the environment, which was now officially less land and more ocean, the dunes having transformed entirely into waves and tides of preposterous proportions, unforgiving and unyielding.
It would be foolish to think that was it, though.
"WRAAAAAAOOOOOOOWWWWGGHHH...!!!"
As was only natural, beasts I couldn't see infested the underground, writhing through the waves as if they owned them, and making it truly painful on my heart to proceed with any form of urgency.
The monsters were of untold size, and frankly, I would be fine with keeping it that way.
All I could do was preemptively avoid their gaping maws that seemed capable of swallowing stars and use their humongous bodies for my own devices, riding them to the next destination without even daring to think about hunting one down.
To be entirely honest, I could not even tell with confidence if they were many, or if the suspect was just one particularly large entity...
But again, I think it was one of those details better off remaining a mystery.
Regardless, with the help of 'at least one of those things', and perhaps by some sprinkling of miracle, I found myself at the fourth, and what I could only pray was the final, beacon.
Immediately craning my neck back to face the still-veiled sky, I sighed.
In the following moments, the atrocious mirage tore itself down―the unrestrained, frenzied winds gradually grinded to a halt, resulting in the thick, almost impenetrable atmosphere of floating sand filling the air to also dissipate, slowly draining and allowing fresh air to take place once more, letting my skin breathe and eyes sing with delight at the reclamation of lost vision.
The sky was still dark from the lack of a sun, but with the blanket of distant stars covering its place, it was undoubtedly a climate I preferred over almost any other, hands down.
Lowering my head, I watched the tides settle back down, scanning around to find the gargantuan monster(s?) that worked its part in bringing me over, nowhere to be seen.
However, including the previous three beacons I had already visited, I did notice a fifth that lit up just now in the distance again, making for a total of five.
Turning back to the notification I hadn't yet dismissed, my forehead instinctively scrunched up.
'Objective Complete'――Meaning, this Floor still wasn't over.
Well, I already expected that, considering how some of the previous Floors have been.
[New Objective: Unveil the Inhumed City of Sand]
'Can't it just be more specific...?'