"Well, we're definitely not in a rural area," Keeva noted sarcastically. A sentiment all of them shared…

Because they were in a literal desert.

Endless dunes stretched in every direction, golden sand reflected the harsh sunlight. The heat was immediate and oppressive, far more intense than it had been on their side of the breach. No vegetation. No structures. No signs of civilization whatsoever.

"The barrier still moved us," Finn said, feeling the wrongness of it in his bones. "Despite being connected, it still randomized our location."

"But at least we're together," Thalia pointed out. She looked at Deacon and Finn. "So, which direction?"

Both Transcendents turned slowly, scanning the cardinal points with their enhanced senses.

Finn's Error Vision picked up subtle flaws in the distance — minute distortions in the heat haze that suggested structure rather than natural formation. South. Definitely south.

Deacon's golden eyes blazed as he gazed in the same direction, then nodded. "South."

"I also feel the most order coming from that direction," Thalia nodded.

"South it is," Tavian said. "Formation?"

"Maintain current structure," Thalia decided. "Himothy on point. Everyone stays connected until we're certain the environment is stable."

They began walking.

The desert sun beat down mercilessly, and within minutes, Finn felt sweat soaking through his clothes. The sand shifted beneath their feet, making each step an effort. No one complained, but the discomfort was evident.

An hour passed. Then two. Then three.

The landscape remained unchanging — dunes upon dunes, an ocean of sand beneath a pitiless sky. Finn's mouth was dry, and his legs were already aching from the constant upward and downward trudging. Even the Transcendents' enhanced endurance couldn't completely negate the brutal environment.

They crested another large dune, this one taller than the others, and Finn felt the ground tremble beneath his feet.

Everyone froze.

"Did you feel that?" Yara whispered.

Another tremor. Stronger this time.

From their vantage point atop the dune, they could see a vast stretch of unnaturally flat desert ahead — miles of perfectly level sand before the next line of dunes on the distant horizon.

And moving through that flat expanse, leaving a telltale disturbance in the sand, was a shape.

Large. Serpentine. Patrolling in wide, lazy circles.

"What is that?" Ailin breathed.

Finn activated Error Vision, focusing on the movement pattern. The shape wasn't moving randomly, it was systematic, methodical. Covering specific areas in a regular patrol route.

A guardian, he realized. This flat expanse was probably a travel route, a path through the desert that any locals close to this place used. And this thing was stationed here to prevent passage.

"How do we proceed?" Osric asked, chipping in for the first time.

Himothy snorted. "What kind of question is that?"

Everyone turned to look at him.

The Glory bearer was grinning, that manic light back in his eyes.

"There's only one course of action." He looked at the distant shape moving through the sand. "We fight."

"Himothy—" Thalia started.

But he was already moving, untying the rope from his wrist in a quick motion.

"HIMOTHY!" Thalia snapped.

Too late.

He jumped down from the crest of the dune and began sliding down the steep face, building speed, eyes firmly locked on the shape in the distance.

The creature paused for a second, and everything was still…

Then suddenly, it moved.

"What the fuck!" Finn sucked in a breath.

The shape underneath the sand burst into impossible speeds within a split second, zig-zagging through the sand like an eel through water, covering distance at a rate that defied the creature's apparent size.

"That's definitely not a natural creature," Deacon frowned as he observed with his golden eyes. "That speed doesn't match the mass displacement I'm seeing."

Finn watched the shape surge forward, and a terrible realization struck him.

"That's because it's not the whole creature! What we're seeing is just a part of it!"

Before Himothy even reached the bottom of the dune, the creature arrived.

Sand exploded upward as something massive breached the surface.

"Holy… Shit…" someone whispered.

The creature was immense.

What they'd seen moving through the sand had only been a crown-like protrusion on top of the creature's head. The actual body was far, far larger.

It was a massive worm. Segmented with concentric rings, each the span of two school buses. And there had to be at least forty segments visible as it reared up, with more still buried in the sand.

Its skin was a glistening gold-metal surface, reflecting the harsh sunlight like burnished armor. Concentric ridges ran along each segment, and between those ridges, Finn could see smaller appendages, hooks, claws, sensory organs.

The head split open vertically, revealing rings of teeth spiraling inward toward a throat that seemed to descend forever.

Himothy looked tiny beneath it. A single person against a creature that could swallow buildings whole.

"Is he going to be okay?" Yara asked with genuine concern in her voice.

Thalia pursed her lips and sighed. "He'll be fine."

Several team members looked at her in disbelief.

"Watch," she commanded. "Watch carefully. The more witnesses, the stronger he becomes."

Finn's eyes snapped back to Himothy just as the Glory bearer leapt into the air, abandoning his slide down the dune.

And roared.

"I, HIMOTHY THUNDERCOCK SHALL BRING THIS BEAST TO MY FEET!"

Immediately the words were said, reality seemed to ripple in acceptance.

Finn's pupils constricted slightly as he visibly saw the effect of Himothy's words through his Error Vision. And from the frown on Deacon's face, the Truth bearer seemed to have seen it too. Likely even clearer.

Finn analyzed the effect carefully.

It was very similar to Thalia's [Certain Trajectory] but fundamentally different. When Althea — future Thalia — used that spell, Finn had felt her forcing Order onto chaos, changing variables through sheer conceptual will. It was taxing, difficult, fighting against entropy.

This, on the other hand, was practically effortless.

The world itself seemed to respond to Himothy's declaration. As if agreeing. As if reality was saying "yes, that sounds right, let's make that happen."

His strike became more certain. More inevitable. Not through imposed order, but through collective expectation.

Eight Transcendents watched from atop the dune. Eight witnesses believing, in some part of their minds, that Himothy would succeed. That his declaration would come true.

And the world bent to accommodate that belief.

"Sheesh… The power scaling of his concept can be exploited to crazy levels…" Finn murmured after deciphering the core mechanics of Himothy's attack.

Himothy's fist, wreathed in lightning, struck the creature's descending head.

The impact created a shockwave that Finn felt even from the dune's crest.

The creature screamed. A shrill sound like tearing metal mixed with an animal's dying wail.

It tried to pull back and retreat into the sand. But Himothy rode its head upward, laughing with concept-born lightning crackling around him.

"WITNESS ME!" he roared.

And they did.

Eight pairs of eyes locked onto the Glory bearer as he fought a creature thousands of times his size.

And with each second of watching, each moment of bearing witness to his glory, the fight became less impossible.

The creature thrashed. Himothy held on. Dealing heavy blows that impacted with superhuman thunderous sounds. And not just that. Each blow found the spaces between the beast's armored segments.

The worm tried to dive back into the sand, but Himothy's declaration — I shall bring this beast to my feet — made that outcome less likely with every passing moment.

"We should help him," Yara said, already moving forward.

"No," Thalia commanded. "This is his glory. Interfering would weaken him."

"She's right," Finn said, watching the impossible battle unfold. "His power scales with witnesses, but it only works if the achievement is his alone. If we help, we're not witnesses any longer, but participants. That goes against his glory narrative."

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