As he fell into the vast, hot desert, dozens of sensations flooded Andrew's weakened body. Pain, heat, suffocation, dryness, and a heavy disorientation. Andrew rolled down the large desert dunes to cushion the damage from the balloon's fall... After rolling for a while, Andrew lifted his face from the sand and breathed heavily. Lifting his head from the sand, he could see the immense figure of the balloon receding into the distance. He had made this decision, and he would face the consequences. For a moment, Andrew allowed himself to enjoy his small state of freedom. He was free. He had been "captive" for about a week. Somehow, he had begun to feel freedom in that prison. Andrew sighed and stood up, his forearms were bruised, he had used his arms to cushion most of the damage from the fall. Standing up, Andrew used his hands to cover himself from the sand, the sandstorm was still here after all. After checking the area for a while, he managed to see the figure of the man walking away, he was walking slowly, and yet he had covered a great distance.
After taking this short break, Andrew ran across the sand. He wanted to catch up with this man at all costs. He could feel that he had a purpose with this man. His leather boots sank into the vast expanse of sand, each step slowly sapping Andrew's physical strength.
"I must... catch up with him..."
Andrew wasn't going to stop; he was determined to catch up with this man. He hadn't risked his life for nothing. When he was close enough, Andrew began to shout at the man.
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
Even though he was shouting at the top of his lungs, his cries were drowned out by the powerful desert mist. It was as if the air itself absorbed every sound Andrew made. Andrew kept running; he wasn't going to stop now...
Then, Andrew's attention was drawn to something that clearly wasn't trying to cause trouble. The distant desert dunes began to move. Andrew, remembering some of the lessons Obel had taught him before they reached the desert, knew immediately what it was.
"Sand crows!"
From the sand, dozens of crows the size of an average mundane dog shot out from the depths of the dunes. Their tails were long and sharp, and even the sun's rays reflected off their steel feathers. Andrew started running.
"Hey, help me! Please!" Andrew shouted to the harmonist, who was getting further and further away.
In the distance, the horde of crows was rapidly approaching. Andrew couldn't decide whether to look at the rushing horde or the harmonica player walking away.
"I'm not going to catch up with him..."
This man didn't seem to have any intention of helping him, so it was time to think about how to survive on his own. Andrew turned his head in all directions, searching for shelter, shelter that clearly did not exist in this desolate place. All he could see were even higher dunes, sand, sand, and more sand. Realizing that there was no point in continuing to run, Andrew slowed his pace and, frowning, looked directly at the horde of crows.
"They're all first-rank creatures..."
Andrew had managed to kill a third-rank creature when he awakened his abilities in Insect Hill, so logically, he should be able to take down this threat. The question was very simple: how?
He had been so busy that he hadn't even taken the time to explore himself, let alone his abilities. He hadn't even formed his first core yet; you could say he wasn't a full-fledged musician yet. Clenching his hands into fists, Andrew took a breath and prepared himself. Core or no core, it didn't matter; right now, he had to survive.
"Come on, don't fail me."
Andrew raised his hands palm-first in front of him, pointing directly at the crows. He closed his eyes and searched his mind, slowly and thoroughly, for a song that would serve him right now, something that would resonate within him...
"No, I must go further..."
Andrew knew it, he knew it from the beginning, his abilities were not normal, his class was extraordinary, he might even be the only one of his kind. He had to face it, it was time to stop avoiding that truth. He had to be extraordinary. He couldn't keep trying to use the same songs as everyone else, because he wasn't like everyone else. But a force inside him kept dragging him back to the same place, forcing him to despise himself, to think of himself as inferior to other musicians.
Everything in Andrew wanted to accept the truth about his existence, except his self-esteem...
Aphonic, the word he had heard most often in his entire life. Being aphonic in this world marks your destiny for life; the aphonics, humans without musical energy, live their lives serving musicians. Even after gaining musical energy, Andrew still couldn't accept himself.
"Come on, come on..."
Andrew pushed the musical energy in his body, trying to force it out. His palms sparkled with little musical notes. Andrew exerted even more force, forcing the energy out. But it became more solid with each push, more indomitable, more stubborn. The harder Andrew pushed, the more it resisted.
The crows were just a few feet away from Andrew, and even the sunlight that had been burning his skin had been eclipsed by the flock of crows. Fear had taken the form of cold, a cold that ran through every vein in his body. If he didn't succeed, it was quite likely that he would die right now. Without leaving a single trace in the world, no one would ever remember his existence.
"No..."
He wasn't going to let that happen. Enlightened, Andrew stopped pushing and instead forced it. This time, he didn't just push hard with his own energy, but rather gave it no other choice. He exerted his will over his energy and forced it to flow. Then, a large green pentagon began to form in front of Andrew, bright green specks sprouting from it. The air stopped flowing for a moment, as if the world itself wanted to witness this. He could feel his musical energy brutally diminishing. It was logical, since Andrew did not yet have a musical core. There was nowhere to store energy. The little residual energy in his body was being used for this shield.
With one last breath, the pentagon was completely formed, and with a slight explosion of energy, it made itself present in the world. Andrew screamed as he endured the growing pain in his solar plexus. His body urgently sought a solution to the lack of energy and resorted to the quickest and most efficient solution. Form a musical core, here and now. Using the remnants of the great pentagon's energy, his body was forming a small musical core.
"Here we go..."
The horde of crows had arrived, and when they saw Andrew up close, they accelerated even more. Andrew clenched his teeth, as if this would change the situation even a little. The horde of crows then encountered the large green pentagon. The first crow that collided with it was burned and expelled into the dunes almost instantly. Seeing this, the other crows did not continue advancing as any animal normally would. As good musical creatures, the crows stopped their flight and remained static in the air, looking confusedly at the pentagon. After reasoning about the shield, the crows simply flew over the pentagon and jumped towards Andrew.
"Damn it!"
Andrew turned around and started running, a decision that at any other time would have been quite fruitful, but at this moment only condemned him further. The crows detected frightened prey and accelerated even more. Suddenly, Andrew stopped running and looked ahead. The desert sand had begun to rush toward a large cave between the dunes, from which a pair of enormous black claws emerged. The claws dug deep into the sand, searching for a strong foothold. The creature exerted its monumental power and leaped from the enormous cave in the distance. The large spear-shaped stinger caught Andrew's attention.
"Oh shit..."
***
A little boy was smiling as he read a biology book. The title read "Biology of the Cursed European Desert." Next to him sat a burly adult man with green eyes and a large scar on his neck, helping his young son with his reading.
"Father, why is the European desert so feared? According to the book, most creatures don't go beyond the second rank, except for the Sejmet..." asked the curious little boy.
"Son, you must never underestimate this desert. There is no absolute truth about what inhabits this desert, but you must be careful.
"What is it, Father?"
"I already told you, there is no absolute truth. But it is believed that this being is of the fifth rank, just like the Sejmet. But much more lethal. They call it..."
***
"Alaven, the one born of the dune..."
The second most powerful creature in the desert stood before Andrew.
"I'm screwed..."
Andrew, standing in the desert, surrounded and in a very bad situation, simply sighed. He closed his eyes, accepting his situation.
Strong hands crushed his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Andrew opened his eyes in fear and found himself in a familiar situation. The desert musician was carrying him in his arms as he ran at full speed through the desert.
"That took you a while..." Andrew said in a confident voice.
The desert musician remained indifferent, fleeing from Alavan. The desert itself trembled with every step this creature took; it was following them. Andrew knew the musician would come to save him, which is why he had made the barrier so large, seeking to get his attention.
"It was no coincidence at all..."
Andrew snorted and let his consciousness fall into the enormous void of exhaustion caused by the excessive use of his abilities. The constant sound of the man's boots acted as a kind of lullaby.
After this intense incident, Andrew woke up, his eyelids feeling heavy again, struggling to open them. He even considered the idea of simply lying back down and resting a little longer. Clearly, this idea was destroyed by the fact that he was literally in one of the most dangerous areas on the entire planet. Andrew forced himself to open his eyes wide and forced himself to stand up. The first thing he saw when he woke up was a huge pillar that seemed to be made of a material that did not come from the desert, a truly extraordinary pillar. It had intricate carvings and looked like the typical pillar found in an ancient temple that venerates deities. Andrew held his head for a moment; it hurt more than usual. Since that incident on Insect Hill, Andrew's head had not stopped hurting, a constant pain. At first, it was quite mild, but the more he used his musical energy, the more this pain increased. Right now, it could be considered a constant, severe migraine.
Standing up, Andrew stared open-mouthed at the place where he currently found himself. Indeed, he was in a temple, a ruined temple, to be more specific. Half the roof seemed to have collapsed decades ago, and the walls were gone. It was a complete mess of a place. But what made it so impressive was its location. On the only and highest mountain in the desert lay the ruins of a temple, a temple that could only exist for one reason.
"It's the temple of Anahi..."
According to current beliefs and studies on cultures that Andrew had taken as a child, if he remembered correctly, this temple belonged to Anahi, the God of Life...