Chapter 241 241- Mystic Dessert (Part 1)

Chapter 241- Mystic Dessert (Part 1)

Aria found herself completely speechless when she heard what Kai said. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to formulate something to say but ended up failing miserably.

After all, she never expected in her wildest dreams to see Kai talking to her so honestly. He did say that he still didn't forgive her for what she did to him. But, the fact that he still cherishes their time together when they were kids truly hit Aria right in the chest.

She had already thought that Kai hated every moment of those days since he thought they were fake. Aria knew that they weren't fake and that she genuinely loved every moment and wanted to spend the rest of her life with Kai if she could.

However, she also knew that he would never believe her if she said that she genuinely loved him and cared for him as much as he did for her.

All of those thoughts crumbled down and weirdly enough, a feeling of relief cast over Aria's thoughts and made her exhale a long sigh of relief.

"Thank you… Truly, thank you." She finally murmured in response as she bent her head down. The immense happiness of realizing that the person you love still looks at your memories with fondness.

"..." Kai didn't reply and simply continued eating silently.

Although neither of them spoke for the rest of the dinner, the awkward atmosphere had finally dispersed. Secretly, both of them were relieved since living with someone that you can't even properly talk to is something that no one can bear, even Kai.

***

A few days passed peacefully and finally, Kai, Aria, and Kaya took the plane toward their destination. Kaya made sure to cover for them during this whole trip so that they didn't end up in trouble because of it.

The trip was rather quick as it only took a few hours. When they landed at their destination, they left the airport. The city they were in was in R-Country and it was in the south. The city was in the heart of the desert, surrounded by endless dunes of sand from all directions.

The city was a very popular tourist destination simply for the beautiful desert and the rich culture of the city that they kept for hundreds of years. The city was called Malzahar or the pearl of the South as many liked to describe it.

"Oooh, this city is still as beautiful as I remember," Kaya spoke as she slid her sunglasses down to take a better look around her. The bustling cities of the city were as lively as ever. People riding horses and camels moved past them wearing traditional clothes.

Merchants could be seen everywhere, selling all kinds of delicacies.

"Let's go. We can't stay here for long." Kai said as he stopped a cab for them.

Since they only had two days at most to finish what they had to do, the trio needed to move and move quickly.

The cab took them to the edge of the city which was surrounded by a wall for protection from sandstorms and sand in general that gets pushed inside the city.

When they reached it, they quickly exited and headed to the gate.

"Do you have permission to enter the desert?" Two police officers stopped them at the gate and asked for a certificate that allowed them to exit the city.

The trio didn't know such a thing existed so they were denied exit. Kai wanted to simply hypnotize them and then leave but then found another idea to go about it.

"What should we do?" Kaya asked with a sigh.

"Let's jump over the walls." He said as he looked around them. The walls weren't that tall so they could easily jump over them.

"Good idea." Aria murmured.

So the trio moved away from the gate to an area where no one could see them and then with a single leap, they landed on top of the walls.

"*Whistle* Now that's what I call a beautiful sight." Kaya smiled as she admired the scenery.

A vast expanse of sand dunes presented itself to the group. The landscape was akin to a canvas of muted earth tones, painted with varying shades of ochre, beige, and tan. The scorching sun cast its golden rays upon the arid expanse, creating a shimmering mirage that danced above the dunes.

Here and there, scattered shrubs and resilient tufts of hardy grass cling tenaciously to life, looking withered and yet alive at the same time, a perfect depiction of life in this endless desert. As their eyes followed the undulating contours of the land, occasional rock formations emerged like ancient sentinels, weathered and sculpted by countless eons of winds and sand.

Because of its sheer vastness, people only explored 20% of it completely which left an extremely shocking 80% of the desert completely unknown.

"Let's go," Kai said after taking a look around him and jumping down.

The two girls followed after him and then they dashed toward the distance, crossing a vast distance in a short period of time. The scorching hot sand beneath their feet made the run rather uncomfortable but with how beautiful the desert looked, they could bear with it.

In a matter of minutes, they were so far away from the city that they couldn't even see it anymore.

"So, how are we supposed to start searching for this place that the map told us about?" Kaya asked.

Kai nodded his head and pulled out the map to take another look. Since the x drawn on the map was rather big, it covered a huge space on the map.

"We can't do much other than to go to the approximate location and then start searching. If there is anything there, then surely there would be an Origin trace on it that we could sense." Kai said.

The progenitor's arsenal of weapons was brutally strong, as Kai saw firsthand when he fought Eva and almost got himself killed. So, these weapons are easily distinguishable from normal ones with their abundant Origin.

'We will have to see for ourselves whether we really are in the right place or this was simply a stupid joke.'

With that in mind, the trio continued their trip to the location they assumed would be the perfect place for searching. All three of them expanded their senses as much as possible to cover every nook and cranny of this vast desert. It wasn't easy to pinpoint every single small detail around them, especially with the existence of plants, animals, and all kinds of rocks and dead carcasses.

"We need to separate and look around," Aria suggested when she found that they couldn't really notice any abnormal things around them. The location they were in was completely unknown to people.

Kai and Kaya agreed to it and the trio finally separated, each one going in a different direction. With that, a few more hours passed quietly with no actual results. Kai was starting to think that this was just as he predicted, a mere trick, or perhaps this supposed treasure was already stolen a long time ago.

When the sun was about to set, he finally decided to go back to their meeting point as they agreed.

***

At the same time, far away from where he was, Kaya was also searching on her own. Other than snakes, scorpions, and an ungodly number of cactuses, she found nothing that truly caught her attention.

"Maybe I should just go back…. Hm?" Suddenly, as she was looking around, she suddenly noticed a weird shift in the movements of the sand dunes around her.

"Huh?" Looking closely, she noticed that it was noticeably sliding in a different direction from the wind. That made her even more confused as to what was going on.

The direction of the sand movements was the opposite way she came from, precisely in the direction she came from.

"What in the hell is going on?"

Deciding to go back to see what happened, she found Kai back there waiting for her.

"Did you find anything, Kai?" She asked.

"No, none. I just arrived here."

Kaya nodded her head before she pointed at the sand. "Look, I noticed the change in the direction of the movement of the sand."

"Hm?"

Looking beneath him, Kai's face frowned.

"What is happening?"

"I don't really know. Where is Aria?" Kaya asked.

"She still didn't come back yet…" Kai suddenly looked up and traced the movement of the sand in the direction Aria moved in.

"Shit…"

"What?"

"Aria went from that direction, didn't she?"

"Oh no…"

Kaya quickly realized what Kai wanted to say and so the two immediately dashed toward the direction Aria went from. Whatever was happening wasn't by pure coincidence or at least that's what they believed.

The two crossed a large distance in a matter of moments as they followed the trail of the moving sand. It didn't take them long to find something that truly rooted them in their place from shock.

"What… in the hell… is this?" Kaya asked with a shocked expression.

In front of them was a gigantic, bottomless hole, that was swallowing endless amounts of sand.