Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 229: The Battle Begins

Moonlight spilled across the dunes, painting the desert in shades of silver and shadow. Nathaniel had refused to remain within the Black Fortress, preferring the solitude of the open sands over the ceaseless screams of imprisoned humans echoing through the stone corridors. Usually, the fortress housed no living mortals—only the dead and the damned. But ever since the fifth stage’s mass teleportation, times had changed.

He wasn’t far from the fortress, close enough to return quickly if he needed to use the teleportation gates. His patron had made it very clear: Ankhet must be revived. That was Nathaniel’s mission—and he would see it fulfilled. Still, curiosity lingered in his thoughts. How had that guy achieved a divine class or race? A god-touched being in the fifth stage… The coming days promised to be interesting.

He lay sprawled on his back, the cold sand shifting beneath him, eyes fixed on the glowing moon above. His arm ached slightly. He needed more human skin to continue crafting the bandage that wrapped his right arm, but only the strongest humans were suitable. Weak flesh corrupted the enchantment.

Just then, a message pulsed through his bond. A sharp grin tugged at his lips.

"Ha. One of the big ones is down?" he muttered, surprised.

He had embedded alert tokens only in the most powerful elementals. There was no point tracking the lesser ones, who regularly cannibalized each other for strength. The signal meant one of his elite guardians had fallen. Curious, he checked the location. It was far from any catacomb, deep in the open dunes. That ruled out internal sabotage. A wild beast, perhaps? One of the buried sand lizards awakening from hibernation?

Whatever it was, Nathaniel intended to find out.

The bandage on his arm began to hum with energy as he rose. A good fight—he hadn’t had one of those in weeks. Strong beasts were rare in these parts. The vampires had been boasting to the Council about their battle with a human recently, and though Nathaniel found them insufferable, he took satisfaction in hearing they’d lost several members.

With one last glance at the moon and the shimmering sands around him, Nathaniel stirred the desert. The ground beneath him shifted, and with a surge of energy, he launched forward, riding the sand as though it were water. The wind howled past, tugging at his robes, and a storm bloomed in his wake.

Sand-surfing never grew old. He sliced across tall dunes and plunged through narrow valleys, grinning as the terrain blurred around him. It wasn’t long before he reached the remains of the fallen elemental. The massive core was gone, but the hardened sand formations left behind made it clear what had once stood there.

Nathaniel crouched low, inspecting the site. The only clue was a series of darkened scorch marks in the sand.

Black fire? Shadow magic? Perhaps a fire mage? He doubted it. This hadn’t been the work of another sand elemental. He suspected an elf—only their kind could survive so deep into the desert undetected and muster the power to defeat one of his elite constructs. Humans lacked the strength—and the subtlety.

He examined the sand more closely and found nearly-erased footprints. To most, they would seem insignificant. But this desert was his domain. Every grain, every ripple spoke to him. He would find the intruder.

The thought of facing a powerful foe made his heart race, his eyes gleaming with greed. The bandage on his arm now stretched to his shoulder—just a little more, and the enchantment would be complete. Driven by anticipation, he launched forward again, speeding across the desert, following the almost invisible trail.

Oddly, the tracks didn’t lead toward a catacomb. They were heading deeper into the heart of the desert, where even more elementals stirred beneath the sands. As he pursued, Nathaniel passed the remains of over twenty more sand elementals, each one reduced to broken cores and crumbling shells. Whoever this intruder was, they were cutting a path of destruction through his guardians.

And then, he heard it.

A distant, rhythmic thundering—combat. The sand trembled beneath his feet with each heavy blow. He crested a towering dune and paused, eyes narrowing at the scene below.

A towering sand elemental was locked in battle with a creature of shadow and nightmare.

The being looked utterly alien. It stood tall and eerily slim, its skin as black as midnight. Yet it wasn’t flesh—it gleamed like obsidian, fractured by tiny glowing cracks that pulsed with an inner energy, as though muscle fibers moved beneath the surface like strands of glass. From its shoulders jutted jagged bone-like spikes, sharp and dark as night.

It had only one arm, ending in long, wicked claws. Its face bore a single eye, glowing with eerie violet light, while the other socket swirled with inky mist or liquid shadow. The creature seemed fragile—almost delicate. But as Nathaniel watched, it became clear just how deadly it truly was.

Darkness bent unnaturally around it, thickening until even moonlight fled. From the shadows rose countless tendrils, lashing out to tear through the elemental’s legs as the creature darted between them in bursts of violent speed. Its strikes were precise and brutal—blades of darkness cutting deep, leaving the elemental limping and unraveling.

Within a minute, the elemental was nothing more than falling sand and dim light. The creature didn’t even look winded.

Nathaniel's eyes widened as black tendrils erupted from the creature’s body, latching onto the elemental’s shattered core. In a matter of seconds, it dissolved—absorbed, consumed. Another notification pulsed through his mind: the elemental was gone.

This thing was powerful. Too powerful to have revealed all its abilities yet—but Nathaniel felt no fear. Only excitement. It had been far too long since he faced a true challenge. First, though, he needed to know what it was. Sometimes, the stronger beasts could speak. Sometimes they had stories worth hearing before their end.

Sliding down the dune into the shadowed valley, Nathaniel moved with caution. The creature turned slowly to meet him, its single violet eye locking onto him as though it had known he’d been watching the whole time.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Can you speak?” Nathaniel asked, a thin smile on his lips. It didn’t reach his eyes. He was already preparing for combat, gathering the sand beneath his feet, keeping his guard high. This thing was fast—faster than anything he had seen in the tutorial. He wouldn’t be caught off-guard.

The creature answered, its voice like a whisper from the void—ancient, hollow, and filled with weight. “So, you are the one who created the sand elementals. The mummy’s chosen. Nathaniel, correct?”

A shiver crept up Nathaniel’s spine. He clenched his jaw. “Yes, I am Nathaniel. But how does an abomination like you know my name?”

The creature didn’t blink, didn’t shift. “That isn’t important. Tell me—how did you create the sand elementals?”

Its grin stretched unnaturally wide, needle-like teeth glinting within a mouth that looked like it could unhinge. The smile may have been amusement, but it exuded only menace.

Irritation flared in Nathaniel’s chest. For a moment, the urge to rip the creature’s remaining arm clean off surged through him. He forced it down and replied coolly, “It’s one of my skills, naturally.”

Partly true. In reality, he still relied on components from the system shop. The way the creature tilted its head and shifted slightly told him it knew he wasn’t being entirely honest. A lie detection skill? That shouldn't be possible—those were locked behind ancient bloodlines and rare titels.

He would make this thing an undead when the fight was over. Something this powerful would serve well in the coming war. His eyes glinted with greedy purpose as he launched forward, his bandaged arm drawn back to strike. If he landed a single solid hit, it would be over.

But the creature moved faster than thought—blurring to the side and retaliating with a swipe of its claw. The darkness surrounding it intensified. Its claws lengthened, empowered by a skill, and it struck with such speed and force that even Nathaniel had to abandon his attack.

The sand surged beneath him, moving his body away in a burst of momentum just in time. He skidded back across the dune, heart pounding as he watched the creature. From its form, dark mist rose like smoke, and it seemed to burn—black fire dancing around it, feeding on shadow.

What in the hells is this thing? Nathaniel thought grimly. He clenched his fists, channeling more mana through his limbs. He couldn’t hold back.

Domains were always dangerous. They tilted the battlefield, empowering the wielder while weakening their opponent. This creature was already using its domain—Nathaniel could feel the oppressive weight of it, serounding the creatures body. There was no reason to not unleash his own domain.

Especially not in his desert.

Retreating briefly to gain space, he raised both arms. The sands responded immediately. For a hundred meters around, the dunes lifted into the air in spirals, whirling into a growing storm. The wind howled as the grains spun faster, forming a vortex of chaos around him. His domain.

It looked like a hurricane—but there was no safe eye in the storm. No calm. The winds, the sand, the fury—they all empowered him, even as they drained his mana. Within the storm, he became a phantom, impossible to predict. Hidden within the swirling debris, he struck where he wished.

But the creature didn’t falter.

It stepped into the storm as if it were nothing more than a breeze. The wind didn’t slow it. The sand didn’t peel away its flesh. It moved straight toward him, unaffected. Worse, the shadows around it grew thicker, more violent. Tiny flames licked up from its surface—brief flickers of black fire—but the storm carried them away before they could spread.

Still, Nathaniel's unease deepened.

How is it unharmed? How can it ignore the storm completely?

More unnervingly, the darkness didn’t diminish. It intensified. As if his domain wasn’t hindering it. Just how powerful was that thing?

For now, Nathaniel chose to keep his distance. Recklessness was a death sentence when facing something like that. Every movement the creature made was a study in lethal grace—its frame lean, almost wiry, yet brimming with an uncanny strength that made even vampires seem tame by comparison.

Nathaniel was no stranger to power himself. Though his true strengths lay in magic and manipulation, he was far from weak. But engaging this abomination in direct melee at this stage would be suicidal. He raised a hand, fingers curling as if grasping something invisible. In response, the sand beneath the creature detonated in a violent upward blast—a trap meant to hurl it skyward and into the heart of Nathaniel’s swirling sandstorm.

Yet it moved as though it had seen the strike before it happened. Its body twisted mid-stride, slipping past the explosion in a motion so fluid it seemed choreographed. It didn’t stumble, didn’t slow. It kept advancing, relentless. And now, black spikes sprouted from the air around it—formed from condensed darkness and launched toward Nathaniel like obsidian bolts.

“Tch. Annoying,” Nathaniel muttered under his breath, his cloak whipping violently in the storm winds. This enemy wasn’t just strong—it was evasive, calculating. Landing a decisive spell would be difficult. Worse, casting a high-cost incantation and missing could drain him too quickly, turning the tide in the monster’s favor.

Still, Nathaniel’s mana reserves were vast, a deep well few could rival. Even with his domain active, he had confidence in his endurance. He just had to play this smart. The sand eruptions weren’t doing the trick, so it was time to change tactics.

His lips curled into a grin, eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Let’s see if it can withstand this.

The next spell had been a recent acquisition—a dangerous upgrade he hadn’t yet tested on a worthy subject. Now, faced with a being seemingly forged of darkness itself, he would finally find out whether the enchantment lived up to its promise… or if this thing could shrug it off like everything else.