Ethan stood at the edge of the clearing, his eyes still adjusting from the glowing light of the monolith he had just entered. The desert winds howled around him, carrying fine grains of sand that stung against his exposed skin. His hover truck was a distant memory now, swallowed by the shifting sands behind him. Here, in the heart of Kynara's souther, the world felt both a and alien.

  He exhaled heavily, his breaths uneven from the oppressive air. The enter with the monolith had left him rattled, his mind rag with questions that his AI, Iris, could not ahe faint stati his ears from the eleagiterference persisted, gnawing at his nerves.

  And then he saw him.

  Out of the swirling sands ahead, a figure emerged, cloaked iempest. At first, Ethan thought it was a mirage, his mind pying tricks after hours of tension in this desote ndscape. But as the figure approached, crity took hold.

  It was the same man.

  The pale, gaunt figure Ethan had entered before saving the refugees from Outpost Gamma all those months ago. His hollow eyes and sunken cheeks gave him an almost skeletal appearance, and the strange, glowing tattoos etched across his face shimmered faintly even in the daylight. His long, tattered robes billowed in the wind, and his feet barely seemed to disturb the sand as he moved closer.

  Ethan instinctively reached for the psma dagger at his side, his fingers brushing the hilt. "You again," he muttered, his voice carried away by the wind.

  The pale straopped a few paces away, tilting his head in that same unnerving way Ethan remembered. His expression was ral, almost serene, yet there was an iy in his hollow gaze that made Ethan feel exposed, as though the man could see through every yer of his being.

  "You have e far, Ethan Walker," the stranger said, his voice calm and otherworldly, carrying over the desert winds as if the very air bent to his will.

  Ethan's grip on his on tightened. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

  The stranger smiled faintly, though the expression didn't reach his eyes. "Who I am is of little sequence. What matters is that you are here, as you were always meant to be."

  Ethan's frustration bubbled to the surface. "Stop speaking in riddles. I didn't e out here for cryptisense. You told me before that the storm was just the beginning. What storm? What do you know about what's happening on this p?"

  The pale man didn't flinch. He simply raised a hand, gesturing toward the swirli around them. "This p... it has secrets buried deep, fotten by time and by those who cimed dominio. You, Ethan Walker, are part of its uhing."

  Ethan took a step forward, his voice firm. "Why me? I didn't choose to be here. I didn't ask for any of this."

  The stranger's hollow eyes bore into him. "Fate rarely waits for sent. It calls upon those who are unprepared, unknowing, a... necessary."

  Ethan's jaw ched. "I'm no one special. I'm just a merary trying to survive."

  The stranger's faint smile returned. "If survival were your only aim, you would not have e this far."

  The winds around them began to pick up, whipping sand into spiraling tendrils that danced across the duhe straurned away from Ethan and began walking toward the horizon, his movements effortless despite the shifting terrain.

  "Follow," he said simply, his voice cutting through the gale.

  Ethaated, every instin his body screaming to turn back, to leave this enigmatic figure and the unease he brought behind. But the pull he felt was undeniable. It wasn't just the stranger's words, it was something deeper, something he couldn't expin.

  Gripping his psma dagger tightly, Ethan followed.

  The journey was surreal. The pale stranger navigated the treacherous desert as though he had walked its paths a thousand times before. Ethan struggled to keep up, his boots sinking into the soft sand with each step. The heat bore down on him, beads of sweat f on his brow despite the cooling funs of his armor.

  The stranger never faltered. He moved with an eerie grace, his feet barely disturbing the sand. Occasionally, he would pause, his hollow eyes sing the horizon as if searg for something unseen.

  At one point, the straopped beside a rge roation, its surface etched with more of the strange symbols Ethan had seen earlier. He ran his fingers lightly over the carvings, muttering to himself in a nguage Ethan couldn't uand.

  "What are these symbols?" Ethan asked, his voice sharp with frustration. "And don't give me anue answer."

  The strauro him, his fingers still resting on the rock. "They are echoes of a civilization long fotten. A people who uood the power of the mind, the energy of the universe, and the bance of creation aru."

  Ethan frowned, his patience wearing thin. "What does that have to do with me?"

  The straepped closer, his hollow eyes pierg. "Because the power that slumbers within you is tied to them. The forces that left these marks have chosen you as a vessel now, whether you uand it or not."

  Ethan's chest tightened. "What do you mean by power? What are you talking about?"

  The stranger didn't answer. Instead, he gestured toward the horizon, where a faint glimmer of light could be seen through the swirling sands. "We are close. e."

  As they he source of the light, the air grew colder. The oppressive heat of the desert gave way to an almost unnatural chill, and the sand underfoot became firmer, tinged with an ashen hue.

  The ruins emerged from the sands like the bones of some a beast, their jagged edges partially buried but still imposing. Massive stone pilrs jutted skyward, their surfaces covered in intricate carvings that glowed faintly with an inner light.

  Ethan stopped in his tracks, his breath catg in his throat. The ruins were unlike anything he had ever seen. Alien, a, and alive with an energy that made the air hum.

  The strauro him, his expression unreadable. "You have reached the threshold, Ethan Walker. What lies within will shape the path ahead."

  Ethan's grip on his psma dagger tightened. "What's inside?"

  "Truth," the stranger said simply.

  Before Ethan could press further, the straepped aside, gesturing toward a narrow entrance partially cealed by fallen rubble. "Go. Some of your answers await."

  Ethaated, his heart pounding in his chest. The ruins seemed to pulse with a life of their own, and the air was thick with an energy that made his skin prickle.

  Wheuro ask the stranger one final question, he found oy air. The pale man was gone, his presence vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

  Ethan exhaled slowly, steeling himself. Whatever awaited him inside, he khere was n back. With a deep breath, he stepped forward into the darkness of the ruins.