The ground below was growing larger with every passing second, far too quickly for his liking.
’I’m going to die.’
There was no doubt to the realization.
If he struck the ground at this speed, there would not even be a body left to bury.
His teeth clenched.
’No! No! I can’t die now.’
Instantly there was a switch, from panicking to instantly frantically searching for any possible escape.
Arlo glanced to the side and saw Fat Con plummeting even faster than he was. In that instant, an idea flashed through his mind.
The ground rushed toward them at terrifying speed, closing the distance from twenty meters to fifteen, then ten.
Then, without warning, Fat Con slammed a fist against the center of his chest.
His entire body immediately shifted upright in midair.
Arlo did not hesitate. With death rapidly approaching, there was no time for doubt.
He copied the motion exactly, driving his own fist into his chest only two seconds later.
WRRRRING! WRRRRING!
A chorus of metallic clicks and shifting machinery erupted from within his armor.
Startled, Arlo looked down.
Before his eyes, the soles of his boots split apart, and brilliant jets of blue-white flame burst downward with explosive force.
His terrifying descent slowed almost instantly.
One after another, the soldiers landed gracefully on the desert sands, their movements so smooth that barely a sound escaped.
One meter above the ground, Arlo also came to a sudden stop. The armor somehow absorbed the force of the halt, as though gravity itself had released him.
Before he could even make sense of what had happened, his body pitched forward.
BAAAANG!
The entire squad turned at the deafening crash.
What greeted them was a rather absurd sight.
Arlo’s legs kicked helplessly in the air while the rest of his body had disappeared headfirst into the sand.
"Seriously, who in the world approved bringing this kid?"
Ennessa pinched the bridge of her nose, asking herself the same question for the second time.
Suppressing a sigh, Fat Con hurried over, grabbed Arlo by both legs, and pulled him free.
COUGH!
COUGH!
Arlo staggered backward, coughing violently as sand poured from his mouth.
His eyebrows, his hair, and even the inside of his ears seemed to be completely filled with sand.
When he looked up, the rest of the squad stared back at him with expressions ranging from disbelief to utter confusion.
Captain Ennessa shot him a sharp glare.
"I swear, if you make one more unnecessary mistake, I’ll personally throw you to the Vorath."
A chill ran down Arlo’s spine.
Before he could respond, Fat Con quickly stepped forward.
"It won’t happen again, Captain. I’ll make sure of it."
She studied them for a moment before turning away.
"See that you do."
Without another word, she resumed walking, and the rest of the squad silently followed.
Only after putting several meters between themselves and the others did Fat Con finally release the breath he had been holding.
"You really need to start taking this seriously, Arlo."
His usual carefree tone had completely disappeared.
"One mistake is all it’ll take. Captain Ennessa isn’t joking. If she says she’ll see you dead, believe her, because no one would question it."
"You’d simply become another name on the list of soldiers who died fighting for humanity, and that would be the end of your story."
"So if you value your life, start listening."
For the first time since arriving on Earth, Arlo saw genuine concern in Fat Con’s eyes.
He nodded solemnly.
"I owe you more than I can ever repay."
It was not an exaggeration. Since opening his eyes in this strange world, Fat Con had rescued him time and time again.
The large man scratched the back of his head chuckling.
"Now come on. We’ve still got a mission to finish."
Arlo could not help but smile faintly.
However, as he continued following behind the squad, his expression gradually hardened, as in the silence of it all, everything began to replay itself.
Losing his father, his mother becoming captive or dead, the five hundred loyal guards who had given their lives without hesitation so he could escape.
And now after all that, he was walking towards war, where keeping his life is far from guaranteed.
All of it slowly made his fists tighten within the armor, but then, the realization occurred to him:
Back in Umbrasol, his fate had already been sealed, but this world had given him another chance to grow stronger and one day reclaim everything that had been stolen from him.
’This mission won’t be where my story ends. I’ll survive.’
_________
The squad marched across the desert, but before long, the wind erased every footprint they left behind.
It was a simple sight, yet one that filled Arlo with an uneasy feeling.
If they died here, perhaps the desert would erase every sign of them just as effortlessly.
"It should be here."
Captain Ennessa suddenly stopped, and the squad immediately did the same. The soldiers looked around, confused. There was nothing but endless desert in every direction.
"But..." one soldier frowned. "...Captain, it’s just a desert."
Arlo’s attention shifted towards the captain.
Resting in her hand was a small spherical device that emitted pulses of pale blue light.
’So that’s their tracking artifact...’
He lowered his gaze to the ground beneath his feet and immediately saw countless streams of multicolored light drifting up from beneath the sand.
Anyone from Umbrasol would have recognized them at once: elemental energy.
’It’s directly beneath us...’
He realized but then his eyes narrowed.
’Why can’t they see it?’
None of the soldiers reacted, not even Ennessa, and a possibility resurfaced in his mind.
’Could it be that Humans on this world cannot perceive elemental energy?’
The thought lingered only briefly before Arlo made up his mind.
"Captain."
Ennessa closed her eyes for a moment.
That voice again.
"What is it now, kid?"
Arlo pointed toward the ground beneath them.
"I think there’s something beneath us."
Ennessa’s expression changed, and she instinctively lowered her attention toward the desert beneath her boots.
Only then did she notice it: A faint, almost imperceptible pressure.
"...An underground settlement."
She quietly muttered to herself before a slow smile appeared on her face.
"Of course."
"If they chose the middle of a desert as their hiding place. Where else would they build it except beneath the sands?"