I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

Something's not right.

Anna's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting their bickering.

She pulled on the reins, bringing the horse to a stop, her delicate eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“There are so many shifting sands here.” Anna looked around. “It seems we’ve been taking a roundabout route. Logically, we should have been out of this desert by now, since our planned route only covers a corner of the desert, not the entire desert.”

Upon hearing this, Lynn and Lisa stopped, and the relaxed expressions on their faces vanished instantly.

Anna remained silent for a moment, as if sensing something.

A dry, hot wind blew by, stirring up the sand on the ground and making a rustling sound.

“I feel,” Anna finally spoke, her voice soft, but Lynn and Lisa heard it clearly.

"Something is following us."

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Oasis

"Something is following us."

As soon as Anna finished speaking, Lynn and Lisa simultaneously reined in their horses and looked around warily.

The endless sea of ​​sand has nothing but rolling sand dunes.

The sun hung in the faded sky, baking every grain of sand until it was scorching hot.

It was eerily quiet.

However, in the midst of this anxiety, the unicorn beneath Lynn suddenly pawed its hooves uneasily and let out a low snort.

Then, a sudden change occurred.

A huge sand dune a hundred meters ahead began to move without warning.

rustle……

Centered on that shifting sand dune, bulges rapidly rose on the surrounding flat sand, as if something was eagerly about to burst forth from the ground.

"boom--!"

With a loud bang, the sand dune, which was more than ten meters high, suddenly exploded.

Yellow sand filled the sky.

A disgustingly large head emerged from the sandstorm.

It has no eyes, only a huge mouth covered with rings of sharp teeth.

Foul-smelling liquid dripped from the edge of the mouthparts, corroding the crimson sand into deep, sizzling pits.

"Hiss—!"

Accompanied by a sharp hiss, the surrounding bulges burst open one after another, and countless sand lizards crawled out.

Their bodies were covered in scales that blended perfectly with the color of the sand, their scarlet tongues flickered, and their vertical pupils locked onto the three people who had intruded into their territory.

They were densely packed; a quick glance revealed at least a hundred of them.

Anna remained expressionless, simply casting an Appraisal spell at the enormous creature that emerged from the sand dunes.

[Race: Giant Worm]

[Level: 50]

【HP: 100%】

[Sanity: 15 / Extremely hostile towards any living creature that trespasses on their territory]

Level 50.

Fortunately, it's not too outrageous.

Anna quickly made a judgment in her mind. She had an absolute advantage in level, but this was a desert, the enemy's home ground. These monsters could hide in the sand at any time to avoid attacks, which was a bit tricky.

However, after the Siren incident, her sanity level has reached 90 points.

Ninety points.

This is a number she never dared to even imagine before.

Her abundant spiritual power made her feel incredibly strong, and she was even confident that she could raze this area to the ground with a large-scale holy light spell without considering the cost.

Lisa, who was standing to the side, had already drawn her longsword. She didn't say a word, but silently urged her mount to stand in front of Anna and Lynn, assuming a defensive stance.

Anna's staff had appeared in her hand, and the core of holy light at the top of the staff began to gather a dazzling light.

Just as she was about to chant a spell to unleash a "holy light" on these ignorant desert creatures, Lynn rode out from beside her.

"Your Highness, leave it to me."

Lynn rode his snow-white unicorn to the front of the group, his back to Anna and Lisa.

Anna stopped in her motion to cast the spell.

She stared at Lynn's retreating figure with some surprise.

Give it to him?

Lisa was stunned. She even wondered if she was hallucinating because of the hot weather.

Lynn didn't turn around, though he could certainly feel the two pairs of confused and bewildered gazes behind him.

He just sighed silently to himself.

I'm increasingly grateful that I was picked up by the saintess at the beginning of the game.

Without Anna, let alone taming this growing Holy Spirit Unicorn, even that incredibly beautiful Siren would never have become part of my fighting force.

This saintess, gentle both inside and out, pulled him out of despair time and time again, pointed him in the right direction, and even risked her life to keep him by her side.

Now, it's his turn.

For an ordinary level 5 person, being able to cast a level 60 spell does sound incredibly absurd.

But Lynn said it wasn't because he was cheating too much.

They were just incredibly lucky.

[Available Sanity Points: 70]

Looking at the numbers on the panel, Lynn no longer hesitated.

Since so many enemies have come, we have to have some fun.

"Singing together across the seas."

Lynn's voice was very soft, without any incantations or spellcasting gestures, just a simple sentence.

The moment the words left his mouth, the light in the entire world dimmed.

The scorching sun disappeared, and a bright, softly glowing crescent moon rose.

Behind Lynn, an enormous, semi-transparent phantom slowly emerged.

The siren hovered silently in mid-air, her long, black hair flowing like a waterfall without wind. A light veil woven from moonlight draped over her body, adding a touch of hazy beauty to her already holy face.

She tilted her head slightly, and a melodious and ethereal singing voice came from her mouth.

The song seemed to possess some kind of magical power, carrying the scent of the ocean, and instantly swept across the entire battlefield.

The sand lizard, which had been charging aggressively at the three of them, suddenly stopped moving the moment it came into contact with the singing.

next second.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of rapid explosions rang out.

The bodies of hundreds of sand lizards exploded without warning, turning into a sky full of dark green blood mist.

They didn't even have time to utter a wail before their health points were reduced to zero.

Sold out instantly.

A complete and utter annihilation.

Lisa stared blankly at the spectacular scene before her, her mind completely blank.

Anna was also stunned.

This... is a psychological attack?

The singing continued.

The musical notes, transformed from the song, gathered into a tidal wave after clearing out all the minions, sweeping over the giant worm.

Amidst the sound of the waves, countless alluring whispers pierce the depths of the soul.

"Roar--!!!"

The giant worm let out a painful roar.

Its massive body writhed wildly, its enormous mouth opening and closing, as the waves of its spirit washed over its fragile reason again and again.

It abandoned its attack, arching its massive body backward, trying to burrow back into the sand.

Want to run?

How could Lynn possibly give it that chance?

"【Tide-like silk binding】".

As he finished speaking, countless threads radiating moonlight suddenly split out from the waves.

These threads seemed to possess a life of their own; they broke through the sound waves and precisely wrapped around the enormous body of the giant worm, from bottom to top, circle after circle, tightening more and more.

In just a few breaths, the giant worm-like curtain was wrapped into a huge cocoon.

The worm struggled frantically, trying to break these seemingly fragile threads.

But all is in vain.

The tidal threads tightened continuously, digging deep into its flesh and blood, fixing it firmly in place, unable to move.

The worm's struggles grew weaker and weaker.

Finally, its massive body went completely limp and fell silent.

As the giant worm died, the siren's song gradually ceased.

The false crescent moon behind her, along with her holy phantom, turned into specks of light and dissipated into the air.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Sacrificial Ceremony

The world returned to normal.

The scorching sun still hung high, but the crimson sand had now turned into a muddy mess.

Vast areas of sand were soaked by water, forming a wide swamp.

Lynn stared at the wet sand beneath his feet, utterly bewildered.

Holy crap, isn't this a psychological attack? How come there's actually water?

Anna and Lisa rode up to him, their faces still showing shock.

"Let's go."

Anna was the first to come to her senses. She glanced at the corpse of the giant worm and said, "If we leave here, the next time someone passes by this place, they should be able to see an oasis."

"what?"

Lynn was even more shocked. "Didn't the Sirens summon seawater? How could seawater form an oasis? That thing only destroys land, right?"

“After the giant worm dies, its flesh decomposes, nourishing the land and eventually forming an oasis,” Anna patiently explained. “This has nothing to do with the Sirens.”

Oh oh.

It turned out to be the case.

Lynn nodded, feeling that he had learned another strange piece of knowledge about another world.

The three of them fell silent, urging their mounts forward as they traversed this land that was about to be reborn because of a battle.