Episode 28: Side Effects of Sand-Blood

The stench of blood in the medical tent overpowered the scent of disinfectant, clinging to everyone’s nostrils like a blood-soaked rag.

Mark lay curled on a stone bed, his skin cracked like sun-dried bark. Dark red beads of blood oozed from the fissures, staining the sheets with tiny, starlit crimson spots. His left arm was wrapped in thick bandages, from beneath which a patch of bruised, black skin peeked out, embedded with several half-inch-long crystal sand-spines. Their tips glowed with an eerie blue light, as if they had sprouted directly from the bone.

"Ugh... so itchy..." A bestial groan escaped Mark’s throat. His fingers clawed frantically at his chest, tearing the skin until the squirming muscle tissue beneath was exposed. Bizarrely, the torn-off skin did not fall away; instead, it melted like wax, slowly turning into fine sand that leaked through his fingers, forming a small pile beneath the bed.

Military doctor Anderson crouched nearby, tweezers poised to extract a spine. Sweat dripped down his temple, sizzling as it hit Mark’s wound and sent up a wisp of white smoke. "Hold still!" he snarled, pulling hard. "This thing is rooted in the bone! The more you scratch, the faster it grows!"

The moment the spine left his skin, Mark let out a shrill, piercing scream. No blood flowed from the wound; instead, a cluster of fine sand grains surged out, writhing like a living thing. It instantly filled the gap, and in its place, more, smaller sand-spines sprouted—dense and bristling like the back of a hedgehog.

"It’s useless..." Mark suddenly laughed, his voice as raspy as sandpaper on iron. "Yesterday, I saw Gary with my own eyes... The sand-spines on his arm had grown into the shape of a scorpion’s tail. By nightfall, he just walked out on his own, heading toward the Energy Zone. No amount of shouting could call him back."

Anderson’s face turned deathly pale. This was the fifth "night-walker" case among the Sand-Blood Warriors this week. They remained lucid during the day, but at night, they became like puppets with their souls pulled out, eyes vacant as they marched toward the Bone Core Energy Zone. Some collapsed in the sand before reaching their destination, their bodies slowly turning into crystal sand, while others vanished entirely into the blue glow of the core, leaving not even a shard of bone behind.

The tent flap creaked open.

Williams stood at the entrance, the hem of his black robe sweeping across the sand with a soft, rustling sound. His mechanical eye scanned Mark on the stone bed, its red light lingering on the crystal spines for a moment, as if assessing the value of cargo.

"What is the situation?" Williams's voice was devoid of warmth, as if he were addressing a malfunctioning machine rather than a suffering soldier.

Anderson scrambled to his feet, his report crinkling under his sweaty grip. "Chieftain, the side effects of the Sand-Blood serum are worsening." He pointed to the X-rays on the report. "Look, the soldiers who received the injections are experiencing calcification of the bones. The long bones in their limbs, in particular, already show clear crystalline structures. Cracked skin and spine proliferation are just the initial symptoms. What’s more terrifying is..."

"And what is more terrifying?" Williams raised his mechanical arm slightly, the alloy joints emitting a harsh, grinding friction.

Anderson swallowed hard, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Their brain waves are changing. When they walk toward the Energy Zone at night, their brain wave frequencies synchronize perfectly with the energy fluctuations of the Bone Core. It’s as if... as if they are being controlled by the consciousness of the Sand Scorpion Totem. According to the monitoring data, this erosion is irreversible. Within three months at most, their bodies will be completely replaced, turning them into mindless... sand-crystal puppets."

"Puppets?" Williams suddenly laughed. The sound echoed in the cramped tent, grating and harsh. "Are you questioning the gift of the Bone Core?"

He snatched the report, his mechanical fingers crushing it into fragments that drifted through the air like white butterflies. "It is an honor for these soldiers to have the chance to sacrifice themselves for the great Bone Core!" Williams’s mechanical eye flared with a surge of red light, fixed on Anderson. "Did you think they were born to be mere cannon fodder? Now, they can become a part of the divine—a blessing many would beg for!"

Mark suddenly began to convulse violently. His eyes snapped open, the pupils clouded, save for a single point of flickering blue in the center. He struggled and rolled off the stone bed, crawling on all fours like a beast. A strange, rattling sound emerged from his throat as he crawled toward Williams, his nails gouging deep furrows into the ground.

"Energy... need energy..." Mark’s voice had shifted entirely, sounding as if two people were speaking at once: his own raspy tone and a cold, alien whisper.

Williams’s mechanical arm flicked out a blade, the cold metal stopping just inches from Mark’s forehead. Mark froze, the blue light in his eyes pulsing frantically, as if in terror—or perhaps ecstasy.

"Do you see?" Williams said, his voice laced with fanaticism. "This isn't a side effect; it's evolution! They are shedding the fragility of humanity to become something far more powerful!" He retracted the blade and kicked Mark aside. "Throw him into the 'Evolution Pool.' Let the energy of the Bone Core accelerate the process."

The "Evolution Pool" was a large pit in the back of the temple, filled with a mixture of Bone Core secretions and pulverized sand-crystals. Soldiers with severe side effects were tossed in there. Anderson had once caught a glimpse; the "people" in the pool were no longer recognizable, just countless sand-spines writhing in the liquid like a pot of boiling toxic porridge.

"But Chieftain, he can still be saved..." Anderson tried to argue, only to be frozen by Williams’s icy gaze.

"Either carry out the order, or you can join them inside." Williams’s mechanical hand patted Anderson’s shoulder—a light touch, yet it felt to Anderson like the coil of a venomous snake. "Don't forget, your son is still a guard at the Energy Zone. His Sand-Blood serum was a special, high-concentration batch, personally approved by me."

The blood drained from Anderson’s face. He knew this was a threat. If he disobeyed, his son would be the next sacrifice for the pool.

Mark was dragged away by two Sand-Blood Warriors. He didn't struggle; instead, the blue light in his eyes grew brighter, and a strange, eerie smile played upon his lips. As he was dragged past the tent entrance, his fingers traced a mark in the sand, forming a miniature scorpion shape, its stinger pointed directly at Anderson.

Only Williams and Anderson remained in the tent, the air suffocatingly heavy.

Williams walked to the stone bed, picked up a fallen sand-spine, and toyed with it between his fingertips. The blue light from the spine reflected in his mechanical eye like two flickering ghost fires.

"Do you think I care for the lives of these scraps?" Williams asked, his voice low, as if rising from the depths of the earth. "They are nothing more than fuel for the awakening of the Bone Core. Once Alicia completes the ritual, these sand-crystal puppets will become the first 'Divine Warriors,' helping me wipe out Tribe X and rule the entire Great Desert."

He dropped the spine and crushed it under his military boot. "Three months? That’s plenty. By then, no one will remember their names—they will only sing praises to me: the new god of the desert."

Anderson kept his head bowed, afraid to meet Williams’s gaze. Hidden in his pocket was a secret report documenting a more terrifying discovery: the side effects of the Sand-Blood serum were spreading. It wasn't just the soldiers who had been injected; even the guards who had merely come near the Evolution Pool were beginning to develop sand-crystal particles beneath their skin.

This was no evolution—it was a plague. A plague triggered by the energy of the Bone Core, destined to turn everyone into sand-crystal puppets.

Williams turned and walked out of the tent, his black robe snapping in the wind. He did not see Anderson secretly hide the secret report in the medical waste bin. Inside, the sand grains were slowly gathering, imprinting a blurred scorpion totem onto the report.

Meanwhile, Mark, being dragged toward the Evolution Pool, suddenly stopped as he passed the edge of the Energy Zone. He looked up at the increasingly dense blue light atop the temple, and the blue in his eyes turned to a burning crimson. Beneath his skin, countless sand-spines pierced through simultaneously, forming the shape of a massive scorpion tail on his back. Its stinger pointed toward the sky, emitting a piercing, buzzing drone.

The liquid in the Evolution Pool began to boil. Countless sand-spines broke the surface, bending toward Mark as if bowing to their new king.

Anderson stood at the entrance of the medical tent, watching this grotesque scene, his blood running cold. He knew Williams was wrong. These were not Divine Warriors; they were demons on the verge of hatching.

And this catastrophe, sparked by the Sand-Blood serum, had only just begun.