Travelling through the desert was somewhat easier than before. Adam had improved his spell to protect against heat, based on knowledge gained from talking to the desert villagers. The current version of the spell used less energy yet reflected a greater proportion of the sunlight striking the pair and their camels. As a result, they could travel in greater comfort while using up less of Adam's spirit energy: important advantages when they could be ambushed by monsters at any time.

However, they still couldn't afford to relax. There was little information on the oases to the west of the village, and—for this reason—no other villages existed in this area. Water was therefore a major concern. The pair and their camels needed less water thanks to Adam's magic, but they still required enough that it would be infeasible to carry all the water for their journey.

For the first few days, they encountered desert vegetation and therefore had access to water. The camels could eat the tough, thorny plants with ease, and did not need additional water to drink. Adam and Lilith broke off the stems and leaves of certain plants and drank the sap; they only dared to do this because the desert villagers had warned them which plants were safe and which were poisonous.

On the third day, there was a sand storm. The approaching yellow-brown clouds were a foreboding yet also oddly beautiful sight. Adam, Lilith, and their camels huddled in the shelter of a dune to wait for the storm to pass. The human and succubus also covered their faces with long cloths. Despite this protective measure, their faces were covered with sand by the time the storm passed. They had to use some of their water to wash the sand off. The camels, on the other hand, were entirely unperturbed by the storm.

But by the fifth day, they were in the depths of the desert, where there were again no plants or animals in sight. At this point, they needed to resort to magic.

On the evening of the fifth day, Lilith began looking for water. She approached a small valley and placed her hands on the sand. She remained in this position for about thirty seconds, then shook her head and stood up. She repeated this process eight times, taking slightly less time with each repetition.

When Lilith examined the ninth valley, she announced, "Alright, it should be close enough here".

Lilith close her eyes, and Adam could feel her focusing her demonic energy. Eventually, a dark patch formed in the sand. The patch expanded until it was roughly one pace in diameter. Beads of water appeared, rapidly increased in size and number, and eventually formed a puddle of water.

"Finally!" Lilith exclaimed. She was trembling so much that she looked like she would fall into the puddle at any moment.

"Why don't you go first?" Adam said. "You're the one who did all the work."

Lilith knelt down, filled her waterskin and gulped down all the contents, then filled her waterskin again. Sighing with relief, she said, "In the last few minutes… I just used more water magic… than in my whole life…"

This was another way of acquiring water in the desert. There was plenty of water underground, shielded by the sand from the harsh sunlight. The usual way to extract it was to dig a hole and wait for it to fill, but this was tiring work and it could take several hours for enough water to fill the hole. Using water magic to extract the water was better, provided that one had the skill.

Adam filled his own waterskin, then stepped aside to allow the camels to drink the remaining water. While drinking, he looked up at the night sky: it was a beautiful sight, with no clouds to obscure the moon and stars.

-ooo-

From that point on, Adam and Lilith had more or less grown accustomed to the rigours of the desert. They would never find it comfortable, but they at least no longer had to worry about simply surviving to the next day. Of course, it wasn't as if they could survive here indefinitely.

"We have enough rations for ten more days, at most," Adam said. "I hope we find the Pyramid soon."

"According to one of the stories, it should be around here somewhere," Lilith said. "We might find it today."

"Perhaps… but then, another story said that it was months away from the nearest village," Adam said. "I doubt that even a desert monster could travel that far. And each of these stories is as plausible as the rest."

"We'll just have to hope that the Pyramid isn't too far," Lilith said. After a pause, she continued, "You know, if we don't manage to find it, our camels could probably still survive, if they can make it back to where there's greenery. They'd be the only evidence left of another failed attempt to find the Pyramid."

Adam laughed. Dark humour like this was common in his former group: it was one of the few ways to remain cheerful in a job where you could die any day.

"Maybe our skeletons would still be in the saddles… that would frighten anyone that saw—"

Lilith stopped and reached for her spear. At the same time, Adam drew his sword. But before he could ask the direction or numbers of the attackers, the camels began running.

"What's—happening!?" Adam asked, desperately trying to hold on to his camel. He could only use one hand to do so, since the camel's movements prevented him from resheathing his sword.

"It's—It's huge, there's no way we can fight it!" Lilith shouted back. "We have to run!"

The ground began to shake. Since they were made of soft sand, the surrounding dunes collapsed, creating more hazards to deal with. The camels twisted and turned to avoid the falling sand, driven by instinct rather than any command from their riders.

Adam sensed a demonic energy source… and immediately realised why Lilith and the camels were so alarmed. If the monsters he'd faced before were sparks, this was a raging wildfire. An entire platoon of veteran heroes wouldn't stand a chance against it.

Finally, a gargantuan monster emerged from the sand. They were elongated like a serpent, but as thick as a small house and so long that, even with most of their body still beneath the surface, they could have wrapped around an entire ship and crushed it. The surface of their body was covered in overlapping plates, which gleamed like metal but were muddy brown in colour. The head of the monster bore three pairs of red eyes and a circular mouth filled with teeth.

A Sandworm, Adam thought, remembering the stories he'd heard in the desert village. It has to be, there's no other monster this big!

The Sandworm let out an ear-splitting shriek, then continued their pursuit by slithering over the surface. They were easily fast enough to keep up with the camels… and from the way the camels were panting, Adam knew that they wouldn't be able to run for much longer.

However, before Adam's camel reached its limit, Adam was thrown off its back by its wild movements. He braced himself for impact, only to be caught in mid-air by a strong pair of arms. It was Lilith, who'd jumped off her own camel to catch him.

"Hold on!" Lilith shouted.

Lilith veered to the left. The Sandworm turned to follow them, and their rapid change in direction kicked up a wave of sand, which swallowed up the two camels.

Dammit, that was most of our supplies, including my armour! At least I still have my sword!

The Sandworm let out another roar. Despite their inhuman form, Adam could almost feel a sense of anger from them. However, the Sandworm did not break off their pursuit.

Lilith slowly ascended while carrying Adam. However, at this rate, and considering the Sandworm's size and speed, it would take her several minutes to climb out of the Sandworm's potential attack range.

"Let go of me!" Adam shouted. "You can escape once I'm not weighing you down!"

"Don't be stupid, there's no way I'm leaving you behind!" Lilith retorted.

Adam clenched his teeth in frustration. He could drop his sword, but that would make no difference since the sword was only a small proportion of their combined weight.

He looked down again. The Sandworm burst through a dune without slowing down at all.

If I… attack her, I could force her to let me go. That's… it's the only way to make sure she survives—

I know… that this is a horrible thing to do. If I were on the receiving end, I'd absolutely hate her for doing such a thing. But…

I don't want her to die.

Adam opened his mouth, ready to say some last words. He was interrupted by an abrupt turn to the right. He looked around and realised that Lilith had turned to avoid a particularly large dune.

Due to having a larger body, the Sandworm was less agile and couldn't avoid colliding with the dune.

Suddenly, there was a resounding crash and a spike of magical energy, both so intense that they caused Adam physical pain. Judging from her sudden loss of altitude, Lilith had also been affected. More surprisingly, there was a massive roar of pain that could only have come from the Sandworm.

The Sandworm was now thrashing about, displacing huge amounts of sand. But even through the clouds of sand, Adam could make out the blue glow of a magical barrier, one that dwarfed even the enormous monster.

For a few moments, there was the sound of an immense mass boring through sand. After the sound subsided, the sand cleared enough to reveal that the Sandworm had gone, the barrier was no longer present… and the dune was actually an enormous stone building.

Lilith landed next to the building and let go of Adam. While shielding their eyes from the sand still suspended in the air, the two of them looked up at the building.

Fitting its name, it was an enormous square pyramid. It was larger than any building Adam had ever seen: only a great castle, like the one in Lescatie, could possibly rival it in size. Even the stone blocks it consisted of were enormous, with each one being almost as tall as a man.

"So that's why no one has ever found the Pyramid… it's been buried all this time," Adam said, awed at the sight. "Well, that and monsters like the Sandworm."

"And these traces of mana…" Lilith said. "I recognise them. It's a bit different to what I remember, but this kind of spell creates a barrier in response to an approaching enemy. Back in… back in my village, this kind of spell was used for security. It's pretty complicated magic, so I was never able to learn it myself… But I've never heard of a barrier this big, or this tough."

"Now I definitely believe those stories about a lost great kingdom," Adam said. "Even for the kingdoms of today, it would be a massive undertaking to build something like this. The barrier alone would take dozens of skilled mages…"

The two of them walked around the Pyramid. While doing so, Adam counted his steps to measure the size of the building. To his surprise, the Pyramid had remarkably precise dimensions, despite its seemingly crude construction. Each of the four sides was one hundred and eighty paces long, give or take half a pace.

They arrived at the main entrance. This was an opening ten blocks above ground level, and currently blocked by sand.

"I think I know the answer already, but I just want to make sure," Lilith said. "Are you willing to go inside? Judging from that barrier, this Pyramid definitely has other defences. The two of us could easily get killed in there. And now that we've found it, we could just go back and tell others about it, so a better-prepared group could come to explore it."

"If I wasn't willing, I wouldn't have come here in the first place," Adam replied firmly. "'A hero is willing to brave any danger'… it's something from a children's tale, but then, so are ancient ruins from lost civilisations."

"And if I wasn't willing to take risks like this, I would never have left my village," Lilith said. She closed her eyes and exhaled. "Alright, then… let's go."

They climbed up to the entrance and cleared some of the sand away. This was hot and tiring work, especially since they'd lost most of their supplies and needed to ration what little water they had left. They didn't clear all of the sand—the entrance was wide and tall enough to admit a two-horse wagon—just enough to make a gap that they could crawl through.

Once they were finished, they finally entered the Pyramid.