The cave vibrated with life no one could see.
A dance so small that a man could walk through it and never know. In its truth, it was a calling. An invitation.
A sea of dust drifted through the dark. Large shadowy figures moved inside it, eating the earth, passing between enormous blue crystals whose glow pulsed like something breathing in its sleep.
Then a single shadow stepped out of the storm.
---
At the center of it all, the cave opened into a space so vast and so blue that it felt like a clear day. The crystals did that. They made light where no sky had ever been.
Ash walked into it.
Small.
Black-skinned.
Brown eyes with nothing behind them.
Black armor fitted to a child's frame.
In his right hand, a sword far larger than his body. He dragged it behind him like a living shadow, and the tip split the stone as it came.
On the other side of him, in the dark, two red eyes glowed.
Sharp.
Patient.
Something alien clanked with every step it took, and it kept pace with him at the edge of the light.
Then Ash stopped.
Silence.
The crimson eyes vanished.
The only sound left was the stone settling in the trench his sword had cut. His lifeless eyes looked into the darkness ahead and did not blink.
Everything stood still. The dust. The crystals. The air. As if the whole world were holding its breath in pure anticipation.
---
The explosion came without warning.
Powerful.
Wild.
The wind tore through the cavern like a savage beast, howling. Dust leapt into the air and bloomed into a mushroom. The earth broke apart without seeming to know it had been broken.
And something flew out of it.
Too fast to be seen. The air around it whistled, one thin scream across the cavern, and then it hit the wall.
Gray and black stone shattered. Crystals burst under the impact.
The noise rolled in every direction, the aftermath of everything that had just happened, until it had nowhere left to go.
---
A window appeared in the settling dust.
Blue.
Clean.
Floating in front of the crater.
The system had spoken, and it was showing its display to Ash.
He was already moving.
Slowly, he pulled himself out of the broken wall as if the cave had been eating him and was reluctantly letting him go. Small rocks slid from his shoulders. Dust poured from the gaps in his armor with every movement.
His eyes never left the creature.
The metallic voice opened a second window, this one above it.
It stood in the center of the room.
Black skin like oil.
Alive.
Moving even while still.
A humanoid shape with an ant's wrongness in every joint, an abomination that stood up like a man. The blue light showered over it and found nothing to hold on to.
Its red eyes were on Ash.
The system spoke.
*"The Ant King has awakened and has taken an interest in you."*
Neither of them moved.
A child with a sword, a king with skin like oil.
They looked at each other.