The Sand Ghost
Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert
"My name is Zeon. My weapon is the entire desert."
Earth had been terraformed.
As a backlash to the terraforming, the oceans evaporated, and the land turned to sand.
Zeon, the sole Sand Mage on a desertified Earth.
The world calls him the sand ghost.
Chapter 1
Tic!
In the dead of night when everyone was asleep, a faint snapping sound cut through the air.
The boy snapped his eyes open.
Like a cat, he rose silently and turned toward the iron door.
It was a tiny room that two adults could barely squeeze into.
With no windows, the only exit was the small iron door.
Breathing as quietly as he could, the boy stared at the door handle.
Click! Clack!
Someone was turning the handle. They were trying to be quiet, but to the already awake boy, it roared like thunder.
Clunk!
Finally, the lock disengaged, and the door creaked open. A head peered through the gap.
In the man's hand was a dagger as thick as an adult's forearm.
His eyes not yet adjusted to the dark, the man groped his way cautiously inside.
The boy held his breath, watching every moment.
Unaware, the intruder stepped further in.
That was when it happened.
Tic!
Something snapped under the man's foot.
It was a trap the boy had set in advance.
Thwack!
"Gah!"
A dull thud echoed alongside the intruder's scream.
A small dagger was now lodged in the man's side.
The boy had rigged it to fire when the string snapped.
Clueless, the intruder had paid the brutal price.
"Urgh! What the—?!"
The man rolled on the floor, howling.
Then the boy, who had been crouched silently until now, sprang into action.
Thud!
He kicked off the floor, landed astride the man's chest, yanked the dagger free, and pressed it to his throat.
The man gaped at him in disbelief.
"Ugh! You little shit..."
"I wondered who was sneaking in like a stray cat. Turns out it's the asshole from next door."
Literally the neighbor.
The man lived right next door.
He'd even brushed past last night.
With his nasty face and vicious glare, he was impossible to forget.
The boy patted the man's cheek.
"Hey, mister. We're neighbors—robbing me blind is a bit much, don't you think?"
"In the Ant Den? Who gives a shit? Let me go, kid. You have no idea who my brother is."
"How the hell should I know? Mister!"
The boy shot him an incredulous look. The man pinned beneath him snarled.
"An Awakener. And not just any—he wields magic."
"Lies have limits, you know. This is ridiculous. An Awakener's brother slumming it in a dump like this?"
"It's true. Just crashing here temporarily."
"Then stay quiet instead of sneaking in to rob a kid's pocket change?"
"Ha! Fuck, you think I'd ignore a Magic Stone right in front of me?"
"So you did see it."
The boy clicked his tongue.
He'd lucked into a small Magic Stone.
First one he'd ever had, so he'd fiddled with it out of curiosity. The neighbor must've spotted him.
The boy cursed his own carelessness.
The Slum—also called the Ant Den.
Here, where the rejects of Neo Seoul Colony huddled, there were no rules or manners.
The strong crushed the weak and took everything they had.
Weakness was a crime; strength was absolution.
Zeon, the boy, knew this law of the slums better than anyone.
Born and raised in the Ant Den.
His earliest memories were of the beggar dens. The moment he could walk, they used him to beg.
No good memories from those dens.
Beaten for bringing back too little, beaten for eating too much.
Once he was old enough, he bolted.
Not quietly—he'd slipped a knife into the beggar boss while he slept.
That boss was still hunting him.
He'd named himself Zeon.
He needed something to claim his identity.
No deep meaning—just sounded cool.
He loved his name.
To survive, he'd done it all: pickpocketing, theft—everything but murder.
In the slums, letting your guard down meant death. Traps in his lair had saved him more than once.
Zeon pondered the man's fate.
If his brother really was an Awakener, it spelled trouble.
Then the man's eyes gleamed slyly.
Shing!
A hidden dagger slid from his sleeve.
His emergency backup.
"Die, you little fuck!"
The man roared and swung.
Zeon jerked back.
The man pursued, eyes burning with venom, determined to kill and claim the Magic Stone.
"Ngh!"
Zeon grappled him fiercely.
Squelch!
Soon, the blade sank into flesh.
"Gurk!"
The man screamed and collapsed, dagger buried in his chest.
He stared at Zeon in shock, shuddered, then went still.
"Fuck!"
Zeon slumped to the floor.
He'd done everything but kill—until now.
The sickening feel of the blade piercing flesh lingered.
"Goddamn it! Shouldn't have snuck in like a thief..."
He eyed the corpse.
He'd always known it'd come to this. In the Ant Den, surviving without being crushed meant killing eventually.
But not tonight.
Zeon snapped to.
If the brother was truly an Awakener, he was in danger.
Hiding the body perfectly was impossible. Corpses littered the streets—slum dwellers everywhere. Moving it unseen? No chance.
Better leave it and vanish.
Decision made, he locked the door tight and slipped out.
The street evoked Kowloon Walled City: ramshackle buildings crammed together like chicken coops, narrow enough for one body at a time.
Slapped up without order, it was a maze.
Zeon melted into it.
＊＊＊
"Fuck! An actual Awakener. How is my luck this shit?"
Zeon muttered inside the armored bus, plates welded haphazardly over its frame.
The dead man's brother was a real Awakener.
A B-rank, no less.
Even an F-rank would've been deadly; a B-rank was a nightmare.
Neo Seoul had only about a hundred B-ranks among countless Awakeners.
If Zeon was scum, B-ranks were nobility.
Caught, death would be mercy.
Furious over his brother's death, the man hunted him.
That his brother struck first? Irrelevant. Blood was blood.
A punk like Zeon killing his kin? Unforgivable.
"Running like a dog today—but I'll have my revenge, Lee Ji-ryeong."
Lee Ji-ryeong, the pursuer. A lightning magic Awakener.
Lightning mages were infamous for raw power.
Top-tier among B-ranks.
Like Zeon, he knew the slums intimately—slum-born himself, now in Neo Seoul.
He predicted every hideout, every escape.
Cornered, Zeon boarded the bus.
Bound for the Magic Stone Mine outside Neo Seoul Colony.
Once past the walls, even Lee Ji-ryeong would struggle to track him.
'Never thought I'd board this thing willingly.'
Zeon bit his lip.
Beyond lay desert.
Endless crimson dunes, barren of grass.
The scorching red wastes teemed with horrors: sandworms and armored sand moles below; flame wolves and great-horned hyenas above.
Plus scavenger packs preying on caravans.
No safe havens.
That's why slum rats clung to the fringes, lives worse than beasts.
Monsters shunned Neo Seoul Colony for some reason.
Stick close, avoid monster deaths. Zeon had endured there—until Lee Ji-ryeong.
No sanctuary left.
"Damn it! If only I'd awakened..."
A century ago, Earth turned to desert.
Over ninety percent perished. Survivors built colonies on sandy ruins.
Awakeners earned that world: some among the living suddenly gained powers.
Enhanced bodies, magic—Awakeners.
They ruled the new age.
Even low-rank ones were prized in Neo Seoul.
Zeon? Less than dirt. No one would miss him.
His choice: the mine bus.
Seventy kilometers from Neo Seoul, in rocky hills.
All Magic Stones went to the city, powering the megacity.
But mining demanded bodies: narrow shafts, pickaxes only.
Hellish conditions killed miners endlessly.
Shortages galore. Neo Seoul took anyone headed there—no questions.
Zeon boarded.
'Survive the mine. Then revenge on Lee Ji-ryeong.'
As Zeon steeled himself gazing out, the bus filled with miners.
"Hey, kid! You headed to the mine too?"
The burly man beside him—miner build—spoke up.
Zeon replied flatly.
"Yeah. So?"
"Gutsy little shit. But watch yourself there."
"From what?"
"Punks who'll eye your skinny ass. Heh!"
The man leered over Zeon's body.
'This fucking creep.'
Zeon knew that look.
Slums crawled with pervs targeting boys; many eyed him.
Slim, handsome—minus the feral glare, a pretty boy.
Without his wits and edge, he'd have been prey dozens of times.
He fingered the hidden dagger in his sleeve, timing the strike.
No kill needed—just cripple a tendon, make an example.
Slum survival 101.
But the bus lurched forward.
It soon left Neo Seoul Colony, entering the wastes.
The endless crimson waves awed the passengers.
Even the leering man gawked.
On that red sea, the bus was dust.
Zeon murmured.
"We'll make it safe, right?"
He regretted it instantly.
That damn mouth.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Red sand surged behind the speeding bus.
A colossal sandworm pursued.
"No way! Sandworms aren't near here!"
As if mocking him, the beast erupted from the dunes, crashing down like a meteor.
Roooar!
Zeon saw it all in vivid slow motion.
'Fuck! Since when do sandworms fly?!'
Boom!
The impact rocked the armored bus.