Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 154: Sand-Spark Glide

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Miryam’s scales shimmered faintly as golden light coiled around her small frame. The essence pool’s energy still lingered in the air like a charged mist, rising from the broken stone tiles and shallow puddles of luminescent liquid. Kai watched with narrowed eyes, crouched near a cracked pillar, his eyes twitching at the sudden aura pulse from their soul-link.

Another ping.

[Ding! The Host’s daughter has activated: Sand Spark Glide (Basic).]

A soft tremor danced along the floor as Miryam’s claws scraped across the stone. Then—whoosh—she moved.

Not with a leap, but with a blur (as if she is flash). Her body surged forward, kicking up a curling wave of warm dust and gold-tinged sparks. Fine motes of sand remnants of shattered minerals from the ancient ruin swirled beneath her claws, reacting to the flickering heat in her body. She glided in an arc, feet barely skimming the ground as she traced a half-circle around Kai and landed lightly atop a fractured slab.

Sand Sparks scattered like fireflies.

Kai’s mandibles parted slightly. He didn’t move. Just stared with wide eyes.

"That was... fast." He crossed to her, boots crunching softly on ancient dust. "Not desert heat, but this place is saturated with energy. You’re using it."

Miryam chirped and hopped once, chest lifted with unmistakable pride. Her golden eyes met his, glowing with triumph. <Papa I am fast.>

Kai extended a hand and gently rubbed the side of her snout. "Clever girl. You adapted the skill even without true sand. You used what was here. The pulverized stone, ruin-heat without hesitation."

He turned, eyes sweeping the glowing sand sparks. Steam still floated in the air. Distant roars echoed from somewhere beyond maybe from the fissure they’d bypassed earlier. But here, now, in this quiet moment, Kai felt it clearly: Their bond had evolved.

"Just a few weeks ago, you were an egg," he whispered. "Now you’re gliding on sand sparks."

Miryam bumped his shoulder with her head, eyes flickering, already impatient for more.

Kai smiled, a slow, dangerous curl of lips.

"Fine. We’ll find something else for you to test it on."

<Papa, I want sleep.> She fell asleep. She was tired and she wanted to absorb all the power from the essence liquid sip. There’s still a lot left to absorb. It will increase her aura more.

Behind them, the essence pool burbled quietly. But for now, its gift had been claimed. And Miryam had taken her first step toward becoming something far beyond her mother.

Luna whistled low. "She disappeared and moved through like a ghost."

Shadeclaw narrowed his eyes. "That wasn’t just teleportation. That was terrain movement... and it was silent."

A few hundred metres away many pairs of eyes watched the sand sparks in the air. They started to move towards Kai’s team location. The location where his team was collecting the essence pool liquid.

Skyweaver and Tunnel Crown drove rune stakes in a circle, anchoring a thin membrane funnel. The material called star-forge silk dipped in aura resin, it conducted essence like water down a gutter. Kai plunged the siphon rod into the pool’s edge; liquid flowed up the tube in shimmering ropes, filling each cask in slow, deliberate pulses.

Every thirty seconds the system pinged a volume update.

[Two hundred liters sealed... three hundred...]

Heart Mason daubed salve on every joint seam to keep stray vapors from seeping into fur or chitin. Luna stood watch, twin daggers bare, her ears twitching for any distant step.

At five hundred liters, a tremor rippled underfoot. The pool dimmed for a breath, as if surprised to be shrinking, then brightened again with renewed swirl. Kai sensed no guardian, only a reluctant surrender from the rift itself.

Nine hundred... one thousand... one thousand and fifty.

[Storage Complete. Essence Reservoir depleted: 97%.]

He slid the siphon free. The remaining puddle hissed, still potent but too shallow to draw safely. Kai snapped the cork on the final cask and willed each container into his Soul Cube, a crimson rune gateway that absorbed mass instantly. The cargo vanished, weightless, resting now in a dimension only he could reach.

Silence fell. "That’s all of it," Kai said. His voice trembled with restrained triumph. "Let’s move."

Kai realised something, he muttered. "I made a mistake, Miryam skill..." Kai said grimly. "It might have revealed this place."

Below, the essence pool they had just drained left a damp, glowing residue. It had been a secret... Now it pulsed faintly, echoing Miryam’s trail, a glowing invitation to all teams.

"Time to erase the invitation." before they could do anything or move to a different location.

A footfall. Just one. But it echoed wrong. Luna’s ears stiffened. Shadeclaw spun to find the footsteps location.

Figures emerged from the mist, silhouettes warping in the fading glow. Lean. Long-limbed. Black-furred. Their bodies sloped low, their feet silent. They were semi beast form, humanoid figures with beast bodies.

Rabbits—but not Luna’s kind.

These were feral, their spines adorned with crude bone piercings, teeth gleaming unnaturally sharp. They moved like shadows painted in ink, sleek, coiled with hunger, a dozen of them in total.

Ten. No... twelve. They flowed from shadows as if born of them.

They formed a crescent moon formation, their encirclement quiet, almost elegant. At the center stood a taller figure, a doe, jagged scar bisecting her left cheek, one eye milky, the other a slit of fire-glass red. She sniffed once and snarled.

"Pool was here," she rasped. Her voice sounded like dragged across rusted metal. "We can still taste it. You stink of it."

Her eyes flicked to the stone rim where glowing mist had faded. Then to the casks. Then to Kai.

"Hand it over, Or hand over your hearts. Both smell sweet."

Kai didn’t flinch. He stepped between his crew and the half-circle of predators.

"Essence is gone," he said flatly. "We drained it. You’re welcome to lick the rocks. Or you can lick my feet if you don’t like rocks."

One of the bucks snarled. Another cracked his knuckles and drew a knife shaped like a chipped jawbone. Their leader merely smiled.

"We eat living," hissed a younger one. "Pool or flesh. Doesn’t matter."

The twins, Stone Ram and Iron Rampant, lowered their tusks in unison, harnesses taut.

A heartbeat of silence. Then... "Luna..." Kai said quietly. freёweɓnovel.com