Chaos' Heir

"Ship's logbook," Khan announced while munching a piece of dried meat. "I think it's still the seventh entry. Well, whatever."

Khan gulped down the meat before drinking a generous mouthful of water. That alone couldn't satisfy his thirsty body, but he refrained from indulging in more of that precious resource.

"Chuwei's desert hides remains of what I believe were Nak ships," Khan continued in his report, leaning on the seat's armchair while studying the many menus before him. "I stopped searching for more debris after digging them out from two locations, but that should already confirm my hypothesis."

Even with the Nak's call, digging out debris from two different locations was too coincidental. So, Khan believed the event wasn't random. He didn't blame luck, either. The desert had to be full of them for him to have such an easy time finding remains.

"I don't know how Chuwei's weather didn't destroy these remains," Khan added, "But the planet only has one possible hiding spot. I plan to venture into its underground world now."

Khan was about to stop the recording when his fingers hesitated, hovering above the command on the seat's armchair. He didn't believe Chuwei would and could kill him, but everything about the Nak was bigger than him.

"If I don't return," Khan said. "I want Monica Solodrey to have everything, all my possessions, political support, and authority. Kill anyone who tries to oppose my will."

Khan stopped the recording at that point, looking down. Memories tried to fill his vision, but he pushed them away, snapping back to reality to rush out of the ship.

After sealing the ship and confirming that everything was okay, Khan flew away, rushing back to where he had found the first remains. His influence still lingered in the air, so reuniting with it barely took any effort.

Admittedly, Khan could have chosen any random spot and started digging, but his first findings had been quite high up on the sandy surface. He didn't know if that meant anything but didn't feel like dismissing it.

Khan inspected the sand for a few seconds before landing on it. His feet dug into the surface, but his attention was elsewhere. The world spoke to his ears, chanting a song only he could hear. The fabric of reality wanted to crumble, and Khan fulfilled that wish.

No shockwave flew forward, but the sand opened anyway. A cavity appeared under Khan's feet, expanding as yellow waterfalls fell from its edges. The hole deepened, too, and Khan slowly descended into it.

It didn't take long before Khan's figure completely disappeared. The hole widened and deepened, but he only kept descending, diving farther than he had ever attempted.

The cavity's structural integrity failed at times, threatening to submerge its lowest points with waves of sand. However, Khan was there, so nothing ever fell to its bottom or reached him. Those yellow rivers disappeared when they got too close to his figure.

Still, there was a limit to how deep the hole could get without crumbling altogether. A storm also arrived, sending cascades of sand toward Khan. They disappeared, too, but a relatively stable lid started to form, cutting Khan from the surface's illumination.

Khan didn't fear darkness. His eyes illuminated the area more than enough, and the world was always bright in his vision anyway. He ignored that the hole had closed, descending in a straight line toward what he hoped could bring better answers. Nothing obstructed him, and the call in his nape eventually intensified.

The abrupt event startled Khan, intensifying his destructive aura. The sandless area around him expanded, causing harsh reactions to the now-distant surface. Holes probably opened up there, but Khan only looked down.

The desert's density was meaningless as long as sand made up its fabric. Khan had attuned to its specific structure, automatically destroying it as he neared it. Yet, his feet eventually touched something, something his passive influence didn't break.

That something had nothing to do with the metal debris occasionally spotted during the descent. It was a hard, rocky surface that supported the desert. It was its bottom, but Khan needed to dive deeper.

Khan didn't have the best experiences when exploring underground areas, and his scout training summoned countless warnings about random destruction in those situations. Khan didn't have to worry about being buried alive, but causing a mess could hinder his exploration.

Khan crouched down, placing his palm on the rocky surface. His senses updated him on its density, fabric, and depth. There seemed to be nothing but rocks further below, but the call in his nape couldn't be lying.

A purple-red light enveloped Khan's hand before turning completely red. A humming noise resounded in the safe, sandless area while his fingers dug through the rocks as if they were butter. A few slashes shot out, and a relatively constrained destruction unfolded.
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The slashes severed large chunks of the rocky surface, and the sharpness lingering in the area spread more destruction. Cracks opened everywhere, turning that firm surface into a mass of pebbles and dirt. Khan could make his way through it now, forcefully digging through it to reach deeper areas.

The process was uncomfortable, to say the least. Khan was literally swimming through rocks, avoiding breaking them any further to let the desert's bed retain a modicum of stability. His clothes also got in the way, but his physical strength eventually allowed him to succeed.

That success was nothing more than reaching the bottom of the newly opened cavity, which consisted of more rocks. Khan had to send more slashes to cut through it, repeating the previous process, and something told him that wouldn't be the last time.

Khan's hunch turned out to be correct. There seemed to be no end to the rocks, and that surface didn't open into a proper underground world even after digging for a hundred meters. However, a change eventually happened, and Khan immediately dived into it.

A lot broke, and the ground even started to tremble, but the rocks eventually ended. Khan swam through pebbles and soil until his hand finally touched stale air. He rushed past a waterfall of debris, gently landing in an open area. Dirt fell on him as he straightened his back, but his feet didn't move while he inspected the new location.

The place could have been a random hole, but it turned out to be a proper tunnel. It was uneven, seemingly natural, and stretching in two directions. It was also large enough for people far bigger than Khan, but he primarily focused on the breathable air.

'How can I even breathe down here?' Khan wondered, stepping out of the waterfall of debris and glancing at the hole above him. 'Is this underground structure somehow connected to the surface?'

Khan couldn't find answers and decided to dismiss the issue. If anything, he felt lucky he didn't have to fly back to the ship to grab a respirator. Also, the call had grown more intense, making him ignore those minor details.

Khan could walk in two directions, but his senses didn't pick up anything specific from either, so he followed his instincts. He advanced through the uneven tunnel, carefully exploring its many twists and turns. Everything remained the same for a while until the cavity started to descend, opening into a bigger area.

Khan floated down, entering a properly vast cave. That underground chamber was almost as big as his best training halls, but those pieces of information only hit the back of his mind. Other, far more important details captured his attention, making him accelerate.

At the bottom of the underground chamber, halfway inside one of its rocky walls, Khan saw something he recognized. An engine with an eerily familiar design stuck out of the rocky surface, promising to contain greater wonders on the other side.