Sarada and Meagan reach the boundary between the desert, and the volcanic wasteland to the Southwest without incident, and what lies before them is an area as blisteringly hot as it is dangerous:
Separated from the desert by a wide chasm that allowed the rivers of lava -- spanning as far as the eye could see -- to flow down into the earth it had spawned from; it looked as if nothing at all could be found here, alive. Yet as they stared out at the cracked and scorched soil, and jagged outcroppings of shale and obsidian, they could sense Ishtar's Ki clear as day, directly ahead of them ... seemingly at this place's center.
Before the two women can pass through into the area however, there comes all at once the sense of something, or somethings powerful approaching rapidly to the East.
With almost no warning then, a massive cloud of sand and ... ice ? halts their forward progress, and forces them to land some few meters away from the lip of the chasm that formed the desert's boundary. As soon as they land, the sand and ice dissipates almost immediately; and with a great upheaval the ground behind them erupts revealing a massive animate mass of stone, that shakes the ground ... appearing beside it is a creature comprised of sand that seems to flow up into its body like rivers in reverse. Unlike its companion however, the creature seems to appear more humanoid, with jagged sand-shaped ribs jutting from its 'chest' and a cowl of shifting sand with 'eyes' cut into it. And the source of the ice that stymied their advance reveals itself not soon after. A lithe, feminine figure that hovers behind the two and pulses dully with a power that outstrips anyone present.
Nothing happens for a moment, after first contact is made ... and in that time Sarada and Meagan should come to realize that they do not intend to allow them to pass any further than they already have ...