There was nothing, except a barren white field under an empty sky – white also.
A naked woman stood somewhere. She had her hair tied backward in a bun, with two bangs sliding off her forehead. White sheen was plastered all over her skin – like an angel costume.
This term – angel – could also describe the hair color. It was blond, golden enough to be unnatural, yet eye-catching.
Faraway, a few hundred meters away, there was a mecha; assembled parts of a gray rectangle with five articulated arms to the base. It rolled on two massive tires – the size of a planet, at a glance.
On the top, a square for the cockpit. All of the structure had a dull gray paintjob.
Then, in a muffled bang, the woman's figure disappeared – reappearing in front of the robot, hovering around chest height. Her feet, tucked backward, jolted on the cold metal. A human couldn't change its midair momentum. However, it happened by slapping the space behind her.
After a second of travel, the kick slammed the surface, followed by two flurries of punches – targeted at the same point.
Though she dug a hole the size of a small star, the mecha didn't lose balance. It ran backwards in a deafening noise, pointing four arms forward; and the same number of missiles – a oval-shaped spike that could kill the woman a dozen times.
She grunted against the foul play. By clapping above, her feet came back to the ground; it shook in waves. The four collapsing missiles jerked away from a spinning kick. Then came another row; they fell to the same fate.
In short increments – a battle that lasted hours or years – she managed to get to the mecha's wheels. Her nails dug into the rubber, her teeth teared through the underneath plastic; bit by bit, it all fell apart.
At first, the base body collapsed. Along with it came the glued arms, disconnecting. Then, finally, the head; sprawled on the ground like a stolen crown.
Golden hair fluttered – she had a perverse grin.
The woman took a step; a second, before charging at the broken metal. It left no stain on the immaculate floor.
An instant before shattering everything, she caught a glint in her vision, growing into a sphere. The head shone in white glisters.
Existence melted down; it was a silent end brought by an ear-bursting explosion of power. Eventually, space molded the world together into a coherent whole.
There was no mecha anymore; the woman remained.
"I won." However, a man spoke. He sat legs crossed, next to her. Naked, as well, with an average build.
"That's not fair at all." The woman retorqued. Their language wasn't one – a sequence of tangled sounds and gestures.
"You see, that's where you strength fails you," He knocked twice on his temp. "A good strategy beats you regardless."
The woman snickered. "I do have one." She stood up.
"Yeah?"
Closing her eyes, they reopened with a punch and a cute sound. A glaze lit up the air on fire, swirling above in a hurricane of flames, before dying out soon.
The man stayed quiet, lifting his brows. "Your strategy?"
She sat down with her back arched. "Of course."
"It's boring, though.", he sighed.
"Yours is also annoying."
"I have to think hard to do it." Pride hid in his words.
The woman nudged his shoulder. "How is that different from hitting really hard?"
A deep breath later, he said nothing. His focus laid on a single isolated point.
After thirty seconds of silence, blue particles danced in the air, forming the outlines of a rectangle. They multiplicated into a mist, then again, until an object was born.
The same mecha, destroyed a moment ago – down to the distinct gray glint.
"See –" First its arms, then rolling right and left, it moved in precise motions; like an automat.
"– this is real strength."
Without a cue, the object vanished. It left no traces nor smell.
"We're going backward here", the woman grunted.
"For once, you're quite sharp."
"I know – more than once." They agreed on a shared conclusion – their life was boring. It was an endless maze of battles across battles; knowledge nor excitement had been sucked dry from them.
Moreover, there was this white landscape. A white cloudless sky on a dustless white ground – it was a recipe for madness.
The two rested their chin on the hand, wordless. While one seemed to rummage an empty box, the other let out a satisfactory 'Ha' after a dozen seconds of reasoning.
"Say…", the man began. Both lifted their heads into their eyes.
"Why don't we try humans for once?"
A loud silence followed; the woman seemed to ready a mental punch.
"No!", she screamed like a child.
"We're out of options. This is getting too boring for us. I can't stand it anymore."
The woman let out a sigh, biting her upper lip. "I know, but didn't we agree that it shall be our last resort?"
"Lee, it is our last.", the man said, alongside her name. They carried no real weight, as both decided on their own at a long-since forgotten date.
Thus, a meaningless name.
Lee resumed her thoughtful gestures – they looked out of place, unlike the man's. – before giving in.
"Alright. Let's do it", she clapped, as if to close the debate.
Earth – a strange gap the two discovered some time ago. Considering this flawless landscape, it was a miracle. Inside it, they caught glimpses of another shade – blue was the denomination both gave it
From the gap, that tiny ball was what they saw.
Their curiosity would be a boundless gluttony, feasting on this new playground; the pinnacle of hedonism.
To avoid this scenario, the man proposed to forget about it, until their wits broke.
And now, this shattering was happening.
For days, the two walked on the barren floor, looking for the tiniest of imperfection.
They found it, in a certain place – the most accurate way to call it.
Lee knees were sliding off the ground; she leaned closer.
"Hmm, hmm. Sami, that's awesome.", she hummed a nameless song.
The man – Sami, allegedly – mirrored Lee's gesture. While trying to get a pointless edge over the other, their legs rubbed.
"Are you that excited?", he asked, displeased at the skin ship.
"Are you?" Lee said knowingly. They grinned together after a second.
A white fog covered the round hole – undistinguishable from the floor's tint. Lee jerked her arm back and forth, dispelling the mist to a blue ball. Everything around was colorless and shapeless.
Sami squinted his eyes. "We can't see anything, can we?"
Lee nodded, though with sarcasm. "Well, I can – but that's not useful."
Her acute vision could conduct a thorough analysis of this world – at least, she believed so. The same, however, didn't apply to Sami.
"Should I create a mega-super lens –?" His thin arm was smacked by Lee. "Too long!"
Her tantrum dislocated Sami's shoulder blade; the arm went flying away at Mach speed.
"Then, do we jump?" A bubbling mass of cells grew on Sami's left side.
"I guess so." Lee approved. The motion was instant – a limb was born; a fresh, dainty arm. Sami stretched it with ease.
They locked gazes; both had a shared glint. With no words needed, Lee threw her body at the void. Sami lagged behind a meter.
It was a noiseless fall. While Lee teared her lungs out, they were silent screams. The tiny dot was expending – to the size of a faraway planet; then, a large disk.
Sami widened his eyes. He observed an outer layer made of five crusts. They floated on an ocean of blue – this color struck a large impression.
Lee enjoyed the thrill of speed, paying no heed to her surroundings.
The landing happened in a flash – and a deafening explosion. As the two regained their consciousness, they were standing on a crater of black and gray.
A burnt smell rose in the air. "Ah!" Lee felt her nostrils burning.
"Is this smell? How peculiar…" With a frown, Sami was growing accustomed to the tickles. Lee did too – eventually.
She identified the origin of it – a column of fire, swirling in the air; like the ones her strikes produced.
Lee punched the flame tornado, dispelling it in a clean cut.
"Why isn't it going away?!", she slammed her feet on the ground, shattering rocks around twice.
This bustling anger soon came down, however, as both lifted their eyes from the ground. It was a marvelous land – from their point of view.
A row of pointy clusters of rocks – a sea of blue in the horizon – misty fogs cluttered in the sky. Then, a python, a dot, and an echoing roar.
Lee squinted her eyes - the dot was a man. Covered in thick plates of gold, a yellow sheen came from his body.
"His hair..." His golden hair brought a strange feeling of kinship. It fluttered backwards, a battle against the wind - or rather, a storm.
Spikes scattered on his armor; the shoulders and chest more than ever. Despite the distance, Sami concluded -
"This thing..."
- that the man was indeed stupid. Despite the lavish nature of his equipment, the poor craftmanship prevented the simplest of movements - the knees were paralyzed .
Sami drooled. A chunk of gray metal reflected the sunlight away; shaped like an extended triangle. On the bottom, a handle made of wood and steel finished the imposing piece.
An impressing, unpractical weapon, of sort. Still, a universe of possibility opened inside of Sami's brain, having witnessed this rough structure - a human one.
It was a scorching sun outside, yet Lee and Sami found no bother in it. Maybe, because they were bare-skinned, or that they weren't feeling heat at all.
Matter-of-factly, heavy beads of sweat were dripping on the man's forehead.
"What's that?" Lee pointed at them.
"Don't know - it looks disgusting." Sami answered, clueless.
Twice now, a roar echoed to their ears - or their equivalent.
It was Lee's turn to drool. About a hundred meters right of the man, a creature stood out - a mess of nonsensical proprieties. She counted twenty or thirty heads, each nightmarish, at the end of dozens of elongated necks. The main body hid under a lac, though its dark green sheen seeped thought.
On all of the monster's skin, dark blue scales dug inside of it. A sharp and dim spike was left behind.
Bewitched, Lee decided upon a name - a python. Underneath its gruesome appearance laid a raw, almost instinctive beauty of nature.
"It's beautiful..." Or so was her opinion - Sami's, too.
"No really my taste, but -"
His sentence was cut off - one of the python's head jolted toward the man; a lion mane around an atrophied dolphin's face, baring two pointy canines of solid blood. With a clang, he parried the attack with his great sword, hands on the blade; then, he took a step ahead.
About a meter of improvement each time. Various heads came flying at the man - sometimes, earthly animals blended together; or an unsightly mess of teeth and eyes.
"He's got guts, I'll give him that." Sami's praise rung quite empty.
The barren land of dirt and sweat separating the two grew narrower at each passing second; until water stroked the man's feet. A black shadow loomed over him - multiple, rather, each a different neck.
With a leap and an inaudible shout, the man jumped in the air in a display of dexterity that made Lee tilt her head sideways.
"What a poor choice.", she commented.
On the python's body, about belly-height, a red spot shone bright amidst the somber skin tone - allegedly, his weak spot. The man's attack pursued it, a dozen meter airborne.
One of the python's head - two mouths tucked one inside the other - darted to his left rear. In a swift motion, the attack was deflected by a thrust.
Lee cheered, while Sami observed in silence; they peered at the fight like a kids' spectacle.
As the man began a wide sweep, a neck was slamming into his body, as smoke rose inside of the corresponding head - a fire-breath.
Lee ran off their hill, shattering its left side in many chunks of rock; she reached the bottom at the same time. Sami understood her impulse - he too didn't wish to lose the first ever human they'd come across.
A ray of flame poured from the python's head, melting the half-broken shiny armor. The man's body would turn to ash in a second.
However, the fire wasn't aimed at him; but rather, to the sky. With an air-tight grip, Lee grabbed the head's jaw, pulling it apart in a quick snap. Blood splattered on her dainty face and the man's.
From the neck extremity, a geezer of red fell into the lac, now a scarlet color. While confusion struck Lee; after gripping the twitching neck with her left fingertips, she ran off to another, larger one, before doing the same with the right ones.
After a shout - perhaps a battle cry - Lee coiled the two necks around the python's upper body; the combined base for all necks. She tightened the grip, the python screamed from his many mouth.
It got stronger by each passing seconds, until -
"Haha!"
- everything exploded. Black, red and blue organs flew in the air, then into the red lake. In sync, all head and necks collapsed, some on the ground, others in water.
A wave of adrenaline surged into Lee's body; not much because of the battle, but rather a detail.
"Hmm..." She glanced at the hands, wet in blood and water, rubbed them together, smelled them. The concept of liquids became engraved in her head.
"Hey!" It was Sami's voice. Lee turned around; he was crouching near the golden man.
"How did you get down here?", she asked.
Sami pointed his index at two yellow-stripped white drills, both twice his size. They had tiny dents on the cone surface.
"I drilled. More importantly -" He sighed. " - He's dead.
After running to Sami, Lee nodded. A crumpled armor of golden dusts and broken plates covered the man's well-kept body under a blue shirt.
Lee glanced thoroughly; she thought that they weren't muscular at all.
"And this." Sami rummaged his hand into a gaping hole, pierced at the man's heart. Blood was frozen on the inside, thus nothing poured out.
"He killed himself with his sword. The wide arc, huh? What an idiot." With a nod, Sami agreed at Lee's deduction.
He searched every inch of the man's body, in hope of finding something, a clue into this world. On it was a thin silver card, with tiny letters graved inside the metal.
"William Khork." Sami read it out loud - he understood the language. Next to this name, a fancy letter shone in blue glisters; a beautiful S.
Lee nudged Sami's shoulder. "You understand these?" She pointed at the letters.
"Do you? I do." He shrugged.
"Really? Well, I certainly don't." Lee's voice carried disdain.
"You'll get it with time. Must be your slow wits playing tricks on you."
Without acknowledging Lee's bothered face, Sami hovered his gaze on the shining card. He stumbled across other letters and numbers; a place - a city - a sequence of numbers.
The man - the python; his gaze flew, went back and forth between the two entities, once, twice, until a cog turned the right way. Sami's brain was smoldering.
"Lee, I get it."
She frowned. "What gives?"
"The kind of world we're living in."
A wide grin bloomed on Sami's face. "I'll enjoy it."
Lee licked her lips in understanding. "Not as much as I will."