It was like flying.
Feet lifting off the ground. Darkness consuming the once colorful world. But then it shattered—a wisp of white appeared, small and quiet.
And that was just the beginning. Blue, yellow, green, violet, red… all kinds of colors broke through the darkness. Some were familiar, others foreign, carrying an air of mystery.
At first, they were weak, but in less than a second, they exploded—vivid streaks invading the dark void. Electrical sounds accompanied their movements as they swirled, shifted, and blurred into unrecognizable shapes.
Kael's eyes reflected the dazzling chaos. His hair whipped in every direction, adding to the disorientation. It made him dizzy, but the beauty of it was mesmerizing. He wanted to keep watching, to let the colors engulf him completely.
But his mind couldn't handle it. The overwhelming display forced him to close his eyes.
Suddenly, his body landed on something soft. The force that had been tossing his hair stopped, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing on a grassy field.
A cozy breeze grazed his skin, and the smell of flowers filled his nose.
The place was peaceful—worlds apart from the battlefields he was used to.
"This is better than I thought," Kael muttered. He'd expected desolation—that was all he'd ever seen in the planet-sized Fissures he'd encountered before. It seemed not every Fissure was about destruction.
Ahead of him stretched a vast field of grass and flowers. A few scattered trees provided shade to rabbit-like creatures. Floating rocks and metallic shards jutted out at odd angles, their sizes ranging from small fragments to massive formations nearly touching the "sky."
Kael glanced upward at the "sky," where swirling colors blended together—golden red and liquid blue—flowing like waves in an ocean.
The place was mesmerizing, nothing like what his memories conjured.
Smiling, he turned to take in more of his surroundings. But what he saw made his smile twitch.
"Can you lend… me a little help!" Trey's exhausted voice called out from ten or eleven meters away.
One of the rabbit-like creatures, standing nearly a meter tall, was trying to bite Trey's head off.
Trey strained against the creature, using both hands to push its chest and keep its razor-sharp teeth at bay. But with his limited strength, they were locked in a stalemate.
"Hang on, kid! Your savior is coming!" Kael shouted, his tone casual. There wasn't a trace of urgency as he jogged toward Trey.
"Hurry up!" Trey yelled, panicking as the teeth came dangerously close.
"Just hang on!" Kael whistled as he unsheathed a white hilt. It took him a full twenty seconds to reach Trey's position.
"Hit him!" Trey pleaded, his eyes sparkling with desperation as he looked at his supposed savior.
"No need to tell me," Kael replied with a confident smirk.
The hilt in his hand vibrated, and a long blade extended from it. The silvery-white sword emitted a high-pitched sound, resonating with an intense frequency.
Raising the weapon almost vertically, Kael brought it down with all his strength.
The sharp clang of metal meeting resistance echoed as the high-frequency blade struck the "rabbit." But it only sank an inch into its flesh.
Silence fell.
Trey stared at his supposed "savior" incredulously. "Why not… attack harder?"
"Sorry, kid, that's all I've got," Kael replied with a shrug. He pressed down harder on the sword, but it only managed to cut another one or two centimeters deeper.
"We're f*cked," Trey muttered, the light in his eyes dimming.
"Maybe, or maybe not," Kael smirked as he leapt back, narrowly avoiding the rabbit's snapping jaws.
But his unfamiliarity with his current body betrayed him. The moment he landed, he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.
"That's embarrassing," Kael muttered, shaking his head as he scrambled to get up. But the 'rabbit' was already advancing toward him, its movements more like powerful, calculated hops.
Kael finally got a proper look at the creature. It resembled a rabbit, but only in the loosest sense—a grotesque hybrid of flesh and metal.
The upper half retained some distorted semblance of a rabbit, with patches of fur stretched across exposed metal plating. Its head was a horrifying mix of organic tissue and mechanical components, a haunting sight for anyone unaccustomed to such monstrosities.
From its chest down, it was a hideous patchwork of fleshy sinews and corroded metal. Hydraulic joints compressed with each hop, hissing and releasing steam as it propelled itself forward.
One of its eyes glowed a robotic red, scanning Kael with cold precision, while the other was clearly blind—gray and lifeless.
"Disgusting," Kael muttered, pushing himself to his feet. His eyes darted to his sword, still lodged in the skeletal plating of the monster's shoulder. He had seen thousands of creatures like this before, so he quickly steadied himself.
Kael reminded himself of one harsh truth—he was no longer the strongest. A hundred years ago, things had been different. Now, one mistake could easily cost him his life.
Raising his fist, Kael clenched it tightly. He was weak. Incredibly weak. He needed to accept this and ingrain it into his mind.
But even as he reflected on his current state, Kael remembered something from a century ago. Back then, he hadn't been invincible either. He couldn't even defeat the Pink Primeval—the one many had believed was the weakest of them all. They couldn't have been more wrong.
He had only fought her once, and in that battle, he hadn't managed to leave so much as a scratch on her.
As the memory of Pink surfaced, a cold expression took over Kael's face. His previously calm heart began pounding, and a wave of killing intent radiated from him.
It was humiliating, as the White Prime, to battle such a lowly enemy. But he had no choice. If he couldn't even defeat this mechanical rabbit, there was no chance he could take his revenge.
"Let's run away!" Trey's desperate voice broke through Kael's thoughts. "This Mechanibbit is too tough! Unless we have an Exo or high-penetrative bullets, we'll never take this f*cker down!"
"I'm Kael Draven. Why the hell would I run?!" Kael shouted back, a cold smile spreading across his lips.
Trey slapped his forehead. "Deranged. This guy is absolutely deranged! Why am I even associating with him?"
He sighed, questioning his life choices. Maybe he should have been the aloof, nonchalant type instead of trying to be friendly. And now this lunatic was actually calling himself the Kael Draven, the stuff of legends!
"He's insane," Trey muttered, but then a wry smile crept onto his face. "Just like me."
Determination flared in Trey's eyes as he looked up. "Alright, let's create a plan! We'll need to combine our strength and figure out a way to–"
Before he could finish, Kael was already charging straight at the Mechanibbit!
"D*mn it! Can't you wait?!" Trey yelled in frustration.