The sky began to stretch out endlessly as the relevant prime made its way to them. The sky, swirling like a sea of waves, but chaotic energy erupting from relevant prime, the energy was bursting forth like thunderstrikes with every step it took, and everything in its path turned to ashes the moment it encountered its raw power.
"How do we kill that massive thingy?" Ha Eun yelled at Vega, her voice tinged with panic.
Vega forced a smile despite the sweat dripping down her face. "Let's just hope we can take that thing out," she replied, trying to keep the mood light.
"Not exactly motivational speech," she thought to herself as she glanced at the colossal creature approaching them. Vega gestured for Ha Eun to follow her toward the crumbling building nearby, hoping that it would provide some cover for them.
"Come on, we need to figure this out fast, " she urged, reminding Ha Eun of how serious the gravity situation is.
Ha-eun crouched behind a broken building, covered in the shadows, her breath ragged. Beside her, Vega reloaded her rifle with practiced precision, her golden eyes narrowed. The Revenant Prime loomed ahead, its ridiculous forms a patchwork nightmare of fused Voidborn corpses. Its body pulsed with sickly violet light, tendrils of corrupted energy snaking from its joints. Each step it took sent tremors through the unstable terrain, cracks splintering outward like spiderwebs.
"Have you ever fought one of these before?" Ha-eun whispered, her voice barely distinct over the wind.
Vega snorted. "If I had, I wouldn't be here."
The Revenant Prime roared, its voice a harsh repeat of screams, human, alien, and something far older. Ha-eun's hands trembled as she gripped her knife, the blade dulled from countless battles. The creature's gaze fixed on their hiding spot, its mismatched eyes glowing with predatory intent.
The terrain is like a twisted funhouse of dangers. To their left, a river of molten glass flickered like a bizarre mirror, its surface rippling with ghostly images of Ha Eun's past performances. On the right, a forest of pointed obsidian spires shot up into the sky, their surfaces decorated with glowing runes that buzzed with an energy just waiting to be unleashed. Above, debris from shattered worlds drifted around lazily, creating a strange scene that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Picture a school bus split clean in half, a crumbling clock tower that seems to be stuck in time, and a playground swing swaying eerily in the nonexistent breeze. It's a wild place, that's for sure!
Ha-eun's boots sank into the ash as she darted forward, Vega covering her with suppressive fire. The Revenant Prime swiped a massive claw, sending a shockwave that uprooted obsidian shards and hurled them like projectiles. Ha-eun rolled, a spire grazing her arm and drawing blood that glittered with faint stardust.
"Focus, Breathe, Survive." Those three words echo in her mind.
She attacked the creature's side, driving her knife into a gap between its armor plates. The blade sparked against something metallic beneath its flesh, and the Revenant Prime screamed, slamming her into a nearby building. Pain exploded across her ribs, but she stood, coughing blood.
"Weak spot!" she shouted with her cracked voice to Vega. "It's under the plating!"
Vega nodded and fired a torrent of energy rounds that forced the creature to recoil. "Distract it! I'll take the shot!"
Ha-eun's mind raced as she circled the Revenant Prime. Fear clawed at her chest, but beneath it rumbled a stubborn rebelliousness. "This thing isn't taking me. Not here. Not now."
She feinted left, drawing the creature's attention, then turned and sprinted toward the molten river. The Revenant Prime followed, its claws tearing scratches in the ground. Heat radiated from the upon impact, searing her skin even more. At the last moment, she swung, leaping onto a floating chunk of debris. The creature's momentum carried it forward, its leg dipping into the molten stream.
The Revenant Prime screeched as its flesh sizzled, violently boiling and hissing its flesh. Vega seized the opening, her rifle's scope glowing as she aimed. The shot struck, piercing the gap in the creature's armor. A crackle of blue energy surged through its body, and for a moment, the Revenant Prime was stunned.
Ha-eun didn't hesitate. She leapt from the debris, knife raised, and plunged it into the creature's exposed core.
The Revenant Prime collapsed with a ground-shaking thud, its body dissolving into ash and static. Ha-eun collapsed against a spire, her vision swimming. Blood trickled from her nose, her ribs screaming with every breath. Vega limped over, her rifle slung across her back, her golden eyes dimmed.
"Not bad," she muttered, tossing Ha-eun a canteen of murky liquid. "Drink. It'll keep you alive long enough to regret this."
Ha-eun gulped the bitter fluid, wincing as it burned down her throat. "What now?"
Vega gestured to the horizon, where the Architect's fractal form loomed, its edges blurring into the void. "It's regrouping. This was just a pawn."
Ha-eun's grip tightened on her knife. "Then we take the fight to it."
Vega's smirk was thin. "You're either brave or stupid."
"Both," Ha-eun said, pushing herself upright.
As they pressed onward, Ha-eun's thoughts drifted to Seoul. The smell of street food, the hum of neon signs, and her father's voice chiding her for staying out too late. The memories felt distant, fragile, a life she could barely grasp.
Why am I fighting?
The answer came in Vega's ragged breaths, in the ash staining her hands, in the Revenant Prime's dying screams. To survive. To protect what's left.
Ahead, the terrain shifted again, giving way to a field of crystalline flowers that chimed like broken glass in the wind. The petals reflected fractured images: Ha-eun's mother weeping, her sister staring at a missing poster, the Architect's fractal vines creeping closer to Earth.
"Don't look," Vega warned. "It preys on regret."
But Ha-eun couldn't turn away. The flowers' song filled her with a hollow ache, a longing for a world she might never see again.
As night fell, an illogical concept in the timeless void, Ha eun and Vega sought refuge in the remains of a derelict starship. The walls were lined with frost, and the air was biting cold. Vega ignited a fire using a shard of corrupted energy, the flames casting twisted shadows around them.
Ha-eun's eyelids grew heavy, but sleep brought no peace.
"You cannot win," the Architect's voice hissed in her mind. "You are a flicker in the dark. I am eternity."
She jolted awake, her hand instinctively reaching for her knife. Vega watched her, silent, her golden eyes unreadable.
Outside, the crystalline flowers had begun to fade, their petals dissolving into black dust.