Introdu

  The dimensional rift was his battlefield. Issei had faced the impossible for years, battling nightmarish creatures, warriors from distant worlds, and ic forces that her he nor his trained mind could have prehended. His life, so to speak, had been a stant journey between dimensions, where chaos and order blurred, and where the very essence of reality was a battlefield.

  The cracks he passed through were not just portals, but wounds in the very fabric of what we uand as space-time. In these pces, time was not linear, sounds could bee images, and the ws of physics were mere suggestions. Issei's ability to navigate these brokeories, to find meaning in the inprehensible, was what had kept him alive for so long. But in that st battle, something ged. Somethi wrong.

  The battle had been fierce, his sword g against the resistance of a being whose nature defied human logic. That enemy, with eyes that reflected no light and a voice that echoed in the depths of space, seemed to be the st obstacle before a definitive closure of the rift that had invaded his world. Everything was about to end... or at least that's what Issei thought.

  Issei was at the edge of his endurance, his body covered i and blood, his breathing ragged. The dimensional rift around him throbbed with an indescribable vibration, as if the very walls of spad time were being torn apart. In front of him, in the gloom of that interdimensional battlefield, was his enemy: The Unfathomable One.

  It was a creature whose form defied all logic. It had no fao defined body; its very presence ulsating void, like a bck hole that could only be approached with the certainty that nothing could ever e out of it. Its eyes... those eyes, if they could even be called that, reflected no light, took in nothing that beloo the known universe. They were two orbs of pure darkness, a bck so deep that it seemed to devht itself, as if eternity was alive within them, waiting. And when its 'eyes' locked onto Issei, something within him snapped, as if the very cept of existing had been called into question.

  The voice of the Unfathomable One was no voice, but something worse: a ic resohat pierced his mind, something that was not a sound, but a distortion iy itself. The vibration passed through every bone in his being, rumbled in his ans, in his thoughts. Every word that emanated from this creature was not nguage, but the very death of anything that had ever had form.

  "You have dared to challenge what must not be touched, mortal."

  There was no room for doubt. Issei felt it in every fiber of his body: this was not just a fight for survival, it was the fight against the ineffable, against something that had existed before time, before chaos, before everything.

  But Issei didn't back down. He couldn't. His sword, that bde fed in the fires of a fotten world, glowed with a faint light, the only source of crity in a universe that seemed to be crumbling. With a roar, he unched himself towards the Unfathomable One, his body enveloped in a whirlwind of pure energy. The air around him distorted, and the grouh his feet trembled as if the dimension itself was shattering with each step.

  The creature reacted, and it did so in a way that Issei could never have anticipated. With a wave of its "hands," if they could even be called that, the Unfathomable One opened a rift in space itself, a vortex that absorbed all the light around it, plunging the battlefield into absolute darkness. Issei felt his own thoughts grow heavy, trapped in that void as if they were being dragged into a mental abyss.

  "You 't win... because you don't uand what you're fag"

  Issei felt his will fading, but i shred of lucidity, rage ignited in his chest. He was not going to give up. In a desperate move, he swung his sword towards the vortex of darkness, releasing a wave of pure energy that fshed in the bess, briefly illuminating the void. The glow illumihe figure of the Unfathomable One for only a moment, as if time itself had frozen. And in that instant of light, Issei saw something that chilled him: the creature had no fao body, but its presence was beyond what the human mind could prehend.

  The Unfathomable One did not dodge the attack. Instead, the rift of darkness surrounding it expanded, and Issei's energy wave was absorbed with terrifying ease. Every punch Issei threw was devoured by the void. Every effort was futile. The creature oed as a ion of everything Issei knew, as a primordial force that could not be destroyed.

  "You are just a spark in the abyss, Issei. And the spark goes out."

  At that moment, the pressure on his mind intensified, the voice resonating in his head like an endless echo. Issei's vision blurred, his body trembling with exhaustion and despair. The memories of all his battles, of all the portals he had crossed, of everything he had fought for, began to fade, as if the very cept of fighting was taken away from him.

  But then, something awakened deep within him. Something older than any training or acquired skill. It was will. A will so fierce that her the Unfathomable, nor the void of the os, nor the very cept of "nothing" could extinguish it.

  Issei gritted his teeth, and with a burst of strength, he unched himself once more into the darkness, defying gravity itself, defying the Unfathomable. His sword fshed with a blinding glow, every atom of his being vibrating with pure bat energy. The csh was cataclysmic. The Unfathomable, in its infinite darkness, attempted to deflect the blow, but it did not t on the fact that Issei was no lhting for his life, but for something much greater.

  The instant Issei's sword touched the darkness, there was a scream, but it wasn't human. It was the scream of reality itself being torn apart, the sound of stars dying and portals closing. Everything trembled.

  But the portal was already open, and the end could not be stopped.

  In that moment of desperation and sacrifice, the mistake came.

  Issei had defeated the creature, but at an incalcuble price. The portal, unstable due to the iy of the battle, sucked him in with brutal violence.

  And so, the warrior disappeared into the darkness of the vortex, into the unknown.

  Issei then found himself suspended in an endless fall. There was no ground, no sky, only a chaos of light and shadow twisting around him. Without knowing how, he felt his body falling through the atmosphere of a strange p. He didn't know it yet, but his fate was sealed, he was no longer in the rift, he was no longer in his world.

  He was like a meteorite passing through the upper yers of an alien atmosphere, burning from the fri as it desded toward the ground of an unknowhe high temperatures of the atmosphere were beginning to engulf him in fmes, but he felt no pain. Instead, his mind was caught in a vertigo that overwhelmed all his senses, a struggle to maintain trol as the forces of the unknown world pulled him in with unusual gravity.

  Through the roar of the fall, he glimpsed a massive p beh him, its surface covered by turbulent seas and mountains that seemed to spill over like dormant voloes. Strange auroras of impossible colors iwined across the sky as if they were signals from a distant universe. In the distance, something moved in the shadows of that world, but the speed of his dest prevented him from capturiails clearly. He only khat here, on that inhospitable p, his existence as a warrior had reached a point of urn.

  Issei found himself trapped in a pce where the rules of physid logio longer applied. A being who had crossed portals and defied dimensions was now a meteorite in free fall, not knowing if he would survive what awaited him below, or if he would simply be reduced to ashes before toug the earth.

  The fall tinued, endless, into the chaos of that distant world, where time and space were no longer allies. And deep down, Issei khat this was not just another portal, nor another battle between worlds. This would be the start of something much bigger... and much more dangerous.

  The sky split in two.

  Across the vast expanse of the Veyra ti, where war never ceased, the echoes of flict resohrough the valleys, mountains, and cities struggling to survive. The roar of mecha—gigantic war maes that traversed the terrain with titan-like strides—bined with the explosions of artillery and the rumble of aerial battles. The troops of Feron, an empire at war with the rest of the world, advanced relentlessly, but no one repared for what was to happen in the sky.

  Far away, from the observation towers in Zorath City, the lookouts first saw a fsh, sht and intehat it khe thermal vision goggles off their faces. In the distance, on the western horizon, a fiery figure slid through the atmosphere, moving with the force of a et, slig through the yers of air with the fury of a runarojectile.

  "Alert, alert! Something's falling from the sky!" The voice of one of the officers boomed over the speakers, eg through the partments of the massive war maes, the mechas. Within seds, Feron's troops activated their unication systems and began preparing for what they might sider an airstrike, but the magnitude of the phenomenohem in a state of disbelief.

  On the southern ti, Ferak City watched in arm, its radar pig up orange crash. A 3rd Division mecha, the Magnus X-12, whose pilot, Lieutenant Xara, was on patrol, looked up just as the glowing figure streaked across the sky.

  "What the hell is that?" Xara mutters, watg the figure slide bad forth through the atmosphere, meteor-like, burning from the fri. Suddenly, the gigantic mecha she pilots is also shaken by a shockwave of heat – a tremor felt even in the Magnus's metal spine.

  What seemed like a spark became a gigantin of fire that crossed the skies with a blinding glow. The sight was terrifying, something outside of all defense protocol, something that the reports had not anticipated. The fall tinued, unstoppable, across the tis, crossing Mehari, Drosan and finally entering the vast desert that marked the limit of the most inhospitable and fotten area of all Veyra.

  The impact of the figure in the desert was so moal that even from a distance, surveilnce cameras in nearby towns recorded the explosion of dust and debris. Sensors at the Ferak Military Headquarters recorded ahquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale, the rgest tremor recorded in the region iuries.

  "Incredible! The epiter is over a thousand kilometers from here... and that was an explosion to rival an orbital strike..." Xara muttered, already on her way with her squadron, curiosity repg fear. They didn't know what it was that had fallen, but the fact that Feron's war maes could sehat energy told them ohing: that being, or whatever it was, was not from this world.

  The sky, still heavy with the heat of the fall, was now dark, covered by the b of dust and steam raised by the impact. In the northern cities of Zorath and Mekr, the monitors of their huge mechas detected the phenomenon, and orders were quickly issued. The metallic giants, desigo resist and annihite, began to mobilize, marg towards the pce where the creature had fallen. The report was clear: unknown infiltration.

  Thousands of miles to the south, in the distant city of Drosan, the mecha of the Hesperion Alliance were lining up for defehe radar of the most advanced mecha showed a strange distortion. At Hesperion Base, ander Alden watched from the aer, a bridge where the lights flickered with an ominous iy.

  "An anomaly imosphere, something has fallen from the sky. It's something big. This is not a meteor."

  The engineers and pilots khe crash was no act: the speed at which the figure moved, the heat it left behind... that energy was not from any known projeot from Feron or Hesperion. Something had e from somewhere else.

  Finally, in the heart of the vast desert that separated all the war fronts, Issei's figure nded with a rumble. The impact left a gigantic mark on the earth, like a scar breaking the peace of nature. The shockwave threw a cloud of sand and debris towards the horizon, darkening the sky even further and marking the terrain as a vergence point for the hundreds of mechas advang from all parts of the ti.

  But what no one expected was that the fallen figure would not move.

  Within minutes of the crash, radars began to deteomalies: the creature that had desded from the sky had not risen. It was not responding. Pilots began to theorize that the crash had been so violent that perhaps the creature was no longer scious. But they took no ces.

  Feron's Third Division, already 200 kilometers away from the epiter of the impact, advanced rapidly, being the first to arrive in the area. The mechas began to deploy around them, with the gigantic steel figures looking at the horizon, unsure if it was a fallen enemy or a ype of threat.

  Inside one of the mechas, Xara observed the impact site, the sand rising like a dark b over the motionless figure.

  "I don't know who or what you are... but you haven't gone unnoticed." His eyes narrowed iermination. He khat this being, who had fallen from above, could ge the course of the war. And Veyra's future would be marked by the imprint of his arrival.

  With a sigh, Xara gave the order:

  "Move forward. The fate of all is at stake."

  Feron's Third Division advanced like an iron storm across the desert, their mecha moving with military precision. Xara, inside her massive Magnus X-12 unit, watched the horizon as the sand dunes slid beh her mae's powerful feet. The ground vibrated with each step, and the air felt thick, charged with palpable tension. Something strange had fallen from the sky, and the radars kept fshiing warning signals.

  As they he epiter of the crash, the clouds of dust and debris grew, enveloping everything around them in a shroud of darkness and chaos. The sun barely mao break through the thick yer of sand suspended in the air. On her mecha's ss, Xara observed that the fallen figure was in the ter of a giant crater. An impact so deep that it made the earth itself seem to twist. The sensors showed an irregur energy field, as if the atmosphere itself had been altered by the fall.

  Xara tightened her grip on the trols, giving her mecha's legs more power. The Magnus X-12 moved forward unhindered, its imposing steel frame rag across the desert at the speed of a war train. Around them, her subordihe pilots of the other mecha of the Third Division—were also advang, maintaining formation.

  "ander Xara, we have reached the impact perimeter," Lieutenant Zeck said over the radio. His mecha, the B-22 Striker, was moving forward, bringing up the rear. His tone was serious, ed, as if he was feeling what she was feeling: the weight of the unknown.

  Xara didn't respond immediately. Her gaze was fixed on the monit ss, sing the se. The figure in the ter of the crater was motionless, giving off no signals, and there didn't seem to be anything in its surroundings that would indicate an immediate threat. But the fact that there was no movement or response whatsoever was even more disturbing. Any creature dropped from high into the atmosphere must be pletely incapacitated, or not?

  "Stay in formation. Don't get pt. This is no simple act, nor a on attack," Xara ordered, her voice eg through the speakers of each mech. "Adjust ons, be ready for the ued. We will iigate, but with caution."

  The Magnus X-12 took aep towards the crater. The figure fell into a sand pit that was still steaming from the extreme heat of its entry into the atmosphere. Unstable, dangerous terrain, but that wasn't what really worried Xara. It was the feeling that something much bigger was about to happen.

  The crater was over a hundred meters in diameter, and within, at the ter, y the fallen figure, half hidden among the dust and debris of its impact. Xara could see that it was not a mae, nor a beast known to Feron. It looked... human, but it was not. Its body was covered in a straallic armor that seemed to fuse with its skin, as if flesh aal itself had bee one. A warrior, yes, but of a kind they had never entered before.

  "ander, are you sure it's safe to approach?" Zeck asked, his tone now tehe B-22 Striker was close, but not close enough to see clear details.

  "We'll know whe there," Xara replied calmly, though an arm bell was ringing loudly inside her. The presence of this being, this fallen warrior, was... disturbing. His fall had been a catastrophe for the desert, and his form, though motionless, radiated an energy that defied all logic. What could have caused such a tremendous fall?

  As they reached the edge of the crater, Xara stopped her mecha. She ordered the others to do so as well. No one moved, all watg in silence, waiting for a response from the fallen figure. They didn't dare take a step closer, as if the very air was charged with an invisible tension. The sing systems detected no life of any kind, but the figure... it wasn't human, irely. Something was wrong, t.

  "Any ges to the radars?" Xara asked, trying to reorient her mind towards more tactical aspects. They couldn't be reckless, not without knowing what they were up against.

  "Nothing, ander. Everything is still in order. But there is interference... something strah the signals..." replied Lieutenant Zeck.

  At that moment, something happened. A spark. A fsh of light. A deep sound, like a ic whisper, echoed through the air. The Third Division mechas shook. Xara felt her Magnus X-12 vibrate as if a wave of energy assing through the ground. Something had activated.

  "Get ready! Stay calm and follow orders!" Xara shouted over the radio, but the feeling of unease shot through her chest. The figure dropped from the sky, without warning, and now something inside her seemed to be awakening. She couldn't let this get out of trol. She couldn't.

  Suddenly, the fallen figure began to move.

  A subtle, almost imperceptible, but clear movement. The figure's limbs lifted slightly, and the eyes, which seemed to have no light at first, began to shih an unnatural glow. The sah the figure began to crumble, and Xara saw the metal warrior slowly rise, as if he were reag to something only he uood.

  An echo of energy vibrated in the air.

  "tai forces! Move!" Xara ordered in a firm voice, activating her mecha's ons. The Magnus X-12 prepared for what was to e. That figure, that being fallen from the sky, no longer seemed to be defenseless.

  And before he could give another order, a shockwave was unleashed from the figure, throwing all the mechas back, as if the wind of an unparalleled storm ushing them with brutal force. The battle, the ohat seemed far away, had begun.

  Feron's Third Division had arrived to face the unknown.

  The rumble of the impact was deafening, but for Issei, the sensation of the ground approag was a distant sciousness. The fall had been long, almost endless. Despite being immersed in the darkness of his mind, he could feel the presence of his armor, the Scale Mail Armor adjusting to his body automatically, like an instinct that had been burned into him.

  The reason he was wearing the armor at the moment was simple, albeit with a plicated backstory. Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon within his Boosted Gear, was deeply wounded. After the battle against the Unfathomable's army, the dragon had bee almost pletely exhausted. The st fight they had fought had drained his energy, and, when the dimensional rift had sucked them in, Ddraig had been knocked unscious, uo help beyond the basics.

  Issei, for his part, was also weakened. His wounds, both physical and spiritual, were still bleeding, and his sciousness wavered betweey and madness. The memories of the fight against that creature, which defied all human logic, were still present in his mind, but they were fading as he fell through the atmosphere of an unknow. He did not know if he would e out of that situation alive. Ddraig, who was trapped in his Boosted Gear, had tried to wake up, but was so weakehat he could only offer minimal help.

  It was in that moment of desperation and fusion that, with the st vestiges of his will, he activated the Scale Mail Armor.

  The armor, made up of shiny, resilient scales that covered every inch of his body, unfurled like a sed skin, proteg him not only from physical injuries, but from pain as well. The energy tained within the armor, though weak due t's ck of power, was enough to give Issei some respite. The armor, a reminder of his bond with the red dragon, ected him to something beyond his own limits.

  The wind from the impact was searing as he fell, but he could sense something else: the presence of other beings nearby, beings that did not belong to his world. Maes, rge and heavy, were rapidly approag him, their footsteps eg on the ground with tremendous force.

  Issei, still with clouded eyes, raised his head. On the horizon, the silhouettes of the gigantic war maes of the Feron Third Division were drawing closer, but he no longer had the strength to flee. The only defense he had left was his armor and, although it was not in its best dition, he could still do something. Maybe, just maybe, he could intimidate enough to avoid beiroyed before he fell pletely unscious.

  "Back off!" he growled, his voice dragged by the wind, almost inaudible, but desperation gave him strength. Through the Scale Mail Armor, a red glow faintly vibrated, as if the armor wao assert its presence, despite the weakness of its wearer.

  The massive maes paused momentarily, their pilots' dispys began to flicker, and the figures within the mechas fli the ued glow. There was something about that figure, something that didn't fit in with the warscape they found themselves in.

  With an effort, Issei mao partially stand up, though his body was shaking, and the pressure of the fall kept him on the verge of unsciousness. The metal warrior he carried seemed to be resonating with something inside him, with an almost palpable energy that seemed to echo in the air itself. Though his vision was blurry, the presence of the maes felt like an immihreat.

  And then, the Scale Mail Armor released o fsh, a glow of suppressed fury, as if trying to defend the indefensible. Issei couldn't take it anymore.

  The armor's energy was quickly depleted, Ddraig's ck of power and Issei's extreme exhaustion too much to keep it active. The st remnants of energy left in the Boosted Gear were absorbed in a burst of weak light, and the arman to slowly disie, the scales falling in pieces, as if they were leaves blown by the wind.

  Issei, exhausted and with his eyes on the verge of closing pletely, fell to his khe st of his strength slipping through his fingers. The figure in the armor pletely vanished, revealing his battered body, marked by the scars of war, and covered in blood. He had nth to get up anymore.

  The figure that had fallen from the sky could no longer intimidate. Feron's Third Division watched him, some bewildered, others in disbelief at the sight of a nearly dead man, but with something in his gaze, something in his being, that seemed to tell them that he was not someone easy to destroy.

  Xara, from inside her Magnus X-12, watched cautiously. She could feel the tension in the air. This was no simple being fallen from the sky. There was something about his presehat overrode any military protocol. She gave a signal to her team.

  "Keep your distahis... being is not what it seems. We will assess the situation, do not act recklessly."

  The mechas surrouhe area, vigint. ons remained ready, but no one fired yet. Issei's presehough weak and injured, had made it clear that, despite everything, he was not pletely defenseless.

  The fallen warrior had shown a fsh of power, of strength, even though he was now so close to the abyss. Xara, with her gaze fixed on him, khat the situation had ged. This was not just an unknown threat, it was something much more plex.

  "This being... who is it?" he wondered quietly, as the war maes surrouhe strange human who had fallen from the sky.

  Tension hung in the air, palpable and thick, as the mechas of Feron's Third Division stood motionless around the fallen figure of Issei. Xara watched silently from within her Magnus X-12, her mind w rapidly. The armor's dispy of power, though brief, had been enough to make it clear that this being, human or not, was no ordinary foe. The energy emanating from it, even in its weakeate, had caused a shudder to creep through the air. Xara, with her training and experien the battlefield, uood that the best move was to calmly assess the situation.

  "ander Xara, shall we order b?" asked Zeck, the pilot of the B-22 Striker, his voice over the inter leaking a mix of caution and ay. They were too close now, and the tension alpable in the air.

  Xara remained silent for a moment, watg as the small gusts of wind kicked up the sand around Issei's motionless figure. Her mecha remained in position, but her eyes couldn't tear themselves away from the fallen being. The armor was almost pletely gone, revealing a human body, albeit wounded and scarred. Blood still stained her clothes, and her breathing was weak, almost ent.

  "e closer, Zeck," Xara finally ordered. "But don't make any sudden movements. We don't know how... stable he is."

  The B-22 Striker slowly advaowards Issei's figure, its heavy metal legs kig up the sand as it stopped right o him. The other mecha of the Third Division were still in formation, each eyeing the strange human with distrust.

  With a quick gesture, Xara deactivated her mecha's ons systems and desded from the cockpit. It was a risky decision, but she was fident that the situation was not pletely dangerous yet. However, the nature of this fallen being did not stop her from feeling uneasy i of her stomach.

  Like Xara, the other members of the division began to climb down from their mechas, each with their own medical and assessment kits in hand. One of them, Lieutenant Raik, stepped forward, croug o Issei with a gaze fixed on his body. Up close, they could now clearly see the wounds: deep cerations, burns, and bruises, obvious signs of a brutal impad the struggle that had preceded his fall.

  "He's not dead," Raik said, as he adjusted his gsses and checked Issei's vitals with a portable medical device. "He's in shock, but he seems... human." His tone was cautious, almost awed. The fact that this being had a human pulse, despite the incredible fall, gave them a new perspective ouation. The warrior who had fallen from the sky didn't seem like a mae, nor a supernatural creature... but the energy he had given off, although fleeting, was not ordinary.

  Xara crouched dowo Raik, carefully Issei. "Human or not, he's in critical dition. And that... that thing we saw earlier, the armor, the glow, it's not normal. We must bring him back to base immediately. Maybe we learn something from him."

  Raik nodded. "ander, do we take him as is? We don't know if he's an enemy or a... threat??"

  Xara looked at Issei's wound once more, her gaze hard but thoughtful. Finally, she gave an order firmly, like a leader aced to making difficult decisions in times of uainty.

  "We'll take him to Ferak," he said, pointing toward the military zone a few miles away. "And I want no oo move until we get to the base. This kind of situatioo be handled carefully. Prepare for an emergency transfer."

  Raik, with a quick gesture, activated a deviobilize Issei with a restraining meism. The human was too weak to resist, and the medical team pced him in a special tai pod designed fh-risk situations. A pair of soldiers from the division lifted the pod with e equipment built into the mechas, ensuring that Issei was well secured for transport.

  As the soldiers began to prepare the way to Ferak, Xara remained silent, her gaze fixed on the fallen being.

  "What are you, really?" she muttered, her thoughts swirling. She didn't believe in ces. The downfall of this man, with his strange power, couldn't be mere luck or a ic act. Something else y, and she felt like she was at the epiter of something much bigger.

  The mechs began to move again, this time heading towards Ferak. The military base was the closest and safest pce to assess the situation. Xara decided that although the war was still going on and her responsibilities as a ander were vast, what she had just witnessed ged the course of everything she khis man, wounded and near death, had fallen from the sky... and the glow of his power was something Feron could not ignore.

  The jouro the base was made in silence, each member of the Third Division immersed in their own thoughts. Meanwhile, Xara thought about what would e . What secrets was this man hiding? And, most importantly, how could Feron's Third Division take advantage of, or rather, trol, what seemed to be an unknown threat, or a key to something much rger?

  "This will be a day that will defihe course of the war..." Xara thought, her inner voice as firm as the structure of her mecha.

  The jouro Ferak Base was long, but Feron's Third Division advanced with the precision of a well-oiled mae, their mecha plowing through the sandy desert terrain. The endless dunes looked like an o of dust, but beyond them, the horizon rose like a promise of civilisation. The vast expanse of this p, known as Gairos, held tless regions, each marked by its own flict, but all uhe shadow of an endless war.

  Gairos was a fragmented world, divided into several tis, each with its own history, resources, and—above all—its own enemies. Humanity, scattered across territories that were stantly disputed, had fed in their struggle an unparalleled war teology: the mechas, gigantic war maes that domihe battlefield.

  The ti of Feron, home of the Third Division, was one of the most industrialized and militarized tis. This ti was divided into several nations, but the towers were Feron, the capital of the war mae, and Valhara, an expansionist empire that had begun to invade nearby territories. The war betweewo sides had been ongoing for over two decades, an endless flict fueled by the resources they both wao trol, particurly the mines of Valtrex, a rare metal used in the stru of mechas and essential to the adva of war teology.

  The cities of Feron were a spectaetal, steel, and smoke. Towers of crete aal rose like colossi, iwined by cables and transport works. The skyscrapers of the capital were almost as imposing as the mecha themselves. Factories and armaments industries kept the popution busy with rodu, and the streets of the great cities were filled with soldiers and workers, all tributing to the war mae of their nation.

  Ferak, the Third Division's main base, was a fortified plex built in a mountainion. The terrain there was rocky and difficult to access, making it nearly imperable to enemy attacks. Within its bowels, mecha hangars glowed in artificial light, where Feron's soldiers maintained and repaired their war maes. It was a cold, meticulously ordered pce, with endless corridors stretg for miles. The base also had research ters, in which stists sought out eologies, both to improve their mecha and to better uand the mysteries of the universe, such as the portal through which Issei had arrived.

  As the Third Division approached Ferak, the mechs advaeadily, cutting through the arid ndscape of a desert that seemed to have no end. But in the distahe first mountains of Ferak began to appear, with their snoed peaks and rocky terrain that seemed cut by a k was a strategic area, heavily defended, but at the same time, very far from the tral cities of Feron. No one in the army wao be too close to the battle line, and even less so to the forces of Valhara, who were always looking to infiltrate.

  Inside one of the mechas esc Issei, Lieutenant Raik maintained a thoughtful silehe ss inside his cockpit showed Issei's status, still unscious and ected to medical equipment. He watched him cautiously, still thinking about what he had witnessed minutes before. "What the hell just happened?" he wondered, while adjusting the coordinates of his mecha and making sure the defenses were activated at all times.

  Oher side, Xara tio observe the horizon, not missing a detail. Issei's presence had altered everything. The energy he had released, although ephemeral, had been something more than a simple glow: it was a trace of power, something that seemed beyond her uanding. It was not just a matter of advaeology; it was something beyond.

  The journey tinued for hours, until they finally reached the gates of Ferak. The massive walls of the base stood like an invincible bastion amidst the wild nature of Gairos. The underground hangars housing the mechs were safe, and Xara khat any attempt at attack would be futile. The hangars were perfectly camoufged among the rocks and mountains, and the defenses were as strong as any war fortress.

  "This is where we'll answer all the questions," Xara muttered, as she watched the rge gates of the base open to let them through.

  Entering the pound, the sight of Issei, still unscious and covered in blood, was a brutal trast to the cold, calcuted efficy of the military base. Medid engineers were ready to greet him, while the soldiers of the division remained alert, watg his every move.

  Meanwhile, in Ferak's resears, stists from all over Feron were beginning to prepare to study the strange being that had fallen from the sky. Analysis would begin as soon as Issei was brought into one of the tai rooms. They k wasn't just a matter of getting answers about the human, but also about the energy he had given off. It was a ce to uand the teology behind his armor, and perhaps... something even deeper, something that could ge the course of the war.

  But while all this was happening, the real danger was still lurking: war with Valhara, which had never been so close to a full-blown explosion. Valhara's generals would soon realize the fall of this mysterious being, and ohey did, there would be n back. It was no longer just a battle for trol of resources. Now, the secrets of the universe seemed to be within reach, and Feron could not afford to lose the advantage.

  The Third Division mechs were already ba their hangars, but everyone khat something much bigger was brewing on Ferak.

  Issei found himself in a dark void, as if his body had been suspended somewhere between sciousness and unsciousness. All around him, the silence was absolute, a dense silehat surrounded him pletely. There was nothing but the immensity of his own being, though something—or rather someone—broke that void. Ddraig's familiar voice echoed in his mind, breaking the stillness of his mental space.

  "My, my, it seems the fall wasn't as gentle as we thought, huh, Issei?" The voice of Ddraig, the Welsh red dragon, was unmistakable, deep and resonant, filled with a power. Although his tone had a hint of mockery, the undercurrent of within it couldn't be ignored.

  Issei, for a moment, could barely process the words. His body was sore, hurt, and his mind struggled to focus. "Ddraig..." he muttered, his voice crag, as if speaking from a deep sleep. "What... what happened? Where am I?"

  Ddraig's voice washed over him, a resence amidst the chaos. "Ha! I'm telling you, it's not good, my friend. You're in some lost er of this world. Ferak, I'm told. Apparently, you were picked up as some sort of... 'object of i'." Ddraig let out a deep ugh, a ugh that echoed with old battles and a kingdoms.

  Issei blinked in his mind, and began to remember. The fall... the portal... the Scale Mail Armor... and all the chaos that had happened in the moments leading up to it. The explosion of energy, the feeling of losing trol, the impact. It had all been a blur, but what was clearer now was the certainty that he wasn't dead. He wasn't in a familiar pce either. "Ferak... is that a city? Or... a try?"

  "A city? No, buddy. It's more of a military base. A rge underground base, filled with stists, soldiers, and mecha... Well, more accurately, war maes, metal giants, if I'm being ho. They don't seem to be very friendly to invaders." Ddraig paused, as if sidering the situation more carefully. "What I'm more curious about is how they're keeping you there... like you're a b rat. They're iigating every part of your being, seeing how that human body holds up to the impad the powers you carry within."

  "Lab rat?" Issei muttered, a hint of tired sarcasm. "Wait a sed... you're saying they're studying me? Like I'm some kind of experiment?"

  "Yes, exactly. Like aic spe." Ddraig said, his tone mog. "They're looking to uand that strahing inside you, the energy ing from me, the power of the Boosted Gear, that armor that now covers you. Oh, and I imagihey're pretty excited about what they find out about you!"

  Issei couldn't help but sigh in exasperatioe his pain and exhaustion, he couldn't help but find something humorous about the situation. He was being treated like an object, a mysterious 'being' from another world. "I guess it's not the worst thing that's happeo me... although being examined like a guinea pig isn't very funny..." He fell silent for a moment, p. "But wait... how do you know all this, Ddraig? Are you... watg?"

  "Ha! Well, it's not like I have much else to dht? I'm here ihe Boosted Gear, you know, my personal prison." Ddraig said with a slightly bitter tone, but there was a hint of pride in his voice. "I sehings through the e we have, and from what I se seems like they're doing a thh analysis of your being, especially that armor you're wearing. I'm hearing their mutterings... like you're a chess piece they want to study before they make a move. I feel how the energy your armor is emitting has them terrified, but also fasated."

  Issei frowned, his mind beginning to bee aware of the situation. As he remained in the limbo of his mindspace, images of what had happened earlier began to gain more crity. "So... those mecha I saw... those giant maes, what are they? Are they some kind of... army?"

  "Exactly. Mechas, as you call them. They are gigantic war maes, created to trol the battlefield. They are operated by humans, of course, but they are huge, heavy, and desigo destroy. This world seems to be ihroes of an endless war, and those metal creatures are the workhorses of the warring fas." Ddraig let out a light ugh. "I suppose it would be iing to see how you stack up against those... though holy, I wouldn't want that to happen while we're so weak."

  Issei clearly remembered Feron's Third Division, and how after he fell, the mechas surrounded him. They weren't just war maes, they were vehicles of mass destru, the symbolism of this world's military might. "They surrounded me. They were the ones whht me here, right? I was... still unscious, but I felt them moviransp me..." The feeling of being at the mercy of these gigantic beings made him uneasy, but a part of him was also curious. "Do you know anything about the ander of that division? Xara... I think her name was."

  "Ah, Xara... The ander of the Third Division. That one does seem iing, huh?" Ddraig let out a small ugh in his mind. "She's no fool, that's for sure. I've heard she's a respected leader, but I don't knoell she'll treat us, especially if she finds out what we do. Her behaviht vary depending on what she sees you capable of. Don't fet that humans always fear what they don't uand... and with luck, they be maniputed as well."

  Issei was silent for a moment, p Ddraig's words. If Xara and her people tried to uand what he represented, what he could do with the power of Boosted Gear, theuation could bee even more plicated.

  "All I hope is that I don't get into more trouble than I already am," Issei said, sighing. "I've had enough of fighting and dimensional portals."

  "Yeah, and the worst part is that now you have these humans on your trail. Sometimes, I think we're the biggest trouble mags, huh?" Ddraig replied, but his tone wasn't as mog anymore. "Stay alert, Issei. Don't let them manipute you anymore. Humans are uable, but with a little ing and power, maybe we get something useful out of all this."

  Issei hough he khat the situation was still far from resolved. Everything seemed to be shrouded in a fog of uainty, but deep down, he felt something. It wasn't just that his life was at stake. The fate of this world, with its mechas and its endless wars, was now somehow iwined with his own as well.

  ander Xara of Feron's Third Division was in her office, an austere space where the metal walls and cold lights reflected the serioushat characterized her. She had been watg for a few mihrough the monit ss, where the stists tiheir analysis of the fallen human, that strange being that had arrived from the sky in a blinding glow. The tension in the base alpable. Reports came in bursts, but the data was vague, fragmented. No one knew for sure what they really had in their hands.

  Xara was not a woman to be carried away by emotions. She had led battles, managed resources, made difficult decisions. But there was something about this situation that uled her. This human, Issei, was not simply another prisoner of war or another element in the vast flict of Feron. There was something about his presence, something that rumbled in the air, a palpable energy that she could not ignore.

  "ander, initial analysis suggests this being is not of this world," one of his officers reported, his voice gravelly over the unicator. "And its armor... we have never seen anything like it. None of our teologies are parable."

  Xara frowned as she stared at the human's fa the s. He was unscious, covered in wounds, but something about his posture, the way his hands gripped the armor he wave her the feeling that he wasn't as vulnerable as he seemed. He wasn't just a man. He was something more, something beyond what she'd ever known.

  However, as he watched silently, the versation going on ihe prisoner's mind began to take shape. It was difficult to hear clearly, as if filtered by the stream of ss and teology, but the words were uandable. "Ddraig..."

  ander Xara raised an eyebrow at the name, repeating it in her mind. The feeling of strangeness enveloped her. What was this "Ddraig"? It seemed to be an important presence, and from the way the human referred to her, it was clear that he was not alone. Suddenly, as if it were a bad omen, the tension increased. Something ged in the human's body, something Xara had not anticipated. In a fsh of light, his Scale Mail Armlowed brightly, as if it had taken on a life of its own.

  "ander, look!" one of the stists shouted, pointing at the s where Issei, still unscious, began to emanate a supernatural energy that ran through his entire body. The armor, until that moment i, activated in an instant, c him pletely.

  Xara stood from her seat, her eyes fixed on the s as she watched the glow of the Scale Mail Armor. The energy released by the suit was tremendous. Not only was it a suit of armor of great strength, but it seemed to have a sciousness of its own, as if it reized its wearer. The glow of the armor enveloped the human with an iy never seen before in any of Feron's creations. This power, though fleeting, was something pletely different from anything they knew.

  "That..." Xara whispered. "That's not just a human. What is this being really?"

  The captain at his side began to speak rapidly. "ander, energy ss are showing levels pletely outside of known parameters. This is no ordinary armor. It has no power source of any kind recorded. It appears to be capable of geing its own energy..." The captain brought up more data on his s, and Xara could see the magnitude of the energy radiating from the human.

  Xara frowned and began walking towards the doors of her office. She had no time to hesitate. This event ged the rules of war. Who was this being? Why had it fallen from the sky? And most importantly, what did the stists want to study about it?

  "Keep an eye on him. Prepare for the most thh iigations," he ordered in a firm voice. "I want answers about this being and his armor, and I want them now. I don't want to be surprised with any more inplete data!"

  ander Xara was not about to let uainty rule her. Although her duty was to protect her army and ehat the Feron war was not threatened by unforeseen factors, something in her instinct told her that this being, Issei, could be the key to a radical ge in the bance of power.

  He stood at a crossroads. The human had fallen, yes, but his fall did not seem to be an act. It was as if fate itself had intervened. Feron was already on the verge of victory over Valhara otlefield, but this being, this human, now represented a new kind of power, something that transded war itself. Was he a potential ally? Or would he be an eveer threat?

  As Xara made her way through the halls towards the tai room, the stists' thoughts tio echo in her mind. The energy that the armor had released, along with the strange life signs ing from Issei, could not be ighis human had crossed a dimensional portal, and the possibility that he was just an instrument of war for some other empire in the universe seemed more than likely.

  However, Xara also khat she couldn't allow Feron to lose trol of this situation. If the teologies he brought with him were something as great as they seemed, she couldn't let them fall into the wrong hands.

  Arriving in the tai room, he saw the stists busy with analyses, but he also saw the tension on their faces. They all khat this prisoner was not just a human being. He was a crossroads between the known and the unknowween survival and ging everything they uood about their world.

  Issei stood there, motionless, but with his armlowing softly, as if he was still waiting for someoo challenge him.

  Xara watched in silence. She khat everything that had happened so far was just the beginning. Questions tio fill her mind, but above all, there was a feeling more powerful than simple curiosity: the urgency to uand what had fallen from the sky, before someone else could take advantage of it.

  — "This is just the beginning," she thought to herself, her gaze hardening. "I will not let Feron lose trol of this power... not while I am in charge."

  Issei found himself once again in the void of his mental space, in a state between wakefulness and sleep. Although his body was pletely immobilized, his mind was still active, dialoguing with Ddraig, his partner, his friend, and most of all, the dragon residing within his Boosted Gear. The white noise of Feron's base came through his thoughts in a diffuse manner, but he was still too stunned by the impact of his fall to be able to fully trate oside reality.

  "Ddraig..." Issei muttered, still trying tain his lucidity. "What do we do? Do we wait and see what happens? Or do we get out of this? I don't really feel like staying as another experiment, but I don't know if we have the strength to fight either."

  Ddraig's voice rang out in his mind, vibrant and filled with the strength of an a dragon, although now, a little more rexed. "I'd say we better wait a bit, Issei. You don't have even half your strength and what's outside doesn't seem to be exactly friendly. Plus, the armor you're wearing isly discreet. They probably don't know what to do with someone like you."

  Issei fell silent for a moment, p. He was right, his energy was draihe Scale Mail Armor was still an imposing suit, but that didn't mean it was invincible, especially when he wasn't pletely in trol of his body. The st few battles with the Unfathomable's army had left deep scars on him, and if he tried to break ht now, he would not only expose his fragility, but he could put more people at risk, if Feron's soldiers decided to attack him.

  "Then... we'll wait..." Issei nodded with what was left of his will, although uainty still lingered in his mind. "Do you think they're preparing something, Ddraig? Will it be an ambush?"

  "I don't know, but this world has more questions than answers. What I do know is that those guys don't seem to want to kill yht now. In fact, what intrigues me the most is what's going on with the ander... Xara, right?" Ddraig replied with a hint of amusement in his voice, though there was a seriousness in his tone. "From what I've heard from the stists and what I sehrough our e... she's watg you all the time. And not in a... normal way." Ddraig left a pause heavy with i.

  Issei was silent for a moment, fused, but soon the word 'watg' made him think of something else entirely. "What do you mean? He's watg me? But... why?"

  "e on, e on, what else could it be? ander Xara, as the others call her, is so ied in you that I think she might even say that you have a new... girlfriend." Ddraig let out a low, almost mog ugh that echoed in Issei's mind.

  "Girlfriend?! What are you saying, Ddraig?!" Issei excimed, horrified. Although he khe dragon sometimes liked to make jokes, he didn't find it funny at all this time. "Don't make me say weird things. I don't want to be associated with her! Besides, I don't even know who she is. And besides, she doesn't seem like someone I'd want to date, especially after all this!"

  "Oh, easy, easy, buddy. I'm just giving you a glimpse of what's going on out there." Ddraig tinued, still mog. "I feel her presence every time she es near. She's obsessed with everything you have, with that energy that flows through you. It's like she's trying to unravel every er of your being."

  Issei tried to process Ddraig's words, but the truth was that he didn't have much of an idea of how to hahe situation. "So... what, she's just there all the time, staring at me? Why?"

  "I told you, boy. She's way too ied in you. Almost like an i drawn to the light, or a hualking her prey." Ddraig joked, but he also seemed to be makial notes about the ander's iions. "I don't know, but something tells me that if you get nervous and decide to go out and fight, she'd probably be there watg you the whole time. I doubt it's just stific curiosity."

  Issei felt unfortable at Ddraig's suggestion, but he couldn't help but feel a mix of fusion and frustration. This ander Xara, who was she really? Why was she staring at him in such a... disturbing way? Was it just audy or was there something else behind this obsession?

  Time passed as Issei tio verse in his mindspace with Ddraig. The situation was being more and more surreal. 9 hours had passed since his fall, and Issei's body remained motionless, while the Feron stists and ander Xara tiheir research, unaware that within his armor, he was still scious, with his mind intact.

  Outside, the stists' reports reached Xara, who seemed more intrigued than ever by the results. The human remained motionless, but something in his presence... something about him captivated her in a way she couldn't expin. She had studied thousands of cases of prisoners of war, from different species and fas, but she had never felt the same with any of them. Issei was no ordinary being, and the Boosted Gear, his armor, only increased his mystery.

  Xara didn't know if she was ag logically or impulsively, but the fact was that she couldn't stop staring at that being that had fallen from the sky, asking herself, over and ain, "What is this being?"

  "We'll see what to do with him..." she muttered to herself, as her gaze fell ba the s, Issei's still unscious figure.

  For his part, Issei, still in his mental space, listeo all this, and although Ddraig's words were ironid loaded with mockery, he couldn't help but feel like an obje a rger sario that he didn't fully uand.

  "What's going on here... isn't anything good, is it, Ddraig?" Issei ented, still with a mix of doubt and some disfort, as he felt Xara's gaze weigh on him.

  "The only good thing, my friend," Ddraig replied in a more serious tone, "is that you have a ce to learn more about this world. Just don't do anything stupid in the meantime."

  Issei, though still wounded and weak, couldn't help but smile at the irony of the situation. The st thing he wanted was to be trapped in an unknown world, surrounded by enemies and curious observers. But, as always, he would have to trust his instincts... and Ddraig.

  "We'll see what happens, then..." he muttered, mentally preparing himself for whatever Feron had in store for him.