Chapter 1: Reminiscence of what once were

“The greatest chaos in the world is that of the soul

A soul that embraces chaos can ignite the world”

Kyo stood still in the middle of the desolated battlefield. His body felt heavy, his eyes shaking frantically from witnessing what was below him. Corpses scattered all around. The feeling of anger, vengeance all had ceased to exist. His hands shook as blood poured down from the fingertips. His eyes were getting cloudy. As the vision distorted, so did what was appearing before his eyes. After all, this was a reality turned nightmare. Suddenly one corpse looked him dead in the eye and said,

"Wake up. Wake up" a boy shook him up. Kyo's nightmare had ended. He looked around to see that he had dozed off. Four other individuals were seated around him in a sleek and compact mode of futuristic transportation. The inside had white decorations and a view of space.

“You’re finally awake? Has old age gotten to you” said Leon, the cocky boy with sharp yellow hair and green jacket. Half of his face was covered with cybernetic enhancements.

“Hey, that's not how you should treat an extra crew member!” said Hermione, the purple alien girl. She had yellow eyes, two long horns and a tail that had a heart-shaped at the end. Her body was covered in a black armored suit. Her white hair was neatly tied in a ponytail.

“Now now. Knock it off, you two,” said Jacob, the bald brown man. He was quite larger than the others. With elf ears and a sharp troll jaw, he was the most menacing of the group. The most noticeable thing about him was his enormous belly and his right arm, which was replaced with a robotic one.

“Are you okay?” said Hikari, the girl in black robes beside Kyo. She had dark blue hair and a pair of glasses.

“I'm okay. Just remembered some bad things. The kid’s right. Old age is certainly getting to me,” said Kyo. Unlike the rest, Kyo was merely humane in appearance. He had dark blue hair and light blue eyes . He also had a messy goatee and clothes that seemed to look as if they would tear down at any moment. A simple white shirt and blue pants.

“Hey now, don't think like that. Being close to 40 isn’t old,” said Hikari.

“It sure hell is! Make sure you don’t hold us back, old man,” said Leon, swinging his revolver.

“Alright, I'll try my best,” Kyo said with a reluctant smile.

The small microphone on the top of the room lit up.

“Listen up, you mercenary rascals. We are approaching sector 18, the MilkyWay galaxy. Be prepared for landing”

“Still can’t believe life even exists in this corner of the universe,” said Leon.

Leon looked as if he felt bored with everything. His eyes lacked excitement, which was a direct contrast to that of Hermoine.

“I like this feeling. A sense of wonder and discovery. What did they call it? Earth was it?”

Kyo looked through his window to see their ship was getting closer to the planet. His body was motionless, while his eyes were void of emotions.

“We’re landing at the last known location of the Meto spike,” said the pilot.

“Finally,” Leon said, getting up. He went close to the hangar.

The rest got ready behind him.

“I’ll be picking you guys back within 3 days at 10 pm Earth time. If you aren’t there within 1 hour, I will consider you all dead and leave. Is that clear?”

“Sheesh, talk about being dramatic,” said Leon, jumping down to the city below. Following him, the rest jump as well. Kyo pulled his brown cloak and wrapped it around him. He wasn’t enthusiastic about this at all. To him, it was just another job to get by, after all.

Location: Dhaka City, Bangladesh

The ruined metropolitan city of Bangladesh. Buildings lying on top of each other, broken glasses, the smell of rotten flesh, and the bark of dogs were all so present.

“Woah, look at this mess. What the hell happened here?” asked Leon.

“That's what we are here to find out,” said Jacob, ruffling Leon’s hair and observing the surroundings.

“From what it looks like, a huge fight broke out,” Jacob said.

“More like a massacre,” said Hikari.

“Alright, let's split up and cover more ground. Check everything and collect samples of dirt across if you can. Meet back at these coordinates by nightfall”

“Alright, I'm going this way!” said Leon, heading in front.

“No, so fast. I'm going that way!” said Hermoine.

“Huh? I said I'm going that way first. So pick another one woman!” Leon bickered.

“So what? I planned on going there before even thought of it”

It was clear these were just naïve kids bickering about petty things. But that had some nostalgia in it. Kyo let out a small smirk that no one could see. He headed the opposite direction. Hikari had noticed that smile and stared at him as he was going. She was always peeking a glance at him from time to time.

“Is something the matter with you, Hikari?” said Jacob.

“That man…We let him join us cause the guild wasn’t letting us go without a five-member team.”

“Does this worry you? Don’t worry, even if he dies we won’t be to blame”

“It's not that I'm worrying about. That man…he has a very abnormal meto, one of which I have never seen before.”

“Well, let's not try to pry too much. Strangers can be deadly,” said Jacob as he walked towards the left. Hikari, after a few moments, walked the opposite.

Kyo walked in dismay. He could sense nothing in the environment.

“There seems to be no sign of life around here, nor any lingering flow of E waves. This is very concerning.”

Adding to the fact that the surrounding rubble only reminded him of that of the cold battlefield from which he had escaped from. It was silent as a limbo except for the occasional wind blowing. In his head, screams seemed to leak out of every corner. With each step, his breathing became louder, his legs felt heavier. He scrambled his way towards the side of a broken wall and fell right down. The sun was glowing from the side. It was peaceful to look at. Yet why didn’t he feel that? Why did it feel something chaotic? Kyo slowly reached out to his pocket. A small container containing some pills. Without even thinking, he swallowed 5-10 at once with a huge gulp. He tucked his head down, closing his eyes and calming his nerves.

“Why…why does it still haunt me?”

Time passed by as everyone kept on searching with nothing but old dead bodies here and there and some animals. Everything seemed natural, to say the least.

“Alright from what I've found, there seems to be an abundance of dead bodies all around. Whatever happened to them happened a long time ago. Almost a year, to be exact. Nothing but bone remains with some rotten flesh,” said Jacob, throwing some wood into the firepit.

“Same case for me,” said Hikari.

“Ugh! This is so boring. I thought we were gonna fight some cool monsters here, but there is nothing!” said Leon, lying down with his legs crossed.

“Well, i for one found many new creatures. I have taken a photo of each. There was also one that was rubbing its body with my feet. Cat, or whatever it's called here on Earth?”

“Well, good for you, miss wonder girl,” said Leon.

“Hmph. Unlike someone here, I enjoy the beauty of the world rather than stupid violence,” said Hermoine.

“Anyway, what did you find, Kyo?” asked Jacob.

“Kyo?” Jacob asked again, to no reply. Kyo was spacing out, looking at the fire pit.

“Umm Mr Kyo?” Hiraki shook his body when Kyo became conscious of his surroundings again.

“Geez, old man. Listen, when people talk to you,” said Leon.

“Now, now, maybe he is going through some inner turmoils.” Jacob said.

“Kyo…what have you found”

“Nothing out of the ordinary”

“I see. What about you, Hikari? Didn’t you bring that equipment with you? The Meto detector?”

“I did. But it seemed to not pick up any unusual Meto spike. Whatever was here was long gone. It's either out of this planet or maybe on a different continent.

“So, are we gonna go on this goose chase until we find whatever this creature is?” said Leon.

“No. We report that the area of Meto spike is secured. If they want further inspection, then it would require more money. If they fulfill our demands, I don’t see why not”

"Well, I guess this is a bust," said Leon.

"So, should we head to bed?" asked Hikari.

"No way. The night is too young. Oh, I know. How about some wisdom time?" Hermoine said.

"Really? Wisdom time?" Leon retorted

"No one asked for your opinion!"

“Well then, how about you give us some wisdom, Kyo?” said Jacob.

“Me?”

“Yea. Unlike you who recently joined our team, we have known each other for a long time. So we all know the ins and outs of each other's life. So what about you Kyo? Wanna share some advice with us, old timer?”

“Wisdom? Heh,” Kyo chuckled, just thinking about it.

“There is nothing special to say.”

He gazed above at the stars that were glowing in the night.

“When I was a young man I had ambitions yet I did not follow them, had many great people beside me yet I did not value them, and finally had love, but I did not feel them. It took me years before I could understand the meaning of all these three. Maybe it has become too late to even feel those again anymore. My advice is to not let go of the present you have now. Maybe one day you will come to regret that you didn't value these moments.”

“Woah. That's heavy,” said Leon.

“You must have gone through some pretty rough patches in life, haven't you, old timer?” said Jacob.

Hikari put her hand on Kyo’s shoulder.

“It must have been tough for you all this time. Here, have a cookie”

Kyo looked dismayed at first. But he grabbed the cookie from her hand and took a bite. The taste…was bland as every food he tasted for the last decade, but it felt better.

“Maybe.. maybe if I stick with these kids and help them realize their own dreams…would that be enough to atone for what I’ve done?”

He thought to himself.

“Alright then, let's do one more search tomorrow and then we go back and report?” said Jacob.

“Yea,” everyone responded together.

As morning came, everyone got ready for one last exploration.; Kyo seemed brighter than he was before.

“Hey glasses, girl,” he called Hikari.

“Can you give me one of your meto devices? “

“Umm sure.” she threw one towards him. He looked at the counter and noticed it was straight 0.

“Alright, I'll explore the river corner. Maybe I can pick up something from there.”

“Looks like someone feels enthusiastic,” said Leon.

Kyo walked towards the riverside. The decayed skeletons were still there, but that suffocation from before seemed to have lessened. He could move without too much pain. He felt a sense of joy in him. Maybe if he helped these kids…no it was his selfish way thinking that he had found a new purpose in life. After all, everyone has to be drunk on something to get their body and mind going. With a single leap, he jumped on top of a 10 story building.

“Now let's see..” he pulled the device up high, trying to get a signal if he could.

But nothing was picking up. It became very concerning.

“Looks like it's just not my ability. Even the detector can’t detect Meto…”

He went into deep thinking. When suddenly it hit him.

“What if we calibrate the machine to a negative integer?” said Hikari, who was with the rest.

“A negative integer? Is there even such a thing?”

“Well, a negative integer doesn’t exist in reality, but in theory, it's possible. Instead of detecting meto spikes, it sucks in e waves from the surrounding area, causing a meto spike or, in this case, fluctuation from a singular area”

Kyo was rushing back to them at full speed. His eyes were horrified. He had tested the negative integer; the number horrified him.

“What does it mean, then?” Leon asked.

Hikari was silent as she started to connect the dots.

“Have you guys heard of the myth regarding the sacred treasures?” asked Hikari.

“Sacred treasures? What the hell is that?”

“Mystical gems that are known to possess immense power within them. It's believed that these gems possess enough power to destroy galaxies effortlessly. ”

“What are you trying to say, Hikari?” asked Hermoine.

“They say these powers are abnormal and don't go with our natural world. Thus, instead of releasing e waves, they absorb them by causing a rift in the meto spike. And the monster who hold one of these treasures within their hands are known as…

Behind them stood a tall dark creature whose head had steam like hair leaking from it, eyes that were red with bloodlust and a pale white body with black markings across the shoulders.

“Kaijus…”