Kharveth exhaled slowly as he tightened his grip on the longsword in his hand. The worn leather straps of his armor creaked with the motion. Instinct moved his body before conscious thought could catch up—he launched himself backward just as the God of War's colossal cleaver came crashing down where he had been standing.
The strike obliterated the battlefield.
The force of the blow was catastrophic. The impact detonated outward in a continent-spanning shockwave that tore through the land in a roaring wall of shattered earth and compressed air. Kharveth was caught in it instantly, hurled into the sky like a loose stone in a storm.
The world blurred past him.
Broken plains, burning forests, and shattered mountain ranges streaked beneath him in flashes of destruction before his flight ended with a thunderous crash into the side of a distant mountain halfway across the planet.
Stone exploded outward from the impact.
Kharveth slid down the fractured slope, armor grinding harshly against the rock as momentum dragged him toward the valley below. His hand moved without hesitation. He drove his sword down into the mountainside.
The blade shrieked as it carved through solid stone, ripping a long trench down the slope before finally slowing him to a halt.
For a moment he remained there, leaning against the weapon for support. Then he reached up and adjusted the dented soldier's helmet on his head.
*How do I get out of this?*
His gaze swept slowly across the devastated landscape.
War stretched to every horizon.
Armies clashed across plains already blackened by fire. Titans the size of castles grappled in the distance, their blows shaking entire mountain ranges. Winged beasts spiraled from the sky trailing smoke and blood. Below him the land teemed with thousands upon thousands of combatants, their clashes merging into a constant thunder of steel, magic, and roaring battle cries.
Kharveth studied it carefully. *This is it. It's definitely it.*
*The 2nd Generation. The Generation of War.*
He wasn't stupid. The moment he found himself here, he understood what had happened. This was an illusion. What he was seeing were his own memories from more than a million years ago, battles from a life so distant they had nearly faded entirely from memory.
But recognizing the illusion did not break it, and that meant it had rules.
*Rules. This has rules. Find the flaw, break the cage. It can't be perfect. It can't be unbreakable.*
The night sky rumbled overhead.
Kharveth looked up.
The moon was falling.
The massive celestial body tore through the heavens in a blazing descent, the atmosphere around it igniting into a burning halo as it plummeted toward the planet.
Kharveth didn't look surprised. In the era he came from, such things were barely noteworthy.
He raised his sword.
Demonic energy surged down the blade, flooding through the metal until the edge vibrated with violent power. Then he stepped forward and swung.
The strike carved upward through the sky.
The falling moon split cleanly in half.
Both halves shattered almost immediately, the immense mass breaking apart into thousands upon thousands of flaming fragments that scattered across the heavens before beginning their descent. A storm of burning stone rained down across the world.
Kharveth watched the destruction in silence.
*Hmm. Did this happen here?* He narrowed his eyes. *No. This didn't happen until two years after this battle.*
Crack.
The sound was faint, but unmistakable.
Kharveth's head turned sharply, sword already rising into guard as he scanned the battlefield. There was nothing. No attacker. No visible disturbance. Only the endless war raging around him. *Is that it?* he thought. *Do I have to point out inconsistencies?*
Movement exploded in his peripheral vision.
He spun, raising his sword just in time to block the descending cleaver of the God of War. Steel collided with massive metal in a thunderous impact that shook the mountain beneath them.
The creature towered above him—a four-armed behemoth the size of a small building. Two of those arms wielded cleavers so large that each blade alone was longer than Kharveth's entire body. *He was here. Definitely. And I killed him too. Not long after this exchange.* Kharveth planted his foot and shoved forward, forcing the god's weapon away before surging back into the offensive.
*Now I just have to find the other inconsistencies to break out of this.*
---
"Tch." Violet clicked her tongue quietly, her eyes remaining locked on the Knight Commander standing across from her. "He's already figuring it out," she muttered under her breath. "Not that I could hold him forever anyway…" She hummed thoughtfully, her gaze never leaving him. "He has to have a weakness. But what is it?" Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied him. "It's definitely not physical ability. His armor is still fine after what I did. Magic maybe? But he keeps dodging before I can land anything…"
Then something clicked.
"Oh." A small smile formed on her face. "Oh, that might actually work."
Another sharp crack echoed through the illusion.
Her smile faded immediately. "Have to do it quick, though. This bastard only needs to find one more crack."