It had been one month since the Final Battle between Aruto Hiden and Horobi had ended in an unexpected peaceful resolution, with both sides realizing that all they were doing was circulating a cycle of violence that was hurting not only themselves but those around them, making them nothing but puppets to facilitate the late Ark's will.

Since that fight, both sides had dedicated themselves to making sure that the Ark would never rise again, allowing the HumaGears to reach for their own dreams unaffected by the malice of the Ark's influence. This seemingly brought about a new era of peaceful coexistence between the awakened HumaGears and humanity.

But…..all was not well in this rebuilding utopia, as a new threat, one steeped in the history of this conflict but had gone unnoticed, a distinction that would soon come to an end.

In an unassuming warehouse in the outskirts of the city, the first stage of a new plan was about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Inside, the warehouse was caked in darkness but if one were to let their eyes adjust, they might make out the shapes of three figures, all dressed in military uniforms.

One was on a bench lifting absurd amounts of weight that would make anyone observing them question if they were human. The next was laying down on a bench, scrolling on their phone, and appeared to be looking at photos of pop idols though it was hard to tell. The last was sitting in a chair, a leather jacket draped over the back, they had their legs crossed and were examining their gun for faults and any spot of dirt.

In another room, across from the trio, was the one source of light in the area. The spark of a welder, the one wielding it had a slightly lanky frame, was wearing a scientist coat over top of a pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, and even though their face was covered by a heavy welding mask, an observer could still identify them as being male. The scientist was putting the finishing touches on his latest creation.

With a few final sparks, he was content with the result before signaling for a HumaGear to come over with the flick of a hand. The HumaGear had no assigned personality or form attached, it was just a base shell that appeared like it had been used as a testing dummy for a few experiments, it's movements were rough and completely robotic, like how one would imagine a lifeless machine moving.

Disregarding this, the still masked scientist handed the HumaGear his latest creations, in the low light of the room the rough shapes could be made out, appearing to be a standard Progrise Key, with its animal currently impossible to be seen, and a RaidRiser, though the coloring of this RaidRiser could be made out even now. It was a Bright Red. With a single point of the hand, the Scientist sent the HumaGear out to achieve its simple delivery task.

It jankily limped out of the room, past the figure weight-lifting and the one scrolling on their phone, right up to the one cleaning their gun. They stoop up from their chair and gladly took the two items from the android before nodding in silent acknowledgment of their orders and left the warehouse to achieve it.

The scientist seeing this continues work on another project they had apparently already begun work on, welding pieces together to create a new driver. Looking down from above, the sparks from the welder provide all the light necessary to see what was being created. The Red, Silver, Dark Gray coloring making it clear what it was.

It was a CycloneRiser.

END OF PROLOGUE.