A man plunged his sword with ridges on the blade into the ground soaked with blood and flesh. The man with jaggedly cut blonde hair, and a ruined metal armor on him spat out blood. He looked up at the red sky, and the ever present red moon.
A cold sigh escaped his lips. "Humanity…. I failed to save humanity?" He said
His head came down, looking before him, a swarm of grotesque monsters headed his way, he looked behind him, dead bodies, his fellow pilots dead.
"No, even if this is the last thing I can ever do….. Marcus, Lori, I'm sorry I failed my promise, I can't come back home," he breathed out, his yellow eyes turning back to the swarm of monsters headed towards him.
"Even when darkness descends, I Commander Ardent Vaskara, will defend the borders of humanity until my last breath, this is the pride of the Laststand," he spoke softly as he pulled out his metal sword.
"Night drinker," he called out, and without a second to lose a huge scrap of grey metal ascended from the ground.
The metal silhouette was made of unknown solid material, it was gigantic, with barbed metal tails erupted from its back, from its shoulders two huge scythe-like blades laid, its head was tapered like a crown-like shape, and above it revolved a glowing yellow halo-like material that seemed akin to metal, its eyes pulsed yellow, and its chest pulsed a similar yellow. On its right arm was inscribed NIGHT DRINKER, SPECIALIZED ISSUE 44.
Beside such a gigantic figure, Ardent looked like nothing.
"This is it, old friend, today we perform our last duty as Humanity's last stand," the man didn't look at the Night Drinker he was speaking to. "It was an honor being your pilot."
And then the sombre look in the man's yellow eyes changed into a determined one, his stance straightening and just as the horde of grotesque beasts were close he looked up at the red moon.
"Cursed moon, all of this is because of you," he said with steel eyes, and then. "Night drinker….. Supernova!"
The beasts were just a hair away from him when Night drinker's eyes pulsed brighter and in just a second, a bright yellow light emitted from Night Drinker's chest, the light encompassed both the man and the entire horde of beast.
Then all that was left was a sizzling sound, and the man's eyes wide open with a sad smile on his face as his own body desiccated before his eyes.
•••
"Argh," The sound of a man's groan resounded everywhere.
An extremely pale hand rose up to bury into a mop of blonde hair.
"My head….. hurts pretty bad," a rather young voice announced.
At the sound of the voice, the young man frowned and his hand touched his neck.
'Was that me?' The young man thought, a chilling feeling that something was extremely wrong rang through his head.
He rose on his feet with speed, his yellow eyes registering that he had been lying on a bush in a garden, he was in a garden-like veranda of a huge house…. But not his house.
The young man shook his head. "Think, think Ardent, where could you be?" The young man muttered.
As if he couldn't be anymore confused, as he looked around his environment he caught his reflection on the window of the house.
His eye widened for a split second, yes eye, the person Ardent was looking at seemed to only have one eye because one side of his face was in bandages. Infact as he just tried to widen his eyes he felt pain from the eye of the bandaged side of his face.
'This is not my face,' he thought, his pale fingers coming to touch the other side of his face.
The man he was staring at was a youth, at least a decade younger than Ardent was…. "Around 22 or 20," he said aloud as he examined the face.
The young man had similar blonde hair and yellow eyes just like Ardent, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Ardent had fox eyes, the young man had these limpid, sympathetic eyes, his face was also quite gaunt like he lacked nutrients, which was a ridiculous thought for Ardent, he was particular about his health to keep himself at prime condition to control his…..
Ardent's "face" changed. "Mech," he breathed aloud. "Where is Night Drinker?"
His mind flashed back to the yellow bright light, and back to the words, "Night Drinker Supernova!" Yes he had said those words to his Mech, Night Drinker and he had clearly died, he remembered the pain of being fried alive.
Then what was happening…. And who was staring at him in his reflection? This young man was skinny, and not quite as tall as he was.
Just as confusion swirled in his mind, a sudden wave of pain erupted in his head, and his hands grabbed his head, and with the pain came a sense of clarity to his questions.
It all came back to him. This person he was staring at was Hickory Von Vaskara, one of the sons of Bandor Von Vaskara, governor of Prime City.
To make it clearer, Ardent had somehow travelled from the year 2025 to the year 2310 in the future, and into the body of Hickory Von Vaskara…. Or better known as the trash of the Vaskara home.
Ardent felt his lips twitch at the thought "trash", all his life such a word had never been associated with him, but it seemed this Hickory whose body he inhabited was different.
The future he now found himself existing in was far different from the past he knew. Everyone knew that in the year 2015 the red moon appeared and with it monsters appeared, along with humanity awakening into Espers. Everyone also knew that Mechs were created to help channel an Esper's energy so they don't burn out easily.
Hickory the trash of Vaskara home awakened as an Esper, only the young man had awakened as an E tier Esper, negligible, potentially useless in the Vaskara home that had monsters with S class tiers.
And so Hickory was tossed to the side and married off to the woman they call the fool of the Jorah Family, unlike Hickory she didn't even awake as an Esper, and remained a baseline, what this future referred to regular humans as. From Hickory's memories Ardent realized she wasn't a fool but rather autistic.
Fitting. Two of the most useless of two great families, tossed in a big house, left to rot.
Ardent let out a breath and the recollection of memories, the earlier pain in his head receding. Then his fingers grazed the bandage on the left side of his face.
Now he knew what this bandage was for. Hickory in a foolish bid to prove himself had tried to forcefully bond with a Mech far above his tier and got burnt…. Literally. That was why Ardent felt pain when he tried to open his left eye…. The thing was melted shut.
"Damn," Ardent said aloud, unable to process what he was thinking.
Rebirth…. How was that even possible? His yellow eye looked up to the red moon that still remained present over centuries, somehow the young man felt as if the moon was mocking him.
"Cursed moon," Ardent sneered. "Are you responsible for this?"
Of course the moon gave him no response.
He sighed…. Reborn into the body of the trash of the Vaskara home…. From the last name Ardent wasn't sure if Hickory was his descendant, not that it would matter much anyways, Hickory most likely died for Ardent to have possessed him.
"Drunk himself to death, probably," Ardent muttered, nose creasing at the smell of alcohol permeating from all over him.
He imagined what the young man had felt before he died. Born with a low tier, forced to marry the woman they called the fool of her family, and having had his face burnt with no potential for full recovery.
Ardent sighed, he certainly could not imagine a reality where he was weak let alone referred to as trash.
"This can't work," he said aloud with a frown.
Just as he was lost in thought the door of the mansion suddenly swung open, coming out was a man in a well pressed back suit and behind him was a woman.
A small frown appeared on his face. He knew who these people were. The man in from was his caretaker, called Mr. Wyatt, and the woman beside him, well that was his wife.
Dahraiuss Jorah…. The member of the great Jorah family that couldn't awaken. The lady had more meat on her than the body Ardent inhabited did. She also had silver hair down to her waist, which Ardent remembered was a symbol of all member of the Jorah family, she also had pitch black eyes.
Completely black, including her sclera. Ardent stopped to search deep into his memories but only felt a faint pain instead…. He realized the original Hickory didn't care much to remember this detail and that was why the memory of this was fuzzy.
The young woman also had bronze skin that illuminated under the red moon. Ardent blinked…. She was well…. She was beautiful, although a little strange in the way she hung her head low and twiddled with her finger.
"Master Hickory," Mr. Wyatt called out. "Thank goodness you came back home safe, I had sent out a guard to find you at your usual joint but you were nowhere to be found."
Ardent paused for a moment, thinking of a response, "I'm fine, caretaker, no need to worry,"
Mr. Wyatt stiffened, his wrinkled face stiffening.
'Ah, Hickory didn't address him that way did he? I believe he called him Mr. Wyatt?'
Ardent ruminated over it for a moment but then, 'Forget it,'
"It's been a long night, caretaker, I'd like to wash up and sleep," Ardent said, having been a commander so long it was hard to rectify had manner of speaking.
Mr. Wyatt seemed to have gathered himself of the surprise. "O-of course Master Hickory, shall I run— My goodness,"
The caretaker sidetracked, his honey brown eyes staring at the side. Ardent looked over and found a totaled car by the driveway of the house. His eyes also shifted down to the ground from which he stood up from and saw blood.
He tsked. 'So Hickory really did die…. He must've walked out of his car and tried to get help before he died.' He thought.
Although, he really didn't understand if no one heard the young man yelling for help. It could be that the accident made the young man unable to yell, or everyone pretended not to hear and let him die.
Ardent's eyes sharpened, he'd had more than a fair share of traitorous subordinates.
"Caretaker," he boomed. "Do as you've been told," he added.
The caretaker flickered his eyes back to Ardent and nodded, obviously confused.
Ardent gave a curt nod before heading inside, as he passed by he suddenly felt a soft small hand latch onto his wrist.
He stopped and looked over his shoulder. Dahraiuss.
Her head was still held low as she said, "I-I was worried about you,"
His yellow eyes examined her closely. Hickory had been forcefully married to this woman, he had inherited the young man's body and his memory, the young man didn't treat this young lady kindly.
Ardent wasn't particularly good at being "kind" or accommodating either so he was at a loss for words.
Instead he grunted, and gave her a curt nod. "Go to sleep Dahraiuss," he told her, feeling that was enough.
'That's how I always spoke to the slower junior cadets, and it always helped with their confidence, it should work on wives too, right?' He thought as he walked inside.
The young woman was left distraught. When did it change from fool to her actual name?
'The house is more than a quarter smaller than the Vaskara family home…. But yet it's good enough, and very spacious,' Ardent commented as he made his way upstairs, guided by Hickory's memories.
He walked through the hallways, and gave a brief once over to the crossed sabers hung on the wall opposite his room.
He had a striking feeling these weapons were out there just for the sole purpose of humiliating Hickory whenever he left his room.
With a sigh he turned to the door of the room, and just as he was about to open his door he suddenly stopped, a heavy feeling settling in his chest.
His expression changed from a musing one to a cold one instantly. This wasn't his first time dealing with a situation like this.
'There's a killer in the room,' he thought. 'No, scratch that, there are killers in the room,'