Prologue 

 It was such a normal day, the wind was blowing such a sweet breeze, with no rain and no clouds. Then it all went to shit. No one on earth could have predicted what was going to happen next, that the world was seconds from being thrown into the greatest conflict that anyone had ever known. A war that we would end up losing, with humanity being wiped out. Then again, just guessing that part, I 'left' for the new world right at the beginning of the fighting, so I really don't know what happened back home, nor do I want to. Got enough shit to deal with and really don't feel like going from one hell to another.

Suppose let's start with an introduction, to get this thing going. For all intents and purposes, you can call me Ardit, cause that's basically who I am now anyway. Obviously that's not my real name, but I've been going by that for a while, and most people don't even know my real name. And I would say that's a good thing as I may have done some… questionable things that have landed me in a little trouble. Well there are a lot of people that would argue that, label me a criminal or a villain based on the 'supposed' evil deeds I've gotten away with. But all I've ever done was in service to a person, a promise, a memory or to the world itself. While I do have plenty of regrets, I have none that truly make me feel like a villain. So this is me, setting the record straight. Because every bastard fails in at least one of these areas, forgetting something or is just biased as all hell. So here we go, the start of my journey, the real journey.

So, it began during my time at my old highschool back on Earth, it was already half way through the day, and the student body had been called out to the field to participate in sports day. The tug of war just ended, with my house winning, I didn't really care though, nobody did to be honest. It was all just a waste of time to the graduating year that was now enduring their fifth time of this loss of lifeforce. As such, I was just standing with my friends watching, not really doing anything important or helping at all. 

"Do you hear bubbling?" my friend whispered as he leaned over to me. Drew was his name I think, been so long since then. I speak in past tense as he never made it here after all so I never saw him again. Sometimes I wonder what happened to him, I mean what really happened to him, rather than just assuming it was what happened to everyone else.

I retorted back saying "Are you that damn hungry that you can hear your stomach above all these people?". My friend then clenched his large stomach with one arm, while he just yelled 

"Shut up and listen asshole". While still laughing I decided to indulge him and started to really listen, focusing on a distant bubbling sound that was growing louder. When we all locked at each other next, all clearly indicating that we could all hear the noise, I watched as the group began to make their way towards it

We pushed our way through the crowds of students to the far side of the field, only to find a small black pool of a water-like substance bubbling in the grass.

One of my friends turned to me as we stared in perplexed awe at the pool, 

"Well that ain't fucking natural" he joked, doing his best to suppress his clear unease. As if waiting for someone to notice it, a huge, black arm burst forth from the water, covered in spines and white armour plates over a thick black fur. In a moment before I could think I watched as the large talons snatched my friend beside me and dragged him back into the pool. I stood motionless as the pool began to bubble more with more shapes beginning to emerge from the depths below.

"RUN!!" I finally managed to scream, still trying to process the fact someone had just died in front of me while also trying not to let that shock get me killed as well.

We turned to sprint away in a panic and thankfully everyone else noticed it too and did the same, glad to know no one laced the gatorade making us mutually hallucinate. By the time we reached the other side of the field, four more of our 'new friends' had climbed out of the pool. Despite the screams of terror, I was strangely calm when I stopped running, it was like all my fear was being suppressed, to the point it was unnerving how calm I was, especially compared to earlier.

"I really don't think that they're here to make friends," I muttered. As the five 'things' walked ever closer, I noticed a sword sticking out of the back of the foremost beast, with the hilt rising and falling with its strides.

The front beast began to increase its pace, snarl, roar and bear its fangs toward this terrified group of kids. As began to sprint, this giant bear looking bastard, my body just moved on its own, much to my own horror, it was as if my limbs were being puppeted, which they were. I charged forth from the crowd of terrified students, fear starting to rise as I drew closer. I remember hearing cries from my old friends, but what they said to me has long since been forgotten. I'm sure though that is was probably along the lines of either my name, insults about my stupidity or sanity, or cares of concern or sorrow, like they expected I was going to die right away… which was probably a safe assumption to be fair.

 I mean I thought for sure we were all going to die, and I was just delaying theirs. As the demon bear thing was right on top of me, when I was face to face with death itself, I did something no one expected, not even myself. I dived through the bear's legs, landing with a roll behind the beast, after it had smashed one of its giant claw hands into the place where I was just a moment ago. I was not stopping there however, I immediately got onto my feet, and leapt up onto the demon's back and ran up to the sword protruding from the pitch black fur. I grabbed onto the sword with both hands still running as fast as I could, almost lying against the back of the savage creature, and threw my whole weight over its shoulders in an effort to yank the blade free. 

The sword slid free much easier than I anticipated, but the damn thing didn't glide up and out of the creature's flesh, it cut right through the entire shoulder, and the armour plating covering it. I landed on the ground hard, on my back too, which sucked. Moaning in agony, I got to my feet to see the bear hissing in pain, crimson blood pouring from the wound. I grinned with a shocked satisfaction as I realised my success, unaware of the dead silence that had befallen the students, who were in complete shock that I wasn't dead and somehow succeeded.

The beast now pissed as all hell, swung at me with its only good arm, which I dodged easily simply by ducking under it. I then proceeded to, as I ducked, cleave the arm off effortlessly, to then spin and drive my new blade straight through the bottom of the head of the demon bear. To make sure my "point" was made, I pulled out the sword and moved to the side of the head in one motion, and then severed the bear's head from its body.

The blade began to slide through the fur and flesh and bone, time seemed to slow to a crawl, allowing me to truly see how amazing my new weapon was. It perfectly sliced through all that it touched, leaving no jagged edges of bone, like a hot knife through butter. You butter believe it. Blood poured from the now giant wound, but only for a few seconds, as the beast's body and head quickly turned into an ash like substance, and began to float away with the gentle breeze. I fell to the ground shortly after, gasping for breath and doing everything in my power not to vomit. I dropped gym class the year before, I was a lazy IT student and now my body was moving like it had never moved before. My entire body hurt as I was dragged back to my feet by something I truly cannot explain. I felt like a puppet on strings in that moment even more than before, forced to stand, forced to feel a rising hatred for these creatures and then forced to sprint forward once more my body screaming at me to rest.

Within a matter of seconds I had closed the distance between me and the closest bear. I swiftly lopped off its left hand as it tried to punch me, then nimbly jumped backwards in an effort to dodge a second bear that tried to sneak up on me. It paid for that dearly however, as soon as I had regained my footing after jumping back, I dashed forwards, slamming the full length of the blade against the armour plate on the top of the beast's head. It provided so little resistance it was shocking. The blade slid right through the armour, skull, brain and pretty much the entire rest of the damn thing's body. I had just cleaved that giant demon bear right in half, and man was it satisfying. 

Stopping there just seemed boring to my body, so as quickly as I was able to, I executed the rest of the 'demons' . Dodge, roll, duck, slash at an arm, slash at the back, run through the stomach, cut off a leg. I never thought about what I was going to attack next, I just moved.

Well that's not entirely true, I was thinking about what a complete badass I am. That's a lie. By the time the bears had all fallen to my blade, twenty more had clambered forth from the pool, which had grown ever larger. I was covered in blood, scratches and a deep cut on my right shin, and I was completely out of breath now. I felt like absolute death now, barely able to stand… and yet I had never felt more alive strangely. I didn't have faith that the same existence would continue for much longer but still, I felt euphoric, I honestly think I was getting high off adrenaline.

I began to walk, straight towards the demonic creatures before me. There were no longer just the bear creatures anymore, now there were creatures that kinda looked like werewolves, the same black fur and white armour but built just like a Skyrim Werewolves. One thing I hadn't noticed before, is that all of the creatures had piercing red/orange eyes, just the entire eye socket was this colour, it was unsettling to say the least. Hell though, if I let that bother me then, I wouldn't be where I am now. 

I surged forth now toward the new creatures to kill them all. Some of the monsters, which were further back and couldn't be seen, began to throw spines and spikes in my general direction. Most had horrible aim, others were much more accurate, dodging as best I could. A spine clipped my right shoulder hard, but I didn't stop, nothing was going to slow me down. Then without even thinking or understanding I chopped the spine right out of the air with my sword. Slicing my way through until I was right on top of the 'demons', killing the first with ease, jumping on and over arms, under legs, over backs, lopping off arms, spines, armour. 

I killed at least seven before the first shred of hope we had seen since these pricks invaded. I was hurt, really bad now, my shoulder was dripping blood, my left arm was going numb, and my left leg was killing me. Yet still I stood, defiant of the sons of bitches that thought they could kill my friends.

Three Werewolves began to charge me in a line, I prepared to cleave them all in one strike, efficiency is important after all. Right as they were bearing down on me just about to pounce, the earth beneath my feet erupted as one of the huge bears burst forth from the ground sending me flying. That was when I considered myself truly fucked. 

Death by sneak attack, how pathetic. As I sailed upwards from the force, I looked down to see the jaw of the bear opening wide, clearly ready to bite me in half. I accepted my fate, and I was going to face it head on. I kept my eyes open, staring straight into the bear's eyes, letting it know I was ready to die, and it knew it too, as its expression became more annoyed.. When all seemed lost, the bear's head jerked violently to the left, blood pouring from a tiny hole in its left side. I saw the opportunity and seized it with both hands, I grabbed one of its giant teeth and used the momentum of the falling bear to launch myself at the Wolves, driving my sword right through the chest of one, quickly severing the head of another, before chopping of an arm and leg of the third leaving it bleed to out. I fell to my knees, my left hand dripping with blood from a deep, jagged cut, as two weird helicopter things landed on the field.

 The blood loss must have been hitting me, as I don't really remember much of what those in those ships said, but I know it was something like "Come with us if you want to live" All of the students who hadn't run away yet, mainly only my friends, all began to run onto the ships that had just landed, and the ones that were just about to. I saw all my friends begin to get on, which filled me with such an overwhelming sense of fulfilment. 

I had done it, I had held off these things long enough for help to come, I saved my friends. Suddenly I was being lifted to my feet, I had no idea who it was, one of my friends or someone else, but all I saw in that moment was short red hair blowing in the wind. My feet gave out beneath me as I was being lifted, and I fell back down into the bloody covered grass. 

"Sorry" I said, automatically, "But if you're carrying me onto the ships, I'm not getting on until all of my friends are already on board". I then proceeded to crawl to my feet, despite the pain I now felt everywhere. When I finally stood up, I pushed my glasses back up my nose, so my eyes finally had focus again, to see the gentle face of a teenage girl staring back at me in awe. She wore a red hood and cape, with a grey, red and white pleated skirt. Her face was gentle and kind. She was really pretty, yet looked a few years younger than me as well, she had eyes, the colour of shining pearls. 

Behind her back, was a giant sword, easily two metres long. The thing was also white and black, kinda like her clothes. It. Was. Awesome. As we both looked at each other in awe, I summoned what strength I could to crack a smile.

"What? Is there something in my teeth?" I said with a winched laugh before beginning to walk towards the battles beyond the ships. After a couple seconds, the girl reached out and grabbed my left arm from behind. I winced in pain as I turned around to face her, she let go almost immediately, realising her mistake. 

"Sorry" she said, in such a gentle voice, "and no, you don't have anything in your teeth, I'm sorry I was staring, I didn't mean for you to think that", she paused, "I was just staring, cause I was surprised at how sure you were, at how strong your determination is". I laughed immediately after she said this. 

"I'm sorry, ahhh, I don't mean to laugh, it's just I wasn't thinking that at all, I was actually just making a joke". 

She looked at me with wide eyes, I really didn't think she expected someone to crack a joke here. A big grin crept onto my face, as a smile slowly formed on the girls. 

"I'm actually surprised you're not trying to stop me, or say some crap like "Are you kidding, look how hurt you are." 

"I don't see the point, I don't think anything I say will convince you to change your mind, might as well just save my breath."

"Pretty much" as I once again began towards the monsters at my door. Continuing to walk, I called back to the girl, without turning around, "You better build me a nice monument if I die here" 

The battlefield seemed to freeze however, as the largest creature of all crawled out of the pit of water. Everyone stared in horror at this new monstrosity that just spawned from probably the darkest pits of hell. It started to walk towards the field, 

It was far faster than I ever anticipated at the time, its first swipe really caught me off guard, I barely dodged it by ducking, the second though, ha, yeah, that didn't go as planned. The giant fist slammed right into my body sending me flying backwards, slamming into the ground several times, bouncing up and back down into the dirt rolling several times before eventually slamming into the side of one of the ships with a large crash. After staying in place a couple seconds, my body fell from the fuselage and landed on the ground with a thud. I'm not dead if that's what you're thinking, I had only a couple broken ribs, and a broken right forearm, so I got off lucky, real lucky. Mainly due to my body's quick thinking mind you. Before the strike hit me, I intercepted it with the sword, absorbing a lot of the force into the blade, even still, that hurt like a bitch. 

I started to crawl to my feet, blood now dripping from my mouth in an amount that really wasn't healthy, and with what effort I could, I lifted my sword so that it was level with the beast's head, which I swear to god was smiling at me, asshole. "Now you've made me mad" I muttered, as I didn't really have enough breath to say those words very loud. I slowly began to shuffle my way back towards the demon, as it began to walk towards me as well. Many of those around me, both students and our saviours looked on in wonder, at this small idiot who refused to die. 

That shuffle soon became a walk, to a run, to a sprint, my eyes burning with fire. The beast reached me sooner than expected and attacked first, but I had enough of his shit, I ducked under the entire thing's body and swung my sword across the whole width of its massive mid region. The blade went in deep but didn't make it all the way through, this beast had much thicker armour and fur than the others, and the blade shattered half way through my attack. I was now left with nothing but a hilt and a small broken blade protruding from the guard.

That thought only lasted a second however, as I soon remembered where I was. I drove what was left of my sword right into the closet piece of flesh I could see, which was the wound I had just made. I drove that shard in as hard as I could which caused the monster to stop dead in its tracks. I began to put more force behind the blade, to see if I could push it in any deep, and hopefully hit a vital point, only to find that as I did, I was able to push the monster back. Me, a 85 kg, 185ish cm kid (more like a man) was able to push back a monster the size of a first story building… I had no idea what the fuck was going on. 

Thinking back now, maybe there was something special back then, maybe I had my powers before I even got to this place, who knows (and who cares). I began to push with all the strength I had, against that blade, pushing the monster back further and further until I had such momentum that I was running with my shoulder against the demon's fur. I had no chance of killing this thing, especially since my sword had broken, but I did have one idea, I'll send it back to wherever in the hell it crawled out of. As I looked down to see black water begin to lap at my feet, I screamed as loud as I could, as I shoved the bear as hard as I could while withdrawing what remained of my blade, 

"SEE YA'" with that, the bear went stumbling back, into the black pool with a huge splash, submerging beneath the darkened waves. My friends went nuts. I could hear the cheers, and whistling as I began to run/stumble back through the hordes of demons towards the ships. It was time to go. 

I boarded the last ship on the ground, I was greeted with the smiling faces of my closest friends and the girl in red. "Piece of cake" I said, before grabbing a seat and coughing up a bit of blood. 

The side doors closed, I was able to peer out through the window, and what I saw, will haunt me forever. I saw huge columns of fire, smoke, rising into the sky, destruction as far as the eye could see. I saw a car driving down the road, get effortlessly sliced in half by a demon bear, it then exploded, and several body parts flew across the street. I almost threw up, if not for the last thing I saw of my home. 

The ship began to gain altitude rapidly, I saw, standing in the middle of the pool of black water, a woman. She had silver hair that was tied up, and her skin was as white as a sheet. Her eyes, one, was the same as the monsters, a red orange, but the other, her right eye, was a complete black, with a small red dot in the middle. 

I clenched my sword handle as tight as I could, as the smile she gave me when the ship finally began to gain speed, was nothing short of bone chilling. I knew, somehow, in that moment, that we would meet each other again, and what do you know, I fucking called it.