The ‘Noble’ Calling

Ashen walked the empty street, his direction aimless, with yet another cigarette hung from his lips, just a futile attempt to distract himself from the fact that his decade-long relationship ended just like that.

Stopping by a deep, tranquil lake, he stared into the rippling water, lost in thought.

The reflection staring back at him felt foreign—a broken man at the edge of despair.

As he stood there blankly, for who knows how long, he suddenly felt an itch. 

'It's back…'

This wasn't an itch that could be physically scratched.

No.

It was more like the thirst that you felt after three straight days without water.

But this sensation wouldn't subside with mere water. 

This cursed, maddening itch at the back of his mind was the one that called him to the casino.

The one that told him to gamble his last shred of dignity away.

This feeling wasn't unique to him; any soul plagued by the curse of addiction would instantly recognize it.

He couldn't believe that not even thirty minutes after such a heart-wrenching speech from Alice, he wanted to go back to the casino…

"Maybe I'm truly helpless after all." He muttered to himself as he released a bitter chuckle.

A familiar buzz snapped him out of it. He checked his phone, already knowing who it was.

"Hello, Father?"

"...You still know that I'm your father, you bastard?"

His father's voice was gruff, laced with barely restrained fury.

"F-father, I can explain—"

"Don't! I don't have a son like you, you ungrateful wretch!"

Ash felt his throat tighten. "I—"

His father's voice crackled through the phone, sharp and unrelenting,

"What were you thinking? Doing something like that! Forget about me, don't you know how much grief you made your mother feel, you heartless monster!"

The words cut deep as he remembered his mother's face, her voice laced with deep worry every time they talked.

"What about your sister?! Don't you know how much she used to idolize you?! Don't you feel any shame in showing her that sorry ass of yours now?!"

"Father, I'm really sorry…"

"I don't care how sorry you pretend to be! Because of your foolishness, our family is almost broken apart and I can't allow things to continue like this."

A short silence stretched through the phone, but it was soon broken by his father's steely voice.

"From now on, don't show your face ever again, not to me or your mother or your sister. I want you out of their lives."

"..."

"Even that impossibly sweet girl had enough of you… I can't believe how you can disappoint her, damn it!"

Beep, beep, beep.

The call got cut from the other side, but Ashen just stayed frozen like a statue. 

The itch was getting more irritating as everything else just fizzled out of his mind.

The calm of the lake offered no solace, only a mirror to his shattered reality. 

As the moonlight cast its pale glow over the scene, a mysterious figure emerged from the shadows.

The click-clack of high heels hitting the stone pavement rang out as they approached. 

The stranger's voice cut through the night like a blade, low and measured, "Seems like a rough night."

Cranking his neck slightly to the side, he was met with a stunning woman.

Ashen didn't have enough mind to care about why such a beautiful woman was in such a deserted place at this hour, dressed like a secretary.

"What do you want?" he spoke plainly, his tone dry.

"Ashen Hart right? I have an offer. I want to propose a contract to be exact." She answered simply.

She patiently waited for an answer. Unfortunately, he seemed more interested in the deep lake as he stared at it intently, fizzling out her presence.

Following his line of sight, the woman exclaimed softly. "Oh."

"Why don't you listen to my offer first before throwing yourself in there? I doubt it's enough to drown you anyway."

Getting annoyed at the woman's presence, he decided to humor her for a bit. Maybe she could leave sooner that way.

"What offer?"

The woman gave him a charming smile, seemingly not minding his attitude, and presented a business card.

"What I'm offering is a job, but the catch is that it could be a bit dangerous."

Ashen read the card as the woman continued chatting away. It read 

Atlas Defense Co.

Lucia Evernight, HR department

Ashen was a bit surprised. He knew Atlas Defense.

This company is a major leader in many departments, weapon manufacturing and medicine being chief among them. 

"A little risk is nothing to you, right? Since you're Ashen Hart the leader of that extreme survival group, what was its name again? Ah, I think it was The Savage Pack or something. In fact, this was one of the points we took into consideration when choosing you for recruitment."

Ash's lips twitched at the mention of the cringe-worthy name, regretting his previous recklessness all over again.

He spoke again with a tone that somehow came stiffer than before.

"What's the job?"

"Oh, the job's specifics are secret. All I can tell you is that you will be testing our weapons on some beasts and savage animals. Don't worry, there will be a training period to prepare you well."

Ashen found this whole deal shady and he was not in the mood to entertain this woman any further. So he just brushed her off.

"Not interested."

Lucia didn't seem to get the memo as she tried to convince him further, "Don't be so fast to reject, I didn't even list the benefits right? I even have the down payment money here with me!"

With a *clang* sound, the briefcase in her hand opened up showing neatly bound bills. The numbers printed on them clued him into their staggering value.

Ashen froze at the sight before him, the itch at the back of his mind coming back stronger than ever.

He barely listened to the details after hearing the number of zeros being thrown around. 

The thick wad of cash gleamed temptingly under the moonlight, and the promise of a "huge salary" beyond that sealed the deal.

"So? How is it? Are you in or not? I didn't mention that the recruitment slots are limited, right? This might be your only chance to join."

The woman's voice was smooth, calculated, and almost hypnotic as she laid out the offer.

His rational mind screamed warnings, but desperation and the crushing weight of his ruined life drowned them out. 

He barely glanced at the fine print of the contract before signing it with trembling hands, the faintest flicker of hope telling him this might be the reset he needed to start over.

The woman smiled as she took the signed contract, her perfectly manicured fingers sliding it into a sleek black folder.

"You've made the right choice," she said with a hint of satisfaction that he, in his frazzled state, didn't notice.

"Enjoy tonight, Mr. Hart. Your new life begins tomorrow."

Before Ash could ask what that meant, she turned and walked away, heels clicking softly against the cobblestones, leaving him alone with the suitcase of cash.

A bitter laugh escaped him. New life? He thought.

It couldn't be worse than the one he'd already destroyed.

He left the lake, clutching the suitcase, unaware of the shadowy figures watching him from the treeline.

***

Ashen's pulse quickened as Lucia seated herself across from him with an unreadable expression.

'Where Am I?'

His blurry vision cleared, and his foggy mind focused as he internally asked the question.

Noticing that he was fastened to his seat, he turned his attention to the only other person in the room who could answer his questions.

"It's you… what did you do to me? Ugh, did I just get kidnapped?" he asked while still a bit groggy.

Lucia rested a sleek black folder on the table and opened it, revealing pages of the contract he had hastily signed.

Now, under the harsh glare of the sterile room's lights, the fine print he ignored earlier seemed to scream back at him.

"I suppose I owe you a proper explanation now," she began, her voice calm yet laced with an unsettling authority.

"The contract you signed binds you to our organization for a twenty-year term. Non-negotiable. The money you received is real, as promised, but I imagine you'll find very little use for it where you're going. We're in the business of securing humanity's survival, Mr. Hart and you've just enlisted in its most dangerous line of work."

Her words hung in the air like a death sentence.

"Securing humanity's survival?" he repeated, his voice tinged with disbelief. "What does that even mean? And why me?"

She arched a brow. "Because desperate people are the easiest to recruit, and you fit the profile perfectly. But don't flatter yourself—it's not about you. It's about the countless lives you'll help protect… if you survive." She leaned forward, her azure eyes narrowing. 

"You've been drafted as part of a covert operation to prepare soldiers for an ongoing conflict. Your destination is the second continent—an alien, untamed land that human technology cannot breach. 

Out there, beyond our shores, humanity is at war. Not with each other, but with something far worse. Creatures that make the monsters of our myths look tame."

Ashen's throat went dry, his mind racing to process her words.

He had a bad feeling as he heard her gibberish.

One thing was for sure, he was massively regretting getting involved with this lunatic right now.

"Monsters? Aliens? What are you even talking about?" he asked, desperately trying to claw back some semblance of normalcy into the conversation.

She smirked, as if amused by his confusion. "You'll see soon enough. But first, there's the matter of… acclimation. You'll be dropped into an environment designed to test and condition you—a forest teeming with danger. Monsters, hostile terrain, and, most importantly, other recruits."

She clapped her gloved hands and then fixed a strand of her pink hair leisurely, 

"Consider it a tutorial of sorts, though most of you won't survive it."

Her casual tone made Ash's skin crawl. "Why? Why throw people into this… madness?"

"Efficiency," she replied coldly. "We don't have the luxury of wasting resources on the weak or the unworthy."

"Those who show promise will move on to the next phase of training. The rest…" She shrugged, the unspoken implication clear. "Of course, if you'd like to opt-out, you're welcome to try breaking the contract."

Ash instinctively glanced at the runic mark now etched on his forearm that he kept trying to ignore since earlier. 

The woman's smirk deepened. "Good luck with that."

It was clear that whatever this tattoo was, it was anything but normal, especially with how it kept glowing faintly whenever he had any thought of running away.

'New life my ass…' He felt more like a trapped rat about to be used and then discarded…