My Resolve

'''I do not know. I told you that I can not remember anything about me or my life. The only thing I know is that when I became aware of my existence, you were there. There seems to be some kind of connection between you and me. I can see what you see. I can feel what you feel. And unfortunately, I can think what you think.'''

Ethan White did not understand what was going on. The being in his mind was a human like himself, and he also had amnesia. He could not remember anything at all. Ethan White was still skeptical about trusting the 'human' who was talking in his head, but for any reason, he had an inclination to believe him.

After deciding to ask his master the next time the Sovereign could contact him, Ethan White tried to accept the existence in his mind. He thought that worrying about the voice in his head was useless since he could not resolve the situation.

He could have absorbed a Heart Core and become stronger, but he still was powerless. Ethan White was only as strong as the people training to become an Ascended.

After thinking that contacting his master was the only way to know if the foreign existence was evil or not, Ethan White decided to become stronger. He needed to stop relying on his master. Choosing to ignore the fact that the 'human' could read his thoughts, he turned off the laptop computer.

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Three months later.

"Ah… Another loss for humanity. A friend from the army just messaged me. It seems that the Lightning Strike Squad was completely obliterated in Sweden." A bearded man said, sighing. He was not old, but some wrinkles were already visible on his face.

"The Lightning Strike Squad? The one led by the Knight of Thunder, Thor?"

"Exactly that one... I knew that the Lightning Strike Squad lost a lot of its members during the initial stages of the war, but now it seems they were entirely annihilated. An explorer team found their corpses. He told me their corpses were massacred, victims of torture. It will probably be in the news soon."

"How did it happen? Was it not one of the strongest Ascenders Squads in the army? If even the strongest Ascenders are dying, what will happen with us? Are we all going to die?!" A young man sobbed while pulling his hair out, a clear sense of despair in his wet eyes.

At this time, it did not matter where you went, you would always hear people talking about the war. Initially, people liked to discuss the conflict between humanity and the Golden Civilization, and even the police had to stop some serious arguing because the people involved began to use their fists to defend their arguments.

But in the last few weeks, people have decreased the intensity of their discussions. Now, you only could hear whispers and weepings.

Ethan White did not even try to focus on their conversation. He became used to seeing the sorrow on the faces of the people. The war was getting crueler and worse each day, and humans seemed to be on the defeated side.

Instead, his focus was on looking through the windows of the bus. His gaze was lost looking at the changes in the city.

The city's landscape changed. A tall wall was built, isolating the city from the exterior. While more walls were erected inside, circling neighborhoods. The government was preparing to defend the country from the invaders, using these cities as fortifications.

A curfew was enforced two months ago, and strict security was placed if you needed to move. The authorities required every person to show their Identification Card if they needed to go outside of their district, even if it was to go to the supermarket for food. The supplies also became more and more scarce, giving the richer a higher priority in buying from the local storage.

The streets became almost empty, with most of the people choosing to be in the safety and warmth of their houses. The few people outside had a light shadow on their faces, walking around with a lost expression in their eyes.

Even the usually joyful ones replaced their common smile with a more neutral expression, trying to hide the worry and fear in their depths. They were not only afraid of their possible painful death, but they were also terrorized about how their loved ones would have to suffer unbearable torture until their limbs stop to twitch and their tears and blood become dry.

Ethan White knew what they were feeling because he was feeling the same. It all started after he absorbed his first Heart Core. The alien's invaders almost killed their first Knight, pushing the human army back to the United States.

Canada was lost after a few days, and this was only the beginning of the terror.

A series of videos were uploaded to different websites using Canadian accounts. In the videos, the horror of war was shown to everyone to see. Gruesome tortures, forcing people to eat their own children alive, and the experience did not end even after death. The Golden Civilization seemed to have several Ascenders with a mysterious ability related to the dead.

After torturing and giving painful deaths to civilians, they took their souls and kept with the torture. It was a never-ending cycle of agony.

This was the catalyst to the fall of humanity.

The people began to run away to the south, terrorized by them being the next ones. The governments of the world were forced to lock the people in the cities, building defenses around them. They needed the labor force and the money generated by the people to be able to keep control of the country.

Hundreds of human Ascenders defected from the army, going to take their families out from the newly fortified cities. The moral of the army was never this low, not even when the enemies arrived on their coasts.

The crime level increased, and the government started to use the Ascender prisoners in the frontline. This slowed down the Golden Civilization's advancement, but humanity was lacking more Knights and the powerful Grand Knights to repel the enemy's offensive.