Warning:

- This story portrays mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, suicide, and self-harm.

- This story contains violence, gore, strong language, sexual themes, drugs, and adult humor

- This chapter contains, situations such as sexual abuse, rape and child abuse

Reader Discretion is advised.

Foreword:

Hello, I'm GameMaker8YT. The author of this light novel series. This is my first light novel and I apologize in advance for my inexperience. I hope you enjoy it.

Written by GameMaker8YT

Cover by: Rexxch

Arc 2: the beginning - Chapter 13: Armanda and Rico

“So, this is what the capital looks like huh” Armanda says.

A large city with houses and shopping districts spreading throughout the gigantic city, laughter, and joy from all the townsfolk around. And a huge headquarters almost as tall as the sky pierces in the middle of the whole city, and multiple layers. A bunch of cadets walking around the city helping townsfolk, it is beautiful, I have never seen anything like it before. “I guess so, we really are finally here, and we didn’t have to use that proof of yours either heh” Rico says with laughter on his face. 

The carriage stops at the headquarters and one soldier walks all the women to one side of the building and the men were walked to the cadet site. 

The cadet site was a facility where training courses and exams were taken in order to join the military, we entered the facility, and a bunch of other cadets wearing their sword equipment, battles happening, and everything it was like the stories I read back in the village. We entered and each of us was assigned this exam of sorts with endured countless training and battling, I was nervous of course and so was Rico. 

There was no clue as to what we were to expect, in terms of training, would it be hard or easy? And just like that, weeks went by. Gruesome hours of training were put into that course, I could defeat anything that came my way, and I was unstoppable. But unfortunately for Rico, he wasn’t the best fighter, but he wasn’t the worse, so I always had to look out for him. 

Armanda approached the main Leader of the cadet corps. “So, I have been meaning to ask you something” Armanda said to the leader, “Make it quick, we have training to get to” the leader told Armanda, “Do you have any information on Xenovia Ulrich? Or Bret Ulrich?” Armanda asked, “I do not know I’ll search on the database” The leader said. 

The leader approached his holographic computer and searched for the names. “It appears that your parents are pronounced to be dead, Bret Ulrich was killed in battle when a Xethain tore two of his limbs off creating a stomach cavity that led to his death, Xenovia Ulrich was captured by a group of men, and her corpse was later found in an alleyway, she was nude and---” the leader said, “Shut the fuck up!” Armanda said, “that would appear to be all the information we have, now get to your position the final exams will be starting in a few minutes” the leader said. 

Armanda walks to his position in line next to Rico, Armanda had an expressionless face, full of rage and anger. “Listen up, you will be taking your final exams today which will determine if you will qualify for the military or not, More specifically the Umbra Corps”. The exams were taking place and it was my turn to proceed. I stepped into the examination room. 

Suddenly a large dummy enemy appeared in front of me and it spurred attacks with its right arm, I dodged all of them, then it proceeded to do an uppercut with its left arm, I quickly dodged to the left and cut its right arm clean off. Slid in between its legs and jumped up to its head, put my sword through the neck, and pulled the sword out in a circular rotation cutting its head off. 

Suddenly two other dummies appear, this time one of them was equipped with a gun, I dodged to left, to avoid the bullets and leaned all the way back to avoid the punch from the other dummy, I jumped all the way up, bouncing off the head of the melee dummy. 

My sword steady in my hands aligned perfectly in the middle of the gun dummy, I sliced the gun dummy completely in half, jumped back to cut the kneecap off the melee dummy, and put my sword through its head. After that there were three more rounds of different dummies, I completed all the rounds. 

Everyone who passed the rounds was gathered in another line, some of the applicants were dead, a few were shot in the head, and others were beaten to death. It was a horrific sight to unveil, for someone who has never seen anything like it. I was desperately trying to see if Rico made it, I looked across the line and there he was, Rico with bruises all around his face and arms. “He made it through the lines” Armanda thought to himself. 

The leader stood up in front of everyone, “Listen up everyone, all of you who have made it, well done! But now it is time for your final examination, you will each be paired with another applicant who has passed and will fight to the death, those of you who succeed will officially be a part of the military and will be assigned to your squad or just a simple recon team”. Everyone started to mumble, all horrified about what was about to happen. Armanda had a blank expression on his face as he has nothing left. 

Everyone was paired up and I was paired with a man named Jintan. He came running up to me with a furious look on his face, he struck first with his sword. It was a foolish move as he left everything completely open, I took my sword and thrusted my sword through his forehead slamming him to the ground. Pulling my sword out of his head blood gushed out. Luckily, Rico also beat his opponent but had a wound on his arm. I had passed the exam and got into the military. 

I was pulled into the Leaders office and sat on the chair. The leader talked about my performance and my skills but I had no weaknesses surprisingly. But deep inside I knew I had the greatest weakness of all. The leader assigned me to the most powerful squad, Squad Inferno, and was assigned the number #003, I was the third most powerful soldier in history. I and Rico met up at the soldier housing, Rico was assigned to Squad Lilia with number #088. Rico and Armanda were both glad that they were still alive, Armanda decided not to tell Rico about the death of their parents. 

Months went by, and one of the sentinels was spotted outside of the capital, a large and powerful army was instigated, and mine and Rico’s squad were selected from the other 8 squads that were also attending. The army was getting closer to the position of the sentinel. We finally arrived and found the back of the sentinel peeking out of the rocky ground. 

Rico’s squad shot at its back, and it awakened a large rocky monster with rocks making up the whole body, devilish red eyes, and large rocky arms. The red glowing eyes stare at our soul. All the squads started running towards the rocky giant. 

The sentinel swiped its arm completely crushing a whole squad, one of the soldier’s heads was completely smothered, across the ground brains splatted across the rocks, arms, limbs, and intestines spreading across the battlefield as the other soldiers were fighting for their lives. The whole army underestimated the ginormous power these sentinels withheld. Thirty minutes in and almost everyone was wiped out, only mine and Rico’s squad remained.

I tried killing the sentinel with my own specially forged sword, but nothing could pierce the incredibly hard rock. I was foolish and tried to lunge at the head of the sentinel from the front. The sentinel strikes one of his hands, but as it was about to hit me, Rico pushed me out of the way and was crushed to the floor. 

As I fell, I could see his crushed corpse staring at me. Because of something I did, there was no one left. Not a single fucking soldier was left on this battlefield, I had nothing left to lose. I stood up and particles started to appear around me, my powerful scythe appeared. I took it facing the sentinel head-on, I slash its legs piercing the rock and making him fall to the ground, the sentinel swept its arm across, I pierced my scythe through its arm and flew between the gap in its arm and his chest, I was swinging the scythe continuously to create speed and slashed its eyes, I slash its arm continuously creating a pattern of cuts on its arm, did the same thing with its other legs. 

I started to ragingly slash its head on and on and on until I could see its core in its head. I perfectly dodged all of its attacks; green energy started to appear in my eye as I made the final slash to its head. The sentinel ran away and ever since that moment I was known as a legendary hero who overcame the first sentinel. Eventually, my mysterious power was found and replicated. The military throughout the years integrated the now called “Umbra Core” throughout all graduated cadets, the core goes inside of you, and grants you a power based on the judgment the core brought upon you. Every power was different from others, there wasn’t a single same power. That was how the Umbran Corps was established. And now the awakening of the sentinels has happened again.

P.S.

Thank you for reading the 13th chapter of the "Project Sentinel" light novel series. The new volume of Project Sentinel will now start publishing weekly.