'Is this it?' Sitting on the cold ground, Joseph gazed at his fingerless hand, stained in blood and resting beside a broken metal gauntlet.
His eyes eventually turned toward the crumbling walls of Crintevan Fort—the last bastion of humanity on the planet—as it fell apart like a house of cards in the face of the mechas enhanced with the exoskeletons of the Excovian race.
"Cough, ha… so this is how it ends, looks like…" Sebas lay beside him, trapped in his broken mechanical exoskeleton, which paled in comparison to the superior, replicated versions wielded by the Excovians.
They had drawn inspiration from the once-glorious designs created by Joseph, yet these copies had been perfected far beyond his original vision, becoming the cause of his own death.
Sebas shifted his gaze toward Joseph, a defeated smile flickering on his face as he murmured, "Y-young master, I beg your pardon for failing in my duties as your butl…"
But before he could finish, Sebas' eyes glazed over, turning white as death pulled him into its embrace. With what little strength remained in his half-destroyed hand, the remnants of his exoskeleton crumbled uselessly beside him.
'…failed?' Joseph's heavy, bloodied eyes struggled to stay focused on his butler, who had been the sole individual within the Avriant family to have faith in him.
Sebas had supported him, financing 70% of his meager income in pursuit of an elusive dream—an ambition that stemmed from the banishment of Joseph, the illegitimate son of Earl Bandiac Avriant. He had hoped to modernize the outdated technology of the Crintevan theocracy, but it was all too late now.
He blinked, his vision clouded by the blood and death surrounding him; there were no survivors left, only an overwhelming sense of solitude that suggested he was the last remnant of humanity.
Half alive, to be exact.
As he leaned back against the stone wall of the ruined fountain, he forced himself to look up once more.
His gaze fell upon the scene of horror: hundreds of 50-foot-tall mechas—truly monstrous exoskeletons draped over colossal machines—advancing toward him.
Small tentacles protruded from the greyish, yellow, and black monstrosities, methodically extracting brains from the lifeless bodies of humans strewn across the ground.
No matter how hard he tried, the lack of support and the disbelief from a theocracy reluctant to embrace any modern innovations had led to this grim reality.
Humans—now the dead remnants of what was once a thriving civilization—were being harvested by the Excovian race, who thrived on the intelligence of other beings.
They devoured brains, assimilating knowledge and using the brains as pilot engines for their Legion to grow stronger with each planetary annihilation.
Naturally, they left the unintelligent ones alive, allowing them to evolve, ostensibly preparing for future harvests.
For instance, as beast tamers had vanished, the wastelands had become overrun with wild beasts.
The dungeons lay in ruins, leaving low-intelligence monsters—goblins and the undead—free to roam the land, unchallenged by the absence of awakened protectors.
'Doodle, what is the percentage of winning this?' With the last flicker of hope trapped within the failing remnants of his exoskeleton, Joseph reached out to the analytical engine embedded in his brain, seeking a factual assessment—a desperate attempt to solidify his defeat.
[Analyzing...]
[Exoskeleton Status: Critical failure.]
Model: KX-17 Aegis Advanced Prototype
Power Core: 93% structural damage. Primary power source depleted. Emergency backup functioning at 2.8%.
Hydraulics: System-wide failure. Joint actuators disconnected in upper and lower extremities.
Structural Integrity: Left arm severed at the elbow joint. Chest plating compromised with exposed core components. Spinal conduit fractured, rendering neural synchronization unstable (43% deviation detected).
Weaponry: All offensive systems offline. Ammo stores depleted. Plasma caster barrel melted beyond repair.
Self-repair Unit: Inoperable. Repair drones destroyed.
Mobility: Left leg severed below the knee. Right leg actuator unresponsive. Stabilization gyros inactive.
[Environmental Analysis: Immediate surroundings show hostile mechanical units advancing. No human life signs detected within a 1-kilometer radius. Crintevan Fort infrastructure is collapsing. Reinforcements: none.]
[Probability of Victory: 0%.]
[Recommendation: None. Scenario deemed unsalvageable.]
'Sigh, I really lost?', Even after listening to the factual data, he couldn't help but doubt how he, who held the title of pioneer, found himself lost in a trashy setting where the character he was born into didn't have any potential route to begin with.
A kingdom ruled by a church that believed in divine energy maintained outdated mechas called Holy Mechatons, which possessed technology that had already been considered obsolete even centuries ago when the destruction of the Aegistian Empire and the establishment of the holy monastery occurred.
His eyes reflected a black robotic tentacle pulling Sebas' body in front of Joseph, who lay there paralyzed due to the corroded Etherite core within his heart, poisoning and numbing his nerves. He watched as one tentacle held Sebas' body while the other pulled away his cranium, extracting the brain as a nerve stretched along the brain before detaching from the spine, finally being devoured by the Excovian.
After dealing with Sebas, the behemoth figures of around a dozen stood around Joseph as if, unlike farming other humans, they seemed to be observing him this time.
Slowly, several heavy metal pieces painted in greyish black began to slide, revealing the mechas within the exoskeleton. Though these exoskeletons were designed for simple enhancement of mortal bodies, they now lay in the hands of mechas operated by the Excovians.
A 30-foot tall mecha slowly emerged from the retracted metal ridges, revealing a 50-foot exoskeleton made of unknown metal. The 30-foot mecha exited the body using thrusters, gaining elevation as it descended.
'What now?' Joseph, who was focusing on overloading the Etherite core within him, was delayed due to a lack of energy, which was consumed by his exoskeleton. He observed the unnatural behavior of the Excovians.
Then he saw something that reminded him of the ancient wall scriptures he had glimpsed on the ruins of the Aegistian labyrinth during his days as the illegitimate son of an Earl—figures with dark black heads.
Just big heads around 6 feet floating in mid-air, with shiny eyes beneath mechanical lenses that emitted a red laser-like glow, descending from the mechas.
'So, these bastards were really nesting dolls, huh?' Watching one figure after another emerge from the larger structure, he was reminded of the small round wooden dolls from which smaller versions came.
"hUmAn, I FoUnD yOuR dEsIgNs QuItE iNsPiRiNg," one of the floating heads accelerated and moved close to Joseph, complimenting him on his exoskeleton design, which was initially considered weaker than mechas and had inspired the Excovians to implement such changes in their current technology.
"So, that's why you plagiarized my work," he said with a smile while looking toward the large head, intending to buy time before his impending death, hoping to blast away a whole 1-km area into nothingness.
"hM? nO, yOuR tEcHnOlOgY wAs VeRy OuTdAtEd. tHe MoToR nEuRoN sTrInGs WeRe ToO wEaK tO sErVe As InSpIrAtIoN; i NeEdEd To UsE aTrEoN cRyStAlS iNsTeAd," the Excovian shook his head—technically his whole body—as he clarified several flaws in the exoskeleton design he had created.
"Atreon Crystal? How did you even use it?" Joseph was genuinely curious about how the Excovians managed to resolve the biggest flaw in his exoskeleton, which was its overall muscle replication capability, irrespective of motor strength.
The exoskeleton had been his first choice in a world filled with beast tamers and awakened beings because he possessed no talent in either category, leaving him with the only hope of survival in his exoskeletons.
Yet he always encountered barriers due to limitations of resources or time.
"By resequencing the molecular structure of the Atreon crystal and breaking down the helix structure that holds its bond, the crystal becomes somewhat soft enough to burn in the heat of any star, allowing it to be molded into thin wire," the Excovian recalled the process while a tentacle from behind his head extended toward Joseph's skull.
"Haa....haa.... So, I am dying like this, huh?" Joseph finally felt the intense heat rising within his chest due to the molecular instability caused by his Etherite Core from severing the heartbeat connection; he felt his breathing becoming haggard and overly frequent.
"No, I will grant your brain a higher position in the Nordic Legion; you will—KHRRRKKK!?!" Before the Excovian could finish his sentence, a sharp light and heat emanating from Joseph's chest flared into a massive dome.
SWOOOSH
It was instantaneous, as if an electrical flux shot out of his body in a dome that, before anyone could react, covered a whole 1 km area, causing the Excovian bodies to collapse directly to the ground, their heads rolling as the elevation devices within their bodies ceased functioning.
Not only did the levitation devices within them fail, but also the 30-foot mechas surrounding them with the 50-foot exoskeletons began to crumble, as if the power source keeping them in place had been suddenly removed, breaking their joints. Everything that had seemed a harbinger of destruction now crumbled around the land.
It was a chain reaction that not even nearby Excovians had time to react to, as their fallen bodies, with dimmed lights in their eyes, revealed the electric impulses that destroyed even their brains, as they contained electromagnetic signals.
---
"Uwaahh!—Haah... Haa... Shit, I am burning!" Joseph's body was hurled out of his gaming capsule, landing on the floor as he breathed heavily. Pulling the mask away from his face and throwing it aside, his eyes reddened as he felt his whole body burning. He yelled, "Someone give me some cold coke!"