The Beauty's Hidden Beast

90 - I'd Give The World To You (1.9k words)

Karrak's POV

I loved to wander into places that most would avoid, searching for forgotten tomes or lost treasures I could put to good use.

My research, though useful, sometimes had unintended consequences. People viewed me as a nuisance, someone who stirred up chaos instead of helping.

Despite the warnings and the growing distrust around me, I kept scavenging, kept tinkering, convinced I was on the verge of something great.

It wasn't until disaster struck─something far beyond my control─that I realized the cost of my actions.

What happened to my planet was all my fault. The portal I activated with that artifact caused a swarm of zergs from another dimension to infest our land, eating and polluting our resources. They killed off our livestock, and then our people, and in the end, the planet itself.

The only reason I was still alive was that artifact sucked me into another dimension. One with advanced technology that also struggled with the invasion of the Zergs.

I wanted to find a way to fix my mistake and save my planet, but the situation was so dire that only a time machine could save it. Thus, my path to getting my hands on one began. Either way, I continued to travel to other dimensions, using their knowledge and technologies to try and save mine.

I promised myself never to seek happiness and forever live the life of a recluse. I had no right to desire, no right to dream, and no right to yearn for someone. No matter how hard I tried to make amends, my sin could never be forgiven.

My mind was already a walking corpse, and the only thing that kept me going was the thought that I didn't deserve to die either. It was an endless loop of punishment and guilt.

And then, another sin appeared to add to the weight on my shoulders.

It started as a curiosity at first, then became admiration, and then...

I looked around the room covered with images of her. My obsession with this person grew out of control, and I didn't know how to stop it.

Red strings crisscrossed the room, connecting pins stuck into maps, timelines, and notes. Each string represented a connection I thought I’d uncovered, a clue that might explain who she really was. The more I tried to piece it all together, the more I felt the obsession tightening its grip on me. I couldn’t stop, even though I knew I was losing myself in the madness.

I couldn't go a day without seeing her. At some point, I began to think about how everything happened just so we could meet.

It was a sick thought which made me feel even more like a monster. If she wanted to destroy the entire universe, I would give her the tools to do so. I would have done anything for her, and it scared me.

Even if the gods were kind enough to bless me with her, what future could we possibly have?

I activated the screen within my contact lenses and watched the live feed through the new nano camera I infiltrated inside The Emperor's base.

She was shackled to the wall, her head hung low. This was the general everyone admired and feared, the leader who conquered new lands and crushed the opposing faction. Her glorious title and achievements were nothing but a front to hide her miserable reality.