They say every curse can be broken. They say love conquers all. They were wrong.
Once, I was the Beast—cursed, forgotten, feared. She changed that. She saw the man beneath the fur, beneath the rage. Her love freed me. Made me human again.
And for a time, I believed it would last. That maybe, just maybe, we had earned our happy ending.
But peace is a fragile thing. It shattered the day the Light Sovereigns arrived.
They didn't come with fanfare or warning. They descended like angels but judged like tyrants. In their eyes, we were a failed species, unworthy of the world we had poisoned. So they came to purify it—with fire and blood.
Dragons scorched our skies. Giants tore through cities. Grotesque beasts emerged from rifts in reality, devouring all in their path. The world ended not in nuclear fire, but in divine wrath.
She and I ran. Her hand in mine as we dashed through burning streets, over crumbled highways. Screams echoed. Smoke clouded the sun. We had no plan—only the instinct to survive.
Then he saw us.
A Light Sovereign.
Tall as a mountain. Skin like sunlight. Eyes like judgment day. He raised a hand toward her—my beauty. My everything.
I stepped in front of her. Weak. Mortal. But defiant.
He didn't kill me.
He smiled.
And took her.
No words. No explanation.
He vanished with her in a burst of light.
And left me behind.
Left me to die.
---
The months that followed were worse than death.
The Light Sovereigns disappeared, leaving only their horrors behind. Humanity crumbled. Governments collapsed. Law and order were nothing but memories. The monsters they left behind ruled what was left of Earth.
And then… a spark.
A flicker of hope.
Humans began awakening powers. No one knew why. Some said it was the Sovereigns' residue. Others believed it was evolution forced by extinction. People could manipulate fire, shape shadows, heal wounds, even tear through dimensions.
We fought back. Desperately. Clumsily.
Not me, though.
I stayed the same.
Weak. Powerless.
A man who once had everything… and now had nothing.
I hid in tunnels, ruins, forests overgrown with darkness. I survived off scraps. I ran from every howl, every thunderous step of some unthinkable predator. The others began calling me a ghost. A shadow. Always barely slipping through death's fingers.
Until one day… death grabbed me.
It was a ruined city—a memory of skyscrapers now nothing but skeletal frames.
That's where they found me.
Giants.
Three of them. Hulking, grotesque, their skin like cracked stone and moss. Their eyes glowed like molten gold. They saw me. And they laughed.
I tried to run.
They were faster.
The first blow shattered my ribs. I fell hard, coughing blood.
The second caved in my leg. I screamed.
The third came with a stomp that crushed the ground beside my head.
I tasted blood in my mouth. Felt it bubbling from between my ribs.
I lay there, gasping.
And I knew—I was dying.
My life began flashing before my eyes.
The library where she first read to me.
The way she smiled in the sunlight.
The warmth of her hand in mine.
The way she looked at me after I became a man again.
Why?
Why her?
Why me?
What had I done to deserve this?
I didn't even fight back. I just… wept. For her. For the peace we never got to keep.
Then something strange happened.
The pain faded.
Everything turned quiet.
Not peaceful—just empty.
Was this it?
Was this death?
I floated in a void. Black, endless. My body wasn't there, but my sorrow was. My fury was. My grief burned brighter than ever.
And then… something answered.
A whisper.
No. Not a whisper.
A pulse.
It started slow—like a heartbeat echoing across the void.
Then faster. Stronger.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Power surged through that emptiness. Unfamiliar. Violent. Elemental.
I felt something crack. Then tear.
And suddenly—
I was back.
Gasping.
Breathing.
Alive.
My eyes opened.
Rain poured around me, but I felt heat coursing through my skin.
I blinked. My body was whole again. Stronger. Firmer. My wounds—gone.
But I remembered everything. The pain. The void. The power.
What… happened to me?
I sat up slowly, confused.
How was I alive?
I didn't know. But I felt it—raw energy thrumming in my veins. Like fire and lightning had taken residence in my soul.
Something had changed.
Something awakened.
Behind me, the ground trembled.
The giants had noticed.
They turned.
Their laughter died.
An instinct—ancient and primal—gripped them. Fear.
One stepped back.
Another raised his club, but his hands shook.
They didn't know what I was.
But they knew I was no longer prey.
I stood slowly. Felt the rain evaporate off my skin.
Then I smiled.
A killer's smile.
Fueled by fury.
Driven by pain.
My muscles tensed. My feet dug into the cracked earth.
And I dashed forward.
The first giant didn't even have time to blink. My fist met his gut, and he folded like paper. I leapt—spun—and drove my heel into the side of his skull. His body crashed to the earth like a falling tree.
The second swung at me. A massive club, thick as a building beam. I ducked, slid under, grabbed his leg—and ripped.
Bone shattered.
He roared as he fell.
I was on him before he hit the ground.
My hands gripped his face.
And I crushed it.
The third screamed. Tried to run.
I let him.
For a few steps.
Then I appeared before him in a blur of light and shadow.
I stared into his trembling eyes.
"Tell your masters... I'm coming."
And then I finished him.
The world was quiet again.
Bodies surrounded me.
And I stood atop them, chest heaving.
Reborn.
Not as a beast.
Not as a man.
As something more.
And I whispered the only words that mattered:
"I will find her. And I will tear their world apart."