They say time heals all wounds, but not mine.
The wound in my chest wasn't physical- it was mental. It was rage- molten and merciless, craving blood.
And I didn't want it to heal.
I wanted it to spill out and burn the whole world with me.
—
Damian knelt near the gravesite, his eyes sunken, his figure hollow.
In front of the gravestone, what other emotion could one show?
Yet.
Beyond the feebleness in his posture, behind the weakness in his gaze, there was something else.
Hopelessness.
And rage.
Simmering, unfiltered rage.
Like many days in the past month, he had come to this grave.
It didn't just hold one loved one, but many.
All of them, taken on the same day.
It was supposed to be the happiest day of his life.
His wedding day.
He, Damian- the flawed, awkward Damian who wore socks to bed.
Who cut pizza into bite-sized squares and ate it with a fork.
Who preferred the quiet inside over anything else… someone like him had actually found someone who laughed at his bad jokes. Someone he enjoyed spending time with, and someone who somehow enjoyed his company even more.
Every day with her made him fall harder.
So hard, they were getting married months after knowing each other.
Even though the few friends he had back then had bet he'd be the last one to tie the knot.
After all the headaches of planning, after choosing the venue, the guest list- mostly hers, since he didn't have anyone left.
After all that…
When he held her hands, waiting to hear the words that would finally make her his…
A terrifying creature had descended from the sky.
And the wedding…had become a massacre.
People say trauma makes you forget. That it blocks out the worst parts.
Not for Damian.
He remembered everything. Clearly.
Every second- from the moment the Interstellar Beast crashed down to the moment it left.
And it wasn't alone.
Its eyes were crimson- wild, berserk. But above it… stood a man.
He remembered that day like it was tattooed into his nightmares.
As he sat in the quiet night of the graveyard, he closed his eyes to relive it.
He had to. Every day. Because that's what someone like him deserved.
That day, in the wedding hall.
"Damian, look at the cake! It's massive…"
Ilyana stood beside him in a white gown that made her glow. He tugged at his uncomfortable suit, trying not to stare for too long.
She had looked… ethereal. Breathtaking. Quite literally nobody in the world could look as beautiful as she had looked at that moment.
Any dress she wore would have became art. He had smiled at her, dizzy with love.
"Your parents went all out. They surprised you with the cake. I had no say in it…"
She shook her head, her eyes dancing with exasperation, scanning the crowd.
"Anastasia, were you in on this? You told me no more surprises!"
Anastasia.
Her little sister.
She blinked, waved her off, and shoved Ilyana into Damian's arms.
"Enjoy your day, Sis. Stop worrying about how things happened."
Ilyana had smiled, pressing her head against his chest, as if feeling the beat of his heart.
Damian held her close.
This was it.
This was happiness.
After years in the Hollow Stacks, after thinking he'd always be alone, she found him.
The music. The dancing. The laughter of kids running past.
It was all perfect.
And then, suddenly, it wasn't.
He thought he saw the ceiling ripple and fold.
Then stone and metal caved in, burying the white cake and those near it.
Then—
BOOM!
A beast crashed into the hall.
Black flames exploded from its landing, scorching the air and burning bodies to ash.
The music died.
Screams rose.
On top of the monstrous creature… stood a man.
A large man, chugging from a glowing gold bottle that reeked of something more potent than any human-made drink.
The beast looked like a twisted hybrid—bat and rhino.
A Rhino-Bat Interstellar Beast.
Its jagged wings flailed, slicing guests in half. Its obsidian horn gleamed like death.
It didn't just pierce. It crushed. Reduced people to pulp.
Ilyana's eyes widened. Damian froze, clinging to her as the world burned.
Then…
"Mom! Dad!"
Her scream snapped him back.
Her parents had rushed forward to rescue a fallen child.
They were always like that. Always helping.
He didn't realize when she left his arms. She ran to them, trying to pull them back.
She succeeded.
Until the beast shifted.
As if dancing.
"Damian!"
Behind them, Anastasia's cry rang out.
The beast's wing was descending toward him.
And he…
He remembered the fear.
He couldn't move.
He cried now, the shame and guilt too much to hold.
Was he not a man? How could he freeze while Ilyana, Anastasia- everyone- ran to help?
Ilyana had rushed toward him.
Her face contorted in fear as she dove for him.
He saw her eyes, so full of love, as she shoved him back.
Right into safety.
And placed herself beneath that descending wing.
He swore he saw peace in her gaze in that brief second.
Relief.
That he would live.
But if he could have warned her back then, he would have told her not to do something like that. Someone like him did not deserve it.
He locked eyes with her as he fell.
Their entire story flashed in that second- from meeting over a book to standing there.
And then…
BOOM!
Blood.
A wave of it.
The Rhino-Bat's wing crushed her like a white flower beneath a hammer.
That was it.
His wife.
Ilyana.
Gone.
Her parents… flattened behind her.
Damian lay stunned, unable to scream, unable to even think.
His everything- gone.
And the one responsible?
He lifted his eyes with what little strength he had.
The man still drank, still laughed. His body glowed with otherworldly power- the kind only Interstellar Beast Masters wielded.
Damian remembered the drunken laughter.
The golden bottle.
The cruel power that bent reality.
He remembered his massive frame.
The bloodshot eyes.
The cold indifference.
"Haha, good stuff, good stuff! Not a fan of all the red though…"
As if through a fog, he kept drinking, tapping his foot while his beast rose to leave.
"Ah…" Damian wiped his face, the memory retreating like a wave.
He opened his eyes.
Just like in his nightmares, it always ended with that last look.
That final second before the end.
Damian never forgot the man behind it all.
That monster.
In the fire of his grief, he never forgot the Beast Master.
His name?
Vex Talon.
Damian would learn it later, after the funerals, after the questioning.
Because of his drunken slaughter, Vex Talon and his beast had left a few survivors.
When the Enforcers arrived, alongside the organization Damian once trusted, there was an "explanation."
Shell-shocked, he stood beside Ilyana's family.
And they were shown a video.
A video.
A hastily recorded apology.
The killer didn't even show up in person.
The clip was under a minute.
In it, Vex Talon bowed.
He apologized.
Claimed regret over "casualties" during a fight with Veilborn Entropic Beasts from an Entropic Rift.
Beasts, he claimed, caused all the damage.
Not him.
Not his beast.
According to him, he had been "saving lives."
Damian felt insane watching that.
Beside him, Anastasia Veln fainted.
An accident?
A mistake?
No.
They knew the truth.
But against the might of ZENTHRA Beast Corporation…
Everything was buried.
The Enforcers didn't care for people from the Hollow Stacks.
They ignored him.
Called him delusional.
Told him to be grateful Vex Talon had "saved them."
And after that… nothing.
No answers.
No justice.
He posted. He reported. He pleaded.
No response.
Until a week ago.
One letter arrived in the mailbox of his dilapidated apartment. No name. No return address.
One line.
"If you also do not wish to lose your pathetic life, you will forget about everything."
A threat.
Clear. Final.
And Damian- he boiled with rage.
But what could he do?
He was powerless.
A former librarian. A regular man.
No magic. No beast.
Just grief.
Just loss.
Just fire.
So he fed it.
Let it consume him.
Every day, he came to this grave.
Every day, he stared at their names, and his soul screamed.
He wanted justice.
He wished, prayed, begged for the day that monster would pay.
But in a world like Vael'nir, where Interstellar Beast Masters weren't just soldiers.
They were Guardians.
Legends.
Heroes.
What human could ever challenge that?
Who could raise a hand against a Guardian?
A being who could destroy a city with a single punch?