Damian knelt down near a gravesite, his eyes sunken in, his figure looking feeble and weak.
In front of the gravestone...was there any other emotion to display?
Aside from the feebleness and weakness in his eyes, one could also see a sense of hopelessness.
And rage.
Simmering, unfiltered rage.
On this day, like many days in the past month, he had come to this grave.
It didn't just hold a single loved one, but multiple.
All of them were killed on the same day.
It was supposed to be the happiest day of his life- his wedding day.
He, Damian, the flawed, awkward Damian, had actually found someone who could tolerate his bad jokes.
And she was smart just as she was beautiful too, and he fought his damn hardest to win her over as they were getting married on that day!
After the countless headaches of planning, after choosing the venue, and deciding who to invite from which side of the family, which was mostly hers since he didn't really have anyone left.
After all of that...
When he held her hands and waited to hear the words that would finally make her his...
A terrifying creature descended from the sky.
And the wedding turned into a nightmare.
Other people might say trauma made them forget. That it blocked out the worst parts.
But not 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 with wildness and a berserk state. But above it...was a man.
A large man, actively drinking from a bottle filled with glowing, golden liquid that reeked of something far stronger than any alcohol a normal human could get their hands on.
Damian remembered that man perfectly as he could sketch his face if he had even a shred of genes of an artist in him.
The beast he rode looked like some hellish blend of bat and rhino.
Its wings, edged with sharpened bone, flailed through the wedding venue slicing people in half.
Its massive obsidian horn, its rough-skinned body...everything about it was a weapon.
It didn't just pierce people, it crushed them until their bodies were reduced to pulp.
He had seen the color drain from Ilyana's eyes.
He saw her break away from him with a horrified look as she tried to pull her parents out of harm's way.
And she did, until she saw the creature suddenly change direction.
It turned straight toward Damian in its haphazard dance of cruelty!
Her expression had twisted into sheer horror as she lunged for him at that moment.
And then—
Blood.
A flurry of it.
And that was it.
His wife, Ilyana, gone.
And the one responsible?
He sat high atop his Interstellar Beast, still drinking, still laughing wildly, his body glowing with otherworldly power- the kind only Interstellar Beast Masters possessed.
Damian remembered everything.
The drunken laughter. The golden alcohol. The aura of power that seemed to mock the laws of physics and magic both.
He remembered the Beast Master's massive body.
He remembered those bloodshot eyes, looking down at the dying humans with no more care than someone watching a drunken parade.
His name was Vex Talon.
Damian would learn it later, after the funerals and investigations.
Because of his drunken stupor and slaughter, Vex Talon and his Beast had left a few people alive after the massacre.
When the human authorities arrived alongside members of the Corporation that Damian used to trust, there was a simple explanation.
Damian, shell-shocked, had stood with Ilyana's remaining family as they came face-to-face with the man who had murdered their entire family.
And he... bowed.
He apologized.
Said he regretted the "casualties" while fighting Entropic Beasts that had emerged from an Entropic Rift.
Beasts that, apparently, had caused all the damage. Not him. Not the beast he rode.
According to Vex Talon, he had been saving people!
Damian had felt like he was going insane at that time.
Beside him, Ilyana's sister, Anastasia Veln, could only tremble as she passed out on the spot.
An accident? A mistake?
No. Damian, and the few others who survived, knew what they had seen. But against the terrifying power of the Corporation that Vex Talon belonged to, everything was buried.
When Damian confronted the man and screamed at him even, the beastmaster didn't react. He didn't even blink.
The authorities? The very police who were first on the scene? They ignored him afterward. They looked at him as if he was insane.
They told him he should be grateful that Vex Talon had saved everyone that day.
And then... he never saw Vex Talon again.
Even after Damian reached out repeatedly, posting blogs, sending reports, and appealing to public officials, he got no response.
Until a week ago.
One letter arrived. No return address. No sender.
"If you also do not wish to lose your pathetic life, you will forget about everything."
That was it. The threat was clear.
And Damian...he burned with rage!
But what could he do?
He was powerless. He was a librarian. A normal man. No magic. No beast. No Cybernetic Implants or Modifications.
Just a grieving human working in the Ebonreach Grand Library.
So he let the hatred grow and fester until it became a fire inside him.
Every day he came to this gravesite where his wife, her family, and the few friends he had left all lay buried.
Every day he stared at their names, and his heart screamed.
He wanted justice.
No, not just justice, but he wanted retribution!
He hoped.
He wished that the Interstellar Beastmaster who had destroyed his life in a drunken stupor would one day face retribution.
But for weeks, they had remained only wishes.
Because Interstellar Beast Masters...
They weren't soldiers. They weren't workers.
They were the Guardians of the World.
The World of Vael'nir!
And what human could ever raise a hand against a Guardian?
A being who could destroy a building effortlessly with a single punch?!