Chapter 2 - Unlucky Birth

Without questioning the command, I obediently peered into Sean’s eyes. 

Instantly, an electric shock shot through me, wracking my body with tremors as a deep chill settled in. Simultaneously, a searing pain bore into my eyes, it felt as if they were being ripped out of their sockets. My hands flew up to protectively cover my eyes, but they continued to burn viciously regardless.

While I struggled to comprehend what had happened, the robed man chuckled heartily and callously tossed me aside. Even as I crouched and pressed my palms against my aching eyes, my pain seemed to mean nothing to him. When I was finally able to gingerly lift my head, I discovered that the figure that had once been human had solidified into stone. I rubbed at my eyes in disbelief, but my view remained unchanged. The man named Sean had been turned into stone. 

What in the world had happened? 

Sadly, I didn’t have the luxury of time to recover from the shock I felt at the fact that I’d ended a life just as I had begun mine. At that moment, the mastermind behind it all, still cackling in delight, dragged my arm and forced me to stand before him.

“What a wonderful creation. A masterpiece, indeed,” he crowed, as he mussed up my hair affectionately. “Now, I should give you a name.”

Bending down until our eyes were level, he took off his glove and reached a skeletal hand out to touch my cheek. Save for the occasional knot of matted flesh, his hand was entirely made of bone. The putrid smell of a rotting corpse also emanated from him.

“Karina—that is your name, my child.”

The man—my creator and father—lowered his hood to reveal his face, or what was left of it. In the place of flesh and blood, half of his face showed nothing but the remains of his skull. “Karina. Karina Apocalita. Engrave that name upon your soul and become a great ingredient of this land.”

His command to remember the name Apocalita was unnecessary, as I was already quite familiar with it. Apocalita, known as the ‘grave of the gods,’ was both the cradle from which a certain heterogeneous race was ‘created’ and the residence of the final boss of a novel that I’d read right before my death in my previous life.

What do I do? Overwhelmed by the realization of my fate, my mouth fell open and a laugh ill-fitting of a newborn spilled out uncontrollably.

* * *

The one who created and named me was a lich—a person that chose to forsake his humanity and turned himself into a monster with black magic. His motivation for transforming himself into an immortal undead being was simple.

“What if I, a being that was abandoned by the Great God, became a god and ruled the world myself?”

Fueled by the desire to attain godhood and ascend as supreme ruler after expunging the world of the Great God, he began attacking the three families that were cherished by said god to rob them of their divine artifacts, known as the Halidoms. By absorbing the halidoms, he would be granted great power. It was a simple plan, if difficult to execute.

“Why, for God’s sake, won’t these people die?”

The members of the three families possessing the Great God’s favor proved to be strong—perhaps even stronger than him. Though he momentarily despaired, he refused to give in. With his dauntless will, soon enough he’d formulated a new plan.

“Protect me until you breathe your last breath.”

That was the moment we were created. As beings formed from the combination of ancient demons and humans, we were so strong that taking the lives of those possessing the Great God’s grace was as easy as swatting a fly. And the sole purpose of our existence was to protect our father. His desires were our purpose and we faithfully executed his will. Soon, we would drive the world to the brink of its destruction.

This was the antagonists’ backstory as described in the novel, The Bird Caught in a Snare Cannot Flee, which I’d read in my past life. Naturally, the ending of the story concluded with the predictable downfall of the evil forces. Apocalita succeeded in driving the world to the brink of ruin, but no further. They were never able to achieve their ultimate goal because the evil forces ended up destroyed by the heroine, an individual beloved by the Great God. As for Karina, she was merely one of the many casualties in the process.

Whatever the case may be, it was clear that I was suffering from a cruel and unlucky twist of fate. In my past life, I’d met a premature death after falling down a flight of stairs while fleeing from my father’s abuse. Even though it had been an early death, I hadn’t felt sorrow in my final moments. I simply thought that I was glad to finally be freed from my hellish existence. Who would’ve imagined that an even worse life was waiting for me after reincarnation? Oh, the irony! The place I now found myself in was an environment in which neither dreams nor hopes could exist. The only silver lining was that at least I possessed some power in this life.

Of course, now that I—a reincarnated person—had become Karina, I wasn’t about to let myself be killed off so easily. Knowing that Apocalita’s downfall was inevitable, I was determined to escape. Without any intervention on my part, Apocalita’s fate was already sealed. Thus, shouldn’t it be alright for me to hide somewhere and calmly watch over the Apocalitas’ destruction? Since this was clearly the best option available to me, I immediately began methodically planning my escape.

First, I had to increase my power. After all, escaping required strength too. In order to achieve this goal, I would need to embrace becoming the ‘monster’ I was created to be. Power was granted only when I obeyed my father’s words. Exactly as I was doing right now. 

Slowly opening my eyes, my vertically slit pupils shifted over the people standing before me. Their overwhelming fear was almost palpable.

“D-Don’t do this!”

“Monster!”

“Run!”

My hair lifted upwards and fanned out in all directions with slithering movements, like snakes dancing in the air. Then, the head of a snowy white serpent peeked out from behind my neck and bared its fangs. As it hissed, a sudden sandstorm rushed forth with a whoosh, sweeping up the fleeing humans and swallowing their screams. 

By the time the violent gusts dissipated, only petrified human forms remained. These figures would stay permanently frozen in mid-motion forever more.

My father’s experiments involved the fusion of ancient demons with human subjects, and I was no exception. The snowy white serpent coiled around my neck was an extension of myself—a monster created from the unholy fusion of humans and medusae.

* * *

As I watched another sandstorm whistle past, I blinked to alleviate the stinging in my eyes. 

They always hurt when I use my power. 

Squinting them, I stretched out my hand and waited as the serpent crawled from its perch around my neck and down the length of my arm. The pearly white scales that covered the expanse of its body shimmered under the light as it traveled down. Once securely wrapped around my wrist, the serpent stiffly raised the rattle on its tail and turned its black eyes to look up at me.