“Pointless.” A single word escapes my rose colored lips. I am surrounded by a blanket of darkness, mirroring the emptiness inside of me. I look towards the sky painted with vermilion and fire and I appreciate the stench of death that fills the air.

The capital is under attack from an enemy nation and the citizens are being slaughtered like animals. This is the feeling of war, the feeling that I’ve longed for all this time. I am a horrible human being but is that so bad?

Mindlessly walking around the burning capital, I come across an enemy soldier who looked no older than twenty years old. I am not bothered by his appearance nor his age but I am intrigued by the display of violence occurring in front of me.

A woman’s voice, ragged and devastated spoke a few simple words, “Please. Please, don’t.” but I understood that those words were the difference between life and death for her. The soldier was slowly approaching her, knife in hand. I understood that the soldier had probably lost his mind – the look of delirium plastered on his face was indicative of that.

Instead of stopping this sorry scene, I instead found myself engrossed in my own world. I find myself thinking about the circumstances that led to this young man’s extreme changes. Was he ordered to murder children? Was he ordered to burn people alive? The human psyche intrigued me.

I am also intrigued by the woman’s expression. That look of fear on her eyes slowly stirred to wake a deep emotion from within me.

‘Instructor!’ cried a lazy looking young man.

In spite of myself, remembering his hopeful eyes pulled me back from the brink of insanity yet again.  You’re still saving me even if you’re not here, Keith.

I understand now. Having power is useless if that strength remains stagnant, unused and under control. It has to be given free rein in order to be able to accomplish whatever it is that I want accomplished. After all, everything in this world is mine for the taking.

No, I mustn’t have these thoughts. I slap myself a few times on my cheeks. Inside of me lives a monster that is beyond the comprehension of mortals. It is not human and it does not seek peace with humans. It is simply a behemoth that cannot be tamed but…his smile saved me when the whole world was happy with the carnage that I brought upon it.

I was raised under extreme circumstances. It was a covert military school that had its students kill one another in order to bolster growth and encourage a sort of evolution within us. Nobody ever expected that the monster was real, at least not until they laid their eyes on me that is.

Orphaned at a very young age, I was brought before a group of researches and stripped naked. Having every inch of my body examined by scientists and doctors with all of their prodding and checking took its toll on me. I was emotionally dead by the time I was 6 years old and that’s when the monster started to slowly take over me.

It was my first ‘skirmish’ against another student of the same age.  He was a scrawny young man who looked fragile and he looked as though he would break if he was even slightly handled roughly. I remember deeply disliking him. We were given weapons and were thrown inside what is now known as the Falaris Death coliseum. It is a gigantic structure that stretches for miles on all ends and at the center was the ‘field of operations’ which was really the polite way to refer to the killing floor.

The result should be obvious but I had indeed murdered that child with a smile on my face. I remember savoring the look on his eyes when I ripped out his guts right from his torso and it didn’t stop there. Day after day, more researches came to observe my ‘skirmishes’, from crushing my opponents with the sheer volume of my mana to roasting people alive with my black lightning, everything was being gleefully recorded.

Some time passed and the pile of bodies only grew higher. I had managed to kill each and every one of my rivals in the academy and I was concluded to be the next step in human augmentation in the military. I was registered in the military as a human weapon, expendable but of the highest importance. I was a living weapon.

I brought forth carnage every time I was deployed in the field and I paid no heed to the numerous cries for mercy that were thrown in my face. After all, what use could a weapon have with emotions and sympathy? Killing because I was ordered to do so slowly became killing because I wanted to. I was a complete mess, as chaotic and empty as the darkness that had consumed my heart.

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One fateful mission came by and by chance, I found myself slowly dying due to dehydration and starvation. I was in a land of famine and plague and I was surrounded by the rotting corpses of the citizens that the military was sworn to protect. We were ambushed by the enemy and I was all that was left of my unit. All of my handlers were dead, the researchers were captured and I was on my stomach, dying of hunger.

I remember wanting to survive, thinking that this was the worst way to die. It was even more shameful than being killed by your enemy so I thought to simply end it all. I was thinking of biting my tongue off and simply get it over with but…he saved me.

I remember looking at him with disbelief in my face. Of course, I didn’t have emotions back then but curiosity got the better of me. I was fascinated by this malnourished child. Though his body looked weak, his eyes showed a resolve that could only have been forged by facing years of hardship and tragedy. The boy was Keith and his parents had just died yet here he was running around active war zones trying to save people like me.

I wondered why he did it. I thought about a dozen selfish reasons that could be motivating the boy but none of them seemed correct. His honest eyes told me that. He simply took my hand and helped me stand up. He gave me what I suspected to be the only food that he had on him and handed me a half-empty canteen.

Weakened by hunger, my will could no longer help itself and I found myself devouring the child’s lifeline. Expecting him to be mad, I found him looking as though he had just been promised the hand of the Queen in marriage. He was happy for me and that one selfless act that saved my life had saved my heart too.

I remembered that I too was human and that I was someone that felt and loved and was afraid too.

I started crying out the years of violence that took a hold of my life. I was extremely filthy at the time and I remember being covered in the blood of my enemies. I started feeling insecure and the boy seemed to notice that.

He wipes the blood from my lips. “Your lips look beautiful” he said, as he smudged blood all over my rose colored lips.

I lovingly remember that day as the day I reclaimed my humanity – it was also the day I fell in love.

I am human and it is my duty to save the people regardless of their race or status in life. I hurriedly pulled out my sword and called out to the crazed soldier that was creeping towards the woman I saw earlier.

"Hey creep!"

He died before he could even realize what had happened. I simply activated my ‘Laser Beam’ and I am now covered by blood. How ironic.

My face was covered in red and I wipe the muck off with the back of my hand. I glance at my glove and I can see an indentation of my lips as though they were painted with a lipstick and not with something that used to be inside a human.

‘Beautiful in red, huh.” I chuckle to myself.

The woman slowly gathers her thoughts and turns to look at me. “Thank you for saving me.” She bowed her head deeply.

I smile at her. “You better find someplace to hide.” And I gestured for her to go.

She stood up and started running towards what I presume to be is a center for the evacuees. I activate my runes and I am now surrounded by a raging wall of fire and a chaotic torrent of black lightning, burning and destroying everything in my path.

“I have to save this city.”

I take my sword and activated my runes.

“Absolute Artes – Activate’

The red skies and the Moon that was dyed in the color of blood seemed to be strangely calming.

“It’s been a while since I last let loose. Try not to die before I have my fun, okay everyone?” I said towards my yet to be seen enemies.

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Author's Notes

Hi everyone. I wrote this chapter to tell us the story of how Belle met Keith and what had happened between them. This chapter also tells us more about Belle's past and about the insanity that has always been with her. Will she be able to keep this thing in check? I can only hope so. Thanks for reading this chapter  and please look forward to the next one.