Chapter 80. Origin [End of Prologue]

When the clock struck midnight, the new year began and my birthday came to an end. I laid in bed, wide awake, thinking about how the love of my life would soon become someone else’s husband and it pained me more than I could have ever imagined.

Without warning, the pain intensified and what I believed was my longing for him turned into realization.

Realization of who I am and how I became me.

Memories flooded back as the blurriness in my mind disappeared and without him by my side to comfort me, I was unable to contain the pure darkness that consumed my existence.

I was born in a peaceful city deep within the protective borders of my kingdom, far away from the constant wars that consumed this world.

I have always heard about the constant wars but never thought the day would come for me to experience its effects personally.

Everything changed one day when what we the average citizens believed were impenetrable city walls that protected us got overrun before any of us had time to even know what had happened.

Before my eyes, my peaceful city disappeared into a sea of fire and chaos.

Thousands upon thousands of armored soldiers from a rival kingdom rushed in, covered in the blood of my countryman from head to toe as they went down each house and left no building unturned.

Too stunned to move, I watched as my neighbors, friends, and family slaughtered before my very eyes as my world got turned upside down.

Instead of a swift death like everyone I knew, my captors often reminded me that I was lucky they were kind-hearted enough to spare my life as they went on with their nefarious deeds.

Day after day, others enslaved around me either took their own lives or died from the torture.

Day after day, I wished for death as my life was reduced to nothingness and served only as a tool to satisfy their desires.

As the soldiers traveled from town to town, every place they went was turned to ashes. Violence, destruction, death, and despair became the only constant in my life.

The days turned into months then years.

The memories of my peaceful life slowly faded, the images of my family and friends slowly disappeared and even the pain and suffering became merely another part of my daily existence.

HATRED.

As every other emotion and memory faded, the sole purpose of my existence became my hatred.

Hatred towards my captors, hatred towards my kingdom for their ineptitude, hatred towards mankind for their hunger for war, hatred became my existence, I became hatred.

One day, my desire manifested into reality and my hatred took form.

Without understanding what had happened, I was shrouded by a layer of darkness, I became the embodiment of hatred and death.

Anyone who got touched by my darkness shroud would suffer instant death and the darkness also protected me from any harm. I became invincible. Untouchable.

After easily murdering my captors, I began to wander aimlessly.

No family, no friends, no longer remember even my own name.

I became what I hated. I became violence, destruction, death, and despair for the entire world.

For years, my hatred-fueled rampage followed wherever I went and every place I left behind became a wasteland of destruction and death.

To those who witnessed my destruction from afar and lived to tell the day, I simply became known as the witch of death.

Kingdoms big and small sent armies after me, some tried to recruit me while others simply wanted to eliminate me.

All of them ended up with the same fate, death.

Eventually, my reputation reached a point where even the largest and most powerful kingdoms knew of my title and decided that I would be a threat if left unchecked.

A coalition was formed, the strongest and mightiest warriors from the largest kingdoms gathered in order to eradicate me.

Instead, they faced the same destiny as those who came before them, death.

After years of existing and acting solely in accordance with my hatred, I started to slowly regain my individuality.

As I became something more than just an entity of hatred again, I started to feel another emotion, something that wasn’t hatred.

Boredom.

I have gotten so powerful that I was unmatched under the heavens.

I was so powerful that I could destroy the entire world without lifting a finger.

I was so powerful that my revenge on mankind felt empty and meaningless.

What’s the fun in crushing ants?

Should I wipe out the entire world and just end everything?

Should I give up on my desire for revenge and live out the rest of my life in peace and solitude?

What if I changed this boring weak world?

What if I give every one of those weak, insignificant creatures a bit of my overwhelming power?

Would I then enjoy wiping them out then?

Would I no longer feel this boredom while enacting my revenge?

That’s when I decided to make this world more interesting.

What if I combine the souls of those weak puny organisms with everything else this world has to offer?

Could that make them stronger and offer me more of a challenge in the future?

Without a better plan in mind or any attachment to this world. I cast a spell that would come to be known as the Great Reset.

Not knowing what or how long the effect of my spell would take. I decided to put myself into a perpetual slumber for the next 10,000 years.

When I eventually woke up 5 years ago, the world had indeed changed.

Not having any idea what the world had become, I decided to lock up my memories, created a fake persona, and lived like I was a regular citizen of this world.

A big mistake!

What a massive mistake it was to have done what I did.

Never would I have guessed that I could feel what I now do for another being. Never could I have guessed how much it pains me that he isn’t mine and mine alone.

Do I continue my plan and destroy this world with him in it? Do I teleport to him and ask for his comfort? How would he feel knowing how many millions of innocent dead because of me?

Could I ever go back to those days if I remove my memories again? Do I go back into another slumber until he is no longer part of the world?

I lay in bed, my mind confused, conflicted. Without even realizing it, the night turned into morning.

With my mind in a scramble with different thoughts running through me, I decided to take a stroll.

As I wandered in front of the castle ground, I was pulled back to reality and suddenly remembered today was the day of the selection, the day of his wedding.

Jealousy.

Overflowing jealousy overtook my entity at the thought of him getting married.

An impulsive thought overtook my being as I watched the happy crowd waiting eagerly as headmistress Evelynn Dragonspire began to give her typical opener speech.

Not having a concrete plan or even knowing what I wanted to talk about, I got in front of the stage and easily hijacked the mirrors so instead of the headmistress, I am now projected on every mirror that’s stationed in all the cities where the selection is taking place.

“Hello everyone. I apologize for taking over when it was supposed to be your big day. Unfortunately, I don’t think the selection will be taking place any longer.

I was known as the witch of death, a name given to me by those who saw the death and destruction I had caused.

To the people of today, I am often referred to as the great hero who caused the Great Reset.

Not sure how people came to the conclusion that the reason for the Great Reset was one of heroism when I simply wanted a bigger challenge when I destroyed this boring world.

Well. Things changed after I woke from my 10,000 years of slumber.

I spent the past 5 years pretending to be your average girl with a fake persona, trying to see what the world had become.

Unfortunately, I fell in love with the wrong man and instead of being there with me when I regained my memories, he is off somewhere else ready to become the husband of other girls.” I said with a chuckle as royal guards surrounded me with swords drawn and ready to attack.

As the guards charged at me, their instant death was assured as they entered the zone of my shroud.

With the guards dropped dead, the crowd started to scream and ran in panic as they began to realize the seriousness of the situation.

“I’m sorry for the unnecessary death.

For those in the crowd, there is no need to panic as I am not interested in taking your life at this time.

To show my sincerity, I will visualize my shroud. As long as you do not get within the vicinity of my shroud, your life will be spared.” I comforted the crowd as the invisible shroud around me turned black.

While I had my memories locked away, I made sure to lock away the deadly power of my shroud, only leaving its protection active in case my life was threatened.

Won’t have done me any good If anyone who got close ended up dying, now would it?

My assurance seemed to have done little as the panicked crowd cleared the square swiftly and only guards seemed to be left to listen to my monologue.

But that matters not, since he is the only one who needed to hear this anyway.

“The world today is not what I expected, not what I imagined.

I wanted to create a world of chaos and mayhem where creatures of nightmares would be created from the merge of souls.

What I see is a world not so different from the one I left behind.

Sure, the humans today look slightly different but everything lacked that gruesomeness I envisioned.

Why aren't there any morbid or horrifying monsters? Above all else, why are you all still so weak after 10,000 years?

Why are the people of today the same weak boring beings? Even with the merged souls, and billions in population, why are you all still so weak?

I know my plan wasn’t perfect but nothing is turning out how I wanted!

I want to wake up to a world of monsters, beasts, and grotesque beings that could match me in power and I would get the satisfaction of turning this world into ashes.

Instead, I woke up to a world that was mostly peaceful, still weak as ever, with no freakish creature to speak of, and I was the one who ended up changing!

Why did I decide to lock away my memories for 5 years?

Why didn’t I just start destroying this world the moment I woke up?

And because of you, I no longer know what I wanted to do. Because of you, my heart which was once filled with pure hatred is now in a state of confusion.

Unfortunately, even with my overwhelming power that could easily destroy this world, I could not lock away only those memories of before my encounter with you.

I would either have to lock everything away once again and create new fake memories or pretend that I am still the same girl you once knew.

But it doesn’t matter if the memories I create happened in reality, I could never reproduce the feelings I have for you if I lock away those years we spent together.

No matter how good of a liar I am, my overwhelming power will betray who I am now when I get jealous of you getting intimate with another girl.

We could no longer go back to how things were and I am at a loss on how I should proceed.

As much as I love you, it doesn’t seem you love me enough to quench this hatred that still burns inside of me.

Do I go into another slumber and let you live out the rest of your life in peace?

Do I come to you now and end your life alongside the rest of this world?” Before I could continue with my thoughts, I was rudely interrupted by some fireballs and other weak elemental spells.

Obviously, none of those weak attacks could do anything more than annoy me and interrupt my train of thought.

With a simple wave, my shroud expanded towards those poor weak guards and as they got touched by my shroud, instant death befell them like millions before.

“Now where was I?

Oh yea. What should I do now?

End this weak world that’s no longer boring because of you? Or wait until you are no longer a part of this world before I restart my revenge.” Even after an entire night wondering and debating what I should do, I am no closer to a plausible answer.

As I wondered what to do next, another attack was launched at me, but this one, much stronger than any of the attacks I had experienced so far.

Reflectively, I commanded my shroud to chase the source of the attack and to my surprise, the attacker was able to dodge my shroud easily.

“Yvette Aster. One of the 10 heroes.

I am surprised at the power of that attack and your agility is rather impressive as well.

Maybe I have underestimated just how strong the top heroes are.

Maybe someone like Zishell or Julius could actually become a challenge for me with some proper grooming?” As I marveled at Yvette’s surprisingly powerful attacks and her speed, a plan began to form within my head.

“I got it!

I will turn this current world into what I have always wanted to destroy!

I will infuse my soul with a select few weaklings so you can get infinitely stronger!

What if I gave 5% of my soul to each of the 10 heroes?

Will that allow you to evolve into something stronger?” I wondered as the wheels in my head started turning.

“How about 5% for each of the top 10.

40% of my soul for 10,000 random living entities and with the last 10% of my soul, I will create a minor reset and turn this world into something closer to what I had imagined.

Then I will put myself into another slumber for 10 years before I reawaken and retake my soul.

No!

20 years.

20 years should be long enough for those who get a part of my soul as a catalyst to develop into something on their own and worth my time killing.

20 years should also be long enough for you to accomplish whatever you want before I come and end your life personally.

I’m sorry that this had to happen.

I’m sorry that I had to ruin your big day.

I’m sorry that my love for you wasn’t enough.

If you were here with me right now, things might have turned out differently.

But it’s too little too late now, I have just decided on my plan.

I know you are strong and have potential for greatness but that’s only because the world does not understand my immense power.

Soon, those that get a piece of my soul as a catalyst will understand what true power is and unfortunately, you will not be included and those that do will no doubt surpass anything you will ever be capable of doing.

My final advice and last words for you.

Enjoy the next 20 years. Live every day like it’s your last and don’t bother wasting your time training.

Maybe someone in this world will be capable of killing me in 20 years, but that person surely won’t be you.

I am truly sorry for how things turned out but this is goodbye.” With my on-the-fly plan finalized, I instantly teleported away from the castle square.

Away from that Yvette so she doesn’t get herself killed accidentally by my shourd as she buzzed around like an annoying fly while I was trying to articulate my plan and give him my final words.

Back to the secret underground chamber where my body had rested for 10,000 years.

I started the process of dividing 90% of my soul into the correct-sized pieces to be spread around the world.

After spending far too long dividing my soul into pieces, I began to imagine the world how I wanted it to be.

What I imagined, what I desired, manifested.

Even with only 10% of my power left at my disposal, I’m sure the world will turn out somewhat like how I wanted.

With all my rituals complete.

I got into my sleeping chamber and with the last tiny bit of my remaining power, I put myself into a cryogenic state, to be woken up in 20 years.

“Goodbye, Ken.

Sorry things had to turn out the way it did.” I whispered as I felt my consciousness slowly drifting away into nothingness.

End of Prologue.

[author]

Hello everyone. Thank you for reading my story! When I first started writing, I had no idea how I wanted to start this story so I decided to start from the beginning even though I knew it lacked an overarching conflict.

As I continued to write, the story went in a direction that I didn’t plan for but I didn’t feel like doing a rewrite and I also didn’t want to stop halfway.

Basically, I wanted to write an adventure with harem as a minor plotline but without an overarching conflict, the story basically turned into a harem fantasy but I skipped most of the interactions to speed up the pace to get to the actual story.

If I wanted to go the harem fantasy route, I could have written 500 chapters on the day to day school life between Ken and the girls but I was in a rush to get this part over with and skipped as much as I could.

In the end, I failed to write an adventure story and wrote a bad harem story. =D

I have not started writing the actual story yet and will be going on vacation for the next 2 months.

My current plan is to start writing once I return and maybe start posting in 3-4 months once I have enough of a backlog so be on the lookout for a new chapter in the future!

What to expect from the main story.

More adventure. The world has been significantly altered and Ken also needs to rediscover himself. Since I find it easier to write in first person, I will be switching to a first person perspective telling the story predominantly from Ken’s point of view.

Not writing a smut so I will probably keep the explicit stuff to your own imagination lol. The story will not be as light hearted but also not trying to write anything too graphic or traumatizing.

The harem is obviously still going to be a part of the story and I will be taking more time to flush out the main characters more as they enter/reenter the story.

Overall, it’s been fun writing and putting this story out, creating the art, and learning how to use AI. Also wrote some new chapters for my other story but I'm not sure if I want to release them and continue both as it takes a lot of my free time.

Hope the main story will be better written and looking forward to any feedback once I start publishing it. =)

[/author]