Chapter 2 - Unlucky Birth

Without thinking, she looked at the man’s eyes. Soon, Paazzz! She felt a deep cold chill enough to make her quiver. At the same time, she felt a severe pain as if her eyes were being plucked. Urgh, she grabbed her eyes and crouched. It felt like both of her eyelids were burning.

“Hahaha!” chuckled him, throwing her aside and not minding her pain. 

What on earth was happening? Pressing hard on her aching eyes, she narrowly lifted her chin. Then, she found the human male turned into stone. She tried rubbing her eyes, but what she saw did not change. The man called Sean had turned into stone.

What in the world…

She did not have the luxury to put aside the shock of killing a life as soon as she was born. It was because he, who had been laughing for a while, dragged her hand.

“Very well made. It’s a masterpiece, indeed,” messing her as if he was stroking it, he said. “Alright. Now, I should give you a name.”

He bent his waist and looked at her before removing his gloves. His hand matted with bones and flesh touched her cheek, “Karina.”

His hand smelled like a rotting corpse, “My child, that is your name. Karina, Karina Apocalita.”

He, who was her father, lowered his robe. Only bones were left on the half of his face, “Remember your name at all costs and receive this surname to become a great ingredient of this Apocalita.”

He told her to remember the surname Apocalita, but it was unnecessary. She was quite familiar with that noun already. Apocalita, the place where the heterogeneous race was ‘produced’ and called ‘the grave of gods’. It was the habitat of the final boss from a novel she read right before she died.

Oh, what do I do? She let out a sudden laughter that did not suit a newborn baby.

*

The father of her body, in other words, the person who named her was not a human. He was a lich, who had turned himself into a monster with black magic. He had a simple reason for making himself an immortal being.

“What if I, who is abandoned by God, become God who rules the world?”

He wanted to become God himself. He desired to rule the world after eliminating the King of the gods. Hence, he decided to rob the halidoms from three families cherished by God. It was because absorbing all the halidoms would give him great power. However,

“Why for God’s sake! Why wouldn’t those people die?”

The people of the three families favored by God were strong, perhaps stronger than him. He despaired but did not give up. With a dauntless will, he made a new plan. He made ‘them’, who were a combination of ancient demons and humans. They were strong enough to take the lives of the people who won God’s favor easier than taking a fly’s life. The only reason they existed was:

“Protect me, till you breathe your last breath.”

It was to protect him. His desire was soon their purpose, so they faithfully obeyed him and drove the world to the border of its fall.

This was the story of the evil from the novel that she read in her past life, ‘The Bird Caught in a Snare Cannot Flee’. The ending was, as expected by anyone, the fall of evil. Apocalita drove the world on the verge of destruction, but that was it. Eventually, the evil was destroyed by the heroine, who was beloved by the King of the gods. ‘Karina,’ whom she was reincarnated, died first in the process. Of course, now that she was in that body, she would not die so easily…

She indeed had a strange fate. In her past life, she had died from falling from stairs when she was running away to avoid her father’s abuse. Although she died at an early age, she was not too sad at the moment she died. She thought that she could finally get away from the hellish life. But oh gee, when she was reincarnated, even more hellish life unfolded. Where neither dream nor hope could be found, were suitable words for the environment she was in. The only lucky thing was that she had stronger power than she did in her past life.

Thus, she was determined not to run away. Apocalita would be destroyed in the original story anyway. It was bound to be destroyed regardless of her actions. Would it not be all well if she hid calmly and watch Apocalita fall? Since this was clearly the best she could do in the current situation, she made a plan in an orderly manner.

First, she would raise power because running away also required power. She needed to become ‘the monster’ who received power from her creator the father in exchange for obeying his words. Yes, like now.

She slowly opened her eyes that had been shut. Her vertical pupils scanned each person who was overwhelmed by fear.

“D, don’t do this!”

“Monster…!”

“Run!”

Her hair spreaded to all directions like a snake’s movements. A snowy white snake peeking out from behind her neck opened its mouth towards the humans. Swoosh, a sandstorm gushed in and sweeped them. The snake, which was part of her body, roared at them.

“Aarrgh!”

What was left after the wind was taken away were humans who had become stone in the exact shape of them running away. The father had made experimental subjects by combining ancient demons and humans. She was a monster fused with medusa.

* * *

Whoosh, there was a sandstorm again. She blinked her rough eyes. My eyes always hurt when I use my power. Squinting her eyes, she stretched her hand. The snake at her neck crawled to the tip of hand. The snake, covered in white scales everywhere except for its black eyes, raised the rattle on its tail stiffly and wrapped her wrist.