This is a multimedia webnovel with giant city-crushing monsters, a valiant man who dares to fight them, a hero who loses himself on a righteous path, and a darkness which conceives a profound love. But I suck at descriptions, so I strongly encourage...
Lazaro turned away from the water and glanced for a moment at Vaida. She stood by the sail-rana with a small group of people around her as she held an albapomus. Lazaro then glared directly into Hatasuko's golden eyes. Even though Lazaro was now shorter than him, something about him still felt towering and intimidating. There was a powerful presence beneath his green eyes.
"It was my children. I lost my daughter and my son in the same night, and I guess that was all it took to make me fall. I couldn't bear the thought that I would never hear their voices again. I couldn't stand to think that I would never see his eyes spark with curiosity. I would never see her smile at the sky again. The way their playful shouts echoed through the house... it just made the world so empty without them. Everything was empty. I would never feel their warmth again, and time just doesn't flow backward. Not ever. Nothing could change what had happened. And it wasn't that they were taken away by the demon that sits as the overlord of anguish; it was a human who killed them. Just a single man with a tainted heart," Lazaro explained as a latent anger blazed behind his eyes.
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"Lazaro, when you say he had a tainted heart, do you mean-"
"Yes. He was touched by the darkness, boy. I lost my son and my beautiful little girl because a man couldn't handle his curse. Because a person succumbed to the darkness and became a monster hidden in human form."
Lazaro and Hatasuko both fell quiet. Lazaro glared off toward the west with furious eyes. His mouth was open, and his teeth grinded against each other. He held his trembling fist in front of his chest, but then he turned his head and stared again at Hatasuko.
In a low voice, Lazaro explained, "I knew from the moment I met you that you're cursed. I knew that you were touched by the darkness before you even understood what that meant. It took all my strength not to kill you as soon as I saw you. I guess that was for the best, but even now, I can't look at your eyes without feeling pure hatred. I knew you were an asset; I knew that I could use your curse to help this world, but I also can't deny my hate. I've hated you from the very start. I hate you and your kind more than the world that did this to me. I hate you more than I hate God for standing idly by as our cities burn to ashes. I hate you more than I hate the Interfecti themselves. My soul has always been a raging battle between anguish and animosity, but lucky for you, I'm practical enough to know that you're necessary. I knew from the start that you're too useful to die because of my bitterness. I never expected that you would actually become a goddamn monster, but I've given up on trying to find out why this world is as it is."
Taking his mentor's hatred in stride, Hatasuko said, "I know you don't want to hear this. But I think that on some level, I was always meant to be cursed in this way. I don't know if destiny is something we're born with or something that appears along the way, but it's the same result. Either I was always meant to become the first Astrodeus, which means I was always meant to be touched by the darkness, or this destiny became mine in the moment I was cursed. But it doesn't matter. I can't take away your hatred, I can't take away Vaida's misery, and I can't rewrite the tragedies which have already hurt this world. All I can do is make sure that nothing bad ever happens again."
