I wake up.

I can't remember exactly what happened. Once my heart was filled with hate, behind masks and technology I swore to erase the world. At one point I planned on burning it all to the ground and build it up again. A perfect world.

I remember a magical world, a world where everything was possible, a world where everyone had their dream life, everyone but me. Maybe out of anger, out of stupidity, or because I refused to grow up, whatever the reason it was that I failed, it no longer matters. I remember the day my master plans unraveled and I remember their shocked faces. With a marble mask and a long coat, I walked out of the battleship that had just roared through the skies. Soldiers and warriors by heart tried stopping me, they all crumbled at The Marble Obelisk. A mask that met me during my darkest hour. We swore to protect one another, our hate for the world as our unbreakable bond. Our anger and power bound to drown all sorrow, heartbreak and loneliness.

It was the first friend I've ever had, earlier in life, the closest thing to friends I had were bugs I loved to save and play with as a child.

Our conquer was ruthless, reckless, and at first unstoppable. But never unfair. I've spared many lives, even of those who swore to never do the same for me.

Somewhere else, a pole away, a group of weak adventurers decided to change the world. At first I refused to take them seriously.

Then somehow they managed to overtake a warlord, an enemy of mine. That is when they caught my interest.

I began following them, watching their every step. I grew attached to their lives. One was a noble son who forsook his tradition, another a thief whose foul strategies hid a heartfelt purpose, and her sister by soul, a scholar with far too much knowledge of the arcane and obscured. The warlord's cousin had joined them, a brute with a heart of gold.

I hated them. I despised what they had with all my heart. They had my dream. I felt the Marble Obelisk resonating with me. We shared that pain.

That was the first time we and the adventurers met in person. Their skills were impressive, but no match for me and the Marble Obelisk. Even their lethal blows just had my body rebuild behind the mask. We kept each other safe. Without hope of victory, the adventurers escaped through a collapsing bridge.

Believe it or not, at the time I was relieved the fight wasn't to the death.

We had many other encounters. With each encounter I felt a bond between us grow. Me and the noble complimented each other's posture during combat, the warlord's heir was surprised with the intensity of our fights, the scholar respected my mastery over ancient gods, and I respected her insight on souls, and there was the thief. The thief had lost her mother, father and blood sister in an accident. The news arriving by dawn, and for the rest of the day she locked herself in an inn's room. I heard her cries, I felt her tears. When the moon was at its highest, she watched the sleeping town through her balcony, sorrow clouding her heart. Blind by loneliness she stood one step away from her death, one step away from complete embrace of loneliness at her darkest hour.

I called her name and she froze. I spoke about life, about what she had and I envied, about friends and adventures. I spoke about true loneliness, about darkest hours and brighter futures. And, for the first time in decades I removed the Marble Obelisk so someone could see my sorrow.

She held me, for the entire night we cried, no masks. For the first time I felt love.

As the sun rose, we bid our goodbyes and parted ways.

Later, news of the adventurer's successes spread worldwide. They became a symbol of strength, a symbol to keep fighting. I envied their success, I envied their lives. I envied the noble as he married the thief. Through pine trees and a kiss of eternal devotion, The Marble Obelisk hid my tears.

And the next couple of years passed as nothing. That is when the sky fell. A threat far more powerful than anything that came before, not a warlord or an envious monster, but a cosmic, celestial conqueror. Its emissary, only a small part of the conqueror's power, destroyed the adventurers without any effort. And the adventurers would die with the blow of a celestial light.

With desperation more than righteousness, I took the strike of celestial light. Pushing both me and the Marble Obelisk to our extreme. And as the mask could no longer resist, as it fractured and died. I could hear it telling me to accept. It telling me to keep fighting. The Marble Obelisk was fated to die, but not I. And in a soothing goodbye, the mask cracked and all I saw was a blinding light.