Karok didn't know how much time had passed before he regained consciousness. Waking up, he felt a wave of pain wash through his entire being; the amount of pain was enough to knock him unconscious, but he managed to hold himself together.
He could feel movements around him, like he was being transported, and restraints around his body. Karok wasn't in a rush to open his eyes as he felt the changes in his body.
First thing he found out was that his mana core had been extracted from his body, which explained why he had been in so much pain after waking up.
The second thing he noticed was that his body wasn't drawing mana for some reason. Even without a core, every Skrivalok should still be able to draw mana from the air into their bodies to carry out minor actions. But for some reason, he couldn't do this anymore.
This meant that he was now officially a waste and had reached the pinnacle of uselessness, he won't be able to fight even the weakest Skrivalok in this state.
After a while, Karok heard mumbling around him. Those voices were from the Skrivas who were transporting him to wherever it was that they were going.
From their words, Karok realised that the Skrivas were dissatisfied with his request to spare humanity from being wiped out completely.
Apparently, after the Skrivaloks conquered a world, all of the previous inhabitants would be wiped out by them before occupying it.
This was a form of enjoyment for the weaker Skrivaloks and also a way to honour the deaths of their dead comrades who died during the battle.
But Karok's request to spare the remaining humans after Earth was conquered by them was seen as him spitting on their long years of tradition just because he was now the strongest.
'So everyone was already unhappy with me,' Karok thought to himself, a sting that registered through the pain he was already feeling pierced his heart.
He had only requested that the rest of the humans be spared out of pity, but it seems like the race he had been loyal to and had served his whole life had taken it the wrong way.
Karok felt pained and betrayed, realising that his fate might have already been sealed even if he didn't request that the rest of humanity be spared; this was just an excuse used by the remaining Generals to justify his death to the others.
Memories of how his journey had started began to surface in his mind at this moment. After the death of his parents, he had wandered with his sister for years before meeting a kind Skrivalok who was one of the seven Generals.
That Skrivalok had taken them in and treated them as his children, after his talent as a fighter was discovered, he had faithfully served their saviour and did all of his bidding without questioning.
Karok had thought that things would have remained so forever, but it was now clear that he was being too naive, that Skrivalok must have noticed his talent from the very beginning, and all the care for him and his sister was just an act to get him under self-submission.
He had conquered worlds within the third realm for the Skrivas race and had won numerous battles for his foster father. Now that they feared the very talent that they had once taken advantage of, they decided to get rid of him.
Karok felt extremely bitter thinking about all of this, he had even caused the death of his sister. Thinking of his sister, Karok nor felt rage toward himself.
She wasn't very talented and wasn't a fighter; she was just a harmless oracle, and she definitely wasn't a threat.
But her stupid brother just happened to be so talented that he caused her death.
He recalled how they had suffered together after their parents' deaths and how they had gone through a lot together over the years. She was always by his side, no matter how dangerous the situation he was going through was, risking her life just to keep him in sight, even though she was weaker.
Ah, she was also the reason why Karok had been single his entire life. His sister would scare away any female who had designs on him, saying that they had to be at least as good-looking as her to be worthy of him.
Thinking of all those memories, a powerful wave of sorrow crashed into his soul.
'Maybe I should have died along with our parents back then, maybe she would have had an easier life without me.' Karok thought to himself with regret.
At this moment, Karok's body shuddered in pain as he was thrown to the ground roughly but he didn't make a sound; pain was something he had long gotten accustomed to…physical pain, that is.
He finally opened his eyes to see where he was.
In front of him were rows of shabby-looking houses, half collapsed or even worse. Hundreds of humans in rags lined up in front of these houses and looked in his direction. He could still see the pain from losing everything they had in their eyes, and their hatred was almost manifesting into existence.
Someone kicked Karok from behind and caused his body to roll toward the group of humans.
"There, humans. The hero of the war and your saviour who begged to spare your lives, he's now a traitor and is all yours." The voice of a Skrivalok sounded from behind Karok, followed by sounds of footsteps that soon became distant.
They had left him alone with the humans. Karok didn't panic as he stared at the humans with expressionless eyes, his limbs were tied and his core was no more; he was no different from a sheep in a lion's den.
He saw the humans look at him with confusion before slowly starting to approach, he could also hear them speak.
The Skrivaloks were a special kind of race that could learn the language of any race just by hearing it once, and he was able to understand what they were saying.
"Isn't that the monster who massacred most of our warriors?"
"Yes, it plucked out the heart of the head of the Willow family; I saw it!"
"What happened to it? It looks so miserable, even humans weren't treated like this."
"Be careful, it might be a trap to kill the rest of us; don't forget it is stronger than even stage 7 warriors."
"I can't feel any mana from it though, was its core removed?"
"What did those other monsters say? It betrayed its race and has been sent to us?"
Karok watched as the humans discussed in a low tone while looking at him with vigilant eyes, but they didn't make a move yet.
At this moment, someone suddenly rushed out from the group of humans. It was a female human with long golden hair that was now covered in dirt. She covered herself with a long, tattered robe and held a short blade in her hands as she rushed toward Karok.
"Wait, don't go over, it could be a trap!" someone called out to the woman, trying to stop her.
"I don't care!" the woman screamed, her tone was extremely bitter as tears instantly burst out from her eyes like a fountain.
She reached Karok and dropped to her knees in front of him before lifting her short blade.
"You monster, you killed my husband and my son!" She yelled as she stabbed down.
Ptui!
The blade sank into Karok's body, hitting a hard bone and causing him a wave of pain as blood gushed out.
The woman didn't end there, she lifted her blade and stabbed down again while crying and screaming the same words; he killed her husband and son, her family.
"You killed them, you killed them!"
Karok's body was soon covered in his own blood, and a pool had already formed underneath him, but the woman didn't show any sign of stopping; she kept screaming and stabbing as if she had gone crazy.
Despite all of this, Karok didn't make a sound and just watched; swallowing the pain as he stared at the woman.
Seeing his state and that the woman was still fine, the other humans soon joined in and started to hit him with whatever they could find; they were venting the frustrations in their hearts.
Previously, he would not have understood what these people were going through or why they were doing this. But after what happened to him today, he now understood their pain.
He didn't blame them; they did nothing wrong, and the Skrivaloks were the ones at fault. The humans just fought to keep their homes, but still lost everything because of him being too powerful. What they were doing to him right now was totally fine.
Gradually, Karok stopped feeling any pain and soon stopped hearing anything that was happening around him.
At the last moment before his consciousness sank into total darkness, a thought appeared in Karok's mind.
'Was I…really at fault?'
…..
An unknown amount of time passed and Karok regained consciousness.
'Eh? Didn't I die?' Karok thought to himself, shocked that he was still alive.
He tried opening his eyes but it was so difficult as his body wasn't listening to him. After several seconds of struggle, he finally managed to open his eyes.
A dazzling white light was the first thing he saw after opening his eyes, and it blinded him; he was only able to see after a few seconds.
After regaining his sight, the first thing he saw shocked him. A woman with beautiful golden hair and matching eyes was holding him and staring down at him with a loving smile on her face.
Karok "..."
A human?!