Austin Krachen paced back and forth with his shrine dedicated to Lian opened. He was currently contemplating what was going wrong now. Ever since she got her system, she has been avoiding him even more. He could not comprehend that she was done tolerating his existence.

  “Why my love? Why do you avoid me still?”

  He began to think harder about the possibilities as to why they weren’t together. While in thought, he knelt by his shrine, picked up a lock of her hair, and sniffed it, remembering when they first met.

  His parents cared more about prestige than him. Their son was nothing more than a tool to increase their standing. Because of this mentality, they didn’t realize he was being bullied every day at school. Because he was the mayor's son, other kids singled him out for their parents’ suffering. His parents did nothing saying it would toughen him up.

  The only one that stood up for him when he was eight was another child. He still remembered the warmth he felt from seeing her vibrant orange hair that autumn day. She had yelled at them to knock it off and when they refused, she had turned feral on them.

  She had won the brawl in the sense that it became too much effort that day to mess with Austin, but he never got the image of her all bruised up asking if he was okay. When he asked why she helped him his mind was blown with her response.

  “We were born to be part of a group, so no one should stand alone.” She said this with the most earnest smile that he took those words as gospel even if his interpretation was a bit warped. He believed it was fate that she was sent to help him see the light. Though after helping him, he couldn’t find her after that day.

  Young Lian was just out with Pops getting groceries when she saw what happened. So, she thought nothing of her actions.

  It took Austin four years to find Lian again and he was so happy to have found his light. However, when he confronted her, he found out that she had forgotten all about him. The knowledge that even his goddess had forgotten about him shattered what little sanity he had left beyond salvaging. He believed that she was simply testing him. That it was the start of her playing hard to get.

  When he inevitably put the lock of hair back down, he had come out of his old memories. For now, he decided to head out to his favorite club to forget about today's failure and drink his problems away.

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  Just when he remembers something good, he will remember something bad. A reunion showed he was forgotten. Getting her father's approval (stalked her for months) led to him being hospitalized. Trying to get her affection again (for the first time) only to be ridiculed for asking (harassing).

  He did not realize how out of hand he was. When this first started Lian turned him down nicely but when this started, she was also getting into fights with local delinquents, so she had a very low tolerance for other people's bullshit.

  He figured if he took his training more seriously then he could protect her and prove he was the only one worthy of her. By the time he scared off the delinquents (killed them), she had moved out of her violent phase by completely dedicating herself to the art of blacksmithing with Pops.

  The more he tried to convince(force) her, the further away it seemed she became. He had even made sure they went to the same high school so that he could spend more time with her. Was it hard to wonder why his innate skill was Evil Eye when he had such a strong desire to seize control?

  Evil Eye allowed him to interfere with his target's nervous system. He can take complete control of his target with even the briefest eye contact. With how strong this skill was his parents finally paid attention to him, saying how proud they were and always expected great things from him. He didn’t believe a word of it. He was exposed to their true faces for too long.

  He already tried to use Evil Eye on Lian but since they started high school, she has refused to look him in the eyes and always chose to get away as soon as possible, and this was before he got his system. He just thought she was playing hard to get.

  So, when he got to the club, he went straight to drinking his problems away. All he wanted to do right now was to not have any worries for just one night. To have that inner voice, telling him to take what he wants by force, to be silent for just a few hours.

  He drank and he danced. He spilled something on his pants, but towards the end of the night he found himself resting with a beauty from out of town named Emily and she listened to him complain about how he couldn’t get acknowledged by Lian.

  “What if I told you I had something that can make her see only you?” She asked. Austin turned to her and stared into her sanguine-colored eyes as they began to glow. He had no idea that she was using a vampiric racial skill, Mesmer, to direct his focus. She did not know that she was feeding that inner voice since it was not public knowledge that Austin was clinically insane.

  “I’m listening.” He was desperate to try anything, and this woman seemed to have the answers to his problems. Even provided him with an illegal consumable item that could bind someone to their will under the right conditions.

  If only someone had stopped this meeting, this planet might not have been abandoned by the UGC.

  If someone had stopped him from listening to her, Lian wouldn’t suffer destiny's curse.