Elisa had spent months locked away inside her secret laboratory.
She barely slept. She ate only enough to keep herself awake and spent her nights writing formulas, soldering components, and experimenting with stellar energy.
The laboratory had become her entire world: a hidden space deep within the forest, filled with tangled cables, flickering screens, and scattered blueprints that glowed without order. The workbench was covered with equations, tools, flasks containing strange liquids, and small energy cores radiating different colors.
She hardly spoke to anyone anymore.
Her parents believed that whenever she left home she was attending the Scientific University of Aetheris, but she hadn't set foot there in months. Isabella was the only one who still tried to visit her from time to time, yet Elisa was always too busy—or too irritated—to pay her any attention.
At first, her enthusiasm had been genuine.
She truly believed her inventions would help everyone.
She had designed things such as a battery capable of extracting energy from the stars without exhausting them, a box capable of storing absolutely anything by containing a miniature pocket dimension, and even a device capable of creating matter directly from a person's thoughts.
To her, these were breakthroughs that could change the history of the universe.
But eventually, obsession began to consume her.
She slept less and less. Dark circles formed beneath her eyes, her hands trembled from exhaustion, and her skin turned ghostly pale. She truly looked like a mad scientist.
Whenever she caught her reflection in the metallic panels of the laboratory, she barely recognized herself.
Sometimes she stepped outside simply to breathe while staring up at the sky, convinced that the universe itself was watching her with fascination.
"I'm close..." she repeated over and over.
"Once everyone sees it... they'll understand. They won't fear me anymore. I won't have to hide anymore."
She began believing that if she could simply reveal her inventions, Aetheris' scientists and leaders would finally accept her—that her machines could help the entire universe.
She imagined herself standing before everyone, presenting her creations while receiving the applause she had dreamed of for so long.
That dream became the only thing giving her the strength to keep going.
But the rest of the planet didn't see things the same way.
Aetheris was a world that valued knowledge, but it also valued restraint.
Everyone understood that both energy and matter were incredibly dangerous if manipulated carelessly.
That was why Elisa had always conducted her experiments in secret.
She knew she couldn't reveal them until the right moment.
However, it didn't take long for her family to notice how much she had deteriorated.
Her mother constantly tried talking to her, but Elisa always found an excuse to avoid the conversation.
Her father attempted to reason with her, asking whether she was alright or if she was hiding something from them.
Elisa only grew angry.
"If I were hiding something from you, it'd be because you always assume the worst about me! I've never been able to express myself freely around you—or anyone else—because every single word that came out of my mouth was judged! So the only thing I'm asking... is for you to leave me alone, just like you've always done!"
Even Isabella began to worry.
One afternoon, she visited Elisa's laboratory.
Elisa barely looked up from her work.
"Elisa... you haven't left this place in days," Isabella said softly, her voice filled with concern. "You're barely eating anymore."
"I'm fine," Elisa answered without even looking at her.
"I don't need to rest."
"But just look at yourself... your hands are shaking, your eyes are bloodshot, and those dark circles—"
"You don't understand, Isabella."
Elisa finally lifted her gaze.
"I'm so close. Once they see what I'm capable of... no one will ever treat me like I'm insane again."
Isabella looked at her sadly.
For the first time, she felt afraid.
Not because of what Elisa was creating...
...but because of what her ambition was turning her into.
And that fear led her to make the greatest mistake of her life.
A week later, Isabella went to Elisa's parents and told them everything that had been happening.
She explained that their daughter was conducting dangerous experiments, that she barely slept anymore, and that she had been carrying out clandestine research.
Terrified, they sought help from the authorities of Aetheris.
Several guards accompanied Elisa's parents to the hidden laboratory.
When they arrived, Elisa was in the middle of an experiment.
Her arms were covered in small burns, yet a triumphant smile spread across her face.
She had just completed the final version of her infinite storage box.
Hearing footsteps, she looked up.
The pride on her face instantly faded into confusion.
"Mom?... Dad?... What are you doing here?"
"Elisa..." her mother said anxiously. "What are you doing? Please... stop this and step away from those things. This isn't right. You're playing with forces you don't understand."
"I do understand them."
Her voice was calm.
"Far better than anyone on this planet ever could."
She narrowed her eyes.
"...Besides, how did you even find me?"
Looking past the crowd, Elisa spotted Isabella hiding behind one of the guards.
"...You brought them here?"
She stared at her in disbelief.
And heartbreak.
The guards stepped forward.
One of them ordered the confiscation of every piece of equipment inside the laboratory.
Elisa immediately stepped in front of them, spreading her arms.
"Don't touch anything!"
"You have no idea what you're doing!"
One of the guards ignored her warning and reached toward the stellar battery.
Elisa lunged at him, pulling out a taser she had built herself and shocking him before he could disconnect it.
The guard collapsed, but another immediately tackled her to the ground and restrained her.
Meanwhile, a second guard walked toward the main device.
As he reached for the controls, the machine suddenly began vibrating violently.
"Stop!" Elisa screamed.
But it was already too late.
A blinding flash swallowed the laboratory.
An instant later—
BOOM!
The explosion tore through the entire facility.
A massive wave of energy blasted everyone off their feet.
Dust and brilliant blue sparks filled the air.
When Elisa finally regained consciousness, the laboratory had become little more than ruins.
Her father lay unconscious beside a collapsed pillar.
Isabella...
...was lying beneath the rubble.
Covered in blood.
"...No..."
Elisa crawled desperately toward her.
"No...!
No, no, no...!
Isabella!
Please!
Answer me!
Please... I'm begging you...
Wake up!"
She called her name over and over.
There was no response.
Her mother slowly regained consciousness as well.
The moment she saw the devastation surrounding her, she let out a horrified scream.
The surviving guards staggered back to their feet.
One of them immediately called for reinforcements.
Elisa simply stared.
Unable to think.
Everything she had done...
Everything she had built...
Everything she had sacrificed...
...had turned into destruction.
Before the reinforcements could arrive and arrest her, she ran.
She fled the laboratory.
Then disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
That night...
Elisa reached a hill overlooking the entire city.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky.
Far below, the lights of Aetheris continued shining peacefully...
...as though nothing had happened.
Then she looked toward the enormous screen in the city's central plaza.
The news had already begun broadcasting.
ELISA DECLARED A FUGITIVE.
WANTED ACROSS AETHERIS.
She collapsed to her knees.
She cried for hours.
She remembered her father's words.
Isabella's warnings.
The terrified look on her mother's face.
Their voices echoed endlessly inside her head.
The news reports only made everything worse.
They were calling her a murderer.
A terrorist in the making.
Not only had everything she had worked for...
Everything she had sacrificed...
...been for nothing...
She had also lost the people she loved most.
And now...
The rest of the world didn't merely fear her anymore.
They hated her.
But as her tears finally began to run dry...
Something inside her changed.
Her grief slowly transformed into rage.
A deep...
Burning...
All-consuming rage.
Lightning flashed across the storm clouds overhead.
Moments later...
The rain began to pour.
Within seconds she was completely soaked.
Yet she didn't even flinch.
Not even when thunder split the sky above her.
"They forced me into this..."
she whispered.
"I only wanted to help...
I only wanted them to accept me...
And they did this to me.
Everything that happened...
It's their fault.
They've always done this to me."
She stared down at the city.
At the civilization that had rejected her.
At the news that continued portraying her as a monster.
And she felt her pain slowly become hatred.
"If everyone is going to treat me like a monster..."
She slowly rose to her feet.
Her eyes glowed with fury.
"...then I'll become the monster they fear."
"If this is the world I'm supposed to save..."
"...then it isn't worth saving."
"I'm done trying."
"I'll find another world."
"One that truly values me."
"And if they don't..."
Her voice became colder.
"...I'll make them."
"I'll make the entire universe witness what I'm capable of."
"And then..."
"They'll have no choice but to listen to me."
Over the following weeks, Elisa devoted herself to rebuilding what remained of her machines.
No longer for the sake of progress.
No longer to help anyone.
She had only one goal now.
Revenge.
She constructed an enormous machine based on the very same principle that had caused the laboratory explosion.
This time, however, it was built deliberately.
Not as an accident...
But as a weapon powerful enough to annihilate the entire planet.
She knew that, once activated, Aetheris would be reduced to nothing but dust.
She simply didn't care anymore.
When the machine was finally complete, she returned to the city.
Her face was completely expressionless.
Using a small device she had invented, she opened a portal and brought the colossal machine directly into the heart of the city.
She had chosen that place for one reason alone.
She wanted the very first thing destroyed on the planet...
...to be the city where all of her suffering had begun.
It didn't take long for the guards to arrive.
They surrounded her, ordering her to surrender and raise her hands.
Elisa complied.
Slowly, she lifted her hands into the air...
Only to press a hidden button embedded in the palm of her glove.
A pulse burst outward.
Instantly, every weapon carried by the guards shut down.
Before anyone could react, she pressed another control.
A second electromagnetic pulse erupted.
This one surged directly through the guards themselves.
Violent arcs of electricity coursed through their bodies, dropping every one of them to the ground.
Paralyzed.
Writhing in pain.
Without a word, Elisa calmly walked over to one of the disabled rifles.
She reactivated it with another one of her devices.
Then...
She began executing them.
One by one.
Each shot struck its target cleanly in the head.
She spared only the civilians.
Not out of mercy.
They remained standing exactly where they were, their bodies still frozen from the electromagnetic discharge.
Many couldn't even tremble.
They could only watch.
Without the slightest hesitation, Elisa activated the machine.
Then she turned around.
And began walking away.
Slowly.
Silently.
Her expression never changed.
From the distance, she watched as the planet's surface began to tremble.
Then crack.
Entire sections of the ground split apart.
One after another, the lights across Aetheris disappeared into darkness.
Until only one remained.
The blinding light of her machine.
Growing brighter...
And brighter...
And brighter.
The screams echoed across the city.
People begged for help.
Cried for mercy.
Prayed.
All while trapped in place.
Elisa simply continued walking farther away.
She never smiled.
She never cried.
She never even looked away.
She only watched in silence...
...as the world she once called home ceased to exist.
Moments before the final detonation, she activated her teleportation device and escaped to one of Aetheris' moons.
The lack of oxygen didn't concern her.
She had already invented another machine capable of sustaining her life.
She watched as the planet exploded behind her.
A world reduced to countless fragments of burning light.
Then she spoke in a cold, emotionless voice.
"If the universe has no limits..."
"...then neither will I."
"And if the galaxies refuse to accept me..."
"...I'll make them."
And so began her journey among the stars.
Traveling from one world to another.
Using her unmatched intellect to create...
To dominate...
And to subjugate.
The dream of saving the universe...
Had become a desire for absolute power.
Wrath had been born within her.
And now...
She no longer sought understanding.
She no longer sought acceptance.
She sought only...
Conquest.
The story of that version had come to an end.