There was once a land that time has long since forgotten.
In this land lived the goddess Ai, and under her gaze, the people were happy.
She said unto the people that every man and every woman would know love and happiness.
And so it was that every man and woman found true love and happiness.
That is, all save one.
It so happened that there was one more man in this land than there were women.
And this man was alone.
Grieved, he decided to seek out the goddess and ask for her guidence. For fifty
two days and nights he traveled in search of her temple and on the fifty second
night, he had found it.
Upon entering the temple, he laid his mortal eyes on the goddess. Her beauty was
so great that it made his heart weep and his eyes burn. He fell to his knees and
begged to the goddess. "Oh, my goddess so fair, why have I been forsaken
the love that my brothers enjoy?"
The goddess simply smiled and his heart was warm. Her love, the love of a goddess
for one of her children, filled him to the core and he wept.
"I love you, my goddess," the man confessed. "Please accept my
love and let me stay by your side."
The goddess smiled again. "You are one of my children, and I love you,"
she said soothingly to the man, "but you are but a mortal and I a goddess.
Love of the nature you speek can only exist between man and woman, or god and
goddess.
This pained the man and a crack appeared on his heart.
The man, driven by love did the impossible and crafted for himself a body of steel.
He became impossibly strong, nearly impervious to pain, and immortal. "I
have made myself a god," he told himself, " and now the goddess shall
be mine."
Upon entering the temple for the second time, the man spoke. "My goddess,
I have returned and my love for you has made me a god. Behold my immortal strength,
my steel skin, and my endless life."
But the goddess only frowned when she looked upon the man. "You are not a
god, my child." She touched the man's cold metal arm. "You have become
a monster neither god nor human. And I cannot love you for this."
The crack within the man's heart grew and grew and finally his heart shattered.
Consumed with furry and anguish, the creature that was once a man captured the
goddess and vowed "If you will not give me the happiness that my brothers
have, then I will make you take that happiness from them instead."
His humanity lost, the monster butchered the once beautiful goddess and made her
a part of his steel body. All the while she wept, not for herself, but for the
anguish of this monster. Now of one body, the monster and the goddess were set
loose on the land. The monster attacked village after village, murdering, raping
and plundering. All the while the goddess cried for her children as she saw her
own monsterous body desecrate her beloved people.
And so it was that Love and Despair became one.