The universe was vast.
So vast that no mind in the physical world, no matter how advanced, could truly comprehend its full scale.
For a long time, the humans of Earth believed they were alone—that they were the only intelligent beings to exist.
But that very idea was absurd.
The universe stretched across countless galaxies, each one filled with trillions of stars.
And orbiting those stars were an uncountable number of planets, scattered like grains of sand across the cosmic ocean.
Some were barren, lifeless rocks. Others were gas giants with no solid ground to stand on. But many—many—were home to something. Some kind of life, in some form or another.
So, what were monsters, then?
The definition of "monster" was never universal. It depended entirely on the beings who named them.
On one planet, creatures with humanoid forms might view anything that didn't resemble them—or anything that didn't originate from their world—as monstrous.
