My mind stopped in that instant.
My soul seemed to scream so loudly that my body couldn't even understand what to do.
Inside, all I could do was scream.
On the outside, I was frozen while her still-warm blood washed over me.
When I came back to myself, I was in a cage with my siblings.
We were being taken somewhere.
"With that, our mission is complete."
The leader spoke with his hands clasped behind his neck, in a lazy posture.
"But honestly, I never want to come back here again."
Suddenly he caught my attention, my ears focusing on him with expectation.
"Don't be a crybaby. The two of them are injured after the last fight, and nothing was going to happen."
The mage replied coldly.
However, her voice hid an unmistakable hint of fear.
"Sure, sure. As if it were a great idea to create a garden on the border between two rival clans and their extremely aggressive territorial beasts."
Garden?
He called our forest… a garden?
"It's a good idea if you think about it." The mage continued, looking at the sky.
"Their population is low. Having a place where they gather— even if only to fight— slightly increases the chance of repopulation. And of course, common females continuing the lineage of powerful beasts. Which is what everyone wants."
I lived in a sanctuary?
I'd been in a damn tiger sanctuary all this time?
Besides… I never saw a male, and the only female I knew was my mother.
Does that mean one of those two was my father?
"Cool story, nerd, but what matters is the money! We're rich after this! I'm gonna live in a brothel after this! Think of the possibilities!"
The leader laughed while my heart filled with more and more disgust.
He didn't have to be so cruel.
But he was—and he went far beyond what he should have.
They did all of this solely and exclusively to profit, for money.
My mother's life had a price.
My siblings' lives had a price.
My life had a price.
Humans… what a despicable species.
Days passed in the cage.
During that time, the scenery constantly changed.
The group of mercenaries kept us locked up most of the time, except when feeding us.
They were surprisingly cold, contrary to my expectations.
Initially, I thought the leader was insane while the others—especially the women—would have warm hearts.
However, we were just merchandise to them, and it became clearer by the day.
Surprisingly, they gave me exorbitant amounts of meat while feeding my siblings more moderately.
My siblings, of course, looked at me with envy, not understanding why.
At every moment, I seemed to be favored—whether by our mother or by our captors.
Clearly, they were beginning to feel anger and disgust toward me.
It felt unfair.
But I was surprised—ignoring their reactions—because the mercenaries were feeding each of us exactly according to our needs.
It was the right amount.
Despite seeing us as merchandise, they took good care of our basic needs.
As if to avoid losing market value.
However, I noticed they took even better care of my siblings.
Their fur was brushed and washed daily, making them look far less wild.
At that moment, they were no different from spoiled apartment kittens.
Meanwhile, I remained covered in blood with flies constantly circling me.
It was irritating when they flew into my eye or entered my ears and nose.
By then, it was obvious it was intentional.
I had been chosen to suffer as part of some kind of ritual.
A few more days passed on the road.
At some point when we crossed a river, the group's mage finally decided to clean me while muttering complaints that such work was unworthy of an illustrious mage like her.
It was clear she wanted to keep me stained with blood but couldn't for some reason.
'Apparently, we're arriving…'
The only likely conclusion was that, despite everything, she wanted to keep me presentable.
Unsurprisingly, a few hours later we finally arrived at a city.
The walls were tall and well maintained, with banners depicting tigers hung along them.
I examined them carefully. The familiar emblem of the lightning tiger was there.
As well as one resembling a tiger devouring the sun—the eclipse tiger.
There were several similar emblems: tigers amid volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes; winged tigers or leviathan-like ones.
But at the center, one stood out. It was surrounded by stars and had the cosmos as its fur.
The moon was its right eye, the sun its left, and a black hole inside its mouth.
It walked above the universe, feeding on celestial bodies.
Its appearance was imposing.
Entering the city, for the first time in this life, I was surrounded by people who approached the mercenaries pleasantly surprised.
The eyes of the elderly and children shone with the same light at the sight of tiger cubs.
The mercenaries laughed as they displayed us like heroes, slowly walking toward the castle in the center of the city.
Soon, we passed through the gates and reached the dark throne room.
Dozens of nobles crowded around the throne while five youths waited with anxious expressions in front of the king.
The group courteously knelt before the throne.
The king's eyes, for some reason, began to shine as they focused on me.
"My king, as requested, we went to the garden of the stormy night to eliminate the female who killed our dear compatriot, Sir Ethon, of the lightning tiger house, and retrieve her cubs."
In the crowd, each person displayed a different expression at the mention of the man.
For the attentive, it was clear two factions bore bad feelings toward each other: the eclipse faction and the lightning faction.
It wasn't hard to imagine a civil war nearly breaking out because of him.
The atmosphere in the room was heavy.
An older woman from the lightning faction stepped forward and spoke harshly.
"We thank you for your service. Ethon's memory—my beloved nephew who will never be forgotten—and his bloody death will always weigh on my heart… Now, I ask that by right, the cubs be delivered to us so we can raise them in our domain in his memory."
"Not this again…" an elder from the eclipse faction murmured quietly, then stepped forward.
"As previously discussed, lady, despite the incident and your nephew's unfortunate death, the cubs cannot be delivered using blood as currency."
The woman suddenly growled, lightning forming around her, scorching the ground.
"My nephew died to that beast. It is only fair we receive them as compensation for the loss of one of our own. Don't think for a second that I'm trading one for the other or that I'm happy about it!"
He snorted, then mocked her.
"Certainly, your useless nephew, with no talent for cultivation and whom you always hid from everyone as your greatest shame, wouldn't have been used as currency— one dripping blood. I even question whether he wasn't sent there to be killed on purpose, and all of this is nothing but a cursed conspiracy by a viper with black venom."
"How dare you—"
"Enough!"
The princess beside the king suddenly raised her hand; the simple gesture silenced everyone. She then stepped forward.
"This discussion is pointless. First we must know about them, then proceed. If they are special, the discussion will be long and meticulous; otherwise, we will simply give half to each faction involved. Therefore—how are the cubs?" she asked the mercenary with expectation.
"They are as expected—strong, healthy." The leader spoke with his head lowered, unsure what else to say.
The princess sighed, clearly disappointed.
She then turned to the castle's mages, who immediately approached the cages and took us out one by one.
Then one of them grabbed me and held my wrist. A sudden wave of energy spread from there, probing every part of my body.
They discussed among themselves for a few moments before turning to the princess.
"I'm afraid we have… a complicated piece of news to deliver."
The princess closed her eyes heavily before asking them to continue.
"We have a legacy beast with pure roots."
Immediately, the crowd's eyes widened while the leaders of every single faction present stepped forward, ready to fight for at least one of the cubs.
The king's fixed eyes on me revealed who they were talking about.
"Only that?" the princess asked, already surprised, before the mage slowly shook his head.
"One of them possesses ancestral spectrum roots."
Again the crowd swallowed hard, some already asking their servants how much money they had saved.
At that moment, the nobles were prepared to sacrifice not only gold and property, but even sell their sons and daughters in political marriages to get what they wanted.
"Another possesses roots of celestial red lightning."
No matter what, they had to acquire those beasts.
"The third has perfectly mixed elemental roots."
Their hearts nearly stopped, greed weighing so heavily it hindered natural movement.
"The last possesses roots of absolute chaos."
Silence filled the room.
The souls of all present almost left their bodies as only one thought screamed in their minds:
This was true power.
They needed to seize that opportunity.