"…and that, little Yume, is how our world became the way it is today."
Cassandra Augustine Nova—matriarch of the Celestial Beast Clan, nine-tailed daughter of moonlight—smiled softly as she finished the bedtime story. The amber glow of the lanterns painted warm crescents across her cheeks. Her nine tails fanned behind her like drifting clouds, each one swaying gently with her breath.
Yume, small beneath the blankets, tilted her head. "So the gods really did descend from the sky? The God of Games, the God of Streaming, and the God of Fiction?"
"That they did," Cassandra replied, brushing a hand through her daughter's black-and-pink hair. "And because of them, our world was divided into the realms you've heard of. Cyndex, where everything is decided through games… Streamtrix, where popularity bends the laws of nature… and our home, the X Realm, where fiction and reality collide."
She tapped Yume's nose. "Now sleep. Even celestial princesses need rest."
"Okay, Mom…" Yume murmured.
Cassandra tucked the blankets around her daughter's small frame, blew out the candles, and slipped out of the room with one last tender glance.
---
The Celestial Beast Clan was far from small. Hidden deep within an ancient jungle, their territory was a magnificent blend of Japanese tranquility and Western grandeur. Towers carved with lunar runes rose alongside wooden archways painted gold. The clan territory stretched nearly 6.3K kilometers square—dense greenery, shimmering lakes, and elegant palaces inhabited by officials and merchants bound together in a harmony few clans could rival.They had of populatoion of 10.2M.
That was why the silence that night felt wrong. Not peaceful—unnatural. A breath held by the world itself.
At the stroke of midnight, the sky split with red flame.
The lesser dragons descended.
They did not attack in silence. Their roars shook the canopy, and their armored wings sent shockwaves through the trees. They descended upon the outskirts first, torching houses and clawing apart anyone who tried to flee. They didn't arrive at midnight because of strategy—it was simply the hour when fear tasted sweetest.
Within minutes, the screams began.
Within seconds after that, Cassandra burst into Yume's room.
"Mother? What's wrong?" Yume whispered, startled by the panic in Cassandra's usually gentle eyes.
"There's no time. Come with me." Cassandra grabbed her daughter's wrist and hurried down the hallway, her tails flaring in alarm. "Yume, listen carefully. I need you to hide in the pantry. Do not come out until I return."
"But—"
"Good girl. Go."
The command was soft but firm, leaving Yume no room to argue. She scrambled down the small stairway that led beneath the kitchen, settling into the cool dark of the underground pantry.
Above her, Cassandra turned away, sealing the hatch with trembling hands.Cassandra could feel her power massively weakened ,like 95%weakened.
Her husband—Yume's father and clan head—was already outside battling the dragons, guiding civilians toward the palace, rallying the last of the defenders. But the lesser dragons were too many not to mention that he also felt weakened. They tore through walls as if they were parchment. They burned the castle gates until the metal ran like molten rivers.
The king fought like a blazing sun, cutting down dozens… but even he fell within the hour.
When the lesser dragons stormed the palace interior, they did so with cruel confidence. The captain, a large draconian warrior with scales like cracked obsidian, ordered his soldiers to search for survivors.
"Kill those who resist," he said. "The rest become war captives."
Within the castle ,they had already gathered the 10286 out of the 10.2M people still left alive .Then the 56 castle staff were added to this number.
Those who tried to escape were all killed since the army of 200000 lesser dragons had surrounded the whole clan territory.
Two soldiers reached the kitchen, their footsteps thudding on scorched tile.
Yume, still beneath the hatch, felt her mother's hand squeeze hers one last time.
Cassandra whispered, "Drink this."
A small vial was pressed to Yume's lips. Its liquid glowed faintly—a mixture of moonlight and sunlight, swirling together like twin deities caught in a dance.the contents called ''the essence of sun and moon''
"It will hide your presence," Cassandra murmured.
Yume swallowed. Her aura, her very existence, slipped into silence.
The hatch creaked open.
Cassandra rose from the pantry alone.
The two soldiers stared. One chuckled. "The captain said kill survivors."
"Ah, but he didn't say we couldn't enjoy ourselves first," the other murmured, stepping closer.
Yume watched.
She watched everything.
Watched as her mother tried to fight. Watched as she was overpowered. Watched as the soldiers violated her. Watched as they beat her until she no longer resembled the mother who had kissed her goodnight only moments before.
Her tiny fingers clutched the wooden slats of the pantry, tears falling silently through the cracks.
The world blurred. Her heartbeat roared like a collapsing star.
When the captain entered the room, the soldiers straightened, their boots scraping against the blood-stained floor with the beatened up body of yume's mother on the floor.
Then the captain heard the whimpers echoing from the pantry, the captain's aura pulsed—sharp and cold. His energy tore through the room and unraveled the presence-hiding spell.
"Something small… frightened," he muttered.
He lifted the hatch.
Yume stared back at him with eyes hollowed by despair.
The soldiers raised their weapons to kill her.
"Stop," the captain ordered. "She's young. Fearful. Broken. A perfect slave.The nobles will love her not to mention the fact that she was hidden here means she must be royalty."
Darkness swallowed Yume's consciousness.
---
When she awoke, she wasn't Yume.
Not the Yume who had been tucked into bed.
Not the Yume who had a mother with gentle hands.
Not the Yume who giggled at moonlight stories.
''...And that's how I got here huh.''Thought the new Yume.Then the sadness and greif hit .That greif built up ,it became unending .It then condenced into an unending rage.
This rage changed her .It changed her something cracked. Something simmering. Something filled with a grief so sharp it scraped against her bones.The rage and greif pushing her into a spiral of thoughts.
''I finally had a family… and you stole them from me.''
''I finally had a mother who wasn't broken… a father who cared…''
''...And you took them. All of you took them from meeee!!!''
''Why cruel gods, why did you take all I had in this life away from me. I haven't done anything to wrong anyone so why!why!why!''These thoughts fueled her rage even more as she shed tears.
The rage built within her like a storm gathering behind her ribs.Then all that pent up rage was let loose...
Her amber eye flared.
A beam of golden light shot into the night sky, trembling with unfiltered fury.
The jungle trembled.
As if answering her cry, the heavens struck back—a bolt of golden thunder hurtled downward and swallowed her. Her body jerked, convulsed, then radiated with scorching brilliance.
Shadows burst from her skin.
They wrapped around her, forming a cloak of black trimmed with incandescent gold. Her hair ignited into living golden fire. Her nine tiny tails multiplied in myriad and merged into nine grand dark tails , each bound by rings of shimmering light.
Her face became impossible to look at—more divine silhouette than mortal flesh.
The soldiers stared.
Then they burned.
Black and white flames devoured them, their screams lost beneath the crackling inferno.The flames incited by the amber-gold eye.
As for the two who violated Cassandra?
Yume didn't burn them.
She opened a dark portal beneath their feet—an abyss lined with teeth of shadow.
"You will suffer," she said, her voice layered with thousands of echoes. "For as long as I deem fit."
They vanished into darkness.
The captain crawled backward, trembling, choking on sobs. "P-please… mercy—"
"Mercy?" Yume stepped toward him, her golden fire flickering dangerously. "You beg for what you never offered."
She drew a glowing line across the air. It traced itself neatly across the captain's throat.The line decapitated the captain.But before the headcouldhit the ground ,Yume stabbed the head using her tails to obsorb his memories.
Her strength waned. The divine light around her sputtered like a dying star. Her hair dimmed. The cloak dissolved.
Tiny Yume collapsed onto the blood-stained floor.
And the jungle, at last, went quiet.