Kazuki's POV
The footsteps got closer.
Think, Kazuki. THINK.
I was a palm-sized tiger cub with supposedly Divine Beast power I couldn't control. Sera was injured, exhausted, and trapped in catacombs with enemies closing in from both directions. We had maybe thirty seconds before whoever was ahead of us rounded the corner.
Through our bond, I felt Sera's panic mixing with stubborn determination. She was looking around for a weapon—anything—but the tunnel was empty except for old bones and crumbling stone.
The footsteps stopped.
"I know you're there, child." The voice was female, old, and somehow worse than threatening—it was amused. "I can smell the Divine Fire on your beast. Such a rare perfume in these forgotten places."
Sera backed against the wall, cradling me protectively. "Stay away from us!"
Laughter echoed through the darkness. "Oh, but I've been waiting such a long time for you. Fifty years, in fact. Ever since Fenton and I made our bargain."
My tiny heart nearly stopped. Fenton knew about this person?
A woman emerged from the shadows ahead. She looked ancient—at least eighty, with white hair down to her waist and blind eyes that somehow still saw us perfectly. She wore tattered robes covered in strange symbols that glowed faintly in the dark.
"Who are you?" Sera demanded, though her voice shook.
"I am Oracle Mara, last of the Truth Seers." The old woman tilted her head, studying me with those dead eyes. "And that creature you're holding is not what you think it is."
"He's a Divine Beast," Sera said. "I know. The Imperial Guards told me—"
"The Guards are fools." Oracle Mara moved closer, and I felt power radiating from her—ancient, dangerous power that made my Divine Beast instincts scream warnings. "Divine Beasts are born from pure elemental magic. They're predictable. Powerful but controllable."
She pointed one gnarled finger at me. "That thing is a Fusion—a human soul merged with a Divine Beast egg during rebirth. Such beings appear once every thousand years, and they always bring catastrophe."
Through our bond, I felt Sera's confusion. "What does that mean?"
"It means your precious cub has the intelligence of a human, the instincts of a beast, and power that grows without limits." The Oracle's smile was sharp. "It also means every prophecy, every fate-thread, every predetermined destiny becomes chaos around him. He's an anomaly that shouldn't exist."
She knows, I realized with horror. She knows exactly what I am.
"Fenton sent you to me," Oracle Mara continued, "because he knew I'm the only one who can teach a Fusion to control its power before it destroys everything it loves." Her blind eyes somehow locked onto mine. "Tell me, little tiger—do you dream?"
I froze. Because yes, I did dream. Every time I slept, I saw flashes of things that hadn't happened yet. Sera fighting in an arena. Elena's phoenix turning to ash. Cassian covered in blood, screaming my name.
The Oracle nodded like she'd read my thoughts. "Fusions see possible futures because they exist between worlds—not fully beast, not fully human. You'll watch countless paths where your bonded partner dies, and you'll be powerless to stop most of them."
Sera's arms tightened around me. "Why are you telling us this?"
"Because I'm giving you a choice." The Oracle gestured behind her. "Down this tunnel is my sanctuary—a place where time moves differently. Three days inside equals one hour outside. I can teach you both to fight, to use your bond, to become strong enough to survive what's coming."
"And if we refuse?" Sera asked.
"Then you'll die within a week." The Oracle's voice went flat. "The Divine Council has already sent twelve assassination teams after you. Prince Dorian leads one himself. Your family hired three dark tamers to kill you and claim your beast's corpse. And worse things stir in the shadows—ancient beasts who sense a Fusion awakening and want to devour it before it becomes too powerful."
My blood ran cold. Twelve teams. We'd never survive that.
"But why help us?" Sera's question came out desperate. "What do you gain?"
For the first time, the Oracle's expression softened. "Fifty years ago, Fenton and I made a deal. He would sacrifice himself to save the next Fusion that appeared, and I would train that Fusion to prevent the catastrophe that killed my family." Her blind eyes welled with tears. "The last Fusion went mad from seeing too many death futures. It destroyed seventeen cities before the empire killed it. My daughter was in one of those cities."
The weight of her grief hit me through some sixth sense I didn't know I had. This woman had spent half a century waiting for a chance to prevent another massacre.
And I'm supposed to be that chance.
"How do we know you won't betray us?" Sera asked quietly.
"You don't." The Oracle turned back toward the darkness. "But I'm your only option for survival. The Void Hound is already regenerating after Fenton's attack—it'll be hunting again within minutes. The Guards are flooding the tunnel systems. And the thing that was waiting for you at the eastern exit?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That's so much worse than anything the empire sent."
"What thing?" I tried to growl through our bond.
The Oracle looked straight at me despite her blindness. "The Shadow Court—dark tamers who worship the old gods. They know about Fusions. They have a ritual that can rip your human soul from your beast body, giving them a human-intelligent Divine Beast they can control." Her expression hardened. "They've been trying to create Fusions artificially for centuries. Now that a real one appeared, they'll do anything to capture you."
Sera was shaking now, whether from pain or fear I couldn't tell. "So our choices are: train with you, get captured by dark cultists, or die to the Imperial Guards?"
"Essentially, yes." The Oracle extended her hand. "But if you train with me, you might—might—survive long enough to become the strongest tamer-beast pair in history. Strong enough to make everyone who hurt you regret it."
That last sentence hit Sera like a physical blow. Through our bond, I felt her desire for revenge war with her fear.
I need to help her decide, I thought desperately. But how?
Then I remembered something from my old life. My boss, always pushing me around, always taking credit for my work. I'd spent years being too scared to stand up to him.
Look where playing it safe got me—dead at twenty-eight with nothing to show for it.
I reached out through our bond and pushed one clear feeling toward Sera: No more running. No more being weak. We fight.
Sera looked down at me, tears in her eyes. "You're sure?"
I nodded firmly.
She turned to the Oracle. "We accept. But I swear—if you betray us like everyone else has, my tiger will tear you apart."
Oracle Mara laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "Good. You'll need that fire." She gestured for us to follow. "Come. We have much to do and very little time."
As we moved deeper into the catacombs, following the Oracle's glowing symbols, I felt the air grow colder. The walls started showing strange carvings—beasts fighting humans, cities burning, and everywhere, the same symbol: a six-pointed star constellation.
My mark.
"Oracle," Sera said quietly, "what does the star-mark mean?"
The old woman didn't turn around. "It means your tiger is the seventh Fusion to ever exist. Each constellation point represents one of his past lives." Her voice went grim. "And all six previous Fusions died violently, killed by the very empires they tried to protect."
Seven lives? My mind reeled. I've lived seven times?
"The good news," the Oracle continued, "is that each life made the Fusion soul stronger. By the seventh life, a Fusion should be nearly invincible—if they survive long enough to awaken their full power."
"And the bad news?" Sera asked.
Oracle Mara stopped at a massive door covered in warning symbols. "The bad news is that the seventh Fusion's awakening always signals one of two things: either the empire's salvation..." She pushed the door open, revealing a vast underground chamber filled with training equipment and magical artifacts.
"...or its complete annihilation."
We stepped inside, and the door slammed shut behind us with a boom that shook the entire catacomb.
Then I heard it—another sound, faint but terrifying. Coming from somewhere else in the chamber.
Breathing.
Something else was in here with us.
Something huge.
Oracle Mara's expression went from confident to horrified in an instant. "No. No, that's impossible. The seal should have held for another decade—"
A roar erupted from the darkness at the far end of the chamber—not a beast's roar, but something worse. Something that sounded almost human, twisted with rage and pain.
"RUN!" the Oracle screamed, grabbing Sera's arm. "The imprisoned Fusion—it's awakened!"
My blood froze. Another Fusion? Here?
"I thought you said they were all dead!" Sera shouted as we bolted toward a side corridor.
"I thought they were!" The Oracle's voice cracked with terror. "But the sixth Fusion—we didn't kill it fifty years ago. We only trapped it. And now it's FREE!"
The thing crashed toward us through the darkness, and in a flash of light from the Oracle's magic, I saw it:
A massive tiger, easily twenty times my size, covered in rotting flesh and broken chains. Its eyes glowed with madness and hatred. And on its shoulder—
A six-pointed star constellation. Just like mine.
But all six stars were black as death.
The corrupted Fusion locked its insane eyes on me and spoke—actually spoke—in a voice that sounded like grinding stone:
"Finally. Another vessel. I'll devour your soul and take your body. Then I'll finish what I started—burning this entire empire to ASH!"
It lunged straight for us, jaws wide enough to swallow Sera whole.