The Hall of Assembly was silent, a heavy tension hanging in the air that was thicker than the jungle's humidity. High above, on the tallest branch of the Ancient Tree, sat the Great King of the Jungle Lions. In his human form, he was a man of intimidating presence.
His mane transformed in hair, a regal blend of deep brown and shimmering gold, framed a face that seemed carved from stone. His eyes, a piercing, electric blue, usually held the calm of a predator at rest.
But today, they were turbulent.
He had just received the report: assassins had breached the inner sanctum. They had dared to draw weapons in his daughter's private chambers. But more unsettling than the breach was the news of the Slave's return.
For seven long years he had watched his daughter, Venesa, waste her time mourning and protecting a human. To the King, Dreleon wasn't just a subject; he was a thief who had stolen his daughter's heart and time.
He didn't wait for the council to finish. With a growl that shook the very leaves of the palace, the King vanished.
In the Princess's chambers, the air was still thick with the smell of ozone and the metallic tang of blood from the fallen assassins.
Amidst the wreckage of the broken egg and the dead intruders, two figures stood in the center of the room. Dreleon with his cold eyes was on his knees head down bowing to the princess, and the princess seemed she was scheming something in her mind as she was focused sitting on a chair.
Suddenly, a violent gust of wind tore through the room. The Lion King materialized, his blue eyes instantly locking onto the scene of the room.
Enraged.
The King's control snapped. His Lion King's Might an aura refined by decades of war slipped out like a physical tidal wave. The stone floor beneath them cracked. The remaining glass in the windows shattered.
Dreleon felt the pressure instantly. It felt as if a mountain had been placed on his shoulders.
His newly forged bones groaned, and his own lion's might surged, fighting to keep him upright. Despite the crushing weight, he did not move from his position as his neck was almost crushed in half. And his forehead nearly touched the cracked floor.
"Your subject, Dreleon, greets His Majesty the King," he said, his voice strained as he moved himself in the same position towards the king while resisting king's-might with his own.
"Father, stop it!" Venesa shouted. she stepped in front of Dreleon, shielding him with her own body.
"He will die if you don't restrain your aura,"
The King's aura flickered but didn't vanish. He glared at the tall, long-haired man kneeling before him.
"So what? He is just a lowly slave. If he died, he died . I can find another one to make a pact with you" He let out a huff of air, finally pulling back his pressure.
" Ummm Wait... ?Why is there an aura of space?" The king said, as he found it incomprehensible as to why a long lost power appeared here. Was this power responsible for the attack?
"That's why you should see everything first before talking, and you say you will just change the pact? Am I that lowly that I will make a pact with anyone for power?," vennesa said, as she argued with king.
" It's dreleon! After awakening from that strange egg he became a high grade soul," she said, with pride in her eyes that seemed to feel this as her own achievement.
The King's eyes widened as he truly looked at Dreleon. The boy who had entered the egg was a weak human child. The man who stood before him now emitted a predatory pressure that shouldn't exist in a fresh pacter.
"He advanced grades while in the egg?" the King asked, his voice dropping an octave. "Are you telling me someone who pacted seven years ago has jumped straight to a High-Level powerhouse just by sleeping?"
"It's better than that, Father," Venesa said, her voice filled with the same pride she couldn't hide. "He didn't awaken a physical trait. He awakened Telekinesis. But it isn't the normal mental kind... it's a Space Element telekinesis."
The King went perfectly still. Telekinesis was rare, but Space-based powers were the stuff of legends, the ability to manipulate the very fabric of the world.
The King looked at Dreleon again, this time with the eyes of a strategist, not just a father. A human with Space-element abilities pacted to the Divine Lion bloodline... this changed everything for the upcoming war with the Star-Fallen remnants.
"Space..." the King muttered. He went silent for a long moment, lost in thought. "Very well. If he is truly a High-Level Space-user, he needs to be tested properly in the Arena."
He turned his back to them, his cape swirling in the wind.
"Dreleon. Come to the Great Hall tomorrow at the second bell of the day. Do not be late."
Without waiting for an answer, the King stepped forward and simply vanished into a rift in the void, leaving a shimmering trail of blue sparks behind.
Dreleon stood up slowly, his eyes meeting the moon in space. "Space element?" he whispered, looking at his hands.