The return to Paraiso was not a triumph; it was a funeral procession for Leib's humanity. For three days, he remained in a state of catatonic flux.
His skin would fluctuate between a feverish heat and a deathly chill, and occasionally, his shadow would stretch across the floor, taking the jagged, muscular shape of a tiger even while Leib lay perfectly still.
Inside his mind, the System was a storm of data.
[ COMPATIBILITY CHECK: 24%... 31%... ]
[ INTEGRATING EPIC-TIER ESSENCE: SABER-TOOTH TIGER ]
[ WARNING: PHYSICAL REJECTION DETECTED. HOST HEART RATE EXCEEDS SAFETY LIMITS. ]
Batlaha stood over the boy's bed, his brow furrowed. "He isn't just tired, Prien. He's a battlefield. The tiger's soul is trying to claw its way out, and his human heart is trying to lock the cage."
By the fourth morning, Leib finally sat up. He looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot, but the yellow glow had settled into a steady, golden ring around his pupils. He felt an agonizing itch beneath his skin, a phantom sensation of claws wanting to extend from his fingertips.
[ COMPATIBILITY CHECK: 80% ]
[ STATUS: STABILIZED ]
[ SKILL UNLOCKED: TIGER'S SENSES (PASSIVE) ]
He could hear the heartbeat of the guards outside the door. He could smell the ozone on the wind from five kilometers away.
But the power felt heavy, like wearing a suit of lead armor that was one size too small. He was 80% compatible, but that final 20% felt like a wall of solid diamond.
A week later, a new presence arrived at the palace. The air in the courtyard grew cold and dry, smelling of ancient dust and sun-bleached bone. King Akar of Semdan had arrived.
Beside him, his Mythical White Saber-Toothed Tiger moved with the silence of a falling snowflake, a mountain of muscle and frost-covered fur that made Leib's chest tighten with instinctive terror.
"So, this is the boy who absorbed a soldier's soul," Akar said, his voice as dry as the desert sands. He looked at Leib not with pity, but with the cold calculation of a hunter. "You have the scent of my kin on you, boy. But it is messy. Unrefined. You smell like a cub choking on a bone too big for its throat."
"I can't... I can't control it," Leib admitted, his voice rasping. "It feels like it wants to tear me apart from the inside."
"That is because you are treating it like a disease," Akar countered. "It is not a sickness. It is a hunt. And in a hunt, there is only the predator and the prey. If you do not master the tiger, the tiger will feast on the boy."
Akar took Leib to a secluded, sand-filled arena in the palace basement. For the next two weeks, the training was a descent into hell. Akar did not use weapons; he used his Mythical Tiger to pressure Leib.
The White Saber-Tooth didn't attack to kill; it moved with a terrifying, overwhelming pressure, forcing Leib into a corner until his "Predatory Drive" was forced to trigger just for him to survive.
"Stop fighting the shadow!" Akar roared as Leib was pinned to the sand by a massive, spectral paw. "Stop being the boy! Be the Fangs! Be the Hunger!"
Leib screamed in frustration, and suddenly, something snapped. He stopped trying to hold the shadow back. He opened the "gates" of his heart and let the yellow energy flood his nervous system.
His fingernails didn't grow, but a shimmering, dark-yellow aura of claws extended from his hands. He didn't roar, but the sound that left his throat shook the very stones of the arena.
He blurred across the sand, his movements no longer awkward imitations, but the fluid, lethal grace of a master predator.
Akar smiled, a grim, satisfied expression. "There. The resonance."
Leib and the Mythical Tiger danced in a blur of white and gold. For the first time, Leib wasn't just "using" a skill. He was the skill. The system prompts began to scroll at a speed he could barely read.
[ COMPATIBILITY CHECK: 85%... 92%... 98%... ]
[ HARMONIZING WITH APEX PREDATOR ESSENCE... ]
Leib landed a strike against the Mythical Tiger, a feat no common human could dream of. The beast let out a low, respectful purr, stepping back.
Leib stood in the center of the arena, his body steaming. His eyes were now a solid, brilliant gold.
[ COMPATIBILITY CHECK: 99% ]
[ EVOLUTION REQUIREMENT MET: THE HUNGER MUST BE FED. ]
Akar stepped forward, patting his tiger's flank. "You have reached the limit of what training can provide. 99% is a masterpiece, boy. But that final one percent... that is the soul's choice. You are now the perfect vessel. But a vessel is meant to hold something."
Leib panted, the golden glow in his eyes slowly fading. "I feel... full. Like I finally fit in my own skin."
"Enjoy it while it lasts," Akar warned. "Because a predator who doesn't hunt begins to eat itself."
That night, Leib walked through the palace gardens, feeling the world with a clarity that was almost painful. He could feel the insects in the grass; he could hear the breathing of the servants in the distant towers. He felt like a god among sheep.
He found himself drawn back to the Great Arena, to the Bátis.
He stood at the edge of the sacred well. The tiny crack he had found earlier had grown. It was now a jagged fissure that ran nearly a meter down the side of the stone. A thick, rhythmic thumping sound was coming from deep within the well, like the heartbeat of a titan.
Suddenly, Leib's vision turned a violent, screaming red.
[ CRITICAL SYSTEM OVERLOAD ]
[ 99% COMPATIBILITY DETECTED ]
[ TRIGGERING HIDDEN DIRECTIVE: THE AWAKENING OF THE KING ]
The ground beneath the arena began to groan. The water in the Bátis didn't just turn black; it began to boil and evaporate into a thick, suffocating fog of shadow.
A voice—cold, ancient, and echoing with the weight of a billion lost souls—spoke directly into Leib's mind. It wasn't the digital voice of the system. It was the voice of the Bátis itself.
"The vessel is ready. The first seal is broken."
The crack in the Bátis shattered completely. A pillar of pure, liquid darkness erupted from the well, but it didn't shoot into the sky. It curved in mid-air and slammed into Leib's chest, lifting him ten feet off the ground.
Leib screamed, but no sound came out. His body began to crack, glowing violet light leaking from his skin as if his soul was too large for his ribs.
High above, in the palace towers, Batlaha, Prien, and Akar ran to the balconies, their faces pale with terror. They saw the pillar of darkness connecting the boy and the well. They saw the sky above the arena tear open, revealing a starless void.
In Leib's vision, one final prompt appeared, shaking with an ominous power.
[ EVOLUTION COMMENCING... ]
[ SYSTEM OVERRIDING... ]
[ DELETING USER: LEIB ]
[ INITIALIZING: THE VOID SOVEREIGN ]
Leib's hand reached out toward the palace, toward where Reign and Jay were watching in horror. His fingers began to dissolve into black smoke.
"Help..." he whispered, but his eyes were no longer gold. They were a terrifying, endless white.
And then, the pillar of darkness imploded, dragging Leib, and the entire center of the arena, down into the depths of the Bátis.
The world went silent. The Bátis was gone. Leib was gone.
Only a hole in the earth remained, and a single, glowing violet screen floating in the empty air where Leib had stood:
[ REBOOTING... 0% ]