CHAPTER 357: CHAPTER 357: ANCIENT COUSINS

Kael, Katari, and Chloe stood before the ten-meter-wide circular metal door-gate that separated them from the nine tigers on the other side.

Behind them, various magical hard-light constructs floated behind them with the saucer-shaped projection being the biggest of them all.

The saucer-shaped projection of the Arkship rotated slowly, different parts lit up one after the other, showing that the insides were gradually coming online and getting active.

*CHINK!*

The metal gate opened under the command of Kael, sliding into the side for him to see the other side.

"This was the chamber of the lions, probably," Chloe said, to which Kael nodded. He already knew this as the log records flashed in his mind.

After the metal gate was opened, Kael’s eyes met the sight of an artificial mini-world.

There were more than three hundred separate chamber worlds inside the Arkship with most of them being very large.

The collective space of the interiors would be much more than the exterior of the Arkship. Even now that the arkship was at its original size, the inside was still much larger than the outside.

Kael walked through the gateway with a calm presence. This arkship was now his own, his personal property.

It was unknown just how powerful he was now with the arkship under his command. Chloe had been able to easily kill Belgrod when she was controlling the arkship and that was just a defensive mechanism.

Now, Kael’s clothes were more or less burnt rags. His sandals were gone, having been shredded into pieces at some point during the fight. As durable as those clothes were, they couldn’t survive the combined attacks of three tier 5 tigers.

"Belgrod, he’s dead!" A voice spoke out from their side using the lion language. Kael and the two others turned to their left.

They saw nine humanoid beings assembled together and looking at Kael with wary eyes.

In front of them, lying on the floor were two pairs of dead bodies.

One was the winged tiger that had been part of the group that had chased Chloe through the passageways before.

His body was cleanly divided into two, killed by Chloe’s last devastating attack.

Now that Chloe thought about it, she had really been pushed to her absolute limit during that chase.

The distance from the entrance to this place was not small at all considering the confusing distance and space within the arkship.

Yet, she and her pursuers had covered it in a relatively short amount of time. Well, it seems like a short amount of time because of how intense everything had been.

Thankfully, her wings were healed with the help of the arkship’s support mechanisms.

The second body in front of the nine humanoid tigers was Belgrod’s. His body had also been split in two.

Katari’s eyebrow was raised as she turned to Chie with a questioning look. She didn’t know Chloe could be so...efficient, if that was the right word. Did Chloe have a thing for splitting her enemies into two or was it all a coincidence?

What she didn’t know was that this was how Chloe had always fought. Whenever she aimed to kill someone, she tended to go for the midsection with a sharp attack.

It was just part of the training that had been drilled into her from heaven. She hardly wasted time going for specific weak spots, it was better to attack a spot that they couldn’t easily defend or move out of the way.

"Yes, he is," Kael said solemnly. Just like that, one of his troublesome enemies was dead.

He didn’t even see it coming.

Perhaps, he had underestimated the kind of power the arkship could generate. He should have known that keeping Kael hostage might not have been a bright idea, but he lacked information.

His ancestors never described in detail the true capabilities of the arkship. Even though they had not known that the arkship was the source of the spatial shield around the planet, they had thought it was something else.

Running away would have been a better choice had Belgrod known.

"So, this is where I would normally offer you all a choice..." Kael said as he placed his hand behind his back with his chin slightly raised. His mouth was still stained with dried blood and his clothes were still in tatters.

Still, his aura was regal and majestic, never faltering.

"I would have asked that you become my vassals, or die..." Kael continued, "But it seems there is a matter of respect and dignity at play here."

He looked to Chloe who nodded in confirmation.

She had just sent him a telepathic message, detailing the reason why lions usually don’t keep felines, especially tigers, as vassals.

Apparently, when Alan the First, the first lion and the first Primordial Lion, was born, he wasn’t alone.

Other creatures had been born with him at the exact same time not far from each other.

The first tiger, the first cheetah, the first leopard, the first panther, the first cougar, the first serval, the first bobcat, the first ocelot, the first lynx, and many more, had been born by the cosmos along with Alan.

It wasn’t clear how many feline creatures had been born at that time as many of them had gone extinct or had not been seen for billions of years. Some say there were more than a hundred original felines, some say that there were fewer than thirty.

It doesn’t really matter as only the tigers, cheetahs, panthers, and a few others are well known to the lion civilization.

So technically, these other first felines that had been born with Alan were considered his siblings. They weren’t related by blood or anything but they did share a lot of physical features and skeletal structure.

At that time, life wasn’t really too good as they were newborns and had to fend for themselves.

Over the long years, they grew more attached yet more distant. The differences between all of them were becoming clearer.

Alan was affiliated with the Law of Conquering, the first tiger was affiliated with the Law of Combat, the cheetah was affiliated with the Law of Speed.

The panther was affiliated with the law of Darkness.

The leopard was affiliated with the Law of Strength.

The lynx...

They couldn’t even breed new creatures with one another as most of them were males.

After millions of years of being ’alone’ they began to sacrifice themselves one by one to create their races.

At that time, Alan had asked for a lineage agreement in favor of the lion race he was about to create.

The feline civilizations of the future were not to take the lions or any other feline as subordinates as a show of respect for their ancestors’ connection.

The felines could ally with each other, or they could even wage war on each other. But they weren’t allowed to oppress or cause the extinction of another feline race.

All feline civilizations must be free from each other.

If Kael wanted he could keep the tigers as his Vassals, but once he left Eridoria, he would have to abandon them. Most of the lions in heaven, even those supporting him, may not be fond of the idea of keeping tigers as vassals.

After all, Noel had already almost broken the agreement in his own time when he pushed the tigers to the verge of extinction.

There was a rumor that the reason why Noel had failed to vanquish Ibadon was because he broke this pact.

"Is there someone out there who goes around to check if the agreement is being enforced?" Kael had asked telepathically while keeping his eyes on the nine tier 4 humanoid tigers.

He really wanted to keep these tigers for his kingdom. It wasn’t fair at all.

The tiger race was so useful, he imagined what it would be like to have a tiger caste around.

He himself had no sentimental attachment to these ancient cousins of his, and he was sure Noel had shared the same lack of attachment to them.

Noel had been known to be somewhat racist and a hardcore fascist, it wasn’t surprising that he held no sentimental value for the tigers at all. Hence, his lack of remorse when he hunted them down from one galaxy to another.

"Yes," Chloe responded to Kael telepathically, "There are indeed enforcers that go around to ensure this agreement remains in place."

When Chloe said this, she seemed frustrated and somewhat annoyed as if she was remembering a troublesome sibling whom she loved and hated at the same time.

It wasn’t just her, the whole lion race had mixed feelings about this group of so-called enforcers.

"Who are they?" Kael asked as he waved his hand and summoned the power of the Arkship.

Instantly, the nine humanoids and the two pairs of dead tiger bodies were twisted away by a spatial distortion, safely teleported to their original chamber world.

Chloe sighed, "Cats," She said.

"Cats?" Kael tilted his head, puzzled.

"Yes, they are called Cats, and they are creatures affiliated with the Law of Freedom.

They also pride themselves in their racial purpose of enforcing the Feline Lineage Agreement..."