Katari appeared on a floating continent far away from the Apex Pyramid, close to the border between the Eastern Coverage and the Central Coverage.

Suddenly, the bright golden sky shone on her face and made her appear extremely beautiful.

Her black dress, moved by the spatial fluctuations, fluttered a few inches from the ground effortlessly.

Katari’s feet did not touch the ground, her sudden arrival caused the earth beneath her to cave in, and a few rocks to fly away too.

She blinked, ignoring the golden hue and the new sensation she was getting from the whole world, and focused her gaze on the young lady in front of her.

Four slender and feminine arms, a curvy figure, short black hair tied to two braids, and free-movement attire, it was Kael and Katari’s daughter, Alyrat.

"Mother," Alyrat bowed with full respect. Katari’s eyes locked on her daughter with such intensity that it was scary.

"Alyrat," Katari responded. But her eyes were unblinking like a snake and it looked like she would strike at any moment.

"Mother, congratulations..." Alyrat began.

"Enough," Katari shunned her immediately.

"..." Alyrat kept her head bowed and did not say anything, she didn’t dare to. Even the other pride sisters were wary of her.

Katari did not discriminate between a stranger and her family when it came to violence. If she felt someone needed to die, that person would just die.

If someone needed a beating, they would get that beating. For the All-King.

"It’s quite disappointing," Katari placed her hand behind her back and hovered forward. The air instantly went still and for the first time, the might of an Avatar was released.

Alyrat could not breathe, literally.

"You killed so many lionesses during your competition in the Consort Trial, you provoked many. You even caused some of the All-King’s consorts to step in for you.

You made your intentions clear, and yet. Here you are," Katari muttered, finally arriving in front of her daughter.

Alyrat still kept her head down. She and Katari were almost the same height with her being slightly taller but now, Katari towered over her fully.

Her shadow was cast over her daughter and it looked like Alyrat would be drowned in the darkness of the High Killer.

"The All-King, your father, sent you a consort contract, and you haven’t accepted it..." Katari spat every single word with spite as though she could not believe that this creature had come out of her womb.

"We have trained you for this moment, and you hesitate!"

*BAM!*

A vicious slap landed on Alyrat’s face before she could do anything or explain herself.

The ground shattered beneath their feet. Alyrat stumbled but found that her body could not be moved from where it was.

She was spatially locked and her cheeks still burned. The parts of her body that she could move were her legs and her head.

Everything else was spatially locked.

"Mother..." Thankfully, although the slap was terrifying, for someone of Alyrat’s level, it was just really painful...really really painful.

With tears in her eyes, Alyrat shivered, "Mother, it’s not that, I just wanted to tell father about what I got," she said.

Katari tilted her head. She couldn’t imagine that anyone would do something that was not to the benefit of her beloved.

"What?"

"I got something, that was why I had not yet explained it to the All-King. I thought he might want me to make a decision myself about it..."

"What?" Katari asked again, her eyebrows getting closer to each other. It looked like she was hearing something so absurd that it should be impossible.

What could be better than Kael’s offer? Katari had shown more facial expressions here even though it wasn’t backed by any real emotions, it was still a lot.

"What did you get?" Katari asked.

"I..." Alyrat hesitated. Now that Katari was here, even she was starting to question what she had gotten.

Why did she even wait all this time to talk about it?

"I got an offer?" Alyrat finally said as Katari’s gaze intensified.

"An offer?" Katari raised an eyebrow and leaned back.

"Yes, mother," Alyrat said.

"From who?" Katari asked.

"I don’t know, but he said that I can fuse my power and his power to make not just myself stronger, but also the All-King as well, I would become a soul avatar..."

The more she talked, the more stupid she sounded.

For a full thirty seconds, Katari stared at her daughter with a blank expression.

Thirty seconds later, Alyrat was questioning her own intelligence. It sounded so legit when she repeated it in her mind. Why did it then sound so stupid after it came out of her mouth?

She asked herself and didn’t find the answer.

"Wait..." Katari narrowed her eyes.

Alyrat looked up, a chill going down her spine. She felt her mother’s killing intent, it was genuine.

Katari was really seeing herself killing Alyrat and for a good reason right now.

"Someone offered you power?" Katari asked.

Alyrat nodded slowly, instinctively leaning away but finding that there was no room to escape.

"And do you know this person?" Katari asked again.

Alyrat shook her head, "Telepathy..." She said softly, her voice going a full level lower.

"Oh, telepathy..." Katari nodded and stared into the distance, her thoughts were a mystery.

"This person, he offered you power, and he told you that he could make you stronger as well as the All-King.

Is that right?" Katari asked once again.

Alyrat nodded. It was something like that. There were a lot of promises involved when she was visited by that mysterious entity but the one that appealed to her most was the promise of power.

Everyone knew that the All-King was fond of powerful people. So what would happen if she could not only get stronger but bring power to the All-King? Wouldn’t she be seen as a genius?

It really sounded stupid now.

Katari, still looking into the distance, sighed.

The killing intent vanished and she closed her eyes.

Alyrat looked at Katari with her eyes closed and wondered what was happening. Was Katari that disappointed that she didn’t even want to deliver punishment?

Suddenly, Katari moved.

Alyrat felt a dainty hand wrap around her neck and the next thing she knew, she was slammed into the ground.

The whole continent shook. Alyrat had all the air knocked out of her and wen-like cracks formed under her back,. spreading for thousands of kilometres.

With her hand still wrapped around Alyrat’s neck, Katari pressed down, going on one knee and kneeling beside Alyrat.

With a very chilling expression, she looked into Alyrat’s brown eyes.

She blinked, and Alyrat blinked too.

"Leave..." Katari muttered.

Just then, a faint light shone in Alyrat’s mind and was reflected through her eyes.

The light flickered and a stubborn expression was revealed on Alyrat’s face.

"I said..." Katari squeezed Alyrat’s neck tighter and killing intent practically gushed from her eyes.

*BAM!*

She slammed Alyrat into the ground again, deepening the crater and causing more pain.

Alyrat’s four arms immediately moved and her expression turned into a mix of viciousness and silliness.

Two hands grabbed Katari’s wrist and the remaining two hands touched the floor, creating earth pillars and spikes around the crater.

The earth spikes, thinned and sharp, shot toward Katari.

However, all of them shattered and vanished into dust a few milliseconds later. Katari just looked at Alyrat, confirming that this type of stupidity was absurd.

Even before she underwent her last evolution, Alyrat knew for a fact that Katari was a deadly fighter and there was a very big difference between just testing the waters during training and actively trying to fight Katari.

One usually leads to certain death.

It was either that Alyrat was asking for death, or she had been corrupted by a foreign power that made her act incredibly stupid.

Either way, Katari did not tolerate any of this.

*Whoosh!*

Katari drew her free hand back and aligned her fingers to form a palm blade.

Space and fractured void curled around her palm, settling on the edges to give it an invisible but sharp end.

Katari was ready to drive her blade palm into her daughter’s heart to end this nonsense.

This was heresy, this was treason, even though it was unwanted. Alyrat had been corrupted by a foreign power. She of all peace!

Blasphemy.

Katari’s palm vibrated and she intended to make a move.

And then, she heard a voice in her mind. The voice of the All-King.

"Now..."

Katari was only stunned for a brief moment before acting with her words.

"Accept the contract!" She commanded.

At this moment when Alyrat was facing certain death, that foreign power had relaxed, probably feeling like she was going to die anyway and the secret would be kept safe.

Unfortunately, this allowed Alyrat a brief moment of utter clarity, regaining her intelligence.

Immediately, before the foreign power could become dense again, she accepted the pending contract in her lion system.

*WHOOM!*

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiii!" A loud screech tore through Alyrat’s mind as she began spasming on the floor.

"ALL-KING! FUCK YOU!" Another loud bellow, this time coming from nowhere in particular before eventually fading away.

With her hand still placed on the spasming Alyrat, Katari’s expression was stiff and there was only one thought in her mind.

’There is heresy amongst us, someone dares to corrupt the lions from beyond...’