The Beast Monarch

CHAPTER 5: The Heiress

The car was a Cole Phantom. $300k, custom rift-plated. The kind of car only S-Rank corporate heirs drive in Old Tamer District because they want you to know they don't belong here.

The window rolled down and Zara Cole looked out at us like we were a stain on her route.

I'd seen her on the Tamer Academy billboards. Heiress and Combat Captain of Cole Conglomerate, S-Rank Prodigy Tamer at 24. Frost Wyrm bonded since she was sixteen. Face of three beast supplement brands. The girl who was born with everything I was told I'd never have.

Up close she was colder. Silver hair cut short for combat, sharp eyes, academy combat jacket with the Cole crest ripped off at the shoulder - like she was trying to make a point.

Her eyes went from Evelyn's contract in my hand, to Marcus, to Grim shrunk in his carrier.

"So it's true," she said. Her voice was dominant, sharp-tongued, used to people flinching. "The F-Rank courier made a Battle Slime. My father said you stole a core."

"I didn't steal anything," I said. "Your Director Grant locked me in a C-Rank rift and tried to let me die. Check the Bureau arrest log."

She smiled, but it wasn't friendly. Competitive.

"I did. That's why I'm here, not my father's lawyers. Grant was sloppy. You're interesting."

She opened the car door and stepped out. She moved like a fighter, not an heiress. She walked straight up to me - too close - and looked down at Grim.

Grim pulsed. He didn't like her. Through the bond I felt a low growl. Dragon.

Zara's own carrier - black, corporate-issue, humming with cold - shook. Something inside coughed. A wet, heavy sound, like ice breaking in lungs.

Marcus stepped back. "Whoa. Is that -"

"My partner," Zara snapped, and for a second her pride cracked. She tapped the carrier open just an inch.

Inside was a Frost Wyrm. At least, it should have been. S-Rank, six meters long, wings like frozen sails. This one was curled tight, scales dull grey instead of white, frost falling off it like dead skin. It breathed shallow and black veins pulsed under its jaw.

Evelyn inhaled. "De-evolution syndrome. Terminal stage. I've only seen it in papers Cole buried."

Zara's head whipped to Evelyn. "You -"

"I was Chief Evolution Researcher before your family got me fired for saying exactly this was happening," Evelyn said, blunt. "Your beast is dying because of the Bloodline Contract your family puts on all heir beasts. It caps them at S-Rank to keep them controllable. It's killing him."

Zara flinched. That hit. For all her arrogance, she actually loved that wyrm.

She looked back at me. Pride vs. desperation fighting in her face. Desperation won for a half-second.

"My father said you can make trash evolve infinitely. Prove it. Evolve him." She pointed at Grim. "No, evolve mine. If you can cure him, I'll -"

"You'll what?" I cut her off. Calm, dominant when challenged. I wasn't going to be bought by the same family that blacklisted me ten minutes ago. "Work for Cole? Be your pet project? That's what your father wants, right? Buy the anomaly."

Her eyes flashed. No one talks to Zara Cole like that.

"Careful, F-Rank," she said, stepping even closer. "I am S-Rank. You are Level 5 with a slime that got lucky. My father wanted to send an acquisition team. I told him I'd handle it personally."

"So handle it."

Marcus made a small squeak. Evelyn actually took a half-step back. Even Grim puffed up.

Zara stared at me, surprised I didn't fold. Then, slowly, she smiled again. This time it was real. Sharp, competitive, like she'd finally found someone worth fighting.

"You're not a pushover. Good. The arena stories made you sound soft." She pulled out a black card - Underground Tamer Arena, VIP challenger seal. "Tomorrow night. D-Rank Pit, but no rank limits. You and your trash slime vs. me and mine. No Bureau, no contracts, no daddy's money."

"If you lose," she said, tapping my chest with the card, "you come work for Cole. Exclusive. You evolve only what we tell you to evolve."

"And if I win?" I asked.

"If you win..." She leaned in, voice dropping so only I could hear over the street noise. "I'll give you the name of the Federal officer who overwrote your talent file from SSS to F fifteen years ago. My family keeps records of every favor the Bureau owes us. Your file is one of them."

My blood went cold.

Codex whispered in my head: Host. That is the information we need. Accept.

Zara thought she was offering me a bribe. She didn't understand. She was offering me the first thread to my parents, to why I was erased.

I took the card.

"Tomorrow night. And Zara?"

"What?"

"Bring a better carrier for him. That one's killing him faster."

Her pride flared again, but she didn't argue. She looked at her dying wyrm, then at Grim, who was now fully expanded to Battle Slime form, arms crossed, staring her down.

"...Fine. Tomorrow," she said, and got back in her car. As it pulled away, I saw her hands shaking on the carrier.

Marcus let out a breath he'd been holding for a minute straight. "Dude. You just trash-talked Zara Cole. The Zara Cole. She has a billboard over our apartment!"

Evelyn was already scanning the air where Zara's car had been. "Her wyrm has [Curse: Corporate Bloodline Contract] and [Stage 3 De-evolution]. If you can break that curse in the arena... you'll prove my theory live to half the underground."

She looked at me, eyes intense.

"But Liam, if you fuse your energy with Grim to fight an S-Rank Frost Wyrm while you're Level 5, you could burn your soul slot. You could die."

Grim walked over and bumped his big slime head against my bandaged hand. Not alone.

In my head, the System pinged. Not an evolution notification. A warning.

[WARNING: Host's Original SSS File Accessed by Third Party - Location: Cole Conglomerate HQ - 2 Minutes Ago]

Someone else was looking at my erased file right now.

And from down the street, the air cracked open again.