Hearing the voice that came out of nowhere, George jumped back hurriedly, his blue eyes scanning his surroundings for any slight danger.

"Who are you?" He asked, continuing to shift back as his brain processed what was happening at a rapid pace.

Someone had invaded his personal space and he had no idea until the final moment when the person spoke.

On this new planet that they were stepping on for the first time in their history, a new alien species was a cause for vigilance.

Before anyone knew it, George had already stepped back multiple steps, crossing tens of meters with every leap.

At the same time, some monkeys rushed out of the shuttle behind him, each holding different kinds of armaments. Some were holding staves, some wore gauntlets, and a few others were handling whips.

Of course, their bodies were the best natural weapons but that saying was mainly for superpowered creatures. Weaker entities like these monkeys had no choice but to charge forth, intending to use these armaments for defence.

George quickly retreated to the defensive line, blending into the crowd of monkeys that faced the tree.

In the distance, that tree was just one of the many trees present as it was the entrance to a dense forest.

Beyond the tree, the canopies of the other trees blocked the sun and drowned the forest floor with shadows.

Beyond the tree was dark.

Beyond the tree was unknown.

George narrowed his eyes, getting ready to signal a cannon blast from the turret on top of the shuttle.

That was when he saw it.

Two glowing dots of light.

George, who had always maintained a level of calmness at all times found his heart racing and his fingers trembling.

He felt...fear.

Upon a closer look, those two glowing dots were golden in colour.

They shifted, getting brighter and being drawn out of the shadows.

The more George looked, the more he understood a little about what those dots were.

Eyes.

They were eyes.

A pair of golden eyes stared at him and his monkey companions with a beastly gaze.

The shadows hid everything except for the eyes. This unknowingly evoked George’s curiosity as he tried to peek at the area beyond the golden eyes.

He didn’t need to do so for too long though because the owner stepped out of the shadows by himself.

Instantly, the monkeys cried and screamed as they felt their bones rattle repeatedly.

One regal paw after the other, a massive golden lion stepped out of the shadows cast by the tree canopies.

More than three meters in height and robustly packed with muscles and fine fur, the owner of the eyes and voice revealed himself.

George’s eyes were wide open. He didn’t know what to say.

No, he didn’t know what to say, he just couldn’t put it into words. A contract that he did not remember signing flared to life within his soul, the very entity he had always been very curious about.

The All-King.

"Are you..." George found himself stammering for the first time. For the first time, he didn’t have confidence in himself. This had hardly ever happened, not even with N’bayé.

"You’re Master?" Kael asked, tilting his large head as he stopped walking. He noticed the apprehensive nature of the monkeys.

George blinked his eyes, the next thing he knew, he was no longer with the monkeys looking at Kael.

He was somewhere else, on a tall mountain. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Above him, the faint silhouette of their arkship could be seen. As grand as it was, an object that spanned nearly an entire planet’s continent, George knew it was not that impressive.

At best, it was a standard means of transportation for the lions, they had millions of them at any moment.

George had struggled to believe such a thing when he tried to calculate the immensity of such power.

He had lived in an arkship since he was born, from the moment he opened his eyes to when they left it, all he knew were the chamber worlds and the walls.

To know that the lions commanded millions of others like it, millions of other mobile worlds, was a heavy truth to face.

George looked around and saw that he was the only one on this mountain peak. He calmed himself down.

He was the leader of his race, he wasn’t meant to be so worked up at the appearance of a golden lion.

’My goodness, how can something look so scary and beautiful at the same time,’ George could not help but think to himself with honesty.

That was just how he could interpret Kael’s form. A being that was clearly a killer and an oppressor but had the right to be called the sweetest eye-candy.

If not friendly, why friend-shaped, or so they said. In this case, that golden lion was not something that should be looked at with ease and comfort, but once the temptation was there.

However, George trusted that if his instincts had warned him that the golden lion was dangerous, it should have warned others as well.

"Thank you," The deep voice came again, this time from behind George.

George, who had recovered to his calm demeanor, was spooked again and jumped up, raising his arms and tail into the air as though the floor had turned to hot lava.

Right there, the golden lion sat as if he had always been there since the beginning of time.

"You’re right though, I may not always look like it when inactive but I am very dangerous. Thankfully, a lot of people understood that as fast as they could.

You have too. We can get the unnecessary bits out of the way and move down to business then," Kael said.

His tail swished around and the mountain peak was instantly cleared of all dust and debris.

"All-King?" George asked after he had created some distance between the two of them. He found that there was a barrier surrounding the mountain peak and he could not push his way out, so he played it cool.

Indeed, now that George knew Kael was dangerous, the unnecessary show of dominance could be skipped.

"Why don’t we chat..." Kael said, baring his golden fangs in a rich smile that actually looked nice.

"...Wise one to wise one,"