The scenery faded away, leaving Kael and the Highest Will to return to the place that had no light or darkness yet had color.
Once again, they were surrounded by the eight golden figures of the primordial lions.
"That is where Alan's memories end," The Highest Will said with a frightening calmness to his voice.
When he mentioned the word 'end', Kael could almost hear hundreds of other words like died, decayed, returned, perished, and hundreds more. It sounded like the Highest Will had seen things like this too many times.
'End?' Kael spoke in his mind, just to be sure.
"Yes," The Highest Will turned his head to look at Kael. Its golden brown eyes were emotionless, as though there was no soul behind those eyes.
"Those were the last memories of Alan. The reason I let you reincarnate with your memories is not because you seemed special or anything, you are merely using an opportunity that randomly fell into your hands." The Highest Will said, not bothering to mince his words.
"You have your memories because I want you to have a sense of identity. If I had deprived you of your memories, you would immediately think you are Alan reincarnated after inheriting his own memories.
You can imagine a lion cub, barely a week old, suddenly having access to vast amounts of information in the form of memories. The cub would very well have an identity crisis then settle on itself that it is the reincarnation of Alan when it is not and has only assumed Alan's memories to be his own."
Kael understood the Highest Will, he wondered what made a person who they were. Their memories, or was it something else?
"I've shown you a brief part of Alan's memories so that you can reflect on it in the future on your own. From henceforth, I will leave you in this world to your fate.
Your end is completely in your hands right now."
Kael's shoulders dropped, a bit disappointed, but also a bit relieved. 'Why?...' He asked, 'Why are you doing this? What's your purpose? What do you stand to gain?'
The Highest Will turned its head to look at the seventh Primordial Lion, the lioness in human form. Derylia.
"What do I stand to gain? Potentially nothing. As for my reasons…" As the Highest Will stared at Derylia's illusory human figure, Kael could see a glint of sadness that came and went so fast that he thought he must have been imagining.
"Some things are better left not talked about…for now," The Highest Will stated.
"Well then, Kael," The entity in the shape of a lion cub, turned to Kael. "You've received a two-in-one package. Not only do you get the memories of the past Primordial Lions, something they never had, but you also get the Primordial Lion Power.
It would naturally take some time for the Power to completely awaken inside your mortal cub body. Your first goal would be to survive till that time.
"I genuinely hope you can become the strongest. Perhaps, we shall meet again in the future, or perhaps, we shall not."
After saying that, the Highest Will waved his paw. This action was followed by the destruction of the space they were in.
Kael woke up with a jolt, startling the lioness whom he was using as a pillow.
He looked around, the sun had already reason, and some lionesses were already loitering around the den.
A kick found its way to Kael's face all of a sudden. He instinctively opened his mouth and bit hard on the ankle.
There was a cry as one of Kael's sisters was forced awake with that toothless but painful bite. Her cry woke the other siblings from their slumber, everyone was getting ready for another possibly meaningless day.
Kael looked at his sister who looked at him with an indignant expression. Before it could turn into something else, Kael chose to walk away.
He had a lot on his mind. He knew that everything he saw while asleep was definitely not a dream. It was too realistic to be a dream.
Kael thought about the words of the Highest Will, the memories of Alan, and what this all meant for him.
'If I die, there going to be a tenth Primordial Lion,'
Kael looked down at his paws, he looked closely at the fur. At the very end of each strand of fur, there was a golden tip. Too tiny to be noticeable unless one knew exactly what he was looking for.
'What killed the last primordial lions? The Highest Will said that Alan was just a few steps away from being his equal, did the other primordial lions ever reach that step?' Kael kept asking himself.
He had the memories in his head but he couldn't even access them. His head hurt anytime he tried to check the corner of his mind that held these memories. It was like his mind could not handle the stress and load of those memories.
"ROOAAAR!" A powerful lion's roar spread out from the group of lions.
Kael recognized that roar very well, it was his father's roar. Every morning, the pride leader would give this roar to assert his dominance over everything in his surroundings.
Kae estimated that the roar would spread for kilometers, probably scaring away any other lion out there that wanted to challenge him for his position.
"ROOAAAR!" A weaker roar came from the distance. It was far and would have been barely audible, but it was early morning and there was almost no noise.
That roar didn't come from their pride, Kael was shocked to find out. It would have been more understandable if it came from his older brother or one of his sub-adult accomplices, but this roar came from a foreign lion.
"ROAAAAAAARR!!!" A roar more terrifying than before spread out from the pride. This roar was unlike any other and Kael was hearing it for the first time.
The surrounding temperature instantly increased as the sound of the powerful roar reached the clouds.
Kael felt like he had been struck by a tangible heat wave. He felt very uncomfortable, even the little cubs were visibly showing discomfort. The adult lionesses however were pretty calm.
The distant roar didn't sound out again, the foreign lion was probably truly scared at this point.
Kael was in awe, truly. This was the first time he felt so much power from the sound of one roar. The whole exchange of roars did not last more than a few seconds.
His thoughts with his bidding desire to investigate were interrupted by his stomach grumbling for food.
His little cub mind instantly pushed everything to the back of his mind and focused entirely on his food for that morning.