Page 141 of Psycho Beasts

The sheer numbers were unfathomable.

Once again, my feet fell out from beneath me as the ground shook, and I was transported yet again into a different realm.

There was heavy gray cloud cover and no sun in sight. The endless rain and gloominess told me where I was.

It was the beast realm.

However, there were no towering skyscrapers, just small pebbles covering the ground as far as the eye could see.

The armor-clad military marched across the horizon. Thousands of soldiers, catapults blazing, spears at the ready.

It was raining.

But instead of the chaos, this time, what appeared to be an air fae floated in front of a standing military of hundreds of half-naked men and women.

Drums sounded.

She pointed a sword toward the oncoming army and screamed.

At the sound, the people behind her shifted into beasts of all types—they were all alpha shifters.

Snarling monsters.

The armor-clad army marched in the thousands over the horizon, but this time, it wasn’t a massacre.

In a clash of steel and animal roars, the shifters ripped the armored heads off the soldiers as they ran through their ranks.

This wasn’t a massacre.

This was war.

I opened my mouth to ask a question, when suddenly I was back in the crisp lake.

“What was that?” I asked aloud, my voice echoing unnaturally in the dark waters.

That was an eon ago, in the last battle. Time has spun, and war has once again arrived. As it always does. You are my champion. You must survive.

A tear slipped from my eye and floated up through the dark waters.

I didn’t know how, but I knew in my bones that the numb wasn’t lying. Everything I’d seen was true.

There was something so cruel about having to fight when all you wanted to do was die.

I’d never had any choice.

The pain of my existence had always been decided for me.

There would be no peaceful walk in the valley of the sun god.

“Fucking fine. I’ll fight,” I grumbled like the moody twenty-one-year-old I was. “You couldn’t have found an older champion to lead you?” I snarled at the numb that was apparently some type of entity.

Low-key, I was way too young for this.

This was child abuse.

My champions are not chosen; they are made. We have run out of time. You were made for this purpose, and thus you will rise. We are out of time…

Before I could argue back, I hurtled back into my consciousness.

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