Chapter 68: Beast Lord

Inside a neat and spacious ward in the central hospital, the unconscious body of Logan lay on the bed while two nurses tended to him. His state was stable and unmoving, just like any normal unconscious patient.But suddenly, his body began twisting in ways that didn’t look natural, his limbs jerking as if something inside him was struggling to break free.

"He is moving..." The nurse changing his drip was the first to notice, and she quickly informed her colleague.

Before the second nurse could react, Logan’s movements grew more erratic, causing the bed to shift slightly under his weight.

One of the nurse immediately ran out of the room to inform doctors or healers nearby whole the other tried to stable the patient’s erratic movement which only seemed to grow stronger and fiercer by the second.

She became scared and took a few step backwards, observing him with a panicked expression on her face.

What could be happening to him? She wondered.

And just then, a middle-aged female healer wearing a casual white dress entered the room with the first nurse and quickly rushed beside Logan.

She activated one of her innate skills to scan his body to see what was happening.

Her expression crumbled into a puzzled frown.

There was nothing wrong with him according to her scan.

"When did it start?" She asked the nurses.

"Just a few seconds ma’am. He was normal and the next we know, he was moving like this." One responded.

"Can you tell what is happening to him?" The other asked curiously.

The middle-aged healer hummed to herself without responding to any of them. In her twenty years of being active as a healer, this was the first time she was experiencing something like this.

While the three of them watched, Logan movement grew more chaotic.

The squeaking of the bed as it moved slightly due to his movement could be heard.

The once gentle look on his face has been swept away by a pained expression and sweat had began to form.

Two doctors walked into the opened ward when they saw what was happening inside. Both of them checked using their medical knowledge, they were not able to tell exactly what was wrong.

Five of them observed with confusion as others began to enter the ward one after the other.

On the other hand.

While Logan body was struggling and going through a lot of pain in the real world, his soul had drifted elsewhere.

Also at the same time,

All across the various floors of the hospital, all the pets present, left their owners and sprinted towards a single location.

===

It was a dark and massive compartment resembling a shipping container.

The space was filled with noise from a lot of animals, ranging from harmless birds to dangerous predators, like the three lions currently feasting on the body of an antelope they had slain.

The noise grew louder and louder as the smaller animals scurried away from the predators, their cries sharp and laced with dread.

At the very back of the compartment, an eight-year-old boy in a malnourished state, with brown hair and black eyes, sat on the rough ground, hugging his knees tightly as he tried to block out the noise and the gore around him.

He shivered in fear.

Dried tear lines streaked his face, showing that he had cried for a long time.

The young boy tried to open his mouth to cry for help for the thousandth time, but all that came out was a hoarse sound, drowned by the mayhem surrounding him.

His thoughts spiraled as the scene that had led him here replayed in his mind.


His single mother, a worn-out drug addict, had long grown tired of him. She worked as a cleaner for a shipping company, dragging herself through each day in a haze of frustration and regret.

Then, one fateful afternoon, when no one was watching, she did the unthinkable. With cold, shaky hands, she tossed him into the container filled with animals. Her voice trembled—not with guilt, but with bitter hatred—as she spat words that would scar him for life.

As these words resurfaced, he shivered uncontrollably, and the tears he had been holding back poured out once more, his body trembling.

His own family had abandoned him, and not only that—she had left him to die.

The young man lifted his tear-streaked face and saw that most of the animals in the container had already been devoured. Only a few birds that had managed to dodge the lions’ claws were still alive.

And at that moment, the three predators fixed their gaze on him, eyes blazing with bloodlust.

Their glowing eyes cut through the darkness of the container, sending shivers down his spine.

And the thing he had feared most was happening.

The three lions began stepping closer.

One step...

Two steps...

Closer and closer.

The young man struggled to rise, pressing himself against the container wall for support.

"D-don’t... don’t come any closer!"

His voice shook, cracking with terror, but he forced his hands forward, pleading in desperation.

If only he could make the lions understand.

If only he had the power to speak to them, to share his sorrow, his pain, his betrayal.

But it was only a dream.

The lions advanced.

Their eyes widened as they closed the distance.

He could hear their heavy breathing, smell the coppery stench of blood and raw flesh.

In the next few seconds, he would become one of their prey.

STEP!

STEP!

The boy shut his eyes tightly.

Only the pounding of claws on the metal floor and the frantic cries of the fleeing birds filled the container.

He began to accept his fate.

But a small spark inside him refused.

Something within him screamed to survive... to live... to prove the world and his cruel mother wrong.

That voice rose above his fear, drowning his acceptance. The boy found himself praying silently for a miracle.

SNARL!

And just then, the lions, now mere inches away, bared their teeth in hunger.

They were about to strike.

Two lunged for his limbs while the central lion aimed directly for his head.

It was over... almost.

"BACK! GET BACK!"

The boy’s voice thundered across the container.

This time, it was strong and fierce, carrying a power no child his age could naturally summon.

Time seemed to halt.

The lions froze mid-step.

Their claws sank to the floor, as if tethered by some invisible leash.

Their fiery red eyes dulled, empty and obedient, locked on the boy whose hands stretched toward them. A brilliant white glow enveloped them, illuminating the container and the scattered corpses of the animals.

The boy’s eyes blazed with pure white intensity.

He floated several centimeters above the ground.

But that wasn’t all.

A red-colored window appeared.

[You’ve awakened talent: Beast Lord (A)]

[You’ve used innate skill...]

[Strength of dominated beasts has been boosted...]

The window remained.

The boy continued asserting his will over the feral beasts.

He commanded them.

The three lions rose and faced the container wall.

They stood on their hind legs and began punching.

The force behind their strikes was many times stronger than what they could normally produce.

And they succeeded.

A massive hole tore open in the container, and the boy floated out to freedom. The three beasts followed closely behind.

The shipping yard stretched out before them — hundreds, perhaps thousands, of containers like the one they had just emerged from. Not a single person was in sight.

Nonetheless

At that very moment...

The red holographic window began to glitch...and gradually it turned blue.

[ERROR!]

[ERROR!]

[You’ve awakened talent: Beast Whisper (E)]

The glow around the young boy dimmed.

He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

His control over the three beasts vanished.

The lions roared in confusion — just moments ago, they had been caged, and now they were free.

Without hesitation, the three of them bolted, paying no mind to the fallen boy.

"This..."

A fragment of recognition tore through Logan’s soul. The memory... it wasn’t just a scene before him. It was his own memory, one he had buried deep within himself, hidden away from even his own awareness.

"...this... this is what truly happened..."

But before he could fully process it...

Before he could accept the truth he had locked away...

The entire scene around him began to warp, dissolving into nothingness.

"LOGAN!"