Chapter 1: Origin of Species
Within the Genos Realm, female orcs were the sacred lifeline of each spiritual beast tribe—revered, protected, and desperately needed. But for all their reverence, the truth was grim. The number of female beasts was rapidly plummeting, scattered like whispers in a storm. And compared to the overflowing ranks of males, females were as rare as stars in the day.
It was a crisis nonetheless. Without females, their bloodline would surely become stagnant like a murky water and wither like parched tree trunks.
Amidst the countless stars within the infinite universe blessed by the heavens with supernatural strength, the beast world, vast and fierce, could not sustain itself on brute force alone.
In the beginning, it wasn't just the low birth rate that plagued them—it was the harshness of evolution. Only transcendent males, those who clawed their way through fire and tribulation, could shift into their human form.
While females were born with the gift of innate transformation. They were too delicate. Feeble. And often, too fragile to survive long enough to carry life.
Thus, faced with extinction, the Enigmas known to the ruling beast archons of that time made a desperate decision—sending their women to the mortal realm to sow a seed of hope for their race's future. There, with carefully chosen human partners, they would breed and give birth to hybrids children born of deep-rooted alpha bloodlines.
Within which, a generation of special females, rare and radiant, who carried the strength beasts within a human form had became. They were the hybrids who could withstand the crushing spiritual energy of a purebred spirit beast during coitus—and more importantly, they could conceive like a true-born female orc without much complitions!
Hence, those daughters were sent back to Genos. To be mothers. To rebuild. To save a world on the edge of vanishing.
And for a while, it worked.
Armed with the humas high reproductive rate, the beastmen flourished. Hybrid females gave birth to healthy cubs, many of whom could naturally transform just like their transcendent sires, without having to go through arduous tribulations to transcend and become a sacred spirit beast who could freely morph.
Born from the union of hybrid mothers and sacred beast fathers, the new generation became known as beastmen, a mix of pride and derision, as though their existence was an experiment that happened to succeed.
But good things don't last long and that golden age ended.
Human blood thinned their legacy.
Not only were their lifespans shortened but they became similar to a slow acting poison who caused female hybrids to slowly wither through the course of natural breeding. Eventually, even hybrid alpha females had ceased to be compatible with beastmen.
Female hybrids who could endure a beastman's energy inside their body became scarce.
Once again, the Genos Beasts were struck with a dilemma for being too complacent and leaning over the mortals, neglecting their own identities as beast and tainting their sacred bloodline.
Gradually, their flourishing number dwindled almost hitting rock bottom.
But perhaps not all the gods turned their backs on them and some left them a leeway.
As soon as the beastmen's legacy became dreary and desperate, miracle happened amdmfemales born with natal beasts among the hybrid bloodlines emerged able to give birth to an Enigma, known to carry the purest bloodline comparable to the first transcent beasts that roamed Genos.
With this, Genos was able to start anew and fix their previous blunders. Since then, breeding with mortals became more regulated to ensure that the mistakes in the past wouldn't be repeated.
Regardless, females with this supreme physique became rarer than before—precious, priceless, and even hunted to be sold or worse forcefully mated to bear a wicked beast's children.
***
Through the past centuries, the Hale Family was one of the last ancient lineages with thick, untainted alpha strands able to produce spirit beast maidens who became brides of the surviving Enigmas in the beast world.
The chosen females born to this gift were fated—no, bred—to carry the next generation of Enigmas to keep the bloodline's purity at all cost.
Previously, the last female born with a sparrow natal beast had come from the Velnos bloodline. Now, it was her turn.
Asha's room was a prison masquerading as a palace. A cavernous suite with high ceilings and silken sheets that felt like chains. Her windows were barred with iron; the doors only opened from the outside. It didn't matter how lavish the walls were—they still closed in like a tomb.
She sat at the edge of her bed, bare feet brushing against the cold marble floor. Her fingers ghosted across the fabric of the sheets, trailing invisible lines like she was unraveling the thread of her fate.
Most people think she was born with a diamond spoon yet only she knew how she bears a fate worse than a lowborn. She was a relic in a museum. A commodity. A cage bird waiting to be sold.
Born to breed. Raised to birth. Destined to be a broodmare and conceive some strangers'—beastly creatures' children.
The word echoed in her mind like bile on her tongue.
They called her blessed. Chosen. A savior of their dying bloodlines. But what savior was locked behind walls? What kind of honor smelled like rot and desperation?
Asha stared blankly at the fake sky projected above her, yearning for a real wind to run through her hair, to feel real grass beneath her feet—not this artificial illusion designed to keep her docile.
No matter how much they smear gold and glimmers to cover her inevitable truth, Asha already knew how much more dreary her future was than that of a homeless person.
She was born a prisoner of an accursed future woven by the pact her ancestors made with the beastmen of Genos.
A sharp knock shattered the silence.
She didn't move. But the door opened anyway. Asha clenched her fist tightly, feeling angry, helpless and unfairm due to the lack of freedom. She doesn't even have a say about her privacy in her own room!
"I said I'm not eating! Get out!" she snapped, flinging a pillow across the room like a blade.
The man at the door caught it with ease, amusement flickering in his eyes.
It was then that a flicker of astonishment passed her wide open emerald eyes. The other person was not the butler. Not the usual servant who delivers her food and necessities.
This one was tall. Lean. And her gut tells her the air surrounding the seemingly harmless guy was undoubtedly dangerous and stifling.
Golden hair spilled past his shoulders in an untamed cascade. Seeing her stomped, his sapphire eyes gleamed with wicked delight. And that smirk—gods, that smirk was carved straight from the devil's playbook.
"You're prettier than I expected," he purred, causing the woman to snap back to reality.
Asha's eyes narrowed and shot back sharply, "Who the hell are you?"
In return, the man responded swiftly and offered a theatrical bow.
"Oh pardon me, the name's Creus. One of your future husbands."
Husbands.
The word hit her like acid. Her stomach clenched in revulsion.
"I'd rather die!"
Creus chuckled, the sound low and indulgent.
"Maybe you will. Or maybe…" He took a single step forward, gaze darkening as it raked down her body as though he was undressing her by merely looking.
"You'll like it and even crave for it after having a taste."
The man said meaningfully and winked making Asha's skin crawl with goosebumps. Her fists curled at her sides and hugged herself cautiously.
"C-Come any closer, and I'll carve out your eyes! I swear!"