Cherreads

prologue: Age Of Beasts

The world did not end in fire.

It ended in submission.

When the first dragons descended, the skies were torn open by wings vast enough to blot out the sun. Mountains shattered under claws older than history. Seas boiled beneath creatures whose names would later be erased out of fear.

Humanity learned a simple truth that day:

Strength decided survival.

Those who could fight lived.

Those who could not… endured, if they were lucky.

But humans were never meant to rule through muscle alone.

They adapted.

From the ashes of fallen kingdoms emerged a single miracle—the Beast Awakening.

The Beast Taming System

Every human, upon reaching the age of eighteen, awakens the ability to form a Soul Contract with a beast.

Not all beasts are equal.

Some are born to hunt.

Some to rule.

Some… to be forgotten.

Once bonded, the beast becomes an extension of the tamer's existence—sharing growth, power, and in rare cases, form.

This bond is governed by an invisible force known simply as:

The System.

No one knows who created it.

No one knows why it exists.

Only that it is absolute.

Beast Ranks

All beasts are classified at birth into fixed ranks:

F-Rank – Defective, weak, or non-combat entities

E-Rank – Small predators and utility beasts

D-Rank – Trained combat beasts

C-Rank – Elite battlefield summons

B-Rank – City-level threats

A-Rank – Kingdom-level forces

S-Rank – World-class calamities

Above them all…

SS & SSS-Rank – Legendary, extinct, or mythical entities

(Dragons belong here.)

A beast's starting rank determines its future.

Or so everyone believed.

Evolution & Growth

Beasts grow by:

Combat

Feeding

Environmental exposure

Tamer synchronization

Once conditions are met, the System offers an Evolution Path.

Most beasts have:

One primary evolution

One rare branch

One ultimate form

A wolf becomes a dire wolf.

A salamander becomes a flame drake.

A hawk becomes a sky tyrant.

Predictable. Stable. Safe.

The stronger the starting beast, the smoother the path.

Weak beasts?

They usually die before evolving.

Dragonkind

Dragons are not beasts.

They are apex memories of the world itself.

They do not follow normal evolutionary laws.

They do not submit easily to contracts.

And when they do, their power bleeds into their tamers—altering bodies, minds, even destiny.

Because of this, dragon tamers are feared.

And hunted.

High-level beasts leave marks:

Scales forming on skin

Eyes changing color

Armor manifesting from flesh

The stronger the dragon, the deeper the fusion.

The Law of Balance

To prevent extinction, the System enforces balance.

For every dragon that awakens, something else weakens.

For every S-Rank beast born, hundreds of F-Ranks appear.

The world accepts this as fair.

Necessary.

The Unspoken Rule

There is one rule no academy teaches.

One truth nobles suppress.

One anomaly scholars whisper about.

> The System favors survival, not strength.

A beast that endures what should kill it gains more than power.

It gains permission.

Permission to break its path.

Permission to evolve beyond its rank.

Permission to remember what it once was… or what it could become.

Very few ever see this rule in action.

Because very few start at the bottom.

The Weakest

Most F-Rank beasts are discarded.

Put down. Released. Forgotten.

They are stains in the system—proof that not everyone deserves a future.

And on the day the weakest beast in recorded history was summoned…

No one thought to look twice.

After all, how dangerous could something be

when the only thing beneath it on the food chain

was dirt?

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