Arthur spent the evening in the school's basement library, a damp place filled with books too boring for anyone to steal. He needed to verify his theory and plan his way forward.
The "Foreign Beast" that Ace feared—the one that destroyed the world in the book—was described as a "multi-headed serpent of chaos."
Arthur reached into his mental palace and touched the surface of the black Egg. It was cold. So cold it felt like it was stealing the heat from his very soul.
The World Beast I found... the Ancestral Beast... it isn't the serpent, Arthur realized. It's something else. Something much older.
If the serpent was a "Foreign Beast," then his Egg was the "Ancestral World Beast." One was an invader; the other was the original owner of the worlds.
"If I let the plot unfold," Arthur whispered to the dark shelves, "Ace will spend all his time preparing to fight the serpent. He'll gather the legendary beasts, he'll unite the kingdoms, he'll become the 'Hero' of the prophecy."
He smiled, a dark, CEO-like grin that would have terrified his old employees in Los Angeles.
"And while he does that, I will use his 'cheats' to feed my Egg and raise my talents. I'll take the Heart of Aether. I'll take the Blood of the Phoenix. I'll amass legendary beasts. I'll let Ace do the heavy lifting of clearing the dungeons, and I'll take the scraps that he doesn't realize are the most important and enhance my skills.
He wouldn't try to be the strongest wizard or beast tamer. That was a target on his back. He would remain "Below Average." He would be the student who barely passes, the one who hides in the back of the room.
But when the serpent finally arrives to devour the world, it wouldn't find a helpless planet. It would find that the world was already "owned" and he would 'devour it.
[DEVOUR...] the Egg hummed in agreement.
Arthur stood up, closing a dusty book on ancient biology. He had a week before Ace's first "Heist." He needed to prepare. He wasn't a wizard, and he wasn't a tamer.
He was the master of the ancestral beast. And it was time to conduct a hostile takeover of the books ending.
But would everything go according to plan?.