King of Beasts; Rebirth
Han scrapes a desperate existence from the trash heaps at the edge of a world where magic is harvested from monstrous beasts and sold by corporate titans like Dawn Enterprise. When he’s caught trespassing, he’s offered a way out: sign a contract to be the fifth member of a legendary hunting party for 20 missions, and earn an "armament"—a magical artifact that grants the powerless a chance to rise.
Blinded by hope and illiteracy, Han signs.
He soon learns his party is a farce. His teammates are powerful, resentful professionals, and their leader, the radiant and cruel Third Light, treats them all as disposable props. The hunts are not for glory, but for gathering specific, rare beast shards. As Han endures mockery, terror, and near-death, he realizes he isn't a hunter. He’s the pack mule, carrying the components of a ritual he cannot comprehend.
When the ritual is complete, it rips open a path to a forgotten castle, the prison of Azeru, the Sacred Soul Beast—a majestic, ancient dragon bound not by chains, but by his own unbreakable oaths. Han’s contract was never for an armament. It was a bill of sale. He is the "willing slave" delivered to Azeru in exchange for one of the dragon’s sacred scales.
Abandoned by Third Light, Han expects a fate worse than death. Instead, he finds not a monster, but a lonely, principled sovereign. Azeru, who despises humanity’s cruelty, shows Han a devastating kindness, reshaping his own divine form to accommodate his frightened, mortal "guest." In Azeru’s gilded cage, Han learns the true history of power: of fallen kingdoms, of the avarice of Third Light’s father, the entity called Daystar, and of a duty so heavy it can paralyze a god.
When the time comes for Azeru to pay his debt, he does not give Han up. Instead, he bequeaths to him the last relic of the kingdom he once served: The King's Crown. It is not an armament of brute force, but one of sovereign will and soul-deep authority, a fragment of a lost age's majesty now fused with Han's own desperate spirit.
With the Crown burning on his brow and a dragon's bittersweet farewell at his back, Han steps back into the world. His goal is no longer survival, but revenge. He will hunt the hunters. He will make Third Light and the shadowy Dawn Enterprise answer for the lives they commodified.
But the Crown is a beacon. In a world where power is the only currency, a treasure that once commanded kingdoms draws every predator, mercenary, and hidden power from the shadows. As Han stalks his prey, greater hunters begin to stalk him. He must learn to wield a crown meant for kings while living like a fugitive, navigating a web of ancient grudges and fresh betrayals, where every ally might covet the power on his head.
