"His name?" Raiden said with a serious expression. "He is the great Celestial Devourer, the one Higher than the Highest—the Supreme who wears his hunts upon his fur and threatens to bring the world to an end. The founding deity of Axel: Charia, the Cosmic Tiger."
Raiden sighed as he looked at that single tooth.
"This is one of the few remnants I have of a past so ancient that I sometimes wonder whether it truly existed, or if it is nothing more than the illusions of a senile old man."
"And what was that past like?" I asked.
"Glorious. Tigers like us were spread across the entire land, living in plenty and abundance, revered as gods among men," he said with an amused laugh. "I remember it well. Humans—those small, weak beings—would approach us uncertain, unsure whether they should even try to fight us for resources or simply accept their deaths. Yet they were funny and beautiful enough that we drew close to them."
