Spared

The Panther Queen was surprised to hear Zoran's words. He agreed to her words without much aggression or rebellion.

She was prepared to do a lot more and take drastic measures if Zoran still persisted in killing her child, but it seemed like that was unnecessary. Usually, a human like him would not believe the words of a monster like hers, but Zoran had done so without much convincing.

Of course, she was telling the truth, or else she wouldn't have the invisible prismatic chains wrapped around her existence. This was a promise that was more than reckless for her since one wrong move could backfire and put her in a perilous situation. After all, the Universe's prismatic chains were not a joke to be taken lightly.

For beings like her who have reached a certain level, the moment she took an oath with the Universe was the moment her words were to be taken in an absolute sense. They would see the chains and believe whatever she was saying because she could not lie under those circumstances.

She didn't think Zoran would believe her. She didn't know if he was just bold or stupid. Or better yet, he could be more mysterious than she thought. After all, she had never met a human that could withstand the Miasma like him. He was not just forcefully resisting the Miasma with an impervious body like other strong beings, but he was instead welcoming it on his body like it was air.

Zoran let the body of the Evolved Panther go, and it immediately floated towards the Panther Queen. A darker than dark tendril of Miasma from the depths below wrapped around the body and pulled it towards the Queen.

The Evolved Panther's face was beyond recognition. Its jaws were displaced from the tremendous force it had to endure from Zoran's tyrannical fist, and was barely hanging by a thread. Its red eyes were slowly losing their luster, only moments away from forever turning dark. Liquid Miasma flowed from its body, equivalent to a human losing their blood. Any more and the Evolved Panther would dissolve into liquid Miasma.

The Panther Queen's eyes softened as she saw this scene. She raised her dark paws, which were bigger than some houses, and touched the Evolved Panther in the forehead.

Immediately, a sludge of Miasma tore themselves away from the Panther's Queen's paws. It crawled towards the Evolved Panther's body with their own volition with tens of thousands of tendrils connecting the body of the Evolved Panther to the Queen.

Zoran saw pulses of energy flowing from those tendrils. It went directly from the Panther Queen's heart towards the Evolved Panther with such speed and intensity that it surpassed the speed of light and directly teleported towards its goal.

Energy made of Miasma filled the inanimate body of the Evolved Panther, which commanded the tendrils of Miasma to stretch from its skull towards the hanging jaw. Liquid Miasma solidified and replaced the fangs, its dull eyes started to get brighter and brighter; within seconds, it had repaired the most critical injury of the body.

Evolved Panther's body was in critical condition, which Zoran believed would take days if not months to recuperate naturally. An injury of this degree would require medicine or magical intervention to cure. And it would require a lot of time.

But the Panther Queen was able to cure a fatal injury within seconds, without so much as batting an eye. He did not even sense a tremendous amount of energy expended to create this miracle. This was inconceivable.

The best healing artskills that Zoran knew would take, at the very least, 10 minutes to regenerate a limb, and hours to bring a body back from the throes of death. The Panther Queen did it in less than 10 seconds.

If this was in the overworld, this kind of miraculous technique would revolutionize global warfare. Injured soliders could rejoin the battlefield within seconds, gaining an immediate advantage for their army.

He now realized why the Panther Queen said she had a different kind of strength than the Supreme Beings. He guessed that she could release healing this fast because of her connection with her children. It may not work on beings that were not her spawn.

"Thank you, human." The Panther Queen slowly blinked at Zoran as a sign of gratitude. "May I ask of your name?"

He considered it for a second and replied, "Zoran."

"Zoran…I will remember this debt. My name is Alize El' Felidae. You may call me Alize."

Zoran made sure to remember her name since she could be a being that was on the same level as the Supreme Beings.

"Ah, you've awakened my child." The Panther Queen, Alize, looked at the Evolved Panther with delight as it saw full recovery from the child.

The Evolved Panther was as good as new, with no sign of injury anywhere on its body. It was as if the fight with Zoran never happened. It opened its eyes and looked around confused at first, especially since its last moments was seeing the blinding light from Zoran's Tyrannical Miasma Strike.

It looked around and saw Zoran. Immediately, its body went tense and its fight or flight instincts kicked in. It didn't know if it wanted to jump as far away from Zoran as possible or jump towards him and fight to the death.

Then, a flash of memory reminded it of the inevitable conclusion to what would happen if it clashed with Zoran once again. It had lost to Zoran and should have already returned to the liquid Miasma around.

How did I survive, the Evolved Panther wondered. That question was quickly answered when it felt the intense ripples in the Miasma which could only be caused by one being: the Panther Queen.

Sure enough, Aliza's colossal body stood behind the Evolved Panther closely like an overbearing parent. The situation became clear. It only survived because of the Panther Queen's intervention.

GRAWW

The Evolved Panther growled at Aliza with such anger and fury that even Zoran was surprised. He didn't think that the Evolved Panther, which was proven to value hierarchy like an iron law, would dare roar at its Queen.

The Evolved Panther was filled with rage. It didn't know if it wanted to be mad at the Panther Queen for leaving the safety of the nest or because she interfered with the fight.

Its battle with Zoran was a fair duel between the two of them, with their own lives at stake. There should have been only one standing between them at the end. It would have killed Zoran, and Zoran would have killed it—a survival of the fittest.

The Panther Queen didn't seem to be bothered by the insubordination and instead looked at the Evolved Panther with care and pity.

"Dalia, my dear daughter. Losing does not mean death."

The Evolved Panther glared at Aliza. "Mother! This was a fight to the death. You have no authority to interfere!"