Starting Out As The God of Beasts

The dark, volcanic flames slowly subsided, leaving the ritual site thick with the suffocating stench of scorched stone and the charred remains of the Ogre General.

Eurenia stood amidst the cooling ash, her chest heaving slightly, a cold smile still gracing her lips as she looked down at the empty space where Ryokan had just been brutally decimated.

The layout of the ritual site lay completely exposed before her.

Then, the atmospheric pressure in the subterranean chamber catastrophically dropped.

The ambient heat from Eurenia’s Crimson Flame Spirit was instantly snuffed out, replaced by a heavy, suffocating weight that made her alloy-fused bones groan under sudden, immense gravity.

"Interesting" a gentle voice echoed across the subterranean depths.

"What?" Eurenia’s eyes widened in shock, "Who was that?" she tilt her gaze, staring through the destruction she had caused.

Following the voice came approaching footsteps.

From the dark corridor leading to the inner castle, a tall figure stepped into the dim light of the pulsing necrotic runes.

He was clad in immaculate, heavy white plate armor etched with inverted, weeping eyes and twisted runes.

"A-A Martial Lord?" Eurenia gasped, her heart raced fervently.

After becoming a Martial General, Eurenia had grasped control of her mana, she could easily identify cultivation realm based on their mana prowess.

Easily differentiating Enlightenment phases as well.

But...

This mysterious being she saw was way beyond her.

A staggering, absolute wall of power radiated from him—the unmistakable, dominant aura of a Martial Lord.

A Child of Misfortune.

The moment Eurenia’s eyes locked onto the steel visor of the knight-priest, a primal, icy dread seized her heart.

Her newly acquired Martial General instincts screamed at her.

The gap was too wide.

This wasn’t something she could survive an outcome against.

’I-I need to run, I need to flee at once’ her mind was shrouded in countless thoughts.

Steeling her resolve, she channeled her mana into her legs, preparing to activate her highest speed burst to flee the scene and report back to Roy.

FLASH—!

"So rude" he whispered.

She didn’t even see him move.

There was no sound of shifting armor, no draft of wind.

Before Eurenia could even take a single backward step, four precise, blinding white arcs of sword-light cleaved through the dimensional space of the chamber.

"You should waited atleast until I spoke what I had to say" his gentle voice boomed across the ritual site.

SPLAAAT—!!

"Arrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh"

A sharp, delayed shockwave of agonizing pain violently registered in her brain.

Eurenia gasped as her vision suddenly tilted.

Her arms and legs, cleanly severed at the joints by an invisible, high-tier martial concept, spun through the air before hitting the stone floor.

Her limbless torso crashed heavily into the dirt, instantly drenching the ancient, necrotic runes in a thick, rapidly expanding pool of her own crimson blood.

’Too strong....he is too overwhelming!’ she grits her teeths, struggling to suppress the intense pain.

"A fundamental mistake," a smooth, condescending human voice echoed from behind the visor as the knight-priest slowly approached her writhing form.

He didn’t even draw a heavy breath.

"I thought you puny beasts were brave until the end, why run?" he chuckled softly.

With a casual, agonizing thrust, he drove the tip of his rapier straight through her shoulder blade, pinning her down into her own blood pool.

Eurenia choked, a fountain of scarlet spilling from her lips as she glared up at him with unyielding fury.

"You beastmen truly are fascinating creatures," the knight-priest mocked, twisting the blade slightly to listen to the wet grinding of her alloy-reinforced bones.

He let out a soft, aristocratic laugh. "You receive a microscopic droplet of divine favor and suddenly believe you can stand on equal footing with humanity."

"Look at you." his eyes flickeredz

Staring at Eurenia in disdain.

"Tainted." he scoffed.

"Feral." he mocked.

"A dull, mutated beast trying to mimic the elegance of a pure human genetics."

He withdrew his blade, the steel completely unstained by her blood due to its holy enchantments.

He raised it high above his head, his visor reflecting her pale, blood-drenched face.

"Your journey ends here, stupid beast."

"Go back to the dirt where your kind belongs."

He swung the blade down with absolute, lethal velocity, aiming to cleanly take her head.

’I...I can’t move’ Eurenia panicked, she dared not look directl into the eyes of this monster.

Her body shuddered from being exposed by his radiating mana.

The difference between a Martial General and a Martial Lord was like comparing a city to a state.

Mighty and terrifying.

’Please somebody save me, I-I don’t want to die’ she cried, ’I-I don’t want to fail Lord Varanus....’

’I can’t just die without properly serving him’

’Please....’

She watched as the Martial Lord’s blade descends at lightning speed, aimed to slice her in half.

Just then.....

TAP.

The moisture in the air instantly dried up, stopping the Martial Lord on his track.

"She won’t be dying today" an ethereal voice whispered.

"Huh? Who is there?" the human knight-priest questioned, staring into the darkness.

He received no response.

Instead....

The sound of a simple, wooden ceremonial staff striking the stone floor reverberated through the massive subterranean depths.

Instantly, the descending holy blade frozen mid-air, caught in an invisible, mystical mana array that locked the knight-priest’s arm in absolute stasis.

The suffocating gravity of the Martial Lord was effortlessly neutralized, replaced by a calm, deep, and ancient ocean of spiritual pressure.

From the shattered doorway of the corridor, High Priest Croak calmly walked into the blood-soaked scene.

His deep ceremonial robes hummed with brilliant defensive spiritual arrays, and his elderly yet youthful eyes locked onto the armored human with a detached, chilling serenity.

"You must be the human the Apostle mentioned" High Priest Croak smiled, "Knight from the Kingdom of Domini"

The human knight-priest’s eyes flared with dangerous crimson light.

"Who the hell are you?" the human knight-priest questioned.

"A servant of the God of Beast" High Priest Croak stepped forward,

"Norona will fall" High Priest Croak declared, "If you stand with them...."

"Then you must die!"