Starting Out As The God of Beasts

Roy stared directly into the sharp, purple eyes of the proud Martial Lord.

Attaris Etho stood with his head held high, his posture radiating the absolute arrogance of a warrior who had breached the mortal ceiling.

But before the Violet-Eagle man could utter another word, Roy did not engage in a battle of words.

He simply exhaled.

With that breath, Roy released a microscopic thread of his divine essence—just a fraction of a speck, precise enough that the mortal bodies of the Dukes would not be crushed, yet potent enough to reveal the fundamental gap between mortals and higher beings.

BOOM!

An invisible, cosmic gravity slammed down upon the assembly hall.

The stone floor did not crack, but the very air turned to liquid lead.

The ambient mana in the room froze solid, instantly suffocating the grand atmosphere.

The grin on Attaris Etho’s handsome face vanished in a microsecond.

The Violet-Eagle man’s knees wobbled violently. The terrifying, heavy aura of his Martial Lord realm was instantly snuffed out like a flickering candle under a roaring storm.

A cold sweat broke across his forehead as his lungs burned for oxygen, his soul shuddering under a pressure that didn’t just target his physical body, but reached deep into his very origin.

He realized, with absolute and horrifying clarity, that the crimson wolf standing before him was no mere political representative or blessed mortal commander.

He was standing in the presence of true, raw divinity.

Roy remained completely silent.

The heavy, suffocating quiet stretched across the grand council room, twisting the tension to a breaking point.

Without saying a word, Roy turned, his dark red cloak sweeping behind him as he walked calmly toward the head of the obsidian table and took his seat.

Only after Roy had sat down did the crushing pressure evaporate.

High Priest Croak, Grand Chancellor Manuses, Duchess Alisa, and the rest of the Dukes let out long, quiet breaths, quickly returning to their seats with rigid, reverent posture.

Even Attaris Etho slowly lowered himself into an empty seat across the table, though his purple eyes were now wide, stripped of all prior condescension.

Roy leaned back, resting his clawed hands on the obsidian surface, his gold-flecked eyes locking onto the bird-man.

”Mysterious god?” Roy scoffed, his deep, echoing voice cutting through the quiet like a blade. ”Lord Varanus is the father of all beastmen. You must reverence the God of Beasts.”

Attaris Etho swallowed hard, adjusting his posture.

The arrogant warrior was gone; in his place sat a seasoned survivor who recognized an apex entity.

The Grand Elder leaned forward and bowed his head deeply.

”You have my sincere apologies, Apostle,” Attaris said, his voice now lower, carrying genuine respect. ”The God of Beasts is indeed the father of all beastmen.”

Roy inhaled deeply, letting the silence settle before addressing the core mystery that had bothered him since Alisa’s report.

”I was curious when I heard you were a Martial Lord,” Roy stated, his eyebrows furrowing as he studied the Violet-Eagle man. ”Why did a warrior of your caliber stay hidden in the Hudeii Desert all this while?

Back when the war raged, the Troll King was merely a Martial General. With your power, couldn’t you have easily killed him and claimed the entire desert decades ago?”

A faint, bitter smile touched Attaris’s chiseled features. ”I could have,” the Grand Elder admitted plainly. ”Deleting the Troll King would have taken me less than an hour. But I was not hiding from Martial Lords and Saints, Apostle.

I was on the run... fleeing from the humans living in the Western Continents.”

”You were on the run?” Roy’s gaze sharpened.

”That’s right,” Attaris nodded, his expression darkening with ancient memories. ”My name is Attaris Etho. Decades ago, long before I stepped foot into this barren desert, I was once a High Priest of the Sun God.”

A quiet murmur rippled across the seated Dukes.

The Western Continents were vast, legendary lands dominated by massive, ancient pantheons.

”I betrayed the Sun Church,” Attaris continued, his voice heavy with suppressed grief. ”I fled the Western Continents because the divine triumvirate—the Sun Church, the Church of Light, and the Church of Stars—governs every inch of those lands with an iron fist.

I was hunted down to the very edge of the continent. My friends, my bloodline, my entire family... all executed for my treason.”

Attaris gripped his knees, his knuckles turning white under his armored gauntlets.

”Those who managed to survive with me dragged our broken bodies into this desert, hiding in the shadow of Raksha City for decades,” he explained. ”I couldn’t move. I couldn’t flex my power or slay the Troll King because deep within my core, I still carry a dormant speck of the Sun God’s divinity from my days as a priest.

The moment I unleash the full scale of my Martial Lord realm in a grand war, the divine realm of the Sun Church would instantly pinpoint my signature and descend upon this desert to erase us.”

”I see,” Roy said, nodding slowly as the pieces of the grand geopolitical puzzle fell into place.

”I understand your situation, and I won’t ask further why you did what you did. If you could have spoken more... you would have told me already.”

Roy leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. ”You must know why we called you here today, correct?”

”Yes,” Attaris nodded without hesitation. ”You wish to merge Raksha City under the Kingdom of Varania, do you not?”

”That is correct,” Roy affirmed cleanly. ”We have just concluded our war with Norona, and we emerged victorious. We do not desire another war with Raksha.”

”War is not what Raksha wants either,” Attaris smiled softly, a look of profound relief washing over his sharp face. ”In fact, I personally came to this assembly because I intend to initiate the merge myself.

From this day forward, Raksha City belongs to Varania.”

Attaris paused, his purple eyes burning with a desperate, sharp light. ”But... there is a condition.”

Roy’s gold-flecked eyes narrowed into razor-thin slits. ”What condition?”

”I wish to fall directly under the sacred authority of the God of Beasts,” Attaris stated firmly, his voice echoing across the quiet hall.

”If he truly is the father of all beasts... I need him to accept me into his divine fold.”

Roy looked at him coldly. ”Do you wish to serve Lord Varanus... or do you simply wish to hide under his divine shadow?”

Attaris met Roy’s piercing gaze without flinching. ”Both,” the Grand Elder answered with brutal honesty.

For a long, agonizing moment, complete silence reigned supreme inside the Supreme Assembly.

The Dukes held their breath, waiting for the Apostle’s judgment on a man who dared to admit he sought divine asylum.

Suddenly, Roy rose to his feet.

His massive crimson wolf form loomed over the entire obsidian table, radiating an aura of absolute, unyielding majesty.

”Lord Varanus accepts your service,” Roy declared, his voice booming through the hall like thunder.

”He shall shield you from the wrath of the Sun God!”

Attaris’s breath caught in his throat.

”In exchange,” Roy’s golden eyes flashed with divine authority, ”your armies belong to Varania. You belong to Varania. Your lands belong to Varania, and your people belong to Varania!”

Roy raised his hand, pointing directly at the Martial Lord.

”Furthermore, because you are a true Martial Lord, you shall lead the Sixth Duchy of Varania.

And Duchess Alisa of House May shall establish her own long-awaited Duchy directly as your neighbor, securing the western frontier!”

A bright, genuine smile broke across the face of the Grand Elder.

The heavy burden of decades of running, hiding, and watching his people suffer in fear melted away in a single second.

Attaris Etho dropped to his knees in the center of the hall, bowing his head until his forehead touched the polished stone floor.

”Praise be to the God of Beasts!” Attaris called out, his voice thick with emotion.

In unison, High Priest Croak, Grand Chancellor Manuses, Duchess Alisa, and every Duke in the chamber stood up and bowed deeply alongside him, their synchronized voices shaking the very foundations of the room:

”Praise be to the God of Beasts!”