In a massive crater stood a large black werewolf that was surrounded by an army of beasts. Around the werewolf, there were a few beasts that were hung on a spike. While the army of beasts were watching the werewolf, there was a humanoid beast in the back. It was evident from the way the beast walking that it was nervous as it was pacing back and forth.
'How?! This werewolf is holding back my army and still standing. He just killed that army of vampires not too long ago so why is he still this strong?!' The humanoid beast thought.
From stalking, the humanoid beast thought the werewolf in front of him used a lot of its strength against the army of vampire but he realized he was wrong. Even with their magical abilities, they still held onto a piece of instinct deep within their mind as it kept instructing them to leave but they couldn't
"Awhooo!" The werewolf howled.
As the werewolf howled, a strange black wave of energy expanded outwards and every beast within the wave felt themselves become disconnected from the world of mana. As they felt this, they all froze in place. Mostly every beast within the forest only ever used magic throughout their lifetime and never relied on their physical capabilities to attack their opponents.
As if sensing their fear, Sebastian's elongated jaw smiled and began to slowly approach the army of beasts. With the sudden change of the situation, the humanoid beast was angered and scared at the same time. They never ran into someone with the ability to nullify magic abilities and another reason for its fear was the fact that its couldn't control the beasts anymore. Meaning every beast would gain full control of their bodies.
Roar!
Immediately, every beast's fight and flight response kicked in and began to attack each other. This act created a mosh-pit of all the beasts and caused large casualties among them
Swoosh!
In front of the humanoid beast's eyes, it saw as the werewolf appeared on the other side of the battlefield and saw as a quarter of the army of beasts become bisected in half. The werewolf then plunged the Umbral Blade into the ground and a surge of electrical black energy lashed out at every beast. The sky then turned black and black lightning started to strike the ground repetitively.
After a few seconds, only a quarter of the army was left remaining. Noticing the losing battle, the humanoid beast tried to flee the scene and was almost successful in its attempt.
Chomp!
A beast with the humanoid beast in its jaws came walking out from the forest and was releasing a strong presence that the werewolf couldn't ignore. As if it was king entering a hall, every beast turned and bowed toward the beast.
The name of the beast was Thunder Wolf Wyvern and the beast's rank was High C-Rank. If it was anyone else, they would've ran away but since Sebastian had no control of his body, he stayed and glared at the beast.
As the beast was approaching, it felt a strong presence appear out of nowhere and became defensive. As it watched, blood rose from the ground and flew toward Sebastian. The blood then circled him and protected him from an incoming attack.
'What's going?' Sebastian asked himself internally.
Walking out from the blood tornado, a pair of blood wings could be seen attached onto the werewolf's back. A strong surge of power entered the werewolf's body and seemed to feel as it howled loudly in excitement.
Before the werewolf could charge in, the sky started to darken as thunder could be heard in the sky.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Three powerful lightning strikes had struck Sebastian's body and a strange ethereal being descended in front of him. Looking at the being, it's expression surprised Sebastian as it had the expression of anger on its face.
"You!" The being pointed at Sebastian. "How did an anomaly like you appear in this world!? You must killed or you will threaten the very existence of us demi-gods! I request to the Roundtable of Apostles that they kill the fledging Apostle of Slaughter, Sebastian!" The being said to the sky.
Stab!
"W-What?"
Confusion overcame the being as they looked down and saw a dagger had plunged into their abdomen. Although it was in an ethereal form, it was still surprised as there wasn't many weapons that could harm one in their ethereal unless the weapons defied the rules of the world. An ancient weapon made from the Era of the Gods.
"Impossible! There shouldn't be any of his teeth remaining in this world! We trapped deep within the world!" The being spoke in disbelief.
Slash!
Within seconds, the ethereal being was decapitated and the Thunder Wolf Wyvern in the background began its approach toward Sebastian again. Before the beast could take another step, golden chains descended from the sky and wrapped themselves around Sebastian's body until they began to burn themselves into his body. In his mind space, Sebastian felt a chunk of his strength disappear.
The beast thought that was the end of it and lunged forward before being struck by another set of chains. The chains flew through the air and wrapped themselves around his arms before being seared into his arms. Although he had been through a lot of a pain throughout his life and had a high pain tolerance, this pain far surpassed anything he felt before and felt like it was his soul being hurt.
'You've been selected to be my champion. Do not disappoint me or you'll regret it.' A deep voice spoke inside Sebastian's head.
A pair of crimson eyes appeared from the ground and stared at the beast, causing it to flee in fear but it was already too late. A chain with a blade attached to it flew from the ground and pierced the beast's head, dragging it back to Sebastian.
The black energy from the Umbral Blade returned back into the sword and soon the blade returned itself back into Sebastian's earring/ring. Soon control of his body was returning and strong starvation overcame his body.
Chomp!
A Couple Minutes Later…
"Damn, this meat tastes horrible." Sebastian said.
As he finally regained control of his senses, he couldn't ignore the recent events that had happened. It all happened so quick that he couldn't fully understand it. He wanted to know who's voice he heard. Who the ethereal being was and why he angered by him. As these thoughts were running through his head, he glanced toward the last remaining beasts.
The beasts, seeing Sebastian stare them, bowed to the ground and glanced at him. After seeing what had happened, they knew the person in front of them had the power to end their life and didn't dare to move in their presence unless they had permission.
"Leave. You're too weak to satisfy my desire for combat." Sebastian said with unsatisfied.
After getting his permission, they left one by one and returned back into the forest. They would never forget this encounter and would remember this for the rest of lives.
"Wow! You seemed to have had fun!" A powerful presence suddenly appeared behind him.
Reacting quickly, he swung his newly acquired chained blades toward the unexpected stranger. As the blade flew through the air, it left a trail of fire and nearly struck the newcomer across the chest.
"Impressive. Quick to react but you're still far too weak to do anything to me. But I do wonder why you haven't died yet... You're the apostle of two different divine beings, which shouldn't be possible at all." The man said, confused.
"Apostle of two different beings? What other being am I the apostle of?" Sebastian asked.
"Huh? You mean you don't know about the banished War God? He just talked to you not too long ago and gave you his blades. Unless you're talking about being the Apostle of Slaughter."
"Doesn't that make the Apostle of War and Slaughter?"
Sighing, the man began to explain to Sebastian about the apostles. Becoming an Apostle wasn't easy as it required one to be noticed by a divine being. Not only that but it would grant the person immense power, if cultivated properly.
"Now that I have explained that to you. It's time for me to explain the main problem to you. Not only were you selected by two divine beings but you managed to anger a demi-god that is the messenger of the gods in the world." The man explained
"Since the demi-god has ordered your death, mostly all of apostles in the world will try to kill. But I'm willing to make you a deal."
"I'm listening." Sebastian responded.
"I'll instruct all of the Apostles that you're my student. If they hear that, they won't try to hunt you or at least some of them won't. You see, I'm placed as the 3rd strongest Apostle among all of them.
About half a century ago, the Apostles decided to set up factions between each other to keep the strongest Apostles in check. Obviously the 1st and 2nd strongest Apostle didn't like this and tried to attack the factions but lost.
Back to the main topic though. These factions will try to kill you so they can get rewarded by the demi-god. Sadly, my time is up so I'll be taking my leave now."
"Wait! What Apostle are you?" Sebastian asked.
"Me? I'm the apostle of death." The being replied, fading away.
Soon after the apostle disappeared, a portal opened up beside Sebastian and Ragnar stepped out with his weapon in hand. The entire area was filled as he released his killing intent and stared around frantically.
"Where is that bastard?!" Ragnar asked, full of rage.
"The Apostle of Death? He left the moment you guys arrived." Sebastian replied.
"The Apostle of Death?!" Bastian shouted in disbelief.
"If I knew he'd come, then I would've grabbed my mythical glaive. As strong as I am, I'm not crazy enough to fight him without preparations." Ragnar said.
Scanning their surroundings, Bastian and Ragnar were making sure that they weren't being stalked by random people. Even if the apostles weren't gonna attack Sebastian, it didn't mean the followers would listen to them. The followers are like an uncontrolled mass that will move, if it means getting to see their god or doing good for their god.
Swoosh!
Stab!
Within seconds, a blade that was meant for Sebastian's head had pierced into Ragnar's hand. The aggressor, surprised, tried to move their blade but couldn't as Ragnar was using his hand to keep the blade in place.
While the aggressor was stuck, Ragnar slammed his fist onto his body, crushing him and to ensure his death, Ragnar activated his vibration magic and shattered the ground. The sheer size of Ragnar would be enough to stop anyone from attacking but if followers had to sacrifice themselves for their god then they would do it.
Though the surprising part of the attack was the blade, which was able to pierced Ragnar's thick skin. Another surprising part was the elongated bright light from the sword attack, which went through Ragnar's hand and stabbed Sebastian in the shoulder.
"A last ditch effort to kill me? Too bad it wasn't enough to kill me." Sebastian said.
"Question. Where did the wings come from?" Bastian asked, noticing the blood wings on the Sebastian's back.
"The wings?" Feeling his back, he felt two small-sized wings protruding outwards from his back. "When did these form?" Sebastian questioned himself.
"Oh! Those are the result of the blood settling in your body. Though, I wasn't expecting it to finally reveal its effects." Ragnar revealed.
'Blood?' Sebastian thought.
Thinking back to the ritual at the Dark Guild, Sebastian vividly remembered the barrel of blood and the heart transplant. Although he wanted to forget, he couldn't because he did what they would do to his body.