The First King of Beasts

Both men remained in that state for a while, but before they suffered any further, something out of the ordinary happened, as what they could only describe as a god appeared before them in the room.

It was definitely a god, how could they not know? The figure they saw before them was the same one they had seen countless times in historical carvings and paintings, even as some old statues. This was the being know by the humans as The god of Hunting and Animals, Cernnunos.

Before them, they clearly and immediately recognized the form of the one before them, as he stood with the signature horn growing out of his head.. The Horned god, both men noted.

The god that stood before them had a human form and look, and except for the horns, he appeared mostly normal. He stood there for a while watching both men as the markings continued crawled unto their bodies, and after several minutes of observing them, he moved towards the other man and took a closer look at him. At that moment too, the pain they felt subsided, then it completely vanished as though it was never there to begin with.

Accompanying the now gone pain were the writings in the room which had completely disappeared, and now the entire room looked plain and uninteresting.

The pain over their bodies might have disappeared, but it also left them weak, so weak that they couldn't even move their bodies with enough strength, coupled with the pressure the presence of such a high being exerted on their mortal bodies, they couldn't move at all, and breathing was starting to become a problem.

The pressure eventually reduced greatly, and as the man looked to his side-

"Can I call you Ben?" Dustin cut the man short as he was speaking.

"No, I don't quite fancy that name. The way it sounds.. doesn't quite fit me." The man said.

"Ok? How about Eir, as in heir?" Dustin asked again.

"Well, that sounds better I guess? But why that name? Why did you pick that?"

"Well, it's quite obvious that you somehow inherited something from that god, so hence the name Eir, as it sounds like heir." Dustin explained. Hearing this, the man became quite interested in what Ben meant then, and Dustin's answer only went to confirm his suspicions.

"Well, Ben would mean beneficiary." The wordings were a little different, but the man understood. Though he wasn't sure how the two spelt out, since he wasn't conversant with modern way of writing, he just shrugged it off. It wasn't something important anyway.

Back to his story, and with a name to associate with, Eir continued.

The pressure eventually reduced greatly, and as the Eir looked to his side, he caught the figure of the god bending before the body of the other man that had attacked him earlier. The god studied the body for some seconds, then he placed his palm over the body, and a green light appeared over the body, activating the markings on the body. The action caused the body to jerk, possibly due to pain, and only after some seconds did it calm down as the god took away his hand. With that, the god stood up slowly and gently, and then he moved towards Eir.

With his current condition, Eir wasn't even sure if he could defend himself or run away, that is if he even could. He was quite sure that he would be powerless before the god even in his strongest day. He wasn't sure what had been done to the other body, but the possibility of the other man being dead were ever present and viable.

To cut the long story short, he ended up experiencing the same fate as his counterpart. It was so much more painful that the moment he felt the initial pain, he couldn't but pass out some seconds later. After however long it was that he was passed out on the floor, Eir finally woke up, and came to his senses. Without the slightest clouding of his mentality and memories, he could remember exactly everything that had happened, and he immediately moved his eyes around trying to find the god from earlier. Sure enough, the god was still there, ever so present, and even caught his gaze.

"I will be direct with you." The god said, as his voice reverberated within the room and atmosphere.

Hearing the god's voice, Eir couldn't help the loud and very noticeable gulp of saliva that passed down his throat. From the stories he heard, it was said that Cernnunos was the god that all of humanity served at a particular time as one of the first gods they served. They sort him a god like him to help and assist them as they needed to survive while living in a wild environment, and needed a supreme power to guide them through the hard and dangerous time. For something like this where the enemy was nature itself and the animals, the god the humans turned to was Cernnunos, and all of humanity served him.

The exact story of what happened had been lost to history, and all he knew now was that there was something of a betrayal involved between the relationship the god maintained with humanity, and when he left in anger, he took away his power and influence in the lands and also cursed the living creatures around the humans, giving rise to various beats and monsters.

Such a god that had that much of a grudge against humanity was now before Eir, and he couldn't tell why the god had even appeared in the first place, or what was to become of him. Without a reply, Eir just looked at the god for a moment, then returned his gaze to the ground.

"A long time ago, when I was still ruling over your people, I created a means for one of your kind to become something akin to a god, but in the end I never went through with it. That thing I created, was this very room itself. I thought I destroyed it and every trace of it, but it seems I didn't after all, and it somehow appeared here." The god said, and then paused momentarily. Eir just listened quietly.

"The process was what both of you just went through, and there seemed to have been some mishap of some sort." The god continued, as he walked over to the other man's body, which Eir assumed was now a corpse after hearing the word mishap. Then, the god went on to explain.

The process to begin with was supposed to be done with only one person in the room, but there were two. Secondly, the person had to have some of his energy in them, if not entirely his energy to maximize the success of the process. This he made so that no one else would be able to use his creation. To create this, it took him a very long time, and he had to use the blood of seven different deity beasts and monsters to draw the markings.

The problem now was that the entire thing was not done accordingly, and that it could only be done once. Normally he would just kill both men, but according to the god-

"I find favour in you. I am unaware how you are able to have such a high amount and purity of my essence, but it is undeniable that you do."

With an incomplete sealing of the entire procedure, Eir was doomed to remain like that forever until he died, as a half god, something of a lower demi-god or close. Because of the unique energy within him, he was able to survive the process, and it was also the reason why the other man died, even after the god tried to give him some of his energy. With Eir of course, the god didn't need to do much, and just assisted him, that was all.

To cut the long story short, Eir became something of an offspring of the god, in a way, since he now had the god's very essence within him fully concentrated, and had even inherited some of the god's power. What he did with this new found power, the god didn't care. All the god did was fulfil a long lost wish he once had, or something like that, but Cernnunos also warned-

"He was very clear when he told me that moment that I should guide myself from that day on since I would possibly be targeted. He said something about running away to a far away world and remain safe, but then he noted to myself that I wasn't the type to show cowardice, so he couldn't care much. Not like he did to begin with." Eir said.

After that, the god had a little more talk with Eir before leaving. During the time they spent together, Eir was taught some basics on how to use his new powers, and was also educated on his shortcomings due to the nature in which the entire- should he call it a spell? Or maybe a ritual, was carried out.

"And, that was how I attained my powers you see, and I must say, my powers are weirdly similar to yours don't you think?"

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