Chapter 141 The Cost Of Sin

Rebecca watched in awe as a battle of unprecedented levels unfolded in the heavens high up above. A golden light shone down on the land below, painting everything in its radiance. Up high, a cacophony of sounds and lights clashed against each other. She watched the mighty God that she had been following, ever since she turned her back on the other Gods, fighting so valiantly against the opposition that sought to bring him down.

The silver haired man went by the name Michael. At least, that was what she had been told by Darwin after her first meeting with him. Darwin had said that ever since he had joined in the resistance against the Gods, Michael had gone by that name. Some said that it was because he did not want to forget the roots he had come from.

Michael had once been a lowly mortal like them. He had transcended his mortality and risen to become a God, but unlike those before him, he did not discard the people he had come from.

In this Era of Gods, it was difficult for one to grow if he did not worships a God. Unbelievers were targeted and destroyed. Michael had managed to survive in the wild, growing bit by bit. His true story was unknown, but there were a few people he held close enough to open up to. Darwin was one of them.

"Cough cough!" Rebecca was drawn back to the earth by the cough of the person in her arms. She looked down to Darwin's bloody face. He had been injured pretty badly in the battle before the Gods had come down to stop Michael.

"You should leave this place..." Darwin muttered, his voice hoarse and rough. His hand feebly reached up to cup Rebecca's cheek and she held his wrist with both of her hands.

"I can't. I have to see this battle through." She shook her head and leaned down.

"But... We won't win. Michael is losing." Darwin whispered. His eyes turned to look up in the sky and Rebecca did the same. There, she saw the fight evolving. A hundred different moves were used all at once as over a dozen figures, large and small, humanoid and beast-like, assaulted Michael. The gunmetal haired man fought back valiantly, never displaying despair for his enemies to see, but it was obvious to all that he had the lower hand in the battle.

He was going to lose. Rebecca realized this, but she did not move, could not move. She could only watch as the man she looked up to was beaten back, but not before bringing down a few Gods that stood against him.

BOOOOM!

A massive explosion in the air shook the world around her. Everything went white, and her vision blurred. When it cleared up, she could see a golden pillar descending from the sky. On the pillar's body was many engraved names.

Boom!

Another loud sound shook Rebecca's eardrums. The pillar had stopped descending. When Rebecca peered up, she was shocked to see the names of many Gods that she knew. But what surprised her even more was that a new name was being engraved onto the golden pillar. A name that she knew well.

Michael.

It was just a single word, but it set off waves not just in her, but also within the Gods that had been battling against Michael.

"Impossible!" One of them cried out.

"Nothing is impossible." Michael replied. He floated up from the ground, drenched in blood. But his eyes were firm and determined.

"You fool! You do not know what it means to be a God! I pity your existence!" All of a sudden, a loud voice boomed. The sky up above cracked with the sheer presence carried within that voice. Another God appeared in the sky, a hideous amalgamation of flesh that possessed one eye and several fleshy tentacles.

Rebecca recognized the new arrival from the information she had perused in Tome Town. Tiphone, the all seeing God. A powerful entity that did not care for what happened in the world. What was such a wretchedly powerful being doing here?

Just as Tiphone had finished speaking, a bright light shone from the golden pillar. The light focused on Michael, and his body vanished, swallowed by the pillar. The pillar then began to recede into the space crack it had appeared from, vanishing to wherever it had come from.

Silence reigned. No one moved or spoke for the next few seconds. The first one to break this silence was a God. He turned to look at the many fighters of the resistance that had been on Michael's side.

"Foolish humans. Your leader is gone now. He has left you to suffer for your sins." A beastly figure spoke. The God was five meters tall, possessed green skin, and a tail. It was the Beastly God, Dardan.

Fear gripped Rebecca's heart as she failed to find the one person she had looked up to for the past few years.

"You should have fled..." Darwin spoke to her. A tear slid down his cheek in sadness, but Rebecca just held onto him tighter. Whatever came would take them together. She would not leave him here to suffer alone.

"Never. If we die, we die together." She said. She leaned down and sealed her lips over his just as Dardan utilized his Divinity to cast a spell.

Rebecca felt the very essence of her being get torn apart, rewritten, and molded into something else, all in one moment.

"For your transgressions, you shall serve as the hunters no more, but the hunted. Suffer eternal damnation, forever to be reborn to experience pain. You shall not be born anew, but you shall live in a loop. Until it is determined that you have washed away your sins."

Rebecca heard these words echo through her being before everything turned black. When she woke up next, she did not wake up as the human she had always been. No, she had been subjected to the horrid Divinity of the Beast God, Dardan.

She was now... A beast.