CHAPTER 60: BEASTS OF CLAY (1).

The first beast was enormous.

A statue carved from dark stone, shaped like a grotesquely obese creature with a maw so wide it seemed to dislocate the very concept of proportion.

The creature’s right hand held a goblet that looked ancient beyond measure, and in its left hand was a wooden club, gnarled and heavy. When it breathed, the air around it seemed to darken past the blackness of night.

The depths of the godtree rumbled again.

The second was the opposite of the first— it was slender and almost humanoid in shape. However, every other proportion was wrong and profane in every way that mattered.

Its eyes were hollow voids, and in its chest was a gaping hole that seemed to lead nowhere and everywhere simultaneously. Its four arms and four legs were long and rigid, just like a spider’s. As it crawled from the depths of the godtree, its ungodly form twisted as its head snapped in his direction.

The third and fourth were bound together somehow, twin aspects of the same wrongness.

One was carved from white stone with a body that looked like that of an enormous beast with a single horn on its temple.

The stone beast tapered off to reveal its other half— it had the body of an enormous stone scorpion.

The four creatures of stone all had hollow eyes. Eyes of complete and utter darkness.

Eyes filled with the very essence of damnation.

Eyes that made Nero shivered, the truest of fears blossoming to life in his heart.

’My God...’

Things had suddenly taken a drastic turn.

What the hell were these things?! And what were they doing in the corpse of the godtree?!

Nero drew the Silver Blade as they slowly crawled out of the godtree’s carcass.

The moment the enchanted steel caught the dying light of the night sky’s stars, the obese gargoyle lifted its goblet to its absurdly wide mouth and drank.

Its enormous stomach bulged obscenely.

Once it had taken its drink, it huffed in a deep bellow.

What it exhaled was not mere wind...

It was a thick, black fog that moved like the very curse of death, rolling across the field like a living thing. Where it touched the verdant grass, the green turned black and died, turning into black sludge.

"Shit!" Nero exclaimed out loud.

Without even thinking more about it, he ran.

The fog of blackness pursued, a wall of misfortune that consumed the world behind him.

Since the godtree was rather close to the temple, it took only a few seconds for the wall of death to reach him.

He rushed into an abandoned house and shut the door behind him before crouching and covering his nose.

In an instant, the black fog began seeping into the smaller openings, filling the room with faint wisps of the black breath.

Nero instantly felt a weakness drill into his very bones.

The taste of blood filled his lungs. His eyes widened as he opened his mouth and let the mouthful of blood flow.

He made absolutely no sound.

With reddened eyes and burning lungs, he peeked through a gap in the window.

The slender stone beast moved, crawling down the godtree and landing on its roots.

Nero went as still as possible, terrified that even the sound of his breathing would draw their attention.

However, the air itself had become heavy and thick. His thoughts had slowed as though he were wading through something thick and suffocating.

Each breath felt like drowning and burning at the same time. His vision swam and his breathing grew sluggish.

’What the hell is this?!’ the terror in his heart intensified.

Suddenly, a thought appeared in his mind. He couldn’t help but think of the prophecy.

"The mountain weeps. Amidst the swirling grey fog. The four beasts. Beasts of Clay and tempest. Wild like flowing blood. A garden of roses. A garden of corpses. Follow the road down below."

’Could it be...’

Four beasts of clay. These... things were made of stone from what he could tell. This was the first time in his natural life he had come across something like this.

If these truly were the four beasts of clay, then...

’The prophecy is right. But what is their purpose here?’ he couldn’t for the life of him, figure out what to do with this.

Their arrival was nothing short of the worst news. This small paradise he had found was an illusion.

In reality, nowhere, absolutely nowhere was safe from the evils that filled this world.

’Oracle! What the hell are those things?!’

{These creatures are demons}.

Nero’s eyes widened and his face turned as white as a sheet.

’Demons?!’

{They are demons, particularly servants of the third king of the Seven Hells, Baal, the Angel of Storms}.

Nero dropped to the ground and closed his eyes, fearful his gaze would draw their attention once again.

His body trembled as his mind whirled with thoughts.

’D-demons! Those are Demons?!’

The hordes of the Kings of Hell were quite distinct. While Beelzebub made use of his flies, they couldn’t quite be classified as Demons. It was more like they were tiny parts of the Demon King himself.

True Demons on the other hand, were an existence far more terrifying.

They were spoke of in the church quite a lot and were fuel for the nightmares of all children in the Empire.

If the Fallen Ones represented a fall from the Divine into damnation, then the Demons were beings as fallen and corrupted as could be.

Their own purpose or goal was to sow death and chaos.

Wherever they went, destruction followed.

They were incredibly ugly too apparently.

’The definitely are.’

Staying still, Nero decided to peek through the crack in the window again.

’What are they doing in here, in the corpse of the godtree?’

{Judging from the energy signatures being given off, they must have just finished recovering from severe injuries, using the last shreds of divinity stored in the godtree}.

Nero raised a brow,

’Injuries?’

The Oracle was silent for a moment.

Then it spoke...

{A thousand years ago, there was a battle between the hordes of the four Kings...}