Only God
Chapter 221 - 189 The Impending Doom

Chapter 221: Chapter 189 The Impending Doom

The great battle was imminent, and the Gods were all striving to enhance their divine power.

And War God Saiama, using this as justification, was causing turmoil in one war after another upon the earth.

According to the covenant of the Gods, War God Saiama could not directly descend as a God of War and slaughter wantonly.

So, in order not to violate the covenant of the Gods, Claudiu, as His avatar in the Mortal World, carried the bloodthirsty spear amidst the endless wars.

Claudiu, who possessed a strand of the War God’s soul, galloped across the battlefields unchecked, with his iron-spiked wheels taking countless mortal lives, with many a hero dying under the unstoppable spear, and numerous families weeping for the blood on that spear.

Claudiu, the Regent Prince of Sasi Kingdom, subjugated his Beastman troops with terrifying power, turning the whole of Sasi under his control into a war machine centered on victory, plunder, and destruction.

This powerful Beastman hero had received the favor of Dragon God Endora years before.

Endora, who revered the strong, allowed Claudiu, originally a lion-man, to grow scales befitting a giant dragon.

Bearing Endora’s favor, Claudiu’s leonine appearance gradually waned as he transformed into a dragon man, sprouting Dragon Horns, his canines replaced by sharp fangs, and his stature growing as large as a small mountain, akin to a giant dragon walking the earth.

Now, apart from the grace of Endora, as the avatar of War God Saiama on earth, he naturally came to possess the mighty power of the War God.

In the beginning, Claudiu had not noticed the anomaly within his soul.

He, as ever, threw himself into the wars fought over the Heavenly Descending Gem, his terrible power chilling numerous enemies to the bone.

But gradually, his soldiers discovered that Claudiu was becoming more bloodthirsty and fond of executing prisoners.

The Beastman, who esteemed honorable warfare and despised unjust battles, seldom executed prisoners from either side.

Among these prisoners were not just ordinary Nobles but also renowned heroes, and executing them would mean forging a vendetta to the death.

While Claudiu, although already despised for his cruelty, used to consider the welfare of Sasi Kingdom and mostly released prisoners.

Yet, in the past year, the Regent Prince had changed.

He not only executed prisoners indiscriminately but even his punishments became increasingly cruel.

Those captured Beastman heroes, when in Claudiu’s hands, often ended up mutilated, suffering great humiliation before their deaths.

Claudiu’s cruelty not only made enemies loathe him to the marrow, no longer calling him a "Hero" but labeling him a "tyrant," it also steeped his own soldiers in deep fear.

However, nobody could shake the status of this dragon man.

Over time, Claudiu himself realized his transformation.

One night, he awoke from a nightmare and, upon looking back, was startled by the sheer volume of blood on his hands.

In that nightmare, Claudiu saw himself mired in the swamp of war, initially unconcerned until, upon looking back sharply, he found himself sinking deeper, unable to extricate himself for eternity.

Fear jolted Claudiu into a cold sweat.

This sudden retrospection, akin to a criminal’s remorse at life’s end or like a boy unexpectedly coming of age overnight, was an inadvertent introspection of one’s entire past life. Those who had not experienced it often dismissed it as mere hearsay.

Claudiu walked through the cold barracks, and everywhere he looked, he saw fear in his soldiers, disdainful of the title "Hero" before, but now that they looked upon him as a "tyrant," that blood-soaked heart of his was jolted back into a moment of clarity.

Claudiu said in a trembling voice,

"I... I am a tyrant..."

In the Celestial Kingdom, Saiama watched this scene and burst into belly laughs.

Claudiu’s soul was about to be completely remolded by Him.

And that bloody nightmare was nothing more than the dying struggle of the original soul, vainly attempting to awaken Claudiu from the beautiful illusion of war.

But it was merely a fleeting moment of lucidity.

When Claudiu shivered and returned to the barracks, the darkness surrounded him with infinite fear and loneliness; in that moment, he felt like a repentant sinner, guilty of all his deeds.

The tent was too dark, he saw nothing, reaching out to light the oil lamp, but no matter what, he could not find the lamp.

Darkness enveloped him.

Suddenly, Claudiu felt as if something grabbed his throat.

The phantom of War God Saiama emerged in his mind.

Claudiu, as if caught in an Illusion, saw a Divine figure drenched in blood, standing on a bone-strewn battlefield, high above, looking down at him with a mocking smile.

"Who are you?!"

Claudiu asked, tensing up.

"I am War God Saiama."

Saiama’s face kept changing, finally settling into the visage of Claudiu himself,

"I am you, Claudiu."

As the words reached Claudiu’s ears, his hair stood on end.

Only now did the tyrant realize what had happened.

His soul had been completely dominated by the God of War, and henceforth, he would become a fountain of slaughter, continuously bringing bloodshed to the land.

The belated realization filled Claudiu with immense regret and fear.

He would no longer be himself.

The past self was real, not remolded by anyone, a warrior passionate about war but not a slave manipulated by war.

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