War of the Deities Across Planes, Spirit of the Stag

War of the Deities Across Planes, Spirit of the Stag

Listening to Beard, Ryan roughly understood.

This world of the supernatural was wondrous, entirely unlike the fantasies he had encountered in his previous world.

Within the Flor Empire's royal family, there was an army known as the Templar Knights. They had once trampled over the bones of Giants and challenged the deities with Giants' heads.

Grand Duke Mayers, who had turned Northwind Province into Imperial territory, commanded a legion of Nightmare Knights that had never known defeat.

The Empire's other three grand dukes also possessed at least one renowned legion in addition to their regular armies.

Even the Flamedragon Knights under his father, Count Clayton, were no exception. Their mounts were said to be capable of breathing Blaze Dragon breath.

Beyond the Empire, among those kingdoms and the lands of dukes and counts, the nobles who had migrated south from the Northlands also possessed supernatural legions of their own.

Elves, Dwarves... the other races possessed such things as well.

Before the deities unleashed the Pan-Planar War, none of these existed.

The reason for all this was—divinity.

Only deities possessed divinity. But with the outbreak of the Pan-Planar War, deities fell as well. The divinity scattered after their deaths gave rise to these supernatural legions.

Furthermore, the Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique Ryan practiced might also be connected to divinity. After all, only those with Clayton blood could cultivate this Knight Breathing Technique normally. It was practically the Clayton Family's exclusive property.

Thinking of this, Ryan looked at his cheat.

"What is the relationship between spirituality and divinity?"

Deities could produce divinity, while the people within his territory seemed able to provide him with spirituality.

Deities could wage war across the Pan-Plane and plunge world after world into the frigid winter of Eternal Silence, while the spirituality he wielded...

Ryan raised his head and saw firelight in the distance. A village stood before him, surrounded by frozen wooden fences that provided basic defense and blocked the cold wind.

It was freezing here. With every step, Ryan felt his knees sink into the snow and ice. Compared to this place, the Frozen Earth Territory was practically balmy.

In such an environment, the humans in this village had ways of resisting the cold that surpassed those of the Frozen Earth Territory's villagers.

They had followed the footprints here, arriving at the village gate, where more than a dozen sturdy men in fur clothing stood watching them with spears in hand.

But Ryan sensed that the men had relaxed considerably after seeing the three of them.

Rosen, however, remained on guard. On their journey with Ryan to the Frozen Earth Territory, they had encountered far too much malice. The last time, even the baron had been separated from them.

His hands were tense as well, because he could not sense any traces of Knight Breathing Technique on these men, yet they all seemed no weaker than him.

Especially the one in front. He wore only a simple layer of animal hide, with the rest of his body bare in the cold wind.

Wasn't he cold?

"Aren't you cold?"

Ryan asked it aloud. He was genuinely curious, since there was no trace of anything supernatural about the other man.

The youth he had addressed looked only four or five years older than Ryan, but he was powerfully built, as though only such a physique could survive this icy cold.

"Not cold."

Brandt patted his chest, seemingly using the gesture to show off his strength.

Then he looked at Ryan curiously. "Are you a noble lord? Why would a noble lord come to our tribe?"

"Aren't you all supposed to guard the underground fire veins?"

Ryan did not answer him. Instead, he said, "Will you invite us in to sit for a while?"

Brandt looked over the three of them, then nodded and stepped aside. As he moved, the others put away their spears as well.

Clearly, this youth held no low status within the tribe.

"He is the child closest to the Spirit of the Stag."

When Ryan asked a middle-aged man in the tribe, that was the answer he received.

But the man said little else, apparently somewhat awed by Ryan, who looked fair and clean like a noble lord.

"Not long ago, Brandt hunted a Great Horned Deer by himself. Perhaps this time, he will succeed and receive the Spirit of the Stag's blessing."

The three of them had arrived at just the right time, and the footprints they had followed were clearly Brandt's.

When two hours passed and night fell, the village named Deer Spirit lit more than a hundred torches, nearly illuminating the darkness and forcing even the wolves howling in the distant snow to keep their distance.

Ryan watched as a group of people surrounded Brandt, performing what seemed to be a ritual dance. Brandt knelt in the center, with a Great Horned Deer bound hand and foot before him.

Its antlers really were enormous. Ryan felt that those two antlers could easily pierce through Rosen's leather armor.

And Beard's gaze was even sharper than Ryan's.

"Those antlers could be made into a very powerful bow."

Hearing that, Ryan's interest deepened.

Brandt drew a dull-finished dagger. It did not appear to have been forged from metal, but rather ground from the bone at the base of the Great Horned Deer's antlers.

The dagger slowly approached the Great Horned Deer, yet its eyes were remarkably calm.

Ryan noticed that every villager dancing around Brandt wore a Bone Mask. They had also been polished from Great Horned Deer skulls, making them look especially eerie.

"Call upon the Deer Spirit!"

More than a dozen elderly villagers worked together to carry out a Deer Head Statue three or four meters tall and place it before Brandt. At that moment, he pulled out a Great Horned Deer's heart.

All around him, the villagers who had been dancing dropped to their knees.

"Brandt, this is already the third time. If..."

"There is no if."

Brandt resolutely pressed the beating heart in his hand against the massive deer head's brow. Blood flowed down.

Time passed. Beneath the firelight of the night, the silence was terrifying.

"It failed. The Deer Spirit fell in the war of the deities. We... have lost our faith."

A group of elders wept bitterly, while Brandt too sank into silence.

At that moment, Ryan somehow moved from his position at the outermost edge, where he could only observe, to the center of the firelight.

He looked at the enormous deer head, then reached out his hand.

The numb crowd around him did not stop him.

But the instant his palm touched the deer head, a cry that rang through the night seemed to descend from high in the sky. At the sound, everything fell silent, and countless beasts in the winter wilderness trembled and prostrated themselves on the ground.

The massive deer head shattered. Everyone saw a transparent, proud stag leap from the fragments, meet the gaze of the noble-looking youth, then charge straight at him.

The stag plunged into Ryan's chest. Almost instantly, Ryan felt his bones crackle as immense strength surged continuously through his limbs.

In that brief moment, even his body seemed to grow a little taller.

"Have I become a Formal Knight?"