Starting Out As The God of Beasts

For several agonizing minutes, Makane remained frozen in deep, suffocating thought, completely oblivious to the luxurious chess hall around him.

A cold, unfamiliar anxiety tightened around his divine core.

He was a True God—a divine entity whose existence was woven into the fundamental laws of the upper realm.

Why would a divine entity of his caliber suddenly experience such a visceral, bone-chilling premonition?

Was his very life in mortal danger?

Nonsense, Makane rationalized internally, attempting to soothe the sudden, violent thrumming of his divine heart.

This is the Sun Heaven, the absolute heartland of the grand Sun Pantheon.

No True God in their right mind would dare attack me here, surrounded by the supreme might of our pantheon, unless they were prepared to ignite an all-out divine war across the upper planes.

Across the ivory chess table, the God of the Unshadowed and the God of the Evening exchanged deeply confused, anxious glances.

The joyous, drunken atmosphere of moments ago had utterly vanished, replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence.

"What happened, Makane?" the God of the Unshadowed asked, his brow furrowing as a worried expression washed over his pale face.

"You look as though a phantom just walked over your divine altar."

The God of the Evening leaned forward, his hands resting on the edge of the table. "Did something breach your outer palace barriers?"

Makane took a slow, deep breath, expanding his chest as he forced the rising wave of unease back into the depths of his soul.

He slowly exhaled, his emerald-green eyes flickering with a dim, serious light.

"It is nothing like that," Makane answered, his voice dropping into a solemn, low rumble. "I... I just experienced a divine premonition."

"A divine premonition?" The God of the Evening frowned, his eyes widening in genuine surprise.

"That is extraordinarily rare. Why on earth would a True God experience a warning of fate while residing safely within the protective domain of the Sun Heaven?"

Makane remained quiet, offering no immediate answer. In truth, he himself possessed no clear understanding of what was happening or why this sudden, crushing sense of doom had pierced through his divine senses.

The God of the Unshadowed tapped his chin in deep calculation, his eyes narrowing as an idea struck him. "Could this premonition be tied to something occurring down in the mortal planes?"

At those words, Makane’s emerald eyes shone with a sharp, piercing light.

His divine instincts, refined over millennia, instantly snapped toward that exact suggestion.

The mortal planes...

True Gods were virtually nigh-omnipresent existences compared to fragile mortal beings.

Although the cosmic planar laws strictly prohibited them from physically descending into the lower mortal worlds in their true form, they possessed the ability to cast their divine sight across the vast cosmos and observe almost anything happening below.

However, because the mortal realm was so infinitely vast, a god could not monitor every grain of sand simultaneously.

They required specific divine anchors—faith, holy altars, or dedicated followers—to pinpoint a precise location.

Without another word, Makane closed his eyes, extending his divine consciousness downward, cutting through the layers of the atmosphere toward the mortal realm.

His immediate focus locked onto the grand headquarters of his faith—the central Cathedral of the Church of the God of the Sky, situated in the heart of a prosperous Super Kingdom on the Western Continent.

Within seconds, his divine sight washed over the massive white marble spires, the chanting holy choir, and the millions of devout mortals bowing in prayer.

The headquarters was completely fine.

The Church was thriving, its holy influence expanding smoothly, and its divine feedback of faith was as steady as a raging river.

Makane’s eyebrows furrowed in deep frustration.

The total lack of unusual activity at his primary holy see only served to heighten his anxiety.

If the main Church is safe... then where is this threat originating from?

Swiftly shifting his focus, Makane began filtering through the individual holy anchors of his high-ranking priests deployed on foreign missions outside the Super Kingdom.

He scanned through thousands of flickering lights representing his clergy across various continents, narrowing them down with ruthless speed.

Finally, his divine sight locked onto a faint, distant signal... Priest Arnold, currently located in the jagged, mist-shrouded peaks of the Northern Hashian Mountains on the Eastern Continent.

Makane’s consciousness dove toward the region, expanding his sight across the surrounding mountain range.

"Impossible..." Makane gasped softly, his physical body in the chess hall trembling slightly.

Deep within the scorched, glassy crater where Kaelos City had once stood, his refined divine senses caught it—a faint, lingering trace of alien, terrifyingly potent divinity that had leaked out into the atmosphere during the city’s annihilation.

It was a divine signature completely foreign to the Sun Pantheon, reeking of primal power and absolute authority.

’What is this?’

The flickering, radiant light in Makane’s emerald eyes slowly dimmed as he severed the long-distance divine connection, bringing his consciousness back to the grand palace in the Sun Heaven.

"The God of Beast" Makane mumbled under his breath.

He looked across the ivory table at his two divine companions, letting out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to age him by centuries.

"It appears... I shall be quite busy for a while," Makane muttered, his frown deepening into a grim, dark line.

"What did you see, Makane?" the God of the Evening asked, his tone laced with urgent curiosity.

He was curious to know what had rendered Makane, the Sky God to be in such a state.

Makane slowly laid back against the plush velvet back of his throne, a bitter, humorless smile touching his handsome lips.

"An unknown True God is actively interfering down in the Eastern Continent... attempting to crush my holy influence before my Church can solidify its foundation in the Northern Hashian Mountains."

Makane rested his chin on his intertwined fingers, his gaze locking onto the God of the Unshadowed and the God of the Evening with an intensely serious expression.

"Tell me, my friends..." Makane asked quietly, his voice echoing in the silent palace hall.

"...which divine pantheon does the ’God of Beast’ belong to?"