Chapter 321: Shrine of the Forgotten Gods, First Trial
Samuel's POV
The world screamed.
Or maybe it was just the wind shrieking as it twisted through the bones of dead giants. The sky cracked above, thunder rumbling through clouds that glowed sickly green. I stood within a crater of obsidian and ash, staring down the first guardian of this damn Trial — a Forgotten Deity of War named Kael'Rith.
He towered above me, eyes burning like dying suns. His armor looked like it had been forged in the heart of collapsing stars — charred black, veined with crimson light. And in his hands, he held a double-bladed axe longer than I was tall.
"You are not worthy," he said again, voice a low tremor across the earth. "Turn back, mortal thing. Before your name is erased."
I cracked my knuckles, rolled my shoulders. "See, you ancient bastards really gotta work on your sales pitch. You could've just said 'Hi.'"
His wings — stone and ash — flared wide.
Boom.
He surged forward like a goddamn meteor. I barely twisted aside as that axe cleaved the air where I stood, carving a trench into the ground deep enough to bury a mountain. My blade flashed — a streak of voidsteel catching the war-god's side — and he grunted. Not a scream. Just... acknowledgement.
"You bleed."
"So do you," I shot back, darting behind him and landing a series of rapid slashes up his spine. One of his wings cracked apart, falling to the floor like broken faith.