Unholy Terror

That night, Anterion dreamed of ancient times.

"Sneaking out again huh?"

Within his mind's eye, the sleeping god heard the voice of a woman, before coming into view as she sat down next to him, smiling with a sympathetic look. The world around him rippled with the ethereal uncertainty intrinsic to all dreams, but despite it all, her face was still easily visualized; her skin was as clear and unblemished as porcelain, blonde hair that shone in the starlight like gold, and a smile that seemed to light up the night like the moon. Had it not been for the eye patch that she wore, some might have called her a world-class beauty, but if such a tarnishing bothered her, she didn't seem to show it.

"It's not sneaking out. I have a right to go out if I want to you know, I am an adult, no matter how much teasing you do."

Anterion's words flowed out without a single thought on his part, instead flowing out without any resistance, pulled from those memories that he had been holding since those days had long passed, and so, just as he had remember, the woman chuckled a bit upon hearing his response, before leaning to take a look at the object he held in his hands, her one eye betraying a mix of surprise and curiosity.

"Wow, I didn't know you were into that sort of stuff. I recognize that title, it's from the church archives, right? On the substance of miracles and how they're intertwined with science. You didn't strike me as the academic type, no offense."

He could only shrug in response.

"Maybe that's because your idea of academics is wrong. There are some things everyone should know, and you don't need to learn them by sitting in a dusty old room all day, debating theory with some old monks who have never left their monastery. Maybe I'm just an active learner?"

"Woah, slow your roll there. That wasn't what I I was trying to say at all."

The girl leaned back, raising her hands in a gesture of innocence, evidently trying to assure him of her good intentions, something that made him feel just a little guilty about his pointed remarks.

"I'm guessing that's why you don't feel at ease in the churches, right? Simon had you pegged for a non-believer, but I don't think that's quite what you're about. You don't like their methods, i think."

The sensation of being psychoanalyzed was never appealing, whether in the past or now, in this imagined world. An uncomfortable silence filled the air for a good few moments.

"…There's so much good I could be doing, and not just with what we have here. There's so much I could be doing to learn about new places and people, and… I don't know, make something of myself I guess. Either way, I don't really feel like "accepting my circumstances" or whatever nonsense they say these days."

"Ah…"

The woman pursed her lips, evidently caught unawares by the sudden shift in demeanor from her compatriot. Another long silence filled the air, and the woman looked towards the starry sky, as if searching for some sort of message in the aether bout what to say to him at that moment. Her expression for the first time was serious, and in that moment, she truly looked the part of the cleric she was.

"…Just remember there's a price to those sorts of dreams..."

The dream thus faded away.

Anterion was awoken by a hissing noise that reverberated throughout the forest. Groaning groggily, the god picked up his staff, ready to fend off this annoyance, with violence if necessary.

"You're lucky I was just getting to sleep, I'm too tired for this shit, so I'm just gonna kick your ass and send you to the next town over."

No response, though the noise continued on without any issue. This wasn't entirely unexpected, since it was likely a wild animal or such, but he had been hoping that it would go away without any sort of-

"Huh."

Glowing yellow eyes peered out at him from the darkness of the forest, one that seemed to pulse with power in tune with the audible heartbeats of this grotesque creature. Lit up in sickly light that seemed to pour out of its veins, the creature's grotesque form was just barely visible through the cover of night, revealing a bear-like body that rippled with taut muscle visible through its short fur, leading up to a long neck with a snakelike head. Most fearsome of all, however, was an aura of iridescent light that shimmered around the body.

"ARaGHgHGgggHhh!!!!"

A roar of incredible intensity erupted from its throat, a demonic noise that filled the night with terrifying echoes. With a glare of mad hatred in its eyes, the chimera beast charged forward, aiming to tear out his throat with a bite from its mighty fangs.

Unfortunately for the beast, it only caught air.

"Hmmm, that's definitely weird."

Anterion dodged out of the way with surprising speed, stepping to the side and back to place some space in between the two of them. To an untrained eye, this beast was definitely a threat, what with its massive form, aura of energy, and probably poison fangs, but he could see a little deeper than that. It's cries sounded more wounded than anything, the power in its veins was clearly not natural, and most importantly, the power in its aura was one that didn't belong in its body. In fact, it was one of his powers.

"ArAGagAHHHHH!"

The monster roared again, charging at Anterion with blinding speed, but once again, it was effortlessly sidestepped by the deity. His focus was more on analyzing what kind of power it might be; In a human body, and missing the law powers he was supposed to have, he had a bit more trouble recognizing each one. However, one of the ones he did have was more than capable of handling the issue.

"Let's see how this affects you..."

The monster charged once again, it's fanged maw opening wide to catch Anterion in its grasp, only to miss as its neck receded into its body. It wasn't the only part of it that changed in such a way either. Fangs slowly shrunk down, tail receding back into the body, as the muscle mass shifted and shrank. Slowly but surely, the beast began to slim down into a smaller form, as its aura was replaced by a green glow, the mark of Anterion's own law powers negating the curse-like effect that had been placed on the creature. The transformation ended almost as quickly as it had started, leaving behind a humanoid form.

[Well this was an unexpected outcome. Guess it's not too surprising though.]

Anterion had been expecting the reversion to continue on for longer, but to his surprise, it had ended before many of the inhuman traits had been entirely removed. Instead, the true state of the woman who had been stuck as a beast was revealed as an inhuman creature in her own right. Slumped on her side, Anterion could see her face was adorned with two massive tusks, while her skin was a bright green color that was visible even under this dim light. A massive body that was still visibly bulkier than any human (and almost 8 feet tall) revealed her race to be what was, in common terms, an Orc.

[Ok, so… I'm going to have to file that under notes for later. First things first, let's see what sort of power she had.]

Slowly bending down, Anterion placed an arm on the orc woman's shoulder, trying to ascertain what sort of power she held through contact with the energy emanating from her body. He was still a little rusty, so this would have to do for now, but it was nonetheless, more effective at revealing the truth than his eyes alone. It took a few moments, but eventually, Anterion's mind felt a flash of inspiration, the name of the power becoming clear in his mind.

"Species."

The Law of Species; Delvis had told Anterion that many of his law powers had been lost to the world, but he hadn't been expecting to see them bond with other people. Such divine power didn't tend to lend itself to humans without extenuating circumstances (which, admittedly this might have counted as). Nonetheless, here it was, one of the crowning jewels of power over the world that he'd held as God, now in the hands of a mortal. In this case, it was the rule regarding the differentiation of species; Unmoored from its rightful holder, it must have found a host in this young woman and caused this transformation against her will.

"Urggggghh…. Oi, what the hell did I drink?"

"Oh, you're awake?"

Anterion stepped back, giving the orc woman a wide berth as she pulled herself to her feet, stumbling groggily as she tried to regain her senses after such a traumatic event, not seeming to recall the full extent of it. After a moment of wobbling, she finally took notice of Anterion's presence, a look of anger and hatred overcoming her features. There was a bit of fear there, too..

"A human?! You better get out of this side of the forest, you don't belong here! Y-Your kind has already done enough harm to my tribe!"

Anterion sighed deeply. He didn't want to get involved with whatever internal dispute existed between the orcs and humans but… she held the law power within her, and that was something he couldn't leave unchecked. Effectively, this only left him with one option.

"Sorry about that whole mess, I was just trying my best to return you to normal. Let's not make this harder than it needs to be: I'm God. What's your name?"