It is an idle curiosity I think we all share. Now that I have met Fer in person, this curiosity returns more and more to me. Fer is the Goddess of Beasthood, yet a beast is a specific type of monster. There are many who call her a monster but I think the best descriptor is still Allasaria’s summary of the woman in ‘Documenting the Daughters’. There, Allasaria writes ‘dangerous animal’ to describe Fer.

It is a description succinct and yet Allasaria incidentally brings attention to a question many do not consider. Fer is a dangerous animal and a beast, yet we rarely use the word ‘monster’ to describe her even though her and Anassa’s creation of beastmen are provably and scientifically, monstrous. Which way does the hierarchy though?

A monster falling under a beast feels wrong, it is obvious that a beast should be a sub-category of a monster. I think almost everyone would agree. Yet I now have a problem. If Beasthood is lesser than Monstrousness as a whole, and since Fer is not so ancient as to be borderline-eternal like Neneria, then we must assume she is not the first form of herself. If an of Beasthood exists, then the chance of an of Monsters existing is far greater than nil. I would argue that the chance of existence is greater than not in fact. And yet for Of Beasthood to incarnate, Of Monsters needed to be removed.

What happened to it?

– Private Writings of Goddess Elassa, of Magic, written recently.

Fer licked a few drops of a demon’s blood off her claws. The coppery taste was always strong, but it was made stronger in total darkness. Kassie had given command of the Second Expedition’s vanguard push to General Ecclain, a commander tested in the Epan War and the Re-invasion of Rancais and Fer had taken the chance to immediately slip off the leash. She had nothing against the good general himself, but Furcas had scared her sister and as much as Kassandora pretended not to be, she was still cautious. Fer sniffed the air and smelled life.

The Goddess of Beasthood stopped and straightened her back. Her bones cracked as she readjusted her shoulders in this darkness. Kassie was the Goddess of War and there was no war that Kassie could not win, but Kassie had a habit of minimizing risk wherever it came. She would never give permission for Fer to scout ahead by herself and even if she gave the order, Fer herself would find herself hard-pressed as to leave her sister by her lonesome here. Fer’s ears swivelled on top of her head as she stood alone on what had to be a corpse. Whatever it was she stood on was so soft it had to be fat or thick jelly and Fer had never seen a demon jelly.

The big issue down here was Mammon, the demon who lived in gold. The further the Second Expedition pushed, the more the walls and ceiling were laden with the precious metal. Coins and other small items were pressed into the rock, the ceiling and the walls, high up so that the gold could not be easily reached. Each one was another addition to the countless tiny eyes and ears of Mammon. Fer’s ears rotated again and then caught a thump to her right. The Goddess of Beasthood’s let the cold air into her mouth and she took a deep breath of the sulphuric air.

But this is why she did this job alone and why she had not taken a full team of scouts with her. Would it be easier with soldiers to serve as backup? Of course. The greatest of hunters would fight in packs, that was something every animal knew. Yet down here, this was something only Fer could do. Her ears locked onto the sound, she heard it clearly now. Down here, sound travelled far. She could even make out the sounds of the Second Expedition far behind her and the Tartarian Legions ahead of her. And between them, straight in this blinding flood of darkness they were all submerged in, was a different, far weaker and more pathetic sound.

A brush of skin on cloth. A failed attempt at staying as still as stone. Foolish, stones did not heartbeat and stones did not breath. Fer lunged forwards, her arms wide and ready to cut an opponent down. She heard the heartbeat close in on her, or rather, she heard herself close in on the heartbeat. Once. Twice. Her arm swiped forwards. Her claw tasted measly resistance. A gasping whimper was cut off mid-sound. A moment later, steel crashed in the distance as Fer stood up again. She straightened her spine, stood up straight, closed her eyes, and the ears popping out of her messy golden locks started to swivel around as she searched for sounds.

The plan was so simple that it was more a matter of feasibility rather than thought. It didn’t matter how much stronger a demon was over a human. At the end of the day, a demon’s eyes needed light to see. Without their essential flames, they were no better than the blind. Fer’s ears made another full swivel as she tilted her head back. From the rear came the faint echoing of the Second Expedition’s trundling vehicles. From the front came the faint echoing of Tartarian Legions. And from close by… silence. Nothing moved save for Fer’s own heartbeat. Fer released her breath and sniffed the air. Sulphur, blood, bone, steel, gold, stone, dust, uneaten meals, alcohol, slate, copper, iron, in that order, from the strongest to the weakest. Fer licked her lips. She couldn’t even see her nose.

It didn’t matter. There was nothing ahead of her and it was simply a matter of walking without thinking too much. If there was one thing she would give these ancient Dwarven roads, it was that walking along them was a boring task of repeating the same motion. There were no inclines, no steps, no bridges, nothing. It was just one of the world’s arteries. Fer’s feet kicked broken bodies out of the way for the first few steps, corpses she had left after the coming into contact with some Tartarian warband of two dozen demons. She splashed through blood and then once again thudded onto stone.

Fer sniffed the air, nothing about, no signs of life. Signs of gold from above, but those were always here. It didn’t matter if Mammon knew squads were being picked off. Let him call for more teams to try and hunt the monster in the dark. The Goddess of Beasthood picked up the pace, her steps became faster and lighter, she started barely even pressing against the ground as the walk became a silent sprint. Wind raced past her ears, her eyes were open, every two steps she would take another sniff to just to make sure there was nothing about. Her ears sat straight on top of her head and ready to listen. And she raced.

She raced for a few minutes. The darkness stopped being so total as another series of flames came into view. Fer stopped approaching and finally the vulpine pupils of her golden eyes grew large as they hungrily swallowed up as much of the light as she could manage. This was what? The fourth time today she had come across something? The whole plan worked on her speed, even if Mammon did call for help, how quickly could Tartarus dispatch some prince to stem her advance? The first battle, she had not even been worried by, that, she had taken by surprise entirely. Now though, it was better to wait and see what was approaching before mindlessly charging in.

Fer’s tail swished from side to side as it stood upwards. The Goddess began to approach the lights in the distance. Up above, one needed to see the colours of banners to know whether they were facing friend or foe, down here, it was the colours of flames. Imperial forces came with bright white headlamps on vehicles or the blinding glares of Torchbearer Tanks of which a single model could illuminate a tunnel from top to bottom for miles. Tartarus still worked with the warm oranges and reds of fire.

And from ahead, it was the fire in such a warm and vivid orange that there was no way it was anything but fire conjured up by their magicians. She kept up the pace, they were still miles ahead, still too far away for the light to glint off her eyes or her. As she got closer, Fer peeled off towards the side of the tunnel. Maybe a sister like Anassa would sway her way into the very centre of the enemy ranks, but not Fer. Even the most brutish rhinoceros or elephant would like the advantage of surprise over a predator. And the wall gave her something to push off too.

Fer slowed her jog to a silent, careful walk, until the demons got close enough for her to see them. She sniffed the air. Thirty or so signs of life. Trepidation in them. Sweat that was an ugly mixture of salt and sulphur. Nervousness in some. Only two or three had the sweet scent of fear. That wasn’t good. The previous team didn’t carry fear on them. That meant they were getting reports about the fact there was a monster in the dark. Fer’s eyes flicked up to the high stone ceiling now that she could see. This far into Tartarian territory, there was hundreds if not thousands of golden spots that shone brightly in the firelight as if they were warm and inviting stars.

They weren’t stars though. Stars did not have demons living in them. Fer’s eyes narrowed as her superhuman vision picked out the shape on the plates. A demon sitting on a throne, his horns inverted and spiralling downwards. His arms moving. His chest rising with each breath. He looked straight ahead, eyes sharp and focused. Fer smiled to herself. That sort of focus must mean he wasn’t sure of what was being faced too.

Well, they weren’t stupid. Fer had to give them that. A thousand years had passed and a great deal of things could happen in a thousand years. Kassie had reacted in a similar way to Furcas where she sent out small scouting teams to investigate rather than deployed full Divines. Fer’s eyes trailed downwards to the team. Four. Four. Eight. Another Eight. Symmetrical. Thirty two beings on the ground. Another six in the air. Succubi that lazily bobbed with each swing of their wings. Each one had a dozen flames around her.

On the ground, it was just the standard legionnaires. In blacksteel armour and shield and with huge cleaver. The armour was sharper than it had been in the Great War. The blades were heavier. The shields larger and made as to interlock. They were slower, definitely, but they had just been fighting dwarves. Behind, Fer saw four of them carry the long-rifles that pulsed red with a glow of stored magma. Fer held her breath. The six demoness in the air would need to go first. They were providing too much light. Then the gunners because their rifles shone with the ambient heat of their weaponry. The rest weren’t worth considering.

Fer found the angle. A line that would let her catch three of the succubi in the air on one pass. Speed was the goal. She had to go fast enough for Mammon to just catch a blur. No roaring either. Fer tensed her legs and core. She felt veins pop in her skin. Her nails once again became claws. Her teeth grew out into great fangs. Her golden mane grew thicker. She breathed in. Her chest rose. Her core grew hard as she waited for the distance to close. They were coming close now. One of the demons stopped. He swung that thick cleaver to the side to get the rest of the party to hold. The shield was raised. Fer’s direction.

Go time.

Stone cracked as all the pressure in Fer’s body released in the span of a single instant. Only a wave of dust flying the other direction was left behind the Goddess of Beasthood. She closed the distance on the first succubus in an instant. The demoness actually caught a glance. Fer saw the confusion in the woman’s eyes. She smelled the honey-sweet smell of a body that was only beginning to react to shock. The panic giving way to fear as the demoness tried to raise her arms before the Divine that was more than twice her size. And she only managed to raise a finger. Fer’s clawed hand got the woman’s stomach and split her in too. The dozen flames around her went out.

The next succubus faired no better. She lost her upper torso and her wings. The third was much like the first, split in two once again. And Fer, like an eagle that diving from one cloud to another, disappeared into the veil of darkness once again. She smashed into a wall. Claw cut into stone. Foot and tail braced, Fer slid a for moment, rolled, found her targets again and jumped off straight at another succubus.

Her first attack had been so fast they did not even know what hit them. The demoness spun her arms in a circle, she clad herself in a shield of flame. Fer held her breath and burst through the fire. It burned on the way in. Claw caught heart. And on the way out, the flames had already lost their fuel source in the woman’s magic. This time, Fer slammed into the ground like a cannonball, she ducked into a roll, her tail caught her. Her bestial eyes locked onto the final pair of demoness. One was holding an expanding flame above her head to try and expand the demon’s little island of light. The other was sending small flames cascading away from herself like tiny glowbugs.

Fer saw the angle. She jumped to the side. She lined the two women up. She cracked the black stone underneath her. She saw shields be raised from the ground. She saw half a succubus hit the ground. Another half knocked one of the soldiers over as it fell onto them. And with one hand, Fer took the head off one. With her jaws, she tasted the sweet blood of another. It was unnaturally warm, almost uncomfortably hot. One set of flames went out. Fer slammed into the wall. Another set of flames went out.

Darkness overtook the small team. Fer tilted her head back. She gave the air two sniffs. She aimed for the ambience of a magma battery from one of the rifles. There was no flying past the demons this time. The Goddess of Beasthood landed in the middle of the troop. A demon began to raise a blade and her tail threw a soldier into the air. A shield was brought up and Fer’s fist slammed through the stomach of a demon. One of the gunners was thrown into the wall and a shout was given out. A warcry was punctuated by the sound of the thrown demon’s rifle exploding and its magma hissing as it quickly cooled.

Fer caught a cleaver blow on her arm. It cut the skin and muscle. Got stuck on the bone. Regeneration kicked in. Muscle grew tight and kept the blade lodged in even as she felt its wielder tug back. A demon lost his head. The last gunner was thrown away. Roars and silence died down as even the measly ambient orange glow was left. One soldier’s order in a harsh, guttural language became a whimper, and then became silence.

Fer stood tall in the darkness as she felt the blade in her arm be tugged again. Her eyes caught nothing. She felt the demon tug. The ears on top of her head swivelled around. Footsteps retreating and coming closer, armour crashing on armour as her enemies, visionless crashed into each other. Metal on stone as they fell over. Metal on cloth as armour rubbed on undershirts. Cloth on thick leathery skin as they moved. Harsh breathing as they panicked. Controlled breathing as they tried to contain themselves. No breathing as fear overtook them. Heartbeats. Fer felt the blade be tugged again as she sniffed the air twice. Metal and blood and sulphur and stone were there and whatever emotion they had before had been wiped away in a flood of fear. It was so thick that it was almost intoxicating. Once again, the demon tugged.

Fer put an end to it.

Like a bloodhound hunting a scent, she moved from honeycomb to honeycomb as her claws and her fangs and her tail found demons to kill. She ripped the cleaver out from her arm, took another one in the torso, took a shield slam into her thigh. Took a stab with some dagger into her stomach. And she moved from blinded demon to blinded demon in this overwhelming darkness. She moved until there was no crashing of armour and until her nose only caught the sense of blood and of bitter, dying desperation. That went out quickly though.

Her ears turned again. Some men could silence their fear but there was no way to have willpower silence a heart. Four foes still remained here. They were silent, holding their breathes, two were trembling. One was moving, the barely-perceptible sound of rubbing cloth gave it away. Well, that barely perceptible sound and then the demon’s thunderous heartbeat. Fer silenced them all.

Once again, the Goddess of Beasthood straightened herself. Her ears swivelled around. The sound from ahead was stronger now. The sound of Kassandora’s trundling Second Expedition was slightly weaker. She was moving faster than them then. And from close by, Fer could only hear her own breathing and her own heart. She sniffed the air. Sulphur and blood and flesh and bone and stone and copper and iron in the walls. And gold of course. And nothing else. No emotion to be smelled.

Fer continued her journey.

Not for long though. Maybe an hour of travel in the darkness and Fer came to a stop. She did not bother advancing this time. There was no need. In the distance was not an approaching army, nor was it another squad. Grand pyres had been constructed as demons wandered about. Some commander was shouting orders. Steeds with manes of fire were lined up as they waited. One of the massive machines on two legs Tartarus used to breach into Dwarven Holds was being pulled into upright position by a team of demons, each individually as large as a house. Campfires were set up. A group of fireseerers were peering into a bonfire. It was a whole host. Yet that did not stop Fer. It was the grand flames behind that force that did.

They whisked up and from the side as if there was a junction here and they were rolling in like the crashing waves of a coastline. Every few minutes, a grand one would burst out of the floor. Openings in the side of the tunnel would be the only explanation for a pattern of fire such as that. Yet Fer knew that was impossible, she had seen the maps, there were no junctions here until the entire Sassara was crossed. It was a straight shot from Epa to Arika.

Another wave of rolled in, from left to right this time. It did not burn out. It did not crash into the side of the tunnel. It very obviously disappeared behind a jagged corner. Fer licked her lips as she watched fire burst out from below the ground. She had found it.

The end of the road.

The place where a continent was cracked.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep