The Goddess' Champion

"I have one more question for you, who or where can I reach if I want to become stronger with magic... or even as a werebeast." It wasn't every time Constantine managed to meet someone with so much knowledge, yet this damned skull is so eager to perish... he wanted to extract at least a bit more information.

"Go to the academy in the capital... conceal your prowess, if you show too much, I'm afraid your life will stop being yours... if you don't show enough, you will be cast aside, bear in mind my words. As for your werebeast powers... hehe~ let it flow, boy. There is nothing better than succumbing to one's natural instincts, allow them to guide you!"

Constantine's hand holding the heart shivered as he smiled, a little expectant even.

"... very well, Seledus. Thanks for everything." He disposed himself to devour this raw heart that was still connected to his body through a membrane.

"Hurry up before this entrance closes, by then you will be doomed!"

[This old man is quite strong for this world's standards, he barely reaches the demigod rank, by devouring his heart you're going to experience a huge backlash, brace.] Zebellia spoke words of caution.

Constantine was already thinking of giving a single bite, but as if the skull could already sense his thoughts, it spoke.

"You need to eat all of it, otherwise... my life will be wasted. I can't tell you anymore, if you get to know the current priestess, she will tell you everything you're qualified to know, your strength shall determine it. Go ahead."

With no words to say but the determination to show, Constantine opened wide.

He gulped and took a huge bite.

The voice didn't say anything or expressed any pain, or a grunt... nothing.

The taste of the heart was horrendous and the impact was immediate against his body, like sending magma to a frozen lake.

"UGHHH!!!!" He grunted his eyes opened widely going immediately bloodshot.

If he were to say how it felt in words, perhaps... throwing himself from an infinitely tall abyss and impacting the ground an hour after, such an impact, he felt it all over his body, but it didn't kill him.

He felt his consciousness giving away by the mere impact, but Constantine tried as hard as he could to resist it.

"Y-You can't lose consciousness boy! or you're dead, this place will be closed in less than an hour!"

"UGH!" All that passed by Constantine's mind was the image of his wives, the image of Aurelianne... Caroline, Lucille... he couldn't die again.

As if knowing his circumstances, he felt a sudden surge of positive energy and his mind cleared, the aura of life.

*RUMBLE!!*

Even the voice felt surprised by the sudden aura of life that engulfed this place.

'My Goddess...' This life aura could only have a source.

'Dear, come out of there!' Aurelianne yelled in his mind after having imparted him a small blessing, one that made him regain his consciousness greatly,

Without thinking twice, Constantine placed the entire heart in his mouth and devoured it like a hungry vagrant!

No more words were said from Seledus except for the last thought.

'Young Miss...'

Constantine fell heavily on the ground, contorting, twisting but with a clear mind, he experienced the pain at least ten times worse than the last due to that clarity, but his mind was not blown to the backyard, instead... he panted and recovered, feeling how his entire body itched like never before.

"U-UGH!"

[Your body is adapting to this new power, you need to keep this clarity, otherwise, you will turn into a mindless animal!]

'I-Its... easier said than done!' He grits his teeth harshly with everything he got, the pain the itch.

His visual zoom increased, his smell turned notorious and his eyes profound and dilated with a black border around them.

*GROWWLLL!!!!*

"Out, I have to get out of here!" His hand took the sword and placed the handle in his mouth, unbeknownst that his teeth had already started to change, those sharp teeth bit violently against the golden sword.

It was then that his gaze set on the skies as if gaining an artificial light that wasn't there previously and he noticed that the stars were not disappearing, the entrance was closing!

[You can't wait until the pain recedes, do it now!]

Constantine staggered up, feeling how his limbs expanded and his entire body seemed to grow white in colour.

"U-UGH!" He grunted bitting harshly against the sword that seemed undaunted by the pressure of his jaw, right now, bitting that sword was the only thing that brought him calmness.

His hair grew in size and when he placed his hands on the rocks, he saw them... small claws.

He hooked them against the stoned wall, sinking the nails the furthest possible in and tried to crawl up, all it whilst still trying to recede the pain that still rocked his body mercilessly.

One by one he made his steps out of the pit, almost falling several times.

*GROWLL!!*

[You're losing yourself, Constantine!]  Zebellia exclaimed but there was no consciousness to heed, only a lion.

*RUMBLE!!!*

Just as the opening on top was closing, the world started to shake beneath as a portal began to open, pitch black.

!!!!

[It's the portal! keep going! don't allow it to suck you! this one is worse than the other, this is not a common subdimension!] The mare's voice contained anxiousness, she couldn't do anything now, it was all on him.

Constantine felt his body being sucked in there, but his claws kept him tightly bound to the walls!

*GROWWLLLL!!!!*

Whilst being Constantine de Castille crawled out of the pit as it was about to fully close, releasing a slight growl as it still was deep in the night, not the best moment for him to be around.

He felt hungry, insatiably so...

But the portal wasn't finished, it had something else to offer, something wicked and terrifying.

"AURA OF LIFE, IN THE FALLEN SANDORIA."

!!!!

From the pitch-black darkness, a white silhouette became visible, like a ghost on the other side of the river, watching.

His small hand extended forward, and the moment it crept through the portal, it was no longer small.

A single finger was already massive!

Everything was being sucked into that pitch-black portal until nothing remained except for those walls, those walls that suddenly shone with inscriptions, a seal.

"I SHALL FINALLY WITNESS THE STARS..." The terrifying voice from the abyss said with longing but another entity in this world wouldn't allow it.

*RUMBLE!!!!*

It was then that a gigantic red-slitted eye appeared behind Constantine as he continued to crawl out, unaware of the madness happening below... a clash of gods.

'Why is there an atrocious entity sealed in here?! moreover, this law... Inexistence?! A foreign High-god...?' She couldn't understand, why was this seal so weakened that it opened under mere weight, 'either this seal is extremely weakened, or something tampered with it...'

It didn't matter, all she knew is that if she didn't do anything, Constantine would be no more.

With her current powers, the only physical part of her body she could materialise in this mortal world or any world was a single eye.

"BACK OFF!!" But a single eye was enough to send a threatening primordial time aura. Zebellia could do nothing but try to tamper with whatever this entity was, something terrifying that even she felt anxious about!

"TIME VALKYRIE, WHY IS THERE SOMEONE LIKE YOU... IN SANDORIA, INTERESTING. THE CURRENT YOU CAN'T STOP ME! I SHALL SEE THE STARS!"

The finger came into contact with the eye, producing a blast that shook Constantine's body and pushed him further out of the pit his body was still that of a hybrid elf, but there were several patches of white mane around his hands and legs, his skin had gained a whitish tonality and his hair, the mantle that covered was discarded and gave way to a big white mane of fur.

The White Lion was blasted away from the closing pit while Zebellia's physical form, the eye, was technically destroyed with a single touch, however... by the time the finger reached the surface the seal was almost closed.

"JUST A LITTLE MORE... THE STARS... NOOOO!!!"

But the seal didn't heed, the entrance closed before the finger could reach the exit, a small quake shook the world and the only thing Constantine could hear was the lamentations of a Fallen God.

"DAMN YOU!! SANDORK!!!"

The world had turned grey under this entity's might, but upon being engulfed by the seal, the clearing went back to what it used to be.

*GROOWWLLL!!!*

Constantine growled towards the night, feeling an eerie dark and abysmal aura start to dissipate after having appeared for a mere second as if the entire world turned sad, there were no animals, there was no life, everything turned grey.

'Dear...' Aurelianne spoke in his mind still feeling his faith, but he wasn't in his right mind either.

Constantine felt more hunger than anything else, an insatiable hunger.

A boar nearby became his first victim.