Awakening The Only SSS-Rank Class! Now Even Dragons Obey Me Chapter 2: The Fallen

[Death confirmed.]

[Exceptional condition detected...]

[Class activation in progress...]

[Class received: Fallen Priest]

[Class description:] The Fallen Priest acts as a herald for both redemption and ruin. Once a devotee to the light, now he treads the fragile boundary of compassion and insanity. Divine blood courses through him, yet his deity... tolerates no rivals. He devotes himself to the deity unleashing the end times upon the realm.

[Innate Talent activated: Blood Of God]

[Talent description:] Blood Of God: Essence corrupted by destiny's endless loops. This vital fluid compels any creature to submit. Drinkers transform into devoted thralls to the dark deity and its cleric.

[Skill activated: Fallen Will]

[Skill description:] Fallen Will: Briefly surrenders bodily command to the class's core spirit. Upon use, the wielder manifests as the 'complete Fallen Priest.' Temperament shifts occur. Sacred abilities become accessible. Length: 2 minutes. Post-effect fainting is possible.

[Skill available: Crimson Judgment]

[Skill description:] Crimson Judgment: A sacred verdict cloaked in fury. Every foe within view faces judgment. Beasts of Corruption face total annihilation at 100% rate from their essence. Celestial fury descends as sanguine rain.

He lay sprawled upon the dirt.

No sounds penetrated his ears, and no agony registered. His form felt utterly alien, as if severed from his will.

Then... his eyelids parted.

Within his orbits, twin golden blazes flickered mutely, brimming with derangement.

No longer pale brown, his gaze had ignited into searing gold.

Crimson mist seeped from his flesh. The gashes that had shattered his skeleton moments before mended with faint whispers. Flesh knit together. Epidermis reformed.

Yet no trace of mortal warmth lingered in his stare, least of all in those aureate depths. It seemed as though a stranger inhabited him.

Daniel drew in a profound breath and rose. His movements flowed with grace and firmness, akin to one readying for a sacred ceremony.

"...The garments are soaked in gore.

Yet this instance... I stand as the executioner." he murmured serenely. His tone rang foreign, gravelly and fractured.

Alice slumped to her knees, heaving for air. Her blade dripped red and lay in shards, her vision blurred by sobs.

As Daniel approached with deliberate slowness, her mouth quivered.

"D-Daniel...?"

"...Are you alright?!"

"Big brother!!"

Daniel ignored her entirely. His focus remained locked on his mending injuries. He observed his restoring physique with innocent fascination.

Abruptly, laughter escaped him—not boisterous, but a subdued, shattered chuckle.

It echoed more like infernal mockery than human mirth.

He pivoted toward the surviving Beasts of Corruption, regarding them with delight, as if beholding playful youngsters.

The other survivors had long since vanished from sight. Hardly unexpected.

Protocols for such crises exist in training regimens, taught to youth across the board.

After all, towers and dungeons have plagued this world for close to centuries now. Society has adapted to these horrors.

Military forces and the global alliance, leveraging advanced tech and artifacts from the Celestial Domain, typically contain rift outbreaks.

Should a rift breach erupt nationwide, warnings flash instantly, alerting every guild within seconds.

Awakened warriors rush forth to slay beasts and claim the zone. Their arrival proves swift.

He pondered briefly—what reactions await the responders upon discovering the beasts' total absence?

Awakened don't purge these threats from pure altruism. They crave the remains for spoils.

But with no carcasses remaining?

Daniel spread his limbs wide. A metallic chime resonated from his limbs as they extended.

"My offspring..."

"Why abandon the true way? Why forsake your creator?"

"Did I not birth you in decay's cradle? Did you not beseech my grace?" Daniel halted briefly, as though recollection struck.

"Merely jesting. I formed none of you." His grin dissolved.

"...Yet judgment falls to me now." He exhaled wearily, as if reluctant to proceed.

Though the whimsical gleam in his eyes revealed otherwise.

[Activating "Crimson Judgment"]

The earth split beneath Daniel's stance.

Beneath him materialized a somber crimson sigil etched with ancient, corroded runes.

The heavens tore asunder.

Sanguine droplets plummeted from above—neither illusion nor reality.

The creatures lacked even time to flee.

Scarlet beams, resembling godly lashes, struck the soil. Each visible Beast of Corruption dissolved without a sound. No cries, no splatter—merely obliteration. Vanishing.

The D-rank corruption beasts shredded effortlessly, akin to swatting insects.

Alice scrambled away in terror. What spectacle had unfolded before her? How was it possible?

How had her sibling eradicated every fiend? Mere moments prior, he was but a common soul. Now, this?

He dispatched those horrors with such ease.

She, hailed as the city's premier prodigy, lacked such might.

Yet her once-deemed worthless brother now wielded this prowess?

What class bestowed upon him such dominance?

Tremors wracked her frame in dread.

Daniel wheeled around, his vacant golden gaze piercing Alice's weeping one.

A tense hush enveloped them briefly.

Then—his eyes dimmed. The golden radiance faded.

His frame slackened. Legs buckled, and like a fractured effigy, he toppled sideways.

The system's whisper barely registered:

[Duration of skill "Fallen Will" has ended.]

[Body in half-dead state. Returning to normal... in progress.]

[All awakened stats have returned to normal.]

[Skill "Fallen Will" cannot be used again for three months.]