Harbinger of Chaos, Servant of the old Gods, Beast Master, Monster, Betrayer. Wilhelm Shadowsong has held many titles befitting of his role in the history of Re:O, but none believed the stories of the greatest player in the massive VRMMO. But as the simulcast stream of his latest exploits took over screens around the world all were forced to bear witness to his madness.

Standing between the armies of the Roman-based guild The High Legion. And the Anglo-Saxon based guild The Grand Crusade he stood alone among the countless corpses of wolves, bears, lions, foxes, and ravens.

A beast of a man standing at nearly seven foot tall with a head of long wild brown hair that reached the middle of his back, His beard came down to the top of his pectorals, His body a mass of solid muscle. Clad in nothing but a black kilt with a pitch black Halberd that was large enough that it could easily cleave through a horse.

His tanned flesh marked with both Nordic and Celtic tattoos, scars marred his otherwise smooth flesh, But despite being surrounded the man seemed to be grieving the loss of the animals around him.

Upon closer inspection, they had all been struck down by a cloud of arrows. Alone he stood unharmed, yet coated in blood. The beasts closest to him had covered his body with their own to protect their master.

If someone had not been keeping up on the current events in the world's greatest video game turned international television sensation they would not understand why two armies of one million players each would band together to kill just one man.

But as the sun dipped beneath the horizon and the amber glow of Twilight engulfed the world a blood-curdling howl was heard as the lone man threw back his head, It was a sound that all could relate to sadness and rage. And it was at this very moment that all hell broke loose.

The tattoos all over the man's body began to glow a deep crimson as the beast blood all around him began to glow and flood towards him, At the same time the two armies began their charge, their mages starting the incantations for their spells as priests cast their blessings upon the soldiers.

Before the eyes of all the blood was absorbed into the man's body and his howl turned to a cruel laughter as the man swung the halberd across both of his shoulders and began to shout in a deep voice that carried out across the plains, drowning out the warcries of the two armies.

 "I, The Forsaken Wolf of Oden, The Beloved Champion of Freyja. Surrender my Honor!"

"I, The Blood of the Tuatha, Beloved of the Morrigan. Toss aside my Pride!"

"I, The Old Friend of the Forest, The Body of the Beast, Savior of Yggdrasil Discard my Kindness!"

"I, The Leader of the Damned, Chosen Warrior of Hades. Embrace my Insanity as I Lose my Humanity!"

"I Sing the Song of Shadows! The song of Vengence! I welcome The Fury and Hatred!"

 With every line he spoke an aura of dread began to emanate from his body, a light of black and crimson shone down upon him, Around his neck, On both of his ankles, and both of his wrists a black iron band appeared, each etched with different languages. Gaelic, Nordic, Greek, And an unintelligible script never before seen.

The Halberd shattered as he slammed the spiked butt to the ground, the very earth shook and cracked open, Pale green flames shot forth from the cracks and engulfed the bodies of the beasts as they rose to their masters call once again.

At the same time, the man's body shook and began to grow larger, His jaw, Metatarsals, Phalanges, And Metacarpals becoming elongated, As his body grew his skin grew dark as hair began to cover his body rapidly. Soon Standing at eight feet tall and weighing five hundred pounds of solid muscle, Was the Lupus Rex.

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The King of all werewolves both Player and NPC, His fur was the same dark brown as his hair but what stood out was the brilliant grey-silver fur that was in place of his tattoos, the intricate designs still shown upon his body.

With a bone-rattling howl, the reanimated beasts scattered, charging their killers ranks, And once they were close enough to enough enemies they would explode in a blast of fire and bone. The blood of the Ravens and Crows had become acid which now rained down from the sky killing all those unfortunate enough to be out of range of the healers.

In mere moments both armies had sustained heavy losses, But their horror was far from over. The Beast crouched over one beast that had not moved when the others had been reanimated, A large black female wolf with a silver patch of fur on her lower back that looked like a perfect Triple Goddess.

A Wiccan Symbol that represented the stages of life, The Maiden, The Mother, And The Crone. As the Beasts claw ran tenderly across her fur the wolf's body changed to that of a beautiful young woman, A Druid. Her flesh was pale as snow; her hair was long and straight, and as black as night.

She was a larger woman, standing at six feet tall but with a toned yet voluptuous figure, The woman had been his partner, the only one who would not fear him despite his immense rage, Yet now she was dead all because of some rumors that he was building an army to conquer the world. Rumors that he was an NPC that held immense wealth.

The Beast stood and grasped the band around his neck and shattered it, causing the moon to rise more swiftly in the sky until it stood at its zenith, the light shining down upon the beast as three brilliant albino crows descended and perched upon his body.

But the beast shook and pointed to the woman as he growled, While the crows showed concern they fluttered down to the woman, and as they did her body began to ascend into the sky.

This act would shock everyone as he had used one of only a handful of resurrection items in the game. The only one that had been attained by a player. The Torc of The Morrigan. You see the reason why the game was called Rebirth Online was thanks to its intricate system of Rebirth.

When a character died, they could be reborn, but with a bonus for every level over twenty, they had grown in the game. However, the feature was only active for Players and what he had just used it on was a lowly NPC.

As the woman vanished into the sky with the crows and the pillar of light dispersed the Beast threw back his head and howled out once more before he kicked the ground hard, creating a crater as he launched into the nearest battalion of soldiers and began ripping them apart in a terrible and painful manner.

Horror was apparent in the eyes of the soldiers around him as their blades could not even cut his pelt, His level and defenses were simply too high for those who served as infantry, those who were promised that this would be an unlosable fight.

With every kill the Beast grew faster and stronger, biting into the throats of men and ripping out large chunks of meat, flesh, and bone. Gulping it all down as fireballs began to bombard him. Killing dozens of soldiers around him while he stood unharmed.

Seeing even high-level spells have seemingly no effect on him some attempted to run, But as they did a brilliant golden light shown down upon the battle. Countless winged figures plummeted from the sky and slammed down in a crouch around the battleground.

At the same time, hundreds of ghostly Draken Harald Hårfagre class ships sailed down from the heavens, each packed to the brim with the eternal warriors of Odin, The Einherjar. And as the ships came to a halt the Warriors leaped from the vessel and joined the Valkyries in blocking all from running.

And as massive shield wall was completed a deep voice rumbled down from the heavens.

"Those who dare to challenge a Demi-god have no right to flee, Die a glorious and honorable death and perhaps you may still have a chance to be reborn again!"

Horror was felt by all as a message was displayed on their screens. Warning! attempting to flee this battle will result in instant death at the hands of Odin's warriors and your character will no longer be eligible for rebirth and instead, you will be forced to make a new character.

For the next six hours what was displayed was a brutal slaughter as a lone beast, The most dominant player of Re:O let all know his wrath and power. It was not until the half-way point in the battle that the strongest players in the armies even stepped forward.

While their attacks managed to wound the beast the wounds healed within seconds of taking another life, Even when his arms and legs were separated from his body they would reattach as soon as he shoved the parts to their stumps.

None below a certain level of perception could even see the beast's fur anymore, all that they saw was a gruesome blood-soaked whirl of malice. And as the sun began to peak over the horizon the beast stood alone upon a mountain of corpses.

His body returned to its human form as he let out a savage war cry, and as he did the sound of axes, spears, and sword slamming against shields rang out as the Einherjar and the Valkyries began their accent back to Valhalla.

What all would see was the sight of a monster wearing the suit of a man, his body even now impaled with spears, arrows, and daggers. But still, he stood tall and proud, His heart pounding so violently that the Cradle was forced to alert local EMTs to his home as he went into full Tachycardia.

One Year Earlier.