The tribeswoman leads us to their so-called divine beast. As we walk, I can’t help but notice the rich culture of these people. It is completely and totally alien to anything my home dimension has. Their coming-of-age ceremony apparently involves wrestling a bobcat into submission. As the tribeswoman would tell me, all of their traditions were created by the divine beast a few years ago when it first arrived.

We finally arrive at where the beast is sitting. It sits on an elevated wooden platform. It appears to be some sort of wolf creature. The tribespeople escorting us immediately drop to their knees and bow. As I inspect the wolf creature, I can see it staring deeply into me eyes. The tribeswoman turns her head up to me and says,

"Usually it can communicate with us, but since the death of the Voice of God it has lost this power. We are greatly saddened by this!" My goggles of revealing show me exactly what I suspected: this creature does not have a predatory soul, but a wise soul. Very well. I approach the wolf creature, but it bears its fangs at me. The tribespeople immediately shoot up and hold me at spear-point. "Do not get any closer to the divine beast!"

"Relax. See this device in my hand?" I hold up one of my speech devices.

"We don’t care for your witchcraft! Step back at once!" I sigh. I quickly socket my time-stop spell focus and activate it. In frozen time, I walk up to the wolf and stick the pointy end of the device into its neck. I return to where I was when time is frozen and the wolf creature falls in pain.

"Greeowoel—02@&?&)$ Fuck! That stings like a bitch!" The device stutters and stumbles for a moment before coherent words emerge. "Hold on…" The tribespeople look on in amazement. "I can talk again! Holy shit! Thank you! How did you do that!?"

"Next time, don’t jump to conclusions. Now, if it’s not rude of me to ask, where do you come from? Don’t tell me the name of some half-baked badland. Where do you really come from?" The creature doesn’t seem to catch my meaning at first, but when it does it rapidly smacks its paws in excitement.

"Holy shit! I thought I was the only one! The god told me I was given a special opportunity for insane power in exchange for serving it." Says the wolf.

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"You have been misinformed. I’ve learned there are at least 100 people like you in this world alone. Now, I have another question. She said you lost your ability to speak a few days ago. By any chance, was this something that this world calls a skill?" The wolf nods. How cliché. That god must have been a manga fan or something. "I see. Well I regret to inform you that nobody in this world will ever use any of these skills again. I killed the Voice of God and the vis network they had so carefully constructed for so long was destroyed as a result. Even magic won’t work anymore." Everyone, including the wolf, is absolutely flabbergasted that such a thing is possible. It’s hard to read their faces, and just when I think they’re about to attack me out of anger, they start singing and dancing.

"Hooray! No more Church of God!" Several of them yell.

"I don’t understand. Didn’t the divine beast use skills to help defend this tribe?" I ask.

"He did, but the Church of God posed a much bigger threat to us. We’d rather have them gone and be left to fend for ourselves," explains the tribeswoman. I turn to look at the wolf, who is not as enthusiastic as everyone else.

"I apologize. I can infer you were quite fond of your magical powers. Did you fancy yourself special in some way?" He nods. "I see. Well, we are all special in the eyes of the true God, Yahweh. I assume you’re familiar with Christianity from our old world. Well, it’s true. And right now, my friends and I are on an expedition to reach Heaven. I’d be delighted if you joined our cause." The wolf thinks about this for a moment.

"What do you mean by gods? The one you killed was the only one, well, apart from the true God you’re mentioning." I take a moment to explain the cosmic hierarchy to him. "I see… well, in that case, I’d love to join you."

"Very good. Now, I’d like you to meet Julius and Winter." I gesture to the frail young woman and titanic golem behind me. "Julius actually used to be like you, trapped in the body of a beast by a god. Since I was able to grow her a new body, I’ll start the same process for you."

"Actually, I think I prefer this body. In my old life I was a wimp who got pushed around by everyone. But now, even without skills… well, it’s better to demonstrate." He walks up to a tree and cuts it down with a single swipe of his paw. Impressive for an unenhanced lifeform.

"Are you sure? I imagine it has to feel weird for you. But I suppose I’ll respect your wishes. By the way, what is your name?"

The wolf pauses to think. "Well, uh, it’s kinda embarrassing, but somehow I forgot my own damn name! When I was a cub, I hit my head on a tree, and since then it’s been hard to remember certain stuff from when I was, well, human."

"Very well then. I shall dub you Ican after terminology used to describe canines. Let us be off, for we have many more people to save in this dimension."