"There where I stood ¿ I awoke to the beauty of the realm I wandered, and yet death seemed to be hovering above me the deeper I dared to go." When traveling tribes happen on a vast, until then unruled region in quest of a place to settle, they claim the entire land theirs, all but conscious of the realm they have entered¿that of beast. Three years later, Artias, the first man ever to have survived an encounter with a man-eater, decides to apprise everyone of these great critters that wake at the absence of light; unfortunately, he is unaware of the events that are to follow his arrival at a small village, where just recently a beast prowled about ¿ . Though set to aid the people, even vowing to ward them, he cannot keep the creature from falling upon a man in the dead of night. Blamed for the fellow¿s passing, Artias faces the cruelty of human nature, losing his temper no sooner than being accused of having ill intentions. Elsewhere, vengeful men¿all of whom have committed many a misdeed¿are in search of him. Nevertheless, however vile they are deemed to be, it happens that Artias is much alike these fellows; because he, too, has led himself astray. Although he finds heaven in their company, many are the men who want them dead forth on; Artias has unintentionally interfered with the doings of fiends, hindering them in their task, which eventually leads to the discovery of a horrible truth. A story that fundamentally focuses on the beast in us.