Mad God Chapter 184

Published at 7th of December 2022 12:07:28 PM

“Was it wise to let him have the body?” Shaman asked as they were walking away from the ents' forest, watching Ren play with the demonic core of Harimau between her fingers.

“You need to place some trust into someone if you wish to work with them. From what I could tell, Allfather is someone I can respect for now. If I am wrong, we are going to learn it soon enough anyway.” Ren said, putting the core away. “And it was an exchange; The body for the core.”

“Plus he said he is going to look into what is going on with the other ents and contact you, no?” Ariana added, looking at Shaman. 

“I still don't trust that tree. I am willing to wait and see if he keeps his words but I'll continue my research and use the dwarfs' inventions to come up with something even better! We can't be sure enough.” He answered.

“Do that.” Ren nodded as they arrived at the same bridge they crossed before. “We also need countermeasures against their weapons of fire. Maybe you two did not realize, but Allfather was also surprised about our information on the dwarfs.”

“It showed a weakness of theirs.” Ariana pondered. “Up in the mountains there are no trees. They won't know what is going on there or under it. It is a blindspot and they did not even consider it before.”

“They know about it now! Let us see how they handle the new information.” Ren pondered when Shaman's question echoed out as they were walking over the huge bridge.

“Which side are you going to help? Or just sit back and watch?”

“The ents.” Ren replied almost immediately, surprising Shaman and even Ariana a little. “What?” She looked at them with a smile. “I don't look at it as humans versus demons. I look at who I feel is right. The dwarfs burned my people. Simple as that! I'm not going to help them! If they resurface, I'll beat them back to their tunnels. End of the story.”

When they arrived back to their part of the forest, Ren let Shaman and Ariana travel back to Thunder Valley to brief everyone. Ren on the other hand was quickly flying to the spot where the real Soul Tearer formation was set up previously. It still buzzed in a dormant state as 01, 02, Eisen and Sezel were already there as Ren arrived.

“Boss!” Eisen shouted while the rest also bowed, greeting her.

“You smell like a wet dog.” Ren grinned, making the others gulp back their laughs but Eisen just let it out.

“Ahaha, what can I say? I like those bastards! I always was a dog person! Boss, I was thinking, can I stay here a little longer?”

“Oh?” Ren asked as she looked at her, scanning her up and down before nodding.

“Sure. I don't mind it. You could take some of your new boyfriends and scout the mountain ranges for me. I wanted to send one of you on this mission anyway! I take it that you are volunteering for it then.” 

“Yeah, that is superb, Boss!” She saluted with a happy expression. 

“Then it is settled. Keep an eye out for any changes and notify me and the forming council of demons if they poke their noses above ground! I also need someone who stays here in Thunder Valley and be my direct contact. Sezel.”

“No problem.” She agreed immediately.

“Good. You are going to be my voice when I'm not here, it is easier for me that way.” Ren stretched while 01 and 02 stepped forward, presenting every demonic core they collected while battling against the tigers. 

“You two head back to the Empire and get ready. Give this to Aerthus X.” Ren said as she presented a sealed letter to 01. “I'll head back soon and I'll start cleaning house.”

“Master?” The duo asked, tilting their heads.

“I was born in the Empire. I can't leave it weakened so I am going to help out Feynor. A third sect, Ironclaw, huh?” She crossed her arms, while closing her eyes. “Good. They can be the first.” She murmured and when she opened her eyes they were flashing with lightning. “The first to be destroyed, that is. I am going to find any and all of their bases, torch them to the ground and find Rudrick. No matter if they are in the Kingdom or not. If anyone stands in my way, they die.”

“Understood.” 01 and 02 said as they cupped their hands and left hurriedly.

“You too, go on your way.” Ren smiled. “What I'm going to do is going to be dangerous. If you stay, I can't guarantee your lives!”

“No need to tell me twice, Boss!” Eisen said as she twitched her mouth. “See ya later!” She flew up, disappearing quickly while Sezel just bowed before leaving. Deep inside, she was already happy with her assignment as it meant she could laze around for the upcoming months or even years, doing nothing and just enjoying life in Thunder Valley. When only Ren remained she could hear Leinor's voice from behind her.

“Is there enough?” He asked, looking at the pouch in her hand, through Ren's eyes, seeing dozens of demonic cores, including the Tiger King's.

“Should be enough.” Ren nodded. “I'll use all my powers and part of my own soul to operate the formation. I can maintain it for around 2 seconds.”

“What?!” He gawked, not believing what he was hearing.

“Mmm? What did you think?” She asked, looking at the lightning pillars with a calm expression. “Without the cores it would be less than a second. With this much, I could pump it up to two seconds. It is enough.”

“Are… are you sure? It does not sound enough!” 

“You don't get it.” She shook her head. “Time flows differently for a God. When you lose the meaning of time, your perspective of it also changes. You easily affect time around you. Those two seconds can be just as long as two minutes or an instant. This is why my junior brother's affinity is special, it could be seen as godlike. You'll see.” She said as she floated upwards, right into the middle of the formation as she distributed the cores, holding onto Harimau's. 

When the formation started up, there was no warning, no build up, it happened in an instant. From the clear Sky lightning struck and they were dark red, turning quickly blackish, emitting a horrifying feeling, especially for Leinor, who was only a fragment of a soul now. He instinctively knew, if it hit him, he would be gone without even realizing it. 

“Wait…” He whispered and he realized why he saw the reddish lightning strikes turning completely black… it was because all the colors from the world were gone. Everything looked black and some kind of shade of gray. The strikes from the Sky were frozen in place, their and everything else's time has stopped. “No… it is not stopped… slowed?” He asked with uncertainty. 

“Yes. To a crawl.” Ren answered and as she turned, she could now see him. Her own soul was floating behind her corporeal body, making her finally able to look into Leinor's eyes. “Now I can see you...” Ren whispered, stretching out her arm, hugging onto Leinor's neck.

She just buried her face into him, not wanting to let go, ever again. Both of them were only souls now, as anything physical was frozen in time and the difference was clearly visible. While Ren's soul was bright and vivid, Leinor's was dim, barely noticeable, especially as she hugged him. Their sizes were reversed, Ren looked like an adult now, holding a small child, afraid to let him go.

“How touching…” An unfamiliar voice said, as if it just woke up.

Ren said nothing, just hugged Leinor even stronger, before finally letting him go and turning backwards, looking down. A heart sized crystal rose up from the ground, gently spinning in place. It was dim, dark and only grayish smoke rose up from it, unable to take any kind of form. It was only existing as a formless mist.

“My name is Ren.” She spoke up, standing before Leinor, shielding him with her own soul.

“Kai. That was my name once.” He replied calmly, “I also meant what I said.” He added, seeing Ren's look. “What year is it?” He asked after a little pause. “Not like it matters…” He added suddenly, chuckling a little.

“True and I could not tell you, as probably nobody counts it like you did. Honestly, I didn't even know about your existence. None of them mentioned you. Nor does the world have any clues about your existence. I heard nothing about you, not from Skoorn, Nilier, Alfina nor Oynega.”

“You know about them?” His voice was clearly surprised but soon a small realization came to him. “Ah I see. You were the one who disturbed my slumber back here a moment ago. It makes sense now.”

“That was decades ago…” Leinor whispered.

“Years, seconds, centuries or eons. The universe does not need to bother with something like… time. We come and go, the cosmos remains. It always was, always will be in one form or another. Time is meaningless to it. We, living beings, were the ones who created the concept of time, the universe does not need it to function. We do.”

“I don't get it…” Leinor replied, watching the God before him yet felt no fear because Ren being with him gave all the confidence he needed. 

“You don't need to.” Both Kai and Ren said at the same time. “Oh?” Echoed out a small fluctuation from Kai's voice. “You are… not just a simple cultivator, are you? I felt it previously too. There was something… strange about your soul.”

“I once was a God, like you.” Ren nodded.

“I see.” Kai replied only after a moment of thinking. “You overcame the laws of reincarnation. Then it was this formation of yours that let you do it, no?” He asked as he 'looked' around. “Ah, you modified it, I see. But I can see the laws still imbued into it. It could kill me now. Smart. I would have done the same.”

“You are… perceptive.” Ren acknowledged with mixed feelings. On one side, a small type of fear was creeping up her spine, on the other side, she was feeling great excitement by talking to him. 

“I created this world, its laws, its nature, the same goes to the reincarnation cycle that is in the works in this realm. I can recognize a spell made to overwrite my own set of laws.” Kai laughed softly. “I commend you for doing so! You opened up my Sky, yes?”

“...” Ren just looked at the God Crystal without a word, her eyes turning dead serious.

“It is the only logical conclusion why you chose reincarnation. A brave choice. I can admire someone with that resolve, risking true death and going through with it still.”

“Now I have more questions that you could answer me in the time frame we have.” She sighed.

“Time… yes. We can't escape time as we are living beings. Even if we don't age, the concept of it is going to govern our lives. Always.” Kai sighed with a clear disappointment in his voice. “I'll tell you in brief then and you can decide to finish me off or not. At least you could do it now, not like my four disciples.” He changed his voice back into a calm tone. “As I said, my name is Kai, I was born in a different realm, raised as part of a Sect, named Starlight.”

While both Leinor and Ren had questions bubbling up in them, none of the two wanted to cut in and ask him, doing their best to stay patient and listen to his story.

“It was a hard journey but one day I became the 36th Sect Master. Under my leadership came the darkest days of our Sect and our Realm. It was attacked by another and it was taken over. The different sects in it were being destroyed, their cultivators put to death, same with my people. With my brothers and sisters, we escaped. We were scattered in the cosmos, chased and exterminated by our enemy, one by one. They left nothing to chance, determined to clean us out so no seeds remain. They wouldn't let us and our possible descendants to grow into a flower of revenge. It was the end and I knew it. Some of my people were blind to it… or just did not accept it and they chose death instead. I had chose a different path.” Kai explained with an even voice through the whole tale. “I found a virgin realm, still in the verge of just forming. I used it to create my new home and used my own cultivation to help it take shape. Dispersing my powers into it made sure that all laws were written by me and it was seeded with life in the process.”

“I get it now…!” Ren gasped suddenly. “That is why there were so few cultivators back then! The energy inside the world was yours! Your principles! It was not enough for everyone! Only sufficient for a limited number of people! We inadvertently followed YOUR way! No wonder it was a dead end! No wonder the cosmos rejected me when I made contact with it! I built myself up on YOUR powers, YOUR laws, FUCK!” 

“Yes.” Kai said simply. “I sealed this realm off from the outside. This world that way would be spared from the experience of what so many others go through. It would be hidden from the different forces of the cosmos; The tyrants, the bandits, the conquerors, the heroes, the adventurers, the horrors. It would be better to live a mundane yet happy existence than being destroyed by another. The life seeded in this realm would be in balance with my law of reincarnation, experiencing different lives for all eternity. Without being devoured, tortured or enslaved and I would stay amongst you, protecting you from the cosmos.”

“Yet you ended up… here.” Leinor said, holding onto Ren's trembling shoulders.

“Yes. I raised four really talented souls. Taught them everything I knew. Told them what kind of world the cosmos is. I aimed to create four Gods to help me protect this paradise… but… they came to a conclusion; As long as I am here, they could be attacked and this realm could be destroyed if the outside world finds me. So they conspired, destroyed my body and sealed my core away. They made sure that I was erased from view. They made sure nobody knows I ever existed.” Kai said, telling his story with a calm voice, letting Ren and Leinor take it in before speaking. “Now you know. Make your decision.” He said it to Ren. Leinor could already see the lightning around them, ever so slowly, moving once again as the wheel of time started to pick up speed again. 

“Would you kill them if you came back?” Ren asked.

“No. Why would I? They fear what is outside and they made their decision. I can understand it. It hurt… yes… but I abandoned the thought of revenge once, I can do it a second time. Also, it doesn't matter anymore. I can feel it. You opened up the Sky. No matter if they patch it again and again. The Realm has been washed by the Cosmos once. In one or two epochs, it is going to open up naturally. You can't reverse it, not anymore.” Kai said before he fell silent, finally adding with a calm and understanding voice “Do what you feel is right.”

“Ren?” Leinor asked, looking at the back of his wife who watched the God Crystal, ever so slowly rotating before them.

“I made my decision.” She said, reaching out and touching it. Suddenly everything went back to normal, without any warning, just like when it all started.

Color returned to the world, lightning struck down with loud, thundering noise, disintegrating the formation of hers as every demonic core turned to dust. Ren was floating above the ground, God Core in hand, looking at it.

“Ren?” Her husband's voice once came again from inside her mind.

“I want to know more.” She said, putting it away. “I have a body, ready to accept it.” She looked up to the sky. “He knows what is outside… I want to learn about it, I want every friend of mine to learn about it. I want them to be safe when one day they travel the cosmos.”

“What if he lied?” Leinor questioned her.

“He had no reason to do so… and I know those four… and now I can see things I ignored back then. He told the truth, LeiLei. I can feel it.” Ren whispered as she flew up in the air, heading not to Thunder Valley but to a place between the Empire and the Kingdom. To a specific backwater of the Shert River, where a frozen temple was buried underwater.

Chapter end