Mad God

Inside the Wonder Emporium's meeting chamber sat the current leading force of Rozex. The only time this happened before was when the city was established by Zelig. Now, as the city was at the precipice of destruction, it happened again. Around the big, oval table sat Keina, Rabout, and Ren, accompanied by the leaders of multiple noble families associated with the three spires. It included not just the Nelvis family but dozens of others. They nervously fidgeted; the only collected family leader was Veponia, who now even represented the Spire of Corvux until it was rearranged and rebuilt. Rumors were floating around that it may be called the Spire of Veponia in the future. Of course, most who heard it found it nonsense as the Brightseed family barely carried a faint strain of the Naulin bloodline. Whatever was present was only because of Corvux's experiments or the purebloods who knocked up the women of the household.

"Is it something big to call all of us here without prior notice?" Rabout asked with a half-smile while Milly stood behind his chair respectfully, avoiding the gaze of Veponia, her own mother.

"It is." Ren nodded, tapping on the table twice, and Levictus walked in, quickly drawing all attention to himself.

"For a moment, I thought it was Aerthus himself!" Rabout sighed, voicing the others' thoughts because they really thought that until he spoke up.

"He is my father." Levictus nodded, standing next to Ren's chair.

"Then you are someone almost as old as our forefather." Rabout joked, nodding towards him while his eyes were filled with questions. There were still many things that were lost to time from the earliest days of the two rivaling bloodlines, and he wanted to learn all about those days.

"You are the first of your bloodline to step into this city! I am surprised you were let in." Keina sighed, shaking her head, but her eyes were smiling at his braveness.

"I was not let in. If Zelig knew I was here, he would have already appeared by now."

"Oh?" She furrowed her eyebrows, but her eyes approved him even more after that.

"The whole city is in danger," Ren spoke up, freezing the people in the room right into their chairs. Rabout's smile quickly vanished from his face, hearing her tone.

"I am a formation expert." Levictus explained, "Elder Ren here-"

"I quit the Sect, remember?" She chuckled, throwing a grin, but he ignored her and continued.

"-discovered troubling formations, hidden under every Spire."

"You are no fun…." Ren clicked her tongue while Veponia's eyes lit up.

"That is why you asked me to bring you to him?" She interjected.

"Yes." Ren nodded towards her, "I had to personally looked at it, and I sent it over to Levictus. He was a disciple of an Immortal who is also a formation grandmaster."

"Immortal?" asked not just one voice at the same time, sitting up straight, looking at Levictus.

"Long story! When everything settles, I'll tell you." Ren waved her hand. "The main point is you can trust his words! If it is about formations, I would believe him even if he says I need to hop like a frog from A to B to counteract one!"

"There are no formations like that," Levictus argued immediately, but Ren just sighed, accompanied by a chuckle from Ariana.

"It was a joke… whatever!" Ren shook her head. "Show them, please."

"Mm. I know." He nodded, making Ren twitch her eyes. Before she could react, he was laying out a massive parchment on the table depicting the city's blueprint. It was drawn up with the Spires as focal points. "Observe; I am going to explain it." he looked over at them as he started to narrate everything he knew about the formation while drawing it up.

As his explanation went on, some lost the plot almost immediately or right after three sentences, grabbing their hair and looking miserable. Others tried to play it cool and nodded like they understood everything he was saying, but deep inside, they were only counting the number of times the word 'formation' came out of his mouth.

"Master," Ariana asked via voice transmission, "do you understand any of the things he says? I kept up until now, but I gave up! The things under the Spires and their connection are too much! I can't keep up!"

"Huh?" she tilted her head backward, looking up at her face. "Sorry, I was thinking about what to eat for dinner. What do you say if we host a barbecue party? Have some roasted, juicy, yummy meat? Sizzling above open fire, accompanied with some baked potatoes?"

"M-master… you should… pay attention…" She twitched her mouth, but she barely managed to gulp back her saliva before drooling like a starving puppy.

"Eh? Why? This is way too dry of a topic! Not to mention how confusing it is! It makes my thinking box filled with weird symbols that make me dream about math, and then I wake up with a headache! Noooooo, he is going to work it out; point me where I need to punch, and everything resolves itself! It is as easy as drawing a penis on your sleeping face!"

"Drawing what?!" Ariana flinched, almost yelling out.

"It is still on. Why do you think everyone looked at you like that when you came in?"

"Eh?!" She now yelped out loudly. Everyone suddenly turned towards her, even Levictus. Ariana's face turned a deep shade of red immediately, imagining everyone was looking at a crude drawing on her cheeks. "S-sorry… I was just surprised," she whispered, holding her shaking hands behind her back.

"Understandable." Levictus nodded, "This portion is a stroke of a genius. Whoever came up with this formation in ancient times was the grandfather of formations. It was made to kill a Demigod… so you all can gather its potential! Still, back then, Demigods had weaker power than third-level Harmony experts nowadays. Simply because, going by the amount of energy they had access to, they lacked a lot of things we do not. That said, if it siphoned the lifeforce of everyone living here, it could possibly kill someone at the 3rd stage."

This quick explanation had a more profound impact than anything he had said before, horrifying the family heads and making Keina and Rabout curse out.

"Master…" Ariana transferred her voice to Ren. "I don't even have a… drawing on my face, do I?" she crossed her arms with a pout, missing everything Levictus said, only able to focus on what her Master told her before.

"Nope. There is none. Levictus would have already mentioned it." she answered with a grin.

"You are awfully relaxed, Master! Compared to the situation!" she murmured, pursing her mouth.

"Of course! What good would it make if I started worrying now? Time has only one way to move, and that is; forward. Whatever it will bring to me, I'll deal with it when it stands in front of me!"

"What should we do?" Keina asked with a serious look, watching Levictus's blue eyes.

"In the past two days, I checked out the one under Ren's tower; now I want to do the same with yours," he answered, directing his words toward the other two Lords and toward Veponia. "After seeing it in person, I can try and reverse engineer it and find flaws in its design to develop a countermeasure. I need time, but I already have a few ideas."

"Going by your words, we don't have time." Rabout shook his head, crossing his arms. "We could be sacrificed at any minute!"

"Ture. If you ever feel a tugging on your consciousness, feel tired, sleepy, or just sick suddenly... Like after a long boat trip, you will die in a minute or so." Levictus agreed, pouring cold water at everyone present once again.

"Ugh…" Keina twitched her mouth at the blunt frankness of his.

"Still, you just need to look at the Spires. They would produce visual phenomena. That would be a swift telling point if the formation is activated or not." Levictus added.

"Why not just demolish every Spire?" threw out the idea Keina, ready to take action as the waiting was already frustrating her. Especially after learning about the cage, they considered home until now."

"Won't work. They are not vital parts. A simple addition for better energy condensation, not part of the true formation itself." Levcitus said.

"And their base? Why not damage that?" Rabout tapped on the table.

"You could, but it would still only hinder it from an immediate activation… and you would alert our enemies that we are in the know. You all know the legend of Rozex, no?" Levictus asked, looking into their eyes.

"It rose up from the ground with the Plateau of Harmony," Rabout spoke up after a few seconds of silence. "When Zelig reached Harmony, he waved his hand, and the Plateau rose from the ground with Rozex already on top. A city that appeared with one wave of a hand. Still, it happened almost countless years before I was even born." the oldest living citizen of Rozex sighed softly.

"It is filled with half-truths." Levictus continued. "The formation's base is the whole Plateau of Harmony. You could destroy the specific points under the Spires, but it would be like demolishing a chimney atop a house. The hole is still there, the smoke is still flowing, and it will find a way to the outside."

"Fuck… We can't even evacuate the city… it would draw suspicion immediately!" Keina cursed, surprising everybody, but she only drew a smile from Ren.

"No wonder Malevick never reacted to what was going on. He is busy working on awakening the monster…." Rabout clicked his tongue, realizing it.

"We are stuck…." Keina bit her lips, "If we attack Malevick, he may just activate it prematurely!" She was watching the map of Rozex, now drawn over by Levictus's hand, outlining the formation and its main points on it.

Seya, who was also present, sitting next to Ren, until now was completely silent, not even listening to their exchanges, only watching the blueprint and going over and over Levictus's explanation.

"Here." She stood up suddenly, pointing at the map with a confident voice. "And here. Plus here," she added quickly. While everyone was confused, Levictus just nodded with an approving look in his eyes.

"You are good." He opened his mouth. "This is what I wanted to mention next."

"Oh… s-sorry." Seya blinked her eyes rapidly, regaining her mind, realizing what she was doing, and drawing her fingers back.

"No, continue!" Ren stood beside her immediately, patting her back. "You are doing good!"

"I just… it… by the explanation…" She gulped, recollecting her calmness. "These lines here… are like the water pipes below the city, no? They have the same functions, delivering water, in this case, energy to the correct points when activated. What if we damage those? We could disrupt its whole flow of energy if we screw up enough of them! That would stop the formation from working, no?"

"No." Levictus shook his head, "As I said, the Plateau itself is the base of it."

"Oh…" she lowered her head defeatedly, but he just continued.

"But it would save a lot of lives. To maintain the city-wide formation after it is activated, it would need to consume the life of the citizens to fuel it. Disturbing these points would prevent that. It is our best bet to damage those, if nothing else. It would also buy me time to figure out a correct counter for the rest."

"Then the question is how to damage them without drawing attention and tell the Malevicks we know about it!" Keina said as she crossed her arms with readiness to act. Same as the other leaders present. This was not just about their survival but their families' and bloodlines' survival.

"Easy!" Ren laughed. "We fight!"

"Huh?" looked everyone at her, but Levictus closed his eyes, listening to Ren's simple idea.

"We fight," she repeated, crossing her arms with a grin. "We will split into two camps and do mock battles all around the city. One camp would be me and Rabout; the other would concentrate around you, Keina! We put on a show that we are now turning against each other after Corvux's defeat, fighting for the throne. In the meanwhile, our battles would just happen to damage some… buildings. As you can see, some families here have their homes above some great points of interest!"

"Damn…" Ooda moaned, "I worked really hard to build up my home, you know!" he slapped his face with two hands, expelling all desperate thoughts. "FUCK! Whatever! Let it be destroyed! Buildings can be rebuilt; lives can't!"

"Ahaha! You are right!" Ren pointed a thumbs up at him, "We should give a great show to these bastards…." She looked over at everyone present. "If we all work together, we can reform Rozex and convert the whole city from a death trap to a real home!" She said with a confident voice, finally looking at Keina. She slowly stood up, bowing towards her, a gesture she didn't give to anyone for a very, very long time.