Mad God

"Ugh… I'm beat!" Ren moaned, falling face flat onto the ground while her clones slowly dispersed, returning to her body as flashes of electricity.

"You did great, Master!" Ariana knelt beside her, pulling Ren's head onto her knees, gently stroking her hair with a smile. The early morning sun shone through the windows as Ren had been doing nothing more for the past 24 hours straight but making talismans one after another.

"Of course!" Ren chuckled, letting out a long breath. "But I can't feel my fingers! Plus, I'll dream with symbols for the rest of the year! Yuck!"

"But it will save a lot of lives!"

"Hope so! If not, I'll be very, very angry at Levictus!" she snorted, standing up and dusting herself off. "Let's go. I need a bath! And something nice to eat!" she walked outside, followed by Ariana, heading towards her Spire.

They had just reached the pond in the middle of the courtyard when the Spire itself lit up in a golden color, sending a column of light toward the sky.

"Master?" Ariana asked, but Ren already flew up as it was not her who was doing it.

At the same time, all the other Spires acted the same, blasting pure energy into the sky. It slowly formed a glowing sphere around all of Rozex, completely cutting off the city from the outside world. Inside Malevick's Spire, his shriveled body was sitting on the throne with a grin, unable to say anything else as he turned into dust. When the energy barrier completely covered Rozex came the quaking of the ground below their feet. The whole Plateau of Harmony was shaking, some parts of it crumbled, and the serpentine road leading up to the top became untraversable as long stretches of it were simply gone. The panicked people did not know what was happening, but soon they felt the talismans they bought lit up in their pockets. Taking it out, it quickly went up in flames, and the formation drawn on them appeared on their hands.

"Gotcha…" Malevick's ethereal voice echoed from the energy curtain itself while Ren was floating above the city. "You have nowhere to run!" came down a column of light, engulfing Ren completely. "Now burn into ashes!" His voice echoed far and wide as his face looked down on her, like a giant fused with formation itself.

As soon as his features became visible, the shaking became even wilder as building after building collapsed. People started to feel nauseous, weak, and tired. Some even collapsed, unable to stand as if their legs were made of jelly.

"Go! Prepare for battle and save those who are in trouble!" Keina ordered, standing on the wall of her courtyard, watching the symbol on her hand counteract the energy siphoning she was feeling in the first few seconds. Nuray and the rest of her warriors were rushing out, ready to meet the forces of Malevick if they should strike out and help those who were in need.

"How interesting… he came up with this within such a short time… That Sect has to be really full of wonders!" Rabout chuckled, watching the same symbol on his own hand, standing at the bottom of his own, glowing, emptied-out Spire, accompanied by Milly.

"We should find a safer place… you…." Milly said worriedly, looking at Rabout, who was still someone who was leaking his own life force.

"Don't worry!" he shook his head with a smile. "It does its job." he raised his hand. "I feel a bit woozy, but that is all!"

Like everyone else, Ariana also looked up at the sky, where the column of energy swallowed up Ren. The air around the energy beam was visibly distorted, burning up from the heat it was giving out.

"Master…" She watched it without blinking her eyes, her fingers curling up into a fist.

"She is going to be okay." Levictus stepped next to her. "Her work has paid off! The formation can not replenish the energy it spends, trying to burn her."

"Still!" She looked at him, biting onto her lips. "She was exhausted; she… She could be in danger!"

"I did not say she won't be injured, but she is at the same level as my Father. She should be able to handle it."

"I don't like you," Ariana said through gritted teeth.

"That is of no concern to me," Levictus answered calmly, as this was not the first time he had heard something like that.

Up in the sky, Malevick's face, which was merged with the formation's energy, slowly started to distort as his 'expressions' revealed that he realized something was off.

"No… the amount of damage you did would not be enough to weaken the output this much… what is going on?"

"Heh… this is a pretty interesting weapon!" Ren's voice arrived right into his consciousness. Turning his focus towards the pulsating column of light, he could see Ren standing there, looking around unbothered, raising her hand, watching the energy coming and going between her fingers. She was absorbing the same power that should be destroying her, burning down her skin, flesh, bones, and energy points until nothing remained.

"Are… you... Absorbing it? No… that can't be!"

"Why not?" Ren chuckled, looking upwards with a cheeky grin. "When it hit me, I was shocked! The energy used for this is the life force of your own and other people, no? Well… with more energy, you could have seriously hurt me! But with this amount… this is so nostalgic~ Are you trying to woo me? You do know this counts as sexual harassment, no?"

"What are you… on about?" Malevick's face gawked at her high up in the sky. The energy bubble around Rozex started to flicker already as they were running out of immediate energy.

"I am saying that I was the wife of someone whose lifeforce was just as abundant as what you are hitting me with now!" she shook her head as the tremendous energy that was cruising through her energy points swirled faster and faster. It was just the same when she made a combined attack with Leinor, forming a joint spell with both of their powers. "This much… I can easily handle it! He was rougher in bed anyway!" Ren laughed before taking a deep breath, and with a loud shout, she slapped downwards with an open palm.

From the sky, a hand reached down, built from pure, purple-colored energy and lightning. It was smashing down on the sphere around Rozex, shattering it like glass. Malevick's face imbued into it could only grimace before blowing up into pieces completely. The hand did not stop there as it went for the Spire of Malevick, bringing down the force of nature itself. It collapsed the whole tower under her palm with only one move. It looked like the Spire was made out of paper only from the outside. Everyone could see a humongous, purple hand reaching down from the clouds, flattening a whole courtyard like a kid playing inside a sandbox. When Ren's arm disappeared, followed by the formation's breakdown, what remained was nothing more than a hand-shaped crater where once the Spire of Malevick stood.

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"Hm?" Zelig raised his head, sitting in his office, looking at the raging storms and giant waves crashing against each other thousands of kilometers away from Rozex. His eyes wandered from the clashing waves up to the dark sky and the constantly flashing lightning. "You broke the first layer?" he raised his hand, his violet, glowing eyes wandering onto his own palm. The skin started to ripple like a lake when a stone got thrown into it, revealing a metallic plate surfacing from under his flesh. It was the complete diagram of the formation that was under Rozex. With a move of his finger, it spun around as the multitude of symbols changed places on it. "I expected it… not this efficiently, but still. I never dreamed I could kill Aerthus, that cockroach, by only the first layer. Let me see if you can withstand the second layer." The small plate that was the control, the key for the formation, no matter how far away he was, quickly changed shape as Zelig flashed a victorious smile. He found this small, unimpressive trinket when he was only a teen, keeping it because he found it weirdly captivating. Only later, much, much later, did he realize that it was not just a complete, ancient formation blueprint but a controlling plate. It allowed him to supply energy and activate the formation, no matter where he was. Back in Rozex, people who thought they had won soon found themselves panicking as the trembling of the whole Plateau of Harmony became way worse.

"Damn it…" Levictus exclaimed, sounding frustrated as he bit into his lips.

"What?" Ariana asked, breathing more quickly.

"This formation has layers!" He said, looking up at Ren, who was still floating above them, already seeing and feeling something was not right.

"Layers? What does that mean?"

"Layered formations… It is when you combine multiple formations in a way that can shift form by the user's order! Even if one layer is destroyed, it can reform into a different formation! I am still unable to make those!" He whispered, but he already blamed himself for not thinking about a scenario of that possibility, yet he should have. The first clue should have been the different formations under the Spires. They were part of the layering structure. He never considered it a possibility. It was something that he thought to be the work of masters… A formation like that appearing here? Impossible. Yet that impossibility was playing out right before his eyes.

The Spires quickly crumbled to pieces, only leaving their ethereal selves behind, made out of pure energy. Hundreds of different roads around the city also lit up, forming other symbols, rising upwards to the sky until a complete formation was shining above the whole city, slowly spinning, changing its shape.

"Not good… this is a trap!" Levicuts shouted as his eyes darted from point to point, reading the formation's symbols as fast as he could. Even though Ariana had no clue what it meant, seeing how the energy circled around Ren, it was evident that she was the target of it. Some parts of the circle were flickering, looking damaged. Clearly, those were the points that were still affected by what they had done previously. Many people felt dizzy, started to puke blood, and could not stay conscious, fainting on the spot. Thanks to Levictus's counter-formation, at least their lives were spared.

"Damn…" Zelig frowned, watching the controlling plate in his palm slow down and struggle to change shape. “They damaged it… and resisted it… but how? The controlling disk does not have enough power… damn you, you mini bitch!" He slammed his fist on the armrest of his chair, breaking it off. "No matter! Then I'll imprison you and focus on Aerthus. You will be the perfect bait for him!" He smirked, holding it in his hand, reabsorbing it into his flesh.

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"I see…" Ren murmured, looking around the closing energy wall, seeing it form a bubble around her. Taking a deep breath, she just sat down, crossing her legs with a calm expression, letting the symbols spin around her faster and faster.

"Master!" Ariana shouted, already flying upwards but as soon as she came close, she hit an invisible wall, bouncing off it with a loud thud. "Master!" She screamed again, smashing against it with all of her might, yet it just flickered, withstanding her. The energy cocoon continued to warp around her Master, and she could do nothing about it.

"Relax!" Ren looked at her with a smile. "I'll be out in a jiffy~" she winked at her before she was enclosed in a 2-meter-wide golden ball. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud in the middle of the city. It was like a solid, golden boulder that was impossible to move, lift or break open. Even as Ariana did try all of it in the upcoming seconds.

"Stop it…" Levictus walked up to her, but she just looked at him, spewing daggers from her eyes. "She is not in danger. Or is this how much trust you have in your Master?"

"..." no answer came from her. She just turned her head back at the 'prison,' letting out a long breath and redrawing her powers.

"I'll see if I can come up with something." Levictus opened his mouth after a brief silence. "But you need to keep calm. You are the only person here who knows your Master's plans. You need to take her place until she is out."

"..."

"Can you do that?"

"I can." Ariana nodded in the end with a determined voice. "I can even do more…" she placed her hand on the golden ball that was especially cold to the touch. "I can make that bastard tear out his hair in frustration until Master comes back!"