Mad God

“This damned cold….” Okto grumbled, warming his fingers with his hot breath. He could have warmed himself up with his powers, closing out the bone-chilling air and wind that reached around -35 celsius, even without the clouds blocking the sun. But that would mean wasting his energy. Keeping it up for weeks and months, the amount of time they had to spend in these barren, godforsaken lands would amount to at least a year’s worth of cultivation. So instead of doing that, he just pulled the thick, four layers of fur coat around him and fixed his fluffy, warm hood while waiting for his comrades to return. “Fair drawing, my bum!” he tried to spit to the side, but his saliva froze on his lips immediately. “Erza, you damned ear wax eater! I don’t know how you played me, but I know you did… huh?” he looked up, immediately recognizing the sudden fluctuation of energy, astonishing him.

“Yo!” Ren appeared a few dozen meters from him while Kai remained far away, hidden amongst the mountains.

“A demigod…hah! What a surprise!” Okto scanned her, determining that she had only reached the stage not so long ago, quickly easing his worries. As soon as Ren appeared, he felt that she cultivated somewhat strangely in the earlier stages of her life, as her aura was different from what he was used to, but it also meant she was not in the Immortals’ camp. He faced their demigods multiple times, and none of them had the kind of strangeness she emanated from her body. “I never imagined this barbaric side of the world could produce someone at this stage! I also feel that you are freshly promoted to being a demigod, yes?”

“A month ago.” Ren nodded with a smile, letting him speak.

“Thought so! You are a talented girl; What do you say? Want to be my disciple? We may be both demigods, but you are still just starting out! I have 1500 years of experience being one!”

“No thanks, I have my own master.” she shook her head. “I am also not interested in uselessly trying to feed this bottomless crystal again!” she said, pointing at her heart.

“You have a good perception!” Okto replied, already floating upwards and getting closer to her, not conserving his energy as his instincts told him something was wrong with the girl before him. “But there is a method! You just need to worship our Goddess, and she grants you power! Those who are faithful can fill it much more quickly! It is a divine blessing, only bestowed upon the chosen ones!”

“Yet none of you ever reached godhood… did you?” Ren sighed, closing Okto’s mouth very quickly.

“Ascending into godhood is not just about that… but despite being a barbarian, you do know a lot… I am starting to suspect you are not from here.” he turned his voice colder, deciding that Ren was someone who was not a potential recruit to be welcomed into their ranks.

“I am from here.” she spread her arms, “But I have been around for a long time.”

“...” Okto just balled up his fists, focusing all of his senses on Ren by now.

“Say, is Nilier still wearing green, or did she switch to a different color by now?”

The sudden shock that Okto was feeling was indescribable. Not just because the girl before him dared to call out his Goddess’s name but because nobody would know about her wearing green all the time if not being her follower meeting with her or being an Immortal who fought her personally. Pairing it with her strange aura, Okto quickly concluded that she must be in the league of the Immortals. As soon as he made that decision, he was already behind Ren, teleporting instantly to restrain her, but his hands only went through Ren’s mirage. She dodged at the same time, only using her lightning affinity. Violet strands of electricity were covering her body as she appeared below Okto, aiming a kick under his arms, right into his armpit. Before her toes could make contact, Okto teleported once again. Still, when he appeared, a blinding, purple flash was before him as a knee was only centimeters away from his face when the thundering noise also caught up.

“Fuck!” Okto spat, blinking once again, now appearing hundreds of meters away, feeling his sweat freeze on his forehead. Was she looking down on him? The fact that he was almost hit by someone not even using teleportation was a shame on his pride. When demigods fought, it was always a battle no others could follow. A struggle between them meant one thing; how many times they tried to out-teleport the other party! “She can’t teleport? Maybe…?” He murmured to himself.

“You rely too much on teleportation,” Ren said calmly, flying closer and closer. “Of course, I can’t blame you. It is an easy and convenient ability. But you can’t forget your roots! Overly relying on a new skill can blind you to options and limit your progress to one lane instead of multiple! No wonder you all, in the end, fall into being the Gods’ little toy soldiers!” she shook her head with a bit of sarcasm. “You said you have been a demigod for more than 1500 years? Do you even remember what your initial affinity was? Or did you already forget?” she asked, looking down at him while electricity danced around her body. “Come. Let me teach you how a true Demigod fights!” she raised her hand, waving at him to attack. Ren’s condescending tone and deadpan look on her face greatly enraged Okto, mainly because he saw her as nothing more than a local barbarian.

“Oh really?!” He shouted, using his teleportation ability to launch himself forward, but now, as soon as he appeared behind Ren, another blink followed it. He appeared again behind her as she turned towards his first destination. All of this happened in a fracture of a second while his straight fingers aimed at Ren’s back, right at her heart. Okto knew even if it connected and he impaled her, a demigod would not die until her core was blown apart or her body was utterly crippled and dismembered. Still, it would greatly hinder her, and it would take a long time to repair! Maybe he could even kill her! The fact that she pointed at her heart previously, when talking about cores, was proof for Okto that she was an amateur, revealing where her core was without thinking about it!

“You are so predictable… it bores me to death!” Ren sighed as her figure dissolved into electricity and then reformed behind him. Her raised feet landed a hard kick on Okto’s spine, sending him flying downwards like a cannonball, smashing into the mountainside and initiating a massive avalanche of snow rumbling down mercilessly.

Okto could only roar in anger and shame, blasting out from under the snow, now flying towards her, forgoing teleporting. He now firmly believed the girl standing before him could simply see into the future! Maybe she had some kind of unique eyes? That was the only logical explanation in his mind as he never saw someone with her eye colors. Okto was already thinking about acquiring and implanting them into his skull.

“Haahh… were you a boar in your previous life or what?” Ren shook her head, seeing him flying towards her. Raising her hand, she summoned a lightning spear, using it as a javelin, throwing it forward. It whizzed through the air like a mighty lightning bolt, drawing a smile onto Okto’s face.

“Too slow!” he raised his hand, already feeling and seeing where it was going to travel to, even knowing that in the moment of impact, it would explode and draw down nature’s own lightning. In his head, a plan was already ready for everything that would happen a second later. He was about to use his Goddess’s blessing to subdue the spear, divert it away, and use the chaos to flash behind her. Yet before he could do anything, his expression froze on his face.

“You are dumb….” Ren’s voice rang out in his ear as her hand touched his back directly through his torn clothes.

“You… tele…port…ed…?” Okto groaned, spewing out some blood because as soon as Ren touched him, a violent shockwave shook up all of his organs, invading him with wild bolts of lightning, wreaking havoc inside of him.

“Who said I wouldn’t?” She smiled, tilting her head. “When you fight, you must create opportunities to mask your teleportation’s obvious telling signs! It is the basics of a battle, you utter idiot!” she sighed, shaking her head. “Are today’s demigods really this stupid? What the hell?” She pouted as her thrown spear had just arrived. Their exchange happened instantly, stunning him for enough time for Ren’s attack to make the connection. The raining lightning that was drawn down from the sky showered Okto thoroughly, making him scream and roll his eyes backward before going limp. Whether it was a demigod or not, the brain was still the most vulnerable organ, giving orders to his whole body. Being overwhelmed with electricity, it simply short-circuited it, knocking Okto out completely.

“That was quick!” Kai appeared, watching Ren as she was holding the limp body of his opponent by his clothes, dangling him with one hand like a toy.

“It was just an idiot. A complete amateur!” She shook her head, “All of them are like this?”

“I don’t know, I was dead for more than a few epochs.” he spread his arms, “Don’t ask me!”

“Eh… yeah, true! Sorry!” She twitched her mouth, floating down where Okto was initially waiting for his comrades.

“Do you feel anything?” Kai asked after a minute of silence as both of them were standing there, trying to feel out the surroundings. Yet they found nothing interesting or weird about the place.

“No.” she opened her eyes as she stepped onto the unconscious Okto’s chest with one leg, pressing him down. “We may need to question this idiot about what they are doing here.” she looked down at him.

“How do you plan on interrogating him? They can be really stubborn.”

“I know where his core is.” Ren flashed a dangerous grin. “I know his body inside-out by now, and this failure of a demigod formed it in his stomach! Let’s bring him back to Allfather! I am sure he would be interested in getting his roots into something like him!” Ren raised him up before teleporting away.

…
….
……

Hours passed when the mountain range shook a little, and another avalanche cleared the side of the mountains, close to where Okto was previously. The rugged, gray surface slowly started moving as a thick, round opening revealed itself, rolling away like a hidden vault’s door as two demigods walked out, one of them being Erza and the other one named Targas.

“Where is that idiot?” Erza looked around, not sensing his presence at all.

“Something has happened!” Targas exclaimed, taking a deep breath, feeling the residue of their fight. “I feel the imbalance in the area’s energy flow… There is a strong residue of a previous battle waged here!” He blinked upwards, followed by Erza.

“You are right… There are signs of another avalanche! Also, the snow there melted, and then it slowly refroze… there was truly a battle here.” Erza nodded, quickly scanning the area below them. “Can you tell who it was? Were we followed?”

“I can’t… I never felt this kind of aura before.” he shook his head, concentrating as he was the most sensitive to others’ energies and patterns, being one of the best scouts in Nilier’s followings. “But I can follow it.”

“Mmmh… no.” Erza shook his head in the end. “We need to finish our dealings with the humans living underground! Their development is fascinating, and I think our Goddess would be interested in converting them to our cause! Their weapons may be even useful against the Immortals’ factions!”

“Agreed.” Targas nodded quickly, “If Okto couldn’t beat someone and got himself killed or captured, it is his fault! What he can do now is have the dignity to blow himself up and take out whoever dared to capture one of us!”

“Hehe… exactly~ Let’s go! We collect the resources they want to conduct their little experiment! I want to see how their weapons fare against those so-called demons they hate so much!” He chuckled, teleporting away with Targas as the hole leading deep underground simply closed behind them by then.