Mad God

Standing in the spacious field, surrounded by multitudes of different kinds of flowers, Ren looked around with a curious glance, watching them bloom all around her. After a few seconds, she realized the problem… no others had arrived beside her.

“Hm… maybe something was off?” She tilted her head, not really worrying about the situation, not even when multiple, different consciousnesses locked onto her, one even being in the Demigod realm. It did not take long before four people appeared, teleported above her by their Demigod leader.

They were a group of two men and two women, led by a man wearing a green mohawk, and his face was riddled with old battle scars. His emerald-colored eyes were constantly locked onto Ren’s figure, feeling her presence, gauging her immediately as another Demigod. He dared not to take her sudden appearance lightly at all. They wore different clothing, but each of them had an image of a lotus flower etched onto their garbs.

“Don’t try to move!” He opened his mouth while the three others quickly surrounded Ren.

“Oh?” She scanned them, noticing immediately that the three took up a battle formation, the same but an improved version of what Ophila once came up with, making it easy for the siblings to fight against groups. It allowed them to even contend against stronger opponents for a short time.

“I’m not here to cause trouble!” Ren smiled, raising her hands, wearing her black and purple sect uniform.

“We are the ones who are going to decide that!” the mohawk-wearing man replied, not blinking his eyes at all, knowing that someone at their level could easily use that simple moment to spring into action.

“Sure!” Ren sighed, not in the mood to trash her own disciple’s garden and people.

“Which Sect are you from? Your uniform is foreign!”

“I am Ren, from the Immortal Wonders Sect, coming here by the invitation of your Sect’s Master!” She replied with a tone filled with enough courtesy between equals. Still, it irritated the three Harmony experts, mainly because she acted like it was not a big deal being surrounded like this. Her words made their leader think about it, finding it strange to appear here just like that before he gave a little nod.

“I’ll ask about it from our superior! My name is Leylon, and I am the current guardian of this sacred garden!”

“Field of Flowers, yes?” Ren asked.

“Yes…” He nodded once again but was still suspicious.

“Ophy knows how to,” She murmured, but then all the four’s consciousness weighed down on her, making Ren raise her eyebrows questioningly; why the sudden aggression.

“Outsiders should not even dare to call her by name! Even the demigods only dare to call them the Great Immortals or by their bestowed titles!” one of the Harmony Realm experts shouted, who already had enough. “The only correct way for you to call her is the ‘Lightbringer’!”

“Lightbringer?” Ren twitched her mouth, “Really?” She watched their cold expressions when they saw her finding it hilarious. “And what are the other two called? Firecock? Inksmudge?” She sighed with apparent sarcasm as back then, the kids always came up with cool sounding alter egos that they introduced themselves as whenever a fight broke out. There was a time when Kaizer even dressed up in all black, wearing a strange mask made by Ophila, calling himself the ‘Heavenly Assassin From The World Of Darkness Hunting For Damned Souls.’ Or something like that. It was too long for Ren to remember precisely. “They still did not grow out of that phase?” She asked herself, remembering and laughing louder and louder.

“YOU!” Leylon shouted, feeling immense rage brewing inside his chest. “Don’t you dare to tarnish the name of the Firelord and the Abysswalker!”

“Pft! Ahahahaha! Gods be damned! They changed for nothing! Ahahahaha! I am going to poke fun at them for the next few dozen years for this, bwahaha!” Ren laughed with increasing strength, holding her stomach, unable to hold it back at all. Of course, this had an even worse effect, and the three Harmony experts jumped forward, attacking her.

“STOP!” their leader shouted, fearing this was nothing but a ruse, but it was already too late to reverse their action.

Their attack carried a weird aura with itself as it was a seamless combination of three affinities into one. The lotus symbol on their clothes lit up in a bright hue, and their attacks, following its effect, harmonized with each other, striking as one. Fire, wind, and lightning were combined into a quick and explosive spell, hitting Ren in a blink of an eye. The three kept their guards up even after it, as it was not the first time they fought with a Demigod. Yet all the previous occasions were only combat training against their elders. Their eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings, expecting Ren to teleport away, same with Leylon in the air, yet he felt none of the expected fluctuation, indicating that she dodged. Instead, it was the presence of a second aura arriving right before the impact that welcomed him. When the dust settled, Ren was surrounded by a black sphere that, when receding, took the form of Ariana, huffing heavily as she rushed here as soon as possible, feeling the energy fluctuations of a battle.

“You are getting faster and faster~” Ren giggled, patting her shoulder, not even looking at the trio who attacked her. For them, it was clear that the newcomer was associated with Ren, wearing the same kind of uniform.

“Can’t let them disrespect you, Master!” Ariana answered, unable to tear away her gaze from them.

“You dare to utter the word… disrespect?” Leylon twitched his mouth, picking up on their exchange, but the disciple and master duo ignored him too.

“Go, test their strengths!” Ren patted Ariana’s buttocks, sending her forward while she turned towards Leylon. “Meanwhile, we can chat!”

“Understood!” Ariana answered, stepping forward happily as Ren’s attitude was already rubbing off on her greatly in the past years.

“You are going to regret your decision!” the three opponents of hers snorted, not even in the mood to play around, immediately attacking Ariana the same way they did before.

By the time their lightning bolt, surrounded with fire, empowered by wind, reached her, Ariana’s body turned into ink, as only a clone stood before them. Her actual body was already fused with their shadows as spiky tentacles grew out from them, sneaking around their legs, burrowing under their clothes and skin.

“Purify!” one of the guys with the fire affinity shouted, surrounding his own body with orange flames, trying to burn the tentacle. Still, to his horror, more and more grew out from his shadow, latching onto him one after another. Even worse, he started to hear voices, familiar, old voices that belonged to all of the enemies he had killed throughout his long years. The other two did not fare any better. Ariana’s powers also quickly invaded their minds, summoning old enemies, memories of broken friendships, betrayed lovers, and suppressed grievances, disrupting them from working together wholly. All of this happened almost instantly, while Leylon, floating in the air, just sighed, seeing his juniors failing like that. If he were their master, he was sure they would receive some punishment later on for this!

“She has been taught well.” He opened his mouth, looking at Ren, who floated beside him.

“Hehe, she has been~” She giggled proudly. “She built the best foundation at the start; it shows its effects now! Those three are good, but even added together, they can’t match my disciple’s energy pool! Their mental barriers are fragile!”

“I can sense that!” Leylon nodded, not sounding angry at all. “They need to work more on the mental part of cultivation, or they are going to shame us when traveling the world!” he shook his head. “They were taught how to guard against attacks aimed at the soul and mind! It is not something rare!” He grumbled before showing a little smile. “So… are we going to fight too?”

“If you want!” Ren laughed, opening her arms wide “I’m in if you are too!”

“No thanks! You give out an eerie feeling!” He sighed in the end, throwing out his first impressions from his mind, deciding to start over and reevaluate Ren. “Someone who mouths our own leaders like that, without the fear of their retaliation, especially on their own grounds… must not be normal!”

“Ugh… thanks?” Ren replied with a twitching face, “I am going to take that as a compliment….”

“Do that!” Leylon nodded, crossing his hands before his chest. “How the hell did you two appear here anyway? This garden is guarded by the Sect Master’s formation!” He asked, striking up a normal conversation while below them; Ariana reappeared, ensnaring the three, slowly making them kneel, and they did not even realize it.

“Teleporting.” Ren answered as she tilted her head, “Probably the missing anchor on the other side screwed with Levictus’s calculations. But not enough to scatter us too far away if Ariana found me this quickly!”

“You know Grand Master Levictus?” He asked with surprise.

“Sure, I am his father’s disciple and an elder in our own sect!” She laughed, drawing a bit of enlightenment onto Leylon’s face.

“I heard Grand Master Levictus returned after his father, Guest Elder Aerthus! Hmmm, so you are from the other side of the world? Interesting! We heard that the Barbaric Lands are, well, barbaric! Seems like he succeeded in shaping it up a little, eh?” He laughed, putting two and two together.

“Something like that!” Ren grinned, “He also became a demigod, but… well, I was faster!”

“Oh? Aerthus was a tad bit slow in reaching it only now… but I can’t blame him! His gift was special; there had to be some stronger bottlenecks on the way!” he nodded his head, thinking about it. “Being as strong of a Harmony expert as he was, I would be all for him joining us! Especially because his son was personally accepted by the Sect Master! Oh, how many of us envied him!” Leylon sighed before scanning her up and down. “So you were faster… And how old are you?”

“Hey, isn’t that rude?” She puffed up her cheeks. “Anyway, below 50, let it be enough, okay?

“Below 50, that… what?” He froze, looking at her like seeing a monster.

“Hm? What?”

“Did you start cultivation in the womb?!” He exclaimed as he quickly scanned her again, and Ren let him get a feel, letting Leylon experience that she was not lying!

“No!” Ren looked at him as if he was asking something idiotic “But I did start doing it after coming out! You can’t start early enough… still! I got myself into this predicament, looking like an eternal teen….” She murmured, looking at herself, “Haaah, well, whatever! You win some, you lose some, isn’t it right?” She laughed, slapping the stunned Leylon’s back.

“What… are you?” the man gulped as someone being a Demigod at her age was… legendary.

“A human? Is this a trick question?” Ren asked as she tilted her head from left to right. “Why, is it so unbelievable?”

“There are few and far between who could say they did what you did!” Ophila’s voice arrived as she descended from the sky. Her presence immediately made Leylon cup his hands and bow respectfully.

“Really?” Ren asked, not bothering with courtesy. Leylon seeing that Ophila also acted as if Ren was her own equal, made him think about many things and especially made him happy he was not as harsh as the others.

“Yep!” Ophila nodded rapidly. “Those who became Demigod before turning 100… Well, their numbers don’t exceed 10! And they usually had a whole sect backing them up! Pouring all of their resources into a discovered genius! Some of them are no longer even alive; it is dangerous to burn too brightly! Some of them simply disappeared, never to be seen again!” she thought a little, scratching her chin. “Those who we know about are leaders of their own sect by now. They are not the type to work under others, and people are more willing to flock around them instead!”

“I see,” Ren said, standing the same as Ophila, or to be precise, Ophila was the one who was mimicking her posture subconsciously. “Are you on good terms with them?”

“So-so!” Kaizer’s voice came as he and Invictus also arrived, scaring the living daylight out of Leylon as nobody saw the three Immortals together outside of sect meetings, tournaments, or in case of some very, very, very serious events!

“Some of them are too arrogant!” Invictus rolled his eyes, “They neither respect Gods nor Immortals! I can get behind that, but still… some conundrum is expected, but they are simply put… ASSHOLES!”

“Master!” Ariana flew up with a nervous expression.

“Finished?” Ren smiled, thinking she was nervous because she just beat up the disciples of Ophila, but her following words turned even Ren’s face a shade paler.

“Kyu is still missing….”

“FUCK…” Ren flinched and Ophila immediately tried to calm her down.

“Don’t worry, she should be fine; maybe she just landed further away! It happens without an anchor holding the formation at the other side!” she explained rapidly, waving her hands, stunning Leylon why she was so flustered.

“Ophy!” Ren turned towards her with a solemn look. “She is a glutton! And this place is filled with tasty stuff that she has never eaten before!”

“Munching on some is not a big deal….” Ophila murmured, playing with her fingers like a little girl.

“She once ate two tons of CC, saying it was the best dessert after munching on my father’s prototype artifacts,” Ren explained with a deadpan voice, and Leylon almost fell out of the sky, blanking out for a moment.

“Two… tons…” the garden guardian mumbled, feeling woozy and sick as that was enough to outright buy a whole small sect here!

“We go and search! NOW!” Ophila shouted immediately as the Immortals simply disappeared, leaving Ren there, rubbing her forehead, while Ariana tried to calm her down, standing behind her. She quickly started massaging her shoulders while she was thinking. Leylon was still completely out of it, and the three Harmony experts were sitting on the ground, mumbling to themselves, lost in their nightmares.