Mad God

When Ortus flew forward, wielding his scythe, swinging it, and releasing a wave of flame, what met it was a similar arc of energy made out of electricity. Ren was already turning backward as her enemy used teleportation. She was wielding a spear, and the two quickly exchanged multiple moves briefly, blinking around the battlefield. Lycosa's hands were moving once again, making small formations that appeared behind and below Ren, fueling her attacks with even more power, sharpness, and speed. He ensured that she matched Ortus's strength, even though he had just consumed who knows how many of his own Sect's disciples to power himself up.

Jozel was already shaken when Nubes came back, telling them Solas was killed, and it was highly possible they already knew about their connection to Skoorn. Next, only a few hours later, four demigods showed up, and it was bright as day that they were from the Lotus Mandala Sect. She somewhat calmed down when the sect-protecting formation kicked in, but when it failed, and Nubes also died… her remaining courage quickly failed her.

"Better to give up!" Abrosa arrived before her, his body covered in his crystalline armor. Even as he said that, Jozel knew there were no options to do so. The followers of Skoorn, a real one at least, built their cultivation on one simple rule; the strong reigns over the weak. As soon as she takes a step back and becomes their prisoner, she becomes the weak one. All of the faith that she accumulated, the very thing that helped her become a demigod and quickly amass her current strength would leave her instantly. Cornered, she could do nothing but scream and lash out desperately, summoning a bow and shooting pure fire arrows toward Abrosa. "I see." the man nodded as they bounced off his body. "Faith or not, you are weak! You were raised to your strength, even in the Harmony realm, right? Feeding on daddy's stuff, and when you were denied more, you simply found another sugar daddy!" He scoffed, walking closer and closer, while her arrows only made minor dents, chipping away at his outer shell but could not really hurt him.

"Stay back!" Jozel screamed as she flew backward, trying to escape.

"Pathetic!" Abrosa shook his head, ready to raise his fist and punch out, aiming to force her down to the ground when the panicked face of Jozel changed. What she wore now was a sadistic grin as she teleported away.

"Idiots!" She appeared behind the spectating group, already letting loose a hail of arrows, aiming straight at Ariana, Kyu, and Trestan, wanting to use them for a chance to escape.

"The only idiot here is you," Gent answered calmly as she stood in the path of the fiery arrows, surrounded in a green hue, blowing strong air from her mouth, simply snuffing out all of it like little, harmless candles. "You're just high on borrowed strength!" she took a deep breath like she had swallowed all the air before her. When Gent blew it out back once again, they materialized in the form of invisible, supersonic blades, ripping apart Jozel's clothes and skin, flaying her, drawing blood and screams from her mouth. To Jozel's horror, she could not teleport away as she felt every route being blocked, devoid of energy, and looking around, she saw faint symbols surrounding her.

"Capture her alive!" Lycosa shouted, with one hand, sustaining the "prison" he made, sealing the space around Jozel, and with the other, he kept up the ones behind Ren, maintaining his support in their fight.

"Sure!" Abrosa and Gent answered, attacking Jozel, aiming to take her down, which was even more challenging than killing somebody.

"You do not have much time." Ren smiled, exchanging blows with Ortus, keeping the pressure on him, continuously stabbing at his openings. "Why not give up? At least you would live!"

"Death before surrender!" Ortus snorted, trying to break off and disturb the annoying rhythm of their fight… but he was unsuccessful in doing so. Ren was like his own shadow, following suit every time, reading his every move, and her spear somehow always found its way toward him.

"A familiar motto!" Ren shook her head, "This why you are fucked~ Give up once, and all of your accumulated strength goes away in a snap of a finger! Hah! Why did you take up his path? Was it because it is the quickest in raising your strength? Do you simply like being in control of others? The thrill of battle, maybe? Are you an adrenaline junkie? Sadist? Or a masochist? You can't be a corpse fucker; then you would follow the twins!" she asked, sending forth questions just as rapidly as she was thrusting her spear at him.

"What do you even know?!" Ortus roared, letting the spear hit him and go through the left side of his chest, but in return, he swung down his scythe, leaving a bloody, crimson light in its path.

"A lot!" Ren smiled, not even dodging, trusting her support, Lycosa. It was not wasted on him as the leader of the Disciplinary Bureau acted in perfect sync with her, raising an energy shield around Ren, blocking the attack entirely, making Ortus's move fail. It only left sparks and violent cracks in space itself as it was blocked by his formation that sprung up from nowhere.

"See ya~" Ren winked at him, directing a palm strike forward, hitting him just below his neck, exactly where his core was. She aimed to send her powers surging ahead and destroying his core in a single blow. At the last moment, Ortus released his weapon, raising both hands and barely blocking the strike. Still, the power of the impact blew off both of his arms from below the elbow as he was skidding backward in the air, vomiting out a pool of blood and feeling his core cracking in some places. The wild electricity that invaded his body was making him barely able to move as Ren's powers disturbed every order his brain was sending out. "Not bad~" Ren nodded, already holding a spear and blinking forward to finish him off.

In those few milliseconds, Ortus realized his opponent had way more battle experience than he and every attack she committed to was a potentially lethal blow. Just by letting her electricity jump over onto him, she explored his body, finding out where his core was to deal a death blow to him. A quick question flashed through his mind; How many demigods did she kill? The most notorious people in the world, the ones who nobody wanted to anger, only numbered their demigod kills around 5 or 6, yet here was someone who felt like she already had dozens buried by her hand.

"I won't become another's trophy!" Ortus screamed, and the tattoo on his body lit up like a real sun. "I am a martyr of Skoorn! When dusk comes, the light fades away!" traveled his loud, crazy voice far, far away.

"Shit! Back off!" Ren's voice echoed, but it was drowned in Ortus's howl.

What happened next did so in a few seconds. Jozel's body, before she could scream, was sucked out of the blood and all of her life's energy, shivering away like an old prune at a moment's notice. Ortus did not fare any better as he also turned into a living mummy, yet his emptied-out eye sockets blazed in literal fire. Flames were dancing where his hands were missing as his body opened up diagonally like someone cut him up from left to right. Even if the others did not hear Ren, they immediately knew something was off. All of them quickly appeared before Ariana, Kyu, and Trestan, forming a literal wall.

"Mom… that thing smells foul!" Kyu grimaced.

"Use everything you got!" Ren said with such seriousness that nobody felt like questioning her why.

All four demigods raised their powers to maximum, holding nothing back, forming a multicolored wall before them, merging their powers and affinities. All of them were surprised that Ren could do what they did, using the same method their Sect was famous for, developed by the Lightbringer herself. They barely finished when a slash burst out from the wound on Ortus's body, sweeping away everything. It had the color and texture of rust, filled with the sour smell of iron and blood, making it hard for even the demigods to breathe. When it hit their combined defense, it quickly cracked it, and the group was thrown backward dozens of kilometers, flying through the air like a meteor.

"More!" Ren shouted, enforcing their defense the best she could. Even Ariana, Kyu, and Trestan joined in, simply trying to feed the protective veil around them with any energy they had. Kyu vomited out such an amount of energy, which made Trestan, a 3rd stage Harmony realm cultivator, jealous.

Their defense crumbled completely when the attack finally lost its ferociousness, and they could divert it elsewhere. Gasping for air, the four looked at each other and then at their hands, seeing it was filled with lacerations all over their palms and forearms. Worse, it did not want to heal. At least not that quickly, bleeding and stinging, just as a mortal's hand would if he caught a sharp sword, aiming at his head by the blade.

"Was that...?" Lycosa gulped, still trembling a little, already guessing.

"Yeah." nodded Ren. "A slash from Skoorn. Or at least, from his sword. If he had wielded it himself, we would be dead!" Ren spat to the side, taking deep breaths before looking at Ariana, who was pale, wobbling in place, drained from most of her energies. Same with Trestan. On the other hand, Kyu stood there, eyes filled with tears and sniffing, on the verge of a tantrum, waiting to burst out.

"Mom! I lost… I lost all the yummies! Uuu…. uuu…" She tried holding back her tears, not wanting to look like a little kid as she grew a lot. Well, in her mind, anyway. Her words and expression finally made the others relax, letting out a long breath and making them smile as Ariana patted Kyu's head, nodding at Ren that they were okay and fine.

"We have been swept pretty far away…." Gent looked around, realizing they were even out from the red-leaved forest and the Sect's immediate territory.

"Damn… that was scary!" Abrosa wiped his bleeding hand into his robe, "Still, this is going to raise the Disciplinary Bureau's reputation!" He joked a little to lighten his own mood and nerves. "We survived an attack from one of the Gods! Hmph! Few could say that!"

"You okay?" Ophila appeared suddenly from nowhere, watching Ren with worried eyes. "I felt the Baldy's aura!"

"Your Excellency!" The others cupped their hands, quickly bowing, already feeling giddy that she herself arrived, checking up on them. It was the greatest honor they could wish for.

"No biggie!" Ren grinned, "It was just a big hissy fit!" she waved her hands, still bleeding profusely. "Sore losers doing what they do best!"

"I don't like their stain being so close to my Sect!" Ophila snorted, scooping up everybody to flash forward to the Sect of Dawn and see what remained there for herself.

…
….
…..

Somewhere, far away in a freezing, dark place where no sunlight ever shone, Skoorn was kneeling, caressing his sword, laid out across his thighs.

"Hm?" He opened his eyes ever so little, scanning his rusty blade, seeing a minuscule, new spot forming on it. "Someone performed a worthy sacrifice?" He whispered, touching it, and as soon as his skin made contact, the blade's aura alone was enough to cut his skin open. "Hm." he draws his finger back, experiencing Ortus's last moments, seeing everything through his eyes. "How efficient," Skoorn murmured, watching Ren's figure quickly kill Nubes and fight him head-on afterward. "A fine warrior in the making." He nodded to himself before disappearing. When he was 'out,' he was deep underwater, where the only light was the few huge, bioluminescent jellyfish floating, grazing the seafloor.

"Lord." the telepathic voice of one of the jellyfish arrived, being both male and female simultaneously.

"Send out the order!" Skoorn transmitted back, alongside the captured aura of Ren, "I want this warrior turned to our side or killed by one of my martyrs! I want her to shed blood in my name or bleed for me!" He ordered in a strict tone before once again disappearing. No questions were asked back; they only acknowledged their orders and left the trench they were in, floating slowly upwards, to deliver the message of the Lord of the Deep, as many of the sea demons knew him as.