Mad God

When the group reappeared above the surrounding areas of the Sect of Dawn, it was the scenery straight out of an apocalyptic story. A big part of the forest was cleanly cut away wherever the sword energy of Skoorn's blade had passed. It shaved off the earth itself and left the scarred ground's sides to burn in flames, still dancing in crimson color. They were quickly spreading outwards in a fan-like shape, consuming the rest of the forest. The naked, treeless patch went on for multiple kilometers long, but even worse than that was what they found where the old headquarters of the Sect was once. Almost 30.000 disciples were spread out on the ground, dead, and turned into nothing more than human raisins. All of them were used up when Ortus ignited his last attack, sacrificing anybody who trained in his own technique, being inducted followers of Skoorn or not. The only mentally broken survivors were those fresh, young disciples who had just joined the Sect, looking for a future in the cultivation world. For their luck, they were yet to be taught the Sect's primary technique, and they could survive the tragedy.

"Trestan, Gent, go, collect the remaining disciples who lived! They will be transferred to the Sect, investigated, and if they are clean, they will be let go!" Ophila ordered.

"Yes!" both of them bowed, flying downwards without question.

"Lycosa, Abrosa, go, retrieve the corpses of their elders and leaders. Take inventory of their possessions; leave no stones unturned!" She sternly said, throwing out orders, "I already alerted the Grand Elders; one of them is coming here with 10.000 disciples to take control of the region. For now, you are going to be stationed here. Let no other Sects in until I say so!"

"Yes!" They cupped their hands, fired up to do anything she ordered them to. Even in the Lotus Mandala Sect, to speak with the Lightbringer was almost only a privilege held by the Grand Elders. Outside of a Sect-wide celebration, at least.

"Go, help them out!" Ren nodded towards Ariana and also warned Kyu, whose eyes were sparkling a little too brightly, "Eat one thing here, and I'll throw you into a prison for a whole year and feed you nothing more than water!"

"Hauh!" Kyu shrank her neck backward like a turtle, quickly disappearing with Ariana.

"So? What did you find?" Ren tilted her head when only they were left up in the sky.

"The residue from Skoorn is weak. He was not in contact with them at all." Ophila furrowed her brows, feeling all the changes in the air around her and the minuscule differences coming from the dried-up corpses that could only be discerned by someone at her level.

"I heard that baldy usually deals with demons now." Ren crossed her arms.

"Yes. Most of them are brainwashed at an early stage. Especially after they were getting massacred here, he came in as a 'savior' and gathered them to his side! Of course, he would not turn away humans if they start worshiping him… but most of them play out like they did." She shook her head, "They only receive power until they trigger his sword one way or another and end up like martyrs, sacrificing their whole sect to feed it!"

"I don't buy that they just came across it one day and established a sect right here!" Ren scoffed.

"Me neither! Still, no matter how they came across one of his techniques and became a follower… they are dead now!"

"Dead…" Ren scratched her chin, looking around the bodies littering the region.

"The twins?" Ophila caught onto Ren's thought almost immediately.

"Maybe." She replied, still thinking, without blinking her eyes, "Just a hunch. Knowing their personality, they would be the only other side that benefits from this many souls entering reincarnation at once."

"Do they really control it?" Ophila asked as the concept of Life and Death was not something she really dabbled in.

"No." Ren shook her head, "Otherwise, I would not have been able to come back! It is a natural cycle, integrated completely into our Realm! It is outside of their control even if they say otherwise to their followers!" she smiled. "They are just better at influencing it than others! They can tap into it and gain strength from souls passing on. Think of them as bears standing in the river, catching salmon, swimming upstream! They benefit from it, but they cannot direct all the fish as they wish nor alter where the river flows!"

"This many souls… what could they do with it?"

"I don't know." Ren shook her head.

"What will you do now?" Ophila asked, letting out a long breath after they just floated there silently for a few seconds.

"I plan to continue my trip with Ariana and Kyu. I want to bring them to Kaizer's Sect and see the world in the meantime. Get a feeling for it and help Ariana acclimate to the air here throughout the journey."

"Mhm." Ophila nodded, "I'll go, speak with Big Brother; he has the most disciples. I'll ask him for help and try to find a clue about what the twins may be up to!"

"Good! Let me know if you come across anything!" She smiled, looking at Ophila, who returned her smile happily.

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Far away, amongst a snowy forest, high up in the western end of the Wall of the World and at the eastern starting point of this side of the continent, Alphina and Oynega were enjoying a hot bath amongst the snowfall. They had their own little heaven, far away from everything and everybody. Their cozy, little log cabin, next to a huge, natural hot spring, would be a dream for many, yet no humans ever came here in the history of the whole Realm. Not that there was nobody who did not try. The legend of a mystical place, where the spring of youth lay, granting mortals the same strength as the Gods, skipping every part of cultivation, was constantly on the lips of the people living close to the endless mountain ridges. Ordinary humans, strong cultivators, and even demigods had traveled around, trying to find the fabled spring, only to come close and drop dead the moment they saw 'it.'

"Ah… another… came! Aww.. and just when I did too!" Alfina moaned, riding atop her brother as they were soaking in the hot spring. Looking back over her shoulder, they both could see that, far away, a body plummeted from the sky. It belonged to someone in the Harmony Realm, who searched and found the legendary place, only to die when he did. Nobody could resist the powers of the Twin Gods, not if they came uninvited. Their souls were sent into reincarnation as soon as they came too close, leaving this place wholly deserted, devoid of life. Oynega just wanted to say something as both of them shook, cumming once again, holding onto each other with an ecstatic expression.

Their bodies were slim and perfect, in the literal sense of the word, devoid of even the slightest blemishes, looking like porcelain dolls, indistinguishable from each other. Both of their hairs were long, reaching down to their tiny bottoms like a pitch-black nightgown. It was not just dark; it simply did not reflect any light, being unnaturally black, the complete opposite of their unnaturally white bodies. Their eyes were like two shining emerald jades, especially now, almost turning into the shape of a heart.

"That was… sooooo goooood!" Alfina bit her lips, panting heavily.

"One of them popped, ehehe~" Oynega chuckled, "Mmhm, their souls are still flowing into our side… ah… this is like…." He murmured, writhing below his sister.

"Fufufu~ I can do it to you if you want~" Alfina leaned forward, and her brother only nodded, raising up, turning, and pointing his lower half towards her. If anybody was watching would realize the twins had everything. They were man and woman at the same time as both parts were there and working perfectly, quickly switching places. Now Oynega became Alfina, his voice becoming much more feminine while Alfina transformed into the brother, her tone morphing into that of Oynega's. "Aww… you are so cute! So? How is it going?" He said, pumping her relentlessly from behind.

"80? Ah.. no, this finally put it into 81% of completion~" She moaned, holding onto the edge of the hot spring. "We still need around a billion or two billion more souls!"

"That many? Hauh… oh well! Should we urge Rusty to make some killing, like always?" Oynega giggled, repeatedly slapping his sister's buttocks, turning them bright red.

"Sureeeee~ There was waaaay too many years of peace! They should've replenished their ranks by now! Curbing the numbers of the mortals is the best option anyway~ And when we finish, we can help them replenish! Ahaha, more~ Do it harder~”

"Fufufu, I like it when you say it this way~" He held onto her firmly, already focusing only on their wild little fun time.

What nobody knew, not even the other Gods, was the fact that the twins, long before Athos tore open the Sky, were working on getting the cycle of reincarnation under their control. Their solution was simple; if they couldn't control it directly, they would create their own and replace it. The best candidate for help was Skoorn himself, or at least his followers. Without them even realizing, everyone who was a believer of Skoorn when they died or they killed someone, the souls got fished out by Alfina and Oynega from the river of souls and put into their own, still expanding, forming circle of life… and later on, they would be reborn as one of their own believers. As such, their own followers were forever theirs. Their souls slowly got transformed as they cultivated their faith, following the twins, and when they died, they entered a new cycle of reincarnation, reborn as someone who was a disciple of theirs since birth and forever would be one. In the end, if they finished their project and replaced the natural cycle with the one they had complete control over, the other Gods would soon become obsolete. Everyone would be, in the end, a believer of the twins, and by that, they would maybe even transcend the concept of Gods. One thing they were sure of when it finally happened was the day when that nasty Tear was going to be fixed and healed, better than before, and his whole world would be their own, personal toybox… forever and ever.

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Two weeks after the happenings at the Sect of Dawn, Ren, Ariana, and Kyu crossed the border to a disputed, constantly warring territory. It was a beautiful region on paper where six rivers met and flowed forward, separating into dozens of small streams and splitting the land into fertile, lush terraces and multiple river islands. They were cutting into the mountains and leaving behind mounds and domes of rocks, covered in lush vegetation wherever the eye could see. Drifting down on a small ship, following the flow of the water, it was idyllic, to say the least.

"Why are they calling this the Valleys of the Damned? This is beautiful!" Ariana said, standing at the front of the small boat. Ren was sitting at the back, holding the rudder and controlling it, and Kyu was lying on her back, patting her bulging stomach after a tasty lunch. Not long ago, a huge, 12 or 14-meter-long crocodile tried to bite their boat into two, yet it was he who ended up in another's stomach.

"Because there is not one significant sect established here." Ren replied, "By what Ophy told me, this territory is home to around 50 small sects and countless bandit groups. It is easy to get lost in the multiple streams and lush vegetation, which is ideal if someone wants to disappear from the prying eyes or just wants to prey on others. Anyway, this is the fastest path towards Kaizer's Sect, at the shore of the Black Coast. This river should take us down, right to the sea!"

"Heh…" Ariana chuckled, "It is funny that they have their own Storm Coast!"

"It IS the same." her Master said, "That part of the ocean… It goes around! We have our own end, and if you traverse it, go straight through, you will end up at the Black Coast, where there are always dark, stormy clouds blocking out the sun."

"Really?" Ariana turned around, surprised.

"Yep! The only weird place is the Calm Blue in the south; it is still called that here too! It also borders the continent's southern side, all the way here. But it is untraversable. You can't cross it in any direction as you would end up back where you started, no matter where you go. Kai said it is because it is the nucleus of the Realm, from where it all originated and expanded outwards. Go far enough, and you just go in circles forever without realizing it."

"Hmmm… the land itself is humongous; I would be unable to explore it even if I dedicate centuries to it! Not to mention the endless ocean! Not that I would want to, Master! The thought of an infinite ocean is… terrifying!"

"Don't worry, live long enough, and you will find it interesting and explore the depths of the sea too!" Ren laughed in response before raising her eyebrows. "Oh? Seems like we have guests!" she looked at the front as Ariana also noticed the three, closing in ships in a triangle formation, flying black flags with the image of a drop of blood in the middle of them.

"Pirates?" Ariana asked, with a cold voice, not getting any coherent feelings from them; it was only a bunch of weird, mixed emotions but predominantly aggression and anarchy.

"Who knows! Maybe! Yarr~" Ren said and closed one of her eyes, drawing out a laugh from her disciple while Kyu, like nobody's business, just snored happily, basking in the warmth of the sun high up in the sky.