Mad God

It was a clear and cool night, two days after Ren, Ariana, and Kyu had landed in the God's Blood Sect. Ren was sitting at the bank of the river with the now quiet, sleepy town behind her.

"I finished examining all of the townspeople." Ariana walked up to her, sitting beside her Master in the lush, green grass. "You are right; all of them are… troubled. One way or another... Something is not right with them. It's like… their feelings and thoughts are mixed up and changing unpredictably. Like switching personalities on a whim! Only one thing remains fixed: the belief in the Mad God. Everything else can change with a snap of a finger like they have no control over their own minds."

"Why does one thing remain the same?" Ren murmured, unable to make sense of it for now. "I tried educating the ones who somehow reached the Harmony stage!" She sighed, changing the course of her thoughts. "They are hopeless! For one, their leader, Zakku, the so-called 'First Apostle,' has water affinity. Yet he is adamant about controlling the earth! His spells are a mess! They only work because he infuses water with the ground, and literally, he is throwing mud around!" She rolled her eyes. "And he does not listen! Or can't…." Ren looked up at the sky. "Even if I order him as the 'Messiah,' he simply forgets it in a minute and returns to the same routine. He is 100% sure that he can control the earth!"

"It is a surprise they are even alive…." Ariana looked back at the town, watching the lights flickering inside the houses.

"You tell me! I am more surprised there are 6 Harmony-level cultivators here! They are all the same; it should be impossible for them to survive and reach this stage!" Ren shook her head vehemently. "Something does not add up here!"

As they sat silently there, the river water suddenly burst towards the sky, and they got entirely drenched as Kyu appeared in her original form, emerging from the river with a giant fish's tail still flapping between her jaws.

"Ah! Mhmfmr!" Kyu said something, but Ren just groaned, shaking her completely soaked head.

"Chew it first, then repeat!" She sighed, squeezing water out of her hair.

"C-c-c-cold…" Ariana grumbled, throwing daggers at Kyu with her eyes.

"S-sorry, I did not realize you were here!" Kyu laughed, gulping down the rest, turning into her human form, completely naked, happily skipping onto the shore, and throwing herself into Ren's lap. "Mom, when are we going to continue our journey? I don't like it here!"

"Hm? Why?" She asked, picking out weeds from Kyu's hair.

"They are weird! They smell bad and sick; they are stinky and scary! I hate it here!"

"Sick…?" Ren furrowed her brows again.

"Um!" Kyu nodded, "Not their bodies but… they! Um! They are sick!"

"They?" Ariana looked at them when Ren suddenly flinched and quickly contacted Ophila.

"Did something happen?" her Immortal disciple replied almost immediately.

"You could say that." Ren continued, "How's the teleportation coming along?"

"I finished the anchor; it should be up and running in a day or two. Who do you need to bring over?" She asked without hesitation. "If it's important, I can finish it in a day!"

"You catch on quick~ Yes, it is important; I need Orsi here and as quick as you can! She is special and different from all of us… and I think she can shine some light on what I have just stumbled into!"

"I don't really get it, but sure! I'll go and escort her to you!" Ophila said without hesitation.

"Do you think it's about their souls?" Ariana asked, thinking it was really a plausible option.

"If she says they feel sick, then I can't think of anything else! The question is; What kind of sickness are we talking about? If their souls are sick, then Orsi can shed some light on it for us!"

"How could a soul be sick?" Ariana wondered, and Ren's answer surprised her.

"It should not be possible. So I don't really know! An injured soul, after being born… is soon to become a dead person. Those people do not live long enough to grow up and most certainly do not cultivate! Not to the Harmony Realm!"

"But…" Ariana got a bit confused.

"Yet here we are! In the middle of a weird situation!" Ren stood up, throwing a set of fresh clothes onto Kyu before stretching with a tired moan. "An injured soul..." Ren replied softly, remembering how she sent Leinor's fragmented soul into reincarnation.

…
….
…..

It only took a few days for Ophila to arrive, as she brought Orsi and Reignar to them.

"Ariana!" Orsi laughed, greeting her friend as Reignar walked up with a smile, nodding at Ren, who was already greatly interested in the so foreign place the moment he arrived.

"This place…" Ophila murmured, clearly disturbed as she looked around, meeting with her Master at the edge of the town. "Should be razed to the ground!"

"Extreme..!" Ren looked at her with one eye.

"It is a disgrace!" Ophila snorted in response, acting like a little girl who would shock her own people greatly if they could see her now. After taking a deep breath, she continued explaining her thoughts in a voice transmission. "It is filled with the power of faith, and what's worse, it is aimed at you!"

"At my past self." Ren corrected her with a smile. "Just relax for now… something is bizarre here, so let us first check out what may have caused it!" she waved her hand, leading them inside.

"Um, Elder Ren…" Orsi spoke up after walking into the town, pointing at a statue that was being built in the main square. "That thing starts to look eerily like you…."

"Ignore it." Ren answered with a deadpan look, "They look at me as a Messiah. It is annoying enough, and they won't stop erecting a statue for me."

"Pft…" Reignar chuckled, patting her shoulders. "Are they looking at you as the messenger of their God?"

"Worse." She rolled her eyes. "They see me as a child or reincarnation of his!" Ren sighed as Ophila and Ariana just looked at each other, releasing a similar sigh, knowing they were correct. "Plus, I don't get why; I destroyed their previous temple, and they just switched like that! Madness…”

"Ahahaha! They remind me of my little brother!" Reignar laughed, "I'm sure he would've raised a statue for you already~."

"Nah, he raised something else! Every night~" Ren joked back at him as the two laughed simultaneously.

As they walked around, Orsi's expression became increasingly troubled as she examined the people here. Seeing how her face contorted repeatedly, their mood quickly cooled down, turning solemn but patiently waiting for her to speak first.

"Elder Ren… can I meet with one of their stronger people?" Orsi turned at her, fiddling with her uniform.

"Sure!" Ren nodded before whistling loudly, and Zakku flew over hurriedly, groveling before her on all fours.

"You called, oh Mighty One? Lord of our blood, freer of our souls!" He repeated, not even looking up at her.

"Ugh…" Ren's face twitched involuntarily, "Orsi here is my friend; she wants to examine you a little."

"Yes!" Zakku agreed, starting to strip naked right there and there.

"No, no, no! Clothes are fine; it's not that kind of examination!" Ren added hurriedly, stopping him just in time.

"Oh? I see!" He nodded rapidly, standing still and just looking at Orsi. She quickly steeled herself as she stared deep into Zakku's eyes.

"The eye is the door that leads to seeing into one's soul…." Orsi murmured as she watched him unblinkingly while Zakku fell into a trance-like state, losing all connection to the world. "This…!" Orsi exclaimed with a shocked voice, taking a step back, looking away, holding her breath, feeling like throwing up. As Zakku regained his clarity, he looked around slowly and seemed confused for a very long time before returning altogether.

"Ah! Our Lord, did you call for me?" He went to his knees again, unaware of what transpired, seemingly forgetting the previous few minutes.

"I wanted to show you, my friends. While they are here, I don't want anyone troubling them!" Ren said before sending him away.

"Yes! I'll make sure of it!" Zakku nodded rapidly, committing their faces to memory before hurrying away.

"What happened?" Reignar stepped behind Orsi, holding her by her shoulders.

"This is… they…" She said, trembling a little, still feeling nauseous.

"Come!" Ariana held her hand, calming her down. "Let's go to the bank of the river and take a few calming breaths! Then you can tell us everything! Just relax~."

By the time they walked to the river, sitting on the grass, Orsi had managed to regain her nerves and recollect her thoughts, pulling herself out from the initial shock.

"They are not complete!" She started with shocking news right from the start: "Their souls are splintered, and it is like… only a half of what a soul should be like! Even worse, it is fused with an unformed, empty soul!"

"Empty soul?" Reignar tilted his head.

"Souls that are sent to reincarnation do not come back immediately. They became part of the river of souls, where newborn souls originate from. It is also where their previous lives' memories get scrubbed clean." Ren explained that back then, she had to make sure her memories stayed intact, no matter how long it would take for her to be reborn. Her research into it was something that even the twins were deeply interested in. No wonder they were eager to work with Athos back then and helped him out with some things only they could do, not knowing Athos's actual plans to open the Sky.

"Their souls are a fragile mix of a new and a reincarnated one." Orsi continued.

"Souls?" Ophila raised her brows.

"Yes! There were two souls, fused together, in the man from before! One is a fresh, pure one, and another, a broken piece attached itself onto it, fusing right on top of it… None of them are complete, one failed to form, and one was only a shard. Even adding the two together, they are not complete!"

"Some kind of parasite?" Ariana crossed her arms.

"No… it is more like a shipwrecked person, grabbing onto something to stay afloat," Orsi said with a sad voice. "It was filled with despair subconsciously and still is! It is clinging onto the faith that someone will help him…."

"Clinging to a God…" Ophila finished her thoughts, making Orsi nod.

"That would explain why most of them think they have an affinity that they don't!" Ren scratched her chin, "It is a memory from their previous lives!"

"A fragment of it, yes." Orsi nodded, "They are just pieces, shards of the person they were before, mixed into their new life! Their memories are a mess as they… they are like living two lives at once! The current and their previous! It would be as if you couldn't tell if your memories really happened or you just dreamed them up!"

"Damn…" all of them said at the same time, easing the heavy mood a little.

"But how could this happen? Isn't there only one technique in existence that can tear souls into multiple pieces!" Ariana asked, taking a quick glance at Ren.

"Maybe there are more…" Orsi murmured, "Or something happened when they died. If I can trace back when they died, I could discover what went wrong!"

"Let's do that!" Ren agreed, "Techniques aiming at souls are the most dangerous things!"

"Then am I dangerous?" Orsi smiled, drawing out a laugh from Ren.

"Yep!" She rubbed her head. "That is why everything you come up with immediately goes into S-rank back home and gets sealed by Sect Head. If more like you show up one day, only after you deem them worthy can they learn what you created!"

"I told you every day that you are special!" Reignar nudged her with a grin.

"Hauh… don't tease me, please!" Orsi moaned as she turned bright red, but she was clearly happy from all the praises."

"Soul techniques… You also know of one, no?" Reignar asked, looking at Ren, but his gaze was not questioning or trying to contradict her.

"Yes. And I never recorded it, ever. Not when I made it." Ren said solemnly, "Not even when I modified it. Everything is in here." she tapped her temple. "And it is going to stay that way! I won't teach it to anybody as it is something that I do not want to pass on to anybody! When you come up with something like that in the future, Orsi…." Ren looked into her eyes, warning her, "A spell you deem too dangerous or powerful… Don't tell anybody, not even Sect Head. Keep it to yourself. Some things simply are best to be not shared.