Mad God

Alfina and Oynega were now kneeling at the edge of their hot spring. Their eyes were only looking at Skoorn, unblinking, while they were holding hands. Inside the hot waters, Skoorn was sitting with crossed legs, absorbing the healing properties of it alongside the soul-affecting poison. He was completely oblivious to the fact that his mind was slowly eroding away. What he now perceived as his own success in releasing his rage and gaining clarity was his defenses falling down like a wall, opening up gap after gap in it, leading toward his soul. The twin Gods were waiting for this chance as they started influencing it with their complete focus, gently whispering, feeding him with sublime thoughts, and tempting his subconsciousness.

As the two were working on Skoorn, gently drawing out his soul and fusing it into their own reincarnation circle, Leinor was getting ready with hundreds of other awakened souls. If Orsi or Reignar were here, they would recognize their faces as all of them were a citizen living where the God's Blood Sect was.

"They started…" Zakku whispered, "Let's hope we succeed…."

"We are going to!" Leinor patted his shoulder. "When it breaks… you all…" he looked around as his voice faltered, but he only received smiles from them.

"We finally enter into true reincarnation!" Zakku finished his sentence, echoing every other soul's thoughts. "We can reunite with our other half and pass on! Our time was up in a now long-gone era… robbing us of our fate! It is our honor and our wish to finally serve some payback for those responsible!"

"Who knows, maybe after you all have been reborn, we are going to meet again!" Leinor chuckled, knowing, amongst them, only he would remain. His soul was already broken up once, a large part of it obliterated by a tribulation, then nurtured back to life. From that weak remains of a soul, only thanks to Ren's actions could he grow back to a complete soul, keeping his memories, feelings, and, in the end, himself. He knew that what he went through and how his soul was transformed, not even the natural cycle, would affect him by now. He even felt strong. Stronger than when he was alive. Or, more precisely, when he had his corporeal body.

"Look!" Zakku said, drawing Leinor's attention as they all saw a patch of the reincarnation cycle being cleared up. All the foggy or broken souls were clearing away from a spot, 'running' away by instinct. What they saw was a hole that felt natural and had a slightly oval shape. It did not take long for the tip of a bald head to slowly push through it. "Is it… birthing itself… into here?!" Zakku gawked, feeling a bit sick, watching it happening in real time.

"Looks like it…." Leinor twitched his mouth, "Somehow, it feels natural to see it… but damn… it is also very disgusting!"

"I had four children." the spirit of a woman commented next to them. "None of their heads were this big! I wouldn't be in the place of the cycle right now!" She joked a little, sending a wave of laughter through the gathered souls.

…
….
…..

While Alphina and Oynega were occupied, focusing entirely on extracting Skoorn's soul, the battle was heating up quite literally outside of their realm. Invictus did not intervene more than needed, keeping himself ready to jump in when his strength was indeed required to execute the Gods, not giving them a chance to escape. Using the hundreds of thousands of cultivators firing off their spells as cover, Ophila, Kaizer, and Ren could easily sneak by up to the mountain, going straight to the edge where the twins' realm lay.

Setting up the Soul Tearer was done quickly, ensuring it wouldn't fire before time and alerting their targets. When only the last part remained, Ren took a deep breath, nodding towards Kaizer as her disciples entered their designated place. Watching them for a little, Ren finally finished it up, and immediately, a small circle lit up below them. It was inconsequential in the grand picture; nobody would notice it, not if they don't specialize in souls, just like the twins.

"What?!" Oynega opened his eyes immediately, feeling something awful was happening right now.

"Where is this coming from?!" Alfina echoed it too, trembling as they tried to continue with Skoorn's 'devouring,' but he already shook once, almost breaking free from their influence and recognizing he was at death's door.

"Get ready!" Leinor said to the rest of the souls beside him, who also felt the activation of the formation in the outside world even more than anyone else present, being already an injured soul.

Kaizer and Ophila focused on supplying their energies to the formation while Ren raised her hands, guiding it masterfully. Multiple ethereal pillars emerged from nowhere, and long, loudly clanking chains stretched out from all of them. It was like nothing before, as the pillars kept rising, soon hitting a number way beyond a hundred. The sea of chains latched upwards in a chaotic, wild form. A colossal ∞ symbol appeared above them right after, looking like a flowing river spanning hundreds of meters. It was light-bluish in color, and they could see countless souls swirling inside it. The chains quickly wrapped themselves around it, some managing to dig into the weird, unnatural fabric it had.

What neither the Immortals nor the Gods knew was that far away, in the village of the God's Blood Sect, all the remaining people gathered at the main square, kneeling and simply praying, no longer in contact with reality, their faith imbuing into the chains itself at the other side of the world.

"What is happening?" Reignar asked, looking at them, afraid to disturb them.

"I have a guess… but I think they are trying to reconnect with their other half," Orsi replied, hugging his arms, looking sad while watching them, knowing they were going to die very soon.

"Something is burrowing into the cycle!" Oynega shouted, finally giving up on Skoorn's soul, his mind going after the continuously appearing chains, trying to cut them off of their creation.

"There are too many of them!" Alfina panicked.

By now, dozens had found their way into the reincarnation cycle, hooking themselves onto it, and started pulling into different directions. From a distance, it was as if the last pretzel at a vendor's stall got into the hands of dozens of hungry orphans, all wanting a piece for themselves.

"FOR THE MAD GOD!" Zakku shouted as he and a hundred others like him rushed the holes the chains had made, grabbing onto them, tearing at them, pulling them wider and wider.

Leinor was also heading towards one such spot, and when his hands slipped in, pulling the tear further apart, it was cracking loudly, like dried bark being torn off from a sick tree.

"Open… UP!" He shouted as he exerted all of his strength. It came not from his body. It was not the power of muscles as they were nonexistent. It came simply from his own will. For a moment, in the outside world, the twins and the half-conscious Skoorn heard a very familiar sound that terrified them to their cores, finally shaking awake the latter. It was like paper being torn apart right next to their ears.

Under them, Ren concentrated just the same, guiding the chaotic sea of chains, pulling on them with her full force as the built reincarnation cycle of Alfina and Oynega was ripped apart. It was like it had a life of its own because as soon as it happened, hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands of souls flooded towards the sky in a never-ending stream of consciousness. At the main square of the God's Blood Sect, a collective of a hundred people simply let out a sigh, filled with incomprehensible relief as they closed their eyes, never to reopen them again.

The twins had no time to scream as the backlash hit them, throwing them apart. The shock that their souls received was like being hammered repeatedly while wearing a bell as a helmet. The one who suffered the most was Skoorn. Although he regained consciousness and opened his empty eye sockets, he was confused about who he was, where he was… what he was. Part of his soul got damaged, which brought more pain than anything else he had ever experienced, making him cry out for real, calling for help desperately.

That was the moment when Invictus's shout arrived as he flew in. His body was covered entirely in fire, going straight for Skoorn's head. Now, the bald God, relying only on his experiences engraved into his subconscious, raised his hands as defense, blocking as he was flung out from the hot spring's water.

"Go, finish off that bastard!" Ren shouted at Ophila, sending her to support her eldest brother. "You, with me!" She glanced at Kaizer, flying towards one of the twins, Alfina.

"Gladly! But what about-" Kaizer followed her.

"Don't worry about him!" Ren smiled with pure happiness.

"Sis!" Oynega shouted, standing up, holding his head, feeling vertigo ravaging him. "Ugh?!" he groaned as he also felt a fist sinking into his stomach, sending him into the air, before a descending ankle smashed into his head, blasting him back down into the ground.

"So this is a God, huh? Not that different from a normal man." traveled a calm voice into his ears, and when looking up, he saw an ever so slightly transparent soul standing over him, looking down with calm, clear golden eyes.

"Who… are you?" He pushed himself up, feeling his rage rising inside of him as all of the previous fear and panic were transforming into it.

"Your doom!" Leinor answered, going straight at him, and even though he was nothing but a soul, his attacks connected with his body without any troubles.

"Whoa!" Kaizer whispered, only looking at their battle briefly as he surrounded Alfina with Ren.

"Keep it for later!" Ren said, already wielding a violet spear, stabbing towards Alfina, who barely tilted her head, dodging, still disoriented, seeing two of Ren most of the time. "Don't let the twins escape!"

Now the only one who was in an even more precarious situation was Skoorn. He was still injured, confused, not even getting why everything was so dark? Where did the sun go? Who was attacking him? Where were his siblings? Wait… who is Athos? And why was he so angry at him? Kai? Is he still alive, or did they already seal him away? Or… was that a dream?

These thoughts were racing through his head while his memories were utterly jumbled up. His body was barely keeping up, and feeling the rare chance before him, Invictus held nothing back from the start. Forming a pure, glowing, red sword, he grabbed onto its lava-like handle with two hands, thrusting forward.

"Do it now!" Ophila shouted, her hands leaving images in the air. Moving so quickly, she looked like someone with a thousand arms. Around Skoorn, invisible formation circles appeared, blocking him in a box.

Skoorn wanted to dodge backward, but he hit a wall and was stopped. By reflex, his hands went to the sides, but they met against two other formations that quickly closed in and a fourth descending from above, blocking all routes from him.

"THIS IS FOR MY FATHER!" Invictus roared, his glowing, two-handed sword going straight into his chest, just like Skoorn did it 2000 years ago with Athos. As it came out from behind him, it threw blinding sparks everywhere. It slammed against his sister's formation, even breaking it. He knew the God before him had his core in his neck, so with another roar, his hands moved, slicing upwards, quickly meeting his Godcore with the edge of his sword.

"Ugh!" Skoorn vomited out a pool of bright blood evaporated by the heat from Invictus's weapon. He was grabbing onto it with two hands, trying to stop it with all of his might.

"What… is… happening?!" He said through, spewing blood from his mouth and nose, wanting to cry.

"Brother!" Ophila shouted as she formed a literal energy box around Skoorn's head.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" Invictus swirled his blade, still in Skoorn's body, sweepingly cutting off not just his head but part of his neck and upper torso. Ophila quickly enveloped it in her energy prison while Invictus aimed his weapon again, stabbing at his sister's prison as if he was performing some magic trick on stage. Skoorn's burning hands were still grabbing the weapon, constantly sizzling, dragging his wiggling body along. It struck against his core once more, with much more force behind it.

"PUSH!" Ophila rushed there, holding her prison in place while her brother finally managed to send the tip of his sword into Skoorn's Godcore.

As it cracked, it was audible all around the world, no matter where someone was. It signaled a true death of a God. As soon as the first thin line appeared on it, numerous others followed as the power of an Immortal finally overwhelmed the resistance of a God, shattering his core completely. It was without any violent reaction, any explosion; it just broke like a flimsy vase being knocked down from its pedestal. Skoorn's body went stiff, then stopped moving forever. Invictus and Ophila were standing there, a bit shocked they really did it, knowing they not just defeated a God but even killed one.

Hearing the cracking sound, Ren did not even look over. She moved her hand, appearing as if she played on a piano, and multiple chains shot forward, grabbing the flimsy soul of Skoorn, ripping it apart before it had a chance to go into reincarnation or the twins could grab at it.

"This is for Nilier..." She whispered, still fighting against Alfina with Kaizer, determined to end them just the same.

At that moment, they did not even realize the actual consequences everywhere else. The followers of Skoorn received such a backlash that overshadowed everything Nilier's believers suffered. Most of them, who were bathing in the powers gained from him, simply found themselves going completely berserk as their energies, fueled by faith, ran rampant in their bodies until they exploded alongside their flesh and bones. At multiple battlefields, demons and humans alike, worshippers of Skoorn, popped like a bomb was set off in their bodies, showering the land with an endless sea of gore. Those who survived the initial outburst of their powers soon found it quickly dissipated. All of it was leaking out from their bodies; some started to shrivel up right into an old, ancient mummy before falling over. Alive… but trapped in a living corpse of a body for a few more days. It was the end for not just Skoorn but all of his believers… and now, only the twins remained.