Mad God – Reborn

"Please, punish me, my King!" Baagh said as he knelt before Harimau. He firmly believed that he was called back because of the defeat he had suffered and the constant attempts and subsequent failures to break the wolves' lines.

"Punish? No. I called you to reward you." Harimau said calmly.

"My… King?" He blinked his eyes, raising his head, completely surprised. Previously, he was ready to lose his own head... He expected shouting, but not this calm, almost kind voice, coming directly from Harimau.

"Why would I punish my most loyal general? When even Sengge betrayed me!"

"He… he did what?" Baagh gawked, yet deep inside, glee quickly rushed through his veins as he felt he had the opportunity to become his king's right-hand man.

"It does not matter. Not anymore. I'll go to the south with you, and we will kill every last one of them."

"What about the wolves, my King?" He asked hurriedly.

"Let them revel in their illusion of victory. After presenting them with the heads that we are going to collect, it will be enough to turn their dreams into a nightmare."

"Yes, my King!" He bowed his head with excitement.

"Come, follow me!" The Tiger King said, standing up and leading Baagh outside. In the back garden, he finally laid his eyes upon the 14-meter-tall metal giant, which was Harimau's new 'toy.' It stood on two thick legs and had four arms, as wide as a human would be. Its chest was wide open, like a barrel, and inside it one could see a sarcophagus standing tall. The well-polished, metal body of the sarcophagus was covered with vein-like carvings, giving Baagh a weird, unnatural, and foreboding feeling.

"What… What is this monster?" He gawked at the sight as he could see his own reflection on the golem's silver surface.

"It is a weapon." The Tiger King explained with a flat voice. "No… it is an instrument of death. Think of it as a suit of armor. You are going to wear it into battle, and then you are going to wield the same strength as me. Together, we are going to smash everything in our path!"

"The same power as yours, my King…" Baagh gulped, already salivating at the thought.

"Yes. Step into it, and after the battle, you are going to be my right-hand man, Baagh." He patted his back, and the saber-tooth tiger felt like butterflies were racing inside his stomach. He was giggling like a child as he climbed up, right into the giant machine's stomach, and stood in the sarcophagus. "Good." Harimau smiled and spoke a word that nobody had heard on the surface of this land for two thousand years, pronouncing it in the old language of the House of Ein. "Activate."

The giant golem's chest quickly shut, scaring Baagh, who had previously been happily giggling until that moment. Then... His laughs immediately turned into screams. In the complete darkness, from the sarcophagus, small needles stabbed into his body, going deep, penetrating his sturdy bones, reaching the marrow with one jab. No matter how hard he tried to fight back, electric currents raced through his nervous system, taking control of every muscle inside of him, ending the agonizing screams not by choice but by force. Not that it mattered, as from the outside, nobody could hear anything at all. He was completely taken control of and could do nothing, just move his eyes in the complete darkness, under immense pain. He was unable to faint and could sense that life was constantly drawn out from his body by the machine.

Harimau just calmly watched as the iron giant slowly trembled, and bluish energy raced through its metallic body. They looked like the veins in a human body, shining under strong light. On its featureless head, two bright blue 'eyes' appeared, and a synthetic voice spoke in a foreign language Harimau could not understand.

"XA-6 is fully operational. Energy source detected. Estimated battery life: 1 hour. Battle parameters: Insufficient Data. Warning: Energy source is unstable, battle potential is... Calculating. 60%."

"What the hell is it saying…" Harimau groaned, already throwing away the calm facade he had tried to keep up previously because, in reality, he was raging like a volcano, ready to blow his top. "Damned toothpick-handed fuckers! They sent me an abomination that does not even speak the correct words, just gibberish! What was the order…?" He ground his teeth together. "Follow!" He spoke the words he managed to memorize as the giant turned its head towards him.

"Subject: Demon. Designation: Vermin. Exterminating." It said, raising its hand, but then it stopped. "Secondary input command registered. Voice: Recognized as a designated, secondary input periphery. Initiating the following procedures."

Harimau did not know what it was saying, but when he flew up, the thing the dwarfs called a 'Combat Golem' quickly followed. It glowed in blue light, easily keeping up with Harimau's speed.

"Good... At least it works! They said I only have an hour before it expires… doesn't matter! It is enough. I'll kill everyone! I should've done this first. Fuck them! One tries to give others a chance, and they are only good at screwing things up or betraying you... Best to do it by yourself. Next time, when I redo everything, there won't be diplomacy, only domination." He grinned with a crazed expression as he flew straight toward the south with all of his strength. "Hope you did not inherit that idiot's traits." He murmured as he looked back at his shoulder, watching the golem that was following him closely.

"Instructions unclear. Please repeat with the correct terminology."

"Damned machine…" Harimau snorted, trying not to think about anything and only letting his blood rampage inside his chest. He was not even trying to suppress it anymore. "I hope that bitch is there! I'll not even rape her... I am going to just tear her from limb to limb… Skin her and use her as decoration…"

…

….

…..

In the south, Ren was just finishing speaking with Rumira. They were talking about how they were going to attack the Tiger King's villa and draw him away to the formation that Ren had finished setting up. She was already on her way from the foxes' village when Ren put away the voice transmission token. It was that moment when her body trembled on its own, and she snapped her head towards the north.

"Kang, evacuate everyone and protect the injured!" Ren ordered, flying into the air, and her tone alone was enough to warn everyone that something was coming towards them. Sengge and Tylvana also realized something was up, and Ariana hurriedly came out from her tent just to see two figures arriving from the north.

"Go. Kill everyone on the ground." Harimau said, watching Ren before him, but the golem did not move at all, making the Tiger King twitch his eyelids. He was feeling that a stroke was getting way too close by now. "Attack." He said in the golem's language, and the machine plummeted to the ground like a meteor. "I'll let the machine kill your people, you… YOU are going to be dealt with by me!" He roared as his hands transformed into giant tiger claws.

"I'm not so sure about that," Ren replied as purple electricity flashed around her body, facing him without fear.

Below them, the golem crashed, throwing rocks and pieces of the ground everywhere, towering above everybody, with its immense height. Its mechanical voice echoed chillingly as it looked at them.

"Targets identified. Commencing battle protocol." While this was happening, deep inside it, where Baagh served as the machine's battery, a different voice spoke up. "Initiate the 'Nihil' protocol. Authorization code: 419B-43P." When the voice finished, if he could, Baagh would have screamed out in pain as the needles started to drain his life away even faster. "Affirmative," replied the golem. "Deploying prototype weaponry. 10 minutes remaining until self-destruct."

It happened in a few seconds: the giant raised its hand, and where a human's palm should be. The next moment, searingly hot red fire blazed from it, setting everything aflame.

"No, you won't!" Ariana shouted as a huge black wall appeared behind her, casting a shadow on them. It was rising to the skies, blocking the flames before it could torch the camp and the injured, who were being evacuated by Kang, Shaman, and the rest of their combat-ready forces.

Sengge's loud lion roar echoed far and wide as he arrived beside the golem in the air, aiming a punch at its face, sending a deep, ringing sound in all directions when his attack landed. The metallic weapon only leaned to the side, standing on one leg, keeping its balance easily, and swatted Sengge away with its other hand. It was like a human slapping at an annoying mosquito buzzing around its head.

"Are you alive?" Tylana asked as she arrived, watching Sengge climb out from the hole in the ground that he had left behind.

"Yes… It is as hard as a mountain… we need to stop it somehow!" He spat as he watched it rebalance itself, stopping the fiery attack.

"Deploying mechanism is ready. Initiating the Holy Fire protocol." The golem said, but only Ren and Shaman could understand its words. From its back, two slits opened up, and two familiar-looking tubes emerged, flipping over its shoulders. One was aiming at the crowd of demons while the other turned towards Sengge and Tylvana.

"Damn it!" Ariana cursed, clapping her hands together, and from under the golem's feet, giant, ink-like tentacles grew out, snaking up on its body. They were grabbing onto the tubes, twisting them away before they could shoot at their targets.

When they finally fired, with a loud bang, the tubes actually cracked apart. Still, the 'bullets' flew out and exploded far away in the distance, raining greenish, burning slime onto the forest. Thankfully, nobody was under the two death clouds, releasing a sick-looking sea of fire below them.

"Keep it immobile!" Sengge roared, going for the leg of the golem, hitting it multiple times, but none of his fists left any dent on the shining, metallic surface.

Tylvana wasn't idle either. Ignoring her own pain, she was already climbing up the back of the golem, right where Ariana's tentacles were coiling around the weapons on its back. She cried out as her arms changed into those of a jaguar's claws, now mixed with patches of metal inside them. She was bleeding everywhere, and every move was sending pain through her body, yet she just endured it with gritted teeth. With one swipe, the first damage finally appeared on the body of the huge machine, a crack where the weapons were mounted, spreading into the frame itself.

"Again!" Tylvana shouted to encourage herself, slashing continuously, finally weakening it enough that Ariana's tentacles could tear the weapons off its shoulders.

"Flip!" The roar of Kang arrived, who was rushing in, completely shrouded in his bone armor, joining in the fray after leaving the fleeing demons to the Shaman.

He slammed into the golem's leg with an earth-shaking bang, grabbing onto it with all of his strength. His fingers dented the surface of the golem's legs, even producing hair-thin cracks all around it. Sengge did the same to its other leg, and the two, roaring simultaneously, finally managed to lift it and flip the frightening weapon to its back like a turtle. Tylvana delivered a few more slashes before jumping off, rolling on the ground when landing, and watching as the machine fell backward. It was crushing the weakened second tube, breaking it off from its back after landing.

"I'll try to imprison it!" Ariana said as she floated a little higher in the sky, focusing with a cold, serious look. Under the golem, a black void appeared, turning the ground into a sticky swamp.

From the blackness, painful, frightening roars echoed out, and deadly screams and agonizing whimpers traveled up to the surface, sending shivers down the souls of everybody who heard them. True, demonic, dark claws and hands stretched out, grabbing onto the body of the golem, trying to hold it down as it was trying to stand back up. In that brief moment, all those who died in the fire a few days ago were now ready to get their revenge.

As it was happening, far, far away, in a chamber, dozens of dwarfs in robes were watching the battle unfold on a projection, seeing it from the golem's point of view. The head researcher, who was one of their leaders, smacked his lips, tapping on the table before him with his bony fingers.

"It is too cumbersome and slow. This type of golem can't be used on the front lines. Relegate it to artillery works and scale down the manufacturing output. Fast-moving enemies easily outmaneuver it when it switches to combat mode. Note that they should be accompanied and defended by infantry units at all times."

"Yes, Sir." A reply came from another short and scrawny-looking man, scribbling it down. He had four arms, each writing on a separate sheet of paper, recording every piece of data their projection showed them.

"Also…" Another female-sounding dwarf added. "There is a weak point where we attached the Boom Tubes. We need to switch to a different, more resistant material. It was too easily interfered with."

"That is only secondary. This unit should provide bombardment from afar and not engage in direct battles. Still… note it down too. How's the energy consumption?"

"It drains the subject in the sarcophagus much more quickly than anticipated. Its current source is almost gone. Also, there is a strange interference with the souls bound to the operating matrix. I can't trace it to the origin, but it probably comes from the technique that the human female is using." The owner of the female voice sighed. "The self-destruct sequence is already underway. So it does not matter in the end."

"Good. Cut the feed; we need to get back to work!" The scientists' leader moaned, stretching like someone after a good day of work. As he stood up, straightening his wrinkled robe, already uninterested in the battle's outcome, he hummed happily, leaving the room.

Back on the battlefield, Ariana trembled as she felt something stirring inside the golem. It was as if trapped souls inside the metal body started to scream, rage, and whine, asking her for help. They were searching for somebody to free them from their sufferings. She heard not just Baagh's voice, asking for mercy and crying out just to please kill him, but a dozen other, unfamiliar voices begging her for release and salvation.

"Get away! Something is happening to it!" Ariana shouted to the rest, who hurriedly backed up from the golem. The silvery body began to change color as the veins all over it brightened, turning from blue to red.

Inside Ariana's mind, she could feel the trapped, chained-up souls housed inside the golem start to disintegrate, releasing violent energy that was pushing the machine towards an explosion. It was a dreadful and painful feeling, even though it was not happening to her. She felt every moment of desperation and fear from their powerlessness to stop it from happening, and those who were trapped inside could do nothing, just watch as their souls continued cracking and shattering.

"No… I won't let you!" She bit her lips, letting out every ounce of her strength.

“Let me… help…” An ancient voice brushed by her ear suddenly, making her remember what Ren told her. She knew who had woken up under the earth.

More and more tentacles stretched out from the void, finding cracks along the back of the golem, where the canons appeared, sneaking inside its body. They did not search for weaknesses or try to dismantle it; instead, they went for the souls trapped inside the golem. When Ariana's black tendrils touched the multiple demonic cores embedded in the metal frame, they began absorbing them... and just then... those tentacles were no longer under Ariana's control.

Baagh's body, when they reached him, was nothing more than a shriveled, dried corpse. His soul gladly embraced the tentacle when it arrived, happy to be torn out from his wreck of a body and get swallowed by it, welcoming the sweet release of the arriving emptiness.

"Thank you…" Multiple voices echoed inside Ariana's mind as the 'sleeping God' freed them, even if it also consumed them. She clearly felt that they preferred to be devoured rather than spend a moment more in their current, wretched existence.

Finally, the golem began to change color again, and the redness faded from its body. It was turning into nothing more but a lump of metal, lying on the ground, held down by black claws and hands, still refusing to release it.

Ariana could not help but notice as tears flowed from her eyes, her lips and hands trembling, while her own soul and body felt the emotions of those she freed from the golem. Finally, the machine had lost all its functions, becoming nothing but a giant paperweight. The only thing that brought Ariana back to reality was a loud thundering boom right above her.

Looking up, in the sky, Ren's and Harimau's battle was still going on and raging like a thunderstorm, as the tiger's 'glorious' king was doing his best to tear Ren apart.