Mad God – Reborn

A day later, a long line was snaking outside the village, guarded by the Imperial Army. People were stepping into a sealed-off tent where two women, Orsi and Ariana, sat at a table, asking each person inside 10 questions before letting them go. Even as they were going through them quickly, thousands of souls still took a long time to finish.

“How’s it going?” Ren stepped into the tent, bringing them a cup of coffee.

“I will never, ever, and ever accept a mission like this again!” Both Orsi and Ariana answered at the same time.

“Ahaha, okay, okay! You are already done with half of them, and you are the best at accurately telling if someone is lying.”

“Uh… still, Master… this is more tiring than fighting!” Ariana groaned, leaning on the table while Orsi’s head almost fell off because she was nodding too vigorously.

“I get it; I won’t ask you something like this again in the near future, I promise… but you can’t deny its effectiveness. You already pointed out more than 20 people who are members of Ironclaw or helped them out, knowing full well what that meant. Keep up the good work; I’m proud of you two!” She laughed, rubbing their backs.

“What about the cultivators?” Ariana asked, looking up at her Master.

“Most of them were only told the basics.” She shook her head. “They try to cover their tracks and their organization thoroughly. Still, it is enough to cross-reference with what we already know, and we can follow up on the clues. Frenir, Dermitos, and my Father are already on their way to clean up a few of the hidden bases we had pinpointed after their interrogation has concluded. Not to mention, Feynor also mobilized the Empire’s army.”

“Soon, we will lose the element of surprise, and they will be ready for us and move their nests around,” Orsi said, thinking out loud.

“True… and if they send people to their retreat in the south, to smuggle them out with boats…” Ren explained quietly and smiled softly as Ariana’s eyes lit up.

“Wyland!”

“Yep.” Ren nodded. “Toobu and Kyu are already heading down there to reinforce him. They will pose as Ironclaw members, and when people arrive to be smuggled out by sea, they will be transported directly to us. I also asked Heldi’s help. Paired with Wyland formations, her illusion spells will work wonders!”

“And what are we going to do after this?” Ariana asked as she tilted her head, sipping on her cup of coffee.

“01 and 02 are still interrogating them to see if I missed anything. When you are done, we will move on to cleaning up another of their bases. This is going to be a long and arduous month, girls, so be ready!” She laughed, drawing not-so-real smiles onto their faces.

…

….

…..

Back in the Imperial Capital, Feynor had just finished a five-hour meeting with his ministers, and he was walking out of the throne room with a tired expression. He felt like he had done a whole week of military exercise in just these few hours, wishing for nothing more than to be an idle prince again instead of donning the role of Emperor. His wife Anniel waited for him in his study, knowing he would come here to read the new reports for tomorrow's meeting. As soon as he collapsed into his chair, she stepped behind him, rubbing his shoulders silently, drawing out soft moans from his mouth.

“Did it go well?” she asked gently, lovingly caressing her husband’s ears with her voice.

“I pushed the first part through,” he answered with closed eyes. “A short period of uncertainty is better than a long period of chaos. These bases must be wiped out, and nobles, rich merchants, and other influential bastards must be beheaded. These scum, who aid people who destabilize the Empire, endangering millions and millions of people’s lives, need to be put to the sword for treason.”

“There will be many people who may see you as a… despot after this.”

“Maybe. But maybe not.” He murmured as he shook his head, tilting it backward, looking up into her eyes with a smile. “Most people just want to live their lives, be left alone to enjoy it to the fullest. They don’t want wars. They don’t care about some rich people or an influential noble's fate, those who are telling them what to do, or worse, forcing hardships on them so they can have more power. They will be even happier with the house cleaning, and they will be content with their lives if they have peace and opportunities inside the system. That is my goal. I won’t tell people I’m this or that; I’ll show them my intentions with my actions. I will bring peace to the Empire, and that is all. If some nobles are against it, then their existence is no longer needed.”

“Whatever happens, I’ll be at your side.” She leaned forward, kissing him, further relaxing Feynor’s tired face before a knock on his door disturbed them.

“Come in,” Feynor replied, sitting up straight as Nameless walked inside, bowing towards them.

“Everything is going according to plan, Your Majesty. There are at least four big families that we marked, without any doubt, as helping Ironclaw. By interrogation and the documents recovered from the Golden Mane merchant group, we also identified the traitors among the high nobles in the capital. Should we start the cleaning process?”

“...” Feynor leaned backward, tapping on his table before glancing at his wife. “Yes. Capture the family heads and detain every member of their households for now. Raid their properties and bring me every document you find. If there is resistance, you are allowed to use deadly force.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Nameless knelt, and it was evident on his face that he was way more excited than he had ever shown, feeling that he was back in the days when he first fell under the service of Carthus, grandfather of Feynor. He was now back to the same mentality when they worked tirelessly for years to clean up the Empire after Erterion, after the tyrant emperor’s death.

While in the Capital things were picking up speed, at a hidden location in the Empire, Neiro, the leader of Ironclaw, was sitting in a well-lit, underground room. He was wearing a loose robe, watching the fireplace before him crackle with flames as he threw a letter into it after committing its contents to memory. Behind him, on a bed, the young, trembling body of a slave girl was lying, covered with a thin, white sheet, only showing her brown legs sticking out from under it.

“What should we do?” Asked a worried voice belonging to his captain. He was standing at the door, holding his hands behind his back, hiding that he was nervously playing with his fingers. His sweat was trickling down from the back of his head, mainly because he was the one who disturbed their leader with bad news, as he was enjoying his new ‘toy’ he had just gotten his hands on a few days ago.

“This is bad.” Neiro sighed with frustration, fixing his robe. “Start instigating the nobles in contact with us to start rebelling; tell them that we will support them against the Imperial Army.”

“Boss…” He gulped loudly, collecting his strength to speak, as he had followed Neiro for over two centuries. Their operation grew from being a small street gang into an enormous organization, more prosperous and powerful than they ever thought possible. Still… comparing themselves to the Empire, he felt insignificant. “This is going to achieve nothing! We misjudged the people! We based our actions on how people in the Kingdom of Ten act and predicted their response by that metric. The local populace is completely different! We may draw some ambitious people onto our side… Still, most civilians are strongly resistant towards us and have a way greater national pride than those in the Kingdom….”

“I know. I realized it, too. In reality, we won’t help them. We just want more chaos to help us out!” He sighed, shaking his head and rubbing it with two hands. “I was looking for a chance to jump out of this clusterfuck for a long time now… and I think that time has finally arrived.” He turned towards him as his captain quickly looked at the girl hiding under the blanket. He signaled with his eyes as she was also hearing this, but Neiro waved his hand, summoning a black spear, stabbing the slave girl through the back, and nailing her to the bed. She could only release a soft whimper before going limp, and her bright red blood soaked the bedsheets. Neiro just dusted off his hands as if nothing had happened. “It was a mistake to make a pact with that snake Rudrick, so we will disperse for a few decades and return when things finally settle down. Tell the key members to ditch their names and connections and wipe out everything and everybody who may know them. Destroy all evidence and go into hiding! Send them down the escape routes towards the south. Burn everything we have here, kill all the non-essential people, and leave no loose ends!”

“Y-yes, Boss!” He gulped, saluting him, knowing that cold look in his eyes way too well.

“I’ll speak with Rudrick and make sure I am sent out to deal with his relative. Then, I can fake my death and disappear. I’ll contact you all when we are ready to start over. Screw the others’ plans! We are working for only ourselves!” He laughed, suddenly feeling relieved of all of his troubles.

“Boss, wouldn’t that be… risky? I heard that the girl is dangerous and even injured Rudrick.”

“So what? Even Rudrick does not know that I am stronger than him. His only advantage was being the King of the Naulins… fucking trash psycho. Now he lost even that, and he thinks he is our boss?! Fuck him! We don’t need to be afraid of him or his granddaughter. I can deal with her; rest easy about that. After we are gone, they will think we are done for and dead! A perfect opportunity to start over in the shadows once again.”

“Yes, Boss!” He cupped his hands with excitement after hearing his words, already knowing the core of the Ironclaw gang was those whom Neiro grew up with. He established a petty, little street gang of orphans, leading them to their current strength, and they would follow his lead without question.

“Take the body out and burn it with the rest.” He pulled his spear from the small, unmoving girl, and when his man left the room, he took out a communication crystal that connected to Rudrick.

“What do you want?” The hiding, old King of the Naulins’ voice came through after a brief pause.

“We have some trouble,” Neiro explained everything, and after a brief silence, only angry swearing came back from the other side for a straight minute. “So?” He cut in, sounding impatient and annoyed.

“Deal with it! Fuck! Should I do everything myself?! Or what?! Neither you nor that idiot Takaya can do anything correctly?!”

“What should I do? Go out and have a death battle with them?” Neiro chuckled sarcastically, further enraging Rudrick.

“That would be the best!” Came a distorted shout.

“Then so be it!” he answered in a cold voice, cutting the connection and smiling, already thinking about how he would spend his time after changing his identity. “Such an unstable old fuck… too easy...”

While Neiro was calling Rudrick, the hidden base was buzzing with life, as up on the surface, in a bottomless pit, flames danced as freshly killed bodies were constantly thrown into it, along with all their documents. The most loyal members of Ironclaw did not twitch their brows when they were ordered to massacre their comrades, not to mention killing the dozens of enslaved people they kept around for menial tasks or just for 'entertainment' purposes. The young, brown-skinned girl's lifeless body was flung into the flame, and the one doing it was not even looking at it anymore, walking back to grab another dead body. At that moment, that frail body morphed, still flying through the air, taking up a cat’s shape, jumping out of the flames, and quickly scurrying away.

She went unnoticed in the commotion. It was already dark when the small cat stopped running, turning back into a little girl and then morphing once again into the shape of Kitten.

“Ugh… I lost a few lives again… hauh! I’ll never climb back to nine this way!” She grumbled, then started to gag as she threw up a furry ball, like a real cat. Tearing it apart, she pulled out a communication crystal and a small violet gem. The latter, when she pressed it against her slave collar, lit up with violet electricity, breaking it in two and restoring her true freedom before she activated the communication crystal, which connected her to Sentios. “Master, big news!” She said with excitement.

“Oh? Was your infiltration successful?”

“More than that! I found something incredible! It was way better than we first imagined. I have excellent news!” she said happily, telling him everything she had just heard and learned.

“Great work, my little Kitten! I’ll tell Ren everything; you keep an eye on them from a distance. Can you do that?”

“Sure, nyah~! But I’ll want a good reward when I get home!”

“Hahaha… okay, okay. You will! Be careful, okay?”

“Nyah~!” She laughed as the crystal crumbled, then turned into a cat again, stalking Neiro and his gang without them ever noticing her.