Mad God

Zalsha was camping a few kilometers away from the main base of the bandit group named Scargang. He was sitting beside a small fire, cooking a previously caught rabbit, slowly roasting it over the open flames. He seemed calm and relaxed, wearing soft leather armor, and his sword was lying beside him, propped up against the long log he used as a seat. From the outside, he looked to be in his 30s, prompting a completely bald head and a long, braided beard, with eyes that clearly had seen bloodshed… and lived to tell you about it. Yet behind his calm exterior lay a nervous interior. He had been an undercover agent for years by now, seeing wanton murder and torture that he could not stop from blowing his cover. He even carried out some of the former, gaining the trust of the Scargang, the bandit group he was sent to be a mole in. He always told himself when killing someone. It was the best for the poor souls as it was a mercy kill, letting his targets die an easy death instead of getting carried away, tortured, and breaking their bodies and minds before slowly killing them by being the gang's playthings.

"Hopefully, it won't last any longer…" he murmured, looking up at the starry sky, wishing the promised final days would come as soon as possible, especially now that he received information about reinforcements arriving so he could finish his mission.

Just as he looked back at the rabbit, it was completely gone, and a little girl sat at the opposite side, munching on some bones, crunching them with ease, showing a satisfied, happy expression.

"It was yummy!" Kyu laughed, licking her lips. "Is there more?" She tilted her head sideways, curiously eyeing him.

"W-who… what are you?!" He stood up immediately, drawing his sword with a loud clang.

"Mmm? There is no more? Hauh… Kyu is still hungry! Ah, you are the picture guy! Yey, can you show me where the yummy things are? The bandits and things!" She laughed, standing up, patting her greasy hands, licking them clean.

"You… you are the… one who they sent?" He blinked his eyes, surprised, not believing what he was seeing, slowly lowering his sword.

"Kyu is! Let's go! It was yummy but too little!"

"They sent a child…?" He murmured, not believing reality, yet the carefree presence of Kyu suggested something dangerous on a subconscious level, making him agree to show the way. “This can work… and you have a collar…” Ge furrowed his brows.

"This?" She flicked the metallic ring around her neck with a defeated expression. "Yeah… Kyu was bad, and Master put it on… kyuh… If Kyu does good, Master is going to get it off, surely! Teehee! So Kyu is going to eat every bad thing, and Master is going to be really happy!"

"What… never mind. I don't want to know!" He shook his head. Zalsha learned a long time ago that sometimes it is better not to know things. "Can you act like a slave? I can bring you in then and say I captured you to sell off later!"

"Sure!" She nodded without thinking, letting him connect a chain to her "necklace" and bring her back to the camp on a leash.

"Zalsha?" the first guard asked when they came across him.

In the distance, the once bustling port city's ruins were already visible as torches lit them up under the clear night sky. The sea was gently washing the shores around it, letting the wind bring the salty sea water's smell inwards.

"What are you doing here?" the guard asked once again.

"Can I?" Kyu blinked her eyes with honest innocence, clearly asking Zalsha.

"Can what?!" The guard got even angrier. He was standing in their way and looking at them suspiciously as Zalsha tried to think quickly about something. He was feeling that something was off, as Zalsha should be scouting the perimeter and not back until morning. Before he could think further, Kyu's hands transformed into two giant black bear claws, bigger than any of them, and just clapped once.

They were fast as lightning, squashing the man before he could even scream. The gruesome sound of flesh tearing and turning into a paste, bones breaking down to powder, and blood splashing everywhere. It left behind nothing but a meat paste on the ground. The sudden execution made Zalsha let go of the chain, stepping backward quickly, retching with an uncontrollable urge.

"Mmm?" Kyu looked back, blinking her puppy-like eyes as her hands turned back to her human form, squatting down and wiping them on the grass around her. "He was a bad guy… yes?" She asked with uncertainty and getting a bit nervous because if she murdered an innocent, Ren would be surely angry at her.

“Y...yeah… all… all of them… are here… we are getting ready for… a raid… only two other are out… scouting somewhere else…” Zalsha groaned, trying to hold back the urge to start vomiting as the stench of the body, or at least what remained of it, assaulted his nose once again with the aftertaste of the sea's salty odor spicing it up.

"Huh! Kyu is safe! Nyahaha!" She laughed with relief. "You wait here; Kyu goes and quickly finishes with it so we can eat! Yey~" She pointed her small thumb towards him, turning into a 6-meter tall, giant black and white bear, or as those who were in the know, she took the original, demonic, Ailuropoda form of hers.

But for Zalsha, it was the form of The Beast, straight from the horror stories of his childhood. The now giant Kyu's every movement sent small quakes around the land as she kicked up a storm, literally, as small white vortexes under her paws summoned wind. She was sprinting towards the ruins, quickly drawing the attention of the remaining bandits.

"Enemy attack! Fire the ballistas!" one of the guards on duty shouted as from the ruins, loud "twangs" resounded as the few military-grade weapons they had let loose their arrows.

These weapons were usually used in sieges, shooting a meter thick bolts at walls, penetrating those, and lodging them into any kind of defensive structures. At their ends, ropes or chains would drop to the ground, letting soldiers climb up on them. Now they were repurposed by the bandits, and they were firing bolts that exploded mid-flight, separating into multiple, smaller ones, perfect against a rushing enemy group. Seeing the arriving, deadly weapons, Kyu, for a moment, truly was scared, and by instinct, she just curled up to a huge, black and white ball, still rolling forward, waiting for the inevitable impact. When they landed, she only felt a sharp, prickling sensation, moaning out in an unhappy voice.

"Kyuh! It stings! Kyu dislikes it!" She cried softly, still rolling towards them in her ball-like form, while the stunned bandits tried to reload the ballistas.

They never expected that a giant furball would shrug off dozens of arrows like nothing as they bounced off of her, scattering everywhere. Even Kyu was unaware of her body's strength, which was no wonder, as she never really fought against anyone, only ate, slept, or whined in Ren's lap, getting her buttocks spanked, unable to fight back against her, not that she ever thought of doing that.

"They are weak, nyahaha; Kyu is lucky!" She giggled, reaching the ruins, and she just slammed into them like a boulder, smashing one ballista into hundreds of pieces, the same as the three men operating it. Their limbs scattered everywhere when the furball smashed through them, dragging a bloody trail forward.

Inside the camp, everyone was already alert and trying to surround the intruder, just now realizing it was a demon they had never seen or heard of before. Kyu unfolded herself in a bouncing jump, landing on her two feet, wobbling a little as her round, white belly followed the rules of gravity, balancing her. Looking around with big black, round eyes, blinking them innocently, she scratched her little ears with her paws, towering over the humans.

"Hauh, a little dizzy..." She murmured, trying to find her balance again.

"Attack, bring the demon down, and we are rich!" the gang's boss shouted, who was at the Harmony Realm, already forming a spell of fireball, sending it towards Kyu.

"Ah? Yummy, Kyu likes spicy food!" She patted her belly, opening her jaws as a black vortex appeared, slurping down the fireball, letting out a smoking burp right after "Hauh… this tastes baaad… Aunt Isha has tastier snacks! You're bad! Kyu doesn't like you!" She grumbled, leaning forward while inside her mouth formed another white vortex, and fire spewed out from it like a flamethrower.

It was so sudden and volatile that half a dozen bandits rushing in to attack were caught unprepared in the curtain of fire, descending down on them and sweeping through their line. It burned just as bright and hot as the sun, melting armor, flesh, and bones, not giving even a chance for a stifled scream, leaving behind ashes only. After Kyu shut her mouth, hiccupping a little and smacking her lips, the ground around her was still glowing as bright embers fluttered in the air.

"Shoot! Kyu, you stupid, stuuupid!" She screamed, continuing to hiccup, slapping herself, crying, "You spat out Aunt Isha's fire… hauuh, now Kyu is really huuuuungryyyyy!" She roared as her voice made the rest, now horrified bandits' ears bleed and ring continuously.

"Monster! It's a punishment from the Gods! Run! Run for your lives!" one of the bandits screamed, and panic quickly spread, no matter how hard their leader tried to keep them in line.

"Give Kyu's food back!" came the deep, animalistic grunt from her throat, enraged, going on all fours as her jaw opened once again, like the maw of the abyss, summoning back the black vortex that distorted space around her.

"The devil… this is the devil…" the leader murmured, watching the horrifying scene before his eyes as the suctioning force reached him.

The strange thing was, it did not affect his body, but his powers and soul. He felt a sudden tug deep inside his body, and quickly, fire seeped out of every pore of his body, swallowed down by Kyu. Soon, he lost all of his strength, and only after a few seconds, he was nothing more than just a shell, falling over, never moving again.

Every bandit who was in the cone of the effect of Kyu's power felt the same; the weaker ones died the moment they felt a tug on their souls as their affinity and essence left their bodies, flying down into Kyu's stomach. When she closed her mouth, standing back up, she was licking her lips with a weird expression.

“Kyuh… they are not so tasty… uuuuu…. There is nothing tasty here!" She stomped on the ground furiously, letting loose a childish tantrum, but every step of hers caused the ground to shake, making the still-running bandits fall over as the ruins collapsed on some of them, smashing them to death.

Now that she used up a lot of energy, she felt even more famished, raising her temper to a boiling point, starting a rampage, letting her frustration out on the remaining bandits, easily massacring them to the last.

Zalsha, who watched the whole thing from afar, was pale from head to toe, trembling in the knees, praying to the gods, repeating the goddess Nilier's name over and over for salvation. It was that moment when a soft voice rang out in his ears as a white-haired teenage girl wearing black and purple clothing showed up beside him.

"Don't pray to her. She won't answer." Ren smiled, and her voice carried deep sarcasm, appearing from nowhere.

"Who…"

"Relax. I am a friend. Don't be afraid of her either; I'll control her if I must." She chuckled, looking at Zalsha with one eye. "Didn't you know? Praying to gods in the Empire is discouraged."

"What can you do when you… see the devil?" He gulped loudly.

"Devil? Nah. She is far from it! The devils are the ones you pray to. Don't do it; the more you do, the stronger their grip will be on your soul and siphon you for their own benefit." She said with a concerned voice, surprising Zalsha, but he did not really understand anything.

"Who are you?"

"A friend, as I said. Go home. Make your report. Leave her to me." She chuckled, and Zalsha felt he had received amnesty thanks to his prayer. He did not think too much, just left, at first walking, then jogging, and soon he was sprinting with all of his might, trying to get as far away as possible. "Now…" Ren cracked her fingers, forming a bright, violet lightning ball. "Here is your reward!" She shouted as she tossed it out.

The loud thunder under the clear sky snapped the rampaging Kyu out of her frame of mind as she cried out happily, standing up tall, summoning her black vortex with her mouth and also with both of her palms as an expanding, giant, electric ball smashed into her.

Strangely, it did not hurt Kyu as she moaned happily, giving out slurping, gulping sounds as the three vortexes worked in tandem, eating up the attack, which took her a minute to fully absorb. When she was done, she fell onto her buttocks as she burped loudly, releasing little sparks from her mouth and nose.

"Kyuuuhhhhh, Master's spicy food is the best!" She patted her belly with a satisfied, sleepy expression while Ren landed before her. "Master! Master! Did Kyu do well?"

"Ahaha, you…" Ren laughed, gently hugging her giant, white, soft belly and rubbing it. This made Kyu fall onto her back, all four legs facing the sky, as she laughed and enjoyed the belly rubs. Ren was lying on her, rubbing her face against Kyu's fur as she sighed. "I can't be mad at you, can I?"

"Master is the best! Can Kyu get it off?" she looked at her pleadingly.

"I'll take it off when you are back at the Sect. This is just my lightning clone; I can't take it off of you. When you come home, Master will deal with it! But behave! If you do something bad once again, it goes back on you!"

"Yey! Kyu loves Master!" She moaned happily, scratching her back on the ground before giving out a loud yawn. "Master… Kyu is sleepy… yummy, yummy, makes sleepy…"

"You… ahaha, okay, okay, sleep a little. Master will guard your dreams, but I'll wake you up come morning! You can't make the other two wait too much!"

"Um… ookaaay… are… they good too?" Kyu blinked her tired eyes slower and slower as she was fighting to stay awake with little to no success.

"Yeah." Ren smiled, sitting on Kyu's stomach and scratching it. "They are~" She whispered as Kyu quickly fell asleep.