The intensity of the voice hasn't changed. It still hurts my head. His presence alone causes blood to leak from every orifice in my face.

I step away but make no distance. The floor shifts like a treadmill to keep me rooted in place.

Once I stop moving, my feet sink into the ground. The sensation of the floor swelling up my legs encourages me to escape.

"Please let me go."

My perspective never changes. I don't get closer to the ground. I don't get father from the god. But it's suffocating.

It's deeper than suffocating. It isn't only keeping me from breathing but sucking the air out of me.

"I didn't do anything, anything at all. Maybe I did. What are you going to do about it? You really are familiar. Are you a follower of mine?"

The ground stops clawing at me. I'm allowed a chance to breathe. Regardless of what happens, I'm not becoming that god's follower. Last time I was boldly dismissive. This time I'll try a little more tact.

"I'm not religious."

He 'sips' from his glass and ponders for a moment. The god seems to be in an infinitely better mood than last time.

"This time of year is always the best. The party, the chaos... How I love the way they intermingle. I don't even need to step up and get things rolling! I converted the wrong monkey men... Although their ragers are nothing to scoff at."

"I don't mean to be rude, but since I'm not a fun person to hang out with, can I go?"

Aakgraak. That's the name of this god. He seems less lucid than the last time we met. Before, he was arrogant, demanding, possessive, and aggressive. Now he's calmly drinking and taking in the atmosphere.

I think he might be intoxicated. I don't want to be in the presence of a drunk god of madness.

"Hey, mortal, want to know something funny?"

"Humor isn't my thing."

I don't want to know what he constitutes as humor.

"No need to be apprehensive. I'm just enjoying the party while it lasts. I'm giving it 3 minutes."

"What?"

"'Till the holiday officially starts. I can tell when a great party is about to start better than any other being. Any in all of existence. It's going to be my breed of celebration."

"What? What does that mean?" A chill runs down my spine.

"Are you still here? I guess you can't get enough of me. If you come to my temple, I'll make you the head of something..."

"Are you going to do something to the capita-" I scramble for words that this god wouldn't take offense to. "I mean, are you hosting this party?"

"No, I'm leaving after it kicks off. I'm not interested in un-helmed machinations. Especially ones not mine."

The god drinks heavily from his glass.

"I never did say what I found funny, did I not?"

"A-"

"Don't answer rhetorical questions. It's a sign of low intelligence."

"..."

"What I find funny - the answer holding you with bated breath - is that this is actually an anniversary. A proper anniversary."

"Anniversary of what?"

"Asking those types of questions also shows low intelligence. As a mortal, wouldn't you know your own celebration?"

"..."

"One more appropriate in spirit - if you want to call it that - will happen during the bicentennial. Almost anything worth penning in a calendar will happen every few hundred years or so. The party never stops. See ya at the next one."

"Wait!"

"Oh yeah, work on your IQ before coming to my temple for that position."

A short snap sounds out.

I wake up face down on the floor. I jerk up and look around. I hurriedly check the time.

[You fell.]

It's three minutes till midnight. It took me two minutes to find the god. Since then, no time passed.

The god's inadvertent warning, the start of what a god of madness considers a real party, is scheduled in alignment with the anniversary of the Collision.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"We need to go."

I find a secluded area and kick all but Duchess into my mansion before jumping on her back and riding her into the air. All the while, I text the group chat to prepare for the worst. I get my hands on anyone that answers the phone.

My hearts dropped when my parents didn't answer. Val doesn't answer.

"Even if something does happen, are you saying your master can't weather it?"

I hang up on Master Wang.

Master Giles doesn't answer. He must be asleep.

Rain seems to be working through the holiday, and I can't get ahold of her.

"You're sounding manic, Ellis."

"Do as your captain says, Jerry." I hang up on him. Hopefully, he warns the rest of the team.

Charlie can't answer even if he wants to.

I try to contact my family again, but nothing has changed.

[What are you trying to accomplish? You haven't told thisss one the source of your urgency.]

"God told me a 'party is starting' soon. It's *that* god."

[Oh. Thisss one doesn't find that good.]

Flying straight to the house my parents are staying at would cause a few diplomatic incidents since I'll have to pass security without clearance.

Fuck the diplomats.

Thirty seconds. I was thirty seconds away. Guards are yelling and are about to actively shoot us down when I feel a vibration. A strong one.

A really strong one.

The guards, passersby, and anyone standing suddenly feels a jolt that knocks them down on their asses. Car alarms start blaring.

It was strong enough for us to feel it from up here.

It came from nowhere.

Seconds later, I got messages from everyone I contacted. Messages I don't check.

I call my parents, and this time they pick up.

"Son? Felt that one too? Me and your mother are alright. Are you coming over tomorrow?"

"I'm right outside of the house. Grab your guys' stuff and get my mother and my sister ready. I'm going to take you someplace safe. Something bad is going to happen."

"...your sister is somewhere with her friends, and your mother and I are at a restaurant. We aren't at the house."

My hearts drop down to my stomach. I'm spiraling. Duchess stops flying a few feet away from the door.

"Where are you guys? Get someplace safe. Something big is going to happen."

"Restaurant Mockingbird. We have bodyguards if you're concerned. Let me put your mother on the phone."

I don't know where that is. There are literally seconds left before midnight.

"Ellis, honey? What's the mat-"

The call gets cut. It's not time yet. It hasn't struck midnight yet. I had a few more seconds...

"Please."

The world starts violently shaking.

"Fuck. Please."

[Where do we go?]

"Please, god. No."

It was over in just a moment. The clock was still 12:00 when everything was over.

It happened suddenly and all at once. The world shook, the lands ripped apart at their seams, the sky cried thunder, and the seas churned and boiled.

Flashes of light fill the sky, turning the midnight sky yellow. The winds get unreasonably strong, and debris from the quakes gets flung around.

Buildings fell. Ravines tore through the streets. Fires broke out. It was pandemonium.

The sounds of screams are drowned out by the quakes. Then it was terribly silent. The shaking stops, and the rushing air quells. It's like nothing happened if you ignore the carnage.

Then the sirens went off. Why the capital has them initially escapes me, but this is a pretty good fucking time to use them.

Where are they?

The house my parents were staying out is completely collapsed.

I rush over next door and yank free a nicely carved mahogany door that survived. I'll need it later.

Underneath the door is a hand. Meaty with stubby fingers. The rest of the body must be under the rest of the debris. Too bad he wasn't as sturdy as his door.

I activated my mansion skill and got my tamed beasts out of there. They slowed me down before, but now I need them more than ever.

"We need to find a restaurant named Mockingbird. Fuck, how do we do that?"

Rob points to the hand.

"Asking a person should work. Internet services are down."

Rob looks at me and shakes his head. He gestures at the hand again.

"Wait, is that guy alive?"

I heal him a little, and the fingers start to twitch. Unprompted, Rob starts digging him out with a shovel. Duchess helps a little with her [Telekinesis].

I don't have time for this.

[He was a neighbor, he might know where your kin is.]

Fuck.

I pull him out by the arm. A bloody and battered dwarven man hangs limply from my hand. I inject some more healing, and he stirs.

"Egh~"

"Sir, do you know where the couple next door went?"

"Veam.."

I snap in front of his face and heal him a bit more.

"It's urgent. Do you know where the Mockingbird restaurant is?"

"A human? I dreamed I sit with my ancestors at longest banquet table ever seen... I die?"

"Let's go with that. By the way, I saved you."

"Shit. Lost bet. I wasn't supposed to die before-"

"Focus. Mockingbird restaurant. Where."

"Err, that closest restaurant from here. Ahh, ten-minute car ride from south gate. Good security. I go often."

I let the dwarf go and hop on Duchess, but the dwarf is still talking to me.

"What is name? You saved me. Where you taking door? My door. Brought from home. It my favorite door."

"I'm borrowing the door. Look me up later."

I fly off on Duchess' back with the rest of my tamed beast towards the directions the dwarf told me.

Not everything is destroyed. With modern building techniques, it would have to be a world-ending event for everything to collapse. However, ravines cut through the ground underneath buildings making their foundations irrelevant.

A prominent crack in the planet runs through the entire capital. My parents' house was along this crack's edge, causing its destruction.

Should I be happy they weren't home? Or should I be pissed at myself for not coming earlier?

I can see the newly formed ravine with much more clarity this high up. It's as big as the ravine lining the edge of the jungle fracture.

It's a devastating scar on the urban landscape. It's colossal. The walls are rugged and plunged deep into the ground. Rivers formed from broken water lines cascade down into the hole like torrential waterfalls.

Buildings that weren't initially engulfed or haven't been destroyed teeter precariously over the edge.

People run rampant in the streets like swarms of mice. The dead and injured litter the surroundings.

Most of the damage is to the buildings next to the ravine, and the damage lessens as you get farther from the epicenter. That isn't to discredit that the entire city took significant damage.

If the capital of humanity - its bastion and cradle - took this much damage, what about the other cities?

Mockingbird. Mockingbird. How the hell am I supposed to find a restaurant in this chaos? Maybe I should've brought the dwarf with me.

I scan the surroundings. Restaurant. Mockingbird.

I notice a crowd of people. Some of them are particularly buff, and most are in formal wear. Bodyguards? Although all the dust from the collapsing buildings makes it hard to tell.

'We have bodyguards.' 'Great security.'

If this isn't it... At least they can point us in the right direction.

I don't tell Duchess to descend. I slip off her back and land heavily a few dozen feet away from them.

Most of them look lost. They don't know what to do next. Some have complicated expressions, sadness, anger, grief, and denial. Only a few are surprised someone fell from the sky next to them.

"Is this Mockingbird restaurant."

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to step away." A man in a suit speaks up first.

I give him a blank look and say, "Yes or no."

Someone in the back answers.

"It was."

A chef missing his hat points at the rubble with a shaky finger.

"It blew up."