The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 60: Free Will

Carfen raised his shield to block another crystal and sent a flying strike toward the dragon’s leg. The cut was shallow, but it was a wound nonetheless, and the dragon was slowly accumulating quite a few.

Yet again, the serpent opened its mouth to prepare another energy discharge, but Carfen simply prepared a retaliatory strike.

The dragon immediately stopped its breath attack and pulled back, hissing and roaring at him. It was only natural. Carfen would have landed his attack before it could finish its own, and that would have been it.

He dispelled the ball of white mist and got into another stance. His approach was slow. Careful. Methodical.

While the dragon and Carfen were closer in power than he would like, there was an order of magnitude difference in combat expertise.

With everything the dragon tried crumbling and everything he did doing damage, even if it was little, it was only a matter of time until he stood victorious.

And he was in no rush to finish the fight.

Suddenly, something caught Carfen’s attention.

A little boy was running toward their position.

Carfen thoroughly ignored the child. Even with his public identity, nobody would be surprised at his actions. The behavior of one stupid kid could never shake the resolve of the impenetrable shield of the empire.

Luckily, there were no spectators as everyone had been evacuated, so if this child perished, it would be seen as nothing more than another missing individual.

He turned around and—

Suddenly, a burst of force smashed into Carfen’s back. The armor almost fully absorbed it, but the surprise was enough to distract Carfen momentarily.

It was the child! Not only that, but it was bursting with an utterly insane amount of life force!

What is happening?

Carfen swung the axe at the kid, but moments before his weapon reached the boy, he disappeared.

The kid reappeared next to the dragon, smashing a kick into its skull and provoking it. The dragon manipulated one of its puppets, and the little girl avatar grasped the boy mid-air with its telekinesis, crushing his body into a ball.

The dragon and Carfen stood hesitantly for an instant, watching each other and the newcomer. They resumed their fight only when it became apparent that the boy couldn’t set himself free.

That assumption had been thoroughly incorrect.

The puppet keeping the boy restrained flickered as his body lit up in crimson flames, lightning, and embers coursing through his veins.

With a palpable force of will, the telekinesis was overpowered, and the ethereal puppet crumbled into dust.

The child is dead.

Had that report been wrong?

Almost certainly.

That was the second critical failure regarding this child.

Neave Zearthorn.

Who was this person? What kind of force drove him? What could have allowed him to break a devil’s curse and stand tall afterward?

That was a question for another time.

Carfen shielded himself from the dragon while he directed an attack at Neave. The flying strike was far too fast for the child to avoid, and half his arm was split apart. That didn’t matter one bit, however, as the child’s arm reconnected through fleshy tendrils and grew back together.

That is a problematic spirit power.

And it wasn’t the only one, either. The child had at least five spirit powers as far as Carfen could tell. They weren’t individually weak, either. Stacking more than three powers was frighteningly dangerous, even with a high S-rank roundness.

So how did he do it?

Carfen’s shield stood firm despite the dragon’s surprise attack, and he redirected his weapon toward it, trying to cut its neck off, but it dodged effortlessly and backed away.

The dragon couldn’t use all three puppets at once, and it was clear that it could only direct its attention to one at a time. With the dragon’s focus preoccupied with Carfen, Neave was relatively free to do as he pleased.

This was a precarious position for the armored cultivator. The child didn’t possess the power of a diamond path cultivator, but he did have several unique tricks and likely many secrets.

Not to even mention the skill at display.

Truly terrifying. Must be exterminated.

In a fight that was this close in power, outside interference could quickly become a massive problem.

Carfen charged at the dragon, and to his surprise, Neave appeared, preventing the dragon from counterattacking. Rather than rushing in, Carfen backed away just in time to spot Neave readying another strike, one that was meant to stop Carfen from blocking the dragon’s retaliation.

Cunning little being.

Neave planned to interfere as convenient, aiming to pit him and the dragon against one another.

This brat.

Carfen was being greatly underestimated, and this farce couldn’t be allowed to continue.

He charged forward again, readying three strikes. One that aimed at the dragon’s weakness, another that would hit its scaly back, and a third one that would swing precisely where Neave had to be to prevent Carfen from blocking the retaliation.

As he swung his axe, Neave suddenly appeared and swung a bone-plated foot at Carfen’s head, annihilating his plan.

Impossible! Did he read through my intentions instantly!?

The dragon aimed a breath attack at both of them, one that nearly struck, but both Neave and Carfen moved out of the way in time.

What bothered Carfen the most was the child’s intention. Was it trying to kill both of them? That was simply impossible. Neither Carfen nor the dragon were naive enough to fall for it, and as long as the child was present here, they would be locked in a three-way stalemate.

Then… Was that his goal? Or did he perhaps have some sort of secret weapon he was waiting to use at the right moment?

The dragon was threatening but didn’t stand a chance against Carfen. In the worst-case scenario, Carfen could temporarily retreat.

Killing the child, on the other hand, was an absolute priority.

He would continue the fight as if nothing had changed, but eventually, the opportunity would show itself, and the child would perish.

***

Minutes turned to dozens, and Carfen was right about ready to go insane.

How is this even possible!?

To call this child’s skill in martial arts divine would be a great under-exaggeration.

Openings? What were those? Carfen was starting to forget what it meant to do the right thing in a fight. Every fucking move he made felt like a critical mistake, and the more this went on, the more hesitant he grew to do anything at all.

The dragon wasn’t much different, either.

Had he been correct in his assumption? Was this child just stalling for something?

Could it be!?

Was it waiting for an ally or some form of backup!? That wasn’t off the table. But, soon enough, Carfen began to doubt this assumption as another slowly took its place.

He was hesitant to presume that that was the child’s plan, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. It was a thoroughly unbelievable conclusion, but it was the only answer that made sense under these circumstances.

Neave was trying to exhaust them. A bewilderingly preposterous idea. Trying to exhaust diamond-rank opponents? Stupid. Moronic. Misguided.

That was what he would say if any of the details were different. But under this precise set of circumstances, and with the child's skill, it might actually work.

Carfen was already down around a quarter of his qi. Sure, he could replenish it twice, thrice even, but eventually, his spirit couldn’t take it any longer, and he would collapse.

Not only that, but his armor would fall apart way before that even happened. The dragon was an intelligent but uneducated and ignorant monster that relied on instinct. It had no idea that even light licks of its flames were doing immense damage to Carfen’s armor.

His armor had been proofed against every known element, deeply inscribed to ensure no weaknesses. Every known element. Against something like this violet substance, however, it had no special protection.

Neither Carfen nor the dragon could do anything to the child without creating an opening for their opponent. Ironically enough, it was precisely because they were so competent as combatants that they had this weakness, to begin with.

Sometimes, a master was easier to handle than a fool. There were few good choices in certain situations, while there were damn-near-infinite ways to screw it up.

If you knew the best option, and your opponent knew it too, you already knew what they would do before they did it.

Carfen acted perfectly natural as he made another convincing attempt at breaking the stalemate. It failed, predictably, which was precisely what he expected to happen.

Unfortunately for the boy, Carfen was perfectly capable of playing the fool. If making the best choice in a fight became the worst option, then making the worst decision became a viable strategy.

His plan was stupid, rash, and unlike anything he would ever do in combat—which made it perfect to use against the child.

Carfen fixed his posture and prepared a heavy swing at the dragon. Neave appeared suddenly, smashing into his arm and misdirecting the strike, giving the dragon a small opening.

The armored cultivator pulled out of the way of the clawed swing, then Neave struck him again, which resulted in him having to regain himself once more. The dragon didn’t capitalize on the opening purely because it had likely been conditioned into extreme skepticism, which resulted in the two combatants disengaging unwounded.

Not yet.

Carfen prepared a heavy axe technique and rushed at the dragon.

Not yet.

The dragon spat a ball of energy to Carfen’s side, and the armored man used the knockback of the explosion to swap to a different attack.

Not. Yet.

Then, as the dragon prepared to attack…

Now!

Carfen made a mistake. He turned around and swung the attack he had prepared in Neave’s direction, allowing the burst of energy by the dragon to slam into his armor. The child dodged the strike effortlessly using a movement technique, but an instant before the attack landed, Carfen injected a good third of his life force into the attack.

“Wha–!?” He heard Neave exclaim, his words cut off as he disappeared.

The massive attack turned into an explosion that decimated the surrounding area and even caused backlash for Carfen. It was like a screaming ball of ignited raging force, radiating a powerful heat and spewing energy in every direction.

Now, the only place perfectly safe from Carfen’s strike was the shadow cast by his body. With a disgraceful misstep, Carfen committed the most significant mistake a cultivator could make in combat.

He canceled his footing technique.

The backlash of the strike instantly sent him flying back toward where Neave was almost definitely hiding.

This was a horrible strategy. Carfen couldn’t even really sense where the boy was since he was fully veiled to spirit senses unless Carfen was looking at him directly, and even then, all he could see was the impeccable veil.

This had been a guess. A gamble. A risk one should never take foolishly in combat. But it was a move that was practically guaranteed to finish anyone. Yet, Carfen knew better than to believe his body would collide with Neave’s.

That boy was no earthly cultivator. He was a heavenly warrior that even the gods would envy. He would dodge and get out of the way. On which side would he escape, though? Left? Or right?

There was no need to gamble this time. Carfen turned his head toward the dragon, the monster already preparing for a massive breath attack. In its violet, shiny eyes, he spotted his own, and Neave’s, reflection.

The boy is dodging to the right!

He instantly invested a fifth of his remaining life force into a strike he sent toward the boy before he even had the time to turn himself.

What the—!?

The boy was already dodging the strike!

This wouldn’t do. Carfen hadn’t steeled his resolve enough to face this opponent. Immediately, he poured an additional half of his remaining life force into a quick technique.

As the slash flew toward Neave’s body, Carfen lamented his decision.

If only you were an ally of ours… Perhaps we wouldn’t have to make such desperate plans.

The flying strike was far too fast for Neave to dodge, and it reached him immediately, bisecting his body from top to bottom, killing him instantly.

The force sent the two halves of Neave’s body flying back, one ricocheting off a wall and the other bursting through another, both sides getting crushed into gory piles of meat.

Oh, bother, Carfen thought to himself as he raised his shield.

This would cost him quite a bit of his reputation, and it would be rather hard to explain it to the emperor, but he was happy enough to have completed the mission.

As the dragon fired the massive attack, Carfen sent a message through his communication crystal to every Master in the capital.

‘Help needed.’

Boom.

***

Dukean observed the fight from afar, cloaked in every disguise treasure his spirit could handle. He peeked out from beneath the dark hood, where, moments ago, a frustrated curiosity had gleamed in his eyes, now pure disbelief shadowed his expression.

Despite the boy’s previous miraculous survival, he got himself killed anyway.

“Shit! Fuck!” Dukean spat, incapable of accepting what had just happened.

There was too much unknown and far too many absurdities in this scenario for Dukean to tolerate being left in the dark.

The body!

Perhaps the child’s corpse would hold some leads? No, that went without saying! Be it from the anatomy to possible dimension rings containing important information, that body was a treasure trove of information for Dukean.

So he activated the sixth disguise treasure, feeling his teeth bleed from the intense pressure as he slowly scurried and carefully shifted toward where the child had fallen.

It took him minutes of methodical sneaking, but eventually, he finally reached the collapsed building where the demon child’s corpse was. He was about to rush forward and check it for any treasures, but he almost immediately stopped himself, pulled his weapon out, and jumped back, heart beating out of his chest.

Some form of thin, fleshy tendril was extending out from the child’s body into another room of the collapsed building.

Don’t tell me… A parasite!?

Was that the secret behind the—?

Something snapped before he could finish his thought, and the child’s body was swiftly dragged into the other room, leaving a wet, bloody trail behind.

Dukean gulped, but he gathered all the bravery he could as he followed the trail. His sword raised, hands shaking, legs quivering, but eyes sharp, he strode, one step after another, into the room where the path of blood took him.

When he spotted it, he had to stop himself from puking in nausea. The second half of the body was growing thin, fleshy tendrils and connecting them to the first half. They tightened, and the body glowed with gentle crimson light as it rapidly healed back into a single mass.

Dukean wondered whether he should stop it, but he simply couldn’t gather the bravery to step forward and do something.

The mass of morphing flesh got up, bones poking out of the skin that appeared like a suit, loosely stretched over the surface of the child’s body.

A small, violet snake slithered through the cracks of the building and into the room. Dukean paid it little attention, but suddenly, the child’s tongue flew out and grasped the snake, pulling it in.

It wasn’t long until the snake was consumed, eaten alive, and the child’s body recovered even faster.

His bones aligned, his skin tightened, and his pink hair streaked in red grew out enough to cover his ears. For a moment, Dukean was taken aback by the boy's looks, shocked by the stark contrast between this beautiful person and what had just been a freaky mass of gore.

His body was whole again, or, at least, it appeared to be on the surface, but he was shaking quite severely and was visibly unstable. Not to mention that he was entirely naked.

The boy turned to Dukean, and Dukean raised his guard. The child showed absolutely no shame at his lack of clothing.

He eyed the cloaked cultivator a bit, and then his mouth opened in what appeared to be a realization, “Ah, it is you!”

It’s me!? Does the child know who I am!?

“But seriously, that armored bastard… I can’t fucking believe he would do something that suicidal. Shit, man, and I was doing so good.”

Neave Zearthorn… Who are you!? And why are you fighting Carfen…?

Dukean raised his sword at Neave, “You–!” He took a deep breath to calm himself and adopted a more threatening expression, “I have a few questions for you! Please, do not resist!”

“Resist?” Neave grinned, “Why would I do such a thing? But you’re gonna have to wait. I gotta go pay a visit to a certain duo.” However, he immediately stopped and clicked his tongue.

Several spirits at the peak of the platinum path moved nearby, right toward the diamond path warrior and the dragon.

“Well shit,” Neave said, “I guess I have time after all.”

Dukean was still shaking slightly, but he pushed his fear aside as he moved the sword to a somewhat less threatening position, “First, I’d like to…”

“Hold on a minute!” Neave raised his hand, “If you gotta ask me something, don’t you want to make a spirit oath first?”

“I–” Dukean hesitated, “That would be good… Yes, but…”

“Alright then,” Neave said as he took a shaky step toward Dukean, “Let’s make one.”

Dukean subconsciously stepped back, and Neave scowled at him, “Hey, dude, do I look like walking comes easy? If you aren’t gonna come to me, at least stand still, you bastard.”

It’s alright, Dukean thought.

He can’t do anything in this state… Right?

But he wasn’t willing to take the risk.

As Neave reached a few steps from him, Dukean raised the sword again, “Wait right there!”

Neave stopped, “What is it?”

“You’re quite wounded… Frankly speaking, aren’t you trusting me too much?” Dukean asked, “What if I struck you down when you entered my range?”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Neave answered calmly, “You’re not the type of person.”

“You!” Dukean yelled, anger slowly replacing his fear, “And how would you know that!? I have never met you in my entire life! Honestly, your trust in me only makes me suspicious of your moti–!”

Dukean’s words got caught in his throat as he spotted something in the child’s eyes. It was like a raging hurricane of darkness, echoey whispers and–ҾҾҾҾҾҾҾҾҾҾ

Splat.

Neave’s blood sprayed all over the floor as he pulled his clawed hand out of his own chest and breathed deeply, “Look, man. I’m gonna show you something. Just don’t freak out, ok?”

It was too late for that. Dukean was on the brink of pissing himself.

And it didn’t get any better when the child suddenly began morphing and growing in size. Dukean stared in absolute disbelief as ‘Neave’ morphed into ‘Deeze,’ the young master he had met in the library.

“You!”

“Me!” Neave responded in a deeper, manlier voice, “Indeed, this was just my disguise.”

Dukean didn’t know what to think. His legs moved on their own, and he took measured steps back, afraid that he had been baited here or manipulated into meeting this monster alone.

He whimpered a bit as he raised his sword again, “Y–You aren’t going to kill me, right?”

That only received a blank stare in response, “Bruh, what the fuck are you talking about!?” Neave shrank his body again and continued in his usual voice, “Why would I do that?”

“But the…!”

“The what? Calm down and think about it rationally. Frankly, I don’t think you have any reason to fear me.”

No reason to fear him!? Is this person insane!? No, that went without saying…

So what should he do then? Trusting a being like this felt like an excellent way to get himself eaten alive. Should he continue threatening him, then? Frankly, Dukean was confident that this boy held his life in his hands even with his current state.

Run, then?

He couldn’t do that—not until he asked the most important question, “You!” His voice quivered, but he steeled his resolve, “Do you have any connection to demons!?”

“Connection is a vague term. Can you elaborate?”

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In an instant, Neave appeared right in front of Dukean and grabbed his hand. Dukean reflexively stabbed the sword into Neave’s body, but even with a sword through his torso, Neave acted as if it were little more than an inconvenience.

“See? I’m not going to hurt you.”

Depending on how one defined ‘hurt,’ the insanely powerful grip holding Dukean’s hand might qualify. But there was no utility in saying that. Trust wasn’t a part of the function any longer. Dukean had to play along with whatever was requested of him.

“So then,” Neave said, “Let’s make a spirit oath. Please pull the sword out of my body. It’s starting to melt.”

Dukean rushed to pull the sword out, and indeed, it appeared to have thinned slightly.

What in the holy heavens is his body made of?

It was too late to resist now, so Dukean simply went along with the flow. Their handshake tightened, and their spirits touched.

Dukean shivered upon sensing it.

The very beginning of the foundation realm…?

This… If this was what he could achieve with this little power…

It wasn’t long until the oath was set up, and Neave opened his mouth, “I swear on my spirit that all I say until the end of our conversation is the truth. If I do not wish to answer a question at any point, I reserve the right to remain silent.”

The oath snapped in place, and Dukean rushed to get away.

“Alright then,” He said hesitantly, “First question. Are you… Planning to kill me?”

“No.”

Dukean let out a sigh of relief, “Then, are you… Are you a demon?”

“Nope.”

“Do you have a connection to the demons?”

“Sort of, yeah.”

With a bit of reluctance, Dukean asked, “Are you an ally of the demons?”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

“Alright… Now, why were you attacking Carfen?”

“Because he is an enemy.”

Dukean swallowed, “I have a solid reason to suspect this is the case, but… Does Carfen have a connection to the demons?”

Neave cocked his head, “Well, it’s not that he does or doesn’t. It is that he is a demon.”

Dukean froze, “That’s… That’s preposterous!”

There were rumors. A long time ago, Carfen was briefly suspected of conspiring with demons. It wasn’t long until that was discovered to be false, and Carfen had even, under spirit oath, confirmed that to not be the case.

“That can’t be…”

“Oh, but it is.”

“What about Ilkivir?”

“What about him?”

“Is he… Also…”

“No, he doesn’t appear to be, at least,” Neave pondered, “Although he does have a connection to the demons.”

Dukean paced, taking deep breaths to calm himself, “What evidence do you have for this?”

“None I can give you. But I’m a hundred percent confident that I’m correct.”

“Haha…” Dukean chuckled, “If you are, you have no idea how screwed this entire empire is.”

He knew it! All along, he had been right! Demons had been slithering their way into the empire!

But… What now? He finally had at least some confirmation that he had been correct. Yet… Carfen himself? He felt puke rushing up, but he swallowed it as he glanced at the kid smiling playfully at him.

This person, if he could even call him that, was growing at an insane pace. When it came to facing the demons, there wasn’t a single thing Dukean could think of—except for him. Neave was a self-proclaimed enemy to the demons… Yet…

“I just have one more question to ask of you.”

Neave grinned as if anticipating what Dukean would ask him.

“Are you an ally of the sacred races?”

Suddenly, Neave’s grin vanished. And he remained silent.

Dukean took another step back, and he felt his hair rise on his back, “You… You…!”

“Oh, relax,” Neave swung a hand to pacify Dukean, “I’m not an enemy of the sacred races. It’s just that I wouldn’t use the word ‘ally’ in this case.”

The confirmation that he isn’t an enemy somewhat eased Dukean’s tension, but it didn’t altogether remove it.

Dukean had many more questions for the unusual boy, but he wasn’t willing to further test his patience. With that out of the way, all he had to do now was figure out how–

“Now that you got your answers, under spirit oath at that, I’d like something in return.”

Every hair on Dukean’s body stood on end, but he didn’t back away or run. Some part of him felt that that would be a horrible idea.

“Can you give me a spirit-healing treasure?” Neave asked, far more nicely than Dukean expected, “Honestly, my spirit is in a terrible state, and I’d like to put it back into balance as soon as possible.”

Without hesitation, Dukean pulled a small bottle of pills out of his dimension ring and threw them at Neave—who proceeded to swallow the entire bottle.

Dukean felt the instinctive urge to warn the child about doing something like that, but he held himself back. As expected, not only did Neave experience no backlash, he appeared to have digested the entire damn bottle, glass included.

This person was dangerous.

However… Despite every cell in his body urging him to walk away and never attempt to make contact with him, Dukean looked Neave in the eyes, “I want to suggest something.”

“Hmm?” Neave raised a teasing eyebrow, “And what may that be?”

“D-Do you…” Dukean frowned and sweated as he forced himself to say, “Do you want… To forge an alliance?”

“Hell no.”

“Can you at least hear me out? I have a lot to offer–”

“I’m sure you do, but that isn’t the problem here, “Neave picked his nose and plucked out something that resembled a bone shard, “It’s the way you said it.” He flicked the shard of bone into a pile of rubble, “The fuck is up with the ‘D-d-d-d-do-do-do…” like dude, come on. Do you gotta look like you’re signing your ass away to some old pervert to save your declining family business?”

“Ex-Excuse me!?”

“You’re excused. How about I make a counteroffer to you instead, Dukeyboy?” Neave stepped forth and offered his hand to Dukean, “Do you want to be friends?”

Dukean stared at the hand, and instantly, what he saw changed. This was no longer some incomprehensible entity swimming in the depths of demonic conspiracies. It was just a younger boy, a person putting his hand forward with an earnest expression and asking to be friends.

More out of reflex than a conscious decision, Dukean grabbed Neave’s hand and shook it, “Alright. We can be friends.” Dukean frowned momentarily and added, “Just please don’t call me Dukeyboy…”

“Sure thing, Dukester. By the way, your dad is called Kingean, right?”

“Uh, yeah, why?”

“Man, that dude got a shit naming sense.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused. Oh! I almost forgot!” Neave hit the top of his palm with his fist, “There are a few people I’d like you to meet!”

***

Carfen stood before the dragon. Its eyes constantly darted from one cultivator to another, and it simply couldn’t keep up.

The assistance of the masters wasn’t as direct as having more Carfen’s fighting the dragon. It was closer to having a swarm of locusts distracting it. It was enough, however.

Carfen rushed forth, smashing the axe in the dragon’s head, and it roared at him, spewing purple fire in his direction, which he easily avoided.

Several cultivators smashed into the dragon’s side, and Xondir used a powerful technique to lightly wound its back. Meanwhile, Carfen finished preparing his strike and brought the axe down on the dragon’s neck.

It didn’t pierce through, but it bit deep, and with a last few mournful growls, the dragon perished.

He removed the axe from the dragon’s neck and observed the cultivators gathered around him.

Nobody was celebrating the monster’s death. Not even Carfen.

But he was still grinning ear to ear beneath his helmet.

The so-called ‘demon child’ was dead, and the others were a man short in their fight.

Now, then…

It was time for the first disciple to make her move.

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