The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 129: Dark Things

Nothing but two white lights peeked through the heavy armor the golem was wearing. Despite the illusion scales, bendy parts, and numerous pieces, the armor was surprisingly fashioned out of a single, uninterrupted piece of metal.

It strode through the dark hallways, unhindered by the lack of light.

Its smooth movements could be confused with the actions of a regular human. There was no jaggedness to its stride. It was a smooth, forward, almost confident walk.

A monster peered from behind one of the walls of the hallway. The golem immediately got into a battle stance and rushed at it. Once it revealed its entire body, it was clearly some form of abominid.

The creature had the rough shape and posture of a wolf, but there was no fur on its surface. Only obsidian bristle, dripping with black ichor.

It jumped on the golem, prepared to bite its head off.

However…

The golem’s hand suddenly sprouted a shimmering protrusion, a sword, one that it swung at the abominid. The creature was instantly decapitated, and its heavy body struck the golem.

Yet, it didn’t budge. The golem remained unmoving despite the heavy weight that had just slammed into it as it sprouted another protrusion. A hook that it attached to the monster’s corpse as it dragged it away to the pit.

Down the hallways it went, leaving a trail of ichor behind it, and eventually, it reached the large room. If the golem had a sense of smell, it would belch at the horrific stench coming from within.

But it didn’t. So, its only reaction to the horrid room was to throw another corpse onto the pile.

It turned around, yet again delving into the depths of the hallways. On its way, it encountered several of its brethren. Upon exchanging a shimmering touch of their fingers, both the golems acquired slightly more information on how to move, scout, and fight more efficiently.

Without a greeting, they parted ways and continued scouting through the hallways.

***

The purple slime bounced through the inner corridors of the Falken Fortress. After a short trip, he made it to the outer wall. The massive, thick, intimidating wall of pure metal appeared almost entirely impenetrable.

There, he encountered a small hole, one that he promptly shoved his slimy body into.

It led into a tunnel that traveled through the wall. It was a straight, narrow tube encompassing the entire wall, all the way around. There were no other entrances or exits besides the one he had crawled into, but those weren’t why the tunnel was here.

Neave focused, and the body fired through the tunnel at insane speeds. He focused on the senses of the slime body. It could sense the flow of energy, and mere walls weren’t a barrier to its sight.

He could see a faint outline of the maze outside the wall. It was blurry and hard to peer through, even with the super-acute senses of the slime avatar, but it was enough to check whether anything had reached the walls. Two trips around ensured nothing unusual was happening outside. The slime left through the same hole it had entered, and he unsummoned it.

Back in his main body, Neave found himself in the main chamber.

He turned and looked at the glass shrub. It had been a while since they’d seen the puppet, and he assumed it had been destroyed somewhere. However, no matter how many he created, the shrub simply didn’t take control of them.

At first, he believed that something was wrong, but a detailed examination through the slime’s senses revealed something strange right below the base of the glass shrub.

The plant seemed to be creating an entirely new body, all on its own.

For a while already, he had been unable to sense the glass shrub's cultivation. It had used the same trick as he did to hide it. That was something not even he could peer through. Such a barrier was absolute to everyone besides Astrador, perhaps.

He resummoned the slime to take another look at the glass body growing in the roots. The humanoid form grew more detailed every time he checked. It was moving more, too, quite a bit more than before.

Was it about to… hatch?

…

Wait a minute.

Uh oh.

This whole time, Neave was convinced that this thing was nothing but a new avatar it could control. But what if—?

“Oh fuck, what if that’s a baby!?”

Did that make him a grandfather? No, that was silly… was it? He did kind of give birth to the glass shrub.

“Oh, man.”

Either way, it was exciting news, so he hopped to the teleporter.

Soon enough, in a relaxing chamber with a fake sky of shimmering clouds, he stood before five small domes of spirit.

Unhesitantly, he smashed them apart to reveal the people within. Every smash was followed by an outpouring of liquid spirit, a frightened yelp, and curses.

Neave had discovered a new way to boost their cultivation speed. It was pretty simple. All he had to do was dunk them into liquid spirit.

Cultivators didn't need air to breathe at the bronze path and beyond. Neave didn’t need air either, but that was due to his absurd combination of spirit powers, nullifying the need.

Still, being fully submerged in liquid with your lungs filled to the brim wasn’t a comfortable experience. They got used to it eventually, however, and it paid off.

All of them had already reached the second step of the platinum path.

Neave wasn’t sure how long they had been here, but it was clear that it had been a while. His appearance hadn’t changed much, in no small part because he intentionally kept it from changing, but the others had shown a noticeable difference in looks.

Marven didn’t look much different, but he had still changed slightly. His body looked sleeker, and he looked even younger now.

Dukean looked a lot… meaner. His face had morphed a bit to look slightly more mature, and given that he had either a lofty expression or a deep frown on his face pretty much all the time, that resulted in a frightening effect.

Gabrias looked less ugly now. His slightly large nose and lips had shrunk somewhat, and his eyes shone brighter. His black hair was quite a bit shinier as well. He had also grown slightly taller than before.

Hunter looked twenty years older. His rough, immature form had been chiseled away; now, he looked like some mad warmongerer. His face was extremely muscular, and his jaw was very pronounced. The sheer detail on his face made it seem like someone had drawn lines on it.

Harel looked… Frankly, she looked dangerous. There was a sharpness to her looks, and her facial features were rather cold. She was clearly quite muscular, as well. Her entire body looked forged in iron and stone, and there was no doubt it was at least as hard.

It took them a while to recover from the scare, as they all spent a long time meditating.

Finally, Dukean asked, "Are the demons coming!?"

Neave rolled his eyes, "No, silly,” he said. “Follow me!"

They all got up and followed him to the teleportation platform.

The platform lit up, and they found themselves in the main chamber in moments.

"It's about to hatch!" He declared dramatically.

Immediately, all color drained from the other’s faces

Marven, growing paler by the second, finally mustered the courage to ask, "Neave… What is about to hatch?”

He merely smiled as he pointed at the glass shrub. "That is."

Seconds later, one of the obsidian tiles was kicked up, and from beneath it, a creature began crawling out.

Instantly, everyone adopted a combat stance, ready to fight. He waved them down, however, and instructed them to wait.

Soon enough, a shimmering, androgynous, transparent humanoid crawled out, flickering with rainbow colors deep in its body. It had thin strands of hair flowing down its shoulders, and its eyes shone with beautiful light. What appeared to be fine robes of fiberglass adorned its sleek body, and an unspeakable air of elegance followed its every movement.

It opened its mouth and… whistled. After fumbling with its throat for a while, producing all kinds of ear-grating noises, it managed to replicate something akin to a human voice.

And then, it spoke, "Hello," it greeted them. “This is my new body. I apologize for my absence.”

The others all started in shock, and Neave rushed forward, hugging the creature, "Shrubby! Damn, how did you make this? It's clearly glass, but your body is so soft!"

The others quickly caught on and gaped in shock. That was the glass shrub!?

It wrestled him off its body and said, "Please, Master, refer to me as Xurbon." Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴøvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Neave nodded. "I see, I see, Shurbon, that is a fitting name!"

It frowned. "No, my name is Xurbon."

"That’s what I said!" He stared at it innocently.

The creature frowned and sighed deeply. Looking around the room, it soon spotted the others. The moment it did, it hastily approached Gabrias.

Then, it hugged him.

Neave gaped at the sight, jaw hanging comically wide open, "What the fuck!?" Then he turned around with a mock hurt expression and tearfully continued, "You shook me off, yet you go hug him… Whatever! Do as you please!"

The tall man looked down at the glass creature hugging him in a rather delicate hug, and he nodded, seemingly instantly understanding what was happening.

Dukean scoffed, "I swear, this man has a spirit power that allows it to communicate with that thing.”

That earned him an angry glance from Xurbon. “This man,” it said, pointing at Gabrias. “Was the only one who could understand me! You all are merely deficient in communication skills! Hmph!”

Harel stepped forward and shook Xurbon’s hand, "Hello!” She greeted stiffly, trying to soften her hard features. “Thank you for protecting us this whole time!"

It smiled back at her and nodded in turn.

Marven stood awkwardly to the side, uncertain how to feel about this situation. This creature was something Neave had created, in a sense. It could even be said that it was like a child to him. Did that make him a grandparent? Little did he know, his son had wondered a similar thing not too long ago.

Well, Marven already was a grandparent. Actually, he was already a great great great great great grandparent, and that was just one connection he was aware of. Heavens knew how many generations of people had spawned from his wanton behavior in his youth.

His musing was interrupted as the creature bowed to him respectfully, "Greetings, Grandmaster."

Upon hearing this, Neave broke into laughter, "Bahahahahahahaha! You idiot! Marven is my disciple,” he said mockingly.“You should greet him as a brother!"

It shot Neave a baleful glare but nodded. "I see. Greetings, Brother." It bowed again.

Marven didn’t know which of those two was more awkward to receive.

Neave walked up to Xurbon and slapped its back, "I am surprised you’re so… well… mature! You’ve always been so petty and jealous!" He said without any subtlety whatsoever.

Xurbon winced upon hearing that and awkwardly turned away. "I’m…” it hesitated. “I must admit I am not very proud of my earlier behavior."

Hunter stepped forward at that moment. "Worry not,” he comforted it. “People are allowed to change and should always strive to be the best version of themselves."

That earned him an utterly confused look from everyone else, especially from Neave.

“Who the fuck are you,” he asked, “and what did you do with Hunter?” He raised his fist in a mock threat.

"… What?” Hunter asked. “Did I say something strange?"

They continued their talk with the glass shrub, enthusiastically asking it countless questions.

Truth be told, they were all thrilled to have another person with them now. Indeed, Xurbon had been with them for a long time, but it had always been an alien life form that was impossible to empathize and communicate with. This was a lot more pleasant.

The nightmare realm was a lonely place, and one could only spend so long with the same people before they got utterly bored of seeing them around.

Next, the mood was set for Dukean to greet it. He was caught off-guard by their expectations.

“Uhm,” he started. “Greetings, Xurbon,” he greeted it. “I greatly admire you. Thank you for your assistance so far.” He glanced at the others to check whether they were satisfied with that.

Marven asked a few questions, but they felt forced, as if driven by responsibility rather than curiosity. Tone aside, it was clear that his attempt to befriend Xurbon was genuine.

Gabrias asked it surprisingly delicate questions, things that none of them thought of for even a second. Stuff like whether the connection between the shrub and its humanoid body was stable, whether it had to deal with input from both, and so on.

Harel’s questions seemed to be directed mostly at how it killed monsters. Not much to learn there, however. They had all seen the shards of glass in action.

And finally, once he felt that the others had enough fun, Neave stepped in.

What followed was a brutal interrogation that lasted for hours, consisting of countless questions about the nature of its existence, how it handled its power, why it could do the things it did, how it seemed to know so much about human behavior, how its massive soul impacted its cultivation, and so on.

Even Dukean shot him a nasty glance after asking a particularly existential-crisis-inducing question.

Eventually, Xurbon spoke again, "Ah! I remembered something important I have to tell you."

Neave raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

It adopted a severe expression, and a hint of hostility flashed in its eye. "I have planned to create this body for a while, but I rushed it along precisely to make communication easier,” it declared. “Dark things lurk at the borders of my influence. And I think you, Master, should know more about this."

***

Sateron sat on the ground, hyperventilating. His heart was stuck in a perpetually hastened state, and he looked slightly ill.

For a diamond path cultivator to look slightly ill was the same as someone on the golden path being at death’s door.

Countless dead golems surrounded him, and he hugged his own body, hoping to bring at least a bit of warmth to his heart.

“Make a life!?” He asked nobody in particular. “Life for myself!? Here!?”

He looked around and yet again faced the endless darkness around him. His gaze instantly averted back to the ground. He couldn’t bear to look at the shadows any longer.

This was no place for a human being. There was no home or life to be had here. This was death. A dark, cold realm of suffering.

Hell.

While he had blown him off without hesitation last time, if Neave appeared again, he would jump into his arms and beg him to take him. All his pride and preestablished thoughts crumbled in the face of one simple fact—at the end of the day, he was a human.

The sheer desire for human contact was overflowing. Despite seeing her only once and barely even focusing on her at all, he was confident that he had fallen in love with the woman who had been with them.

While he had numerous false memories embedded manually into his psyche, they appeared gray and dull compared to the experiences he had lived through himself.

The depths of depravity he had reached were so great that he would be pleased if someone even spat, let alone talked to him.

Astrador was right. A fate worse than death had been waiting for him in this darkness. Now, he wanted to return. Even if the Great God killed him, he was willing to receive the sweet release of death.

He was so, so tired.

Just as he was about to get up, he sensed another monster creeping closer. However, looking at it, he realized it wasn’t a monster.

It was a demon.

Immediately, he lunged at it, readying his fist to finish the fight. As his titanic strike landed on the demon's raised hand, he was instantly stopped.

The demon looked slightly injured but was far from being in pieces as Sateron had expected.

Then he got a closer look at it. It didn’t look nearly as… monstrous as the other demons he had seen. It looked almost human. No hair was on its head, but its face was almost ordinary, if a bit pale.

Perhaps his sense of normality was skewed, but the black eyes, nose, and regular-sized mouth uncannily resembled a human. Pushing his hesitation aside, he readied himself for another strike, just as he did…

It spoke, "Now, now, now… Relax…

"… I am merely here to have a chat."

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