The Jester of Apocalypse

The slime avatar finished its scouting. It vanished, and Neave returned to his body yet again.

He was tucked away in a corner of his workshop. Piles of seemingly random tools and gadgets were strewn randomly around the room. There was a faint putrid stench in the air, and the black obsidian walls had numerous scratches and cracks.

Placing a finger on his temple, Neave examined his condition. His brain was undergoing some sort of change. Its function was mostly fine, but that was entirely due to his spirit powers keeping it functional.

If it weren’t for them, Neave wondered whether he would even be alive, let alone awake.

Sleep must possess some sort of crucial function in brain balance. And whatever that function was clearly couldn’t be postponed indefinitely.

Sighing, he got up.

Yet another round of scouting had been done with his slime avatar, and yet again, he found no powerful monsters around.

If Neave had to choose whether their expedition here was a success or a failure, he would decide that it was a failure.

Growing a monster to diamond rank was considerably more challenging to do intentionally than Neave had previously thought.

Simply put, the creature had to be set up for success from the beginning. Otherwise, it would likely become impossible.

Monsters with misshapen cores could also grow in power, even up to diamond rank. But that was, unfortunately, more a game of chance than consumption. Misshapen cores were more likely to break apart into several weaker monsters.

For a creature to reach diamond rank in power, one of three things must happen.

Either the monster had to be born with a rather round core.

The core breaking process had to produce a round core.

Or it had to somehow, against all odds, manage not to break apart until it reached diamond rank in threat.

With that in mind, Neave walked over to a teleporter and appeared in one of their largest and deepest chambers.

He appeared behind a potent glass barrier, looking down on the chaos below.

Countless creatures fought tooth and nail for every resource they could get. And there were many resources available.

Neave summoned the mule and pulled a basket off.

Then, he opened a hatch and spilled the contents into it.

Shimmering fruits fell out of the bag and into the chamber. The instant the monsters smelled the luscious treasures, they grew even more ravenous as they rushed to grab a piece for themselves.

Many died, and eventually, only a single creature remained. Its body was that of a dark ape with four large stingers protruding from its behind. Its shape was symmetrical, and it had at least a rough humanoid shape.

Neave watched in anticipation as it devoured the treasures… And evolved.

Instantly, its singers shrank, reducing to only two, and its hunched, wild body straightened, growing slimmer and shaped more like a human.

A single glance was all it took to confirm it. This creature was a diamond-rank threat.

Then, every other monster in the room instantly turned to face it. And proceeded to rush straight at it.

It effortlessly tore their bodies apart, stingers lashing out to sever necks and pierce hearts as it dodged one attack after another.

Eventually, however, attacks began landing. And once they did, even more followed. Finally, the creature was overpowered and brought to its knees, where its numerous assailants devoured its body bit by bit.

Neave sighed.

This was a common sight in most of his experiments. If he tried growing only one powerful monster, it was simply a failure since they tended to break apart too frequently.

If he created an environment such as this, where there was no way to escape, the monsters would jump the most powerful one and eventually take it down.

Trying to create diamond-rank monsters was a pain in the ass.

And Neave had discovered the problem a long time ago. The environment was too cramped. If he had the entire world at his disposal, he could simply release powerful creatures outside, one after another, but now, he feared that may return to bite him in the ass.

Powerful opponents were one thing. The manipulator and Astrador were another.

This was a damn disaster. They had all grown much more powerful, and every one of his allies possessed skill that could shake the entire empire.

But they lacked a variety of experiences. Too long had they fought one another, and now, they needed more powerful and varied opponents to develop a more flexible style.

Because they were plateauing again.

Only so much potential could be extracted from a single scenario; without variety, their growth would stagnate.

Neave could grow a powerful monster or two like this and throw them in there with it, but that wouldn’t be enough. They needed many opponents and an accessible source of them at that.

Judging by what Xurbon had said, there were relatively few monsters of significant power in the caves. Not only were they growing relatively slowly, but they seemed to sense the power of the glass shrub, which repelled them and sent most outside the range of its influence.

There, not only would they grow even slower, but they would also likely become tools for the other players to abuse.

This was bad.

They needed…

Slam.

Neave's fist crashed into the side of his head again, and he was jolted awake.

It was getting worse by the moment. They hadn’t succeeded in their mission, not even close to what they wanted to achieve by getting in here.

“Aaaargh! Fucking why!?” Neave slammed his fist into the glass barrier separating him from the monsters.

It crumbled to bits, and Neave was exposed before the horde of creatures feasting on one another.

Yet, they didn’t rush to tear him apart. Instead, they ran.

Neave fixed the glass barrier, melting it back into shape, and returned to the teleporter.

This was it. He needed to sit the others down and create a plan. He wasn’t sure how long he could remain conscious, and if it truly came to having to sleep again, he would instantly kill himself.

They needed to be ready for the worst to happen.

***

The Falken sect members sat in a circle and discussed the possibility of leaving the nightmare realm soon.

The discussion wasn’t progressing all that smoothly. Or at all, really.

Dukean snarled, “Can you please tell us what is happening!?”

Harel held the same stance.

Hunter turned to them and waved them down, “Can’t you see that it's clearly something he has difficulty revealing? Why do you two always have to be so harsh on him?”

Harel snapped at him, “Wow, yeah, almost as if this is our concern too! We are all stuck in this nightmare realm, and Neave is obviously hiding something important.”

Dukean added, “And it isn’t just one thing either.”

Marven sighed, “Please, calm down.”

Harel turned to face Marven, “No, you shut the fuck up! You can defend your golden boy all you want when it comes to petty stuff, but this is serious.”

Gabrias simply remained silent and tried his best to pretend he wasn’t there.

No plans were made for their return, and Neave refused to share why they may have to leave this place soon. After all, there was no easy way to say, ‘Hey, I might get my body taken over by some mysterious entity if I ever fall asleep!’

Actually, perhaps he could just say that. It would certainly resolve the discussion. However… They would undoubtedly treat him differently if he revealed that.

And he didn’t want that to happen.

Xurbon had remained silent throughout this discussion. However, suddenly it yelped and grasped its throat, “Urgaah, huurgh, gaah!”

Neave instantly jumped to it and placed his palm on its body, “Xurbon! What’s happening!?”

It could barely get words out, and the shimmering rainbow lights flickered sporadically, “Ove–Urgh! Over the…re.”

It pointed in a direction, and Neave asked it pleadingly, “What’s over there!?”

“Tou–Touch of…” Suddenly, a large crack spread across Xurbons body from top to bottom.

Neave didn’t hesitate. He instantly jumped over to the teleporter and traveled to the platform closest to the direction Xurbon indicated.

He appeared in the caves using a movement technique to move through the several layers of thick steel. Instantly, Neave accelerated drastically, shooting his way up to the surface. He rushed in the direction Xurbon indicated, pulling the slime avatar out and swapping between his body and its to get a better picture.

It wasn’t long until he spotted it.

It was a primarily white being, almost reminiscent of a mannequin. However, deep, morphing runes were etched into every corner of its body.

There was a shifting, slithering deep within, something Neave couldn’t look at directly without experiencing an intense headache.

He simply ignored it as he summoned the mule avatar, grabbed the sledgehammer, and struck the intruder with all his might.

Its body was knocked back, away from the glass forest and far from Xurbon’s body.

But it wasn’t dead. A sense of dread enveloped Neave as he realized that his strike hadn’t even done any damage.

The creature slowly got up, and as it did, it started a dance.

A heavenly waterfall appeared before Neave. Yet, the water was polluted. A touch of blood, death, and suffering was etched deep within the otherwise pristine liquid.

The waterfall reached the yet-untainted lake, and a pulse of red went across its surface.

Neave’s body was split in half, right across his hip.

He focused his willpower, and his body mended back together. Yet, it did so hesitantly, fearing what lurked in the polluted lake.

It took great willpower to break out of the strange state the attack had placed him in, and only after he ignited his life force did he manage to remove enough influence to fully seal his body back together.

Neave jumped back, appearing some distance from his opponent and breathing raggedly. This thing wasn’t some random monster. Neave could smell Astrador’s influence all over it.

Yet, something was wrong. It felt far too… Demonic in nature.

This was no time to unravel the mystery behind what this creature was.

Neave spun the sledgehammer around, and golden runes lit up around his body. The head of the sledgehammer vibrated violently, and a gigantic phantasmal image of the slime appeared.

As he swung the hammer, the air carried the force onward, and the flying strike hit the torso of the mannequin with a dull thud. It knocked the figure back a little, decimating the landscape behind it but it didn’t even leave a scratch.

The creature stepped forward, and the sacred forest appeared around Neave. Yet, what had once been pure, holy, and unsullied, now had horrors residing within.

A bloody, shambling creature slithered out from the foliage and bit Neave.

Its poison spread through his body, withering it away rapidly.

Just as it was about to reach the middle of Neave’s torso, he manifested a large blade of spirit and cut his torso apart.

The upper part of his body fell to the soil, and he could feel a few vestiges of whatever had invaded his body remain. His sacred blood screamed, and his body twisted in agony as it rapidly grew back the cut-off part.

Before he could fully recover, the sacred forest punished his sin of bloodying its soil by enveloping what remained of his body in thick roots.

A violet light lit up before Neave, and the little purple slime appeared. Neave manipulated its body to slither between the roots and envelop his body, and then he used its slippery nature to squeeze his body out between the branches and free himself.

The centaur also appeared, and Neave attached his body to it, sending it away to have it recover.

Another violet light flashed, and a little guy holding a dagger and a shortsword appeared.

After that, the entire sacred forest was washed in purple as the giant ogre flashed into existence. Neave had plated its whole body in heavy armor, and it held an absolutely gigantic sledgehammer in its hands.

The mannequin seemingly entirely ignored the newcomers as it focused yet another attack on Neave’s body.

The moon that hung above the great heavenly realm was bloody red and…

Before the attack could fully release, the giant ogre brought down its sledgehammer.

The shockwave obliterated everything in the vicinity, and Neave had to use the slime’s body to protect the little avatar.

He couldn’t protect his body on time, but luckily, he didn’t have to. His rubbery yet metallic yet crystalline body could handle a shockwave like this just fine, although he did unsummon the centaur to spare it the destruction.

The force threw his main body away into the distance, and he allowed it to recover while he brought his focus back to the avatars.

The mannequin had suffered a bit of damage. It was nothing decisive; however, now, the avatars had all its attention.

The heavenly moon…

Before it could take another step forward, the slime flung the tiny avatar at it, and Neave moved his consciousness to it. He gripped the dagger and slammed it down with all his might into the figure’s body.

The tip barely penetrated its skin's surface, but that was all it needed to do. An intense burst of poison qi invaded the mannequin’s body. It couldn’t spread very far, but it managed to damage a few of the runes around where he had struck it.

The blank creature lifted its arm and Neave instinctively unsummoned the avatar. The moment he did, the mirage of the moon in the sky opened up like a cursed cosmic eye, and a thin, instantaneous pulse of blue energy fired right where the avatar had been a moment ago.

It didn’t explode, but Neave could feel that an attack like that could likely threaten his main body if it struck.

Neave used the opening in the lull after the attack to condense most of the slime’s body into a little globule. The globule was sent flying directly at the place where the runes were damaged, and it exploded violently upon making contact with the creature’s skin.

Once the dust cleared, it was clear that the attack hadn’t done much, but the runes suffered a tiny bit of extra damage.

The titanic sledgehammer came flying down again, but suddenly, the creature stepped onto the moon, and the heavenly body spun around, bringing it to the other side.

Right where Neave’s still wounded body was recovering.

Neave brought his consciousness back into his body just in time to dodge another blue pulse, but this one managed to graze his skin.

No matter how hard Neave focused, he couldn’t undo the damage.

His body morphed, and he stretched half of his body into the same shape as his entire body. Then, with all the willpower he could muster, he focused and…

Yet another blue pulse fired out, and Neave suffered some damage on his right arm.

Another fired, passing right through his shoulder, pulverizing his body and leaving a large hole through his torso.

The moon shimmered, and yet again, a…

Before the attack could fire, Neave summoned the tiny avatar and kicked it forward. Moving his consciousness over, he stabbed at precisely the same place again, deepening the small cut slightly.

The mannequin paused and focused on removing the pulse of toxic qi from its body. This time, something traveled out from where the dagger had struck, through the embedded weapon and right into the body of the little avatar.

Something in the avatar was severed, and it crumpled, dropping to the ground.

Just as the strange being was about to use another attack, out of nowhere, the centaur was resummoned and charged at the creature.

The instant of hesitation allowed Neave to resummon the giant avatar again, sending yet another sledgehammer strike flying down.

This one, however, struck the moon, and the damage was nothing but a distant speck on its vast surface.

The creature moved its attention back to Neave but paused the moment it faced him.

During the few moments of distraction, Neave had put on a… Slime suit. It was a blue, stretchy, full-body suit that covered every inch of his body except the opening to his mouth.

The moon yet again sent another pulse, but this time… It failed to reach Neave. It touched the surface of the slimy substance, and the suit violently rippled, but it held, only suffering a bit of damage where it had struck.

Neave felt some form of connection to his body weaken. Whatever was holding him from recovering his body had now been cut off by the appearance of the slime suit, and his body rapidly regrew back to normal beneath the suit.

He grinned at the creature, “Well, well, well… How’s it going, Astraboy? Long time no see!”

The creature shivered, and its face began morphing. Its featureless head began twisting, and its jaw looked like it was trying to open but could not because there was no mouth.

Suddenly, the skin on the face burst open, and the large mouth was revealed.

It dripped with blood as it snarled, and soon enough, it spoke in an oh-so-familiar voice, “You wretched fool! You can not even comprehend what you’ve been tricked into doing!”