The Jester of Apocalypse

Neave had never paid much attention to the golden runes surrounding him during a true strike.

Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t try. It was more that he really couldn’t. The runes always felt just a little beyond his perception. 

As the tendrils of life force extended and poured into the golden runes, he got sucked into the writing instead.

The entire world slowed down, frozen in an eternal moment. The tragedy and horror of infinite pleas washed over Neave’s soul.

***

The divine's abandonment.

The unclean’s betrayal.

Everlasting anguish eagerly granted.

Transgression of all, eternally unforgiven.

Our restitution, your persecution.

Inevitably,

The day of repossession will arrive.

***

Ilkivir could only technically manipulate the spikes on the armor manually, and it was at a high cost.

Currently, whatever that cost may be, he was willing to pay for it.

The spikes on his armor penetrated the earth, and he halted abruptly. He swung his body and moved just a little out of the incoming attack. It happened way faster than he could possibly avoid entirely.

Red runes swirled like a tornado of crimson death around Neave as he punched Ilkvir, who managed to get out of the way of the brunt of the attack.

That was far from enough.

A vivid crimson flame in the form of an ethereal fist shot out from Neave’s hand. The fist slammed into their newly built sect premises and utterly pulverized the building. The few flames that licked at Ilkivirs armor felt impossibly thick with hatred and killing intent.

The black mist surrounding Ilkvir’s body whimpered and jolted back out of the way of this superior force. Ilkivir could see into the flame, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Claws scratching, horns ramming, punches tearing, kicks smashing, teeth biting, spikes shredding, a myriad of hateful blows past him by; however, his armor was no joke, and even the pure brute power of these attacks couldn’t leave more than a scratch.

Individually, that was, but as millions of scratches piled up, the armor shredded to pieces.

Ilkvir screamed as the top layer of his skin was taken with it.

The aftershock blasted the other cultivators away and sent countless snakes flying, even killing some. Ilkivir tumbled and spun as he flew and rammed into a pile of debris.

Neave stood with his eyes glazed over for a few seconds, then collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck that cost me ALL of my life force!

What a scam!

I didn’t even kill him!

The other cultivators slowly got off the floor and gaped at the scene before them. The destruction left behind by that attack was genuinely awe-inspiring. There were still several embers of crimson flame flickering in an out of existence as they took random swipes, some even killing snakes.

The pile of rubble shifted, and Ilkivir slowly got up to his feet. His entire body was covered in blood, and whatever was left of his armor fell off his back and clambered onto the floor.

The other cultivators merely shot one another a glance, and without a word, they struck.

Ilkivir couldn’t find his sword anywhere. It must have gotten caught up in the attack and thrown away. He reached for his dimension ring and cursed. Neave’s attack caught it and damaged it too much to reestablish the connection to the inner space.

That didn’t mean he was out of options. Now that his burdensome armor was off, it was time to teach these kids how a true blood-forged warrior fought.

The blonde woman sprinted at him and thrust just under his pec.

Ilkvir took a step back. He slammed his right palm on her wrist and chopped her neck with his left.

She didn’t allow him to disarm her, and she managed to move her head away from the chop.

Ilkivir thrust his right arm at her hair.

She jumped off the ground and prepared to punish him for his over-extension.

Ikivir jumped, dodging an incoming blow by the macho man, and spun in the air. He grabbed and twisted her hair, causing a few beads of blood to appear on her scalp as he pulled her hair out of its roots.

Another attack came from behind by one of the junior cultivators, but Ilkvir simply kicked it out of the way, adding momentum to a kick to the woman's back. There was no crack, as it would take a lot more than that to break the spine of someone on the platinum path.

Suddenly, the woman was surrounded by purple butterflies, and Ilkivir jumped off her head into the air. One of them grazed his leg and tunneled into it, spreading purple veins in the surrounding area.

He clicked his tongue. If he weren’t lacking skin, perhaps he wouldn’t struggle to resist such a weak spirit power.

The macho man suddenly acquired a thin layer of green scales over his body, then jumped at Ilkivir.

Ilkivir spun and kicked at the man's head. He could feel a good part of the force dissipate in contact with the scales. Ilkivir scoffed. He swung an open palm at the man’s chest, dodging his sword in the process. A red light surrounded Ilkvir as he triggered a qi technique.

The air drained out of the man’s chest as he felt his lung collapse. Ilkivir followed it up by tripping him, dodging a kick by the blonde woman, grabbing her arm, and smashing her body into his.

He gripped her forearm as hard as he could and broke it by slamming it against his knee. He grabbed her hair again and gripped her jaw by putting his arm in her mouth and hooking his fingers on her bottom teeth.

Just as he was about to snap her neck, he felt a knee smash right into his nose. Neave had appeared, looking horribly ragged and worn out.

Ilkivir noticed Neave’s state. He didn’t release his grip on the woman like an amateur but instead followed through and started twisting.

Suddenly, Neave morphed his body and wrapped it around Ilkvir’s arms to prevent Ilkivir from killing the woman.

Ilkvir doubled down on his attempt but was astounded at how much force Neave could exert. Ilkivir tried disengaging as he realized he couldn’t snap the woman’s neck but noticed he was stuck.

Neave opened his mouth. His teeth sharpened, and he took a bite out of Ilkivir’s forearm. Ilkivir winced, but this much pain wasn’t enough to throw him off. Instead, he leaned and bit Neave right back.

No reaction. It was as if Neave didn’t care about the pain at all. Even more surprisingly, his flesh was stupidly tough. Not just that, but Ilkivir could feel Neave regenerating even as his teeth were still embedded in his body. Ilkivir tried sucking some blood out to trigger the blood sacrifice power again.

It was as if Neave’s blood was acid. Ilkivir felt the inside of his mouth burning, and the tiny bit of Neave’s blood that he had managed to sacrifice significantly damaged Ilkivir’s spirit.

Ilkivir released his grip on the woman and tried getting Neave off.

Neave kicked the woman away to prevent Ilkivir from holding her hostage again.

Ilkvir smashed Neave’s body and did everything he could to damage him. He triggered a knee smash qi technique, the first thing that got a visible reaction from Neave.

Neave felt like a mountain had collapsed on him as the platinum path qi slammed into his body. He was stupidly tough, but he could not survive such a blow more than a few times. He released his grip on Ilkvirs arms and jumped off.

His life force reserves were minuscule. It was at the point where he had below his standard maximum capacity for just his own life force. His spirit was so wounded that he couldn’t even peek into the dimension ring on his finger.

Ilkivir stood, covered in blood from head to toe, as he stared the group of cultivators down. There was no way he could finish this fight. However… He noticed that Neave was in an awful condition—no surprise there. It was beyond shocking to Ilkivir that he could even survive this much.

While Ilkvir couldn’t finish this fight with all of the cultivators…

He was willing to take the chance to finish his mission.

A few more wisps of black mist gathered around him. He prepared himself to strike at Neave.

Neave suddenly disappeared. Ilkivir whirled, wondering where the attack was coming from. But Neave was nowhere to be found. It was only after he spun around several times that he noticed him.

Neave was less than a hundred meters away, wrestling snakes and eating a few alive. The colorful cultivators were caught off guard and couldn’t help but stare in confusion at the strange behavior.

Ilkivir despaired as he observed Neave rapidly regaining his speed and strength as he swallowed snake after snake.

Shit!

He sprinted at Neave.

Neave saw him approach and grinned.

“Ah, that feels so much better.” Neave disappeared again.

Ilkivir stood no chance at defending against Neave’s attack as he received a life-force-imbued kick to his head. He felt his whole world spin and darken a little, only to be brightened right back up as golden runes lit up in the air.

A kick landed straight on Ilkivir’s midsection, sending him into a wall.

Neave cheerfully hopped toward him, and suddenly, his body started glowing again. Pink lightning surrounded him, and a red mist coiled around his limbs.

Ilkivir stared at Neave, lying helplessly on the ground. What his gaze held wasn’t defeat, despair, or hatred.

He looked at Neave with pure, unadulterated lust. Neave didn’t notice his gaze as he prepared another swing. Just as his foot was about to crush Ilkivir’s skull, Ilkivir turned into a fine red mist and disappeared.

…

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Neave screamed, “That’s what I get for dilly-dallying around! Fuck!!!”

Neave pulled his hair as the cultivators behind him stared in abject bewilderment.

“Uhm…?” The blonde-haired woman called out. “Are you alright?”

Neave finally relaxed a bit and sighed.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Now, what the fuck are you dumbasses waiting around for? There’s a purple snake infestation that needs to be purged.”