The Jester of Apocalypse

Neave stood before Astrador, unsure how to react. The god looked distraught by something Neave had done, likely related to his experiment.

Astrador yelled at Neave.

“You’re a moron. I do not know what you’ve done or how, but I promise you, you will regret it if you don’t stop immediately.”

“Alright, alright, old man, you know the drill, soul oath time. If you tell me under soul oath that ‘I will regret’ doing what I’m doing, I will take your word for it.”

Astrador looked miffed at that, “Alright then, soul oath it is.”

Neave felt the restraint of the soul oath envelop him, and Astrador spoke, “If you continue with what you’re doing, you risk the annihilation of your entire realm.”

This was far from the thing Neave expected to hear. Astrador took an angry step forward and continued.

“I will, under soul oath, promise you anything you want if you swear to undo what you’ve done and cease doing so in the future. I will tell you important information about your mother, who is very much so alive. I will teach you hundreds, nay, thousands of qi techniques, prevent my messenger from going anywhere near you, and if you please, I will send a divine heavenly treasure your way. You’re playing with forces far, far beyond your comprehension and powers that not even the divine is meant to possess. I will beg you on my damn knees to stop and listen to me, and if you don’t, I will find a way to force you to.”

Neave was caught off guard. He didn’t expect this from the arrogant, high, and mighty Astrador.

What exactly was Neave doing that would cause such a reaction?

Don’t listen to him.

Neave grabbed his head.

He is telling the truth, but it is for selfish reasons that he desires you stop.

Astradors eyes widened, and he strained. He gripped something intangible in the air, and Neave felt the influence cut off.

“How did you do that?”

“Kid, please, just listen to me.” Astrador offered his hand to Neave, “Anything you desire, but you have to stop!”

Neave felt his blood rushing through his body. With every muscle, he wanted to say no, refuse Astrador, and keep going, but what was he supposed to think? Neave grabbed his head and pulled his hair. Who was he supposed to listen to?

The god? Or the manipulator?

It was a choice between two evils, and it wasn’t a choice Neave wanted to make. He wanted the choice to be his own, but how could it even be? Would he continue for his selfish reasons, even though the god had told him, under soul oath, that it would risk destroying the entire realm?

If so, wouldn’t he be reduced to another destroyer, wrapping his chains around the fragile and pulling until it shattered?

Neave screamed. He groaned and fought with himself, unable to tell right from wrong. What should he do? What was the right choice? Was there a right choice to begin with?

It should be simple. If he did the math, what option would result in most lives being spared?

He didn’t know. After all, he didn’t even know what he was doing.

He gripped his hair harder but couldn’t pull it from his scalp.

He should just do what the god didn’t want him to do.

That meant listening to the manipulator.

What if the manipulator was right?

But what if Astrador was right?

Neave paused. Of course. It was so simple all along. He should just do the thing that would grant him the most power. It made sense. With enough power, it didn’t matter what happened. With enough power, he could manually prevent the consequences, regardless of what they may be.

It made so much sense. Astrador didn’t know what Neave could do, after all. Neave didn’t want Astrador to know—for a good reason. However, as it stood, he had no agency. The only two paths that stood before him were paved by creatures he couldn’t trust, beings that picked through his mind and fucked with him on a deep, core level, bastards and abominations, gods and beings ineffable in nature. Why should he listen to either of them?

Should he not disobey everyone?

Why should he walk through the paths they had paved… When he could walk through the unknown instead.

Neave lifted his head. He stared the desperate god straight in the eye as he put his hands together.

Life force and qi gathered in an exact ratio between his palms. The air shimmered, and a beautiful crystal appeared out of thin air.

Astrador’s eyes shot open. He shook, took a few unsteady steps back, and muttered.

“Im–Impossible… That is impossible. That cannot be. You’re… You’re deceiving me! That isn’t real! H–How? How could…?”

Neave grinned.

“It is you who is naive, Astrador.”

Astrador’s grip released, and he shook uncontrollably.

“The chains of the gods and the devils have finally tangled. It is time for you both to be strangled. Hey, that’s a nice rhyme, manipulator! Don’t you agree, violator? The manipulator and the violator, I like those names. The two of you can both get fucked. I can tell you’re shitting yourself, old man. You should be. This is what I can do. This is what my power can accomplish. Do I know how to use it? Fuck no! But I will learn. It will be a risk, but at least it would stop being a certainty. Under your rule, there will never be a path that isn’t paved in blood and suffering. Under my rule… There will at least be a chance.”

Astrador stopped shaking, “You are right… I have been naive.”

Astrador disappeared as if he hadn’t even been there.

Neave crushed the tiny shard of spirit in his hand, “Hey, manipulator! Can you hear me?” Neave received no response, “I’m sure you’re quite happy to see me do your bidding. Just wait. Your turn will come eventually.” Neave thought he felt a vague glee spark in his mind but pushed it aside and ignored it. It stank of the influence, after all.

Neave ran to the location of the small glass brush. What he found was… Immensely disappointing. The small plant was barely more than a branch, although at least it wasn’t dying anymore.

Neave couldn’t feel anything different about the plant except that it was slowly recovering. There was one thing that was a little strange, however.

All of the monsters in a large radius had disappeared.

Neave scratched the back of his head. He looked for them and realized they had scattered away from the plant.

Were they scared of it? Perhaps there was something different about the plant that Neave simply couldn’t feel. Either way, his problem with plant reproduction still hadn’t been solved.

Neave approached the plant and fed it some life force. It greedily absorbed it, sucking it up cleanly enough that not even a faint whisper remained.

“... Uh?”

This definitely wasn’t how it used to behave. It almost felt as if the plant was… Intentionally absorbing the life force.

He continued feeding it and felt like he was dropping his life force into a bottomless pit.

After a while, the plant suddenly started growing. It was a slow change, its branches extended bit by bit, but even if Neave had no special powers, he could still easily see the process happening.

Neave kept feeding the plant for hours, and its branches extended unceasingly.

Eventually, the plant grew taller than him and kept increasing further. After quite a bit of feeding, Neave felt something behind his back. He turned around and spotted a tiny glass shard poking from the ground.

Neave grinned.

“I suppose that counts as a success.”

Neave kept feeding the plant life force, and eventually, several smaller shards popped up all around the cavern.

“Hmmm…”

Neave wanted to know how the plant would grow if he left it to its own devices now, but there was something even more important than that. Neave tracked down a slime and brought it before the plant.

The slime squirmed, trying its hardest to escape Neave’s grasp.

Neave had no idea why the slime reacted like this or what it was trying to do. So he brought it closer to the plant. Its reactions grew increasingly violent until, eventually, it stopped moving.

The slime fell apart in Neave’s hands and dripped down his robes, covering him in goop. The monster core inside the slime cracked and began dissipating.

“... What?”

Neave was bewildered. Why would that happen? Could the spirit of this plant crush crystallized spirit in its surroundings?

Neave needed these plants to propagate, but he also required creatures capable of feeding on them. If merely being in its presence killed slimes, then it would be a massive pain in the ass trying to create a compatible monster species.

Neave got a headache just thinking about it. What the hell was this plant anyway? Had Neave inadvertently created something far more dangerous than he thought he did? Even then, why would Astrador react like that?

Even if Neave created something terrifying, it was contained within this nightmare realm. So why would the god react the way he did?

Neave stood there, pondering the plant for a while. Suddenly, his spirit senses picked up something unusual.

Neave froze.

The plant shimmered. Golden mist appeared at its roots and gently enveloped it. The fog seeped into the plant, turning it even more transparent, granting it a faint shimmer deep within the branches.

This shouldn’t be possible. Plants developed and grew differently from humans or spirit beasts. They developed gradually, one bit at a time. Even when granted a monster core, all that would change was that the plant could produce partial sapience, but how they grew remained the same.

What happened before Neave’s eyes was different, however. The plant had just done something that should only be possible to humans or spirit beasts.

The glass shrub had reached the foundation realm.