The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 131: Assault

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 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, he examined his condition. His brain was undergoing some sort of change. Its function was mostly alright, but that was entirely due to his spirit powers keeping it functional.

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

For one reason or another, sleep was unavoidable. And it 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. Their defense was incredible, to the point where he wondered if it might be overkill.

If he 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 than he 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 near-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, he 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.

He 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 was at least roughly humanoid.

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

Instantly, its stingers 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, the low odds made it too difficult and time-consuming.

And 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. He could intervene at this point; he had even done it successfully. But on one such attempt, he nearly blacked out. It would have been too late if he had woken up a single moment later.

The best choice he had was to go in with the slime or another one of his avatars, but that was incredibly difficult. It wasn’t like the avatars could rival a diamond-ranked threat in power—not even close.

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 skills that could shake the entire empire.

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

Because they were plateauing again.

Only so much potential could be extracted from a single scenario; their growth would stagnate without variety. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NovᴇlFɪre .ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Neave could grow a powerful monster or two like this and add it to their fight, but that wasn’t enough. They needed many opponents.

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 he was exposed before the horde of creatures feasting on one another.

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

He 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 just tell us what’s happening already!?"

Harel held the same stance.

Hunter turned to them and waved them down. "Can’t you see it’s something he isn’t comfortable sharing!?” He raised his voice. “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 regarding 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 he 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!"

The others turned to face it.

Neave jumped to it and placed his palm on its body. "Xurbon!?” He yelled. “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 Xurbon's 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, he accelerated drastically, shooting his way up to the surface. He rushed in the direction Xurbon had 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, a slithering deep within, something he couldn’t look at directly without experiencing an intense headache.

It held its hand on the soil, gripping one of Xurbon’s roots.

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 him 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. And for a good reason. Tiny, phantasmal jaws appeared out of thin air to bite the numerous tendrils of flesh apart before they could reconnect his body.

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. It reeked of Astrador’s influence.

Yet, something was wrong. It felt far too… demonic in nature, not something he’d expect from the Great God.

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

He spun the sledgehammer around, and golden runes surrounded his body. The head 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 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. The pristine-maned unicorns grinned, chewing on bone and sinew with a sickening sound of chewing and crushing. The heavenly doves plucked their eyes out, and the golden carps lunged, biting the divine birds by their necks.

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 his torso, he manifested a large blade of spirit and cut the infested part away.

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 part he had cut off.

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. He manipulated its body to slither between the roots and envelop him, then used its slippery nature to squeeze his body out between the branches and free himself.

The centaur also appeared, and he 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 his 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 instant it made contact with the sacred soil, the tectonic shockwave obliterated everything in the vicinity, nearly annihilating Neave’s little avatar with the poison weapons. Luckily, the slime was close enough to save it.

He couldn’t protect his own 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 pain.

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 the sense of nullification it exuded made Neave realize that getting hit by that would have deleterious effects, and it wouldn’t be easy to recover from.

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.

He 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.

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

Another fired, passing right through his shoulder, pulverizing his flesh and bone and leaving a large hole down his side and leg.

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, and then swung the shortsword, which had zero effect.

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 it.

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, he 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 it failed to reach Neave this time. 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 flesh rapidly regrew back to normal beneath the suit.

He grinned at the creature. "Well, well, well…” he said teasingly, finally feeling like he’d attained an upper hand. “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!” Astrador yelled. “You can not even comprehend what you’ve been tricked into doing!"

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