The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 4: Eternity (1)

Neave felt no despair. No, he just felt…

Jaded.

Tired.

And disappointed.

He had tried countless methods to kill the next two demons. He even managed to prepare an elaborate trap for the first demon. He threw several rocks, one after another, at its head until it finally stumbled far enough to drop into the ravine. Then he wanted to cut the rope to kill the two demons that appeared afterward.

They refused to step onto the bridge simultaneously, no matter how he tried. Perhaps it would be possible to prepare an elaborate trap for one if the other was killed by the drop into the ravine. But no matter how he tried, he was either stuck with one demon across the canyon that could no longer be crossed or both demons right next to him.

These two were also clearly a little faster and stronger than the first demon. They also seemed a lot more cautious. It was much more challenging trying to trick them into doing anything. He couldn’t even bait them into getting thrown into one of the pools.

During one of his attempts, he had managed to kill both demons entirely by accident. The suspension bridge dropped, and one of the ropes caught the demon's foot on the other side. Neave almost shouted in joy.

His voice was caught in his throat as three demons appeared behind him. One of them sprinted at him and killed him almost instantly.

If killing the two demons was possible, then killing those three wasn’t.

A small voice in his head had asked why he was doing this and another, even smaller voice responded.

Because of boredom, of course!

But this was a lie.

The reality was that Neave, deep down, had hoped that killing the demons was the point of being here. That this was all an illusion and that killing them would make him finally wake up. He would see his father's dumb grin, get beat up by Hunter and the other disciples, and look for a way to avoid marrying a man.

His story would unfold. There would be ups and downs, some things would work out, and others would not.

But he would live his life nonetheless.

Currently, he didn’t feel as if he were alive. This place was the antithesis of life, yet failed to be death nonetheless.

Even if Neave considered himself to be extremely cynical, there was no way he believed this was actually the afterlife. It was a world created by the book.

Neave found himself back at the start once again. He went over to the suspension bridge and cut the ropes before the demon could reach him. Then he walked just beyond a hill so he wouldn’t have to look at that wretched thing. He stared out into the horizon. Neave had explored even beyond what he could see from where he was sitting.

But there was nothing to be found.

This was a lonely world where the demon was his only company. Neave didn’t have any friends in the sect, but there were a few among the older disciples that treated him with a semblance of kindness. He would give anything to see one of them again.

The skies crackled with the occasional bit of lightning. Soon, the place where Neave sat would start raining blood.

Neave contemplated the nature of this realm. He concluded there was sufficient evidence to support one of his theories. This place was some form of trial. A trial for cultivators. He remembered the elder saying that those who touched this book died.

It made perfect sense.

That meant that those who failed lost their life.

Neave considered himself to be a scholar. And true scholars, besides the vast knowledge they had gathered, also held their own theories. Neave believed that nothing could last forever.

Infinity wasn’t a viable concept.

Eventually, this place would release its grip on him and he would be free. So he would wait.

He didn’t know what would happen, but he steeled his resolve. At least that’s what he wanted to believe. It was more like his resolve had been thoroughly eliminated. The resolve to try. The resolve to move.

The resolve to think.

So he didn’t. He tried not, he moved not, he thought not, and soon his soul drifted back into that same trance he had found himself in once before…

***

This time around, stray thoughts came even more rarely. His mind felt like a fire that had thoroughly run out of fuel.

Chance, however, threw a piece of coal onto the dying embers. The demon tripped over a rock. It hadn't fallen, but it just stumbled a bit awkwardly before it regained its balance.

Even if the movements of the demon were random, something like this had never happened before. The demon stumbled awkwardly a bit too far to the side and encountered a small rock.

And then it tripped over it. It had been near that rock many times before, but this was the first time Neave had ever seen it trip. For a few moments, he felt the pull, the temptation to move and think, but alas, the embers died out once again.

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