The Jester of Apocalypse

Chapter 102: Step One

While platinum path cultivators could still think while asleep, they could also choose not to. Marven decided that keeping his thoughts empty would be best for him this time.

Once he woke up, there was no way to tell how long had passed. All he had to go off was the way he felt.

It wasn’t long until his mind cleared, and he was back in reality. He felt incredible. Must have slept for quite a while, and the sedative Neave gave them must have helped him relax considerably. Aware of what Neave had done, rather than get angry or feel betrayed, he felt strangely proud.

And hopeful.

That was far more than he had expected Neave to do for them. Even a set of robes was back on his body. There were patches of different materials present, so the ‘carpet’ Gabrias had made had likely been sewn back into a mixed-cloth robe.

Once he opened his eyes, he changed his mind. No, that wasn’t far more than he had expected Neave to do for them.

This was.

The room Marven found himself in was relatively well-lit. Strange lamps hung off the room's ceiling. The glittery glass shrubs reflected the light, creating an ethereal, brilliant light show. It was the room with the large glass brush, completely unrecognizable with all the light.

There was more to it than just that, as well. The room felt impossibly thick with qi and natural energy. He couldn’t determine why or how this change had happened, but it was easily among the best ways to push someone’s recovery.

Neave sat not too far from him. He was fiddling with glass, focused, using his tendril of liquid spirit to manipulate glass over a large core.

Once the glass fully enveloped the core, it started shrinking. In the end, all that was left was a small glass ball, one that…

After a few moments of nothing happening, the glass ball glowed with an intense light, brightly enough that it seared a spot into Marven’s sight.

Neave screamed, “Ah, fuck, not again!” He smashed the ball of glass and turned to Marven.

Marven jolted a bit as Neave’s eyes had quite literally burned to a crisp, and Neave took a few seconds to grow them back. Once his eyes were finally there again, he grinned to Marven, “Yo, old man, how’s you been!? Long time no see!”

It was… Warm here, Marven just noticed. He looked up and observed the balls hanging around the ceiling, “Were you trying to make another one of those again?”

Neave nodded, “Yup!”

“What are those things, even?”

“Oh, nothing special. The lava slimes have been growing well, so I used a few of their cores to make improvised lamps. If you put the core into a ball of this glass, they often create this glowing effect and produce quite a bit of warmth, too. Sometimes they are too bright, as you’ve seen, but trust me, it is much better than when they are too warm.”

Marven chuckled at that. He felt a strange pain gripping his heart. Not yet, he thought, not yet dared he think Neave was okay, but… This was a lot to take in. Although Marven knew better than to be deceived by something as simple as this, this was a far cry from a cold, merciless killer.

This, Marven felt, now more than ever, was someone that wasn’t entirely lost.

Rather than continue down this path, where he felt weeping like a crybaby awaited him, Marven distracted himself by asking Neave, “What is with this room? I’m noticing a very unusual effect. It seems to be… Well, quite packed with energy. More than any place I’ve ever witnessed in my life…”

Neave nodded sagely, understanding precisely what Marven was aiming at, “I have sealed this room’s flow of energy.”

Marven choked a bit, “Pfu– What!? What sort of miraculous substance did you use for that? If sects could get their hands on something like this, we would have quite a few more diamond path cultivators in the empire!”

Neave gave my Marven the biggest shit-eating grin he could manage, “Oh, it was quite simple, really. I just made a barrier of crystalized spirit and encased the entire room in it!”

Despite Neave's subtle brag, it hadn’t been simple at all. It had been a tremendous headache, actually. There still had to be a way to leave and enter the room, and he couldn’t simply cut off the glass shrub's roots to seal the room in.

He had to shape the crystalized spirit around the roots and figure out a way to make a door out of spirit.

The door ended up being an easy problem to solve. The solution was to simply make hinges out of spirit and put a door of spirit on them. About as straightforward as a solution could get, although it didn’t permit a perfect seal, sadly. Even then, it was a good enough solution for now.

The roots had been a much bigger problem to solve.

The first glass shrub was a greedy little shit that didn’t allow energy out anyway, but the other shrubs were much less enthusiastic about sealing the energy flow off.

Which was to say that their roots basically became holes all the energy could escape through. The final solution to this problem ended up being rather simple at first, which was to say, Neave simply cut the roots of the smaller shrubs while he built the crystalized spirit around Shruby’s, whom he still had to give a proper name, by the way, roots.

The problem was that Shruby didn’t want the crystal packed too tightly around its roots. That would make it impossible for those roots to expand, limiting their long-term growth.

If it forced the roots to grow anyway, it would crack the spirit, and the dome would evaporate.

The solution to this was assisting Shruby in creating gigantic tubular roots/root tunnels. Its roots left the dome in only five places now, but those were massive holes in the dome of crystallized spirit.

Those root tubes were also completely empty on the inside, which meant the shrub could fill them in and grow its roots further while maintaining a seal on the barrier.

Neave was miffed because, well, those roots were redundant as hell. They were ridiculously thick, over two meters in diameter. That made the total volume of roots leaving the area of the dome tens of thousands of times greater than it had been! The roots were thin as hell anyway, so this was beyond overkill.

It would have been straightforward if all that was required was to cut the roots and let the shrub regrow them, but noooo. Neave had to fucking gather the roots manually, only vaguely assisted by the plant’s manipulation ability.

How did he move the roots? By slightly warming them and shifting them with liquid spirit manipulation.

A delicate process that left Neave with a ginormous headache.

Well, to be fair, even though it was a pain in the ass, it still didn’t take very long. Neave had spent a lot more time making these damn lamps, and throughout both of those tasks, none of the others had woken up.

Even if he assumed that they had slept for over a day, that was a relatively short time compared to the types of timeframes he was used to operating in.

Whatever.

Marven was shocked beyond belief. A spirit barrier? Indeed, based on what Neave had said so far, that was easy to grasp, even if the implications were… Horrifying. He still sensed the intense energy filling the air, and a big part of him was tempted to cultivate a bit.

Perhaps after he was done talking to Neave. For now, he had to ask him about…

Both Neave and Marven turned to Harel simultaneously.

Marven froze, and Neave raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Faint, cyan light surrounded her and sank into her body.

She had advanced. However, she didn’t break from the first step of the silver path onto the second step of the silver path.

She jumped all the way to the third.

Marven muttered, “Im–Impossible… That shouldn’t be possible.”

Harel woke up and grumpily sat upright, eyes unfocused, bald head reflecting the shiny lights above, “Huh!? Where am I!?”

Rather than receive comfort and confirmation of where she was and what was happening, she got a frenzied Marven rushing toward her, gripping her shoulders and yelling, “What kind of incredible breakthrough have you made! I’ve never seen someone skip a realm entirely!”

“Get out of my face, geezer!” Harel pushed him back, and he calmed down a little.

Harel observed her surroundings, and her sleepy, confused scowl soon morphed into a grin, “Oh, I’ve made a breakthrough, alright.”

Marven frowned a bit. Something about the way she said that didn’t sit well with him. Well, it was alright, anyway. They were alive, and this place was naturally conducive to maintaining mental health, at least in comparison to the gloomy nightmare cave of darkness they used to live in.

Shaken by the commotion, the others woke up, surprised to see the colorful robes on their bodies. Hunter was relieved as he had never been before, and Gabrias tearfully muttered, “My carpet…” into his chin.

Dukean woke up soon after as well. His spirit still felt strained and sore from all the abuse it had suffered, but other than that, he felt mostly fine.

Neave got up and clapped, producing a noise quite a bit louder than he had intended and grabbing everyone’s attention instantly, “Alright! Now that you’re all awake, I have something to say!”

They stared at him expectantly, with a healthy dose of confusion and anxiety as he continued, “You are all weak as fucking shit!”

By his standards, perhaps, they all thought, but they had to concede that that point of view was relatively fair in this realm. After all, if they didn’t get considerably stronger, none of them could see themselves surviving any other way besides being constantly protected by Neave.

Did they want that, though?

Neave wasn’t much of an empath, and understanding others had always been a chore. But he could tell exactly what their eyes were telling him, as it was the same thing he saw every time he gazed at his reflection.

They wanted to overcome something.

“Well then, you worthless sacks of shit. I think it's about time we start.”

Neave disappeared and reappeared again, standing right in the middle of them, “Come, place your hand on my body. I have a fun little idea I want to try.”

They all approached him, unsure precisely what Neave was aiming at. However…

They knew it wouldn’t be painless. Yet, none of them hesitated.

Hands gathered around him, touching his body.

Hunter placed a hand on Neave’s shoulder.

Dukean placed his hand on Neave’s other shoulder.

Marven stepped forward, placing a hand on Neave’s head, which made him roll his eyes again, but with a grin this time.

Gabrias… Bent down and placed a hand on Neave’s foot.

“... What?”

The others looked away.

And finally, Harel stepped in front of Neave. She grabbed his hand and gave him a firm handshake, “Show me what you got for us, Neave.”

Neave raised an eyebrow at that and grinned, “Sure fucking thing!”

Pain rivaling the worst experience they had gone through in their life went through each and every single one of their spirits.

It felt like a burning hot rod was piercing a hole into them. It was all over in a second, and they felt themselves vanishing from reality.

They appeared somewhere with a red sky. It was much like the sky in the nightmare realm but with an eerie red glow. It was much fainter as well, and off in the distance, several patches of blue peeked through the thick, smoggy clouds.

All around them were furniture pieces and fancy decorations that almost made this place feel like a lounge. The clothes they wore were nothing like what they had outside. Marven was back in the robes he used as a sect master, and Harel and Hunter had similar clothing as well. Gabrias was wearing what looked like rather plain brown clothes, and Dukean was back in his shiny golden robes.

Neave wore a set of robes that looked identical to the clothing he had outside. Which was to say, the Falken sect robes.

“What the–?”

“Where in the–?”

“Huh!?”

“Oh my…”

“Wow…!”

“Everyone, attention!”

They all turned to Neave.

“Before I tell you where we are, we must move from here first.”

Rather than allowing them to volunteer, Neave flashed next to all of them and grabbed them, throwing them off the steel mountain's peak.

Screams and shouts came from them as they descended the gigantic steel mountain, dropping through faint clouds.

They fell from immense heights, and the way down was fast and dirty.

They slowly fell closer to the mountain's surface. It was awfully steep, far too steep to stand on. It was almost a vertical wall. However, as they touched the surface, they learned it was more than that.

It was a very slippery vertical wall.

Neave shouted excitedly and laughed like a maniac as he glided down the mountain.

Marven planted a foot on the slippery surface and glided down elegantly, and Dukean did something similar, although he used both feet so he didn’t look quite as cool.

Harel imitated Neave and glided down, laughing as she did so.

Hunter and Gabrias, on the other hand, tumbled down the side of the mountain without a shred of elegance, and Gabrias was spinning so fast Neave wondered whether the centripetal force would turn his brains to mush.

As they approached the surface, they gradually realized that water wasn’t waiting for them at the bottom. It was instead a green liquid.

A sizzling, green liquid.

Whatever laughter or calm there was quickly turned to screams and yelps of panic.

They were still quite high in the air, around halfway down the mountain, but as they fell, a solution wouldn’t magically appear out of nowhere. Or so it seemed.

Neave laughed harder, moving through the air to catch them in their fall. Then, he lifted an arm, and a morphing, blurry object appeared below them. Slowly, it shifted into a blocky thing and transformed into a boat.

A relatively small consolation, given that they were still falling rapidly into a sea of acid and were kilometers in the air.

Neave dropped them into the boat, which had convenient handles everywhere. A slightly ominous detail, the others noted, as Neave told them to hold on tight. He planted his feet on the deck and got into a stance.

Golden runes appeared around him.

Yeah… The others gripped the handles as if their life depended on it.

Neave shoved the air behind the boat, and the intense gust of wind sent it flying back.

He repeatedly threw true strikes, peddling through the air, and the boat accelerated fast enough that the mountain was visibly moving away.

The sea of acid was also moving under them, and they seemed well on their way to a solid surface. Where they would naturally crash into the ground and die.

Marven was calm as he placed his faith in Neave, hoping he knew what he was doing.

The others were screaming for their lives—except for Harel, who was screaming out of excitement.

The speed at which they flew never slowed down, but it seemed to accelerateas they neared landing.

Once they were close, Marven was ready to land gracefully, and Neave wasn’t even looking.

Crash.

The boat struck the ground, and they all felt their bodies crumble under the impact.

Marven watched in horror as everyone else glided and tumbled across the dusty, red plains they landed on.

Neave got up and cracked his neck, “Holy shit, that was fun!”

Marven didn’t know what to think as dread overwhelmed him. His thoughts froze as he saw… Everyone getting off the ground… Completely unharmed.

No… He saw it. Their bodies had been a wreck, bent and mangled from the impact. So how did they…

“You all might have noticed that your injuries healed after mere seconds! That is because this place is special. Welcome, everyone! This is my spirit realm!”

Marven couldn’t believe his ears. Spirit realm? This… There was no way this was possible. Getting into one’s spirit realm by will, let alone getting others in, should have been impossible.

Yet… He wasn’t that surprised. Neave did something unfathomable regularly by now, and Marven felt it was high time he got used to his antics.

The others all got up, still looking dazed from the shock, and Harel jumped up, yelling in excitement, “You’re right! That was fun! We should do it again!”

“Dear heavens, no!” Gabrias, Hunter, and Dukean exclaimed at the same time.

“Tsk. Losers.”

They gathered around Neave with varying degrees of apprehension, and he smiled at them, “This is my spirit realm. Outside of spirit trials, spirit realms are quite harmless. It's impossible to die here, as all your injuries will be fixed in moments, and it's impossible to grow exhausted. You still can’t use your spirit powers in here, unfortunately. But that’s alright. Except for Dukean, none of you have any, and honestly, I think that is for the best.”

They looked around, noticing absolutely nothing of note in the surrounding area. It was a stretch of flat, rusty red, dusty soil that continued endlessly in all directions.

Neave brought their attention back as he continued, “You will all be granted an incredible privilege here, as you will get to experience a shred of the training I’ve gone through to acquire my power.”

Marven smiled slightly, feeling apprehensive, “And exactly what will that training be?”

Neave grinned ear to ear as he lifted a finger, “Oh, nothing special. It’s just a few simple steps. So how about we start, then?” He grinned harder as he cracked his knuckles. Neave grabbed his robes, tearing off the upper half and revealing his absurd musculature.

He got into a combat stance, and the air grew heavier around them as they realized what would happen.

A shit-eating grin on his face and muscles ready for action, Neave yelled in a commanding tone, “Step one: dodge.”