Chapter 230: Vanquished Madness
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Within the battlefield Aiyana had left behind, there were hundreds of corpses laid down, their bodies mangled and torn to shreds. After she unleashed her battle prowess at full swing, she had devastated more than half of Claudius’ surviving army; the rest, incapable of believing the ridiculous strength of the woman, instantly decided to surrender, dropping their weapons and then letting the other soldiers place Skill-Sealing and Stat-Reducing cuffs on them, usually used and designed to keep high-level prisoners.
After that, although many of Caesar’s soldiers wanted to congratulate her and thank her for her incredible performance in battle, she was gone, leaping into the distance as she sensed her allies struggling. She saw Sara in the skies using her magic to heal the wounded that had managed to survive and also the soldiers that surrendered that were near death, so at least the Saintess was safe.
But what about Jackes and Franscico?
This question passed through her mind as she gazed into the distance, using her {Spirit Beast Eyes} Skill, taking upon the power of the Eagle Totem Spirit to augment her vision tremendously, finding out that the two were struggling against something utterly bizarre.
“A clown?!”
She couldn’t believe her friends were struggling against such a weird opponent, so she rushed with all her might there, leaping from place to place, trampling over enemy soldiers that tried to still oppose her, leaving them as mangled corpses splattered over the ground.
Until…
BAAAMMM!!!
With all her might, and by channeling the power of her Beast Totem Spirits to the max, her arms temporarily became thrice as big, helping her punch the monstrosity that was about to finish off Jackes.
“GUUGH?!”
The monster, a “clown-looking thing,” as Aiyana called it, felt immense pain as he was sent flying away, landing on the ground while bouncing, making funny noises.
BOING! BOING! BOING!
Despite how stupidly the thing fell, it had received tremendous damage; the mask covering its face had been shattered, and it was bleeding a weird, purple-colored liquid that changed colors as it dripped from its wound.
“U-UGUH… UGUHUHUH…!”
The thing touched its face, feeling the pain and blood, yet it laughed. Looking at the reflection of itself in the pond of rainbow-colored blood, it saw its own ugly face, bruised and bleeding.
However, as it did, something within it felt strange… Memories suddenly appeared within its mind, only to disappear right away.
Every time they appeared, the monster felt a tinge of pain on its head.
“What is… This?! Ugh…! W-Who… What…? Huh?”
As it glanced at what it had become, some of the consciousness of its host would appear momentarily, only to disappear again.
“GRRRHHH…!”
Amidst this stream of strange emotions, it started to feel anger, groaning like a beast, showing its incredibly sharp fangs, its eyes spinning around, glowing red.
“How dare they… H-How dare they break my mask…! A-After everything I did for them! I gave them the greatest… my greatest performance…! Is this how the people of this world repay their entertainers?! H-How cruel!”
It began to slowly stand up; its festive, colorful aura started to change color as the colors of its own clothes changed, becoming black and white instead.
“My heart… I cannot… feel happiness anymore…”
It began to walk towards them, step by step, spreading black and white colors everywhere. The gritty, yet colorful world surrounding it became a monotone world of black and white.
“What’s wrong, Jackes? You didn’t train enough?”
“Aiyana?!”
Meanwhile, Jackes gasped in disbelief as he saw Aiyana flying in the skies using the Eagle Totem Spirit’s wings; she quickly descended, dropping an elixir on his face.
SPLASH!
“Haaah…!”
Jackes rapidly was able to regenerate, going back into his human form while gasping for air, feeling so relieved he sighed very loudly.
“What was that dude? I can’t believe you were jobbing to some damn clown. Are you even at the top of your game anymore?”
She started by immediately berating him and making him feel even worse…
“Hey, give it a rest! That thing’s ridiculous! It uses some weird power…! Also, where in the world did Francisco go?”
“Francisco? Oh, he’s there.”
Aiyana pointed into the skies; the young magician was surrounded by several spinning magic circles. He seemed to be almost completely done with whatever he was planning.
“Oi! Are you there?!”
Jackes tried to contact him through telepathy.
“Of course I am; I’m concentrating. I’ll be done in a few seconds! Once I’m done, it will definitely die. Please hold it back until—It’s coming! Hurry and get into battle positions!”
“What?!”
Jackes quickly stood up, standing side by side with Aiyana, as something began walking towards them.
Suddenly, the sound of the entire environment went mute; they couldn’t hear the wind, the distant city, or the warriors everywhere.
“What’s… going on?”
Jackes realized he couldn’t speak a word; those were simply his thoughts.
“…?!”
He noticed Aiyana tried to talk very loudly, but nothing came out of her mouth either.
And then they saw it.
Somehow, the thing had appeared in front of them.
The jester, the clown, or whatever it was.
Half of its mask was broken, revealing the other half of its face.
It was completely white, with black-colored lips and black eyes.
And the colorful clothes it had? Now they were monotone black and white color.
And from what they could see, its face looked very sad.
And behind it…
The world was twisting around bizarrely… colors were gone, aside from black and white.
The buildings, the floor, everything was a combination of either of these two colors, evoking a sense of despair in everyone that gazed upon that world.
The thing looked at them with its only visible eye.
“…”
The thing looked like it sighed for a moment, suddenly sitting down over the empty air.
As if there was a chair beneath it.
It suddenly spread its arms, as if it was holding something, and began reading the empty thing.
Yes, it was pretending to be reading the newspaper.
“…”
It sighed again, waving its head, as if it were reading about all the terrible things that happen in the world.
And then, it got angry, its face growing red.
“…!”
BAAAM!
And it smashed the invisible table in front of it, throwing it at Jackes and Aiyana.
Of course, it was completely invisible.
They couldn’t even feel its mass, or it even hitting the wind, nothing at all.
It had no shadow; it didn’t exist.
And yet it did.
“What the hell is this?!”
Aiyana swung her claws against the thing as it came towards her; she couldn’t guess at what velocity or anything, and just imagined it coming at her.
CRAAASH!
Until she felt like she hit something!
“There- Ah!”
Her claws, however, were the only thing that ended up breaking, as she noticed them breaking into pieces.
The “table” came towards her and Jackes, hitting them so hard it sent them flying several hundred meters away.
“…”
The jester, now a mime, sighed again, shrugging while looking at the left side, as if there were an audience looking at him.
Then, it began to slowly move its hands dexterously, as if it were driving a car.
And then, while floating, it began to move at lightning speed towards the two hunters.
“It’s coming!”
“Is it driving an invisible car now?!”
“Jump! Don’t let it hit you!”
Jackes and Aiyana received more damage than they would’ve wanted; their arms, which they used to blow the attack, were swollen, and it felt like their bones were about to break.
CRAAASH!
The car ended up hitting the crumbling walls of a building behind them, and as the mime was sent flying into the skies, covered by invisible fire, it began to panic.
“NOW!”
Aiyana rushed back to the mime while Jackes followed her. She knew that this moment was ideal to deal some damage to the bastard; it was now or never!
Her entire body gained black exoskeleton armor, and she gained a pointy rhinoceros’ beetle horn over her head, which she used to hit the mime with tremendous, brute force.
BAAAAM!
“…!”
And yet…
“Wha…?!”
Aiyana couldn’t speak, and yet her words were the same inside of her mind.
Her horn ended up hitting something completely invisible that appeared in front of her.
The mime was holding it with the palm of his hands wide open.
“This bastard…!”
“…!”
The mime looked at her gloomily, and then it pushed forward; the giant cube it had created to protect itself, made out of imaginary power, smashed into Aiyana at full force.
BOOOM!
And it exploded as it dragged her all the way to the ground, spreading invisible flames and smoke. There wasn’t actually any sound, but the vibrations told Jackes there was an explosion.
“Aiyana…!” He thought. “Dammit! That thing only became even more ridiculous?! How can we even—”
CRAAASH!
Before he could speak, another invisible object hit Jackes, pushing him to the ground.
The mime floated above them, sitting over an imaginary flying car.
It began throwing all kinds of objects at them from inside its invisible, imaginary car.
“Uugh…!”
“Aggh!”
The two started groaning, gritting their teeth, trying to fight back.
But more and more stuff piled over their bodies; the force was so strong they were going to be crushed!
“Phew, it’s finally done.”
And amidst the agonizing silence, they heard a voice.
TRUUUMMM!!!
And a massive, overwhelming pressure hit the mime, as Aiyana and Jackes felt the weight over their bodies disappear.
The mime was pushed into the ground as they saw a gigantic tower of several dozen magic circles spiraling together, crushing the clown.
“G-Gah…! Gaarrgh!”
The thing started to speak strange words, glaring into the skies as if trying to do something, moving its fingers as if it were loading a large rifle with bullets, and shooting into the skies.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Dozens of invisible bullets reached the master above this magic construction, only for them to disappear before they could hit anything.
“G-GUH?! HUH?!”
The mime slowly turned back into a jester, as a tremendous magic power drained the monster out of all his Mana at once!
“A-AHH?! AAAHH!”
It began to scream, as it was now unable to do all of its magic and crazy tricks.
“It’s all yours! Kill that thing!”
Francisco’s words echoed through Aiyana and Jackes.
The two smiled almost maniacally.
Finally, it was time to get back at it!
FLASH! FLASH!
The two didn’t even say a word, leaping towards the jester and then unleashing hell on him! Aiyana started punching and tearing his flesh, and Jackes cut through his body, and the two rapidly overwhelmed the clown.
“N-NO…! AAGH…! THE SHOW…! YOU’RE RUINING THE SHOW!”
The thing screamed in horror and agony as it bled from all of its wounds, crying rainbow blood as well, as Aiyana and Jackes claws and daggers sliced through its throat.
SLAAASH!
“GAAAAAGGHH!”
Its head fell into the ground, rolling through the floor, before the rest of its body dropped lifelessly over the mud. For a moment, there was finally calm.
“W-We did it…” Aiyana sighed in relief. “Holy shit… maybe that thing was really strong, huh?”
“I told you so!” Jackes said. “Aah… Francisco saved us though... Huh?”
Then as Jackes glanced back at the corpse, he realized there was a beheaded soldier there.
The jester’s appearance disappeared, leaving behind the original look of the vessel.
Through the eyes of the beheaded, another being was looking.
The view slowly dissipated, turning black the moment its chosen vessel of laughter and jokes died.
“Aw man! And just when things were getting interesting!”
A jester complained, sighing. He was surrounded by thousands of corpses, sitting over some big troll-looking being that had its chest caved in.
“Are you done with the little game, Jester?”
A girlish voice echoed behind the Jester, as he glanced at his assistant.
“Ah, my Harlequin. Yes, I’m afraid so. So where are we right now? I kind of lost the notion of time for a few hours.”
“We’re on… Umm, Floor ten or something? Who cares! They say we can be Gods! Wanna be a god?”
“A god, you say?! Who wouldn’t?!”
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