The God of Jesters
Chapter 640 - 9.19.4 A demon.

Chapter 640: 9.19.4 A demon.

Arrogance reeked off of Vance, but it’s not a lie. Although unaware of what led him to walk the path of the Radiant Knight, his path should be far easier than the rest, besides his origin.

Not everyone is lucky to have a powerful man like Alabasta as their guardian as well as teacher, which did give an advantage to Vance and the matching arrogance.

So it was with this arrogance, that Vance took a passive approach, his flaming body changed, turning smaller but more potent while his burning blade turned into rings that covered his body like armor.

It’s obvious what he intended to do at this point. He was hoping that he would win.

What a naive fella.

The me now was far from the Jester, the real one. This is why the updates of information on my end were somewhat lacking considering I was a mere assistant to Malidi for the past forty years, as well as the original clone which was developed using the help of Malidi initially. Leaving me a bit different than the rest, like those who merged with me before.

But that is beside the point. Currently, the combat would take a lethal turn for the worse, and the fire that spread into the garden would turn greater. "Tell Farhad, don’t touch the garden, no matter what happens," I told Rosso, letting him know inadvertently that the one who cared for the Garden would appear again in this world.

And Rosso did as it was expected of him. Such a wonderful child, the other I really have been doing some interesting things on the side, and it would be good to merge back with him when the time comes.

"Ignorant." The words from Rosso’s lips didn’t go unheard by Vance, who can only look down on his enemies, thinking of them as nothing more than arrogant. But Farhad, since being aware of my intelligence and knowing who might have given Rosso such information, knew what to do. And he did as expected.

Malidi, that name carried some weight even in his own mind. He seemed to have carried the memories of one of my clones, making him slightly more intelligent than the fool they fought. Which is why he chose to do as I ordered, letting the battle turn a bit slow.

But it didn’t even take ten seconds before the chaos in the library came to an end, and out of nowhere, the strength of Vance was suddenly suppressed, causing him to suffer from paralysis and fall down to the ground.

"Ho, he is here," I spoke, looking toward the sky that possessed the young man that I hadn’t seen for so long. He seemed to have opened a bunch of his seals, showing the hidden might he possessed. "Fool, destroying so many records of mine." With those words, Malidi’s eyes turned to Vance, whose body started to contort into strange shapes. Gone were the ignorant and calm eyes, leaving only anger over the destroyed "records" of the past.

"Professor, Leave my pupil alone, he did as I asked him. Punish me." Came the voice from the library, but Malidi didn’t listen. "I expected a fight, I didn’t expect such non-sensical destruction of what mattered most to me." He spoke, giving little thought to the well-being of lives over the knowledge he deemed precious.

A monster like always. Only I understood the heinous person this man was, which did interest me a lot. Sadly, this man hated my guts, calling me incomplete and inefficient many times. And if not for my unique abilities making me perfect to scry away information and knowledge from not only the minds of individuals, but even hard to reach places, the connection we both have won’t exist anymore.

Which did appear understandable from my perspective.

"Just let him go. I agree with whatever request you have." The sound came again, holding a pleading tone.

Which seemed to have surprised Farhad, who stood still unaware of what was happening at this point.

Just what kind of strength did this Professor possess to suppress that monster of a man? And what about the dwarves? The Priestess?

What became of them, why can’t both he or Rosso can’t hear a word from them? Something had gone bad.

Farhad wished to maintain neutrality, he didn’t wish for nonsensical harm. Even during his fight with Vance before, the most he intended to do was incapacitate his enemy and not bring too much harm to him.

Not kill him, at least not the people like Radiant Order, who for all their faults and arrogance still brought good to the world, much more than him, I might add. So their deaths didn’t seem to suit his taste.

This is why, even against the monster of a man that Malidi was, Farhad spoke. "Professor, Vance was pushed to harm the garden due to my actions, I am to blame." Farhad intended to take the blame. But who was Malidi?

Few understood the abilities he possessed at the moment, and the goal with which he came here for. "Disturbance, silence." With those words, Farhad was frozen in his place again. Which surprised him.

"The arrogant Knight of Radiant, I will take up on your offer, I will spare this one and in turn, you will give your life to me willingly." He spoke towards the direction of the library which turned silent for a bit.

And then, a sigh came followed by agreement. "I would follow as you command." Hearing those words, I don’t know what to feel at this point.

Alabasta, the man that caused me to run through the whole Brihma Continent to save my life. The man who caused so much misery to me, caused so many connections to break was meeting his end in such a pathetic way.

Why did he have to do it? Why go against a man like Malidi who walked on a path akin to the First Knight? It won’t be surprising that the next true god to rise in the coming millennium is him.

So why did he make such a foolish choice? Hah, ignorance mixed with arrogance really brings one’s downfall.

"Good... " That’s all Malidi spoke before turning toward the Library and leaving. He didn’t care for what me and others were doing, as long as no harm came to the records kept in this place, he wouldn’t harm us.

******

Back to the scene, Malidi walked to Arbood who has regained clarity. "Why?" He asked the man who should be his enemy.

It wasn’t long before he betrayed Malidi and even tried to harm him by hiding the little plan the priestess had with Malidi. So why would Malidi save him? Were the words he spoke of before coming here true?

"You are different, someone talented and capable of holding on to your true thoughts. Rare to come by these days." More so when the emotions are elevated due to the Domain they were, which had shown to affect even greater beings reaching far past the Legendary.

The power of the domain was so potent that as long as you have a self-serving attitude in any way or form, or are prone to anger or arrogance, your actions will eventually be led by them. Case in point Vance and others, who forgo’ed their rationality in favor of anger.

The only way to fight off the influence of this domain is to just be loyal and rational even in front of great adversity. Simple as that.

Sadly, few are capable of achieving such feats, and among those that can reach the ranks of Grandmaster even rarer. Not to mention, Arbood had one thing that Malidi wanted more than anything.

He desired life more than anything, but he suppressed such desires in front of his goals and came to do such suicidal missions. Now that’s what I call a great man. That’s the kind of person Malidi prefers as the future librarian.

"This domain, I wish to make it mine," Malidi spoke, not hiding his intentions at all. "The original owner, the Seeker had long fallen, leaving such a wondrous piece of domain to destitute, I don’t intend to let it be this way. I wish to claim it as my own." He spoke, looking at Arbood who turned speechless hearing such words.

Claim a Domain as one’s own?

Such feats... they sound demonic in nature. They sound unnatural.

A domain is not simply a false world that a Legend cultivates in their body, but a Domain is the visual representation of the path they walk and their accomplishments with the core of the domain being the creator itself.

And once that core changed? Although Arbood didn’t know much about it even though he was a Legend Ranked Expert himself, he knew that it would eventually lead to collapse and even destruction of the being that tried to do such an absurd thing.

"Is this your way of finding a way out?" Arbood asked, looking at the man who felt more alien the more he talked.

A feeling he had since meeting this bizarre man, but it was more pronounced after hearing the claim as well s the face of this man. This man, he was inhuman. ’A demon.’ The word came to his mind the more he looked at Malidi. Nothing else would explain such words, such claims.

"You are a demon... are you not?"

"I will be deemed one."