The God of Jesters
Chapter 666 - 10.04.3 I can help you.

Chapter 666: 10.04.3 I can help you.

Our silence remained not for long, as I said, "Better see what his cronies were looking for inside those bodies. I bet it’s something important." If I had a strong body, I would have crushed their necks with my own hand, but my feeble body could only borrow some help from my true form.

Leaving the scene a bit disturbing, to say the least. "Their bodies have melted," Wajih spoke, watching what appeared to be floating bones that were barely connected to some flesh. All human and all smelling sulphuric, almost making one wonder if I was demonic. A misconception is not only demons cause that smell to spread. Even shit if left for long will start smelling the same, like a sewer.

But in this briny ocean, this smell will die out in a while.

"It’s a bead," Wajih spoke, far more conservative than before, he probably developed a level of fear of me, not like I blame him.

Things were never going to be the same between us, he fears me and is probably wondering if he can escape, which is a giant no on my end. "Domain fluctuations, does this thing actually exist?" I wondered, looking at the bead with some scrutiny, feeling the slight tremors in my cells the closer I got.

This item, it’s probably a legendary material for artificers. Vegal must have loved this. Sadly, it will be a while before we meet.

"The rest didn’t have it." Wajih was pretty fast in his job, he already knew he was stuck in a quagmire of a kind that he wouldn’t be able to escape from, but his mind was already making up ideas on how to escape from me.

The reason was pretty simple as well. Beforehand, Wajih was full of confidence in overpowering me and ensuring his own safety, which is why he agreed initially. But now he learns I might be a Totem or a fallen god, fear appeared. Even in the face of the Legends, he didn’t feel such fear.

But he did it in front of me. Probably because before, he might have a way to save himself, but he is no opponent of me.

"If it was so common, the whole world would be hunting these monsters," I spoke, recalling the details of this bead. Or the seed of a Domain.

Generally useless once extracted from a body, but on its own, it can help one study the power of domain and even use it to develop varied Artifacts. Such a wonderful thing. With its capability to break down items and even bodies, it’s a good destructive domain if used in developing a weapon, it can be capable of so much carnage.

"Keep it... I feel it should be useful to you." With those words, I urged this man to leave the scene as fast as he could.

For there was one thing Wajih might not know, but I knew very well.

An hour after leaving, the place where I was before, a space crack opened and a hand holding a giant eye-ball danced around the scene for a bit, recording each piece of information it could and then disappearing like nothing happened.

But I knew what it was.

’Marked.’ That thing, it saw me watching it.

And I had been marked by it.

The Red Sun will come for me to break one of the Taboos for the material plane, they will come for my head, oh so fun. ’My hand.’ Though it would appear this fun can wait. I could feel decay set in, my finger was starting to wither. That eye, it was brutal, if I can’t fight off its mark, I might just die on my own.

But this is what’s so fun about adventures like this. Every step causes you to take two steps back, so plan ahead properly and don’t make any moves driven by emotion. But mine are more driven by fun. I just wanted to see if it worked or not.

*****

Not too long after the eye left, a body surfaced on the seas: a man with confusion written on his face and a limp. His legs didn’t work while he moved his hand to swim in the water. Before long, his mind lit up, and he floated into the air with his lanky legs.

"I lost." In his mind, there was nothing odd, all he remembered was losing to Wajih all of a sudden and nothing more.

Even the fact of his turning into a paraplegic didn’t seem that noteworthy to him, it’s as if this was the norm since the start.

"I have to warn Young master, that man is far stronger than I had expected.’ Currently pale due to bloodlessness and one of his eyes even melted, the man looked around the scene and after confirming that there were no beads inside any of the corpses of the squids, he flew off the sea and rushed in the direction of his master.

Even forgetting that he too had been poisoned.

*****

*Cough

Wajih coughed on the side, his face paler than before and his body drained of most of his energy. The poison would usually not affect him so badly and with his natural defenses, he would generally fight it off after some pangs of pain and weakness. But that is only if he was not injured or drained of his energy.

And the worst part, there was no island close by where he could rest. All he could do was float in the seawater, slowly hoping that the multitudes of potions and drugs he took worked on the poison.

Which they did. "Weak one, the longer you stay the further I will be from my goal... so swim with me, let’s reach the mainland as fast as we can," I spoke, my voice loud enough to wake up the contemplating Wajih, who after a bit of thought, instead of nodding to my words, asked. "Who are you actually... a totem from one of these islands?"

The Irban-Fateh Alliance was filled with countless totems that had existed since ancient times, mostly born through the voodoo culture, they were vicious and always required sacrifice for their protection. Or so it was in the old days. In modern times, those sacrifices are barely necessary considering the majority of the Totems still slept, biding their time. So any of the sacrificial ceremonies will be traditional in nature without any true value behind it.

However, that was only partially true. For the Totems that were injured, a sacrificial ceremony was a great way for them to recover from their injuries, and the greater the quality of the sacrifice, the better the recovery.

This meant that this was Wajih’s way of asking, and was considered a potential sacrifice, which was of course not. I was not a totem born out of Voodoo worship, so such feats were far from my hand.

Not to mention, I was capable of far worse to recover my strength, but I was a good totem, not an evil or selfish one, I cared for the stories and lives of even random insects, so why would I let humans that were capable of thoughts and even grander story be sacrificed for someone as insignificant as me?

No, that won’t happen, I was not cruel.

"I was recently raised to the ranks of Totem... felled by those I considered friends," I spoke, speaking only the truth, which surprised the man and made his eyes light up. This was stupid on my end, it meant that I was still not completely sure of my strength and I might even be weak. Then he paused and said. "Lie... for the last Millenia, there hadn’t been a new totem born on any of the major continents, it’s impossible."

"So treat me as proof that the good old days will be gone soon... wonders new and old will rise and you might be in them as well. I will even help you, as long as you help me." This was my offer. Not only will I provide him with the blood of a Totem, but even help him become someone on their level.

"Imagine how easy it will be for you to crush your enemy."

"..." I didn’t promise that I would crush his enemies for him, that’s not something I do, I am no assassin, well partially. I will be one if it is fun like I did when I killed the Prince of Cynark. But that was a one-time thing, hopefully.

Though back on the topic, the reason I would not help him end his enemies is simple.

"Let’s agree on that." He smiled, not pointing out the fact of how I made the words sound, it was because he wanted the very same thing I expected from him.

’He wishes to crush them with his own hands.’

The hands of someone from an Artificer family were born to create wonderful tools for mages, spiritualists, and even knights. But fate forced him on a path that his ancestors would probably hate.

He walks the path of a Blood Hungry Tyrant. Hiding his hatred behind a simple smile while he shook my hand.