CORE

Chapter 25 - Mirror

While within the city was empty, unmoving, foreboding, but worse of all, quiet misery, above The Carnival where the purple sky beamed the brightest...

"To be honest? I thought you could do better," The Jester remarked with a smug tone, sitting down in a casual position as he stared down Justice, who too sat down on the roof in the same position.

The thing was, he was heavily panting, his entire right arm was blown off, along with one of his feet, and there was a massive hole on his shoulder, all of them collectively bled a strange bright substance, while The Jester, on the contrary, only had a few minor scratches and cuts across their body.

"They call you a Jester for a reason," Justice said, smirking as he continued breathing roughly, clearly strained as they did not have enough magic in their pool to regenerate any of their limbs fully.

"I know you, pal, so how about this... You join this Circus, work under me, and I'll let you live," The Jester proposed as he stretched out his hand.

"Is this even a proposal? I have not much of a choice after all, do I?" Justice said, as he stood up, even with all his damages.

"Of course! That's why I ask you now... Because I'm sure you'd want to live at any cost," The Jester grinned widely, their sharp razor teeth sprouting out of their mouth as Justice continued to stare, unfazed.

"Not by any cost," Justice outstretched their hands as they snickered.

"Then it's decided!" The Jester shouted, raising their hand which grew to be 10x larger than both he and Justice, while it was simultaneously being enhanced with rough, edged magic.

"I'll personally be the one holding your execution since the others failed to do it long ago..." The Jester smiled, as Justice only sighed, supposedly accepting his fate.

And so as the wind bent to The Jester's fist as it came crashing down on Justice, the whole Carnival shook, even the barrier that covered it the moment they had crushed Justice to death.

"Hah, all that effort for a few cuts," The Jester remarked in a mocking tone as he cackled.

But at that moment, they started to feel something strange in their enlargened hand.

Not only that, they began to hear powerful, and unbridled sounds of drilling from beneath where his hand rested.

Although they found out much earlier as suddenly, it exploded into bits of guts and blood, and out from the hand came Hero, who drilled out of The Carnival's roof, with the maximum amount of effort, while Justice, who had not been pummeled and instead vibrated his body and phased through The Jester's hand, with the two escaping what could have been death, they exploded The Jester's hand, causing for major damage.

The Jester shrunk back, as did their arm while they were gritting their teeth as they took a good look at the place where their hand should be, before looking up at Hero and Justice.

"Listen, we are both in a bad mood right now so I won't extend this with some monologue," Hero said, wiping off the dust on his clothing as Hero extended his hand out to Justice, who grabbed his arm, not only to pull himself up but to absorb some of Hero's magic to heal one of his injuries, specifically, his disembodied arm.

"Because I have an appointment with the usurper you worship," Hero said, causing Justice to look over to him, raising an eyebrow, surprised that he had the strength to say it, but ah, it was Hero after all, always risking everything for everything, Justice thought.

"Heh, don't try and steal my role, Hero, I'm the snarky one," Justice commented as he stretched his arms, preparing for the third round of the fight.

"I'd do so if I got the opportunity," Hero replied, cracking his knuckles.