The God of Jesters
Chapter 254 - 4.09.3 Face time.

Chapter 254: 4.09.3 Face time.

Fire against a being that was fire itself?

A foolish choice in Remira’s eyes. This dwarf was not only stupid, but his aim was off as well. She wondered if it was due to him panicking, or if he didn’t clearly know who she was. But that didn’t matter, it’s good she had been looked down on, he will slip and she could catch up to him instantly in no time.

But soon, that smile of hers turned worried.

The fire spread and became greater and greater. The damp and cold environment did nothing to suppress it. There was no snow here to begin with and due to the autumn season, most of the trees were barely full of lush leaves. Leaving most of it on the ground, where it dried up and became the tinder to the fire that spread through the forest at a fast rate.

Killing any sound, burning the smell, and blocking the figure of Vegal whom Remira had caught up with to lose.

The forest chirped as its body burned. And for a short while, Remira finally lost the trace she had obtained of the dwarven mystic.

But it won’t take long and she knows that by following the head of the fire, she would eventually find the direction the dwarf had run to.

It won’t be long before she catches up with him.

******

With the last swing from the bloody hands of Crow, the tree whose trunk was chipped by sixty percent, collapsed on its weight causing a cacophony of sounds from the birds that had nested on top of it.

Its fall was random and Crow can be considered a bit luckier as he was lucky enough to not be in the way of the fall, or he would have been crushed.

A sad end to the ritual. A fast end to it where Sheva might have seen some freedom.

"And with that, the old is no more." Max woke up from his stupor, feeling weak and closer to death than ever before.

’Is this how he felt?’ He tried to recall his past, his master’s words, and how he seemed to be regretting giving this ’gift’ to Max. A past that didn’t matter anymore, but he can somewhat understand now.

He experienced a moment of enlightenment at the moment, the memories of the past, false or true suddenly felt clear to him. He can see the mistakes he made and the rights he did. He can see the reason for all the misery and the people that were responsible for it all.

’The innocents suffer for the crimes of the sinful men. She suffered for mine, and her mother as well. And then this boy. He will as well.’

"Wake up Crow, wake up!!" He spoke, barely maintaining his posture with a wooden staff. "Any delay further and this will be useless."

At those words, the befuddled Crow woke up from his possession, feeling immense pain where he could barely contain his cries. "Wha... what is ... what is going on.?" The flesh on his palm has come off, his shoulders scream in pain as the muscles throb like a heartbeat.

But most of all, the blood that seeped from his skin was just too much, it made Crow woozy, weak even. If not for his body being paralyzed due to the possession, he might have long fallen to the ground.

"Don’t panic, this is no time for that. Do as I say, follow my words, and don’t make a mistake." Orders were to be followed without any error, as any slight mistake might just ruin the mystical atmosphere that surrounded the fallen tree.

Something which Crow didn’t feel at all, but Max could feel it. An aura closer to his blood as it was born from it, to begin with.

And the longer the ritual went on, the more aura would be extracted from his blood, weakening him, and turning him into nothing more than a mortal close to his death.

Which went to show the true nature of the ceremony.

"What shou.. Should I do?" Crow asked after calming himself down. This ritual was weird, much more bizarre than the one he had heard from in other temples.

There, it’s mostly a blood injection followed by a runic formation that helps acclimate the body with the bloodline. Some sacrifices also do the trick.

But here, none of the likes has happened. All he did was cut a tree and now he looked like a bloodless ghost, close to death’s door.

"Crush the herbs and material you brought with the hilt of the dagger." He said while pointing toward his waist, where Crow could barely notice the transparent blade. "Take it..."

Max was incapable of moving, his body barely had any energy, and standing still already took most of his effort. Not to mention, his only working arm was holding a staff, making it impossible to give the dagger to Crow himself.

And Crow also understood this, While he still had some color on his cheeks even after washing his face, it was a miracle in his eyes how Max was able to stand up so straight.

It was as if Max had lost double or triple the amount of blood than him. But when looking down, there was nothing. Not a drop of blood.

"You should sit down," Crow said, taking the dagger, but Max just shook his head. "If I did, I wouldn’t be able to get up again." What these words meant, Crow didn’t know for now. He already felt drunk due to the blood loss, so he was not in any capacity to consider the meaning behind Max’s words.

He just nodded and did as it was expected of him.

"Don’t make a mistake.’

"Follow the sequence."

"Crush and mix." Max’s words kept echoing in his ears, while using the standing stump of the tree as a table, he crushed each ingredient, and those he couldn’t crush, he chopped them off cleanly. Before making what seemed like a dark green paste.

"Place the paste on the back of the Cow’s skin you brought and then wear it." Hearing such words, Crow looked at Max with some worry. Even in his drunken stupor, he couldn’t help but be surprised by the revelation.

It felt a bit disgusting, even odd for someone who grew up in a good home. But with the things he had done recently, his mind was a lot stronger than one might expect. So, stomaching the questions that were going to flow out of his mouth, he said. "Of course Teacher."

Rubbing the paste he made on the face leather. He couldn’t help but think along the thoughts of, "This really doesn’t seem like some bloodline ritual." Though before he could completely cover the cow’s face with the paste, a hand struck him from behind, causing him to fall down.

At some point, Max closed in on him and the blade he used to make the paste was back on his hand.

"It will be less painful this way." Even with his injuries and blood loss, he was still a Master Level Knight. So striking down an apprentice like Crow was easy for him. "I am sorry."

With those words, he slid his hand across the branch, dropping to the same level as Crow, and then gently placed the branch on the side while he sat next to Crow’s face. "Like the childish god before him, the descendant also fooled death with a lie, escaping the wrath of the sun." The Thousand Face Tree was a sprout that grew on a dead god.

Though the truth was something else, the sprout itself was an incarnation of the dead god and not being born from it. It had gone against nature, retained its divinity, and become something much different than before. Breaking the rules of the world.

Of course, such a god can’t lie to the Sun for too long, he had been found, forcing the god to adopt countless faces to escape from the Sun’s pursuits, while it spread its sprouts on the way.

Though, nothing dead can run from the sun unless they stay in the dark. And the Lakram, the Thousand faced God was caught by the sun at last, which was the reason for its demise.

Angered over the little game Lakram had played, The Sun didn’t even let a single sprout of the god live. Not a single one at all. The only thing that did survive was some of Lakram’s teeth, which never disappeared and appeared from time to time in the hands of bizarre figures from the past.

And just like that, they too would be hunted and killed following their popularity.

A pattern that took a while to learn about.

This might be the reason why Max’s own Master had run to the village. It was his escape.

"I am so sorry for this." And with his repeated apology once again, Max started to skin Crow’s face with his blade.