CORE
Chapter 21 - "Carnival"

"You were able to survive,"

"Not that your feat was impressive,"

"He was a disappointment after all,"

"One step closer you are,"

"But the question is if you will fall on that narrow step?"

...

Hero woke up, although, not as fast as he did at other times, he took the time to let his mind recover, his head felt numb yet ultimately pressured at the same time, but it quickly faded away once he took a sharp breath of the new Area.

"What happened..?" Hero said, striking his forehead a few times, beginning to remember all that happened.

"...Save what you can?" Hero thought as he stared at the purple ground, but upon noticing that detail, he started to reminisce of Area 0, something about the platform they were on felt a lot like it, and they seemed to be within some carnival tent of sorts, purple and pink, a decent color scheme, Hero thought.

"Wait..." Hero thought, his eyes slightly widening as he stood up, looking over to his left, and there he saw Justice, laying his back on a concrete wall as his head faced upward, his right knee up and his hand resting on it while his other leg was straight down.

His face was devoid of any excitement that was there prior, only amounting to that of seriousness as he looked to be deep in thought, not even noticing Hero's awakening, his magical body looked dimmer too, was this perhaps the consequence of exhausting all his magic, or something else? Hero thought.

"Are you alright?" Hero questioned in a composed tone as he walked over to Justice, whose eyes and body noticeably turned brighter as he then looked over to Hero.

"...I suppose so, my apologies for that previous outburst," Justice said, sighing as he raised out his hand, before limply putting it back down, creating a thud on the floor.

"It was... Understandable," Hero said, taking a breather as he turned around and sat next to Justice, but that amount of power to cause a Dimensional Rift without a platform, for sure made Hero think quite a bit at that moment.

"I assume you were old friends, from what you said before he... Hm, am I right?" Hero asked, in a tone that did not seem too aggressive, nor too uninterested, for he wanted to not cause any 'reaction' once more.

"On the spot," Justice replied as he let out a smirk, letting out a compressed laughter before holding his hand on his face, as he began to remember.

"To put it shortly..." Justice said as he raised his other hand slightly in the air.

"He was my first 'Hero', and was my only true ally, until I met you, of course..." Justice remarked, before bumping his hand into Hero's chest, who looked over to Justice, in which they then put down their hand.

"So that's why he seemed so familiar, huh?" Hero said, putting and clutching his hand on his chest tightly, as he looked at his Core from within.

"...The first of me,"

"And that must be why it felt like I was dying too," Hero thought, before standing up.

"Do you wish to stay here for a while, Justice?" Hero questioned in a sincere, concerned tone, with a slight smile on his face.

"...Sure, why not, I'll know when you're in danger anyways," Justice responded, looking back at the ground as he moved his hand away from his face.

"Alright... You will need the rest anyway... I have a question though, how much time do you think it would take for you to regain all your magic?" Hero said, turning away as he was taking a look at Justice's magical aura, which was almost 90% drained from the stunt he had done in Area 4.

"Approximately 30 minutes or so, it's not natural to use this much magic in one instance, and with such quick succession too..." Justice replied.

Now satisfied with Justice's answer, Hero walked over to the exit of what was presumably the carnival tent they were in, however, just as he was about to step away...

"Hey, can you promise me something for a moment?" Justice spoke abruptly.

"What is it?" Hero replied, stopping in place as he stared blankly at the tent exit.

"Don't die on me," Justice spoke, in a tone Hero could not decipher, all he knew was that Justice was tired, in one way or another.

"That will be impossible... For both of us alike," Hero said, smirking as he then whooshed his hand up front, moving away the curtains that made up the tent exit as he walked out of it, leaving Justice there in that fairly lit tent while they continued to sit there, unmoving like a statue.

"...Is that so?" Justice said, beginning to snicker as he put his head on his face once again.

"That's really great to hear..." Justice stood up, walking limply as glowing white tears ran down his face, simultaneously while he laughed in an attempt to clear it out.

He then tripped over to the ground, continuing to cackle as his hands plunged deep into the platform, creating cracks within it as he stared down at one of The King's many out of hundreds of creations and puppets.

"Was it worth it?" Justice asked in a gradually cold tone, tears turning dry and soon evaporating while still leaking, as he sunk deeper into the platform, cracking it further and intending to break a chunk of it off in his frustration, but restrained himself from doing so as he pulled his hands out, before laying back down on the ground with a loud thud that rang across the tent's interior.

"How come..." Justice thought as he stared blankly into the ceiling, his eyes frozen as he began to breathe profusely, yet another tear running down his face of light.

"How come only I?"

Meanwhile, outside of the Rift Platform's shallow tent cover...

Hero, upon leaving the Entrance Tent, was met with a large, colorful, spiral path, and they're far in front of it was a large, almost unnaturally sized Circus Tent, its wide frame and expanse stretched out to the point it could not fit in Hero's range of view, and from memory alone, Hero had thought it was nearly the same size of Area 2, or possibly Area 4.

Seeing the path, which went in unnecessary circles and twists, Hero began to walk forward, further thinking of what he could do and, on the contrary, what happened beforehand.

"...I've just done nothing but destroy, I've never saved anyone directly, can they really leave their dying wish to an incompetent such as me?" Hero questioned himself in his thoughts, before turning the corner and walking up the elevated, purple and yellow pathway.

"I'm not a real 'Hero', so what is it that made him so sure that I could be trusted with that desire?" Hero said, speeding up his pace.

"Everything I said before, in that moment... Felt like a lie, perhaps I've been locked to that mission as a whole, I can't be anything else, could I really be something else? Perhaps I really only said it because of a mere false 'pride'..."

"Do I really pull my own strings? Or perhaps my existence is merely half-baked art ready to be thrown away if one mistake is made?" Hero said, clenching his fists as turned the corner, continuing to walk up the pathway, while unknowingly leaving footsteps of ice magic with each step he took.

"...Do I think on my own accord? Or are all these thoughts scripted by someone far more vast than me? Is that wretched voice my puppeteer?" Hero then stopped in his place, taking a moment to close his eyes, and taking a deep breath of the new area, which felt like the sensation of spring as heavenly glory shined down on you.

Hero then opened his eyes, turning his head to his left, to where The Carnival was before him, but there was no direct pathway to it, only a road that had many things unneeded.

"...Cogito, ergo, sum," Hero muttered as he took a step forward to the edge of the path he was on, one that faced The Carnival directly.

"I think... Therefore I am," Hero then leaped off the platform edge, ice magic forming beneath his feet as he began to glide on it, the ice falling down, and yet miraculously, he still flew along that self-destructive, concentrated icy path.

"Hero or not, I still exist,"

"And I'll try to make the most of it..."

"...Yes, That's my final verdict..."

"The wind feels more colder... I enjoy it," Hero remarked as the clean breeze of Area 5 traveled across his body, he knew not if it was because he was nearing the end of his journey, or rather, if it was simply that, he existed, and thus he could feel it.

Slowly yet hastily, he began to trek closer to The Carnival, its size strangely growing as he got closer, perhaps it was just an optical illusion, Hero thought as he sent a burst of magic through his legs, strengthening his travel for the unexpectedly long ride.

However, as Hero continued to stray forward to what felt like an endless trip, he suddenly felt a surge of magical energy to his left, causing him to stop in that micro instant, stopping his production of ice magic to his legs, almost making him fall to the void had he not regained composure.

"...This magic, Justice? No, this one is different..." Hero said as he swiftly turned to his left, using his flying ice path to slip into a defensive position.

But much to his unpleasant surprise, he was met with a large, supposedly toy hammer which rammed straight into his body before he could even react, sending him flying to The Carnival at great speeds, he would have shot into it too had he not summoned a wall of ice behind him.

"I just can't get a break, huh?" Hero remarked as the ice wall shattered shortly after, the shards floating behind him as he planned on using them as projectiles, with this confirmed, he looked over to where he was attacked.

"Well, well, well! We haven't had any visitors in the last 28243 seconds!" The erratic individual spoke, stretching out their arms in delight as Hero looked on in confusion, they seemed to be in a type of jester-esque attire, and their size... They were nearly triple the size of Hero, almost like an overgrown bear standing upright.

Before the individual could speak further, Hero immediately shot out one of the ice shards at them, which landed successfully in their chest, however, it then bounced off like rubber as the individual thrust their body forward, with the ice shard impaling Hero, although, since it was his own magic, it had a minimal effect as he absorbed it right back into his Core, his eyes narrowing down at the strange individual, how was he able to do such a thing?

"I take it you're not keen on strangers then? Boring! Why not have some fun, new pal?!" The individual spoke, elongating their limbs and traveling behind Hero in the blink of an eye as they put their arm around his shoulders, Hero was unmoving, not even willing to react to what the man just did, and instead, keeping it in his own thoughts.

"Why don't I introduce myself? My name's Jester, but in a 'formal tone' as what some pretentious intellectuals would say, I'm 'The Jester', also alternatively known as 'The King's Jester', quite the respectable title is it not? What is your name, friend?" The Jester spoke, their mouth opening wide as sharp teeth etched out of their mouth and gums, staring down at Hero who was frozen like a statue.

"...You blabber too much," Hero said before suddenly sending a swift and decisive right hook to The Jester's face, knocking the teeth out as they were sent sliding back mid-air, before landing softly on the non-existent ground, their teeth regenerating as they stared with a feeling of contempt at Hero, who turned around and stared them back.

"I take it we're not friends then?" The Jester said, their purple magical aura coating their body, their eyes glowing a sharp red as disembodied laughter filled the proximity they were in.

"I only have one," Hero replied, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before putting up a back fight stance, putting his hands up as he prepared for the oncoming fight.

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