Once Human, Now a Parasite

At first, it seemed that Zodiak wasn't able to completely suppress the seed, his face was becoming pale and sweat trickled from his forehead, it was apparent that he was having a lot of trouble. For a second, the old man dropped his hands and sighed in frustration.

With no choice but to use it, Zodiak pressed his hand on his forehead, increasing the ominous dark aura around him by several times. Then he performed the strange seals in the air again with a faster speed and conjured a black talisman bigger than the rest.

The newly conjure talisman didn't spin around the seed, instead, it wrapped around it and stopped its green light from being shown, all that was seen was a black ball a bit bigger than the green seed.

As Zodiak was going to breathe a sigh of relief and depart from this creepy ship, a playful voice rang in his ears.

"That's some good toy you're wielding there..... mind letting me see it?"

The voice originated from behind Zodiak, who was petrified and couldn't move because of this sudden appearance of an unknown pressure coming from behind. With great effort, the old man managed to turn his head and glance at what's behind him.

It was a humanoid figure, a funny outfit, and a sarcastic posture. All about it was strange, whether it's its Red Burgundy hair or the wide smile hanging on its face. You could even see a dark clover on its face. The most striking thing is its two bright yellow eyes which could be seen clearly in this total darkness.

This was the Joker, or rather, it dressed a Joker. Zodiak never heard of a person or a monster like that but he was feeling afraid and it's the first time he ever felt like this.

"Oh? My my.... hahaha I forgot to cancel my aura.... there you go, now you can talk."

Having the pressure lifted was like getting rid of a huge burden, Zodiak spent some time panting heavily then he secretly stored the seed before turning around to face the Joker.

"T-thank you Senior."

"Hahaha seniority is meaningless! Now now... show me what's is that power I just saw... I can't wait any longer."

With shaking hands, the Joker clenched his fists which made cracking sounds, the grin widened and his posture became more exaggerated.

Zodiak didn't know what to do, his abilities were a secret that no one should know of, not even his master knows. Even someone above than him by a whole Realm cannot escape his sense but this Joker did, which made Zodiak more hesitant afraid. If he's two or more Realms above him then he's screwed if he doesn't obey.

'That's definitely Senior Zodiak!'

When Arthur, who was watching from the side, saw those black talismans, his guesses were confirmed. He couldn't appraise him no matter how he tried but he could feel he was way stronger than Delia or the Lich King.

"I-it's really nothing... I can conjure attacking and sealing talismans from Nether Energy."

The Joker straightened his back and walked toward Zodiak while still grinning.

"Hahahaha why do you have to be so mean to me and lie? It's fun if people are stubborn but you should not exceed a certain limit yahahahahaha! Plus.... I can see they are not just normal talismans.... it's as if.... yeah like 'that' hahahahahhaha"

The Joker kept laughing as he approached Zodiak but he suddenly stopped and looked back.

"It's getting heated outside.... ahhhhh I'm getting excited already.... well, you're but a Sovereign anyways so I'll leave you with a gift."

With that, the Joker disappeared from Zodiak's view, only leaving a floating card which was the 4 of ♦. Unknown to Zodiak, this was not just a card but something much more dangerous. Zodiak was smart enough to use his trump card and use his instant teleportation right away.

He was relieved when he was teleported out of the ship but before he noticed, a huge chunk of his abdomen has been cut by some form of scissors.

Arthur then found himself at the entrance of the ship, where the Demon and the Angel were still fighting. No matter how much godly attack they unleashed, the broken boat remained unscathed and not even a scratch appeared on it except from the ancient ones that were unrelated to those two.

The battle reached its climax as the blue-haired Angel had an ugly scar on his shoulder and the demon only received minor injuries. As they were both clashing with each other, two incredibly fast objects with small size rushed at them. These two objects came from the inside of the ship, however, they were only noticed by these two only when the objects were going to touch them.

The angel was a bit lucky as he was just pushed back the demon so he grasped this momentum and barely dodged the incoming object but the demon was not as lucky. The small card easily penetrated his defenses and cut his right hand.

The fight was temporarily halted as the two of them looked at the inside of the ship only to hear a whistling sound followed by a figure coming out of the darkness.

The two of them were more surprised by the fact of the monk's death more than the figure who is dragging the dead body. After they ascertained with their sense that the monk was really dead and this was not a silly distraction that was laid by the monk, they shifted their glance to the Joker, who was grinning.

"Who are you?"

The angel felt more threatened by the Joker's existence than the demon, who was currently holding his injured hand and angrily staring at the Joker, from the look of it, it seems the demon didn't like being sneak attacked like that and to top it off, he wasn' able to dodge such a simple attack. What's more embarrassing is that he was injured by a mere card, not a knife or an arrow.

The angel could feel a terrifying aura coming out of the Joker so without hesitation, he pointed his spear at him and unleashed his majestic aura. He was expecting something but all of that was futile, the Joker wasn't fazed by his aura, neither did he frown or react in any way, he just threw the monk's dead body near the two unconscious angels.

"I'm a bit itchy right now..... that monk couldn't even entertain me one bit... so at least you guys entertain me... I don't want to regret coming here... let's play!"

After humoristically saying that, the Joker dashed at the two of them while throwing two cards that magically appeared in his hand. His face still had the usual mocking grin even in the middle of a battle. His speed was so fast that he arrived in between the two of them in no time, his first target was the blue-haired angel.

The Joker performed a simple fast punch that was met with no resistance or reaction from the angel, who could barely see the Joker appear before him so how could he have the time to lift his spear and block or sidestep away?

All Arthur saw was the Joker vanishing then reappearing again between the two others, then his hand blurred and the angel was sent flying in the air. When the punch landed, bones could be heard shattering, at the very least, the angel's chin was broken and his face no longer looked as handsome as before.

The demon, who was planning on taking revenge, abandoned all these thoughts and backed away from the Joker but his decision was a bit too late as this eccentric figure in front of him was not something he could match.

It was but a kick to the abdomen, but the demon was instantly dead. It's practically impossible to clear people in a high-realm with pure physical attack and with just one but Arthur just witnessed an unbelievable thing.

The angel, who was sent high up in the air managed to use one of the forbidden treasures he brought and was lucky to teleport out of the ship. All that was left was the dead demon, the dead monk, the two unconscious angels and the Joker who was sighing and shaking his head in disappointment.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh life is so hard without any opponents!"

With his back inclined 90 degree and his eyes facing the sky, the Joker lamented and complained but nothing replied to him, it was just him talking alone like a maniac.

"Then.Let.Me.Be.The.One.To.Face.You."

Amidst all the complaining, a chilling voice rang in the dead silence ruling over the broken ship. The Joker, who was just going to leave, stopped walking and turned his head to look at the person behind him.

It would be more precise to call it a thing rather than a person. It had no body, no hands or legs, just an enormous gray skull with two empty eye-sockets which emitted a thick fog similar to the one around the ship.

"Ah! I know you! Should you be the last boss or something like that? Yahahahaha"

"No.One.Can.Leave.This.Place.Alive."

"My my... but two people already left.... not that it matters to me."

"No.One.Can.Leave.This.Place.Alive."

As the skull repeated this, the blue-haired angel's dead body fell from the skies. It was a headless corpse, the skin withered and it looked like a zombie with a blue-hair.

"Ohhhhh interesting interesting... is that withering laws? Show me show me!"

It seemed that the Joker forgot about Zodiak or simply ignored him as he already sent something to get rid of him. It's a pity though, no one would have imagined that a mere old man in the Sovereign Realm can escape from both the large skull and the Joker.

...

The surroundings warped again and this time, it showed Zodiak, who was standing in a grassy land. There was a servant kneeling behind him, his appearance was covered but Arthur had a hunch that it was a woman.

"This is the perfect place."

Zodiak assessed the dirt and even tasted it before nodding and saying that. He dug a small hole in the ground then took out a box from his storage.

It was the same box he was holding when he came with the demon on board that broken ship. He opened it and took out a black ball. The talisman that was wrapped around the seed vanished and Zodiak instantly buried in the hole and covered it with dirt.

"Are you sure about what you're doing? Master."

"Hmm... it can't be helped. This is the only seed that the World Tree in Heaven left before it withered, if I don't hide it here, sooner or later, the archangels will find it and that is not something I can afford."

"..."

The servant remained silent and waited for her master to finish. Zodiak didn't waste time either, he looked around the area and nodded his head again in approval then he looked back at his servant and said

"You stay here.... there is still a chance they find it so I want you to protect it... at least until it grows."

"But master...."

The servant was going to object but Zodiak disappeared into a black fog that was soon dispersed by the passing wind.