Chapter 31: Audience With The Forgotten Trickster.

Chapter 31: Audience With The Forgotten Trickster. 『✦ The Forgotten Trickster is amused by your performance. ✦』 ⟦ You have been granted an Audience. ⟧ That was the last thing I saw before everything went dark. After I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere else entirely. My body felt light... Almost too light as if gravity—that possessive little yandere—stopped loving me and moved on. Can’t say I didn’t miss her. I was literally floating in some weird-ass place. The world around me looked like it had been painted by someone who desperately needed therapy. Everything was red. Crimson rings floated around me, etched with some bizarre symbols that pulsed like a heartbeat. Cards floated in the air—dozens of them, maybe hundreds—each one spinning slowly, their surfaces etched with arcane designs I didn’t recognize. Some floated lazily. Others vanished into sparks, only to reappear again somewhere else. My head ached every time I tried to see what was on them. The space didn’t have walls or a ceiling. And at the center of it all... I was floating... ... Or maybe I was falling. It was hard to tell. At least I knew I wasn’t dead. Probably. So what am I supposed to do here again? And in the first place—who the fuck is "Forgotten Trickster"? I didn’t remember reading that in Noah’s book when I was designing the damn game. Sure, he had a handful of ancient gods in the story he wrote. I mean, the title of the novel was literally Ascension of SSS-Rank Godkiller. So yeah. There were bound to be gods... yet none of them actually interfered with the world directly. At least not until the middle part of the novel. Still, this particular name didn’t ring any bells. Most of them had titles like Endbringer or He Who Devours Suns—you know, dramatic edgy nonsense. Which meant one of two things: either he was so absurdly strong he had stayed hidden even during the divine war... Or he was just an extra. A background god, who shows up late to the war and died without a single dialogue. Either way... he was a being that could crush me without lifting a finger. Honestly, I had no intention to even meet one so early... that’s why I even avoided saying their name out loud. They had this strange divine power where if you so much as whispered their name, they somehow knew. Just then— A voice echoed. "Welcome, Fate’s Chosen Jester!" The voice literally boomed and was immediately followed by an exaggerated laugh. "HahahahahAHAhah—ack—hah—give me a moment—" A cough. Then a sigh. "Okay. There we go. Much better." I blinked. Great. A lunatic. Just what I needed. I couldn’t see him—yet—but his voice was everywhere. Then, finally, the world shifted. Ripples formed across the space like someone had disturbed the surface of reality itself. The swirling mess of colour stilled... just a little. Two chairs and a table appeared in the center of it all—entirely out of place. Like someone tried to set up a polite tea party in the middle of a fever dream. And seated on one of the chairs, legs crossed casually and fingers beneath his chin... was a familiar face. A man with messy green hair and calm brown eyes. Dressed in an elegant black tuxedo with long tails that draped over the chair like some noble theatre villain. A tall hat sat tilted slightly on his head, like it wasn’t committed to being taken seriously. His face held that same mischievous expression he always had. The kind that said he knew something I didn’t. Razek. Except... not. Because even though the face was the same, everything else was wrong. The posture and the way the air twisted just slightly around him as if the world itself wasn’t sure how to hold him properly. "...Razek?" I said cautiously. His grin widened. "Razek? Oh, no, no. I am merely borrowing his appearance." He tapped his chest as if introducing himself. "I’m the shadow behind the curtain and the voice in the madness." He stood up slowly and gave a dramatic bow. "I am the Forgotten Trickster. And you, dear Rael, are my current favorite joke." I stared at him for a full second. Blinked once. "...Cringe," was all I could say. To say something like that to a literal god? Yeah. That takes balls of steel. Good thing I had a matching set. You see, these divine little shitbags weren’t the benevolent, glowy peacekeepers myths made them out to be. No—these were the same cosmic egomaniacs that caused the world’s destruction in the novel. So if one of them had dragged me here, there were only a few reasons why. Either this guy was jealous of my undeniably handsome face... ...or he planned to use me for something. Between those options? I wasn’t playing along. And honestly, unless he was willing to burn half of his soul, he probably couldn’t harm a single hair on my head. What if he was god? He couldn’t act against the Heavenly Principles. At least not yet. The Trickster Guy paused mid-pose... and then cracked. He was laughing wildly. Like I had just handed him the funniest joke he had been waiting for. "Truly worthy of being the jester," he said between chuckles. While the guy was on his laughing streak, I walked—more like floating—forward and took a seat on the chair opposite to him. The chair was weird. Like too soft to be real. It seemed to be made out of clouds. I felt sinking in it. Still, I snapped out of the comfort immediately and looked at him. "So," I said, keeping my voice steady, "why am I here?" Gods weren’t omniscient enough to read minds... but they had experienced enough life to know when someone had disrespectful thoughts. So there was really no point pretending to be a goody two shoes. The best way to act in front of them was being my true self. And that’s exactly what I was doing. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t scared. I had died before... Still, I wasn’t fearless against it. Especially when the guy in front of me could crush a continent just by sneezing wrong. But fear was useless here. No amount of trembling or praying would change a damn thing. So I did what any sane person would do. I acted like I owned the place. Not because I believed it. And definitely not because I thought it would work. But because beings like him? The more afraid you look, the more fun they have. So, I just sat back as a grin curled up on my lips unconsciously. My flaw was activated. The Forgotten Trickster stopped in his tracks. His gaze scanned me for a full moment. Then, slowly, he said, "You are amusing, Rael. What do you think about becoming my Apostle?" "What now?" I was genuinely surprised. I mean a god could choose only one apostle in their lifetime. And once chosen? They would share their true soul with you. Meaning, if I died... he would suffer the fallout. But the same was true the other way around. If he died—well, so would I. So, I did the only sane thing possible. "I reject." ______ Author’s Note: P.S. — If you want a better sense of what the Trickster’s Domain looks like, check out the cover art.