At long last, the final battle between the Jester was at hand. Near the start of his sudden assault, he attacked Ace in the throat, launching him into the Tower's entrance and the lobby. Eventually, he came to, his scarlet eyes holding the offensive might of Divergence fluttered open. Returning to consciousness, he instinctively decided to scan this familiar environment upon awakening. Scratching his neck, Wilder moaned, rising to kneel against the Tower's reflective floor.
'What the hell just happened? I remember something hitting me but… what…?'
Eternal Sight's planetary patterns appeared over his red eyeballs. And just then, he gasped, immediately turning his head toward that hole in the wall. He stumbled, now standing tall before sprinting toward the wall and charging through the structure. The multiple pieces of miniature debris flew from the impact, scattering against Katie's unconscious body leaking blood from her face. He kneeled beside his cousin's build, nestling her into his arms and holding her close. He went to check her pulse, venting one sigh of relief after feeling her beating heart.
"Oh, thank god."
He pecked the top of her head, placed her against the back of the Tower, and stood tall. Looking down at his slumbering cousin, his hand slipped onto his face, now contemplating while holding his head.
'What do I do now? Slap her awake? Even if I do, she won't be able to fight right away. Then again, if I wake her up and ensure she lays low so she can recover for a while, we can ambush the Jester with Katie's Territory.'
Ace crouched, his arms resting over his legs. Increasing the speed at which he scratched his head, he groaned loudly. Then, he yawned to finalize his thoughts. No longer could he stay affixed to this posture. He slid over to sit beside Katie, plopping his bottom onto the grass platform beside her sleeping self.
"How did it all turn this way?" He asked himself aloud.
He forced himself to remember the past; when he was just an innocent Agent of ANZEN. Ignorant to the grand scheme of the New World's ever-moving mechanism—every single one of them was unaware of their place in the miniature world they named their home. Maybe all of them knew from the start, maybe it was just something they didn't want to face: the unmistakable truth they so deeply desired to be false.
"I wish I could return to that ignorance." Ace scoffed, weakly smiling. "How did I ever manage to ignore the truth of this world when it was so prominent before me?" he asked himself.
He looked at Katie. Right now, her face was idle, her bust rising and falling following the orderly fashion of her gradual breaths. His head lowered the tiniest amount, flashing a genuine smile as he examined her face.
"If only you always looked this peaceful." Looking away once again, he threw his head back and admired the stars' endless sparkling. "Maybe you and I should run away together. Don't have to worry about anything bothering us anymore. We could live out the rest of our lives without having to worry about anything anymore—"
Then, something happened and he was unfortunately interrupted. His surroundings abruptly altered; he was now sitting against the colorful beach from the Seas of Time iconic abode. The hourglass shape loomed in the distance overhead, but even so, his focus wasn't on this shoreline landscape. The sound of Alex's voice resounding through his mind ordered him elsewhere.
'The time has come to end this conflict. Locate our prisoner. Once the Tower finally rises, our victory will undoubtedly be assured!'
Alex finished communicating, and Ace returned to the normal world, seated against the grass platform behind the Requiem Tower. Following his return, Katie was slapped, thus instantly awakening her. Analyzing her surroundings, Moon gasped and jerked upright.
"What happened? WHERE AM I?!" She loudly questioned.
Her shoulder was grabbed, her body entirely turning for her dark-azure eyes to meet Divergence's scarlet coloration. Standing there behind with an unmistakable determination aflame within his retinas was her older cousin—but why? What could've possibly happened in the short time she was asleep and she awoke that warranted that glare? All worries building up within her dissipated when those words are spoken aloud slipped from his lips and into her ears.
"It's time."
Elsewhere…
Hana had entrapped Icarus in her flowery Territory. As of right now, the Jester was quite literally in the palm of her hand; viable for an unblockable attack. However, the Master's Territory was formulated without an inescapable barrier. Despite her reluctance to liberate this information, both Alex and Icarus observed this. The Judge stepped closer to Saiai, obviously curious courtesy of his raised eyebrows.
"Uh, where's the barrier?" he asked.
"It's purposeful. I intentionally give the victim an escape route but my strength and speed increase tenfold. As long as I can confine him here, we can finally manage to beat him together," Hana said.
Vines unleashed from the pink flowerbed below him, seemingly attempting to stab his body. The Jester's nails shapeshifted into demonic claws, easily fracturing the incoming threads. Extending his palm, he mentally summoned an inter-dimensional door that swallowed the plasma beam flying toward him. Chrollo clenched his fist, punching the ground to send tremors throughout the platform before them. Alex dashed onward, tackling him into the stairway; relentlessly pounding his knuckles against his skull. Just before Alex could decimate his brains, however, his arm was grabbed by the wrist and his very limb decayed; reduced to ashes.
"What the-?"
Alex was backhanded away, slapped across his cheeks--thrown down the remainder of the steps. Icarus sat up, regenerating the destroyed portion of his face, then leaping away into the air, vanishing beyond the clouds to intercept his opponent's guaranteed landing. Unfortunately, who replaced the Judge's body was none other than the incoming fist of Master Hana, instantaneously connecting with Icarus's throat. Following the neck punch, he was kicked in the face once, thereby launching him through the sky's endless clouds.
Icarus dismantled the clouds during his flight, eventually reaching whoever wished to intercept with a counter-attack. Unraveling his whip from his belt, the Judge's metallic measurement snapped forward, the tip darting forward to connect against Chrollo's flailing build. A repulsive shockwave emanated outward, scattering the clouds upon the Jester getting hit. Descending from the sky, he exited the atmosphere and inevitably crashed into one of the City's skyscrapers. Tumbling through all the building's floors gradually, pieces of flesh disconnecting from his body, he rolled out the demolished configuration from the front.
Icarus knelt against the road, holding his slit stomach that exposed his gruesome intestines. His jaw unhinged and disconnected from his chin, splattering against the concrete street.
'I'm so weak...' He muffled a chuckle, covering his mouth with his hand. 'I can't focus on killing every last one of them despite how much I want to tear them to shreds. I got something better than resorting to such impracticalities.'
Chrollo plopped onto his rear, still holding his stomach. His head threw back, long blackened strands resting against the street, blood oozing down his face and splitting upon meeting his nose.
"I can see through everything you're doing... weaklings."
Icarus vanished milliseconds before Alex's fist could divide his torso. Retracting his knuckles from the ground, the Judge's eyes widened, now scanning every inch of his environment. He frustratedly clicked his tongue, watching the Master land via his peripheral.
"Where is he?" asked Hana.
"He used one of his abilities. I think Ace said he has a 'Time' power," Alex informed his teacher, fixing his hunched back and standing upright now.
"It probably just increases his speed to render the beholder invisible," deduced the Master, scratching her chin.
"I'll search the west of this destroyed thing. You do the east," said Alex, shoving his hands into his hoodie and walking away from her.
The Master and the Judge split. Analyzing each building's little nook and cranny would take too much time, so they relied on their senses. The Jester's scent was unavoidable, for any time he appeared around them, the embodiment of a despairing spider would appear; crawling up their spines.
Strolling through the left side of the building, his hands pocketed, Alexander remembered Chrollo's incapacitated form.
'He can't have recovered so much in such a short amount of time. The time between slaughtering Naraku and fleeing from Icarus's body was about 15 minutes.'
Then, he stopped. His fingers scratched the goatee staining his beard, subconsciously beginning to walk while thinking.
'Then again, it's always possible I didn't kill Naraku. Since he's dad's other half, I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to survive somehow despite my crushing of his soul. It's possible that Icarus channeled the last bits of Naraku's soul to give him some sort of temporary boost before his energy eventually diminished. As of right now, especially after using the Time ability, he should have less life energy than June or Kima. For me, that's light-'
Then, his pupils shrunk upon hearing those iconic words drenched in a chilling intonation signature only to Icarus's raspy vocals. Composing his fingers together, his extremities intentionally formulated the Namaskara Mudra while summoning that 'divine technique'.
"TERRITORY ENVELOPMENT!"
To Alex and Hana, his voice echoed. That initial assumption was unfortunately incorrect—the sound they presumed to be an echo was none other than a clone. Two identical versions of the ruthless Jester, appeared simultaneously to utilize the extent of their soul and slaughter their opponent.
"Humanity's Reckoning."
Having simultaneously erected two identical barriers imbued with his soul's information, it was clear. Despite Hana's territory being weaker, she was unable to summon it to overwhelm the Jester—the same with Alex, who'd already summoned his omnipotent territory.
Juxtaposing what occurred earlier, presently, they were quite literally in the palm of Icarus's hand. The clones standing behind the accumulating form creepily smirked, fangs pointing out their mouths as they spoke loudly one final time.
"You really are… such weaklings…"
Trivia: The Jester first assimilated Naraku's soul on July 25th, 2023. Presently, the date in the story is April 2026. Callum and Naraku aren't the only examples of two souls existing in the same vessel. If the submissive soul has learned a technique before being entrapped within the vessel, they would learn the soul's innate techniques. The Founder obtained the Requiem Artifact so this rule was overwritten, however, this isn't true for Icarus. The two souls' information would be interchangeable and their techniques would be usable for one another. In other words, with time, Naraku's techniques could've been etched into the body of the Jester to utilize freely.