He laughed. The corpse of a recently fallen soldier was laughing. His guts were spilling out as he danced with utter joy. Why, though, was he doing this?
"Jason, w-what the fuck is going on? Didn't we bury Daniel yesterday?" Chad questioned him, his M16 rifle trembling in his hands as he watched his friend's corpse act in such a bizarre manner.
Jason clenched his rifle at the sight of Daniel coming closer by every inch. "Damn it... just when we were close to the outpost. We'll have to retreat for now."
Daniel's body was already rotting due to the magic ability of one of their enemies in the Northern Continent—Azurath. It degraded his body to the point where they had to put him out of his misery. Yet, even in this condition, he came back from the earth, dancing and laughing as tears streamed down his face.
Chad suddenly fires a bullet into Daniel's head, blasting the remainder of his brain matter all over the floor. As Daniel's corpse falls, it momentarily lays there before rising back up again, continuing in the same manner as it once did before. Its body regenerated itself from the damage, causing Daniel to make a loud groan as it does. "Chad, don't shoot him, you're making his suffering even worse!" Jason yelled, giving him a mean glare that ordered Chad to stop.
With a feisty demeanor, he snapped back to Jason. "How?! Isn't he being controlled?!"
Jason fell silent at first, but shortly explained to him. "Last night I had found out our intelligence center had come out with reports of zombies being spotted on the battlefield. Initially, we were unaware of the source, but our spies returned from Azurath with valuable information."
"At one point, it used to be a soldier with no magic, just like us. He battled countless days without end. Later on, he disappeared without a trace. They thought he went AWOL, but instead, he came back with one of the most terrifying magics."
"And what would that be?" Chad wondered, listening in.
"His magic is considered a specialized type. It's called Necromancy magic. Data from our intelligence center couldn't find out how he obtained his magic, but we've somehow deciphered how it works by observation and experiments."
"Doesn't it work by just getting their corpses and making 'em attack people?" Chad had recalled that one zombie movie he watched as a kid. It traumatized him to this day.
"We initially thought that, but it's something worse than that. Our priests have discovered that when their corpses are afflicted by Necromancy magic, their bodies retain their souls. They cannot control their bodies; they can only watch, feel, and suffer the consequences of dying. The worst part is that their souls are trapped in their bodies. They cannot pass on to the afterlife, only dance and laugh like buffoons. The actions of this magic repulsed even the angels from the heavens."
Coming to a realization, Chad stares at Daniel, still laughing with joy as tears drown his face. "D-Does that mean..."
Cutting him off, Jason looked down and sighed. "Yeah, Daniel can hear us, see us, and feel unimaginable pain right now. It's just he cannot die. He's an immortal creature, forced to laugh and dance for eternity."
Seeing the horrors of this shook Chad to the core—something he couldn't handle. His breathing accelerated, and his lips quivered at the sight of his once-friend's transformation into a state of endless suffering. Through his laughs and his gleeful dancing, the only thing that didn't feel forced was Daniel's tears.
"Jason, can't we do anything for Daniel?! We can't just leave him in this state!"
"We can't. The best we can do is to just leave him alone and let the church contain him for now. The only way he's released is if that bastard who did this to him frees his soul."
With pure rage, Chad tensed up with his rifle in hand. "Then let's go kill that fucker! I'll make that shitstain pay!"
"We can't." Jason said, in a tone of defeat.
"WHY? ARE YOU JUST GOING TO LET DANIEL GO THROUGH FUCKING HELL?!"
"The man you're after is way too powerful. Not even four Primordial magic users could defeat him."
"No way... how did four Primordial magic users lose against him?!"
Jason sighed, lighting up a cigarette. His cigarette stood tall in the bustling winds of Death Valley, the flame not going out beyond the piles of corpses. "That bastard... he's immortal."
Chad blinked, coming to the present day. The Jolly Man came closer with his army of zombies. They all laughed and danced, clapping their hands erratically as they do. "Niantha, we'll have to fight back."
Niantha gulped, seeing them being outnumbered. The best thing to do right now is to attack first, but she didn't even have time to practice Aura techniques. "If only the President had better handwriting." She tried to recall the information on the sloppily written piece of paper she was given, but it did not click.
"What about my handwriting?" Chad questioned as he pummeled zombies left and right, punching hard with each blow. As the zombies get toppled over one by one, the Jolly Man stands there, grinning in delight at the sight.
Niantha, also being attacked by zombies, used many judo throws to slam zombies onto each other. Chad, seeing this, retreated to Niantha. "Whoa, impressive combat skill, Niantha!"
"Well, if you had no magic, you're kind of forced to learn this!" Niantha said, kicking a zombie onto the floor. As the zombies go down, they regenerate the damage they've sustained, making their attacks futile. Niantha, noticing this, halted her attacks. "President, I'm pretty sure the Jolly Man is stalling us out till we're tired! These zombies are just regenerating the damage we deal."
Before speaking to Niantha, Chad elbowed a zombie and said, "Well, yeah, the Jolly Man likes to slowly break down his opponents before finishing them. I already knew this beforehand." Even though he says this, he continues fighting against the zombies one by one, only increasing the pile of zombies that lay next to them. "Then what are we going to do?" Niantha questioned, stepping back from the horde of zombies coming toward her.
Suddenly, Chad grinned, before lifting Niantha over his shoulder. Not expecting this action, she let out a slight scream. "My preparations are done. It's time to escape!" Chad imbued his legs with Aura as he ran up the pile of zombies he created. With an enormous leap, he released the Aura from his legs, sending them flying high in the air. Descending, Chad had realized he had gone too high up, flailing his legs as they freefall toward an apartment complex. "O-Oh crap, too high!" Chad screamed as he held Niantha tightly to shield her from impact. Smashing into the roof of the apartment complex, Niantha had felt her impact soften as Chad served as a cushion for her. As the dust settled, she could see Chad's Aura slowly fade away as he activated it last second to reduce the impact of the fall. "President, are you okay...?" Niantha asked, straightening out her glasses.
With a smile, he nodded. "I'm alright!" Chad let go of Niantha before standing up. Rushing footsteps could be heard inside the empty apartment room they'd crashed into. Chad pulled Niantha down again, and she saw them duck under a giant greatsword that someone had swung at them. As the great sword swiped against the air, the pressure caused the room to crack. Niantha's eyes widened, seeing their near-death experience stand directly in front of them. Smacking his lips, Chad sighed. "Damn, he already pulled out the big guns..."
It was a tall and burly suit of knight armor that swung its greatsword at them. You could see that the helmet contained no head underneath it, only a black flame that spilled out of the crevices of the helmet. Within an instant of retaliation, Chad had already amassed a big ball of Aura within the palm of his hand, smashing it against the knight's armor. On impact, it left a colossal explosion, sending the knight flying through the walls of the apartment and making him fall off the fifth floor. "President, from my speculations, I thought the Jolly Man could only conjure the dead... what was that?"
"You are somewhat right about that. The Jolly Man's magic is called Necromancy. He can conjure the dead, but that's because of how his magic functions. His magic allows total manipulation of souls, causing him to take ownership of any soul he desires. Because of this, the Jolly Man can go into the afterlife and snatch souls for his bidding; that knight was one of his victims. He materializes their bodies and controls them like puppets when he has ownership of their soul."
"But how can he freely enter and exit the afterlife? That seems impossible."
"His magic allows him to have total control of his soul, too. That's why his soul can enter and exit the afterlife whenever he wants. He's not bound by God's strings whatsoever."
"Then how do we beat him?! This guy seems almost unstoppable!" Niantha asked in a panic.
"You can't. You can only run away from him. All you gotta do is NOT die and get your soul snatched in the afterlife, cause if he takes control of your soul, you cannot do anything to stop it!"
As they chatted, a jester smashed through the window, laughing at full volume. It wore a white mask that grinned, and his outfit was covered in white and black spades. Chad groaned seeing the jester, as if he was tired of it already. "Oh my god, not this annoying guy again! It's been years since I last saw you!" The jester swerved its arm to its back before making a scythe emerge from thin air. "Alright, Niantha, this is the perfect test for you to use Aura! I want you to aim your palm at that dumb-looking jester and shoot an Aura blast at it!"
She hesitated, knowing that her experience with Aura came to so little. This dangerous situation did not help with her focus, either. "Come on, it's just a little oomph!" Chad stated, dodging a flying scythe that was aimed toward his forehead. The scythe nearly hits Niantha as it is sent all the way to the room's closet, smashing it into bits. Giving an enormous sigh of relief, Chad wiped his forehead. "Phew, that was close!" Chad's demeanor wasn't serious in this situation, even while a magical jester with a scythe was trying to murder him on the spot.
"So the paper said to focus my mana into my palm and concentrate it into the form I want..." Mana gathered in her palm, beginning to circulate into a ball. "And then right when I want to fire it, I make a tremendous burst of mana flow into my palm!" Her eyes jolt wide open on the release, sending the ball of mana at the jester. Watching the ball hurling itself towards the jester widened her eyes in awe. "President, I did it-"
The jester deflects the Aura ball with his scythe, redirecting it at Chad. Not expecting the sudden redirection, the ball slams directly into Chad's face. "P-President!" Niantha screamed, seeing Chad tumble backward. Dazed, he slowly sat up, holding his forehead. "My head hurts..." In his dazed state, he was yet to notice the impending doom that was coming closer than ever. The jester had summoned two more scythes that gyrated in the room, slicing the nearby desk and bed into shreds. Adding to that, the knight from before returned, a large hole gaping in its chestplate. Within the hole lies a blackened flame that stirs around its skeletal body.
As they both approached them, Niantha began to panic. "There is nowhere to go, so how am I going to leave this place?" Everything moved in slow motion as they were ready to attack. "I don't want to die!" Niantha told herself, clenching her fist. They began their assault, the knight swinging its greatsword and the jester throwing its scythes at the two of them.
The feeling of death lingered and thickened the air. Niantha tensed up, preparing for the worst. "G-GO AWAY!" she screamed as she shut her eyes. As her eyes closed, she trembled in fear for moments, before realizing no attack has came. "What?" Opening her eyes, her enemies had mysteriously disappeared. All that remained was Chad in a state of drowsiness; both the knight and jester gone.
"Where did they go...?"
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Magic Name: Scythe Master
User: Jobin the Jester
Type: Standard
Rank: Above-Average
Description: Summon scythes that can fly at high speeds.
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