Chapter 332

“You foolish woman,” Emrys, the Ancestor, shouts, looking incredulous at the portal. “You have no idea what you have just done.”

Vice Principal Lyanna steps back and smiles.

“Jacob Cloud is the most capable individual I’ve ever witnessed, old man. It doesn’t matter that he’s young. I am sure that whatever happens, he’ll be able to handle it.”

Yet, right when she finishes saying that, a red mist spreads from the portal, creating the outline of a distorted, elongated face. All those present step back and look at the projection warily.

“Jacob Cloud has finally come to meet his end,” the projection says, launching into a mad laugh. “His arrogance and his blood will be his end. You will all witness his end.”

- - -

Jacob looks around the landscape. It’s brown and red, with trees that have crimson-colored leaves hanging from their sharp branches. Yet the most important thing is below their feet.

“Boss?” Lancelot says warily, already transformed into his draconic form.

They are on top of what looks like a pyramid, or a giant altar. They’re on a plateau of this altar, shrouded in barriers.

[Grimoire Analysis: Divine Barrier. A barrier summoned during a karmic ritual of Blood Nemesis.]

“Before you read from your little grimoire, why don’t you let me explain, Jacob Cloud?”

Jacob hears a voice and turns to see that beyond the barrier there is someone — a young man he has never seen before.

[Grimoire Analysis: Armand Valemont, currently possessed by the Mad God.]

Jacob licks his lips. The Mad God possessed one of the latest generation of the Valemonts. It appears that not just those with the purest Valemont blood were able to enter the Sacred Grounds — which also means that the Mad God did not have any of Jacob’s blood, unlike what the Ancestor might have suggested.

Jacob keeps looking around while the Mad God seems offended by his lack of attention.

“You have fallen into my trap. You might as well give me some attention in the moments before your death. I am letting your own mother watch this. It will be so good for her. A true family moment to be cherished forever.” The last word comes out in an otherworldly growl.

“Boss?” Lancelot says. “What are we doing? How are we going to escape?”

Jacob settles his eyes on the Mad God’s incarnation. It’s just a young man. There’s no crazy aura around him, and other than slightly-too-wide eyes, there’s not really any sign of madness.

Jacob sees, beyond the Mad God, Bastian Valemont on a cross, bleeding through his hands and feet. He feels his breath choke. He feels his throat constrict as if he couldn’t breathe — but not because of Bastian. He runs to the other side, away from the Mad God, who is suddenly cackling.

“What’s happening, Jacob? What’s going on?” Lancelot asks.

Jacob puts his hands on the Divine Barrier and sees, at the feet of the pyramid, his brothers and sister all nailed.

“Kai!” Jacob shouts, seeing his brother nailed through the forearms, head hanging. For a second, Jacob thinks he’s unconscious. But then Kai manages to slowly lift his head and sees him.

“Jacob! You came! Now we can all be together.”

Jacob notices there is something wrong with his voice, as if it’s happy. Kai looks at his bleeding forearms in delight.

“Isn’t it great?” Kai calls up. “Nobody has to leave. The family can be together forever.”

Jacob punches the barrier and then turns toward the Mad God.

“Well, I used what your dear master loved to use on me,” the Mad God says. “Of course, there is a little sprinkle of madness in it, so I am, you know, converting your little family members and using them for my little ritual.”

“Lancelot?” Jacob says.

“Yes, Boss?” his Squire replies.

Stolen story; please report.

“I think this is it,” Jacob says slowly.

“Oh my, oh my. You are really a smart one, aren’t you?” The Mad God cackles. “You truly deserved the little grimoire. It fits you so well.”

That’s when Lancelot realizes something.

“Wait. He knows about the…” His voice trails off.

Jacob, who has been frantically reading the Grimoire, nods and closes his eyes.

“That’s because he’s not alone.”

A look of displeasure goes through the Mad God’s face, and then he sighs and says, bringing his hand up, “Indeed. I did not do this alone.”

There’s a sound of steps climbing the pyramid, and a second young man appears.

“Who the…?”

“We meet again, Jacob Cloud.”

Jacob recognizes the voice.

“You really took it personally when I got the Dark Champions on my side, didn’t you? You must have really been crying a lot about it, huh? To lose against a young kid, huh? How does it feel, Asmodeus?”

When Lancelot hears those words, his body freezes. Two Evil Gods, allied in order to kill his future Knight.

“Well,” Lancelot says, balling his fists up, “we’re not going down without a fight.”

“Oh, you’re surely not,” the Mad God says. “You’re surely not.”

Jacob is reading the Grimoire.

[Grimoire Analysis: Divine Barrier.]

[Flaw: The Ritual’s Anchor.]

What is the ritual anchor? Jacob wonders.

[Flaw Description: The anchor is the sacrifices. Remove the sacrifices in order to destroy the barrier.]

But seeing that the sacrifices are the four family members on crosses, Jacob knows that he can’t do anything.

He reads through the Primordial Grimoire — the Grimoire that got fused with King Baalrek’s black grimoire — hoping to find something, hoping that there is anything he can do. He punches at the barrier with Heartfire, but there’s nothing, not the barest reaction from it. Jacob shouts in frustration as he looks at his laughing brother Kai. And then Jacob looks at Lancelot with a really troubled expression. He goes back to reading the Primordial Grimoire.

There has to be a way.

He has just read how Blood Nemesis works.

No. No, this cannot be it. This cannot be it, Jacob shouts internally. He doesn’t want to let the Mad God know that he’s getting desperate. This cannot be the end, Jacob keeps repeating internally. Something. There must be something I can do.

He looks up at Lancelot several times while the Mad God keeps cackling. His family members on the crosses join him. It feels like doom is upon him.

Come on, Grimoire, give me a fucking solution, he thinks now, using the Grimoire to read through Lancelot, since a Primordial Spell, an invisible one, has already started weaving around the Squire. Something. Anything.

But the more Jacob reads, the more he realizes.

I’ve made a mistake. I should have been more careful.

The Grimoire doesn’t offer any solution.

Well, just one.

He looks at Lancelot and thinks, I cannot do it. I will not do it.

Lancelot looks quizzically at Jacob — and then Jacob suddenly starts weaving a Primordial Spell.

Lancelot is ready for the spell to break the barrier, for them to fight the incarnations of the gods. These incarnations don’t feel that strong. But that’s when the Primordial Spell envelops Lancelot, and Jacob tosses a sword at him. Lancelot catches it and sees that the spell has coalesced all around the sword.

Once again, the Mad God looks displeased.

“You know about the spell?” he asks, but it’s Asmodeus who replies.

“The Grimoire has evolved. It probably told him. He’s trying to preserve his Squire’s future.”

“What are they saying?” Lancelot asks Jacob, who looks troubled.

“Blood Nemesis is apparently a spell that allows someone to taint the karmic ties of their enemy’s closest person,” Jacob explains. “It’s usually a brother, or a parent. Evil Gods like them are trying to use it because they cannot reliably kill me in a fair fight. Their incarnations are tied by Karma. If this barrier fell, I would slaughter them like pigs. What they’re doing is channeling through my family members and creating a Blood Nemesis through you. The only person who can kill me on their behalf without Karma forever turning against them — now that our fates are so intertwined, mine and theirs.”

Blood Nemesis would just make Lancelot grow stronger and stronger until he killed Jacob or his body gave out. At which point, a revenant would arise from Lancelot’s blood and flesh, knit his Squire back together in the form of a nightmare, and try to kill Jacob again and again.

“I would never kill you,” Lancelot says. “What are you talking about?”

And then a red mist goes through the Divine Barrier and starts encircling Lancelot.

“It’s kinda funny, isn’t it?” Jacob says. “That you, out of all people, would be the one with the most karmic ties to me.”

“Jacob, what is happening?” Lancelot says, with the red mist starting to wrestle his arms and legs, even snaking around his neck. Lancelot moves a step forward, his body moving against his will, his aura now exploding past his current Rank.

“Blood Nemesis is a Primordial Spell that allows two Evil Gods like them to control you, Lancelot. The Primordial Spell I wove will break that control as soon as I’m dead. But that’s as much as I can do. There’s nothing I have that counters a spell like that. They had to have been making preparations for months. They probably infiltrated the Sacred Grounds a while ago. I did not see this coming at all. I’m not that good of a strategist, apparently. And please, do not feel guilty when I’m gone. You’re already much stronger than most at the Academy. You deserve the spot of a Champion. Take mine.”

“Jacob, I refuse!” Lancelot shouts, trying to wrestle against the red mist. Yet slowly, inexorably, he is dragged forth. Lancelot roars, trying to fight this ancient Primordial Spell. But he can do nothing.

Jacob refuses to fight his best friend. He refuses to even try to kill him. If he must go, this is the way. If he fought Lancelot, he would still most likely die, given how much the spell has empowered his Squire. And, knowing the two Evil Gods, they would use this to forever seal Lancelot’s fate and have him killed next. By absolving Lancelot of his murder, and by enveloping him in the Primordial Spell that Jacob once used to dispel the contracts of the Dark Champions — using King Baalrek’s sword as a catalyst — his Squire will be free.

Free to start over.

And so, Jacob waits for his death.