Within the basement of the Blue Palace, Nox, sporting a comedy mask could be seen running her hand along the walls of an underground corridor. Feeling a slight bump in the wall, Nox stopped and began running mana into the wall, revealing the large enchantment circle previously concealed with illusions. Upon activation, the wall parted ways, revealing a door to a hidden room. As she went to open the door, a number of offensive enchantment circles lit up around her, only to suddenly malfunction due to Nox altering the structure with her spirit magic before they could fully activate.
The interior of the room was rather large, yet mostly empty, and with good reason. The entire room, from floor to ceiling, was covered with numerous intricate enchantments of varying elements. The only thing present within the room besides Nox was a single floating multicolored marble at the center of the room, surrounding itself with a light haze of varying energies.
"Figured you'd be here!" Nox said as she entered.
Soon after the marble reacted as the energy haze began concentrating around it, solidifying into the shape of a jester.
*Yawn*
"Sup, big sis! What time is it?" The jester spriggan said, acting like he had just gotten out of bed.
"It's war time!" Nox replied.
"Hm? That late huh? Welp, feel free to wake me up when something important happens, 'kay!" The jester said as he changed into pajamas and teleported a floating bed into the room for him to sleep in.
*Loud snoring*
"Cut the crap! You know why I'm here!" Nox said.
*snoring*
"*Sigh* Oh, look! A bunch of magic stones suddenly appeared out of nowhere! I wonder where they came from? Since, no one has claimed them, I guess I'll just-!" Nox said as she dropped a pile of lesser magic stones on the ground.
"MINE!" The jester yelled as he hopped out of bed to grab at the stones.
"Good, you're up! And seeing how much energy you have, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping around the war front, right?"
"What?! Aw come on! I just did the conference thing! Can't you ask someone else?"
"I could-!"
"Great! Then I'll just-!"
"-But then you wouldn't get to take your revenge now would you?"
"…! What?" The jester asked as he lost his playful demeanor.
"You heard me! The one at the top of your kill list is gonna make an appearance soon, and it would be problematic for me if I let him live for much longer! I was planning to let you go deal with him, but since you're so busy-!"
"Okay, fine! I'll cut the crap! I'm assuming you've got a plan in mind already! I mean, you're not expecting me to face a spirit king head on as I am, right?"
"Yeah, but before all that, let's address the tall, crying elephant in a room miles away from here!"
"What elephant!"
"The one you've been grooming behind my back!"
"I don't know what you're ta-!"
"You've been preparing Crybaby to become your vessel!"
"…!"
"Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
Seeing the serious look in Nox's eyes, the jester let out a sigh and started chuckling.
"Come now! Do you really trust your bro that little! Do you really think I'd lay as much as a finger on my nephew, the child my sister begged me to look after with her dying breath?"
"I thought you said you were gonna cut the crap?"
At her words, the jester's spirit body began to morph into a sinister gremlin with a nightmarish grin plastered on his face.
"*Chuckle* Can you blame me! I mean, you knew fully well how tempting that body of your disciple is to a creature like me! You left me alone with him for years, what did you think was gonna happen!"
"And you wonder why you weren't my first choice?"
"Too bad all your other candidates died!"
"…"
"Too soon?"
"…"
"Hello? Big sis?" The gremlin spoke as he waved his hand in front of Nox's mask to no response.
As Nox just stood there silently, frozen like a statue, the already giant grin of the gremlin grew even bigger.
"Phew! I was starting to worry that it wasn't going to work! Good thing it did, cause I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to stall you with words!" the spriggan said, pretending to wipe some sweat off his forehead.
As the floating gremlin began packing away his magic stones, he continued talking to the unresponsive Nox.
"Like it? I made this just for you, you know! See, I knew if I ever went for Alex, you'd get pissed and try to stop me! And I know you well enough to understand that I could never kill you! Even in this helpless state, anything I'd try would only piss you off and nothing more! That's why way back when I was still your contract spirit, I secretly developed a little something which I planted inside your soul to immobilize you! It's really too bad you had to figure me out right now though! It sounded like you were finally going to make good on that pact we made all those years ago, but in the long run, Alex is far more vital to my plans than you!" He explained as he finished packing up his belongings.
As he was about to pass by Nox on his way towards the exit, he stopped and whispered something in her ear.
"I'm sorry about bringing up the others before! I had a lot of fun, being part of your band of monsters! It was the first time in 500 years I felt like I truly belonged somewhere! Thank you for that. Goodbye, Big sister Alice!" He said as he turned to leave.
However,
"Pft! Hahahahaha!"
"Huh?"
Just as he was about to leave, Nox, who was supposed to be unable to move, suddenly started laughing. Hearing this, the jester immediately turned around, clutching an ominous orb of swirling darkness in his hand, only to freeze up as the person he was intending to use it on was no longer there.
"My adorable little brother, Nore!" Nox said, having suddenly appeared behind the jester, gently wrapping her hands around his head.
In surprise and shock, the spriggan ended up dropping the orb to the ground, causing the two of them to be transported to a dark void.
"How do you know that name!"
"Silly little Nore! What kind of big sister would I be if I didn't know my brother's name! Especially, when he went out of his way to learn the name I despise the most!"
"Cut the crap!"
"*Giggle* Oh, how the tables have turned! Well, to quote somebody else, when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back! Every time you flitted through my memories to learn about me or the magics you needed to develop this nifty little soul-based stun grenade of yours, you also put your own memories on full display for me to peruse! You might have known that had you actually bothered to learn soulmancy properly instead of just the bare minimum!"
"So, you've known all along? Figures! So, what now? You gonna kill me?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Because I just betrayed you?"
"Sweet, stupid, little Nore! Do you know why I didn't contest when you decided you wanted to be the younger sibling in our relationship?"
"Because calling you big sis made you sound taller?"
"Okay, the second reason!"
"No?"
"Because I think you are adorable! I find your mischief endearing, I find your lofty and unrealistic goals relatable, and where do I even begin about your harebrained schemes! I mean, you just tried to beat me, ME of all people, with a soul-based method! Comparing the two of us, that would be like someone who's still learning multiplications trying to out-math a rocket scientist, and I just find the fact you actually gave it a try so cute! It's like I am watching a child being overly serious about a game of pretend!" Nox said as she pinched Nore's cheek.
"Ugh! Stop it! Damn it, stop pushing the sensation of being pinched into my soul! Ouch!"
"It's like you said, you can't really do anything to me even if you tried! That's why I gave you a pass when you try to turn on me, because to me, your so-called betrayals are lukewarm at best and you're about as threatening as a kitten! However, that changes when you go after someone smaller than me, like my kids! And I can't really have you doing that, so as your big sis, I'm going to set you straight, so you don't ever try this again!" Nox said as she bent down to look him in the eye, her comedy mask belying something much more sinister underneath.
"Wait, big sis! Let's talk about this! I was just kidding before! You know I would never seriously try to haAAAAAAAHHH!"
On that day, the screams of a certain jester echoed throughout the halls of the blue palace.