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"I won't help you protect the living creatures you wish to protect, but I won't harm them either…
”It's not that I won't keep my promises, but it's just that they're too weak and not worth my attention…"
His words faded into a quiet buzz that Klein could have mistaken for the ringing in his ears.
‘Something as simple as this, is something ‘He’ is unwilling to do? And it’s not that ‘He’ can’t…’He’ just doesn’t want to…’
An indignant huff escaped Klein’s lips.
”A spoiled brat, are you?”
Rather abruptly, the Celestial Worthy’s ravings ceased.
The sudden quiet was deafening.
”What did you just say?”
Klein fought off a fit of laughter as he replied,
”Nothing at all, just that you’re quite spoiled.”
Like a stubborn toddler that won’t share his toys.
Pretty arrogant too.
“You—“
Oh, had he said that out loud?
“It’s true through, isn’t it? You’re too used to having things go your way.
”Look. Even now, you’ve gotten riled up by just a few words from me.”
He stayed silent.
”I suppose that’s one good thing my various experiences taught me. I don’t suppose I’d make a bad provoker, don’t you think?
“And such a shame for you. I’m sure you’re well aware I wouldn’t fight back if you had just agreed.”
”I have no reason to offer my protection to them. They are just distractions.”
”They are my humanity, my anchors. You of all beings don’t get to criticize that.”
Klein boldly threw out this statement. In fact, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was getting by arguing and aggravating the Celestial Worthy.
Perhaps a moment of futilely resisting is all he wants.
But just as Klein braced himself for more head-throbbing, ear-ringing pain, he hears a tone of voice he could never mistake with his clown powers.
”What an irritating successor I have. But still, you will not succeed. If you surrender willingly—“
He was cut off by another sharp bark. It resembled a laugh, but its contents were anything but.
It sounded…divine more than it was human. Gehrman Sparrow, as he stood before the dark angel of the second creator, the ancient sun god.
Crazed.
A sigh resounded in his mind.
”The more we speak the more you stand to lose.
”Are you sure you can bear the consequences?”
Klein couldn’t help it anymore. He burst into laughter again.
This time, it was the twinkling, bell-like laughter that accompanied Merlin Hermes.
“You’re being really accommodating. Have you accidentally acquired some of my humanity as a repercussion?”
Klein heard no response, but felt that he could sense some kind of indignation from the back of his skull.
But just as the Celestial Worthy gathered himself to speak again, Klein had a realization.
He smirked, mouth lines raising higher and higher until it was an impossible smile, an exaggerated smile.
”Hm, let me think…it can’t be could it?
“You…have a fondness for your descendants that transcends all known boundaries? Of biological status…and morality?”
Klein received no response to the statement. But he seemed to anticipate that.
His hands flew to his chest in mock offense.
“But…aren’t you too old to be gay? My dear poet would have had a heart attack if he knew you!”
Annoyance flared in sharp pangs of pain in Klein’s mind.
It was clear the Celestial Worthy was tired of his charades.
So Klein naturally continued his antics.
“You, an unknown-number-of-greats grandfather, love your student who is practically a baby. Could you possibly stoop any lower?”
This time, it seemed, the Celestial Worthy had deigned himself to respond. If only to shut his successor up.
“I had many choices, and I regret that out of all of them, it had to be you.”
The Fool smirked. His eyes shone with a mirth that belonged solely to Sherlock Moriarty.
“Having choices of child lovers is not a good outlook for you, you know.”
Then there was silence. If Klein could see the Celestial Worthy right now, he would have had no doubt the latter was massaging his temples.
“…you know what they were there for.”
His eyes curled.
”Oh but do I? Only you would know that, hm?”
This time, there was no retort. Just a faint sense of return to the maddening ravings of before.
So he changed the topic.
“Well, Amanises is a goddess, and Roselle a half-god, and I’m a god…”
Klein took a sharp intake of breath.
“Doesn’t that make you our sugar daddy or something?”
He heard a faint muttering that nearly blended in with the rest of the ravings: “How revolting.”
Then a little louder, in a very clearly irritated tone, “I have no time for this nonsense.”
“But you had thousands of years to kidnap a bunch of little children.”
Klein fired back.
The Celestial Worthy’s ravings seemed to rise in turn with his voice.
“You know as well as I do that it was for resurrection—“
But he was cut off again.
“You kidnapped a bunch of children to become immortal. Who are you, William Afton?”
The Fool retorted.
A simmering, boiling anger washed over the back of Klein’s mind.
But Klein continued onward.
“You also stalked the equivalent of kids and set up a whole spy system in China. With cultist propaganda of yourself.”
He then heard a deep, resounding sigh.
It missed the edge of defeat Klein was looking for.
This was not over yet, he had to keep going.
“Won’t lower yourself to respond anymore? Oh wait, I get it. You’re in denial. A creep of an old man who has existed for millennia, and is in denial of ‘His’ own feelings. Maybe that’s a good thing. I have a feeling the police would’ve been on a wild goose chase for a while.”
It was still eerily silent.
No, this wouldn’t do.
“I suppose denial is a river in Egypt for a reason.”
“…of my extensive knowledge, not such a river named denial existed. I shall not entertain your mindless bantering any longer.”
The Celestial Worthy seemed to choose a comment that he could argue against.
But Klein was prepared now.
“You’re actually clueless. Wow. Not sure what I expected from an old man, and Pallez will always be the better one.”
“The marauder angel?”
‘He’ questioned back.
The line was said in a flat, bemused tone.
”He is irrelevant.”
The Fool shook his head.
”Oh I’d argue ‘He’ is very relevant.
”For one, he’s actually not into kidnapping little kids for his evil grand plan.”
A flicker of irritation came and died out in the back of the Fool’s head.
Klein sighed exaggeratedly.
”I guess I have an Amon to thank. This was rather entertaining. It was refreshing to be able to lampoon again.”
The ravings returned once more.
He had one more chance.
”You know…maybe this is what Adam hoped for.”
This time, he didn’t see it coming.
The Fool saw stars.
His head was a mess of white, white, it was so white—
”You would dare to insinuate that I was being manipulated by a mere King of Angels?”
The Celestial Worthy’s tone was cold. A storm hidden under the divine layer of calm.
Clown and Faceless.
Klein’s thoughts supplied as he blinked dazedly.
”Well yeah. I suppose I did say that.”
’Oh dear goddess, I’ve done it now, haven’t I?’
Many emotions broiled in the back of Klein’s head, crashing violently into each other.
Klein thought he might collapse from the sheer, overwhelming feeling of it.
And then it all condensed into one phrase.
”I’m leaving.”
A jolt of electricity seemed to travel through Klein’s body.
”Excuse me?”
The Celestial Worthy openly scoffed at him now.
”You heard correctly. I will erase the traces of my will from your mind.”
“But why” was left unsaid.
Instead, the Celestial Worthy seemed to pick up on Klein’s bewildered state of mind and took pity on him.
“I have deduced that an annoying, idiotic successor like you is not worth the time I put into my resurrection.”
And true to ‘His’ word, the ravings drew back.
The Fool sat frozen, shell-shocked.
”Do not think you have gotten rid of me.
“I will return. And the next offer will not be as peaceful as this one.”
With that, the remains of the ravings had all but faded from Klein’s mind.
Additionally, he no longer felt that strange presence resting in the back of his head.
A battle won, but not fought.
In another world, Klein would be asleep by now, fighting off the Celestial Worthy in his dreams…
But that is a different Klein’s problem.
The Fool shook his head, as if to dismiss the last few minutes as an illusion.
‘I suppose I’ll have to contact the Tarot Club again,’
He mused.
‘I wonder what kind of shocked expression my dear poet will have…’
At least, Klein can now prepare more for the upcoming apocalypse.