Black Egg

"Do not think that you can leave this place without giving me the egg. Did you think I'd forget? I am not you!", Iono yelled in the jester's telepathic ear.

"First of all no one can be me, I am one of a kind.", the jester said with a smug grin.

"Also, of course I didn't think you'd forget,

I was just going to grab it. Stop being so stiff you greed baby. I mean, you green baby. ", he said laughing playfully like a mean mother-in-law.

Iono wasn't one to be patient with this idiot's nonsense, but the egg took priority. He took a deep breath to calm down. His disordered baby face returned to normal and looked the jester straight in the eyes.

The jester noticed his look and blushed to the ears like a young maiden, he brushed his imaginary hair back and turned his head, too embarrassed to look Iono in the eye. Of course, it was all a rouse to get on his nerves, as Iono did in the beginning. There was a reason he was called the "Jester" of chaos.

Iono's forehead vein impressively managed to pop, given that he was a baby and extremely pissed.

But he suppressed his feelings once again and calmed down. "Jester, I want the egg, enough messing around.", he said seriously.

There was no bloodlust, prana, nor will in his voice. It was as calm as a spring. Yet the jester felt a tinge of fear in it.

His ego was so insulted that he wanted to scream, but he knew that he had much to lose from such behaviour.

"Me!?

The one that slaughters others like chickens!?

Who men and gods fear alike!?

FEAR!?

No, I refuse to believe it.", the jester said inwardly while biting his lower lip in frustration.

Iono was someone who had once reached the realm of Gods without becoming one, and not only that, his soul had become so strong after so much destruction and reconstruction, that he could now project his inner will without him knowing.

The jester was right; if it was anyone else he would scoff at their provocation, but in front of this green little devil, he fell short.

Randell opened a black rift to his dungeon and proceeded to enter the vault that resided in its catacombs.

Inside the vault, surrounded by golden feathers, was a black egg.

The scene was rather eerie.

The egg was sucking in the light coming from the shiny golden feathers.

Randell picked up the egg, looking at it thoughtfully for a moment.

He had a weird feeling that the egg was looking back at him.

He then opened a rift back to Iono's house where he left the egg on Iono's chest. Iono's eyes shone while looking at the black egg and he was shocked to see the dagger stirring in his chest, resonating with the egg.

"Imprint it so you can hide it. You have prana, so you should have a pocket dimension. It must be as big as the egg, but I can't say for sure. Take a look." Randell said with a serious face and sad eyes. It was so unlike him, Iono thought someone else teleported to his room.

Randell thought back to the time he had found the egg.

It was during the Black war, as the heavenly realm historians named it.

It was called that because due to some God's power, the whole war was fought in total darkness.

Enemies, allies you couldn't tell which one was which and you could only slaughter indiscriminately.

Of course, for the jester, this was just another Tuesday morning.

He found the egg inside a cave while fighting off demons, and the allure of a dark egg that not only seemed to devour light but gave him a feeling of dread unlike what he had ever felt, made the egg an invaluable treasure to him.

He took it, nurtured it and waited for it to hatch, only a thousand years later, he learnt that it was cursed to only be able to hatch once imprinted by a mortal.

Of course, Randell was furious.

He toppled the earth and spilt the sky trying to find a solution to the curse only to come back empty-handed.

In the original timeline, where Iono and Randell became rivals and friends, the jester told Iono about the egg that had been in his hands for two thousand years.

You'd think that he could use mortals to imprint it and hatch it, but unfortunately for him, once the egg was imprinted, it recognized the mortal as its guardian and so he had no options.

Randell felt very remorseful about leaving the egg with Iono but he knew that it was better to have chaos than to have nothing. Especially since chaos was something that no one had been able to encounter for God knows how many centuries.

"Thank you, Randell. I know it means a lot." Iono said suddenly remembering his long-lost friend, that was standing right in front of him.