THE ONE CALLED J: ALL GOES DOWNHILL

Joshua and his group had left Black's base. Dave kept his calm, Max looked worried, he was still thinking about Black's words. It was terrifying, the way he had esteemed Kronk and made it seem like every entourage-user they had faced up till the point of Kronk was a mere joke. They had defeated some of the people they had fought by a cat's whisker. There weren't any of their fights that weren't close, and even if they faced the people they had defeated again, Max held little hope that they were capable of winning. Hendrickson was on a call, he was speaking to his daughter, trying to find out everything that was going on within her school, and at home. "Dave," Joshua quickly caught up with Dave. "Kronk, do you think he's the same as the one we know?" "You heard the story Black told us. In the story, Kronk was depicted as a man, I am pretty sure for him to be called a man. Everyone was able to see him." "What about if it wasn't everyone but just entourage-users?" "What do you mean?" "Didn't you notice it was odd? I checked the news each involving the demise of his bar, the time when that woman died. There was no mention or picture of the owner of the bar. Think about it, the cops didn't even try to find the owner of the bar to question him or something. At first, I thought it was just because it was an entourage so they weren't able to know him but what I never considered was why that woman was able to see Kronk, she might have been an entourage user. She just didn't know it, maybe she was yet to focus on that silhouette in the phosphene." "What about that homeless-looking man, I remember reading something about that in the news. They said he was a survivor or something." "You mean that drunk dumbass, the nigga wasn't exactly himself so I don't think it amounts to much." "J, I see your point but trust me, this Kronk is completely different from the one on Black's story." "How can you be sure?" Joshua was puzzled. "You weren't with Max and me. While we entered the station to look for you, there was a portrait of Leon on the wall, it wasn't a picture of him exactly, more of a drawing, it was said on the portrait that he was needed for questioning. I am guessing while the police were making their investigation, most of the people whom they had questioned weren't entourage-users. There were several accounts of people claiming they were attended to by a tall kid in the bar, I am guessing that's where Leon's portrait came in." "Am I thinking you are saying what you think you are saying?" "Precisely, Kronk was smart, maybe that was why he brought Leon along. If only a set of people were capable of seeing Kronk, and some were not, that would have aroused a substantial degree of suspicion. He must have brought Leon along so he could attend to those who weren't entourage-users. The Kronk of the bar isn't the Kronk of Black's story, the only thing that will probably link both of those individuals is if maybe for the Crescent Primordial to seal Kronk, he had to extract Kronk's entourage from him, though I don't see how that's possible with my present knowledge. Since Entourages are directly linked with their user's soul, it must have taken its user's name. Even if that's the case, I doubt any Crescent Primordial would be careless, he must have found a way to even restrict the entourage from ever acting." "Then maybe Madame had then ventured into the beginning, and freed the Entourage while stealing the Qwaito'buj for herself." "That would explain a lot," Dave began musing. "It must have been why the entourage felt a great deal of gratitude towards Madame." "And they call me a genius," came a deep gruff voice, they all turned in the direction of the voice. The voice belonged to a man, he was about 200 cm tall, he was dressed like a hipster, and wore dark shades, it was Kronk. Immediately they saw him, Hendrickson, Erina, Max, Dave, and Joshua covered their bodies fully with their entourage miasma. "Relax, y'all," Kronk laughed. "If I wanted to kill y'all, I think a more efficient way would have not been raising attention to myself." "Who the fuck are you?!!!" Joshua shouted at him. "I don't think that's how people are supposed to greet strangers, things have changed from the last time I was in this universe. That would explain why that maggot was so rude to me at that eatery. Humans of this world have grown more disrespectful," he grins to himself, stretching his two arms to the fullest length, he spoke. "I am a well-esteemed individual who is venturing this parts in hopes to complete a business transaction, and pay off my debt to another dignified matriarch." "You might have misheard my associate," Dave's tone was both calm and grave. "Who the fuck are you? Because of the nature of entourages, we always ensured we covered a hidden part of our body with entourage miasma in case any enemy entourage-user had decided to be stupid enough to try and get the jump on us. The fact that you can perceive us means you are an entourage-user, I am not gonna ask you again, who the fuck are you?" "Tough crowd," Kronk smirked. "I am the MVP of the hour, I am the one who you were talking about, I am Kronk. I have no surname as a surname is proof of a fact that I belong to a certain lineage. Kronk belongs to nothing, if anything, everything belongs to Kronk." "Dave," Joshua was grinning like an idiot. "Let's hire this guy, I like his vibes." "Hell fucking no!!!" Erina screamed. "I have already had to deal with one narcissistic egotist, my frail heart can't bear another." "J, be serious. You heard what he said when you asked him who he was. He was speaking like someone who hasn't been in this universe for a long while, he said something about a business transaction and a matriarch. I am guessing by a business transaction, he means capturing you and I. By matriarch, he's probably talking about Madame." "What a shame!" Joshua puts on an unhappy expression. "So we are going to have to pop this fool, just when I thought I had found a best friend." "You heard what my man said," Hendrickson's tone was grave. "You might wanna consider surrendering, you are surrounded, I don't mean to brag but two of those surrounding you are the Primordial entourages, one of which defeated you eons ago. Surrender!!!" "All I am surrounded by is idiocy, and dead children," Kronk's tone, and facial expression were demeaning and mocking. "You bastard!" Erina screamed at him, her entourage dashed towards Kronk, it was about to hit him but Kronk did a backflip away from his position. He landed several miles away. "Y'all might wanna take a chill pill, I take no delight in bullying the weak." "Who the hell are you calling weak?!" Joshua screamed in his direction. "You all, after all, it's in the nature of life. The weak flock together, they do so to avoid the oppression of the strong." "You young disgusting, irritating, irrelevant, insignificant, infinitesimal waste of sperm," Joshua growled in his direction, his entourage appeared at his right side. "The J is many things, but weakness is not one of them. I am the infinite, I am the eternal, I am the immeasurable, I am the one Called J. It was through me, that everything exists, and by me, nothing shall consist. Everyone who ever came against me, I always mudded them," Joshua stopped about 1.5 meters away from Kronk. "And you this foul-mouthed buffoon shall be no exception," he ended, pointing at Kronk. "When you see a man being unnecessarily haughty, it means he is yet to be in a situation that requires him being humbled. Humbling the proud, it's what I do." "You dumbass!" Joshua screamed, his entourage dashed over to Kronk, as loud as Joshua could scream, he blurted out. "ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE!!!!!!!" his entourage punched as speedily as it could. It was raining severe punches on Kronk's body, breaking every single bone in his body, dealing him intense damage as if he was some form of punching bag. Joshua's entourage stopped punching him, Joshua grinned to himself. Kronk's body was laying on the ground, he was nothing more but a bloody mess, his organs were squished, his bones were broken. There was no way Kronk was still alive. "The way you speak," Joshua felt his body freeze as he heard the unmistakable voice of Kronk directly behind him. "It means you are aware of higher dimensional beings, I am guessing you heard my tale, the one where I was locked in a 4D world but what the tale failed to mention was that I made a friend, he's a 4D being of course, and in a 3D plane, that 4D being is practically a god." Joshua tried his hardest to will his body into moving but he couldn't, he was frozen. An entity suddenly appeared behind Kronk, it was shapeless, and it radiated with different colors. "This is the 4D being friend I made, though I have to say, it took me an infinite amount of energy to release him from the coma the first Primordials put every being from the 4D plane to the infinite dimensional plane in. But it pays off, my friend is capable of reality manipulation, spatial manipulation, time manipulation, matter manipulation, and practically every form of hax known and unknown to humanity." "That explains your blind confidence, though I don't see the justification of that crap you were saying earlier of just the weak flocking together when you doing the same shit," Joshua thought to himself but he was shocked. His thoughts had become physical constructs of words, and they were floating in the atmosphere. "So that's what you thinking, uhh," Kronk laughed. "Well, your opinion matters not. No one cares about the perception of a loser, it's the one who's winning that is the real deal." "Your 4D friend ain't as convenient as you making him seem, if he was half as powerful as you think, then why doesn't he just wipe us out from existence. Lemme guess, he can't cause even though my body is that of 3D origin, my essence still resembles that of the first Primordials, and theirs were so baroque that it was beyond the concept of concepts itself." "J, you are just like your predecessors. The cunning of any Primordial isn't to be joked with though there was something you didn't get quite right. Why did you think I waited until this time to reveal my trump card, it's obvious. Cause my 4D friend is unable of affecting any of the Primordials, but Primordials can damage each other, that's why I had you attack me, one thing about my 4D friend is that he's got a hax called damage manipulation, it's similar to what Adrien had but it's far more complex. My 4D friend stored the damage that you intended to deal on me, and he amplified it infinitely-fold. Since the damage's origin was from that of a Primordial, I have more than enough to destroy you and your friends, it wouldn't have been able to work if it wasn't a Primordial, I was directly trying to bait you on purpose, you Diamond Primordials never change. You see, you will be the reason why your team fails." "It's a good thing you said team," Kronk was amazed, he turned in the direction of the voice, it was Dave. He didn't appear to be frozen in time like the rest of his comrades. "A team is a collection of individuals coming together for a common goal, one of which entails an individual covering up the mistakes of another." "How are you able to move within the space of stopped-time," The 4D being finally spoke, it was astonished. "I am the personification of the time itself. I am not subject to it, rather, it's subject to me. I could always perceive everything that was going on, it took a while before I could extend some aura to the inner workings of my body so even my body itself could get adjusted to the new development." "Nothing has spoiled," the 4D being bit his lower lip. "Kronk promised me godhood, he said I would be able to rule over everything, I shall not let you truncate my plans." It ends as it dashes towards him. Immediately it did, the scenery changed to a vacuum, there was no form of atmospheric constituents whatsoever. "There's no oxygen in this plane!" The 4D being laughed. "I have seen humans can't survive without it." "One would think 4D beings would have a reasonable level of concrete intellect," Dave looked disappointed. "I am speaking, and you can hear what I am saying. That is supposed to be impossible as in the space of stopped-time, molecules are unable to interact or move therefore vibrations between molecules should be impossible, in other words, sounds shouldn't be made. I can now bypass those laws thanks to the new ability I attained when Madame freed Kronk. Tell you what, follow me to a citadel of learning, I will drop you in kindergarten, you need to get a basic education before you can be capable of competing with me." "You wretched fuck!" The 4D being screamed as his form suddenly changed, it now resembled Dave perfectly. "GYA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!" Dave's laugh was cruel and mocking. "Taking my form isn't the same as taking my knowledge, a man's physique doesn't define him, it's his thought pattern, who he is, what he can do, that's the layout of a man. His form is but a cover, completely irrelevant to his true nature, if you had basic kindergarten education, you would know that but clearly, your reasoning capability is even lower than that of a fly." "ARGHHHHH!!!!" The 4D being screamed as loud as it could, it dashed towards Dave. Summoning an infinite number of objects(both living and non-living) from nothingness, the 4D being instructed the objects to attack Dave but they all vanished to nothingness as Dave's entourage blitzed each one of them. "What the hell is happening??!!" The 4D being was visibly terrified. "I have an ability called time restore. I think from the name, your feeble mind can guess what it entails. I simply restored your pathetic excuse for constructs to the time when they had not been, my entourage is beyond dimensions, concepts, aspects, it's beyond everything, and it's capable of returning you to that frozen position that you once were." Dave looked demeaning, he and his entourage were strolling towards the 4D being. Dave didn't look fazed at all, if anything, it was almost like this fight was a joyride to him or a simulation he has kept repeating, and he had finally gotten the perfect hang of it. "Blah blah blah," Kronk laughed at him, there was a grenade in Joshua's mouth, Kronk had removed the pin on the grenade. "Your idiot friend over here is about to die, don't think you will be able to restore your friend. Though the grenade was purely Black's making, but I added some materials to it, the same materials that also wipe out the memories of any object that has been destroyed. If you are wondering how I was able to come up with the materials, then you must be foolish, my 4D friend can alter the fabric of reality to its most fundamental level, creating a few materials was no hassle for him, the grenade is completely immune to entourage effects, this means whether time is paused or not, so long it was initiated by an entourage, it won't affect the bomb, and the countdown would begin as intended whether it's in a space of stopped time or not. In simple words, your boy, J is gonna die in a few seconds, at least, that's just by our perception since generally, time has been frozen." Dave bit his lower lip, as fast as he could, he began time-skipping forward. Even though he was hundreds of miles away from Joshua, he had to keep it up, he would never let anything befall his friend. He had failed Joshua once (the time when Andrey killed him), he was never going to fail his friend again. Just as the grenade was about to explode, Dave appeared right beside Joshua. As fast as his entourage could move, it speedily grabbed the grenade from Joshua's mouth, it punched the space directly above J's head, a rift appeared in the space, the rift was a wormhole, it threw the grenade inside the wormhole, and as fast as it could, his entourage moved to close the wormhole, while he was closing the wormhole, the 4D being appeared behind Dave, it slugged him hard with his elbow but Dave couldn't counteract since he was busy with the wormhole. "That was a close one!" Kronk grinned while he thought to himself. "If Dave has lingered even a second longer, the explosion of the bomb would have also taken me out." Immediately Kronk saw that Dave had closed the portal, he did a front-flip towards him. As fast and skillful as he could, he cuffed a grey choker on Dave's neck. Dave dropped to the ground, his entourage had vanished. The choker was made of grey matter. "When my 4D friend hit you earlier, it had directed the damage J released earlier towards you. You should be feeling it now." Immediately Kronk had spoken, Dave dropped to the ground, his once radiant body was now nothing more but a bloody mess, he was in an even worse state than Kronk was. "I think everyone agrees I win this round," Kronk grinned evilly, turning towards his 4D friend, he tried to shake him but the 4D friend was frozen. "How the hell is that possible?" He thought to himself. "You are quite retarded, ain't ya?" Joshua was fuming angrily, he has turned in Kronk's direction. "When your 4D bitch had slugged Dave, Dave had touched your 4D friend with his left arm but he did it in such a way that it seemed almost instinctive, it was so fast that even I didn't notice. It was almost as if Dave was expecting your 4D idiot to come and hit him. I don't think I need to tell you the special relationship short-range entourages share with their entourage-users. Dave has returned your friend to the frozen position he was before you had used that infinite energy to free him when he touched him. I guess it will be impossible for you to recreate that energy again. I am going to dismantle you so badly you will rue the day you were born." Hendrickson, Max, and Erina were no longer frozen, they had summoned their entourages. The way they looked at Kronk depicted that they suspected that he had something to do with Dave's deceased body. They were unable to see the 4D being as he was frozen in the space of stopped time(i.e he was separated from the time continuum, so creatures who weren't above the time concept are unable to see him or it. Gender is a concept which only affects 3D creatures. 4D beings are above the concept of gender, so they can choose any gender they want or decide to remain genderless). "Enough talk!" Kronk laughed. "Everything is proceeding to how I envisioned. ENTOURAGE!!!!!!" Immediately he screamed, his entourage appeared, his entourage looked exactly like the bartender Kronk. Everyone was shocked, but it wasn't comparable to what came next. All of them fainted to the ground, their bodies had severe symptoms such as fever, headache, body aches, and infinite others. "My entourage enables me to manipulate illness itself, I can create and modify diseases itself. The only person who could provide a counter to my ability amongst your laughable group was the Crescent Primordial, it's why I needed him eliminated," he ended as he stepped into Joshua's face. He began to hit his face vehemently with his feet. "My entourage is mid-range. As a result, only life within a 15-meter radius is affected. You know one fascinating thing about entourages. Every entourage is beautifully byzantine and complex. My entourage ability was so powerful to the extent that it could even cause my 4D friend to get sick although he was above the concept of health. All entourage's abilities are capable of altering any being, no matter the dimensional complexity. That was how I was able to make him so obedient," he ended with a cruel look as he turned at Joshua, who was groaning in agony on the ground. "Remember what I said earlier, when a man is being unnecessarily haughty, it means he's yet to be in a situation that will require him being humbling. I am going to humble you so much to the extent that saying you will have an infinitesimal level of self-esteem won't even cut it."