"Psysplitter."


    The term ''do or die'' had never been more applicable to Ares but his options here were limited due to the way the psychic pillar worked. It was a pillar that specialised in doing mental damage with its two aspects. The first aspect, ''telepathic warfare'', was strictly based on doing mental damage and little all else. You could read people''s minds, forcibly berserk opponents, or just launch a wide array of attacks that were proficient in navigating a person''s mental realm. The labyrinth in people''s minds could be combed through with agile snakes and suicide bomber mice with GPS attached to them. Whereas as other arts from other pillars and aspects could also be mental oriented, none had quite as easy a time navigating mental realms as this specific aspect and the effects that they could result in were far more varied... Unless you were comparing it to the fundamental mind pillar but that was just unfair and pretty mean to do! Unsurprisingly, the deity attached to Sanity by the hip was the psychic pillar''s representative who was, honestly, a bit of a nut case.


    That was a problem for a different time, however, right now Ares was facing a very immediate threat to his health in the form of an art that came under the second psychic pillar aspect, ''paranormal manifestation''. This aspect was a bit of a strange one. Whereas the telepathic warfare aspect did nothing other than mental damage, this aspect focused on half and half measures. Arts under this aspect would manifest as physical psychic attacks that could harm both the mind and the body at the same time. Typically, it was an even fifty fifty split in terms of applying the damage but some arts went more one way than the other. Psychic arm blades would probably deal roughly 80% physical damage to the body and 20% mental to the mind. A psychic avalanche would be the reverse of this and deal 80% mental and 20% physical damage. Still, most were straight down the middle. Psysplitter, the art the assassin had just chanted, was one such art but it functioned in a very different and interesting way compared to the standard arts under this aspect. Normally, with an art under this pillar, the damage split wouldn''t change regardless of what happened. Psysplitter, however, amped up one type of damage depending on which one was more successful. It was a reactive purple-ish / pink-ish beam of psychic magic that pierced an opponent. If they spent more effort blocking the physical damage, the mental damage it did would be amplified instead. The reverse was also true. In other words, if you weren''t capable of blocking both evenly, you would have a rough time. This was damning to people who dedicated their defences to one more than the other as well as those who weren''t very familiar with mental protection. People who specialised in mental arts tended to be physically weak and vice versa so this art was highly effective most of the time it was used.


    Now back to Ares, he was screwed! The beam was lightning fast and the mental damage it was going to do was not small. Being at the peak of transition realm meant Ares would have had a rough time blocking the physical side of things to begin with but... The mental attack portion? Ares wouldn''t even know where to begin with that... He could throw disintegration magic at it but he was far too weak compared to his attacker to make even a dent in the art and save himself. Of all the pillars, aspects, and arts that could have been thrown at Ares, this one specifically was disastrous. It was too quick to escape from with normal movement and a Shift would take too long to cast. Voidwalk wasn''t active so that wasn''t an option either. Blocking the physical side of it was an option but would take up all his strength so what then? The mental portion of the attack would run rampant and make him brain dead in a mere few milliseconds. This guy was going for the kill!


    Ares felt like an idiot for allowing the situation to devolve to this point as, now, he was going to have take measures he would have rather not taken at all... Though he hated having to do this, he did have one way out of this situation... If he couldn''t rely on external aid, because it would take too long to arrive, and he couldn''t rely on himself, he had to rely on something else... Dominus wouldn''t be helpful here and Ares wanted to keep him available to use later anyway. The same was also true of his God summon and it would take way to long to chant anyway... There was only one thing in Ares'' possession that could block this attack but the real issue was hiding it from everyone''s prying eyes. That''s right, he was going to use the Primordial Blade to tank the hit. The beam pierced everything it hit but, if it was absorbed into the Blade, it would just float harmlessly through space... Now the conundrum facing Ares was how to do this without being caught... He absolutely, unequivocally, could not yet reveal this weapon to the wider world. So how was he going to do it? Well Ares could create a barrier of disintegration around him to block off everyone''s view but he needed to do it the split second the beam passed by the barrier''s max range. If Ares put the disintegration barrier up first, and the beam pierced it, some people directly in front of him might be able to see the weapon through the hole. On the flipside, if Ares was too late in raising the barrier... Well goodbye Ares. The next thing he saw would be the world anew from a baby''s eyes and there would be no second chances. In short, as mentioned earlier, it was seriously do or die time! He was going to be pushed to his limits in terms of timing his defensive measures against the beam because it was a fast art to begin with and had been shot by a peak transition realm cultivator.


    Ares was thankful he''d activated his annihilation enhancement and Omniscience already as those two abilities just increased his odds of survival here by a metric ton. If Ares'' chances of pulling off this manoeuvre properly were about 20% before, it was now sitting at around 60% which was a marked increase that made him feel much more comfortable going for the risky play. On top of that, Ares had already directed some physical pressure forward to try and slow down the beam when it came into range. This would make no more than a 1% difference in his odds but Ares wasn''t in a position to complain seeing as how this was all his fault to begin with. He could blame the assassin going commando and disregarding his orders but Ares was the one with the solution so blaming the problem was silly. Despite the terrible situation Ares wasn''t altogether too concerned. His odds didn''t look great but, provided he leaned more towards failing by putting up the barrier early rather than late, the chances of him dying here were exceptionally low. Some people spying the Blade would be problematic but also a small scale issue compared to the massive setback that dying would incur. Plus the rewards from the international would be beyond his grasp if he bit the dust and that was a no go so, if something went wrong, Ares likely wouldn''t perish. Not a great outcome to have his biggest secret talked about openly but it was better than the alternative at least!


    The beam shot out from the assassin''s hand and was directed at Ares who about fifty feet away from him. Though the distance was considerable, the travel speed of the beam meant it could cross that space in no more than a second. That may have sounded like a lot of time to react, and that wasn''t necessarily incorrect, but the max range Ares could extend the edge of a barrier to, that also encompassed himself, was about twenty feet if he really pushed himself. In other words, this new distance would give Ares around 4/10ths of a second to bring up the barrier and simultaneously summon the Blade directly in front of him to block the beam. Was it an impossible task? Not even remotely. Was it the kind of thing you really didn''t want to have randomly sprung on you when you were minding your own business and wholly unprepared? Hell no it wasn''t! Raising the barrier Ares could do in about 1/10th of a second and the Blade summoning would take roughly the same amount of time. In other words, he had 2/10ths of a second leeway at his disposal which was basically an impromptu slap in the face... But it was better than nothing! Also, if he could make it through this, it was likely that things would calm down. Out of the corner of Ares'' eyes he could see a bunch of his would-be assassins storming over towards the transition realm guy to give him a talking to. The people not paying attention to Ares must have just assumed he''d be dead from this attack which, honestly, despite giving these people a lot of flak for their idiocy, was entirely a fair assessment. If Ares didn''t know about the Primordial Blade, and was spectating himsel in third person, he''d assume he was 100% dead as well. There was nothing unreasonable about that expectation. Even some of the people in the crowd who knew Ares were gobsmacked as they believed they were about to witness his death first hand.


    Ares had no intentions of letting himself die so he strained his eyes to the limit and very nearly stared a hole into the attack. If glaring at arts could harm them Ares may have very well annihilated the Psysplitter in its tracks. Unfortunately that wasn''t the case so, a split second later, a black dome had enveloped him completely, removing him from view. Everyone who was convinced he was dead to rights turned to look at the dome. Why Ares had decided to throw up a vision obstructing barrier nobody knew. Some even speculated he''d just been too slow on the draw to summon the barrier in the first place. What was certain about this situation, though, is that there were no holes in the barrier so nobody could check on what was happening inside.


    ...


    Everyone watching didn''t have to wait for long for an answer, though, As Ares came skidding backwards out of the barrier as his feet were dragged through the floor. He left a gauged out trail in the arena as he was pushed backwards with immense force but, other than his worrying momentum, he was completely uninjured! Physically he wouldn''t have been injured anyway but, mentally, he hadn''t checked out just yet! There was light in his eyes that were clear as day to anyone who could see them. It''s not even that they''d been dimmed somewhat as a result of the attack, he almost looked more alive than before the attack! Ares came sliding to a halt and unearthed his feet, both of which had sunk a considerable distance into the ground, and stepped forward to meet his attackers, all of whom were stunned stupid. Granted that was the same reaction everyone else had. This was not akin to any feat Ares had pulled off before. To nullify an attack of that calibre, at his current cultivation, without the use of an art, and one that specifically targeted his mental realm primarily, was unthinkable. Only the handful of people who knew about the Blade had their wits about them but, even then, Ares had pulled off the magic trick of the century right there and completely fooled everyone.


    Speaking of the magician of the minute, Ares was subtly taking deep breaths to calm himself down. The last few seconds had been exhilarating for all the wrong reasons. He''d managed to block the attack perfectly, as was planned, but what he failed to accommodate for was the recoil he would face as a result of stopping the beam. He assumed the beam would just disappear into the Blade and, while that was what happened, Ares being pushed around wasn''t something Ares foresaw. The blowback had taken Ares by surprise so, if the 2/10ths window earlier to save himself looked rough, the 1/0th of a second window he had to put the Blade away before he was thrown out of the barrier with it in full-view was even worse! His body moved before his brain did and he shoved the weapon away barely in the nick of time.


    Ares'' heartbeat was not settling down even now that he was out the frying pan and in the clear. There were still some small doubts in his head about whether or not anyone caught sight of the weapon but, thankfully, as he looked around, that didn''t appear to be the case. Spectators were stunned, yes, but they were stunned and confused. If they saw the sword they would at least understand he''d used a legendary treasure of some kind and then the confusion wouldn''t be present. It would be faces of awe and nothing more. Ares had been through the thick of it and come out on top! He''d saved himself and kept his secret, secret! As much as he wanted to throw his fist in the air and do a little jig, now really didn''t seem like the appropriate time to do so. He could do that back at home and be slapped around by his wives for being a man-child later, right now he needed to maintain a kind of demeanour that was relevant to the way he wanted the general public to view him when he was taking matters seriously. Belittling his capacity for stoicism, level-headedness, and sternness was a fool''s endeavour. It''s not that he didn''t want to have fun, it''s that he couldn''t give the impression he was lackadaisical all the time otherwise he wouldn''t make for a very good sect leader and people''s trust in him, to deliver when he was called upon, would wane somewhat. He wasn''t going to walk around with a perpetual frown on his face and a stick up his ass but he wasn''t going to drop his pants and moon anyone either. Time and place! Ares was mature enough now to understand that and act accordingly. Still, if there wasn''t an audience here he would have been way more unrestrained... In a way, he was kinda upset that wasn''t the case. It had been a while since he last just went off the rails and acted like a mischievous gremlin. Ah well, the fate of a leader. Scar and Tyr had done an excellent job when it was their turn and now it was Ares'' so he just had to suck it up and do things the right way!


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    While the crowd''s heads were still spinning, the assassins finished hopping into the arena. They were just as speechless about the fact that Ares was still alive and kicking but standing around wasn''t going to help. Plus they wanted to deploy their treasure and trap Ares with them down in the arena before he could escape. Ares actually did have a chance to Voidwalk away just then but he wasn''t going to take it because he didn''t need to. The whole sparing the Legion thing was worth the cost of doing business with these lot. Plus he just wanted Sho and the Chens dead. It was easier knowing there were no lingering threats in Red Sun after today. Also Aejaz'' little sister could start walking around town freely without needing a bodyguard 24/7 so the list of reasons he had to stay here was long enough to warrant not fleeing. Even if that wasn''t enough, the Canis Stimulant was calling out to Ares from his storage in the Primordial Blade and it had been long enough without using them now that Ares was starting to get antsy. So, with a firm resolve, and confidence that was unmatched by those ambushing him, Ares stepped forward again.


    The person who took charge of the opposing group was Sho but Chen Lo also came within speaking distance as the extras all set about deploying some nodes around the arena. The Legion lot had shooed the two teams out of the danger zone and, shortly after, a dome appeared around the entire arena. It wasn''t particularly tall but it did what was needed of it. Ares had to give credit as their deployment of this barrier had been extremely rapid. It only took them about three and a half seconds to have it up and functioning from the moment the first assassin jumped into the arena. Not anything the matriarchs couldn''t have reacted to but these fools didn''t know that. They had hoped the matriarchs would be blindsided and, right now, they truly believed they just snuck a win past them while they weren''t looking. That was far from the truth but ignorance was bliss.


    As for the barrier itself, the clear dome didn''t seem all that threatening. It looked arguably weaker than one of Enyo''s barriers but there must have been more than meets the eyes with this one. Whatever it was, these bozos genuinely believed it had the means to keep not one, but four whole matriarchs out. Ares checked it out properly with his Omniscience and was pleasantly surprised with his foes'' attention to detail, this thing might actually work! He''d been laughing at them inwardly but they''d done their research, actually! The barrier was one concocted of spatial magic. It''s not that it could withstand hits, not in the slightest, it''s that anything that touched it, be it magic, miscellaneous objects, or living creatures, would all be transported to a random location a few miles away. If you could hit the barrier it would fold relatively quickly but hitting it was the hardest part! The matriarch''s individual power mattered naught if they couldn''t actually use any of it meaningfully. As far as Ares knew, none of the matriarchs were gifted enough with the space time pillar to deal with this treasure. Ares had underestimated these guys big time! It was probably the Legions that came up with this idea as they were the smart ones of all those present. The issue with this barrier was that it would only take one space-time pillar expert in the entire crowd to dismantle it. It would take a while, mind you, and that was likely what the idiots were banking on. Being able to kill Ares before anyone from, say, the C.O could get him out. Then again, they had a man, Maro (although he looked more like a skeleton than anything resembling a ''man''), on the outside who could intervene whenever anyone stepped up to the barrier. Aside from the lengthy set up time, that was way too slow to be effective against the matriarchs, everything else was planned out pretty well. Ares gave them a 8.5 out of 10 for their performance!


    With the barrier up, and Ares face to face with the two leaders of the opposing forces, it was time to verbally sling mud at each other! Ares liked this part! "Ah, to be reunited with dumb and dumber again so soon. I am in a good mood! I''m guessing you two are here to avenge Chen Lo''s Chen woes and the Sho shit show?"


    Lo nearly jumped forward to try and throttle the bastard but a well timed and well placed arm from Sho prevented another early kick-off of violence. Sho, being the more wary and cautious of the two, made it his primary goal to sus out what Ares had just done to block the Psysplitter. An unknown variable at this stage of the game was a nightmare waiting to happen. Ares'' confidence and swagger in strolling up to them was worrying... Also, they had the time to do this. No one seemed to be trying to deal with the barrier so, on that front, they were golden. The barrier would last thirty minutes if not affected by any attacks to its structure. It was plenty of time to deal with Ares and then Teleport out as one of the people they brought along was a space-time pillar expert who could facilitate a get away for everyone involved. "I''m glad you lived through that Psysplitter, now I get to kill you myself. Don''t think whatever trick you had up your sleeve will save you from me. Whatever you blocked the attack with won''t save you from a knife in the back of your neck."


    Ares didn''t bother answering Sho''s line of questioning. Why would he? He knew what the old coot wanted and he wasn''t exactly being subtle about it. The guy was an expert assassin but not a professional negotiator, clearly. If anything, that job should have been left to either the Legions or Lo but whatever. Ares wasn''t here to critique their highwaymen potential. "Hey, Lo, you know the reason your house blew up was ''cos of this guy, right?"


    Lo''s feral rage, burning away under his somewhat angry fa?ade, calmed down for long enough to query what exactly this damnable bastard was talking about. "Don''t try and sow discord, brat. If you have something to say, before I rip your head off, then spit it out already."


    Ares shrugged. "I wasn''t going to blow you up just yet but Sho forced my hand. You should blame him, really. Who knows? If I had taken any longer to detonate everything you may have discovered the Beads buried in and around your property, saving everyone. All your children could have survived but this dingus your working with was the trigger that brought the house down prematurely..."


    Chen side-eyed Sho as he hadn''t been aware of the specifics. All he knew was that Ares was ''forced'' to give a demonstration of his power on the night apocalypse descended on the Chen household. It being Sho, who had manipulatively sworn to aid the Chen''s in the vengeance that only needed serving because of him to begin with, made Lo''s blood boil... But he could be dealt with after. Right now, the cocky assassin had his uses. It would be an ugly fight, Glimpse vs Chen, but it would sort out their grievances... Lo recoiled slightly when he thought about it deeper, though... The Teleport would be conducted by a man the Glimpse hired... If this was all a big trap to remove loose ends then he and the remnants of his clan were screwed!... But what if it was just a lie concocted by Ares to, as he assessed earlier, sow discord... Fuck. Lo swore to himself because there was no way to know what was happening anymore. Allowing Ares to open his mouth had been disastrous for Lo''s mental state and the same was true for his men that were now going through the exact same thought process.


    Ares smirked before turning to Sho. "And you. What makes you think the Legions are going to ignore you after this mess? Internationally renowned assassins? You''d be lucky to escape their ''justice''. They themselves might not be strong enough to deal with you but I bet Rhea will come looking for them when this is all said and done. She might be frustrated with them but she''ll be extremely displeased with you. You aren''t Legion so you''ll be biting the dust before you can even repent for your actions."


    This time it was Sho''s turn to realise he''d been tricked. What Ares had insinuated to Lo was more than correct as Sho didn''t want a man with anger towards him to continue existing. After the Teleport he was planning on ambushing them, finishing them off for good. The same was true of the Legions but he saw them as weak fools who were clinging to him to achieve a goal and nothing more. They might have had lofty ideals but whether they had the strength to act on them alone was another matter entirely. They had the treasure, he and his hire-ees had the brawn. He hadn''t considered the fact that they were willing to take him down with them by revealing their location to Rhea, their own enemy at this moment in time, when everything was said and done. But this all made a lot of sense. After defying their superiors of course they would turn themselves in! Even the dumbest Legion was loyal like a dog in their own twisted way! Sho had mistakenly believed his craziest allies here were the Chens with nothing more to lose. He''d been blindsided by the real psychopaths all along because they were pretending to be upstanding and sane warriors of justice! The damn cretins had gotten him real good... Fuck. Just like Lo, Sho could only curse the situation inwardly. His one option here was to try and kill the Legions after dealing with Ares but these despicable liars were the ones with control over the barrier. If they were attacked, they would lower it. If Sho tried Teleporting away, they would be brought along and call for Rhea. The latter was preferential, as there might be some time to flee, but getting away from the suicidal bastards wasn''t going to be an easy task as they would inevitably act like flies on shit and cling to them for as long as possible; at which point Rhea would arrive and hunt down the few who managed to get away. Glimpse were assassins, sure, but Rhea was a monster wearing human flesh so escaping from her was a laughable thought.


    And just like that, mental pandemonium was on the menu. Treacherous chaos. Everyone hated everyone! They weren''t allies, not in the slightest. The Legions were worried everyone else would try to kill them before they finished off Ares as payback, at which point they''d have to lower the barrier early and ruin everything. The Chens worst nightmare was getting sucked away from this place to a remote location where they would be ambushed and annihilated; and the Glimpse lot were fearful of Rhea''s retribution. Ares had singlehandedly reduced morale to a breaking point and yet was just sitting there with a provoking grin on his face that was mocking down to its core!


    "WHATEVER!" Sho was enraged at the stalemate they were in right now so he decided to just break it. "JUST KILL ARES NOW AND WE''LL SORT OUT OUR OWN PROBLEMS AFTER!" The Chens may not have wanted Ares dead for the sake of their own survival but, objectively, they were the weakest lot here. They had no say in the matter and the Legions, in terms of killing Ares, were in agreement with Glimpse lot. Even if the Chens tried to obstruct them it wouldn''t matter as they had no power here anymore... And that included Biggie who was trying to keep up with the conversation and just wanted to kill Ares already. He''d tried to get involved with the talks but had been held back by a Glimpse assassin far stronger than him. Biggie wasn''t the only one in this situation though as other Chen members were slowly being restrained by both the Legions and the Glimpse clans.


    Through nothing but a few sly words, Ares had reduced the size of his opponent''s miniature army by a third. It wasn''t even really his goal, he just wanted to see them squirm for his own amusement. He didn''t need this handicap, and it wouldn''t matter the second he transformed anyway, but it was funny enough to get a small chuckle out of him so it had been a resounding success that exceeded his expectations. While Lo and Sho were arguing, borderline about to start beating each other to death, Ares pulled out the Canis Stimulant and popped open the vial by removing the cork. The noise it made was satisfying to his ears but that same sound also reached the ears of everyone else present, alerting them to Ares'' actions. They all turned in time to see him take a swig of some mysterious drink, a drink that very few people here recognised. Few, but not none. Sho was lost, and so was Lo, but when they heard their Legion ''allies'' mumble the word ''shit'' under their breath, with a strong emphasis, they knew things were not going to be as easy as they initially hoped. They all had no idea what was in store for them...