Garmr barrelled through a Chen member who was in his path but, honestly, he hadn''t even noticed the guy. Garmr was prioritising the transition group so anything else in his way was little more than a road bump. If he stepped on them and killed them, so be it. It was their job to move out of his way, not his job to avoid them. As for the Chen member who''d just been stepped on, his fate was similar to that of Lo''s in that he practically disappeared from reality. People who were crushed by Garmr didn''t even leave a body behind it was simply that violent of a crush. He was basically a one man stampede, packing the force a hundred raging bulls all on steroids. And that was just one foot, throw in the rest of the giant, hulking mass of flesh and the power contained within was immeasurable. Ares, or technically Garmr right now, felt like he could pick up a mountain and crush it between his paws of he so desired. Other than an entire planet, moon, or star, there was nothing in this domain Garmr couldn''t lift. Even if Bellona fired a Meteor at him he would just catch it with his bare hands and then chuck it back into space.


    Ares not having much physical strength really didn''t matter much if he could transform into this menacing form at the drop of a hat. There were no restrictions to entering a revenant form either because that was actually his default state. He was actually just permanently repressing himself so returning to his true body, as nature intended, came with no drawbacks other than his inability to use normal arts. If it wasn''t from an open pillar, or the racial pillar, then, right now, he couldn''t use it. He could channel his destruction mana into his body, which he''d yet to do, and he hadn''t activated annihilation enhancement yet either so the amount of spare power he had up his sleeve was no joke. Garmr didn''t need such trivialities for the rodents before him, though, so neither of those two tricks would see any use today. Maybe in the future they would, Ares still had two more Canis Stimulants after all. Plus he would reach bloodline awakening sooner or later and then his revenant form would be unlocked for good. Unchained, unleashed, unstoppable. Ares was very much looking forward to it as it would no doubt feel better to actually be in control. He could still feel the satisfaction of every crush and stomp but it was very impersonal right now.


    Garmr slowly marched over to the transition assassin group as he felt no rush to sprint around. Garmr was quicker than Ares despite his size, actually, but he had no reason to move that fast right now as it would just end the fight sooner. He wanted these people to fight back. To throw arts at him. To strike at his fur. To hit him. To make him FEEL something. Whether they could achieve what he wanted of them wasn''t likely but it was better to let them try because it''s not like Garmr had many options here today. As he arrived before them, it seemed like the group of ten had been loading up an Amalgamation behind their backs and were preparing to toss it at Garmr. Their combined effort would be a considerable force so, rather than interrupt them and force them to throw it early, Garmr stood tall and waited patiently for them to make their move. This braggadocios attitude wasn''t misplaced either as the transition group could tell this was just a last ditch effort that would get them nowhere and, yet, they persisted in their futility because what else could they do? Roll over and die? If it was going to happen regardless, and Sho had proven that begging was useless, then this was their best shot; useless though it was. The Amalgamation swelled up continually but it still paled in comparison to Garmr who was upwards of five times it size. This was about as big as an amalgamation from transition cultivators could get but, despite that, it looked tiny when positioned before the revenant God it was about contend with.


    "Amalgamation!"


    The person who was responsible for starting the art was also the one with permission to push the big red metaphorical launch button. When the amalgamation could not take in anymore mana even if it tried, the leading cultivator threw it straight at Ares'' head. No doubt the ''weakest'', and that word was used very lightly, part of Garmr would be his head. Maybe the Amalgamation could hit his eyes, rock his brain a bit and disorient him, or perhaps even injure him somewhat? Again, almost definitely not going happen but a shot in the dark was never expected to bring in miracle or miracle-adjacent quality results. The silvery grey blob of technical mana hobbled drawlingly towards Garmr who made no moves to avoid it. He could have. He could have even swatted it back towards them and played an impromptu game of dodgeball but Garmr wanted to see if these people could even tickle him when he wasn''t fighting back. They were only one whole realm ahead of him so the answer was likely no. Even Ares, with his annihilation enhancement, wouldn''t be fazed by these clowns in a fight if he were at the peak of bloodline awakening so Garmr was especially dominant.


    The Amalgamation was now close enough to tickle Garmr so he leaned his head into it out of curiosity. Curiosity normally killed the cat but, in this particular instance, it did literally nothing to the wolf. The feeble Amalgamation blast made a lot of noise, that couldn''t be denied, but in terms of damage done to Garmr... Well there was none. Nothing visible and nothing internal either. They might as well have collectively tried to huff and puff and blow the revenant down. Maybe their germs would have made him ill a week later or something... It sounded silly but if their collective might didn''t even leave a small mark then chemical warfare, a heart attack, ot an act of God were their fall back plans. Unfortunately none of them had any poisons on them because they hadn''t expected things to wind up like this. Not that it would have mattered, revenants were mostly ''immune'' to poison to begin with which was yet another reason they didn''t bother. A poison that melts away a person''s internal organs means nothing against a revenant who''s body would just regenerate as it was destroyed. As for a heart attack... A perfectly healthy specimen such as Garmr would not succumb to a heart attack, that was absurd and anyone who was dumb enough to pray for that needed their head checked. The last option, God, was equally as stupid because this was a God. Ares, God of the destruction pillar, tentatively, and Garmr, God of the revenants. Also, other than Ject, the Gods were on the fundamentals'' side anyway. Even if these nobodies had a God summon up their sleeve for whatever reason the God would show up, identify Ares, and just leave. They would be better off waiting for Ares to die of old age than rely on any of the other methods and he was a revenant regardless. Deep down they all knew he was either going to spare them or they were going to die and the choice was his and his alone to make. Based on the fact that he was throwing his head back slightly and preparing to breathe fire on them, sparing this group did not seem to be in the cards.


    As for which fire was coming out of Garmr''s toothy, bloodied mouth, it seemed to be deep red in colour which was indicative of the nothingness aspect. Ares himself was curious to see what this one could do. No doubt the disintegration breath would be the strongest and the annihilation breath would have the largest width, dealing the most wide spread destruction of the three by likely creating multiple explosions... But nothingness? Would it Shift through space and track people? maybe if Ares marked them with some nothingness beforehand but how was he supposed to do that in his revenant form when he couldn''t cast nothingness arts? He could wield nothingness mana freely but he would still need to touch the person he wanted to hit first and, at that point, why not just kill them anyway? Also, though he didn''t know what it was going to do, he had a gut instinct that told him it was going to be something on the more unique end of the spectrum so he was excited to see what kind of new power was going to be readily available to him soon.


    Garmr''s head sprung forward and from within his wide open maw came a torrent of miasmic, rolling waves of ethereal dark red fire. It rushed along the ground and spread forth in a wide cone, covering every single one of the assassins. They may have been drowning under the sea of flames engulfing them but their cries of agony and pain were not drowned out; thus a chilling melody of weeping souls formed a ghastly choir, preaching unholy demise to a crowd of nervous spectators. It took no longer than two seconds for the final scream to die down so Garmr didn''t have to extend his dragon''s breath any longer. It was possible to keep it up for minutes at a time and bathe entire cities in purging flames but the calibre of Garmr''s opponents did not warrant such means. The fire slowly settled and everyone in the stadium, without fail, even including Ares and the matriarchs, were aghast at the result. The ''effect'' of the nothingness magic had become abundantly clear but, tragically, this result now raised some very uncomfortable questions about everyone''s day to day lives. Ares may have very well just uncovered a massive truth that could prove just how scandalous and despicable reality could very well be. How nobody had ever made this discovery before no one present knew but, now that this was to become known by all... Things were inevitably going to become very awkward for a time.


    See, what was left in place of corpses, which had all but vanished under Ares'' fiery barrage, were chunks of stardust... Cultivation of the deceased, merged via nothingness with the essence of time, forming crystalised chunks of on-demand cultivation... That was what stardust truly was... The higher the quality of stardust, the higher the cultivation of the expert it belonged to in life. No wonder. There were higher grades of stardust in various history books and yet they''d never been seen by anyone in living memory down in the lower domains that were trapped inside the Primordial barrier. The cultivation limit down here would have prevented any experts, who qualified and met the conditions necessary, from forming any higher tiered stardust in death. This was a grim truth to reveal to the public in such a manner. Everyone here had some quantity of stardust on their person and it was a sickening thought that the currency / cultivation resources they traded and absorbed was born of the deceased. Who were these people they were trading around like necromantic merchants? Old relatives? Friends? Lovers who were taken too soon? Children lost to miscarriages? Where did this disgusting rabbit hole end exactly?


    It was morbid.


    It was inhumane,


    It was also one hell of a moneymaking scheme...


    ...


    ...


    Ok, let''s be honest, in what universe would a cultivator care about this? Mortals, yeah sure maybe... But the average cultivator in the higher domains had killed as many people as there were fish in the average ocean. Nobody was going to stop using stardust as a result of this information. Abandoning all your wealth when nobody else did would just make you a fool and a poverty ridden one at that. As for Ares specifically, this newfound ability was actually incredible! He''d killed more people than he''d earned stardust over the course of his life so something like this was a money printing machine! If he could melt his enemies down into currency, wasn''t that perfect? Be it from a utility standpoint or a ''humiliating thy opponent'' standpoint, this was one of the most useful attacks he had in his entire arsenal! Kill idiots, get rich! Ares did the first half regularly enough anyway! This dragon breath had truly taken him by surprise in the best way possible... Although it was still really weird to learn about all of this. A lot of the squeamish individuals in the crowd had already fainted, ironically dropping purses full of stardust on top of themselves... But Ares liked this ability regardless of how many old ladies he scared half to death! Each of the transition realm cultivators had been melted down into a high grade! EACH! If Ares went on a killing spree, touring Sheryashka and killing transition realm cultivators he would become rich, rich! He wasn''t a psychopathic transition realm cultivator geocoding madman, though, so that wasn''t going to happen.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Ares wanted to direct Garmr to use this breath on the other assassins but he was just completely ignored. Ares had some control over Garmr but evidently not enough to treat him like some kind of puppet. There was a degree of free will here that Ares had to respect. If he forced this issue then he might not be able to restrain him on more important problems later. Smelting the attackers into stardust was not more pressing than sparing the Legions and not wildly assaulting people in the crowd. Begrudgingly, Ares watched on as Garmr started flicking his nail at people. Each slash of his nail sent out a wind blade that shredded everything in its path. The ground was gouged out, followed shortly by the target being split in half and exploding into two pieces of bloodied flesh. Garmr could have killed everyone like this from the start but it had been doing a bit of experimentation that was now over. Everyone else in this barrier would have an unceremonious death. When these people''s relatives came to visit their graves, the cause of death written on their tombstones would be ''flicked to death by a wolf''. They asked for this! They picked this fight! They were just getting what was coming to them. Some of Garmr''s flicks were aimed a little high and tore through the barrier but Ares had demanded Garmr not hit the crowd so it was fine as he obeyed. The wind blades did soar past some people, blowing them off their chairs, but they were alive! The same could not be said of the Chens who, as of Garmr''s last flick, were now all six feet under. Somewhere in the kerfuffle Biggie had also met his match and bit the dust so any form of legacy the Chens may have had was now officially wiped out. On this day, the world had become a marginally better place. The chens were not the worst the cultivation world had to offer but, in their own way, were pretty sinister a a collective. Ares was mostly happy to be rid of them because revenge had been achieved and that was just another thing he could tick off his ever-lengthening list of things to do.


    Shortly after the Chens, the Glimpse attackers were also terminated. There were still Glimpse members far and wide, though, so the clan as a whole wasn''t going anywhere. It''s just that the highest ranked individual had been wiped out and now the clan was going to be under new management. Likely Aejaz'' father... Based on everything that had been discussed back during the pre-international party, things were going to be real messy in the Fleeting Glimpse clan for a while. Still, that had nothing to do with anyone in Ares'' family anymore. They were their own problem and Ares had already done enough damage to them. They could collapse and fade into the history books by their lonesome... After Aejaz put the final nail in the coffin, anyway.


    And with that, the show was ''over''! The attackers had been put down, sans the Legions, which meant there was only one more thing to do. Kill Maro! Maro had technically done nothing here but he was both involved and a nuisance. Why leave him be when Ares was planning on killing him at some point anyway? He was right there for crying out loud! This was a golden opportunity to rid Red Sun of every pock mark that plagued it and Hans would be over the moon with this development. Things could could start improving in this town for the better. Those who were worse off, and frequently bullied economically and socially by the wealthy, would finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.


    The barrier summoned by the Legion''s treasure had already dissipated into the wind and was long gone so Garmr looked up at his new prey and started walking towards that side of the arena. Seeing the nightmare fuel creature stroll towards him, Maro cursed his shitty luck and he complained inwardly about this entire situation. He originally had no intent on getting involved or trying anything like this but the Chens had dragged him into their mess. He was wooed with honeyed words about the prospect of ridding himself of a problematic pest but now? Now he was the gum being scraped off of Red Sun''s shoe. He wasn''t even going to attend this damn competition at all if he could have avoided it. He cursed the stupid fools who had roped him into things but still summoned his bird anyway. Maro could have dealt with the cultivators in the arena just as easily as Ares had but the problem was that the full extent of Ares'', or rather Garmr''s, strength was unknown right now. If his bird was injured in this fight then his life was going to get really hard. Hans had already pushed Maro''s influence back a by a significant amount since their last tussle and, if it happened again, Maro''s control over red sun would seriously diminish. He was confident he could live through this but it wasn''t going to be an easy escape. The one solace here was that Ares was constrained by the crowd and couldn''t go wild here. Maro''s bird was invisible to the citizens and so anyone that died would allow Maro to squarely drop the blame on Ares'' head. Again, the expert cultivators here wouldn''t butt into other people''s problems. Maro, despite being an insufferable, annoying, and selfish bastard was still an impressive cultivator with a good head on his shoulders whether anyone liked to admit it or not.


    The bird came diving down from the clouds and flapped its wings to slow its fall as it perched atop the edge of the coliseum. Calla was annoyed at the feathery fiend sitting above her head and very nearly bitch slapped it into another dimension but ultimately chose not to because it was her big and fluffy baby''s time to shine! The bird was sitting on the ninth floor and staring down at Garmr in the arena. Maro was resting in Eden on the eighth floor, just below his bird. Ares'' height allowed him to look directly ahead and see the fourth floor. In short, Ares was at a huge disadvantage here because, in order to attack Maro, he had to climb upwards. While that wasn''t exactly a hassle or anything, the bird would just come down and peck at him from the high-ground while retreating every time Ares tried to fight back. Maro wasn''t just strong, he was annoyingly smart too. Well, his smarts might annoy somebody with less might than Garmr but the revenant God really didn''t give a damn about this ''conundrum''. Garmr saw the trap awaiting him but took to climbing the coliseum anyway and it became very clear, very quickly, why Garmr couldn''t care less about the dumb bird hovering above him. He was climbing the coliseum with one hand! He would fling himself up and dig his claws into it repeatedly which left his other arm free to defend himself! The fact he had enough upper body strength to lift himself in such a fashion beggared belief and Maro''s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw this... Maybe the bird could overpower Ares?... It was a hopeful wish, and Maro was reliant on it, but the situation had just changed drastically due to Garmr showing off its raw power and Maro really wasn''t sure about his odds anymore.


    Maro was quick to act as he commanded his bird go and take pot shots. Garmr still only had one hand available and, while that did make him a risk, Maro still believed he could be stopped in his tracks. The bird cawed and swooped downwards in a spiral. It flung itself down the centre of the coliseum before coming to a halt and spreading its wings, firing off a bunch of sharp feathers that homed in on Garmr. Though the audience couldn''t see the bird, the feathers were very much visible so it became apparent the fighting wasn''t over yet. The smarter spectators all took steps back just in case although, really, they would probably be ok regardless. The bird''s feathers were precise in their target acquisition and not a single one could be wasted hitting bystanders pointlessly. Speaking of the feathers, they all bombarded an apathetic Garmr who simply shrugged them off and kept climbing. The bird needed to take more serious measures against the revenant to stop him from climbing freely so it placed its feet together and started another spiralling dive. This time, however, the bird didn''t descend head first, instead turning its talons into a makeshift drill that would aim to pierce Garmr''s flesh with a well aimed, forceful stab. With the weight of the massive bird combined with the momentum of its dive, the attack was sure to dissuade Garmr from ignoring the bird any more than it already had. Garmr needed to respond to this and it would no doubt struggle to with only a single hand available... Maro truly believed that. Unfortunately, Maro was extremely wrong about this as the bird''s strike was stopped dead in its tracks by Garmr''s free hand with relative ease.


    Garmr caught the oversized chicken by the talon and turned his head to bite the bird''s foot off. As the bird shrieked and struggled to fly away from Garmr''s grasp, Maro had to stand up finally and directly intervene otherwise his bird would sustain a catastrophic injury. "Pound Down. Thunder Strike. Flamethrower." A series of heavy hitting arts created the perfect solution to Maro''s predicament as Garmr was currently immobile and couldn''t dodge them. Right before Garmr''s teeth could sink into the bird''s leg, all three arts sequentially rained down on his head from above. Things became messy as a green, orange, and yellow concoction of colour swirled around Garmr but, when it faded, it became apparent that the arts had only slowed him down. Even then it it was only because Garmr could no longer directly see his target through the lingering arts and not because any damage had actually been dealt. If anything this just made the situation worse as Garmr was frustrated his last chomp missed. He hadn''t been taking this all too seriously but, evidently, it was time to stop playing around... If Garmr removing one hand from climbing duty shocked Maro then what happened next might nearly knock him out cold in horror.


    Garmr, having missed the bite, instead yanked the bird further down so that its head was next to his. The bird''s head wasn''t within chomping range yet but Garmr had a way of fixing that. See none of this had been a miscalculation, if Garmr couldn''t reach the bird''s head with his teeth, he would grab it with his hand and pull it closer. Now, how was he supposed to do that while one hand was holding onto the coliseum and his other the bird''s talon? Simple! The hand holding the coliseum wasn''t actually needed! Maro choked on the saliva he was swallowing when Garmr simply stopped holding the coliseum with his hands and clung to it with the nails on his feet digging into it instead. This beast holding itself up with one hand was ridiculous but this was unfathomable and heaven defying! The amount of strength needed, both upper and lower body, to cling to, and walk sideways up, a wall like this was ludicrous! And that was under the assumption the person pulling it off was a normal sized human and not a 40ft abomination of sheer mass! Maro instantly realised he''d gotten his assessment of Garmr very wrong. This was not a creature that could be opposed by a single peak transition realm cultivator. He was not in the same league as this monster at all and, so, he turned around and ran. The bird was abandoned behind him as the last thing he heard was the crunching of Garmr''s teeth snacking on the bird''s skull and brain. He had no idea if escaping was possible but Maro was banking on getting lost in the crowd and fading away into obscurity. He could only hope he could make it out of here alive before fleeing Red Sun for good because this place had turned into a death trap. Hans could have Red Sun, Ares was a disgusting existence that Maro refused to tolerate. There were limits to what Maro would be able to put up with and sitting around knowing Ares was breathing the same air as him would give him PTSD. How long was it until the kid tried again and tore him half? Nope! Not interested in sticking around to find out, Maro made a beeline for the nearest exit.


    As for Garmr, it looked like he was making no effort to chase him down but, truthfully, Maro wasn''t going anywhere. As was stated earlier, Garmr was done playing around now. It was time for him to flex his muscles and really put on a show... If people were still in awe of what he''d been doing up until now, things he himself would consider child''s play, then his next course of action would put the fear of God in everyone present regardless of their status. Matriarchs, four seasons, Legion elders, C.O. None of it mattered at the end of the day; Garmr stood leagues above them all and not on an individual basis but rather collectively. Add them all up together and you had an entity that could maybe be permitted to worship his pinkie toe at the height of their importance. There was no proof afforded to such a sentiment sentiment quite like that given by a live demonstration so Garmr prepared himself to go a little harder on his fleeing foe. Was full steam ahead really necessary to kill Maro? No, not even remotely but, sometimes, it was about sending a message.