The groaning flesh pile had returned but, for what it was worth, at least the axemen weren''t electrocuted this time! They''d received their plentiful lumps and were now decorated with bruises and bumps. Ares cracked his knuckles and gave the nearest body a kick for good measure before turning around to face the merchant lady while the monk was clasping his hands together as a form of prayer for the axemen. The merchant lady was about to turn tail and run but Ares used his telekinesis to lock her in place while she tried to squirm free. This woman really was unphased by the current situation and cared more about escaping than obediently being dragged about so as not to annoy the guy who was clearly leagues above her. Ares gave her a light slap across the face to calm her down but that just led to her glaring at Ares and gnashing her teeth like a rabid animal... As he was starting to get sick of this redundant rebelliousness, Ares pointed his finger at the woman, swirled gold mana around it, and gave her a fright by ''chanting'' "grand annihilation.'' It took the woman a split second to recall which art that was exactly but she immediately buried her head in her arms and braced herself for the incoming storm. Naturally nothing happened because it was a dud chant but she only realised that a few seconds later and felt the fear slowly trickle out of her body. She was less annoyed now and more so wary but that was workable for Ares as he wanted to ask her some questions. namely... "What are you lot doing here? I''d understand if you were in a heavily populated area, or hiding along a road to ambush people, but there''s nothing around for miles. You''re kinda close to Red Sun but nobody from there ought to be coming this way for any reason so I can''t imagine your little highwayman act would be particularly successful..."
"Fuck you, mind your own business boy." The lady tried to spit at Ares but he just used his telekinesis to throw the spit back in her face. Annoyingly, this woman wouldn''t give him an answer even if she were inches away from death but, thankfully, there were other people here! People who understood that death was not something trivial enough to keep secrets over! The axemen! Although the merchant lady wasn''t a mortal anymore, arrogant mortals, and people close enough to it, tended to not fear death as much as arrogant expert cultivators did. It was a common and very observable trend which likely stemmed from a mortals'' inability to comprehend the sheer terror of the cultivator standing in front of them. This merchant lady would maybe be more fearful of a random tiger than Ares as being scared of such a creature was hardwired into people''s brains over billions of years at this point. Ares, in comparison, looked a whole lot less harmful even though he could wipe out a thousand tigers with his magic without breaking a sweat. As for the axemen, they weren''t arrogant necessarily, but they were proper cultivators compared to the merchant lady and so they understood the concept of being murdered by a cultivator for no other reason than because they were being uncooperative. The more the merchant lady refused to budge for Ares the more likely it was they were all going to die here so giving up the ghost was a better option. It''s not like giving up the secret would come back to bite them anyway as it was a different group entirely that would pay that price. As such, the axeman who was capable of casting Murk ''N'' Lurk opened his mouth as soon as Ares took a single step towards him.
"We were headed to the Freeride Federation.... Thieves though we are, that lady is still a merchant at the end of the day..." This guy thought he was slick! Heading to the Federation made sense, that was what even Ares was doing and he ended up on this oddly specific path too so Ares didn''t need his lie detector bloodline to know they were telling the truth, but like hell that was all there was to this! Merchant, yes, but still a thief! If that teeny factoid was known to the Federation they wouldn''t hesitate to boot her off mid journey and leave her to drown for daring to rob countless businesses of their hard earned stardust. Some of the people on the federation might have even lost cargo to this woman''s ambushes around Central Land so going there with no purpose in mind was far too risky. They were going there alright but it was no doubt to cause trouble!
"Keep talking and nobody explodes." Ares brought out a sword he had no intention of using to throw another layer onto the threat. The implication was that he would torture them because if he was going to kill them with an explosion then bringing out a sword was pointless otherwise. The merchant lady was still too inexperienced to pull stuff like this on, subtle threats that required experience to fully grasp without needing it all spelled out, so it had been a wise choice to pester the axemen instead. Ares got another response pretty quickly but this time it was a dirty little lie...
"We were hoping we could maybe rob some small businesses and make easy money..."
"Nope. Clearly you don''t understand the position you''re in... And here I thought it was just the merchant lady who was stupid." Ares shook his head from side to side like he was genuinely disappointed in the axeman. Without another word, he approached the axeman who buckled instantly under the pressure because he honestly didn''t want to find out what Ares was planning on doing to him if he remained quiet. The guy didn''t know how Ares knew he was lying but the speed and assurance with which Ares denied the made up ''truth'' meant he was pretty damn sure that he''d been fibbed to. The best the axeman could do here was try to to give a half truth and lie by omission... Though that was going to be incredibly hard given the nature of what he was about to say...
"We were going to meet some people!"
"Who. I want names!" Ares punched the guy for no other reason than because he could. The guy had a very punch-able face... But yeah, no, Ares was definitely only doing this because he wanted information! Definitely! The guy had lied to him earlier and deserved this and Ares needed to put the fear of God in them! Absolutely!
"We don''t know who, we just knew people would be waiting there for us."
"And what were you going to do with them?"
"... Cause trouble..."
"What kind of trouble!"
"I don''t know the scale of it..." The axeman shifted his gaze away because if Ares picked up on the pretty obvious issue with this response then the axeman''s life might even be forfeit...
Smack
If Ares kicking the man''s jaw and breaking it was any indication, then yes, he''d figured out the issue... "I didn''t ask for the scale of what you were going to do, I wanted to know WHAT you were going to do. I would make you spit it out but speaking with a busted jaw is gonna be a problem for you and I''m not feeling patient right about now. Don''t think I won''t come back to ruin more of your body though if I don''t get an answer I like from the others." Ares turned to face the next axeman in line and, honestly, Ares didn''t even know which was which anymore. The Murk ''N'' Lurk guy stood out thanks to his unique art but the rest of them? Nameless cannon fodder. Fortunately these lot were aware that playing any further games with Ares would be pushing their luck. Ares was slowly escalating the injuries he was handing out and so the next person to lie was going to have it really bad. None of the axemen wanted to get roughed up over something they didn''t even really care much about, it was the merchant lady''s idea to begin with, so one of them finally spilled the truth. "We were going to meet up with a group called the ''Firestarters''."
"Arsonists? On a boat in the middle of the sea? Are those people insane?! What the hell are they planning, specifically, why are they doing it, and why were you trying to get involved? I know you''re petty thieves but I didn''t take you for the kind of idiots to attack an entire country." The name alone was enough to clue Ares in to what kind of ''trouble'' they''d be causing. Also, that shmuck earlier who said he didn''t know the ''scale'' of the trouble was a real piece of work! Sure he didn''t know the scale of the Firestarters actions down to a tea but he could have made an educated guess that it would be pretty fucking significant!
The axeman swallowed nervously before continuing. "I''ll start from the beginning..."
"Shut up!" The merchant lady was evidently not too happy with the contents of this discussion but Ares used his telekinesis to push her up against a tree, used physical pressure to tie her there with a rope, and then followed it up with a Quietus Edict that affected her and her alone. She''d had her mobility restricted and been silenced so the axeman was free to give his story properly this time without interruption.
"Our employer, Ms Barb..." The axeman nodded to the merchant lady who was trying to bite her way through the physical pressure restraints and failing miserably. "... She was once an honest businesswoman..."
"Like fuck she was!" Ares'' lie detector hadn''t gone off but now he was in the same position as Enyo back in the Baja cave because he honestly couldn''t believe his ears right now! This woman?! On the straight and narrow?! Not a chance in hell!
"No, really, she was. For a while, she worked for a sect in their mission hall, that was how we met at first as we took jobs from her frequently. The sect in question didn''t restrict their missions to disciples and so it was quite a popular spot for mercenaries like us... Anyway, when she saved up some money from working at that sect, she left and started her own business. Nothing much, just a herb and alchemy ingredient shop. Again, really, nothing fancy. We visited her every now and then to see how she was doing and she seemed happy enough, content with the fact that it wasn''t a popular shop because it was her dream to own a business and she was just satisfied with running her own place. We didn''t have much reason to visit her but as thanks for always giving us intel on when the best missions were going to appear, back in the sect, we spent a good bit of stardust to help keep her afloat during the early stages until the shop was in the green and self-sufficient. it took a while but things were looking good, like she might even be able to become a pretty major business even though it wasn''t her original intention. This was mostly because the Alchemy Organisations had conveniently set up shop nearby around the time Barb created her business and there wasn''t much competition either. Say what you will about her but she has good business sense to capitalise on such a stroke of luck. She saw blood in the water and leapt right in, finding a massive success by even managing to get a small deal for supplying the local A.O... Until a certain man came along... Have you ever heard of HMTG?"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Oh no." Ares blurted out a worried exclamation as he smacked his own forehead... He could tell where this was going. It was like all the pieces of the puzzle had picked themselves up and sat themselves down in the correct spot and all Ares had to do was acknowledge the mystery had been solved right before his eyes. HMTG, Honesty Merchant Trading Group, the business Onno''s father ran... Onno''s father, the man who was so business minded he actively tried to buy out his own children from their businesses just because he could in order to teach them a lesson while further expanding his own reach and power. This guy was ruthless as can be and there were plenty of stories about him that could attest to that even outside of the more despicable secrets Onno knew. He was pretty well known as a snake that preyed on smaller businesses he liked the look of, ones he thought would rake in the capital if taken in the direction of his choosing... An alchemy shop, one of few and the biggest one around in the local area, right were the Alchemy Organisation happened to pop up? Yeah, this was only ever ending one way if his involvement was confirmed... Now it was just a matter of how he fooled Barb into giving up the goods. Of course, with his monetary power, Ares wouldn''t be surprised if the guy just brute forced his way into the market somehow. Also, from there, it was obvious what this whole ''Firestarter'' thing was about. The Federation was compromised almost exclusively of cutthroat merchants who''d all done shady shit and beaten competitors with methods that were below the belt. The victims of such hostile takeovers must have congregated en masse to get some violent payback and sink their prided ships.. What a mess... And right when Ares wanted to cross in peace! Never mind the fact that there were rumours of some sea beast constantly hassling the Federation every time it made a journey just about anywhere and this was looking to be a bumpy ride over stormy seas...
"... I take it you can see where this is going? Well the head of HMTG himself got involved and, well, he played with Barb''s heart..."
"Excuse me?" Ares had not seen this coming... That was sure as hell one evil way to win over a business... "Wait a minute, isn''t the head of HMTG married? Did he openly cheat or what?"
The axeman gave a wry smile. "That''s literally true but technically? It''s a whole different ball game. The HMTG''s wife is more like a woman he rents out to other business owners to get a leg up while they get a leg over. He''s had children with her but that was mostly for him to continue his empire in death should anything happen to him. Plus, while they''re alive, they can accrue capital, land, and brands under his name. If he ever wants to take control of his children''s enterprises he feels comfortable knowing he can do it whenever so they''re like convenient pawns to him. So yeah, the ''wife'' is more like a pretty face with benefits, he doesn''t see her as anything other than a glorified prostitute and he''s basically her fancy pimp. Though I won''t comment on his tastes regarding putting his wife out there, because I mean fuck that, nobody can deny it''s worked for him all these years as his wife has really gotten around and earned him some serious business deals...
Anyway, that aside, the guy went to Barb''s shop undercover and started out by giving her friendly advice on how to raise up her business. All his suggestions were like miniature, handcrafted miracles from a divine being so Barb listened to each and every word like he was the pied piper. Over the course of a few years, and many, many visits, he eventually wooed his way into her pants and managed to get his name on the business as he was feigning interest in a long relationship with her... From there... Well he kicked her out almost immediately. Barb wasn''t able to get pregnant so he had no more use for her and showed his true colours when he finally had everything he wanted. Ever since then she''s been acting out of spite and sabotaging his gathering efforts in places like Baja forest. HMTG gets some of their ingredients from that forest, and were probably the ones who put out the mission you accepted way back when that led to our encounter, so she went alone to try and take everything she could from them. It makes no difference on a large scale but every single low grade stardust she could rob of him she fought tooth and nail for with the wildlife.
She came across a monster and nearly died one day but we managed to locate her in time, after finding out what had happened, and saved her from the very real jaws of death that were clamped around her stomach. She stubbornly refused to stop trying to eat into HMTG''s profits, though, and would have kept going back to that dangerous place after she healed with or without us so we all decided to try and stick around and maybe convince her to stop doing this. We never really could get through to her however as she was fully enraged and driven by resentment. She even resorted to stealing directly from other people on the off chance they were working for HMTG. She never wanted to kill anyone, which is why we never did, but roughing people up... That was in the cards for her revenge. Even we sort of ended up becoming the kind of people we never thought we would be, holding up innocent people and bothering them daily to hand over their hard earned merchandise... We still feel kind of guilty about it all, and we kinda got carried away as of late, but then this opportunity came up and we thought it might be a good idea to come along. We aren''t expecting to ''win'' here, whatever a win looks like to these Firestarters, if anything we were probably just going to die pointlessly but that was alright. At least this would all be over and we could rest without having to do anymore evil in this endless limbo of following Barb around and committing petty evil acts all the time... Barb, on the other hand, was all in and still thinks she has a decent shot of burning that man and his empire to ashes, dragging him down to the bottom of the ocean even if she had to sink along with him."
"... I see..." Ares kissed his teeth. "... I knew that guy was a piece of work but to think it''s even more than I anticipated... Not sure I''ll be able to stop myself from kicking the shit out of him if I catch sight of the guy... I''m not even mad for Barb or anything, that''s her own problem and I want nothing to do with it, but I feel like I''ll owe a karmic debt for the rest of my life if I don''t hurt the guy a even a little on sight... That''s some seriously treacherous evil, like the guy made a deal with Satan and then went back on the terms and conditions to betray him kind of evil... There''s a part of me that''s even impressed he goes to such lengths for no discernible reason. He''s already the richest guy in Sheryashka, and probably in Vraizon too. HMTG has got their hands muddied in just about every business sector known to man... What on earth could he possibly be aiming for that would require him to spend years on some random woman like Barb? Everything he does seems like serious overkill as he stands ot gain basically nothing compared to his vast wealth that he already possesses..."
The axeman shrugged. "Whether it''s true or not, he''s gone on record as saying he gets a kick out of it. It''s the only thing that gives him a thrill and so he chases win after win no matter the human cost. On his deathbed, he wants to look at everything he''s built and go on to the afterlife knowing nobody could ever top it. He wants to leave a dent in the history book of the concept known as ''business'' that can''t be ignored for all eternity. He never feels like what he''s accomplished is good enough so he just keeps pushing for more and more."
"Pft, if only he knew what kind of stark competition he would face outside and above these lower domains." Ares was thinking about the central hub of teleporters he''d heard about from Kaleido as of late as that alone was in contention for the most important business of all time and it dwarfed everything HMTG was by a massive margin. "Anyway, putting that aside, who''s the lynchpin behind this Firestarter thing? Gathering everyone must have been a pain but I''m hesitant to believe one person who got shafted by somebody on the Federation held such a deep grudge that they reached out to multiple people to get back at them. It''s not impossible, it''s just improbable and feels more like someone taking advantage of all the bad blood throwing through Sheryashka."
"Sorry, all I know is that various people received a letter from somebody by the alias of ''Torchbearer''. I don''t know what he wants but you are right in that it''s probably not revenge. He seems to have his own goals and merely facilitated everyone''s networking. He won''t be present and the Firestarter group is just something that he indirectly caused via his intentions, whatever they may be. Unfortunately we don''t have one of those letters because we never actually received one. One of Barb''s old business friends did and he relayed the information as he''d been asked to spread it in the letter to anyone in a similar position. I don''t know the full contents of the letter but it was basically as I described and there wasn''t too much information about this individual or what they were really up to. That being said, apparently one of the letters that had been sent out was blotched and stained with oil, presumably accidentally, which has lead most people involved to believe the sender is potentially a robo... Although why some Neo Gear robo would care about the Federation I don''t know. That''s all I can say because that''s all I know."
More nonsense coming out of Neo Gear! It seriously never ended with that place... Anyway, Ares didn''t care much for robo machinations but he definitely didn''t want to get burned to death on a ship in the middle of the ocean so he was going to have to keep an eye for this group of asshole arsonists... Not that Ares necessarily disagreed with the way they were doing things. This was the cultivation world after all so getting payback via violent means was kind of bread and butter. What they were doing was pretty textbook and the only real issue here was that this would lead to the death of many innocent people, that was where most cultivators, Ares included, drew a line between ''good'' and ''evil''. Even then though, some people believed taking innocent life was just par the course when getting large scale revenge and wouldn''t label a group like the Firestarters as ''evil''. It was all quite subjective but, irrespective of perceived morality, Ares didn''t want to burn! He was going to have to keep an eye out and maintain peace on the Federation if things looked like they would be kicking off during his journey. Hell even if they were still prepping Ares had to deal with it because this Federation was his ride BACK as well. If they burned the Federation he wouldn''t be able to return home for months as there was no other method of transportation even half as fast! Ares sighed and turned to face the other person here... The monk. "And what about you? Why are you here?"
"..." The monk stared plainly at Ares who''s right eye twitched.
"Oh, so now you''re upholding your stupid vow?! Whatever..." Ares shook his head and ignored the mute monk whom he clearly wasn''t going to be getting any answers out of... So what to do about the axemen and the merchant lady? He couldn''t just ignore them going to the Federation and it looked like the merchant lady was going to do it the second he let her go as she had a one-track mind. Nothing short of killing her would stop her as she had no reason not to throw her life at this Firestarter endeavour but Ares couldn''t exactly hand her over to the Federation either as that just felt wrong... Well, there was one thing he could maybe do, although whether she''d take up the offer and give up on Onno''s father was another matter... Might as well give it a go...