Ares arrived outside the house and paused momentarily to take something out of the Primordial Blade.


    The front door opened and ares walked into the living room to look for Aejaz and Appa as it was where they spent all their time when not in a cultivation room. He saw Aejaz reading some kind of trashy romance novel, this was nothing new. “Hey ‘Jaz, reading trite as usual, huh? Don’t tell me you''re looking for pick up lines in there for the next time you talk to Missy, are you?”


    “Yeah, yeah,” Aejaz was clearly addicted to whatever it was he was reading as he didn’t even raise his head, he just casually waved his hand and dismissed whatever ares had just said. He wasn’t really paying attention.


    Appa was also here. It was sitting in the middle of the room and staring at ares. They had started to get along again after he came back and tucked it into bed last night, but something was definitely amiss. It wasn’t because Appa was still unhappy about the current situation, although that was definitely something that was still on its mind, there was something else bothering it.


    “Hey Appa, what’s wrong? You usually always want a hug when I come back.” ares smiled and took a step towards Appa.


    “You’re not my Ares,” Appa said flatly.


    “Huh?” Aejaz raised his head and looked at ares. “Uh, seems normal to me. Zephyr? Check. Always has his hand on his sword, ready to draw it at all times? Check. Not as unbelievably handsome as me? Check and double checked.”


    “Mmmmmm. No! This isn’t my Ares! What did you do with Ares!? Give him back or I’ll hurt you!” Appa had risen off the ground and started emitting a frosty aura, ready to start attacking if it received a response it didn’t like.


    “Haha, I knew I couldn’t get one over on you. It seems my idiot brother could learn a thing or two from you though.” The Ares clone pointed at Aejaz.


    “Hey, come on. Give me a break! You clearly met all the criteria!” Aejaz didn’t know what was happening but could at least tell that this ‘technically’ was Ares and not an impostor.


    “Where’s the real Ares, don’t tell me he’s not coming home again or I’ll go out and find him!” Appa wasn’t threatening the clone with violence anymore and the frosty aura had long since disappeared.


    “Don’t worry, I’m right here.” The real Ares Shifted inside the house, right next to Appa and gave it a big hug.


    “Yay!” Appa happily nestled its head against Ares.


    “You have no idea how glad I am that you can tell that clone isn’t the real me.” Ares felt a kind of pride welling up. “Here. it’s not much, and I wish I could do more for you, but for now this is the best I can do.” Ares handed over all the talismans he had bought from the treasury.


    “You got me presents? Thank you! What do they do?” Appa was using its rope to pick up and check the talismans.


    “They make those clones you just saw. I know they aren’t the same, but at least you can still have something similar to me here for when I’m not around. They can hug and cuddle just like the real me! Only that clone could speak though ‘cos I was directly controlling it and I can’t do that from far away. Also, they can’t fight, and they only last a week. That shouldn’t be relevant as I’ll be back before you need to use them all, but this is so you know that I’ll never leave you, ok Appa?”


    A drop of mental essence fell from Appa’s facial region and it threw itself at Ares, knocking them both to the floor. Appa didn’t respond as it was too busy blubbering and sniffling. A while later, Appa finally calmed down and sat contentedly on Ares lap.


    “By the way, Aejaz, we might be travelling with two other people.” Ares flicked a weak, ranged Echo over to knock the book out of Aejaz’s hands.


    “Hey! I was reading that! Tsk, who’s coming along with us? Is it the Lighter Duo?”


    “Lighter?”


    “Yeah. You know, like ‘light’ from ‘lightning’, and ‘er’ from ‘water’. Lighter. It’s what everyone’s calling them now ‘cos it’s quicker and easier than saying the whole shebang every time.”


    “Uh. Ok. Sure. Anyway, no. It''s not the ‘Lighter’ Duo.” Ares recapped the events at the mission hall earlier.


    “Oh, alright. I wonder if they’ll have anything good to steal.” Aejaz was enthusiastically rubbing his hands together like a humanoid racoon that just found some trash it liked.


    “Again, that’s if we work and travel with them. They might have their own plans; we aren’t an actual group.”


    “Right, gotcha. I’ma head off and catch some winks.” Aejaz went off to sleep.


    Ares and Appa also went to bed. Appa had wanted to try sleeping with two Ares cuddling it so it used the clone that Ares had already summoned and had it embrace Appa as well as the real Ares. Appa was satisfied with the clone’s performance and dozed off. The clone might not be as good as the real deal, but it would do! Appa decided that, when it came time for Ares to leave, it would splurge and put an Ares clone in every room of the house! It would also take one with it whenever it left to go outside! In fact, it might not even wait until he left. The more Ares, the merrier!


    For the next few days, Ares would wake up and head over to Elaine’s lectures, which he mostly ignored so he could work on arts. He would then go set up the stall and sell Beads for a bit. Later, he would visit the forging department and help create various weapons and artifacts. If he had time, he would either then cultivate in seclusion for a couple of hours or train in the training halls. In the evening, he would head to the technical department and help the other disciples create or adjust their own technicals. He would discuss optimal mana manipulation and processes for their technicals, which the other disciples greatly appreciated. He would end the day by going home and cuddling with Appa. It was all quite repetitive, but it was fun in its own way. Ares had no complaints, especially not when it came to snuggle time. That was the best part of his day bar none. Two days before he was due to leave for the mission, Ares headed over to the forging department and was enthusiastically greeted by Dabble. Dabble told him he needed his help with something, so Ares followed him down into his forge.


    Dabble held up a piece of metal that was pure white.


    Divine was the first word that came into Ares'' mind, followed by holy and other such words. “What is this? It looks incredibly rare.”


    “This is ‘argonick brick’, one of the rarest materials in this domain. It’s also the hardest material too, and a real pain teh forge artifacts with. That’s why I’m asking ye teh help create something. A disciple with good standing in the sect returned from a mission a wee bit ago with this ‘ere material. They want teh make a shield out of it and there’s no reason to keep ‘em waiting too long as they’ll be leaving again soon. Plus, they’ll be taking another important person with them so the safer tey are, teh better. I can’t make teh ‘Steadfast Aegis’ in time, but ye can.”


    “Sure, I don’t mind.”


    “Good laddie. I did say I would give ye some rare materials for ye work, and I ‘appen to ‘ave ‘em here.” Dabble took out a black tinted, see-through lump of black crystal, and a floating white cloud. “The crystal is known as “abyssal ice’, teh cloud is ‘hazy vapour’. Both are ice elemental materials that ye can use teh make a lightweight sword. I have nae finished the design for it as these materials are quite complicated teh use together, so ye’ll have to wait until ye come back from that mission o’ yours. When ye make it, ye can take it to Julio for some ice-based inscriptions. I’ve already named it ‘Black-Ice Bane’, if that’s alright with ye.”


    “Sounds great to me, thanks Elder Dabble.” Ares got to work and poured his attention into crafting the treasure. He didn’t know who it was for, but he didn’t particularly care. If the disciple was important to the sect, then he would make sure the job was done properly, there was nothing else to it.


    A minute-or-so later, he finished his greatest work yet. Ares had slightly altered the design as he’d learnt a fair bit from his time at the forge. Previously, the design was circular, but Ares fashioned the shield’s shape to be more like a ‘V’. After discussing his reasoning with Dabble, he eventually convinced him this was the appropriate way to make the artifact considering the inscriptions that would be added later and their purpose. The shield would benefit from the ability to plant it into the ground, which a circular design was incapable of doing as readily. Ares had also made the top of the shield spiked and, again, there was a reason for this design choice relating to the not-yet present inscriptions.


    Dabble was quite impressed with Ares'' ingenuity. He had interesting solutions to standard problems that he could feasibly fit into the original design without drastically altering the base. Of course, the changes Ares made would have been a nightmare to forge the standard way which was why Dabble hadn’t implemented them but, with Ares’ unique method, some previously unused designs were now viable options. Dabble would have to rethink some of his designs and just hand them over to Ares to finish instead of doing them himself.


    Ares took the shield and went to pay a visit to Julio. Ares got a similar vibe from the runemancy department as he did from a knitting shop he once visited in Red Sun City. He gave the Steadfast Aegis to Julio to start working on.


    Julio wouldn’t finish any time soon but he could at least get some of the simpler inscriptions done by the time the disciple would leave for their next mission. It would make the shield sturdier at least. Better than nothing! “Oh, by the way, Rud wanted me to ask you something,” Julio called out to Ares as he was leaving.


    “If he’s not doing it himself, it’s because it’s a favour and he doesn’t want to see my smug face. Right?”


    “Yep, he also told me not to tell you it was him that was asking. I think it’s funnier this way though.”


    “You’re not wrong, I’ll make good use of this information. What does he want?”


    “Fireworks.”


    “Fireworks? Is there some kind of event coming up?”


    “Yeah, ‘Cultural Appreciation Day’. We have one every three months. It’s a day when we get our disciples to sell foreign foods, knick-knacks, and even treasures in the market. We put up paper lanterns and make it kinda like a festival. Do you remember that one big event Red Sun had six years ago?”


    “I do. So, it’s basically that, but on a smaller scale? When is it? I’m leaving the sect the day after tomorrow and Rud knows that, so I’m guessing it’s tomorrow?”


    “It is. Sorry if it’s a little last minute, but Zhang only asked Rud if it was possible today. You’re literally the ‘explosion guy’, so he figured you’d do good work. He also said that he would supply Appa with substitution-talismans whenever it runs out as compensation for your time and effort.”


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    “Deal. Shaping annihilation magic is a massive pain, but the gains are worth it I suppose. I’ll go and make them now.”


    “Oh, and one more thing. Speaking of Appa, could you maybe talk to it on Loopo’s behalf?”


    “Why?”


    “Apparently Appa has been taking multiple clones of you everywhere it goes, including his lectures. It’s weirding out the other disciples and they aren’t paying as much attention as they should be. He understands that it makes Appa happy, but he wants to ask you to tell Appa to limit itself to one clone at a time. He would do it himself, but he said it was acting too cute and he didn’t want to disappoint it.”


    “And I do? Fine… but I want Appa to get some extra cultivation resources as reparation.”


    “Um, ok? I’ll let him know…” Julio had never seen a disciple bargaining with an Elder before, especially not on behalf of someone else.


    Ares left the runemancy department and headed back home to find Appa, but it wasn’t there yet. When Ares went looking, he managed to find a total of ten clones throughout the house. One was even hidden inside a cabinet. He would have to place a limitation on the number of clones Appa was allowed to have out at any given time. It was certainly endearing behaviour, but it was a tad excessive. At this rate, Appa would probably forget about cultivation and just spend all day playing with the clones.


    Ares got rid of all the clones and started working on the fireworks. He started to run out of ideas for their shapes as he’d already done plenty with the typical patterns. Flowers, circles, pinwheels, hearts, etc. Unfortunately, they would all be gold when they went off, but there was nothing Ares could do about that at his current level. What he could do though was have a little fun of his own. A shady smile crept up on Ares face as an influx of ideas came into his head. If Rud didn’t want to do it himself, he shouldn’t have any complaints about the end result! Ares finally finished and couldn’t stop laughing at the marvels he had crafted. Tomorrow was going to be fun! He would have to prepare himself to run away from a few people just in case though. Ideally, he wouldn’t have to run into any of those people before he could escape the sect and leave for his mission the day after.


    Later, Appa arrived in what could only really be called a ‘procession’. It was draped over an Ares’ clone’s shoulder and was surrounded by about four other clones. Ares sighed and mowed down his own false brethren before picking up and looking deep into Appa’s eye sockets. “Appa, I didn’t want to have to do this, truly, but I’m reining in the number of clones you’re allowed to use. From now on, you can only have two out at a time, ok?” Appa tried wriggling free from Ares and floating away but Ares just hugged onto Appa tightly to avoid letting it escape. “Appa! Be reasonable! You don’t need that many clones! Most of them are just following you around doing nothing! I promise you that you won’t even notice they’re gone!” Ares was struggling to speak and keep the squirming Appa in his grasp at the same time.


    “Nooooooooooooooo!”


    Ares wrangled with Appa for a while before finally managing to negotiate four Ares clones at a time, with only one allowed when Appa was out and about. He also promised to spend tomorrow enjoying Cultural Appreciation Day with Appa as an added bonus, but he had secretly been planning on doing that anyway.


    “Speaking of tomorrow, I have a surprise for you!” Ares said.


    “Ooh, I love surprises. Your last one was great.”


    Ares’ eye twitched when he was reminded just how much trouble his clones were causing. “It’s not anything too major so don’t get your hopes up. It’s more like a nice gesture really.”


    “I’ll like it no matter what!”


    “Haha, I’m sure you will.”


    Aejaz eventually came home and Ares congratulated him on increasing his cultivation again to 4th realm, 10th stage. The rest of the day passed peacefully as Appa sat on Ares’ lap as he made more Beads and fireworks, meanwhile Aejaz read shitty romance novels about vampires and werewolves.


    Night fell and Ares shooed away the remaining clones. He’d managed to monopolise Appa for snuggling at night as one of his earlier terms. This right was given in exchange for letting Appa sleep in the bathroom when he wasn’t here. What was it with this shade and the damn bathroom? Ares and Aejaz hadn’t even used it yet as the ones in the tiered areas were far more convenient, plus, cultivators rarely had to use them to begin with. They were pretty much exclusively for showering. Appa could quite often be found just sitting in the room. Maybe it had something to do with the white shower curtain? Did Appa have some kind of longing to see others of its kind? Either way, the bathroom had basically become Appa’s room already.


    Next morning, Ares got up and headed over to the stall to set up the fireworks for later. He didn’t have a way of firing them off normally, so he just buried them and would later use magic to lift them. There were quite a few but the mana cost only went up exponentially in proportion to the amount used at once. If he just set them off one at a time, the mana cost would be pretty much unnoticeable. This was how he was going to do it anyway as his ‘special’ creations needed to be seen in all their glory, with plenty of time to let each one be observed in all their splendour before moving onto the next.


    Ares went to go pick up Appa and bring it over to start enjoying the festivities. It was still rather early, and not much was going on just yet, but this was the perfect time to do whatever Appa wanted. Later, Ares would have to set off the fireworks and would be too busy to play around with it. Appa would probably follow him to set off the fireworks instead of exploring the market, so that was why he brought it here so soon.


    The first attraction that caught Appa’s eye was an apple bobbing stall, mostly because it looked really silly. Ares explained the point of it was just to have fun. It was supposed to be silly. In addition, you would get a free apple out of it, so there was that.


    “If it’s fun, then I wanna try!” Appa floated over to the bucket.


    “Uh, sure?” Ares wasn’t quite sure exactly how Appa was going to play considering it had no mouth, but he didn’t want to ruin its moment.


    Ares failed to stifle a laugh as Appa dunked its head straight into the bucket. Appa not having arms made it look pretty damn comical.


    After submerging its head, Appa just stared blankly at a nearby apple as it floated past. It was slowly realising that there was, perhaps, a slight issue. Appa hadn’t planned this far ahead, so it just decided to use the only means at its disposal and bring its rope in as well.


    The stall owner was immediately displeased with this as it was clearly cheating. A frown emerged on his face and he was about to move over and stop Appa, but Ares Shifted next to him and started whispering in his ear, “If you spoil the shade’s fun, I’ll replace every apple in that bucket with Shock Rocks and make you go fishing. Am I clear?” Ares'' whispering voice was steady, deep, and strongly hinted at extreme violence.


    “Crystal,” the stall keeper shivered and let out a squeaky voice.


    “You’re a good man with good business sense. Take this and pretend you saw nothing.” Ares handed over a couple Shock Rocks, both as payment and as an ironic threat.


    Ares took Appa around the fair, visiting each and every attraction that caught Appa’s interest. It couldn’t sample the food, but it played a few games and managed to cheat its way to victory on numerous occasions. For some strange reason, however, none of the stall owners seemed to mind. Appa was having a blast, the store owners were close to having a blast, and Ares was enjoying a nice, peaceful day.


    “AAAAAAARRRRRRREEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!” a panicky voice, one that Ares knew all too well, blurted out from nearby. Aejaz dashed around a couple of stalls, stumbled round a corner, and quite luckily happened across the exact person he was looking for. He was momentarily taken aback by the odd scene in front of him.


    Appa was using its rope to strap itself to Ares like it was in a baby sling. Ares was, rather loudly, crunching on an apple. It looked like a dad taking his new-born for a stroll through a funfair.


    “Ares!” Aejaz yelled with a tear in his eye as ran up to Ares, but he didn’t stop in front of him. Aejaz nimbly ducked under Ares'' flank and hid behind him like a little kid trying to run away from a scolding parent. “Help!”


    Crunch


    “Umm. Err. Ares? Help?” Aejaz’s eye was twitching as a nervous feeling washed over him.


    Crunch


    CRASH


    As Aejaz was desperately pleading with a completely uninterested Ares, a knight bust through a nearby wall and looked around. The knight was a woman, covered head to toe in shining white armour of a rather high grade. She looked like an inquisitor sent straight from heaven to right all the wrongs in the world. Her helmet was sleek and gave off a fierce impression that would probably put the fear of God in evil-doers and inspire awe and reverence in everyone else. She was well built and as sturdy as a brick wall. Rather, clearly, she was far sturdier than a brick wall as even that hadn’t stood a chance. Despite the heavy armour, she moved fairly quickly. She was taller than average, coming in at a little over 6ft, which just made her even more imposing. If she had wings to match, people would genuinely confuse her for a divine being. As far as being a tough woman goes, she would put even Li Li to shame, and that was really quite impressive in its own right.


    “Stay where you are!” The knight, unsurprisingly, also had a rather deep voice that would inevitably fall under contralto territory if she ever sang. It was nothing short of captivating, like orders from a commander type captivating. It was a smooth, clear voice that left no room for misunderstandings or misgivings about the words uttered and the demands to be obeyed. Despite its smoothness, hidden within was an indicator of the potential for the anger and wrath of holy retribution. “Thief! Return all that which you have stolen AT ONCE!”


    Crunch


    “Aressssssssss, this woman is scaryyyyyyyyyyyyyy.” Aejaz was clinging to and shaking Ares'' shoulder to no avail.


    Crunch


    “SINCE WHEN DO YOU EVEN EAT APPLES!?” Aejaz was losing his mind.


    “Appa won it earlier when she went bobbing. We were trying to figure out if it could eat it somehow but, alas, Appa cannot. In the end, Appa gave it to me, so I’m eating it. I may not be particularly fond of them, but I don’t hate them either. Of course, I would much rather have some popcorn right about now,” Ares replied in a casual tone that indicated Aejaz’s situation had absolutely nothing to do with him.


    “You’re eating it just because Appa gave it to you? Also, WHY DID YOU ONLY ANSWER THE APPLE QUESTION? WHAT ABOUT THE BIGGER ISSUE?”


    “Because I don’t want to get involved with whatever mess you’ve created. Today is supposed to be a relaxing day to enjoy the festivities with Appa. I’m not letting anything, or anyone, ruin that. Come back tomorrow.”


    “What kind of shitty customer service is that!? I’ll be dead by tomorrow!”


    “Oh, come on. Don’t be so melodramatic. At worst, she looks like the kind of person who would string you up and flog you in public. Don’t let her drag you anywhere near a guillotine though.”


    “ARESSSSSS!” Aejaz was about to start begging.


    “Ares? Oh, I see now. You two are the bandit brothers that have been running rampant throughout the city for quite some time now, aren’t you?” The knight stopped inching closer.


    Ares shrugged his shoulders. “I really do hate that name. I’m not quite cut out to be a bandit, I don’t think.”


    “You two are a plague upon this city! I don’t know how you ended up here, but this shall not be tolerated.”


    “What do you mean you don’t know? There was quite the commotion when we first arrived. Then again, I don’t remember seeing a knight in literal shining armour anywhere, so I guess you’ve been living under some kind of rock as of late.” Ares noticed the fifth-tier disciple badge that told him she was an outer court disciple, one that should have very much been aware of their presence. It was highly likely this person had been out on a mission and wasn’t keen to the happenings of the sect recently. “As for being a plague. Him? Sure, maybe.” Ares flicked Aejaz''s hand off his shoulder. “Me? That’s a bit excessive. If anything, I’m more like a common cold, or perhaps a rash. Annoying but harmless.”


    Appa was trying to laugh quietly so as not to be rude to this stranger who Ares was clearly messing around with but, unfortunately, its actions caused things to get even more out of hand. The knight couldn’t hear Appa laughing. To the knight, it just looked like Appa was helplessly squirming around, trying to break free. “A vile man with a vile tongue. You dare take a hostage? I’ll see to it that tongue of yours is ripped right out and that shade is taken away from your clutches!”


    “Well, this is clearly going to shit.” Ares scratched his head; he really didn’t want to fight right now. “For the record, I’m definitely blaming you for this.” Ares turned and glared at Aejaz.


    “If you unhand the shade and give back all that which you have taken, your punishment will be far lighter! This is your one chance.”


    “Look, lady. I’m not scared of you. He might be…” Ares turned around and glared at Aejaz again. “... But I’m definitely not. I really don’t want to complicate today any further. I’m just here to have fun with Appa.” Ares patted Appa on the head. “As for your little misunderstanding, I have not abducted this shade, and I have no interest in intervening with whatever righteous fury you''re trying to direct at my silly, idiotic brother. You may sort out whatever business you have with him, just leave me and Appa out of it. Thank you, and good day to you.” Ares turned around and started to walk away.


    “HALT! Step no further! Do you think I’ll just let a bandit walk away? Do you believe I’ll just let you take that shade with you?”


    “I must ask, do you like sticks by any chance?” Ares had a serious look on his face as if he were asking a truly important question.


    “Sticks?” The knight took the bait.


    “Yeah, ‘cos not only are you a stick in the mud, but you clearly have one up your ass too. Fuck, maybe you even have some in your ears as well because it’s either that, or your deaf. I already told you, I’m not a bandit and I’m not kidnapping this shade. Stop being such a stickler for justice for five minutes. Look how happy this shade is right now and you tell me if you think it''s being dragged around against its will.”


    The knight wasn’t happy about the barrage of stick comments, but looked at the shade anyway. The stare-down was incredibly bizarre as one party had a helmet on, and the other had no facial expressions to begin with. Appa’s eye socket had a little triangular indent at the bottom which was a universal indicator that a damned shade was happy. If it were upside down, and at the top of the socket, that would mean it was mad. The knight was briefly unsure what to do as she could instinctively tell Ares wasn’t lying, but how could she just let the bandit go scot-free? As for the shade, it certainly looked very content, but what if it didn’t understand what was happening? What if it was just following this evil man along without being aware of his true intentions? People that abused a shade’s trust were scum of the earth! “I can’t let you leave until I verify the truth of this matter. I’ll be taking both of you to the detention facility, and I’ll have a word with Rud.”


    “Nope, you won’t. I have business to attend to and can’t afford to waste my time like that. Feel free to take Aejaz there and, by all means, talk to Rud.”


    “I can’t let you leave.” The knight took up a fighting stance and was ready to barrel over Ares if he kept being uncooperative.


    “WAITTTTTTTTT!” after the shout, some panting could be heard.


    Ares recognised this voice too.


    “Ahhhh, you run really fast sis’. Did you catch him yet?” Allie was peering around and taking stock of the current situation.


    What a fascinating twist! If Aejaz read novels that were half as interesting as what Ares was currently witnessing, hell, even he might read them.


    “Hmm? Ares? Why are you here?” Allie was tilting her head slightly when she saw the thief who stole her Mini-Pilly hiding behind a familiar person.


    “Trying to enjoy myself with Appa here, but it’s not going all too well regrettably.”


    “That’s Appa?” Allie looked deeply into Appa’s eye socket. “Mmmmmm. Mnnnnnnnnmm. Mmmmmmmm.” Allie was struggling to come to terms with, and face, reality. Appa was really dang cute. “Can I pet it?”


    “Not that I mind, but you should be asking Appa.” Ares looked down at Appa.


    “Ok! I like being petted by humans!” Appa detached itself from Ares and floated over, planting its head gently against Allies bosom.


    Allie pet Appa and just immediately gave up on any hope of competing with this soft and adorable little thing. It wasn’t too hard to accept it, she had just been downright outclassed.


    Ares had, on multiple occasions, seriously wondered if Appa had a unique aspect of cuteness. It was simply unfathomable how endearing this shade was. Ares had never felt such peace of mind around any other living being. It was as though Appa’s very presence soothed the soul and calmed the nerves. Perhaps it was a unique aspect under the support pillar?


    It might be worth looking into in the future.