“Aejaz?” Allie looked concerned.
“Has he?” Enyo asked again.
“Huh?” Aejaz had no clue what was happening. “Has who, what?”
“Are you messing with us?” Trew was getting annoyed.
“What? What are you talking about?” Aejaz was utterly clueless.
Trew drew his sword and started to walk over to Aejaz but Allie jumped in front of him. “Leave him alone. He doesn’t know what’s happening and neither do I. None of you have explained anything to us,” Allie defended Aejaz.
“Allie…” Aejaz muttered.
“He needs to answer the damn question!” Trew growled.
“WHAT QUESTION?” Aejaz was annoyed that Trew had been rude to Allie.
“HAS ARES EVER DIED BEFORE?”
“What? No? What the hell kind of stupid question is that? If he had died, he would still be dead. Is that not how it works? Why are you yelling at Allie over something so stupid? I’m not one to fight often, but I will if you keep being rude for no reason.”
“No reason? We asked you the same question twice and you just blanked out, that’s reason enough given how important this is.” Trew was returning to his seat. “Well? Is he lying?”
“... No,” Enyo said. “Ares hasn’t died before or, at least, he hasn’t as far as Aejaz is aware. In other words, we’re back to square one, and we have no clue if he actually is a revenant or not. There’s no real way to tell until bloodline awakening and even then it''s not guaranteed to manifest itself in an obvious way. All I can say is that I really don’t see it. I highly doubt he is, but I’ll still keep an eye on him anyway.”
“And if he is?” Bellona asked.
“Then… I don’t know. We’ll take things as they come,” Enyo thought carefully before responding.
“Then we’ll kill him. No half-measures with revenants. Not now, not ever. If we start making exceptions, they’ll start becoming problems again,” Trew spat.
“Leave him alone, Ares wants nothing to do with whatever it is you''re involved in. Ares is just an ordinary person like anyone else. All he wants is to live a normal life with his family. Don’t put him in a situation where he has to kill you to protect the peace, it’ll weigh heavily on him and he’ll never forgive himself. He might not even be able to bring himself to do it, and then me and Appa will never forgive you, and that will just lead to more blood on people’s hands. Don’t go too far.” Aejaz was starting to get really fed up with Trew. “I’m feeling sick and I don’t want to be stuck in here with some overzealous freaks.” Aejaz walked out of the cave and Allie got up and followed him.
“Whatever, I’m going to go find Ares and ask him some questions of my own. I’m sure I can get him to talk if I investigate thoroughly.” Trew stormed off.
“Should we just let him go like that?” Gladius asked?
Bellona sighed. “No, he’ll start a fight if he finds Ares and decides he’s a revenant. No matter who wins, it’ll just be another layer of resentment to add to Trew’s already expansive list.”
“He might not be a revenant, we’re still figuring that out,” Charity added.
“Speaking of, now that the unreasonable one is gone, what happened earlier, Charity?” Enyo questioned.
“Some serious balls-of-steel shit is what happened. There were large quantities of residual mental magic in Aejaz’ mind when I checked with my runic eye. He almost left permanent damage with whatever the hell it was he did to himself. Either way, the long and short of it is that he effectively carpet-bombed his own memory which is what led to him blanking out for a bit. It seemed like his memories would come back eventually, but they were definitely gone when he answered the question. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what kind of magic can play around with memories like that, but it must have hurt a lot. Usually, you can only put a seal on memories, or slightly alter them, but they were just flat out gone. Memories are attached to the mind, meaning he literally tore them out somehow.”
“He has a unique aspect of thievery; I’m guessing he stole his own memories? He reached mental accumulation during our travels and had been working on some type of mental attack. That was presumably it. He’s probably inexperienced with it, which is why he hurt himself,” Enyo mentioned.
“Regardless, you don’t go to that kind of effort if you have nothing to hide,” Gladius said.
“I’m going to be honest; I don’t care if Ares is a revenant, he seems ok in my book,” Bellona admitted.
“Not that I don’t agree with you, but we still need to ask him some questions. We also really can’t let Trew know, otherwise things are going to get out of hand.”
“But what’s the point in asking him anything? My bloodline just won’t work on him,” Enyo sounded a little frustrated.
“No, it will,” Bellona replied.
“What do you mean?”
“Before he left earlier, I asked him how he did it.”
“And?” Enyo simply had to know.
“I… Can’t tell you. You’re just going to have to trust me when I say he can’t pull off what he did yesterday ever again. I can, however, promise you that your bloodline has been working fine, and that you can ask him anything from now on and it will work properly.”
“You can’t tell me? Did he make you take an oath?”
“No, no. I just don’t want to tell you.” Bellona stuck her tongue out at Enyo.
“You''re my sister so I trust you, but how do you expect me to just take your word for it with no proof?”
“Good question and, really, I don’t have an answer! All I can say is that, because of what he told me, I’m on his side. Even if he knows more than he’s letting on, which I’m nearly 100% sure he doesn''t, he won’t be an issue for our clan. I can guarantee you he either has no idea what’s going on, or he doesn’t care in the slightest and wants no part of it.”
“Fine, but, for now, we need to find him. Which way did he go?”
---------------------------------
“Aejaz? Are you ok?” Allie sat down next to Aejaz on a log by a pond.
“Yes? No? I really don’t know,” Aejaz responded as he skimmed a rock across the water. “All I know for sure is that I have a colossal migraine right now.”
“Do you want a pill for that?”
Aejaz smiled at Allie. “No, thank you, that’s really kind of you though.”
“Are you annoyed about what they were saying about Ares? About killing him?”
“... No. They won’t be able to anyway. Ares might not have it in him to kill them, but it’s not like he’ll just sit around and let them kill him. They’re idiots if they think they can take him. I just hope it doesn’t come to that. Ares doesn’t deserve to be put into that situation just because he was born wrong. Neither he nor I even know what a revenant is, let alone why he should be punished for being one.”
“Are you saying he is one?”
“Yes. Maybe? Probably. I don’t know, and neither does he. Based on what they were saying about him, it sounds like he might be. I stole some of my own memories at the time so I could lie to them, but I don’t know if that’s even helped at all.”
“Um, is it ok to tell me that?”
“I think so? Are you going to go and tell them?”
“... No.” Allie shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair for you to trust me with that information and then for me to go and tell everyone, I think. Also, I don’t want to see Enyo and Ares fight, that would make me sad.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“So, if you’re not annoyed because of that, why are you not ok?”
Aejaz spoke in a quiet voice, “I… I’m annoyed at myself.”
“If this is still about your argument with Ares, I think you''re being too hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. He’ll forgive you if he hasn’t already, it kinda seemed like he was over it.”
“I know, but it’s not just that. I really have been useless lately. During the entrance exam, I needed Ares’ help to calm me down. When Enyo was chasing me when we first met, I ran straight to Ares. I needed him to calm me down again so I could explain myself in a clear and concise manner. Then there was the argument where I did wrong by him. And now, you got yelled at because of me.” Aejaz threw another rock.
“It’s not your fault I got yelled at by Trew. I stood up for you because he was being mean and unfair.”
“That’s the problem, you had to stand up for me in the first place. What if that was Ares in there? Would he have needed anyone to stand up for him?” there was anger in Aejaz’ voice now. “Why should you have to have to pay because of my shortcomings? I don’t want you to stand in front of me, I want to be the person standing in front of you. I can’t forgive myself if you have to put up with something on my behalf because that’s just not fair on you.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I don’t mind though.”
“I mind. I mind because I care about you Allie. When Trew yelled at you, I was so close to starting a fight with him then and there and that’s why I’m annoyed, because I didn’t.”
“It’s not right that you don’t want others to fight on your behalf and yet you want to fight on others behalf. Let other people share your burdens, it’s not a big deal,” Allie shook her head and replied calmly.
“If you were anyone else, I would agree. Even if you were Ares, I would agree but not you. You are the one person I want absolutely nothing from, but to do everything for and give everything to because… Honestly… I… I’ve fallen in love with you.” Aejaz’s cheek was flushed and he looked down at his fingers as he fidgeted with them aimlessly. “I don’t ever want to see you get hurt or yelled at. I was more annoyed with Trew because of what happened to you than I was because of what they said about Ares, and that just made me annoyed with myself because you deserve better than a useless coward who needs other people to fight his battles.”
“...” Allie just kept staring blankly at Aejaz and blinking thanks to this revelation.
“The reason I got into that argument with Ares was because I wanted to stay with you instead of going with him and I selfishly lied to him to get my own way. I don’t believe he was in the wrong and I think what he did back then was perfectly normal, yet I lied and placed the blame on him instead of just being honest to lessen the guilt I felt in making that decision. I’ve made things awkward now and you probably don’t want me to travel with you anymore, which is understandable, and that’s why I''m telling you this. I want you to want me to leave because I deserve it. I haven’t had to pay any kind of price for being useless, for screwing up with Ares, or for my mistakes as everyone around me has fixed them for me. I figured it would come to this if I came clean. As much as I wanted to try and change before I told you the truth, as much as I wanted to become someone who wasn’t a coward before telling you how I feel, I don''t deserve that chance and, more specifically, I don’t deserve that chance with you. You deserve better. You deserve someone who will stand in front of you.” Aejaz stood up to leave.
“Um, wait.” Allie tugged on his clothes like before. “This is all kinda confusing. I wasn’t expecting a light hearted conversation, but I also wasn’t expecting this. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything you just said, but what I know is that I don’t agree with most of it. You don’t have to leave, and I wouldn’t want you to anyway. Also, you’re not useless. When it mattered, you even went as far as to hurt yourself for Ares, that’s more than enough proof. It’s ok to be a coward every now and then. I''m willing to bet even Ares has his moments. You really shouldn’t compare yourself to your brother anyhow, you’re two different people. I much prefer the kind of person you are than the kind of person Ares is. Ares almost seems too perfect, like sis’, and that’s just not workable for most people. I would hate to be around him all the time ‘cos I would just start to feel incompetent, and I think that’s what’s happening to you. You’re a better person than you give yourself credit for. You saying the things you’ve just said, and being honest, tells me that your heart is in the right place. I’ll never forget you getting me that rabbit weed, it meant a lot to me, and Ares couldn’t have done that, could he?”
“... No.” Aejaz suddenly felt like he was being interrogated.
“Exactly, so stop trying to be more like Ares and just be more like you… Because I like you.” now Allie was fidgeting too. “I’m not sure if I love you, ‘cos I haven’t really ever thought about that kind of stuff. I usually just sit around and make pills all day. I’ve never thought about relationships. I want to spend more time with you before I make up my mind, ok?”
Now Aejaz was the one blinking and staring stupidly at Allie. “Uh, yes. Yeah. Of course. We haven’t really known each other that long. If anything, me and Ares are the weird ones, haha.” Aejaz was scratching his head as he came to terms with what was happening.
“Ares?”
Aejaz stiffened up and stopped dead-still like a statue with his hand still mid-scratch. “Uh… Yeah… About that. You’re gonna have to keep another secret. Ares is kinda in love with Enyo…”
“...”
“...”
“Wow.”
“Yeah…”
“I never would have guessed, especially considering how much he goads her.”
“You have no idea how glad I am that I''m not the only one who finds that odd.”
Allie giggled a little. “So that’s how he ‘lied’ to Enyo, huh?”
“I seriously can’t tell if he’s the world’s smartest idiot, or the world’s dumbest genius.”
Allie giggled again. “See? I prefer this Aejaz to sulky Aejaz way more.”
Aejaz’s face transitioned from being surprised to being joyous and finally to being somewhat ashamed. “Um, this Aejaz also isn’t too proud to pretend his head isn’t really hurting right now… About that pill you offered me earlier…”
“Haha, ok, but you owe me some more rare ingredients!”
“Ah, don’t worry, I’ve been keeping an eye out for some anyway just in case.”
Allie raised an eyebrow. “Really? I was just joking.”
“Well, uh, yeah. It’s just that you seemed really happy when I gave you the rabbit weed, and, well, that made me happy too, so I wanted to keep making you happy by stealing more stuff.”
“That’s nice of you, thank you!”
“Hm? Are we interrupting something here?” Bellona and the others had arrived just in time to see Aejaz and Allie getting along really well.
“Uh, no,” Aejaz and Allie replied at the same time while both looking around nervously.
Bellona smirked at the thought of an Enyo and Allie double date with Aejaz and Ares, but chose to keep that to herself. “We’re gonna go look for Ares so we can ask him a few questions, are you coming along?”
“Yeah, but you know that if you try to kill Ares, I’m not just gonna sit around and do nothing, right?”
“Relax, we aren’t going to fight with him. That stunt you pulled was actually really helpful.”
Aejaz gulped and started looking around nervously again so as not to have any eye contact. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure. Anyway, you lying in front of Trew has made this situation a lot better, we aren’t as stubborn as he is. If he’d heard the truth things would get messy, so you did good.”
Allie elbowed Aejaz and gave him a satisfied ‘I told you so’ look.
“You should tell us what you really know, it’ll make this situation a whole lot simpler for everyone involved,” Enyo said.
“Ares really doesn’t know anything about anything.”
“According to who? Revenants keep their memories after death, regardless of how many times they die.” Gladius raised a point.
“Yeah, I know, but what memories could he possibly have? He was killed by his parents the day he was born; he didn’t exactly have time to make any.”
Charity sighed. “That explains a lot. The revenants, or more specifically, the Umbra Wolf Clan, have been trapped and hunted in The Perpetual Massacre Zone for thousands of years now. A while back, they found a ritual of sorts to make themselves come back to life in a different domain to the one they died in, one they themself could specify. Rather than have everyone try to escape, as that would involve everyone dying and being reborn somewhere completely random in the universe, they killed off their newest generation and had them come to this domain to grow and cultivate in peace so that they could one day return and be a part of the war effort. The clans who swore to keep the Umbra Wolves in The Perpetual Massacre Zone sent their own youngest generation, that would be us, to find them here in this domain and keep killing them. Ares was too young to know any of this. As for why they performed the ritual on him so early, they probably had no choice. If he was found in a raid, his parents probably did it to prevent him from being slaughtered normally without the ritual, as that would result in him reviving who knows where with zero chance of survival, just waiting to be killed over and over again.”
“But why are you even doing this? Why are you at war with this Umbra Wolf Clan anyway?” Allie asked the pivotal question.
“Revenants have a long history of being tyrannical leaders,” Gladius started. “It all stems from an ancient revenant called ‘Dominus’. Supposedly, he was the first revenant. No one knows exactly where he came from, just that he was a serious problem for the universe. He had a determination to rule unmatched by just about anyone who has ever lived since, but he ruled in a haphazard manner once he finally took a position of power. He was lazy and lascivious and stopped caring about the people he was meant to govern, but no one could dethrone him. He ruled for centuries and produced many offspring that would later come to form the revenant race before disappearing under strange circumstances. You see, Dominus was apparently unkillable. Only once had anyone ever succeeded in murdering him and, ironically, it was himself. He was too strong to best in combat, so no one ever tried, but that led to him becoming bored. In his spare time, Dominus would try to find ingenious ways to kill himself, but could never actually accomplish it. He would either not die, or die and come right back immediately. All revenants'' age and cultivation are reset when they die and come back, but Dominus was the exception to that rule, so there was never a chance to beat him after being weakened by his ‘deaths’. One day, he simply vanished. One of his many wives found a diary of sorts that was filled with the Dominus’ experiments to off himself for good. Apparently, in the end, he finally found a way to die permanently, becoming the first and, supposedly, only revenant to ever truly pass away eternally. Unfortunately, as it turns out, a strong desire to rule wasn’t just a personality trait of Dominus specifically, but of the revenant race as a collective whole. As soon as he disappeared, the revenants started massacring one another and anyone else who stood in the way of absolute power. They were obsessed. Throughout history, in every age, there has always been at least one problematic revenant who has tried to usurp control over something. All the races collectively decided that no revenant should ever be allowed access to any form of power as they always, without fail, misused it when they finally got their hands on it.”
Charity continued, “And that leads us to a few thousand years back. The revenants had been quiet for an extended period of time and many wondered if they had finally calmed down. In one particular domain, the domain ruler passed away and left the position up for grabs. There was a system in place whereby various candidates would host a political campaign to earn the spot. A revenant woman named Atria, of the Umbra Wolf Clan, ran. Naturally the people were unhappy, but she was doing everything by the book so she was allowed to continue. She even managed to garner support from three particularly well-established, respected clans to boot. She seemed reasonable and responsible so, eventually, the tide started to turn and she finally won out over her competition with her populist mindset that earned the support of the voters. That was when it all went wrong. The amount of blood that was shed under her short-lived, iron-fisted rule was simply inestimable. They had given the revenants another chance and it had been squandered. That was when the persecution started. After many years of strife, the revenants came to somewhat of an agreement with the rest of the world. Rather than continue the needless bloodshed, the Umbra Wolf Clan were banished. The specifics were that: Atria was to be kept under lock and key until the end of time, the revenants would be hidden away in some dark corner of the universe, never to be seen again, the Umbra Clan would be sent to a lower domain, and then the domains would be severed so that they could never return. That wasn’t enough though. The people were furious at their losses, but the only other people they could blame were the three clans that had backed Atria, so they were punished too. Our Legion Clan, the Willow Clan, and the Starlight Clan were all forced to leave with the Umbra Clan and keep them in check. Part of the war that’s currently ongoing is pettiness and taking out frustrations on each other. The major issue though is that the new patriarch of the Umbra Wolf Clan wants to go back to the upper domains. The new generation think it’s unfair that they’re being punished for something that had nothing to do with them. As per our duty, we have to prevent them from attempting to reopen the severed pathway to the upper domains. It’s not that we don’t understand where they’re coming from, but that we simply can’t trust them after what happened to us as a result of trusting them last time. Besides, revenants really don’t ever die. The old generation that had shed blood in Atria’s name are still loitering around and they can’t be allowed back under any circumstances. They’ve died a few times though and their cultivation has been reset, thankfully, otherwise they would be an unstoppable problem. The new generations of both sides have inherited a lot of the grudges of the ones prior and it’s just becoming a never-ending cycle in which everyone feels like they’ve been wronged and deserves better. Not a single member of any clan involved is happy with the way things are, but still feel the need to fight for what they think is right. That’s why they’re all breeding new generations of ‘tools’ for the war and is the reason why our generation has gotten frustrated. We mostly weren’t born out of love but out of necessity to fuel this strife, and that’s true for everyone across all four clans.”
Enyo added, “Aejaz, you’ve seen Ares when his bloodline acts up. You know better than anyone what he can potentially end up like. It’s not that we don’t trust him to control that, it’s that no one else will. We have to do our due-diligence and make sure he really has nothing to do with this war, especially given his unique pillar.”
“What!?” Charity, Bellona, and Gladius all exclaimed simultaneously.
Enyo sighed and explained everything. “You remember those Beads at the entrance to the cave? They’re an art that grows with him and he can mass produce them. If he contributed to the war…”
“Ahhh, jeez. This guy is seriously troublesome.” Bellona smacked her forehead; it was getting harder and harder to justify letting Ares be left alone.
“You don’t say? How long have I been telling you that for!?” Enyo was agitated but also felt incredibly vindicated.
“Ares won’t care about any of that,” Aejaz interrupted. “He really won’t.”
“Can you really be sure of that though?” Charity asked.
“Yeah, I can. I mean, knowing him, he’ll decide to do something incredibly bold, ambitious, and no doubt stupid, but he won’t do anything as simple as taking a side. He would never raise a fist against someone he knows… Uh, well, except the time he punched me, but I deserved that.”
Allie chuckled.
“That being said, this is quite unfortunate. Ares only really cares about making bigger and bigger explosions. It’s his obsession and it necessitates a higher cultivation. If he finds out there are severed domains with a higher potential for cultivation… I can’t guarantee he won’t want to go back as well. That’s the only issue I see here,” Aejaz admitted.
Everyone just looked at Aejaz in shock, he had seriously just thrown Ares under the bus.
“Uh, well, maybe we can convince him that’s not a good idea.” Bellona laughed awkwardly. “Either way, we should really go and find him. Luckily, Trew’s a knucklehead when it comes to tracking people and marched off in the wrong direction, so we ought to run into him first.”
---------------------------------
Ares woke up in excruciating pain and to a stench so unbelievably revolting he threw up in his mouth before he could even process the smell properly. He also immediately realised he was hanging upside down and nearly choked on his bile before he spewed it out on the floor.
Ugh, ah, fuck. Ares groaned as his body was slowly mending all the punctures in his limbs and organs and replenishing his missing blood. He could do nothing but hang limply, dangling in the ropes that had bound him earlier.
After an unknown amount of time passed, his eyes finally recovered and he came to an understanding of sorts. He was in a hallway full of rotting corpses, all in the same position as him. The ceiling was pitch black and presumably linked to the area he was just in. Hundreds of ropes were dangling down from the ceiling, wrapping tightly around dead bodies with countless holes in them. The floor was stained red with all the blood that leaked out and there wasn’t any trace of the living other than Ares himself. As Ares looked around, he even noticed a few cultivators who were powerful enough to have been transition realm experts when they were alive. On the one hand, Ares felt sympathetic for these people, on the other, they still had their spatial rings on them and that meant free loot! Ares was naturally incredibly grateful to his bloodline for having kept him alive through that nonsense, but he got a feeling he wasn’t supposed to die from the start, almost as if it had all been a test designed specifically for him and his bloodline.
A few hours later, he was in a good enough position to untangle himself and fall flat on his face, straight into his own pool of blood that lay underneath him. Eugh, tastes like gunpowder, Ares joked to himself. Might as well make light of the situation, it was better than panicking like before. He struggled to his feet and stretched while moaning in pain. He took a deep breath and travelled further down the hall after ‘borrowing’ the spatial rings from the deceased experts.
That thing was still calling to him. He’d already come this far and he had a real penchant for being stubborn. He had no idea how to leave either. There was only one path open to him and he didn''t particularly fancy taking a stroll back through that black room even if it was possible to do so.
After progressing for a few minutes, the ceiling was no longer black and no longer connected to the previous room. The corpses had also stopped appearing which meant Ares was in unknown and untested waters. Still though, he felt strangely safe, as if he were meant to be here. It all felt… Familiar? Like a part of him knew this place, but only a small part of him, like a voice in his head nagging him.
When he reached the end of the hallway, he found himself standing in front of a large, stone arch that had a rather imposing engraving at the top. It simply read,
‘Dominus’.