Ares was in a bit of a bind. He woke up and almost instinctively turned around but remembered that Enyo would probably have her helmet off. Hmmm, oh well, guess it’s time to look like an idiot! Ares waved his hand around frantically to try and get Enyo’s attention.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, I wanted to know if you had your helmet on or not.”
“Yes, I do. You could have just asked.”
Ares turned around. “Didn’t want to wake you up if you were still asleep.”
“When I first met you, I never would have guessed you were even half as considerate as you are.”
“Uh, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment, ha, thanks… How are you feeling after yesterday?”
“... Better. I want to try again…”
“Ok, how about you keep the helmet near you? That way, if it ever becomes unbearable, you can just put it on instead of panicking.”
“Isn''t that counterproductive? What if I just keep putting it on?”
“I believe in you. You’ll stop yourself eventually. This way we get to try more without having to stop. We have five days and I guarantee you’ll make progress in that time.”
“... Ok, close your eyes.” Enyo took off her helmet when Ares obliged and closed her own after. “Ok, I’m ready.”
“...”
“...”
As with last time, Enyo couldn’t handle it, but put the helmet on rather than breaking down again. When she opened her eyes, she wanted to smack herself as she realised Ares hadn’t even opened his yet, she felt incredibly disappointed in her pathetic resolve.
This process repeated throughout the entire day with only the occasional food break. By the time night came around, not much had changed, and Enyo was starting to get antsy at her lack of success. “I hate this. I’m not getting anywhere. I just want to do even a little better, but I’m just failing over and over again.”
“You’re thinking along the wrong lines. This should be expected. There are two types of progression; one is steady and incremental, while the other happens in spurts and takes time, but is far more rewarding. This is the latter. If you’re at 30% now, you aren’t going through all this for one percent, you’ll probably jump up by around 20% when you finally get used to it. If I didn’t truly think this could potentially help you, I would have tried thinking of another way by now. If this is what you want, I don’t plan on giving up and neither should you.”
Enyo replied immediately with conviction, “I don’t give up!”
“I know. Anyway, here, I made you more honeycomb ‘cos you were running out.”
“Thank you.”
“Any time. Goodnight, Enyo.”
“Goodnight, Ares.”
“...”
“...”
Crunch
---------------------------------
Next morning, Ares'' hand waved around again and Enyo told him to wait a second.
Crunch
She finished the honeycomb and gave Ares confirmation he could turn around.
“Enyo, I’ve had an idea, but I don’t think you’re going to like it…”
“Hm?” Enyo only half-responded as she was still chewing on some honeycomb under her helmet.
“How would you feel about using the honeycomb as a reward? As in, you don’t get any if you don’t make any progress. The old carrot and stick approach.”
“...”
“Enyo, I know this is a great sacrifice for you, but I promise it will taste that much sweeter.”
“...”
“Enyo?”
“... Ok… Ok.”
“Good.” Ares hid the honeycomb inside the Primordial Blade and he could practically feel the disappointment oozing out of Enyo from across the room. “The honeycomb and I are ready when you are. I’ll let you have some if you can go 30 seconds without putting the helmet on.”
“30!? Are you a sadist!?”
“What’s more important to you, the helmet or the honeycomb?”
“...”
Ares closed his eyes to signal the start and Enyo took her helmet off. She could feel the panic seeping in at around the ten second mark, but forced the thoughts out with mental images of honeycomb. This little trick netted her another ten seconds before she finally had to put the helmet on. Ares had his eyes open this time, but she noticed that his eyes being open didn’t actually make it any more uncomfortable as she’d already been through the worst of it. Between this revelation and the increase in time she spent helmet-less, she felt happy over her progress. It wasn’t quite an improvement of 20% but it was about 10%. She was also calming down faster after putting the helmet on. “It’s working. I can feel it getting easier.”
Ares smiled warmly. “I’m glad.”
“Soooo.”
“No. 30 seconds, Enyo, not 20.”
“Damn you. I’ll remember this.”
A few hours passed and Ares had just returned from his trip to buy more honeycomb ingredients and food, as well as dropping off lunch for Allie and Aejaz who seemed to be having a good time, when a miracle happened.
A new round of what Ares teasingly called ‘face your fears’ had started, and Enyo was immediately distracted by a random memory she had completely forgotten about and not interfaced with previously. Specifically, she was remembering the stuff Bellona was talking about when she first ate the honeycomb, about the family getting back together again and how nice it would be. About how her magic really did compliment Ares’ almost perfectly. About marriage and kids. About Appa. She hadn’t really had a chance to interact with Appa, but it was very cute and seemed really sweet. Enyo made a note to spend some time with Appa and get to know it when she returned to the sect. Marriage? That means a wedding, right? What kind of wedding would even be ideal? Enyo had never seen or been to a wedding before, but it was something Bellona and Pele fantasised about all the time when they were little girls. Kids? Enyo had no idea where to even start with that line of thinking. She wasn’t sure she wanted them, at least not yet anyway. Most cultivators wouldn’t worry about children until they were settled in life. There was plenty of time for that later down the line. Wait… “Ares? How long has it been?” Enyo still had her eyes closed.
“Uh, are you sure you want to know?”
“Ares?”
“... Five minutes.”
“...” Enyo felt oddly unperturbed. It was as though everything just clicked and she no longer cared that Ares was almost definitely staring at her. There were so many more important things she could be worrying and thinking about that her helmet issue just seemed completely insignificant in comparison. It almost felt stupid that she had even let it affect her for as long as she’d let it now that she was starting to not care. “How much honeycomb do I get?”
“For this? As much as you want.”
Enyo opened her eyes and ran across the room to hug Ares and started cry-laughing.
“Congratulations. You’re making great strides.”
Enyo eventually let go and then it dawned on her that she hadn’t gotten to the point where she was ok with having her eyes open so, when she accidentally looked directly into Ares’ eyes, she made ‘great strides’ for the helmet.
“We’ll use the rest of the day to make sure you''re ok with this step, alright?”
“... Mhm…” Enyo was still embarrassed. “... I need a minute.”
They continued testing as Ares suggested and, sure enough, Enyo could last as long as she wanted. It still felt a bit off and somewhat strange to her, but she never needed to rely on the helmet no matter how long she kept her eyes closed. They finished their practice for the day when it got dark outside.
“You don’t have to face the wall anymore,” Enyo called out to Ares who was getting ready to do precisely that.
“Are you sure?”
“Mhm, I’ll be asleep anyway. Also, what kind of creep stares at people when they sleep?”
“Hahaha, fair enough. Goodnight Enyo.”
“Goodnight Ares.”
Ares dozed off pretty quick, but Enyo was thinking about this and that to pass the time. About half an hour later, she timidly opened one eye to peek and check if Ares was asleep or not. When she found out he was, she opened both her eyes and just stared at him for a while. Her earlier statement about this exact thing was just to dissuade Ares from doing it because she wanted to do it without being caught in the act.
---------------------------------
Ares woke up and opened his eyes, expecting to see a wall as he had completely forgotten about the new arrangement he had agreed upon with Enyo yesterday. What he found instead was Enyo, who had woken up before him, lying directly across from him, looking right at him. Ah, this is pleasant. Her eyes really are such a beautiful shade of purple. Real shame this isn’t going to last much longer.
As if to confirm Ares’ expectations, Enyo was startled like a rabbit finding a fox and scrambled for the helmet.
Ares had been in a fantastic mood as of late as he’d had ample opportunity to look at Enyo freely. “Good morning, creep.”
“I… I just woke up. Don’t call me that.”
“I know, I know. I’m just messing with you. It’s been a while since I pulled your leg and this was too good an opportunity to pass up.” Ares truly believed she had only gotten up recently as he was unaware of just how much Enyo had been fixated recently with gazing longingly at him. Then again, Ares had basically been doing the same thing whenever Enyo had closed her eyes for her training the last two days. That was why he revelled in every second he got to spend helping her like this, he liked seeing her and he liked helping her. Win win!
“... Will this actually help me?”
Ares was confused. “Yes? Why would it not?”
“I’ll be ok with you… But what about anyone else? It’s not like I’ll suddenly feel like walking around the sect without my helmet… Your one person, I can’t do this for everyone in existence.”
“You won’t have to. If you can just keep doing this, over time, the process will become quicker and easier. I’m just using hypothetical numbers here, so bear with me, but let’s say it takes you three seconds to adjust to me looking at you.”
“Ok.”
“After practising with someone else, let’s say Aejaz for instance, you’ll already be familiar with the process, and it will only take you two seconds now, yeah?”
“Yes?”
“Then you do it again with, I don’t know, Appa? You do it again with Appa and this time it only takes you one second because you’re way more confident than before.”
“Mhm.”
“So now, it takes you zero seconds to get used to someone looking at you. It doesn’t matter who or how many, but you’re always ok with it.”
“I see. That makes sense. So, when I’m done and ok with you, I should move onto Aejaz?”
“If you want, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. It can be anyone really, I just suggested those two because I know Aejaz will be patient and easy to work with and Appa… Well, I mean, it’s Appa. I don’t know how else to say it other than if you have a problem with Appa, the problem is you. Appa is a floating bundle of joy. I think it’ll be good for you to practise with it, which you can do when you and Allie come around for food.”
“You really do love Appa don’t you.”
“I’m certain it’s impossible not to. I’m still toying with the idea that Appa has an affinity for a unique aspect of cuteness.”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
“Ha.” Enyo assumed he was joking.
Ares shrugged. “I’m actually completely serious. Ah well, you’ll see for yourself when you get to know it properly. For now, though, we’ve got work to do!”
“I’m really not looking forward to this…”
“Aww, come on. Surely, I’m not that ugly.”
“... You’re not ugly.”
“Thanks, but you can’t wriggle your way out of this by being nice! Before we start, is there anything I can do to make this less stressful for you?”
“Don’t compliment me.”
“Ok.” Ares didn’t ask for clarification as he remembered the first time he saw Enyo. She was actually doing ok for the split second she had her helmet off, but the second Ares complimented her the helmet came back on before he could even blink.
Enyo prepared herself by taking a few deep breaths and counting to ten before taking the helmet off. She still had her eyes closed as she started taking more deep breaths and counting to ten again to delay the inevitable. When she finally opened her eyes, she lasted all of one second before she was looking down at the ground. UNFAIR! Even Allie and Aejaz stare at the floor around each other, and I have issues on top of my feelings for you dammit!
“I think you’ve misunderstood the point, Enyo. We’re supposed to be having a staredown, not a stare down.”
Enyo was caught off guard and couldn''t help but laugh a little. “Tsk, funny bastard. Help me!”
“Hmmm…” Ares pondered for a bit then had a light bulb moment. He took a bit of honeycomb out of the Primordial Blade and held it low to the floor so that Enyo could see it.
The honeycomb caught Enyo’s attention and she followed it with her eyes as Ares slowly raised it in front of her. The plan failed terribly as Enyo was staring back down at the floor again as soon as their eyes met. “Are you an idiot!? Do you think I’m some kind of pet that can be tempted with treats?”
Ares laughed and brought the honeycomb down low in front of her again and wagged it around a bit.
“NOT FUNNY!”
“You know, I really had faith that it would work.” Ares'' lightbulb moment had turned out to be him just being a bit dim.
“I’m trusting a moron.”
Ares laughed evilly. “Say that to my face.”
Ares had lit a fire under Enyo’s ass and she wasn’t going to take this lying down. She looked up at him. “MORON!”
“Tin can.”
“BROKEN RECORD!”
“Cliché.”
“SUPERCILIOUS!”
“Creep.”
“HUH!?”
“Handsome.” Ares cheated and Enyo had slapped the helmet back on at light-speed.
“You’re supposed to be helping! That was working! Damn you!”
Ares shook his head. “I wouldn’t call that functional. I don’t want that to be the only kind of face-to-face interaction we ever have.”
“...” Enyo knew he was correct.
“It’s ok though, the experience will be helpful,” Ares cheered Enyo up. “Let’s go again.”
“... I need a bit more time.” Enyo’s cheek was blushing bright red.
“Why? Are you embarrassed?”
“Stop it, that’s mean and you know it.”
“No. I’m trying to help. It’s perfectly normal to get embarrassed, trying to hide it isn’t helpful. You should really take the helmet off and just accept that this is a part of life and will happen to you every now and then.”
Enyo hesitated but eventually complied as she trusted Ares. She removed the helmet and felt incredibly self-conscious.
“Mhm, that is one very red face.”
“Y… Y… YOU!” Enyo tried to pick up her helmet, but it was gone. “Ares? Please. Please don’t do this.”
Ares'' heart was deeply pained by Enyo’s begging, but he didn’t back down. “I’m doing this for your own good, Enyo. Prepare yourself, I’m not going to be very nice. I really am sorry for what I’m about to put you through, please forgive me when this is all said and done.” Ares was serious and had a despondent look on his face as he wasn’t looking forward to this at all.
“A… Ares? N… No, please. Not like this.”
Ares had to fight his heart and wrest control over his body to stand up and walk to Enyo’s side of the room. He poked her cheek. “Wow, that is incredibly hot. Are you physically ill? Or just mentally?”
“... Don’t…” Enyo was clearly distressed.
“Don’t what? Stare at you? Maybe I wouldn’t be staring if you weren’t such a strange woman.”
Enyo felt like her heart was shattering and couldn’t manage a response. It was actually paining her heart to hear this.
“Do you think if you stop talking, I’ll leave you alone? You’re a coward.”
“...”
“You know what? Fine. Congratulations, you get your wish. I’ll leave you alone because you’re not even worth the time and effort it takes to berate you.” Ares walked away back over to his side of the room.
Everything fell deathly silent. For about an hour, neither of the two said a single word or moved a single inch. Enyo felt betrayed. At first, she was stricken by grief, then, over time, she began feeling empty inside. Now, that emptiness was filling with nothing but rage and anger at the way Ares had treated her. The rage kept bubbling up until she couldn’t contain it anymore and stood up with a tear in her eye and stormed over to Ares'' side of the room. She found him huddled up against the corner in a similar position to how she found him in Baja Forest, sitting with his head buried in his knees. “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? HOW COULD YOU HURT ME LIKE THIS?” Enyo was screaming furiously at him. When he didn’t respond, she grabbed his hair and roughly pulled his head up. “YOU… YOU… you…” she couldn’t bring herself to keep lashing out at him when she saw the awful state he was in. Ares was crying without pause, his hands were shaking and bloody. “...Why? Why are you bleeding?"
“I… I… Deserve… This… I’m so… Sorry… Sorry… I hurt you… So… I… I…”
Ares was struggling to speak and Enyo couldn’t stand seeing him like this. It wasn’t a major injury, but this was still ridiculous. She still felt betrayed, but Ares hurting himself out of frustration was an even worse feeling that made her feel like she was going to throw up. Enyo was already weeping alongside him as seeing Ares like this was haunting. She stopped talking and just hugged him because she wanted him to stop. To stop scratching, to stop speaking, to stop crying, to just stop.
Although he stopped injuring himself, he never stopped apologising, not even when his voice became hoarse.
“Stop. No more.” Enyo had calmed down and wanted Ares too as well.
“... I…”
“NO!” Enyo slapped Ares.
“...”
“LISTEN TO ME.” Enyo grabbed Ares by the chin and made him face her despite his attempts to look away out of shame. “LOOK AT ME.” She slapped him again and he stopped struggling. “NEVER, NEVER… DO THAT AGAIN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
“... Ok…”
“PROMISE ME. PROMISE ME YOU WON’T EVER EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THAT AGAIN.”
“... I promise…”
“... You called me a coward and then hurt yourself because you couldn’t face what you’d done. That’s unacceptable and pathetic. I’m disappointed in you. I feel betrayed. I know you were trying to help. I know, but I hate you right now. Sit there and think about what you’ve done. You''re feeling guilty for the wrong reason. It’s what you did after that’s borderline unforgivable, so sit here and reflect until I get over this mistake you’ve made and I''m ready to talk to you again.” Enyo took the helmet and went back to her bed.
About half an hour passed.
Knock Knock
Ares’ mind was still muddled and working through things, but he had at least come back to his senses somewhat so he got up and walked to the door. He looked through the keyhole and saw Aejaz on the other side. Ares put his hand on the door knob but paused, activated Omniscience, and looked through the keyhole again.
Ares frowned.
He slowly unsheathed his sword so as not to make any unnecessary noise and covered it in disintegration magic.
He raised the sword.
Knock Knock
Enyo was wondering why Ares hadn’t opened the door yet and was about to ask when she looked up and watched him decimate the door with a brutal overhead swing. Without even needing to say anything she got up instantly and started to run over.
Ares had managed to cleanly slice an arm off ‘Aejaz’. He had aimed for the heart, but despite ‘Aejaz’ being directly in front of the door and being caught unaware, he still managed to make a last-ditch dodge with incredible reactions. Ares could see through illusions and disguises with Omniscience, so he knew it wasn’t really his brother, but he didn’t even bother questioning this mystery person as he took another swing in the narrow hallway.
The intruder dodged backward and was clearly still reeling over the lost arm. He knew better than to stick around in this state even if he was stronger than Ares, so he propelled himself backward with another jump that covered a lot of ground while also reaching into his pocket to grab something. When he pulled it out, Ares recognised it immediately and was about to just let him go and run into the room to escape when Enyo dashed out.
She managed to assess the situation quickly but wasn’t as knowledgeable about the pillar of gadgetry as Ares was thanks to the time he had spent with Lizzie, so she wasn’t frightened by a few small, spiked balls. The intruder threw them straight at her and they started rotating at breakneck speed.
“Stronghold!”
“NO!” Ares cried. Ares, in that moment, fully comprehended why Enyo was so annoyed at him. To see the person you love do something so unbelievably stupid, to watch them put themselves at risk or hurt themselves for you, it was horrifying. He couldn’t let this happen and he knew he was going to be absolutely brutalised by what was coming, but letting Enyo take the brunt of it was out of the cards. When he was next able, he was going to force her to promise him the same thing she had made him promise her, not out of petty spite, but because this feeling of helplessness was agonising. Ares wrapped his arms around Enyo and forcibly dragged her around, putting himself between the spiked balls and Enyo. He used his Omniscience to pinpoint a nerve through her armour and, with an Echo, crumpled Enyo to lower her profile, as the only way to protect her from what was about to happen was to make sure she wasn’t exposed at all.
“What are you doing? He’s going to get…” Enyo’s overconfident remark was interrupted by the shock of the spiked balls cutting through her defensive art as though it didn’t even exist. “... Away?”
“AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” Ares shrieked in pain as the spikes dug into his flesh and kept spinning to burrow further. The meat under his skin eventually brought the blades to a halt as they wedged themselves into his back, but he still held Enyo tightly. “STAY DOWN,” he roared.
Enyo was disoriented by the ease at which her art had been beaten out, the thought of those spiked balls having hit her, the tortured yell of pain from Ares, and the fact that as she tried to get up, he pushed her back down and was still bracing for something.
BEEP
A few people on the floor, Aejaz included, opened their doors to check on the chaos.
BEEP BEEP
Aejaz noticed something pulsing with an orange glow inside Ares’ back and was briefly tempted to steal it to try and help.
“DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! GET BACK INSIDE RIGHT NOW!”
BEEP BEEP BEEP
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
A fiery explosion raced along the corridor, charring a few onlookers who hadn’t heeded Ares'' warning. A few unstable parts of the roof collapsed and bits of floor gave way as the walls were set alight and burnt black.
Enyo was deafened and could only hear a dizzying ringing sound as Ares slumped on top of her. She circulated mana to her head to stop her brain from rattling against her skull and re-organised her mind. Her hand had stuck out a bit and was burning, causing her excruciating pain, so she quickly snuffed out the fire. She choked on the lingering smoke as she lifted her head over Ares’ shoulder and nearly fainted at what she saw. She repeatedly tried to calm herself down and stop her hands from shaking uncontrollably, but couldn’t whenever she looked at Ares’ back.
Ares’ backside was shredded.
From the shoulder blades all the way down to his calves, everything was torn apart by the spikes that had rolled along him and then been blasted deeper like shrapnel, ripping even more of his flesh. There was a massive, hollow space at the centre of his back where it had caved inward due to the explosion. His ribcage had been blasted apart near the point of the detonation and most of his internal organs were scattered and in pieces. A good three quarters of his heart had been liquidised. Everything that still remained on his back, and inside of it, was blackened by the fire and completely scorched if not melting away. Bits of his blood were boiling and had painted the walls, the roof and his back, dripping down and igniting whatever it passed over. Ares'' limp body was like a smouldering corpse.
“Ares? Ares? Please… Wake up… Please… I’ll forgive you… So… Wake up… Please?”
Aejaz opened his door slightly again and peered out. When he caught sight of Ares, he immediately threw open the door and bolted over. “Quick, get him to a bed… Enyo?”
Enyo was paralysed with indecision. This was all so foreign to her. Just as Ares was unfamiliar with how to be emotionally mature due to his past, Enyo was unfamiliar with how to be emotionally stable as she had never really felt much of anything for anyone. She had been unfeeling and almost robotic for the last thirteen or so years for the sake of her father. The fear of losing someone was a new experience that left her numb. She had been lucky to have fun with all the positive emotions she was encountering as of late like joy, freedom, and love, but the good always comes with the bad. This was the ‘bad’, and in addition to everything that had happened earlier with Ares hurting himself, it was overwhelming her.
“Enyo? ENYO!?” Aejaz kept calling out to her until she finally snapped back to reality. “He’s not dead, help me move him.”
Enyo raised Ares up and helped Aejaz carry him back into the room and put him on the bed.
Allie came in shortly after and threw up when she saw the state of Ares. Aejaz ran over to her and helped her get over her uneasiness. “Allie, I’m sorry to ask this of you right now but can you make him a healing pill? His bloodline will take forever due to the blood he’s lost and needs some kind of external aid.”
Allie stopped rocking and her previously pale face gradually returned to normal. “O… Ok… But I only have enough ingredients to make a basic healing pill.”
“That… Will have to do.”
“W… Wait,” Enyo stuttered as her mind was still all over the place. She walked out of the room and came back with the intruder’s severed, and now torched, arm. It still had his space ring on the pinky finger. “Will anything in here be helpful?”
Allie looked through the ring, “... Yes! This is perfect! The ring has ‘sitting-up daisies’, a lifesaving plant! I don’t even need to make him a pill, just feed him the plant and it should work. This plant would be strong enough to heal Ares on its own, even without his bloodline, they’re incredibly rare!”
Aejaz thanked his lucky stars. “Good, pass it over and I’ll give it to him.” Aejaz carefully made Ares swallow the plant and then sighed in relief. “Enyo? What even happened?”
Enyo didn’t know everything but she recounted things from her perspective nonetheless.
“I guess this is what we were warned about, but what do these people even want?” Aejaz muttered.
Enyo was finally back to her old self again. “There’s no way to tell. I think the best course of action is to wait for Zhang and have him look into this. The person that attacked us was, at the very least, in the sensory enhancement realm. If they weren’t, my art wouldn’t have been broken through. I’m guessing they were pretty much one entire realm ahead of me, at maybe the 6th or 7th stage.”
“And my muppet brother just had to be ballsy and pick a fight... Well, it’s a good thing he pulled off a miracle and took off his arm, I suppose, otherwise this situation would be a lot more dire.”
“Tsk, those snatchers are getting out of hand.” The bartender had come up to figure out why there was such a ruckus.
“Snatchers?”
“Yeah. I would have told you before, but there was no way to tell if you were one of them or not. People that complain around here often end up disappearing really fast, so we have to be cautious in everything we do. Then again, people have been disappearing lately regardless, but only women. The snatchers are a group of predatory men that all specialise in illusion magic and can make themselves look identical to other people. They must have rolled into town recently as this has only been going on for about two weeks now. 15 women have already gone missing. Their cultivation is too high for the people of this town to deal with. They also keep an eye out on the town entrances and make note of any travellers that come through. It’s why everyone’s always so on edge. The worst part is that the head of the town, Bret, is doing nothing about it. Bret’s son arrived recently and he’s been spending all his time and resources doting on him and making him happy instead of fixing our damn issue. The only thing we can do is pray someone will help us. I’m sorry about your friend there. Him taking an arm is more than anything anyone else has ever done for this town, it’s a shame he died for it.”
“Hm? Oh, Ares? He''s not dead.”
“... Well, that’s just about the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. Either way, now that I know you’re not with them, the only thing I can recommend you do is leave this town before things get any worse for you and you actually end up a corpse like those poor, burnt sods outside.” The bartender nodded to the hall. “But if you do choose to stay, that’s fine too, just keep your wits about you, and be careful. Don’t worry about the damage to the building, I’ll get it fixed. It’s not your fault anyhow.”
Aejaz and Allie stayed for a little longer discussing things with Enyo before returning to their room and locking it up tight, leaving Enyo alone with an unconscious Ares and a lot of thoughts to sort through. Her brash decision to get involved was why this had gone downhill the way it did, and she was aware of that. Ares could have just Shifted away if she hadn’t been there, but she couldn’t ever see herself not standing in front of him to protect him in that situation. Enyo was dreading Ares waking up and having a go at her for her self-destructive actions, just as she had done to him, but she cared more about him waking up right now. She couldn’t help but give a depreciating laugh inwardly for the irony of her being grateful that Ares was a revenant, allowing him to survive that attack.
The entire day passed by without any further incidents. As the sun set and night drew closer, Ares woke up. He was still in a non-functional state, lying flat on his stomach and looking like he was half-dead, but he was awake.
“Ares?”
“... You…”
“I know… I know you want to have a go at me… But please heal first.”
“You stupid, brave, stupid woman.”
“Huh? I think you might be delirious, rest.”
“I’m not delirious. I’m annoyed, but I’m not going to yell at you. I just don’t have it in me to do it again after last time. Yelling at you just ends up hurting me, I can’t do it. Just promise me you won’t do that again, that was a foolish thing you did.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I don’t care. I’m the one with the defensive magic, not you. It’s my job to stand in front. I’ve made my choice; you won’t convince me to change.”
“Yes I damn well will. Just because you’re a defensive specialist, doesn’t mean you’re flawless. Look at what happened and tell me you feel confident you could protect anyone from that.”
“No but that was different, his cultivation was too high. It’s unfair to use that as an example.”
“It’s because of his cultivation that I’m using it as an example. You really don’t get it? You would have died, Enyo. When it comes down to it, it’s not the person who’s good at defending that should stand in front, it’s the person that literally can’t die. I’m the immortal one, not you. I can live through the things you can’t and I’ll come back even if I do die, right? my body is disposable for the sake of protecting others, you need to stay alive to protect people. Don’t ever stand in front of me again.”
“No.”
“Goddamn it, I''m begging you to stop being stubborn.”
“No. If you die, what about your goals? How many times are you going to be set back before you finally achieve them? I want you to succeed…”
“THERE’S NO POINT IN ACHIEVING THE PEACE I’M AFTER IF THE PERSON I WANT IT FOR IS DEAD, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?”
“...”
“... I’m sorry. I said I wouldn’t shout, but you were getting on my nerves. Under no circumstance should anyone ever die before me. If I’m born with this massive weight on my back, I’m going to at least swing the weight around and get some mileage out of it. Being a revenant has its issues, but it has its perks too. Don’t deny me this, Enyo. You only have one life, don’t throw it away for me, or for anyone. Leave that responsibility to me. I’m still here, but what if you had been hit instead? What about Allie? What about Aejaz? What about me? Are we supposed to just say, ‘Oh well, Enyo’s dead, let’s move on!?’ We’ll be devastated because we care about you dammit. You’re a defensive oriented cultivator, if Allie jumped in front of you, would you be ok with that? No, you wouldn’t. So why should I, as someone who’s supposedly immortal, be ok with someone jumping in front of me? If you want to play your role, then do it, but don’t take mine from me. I know you don’t want to, but, please, promise you won’t do it again.”
“... Ok. You’re right. I don’t want to, but I made you promise something similar, so I can’t exactly say no. It’s not that I don’t get where you’re coming from… It’s just that I can’t stop myself from standing in front of the people I care about… But… I’ll try… I promise.”
Ares sighed as a great weight was lifted off his mind. “Thank you.”
“... I forgive you for earlier…”
“... And I forgive you…”
“...”
“You know… I really can’t help but think this is unfair,” Ares muttered. “I can’t stay mad at you for even half as long as you can at me.”
Enyo chuckled slightly.
“Also, why is it that, although we both made the same mistake, I was somehow the one that got hurt both times?”
Enyo burst out laughing.
“Hey! I’m being serious here!”
Enyo didn’t stop laughing as she knew he was lying. He was just trying to cheer her up and make her feel better. It was definitely working but, honestly, seeing him safe was more than enough for her.
Sometime later, when the laughter died down, Enyo asked, “What were those things anyway? I’m not knowledgeable about the gadgetry pillar.”
“‘Stick ‘N’ Ticks’, they’re part of the ‘throwables’ aspect. They stick to something and then tick, tick, boom.”
“Uh, wasn’t it more of a ‘beep’ kind of noise though?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t rhyme.”
“...”
“Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t name it.”
“... Um… Are we still carrying on? With the helmet training?”
“Of course. Well, tomorrow anyhow. It’s too late for that today, I think, plus I’m feeling sleepy, or maybe I’m just dying, who knows.” Ares stuck his tongue out which got another small laugh out of Enyo.
“Ok. Goodnight, Ares.”
“Goodnight, Enyo.”
Crunch
Ares had his eyes closed when a hint of a smile surfaced as he heard Enyo eating the honeycomb. To him, that crunching sound meant everything was right in the world.