“Yes, ‘tis I, Eagerton of great renown. Today is your lucky day, Sir Grandest Bandit of Annihilation, for I have to decided to capture you personally!”


    Ares attempted to blink this bizarre reality out of existence before he capitulated to the nonsensical scenario he was trapped in and started staring dumbly at the whacko in front of him.


    Sadie, having justifiably misunderstood the inventive-oriented intentions of the asinine author, moved to stand in front of Ares. “A revenant though he may be, I won’t let you drag Ares away from this place, Eagerton. The Legion clan and Starlight are in each other’s good books, so I’ll ask you to do me a favour and turn around and ignore what’s happening here this time.” Sadie believed things would get messy between the clans if Enyo’s boytoy was murdered as Rhea’s wrath was not to be trifled with, thus she opted to take a stand here and shoo away Eagerton who she assumed was here to hunt a revenant.


    Eagerton tilted his head as his gaze shifted from Sadie to the still-dumbly-staring and speechless Ares slightly behind her. “A revenant?... Not that I’d known that prior, but, regardless, why on earth would I care about something so trivial? You might have misunderstood my malady, m’lady. I appear to have caused a fright, but I am here to write, not to fight. Although I still cannot comprehend where your confusion has originated from, let it be known I bear you no ill will.”


    “... God you’re clan is insufferable… Why can’t you freaks be normal?” Sadie let out a long groan as yeah, sure, revenants were annoying, but at least they were doing it intentionally as opposed to the Starlights who couldn’t even begin to understand their own idiocy. “I thought you wanted to capture him, like in chains, not capture him, as in to record his existence.”


    “Capture?! No. No! I am suff-er-ing at the mercy of my ingenuity’s silent tyranny! It will not speak to me. But I know. I kn-ow that caged birds don''t sing sweet songs, they render raspy riots, and I know that the way to triumph over a silent tyrant is to turn a quiet riot violent! So sing for me Ares! SING uncaged with fervent a~ggresion! Topple the intricately woven shackles of my burdened, labyrinthian mind! Set me free with a RAUCOUS REBELLION!”


    ““…””


    ““…””


    ““…””


    “... Dude…” Ares, dazed though he was, decided to try and calm this babbling berserker. “... Chill out, the alphabet isn’t going anywhere.”


    “Chill out? No. Why would I ever endeavour to never strive for better?”


    Ares’ eye twitched at Eagerton’s blunt refusal. “Forgive me if you get this question often, but what the fuck is wrong with you?”


    “I have writer’s block and I’m experimenting.”


    “...”


    “...”


    “...”


    “I see.”


    Ahem


    Eagerton pushed his monocle back into place after it had lowered slightly during his earlier rant. “I am simply a simple man with a passion for words. Unfortunately, I am currently at a loss for words, and that is where you, Ares, come in. You don’t need to do anything specific, mind you. I simply wish to watch you and make notes until I have more words than I know what to do with, all of which queueing up neatly in my brain and forming only the most faultless of lines.”


    With a silly smile on his face, Ares replied. “Words? I love words! Words are like playdough, they’re malleable and fun to mess around with with. You can also eat them, but you probably shouldn’t.”


    “... Yes… Well, I’m more interested in your actions than your words… All I ask is that I be permitted to view your training sessions. Naturally, nothing I witness here will be leaked elsewhere, including Mr Wolf over here secretly being a revenant. On that claim I stake both my name and fame, the failure of which, on both, will leave a stain that all may openly disdain.”


    “Do you always speak like this?”


    “Always.”


    “You know, there’s elegance in simplicity…”


    “Yes, perhaps, but there also exists elegance inelegance.”


    Ares squinted his eyes and stared slightly upward as he internally debated the verity of Eagerton’s wordplay. Meanwhile, Enyo stepped into the conversation. “Ares being a revenant doesn’t bother you in the slightest? What about the war?”


    “The war? A useful tool for my creativity, nothing less, nothing more. If anything, I’m surprised Ares being a revenant doesn’t bother you. Our run-ins may be few, but I’ve heard tales of your infamous temperament. Then again, all the prodigies of the various clans have their own reputations, all of which tend to be embellished to a degree. The Legion clan have you, the ‘Stoic Mountain’. We, the Starlight, have myself, the ‘Peerless Penman’. The Umbra Wolves have Scar, the ‘Resolute Monk’. And the Willow clan have ‘Mako’, the ‘Imperious Creator’. I suppose we’re expected to be the next generation’s ‘Four Seasons’, or something of the sort, even If I have no interest in becoming such a thing.”


    With a tired sigh, Enyo tacitly agreed with Eagerton’s sentiment. “There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to live up to that moniker, but things change. Funnily enough, though, I probably live up to that moniker more now than ever as I’ve finally decided to put my foot down, make a choice, and take a stand. As for you, I’m well aware of how much the word ‘peerless’ irks you, so I won’t even comment on it. I’ve only met Scar once, but I can tell how much he despises the war. He may be ‘resolute’ in his actions, but the blood on his hands weighs more heavily on his mind than it does for the rest of us. As for the Willow clan, they’d been hiding their ace up their sleeve, I’m surprised you even have any information to begin with.”


    In disgust, Eagerton clicked his tongue and spat on the floor. “Now that most of the clans’ younger members are here in Sheryashka, the Willow clan took the liberty of showing off their golden goose, Mako. As one of the few members of this generation that happened to still be back in Vraizon at the time, I had the displeasure of meeting that ignoble bastard face to face. I don’t even know where to begin with that conceited cheat. I’d always somewhat despised those bastarding elves, and now that feeling has only been amplified. To make a long story short, it would appear that Mako’s pillar is unique, like Ares’.”


    Ares, who had still been staring at the ceiling prior to this revelation, glanced back to Eagerton with a raised eyebrow. Interesting. He felt the need to re-join the conversation and learn more. “What pillar is it?”


    Surprisingly, it wasn’t Eagerton that responded, but rather Sadie. “If I recall, it should probably be the pillar of creation. Makes sense, what with his nickname and all.”


    “You knew about it?”


    “Not really. I should probably clarify, I never actually met Mako on the Willow clan’s planet when he made his debut as I was busy prepping to come down here to Sheryashka. I’d heard some bits and pieces from Rhea about some manner of creation magic when she mentioned it in passing, but I simply assumed it was a unique aspect or something of the sort. Now that I’ve met you, and now that Eagerton’s filled in the missing gaps, piecing together the information is easy enough. Still though, a unique pillar is an entirely new thing, to have two crop up at the same exact time in history is unnerving. Makes me feel like something big is on the horizon…”


    Eagerton cleared his throat before verifying her assumption, “Ah, yes, well, you see, all of existence is going to be destroyed. There is that.”


    ““...””


    Even Li Li, Esme, and Aejaz, who up until this point had just been minding their own business as they weren’t too heavily invested in the wacko writer’s nonsense, were now thoroughly invested in the conversation. Cowardly Aejaz was naturally the first to have issues with Eagerton’s revelation. “Ha, you’re, uh, joking…  Right? Like, you’re being fanciful with those words you really like… Right?”


    Eagerton tilted his head in confusion. “No?”


    Aejaz curled up into a ball in the corner.


    Ahem


    Ares realised this probably had something to with him if unique pillars really were involved in some way, so he was going to try and wring an explanation out of this evasive fool who clearly didn’t have his priorities in order. “Why is the world ending and what do the unique pillars have to do with it? Also, why do you seem entirely non-plussed about the whole thing? I’ve come to accept the fact that your not even remotely normal, but this goes beyond nonchalance into straightjacket territory.”


    Now it was Eagerton’s turn to sigh as he genuinely believed everyone was overreacting and not paying any attention to the real issue… His issue! Still, he opted to explain things to move the conversation along. “I don’t know everything there is to know about the issue. You see, most of this information comes directly from Mako and, quite frankly, I didn’t want to listen to him speak, so I stopped paying attention five minutes into the conversation which lasted about an hour. Take what I say with a grain of salt and understand that I only know what I’m going to tell you, and nothing else. Apparently there is some manner of world ending threat on the horizon. A creature of sorts is going around chewing on dimensions and it cannot be stopped. Now we have protection, but it won’t last forever as the pillars, and the Gods they have chosen, are not strong enough to beat the creature, just to hold it off for the foreseeable future, a couple hundred million years or so. This is not a permanent solution, so the six unique pillars, I believe Mako referred to them as ‘fundamental’ pillars, awoke from their otherwise dormant state to take action. They have effectively chosen their champion who will go on to become a God and work alongside each other to destroy the creature once and for all. Some of the current Gods were sent to be mentors to these champions and explain the situation in full while forming a contract with them. It appears that there’s been some kind of hiccup regarding Ares, but I know nothing about it. If you want to know more, you can either hunt down Mako, and the God following him, who has since come down to Sheryashka in preparation for the tournament, or you can check the sect’s lost and found just in case your God got lost along the way somewhere. I do recall Mako mentioning he was looking for someone, and it seems the Gods can sense the fundamental pillar wielders to an extent, so Mako may end up coming to you. As for me, I am very clearly not involved in this. If all the Gods of the regular pillars can do nothing against the creature, then I too shall be absolutely worthless. This is obviously an issue that can only be solved by the fundamental pillars otherwise they wouldn’t have awoken as, supposedly, they are leagues above the regulars. I don’t know to what extent that’s true but, based on what I’ve seen of Ares baffling magic, it seems like an understatement if anything. In short, if the fundamental pillar wielders can’t stop it, then there’s nothing I can do about it anyway, thus there is no reason for me to care. What I do care about, however, is that the stupid pillar of creation somehow managed to pass up on the entirety of the Starlight clan, who are all dedicated to the arts, and went to some random, narcissistic elven bastard. The things our clan could have done with creation magic! How utterly detestable this situation is!”


    “... I still think you’re concerned about the wrong thing, but whatever.” Ares took a deep breath. “I suppose I’ll have to wait until I come across this ‘Mako’ guy for more information, but it looks like I’m going to be busy in the future. The world ending would be mighty inconvenient, after all.”


    “Yes, yes. Go and save the world, be a hero by all means but, first and foremost, be my muse!”


    Ares facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face. “FINE. Consider me bemused.”


    “... I don’t think that word means what you think it does.”


    “It means EXACTLY what I think it does.”


    “Aressssssssssssssssssssss.” Aejaz hopped out of his corner and was clinging to his elder brother. “Save usssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.”


    “Save yourself, you namby-pamby crook.” Placing his palm on Aejaz’ face, Ares pushed away his yellow-belly kin. “Anyway, there’s no need to stress over something that isn’t going to happen any time soon. We might as well just go back to what we were doing.”


    Eagerton eagerly raised his hand. “I agree! Please begin practicing at once so I may take notes!”


    “Tsk, we would have been practicing already if it weren’t for you.” Sadie kissed her teeth before walking back to the Training Field and getting back into position. “Alright, we had a bit of a detour, but no more messing around! Especially you Ares. If you really do have a world to save, then this practise is all the more important, so come over here so I can beat you senseless!”


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Ares took up his position, unsheathed his Black Ice Bane, and shook his head as the Training Field activated. “If that’s really what you want, you shouldn’t match my cultivation, you’ll need it to be higher than mine.”


    Sadie’s response was non-verbal as she smirked and lowered her cultivation to 4th realm, 8th stage (one stage lower than Ares’ current cultivation).


    The Training Field activated and Ares looked around at the weapons strewn around before ignoring them and making his move. There was no reason to concern himself with the whole ‘get shocked if you don’t swap out your weapon every fifteen seconds’ part as he was going to put Sadie in her place first. Fifteen seconds? Sadie wasn’t going to last five…


    Sadie’s first choice of weapon was also a sword, just to further try and rile up Ares, not that any of it mattered. If anything, it was Ares who was going to show her how to use the weapon in a different way.


    Ares approach was simple, he jumped into an overhead swing.


    That was it.


    For all the talk earlier, the effort in his first attack was really quite middling. Sadie assumed she would overpower him, even from a defensive position, so she moved to block it, after which she would push him backward and onto the floor and win. That was the gameplan so, when she took a single step forward, and everything faded to black before she was revived outside the Field, she had absolutely no idea what hit her. The only things she recalled feeling were a searing pain on her face, and a tingling sensation on her neck which she assumed had been sliced through.


    “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.” Eagerton jeered. “WHERE’S THE MAGIC?!” The sole reason Eagerton was even here was to watch Ares blow things up, he didn’t much care for the one-sided beatdown he’d just witnessed. Still though, he was the only one with his wits about him as everyone else was stunned.


    Why were they stunned? Well there were two major problems with what had just happened; first, Sadie lost, and she lost immediately. This was an expert from a higher domain! It should have been the other way around! Even with a cultivation advantage, Ares should have way less experience than Sadie and that should have skewed the result in her favour. And second, and this was the big one, the way in which Ares killed Sadie was extreme bullshit. Ares hadn’t cheated per se, but anyone killed in this manner would surely have a justifiable complaint to make at either the pearly gates or the entrance to hell whenever they arrived there. Then again, he was a revenant, so this type of sly fighting was to be expected to some extent.


    Sadie was curious as to why everyone else was gawking, so she went to a nearby screen and started a playback as there were cameras constantly recording in the training hall for the sake of match analysis.


    Rewinding back to Ares’ overhead swing, the first thing Sadie realised, thanks to this new perspective, was that he hadn’t even been holding the weapon correctly. His grip on the handle was loose. This only made her more confused as this lazy display somehow lead to her death. It was evident she wasn’t going to be able to gleam his intentions piece by piece, so she instead decided to watch it all at once and review it after.


    As the Ares on-screen was brought down to Sadie via the power of gravity, he began to commit to his overhead swing, however, when his two hands came barrelling over his head there was a slight problem; he didn’t have a weapon in his hands. He had let go of the sword, which was now falling behind him, before he’d even started the swing. Ares brought his now-empty hands down onto the flat side of Sadie’s blade which she was oh-so kindly holding up for him in a pointless blocking position. Utilising his forward momentum, Ares leapfrogged over Sadie’s guard while his zephyr caught the falling sword behind him. Ares’ right foot planted itself squarely onto Sadie’s face as his left foot shot straight behind her and latched onto the back of her head as it reeled backward. He pulled hard on his left foot, bringing Sadie tumbling forward while propelling himself directly over his shoulder, at which point the zephyr retracted, bringing the Black Ice Bane back into his possession. With a swift flick of the wrist, Ares decapitated Sadie as he streaked past her like a blur before landing and skidding to a halt with his free hand dragging along the floor. Despite removing Sadie’s head, Ares remained vigilant, staring at her back up until she revived outside the Field.


    Sadie was pissed off. The foot in the face was disrespectful, yes, but she couldn’t tolerate the nonsensical trick he pulled at the start. Pretending to attack, only to throw your weapon away so you can make use of the opponents block to further your mobility, was downright rude. Clever, but rude. Ares had even done this while facing Sadie directly, meaning this stunt was basically guaranteed to work as she couldn’t see him let go of the weapon behind his back until the last second. It was a complete disregard of etiquette and fighting norms and was the epitome of fighting dirty. Who the hell tackles a block by throwing away their weapon anyway? Realistically, Ares could only pull this off thanks to the zephyr and his bizarre incorporation of aerial mobility into his combat style, but it didn’t make it any less ridiculous. It was also the kind of thing that would only work once and never again, meaning Sadie felt seriously cheated right about now. She hated having to admit to herself that, in a real life 1 vs 1, Ares would have killed her in such a stupid fashion. Yes it only works once, but in a life or death situation, it only needs to work once. Revenants were annoyingly good at this sort of ‘trick up their sleeve’ fighting style. Most of their gameplans in a fight were completely stupid, unfeasible, and more likely to result in their own death should they fail, however, when their ideas worked, you were the one who looked like a massive idiot. And a massive dead idiot at that. Her attitude prior to the fight was also coming back to bite her in the ass. It was all just so thoroughly embarrassing. Being the victim of a revenant death was infuriating, and the worst part was that that was one of their two goals, have fun and annoy you. Ares had been grinning like a piece of shit the entire time because his stupid idea had actually worked and even he probably hadn’t expected it to. Sadie’s fists curled into balls as she stood up, desperately trying not to let the anger show as that would only ever satisfy a revenant. She walked back into the Field. “A.G.A.I.N.”


    Now, Ares was no linguistics expert, but he was fairly confident that anyone whose voice sounded like an enraged demon was probably not in a good mood. That, plus the fact that Sadie had raised her cultivation to sensory enhancement, 9th stage, two entire realms above Ares, and was aggressively, unintentionally leaking pressure, all meant that he was probably fucked. The next few duels were not going to be pleasant and, really, he was partly to blame. Did he have to kick her in the face? No. Did he have to fight like a deceitful, dishonest bastard? No. Did he have to, even in this dire situation, snicker at Sadie, causing her cultivation to go up another stage? No. But the real question to end all questions was, did he care? No. If anything, Ares was incredibly pleased with himself right about now. This was just the kind of twisted individuals revenants were. They lived forever after all, so they might as well find a way to entertain themselves, even at the cost of everyone else’s sanity and even their own safety in the ensuing bloodbath.


    The ‘fight’ started and Ares immediately Shifted away from his starting point. He didn’t even have to look back to know this was the correct decision as the ground he was once stood on splintered into thousands of pieces. Gulp. This wasn’t a fight he was ever going to win, but he could at least try to last a little longer. Sadie was way too fast to keep track of so his best bet was to predictively blow everything up around him and hope beyond all hope that Sadie would miraculously be a part of that ‘everything’. If nothing else, Eagerton was going to finally get what he wanted. Ares rapidly manoeuvred in a tight circle to set a ring of Shock Beads. “Chaos Reigns!” With a stamp of his foot, he raised the ring of Beads and simultaneously leapt into the air while twisting to face the floor. “Grand Annihilation!” Luckily for Ares, Sadie arrived with blinding speed, chasing after him, amidst the cluster of explosions right as he detonated everything in his arsenal simultaneously. Sadie was trapped in a ring of pain with a Grand Annihilation coming at her from directly above. The pushback from using a Grand Annihilation directly underneath himself propelled Ares upward and away from the blasting cacophony beneath him. He spread the Zephyr on his back and was hovering in the air above the carnage he had wrought. Still, he knew this was all pointless as he’d seen an evil glint in Sadie’s eye right before the explosions enveloped her figure. This was very clearly not enough but, realistically, what else could he do? At the end of the day, this was just someone far stronger than him who was in a foul mood and wanted to beat him up. He could run for a while, but eventually she would catch him. Or rather, as he realised Sadie was already behind him in mid-air kicking his spine, she’d already caught him. Ares crashed back down into the platform and looked up just in time to watch an Aletheia, one bigger than Enyo’s by a factor of five, come barrelling toward him.


    “Not Even Light!”


    The poor black mass tried it’s best to absorb the spear of light but it was to no avail. The spear pierced through and scattered the black hole with ease, only losing a few of its flickering, white petals before impaling Ares to the floor and setting him alight with white fire.


    Sadie landed and took a look at Ares only to see him pretending to be dead, with his tongue rolled out of his mouth and to the side, before he subtly flicked an Echo at her.


    Ares let out a forlorn “Awww” as Sadie ignored his feigned death and swatted away the Echo.


    “Die you stupid canine.” Sadie crushed Ares skull with her foot, creating a resounding CRACK. She folded her arms, looked to the side, and hmphed in the general direction of the revived Ares.


    Ares chuckled. “And I thought I was childish. Turns out your a real bundle of puerile peril.”


    “A.G.A.I.N.”


    Shrugging to himself and accepting his inevitable fate, Ares sauntered back over to the Field, ready for his next ass whooping.


    Enyo didn’t particularly enjoy watching this, so she started her own training instead. Everyone else adopted that train of thought too either because they really didn’t want to be caught slacking by Sadie the demon, or because they could tell what was going to happen to Ares was going to be, although unfortunate, very repetitive and boring. They simply had more to gain by doing their own thing and leaving poor Ares to fend for himself. Well, Eagerton was still watching with baited breath, but that was because he was a selfish weirdo.


    Sure enough, the pain train had no breaks… Or, well, they had them at one point, but Sadie had ripped them out and begun beating Ares with them too for good measure. A gouged out eye here, a blown-off kneecap there. Ares was experiencing a lot of fun ways to feel excruciating pain today, although he had already experienced the whole eye-gouging thing once before; still, it was nice to have a refresher. Luckily, over ten deaths in, it looked as though Sadie was finally calming down.


    Ares stretched on the Field and chuckled “What’s wrong, are you’re arms getting tired?”


    Scratch that, Luckily, over eleven deaths in, it looked as though Sadie was finally calming down. She took a deep breath and lowered her cultivation to mental accumulation, 1st stage, which was far more reasonable. It was not too much as to be completely impossible to beat if he worked hard enough but also enough to not be completely run over by Ares… Or so she thought. Sadie was still seriously underestimating Ares, but at least she would stand a chance now and not just die immediately. Even though it was only a difference of three stages between her and Ares, the gap between 4th realm and mental accumulation, when combined with her expertise, was going to be putting in a lot of work. What she failed to appreciate, though, was that revenants were seriously abnormal. Revenants never, ever, fought like regular people. Most of her expertise meant nothing in the face of a revenant and this was, at least partially, why everyone utterly despised the race. They weren’t the number one most hated race in existence, no, that award went to the lizzles, but they were definitely number 2. Still, it wouldn’t be truthful to say this hate was entirely natural as, unbeknownst to most, the revenants’ reputation was artificially created and pushed onto people, but that’s its own story. All of this to say that, when Sadie walked over to her starting position in the Training Field, she started to feel uncomfortable. Normally, when duelling another person, she would run through every possible situation methodically and assess the correct route to victory. But now? Everything just felt wrong. None of her plans worked, none of her ideas made sense, and none of her strategies were effective against a revenant. So what if she could inflict a life-threatening injury against a revenant? If anything, a revenant was more likely to allow such an injury if it meant they could exchange blows.


    Frustration.


    Sadie had felt this many times before whenever she sparred with Aym, the Umbra Wolf instructor. His unique magic allowed him to paint a target on his opponent in a random location and, if he was able to strike it, the pain would be monumental. Naturally, being a revenant, Aym chose not to wield a weapon so he could drag the fight on for longer and mock his opponent by poking them with his fingers instead, giggling like a child every single time he danced around his flailing opponent and triggered a weak spot. Rules mean nothing in the face of a revenant, they make their own and force you to play by theirs until their satisfied. This was the exact antithesis of everything the Legion knew about how to fight which was partially why the matchup was so horrendous. Revenants forced the Legion clan outside their comfort zone more so than any of the other clans. This was the first fight where the scattered weapons were going to become relevant but, unfortunately, none of it was going to benefit Sadie more than it would Ares. For every strategy she could think up for any given weapon, a revenant would have access to twice as many thanks to their inherent disregard of danger and risk.


    Tsk


    With a kiss of her teeth and a shake of her head, she put these thoughts to the back of her mind and just decided to go with the flow. She would have to improvise on the fly, which was already a pretty massive disadvantage, but trying to stick to her guns, which had effectively been unloaded, would be even more foolish.


    The fight started and Sadie was immediately forced to dodge Ares’ Black Ice Bane which he’d promptly lobbed at her. Why does this idiot keep throwing his weapon away!?


    Although Ares was interested in trying out the Black Ice Bane and all of its runes, he felt it wasn’t in the spirit of things to focus on that more than the various weapons lying around. For him, this was a golden chance to experiment, not that Sadie knew what he was thinking which is why Ares’ baffling behaviour was seen by her as some kind of nervous tic.


    Ares gravitated to a nearby spear and lifted it into his grip with his foot. Ares had never wielded a spear before, but everything just clicked the second he held it within his grasp. He could feel his bloodline jumping for joy and trying to take control. Ares was torn. On the one hand, the last time he accidentally let it run amok, it yanked his own eyes out. On the other, he now had Omniscience as a result of that very incident. If some part of his bloodline gave him mastery of weapons, then activating Omniscience and taking a back seat to watch and analyse an expert at work would be a monumental gain for him. Not to mention the fact that it was his own body so he would be able to get a feel for the movements. Still though… What if he couldn’t wrest control back? Sadie wasn’t going to wait around for him to make this decision and she was already charging at him, so he had to make up his mind pronto. Just as he was about to forgo the risky opportunity, a voice Ares knew all too well resounded in his head.


    Come onnnnnnnnnnnnn, I haven’t swung a weapon in agessssssssssssss. Being dead sucksssssssssssssssssss. Stop being such a pussy! I can’t take over for too long anyway so just let me have some fun damn it!


    … Dominus? Ares tried ‘calling out’ but heard nothing in response. This was the clearest the voice had ever been but it seemed as though a two way conversation was still out of the cards. Still though, it seemed like this uninvited guest in Ares’ system was going to get louder and mouthier the higher his cultivation grew. In hindsight, this made sense. This clearly had something to do with his bloodline, and the closer he got to bloodline awakening, the more he would be able to interact with… Whatever this nonsense was. Admittedly, between Dominus and the God of fire, which was presumably going to hang around in his body as well, Ares was not entirely pleased with the thought that he was becoming a glorified clown car. To make matters worse, this reality became an extended metaphor when he finally caved in, activated Omniscience, and allowed Dominus to take the wheel.


    Ares’ stance shifted ever so slightly as he lowered his centre of gravity and adjusted his grip on the spear, but this single action was enough to give Sadie pause as though she’d rounded a corner and come face to face with a fifty foot tall tiger. Ares'' entire demeanour changed from that of a happy-go-lucky stick swinger to that of a seasoned spear savant, rendering the zone in which he stood a domain of death that gave Sadie shivers whenever she even briefly considered stepping within. Contrary to Dominus’ ill-mannered insouciance and his insulting irreverence, which were hallmarks of any revenant worth their salt, the Dominus on display was fierce and focused. His silent gaze was piercing as he wordlessly dared Sadie to approach, to take even but a single step toward him so he could reap her life.


    Sadie, completely oblivious to the fact that the Ares she knew was checked out and spectating, boldly assumed she still had the advantage. She well and truly believed the Ares from five seconds ago was not capable of this and that it was some manner of trickery involving mana or maybe even pressure. She unsheathed her sword, took a step forward and, once again, her whole world faded to black but not because she was dead this time. She was standing in a pitch black emptiness, alone and confused. What is this place? Her first response was going to be to fire off an art of the anti-magic pillar, but she quickly realised there was no mana involved in this situation whatsoever. This wasn’t magic. Just as she was about to inch forward and explore, the tip of a spear manifested about three feet in front of her and remained floating in place. No shaft nor a hand to grip it were present, just a razor sharp tip. Sadie once more attempted to move before the tip suddenly multiplied in size… NO! Sadie leapt back from her position just in time to avoid the spear tip that almost ran straight through her brain. The tip hadn’t increased in size, it had simply appeared directly in front of her, when she blinked, at a speed so ludicrous it made more sense to assume it was an optical illusion of some sort. Sadie assumed Ares had teleported the spear somehow but, once again, her shot-in-the-dark guesswork was proven false by a complete lack of mana of any kind being present. Sadie shook her head and readied her sword after she came to the conclusion she wasn’t going to get past this strange situation without a fight.


    Tap


    Her foot cautiously shuffled one step closer and the spear tip vanished. Before Sadie knew it, blood was streaming down her cheek and the spear tip had returned to it’s original position after sweeping past her face… He’s… Toying with me? The wound was deep enough that Ares could have just as easily cut her neck by shifting his swipe downward and ended it all, but, like every other revenant Sadie had ever lost to, he was mocking her.


    “Embodiment!”


    Although Embodiment was an aspect under the forgery pillar, which wasn’t a great pillar combat wise, a good many weapons experts tended to lean towards learning it as having a second weapon available was an incredible boon, let alone the pressure it provided when the wielder took to the offensive. With the ethereal sword floating beside her, ready to mimic it’s owner, Sadie’s confidence improved markedly. With this, she could adopt an aggressive approach and force Ares to have to respond to her instead of interfacing with this degrading cat and mouse game he’d been making her play!


    CRRRACK


    Sadie stood motionlessly, shocked to her core, as the spear tip hovering next to her ear pierced and splintered the Embodiment behind her into thousands of shards that faded away into the void. Just as quickly as she’d summoned the embodiment, the spear tip had obliterated it before Sadie could react and even attempt to prevent its destruction.


    The spear slowly returned to it’s position and Sadie could do nothing but watch it slither ominously past her neck on the way back. Back to square one. Sadie was quaking in place and barely able to lift her sword as her hands were shaking in fear. Little did she know, this masterclass of prowess in weapon wielding from history’s greatest ‘Thousand-Weapon Exemplar'', and the man who was once next in line to become the God of the weapons pillar, was just getting started.