Ares pointed his finger at the floor. "Down." As the full force of both a Double Jump and Echo came bearing down onto the mimic''s shoulders, it was pummelled into a kneeling position in the floor. In, not on. It''s knees had been blasted into the floor and were stuck. Ares stood up and calmly disembarked the mimic''s shoulders while taking a step towards the two cultivators. He looked at each of them and recalled that they were Hans'' lot, so he nodded to the entrance. "Get lost."


    Neither of the cultivators felt the need to bring up his manner of speech as being impolite was perfectly acceptable if he was saving their lives! He could even spit on them for all they would have cared.


    The mimic struggled to escape its half-burial but it stopped squirming when Ares'' shoe was placed squarely on its face. It looked up at the monster leaning over it with his hands in his pockets.


    "Go on. Entertain me."


    Bang


    Ares'' Double Jump and Echo combination sent the mimic tearing through the floor, digging up the cavern''s surface until it eventually came to a halt as its back slammed against the far wall.


    Ares Shifted next to mimic. "Mmmm, I can feel it. I''m close to creating a combination art. Stand up and make yourself useful." Having to use both Double Jump and Echo simultaneously was inefficient and, with a bit more practice, he knew he could combine them into a unique art. It wouldn''t be usable with his hands, so Echoes would still have its uses, but this new art was going to be incredibly powerful. Ares could, as he previously stated, feel it.


    The mimic, in a desperate bid for survival, went berserk and regressed back to its natural instincts, abandoning everything it had taken from Ares. Ares was immensely disappointed with the now beast-like intelligence of the monster that was haphazardly Blinking around the room to try and confuse and disorient him. This was a trick that would only work on someone weak. Ares could have cancelled the Blink and crushed the mimic, but he let it happen instead as he could punish the mimic far more severely if he didn''t interrupt him. Five more Blinks later and the mimic was now lunging at Ares'' heart with its maw from a blind spot. Ares made no effort to move until the mimic was inches away, at which point he Shifted away, leaving A Shock Bead in his previous position. Instead of clamping down on Ares'' heart, the mimic gulped down a Shock Bead which caused its throat to start glowing gold.


    Boooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm


    The mimic''s head splattered just like that one cultivator it had killed earlier. The mimic was stumbling around grasping at its empty head region with its hands as it slowly regenerated. Ares stood to the side and watched it happen, not interfering in the slightest. When the head was finally restored, the mimic roared and started Blinking again. Ares was angry now, this behaviour wasn''t conducive to his experiment. As he clicked his tongue, Ares Shifted to one of the room''s four corners and waited for the stupid creature to understand just how pointless its current actions were against someone as combat-wise as Ares.


    The mimic went to Blink again, this time behind his target so he could attempt another lunge... But the mimic stopped moving altogether as something slowly dawned on it. Ares'' new position was unassailable. Whereas previously the mimic could Blink in a full circle around Ares, now he had a limited window. Ares standing in the corner had cut off his left flank, his right flank, and his backside. Instead of Ares having to worry about an attack from anywhere in a 360 degree radius, he now only had to deal with a quarter of that. The mimic''s entire strategy was made pointless because Ares had put himself in a corner and was now patiently waiting for the mimic''s next move. Something deep within the mimic stirred as it turned around and ran. An opponent like this would kill it. Ares was smarter, faster, stronger, and had better magic. Being completely outclassed in every way imaginable drove the mimic to run for the entrance to its own lair. It had stolen Ares'' form and was quick enough in its own right that maybe it could escape the devil behind it. It''s dread compelled it to ignore the commands that had been drilled into it to remain in this room. The mimic eyed all the cultivators in its way who were just as frightened as it was. The mimic couldn''t handle Ares, but neither could the others. He could barrel through them using Ares'' prowess and escape. When it got outside, it would flee to the farthest edges of the planet and evade death by hiding for the rest of its life. The very same life that flashed before its eyes when Ares skidded to a halt in front of it with red magic around his feet and a dangerous grin on his face. Whatever Ares was on the verge of understanding was beginning to take shape. The mimic almost fell over as it tried to cancel its forward sprint by stumbling backward. It turned and just started aimlessly running away again. There were no other exits and it was just being toyed with at this point. Its killer was using it to experience nirvana and have a moment of enlightenment.


    Ares was at an all time high as the world around him felt like it bended to his every whim. Ares was about to create something important here. The universe itself acted like a slipstream, encouraging him to move faster and take actions that defied common sense. The nothingness magic on his feet flared as he took a step and completely vanished. Ares looked around as he appeared in the void. Unlike the last time he was here, he could see reality overlapping with the red void all around him. He masterfully weaved nothingness to transport him to what, in reality, would be the other side of the room. When he arrived, the void immediately disappeared and he was precisely where he wanted to be. The mimic tried to scramble to a halt as Ares'' appeared directly in front of it but it''s momentum dragged it forward straight into Ares'' high kick. The nothingness magic, Double Jump, and Echo all merged into a single form that broke the mimics jaw as it was flung into the ceiling, causing the entire room to tremble.


    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"


    Ares voice rumbled throughout the tomb as his form vanished into the void, disappearing from sight. Even though he''d seemingly left this plane of existence, his voice could still be heard loud and clear as he chanted the name of his new art.


    "VOIDWALK!"


    Gravity took effect on the mimic and made it slump out of the cracked roof. The mimic made no effort to look down as it fell. It had given up. Ares'' voice was laced with omnipotence and he had clearly ascended to a level that no one in this cave could comprehend. The mimic figured as long as it didn''t look down, it wouldn''t have to see the monster it had created as it was killed by him. Even this small hope was crushed as the mimic didn''t have to look down to see Ares, he was flying right in front of him... No, he wasn''t flying... He was standing on air? Walking? Shifting? The mimic''s brain couldn''t fully register what the being in front of it was or was doing anymore. With every step Ares took atop the air, a red ripple appeared underneath his feet. After every ripple, Ares would disappear for a split second before reappearing in the air a few feet ahead of his previous location without losing any height or momentum. The mimic blinked its eyes a single time and Ares was now standing in front of its falling body, looking down at it with pity like it was a pathetic creature. The mimic''s body kept descending as Ares stood in place in the air and watched it fall. The mimic looked up at Ares with awe. It had previously avoided gazing upon him but his resplendent figure was worth burning into its memory in death if only so it could witness a type of perfection that it thought was unachievable. Just before the mimic hit the ground, Ares slowly leant back and transitioned into a free fall before disappearing yet again. Feeling a regal presence beneath it, the mimic looked straight down and witnessed Ares'' upper body elegantly rise out of the floor. Ares'' hand caught the mimic''s clothes in his grasp and dragged the monster down inside the floor and into the void. The mimic was confounded as it was instantly tossed out of the vast nothingness, back into the air alongside Ares who had flipped upside down into another free fall beside it. Ares spread his arms wide and laughed without pause as he disappeared before reappearing standing on the floor in the same pose. With a small bend of his knees, and a slight hunch of his back, Ares disappeared again.


    CRACK


    The mimic''s body was hanging in mid air in an ''n'' shape. Ares was defying gravity, standing upside down with his feet on the mimic''s stomach. He looked down... Up... At the mimic with elation in his eyes as his next step was a single step 90 degrees backward, shifting his rotation from vertical to horizontal as he climbed up an invisible wall. Ares walked sideways up reality, grabbing the back of the mimic by its clothes and bringing it with him further into the sky. Ares'' horizontal climb took him to the roof at which point he, and the mimic who''s mind had been completely broken, went straight through it and into the void again before being spat out back on the floor of the cave. Ares left the demoralised mimic on the floor as he dashed up to the ceiling again, this time not phasing through it but planting his feet on it firmly. He kicked off the ceiling and came crashing down with an axe kick onto the mimic that split the floor underneath it in two.


    BANG


    Ares wanted to keep playing with his food, rejecting physics and phasing around the room and in and out of walls, but the mimic was basically dead at this point so there was no reason to do it other than his own amusement. He kissed his teeth as he rolled the mimic onto its back with his foot. "Do you want to live?"


    The mimic''s sight was blurry and it couldn''t hear anything properly. It''s body was in tatters and it couldn''t even move anymore, but the offer was like a breath of fresh air down in this dank cave that invigorated it; giving it enough energy to weakly nod its head.


    "Then, first, give me whatever treasure you''re guarding."


    The mimic coughed up a glass object shaped like a Burr puzzle. The parts were slowly twisting and warping at the seams as they revolved and oscillated in every which direction. Ares recognised this as an ''ever-shifting core''; something he himself unfortunately had no use for. He knew someone that could benefit from it, however, so it wasn''t a complete waste. "Second, give me the red jewel that opens up the door to go further into the tomb."


    The mimic raised its palm and the red jewel from earlier emerged from its flesh. Ares took it and inspected it with his Omniscience before putting it in his pocket. He looked down at the mimic and spoke to it with one more time. "Third, don''t resist what''s about to happen to you." Ares'' hand was steadily lowered onto the mimic''s chest. As soon as the hand touched the mimic, mana went flooding through it. The mimic accepted the mana and no one on the side lines could see what happened next. All they knew was that Ares was the only person left in the room after he stood up. Ignoring the other cultivators who were gawking and stuck in their own heads, Ares headed over to the wall blocking the path forward.


    One person did manage to gather their wits about them and actually move after Ares... Aejaz! although it took him longer than it should have... Aejaz had been around Ares for years now so he shouldn''t have been this boggled by his actions; but it just goes to show how bizarre Ares'' new art was that it had even confounded his own brother. Slotting the jewel into the wall, Ares took a step back as the wall rumbled. Dust dropped to the floor as the wall retracted, opening up the exit to this arena. Aejaz caught up to Ares as he walked through the exit and peppered his brother with a series of questions that Ares couldn''t answer even if wanted to. Not because he didn''t know the answers, but because his babbling brother''s sentences were completely indecipherable. Ares had to turn and pinch Aejaz'' lips. "That nothingness art is called Voidwalk. It is a combination of Shift, Echo, and Double Jump. It has the effects of all three as well as a few others. After every step I take, it forms a red ripple under my feet that can act as an entrance to the void, pulling me into it if I let it. From there, I can teleport freely within a limited distance before I have to return to reality. I can even take people and objects with me, but I can''t leave them there. They will be expelled if I don''t bring them out shortly after bringing them in. The void ripple under my foot also has two other effects. First, it''s as powerful as the Double Jump and Echo combination I used earlier; meaning it can double as an attack. Second, it acts as a platform that my feet can cling to. As I can sink into that platform and go into the void, gaining height while I''m in there, and come out on top of another platform, it technically acts like a variant of flight. It''s far faster than flying, but takes a bit more mana. It has more uses overall, though, so it''s probably just a straight upgrade."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "YOU CAN FLY NOW?!"


    "Well it''s not normal flight, obviously. It''s more like putting myself high in the sky and then teleporting as I walk through the air without ever losing height. It can also be used underwater if I were to hazard a guess. Again, ignoring the mana cost, it''s just better than flying. I''m also invincible while I''m mid Voidwalk as I''m not in this dimension, so there''s that too. Naturally, as its a nothingness art, I''m the only one who can ever use it. Any questions?"


    "I still don''t get it."


    "That''s fine. It is complicated after all. Perhaps if I show you, you''ll get it." Ares activated the art and a red ripple appeared underneath his feet. "These are the void platforms, I can go into them to enter the void." Ares put his hand on Aejaz'' shoulder and brought him into the void. "Look around, you can see the real world still, right?"


    "Yes." Aejaz nodded.


    "Good. Next, I''m going to Shift us to the ceiling while still in the void." Ares did as he said he would and now Aejaz was floating in the void, just slightly under where the ceiling would be back in their dimension. "Now I''m going to bring us back out." Once more, Ares remained true to his word. When the two returned, Ares and Aejaz were both near the ceiling. Ares was standing on the void platforms again and holding Aejaz by the scruff of his neck. "This is how I ''fly''. It''s more like teleporting from platform to platform over and over again. The process is usually quicker than this though, I just slowed it down to show you clearly. Also, the platforms don''t have to be horizontal, they can be vertical. That''s what lets me stand upside down or sideways in mid-air, capeesh?"


    "Uh, kinda?"


    "Look, don''t worry about it, just know that I can walk on air now. It''s not an entirely accurate assessment, but its good enough."


    "Ok, but what about Double Jump, Echo, and Shift? Aren''t they all useless now that you''ve combined them into something far greater?"


    "Not even remotely. Voidwalk costs more mana than Double Jump, and by a fair amount too. Double Jump is a more mana-efficient combat trick than Voidwalk. Echoes can be used by any body part and not just my feet like Voidwalk, so it gives me more variety and opportunities to use it. Like back when we fought Gladius and I sent the Echo through his spear? I couldn''t do that with Voidwalk. Shift itself is a bit more complicated, but I can technically use it as the base for other non-movement based arts in the future. A single Shift is still also cheaper than activating Voidwalk, so I''ll have uses for it yet. I can also set up long range Shift markers which is something Voidwalk isn''t capable of. Long story short, all four are different but equally usable depending on the situation. Oh, and there''s one more thing I got out of that fight, if you''re curious."


    "More? What is it?"


    [This.] Ares telepathically sent a simple message into his brother''s simple brain.


    [Eh? Your cultivation went up?] Aejaz responded in kind. He was actually capable of doing this for a while now as he''d reached mental accumulation some time ago but he just never bothered as it took up mana for no reason.


    "Yep. I''d entered the void a while ago which had been good for me, but this is the first time I''d actually put it to good use so I just kinda blew past the 10th stage. Now I''m in mental accumulation, 1st stage... Hey! Hey!" [BOO!] "Hehehehe."


    Aejaz dreaded having to put up with Ares in the foreseeable future now that even shutting his lips couldn''t stop him...


    Ares put his hands behind the back of his head as he walked. "That should just about be it for the tomb. I can''t imagine a tomb in a lowly place like Red Sun will be much longer than this. In short, the next room should be the treasure room." As if to prove Ares'' point, Aejaz and Ares rounded the corner and walked into a room with a small pile of treasures and a tombstone. Unlike last time, Ares'' Omniscience didn''t detect anything... Well, anything dangerous anyway. There was a little more to this room than was obvious at first glance, but that wasn''t relevant right now. Ares moved over to the treasure pile and went through everything one by one as a frown appeared on his face. Ares became more glum with each passing second and his eye even started twitching when he''d finished searching through the pile. "Ooooohohohohoh, I''m about to become the next Nanni! Who owned this bloody tomb?! Ea-nā?ir?!"


    The other cultivators walked in on Ares spitting on the nearby tombstone and their faces immediately twisted into ones of disgust and repulsion. They all glanced at the treasure pile before walking over to the tombstone and spitting on it as well. They didn''t even bother to give the treasures more than a cursory glance before leaving the room as Ares started to explain to his befuddled brother. "These worthless things are called backfire gear." Ares pointed to the lump of stuff on the floor. "Backfire gear is a type of artifact that goes haywire during creation, becoming something completely unpredictable. Weapons can become helmets, helmets can become toilet seats. Anything is possible and the result is essentially random. Backfire gear, normally, is considered a massive failure and anyone who forges one will typically give it a joke name as a sort of penance. Backfire gear isn''t always necessarily unusable, but getting a high tier backfire gear is extraordinarily unlikely, so most of them end up being worthless trash. There are five tiers of backfire gear; Liability, Joke, Neutral, Beneficial, and Misnomer. 95% of all backfire gear produced is either joke tier or lower. These artifacts will, more often than not, either be pointless or even a detriment at times, so they''re frequently abandoned. As for why we''re spitting on this person''s grave, having backfire gear in your legacy tomb is considered extremely bad manners, especially if they''re all liability or joke tier. The other cultivators gave the artifacts a once over just to make sure I wasn''t lying about them being backfire gear before spitting and leaving because these things are garbage. I mean, listen to some of this crap! Longinus Latitudinous, a spear that deals triple damage if you''re standing on the planet''s equator, only does one third of the damage anywhere else! Garbage! Bo''ne Marrow, a bow and arrow that turns anyone it kills into a rampaging skeleton. A rampaging undead with powerful magic that can''t tell friend from foe and will even kill you! Garbage! Cupid''s Harp-oon, a harpoon that will probably kill your opponent if it hits them, but will make you fall irreversibly in love with them! They''ll probably be a damn corpse by the time this thing hits, and that''ll make you a necrophiliac for life! Garbage! These things were blessed by a God-damn monkey''s paw! The only one here that''s even neutral tier is this thing..." Ares picked up a fleshy pink spatial ring. "... The Spatial Ringworm. You can hide this space ring on your body in the form of a rash, allowing it to go undetected. It might be good for you? You steal things all the time, so having a way to hide your stolen goods might actually come in handy. I mean I have the Primordial Blade anyway, so this is irrelevant to me. You should hang onto it just in case you need it one day." Ares flicked the Ringworm at his brother who caught it and shoved it into his normal space ring. Aejaz didn''t want a rash on his beautiful skin! He would use it if he had too, and only if he absolutely had too! It wasn''t permanent or anything, but hew still wanted to avoid it whenever possible because he cared about his appearance. Aejaz was really meticulous about maintaining his skin.


    Aejaz stared at the tombstone. "Uhh... do I have to spit on it as well?"


    "Ha, if you want, but I wouldn''t if I were you. I only did it to fool those other guys into leaving."


    "What? Why? Is there something else in here?" Aejaz looked around but couldn''t see anything. "Actually..." Aejaz held his hand in the air and begun holding it in different positions. "... Airflow? How is there a draft in here?"


    Ares patted his brother on the shoulder. "Not bad. Took you a while, but you did find it. Stand back." Aejaz bolted to the other side of the room... Even though it was completely unnecessary to go that far. Ares just shook his head and flicked an Echo at the wall behind the tombstone.


    Bang


    Crumbling into tiny pieces, the wall was felled with little to no resistance. It revealed behind it three separate pedestals, all of which had an actual treasure on top of it. It didn''t take more than a cursory glance to tell these were the real goods that had been hidden out of sight. Ares Omniscience had shown him that the wall here was structurally weak and that there was something behind it. Ares likely would have sniffed it out regardless, but Omniscience was just being blatantly overpowered as usual. There was very little this art attached to the Celestial Prisms couldn''t do. Ares walked up to the pedestals and ran mana through each of the three items, learning about their names, histories, and capabilities. "Interesting... There''s some really interesting stuff here. Come take a look, scaredy cat. One of these might even get you laid."


    Somebody had evidently rung Pavlov''s bell as Aejaz sprinted across the room at record pace. "GIMME!"


    Ares smacked away Aejaz'' hand that darted for the treasures. "In due time. Let me explain everything here because this is a good learning opportunity. There are some things here you haven''t seen before, like the backfire gear, so pay attention you muppet." Ares pointed to the far left treasure, a pure black lantern with a moon shaped candle within it. "This one is normal. It''s the only normal treasure here, so you don''t have to worry about it too much. I''m taking this because because I have an idea for how to use it when combined with one of the other treasures here. Long story short, you yourself aren''t getting anything, sorry."


    "Brother, after what you said earlier, you can have it all. Have I ever told you your a pretty great guy?"


    "Ok you horndog, calm down. Anyway, the treasure is called... And it''s a bit of a mouthful, ''Vengeful Spirit Vargaraad''s Lunar Flare Lantern''."


    Aejaz was shaking and biting his nails as he timidly questioned his brother. "Y... Y... You don''t mean... That Vargaraad... Do you?!"


    Ares tilted his head. "I only know what the treasure showed me. It did belong to a man named Vargaraad, but how do you know that?"


    Gulp


    "That man is a legend! I didn''t think he was real.... Oh man... Vargaraad''s story is simple. A corrupt mayor let crime go unpunished in his city because of all the money he made, kinda like in Red Sun. The guards would turn a blind eye to crimes committed literally in front of them. Vargaraad''s wife was murdered one day in that exact scenario, but when he demanded an explanation from the guards they told him that ''the lights were out and they couldn''t see anything because it was too dark at night''. Vargaraad went into a frenzy and conjured a mana storm. It''s said his rage manifested a lantern in his hands that gave him the power to bathe the city in white fire, setting it alight with a pure glow that could be seen from miles away. It''s supposed to be an ironic tale! It wasn''t supposed to be real! Why is that lantern here?! Is this Vargaraad''s tomb?! DID THAT STORY HAPPEN IN RED SUN?!"


    "Uh, yes? According to the treasure''s history anyway. I was already pretty sure that mana was responsible for the creation of treasures, but this near enough confirms it as far as I''m concerned. The mana storm gathered all the unlit lanterns in the area and formed a single treasure out of them all after merging them together. As the mana was produced by Vargaraad, it immediately became his own personal treasure which he went on to cleanse the town with. If I''m not mistaken, the mayor of Red Sun at the time was Maro''s grandfather. Guess being a douchebag runs in the family. How their family has maintained control over Red Sun this long I don''t know." Ares shoved the treasure into the Primordial Blade. "It''s actually way too powerful for me to use right now, but that''s fine. I''m planning on keeping it a secret for a rainy day if ever I need it. I don''t think I''ll be touching it for the foreseeable future. As for the other two treasures, however... This is where the good stuff starts!"