Rox held his ground against the tentacles, swatting them away and trying to occasionally bite a few with its teeth to sever them. Unfortunately they were a little too slippery to get a good grip on and some would retaliate by shocking him, so Rox''s options were limited.


    Dominus decided to take a stroll towards the jellyfish and poke some holes into it when the trio of Enyo, Bellona, and Dirk intercepted him. Dominus sighed out loud and shook his head. "Come now, surely you jest? You''re really going to try and stop me? You''d have a better time fighting against each other. I''m not someone you can handle at your current level."


    Bellona clicker her tongue and spat at the ground near Dominus'' feet. "You''re every bit as arrogant as the stories portray you."


    "Little missy, you don''t know the half of it. Besides, when you start to have stories written about you and songs sung by bards over countless generations, you earn the right to be arrogant. you don''t interest me. Come back when you awaken your other half and then we''ll talk. maybe I''ll even teach you a thing or two."


    "Other half? What are you rambling about?" Bellona seemed genuinely confused which left Dominus equally as stumped.


    "You don''t know? You really don''t have a clue? Interesting. Try asking your mother, I''m sure she would know full well what I''m talking about. Not that the conversation won''t come up on its own anyway given the circumstances. You''re in for a surprise missy. You aren''t who you think you are. Not that based on what I''ve seen here and there you''ll have any complaints, mind you. And then there''s you..." Dominus turned to Enyo. "You''re pretty special. You''re the kind of cultivator I would absolutely detest fighting. You don''t need to make any major adjustments to what you''re already doing so keep at it."


    Enyo stared at Dominus as she inched closer. "I don''t appreciate you being in my husband''s body, always watching over the rest of us."


    Dominus simply shrugged and raised his arms. "What would you have me do? Not like I can leave this body anyway. You should be grateful I go to sleep and shut myself out to give you your privacy whenever you jump this poor man and treat him like a piece of flesh."


    "You damn well better!" Enyo growled angrily at Dominus who simply chuckled..


    "I don''t even have a say in the matter anyway, Ares can control at least that much. I don''t see anything he doesn''t want me to."


    "And what about me then? You gonna patronise me too?" Whilst fiddling with his weapon, Dirk threw himself into the verbal ring.


    "I hadn''t planned on even mentioning you. Why? You want some attention? Do you think you''re special because your heart is an enabler? I''ve seen that song and dance thousands of times. If you aren''t handing the heart over to Ares for his own use, I don''t personally care about you in the slightest. You have a good affinity, and your technique isn''t sloppy at least, but you''re wasteful with your mana and lack power with your arts. You should stick to what you''re actually good at, supporting others. The fact you''re out here, and not inside one of these two ladies'' bloodstreams supporting them tells me all I need to know about you. Then again, I don''t think either them would even let you in regardless, so never mind that. Still, why weren''t you with your girlfriend, Li Li, from the start? Look, let me make something clear to you. You may be a candidate to become the next God of the heamomancy pillar but you will never, never actually make it. I''ve seen far more talented people than you so accept it and become something only you can. Or you can ignore me if you so please. I really don''t care. You''re free to waste your own time."


    "Bastard. The fuck is wrong with you? You go around being a dick to everyone or what? Sheesh, can''t believe I''m gonna say this, but I actually prefer dealing with Ares. He''s more annoying than you, but I feel less annoyed after dealing with him. You''re a rude son of a bitch, you know that?"


    "So what if I''m rude? What are you going to do about it, weakling? This is the real world, not kindergarten. I can dismiss you whenever I wish because I am countless tiers higher than you on the hierarchy of cultivators. If you aren''t willing to listen to good advice because it was laden with insults then you are nothing more than a child. I spared you roughly a minute of my time and gave you precious advice. Do you know how many cultivators would wage war for even half of what you just received? Ignorant. Ungrateful. Petulant. Weak. That''s what you are. So I''ll say it again. So what if I''m rude? It''s hardly much in comparison to the atrocious list of qualities you possess."


    "Yeah, nah, I really don''t like you."


    "Good for you. Now get out of my way, I''ve got a jellyfish to deal with. That Duo is strange and I want to get a better look at them before I kill them. I have a sneaking suspicion I know what they really are. Maybe I can even give them some good hints on how to get even stronger."


    Dirk was seriously losing it with this arrogant revenant. He''d been talked down to and subsequently ignored like a piece of road-side trash. Everyone other than him got some manner of affirmation that they were talented or could be under the right circumstances and what was he told, exactly? To give up on everything and just become a lackey that dedicated himself to others? It wasn''t a bad thing per se but Dirk was talented enough that he didn''t even need to consider that in the first place. His talents would be wasted and he refused to allow it. "Haemo Scourge."


    Dominus smacked his forehead and looked appalled by the idiocy of this stubborn mule. "You really are impossibly difficult to reason with. Whatever. If you want to understand it first hand, then I can play with you for a tiny bit." Dominus put the tip of his foot out and spun, drawing a small circle around him in the floor. "If you can make me move from this spot, I''ll take back everything I said and apologise on both knees."


    "Don''t regret it, bastard! They were your words. Don''t go back on your promise after!" The mass of blood that Dirk became mumbled these statements in garbled tones and swelled up to form a balloon with teeth that bounced towards Dominus.


    "I regret many things. This will not be one of them." With a condescending smile, Dominus put one hand behind his back and kept it there. He raised his other hand as if he were waiting patiently for high five and stood completely still. His stoicism painted a picture of a man who couldn''t be moved even if mountains came crumbling down on him, even if tsunami''s came crashing onto his head, and even if heaven and hell themselves opened up and demanded he take even a single step. Dirk bounded within arm''s reach of Dominus and the snarky revenant bitch slapped him so hard he burst just like the balloon he so closely resembled would have had it been hit by a speeding truck. Dominus''s hand movement had been practically invisible to the naked eye and his hand returned to its stationary, raised position immediately after. It looked as though Dirk just popped out of nowhere randomly and splattered his blood into the whirlpool.


    Dirk was hurting from that last attack. He almost had the soul smacked out of him as that last move felt like it hit deeper than just his flesh, like it had struck his very being down to his core. His blood trembled as it raced around under the waves to form back up and try again after linking together. Every instinct he had was warning and him and demanding he retreat but Dirk once again displayed his stubbornness as he advanced upon Dominus. Dirk may have believed he was hidden amongst the clumps of blood, he may have truly thought he was undetectable but, when a boot blocked out the sun above him, he realised his confidence was misplaced. Dominus stepped on him and held Dirk in place, treating him like no more than piece of gum that had gotten stuck to the bottom of his boots. Worse still, Dirk couldn''t escape this. He tried sinking into a pool of blood and trickling away but, even in as pure a liquid form as he could muster, Dominus'' foot plastered him to the floor. What he wasn''t aware of was that his Scourge magic technically did have a ''core''. Or rather every magic had a core that could be destroyed, cancelling the magic. For the most part, it was impossible to interact with and / or even see. You couldn''t catch magic normally and, if you were going to attack it to destroy it anyway, then hitting the core was more of a side-benefit than an actual strategy. Dominus could see the core not because he was a genius, although that was certainly a true statement objectively, but because Omniscience was one of the few arts in the entire world that could allow the user to see these cores. Disappointingly, Ares had yet to really make use of this function. In all fairness, he really didn''t need it because disintegration functioned as a sort-of omnipresent anti-magic so discovering the core and breaking magic that way was pointlessly difficult in comparison. Still, that didn''t mean the information was useless. In a situation like this, against an enemy who abandoned their physical form to replace it with that of magic, it allowed a cultivator to pull off what Dominus was currently doing and interact with the magic. Dominus wasn''t stepping on Dirk''s blood, that was pointless, he was stepping on the core of the magic Dirk had attached himself too. The core could move rapidly, certainly, but when pinned down like this, there was very little that could be done to escape. Dirk''s only option was to command the rest of the blood to launch attacks but, without Dirk serving as the brain, the attacks would lack punch and direction. Scourge only really functioned well when the user directly controlled all the mass in an interconnected web. Being stepped on like this isolated the core and screwed Dirk completely. Dirk was going to lose after being bitch slapped and stepped on; all the while having failed miserably to make Dominus take even a single step. Speaking of Dominus, his raised arm had already been lowered and was now pointing at Dirk''s core. "Echo."


    Splat


    And thus, without ceremony or flair, Dirk was gone for good. His blood lost all form and was washed away by the vortex.


    "Good riddance, pest. Down the drain with you!" Dominus chuckled to himself as he dusted his hands off and walked towards the jellyfish that was still preoccupied with bullying his junior, Rox. Hm, if I just left the mimic to its own devices, it might actually win in the end... But that''s boring. I wanna play too! One step was all Dominus managed before he came face to face with Bellona who stood in his path. "Oi, really? Feeling daring are we? I''ll deal with you after. I want to show my newest student how to deal with a big ol'' floater like that there jellyfish. Also, I haven''t used it yet, but I got access to the destruction pillar... You really wanna mess with me when I can just disintegrate your magic? Without your Measurement Manipulation, what are you planning on accomplishing? Forget fighting against this body regardless of who''s piloting it, you ain''t ever gonna beat it. Right now you should be like Dirk... If he was doing things properly anyway... Assist me, that''s what your good for. If you really absolutely have to fight on the front lines, again, wait until you unlock the rest of your skillset. Your priority should be doubling annihilation magic and making this body faster and stronger. Anything else is pointless. You have an incredible magic so don''t obsess over using it the wrong way... Then again, you don''t actually have a problem with that, dedicating yourself for someone else''s sake, do you? The real issue is that it''s me here and you don''t like me much in comparison to the original host, I take it?" Dominus poked fun at Bellona who''s face reddened. Does this chick seriously still believe Ares doesn''t know about her feelings at all? Maybe deep down she does but she just refuses to admit it... Well whatever, as long as she''s at Ares'' beck and call then she''s doing things properly. Don''t like it? Tough luck. It''s not about being husband and wife or any petty shit like treating each other with respect. Do you want your loved one to die because he was being nice and not making demands of you? If Ares doesn''t use you for all your worth, he''s a moron. Bellona might single-handedly be the greatest asset this shmuck even has...


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    "Meteor!" Bellona wasted no time in exchanging any further ''pleasantries'' with Dominus and cast the first stone... And it was a big one!


    "This little parlour trick, huh?" Dominus was entirely non-plussed at the giant rock hurtling towards him. A paltry attack like this was child''s play for him. Angry and jealous lovers had thrown entire planets at him, let alone a pesky pebble like this. "Alright, fine. I''ll take a detour and deal with you two first before heading over to the jellyfish. I can''t use this art to its full potential in this untrained body but it should be enough to rain on your parade." As the meteor descended, Dominus pulled out the Black Ice Bane and dragged his fingers along the blade. He raised it above his head with both hands before bringing it back down and to his side. Dominus'' movements became soft and flowed freely as he danced in tandem with the blade in his grip. His elegant form dipped low and slid through the whirlpool at his feet before rising up in a curving pattern and twirling himself around the sword. He leant his chest back and dangled the sword behind him before twisting and ducking under it, landing on his knees as he rested the sword horizontally above him with the flat side of the blade facing him. The meteor could be seen directly behind the blade as it drew closer. "Third Movement: Torrential Rainslash." Dominus twisted the sword and now the sharp edge was directly in front of him instead of the safe side. Visually, it looked as though his sword was splitting the meteor in half. With a regal, pomp flick of his wrist, the sword was swung sideways. When the sword was moved, sure enough, it revealed the Meteor that had indeed been split into two segments. There was more to this art though, and that became evident when the slash continued upward and tore through the sky, creating a gap through which strange, silver droplets started falling. These droplets chased down after the Meteor that had already crumbled into pieces and landed on the bits of rock flying off it. Each time a droplet hit a rock, the rock would be shredded into a thousand smaller pieces and scatter in the wind liked dust. Hundreds of raindrops imbued with razor sharp sword magic fell like a cluster and tore the Meteor to shreds before it could hit the ground. Dominus stood from his kneeling position snootily turned his nose up at Bellona. "Hmph. you should see what that art can do when used properly." He wasn''t kidding either. This was an art worth boasting about and his current display really undersold how brilliant the magic truly was. During Dominus'' peak, he''d created a tear so big it covered an entire galaxy. He beat an entire galaxy full of planets into submission by making it rain sword droplets for a month straight. Every time anyone raised any defences they were annihilated instantly and everything on the planets were destroyed. Farmlands, buildings, and even people all died to the drops that couldn''t be stopped no matter what anyone did. The victims could do nothing but beg for forgiveness and to have Dominus end the devastating rain. This single art, at its highest level, was enough to ruin hundreds of millions of lives if left unchecked. It was unique, a Dominus special, though, like all the rest of his ''Movement'' arts. These were said to be the most feared set of arts throughout all of history. Each Movement utilised a different element and each element had multiple arts under it. For instance, all ''Third Movement:'' arts were water based. All ''Second Movement:'' arts were fire based, etc... Dominus could perform most of these arts with just about any weapon and each were capable of turning reality into a living nightmare. These were undoubtedly the strongest arts he knew and the ones he created later in his life before giving up on training entirely and attempting to kill himself repeatedly. After accomplishing the creation of these arts, he''d felt like there was nothing in life left for him to do. He''d lived long enough that things started losing meaning for him.


    Enyo advanced steadily towards Dominus while remaining wary. That last art was really incredible, she had to admit it, but she was still very capable of blocking it. If she took up the vanguard and had her sister support her and launch magic from behind, they could put up a respectable fight... Maybe? This was still Dominus they were squaring up against.


    "Fearless aren''t you? Well don''t worry too much. you''re important to my host, so I''ll kill you quickly and painlessly. Feel free to go wild."


    "Shrine Of The Goddess." It had been a while since Enyo deployed this art but it was every bit as daunting as last time. The steps leading up to her throne and the holy aura radiating from the suppression field inspired reverence. There was no barrier surrounding it this time, though, because Enyo was using it offensively. The barrier of this art could be summoned anywhere within its radius at any time and in any shape so summoning this art on top of someone was a viable strategy. It also made sense against an opponent like Dominus because defending was probably pointless. Dominus had mastered countless weapons over however many millennia, the chances of him knowing a barrier busting art were astronomical so relying heavily on them was a mistake. Plus he had disintegration magic at his disposal thanks to that rat Ares. Ares had betrayed Enyo big time here!... She technically attacked him first and committed the first betrayal but that was beside the point! Enyo''s holy buffs combined with a speed boost from Bellona allowed her to move almost as quickly as Ares could at top speed. For a tank like Enyo to be moving this quick was dangerous for anyone she deemed a target as she could just flat out run them over. That was her goal, too, as she activated a rune called Impale. The effect was simple, multiple spikes formed on front of her shield, allowing her to gore anyone that tried to stand up to her. Like this, she kinda resembled a very fast hedgehog.


    Dominus pulled out a completely normal spear from the Primordial Blade inside Ares'' body and gave the destruction pillar a go. "Black Blossom." Of all of the arts Ares had created, this was the one Dominus had been the most interested in as it could be used on just about any weapon imaginable. Every weapon could be wielded either slowly or quickly so it was a universal art that enhanced the kind of shenanigans he liked to pull with no downside whatsoever. Ares had only ever used it in conjunction with a sword but that was boring. In the case of the blackened spear he was wielding, its ability to keep opponents at bay was, quite frankly, disgusting. A strategy like this was absolutely repulsive and would make most cultivators complain non-stop if they had to deal with it. Black Blossom was good at clearing space to begin with but adding it onto a spear and more than doubling its effective range? Doing this was the kind of thing that would earn you an express ticket to hell for being a colossal nuisance. Different weapons meant different speeds, lengths, and angles of attack but the power would always remain constant because it was decided by the art. Poking people from range with this art was something Ares really should have tried by now. In fact, Ares hadn''t been using many other weapons as of late and Dominus was not pleased! Then again, he shouldn''t be one to talk. He personally really loved the spear and almost always defaulted to it whenever a fight came up. If Ares wanted to stick with the sword, so be it. It didn''t seem like he had any specific attachment to it though, so he should experiment and figure out what he prefers. There were very few choices Ares could make that Dominus wouldn''t be able to pass on his experiences with. There were only a handful of weapons that Dominus categorically hated and refused to use, so the chances of Ares picking one to favour above the rest were low. They were all relatively niche weapons too... Dominus tried to reassure himself it wouldn''t happen but he could envision Ares'' smug face as he walked up to one and picked it without hesitation... That was unfortunately just the kind of person Ares was.


    Dominus took up a stance and prepared himself to thrust at the oncoming rhinoceros stampeding in his direction. Even Dominus had to give praise to Enyo because she not only showed zero hesitation but also because she was genuinely a daunting opponent. Dominus hadn''t lied before when he said this was the kind of person he hated fighting the most. People who were confident in their defence were troublesome for weapon masters as they relied on technique more often than power. Not having the ability to outright breakthrough these walls was tiring. Still, whether that was true or not now that he had Black Blossom activated was about to be seen. Funnily enough, if Ares had been in this position, he would have been calmer than Dominus because his faith and trust in his pillar was absolute in comparison to Dominus who was just passing through. Enyo took another three steps, putting her firmly in reach of the spear, and Dominus reacted flawlessly. His spear attack was thrown out a split second before Enyo entered his zone meaning, the instant her foot touched the floor, Dominus'' spear was already piercing through her shield and inches away from her face. With the Black Blossom about to blow, this was where Dominus predicted Enyo would retreat in the face of danger with the aid of her sister but, to his surprise, she kept charging with no thought for her own safety.


    ROAR


    The disintegration tear, smaller than usual due to the weapon used in its creation, burst out wide and covered the left side of Enyo''s face. She grunted in pain as her helmet and the flesh of her cheek were ripped off but kept pushing forward, moving past Dominus'' comfort zone. She''d infiltrated his personal space and gotten past the spear even though she had to sacrifice her shield, which had been torn through like paper, and part of her head to do it. Her strategy was suicidal as there was no way she would be able to deal any substantial damage to Dominus even despite the risks she''d taken. Anything she could do to him in this small window would inevitably heal on its own thanks to his healing prowess, so Dominus couldn''t understand why she opted to do this in the first place.


    Dominus jumped backward but was stopped by the Shrine''s barrier that materialised behind him and sealed his exit. Enyo''s rash actions became clear to Dominus when she pushed out her palm and launched an art he''d seen once before while hiding away inside Ares. He''d really completely forgotten about this thing.


    "Stigma!"


    Dominus was pushed through the barrier and he landed safely with a new mark on his stomach. This is why I hate her type... Always the sacrificial sort that will give up everything just to scratch an opponent. The worst kind of opponent is one that isn''t afraid to pass on the baton to someone else. Sealing the destruction pillar, the technical pillar, the darkness pillar, and the weapons pillar is actually incredibly annoying... I could just put up with the burns... Although, that being said, I feel like the destruction pillar could remove this mark if I wanted to. I won''t though. Her efforts were commendable so I''ll just play along for now and refrain from using any magic going forward to show her how little it matters. Dominus stretched as he looked at the two sisters that were ready to keep fighting. Still, I''ve been playing nice for a little too long now. I''ll show these people the extent of what I can really do. I hope the mimic pays attention, maybe it can figure out what I''m about to pull off if it really concentrates. It''s an extension of the thing he used to catch the magic after all. Or rather, its the highest level application of that trick. If you can master this... You probably wouldn''t even need arts in the first place. Hell, I once saw a master of this trick who had no cultivation base kill someone in sensory enhancement. I wonder where that guy even is right now? Still hiding away in back-alleys lamenting his losses? I know his ghost is hanging around in the top floor of the pressure pagoda... Ha, it''ll be fun watching Ares get his ass beat by the guy, that''s for sure.