Ares booted Mako and Terros out of his domain, the kitchen, before returning to his preparations. Unfortunately he didn''t have the ingredients for what Terros wanted on hand but Mako was a different matter entirely and his personal favourite could be cooked up with relative ease. It was a surprisingly simple dish, actually. The same was also true of the other matriarchs who were attending so the only person missing out was Terros but Ares had something special in store for him! There were no other unexpected guests. Sadie did show up but, to Ares at least, this wasn''t ''unexpected'' because wherever food and beer was, Sadie could be found drooling and trailing not too far behind. He was tempted not to cook for her until she brought the damn plate back but it seemed like she remembered to do that at least so he let it slide.


    The first of Enyo''s siblings to show up was Pele. When Ares opened the door to her she gave him a fist bump before congratulating Ares on his win earlier in the tournament even though he didn''t actually do anything. That was just who Pele was, though, someone who always looked for every available opportunity to make others feel good about themselves. Ares fired back by telling her she''d done a good job with her nails and that they really popped... Ares wasn''t particularly great at complimenting women he wasn''t romantically involved with nor was he really much good at detecting small changes but, luckily, he''d caught wind of Pele''s nails during the party yesterday because of how flashy they''d been. He recognised the pretty obvious change and decided to just be nice in whatever way he could muster because he genuinely hadn''t been expecting to have to come up with praise on the spot like this. Whether or not his sentiment was lacking in persuasiveness Pele didn''t dwell on it and instead started talking about she liked painting her nails orange because it matched her hair, especially when she was using magic. Plus, although he didn''t usually say much, Skyzo did once comment that it suited her and she agreed with him.


    "Ah, you know, I''m also hosting a banquet tomorrow for my own siblings. Skyzo will be there so if you want to come around you''re more than welcome."


    Pele closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment but sadly shook her head. "No can do buckaroo. I''m too busy tomorrow so I''m ''fraid I can''t. Woulda really liked to, ''specially seein'' as how we''re all gonna be getting along from now on. That''s fine though, I''m sure I''ll see Skyzo around here and there. Knowing him he''ll pop up in front of me at some point on his own so I''ll just hang around until he does. Thanks for the attempted assist though! It''s good you''re trying to bridge the gap between families... Although I dunno about Venus and Phobos... That stuff feels highly illegal but that''s up to Phobos. If he wants in then Imma just pretend I didn''t see anything. No idea what Palioxis will do about it though, probably fight Venus and get a little violent. Putting them two in the same room together without it resulting in any chaos is a right task. Well, she ain''t here now so let''s part-ey! I''ve heard real good things about your food, Blo Blo and Yo Yo were totes gushing about it yesterday night and now I gotta get me some!"


    "... Blo Blo and Yo Yo? I''m absolutely stealing that... I''m guessing that makes you Ley Ley? I mean it has to be, right? The only other option is Pee Pee..."


    Fiery embers drifted off Pele''s head and the tips of her hair were lightly singed. A few streaks of her hair above the tips were slowly turning more and more orange. Pele put her incredibly warm hand on Ares'' shoulder with a strained smile on her face. In order not to ''give away'' the fact that there was considerable anger welling in her, she closed her eyes which betrayed her emotions... Not that it helped much at this point as it was already pretty clear to Ares at least. "I''m going to pretend I didn''t hear that, K?!" Pele walked into the house and searched for her sisters, leaving Ares with a burning hand print on his shoulder as he was about to shut the door. Before he could, though, he heard a rumbling sound coming from the distance.


    Ares leaned his head out the door to check on the noise and had to retract it immediately as a vehicle he recognised almost took his head clean off. Deimos'' Grand Prix zoomed past, landed on the grass, swerved, and came back around to the front entrance. Deimos slid to a halt horizontally in front of the door, parked, and took his helmet off while sticking his tongue out at Ares. "Jealous? Go on, admit it, you wanna ride around on this bad boy, don''t you!? You can''t, but that doesn''t mean I still don''t want to hear you admit it!"


    "Not even a quick spin around the block? I promise there''ll only be one or two scratches on it after!"


    "Hell no!... But scratches actually don''t matter. I never used to be good at riding this thing when I first got it and would crash it all the time. Thankfully, with a bit of mana, it fixes itself right up. I learnt that the hard way, crash after crash. Fixing up my own injuries was another matter, however, as just a tiny bit of mana here and there wasn''t exactly going to solve broken bones or anything. Rhea always used to carry me back into the house, sighing as she looked down at my cuts and bruises while reprimanding me for my carelessness. She''d call over the clan''s resident doctor and help get me patched up only for me to go out and do it all again. Good memories. I don''t crash much anymore though... Apart from that one time you kicked me off the roof!"


    "Uh, to be fair, you technically didn''t crash then either. Your bike did a pretty good job of landing on its own." Ares expertly dismantled the unfavourable conversation by shifting the topic.


    "Yeah, being my personal treasure its grown alongside me and gotten stronger in its own ways. Being able to automate itself was really useful even if I didn''t get why at the time. Now though it can fight alongside me and give me that extra edge in combat so I''m glad it has a mind of its own. Also, even though I like riding it and being in control, sometimes just lying on the Grand Prix on my back and letting it cruise around is relaxing too... Not that you''re ever gonna get a chance to experience it! You''re being awfully polite and tolerable for a revenant but I know why! Don''t think I don''t! Just because you''re being a decent person that doesn''t mean I''m gonna let you borrow my baby. No amount of sucking up is gonna change my mind so forget about it bub!"


    "I will find a way yet!" Not quite fully abandoning his determined pestering, Ares temporarily gave up on his advances and invited Deimos in but kept thinking about ways to persuade him. Maybe he could fine some kind of treasure he might like and then trade him for it? If Ares found a gourd treasure to replace Deimos'' normal one then maybe he''d bite...


    Ares was about to close the door when he saw Tyr walking past the small gate at the front of the house and so he swung the door wide open again. Behind Ares in the corridor, Aejaz snorted at his brother who was now experiencing precisely what he''d gone through himself! This was Ares'' house! Making Aejaz open the door for all of his guests like earlier was rude!... Aejaz conveniently ignored the part where he was either a co-owner of the house or a freeloader and there was no in-between, both of which meant he should probably be grateful and just open the door instead of whining but oh well. Aejaz had always had a bit of a lazy streak in him and having to get up to open doors all day long was like his own personal nightmare. On the flips side, a place in which doors were opened for him all day long sounded like a dream come true... He still had ideals about creating his own paradise one day, and the more he stole the more he realised exactly what kind of place it was he wanted to create. He didn''t have the means, namely the funds, to create such a place just yet but he would certainly try one day! He''d already gotten the O.K. from his brother to create it within the sect after it had been expanded one day but that wasn''t going to happen for a while. Ares had big plans for the sect but he didn''t mind sparing some space for his brother to make his dreams come true off in the corner somewhere. It''s not like it wouldn''t benefit the sect either so greenlit it was. As for what it was exactly, that was a secret Aejaz kept close to his chest. He''d only told Ares so far and that was strictly because he needed planning permission at some point in the future so he chose to get it over and done with sooner rather than later. Not even Allie knew what it was because he wanted it to be a surprise! Not that Allie would much care for it herself but the stardust it produced would definitely indirectly help her obtain more alchemical ingredients at least.


    Anyway, currently unobtainable paradise aside, Aejaz went about looking for Allie to give her some good news. He had stolen from one of the matriarchs successfully! It wasn''t much, as he really didn''t wanna get caught, but he did manage to take some weird looking plant from the spatial ring of the pretty elf lady. Whatever Allie created from this was almost guaranteed to be incredible just based on who he''d gotten this thing off alone! They might have to check in with Zhang to get more details about the plant though. It''s rarity was simultaneously a good and bad thing as, yeah, it probably had all manner of great possibilities, but only if you knew what the thing even was!


    Ares could tell what his brother''s not-so-subtle evil cackling meant but he decided not to get involved. He could very well rat out his own brother to the matriarchs but where was the fun in that? As long as Aejaz hadn''t stolen from Calla then Ares wasn''t fussed about his antics. He ignored Aejaz and welcomed Tyr who had just arrived in front of the open door... After receiving no response, he greeted Tyr again.... And again... And again... The hell is wrong with this guy?! Ares stared at Tyr who stared back. This deadlock lasted three minutes until Tyr eventually spoke.


    "I was right. You do not deserve my sisters!"


    "On what basis you stupid mute sis con?!"


    "I am not mute, I was contemplating. Seeing you standing around, doing nothing, and being generally useless reminded me of the incredible showing Enyo gave earlier, during which you also stood around just like this. Just now I tried comparing everything I know of you to everything I know of Enyo and I came to a conclusion with no room for a change in verdict. You do not deserve my sisters!"


    "Yeah, I heard you the first time."


    "So end this relationship now, would you? Every second you spend in a romantic relationship with Enyo bugs me. I mean look at how ugly you are in comparison to Enyo! It''s criminal! She''s a literal Goddess and you''re a literal bandit. Look, I''ll even help you break up with her. I will walk you into the room, tell her everything, and all you have to do is nod along like a good little mutt." Tyr had clearly been told about why Enyo looked the way she did now but that didn''t do anything to fix his sisterly obsession. If anything it was worse now as Enyo''s worth had basically tripled in Tyr''s mind. Ares had been unworthy before but now he was unworthy by a factor of three!


    With a sigh, Ares simply let Tyr in and told him the following, "I''ll tell you what. Blo Blo and Yo Yo are in the living room right now. Go and tell them what you just told me and if they agree with you then I''ll consider doing as you ask of me."


    "Blo Blo? Yo Yo? Who told you you were allowed to call them that?!"


    "Pele did?"


    "Hmmmm... I''ll let it slide this once because Pele allowed you to say it but do not say it ever again! Nobody is allowed to be so close with my sisters that they use nicknames other than me."


    "Rrrrriiiigggghhhtttt. Anyway, good luck convincing your sisters to dump me. By the way, are those wounds of yours O.K.?"


    Tyr tilted his head as he checked himself over twice for good measure. He looked back up at Ares with a confused look in his eyes. "What wounds? I don''t have any?"


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "Ah, sorry, I was just practicing my foresight. If you need an icepack in the future for whatever reason, you can get one in the kitchen." Tyr wore a strange look on his face as he side-eyed Ares while he walked into the living room. Ares counted to ten on his fingers as Tyr explained his grand plan of separation to Bellona and divorce to Enyo before Ares heard the sounds of thumps, punches, and kicks rain down on one whimpering individual in the next room over. It looked like Ares had a potential career in fortune telling ahead of him if the whole cultivation thing didn''t pan out. Yulo had better watch out, there was a new prophet in town! Still, there was one thing Ares hadn''t seen coming. Phobos and Palioxis! they''d crept over to the front of the house while Ares had been dealing with Tyr.


    The two stood at the gate because Phobos was panicky and didn''t want to enter while Palioxis was trying to encourage him. Unsure of how to deal with this, Ares scratched his head and walked over to say hello. "Hello you two. Is everything alright? Do you need help with anyth..."


    "Get lost dumb mutt, you''re scaring my brother with your ugly revenant mug." Palioxis spat on Ares'' shoe before returning to her previous task of giving Phobos head pats.


    …


    "... And I thought Fate was bad... It''s a good thing you''re cute. Look, I''ve made your favourite foods and everyone else is already here. There''s no reason to be afraid, right? Even if there is I''m really good at fixing problems so you can rely on me no matter what. Phobos, what''s scaring you?"


    Phobos stuttered before eking out his complaint, "U... Umm. Uh... Umm... Is Venus here? I... I don''t want to be eaten..."


    "... No. No Venus is not here."


    "Are... Are you sure? What if she''s hiding somewhere with a fork and knife waiting to cut me up into bite sized pieces?!"


    Ares'' eyes twitched as he glanced at the root cause of this misunderstanding, the tiny gremlin to Phobos'' left, before he came up with an excuse. "She isn''t and I know she isn''t! You see, I have this great thing called ''revenant repellent''. You spray the house with it and BAM, no more revenants."


    Palioxis snorted. "If you actually have any of such a miraculous invention, give it to me now so I can spray your stupid ass with it. Ignore this idiot Phobos, if the house was sprayed with such a thing how could he possibly live in it? He clearly thinks you''re dopey and won''t catch on to his silly tricks."


    "Oi, midget, you taught Phobos that Venus was a cannibal, I don''t wanna hear shit from you about lying to Phobos!"


    "Midget?! How dare you! I may be tiny in stature but that is simply because I am young! Young, you hear me?! Young! I will grow into a woman that can seduce any brother!... I mean man! MAN!"


    "Oh... I see... I guess this shit runs in the family, huh? You seem like even more of a lost cause than Tyr though. You actually wanna go all the way... I almost kind of respect you... Almost, not really though. Maybe if someone zipped that rampaging mouth of yours then yeah, I''d show you some respect... Crap, is this what other people think about me?! Oh wow, what a rude awakening... Now I''m sad... Damn you midget, this is your fault!"


    "I''M NOT A MIDGET!"


    "Uh... Umm... What are you two talking about?" Phobos nervously interjected. People around him were arguing and he didn''t like that even if he could tell it wasn''t serious.


    Ares smiled maliciously and creeped Phobos out but what he said next would truly creep him out more than any evil smile ever could. "Your sister and I were just having a war of words. I learnt something that you might find interesting! As it turns out Venus isn''t the only one that wants to eat you! Palioxis does too!"


    "Wh... What?! NO! I don''t believe you! You''re a bad person and a liar! Pali told me so!"


    "Yeah kid, why do you think she told you that? She thinks I''m on Venus'' side and that I''ll help Venus eat you before she can. She''s trying to keep you from my sister because she wants you all to herself!"


    "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Phobos ran off with a tear in his eye as he bolted into the living room and hugged Enyo. Meanwhile, Palioxis and Ares were having a stare-down... With glares... A glare-down?


    "Heh, runt, looks like I win this round."


    "Tsk, I''ll pay you back for this, stupid giant. I will eat my brother if its the last thing I do and no dumb revenant is going to stop me or beat me to it! As for you, you think you''re the only one that can play these games? Let''s see what happens to you when I let slip to Enyo and Bellona the lusty eyes you''ve been giving Pele in secret!"


    "Oh? White lies? Go ahead twerp, see what happens. You underestimate the trust they have in me! See if those two don''t spank you in front of your precious little boyfriend! Ha! You never know, maybe if you''re lucky he''ll be into it!"


    "Grrrrrrr."


    "Grrrrrrr to you too, midget!" Ares cackled as he walked back into the house. Ha! He''d showed that child real good!... Child? Wait a minute... Did Ares just bully a child? Nononono, that foul creature was clearly an adult in a child''s body right? No way in hell that level of maturity belonged to an actual child right? Ares shook his head and resolved himself to try and be nicer to these two next time he talked to them, he''d promised Enyo to be a good older brother and that was clearly not a good start no matter how you looked at it. Still, asserting dominance here and there wasn''t a bad thing. Palioxis in particular had to know who was in charge! Clearly she''d never been taught manners! Or maybe she had but it was done by Major... that would explain a lot. Yeah... That''s right... These two had to put up with Major... Now Ares felt kinda bad bullying them like this. He sighed and walked back out the door. Palioxis was still standing around with a small frown and Ares could tell she was close to crying so he picked her up and brought her inside. She protested a little but he didn''t say anything in response as he entered the living room. He picked out Phobos who was sitting on the couch and walked over. Enyo gave Ares a look that said ''I don''t know what you did but undo it shmuck!'' but Ares was already in the process of doing precisely that and didn''t need to be reminded. It wasn''t a big deal even if he did nothing here but he would rather fix things than leave them as they were.


    Ares knelt down in front of Phobos who leaned back slightly after seeing his sister, the second little boy eater. "Look, kid, what I said earlier wasn''t wrong, but I think you''ve misunderstood. Nobody wants to actually eat you as in chew and digest you, that''s just weird. If they actually wanted to eat you people would have already kept them well away from you. It doesn''t mean what you think it does when it''s being said by someone who loves you. Don''t run away from your sister anymore, she''ll be sad and cry."


    "Oh... O... Ok."


    "Good. You and I need to have a chat about some other things here and there but now isn''t necessarily the time for that. For now, I''ll leave you in your sister''s care." Ares plopped Palioxis on the sofa, picked up Phobos, and put him on Palioxis'' lap. She blushed but hugged her brother firmly and he made himself small in her embrace. Ares walked away after completing his mission even if he wasn''t sure this was the right way to do things. Encouraging Palioxis to be close with Phobos had its own problems... Hell that was the understatement of the year this crazy child wanted incest! Plus he was actively cockblocking his own sister, Venus, here! What a complicated matter to tackle... Well whatever, it wasn''t really his problem. The thing he wanted to discuss with Phobos was his cowardice to see if he could help him overcome it. There was nothing outright wrong with cowardice... In small doses anyway. Look at Aejaz, he was normal in spite of his fears, normal enough anyway. Being a compulsive thief was hardly the standard metric to judge a ''normal'' person by. Phobos was an extreme case of cowardice, though, and needed looking at. Ares, being the busy-body family man he was, was going to poke around a bit. As he went back into the kitchen, Enyo followed him.


    "What was up with that? Getting a straight answer out of Phobos is... Hard... Sometimes." Enyo smiled wryly as she didn''t want to outright insult her brother''s difficult personality.


    "Me and Palioxis were having a little spat, at which point I told Phobos his sister, like Venus, also wanted a taste of him. Didn''t think his cowardice ran so deep he''d escape from his sister that took care of him all these years. The original intention was to show him that just because someone wanted to ''eat'' him, that it didn''t mean anything negative overall. You know, positive association with the term thanks to his sister. Man, helping that kid is gonna be a task and then some... Ah, not that I mean to complain about your family or anything, that''s not what I was getting at."


    Enyo smiled warmly and gave Ares a hug. "I know. Just the fact you''re willing to even try for no reason other than because you consider them family... That''s enough for me. Thank you."


    "Yeah... But I''m not entirely sure how to handle the whole Palioxis and Phobos relationship thing. That''s completely out of my wheelhouse and I don''t want to tread in those murky waters if I can avoid it..."


    "Hmmm... You''re going to have to at some point. Gimme a sec." Enyo left and returned shortly after with Bellona in tow. Bellona was fidgety and clearly didn''t want to be here which was a sight Ares recognised. There was probably a difficult conversation in store for him ahead... "Alright, there''s something you need to know before you go all the way with Bellona, Ares. It wouldn''t be right to have things go any further without you knowing before hand and being aware. Bellona is your half-sister."


    "?" Ares made... Some manner of sound, the intent of which was perfectly clear despite it not making any coherent sense. This revelation was a bit too much for Ares and he wasn''t entirely convinced he wasn''t being messed with given the conversation he''d just had about Phobos and Palioxis...


    "The secret Rhea shared with Bellona a while back was that she is a child between Rhea and Aster. Major is not her father. Shortly after you died, Calla was in a fit of rage. She wanted revenge on Major in any and every way possible but she was still too weak from child birth to physically hurt him. Although she was in a foul mood with Rhea, she used our mother''s long standing affection for Aster to her advantage. She let Rhea sleep with Aster and bare his child to spite Major and that''s where Bellona came from. Part of the reason Major hated Bellona more than any of the other children, and always made her life so difficult by tampering with her reputation, was because she was the result of Rhea''s infidelity, and to a revenant no less. This was just another event that added onto his list of reasons to hate revenants down to his core. As for Rhea, she hasn''t been allowed anywhere near Aster ever since as it was supposed to be a one time thing and nothing more. I think Calla is being a bit more lenient with her now that you are back in her life, though, so I think Rhea is just done completely with Major now. She probably won''t ever set foot back on our home planet again if she can avoid having to, and she''ll likely be living with Calla... And Aster, going forward. But back to the original point, Bellona is both your and my half sister. You seemed to be having difficulties coming to terms with Palioxis and Phobos well... Your situation isn''t too dissimilar, so start coming to terms with it!"


    "?"


    "Ares..."


    "?!… !?!"


    "Ares, speak normally please."


    "This isn''t what I meant when I said I wanted a big, happy family!" Ares finally burst out into a fit of actual language. This was going to take a while for Ares to accept, clearly. "I mean... Fuck! Seriously? I mean, I''m not gonna demand we change things now, it''s too late for that... But fuck! Ah but... I mean... FUCK!" Ares, at a loss for words, started pacing about before stopping in front of Bellona who had been silent up until now. She looked at him and sheepishly uttered a word that RKO''d Ares on the spot the second he heard it.


    "Brother?"


    Thud


    Enyo sighed as she looked at Ares unconscious body. "Bellona, did you really have to say that? He clearly was not in the right frame of mind to take a mental attack that devastating... Well whatever, we need to wake him up."


    Bellona nodded in agreement. She wasn''t entirely sure how to feel about the whole relationship thing either but she''d had enough time to make firm her decision and was ok with the way things stood currently. She couldn''t make her feelings for Ares vanish and so she was just going to stick to her guns and bite the bullet. On the bright side, she was only his half-sister, right?... Not that that was particularly great but it could have been a lot worse. But hey, for every inch closer she was to Ares'' bloodline, she was technically an inch further away from Enyo''s! What? He was ok with making two sisters share the same bed but when the tides turned this was how he acted!? Bellona felt indignant the more she thought about it and so she kicked Ares awake. "Stop being a useless brother, get up, and finish making the food. I don''t want any of it to be burnt just because you were lazing about on the floor like a cockroach, brother. Do you hear me, brother?"


    Ares rolled onto his side and banged his head against the nearby cupboard a couple of times before taking a stand and staring Bellona deep in the eyes with a bruise on his forehead. "... Yes... Sister..." … This was going to take a while to get used to, even with Bellona''s prodding somewhat easing the burden... That being said, this did explain a lot about Bellona and her personality. Her sharp-ish fangs, her desire to be the centre of attention and everyone''s conversations, good or bad, and specifically her upbeat personality... Ah hell it all made so much sense in hindsight. Even Dominus'' comment about her being a half-breed... Actually, that left Ares with another question. Was Bellona a true revenant or not? Awkward familial relation aside, he was more curious about the answer to that question right now. It seemed there was going to a very interesting conversation topic at the dinner table tonight... Ares groaned aloud. His house had, over the course of the last minute, turned into a debauched house full of familial love and incest. What a disaster...