After doing the rounds, Ares took a seat next to Phobos and started up a conversation. "Hey kid... No, don''t go looking at your sister for help, I ain''t gonna eat you so calm down! Look, you know what this is?" Ares placed an onion on the table in front of Phobos who stared at it without blinking.


    "Uh... Um... Is... Is it an onion?"


    "Why don''t you sound sure of yourself? I know you cook and that therefore there''s a zero percent chance you haven''t seen a bajillion of these!"


    "I... I thought you might be messing with me... Because you''re a revenant."


    "Ok, you know what, I''ll give you that one. If I could paint, I''d probably try and disguise an apple as an onion or something to mess with people so I''m not going to hold that answer against you. Any~way, not important! You know what onions do? They make you cry! You especially I''m sure. So, if they make you cry, you know what you do when life gives you onions?"


    "Um... No?"


    "Nah, come on, guess. Onions make you cry, and crying is usually bad, so what do you do when life gives you onions?"


    "Uh... Throw them away?"


    "Hell no! You cook ''em, tears be damned! What a waste of perfectly good onions! Ok, next question, rhubarb. Poisonous right? I give you some poisonous rhubarb. What do you do with it?"


    "It... It''s poisonous, so throw it away?"


    "Hell no! You remove the stalk and cook it properly so it ain''t poisonous ya dope! What a waste of perfectly good rhubarb! Some chef you are! Ok, last question. I give you some poisonous mushrooms. What do you do with them?"


    "... C... Cook them?"


    "HELL NO! They''re poisonous you nitwit! That stuff''ll usually kill you dead no matter how you eat it! I literally just told you they were poisonous?! Why on earth would you eat them?! Ok ok, that weird choice aside, do you know why I asked you these three questions?"


    "... Because you''re messing with me?"


    "Admittedly a little, BUT NO! The main reason is because I''m trying to point something out to you that you need to learn. Some bad things should be avoided in their entirety, like poisonous mushrooms. Some bad things shouldn''t be avoided because it''s easy to change them into a good thing, like rhubarb. And finally some bad things can''t be avoided and have to be dealt with, like Onions when they make you cry. My point being that right now you''re treating the things you don''t like as if they''re poisonous mushrooms and trying to run away from anything and everything! You can''t do that because then other people have to put up with your mistakes. If Major walked into this room right now and wanted to hit someone what would you do?"


    Phobos looked around in a panic and didn''t calm down even after confirming Major was not present right now. "R... Run away..."


    "WRONG! Who would Major hit afterwards? I said he wanted to hit ''someone'', not you specifically. If you ran away he would just hit someone else instead because of your cowardice. Are you ok with someone like Palioxis getting hurt because you feel the need to run away all the time?"


    "W... What should I do then.?.. Are you saying... I should let him hit me?"


    "Major is an onion. You can''t avoid him forever. So you know what you do? You don''t let him hit you, you hit him! If Major walked into this room right now I don''t think there''s anyone in this room who wouldn''t want to kick his ass except you! You are the only person who''d run away from him despite not being the only person too weak to fight him."


    "I don''t want to die..."


    "And you''re ok with Palioxis dying!? Isn''t that selfish? If you think Major is going to kill you you''d throw Palioxis at him so you could run away?"


    "NO!"


    "What would you do then? If he tried to kill your sister, what would you do?"


    "H... Hit him?"


    "Right, so if you can hit him, if you have it in you to do that, why the hell do you walk around like you''re scared of every shadow on every wall all the damn time? You have the conviction to slap someone, fight against a guy completely out of your realm, but you''re worried some revenant you''ve never even spoken to properly is going to eat you?! Make it make sense! You aren''t actually scared of anything, you just think you are! Stop overthinking things! You literally just told me you would eat a poisonous mushroom for Christ''s sake! You''ve got the right attitude but your brain is tricking you into acting like a fool! If Major is an onion, then what am I?"


    "... Rhubarb?"


    "Correct! Now explain to me why?"


    "Because you''re a scary revenant... But you know how to cook and if I ask you politely you''ll teach me?"


    "See?! If, deep down, you knew from the start exactly what kind of person I was, why were you running away and hiding from me all the time instead of coming up to me and asking for advice? Let me tell you something. Do you really think being brave is what Major actually wanted out of you? At the start, maybe, but when he realised you were useless to him why would he care about whether you''re brave or not? He''s a manipulative man. I haven''t met him and even I know that. He changed his mind about you and what he wants out of you now is a coward. If you can''t stand up for him, he doesn''t want you to stand up against him. He was trying to scare you into passivity and you let him! Did you think that throwing away whatever pride you had and hiding behind your sister was getting back at him?! It''s what he wants! The man who gave you hell, do you really want to be in the palm of his hands for the rest of your life?"


    "No..."


    "Do you want to spend the rest of your life living in fear of problems you can very well solve yourself?"


    "No."


    "Do you want to let everyone else have a difficult road ahead of them because of the cowardice that man instilled in you?"


    "No!"


    "Good! So stop walking around like the end of the world is nigh ''cos let me tell you this. This world ain''t ending unless I say so! As long as you don''t have to worry about that, what else is there to fear? Major? If he was trying to turn you into a timid and helpless child, then clearly he feared you way more than you did him! He saw talent in you but couldn''t make it happen in a way that benefitted him and he got scared. He knew his limits but he didn''t know yours and, honestly, neither do you. You''ve spent so long feeling sorry for yourself you''ve never even bothered to actually try your hand. So from now on, every time I see you being a scaredy cat, I''m going to throw poisoned mushrooms at you! Either deal with your avoidable problems, or I''ll chuck unavoidable ones at you instead!"


    "That... That last part sounds unnecessary?!"


    Ares smiled as he brought a weird purple mushroom out of the Primordial Blade. Phobos quaked in his boots but didn''t run away. Ares slowly put the mushroom away. It wasn''t actually poisonous but Phobos didn''t need to know that. Also, just chucking a poisonous mushroom at someone wouldn''t do jack all! Phobos was just being influenced by the mood and going along with the flow so Ares made use of that to his advantage. "Good! Build that confidence!"


    "Mhm... What about helping me learn to cook? Is that ok?"


    "Yes. Yes it is. You know what, keep eating and give me a minute. I''ll be right back!" Ares Shifted away but took a little longer than a minute to come back. Rather than nervously worry about whether he would stay true to his word, Phobos practiced being unphased by such a development and managed to keep eating with ease of mind. Ares returned a while later with a bowl in his hands which he placed in front of Phobos. "This is the best stir fry you can find in any known domain my by a good friend of mind called Scratch. Can''t get better than this so take your time with it and pay attention to all the small details. I have a list of ingredients, and a recipe as well, but I want you to see how much you can figure out before I hand over the keys to the kingdom. Chop chop! Eat tiny human! Eat! Eat unless you want to end up being a midget like your sister!"


    "HOW DARE YOU?!" Palioxis came thundering over and cutely punched Ares on the shoulder repeatedly.


    "Hahaha. GREMLIN ATTACK!" Ares cackled as he picked up Palioxis and put her on his lap. She floundered about but Ares stopped her by putting a bowl in front of her too. "Look, see this? It''s the same stir fry I gave Phobos. I want you to eat it as well so it can serve as a frame of reference. If he isn''t cooking dishes as good as this I want you to be brutally honest with your brother. Encourage him to be better than he is. I know you''re good, real good, at picking out people''s flaws so don''t hold back. You think you''re protecting him but you''re actually coddling him and making things worse. Do you want him to be scared of everything forever or do you actually want him to be happy?"


    "..."


    "Then eat up. How can he be happy when you aren''t? Come on, show me a smile! I bet you''d be cuter if you smiled every now and then!"


    "No. I refuse."


    Ares whispered, "You know, boys like it when cute girls smile. Try looking at Phobos and smiling at him to see what happens. I''m just trying to help you out here. I''m sure you''ll enjoy his reaction."


    Gulp


    The temptation to do so was too great even if Palioxis really didn''t want to smile from the bottom of her heart... But what if it really did help? She looked at Phobos who had been concentrating hard on the noodles up until now. He saw his sister looking at him and he smiled sheepishly. He was trying hard for her sake so the least she could do was show how happy that made her, right?... Still, smiling was an alien concept to her so she could barely muster a small smile in his direction. Much to her joy, Phobos'' cheeks turned red and he immediately dove back into the noodles. Upon seeing this her smile became a bit more genuine even if it was mostly because there was a hint of smugness buried deep within.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Flash Snap


    Her smile was wiped clean off when she saw Rhea taking a picture of her. Unfortunately for her it was way too late and the damage had been irreversibly done. She threw herself off Ares lap with a noodle hanging out of her mouth as she charged over to her mother. "R... Rhea! Delete that!" The tiny fists of doom were striking at the steel wall that was Rhea but they dealt no damage. Rhea simply laughed as she picked up Palioxis, put her child on her lap, and hugged her from behind.


    "You should smile more Pali. It suits you."


    "Hmph." Palioxis swallowed the noodle and turned her head to the side. Despite doing this she still gestured towards Ares with her palm, asking him for the rest of the stir fry because it was too good to waste.


    Ares brought the bowl over and she ate it while accepting her mother''s embrace. Before Ares left to go back to his own seat, Rhea looked at him and mouthed the words ''thank you'' as she contentedly rested her chin on her daughter''s head. Instilling some boldness, even if it wasn''t much yet, in Phobos and making Palioxis smile... He''d really pulled through today and tackled a difficult task with finesse. Well, the word ''finesse'' was used lightly as the whole onion talk was incredibly stupid in hindsight, but that kind of stupidity was so hysterically off the cuff that it became almost too difficult to argue against properly. The problem with Palioxis and Phobos were that they were always over-rationalising every little detail and needed to take things easy, maybe see everything from a different lens from time to time. Ares ''infallible'' ''logic'' hit them like a truck and forced them along for the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime, not knowing where they would end up. Even if the destination was right in Ares'' palms, and he''d been manipulating them from the start, that was ok because he had nothing but the best intentions for them. Maybe what he''d done was stupid after all but the important thing was that it had worked and it worked well. For that, Rhea was incredibly grateful. Ares was single-handedly tearing down what little influence Major still had over her children to shreds. She could see why he was given the destruction pillar. It wasn''t a matter of him being some kind of destructive lunatic, it''s just that he would destroy anything he didn''t like in regards to the way the world worked without any hesitation or doubt. He didn''t like Major''s dead-hand grasp on his children? He''d deal with it. He didn''t like the war? He''d deal with it. Ares was someone who actively sought to right wrongs and remove all that he disliked, especially if it involved family. The destruction pillar really couldn''t have gone to a better candidate as there was probably no one more resolute in such matters than Ares and he deserved if only because he would use it for the sake of the greater good without fail.


    …


    Well, his intentions weren''t 100% pure. More like 99.9% if anything. Ares had sneakily snagged Phobos'' belt for Venus tomorrow... What Phobos didn''t know couldn''t hurt him! Ares hid the belt in his Primordial Blade and acted normal! Very normal! There was no degeneracy enabling at foot here! No sir! Thankfully no one noticed... Well no one other than Aejaz anyway. He was the resident thief so naturally nothing went stolen in this house without his knowledge of the incident.


    Ares was on his way to his seat when he was yanked, mid walk, onto Calla''s lap. "The food was delicious! I can''t wait for all the other babies to try your cooking too... And Aster. Aster always appreciates a tasty meal. I think you''ll get along well with your father. You remind me so much of him. Always butting in to other people''s problems and trying to fix them... You''re a good kid. I feel like you were raised right and so I want to ask, who looked after you when you were growing up? Are they still around?"


    Ah, it''s time for the ''Ares reveals all'' interview is it? Alright... How do I tell her I was a slave without upsetting her?... "Well, I did end up meeting a pretty great guy called Hans a bit later on in life and he''s a fantastic person, yeah. He''s an old guy who lost his own kid and is trying to fix some of the more unpleasant parts of this town... As for before that... It''s a bit complicated..."


    "Complicated?... Was it no good?"


    Sigh


    "Not really, no. Do you want me to tell you everything?"


    "... Yes, please."


    "Alright, but please don''t feel bad. None of this is your fault and I really don''t care about any of it. What''s in the past is in the past and I''m already in the process of getting my revenge for no reason other than that I feel Red Sun is better off without these people in it." Ares took a deep breath and explained his history with the Chen clan in detail. There were even parts of it that neither Enyo and Bellona knew. It wasn''t that he''d hidden it from them or anything he just felt no need to bring it up. He really hadn''t cared and he didn''t want anyone else to either. Still the stories of his beatings, everything involving Chen Prem trying to hunt him down, and occasionally indirectly executing his fellow child labourers after he beat them in a duel and they were deemed useless, weren''t so easy to digest. All sorts of miscellaneous details added up to form what must have been a rather unpleasant life and the fact that he never complained about any of it made Calla deeply upset. She didn''t know whether to be angry, sad, apologetic, or all three at once so she just hugged him and mumbled an apology under her breath. Ares sighed again when he was done. "Come on, don''t feel bad. I told you it''s not your fault. These things happen and it could have been a lot worse. Also, I''m pretty blessed to have lived the life I did after leaving the Chen clan so I really can''t complain. It''s all been uphill since I met Aejaz the day I escaped. Speaking of, as for that silly doofus..."


    To take Calla''s mind off all the boring and downtrodden talk, Ares decided to throw her for a loop and introduce her properly to his ''sort of, not actually, but definitely kinda'' brother. He talked at great length about their various exploits and how they became the bandit brothers and so on forth. This explanation also helped Rhea understand why the Fleeting Glimpse clan and Aejaz were at odds, creating a scene during the party previously. After hearing various tales of comradery, Calla lifted Ares and yanked Aejaz onto her lap instead. She pet his head and called him her ''adopted baby'' before rocking him back and forth. Aejaz could do nothing but accept the treatment and, honestly, he was happy too. It''s not like he''d ever felt maternal love of any kind before so this was nice. Ah, the pleasant sensation of a warm and motherly hug! He could get used to this! It was a different kind of feeling compared to when he hugged Allie but he liked it too.


    Following that explanation, Ares discussed various miscellaneous events, especially those leading up to his relationship with Enyo from his perspective. Ares noticed Serene twitch when he mentioned the mecha dryad incident but he didn''t probe. Actually it looked like Calla and Rhea also wanted to ask Serene about something but they would do that in the future...


    Calla also hugged Allie during this period, when it was revealed she and Aejaz were close, before finally settling down when all was said and done... Well almost everything, there was still one more matter that needed to be settled, damnit, so Ares threw a certain someone under the bus! "There is one more thing I would like to discuss but you and the other matriarchs already know about this. It''s not my place to bring it up, though, so I''ll give Bellona the honours."


    Bellona almost spat out her steak when she was betrayed and called upon by her literal lover brother... Well, she was going to have to unveil the news at some point, keeping it hidden was pointless and it''s not like it was a huge deal anyway. She addressed her siblings and told them the truth, that she wasn''t Major''s child. Like with Enyo''s declaration about her true self, the announcement was met with mostly uncaring support. If anything all of the siblings were actually jealous of her... Not being the child of that devil spawn Major was a blessing. Her true background even left Phobos hoping he was secretly in the same boat... But he wasn''t. Rhea confirmed it was just Bellona. There was also one person who was overjoyed with this announcement, Calla! She''d already known, obviously, but she couldn''t treat Bellona like one of her kin because that would give away the secret. Now though there was no reason to hold back so Bellona was the fourth person dragged onto Calla''s lap tonight.


    "Half-baby!" Calla unleashed her seemingly infinite affection again with a happy exclamation as she nuzzled Bellona.


    Now that this secret was out in the open, Ares could pry out the answers to his questions! Namely, "How does being a half revenant even work anyway? Is she immortal? Can she become a fully fledged revenant?"


    As Calla was the expert on this matter she responded with all of her knowledge on the matter that she deemed relevant. "A half revenant can''t transform and they aren''t immortal. When they reach bloodline awakening they''ll get to regenerate a little and that''s usually it. As with half and halves of any race, though, it is possible to evolve into a full fledged revenant via a mutation... And as for how you get mutations, well I''m sure Enyo could tell you al about that after yesterday night, no? In short, if Bellona wants to become a revenant proper, she has to give herself to one. I''m not trying to encourage you two to be quick about it or anything but the sooner you do it the safer Bellona will be thanks to her newfound immortality. I get that you two don''t have any intentions of getting closer just yet but you should keep that in consideration. Also, Bellona will get her revenant transformation at bloodline awakening as well as some new wolf specific traits for her human form just like every other revenant. What those two things will entail specifically I don''t know because it''s hard to tell how strong a revenant will be before that point. Ah but pairing her measurement manipulation with the revenant form ought to be quite strong, I think. You''ll be incredibly dangerous in melee combat with your enhanced strength and speed. Your magic is versatile and you will probably be able to whatever you want after getting your transformation. It will be up to you to use your magic wisely and in the way that''s most useful in any given situation. Support, defence, offense, you can do it all really."


    "I can become a revenant, huh?..." Bellona looked over at Ares, her ticket to becoming the very kind of mongrel she''d insulted countless times up until now. The temptation was great but she still wasn''t ready for that yet. Plus Enyo was still enjoying him all to herself for now and Bellona didn''t want to interrupt. Off in the background, Bellona could hear Enyo chanting ''d~o it, d~o it,'' over and over again. "Shut up you unapologetic whore! I''ll do it when I''m good and ready! Why don''t you go do it instead!?"


    "Ok!" Having received permission to dine and dash, Enyo started dragging away a very confused Ares. The entire room was stunned by Enyo''s audacity but, in a twisted way, they also couldn''t help but respect it. She was a woman who got what she wanted, when she wanted it if nothing else...


    Time and place? Do these words mean anything to my insatiable wife!? Ares sighed as he was dragged away but he did shout one last thing before leaving. "THERE ARE TWO DESSERT TYPES IN THE FRIDGE. ALCOHOL JELLY WITH BOTH WINE AND BEER FLAVOURS FOR YOU LEGION DRUNKARDS, AND A BUNCH OF BANNANA SPLITS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS THEM. HELP YOURSELVES..." And may God help me...


    God, none of them, did in fact help Ares. He was subjected to all manner of torment for the rest of the night. Everyone else either left or stayed the night but Ares had no choice in the matter as Enyo had quite literally tied him up in the room. With a pair of handcuffs, Ares was bound to the headboard by Enyo''s brute strength. Thanks to her cultivation he couldn''t resist her even if he wanted to. His one option was to grin and bear the punishment until he could slip away by disintegrating the cuffs. Thankfully, they weren''t treasures or anything otherwise Ares wouldn''t dare destroy Enyo''s toys. The disposable spares she got from Bea were replaceable and therefore fair game.


    Morning did eventually come, alongside Ares, and Enyo was still going at it like a rabbit. Ares wanted to get out and regain his freedom but she looked really into it so he waited until she finished her current rodeo before leaning in and whispering. "You could always go and get Bellona and have her join in the fun. Even if we don''t go all the way it''s fine to still have her in here, right?"


    Enyo froze on the spot before nodding fervently in agreement. She rolled off the bed, put a robe on, and went to go assail her sister. Ares felt guilty lying to Enyo like this, and he was going to pay the price for his insolence a thousand times over later, but right now he wanted to jailbreak! He quickly disintegrated the cuffs, put some clothes on, and hurriedly Shifted out of the sect, breathing a sigh of relief when he cleared the gates. There was somewhere he wanted to go so he was about to set out when...


    DOOM


    A swamp of pressure descended on the sect and Ares was finally realising the scope of his error. He was completely immune to this kind of pressure, the omnipresent weight, and yet even he could feel the sheer quantity of it rolling around in the air. Enyo was clearly not thrilled to have been duped like this... In times like these, there was only really one viable strategy... Run away and leave the problem to someone else!