Ares, to start, brought out a sack filled with Shock Beads and block rocks, the latter of which were inching ever closer to turning into a fully fledged art, and put them on the side. These would be part of Candy''s souvenirs and they served the purpose of acting as proof of Ares'' commitment to her. There were still two other things he could do in that regard so, first, he pulled out a tiny red gem and placed it in Candy''s palm. "You might have seen Enyo wearing one of these gems inside her wedding ring. Long story short this is a piece of my heart turned into a gem, well a spare one anyway. You can feel my heart beat when you hold it no matter how far you are from me... And I can also feel your hand when you touch it. As it''s a different part of my heart than the one I gave Enyo I''ll know the difference between you two. Normally I would only have given this to you after proposing, or a properly shaped and meticulously crafted gem anyway, but I think giving this to you now is important. I can always put it inside a ring next time we meet if you grow attached to that one but right now you should keep it as proof. Having some of my equipment is one thing but a piece of my heart is difficult to refute. I''ll also make sure Golgo gets the memo so he can have the fundamental organisation release an official statement about you. All three combined ought to keep you safe from your prying family for now. I wish there was more I could give you but I''m afraid this is all I have that I can spare... But I do have one more surprise for you, something you can''t touch until you go back! Here."
Ares pulled out a bundle of flasks from the Primordial Blade and handed them over to Candy who looked at them with a tilted head. She was still reeling from the heart piece but her incredible sense of smell, thanks to her foxian bloodline, had informed her these flasks contained alcohol of some variety. "I''d yet to mention this little titbit about myself but I''m quite a good cook. I''m not the best at anything in particular but I''m pretty damn good at everything, even if I do say so myself. Still this is unexplored territory for me as I''ve never made alcohol before... Anyway, it might be a bit rough around the edges but I combined some stuff I had to make a kind of mock-champagne. It''s not the real thing, not by a wide margin, but it''s a promise that one day I''ll let you taste the real deal. Homemade and handcrafted champagne tailored made for you, that''s my goal. I do this for all my wives, you know, try and come up with something special for the individual. My only regret here is that I didn''t have time to make the fully complete version... This drink isn''t even really champagne... It should taste nice though, I made sure of that at least. Either way, don''t drink it all in one go! I won''t be able to replace it for a while... Keep them for a rainy day if ever you feel upset... Wait... I don''t mean drown your sorrows or anything, I meant like, you know, memories! Happy memories!... Uh, maybe alcohol wasn''t such a good idea..."
"Hahaha, you''re getting all flustered cutie. It''s ok, I know what this gift means and why you''re giving it to me. Thank you. Knowing I''ll have this, and your heart, to remind me of you is more than enough. It eases my own poor, aching heart. I''m going to miss you, really, but this will help I''m sure." Candy had wiped away the tears and was feeling much better. Still a little rocky on the emotional front but well enough to give a proper goodbye. "I''ve never really had much of a chance to get familiar with alcohol but I''ll be sure to give these naughty things a try!" Candy dangled the flasks with a glint in her eye. Ares wasn''t entirely sure this woman was as ''unfamiliar'' with alcohol as she claimed to be... Maybe Sadie would one day have a drinking partner... "Ah, I almost wanna pop one open and take a swig. It smells really good cutie, I appreciate it. And you''re promising me a complete version down the line? You''re just making the long wait even more painful! You tell me you''re a good cook and then make me wait to try your cooking?! Are you evil?! You''re evil aren''t you!... Well that''s ok, I''m a bit of a playful imp myself." Candy gave Ares a kiss on the lips and looked into his eyes. "Thank you Ares, I owe you a lot. You''ve changed the course of my life today, I''m sure of it. Although I''m dreading going back a part of me, for the first time ever, is actually excited by the prospect of returning. Knowing that there''s light at the end of tunnel, and not the deathly kind that people see at the end of their life, it''s given me energy. I feel that old well of happiness inside me, that was once drying up, refill itself moment to moment. I won''t make this goodbye harder than it needs to be but I will burden you somewhat... Please be quick. I know I''ve already got centuries under my belt and even if I had to wait a hundred more years it would be nothing to me... But still, I want you in my life as soon as possible. I never claimed to be a patient woman!"
Ares chuckled as he stood up and held Candy''s hand to help her do the same. "And I never claimed to be a patient man. I''ll rush to you as soon as I''m able, you have my word. If nothing else, Enyo might even try to rush to you as soon as possible before me... You have a killer body, you know that? I pity you, Enyo will not show you mercy..."
"Oh cutie don''t I know it... To think there''ll be five other wives hanging around you by the time we next meet... Makes me feel like I''m missing out on the all the fun." Candy lightly smacked Ares on the arm. "See this? You''re making me jealous! You are a bad man, cutie! A bad, bad man!"
Ares laughed as he hugged Candy. "And you are am equally terrible woman. I guess we''ve got a lot in common." Ares kissed Candy one final time and the two savoured the moment. It was a long and passionate kiss so he could satisfy both himself and the feisty fox for the foreseeable future. After begrudgingly pulling away, Ares said the dreaded words. It was as if they caused him physical pain to even utter them as they scraped by his lips. "Goodbye Candy. Take care"
Candy took a deep breath with closed eyes and took a moment. Eventually she opened them again and gave Ares another genuine smile to remember her by. "Goodbye Ares. Come quickly, ok?"
Ares urged his unwilling legs to turn him around and walk away after he nodded at Candy. "I will." He took step after step towards the double doors that had appeared a short distance away from him and the only sounds in this white expanse were his echoing footsteps and a quiet sob from the fox behind him. As he reached the door he wasn''t sure if it would be better to turn around and wave one final time or if that would just make it harder for them to move on... In the end he couldn''t resist looking at her one last time to burn the image of her into his memory. There she was, waving with a tear stained smile which caused Ares to shed a single tear too in sympathy. He would go back to his loving family, she would go back to her own personal hell. It wasn''t the same but that was why he had to smile here too, for her sake. He mustered every muscle in his face to to do his bidding, allowing him to give her his trademark cocky grin and a wink to go along with his waving hand. After that, to avoid making this take longer than it should, he turned back to the door and walked through without any more hesitation.
Without even taking in the new scenery he leant backwards against the nearest wall and closed his eyes. Just as he left Candy had broken out into waterworks and it was hard not being able to comfort her. It would be better for him if he gave himself a moment to calm down before approaching the next trial otherwise he would just be wasting his attempt by dragging himself down with his current emotional state. If he was going to lose here and be kicked out of the pagoda he wanted to gather some information at least before he went home for the day. He could mull over everything over the course of the rest of the day and come back after dinner, refreshed and full of energy with an idea on how to proceed.
Ares gave himself a minute to settle down, after which he took in his surroundings properly. He''d seen that things were drastically different before but he was well and truly astounded by this ''floor'', if it could even really be called such a thing. This floor was simulating another location entirely as Ares was currently inside a room on the third floor of an abandoned high-rise that was at least twenty storeys tall. It was night outside and the moon was shining through the cracked glass hanging off jagged window sills that were bent way out of shape. The sound of rain pattering against the walls filled the silence but did nothing to illuminate the streets below which effectively turned into a black void the further away Ares looked. A few destitute lamp posts flickered here and there in the immediate vicinity but anything beyond that looked like a murky black swamp that would swallow him whole if he left the safety of the building he was in. It was if he was being quarantined in a safe zone and all manner of demons that lurked further out were kept at bay by the sterilising lights.
As for the interior of the building in question it seemed to be used as an office space, back before it became destitute, and nothing else of note. Coffee stained desks, a water cooler that probably wouldn''t have been functional even pre-armageddon, and standard office chairs missing a wheel or two and leaning drunkenly against whatever nearby surface they could find. A few cracked computer screens, some keyboards with missing letters that had been strewn around the room like a game of alphabet hide-and-seek, and a broken bulb hanging by a thread from the ceiling all gave Ares the impression that whatever struck this run-down place struck it hard and fast. None of the other floors in the pagoda had been like this but this place seemed to have some history behind it; likely tied to the floor overseer that was sitting up against the far wall with his head down, buried somewhere underneath his dusty beige cape and between his knees.
Ares had been somewhat clued into this man''s identity here and there and he knew from Dominus that his man was often referred to as the ''Veteran''. The one person who knew his actual name, his brother, had been murdered by him in cold blood for the sake of revenge years ago so his real name was lost to the ether as he made no effort to share it with anyone. This was a man who''d lost everything and then sacrificed even more just to make his brother feel the same way as him. His affiliation for every non-fundamental pillar gave him life. He could feel the energy of all things and had a deep connection to the world but that was all severed when his brother stole it from him. His mood uncontrollably worsened and he fell into a miserable rut, driving him to wage war in an attempt to get his life back. It wasn''t the power he sought, just the comfort of life that his affiliations provided him. Losing it had been disastrous for his mental well-being and he lived on edge permanently after.
The war was long and gruelling, turning his home city into a hellscape as was depicted here in these surroundings. He lost an arm during the war but that never stopped him from pushing onwards with his army. It was a war fought with both magic and technology and all sorts of highly immoral arts, automatic weaponry, and explosive ordinance had been utilised and deployed with no regard for the sanctity of life. The loss of life was cataclysmic and the city was burned down to the ground over the course of the campaign but, amidst all the rubble and death stood tall the Veteran. His dusty cape and his one arm wielding a plain, old sword were an inspiring sight for his loyal men and their morale remained high during the fight. Eventually it all came to a head in this very building where the Veteran killed his brother.
Afterwards, he disappeared for a while only to be found skulking around alleyways and mumbling incoherent gibberish to himself. He was ''sane'' but broken and wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. His brother''s ability to steal his affiliations was still in effect and he couldn''t remove the lingering magic and resentment no matter how hard he tried. Killing his brother did nothing but satisfy his urge to kill the bastard and now he was back to square one with no enemies left to vent his anger and rage at. Of course, during all this, he''d manifested an incredible pressure that defied common sense. This was why Transmit had approached him and asked him to become an overseer for the final trial. Surprisingly he agreed, mostly on the off chance his other self could learn something about how to undo this infernal curse his brother had placed on his very soul. All the countless billions of contenders would feed him information and, when his clone returned one day, surely it would have memories of at least one individual capable of freeing him from his plight? A slight problem arose, though, one that almost drove him to madness... No one could beat the clone... It never returned to him with the answers he was looking for if it even had them to begin with. Based solely on the clone''s current appearance it was looking unlikely that, even after all these years, it had found the answer it sought. His woes appeared to be endless. Knowing there was a font of magnificent joy right around the corner, feeling his restrained affiliations bursting against the seams and being unable to retrieve them... The clone was arguably the most downtrodden thing in this floor, more so than anything in the surroundings at least.
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Ares could remove it... With a quick glance, aided by his Omniscience, he saw the root of the problem and he understood immediately... He could remove it... Pretty easily too... Man, disintegration was a little too good at its job, wasn''t it?! How was Ares supposed to break it to the guy? That all his years of searching were pretty much irrelevant because all he needed was the help of a fundamental champion that didn''t even exist at the time he started seeking help... Well, maybe he would just be happy now that he could be freed? Regardless, Ares actually decided to wait to tell him. God only knows what this guy would do if Ares told him the truth right now. There was a non-zero chance he would try and break free from the pagoda right this instant and leave Ares high and dry with no reward... Was withholding the information selfish? Yes. Did it matter? No, not really. The guy likely couldn''t be freed from his brother''s magic until Ares met the real version anyway so he was going to have to be a bit patient. How many thousands of years did this guy wait anyway? A few more days weren''t going to kill him. If anything, Ares was more concerned with Candy''s well-being than this random stranger! Although being owed a favour by a guy as immeasurably powerful as this might come in handy down the line... No matter what, Ares wasn''t going to do anything with him just yet other than take his trial. He could make a decision on how best to approach him properly after he''d actually beaten the guy.
Ares walked up to the fella and bent over to look at him. He waved his hand in front of the guy''s face to try and get his attention. Veteran stood up and paid Ares little to no attention, however, only the bare minimum required to get this trial started and over and done with. If the challenger couldn''t help him in any way this was the attitude he took. It was a bit presumptuous but, then again, Ares was just some mental accumulation kid after all. This was the whole ''appearances can be deceiving'' shtick doing its thing. With a tired voice that dragged itself through Ares'' ears, Veteran spoke up and explained the rules. "We fight. No magic, no weapons, just pressure and our bodies. You can make as much use of this space as you desire, there are no restrictions to using the environment. If you stray too far from the building, though, you''ll lose automatically. The fight can last as long as needed an you are permitted to run if you can, and want to, for whatever reason. If you ever beat me then you will become the next overseer of his floor and I will guide you to your rewards. Any questions?"
"Uh, I have a bloodline that lets me merge the mana of one of my aspects with pressure. Is it ok to use that or no?"
"... Interesting. Sure. I see no reason why it shouldn''t be allowed. As long as you aren''t using magic or casting arts that''s fine. Just in case though, may I see it?"
"Sure but I can''t use it with enhancement yet. Only for physical pressure and weight pressure." Ares summoned a ball of golden physical pressure and let it float over to Veteran who caught it in his palms. he eyed up the pressure and felt the insides of the ball with his finger before crushing the ball and nodding to Ares.
"This is fine to use during the trial. It''s a very good bloodline, you''re lucky to have it. I imagine you''ll go far in the cultivation world... But what exactly is that mana? I''ve never seen anything like it before and I used to have an affiliation with all pillars... No, that''s not true, I never did have an affiliation for the ''fundamentals''... I see... They''re finally out and about in the world, huh? Well my point still stands. With your impressive pressure and your unique magic there will be very little that can stop you, I''m sure. Anyway, that''s enough of that. When you''re ready to start the trial let me know."
Ares enhanced himself with pressure and took a moment. Veteran was relatively unimpressed with the enhancement quality and he just assumed Ares'' limit was quite low... He would come to learn over the next few days, as he watched it grow to absurd heights, that he was dead wrong. Just because most people who came here were already at their limit that didn''t mean that very assumption was applicable to everyone who came to his floor. He had no idea this kid had learnt everything in a single day and was still getting accustomed to his findings! What Ares was using now wasn''t even half of his maximum... Plus he couldn''t even weave his annihilation magic into it yet... Ares may have had a long road ahead of him in terms of beating Veteran but Veteran was also in the same position. It''s just that his ''long road'' of facing Ares got more bumpy the longer he travelled on it. He couldn''t see the road bumps just yet but he was going to start stumbling over them eventually...
Ares put his best foot forward, mentally prepared himself, and gave Veteran permission to start the trial! "Ok, I''m rea..."
BANG
The last thing Ares saw before he was punched out of the room and sent tumbling into the stairwell was a rapidly enlarging fist. Veteran had jumped him so fast Ares hadn''t even seen the beatdown coming but he sure as hell felt it when his face partially caved inward. His brain was rattled and he was seeing stars as he rolled down some of the steps and into the wall. He grabbed onto the window sill above him to pull himself up as he sorted out his memories... At which point he realised something utterly ridiculous... Veteran''s cultivation had been adjusted to make the fight fair... And yet... The guy didn''t have any cultivation whatsoever! Ares was at mental accumulation 5th realm and the pagoda judged that, in order to make the fight ''fair'', Veteran''s cultivation needed to go entirely... And it wasn''t wrong! Ares had gotten his ass beat in a way he''d never experienced before. Even Sadie hadn''t been this rough. It was a losing battle despite the fact he was five whole realms ahead of his opponent! What nonsense was this?! 55 stages of cultivation up on Veteran and he was still getting his shit pushed in?! Granted they were early stages on the cultivation path but still! Even without Ares being able to use his destruction magic, surely this was a bit much?... No wonder this floor had been described as a shock to the system, this was incomprehensible and completely undermined the concept of cultivation to begin with! Why even cultivate if mastering pressure was this valuable!? Of course combining the two was optimal but someone needed to tell Veteran that, clearly... This guy was a monster... If he had all his pillar affiliations and his original cultivation on top of his pressure... Wouldn''t this guy basically be the strongest man in the universe?! He''d lost an arm but that was clearly no hindrance to him whatsoever. It was debatable whether he even knew he lost the damn thing, that was how little difference it made.
Ares managed to stand but was immediately assaulted again by Veteran''s boot which was already kicking Ares'' face before he could even raise his arms to block.
BANG
Shatter
Ares was blasted through the window and out above the cold streets under the glow of the moon. He was about to try and twist his body to land but, before he could, he saw Veteran dash past him in mid air and grab Ares by the cape. Veteran gripped onto a nearby lamp post and spun around it, chucking Ares back into the building through the window above the floor he was previously on. Ares back ached and he was covered in broken glass as he lay on the floor, confused and dizzy.
Crash
Above him, Veteran had just come barrelling through another window and jumped down the middle of the stairwell, aiming for Ares'' head with a dive kick. Outside he must have used the lamp to gain more height and jumped to the floor above. From their he utilised the stairwell to crush the opponent beneath him. This guy was way too good at fighting under these bizarre circumstances and he was clearly acclimated to this environment. Ares was not going to have the advantage if tried to fight anywhere other than wide open spaces, that was for sure.
Ares rolled to the side to dodge the dive kick aimed at his head but didn''t have time to do anything about the follow-up kick that broke his ribcage and pushed him into the centre of the stairwell. As he started plummeting face first to the floor he felt the air above his back bending and contorting unnaturally so he made a desperate attempt to cling to a nearby banister and move out the way. As he grasped the rail closest to him he immediately thanked his quick decision making because Veteran had gone crashing down to the floor behind him...
BBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG
Veteran''s strike shook the entire building. If Ares hadn''t dodged he would have been on the receiving end of that attack and crushed into a pancake underneath Veteran''s boot... This was all getting a bit too hectic for Ares who had yet to even throw a single punch! This guy was way too quick and powerful to make even a dent on just yet so Ares needed to, at least, gather his wits about him and rethink his approach. To that end, Ares started climbing up the stairwell through the middle in a bid to go hide on another floor higher up. His ascent was quick as his parkour skills had been honed in Red Sun''s streets and the aid of his Stygian Zephyr as a platform made his life that much easier but, when he finally decided to stop on one of the floors, and when he moved forward to jump over the railing... He felt a hand grasp his leg... "Ah fuck me..." Ares was yanked back down by Veteran who''d caught up to him with the greatest of ease. Once again, Ares was falling but, this time, he had a boot planted firmly on his chest and there was no getting rid of it. He didn''t have enough strength to lift it or escape from under it so his end was nigh. It was an ironic end too because he''d brought it upon himself. If he hadn''t tried to scram away from Veteran he wouldn''t have given the guy more height to kill him with! If he''d just bloody chased Veteran down to the first floor at least the guy would have had to beat him to death instead of this instant-kill Ares was about to suffer... He could have learnt so much brawling with a superior opponent and now he was just wasting his attempt! Ares saw the shattered windows pass him by on his right and he knew there were only a few milliseconds left until he went splat like roadkill so, if nothing else, he decided to fire of an attack in his last moments. A single golden bullet of pressure, using all 100% of his reserves, was fired upward...
What happened after that? Ares had no idea because he was unceremoniously booted out of the pagoda. He just kinda popped up outside the building with a somewhat startled expression. He did just get stomped to death from, like, the fourteenth floor of a building so being a bit out of it was to be expected. He was going to have nightmares about falling out of trees today, he could feel it...
Ares noticed Peppy? and Loris were gone so he had no interest in talking to any other Transmit employees, not that he cared much for Loris either to be fair. He was an alright guy, just a bit... a LOT slow. Ares shook his head and left as it was time to go back and host the banquet. He would come back here every day from now on until the deed was done!
Meanwhile, inside the pagoda on the fifth trial stage, Veteran was climbing the stairs back up to the third floor of the high-rise where he liked to rest against the wall. It was where he slumped in victory after killing his brother many moons ago so he had a bit of a connection with it. Right now though, something else was on his mind... Literally! He had a bullet in his brain! And it stung like hell too... It didn''t kill him, or even really come close, but it hurt and was incredibly annoying. Still, despite it being a relatively harmless injury to someone like Veteran he couldn''t help but be impressed. Most people who entered this floor just exploded from the first punch and never returned to try again. The average performance of a first timer was pretty dull because no one ever expected what he had in store for them. But more than any of that, up until now, no one had ever injured him on their first attempt. People were usually too panicky to fight back as they scrambled away from him until they died without retaliating, so for this kid to have mustered the willpower to shoot him in his final moments was respect worthy. Also, the bullet having that much firepower was no joke! Veteran''s earlier analysis of the kid was right, he was going places. Maybe with a bit of training he might even be a fun match for Veteran who hadn''t felt the thrill of an actual challenge in a long time. Even the Gods hadn''t put up much of a fight but maybe this kid could? Maybe he wasn''t giving fundamental champions enough credit... To be fair, he really knew nothing about them as they were nothing more than rumours in the wind during his time.
Veteran took a seat and dislodged the bullet by tapping it out of his head, almost as if he was trying to get pennies out of a jar. Out of sheer curiosity, he decided to inspect the thing...
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Veteran dropped the bullet and threw up blood all over it on the floor. He had a cold sweat and shivers in his spine after that hellish experience... Hesitantly, he picked up the bullet again but didn''t delve deep into it because obviously that was suicidal... This kid clearly had a metric ton of pressure at his disposal... Way more than Veteran did anyway. He was a bit taken aback by the ordeal but he calmed down when he realised the kid wouldn''t have access to it all for his enhancement... There was no way the kid achieved all 100% during his first enhancement when he himself had failed to do so. Even Veteran, the world''s greatest pressure manipulator throughout all of history, had struggled to achieve 80% and couldn''t break that threshold. It was a shame the kid would waste so much of his pressure but that was just life... Or so Veteran thought to himself. Oh how wrong he was. Oh how very wrong.