Chapter 77: Bird vs Tree

CRACKLE

Something strange occurred on this day in Red Sun. A gigantic, crystal tree appeared out of seemingly thin air, towering above the city and almost reaching even the clouds. The tree was adorned with gilded leaves along its black branches and created a sort of faux organic dome above the part of the city it inhabited, blocking even sunlight from falling onto the streets below. The tree was so abnormally large it could be seen from literally anywhere in Red Sun. Even those travelling to Red Sun from afar could see the tree before they saw the city itself. Splendid and stolid, the tree took root and became a part of the city's foundation. It was so unbelievably natural that you could probably convince a resident of Red Sun with faulty memory that it had been there all along and they were only now noticing it. Of course, such an imposing and spontaneous existence drew in many who were curious as to what exactly this behemoth of a tree was doing here. When the gathering crowd arrived at the base of the tree, within its crystalised trunk, they noticed the presence of a young man. A dead young man, with several deep wounds across his body, that had been frozen in time. A few onlookers tepidly inched closer to get a better view, at which point some of the more knowledgeable residents identified the man as Chen Prem. An even fewer number still had wicked grins on their faces as they knew of his true, despicable nature. On the outside of the trunk, his 'true, despicable nature' was being openly revealed to even those who weren't aware in the form of the assassination contract Ares had received, filled to the brim with details of Prem's sins. This was a common tactic used by Hans' employees, spreading the deeds of the punished individual as to reassure Red Sun they were on the side of the innocents. As more and more people slowly walked up and digested the contents of the contract, murmurs began spreading. Murmurs which would grow into gossip and spread far and wide across the city, duly informing everyone of what exactly was transpiring here.

Not that the Chen clan hadn't already sent someone to investigate, but when the specifics of the incident came to their doorstep in the form of hushed whispers outside their gates, they redoubled their efforts and sent more cultivators to the scene. When these cultivators arrived, they forced the crowd back before approaching the mysterious tree. Although they were aware that others had safely gone directly up to the tree and even touched it, they maintained a wary attitude which paid off when a lone leaf flew off its branch and came tumbling down above them. Not taking any chances, the cultivators took distance from the leaf. This decision was wise.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The instant the leaf made contact with the floor it set off a explosion that was hardly any less powerful than that of a Shock Bead. The resulting destruction thankfully hadn't spread to any of the budlings on either side of the street, but it had formed a crater directly in the middle of it. On its own, the explosion wasn't entirely un-manageable. If the cultivators worked together, they would be able to advance and defend themselves against each individual leaf, but that was the glaring issue that lay before them. That was but a single leaf... Above their heads, looming above them ominously in all their golden splendour, were hundreds of leaves. If all... No, if even a quarter of those leaves fell... Havoc and chaos would engulf Red Sun in a matter of seconds. The sheer extent of the destruction caused would be catastrophic. To make matters worse, the leaves had only fallen in response to the Chen clan's cultivators, meaning this was a targeted attack on them. If those leaves were to drop, they weren't far enough away from the Chen clan residence that even a single gust of wind would put them in serious trouble. They weren't sure what even Lo could do about a problem this extreme, but it was apparent the cultivators that were here weren't going to be of any use; meaning the corpse, and all of its shameful history, was here to stay for now and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

---------------------------------

SLAM

Meanwhile, Lo who'd just found out about all of this broke his desk in half, part of which splintered directly at the cultivator reporting the news to him. Lo was furious that not only had yet another member of the Chen clan been murdered, but that this one was in public, in broad daylight, and worse still exposed his misdeeds. The name of the Chen clan had been getting dragged through the mud consistently as of late for various reasons and this was only going to exacerbate the issue. Lo marched out of the room and the residence and hurriedly approached the damnable tree. It didn't look sturdy enough to take hits from him so he was confident he could deal with it and be done with this nonsense. When he finally reached the base, he waved aside the pests that were side-eyeing him. Even if he wasn't the one responsible for Prem's villainous acts, he was still the leader of the Chen clan so people had reservations about his involvements. Did Lo know? Did he enable it? Did he do anything to stop it? The answer to these questions didn't even really matter, Lo still came out of this incident looking terrible regardless. He marched up to the tree and several leaves landed on top of him. 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Lo was unharmed and untouched. Temporal Distortion made its target temporarily invincible, so he used the art on himself, not that explosions of that level would have really injured him anyway; he just wanted to show off the crowd and claw back some of his reputation in any way possible. Lo expected a barrage of leaves next, but the tree opted for a new attack as it sent countless branches charging at him. the first branch came within reach and Lo smacked it away effortlessly. He was mid smirk, as he continued knocking away more branches, when his face turned sour instead. Foregoing all the forward progress he'd made to the tree, Lo hopped back out of range of the tree's attacks as they stormed after him. When Lo finally retreated far enough, he turned around and looked at the labyrinth of branches that had crashed down behind him while glaring intensely. These branches were evil. The power behind them was middling for someone at Lo's level of aspect assimilation, and if it were as simple as hitting them and moving on he would have faced no opposition as he marched towards the tree. Lo realised, as he was knocking the branches away, however, that he was dying. It wasn't a quick process, and it was by no means close to happening, but it was happening and that was enough to put Lo on edge. This... Thing was simultaneously draining his mana and life force whenever he went anywhere near either the branches or the main trunk. Even if the amount a single branch took away from him was miniscule, because it never hit him directly, there were hundreds of branches! The leaves would slow his approach and the branches would slowly kill him. If he was ever pierced by a branch from a blind spot... Only God knows how much quicker his death would come. This stupid tree was a Goddamn menace. It couldn't move, obviously, so it was really nothing more than just an eyesore if Lo decided to ignore it. Lo could protect his residence from the leaves if he needed to, but that would mean having to sit around forever, never leaving the residence so he could keep an eye on the damn thing. His odds of getting past the branches were high, but they weren't 100% so risking his life just to get the corpse of his moron clan member back was a stupid decision. If he gave up here though and retreated... How much worse would the ridicule of the Chen clan get? He could see the newspaper headlines already, 'Chen Clan Patriarch Bested by Tree!', or, knowing those pun addicted fucks, 'Treedophile!'. Lo was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but he did have an answer. Lo spent a good chunk of stardust yearly bribing Maro, he was one of the mayor's highest 'donators'. He needed to be considering the temperaments of his family members... Regardless, Maro's half of the deal was that he would turn a blind eye to their shenanigans and give them aid when they needed it. Right now, it was needed, so Lo sent a cultivator to the mayor's office and waited. The wait was excruciating as more and more citizens slowly turned up. Lo wasn't allowed near the tree, but everyone else was... And every time they walked back after seeing the notice, they, without fail, looked at him with disdain. Lo wanted to let loose and start killing these idiots, but that would just put a massive target on his head; one that even Maro wouldn't be able to do anything about. Plus causing a scene this close to the national and international would be a problem... NOT THAT THIS STUPID TREE WASN'T ALSO A DAMN PROBLEM!

Sighhhhhhhhhh

Lo calmed himself and rejoiced inwardly when he finally saw a giant raven on the horizon. Presumably the only reason Maro hadn't reacted immediately was because he didn't know precisely what was up with the tree so he waited for a comprehensive report. Sending a Chen clan cultivator probably helped speed up the process a smidge. As the raven drew nearer, the tree's leaves all pointed towards the incoming bird in sync with one another, looking like an automatic defence mechanism had kicked in after recognising a threat. The leaves were shaking as they readied themselves to go flying at the target like miniature drones. Seeing the potential for danger ahead, the raven swooped upwards, gaining more height. In actuality, the leaves probably couldn't harm the raven regardless, but the creature was smart enough not to underestimate an unknown foe. As if the tree had set an invisible boundary, once the raven flew above a specific building, all of the leaves were launched sequentially and they went darting through the sky. The raven took evasive manoeuvres like a fighter jet and barrel rolled past the first set of explosions. It flew straight up as a trail of golden detonations chased after it. Spotting an opening, the raven's eye glinted as it swooped backward, performing a loop and gliding low over the houses beneath it. As the raven was invisible to those with a lower cultivation, all the residents saw was a barely visible shimmer speed past them as a golden barrage lit up the sky. As the raven neared the tree, a large swarm of leaves gathered in front of the bird. Spreading its wings wide to halt its forward momentum caused the leaves chasing from behind to fly right past the raven which then rapidly threw its wings forward, creating a blast of air. The air blast pushed the errant leaves into the swarm, detonating them all in a colossal explosion above the city that even caused tremors on the ground.

Racing towards the tree with all the leaves now gone, the raven only had the branches left to contend with and these were the real threats if the information it had was correct. It formed a ball of dark magic which obliterated the first few tens of branches blocking its path before crushing a bunch more with its talons. Dipping low, ascending rapidly, and ducking under branches allowed the raven to weave ever closer to the tree. It flapped its wings to gain height and dodge another branch before performing a move that, unquestionably, made it the most badass bird in history as it landed on the branch it just dodged and used its talons to treat the branch like a grind rail. Skidding down the branch and pecking all the other incoming attacks out of the sky, the bird made its way to the tree and sunk its talons into the trunk.

CRACK

The tree immediately folded under the pressure and cracks appeared all over it, indicating the end of the tree was nigh. The tree wasn't going to go down without a fight, though, as the black disintegration magic flowing through it funnelled through the branches and coalesced into a spiky black blob in the centre of the trunk.

SHATTER

Sure enough, the raven's talons shredded the tree, which shattered into thousands of tiny crystals that hung in the air reflecting sunlight. Beautiful spectacle aside, there was one last attack hidden within the dying tree. The raven eyed the black blob as it expanded before unleashing all the pent up magic within it. A large black tidal wave of tendrils shaped like a dragon spread out, forming a net as it chased down the raven. Assaulted by a couple hundred tendrils at the same time, even the nimble raven couldn't dodge them all. It made an admirable effort, twisting and turning through and around numerous attacks until one eventually wrapped itself around the raven's talon, bringing it to a crawl. The decrease in speed meant the other tendrils could come swarming over the raven, restraining it while also producing an effect similar to the branches; slowly draining its mana and life. The bird had more than enough to spare, and could easily recover everything it lost, but it felt uncomfortable being trapped like this. The tendrils didn't have enough mana to kill the bird, so this last ditch effort seemed futile at a glance. The bird was an intelligent creature, though, so it was expecting a follow up. Not knowing what it was, where it would come from, or who would fire it put the bird on edge as it struggled against the shadowy chains wrapped firmly around it. 

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The raven turned as it felt a surge of mana from behind. It managed to twist its body and free one of its eyes from the tendrils just in time to see a fiery trident come sailing over the sky like a meteor and pierce its head.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The tendrils, which were already on the verge of disappearing finally vanished thanks, in part, to the bird's mana imbued wail and thrashing. Suffering a major injury and knowing the cause of it, Hans' ifrit, was nearby, the raven retreated immediately. Mana and life force could be restored, but the fire lingering in its now empty eye socket would never be put out unless its owner could drastically raise his cultivation. In short, it was going to be at a massive disadvantage in the future against the ifrit, all because of that obnoxious tree! The tree itself didn't even really do anything or put up a fight. It just created a never ending distraction of projectile garbage. The raven, realising it had suffered this injury because of such a weak entity, was livid and kicked a few walls over as it flew away in a huff.

Of course this invisible brawl had only been viewed by a select few who were capable of witnessing it. Everyone else simply enjoyed the crystal tree's final moments as it glamorously faded away.

Meanwhile, still inside the shadowy black void that had been the location of Prem's death...

Wheeze

Wheeze

Wheeze

A half-dead Ares was taking in every breath he could as he lay on the floor looking like a shrivelled up raisin. He brought out a mana shot pill he'd gotten from Allie earlier and almost dropped it with his flimsy hands, but managed to bring it to his mouth and throw it in. Ares had seriously overdone it on the mana front with that last attack. Yggdrasil cost roughly as much mana as Perish Wheel, but Ares didn't have enough to cast it properly thanks to all the mana he'd spent throughout the rest of the day. He'd done everything in the tomb, Voidwalked all the way back to town, experimented with a pillar he wasn't familiar with thanks to the enabler, and then used that massive attack. It was honestly a miracle he wasn't unconscious. Part of it was thanks to the fact that a majority of the heavy lifting had been done by the Black Ice Bane which lay shattered beside him. The Bane had recovered back to perfect state roughly around the time he returned to city which allowed him to use the Bane's grand finale by swallowing up all 100 state percent. Ares was spent. His weapon was spent. If it weren't for the shadowy area he was hiding in, he would have been reliant on Aejaz to drag him away from here as he was still quite near to the Chen clan's residence and they would happily kill Ares in this state, especially if they found out he was responsible for the mess he'd just caused. Aejaz would be fine outside with his Concealed Serpent so Ares didn't worry about that as he lay there and went over all the new stuff he'd learnt and used as he recovered.

For starters, this black space was the Nyxian Prowler's 'Ebon Nightmare Zone' art. It created a small pocket dimension of darkness magic. From the outside, this art just looked like a regular old shadow, but inside it was a pretty nifty dimension. Cultivators that were strong enough could destroy it from both the inside and outside, but anyone else couldn't interact with it; they would just have to wait for the duration to run out. Speaking of which, even though Ares was out of mana, that was the reason why this Zone still here, it was duration based, not mana based. As for what Ares could do, aside from abducting people inside the Zone, he could freely control the room's orientation and he could also make himself invisible while inside as long as he wasn't attacking. If he wanted, he could also leave the Zone but keep his abductee in it, at which point he could freely move the zone from the outside, running away with the person still trapped in it. Sort of like shoving someone inside a body bag and then dragging them away. In other words, the art was good for silently killing a target even in a busy area, or kidnapping them stealthily. As for how he created the clones, that was a basic art under the tangible dark aspect called 'Cult Killing.' It summons clones, the number of which is based on the cultivator's cultivation, that surround the opponent and can each launch a single attack before disappearing. Finally, Crystalised Void: Yggdrasil. This one was fairly self-explanatory as it had showcased all of its capabilities except one. The black blob at the end that temporarily became a dragon could be much more powerful if the right conditions were met. If enough life force and mana is absorbed by the tree it can summon Níðhöggr without needing to break. The summon would also be considerably more powerful as it would act like an actual disintegration dragon, flying around and breathing black, incinerating fire wherever it went. Perish Wheel was better against stronger enemies as it was just way more devastating, but the tree was better against a larger number of opponents that were weaker individually. Although Ares had to sacrifice the Bane every time he used it, if the tree could kill enough cultivators, Grim Cessation would give him all of his mana back... Theoretically, anyway. This time it didn't even manage to kill anyone as everyone actively avoided it other than the bird who was far stronger than it. Still, the value of Yggdrasil in large scale fights was astronomical. It's major downside was that it couldn't move, however, so Ares would have to be very specific with its usage.

Ares' breathing pattern gradually returned to normal as he sat up. His head was slowly rocking back and forth and he was almost seeing stars, but he was doing better and could at least walk now. There was still one more place he wanted to go, but it wouldn't result in a fight... Hopefully. Ares had had enough fun for the day and it was time to start taking it easy. One last stop, and then he would go home. Maybe cuddle with Appa a bit to soothe his aching head and then go to sleep hugging his wife. Sounds good. Ares perked up at the thought of the good times ahead and stretched.

"you..."

Hm? What was that noise just now? Am I imagining things in my delirium?

"Have..."

What the fuck?! Ares heard the voice clearer this time, almost like it was coming from behind him... Had someone found the Zone and snuck in? Was he in trouble? Ares forced his tired muscles to move as he sprung to his feet and turned around. A ghastly pale face was directly in front of his, close enough to touch foreheads. 

"MAIL..."

"FUCK!" Ares fell on his backside as Loris Lax tilted his head, slowly, in confusion. "You... You need to come with a damn warning bell! How did you even get in here anyway?!" Ares took a deep breath and waited for his beating heart to settle down. Turning around and coming face to face with almost pure black eyes and a sickly complexion made Ares believe for a split second that the grim reaper had come to take one of his infinite lives. 

"I... came... by... magic... The... owner's... treasure..."

"Right... Thank you for that wonderful explanation..." Ares looked at the item being delivered to him and recognised it as his pay for completing the contract. It was a sealed envelope with a burn mark on it which was the trademark signature of Hans'. It was unusual, though, because Ares usually never got paid for working for Hans; he typically did it for free.

Ares, having had his eyes trained on that general region, couldn't help but notice a ring on Loris' finger that hadn't been there before and, although he really didn't want to ask, he was curious. "Are you married now?"

"... Yes..."

Did this fucker just delay his first and only word?! Why am I even bothering with this slowpoke?! Ah but damn it, now I'm even more curious... "Uh, congratulations... Who to? That lady in the shop that was there when I signed up?" Ares was referring to the overzealous verbal speedster who'd probably downed a hundred coffees before her shift. What a dynamic duo those two would make.

"Peppy..."

Ares' eye twitched in anger. "Is that her name? Or is that just a description... Is it a pet name? Is it even the same woman?!" 

"Peppy... is... Peppy..."

Ares wanted to tear his hair out. "Yeah, I see." Ares couldn't be bothered to play word chains with this humanoid snail any longer so he just accepted things as they were and moved on. He still wanted to know but his sanity was on the line here. "Well, thanks for the delivery anyway..." Ares reached out with his hand and left his upturned palm in front of Loris.

…

…

…

You have to be shitting me. He doesn't just talk slow... HE MOVES THIS SLOW TOO?! Ares closed his eyes and took a deep breath expecting Loris to take forever but, when he felt something land on his palm, he opened his eyes only to realise he was on his own again. The letter was in his hand, so this hadn't been some kind of fever dream or an acid trip. Ares was starting to question whether Loris was just fucking with him and actually capable of functioning like a normal human when he wanted to. Ares shook his head and banished that thought from his head. He put the envelope in the Primordial Blade for later and left the Nightmare Zone, making sure to peep outside first and see if Lo and his lot had left the scene. Thankfully they had so Ares went back to the roof of the noodle shop and found Aejaz loafing around waiting for him. "Alright, let's get going."

"... You, err, gonna explain any of that?"

"Yeah, sure, but I'll do it on the way. Chop Chop."

Aejaz jumped to his feet and followed Ares off the roof. "Where are we going now? You look spent, shouldn't we just go home and do this other thing tomorrow?"

"Nope, I wanna get it over and done with. Fortunately, our last stop ought to be more of a relaxing one. You and I are going to pay a visit to the local auction house and do some bidding!"

"... Don't I basically do all of your bidding normally anyway?"

"Shut up minion. Forward march!" Ares' ignored his brother's pun and walked onward, ready to throw all his hard-earned moolah away like the spendthrift he was!