Chapter 255: Next on the Menu, Bellona

Where did the food go? That was what the trio's sad faces were conveying through their wordless exchange of bewildered looks at one another. Why wasn't there more? Did they need to order ten dishes next time they came here? Twenty? Thirty? Sure they were cultivators, and could eat truck loads of food if their heart so desired, but surely this was some kind of scam right? Like Remmy had learnt how to make food in a person's stomach disappear to keep them hungry and ordering more? Actually, an art of that despicably evil nature did exist but it was banned / illegal in most domains. There was a pretty hefty fine associated with the usage of it and, depending on how severe the infraction was, potentially even multiple thousands of years of starvation in solitary confinement as a harsher, but deserved, punishment.

"That was way too good to be true..." Bellona was staring dejectedly at her empty plate and Ares had to pat her on the shoulder to make her feel better about her devastating loss.

"That indeed was truly way too good." Ares nodded like a drunken wise sage as he laughed at his own stupid re-wording of Bellona's statement. Normally she would have rolled her eyes in response but being off her rocker, thanks to the wine, made her let out a small laugh as she nudged Ares in the arm with her body. "Aw man, now we need to choose desert... We're gonna be here forever..." Ares yawned a bit but still lazily reached for the menu even with his eyes half closed. He fumbled around a bit but did eventually manage to grab the slippery thing before bringing it in front of the other two. "Soooo, what are we eating?"

Enyo, easily the most drunk person here, slurred all her words as she wobbled side to side in her seat. "I wanna eat YOU!" With no prior warning, Enyo fell on top of Blo Blo and started sucking on her neck like a vampire. Bellona was weakened by the alcohol but still in good enough condition to push the blood sucker away. It required a good deal of force which only served to propel her backwards into Ares' loving arms who made sure to give the other side of her neck a small suck. Bellona was able to remove the leech on this side by whacking him with the menu and floundering back into her seat where she was being greedily eyed up by both her partners on either side.

"I want brownie!" Bellona figured the best way out of this conundrum, at least for now anyway, was to change the topic and bring their attention back to something that was actually edible, even if they both believed it wouldn't be quite as sweet as indulging in Bellona's flesh. Her distraction bid was successful as both of them fell in line and looked at the menu... Although they were both leaning on her shoulders right now but it didn't appear to be in a lewd way so Bellona was safe... Safe and incredibly warm! Alcohol, a small booth, two humans clinging to her like chimps on a branch... Yeah it was getting hot and heavy just not in the way Enyo liked it, more in the literal sense 'cos these people were heating her up and weighing her down! She almost preferred the nibbling and kissing...

"Hmmm... I want..." Ares gave it some deep thought but was still having a hard time choosing so Enyo actually beat him to the punch on this matter.

"Honeycomb!" Just because Enyo beat Ares to the punch, however, that didn't mean she said anything even remotely logically coherent. Sure Ares was in the booth, and you could argue her demand could be considered coherent with her wants, but it had come completely out of left field! Plus they were in a restaurant for crying out loud! Remmy would be so sad if she knew a customer wanted to eat their own desert over hers!

""No! Bad Enyo!"" The usual reprimand for the usual suspect was given out simultaneously by the other two people in the room so Enyo deflated onto Bellona's chest and grumbled a weak 'fine' under her breath. Ares stroked her hair and promised he would give her some honeycomb later which brightened up her mood considerably and allowed her to actually choose what she wanted for real this time without making any ridiculous suggestions.

"Eton mess then!" A respectable choice and one that was actually somewhat predictable. For some strange reason, Eton mess was a very popular desert back on the Legion home planet. Maybe it's because the predominant colour was white, due to the meringue, and so that aesthetic meshed well with the surroundings? That was the original myth that was floating around to this day but there was no concrete evidence to support it, just anecdotal stories here and there. Regardless, it wasn't uncommon to find Eton mess on just about any and every menu wherever you went. Even some food stalls located near churches and military blocks gave away small cups of the stuff regularly. It was to the point it could almost be considered a national foodstuff. Well technically it was a Legion planet, so planetwide and not national, but that just made it even more impressive that such a random desert had become so popular. Apparently the founder of the legions had a particular soft spot for it too and that might have also contributed to its predominance in Legion society.

As for Enyo, she'd only had it once before but really loved it. Unfortunately Major had done the whole, 'you should abandon worldly pleasures' thing and encouraged her to become robotic through and through. No games, no deserts, no leisure activities, no talking to boys, don't be overly friendly with anyone including your own family, and spend all your free time training. As such, the Eton mess was a one time thing that she had almost completely forgotten about up until she spied it on the menu. This was one of the few choices she was confident in making tonight and had come to that conclusion even before the young master had shown up. Of course that didn't stop her from trying her luck with the preferential honeycomb but this was a clear second place on her list! Also, what this meant was that the sisters had made their choices long before Ares! The hypocrite had been internally preaching about the virtues of rapidity and snap decision making and yet, here he was, unable to make up his own mind! Ha! The two wives didn't need Ares to say his thoughts out loud previously as they knew what he was thinking about their indecisiveness down to a tee so it was incredibly satisfying to watch him squirm uncomfortably as they smiled in his direction, not so subtly applying a pressure to him that he very well deserved right about now! Of course he hadn't been staring at them like this but a crime was a crime and this was his punishment! Not that two lovely, occasionally, drunk ladies staring at him was really the end of the world... Their stares were rather piercing though... Enough to act like a non-physical boot up the ass and speed along his own decision making process.

Part of the reason Ares had dwelled on this matter so long was because he was trying to figure out what would go well with his coffee... Maybe he was being too specific and hamstringing himself? Ares decided to just wing it and pick the first thing that he saw when he looked down at the menu. "Vanilla cheesecake it is then." Before Ares could even put the menu down, Enyo gave him a thumbs up and commended his choice... Was it because it was white?! Seriously!? Actually?! Were all Legions just obsessed with the colour?!... On the subject, maybe Appa would like it too? What was up with these colour driven food fanatics?! Not that Ares was one to talk, he'd been leaning more towards some sticky toffee pudding with custard as that was a golden overload... He really had to restrain himself to not pick it so he wasn't in any position to criticise the Legions here! Ares opened up the booth door and he was quick to spot Gavel returning to the dining area from the kitchen. She spied Ares' mug and nodded to indicate she'd seen him and was on her way over.

Gavel entered the booth and let out an aww as the trio were all huddled together liked some kind of sea anemone. They'd morphed into a three headed hydra and were roughly as powerful as one if you combined their strengths together. Gavel had heard some stories here and there from gossip-monger locals about all three individuals here at some point. Ares was Ares, Bellona had left her mark during the regionals with her Meteor, and Enyo had given a strong showing in the coliseum during the start of the international. All in all, these three were some of the most powerful cultivators in Red Sun and arguably soon to be sitting at the top of the food chain given enough time. It was almost hard to be believe a bunch of drunken teens were the future of this region but, well, there they were, blotto and craving sweets. It definitely wasn't normal seeing prodigal cultivators act like this as they'd sooner be in a cultivation room than a mortal restaurant but not much was normal about any of these people anyway. Ah but that's not to say expert cultivators never visited restaurant's. Some valued the taste, sometimes cultivator run restaurants could provide benefits via magic, and there were even places that could permit cultivation while eating. A cultivation boosting meal, inside a lavish cultivation room, was very much a worthwhile opportunity if it could be afforded. This was a common thing in the outside world but obviously the Primordial barrier had complicated the advancement of society within it. There were other domains equally as low in the proverbial ladder as Sheryashka but they were far more advanced in terms of just about anything and everything civilisational. Magic engineering, technicals for day to day convenience, fashion, technology, food, education and cultivation upbringing, and various other matters to do with clansmen-ship and sect establishment. It was a whole new world but Ares was going to have wait a long while to see it.

Putting that aside, the trio ordered their desserts but the wives had to side eye Ares when he asked for his coffee. Just as how they'd snuck the quiche in, this sneaky bastard was throwing his own hat into the extras ring! Seeing that the sisters felt somewhat chagrined about Ares' dirty hidden ace up his sleeve, Gavel offered the sisters their own special drinks which she felt would go well with their deserts. Enyo was getting a fresh and fruity cocktail, that would presumably go well with the Eton mess, and Bellona was getting a caramel milkshake. Apparently Remmy love having the brownie with the caramel milkshake as she would frequently dip the choco desert in the drink and that was supposedly the best way to have it. Only regulars who experimented had found this 'secret menu' sort of combination but it was one of the best things available for sale here. Bellona seemed exited to try it so she was particularly happy with the night so far. Good food, good company, good cute elf to give head pats to, and a good cleaver! Why that last part was even tacked on there at the end was anybody's guess but she seemed happy enough to have it so good for her. The only other thing she would have liked, to make this evening perfect, was a chance to get a bit scrappy herself.

Bellona really hadn't fought anybody in a while, save for one exception, and that was no good for her bundled up energy that was just sitting around inside her with no place or target to be vented at. Bellona did enjoy combat, more than Enyo but less than Ares, and had some fun with it every now and then. It was why she asked Ares to have her tag along whenever he went around picking fights like with the Dirk situation. It's just that Ares hadn't really been doing anything of the sort lately what with the final match of the tournament being right around the corner. He'd gotten dragged into the assassination thing but that wasn't really something Bellona could contribute to. She was strong, yes, but not strong enough to contend with multiple transition realm cultivators. As she was, she could probably take one on head to head, maybe even two depending on how well she fought, but the incident in question was way too much for her to butt into. The most Bellona could do was practice inside the Training Fields that were set up by Sadie every now and then for the international lot's training. She wasn't part of the team but Sadie had expanded the circle of people she was training with to include all the Legion lot as well as anyone from the Umbras who wanted to join.

The training sessions had become pretty crowded as of late but that was a good thing for getting in experience against different fighting styles. Sadie trained with everyone but she also frequently pit the trainees against each other in dynamic pairings that tested their adaptability. Bellona had shown up to a couple of these events and mostly dominated everybody else. The closest fight she had was against Scar but her strength wasn't lacking compared to his and so it became an epic fist-throwing duel wherein neither combatant used magic for some strange reason. It was astonishing that, even without doubling her strength or halving Scar's, she was able to keep up with him. Scar's brick-like body won out in the end but it was extremely close. Had Bellona used even a speck of measurement manipulation magic she would have wiped the floor with him so she was definitely stronger overall, and by a large margin, but in terms of raw strength the monk had her beat which was fair enough. Bellona had trained her body to make up for her seemingly deficient magic back when she was young but she'd never gone as hard on her training regime as Scar went on his. He was a walking bundle of muscle mass and had done a great job of honing his physique and experimenting with body tempering over the many years he'd lived for. He'd lived longer than any of the Legion kin or even the Umbra kin so his body had been put through the ringer far longer than most people had even been training for. Had he not taken a fine grind blue himself a couple years back, he would have lost to Bellona which said a lot about both her overall strength and the quality of her fine grind blue and what it had done for her in the muscle department.

After Gavel left, the trio had room for idle chit chat but it ended up just turning into a Bellona grope session and there was no worming her way out of it. The two leeches were back and pestering her more than ever and she just kinda had to sit there and take it. Not that she was really against it, the drinks from earlier had lowered her inhibitions, as was predicted long ago, and so she was feeling in the mood. It would be hard not to with all the pestering she was receiving. In particular Enyo was using her pleasure pillar magic to be a pest and rile everyone up. This woman was seriously deadly in enclosed spaces... Of course another part of the problem was Ares on the other side preventing her escape with his rugged arms clinging to her waist and keeping her tied down. With his shirt somewhat rolled up, Bellona could feel his unclothed, warm arms as she rested her own over his. Funnily enough, she'd touched his member more than she'd touched his unclothed flesh in any other spot. Excluding kissing, she hadn't really touched his back or his shoulders or anything which was strange now that she thought about it. If she was stuck in this situation regardless then she might as well get the most out of it so she joined in on the fun and got a bit frisky herself.

Ares wasn't the only person in the firing line of Blo Blo's revenge, however, as she was pretty indiscriminate with her hands as they just sort of touched whatever was nearest to them. Enyo's soft mounds were a pretty large target so Bellona went after them and pretty much shut Ares out of the 'conversation' entirely. He just sat there, stunned, as Bellona bullied Enyo in the corner. Was it hot? Yes, very. Did he wish he was involved? Also yes! Ah whatever, he had more than enough fun with them every other day so they could play around with each other here for a bit. It's not like he wouldn't be having his own fun later so he could wait patiently... Hard though it was to not be tempted by the occasional moan coming from right beside him. He was feeling a bit like a third wheel here! That was just Enyo in a nutshell though. She either commanded all the other wives to lay down in front of her or she inspired them, with her voluptuous body, to lay her down instead. It wasn't surprising she could rile up the lust of other women, she was just that beautiful. If Enyo directed her attention and skills to a woman, they didn't really stand much of a chance just like how Ares had trouble refusing her from time to time as well. Hell he was used to her advances, so could occasionally manage a timely escape, but what chance did an unexperienced Bellona have? Not much. not much at all.

Enyo seemed to be very happy getting pounced on in the corner, though, and didn't much care that she was not the one in charge. Pushing down a woman she wanted and toying with her, or vice versa, were both acceptable outcomes to this lewd woman! Bellona's hands were actually rougher than Ares' so her grip on her bosom was especially scintillating and she had to bite her lip which only served to rile up Bellona even more who went straight for her mouth. They were really going at it over there... Man Ares was jealous! Thankfully he didn't have to watch on for too long as Gavel interrupted everything by coughing to herself after opening the door to the booth without alerting everyone. It wasn't that she'd been quiet per se, just that the make out session had been pretty engrossing fore everyone in the booth and so they failed to notice her arrive with her trolley of deserts and drinks. It's safe to say Gavel was incredibly shocked at the sort of relation Enyo and Bellona had but she just pat Ares on the shoulder again and called him a lucky dog. She muttered something about him having been some kind of saviour of the world in a previous life to deserve this kind of luck before leaving the 'passionate' and 'feisty' youth to play around to their heart's content. Not that they would go back to doing that here. After desert they would just return home and do this stuff in private and in comfort on the bed. Really, they shouldn't have been doing it here at all. People got up to all sorts of freaky foreplay in booths but not usually in restaurants, that was going a little too far. Evidently the alcohol strategy had been a tad bit too effective and was making the trio act up a bit in public. Still, if there was anything capable of sobering them up it would be the deserts!

Ares sipped his wondrous coffee and put it back on the table, ready to start eating his cheesecake, but he noticed his coffee cup disappear out the corner of his eye. He looked over and it had moved an oddly specific distance away from him and towards Blo Blo... He looked away for a split second and then looked back to find the distance between the coffee and Blo Blo having shrunk by roughly half yet again... Ares narrowed his eyes at the whistling Blo Blo before looking at his cheesecake one final time and turning his head back around just in time to see her sipping on his cuppa! Well technically a 'cuppa' was supposed to be used in reference to tea but it was interchangeable with coffee to an extent... But that wasn't the issue right now! The bigger problem was that this sly woman had stolen his drink from right under his nose and was enjoying it too! This was exactly what Ares had wanted to avoid, the worst possible scenario, the infamous 'sip' that all but obliterated one too many a drink throughout the cosmos. Worse still, as she was wholeheartedly enjoying the taste, Enyo also seemed to want in on the coffee 'sipping' action so Ares' drink was basically long gone at this point. He wasn't going to take it lying down, however, as all this meant was that he was going to get some of their drink down his throat in return! If you can't beat 'em join 'em! And thus the rest of the night was all but laid out in front of them. Enjoy the drinks and the deserts, go home and have some adult fun at their own leisure, and go to sleep with a massive hangover waiting in the wings for them which, thankfully, Enyo was capable of removing. That art was seriously a great thing to have tucked away in your back pocket, it made it so much easier to just discard any reservations you might have about getting full on drunk with reckless abandon. The health detriments of drinking alcohol were minor to a cultivator and the hangover was really the only threat that was substantial so an art that could remove it, and even convert it into a passive benefit, was perfect in every way. What most cultivators truly feared about a hangover wasn't the headache or anything, it was being in a sorry state that left you vulnerable to ambush. It was far riskier to be attacked the morning after a heavy night of drinking rather than during it and many had been murdered by patient assassins who waited the few extra hours until their targets groggily awoke with a thumping pain in their head. Though pleasure pillar arts might not have seemed as useful as regular ones, they had oddly specific benefits that were extremely valuable in their own right whenever they were actually relevant. Point in case, a lot of richer cultivators, nobles and the like, would hire pleasure pillar cultivators specifically to fill the role of hangover removal in the morning. Their entire job was to wait nearby, outside the door, and come to their client's aid in the morning, that was literally it, and yet they were paid exorbitantly for their work. Although, knowing Enyo, she was undoubtedly going to find a way to use the pillar more aggressively. The pleasure pillar being so passive was definitely not her style so God only knows how she'd develop it to her liking. That was in the future, however, as right now she was just sipping away on Ares' coffee with a smile on her face that indicated she wasn't going to be putting it down any time soon... Thief!