Chapter 286: Mini-Me

So this was clearly not normal... Sort of? There was a lesson revenants learnt, usually early on after a prank from their parents, regarding the functionality of Training Fields in relation to their revenant resurrection. Ares didn't know this, as he hadn't grown up alongside any other revenants, but it was something he was experiencing right now first hand. See, when a revenant died, the process that followed happened in two steps. First, their soul regressed in age, from whatever they currently were, down to zero. Then, their soul was flung off in a random direction with a random end destination set in stone. Wherever their soul landed, their body would regenerate as a baby and then whatever happened from there happened. If they were flung into a loving and caring household, good for them. If they landed in a lions' den... Well the result of that needn't be explained but it was something that happened from time to time and revenants had to be prepared for it. Of course, after getting eaten, they would just repeat the process over and over again until they got a safe landing point...

So what had happened here, exactly? Well, what a Training Field does, even if this wasn't really understood very well by the people who created them, was that it located the dead combatants soul, plucked it out of thin air, dragged it through the revival runes, and reversed time for their body to bring it back to the state it was in before they entered the Field. This way the soul could retain memories and experience from in the Field while the body would regenerate flawlessly and get its mana and general health back. It was similar for basically everything that entered the Field and these general rules were applicable in most cases, even usually to inanimate objects as their state was restored typically. Sometimes rare treasures or mythical creatures could complicate things but that wasn't relevant right now... Or, well, actually it kinda was because this was where revenants came in.

What happened here with Ares, in order, assuming the revenant regeneration rune wasn't in place to prevent this, was that the revenant would die, their soul would start regressing in age, and the Training Field would halt that regression part way through before throwing the soul through the resurrection runes. The body that was generated had to match the soul, unfortunately, so whatever age the revenant's soul was at when it was plucked out of the revenant process became the foundation for the body. You could put a soul in a body with a different age and it would be fine normally but a revenant's regeneration would affect the body so it complicated things. Long story short, you could put an old revenant soul in a young body but, due to the regeneration factor, you couldn't put a young soul in an old body without the body changing. Usually. Again, there were plenty of complicated complexities in the cultivation world but, if nothing else was understood, what was true right now was that Ares had regressed back to being a child. He was roughly six or seven years old right now, and, as far as lot of people in the crowd were concerned, was very cute. He had that heroic pomp in his aura but he still just a child and, thus, not to be taken seriously anymore. It was like a naturally endearing state and it very much made him adorable to the onlookers as it was like he was playing hero with the slightly oversized Zephyr cape.

Ah but how was this supposed to be fixed, exactly? And what happened to Ares' cultivation? Luckily the answer was simple, both his age and cultivation would come back shortly. The revenant regeneration would kick in and adjust the body to match the soul. Normally this wouldn't happen but, because the body the soul was in never actually died, it led to one of the many forementioned complications as the soul regression should never have taken place to begin with. As long as a revenant wasn't dead, their body would fix any and all problems that ailed it. Ares had never died here today, as dying in a Training Field wasn't real death, so his missing cultivation, age, and general strength would return in due time. Like normal regeneration, however, this would take time. Fortunately it was rarely a long process, and Ares could expect to be back to normal in about a month, but it didn't change the fact that, right now, he was a sitting duck. His cultivation base was literally non-existent, he couldn't use magic, and his childish body could not run or jump like it used to. If Ares tried using his prided footwork in this form he would trip over himself. His sad face would look like that of a sullen child's and nobody would take his complaints tp heart. That was all.

Again, to condense this situation to brass tacks, Ares would be a kid for the next month or so. It needed no further explanation, really, because the issues that presented themselves were pretty self-evident... If nothing else, he was going to be smothered by Calla, who'd done this to him so she could see mini Ares, constantly. It wasn't just that mini = cute for her, although that was very much true and she liked her cubs when they were tiny, but that she'd missed out on Ares' childhood and wanted to live through it even if only in this way. She was rocking side to side in her seat and giving it her all not to rush down into the arena and steal away her baby wolfy right now. Of course, Calla wasn't the only one who was enjoying this. Enyo was just as happy to see mini Ares and wanted to give him head pats while Bellona was more shocked if anything. After she got over the initial surprise, an evil smile appeared on her face that indicated she was clearly going to bully this child however possible. Appa was also floating around and, whilst definitely very much confused, wasn't opposed to the fact that Ares' size was now roughly the same as its... And then there was something very troubling brewing over by the revenant kin because a certain shota loving maniac was frothing at the mouth. Brave shota!

NO!

ABSOLUTELY NOT! 

Never mind the fact that Ares was already dating a half-sister, there were many, Many issues with this! He didn't have any feelings towards Venus, never would, and never wanted to. Plus he would grow out of this form quickly anyway and then she would go back to treating him like air. This was not love she was feeling, it was lust and entirely misplace to begin with! NO!... Ares was going to have to hide from this woman... Although that might even make her happy because then she'd get a 'hide and seek shota'... Was this woman Chen Prem's long lost cousin?! Ares swore he would avoid this woman's pursuit... Well he didn't actually swear to himself right now, he would do that a later date when he realised the problem, because he was too distracted by the change to comprehend anyone else's opinion on it. He still wasn't in the loop and didn't know why this happened either, as nobody had explained it to him, so he was incredibly lost at to why he was his old self again.

Ares was a little more clean now, and not a Chen slave, so he looked better... But he would much rather just be back to normal again! He did not miss having to go the extra mile just to whack someone! What if he needed to fight?! Mini Ares was a force to be reckoned with against mortals, sure, but what the hell was he supposed to do against a cultivator looking like this?! He could maybe take on someone in first realm cultivation if he had a weapon but anything more than that was stretching it. Plus he was a kid so even a single misstep, even a single attack that connected out of nowhere, and he was as good as toast! This wasn't like it was before, where he was pitted against other children in the Chen gladiator arena, these were real adults! He wasn't being whipped by the chens, these people were actually looking to kill him! Ares had made a number of enemies and a countless amount of jealous 'admirers' who wanted nothing more than to see him dead and steal from his corpse!... Annoyingly, he understood what this meant. He would be fine.. Provided he let Calla protect him... He had to invite the devil responsible for this whole mess into his house to look after him... He had no choice but to let her baby him however she wanted! Nightmare! She was totally going to put frilly clothes on him and take pictures and Ares knew it because that was precisely what he'd do to anyone else in his shoes! Damnable wolf! Ares was not going to have an easy time at home with everyone fawning over him...

In fact, forget about 'back home', it was already happening! Enyo had snuck over, picked up mini Ares, and put him on her lap as she sat down on the floor! Ares had no qualms with receiving head pats in such a fashion, and if Enyo was happy then he was too, but surely this was neither the time nor place for this!... Oh well, at the very least, Enyo did share a sufficient explanation of the situation via her memory share art so things had been cleared up for Ares who was now in the know... Though he didn't appreciate the number of people who were in on this rascally prank! Everyone had conspired against him! And it worked too all because Ares blew himself up! It's not even like he lost the fight and this was his punishment or anything, he did this to himself! That damn rune... He should have paid more attention to it and asked somebody about it. It was too late now though and so he was just going to have to put with this. Thankfully there was nothing important coming up so it wasn't like this was the end of the world or anything... Although he was going to have to go through the awards / closing ceremony looking like this. It was going to happen in about an hour so Ares could get it over and done with today and not have to worry about it in the future but, really, he didn't want to do it all looking like this! How was anyone supposed to take him seriously?! Every time he tried puffing up his chest a little to spread his majesty all he got were a bunch of older ladies going 'awwwww' in the crowd! Wrong response entirely! Plus the subsequent pouting at his failed attempt to impress only served to make things worse and it was never ending cycle... Was this what it was like to be Bellona? Ares thought she was cute, so he pestered her, and her reactions in turn were cute. An inescapable cycle that had now come back to bite Ares in the ass as the shoe was now comfortably on the other foot! Bellona was going to have a field day with mini Ares...

Although Ares and the rest of the team needed to go and wait back inside the waiting room the pathway there had been completely savaged by the art earlier and it was troublesome to access. Using magic to get over there was possible but Ares could feel Calla's stare on the back of his head and knew she wanted him to go and wait up there instead so she could give him hugs. Ares didn't really have much of a say here because he didn't have any cultivation whatsoever and couldn't even escape this arena without outside aid. He was fully at the whim of Enyo right now and had no choice but to get picked up and carried on her back like a good little kid. Enyo summoned multiple barriers. creating a path of the revival platform, and was about to walk away with Ares until Mako summoned a small bridge to cross the gap and and started coming over towards them. It seemed he wanted to say something but the mean mugging he was doing to Ares right now only made him look like the kind of person who bullied children... Enyo was glowering at Mako for spooking the child!... Ares sighed, he was being full on treated like a kid here.... With a shake of the head, Ares tried his best to ignore his current stature and communicate properly with the elf. "Can..." Ares had to pause to take in his higher pitched voice as it took him completely by surprise. It was only natural his voice would change too but he hadn't even considered such a thing and now everyone was looking at him with a laugh brewing... Such a mighty figure reduced to this?! Calla had really done Ares dirty here!

Ahem. 

Pfft

Even Ares attempt at coughing to break the ice came out sounding like a kid trying to act like an old man. This was embarrassing but Ares pressed on regardless! He couldn't be bothered by this as it was going to be happening for a month! It would get better over time, and his body would age beyond this childish form into that of a teenager's at some point, so for now he had to muster every ounce of acceptance in his body. With a deep breath, Ares tried again whilst ignoring the snickering from his own team behind him. "Can I help you?"

Mako's eye twitched as this was not the rival he wanted to go toe to toe with, exactly. Even just trying to verbally spar with this brat would make him come away the loser as his reputation would take an astronomical hit. "You... Oh whatever. look, I just want to say that there's some stuff I want to talk to you about later. I'm sure you already know what but don't go running off and escaping Red Sun to go on some stupid adventure before I come looking for you... Not that you could go anywhere looking like that right now... Tsk. you've won this time, I'll concede that, but don't think this is the end of it! I will give it as many attempts as I need to in order to dethrone you and take the proverbial crown. After I leave Red Sun I imagine I won't be seeing you again for some time As I already have plans in Vraizon. That can be discussed later though, right now I just wanted to congratulate you on your win. As it was against me, you can proudly declare it well earned... Although it was maybe a bit cheap summoning Astraeus... And blowing yourself up..."

"Oh boy, here come the excuses... I knew you would throw some out here and there at some point! You were doing so well up until then too!" Mini Ares chuckled with a high pitched laugh as he mocked Mako. The fact that Mako was being berated by a child only made him more mad than he would have been otherwise. He'd gotten accustomed to normal Ares' ribbing but something about being talked down to by some twerpy kid was rubbing him the wrong way! If any more insufferable words came out of this kid's mouth, Mako was going to scold him proper! "And besides, you wanna talk about cheap? What do you call summoning a clone of me, then?!"

Mako had had it! "You little shit! See if I don't..."

Sniffle

Ares pretended to be upset at Mako's yelling which earned the elf a barrier to the face from Enyo who was being oddly protective of mini Ares. Mako was dazed as the barrier had essentially bitch smacked him back to his senses and he had a bizarre level of clarity right now. Maybe it was the holy magic in the barriers which was good at resetting people's mental state? Maybe it was the pressure inside the barrier that flooded his mind? Either way, Mako looked at Ares, who was smugly grinning at him from behind Enyo, and shook his head side to side. "Half the size, twice the twerp. I have no idea why everyone else seems to be happy about this current state of you but I can tell it's only going to be infinitely worse for everyone you want to mess with. Having a child's impunity will only embolden you and I want nothing to do with it! I'll say it one more time and then take my leave, I will beat you at some point! Don't rest on your laurels or I'll swoop in when you least expect it. Anyway, that's all for now. I'll come and search for you in a couple of days... Also, please keep your wife away from me? She looks like an overprotective mother right now! Look, lady, I'm not going to attack your child! No more barriers!"

Mako's desperate pleas were being ignored and so he made the right decision to run away. Enyo was a scary woman when mad and, even if he could beat her in a fight, it didn't look like she'd go quietly. Hell there existed stories of parents who defied logic, improving their strength tenfold to save their children, so it wasn't entirely impossible for Mako to even lose to her right now. She was the next strongest of this generation currently, other than maybe Aejaz whom she was tied with roughly, so Mako did have to respect the woman. There were various rumours spreading through Red Sun that she was actually a degenerate deviant but, at the very least, when she meant business she meant serious business. Actually, now that mature and adult Ares was gone, Enyo would have no reason to bring out her sexual deviant side. She wasn't Venus so the thought hadn't even crossed her mind. It was better not to mess with this woman during the course of this month as her mind was no longer preoccupied with irrelevant nonsense. Red Sun criminals beware...

Anyway, Enyo carried her fake son away. Rather than go through the coliseum, she just summoned a barrier underneath the team as they stepped off the revival platform and lifted them all to the top floor. Upon arrival, Enyo felt mini Ares get snatched away at lightning pace and had to just acknowledge that she wasn't ever going to be able to keep him all to herself while Calla was around. Enyo wanted to play around with mini Ares as well but Calla was responsible for this prank, and had spent less time with Ares overall, so she had right of way here and Enyo wasn't going to fuss about it. A month was a long time anyway so if mini Ares thought he was escaping Enyo he had another thing coming! If anything, Ares should be grateful for Enyo and Calla because Bellona and Venus did not have the purest of intentions in their heads for him. For now at least, Ares was safe on Calla's lap... Although maybe he was suffocating a bit because the affection levels were off the charts right now. Calla's tail was shedding fur due to how fast it was spinning as she squealed and hugged her small cub. She was stroking his hair and rocking side to side, dragging him with her left and right and making him a little nauseous. Ares was going to have to just get used to this as he couldn't oppose the fluffy matriarch.

While Calla was grooming her cub, the C.O had gotten to work on the arena... This was going to take a long time to fix but, for now, they seemed like they wanted to create a temporary platform to hold the outer court's closing ceremony. They'd have to fix things properly for the other matches that were still yet to come, for the inner and core participants, but a small layer was good enough as long as nobody was going to break out into a fight for whatever reason. Only the finalists would be down in the arena but it wouldn't be the first time the two groups started going for each other's throats again even though they weren't supposed to. The C.O had to intervene in these spats every now and then but they were hoping with all their might it wouldn't happen this year. Mako and Ares seemed to be on good enough terms from an outsider's perspective but, sometimes, that was even worse! A friendly follow-up to the finalists' fight, born of standoffish banter, was just as common. The C.O was going to have to make it abundantly clear that fighting was a no go here otherwise everything would collapse! 

As for how the C.O were going to create the platform, wielders of the metal pillar were hired rather frequently by most large scale organisations in case any last minute stage creation was necessary. They could replace the foundations of buildings that were falling apart, create impromptu platforms, and were capable of creating sturdy huts that functioned as temporary abodes if needed in foreign lands where lodging was sparse. They were generally neat to have around and saw frequent use. You didn't want to be the company or organisation who skimped out on these types of background cultivators because when they came in handy they were irreplaceable. Still, going cheap and hiring earth pillar wielders instead, who were more common, was an option if you really didn't want to spend the stardust. Metal was more reliable for stuff like this though, and gave off the 'rich' impression that big shots had a soft spot for, so a group like the C.O went so far as to even have their own division of metal workers contracted and constantly at the ready. They were working their butts of right this very moment and creating a sort of scaffolding down in the pit so the platform they made later could stay in place without creaking or breaking... Provided nobody got scrappy on it. The platform would be able to take a Grand Annihilation or two but if things got hectic then everybody was going to start falling through the wrecked metal. It would be a long fall too as the pit in the arena was impressive, to say the least.

If Ares threw a Perish Wheel down to the very bottom of the pit, the tip of the explosion would be able to peek out through the hole, and make it about three quarters of the way up the coliseum, only then starting to taper off. To make matters worse regarding the hole, it had a sort of little cavern system running through it to boot. Astraeus had fixed the holes he made somewhat but there were still the occasional ones remaining that he hadn't been able to deal with because he just couldn't see them properly. Long story short, the C.O was going to have to hire some earth pillar wielders as well to fill in these gaps and sort out the arena. They might even have to delay the other matches for a day or two just to ascomata the entire fixing process. Sure it was annoying but, hey, they got a fantastic match out of it and that benefitted them. Even despite everything prior involving Lex, their reputation would go up overall thanks to the spectacular match as people would talk about it for a long time to come. The whole lex problem, and having to mend the arena, were both small prices to pay for hosting this event overall and they would no doubt be contacted to host other such events elsewhere. Ares taketh with one hand but giveth with the other...

Although right now both of Ares' hands were tied as Calla's arms were wrapped around his like a rope binding and preventing him from moving. He was being squashed but his mother was comfortable enough to let it slide. Calla lifted Ares' chin and checked around his face, giving small licks here and there to clean him up and make her baby cub spick and span so that his face shone under the sun. When he was adequately clean, Calla took out the camera and Ares' never ending photoshoot hell was about to begin. This photo would be the first of MANY and he was not going to be seeing much other than the lens of that camera for a good while... Oh well, if it made his mother happy then he would oblige. She'd done this all because she wanted to recreate the childhood she never got to witness or be a part of so he couldn't blame her as this was just who she was. She wouldn't be able to overlook or forget it if she didn't get some form of closure eventually and this was the solution that she'd come to in order to please herself. Maybe with this she would finally drop the remainder of whatever guilt she felt and just be happy without reserve. Not that she hadn't been joyful as of late anyway but that little sting in the back of her mind could finally be put to rest.

Snap.

Well, not before taking a few hundred pictures though... Calla had an entire album to fill, much like every other one of her children, so she was going to work overtime to make sure not a single page was empty. The only real struggle here was deciding what manner of pictures to take! Maybe she would take Ares around the planet and look for fun things to do with him every now and then like sitting him atop a mecha dryad and taking a picture!... It was a good thing Ares couldn't read minds right now otherwise he would be horrified! It needed to be reiterated... Mini Ares was not going to have an easy time dealing with these people in this form...