Chapter 352: Heart Attack

Finally the golden magic faded away and it was time for Ares the Scylla Killa to strut his stuff! He did have to stop for a minute and take in the raw destruction he'd wreaked, however, because the scale of it was artful. Well to Ares at least, there was definitely something psychopathic about his fondness for explosions and the result of them as it wasn't the most normal of hobbies ever. For almost everyone else it was a ghastly sight that struck fear into even the calmest of individuals. Shock and awe as well as fear and reverence. It was hard not to be swamped with all four feelings simultaneously when looking at the results, let alone the explosion itself. A sort of reverse bowl had formed in which water was simply refusing the enter. The water pillar mana flowing freely through the ocean was scarred and refused to budged when it came to going near the remnants of destruction. It was treating the ancient destruction mana like a hot stove and it was refusing to get burnt again so a massive 'u' shaped crater had somehow formed in the middle of a body of water without getting immediately filled up.

This crater went all the way down to what had previously been the completely submerged depths and there were all sorts of dead, hideous fish that had been blown to smithereens strewn around at the base. There were also many piles of dead monsters with body parts randomly thrown about so it kind of looked like a huntsman's dumping grounds. Hunter, however, was not responsible for this and never could be because the amount of sheer magical power needed to pull off something like this was off the charts. Hell you could create a second chart above the first and it would be off that one too at this point. There was now a hole in the ocean that would stay here for years until every single last ounce of lingering destruction mana disappeared for good. Sailors were going to have to avoid this oceanic pothole lest they fall in and get marooned in a rather bizarre location. As only select people could fly in Sheryashka, as they had to be in the transition realm as well as learn how to use the fly art to begin with, landing down there would be a death sentence for basically everyone in this domain and even then that was only if the extreme fall didn't do them in first.

Ares had very much just indirectly created both an incredibly deadly obstacle as well as a miraculous wonder of Sheryashka. This mark he left wasn't permanent but it was absolutely a present the next generation of cultivator might happen across. If there were any brave souls with perfect tools and incredible luck they could maybe go down there in ten years and find some kind of rare destruction plant, or something along those lines, that had grown under harsh circumstances and get rich off it or use it to become a better cultivator. It was a mark he'd left as part of his legacy but it was crazy to already be capable of doing that as most experts had to cultivate for hundreds of years to be in a position to leave behind a stain on history, let alone an object, resource, artifact, or treasure anyone else would even care about. Ares' cultivation journey hadn't been going for longer than even really ten years at this point, and that was also counting him cultivating in back alleys and not actually going on any kind of adventure to earn improvements for his body, mind, and magic, and there was already an entire magical crater with his name on it.

If some kind of plant really did spawn down there in the pit then auction houses would be telling people of his name and the legends he left behind in the international as well as everything else he did down here in Sheryashka before leaving. Again, Ares really didn't care for fame or anything but it did feel nice knowing he'd been immortalised in his home domain already just off of this. Sure the international was one thing but this felt more personal because he'd literally altered a location in this domain with his own power and basically made it his own. He could freely enter and leave that pit but nobody else could without the support of some kind of treasure, realistically... Ares stared down into the pit and heaved a sigh. He was deliberating on leaving something behind as a token for explorers to enjoy if they were brave enough but he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to do it or not...

The Black Ice Bane, though it hadn't been with him for long, already felt nostalgic. He could use the Cold Caller rune in Xasca... but Aejaz still had his Acrimony and that could also do it in this thing's stead... Should he toss this down there and make this thing a pop-up mini legacy dungeon? Monster fish would inevitably start swimming over to see what the fuss would be about so people who went down would have to fight and for what? Just a plant that may or may not even actually exist? If Ares fiddled with the Bane for a bit, he could make it so that anyone who wielded it could access the Crystalised arts, making exploration of this pit worth it... But what if it ended up in the wrong hands? The crystalised arts were powerful, after all, and so a potential second Torchbearer, after Ares dealt with the first, could spawn off the back of his carelessness and put Sheryashka in a tight bind... But what if it kickstarted some unassuming kids journey to becoming a legendary cultivator as they kept the Bane close and kept upgrading the artifact for thousands of years as they reached incredible cultivation heights? The thought of it tingled Ares to his core for reasons he couldn't quite explain so, in the end, he decided it was finally time to say goodbye to the Bane and begun altering its permissions so that anyone could tap into the Crystalised Void magic... Maybe someday he'd get lucky and see it again in the hands of a new owner, one who wouldn't abandon it like he already had. It was of good craftmanship and deserved better than to just be sitting around in his Primordial Blade until the end of time getting dusty and rusty. Ares pulled it out, pointed the tip downward, and imbued it with some pressure and dropped it. The pressure would make it harder to lift out of the floor it was buried in because Ares was feeling mischievous. He didn't overload it with pressure, because he actually wanted someone in Sheryashka to be able to earn the thing one day, but there was enough there to give a challenger a worthy fight and complicate the acquiring of this weapon somewhat! he was throwing in a little spice.

The Bane fell straight down and Ares could just about see it lodge into the wet ground beneath him with his Omniscience. A few people on the Federation had seen him do this so word would spread pretty fast that something that belonged to Ares was down there. People might die trying to find it but that was their problem and Ares was not responsible! It's not like he made a death-trap intentionally or anything, he hadn't loaded the pit with Shock Beads like a cruel bastard (even though the thought did cross his mind multiple times), and he didn't push anyone in or anything, he was just taking advantage of something he'd done very accidentally! It was up to the individual whether they thought their lives were worth risking for it and nothing in the cultivation world was ever supposed to come easy. At least nothing good anyway... Unless you were a fundamental champion then things occasionally did just fall in your lap, like the Converter for instance!

Anyway, one sentimental wave later and Ares was done with that small side errand. He had bigger, MUCH bigger fish to fry. Thankfully the Scylla, and the few monsters that survived, were still shell shocked by the meteors so they hadn't interrupted his farewell with his first ever truly personal weapon. Now that Ares was facing their direction, however, it was go time and the war resumed post-haste! The monsters all took off and swam around the pit to go pester the Federation while hoping that Ares didn't take too much of an interest in them. He was obviously going to blow some up them up, even if not necessarily intentionally because that was just how large scale explosions worked, but the monsters were hoping they would be the lucky ones that escaped his notice! One monster in particular even let loose a toothy grin the second he swam right past Ares because he thought he was finally in the home stretch. It was a monster that was particularly proud of its ability to climb Geordie's Run Aground because it was a bit of a veteran in that regard. It was a large, cartoonish fish with webbed feet coming out from the top half of its rugby ball shaped body. It looked extremely silly but in a horrifying kid of way with goofy, oversized-proportions, like the kind of character in a dark film that would constantly smile as it hovered over the back of your head and bit it off when you weren't looking. As for how it could climb so well, it had suction pads on its webbed feet so, in years prior, it had taken part in multiple assaults on the Federation and made it up their every single time it tried. He was rank and file, yes, but he was damn good at it and could be considered a captain of sorts in his own right. He was a competent fighter too so he'd gotten up to the federation, killed a good few tens of soldiers, and managed to escape safely over and over again. It would repeat the process with hit and run tactics and fill its belly with the heads of its brutalised foes so, now that it had gotten the unofficial go ahead from Ares, who was too busy to intentionally stop it, it was planning on going wild!

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And now it was dead! Ironically, it had died to destruction magic no less! Just when he thought he was clear of Ares, and thus destruction magic as a whole, Aejaz had swooped in and dealt the death blow! Well technically it wasn't Aejaz himself, his hands were clean, but the cannon he was affectionately hugging with a broad smile? That thing had blood on its hands. Aejaz was totally stealing that cannon and nobody was going to stop him come hell or high water. It was understandable he'd want it as his ability to copy various affiliations meant this tool was actually rather solid. Ranged magic of near enough whatever type he wanted? It could pack an offensive punch or be more utility oriented so, even though this thing wasn't a treasure, it would allow Aejaz to fling magic at people from extremely far away which was something that not many cultivators could do without specific arts. The cannon was a simple but mighty weapon! The real issue was carrying it around everywhere but spatial rings sort of solved that issue to some degree.

As for Aejaz using a cannon, actually, the more Ares thought about it, the better the idea became... The Stalker! The binoculars that could lock onto people! If the guy tracking you through walls had a cannon to blast magic at you with from over a hundred feet away... Was this Aejaz' version of artillery theory? Bombardment based assassinations were going to be added to his repertoire now? Of course Aejaz wouldn't always have access to Ares' magic but that was really just the occasional cherry on the cake and so he could be happy with what he had. As for the cannonball made of annihilation he just fired... That thing seriously utterly obliterated that cocky monster and then some. It was like a bundle of multiple turbo charged C4s had been strapped to each other. Throw in how it travelled as fast as a rocket with another rocket up its ass and that was a deadly attack Aejaz had just launched. All of Aejaz' depression from failing everything up until now was wiped away alongside that monster grinning like a Cheshire cat so good for him. He had a new toy and could play around with it to his heart's content now that Ares wasn't obstructing literally everyone from fighting the war. There weren't that many targets left, at least compared to before Ares took action, but with annihilation cannonballs at his disposal it was already a foregone conclusion that Aejaz' kill count was going to be leagues higher than anyone else's, not including Ares obviously, no matter how good their aim was. Aejaz honestly didn't even really have to aim properly because even landing one of those balls withing fifteen or so feet of a monster would still kill it quite thoroughly and with room to spare.

While a cannon bombardment begun behind Ares, as the Federation had finally begun firing at the now-active monsters, he took to the skies with Voidwalk and turned to face the Scylla who responded in kind and stared him down too. Where to go from here? That seemed to be the question on both their minds because neither of them really had a solution to the other person. Ares could overpower any magic the Scylla used and the Scylla would never manage to hit Ares with the glaives because he was too tiny and fast. Ares, on the other hand, could not destroy the Scylla! Even if he directed that meteor attack straight at the Scylla it was an art that was too spread out to be useful against a single, giant foe like this. Unless he got lucky, and three quarters of the meteors landed directly on this things head without it blocking any, it would be able to walk away from the art in one piece. He could use it anyway to soften the thing up but there weren't as many monsters nearby as before so his mana recovery wasn't guaranteed thanks to Cessation and wasting it all like this was foolish. He wanted to kill this thing and using up everything he had for an attack that just wasn't going to cut it was pointless.

The more Ares thought about it, the more it kept coming back full circle to that one art he'd been toying around with in his head. Really, it really shouldn't have even been that difficult to pull off because, like the Subjugation, it's foundation was from an art that already existed. He'd mainly struggled because he didn't have the Converter during previous attempts but, now that he had it, he could probably pull it off? Maybe? He was hesitant to try partially because it drained a lot of mana but, also, primarily, there was potential for things to go horribly wrong and he might actually destroy the Federation if he wasn't careful. This was a POWERFUL art he was playing around with in his head here. The base art was Perish Wheel and that thing was already at the top of his strength charts, so long as you ignored No fear anyway but that art was somewhat of an outlier, and not something Ares could use regularly anyway, so it really didn't count for discussions such as this one. If the new art failed for whatever reason and detonated in his hands as was trying to mould it... The magic wouldn't directly kill anyone, other than Scylla, because of his anti friendly fire adaptation but the Federation would go bye bye without a doubt and countless would drown because there was no way Ares could save everyone.

They were in the middle of the ocean so losing every single boat available was just not going to end well no matter what precautionary measures Ares concocted in his head. Maybe Garmr could pull off some whacky crap and forge a path by parting the ocean with sheer force of will while everyone followed along obediently behind him but, despite what it looked like sometimes, there were, currently, limits to what Garmr could feasibly do. constantly swatting aside an entire ocean for miles on end to save a conga line of humans behind him was an amusing thought but not one Ares was sure he could actually reasonably do... Although, to be fair, the biggest constraint in that hypothetical scenario was actually the time limit on the Canis Stimulant... How ridiculous it was that the act of splitting the ocean with effortless waves of his hand was possible, it's just that everyone running after him would be too slow to make it out from here to land within five minutes... It would fail but not even because of him! Garmr was just completely non-sensical to the point where he could only fail if everyone else brought him down... And even then this would be something Garmr could pull off if Ares had the actual, bloodline awakening transformation available as that would last forever...

Ah fuck it. Ares threw caution to the wind and decided to just start blasting this Scylla for now. It's not like he couldn't try his new art later if he wanted to. For now it was wise to at least see if his destruction magic, mainly his disintegration, could inflict any kind of wound on this thing. It seemed the Scylla had also come to the same, 'might as well throw things at my opponent and see what sticks', approach and was preparing its glaives and some smaller magics. This was going to be a wet noodle fight for a while but screw it! Progress was progress! Ares directed his Omniscience over to the Scylla, so he could tell what it was doing ahead of time, and was a little surprised, actually, because it did seem to have an option up its sleeve! Why was it reluctant to use this? As far as Ares could tell, this was a fire pillar art that could summon a clone of itself. There was some dodginess here in fully assessing the situation, probably because this Scylla had a unique aspect of some kind as its demon fire was very distinct, and so Ares couldn't figure out the art 100%... But this was definitely going to spawn a small clone! One that could fight Ares properly... So, again, why did it delay in summoning this? Ares only had to ponder on the issue for a few seconds, however, before the art started to take shape and he understood why. Actually, what the Scylla was doing here was ballsy and risky because the fire clone... Was its heart! Its heart was floating out of its chest and being forged in the fire into a smaller version of itself. There were now two Scyllas, one large and one tiny, and the giant body could fight alongside its own heart! Plus this meant the clone's efficiency in combat wouldn't be diminished because, no doubt, the Scylla had direct control over it instead of it being an automated puppet. This was a clever art but also so very dangerous to use because if this clone lost to Ares it was all over for the Scylla then and there. It must have really viewed Ares as a massive threat to its life to go this far but it was right to do so. Ares did have the means to kill it so it really did have to take measures as desperate as this to even stand a chance. It couldn't let Ares run amok freely otherwise he would do irreparable damage and, at that point, the heart might as well come out and fight too.

The clone was fully formed and about twice the size of Ares as it hovered in the air in front of him with two miniature, compared to the ones the real Scylla was holding anyway, glaives in its hands. Small smoky embers drifted off its body and it kind of reminded Ares of his own Black Blossom which he promptly activated on his scythe after pulling it out of the Primordial Blade. These Scylla embers had a much more sinister feel to them, in contrast with the disintegration petals which felt more wild and untamed than specifically evil, and now he was starting to wonder if this Scylla had originally been a denizen of hell? It would sure as... Hell... Explain a lot of this creature's magic as summoning demon fish monsters and demon fire out of thin air was a questionable ability for anyone not actually affiliated with hell to possess. Ares was really going to have to ask Dominus about this thing later but, for now, it was time to clash steel with one another. Ares was curious about the level of this thing's weapon mastery so, before the large body behind it could take action, Ares tested the clone by dashing through the air and launching a series of incredibly basic but efficient attacks with his scythe. There was nothing tricky about these attacks but there was no wasted movement and it was the kind of assault that would be impossible for a weapon wielder with poor fundamentals to overcome. Doing this allowed Ares to play the fight safe, to start with, and get a feel for where his opponent was at, gauging the Scylla's skill, before he ramped up the aggression. This was a wise move because no matter how he struck at the thing it seemed to be ready for any and all variances in the pattern Ares threw at him. Up high, down low, a rising, diagonal angled slash trying to clip its feet... Nothing worked or even remotely phased the Scylla so it was definitely respectably talented. It was a good thing Ares didn't blindly rush into the fight and try to overpowered it by going all in as there was a good chance it would have backfired.

Something did feel strange about this Scylla's movements, though, and there was absolutely a familiar feeling in Ares' brain which, combined with the fact that Dominus knew this monster... Well, Ares was starting to paint a picture of sorts... Did this fucker revenant actually go around teaching literally anything with a pulse?! Ares didn't know why this thing was only at the peak of transition if it belonged to a higher realm, what it was doing here as opposed to presumably being back in hell, why he couldn't understand it, or what this Sevorus guy had done in general, but what he did know was that this Scylla had been definitely been taught by Dominus for at least a little while at some point. The more Ares played their last interactions back in his head the more he could see Dominus' influence in the monster's moves. The speed at which the glaives were repositioned to deflect incoming strikes, the smoothness of the curves the glaives took to end up in the exact position they needed to be in, and the freedom to not be bound by conventional expectations when creating an impromptu plan for both offense and defence. All of it screamed Dominus as his combat style was identifiable at a glance for someone like Ares who had the damn guy's teachings engraved into his brain and couldn't get rid of them even if he wanted to. Ares had the mistaken assumption that this Scylla would be easy to beat in this form corrected rather quickly and, worse still, now the large body was also taking action. Ares' attention was diverted, as he was still working on that experimental art in the background, so this was inevitably going to be a bit rough but he still wanted to persevere and come out on top! it was Dominus student vs Dominus student, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. The Scylla had lived longer with Dominus' teachings but seemed oddly weak for some reason whereas Ares was fully ready to go, thanks to annihilation enhancement and the Converter, but his scythe mastery was still in the beginner stages, compared to experts in higher domains, due to his shorter life span. Ares magic and the Scylla's body would even the fight out and so Ares' original prediction, that this wouldn't really go anywhere, was looking more and more true by the minute. Still, a good fight was worth it for practice's sake so Ares held nothing back and decided to go all out against this troublesome foe!