Chapter 396: Please Break Free From the Stranglehold and Sign on the Dotted Line

...

"What the fuck..."

'Is that?' was the logical follow-up to the start of that quietly mumbled sentence but the rest of the words never left Juggernaut's mouth because now it was her turn to sit there with a dropped jaw. Ares had been taken aback when this woman flipped a dragon with her bare hands but now it was time to reverse the roles... Although really the two different feats were pretty incomparable and Ares' blew hers out the water by a wide margin. There were no records for such a thing but there was undeniably no chance anyone at sensory enhancement had ever launched a greater attack than the one quite literally dwarfing the sun right now. The brightness in the desert had been dialed up several notches because the golden explosion was more blinding than the sun cowering behind it, not daring to show its face in embarrassment. It was thoroughly outclassed and, perhaps, even less deadly. There was a genuine question to be asked about whether the sun crashing into Sheryashka would be more or less damaging than this art Ares had launched and it wasn't looking good for the sun... The planet had a good chunk of mana welling within it so it would be able to resist the sun to some degree but it completely folded before the might of this awe-inspiring attack.

The golden pillar was shooting up into Vraizon again but any keen observers would notice its max height actually decreasing over time. This was because the base of the art was drilling down through the desert and creating a massive pit just like it had done back in the ocean. The ground was literally unable to exist beneath this art without it collapsing and giving up on life, giving way to the sheer vastness of the energy pressuring it to fade away into nothingness. The golden wall on the horizon was dazzling and splendorous like all the riches buried in each and every tomb in Xasca had been repurposed to build it from scratch. This art was a thing of beauty and almost looked like a barrier that would last forever, holding back the tide of western monsters even if they all collectively attempted to break through it. If this art actually lasted forever Ares wouldn't need to hunt the west monsters because they would be incapable of passing this impromptu wall. They would have to circle all the way around the entire desert just to reach the central path ever again... Of course the art didn't extend forever, and there would be gaps, but if he casted this once or twice more he could lock off an entire third of the country permanently. Not just to the monsters either, even Juggernaut herself couldn't brave that particular magic and would explode on the spot. She could feel the abundance of energy from here and knew that it would wipe her out of existence if she dared to even walk near that beautiful disaster.

It was inestimable how many monsters had been killed by that art and the list of things Ares had to hunt had definitely decreased as a result of this stunt. The desert over there would never be the same ever again, and would bear the scars gifted to it by Ares for all eternity, so it actually might be dangerous for even the western monsters after the Armillary explosion disappeared. If there was a massive canyon over there now then falling in would be a death sentence for any monster that couldn't fly. Actually, life of an entirely different kind might start to form its own ecosystem down there and become an entirely unique area of its own. Ares might have just created an inhabitable biome from scratch with an art which was a hilarious thought that could only make the people who considered it chuckle plainly. Juggernaut herself mustered a 'ha' with a snort that was mostly self-degrading. She considered herself the strongest in Sheryashka while this guy was still here? Not a chance. If he threw that thing at her then even all the defensive arts in the world wouldn't keep her alive. It was a good thing she wasn't the kind of person her brother had described her as, the kind to pick a fight to the death with people over everything, otherwise she would not be making it out alive today. As it turned out, her other brother, the one that went to the international, had drastically underexaggerated how impressive Ares was because this was on another scale entirely. This was not something that could even be predicted or feasibly imagined by anyone without screws loose. There were insane asylums filled to the brim with psychopaths in straight jackets spouting nonsense about the end of days that couldn't compete with this. If those whacky daydreamers couldn't conjure an image as terrible as this then what chance did a sane human have? Then again, this sight was enough to make a sane person think they were insane or hallucinating anyway.

Arla was thanking her lucky stars Ares wasn't the kind of person to blow his top because she'd been pestering him earlier... No wonder he treated everything so casually, it was because he had the liberty too. If he was capable of this then anything else must have seemed completely uninteresting in his eyes. No wonder he didn't take the fight against Juggernaut seriously, why should he? No wonder he didn't take the scorpion or the elephant seriously, why should he? People with this much power rarely had to care about 'threats' because they were the threat. The scavengers had also realised this and were pitying their idiot comrade loudmouth who was the first to pick a fight with this guy and assume Ares was just some random pushover. If that guy was watching from hell he would be grateful he died a quick death and didn't have to feel the despair of this monstrous art heading towards him. If he knew exactly what Ares was able to do he wouldn't have spoken a single damn word the entire trip, left the scavengers, and gone to hide in a cave somewhere until Ares left Sheryashka. He basically shared a carriage ride with a demonic God and that wasn't something even the greatest psychiatrist could fix... But dd the dork with all this power have to look so unassuming and act so dumb all he time? There was casual and then there was treating everything that happened here today like a trip to the beach and sipping on his drink again while he watched the explosion with shades on... Giving a guy this carefree that much power felt wrong! The universe definitely got it wrong!... The scavengers' envy of the blessed was amped up to eleven and Ares had single-handedly done irreparable damage to the chances of these lot reforming their ways and becoming good people after a redemption arc for as long as they lived.... Whoops... But he hadn't done it for them to begin with! 

Ares had casted this art for himself and the rewards were being reaped big time. His mana had filled up more than five times over! The excess mana was leaking out of him and turning him into a golden idol for some kind of God of wealth, like a humanoid totem of riches blessed with a holy aura. What he really cared about, however, was that his experiment was a complete success and this was a valid strategy he could utilise in situations that necessitated it. He wouldn't be using this liberally, because he was still leaving mass ruination on every landscape he did this to and that was rude, but if he needed mana he wasn't going to be polite! Also, and this was the main gain from this little stunt, he'd gotten plenty of souls! Sure there were plenty of stepper riff raff souls in the mix but he also managed to fish out a couple of big ones from western monsters that had been unfortunately caught in the blast. Not that Ares was going to pity them or anything because he was too busy being elated over his monumental gains! He spread his arms wide and basked in the exorbitant amounts of mana and power he was receiving.

Watching a cultivator ascend beyond humanity, revel in their reality bending attack, refresh their entire mana pool multiple times over, and become more powerful with every passing moment left but one word in the minds of all onlookers and it was absolutely correct. This was 'God' territory and Ares was unique class of being that could not possibly be mimicked by any normal human. There were levels to cultivators and Ares was sitting about ten above the next possible level anyone could feasibly reach with a lifetime of training. Juggernaut was genuinely concerned she'd been casually chatting with a literal God who was messing around with her in his spare time. Then there were the scavengers who would crawl all the way to the fellahins' base without cuffs or supervision if Ares asked them to. They'd even eat sand along the way if he demanded it because this guy was way more fucking scary than Juggernaut! Ten Juggernauts wouldn't have put half as much fear into them as Ares did because of what that mana regeneration truly meant. He could throw more than one of that art IN A ROW! They didn't understand how Grim Cessation worked but, under the assumption Ares could get his mana back by casting this art, the understanding that he could endlessly throw these things under the right conditions was downright horrifying.

This one person could obliterate the entirety of this country if given enough time and space to do it. Rather, if he just hovered above Xasca and kept throwing those arts who could stop him? He would just bubble Juggernaut and toss one at her when she was freed, instantly killing the one person who could contest him. From there the entire population of this country wold have to just sit there and embrace Armageddon day after day until not even a speck of dust remained. What was that level of existence if not a God? That was a level of divine retribution a normal cultivator should not be able to dish out on their own. What on earth was the universe thinking allowing someone like Ares to exist? Where in its code did a bug pop up and ruin the rules that had been so clearly laid out until this one person's birth? Or, rather, there was apparently a second fundamental running around in Vraizon currently, six if Mako's stories were to be believed about an outside world, so what went wrong exactly? Even if there was a universe destroying threat, surely creating SIX MORE to combat it was a mistake in every possible way?! At the very least, the number of cultivators that would suffer and die at their hands was greater than that of any normal cultivator by a factor of thousands if this was the firepower they would be packing. Just joining one measly war would put their karmic debt at un-rectifiable levels due to the sheer amount of murder they were capable of. This Armillary could kill an army on its own!... Truly preposterous...

What felt like ten seconds of dumbly staring at the Armillary had apparently been five minutes because Juggernaut's Prison burst and allowed her to roam freely again. Not that she was moving anywhere right now because her feet refused to budge even though she wanted them to move. She wanted to advance towards Ares and continue the fight, that was what she was telling herself, but her brain was betraying her and not accepting orders right now. It held greater innate fear for Ares than her consciousness did and so the latter was losing out here and not being permitted to have its way. This was an instinctual fear like that of staring down a fierce predator capable of eating your heart out and leaving you a bloody corpse on the floor for other animals to consume and digest.

"Tsk." Slap. The sound of Juggernaut slapping herself was heavily muted thanks to all the clothing that kept her cheek safe but the reinvigorated aura of hers that soared behind Ares was something he couldn't miss even if he wasn't paying attention. She still had it in her to fight, all she needed was to motivate herself a little. Whether she was telling herself she didn't need to deal with that art because Ares would never throw it at her, or whether she was mentally prepared for anything and everything now, Ares didn't know but he was glad because he still wanted to scuffle some more! He had time and no other pressing matters! Rox was somewhat nearby and the eagle was swooping around and pecking steppers whenever it go bored so Ares' companions were also ready and raring to go for the next round. All Ares had to do was activate Black Blossom and Voidwalk and he could continue running circles around Juggernaut until she did something to fight back and he would react accordingly. He was no longer in a rough situation at all and had all the mana in the world to play around with. For a while his arts wouldn't even cost mana because of the limitless excess inside him so he could go buck wild!

"Entomb!" Juggernaut wasn't going to let him get his way, though, and was acting quicker than Ares to set the pace and have things go her way. A massive sarcophagus of sand rose out of the ground beneath both her and him and shuddered for a split second before smacking shut around them. Ares was reminded of Terros' Mud Maiden as the overall goal and structure of the magic was the same. Juggernaut's art wasn't lethal, though, because there were no spikes in here but there was arguably something more concerning. Ares couldn't see fudge all without a light source but he knew that, lurking within the depths of this pitch black arena, was the Juggernaut ready to rip and tear his flesh to shreds and beat him to death! He couldn't run away from her in here and there was magic in place that prevented him from Shifting out. It was likely a measure taken against cultivators with a spatial aspect affiliation but it was affecting him indirectly too. If he had time he could get out of here, either by Shifting to another dimension or blowing up the walls with arts, but time was one thing he didn't have because a sandstorm was whipped up and that signalled Juggernaut's approach.

As if being blinded by darkness wasn't bad enough, now Ares was being caged like a rat thanks to the sandstorm as well. He was trapped within a storm within a tomb and there was a muscular behemoth about to crack his bones into multiple pieces not even inches away from him! He couldn't really swing a weapon here because he had no idea where he was aiming and the same was true of his explosions... The only solace was that his pressure was helping him feel things out and work around the lack of visibility... Actually, Ares had yet to try Omniscience! Maybe that would all but solve this issue entirely and provide him with night vision... But wasn't that kind of cheap? Ares would feel bad if he completely countered Juggernaut's last oorah with such petty nonsense. It wouldn't even be training at that point, just showcasing his unfair tools and mocking her for having a terrible matchup against him. She was definitely a powerhouse, and didn't deserve the one-sided beatdown she was receiving, it's just that Ares happened to have a skillset that was incredibly good against hers. Just denying the elemental form with the existence of his all-encompassing magic was enough as is but everything else was unfortunate overkill. Maybe he could turn Omniscience on later to rub it in, as his inner revenant demanded, but until then he could at least let her have the illusion that what she was doing now meant anything. It was a miracle she could even bring herself to attack him so throwing that away felt wrong. Ares still had his pressure and the occasional sighting of her deep red eyes lurking around in the shadows and that would suffice for now!

CRACK BANG

Ares was blasted through the sand and rolled to a stop when he hit his back against one of the Entomb walls. Apparently his measures would not suffice! Had she gotten even faster inside this place? Maybe she'd casted another art or something while Ares wasn't paying attention or, more likely, this was just a benefit she got from fighting inside this art to begin with. If she'd ever found a resource that mutated her arts then it was entirely possible. A support pillar adaptation resource for this art would be a very wise choice and if that was truly what was happening here then Juggernaut must have really struck the jackpot on her travels to find such a convenient thing. This did spell trouble for Ares though as Juggernaut was hard enough to deal with as is but, throwing in another physical buff, on top of One With Nature and her pressure enhancement, was going to make it really hard to keep up with the monstrous threat he could barely even see.

Ares rolled to the side as a heavy stomp from Juggernaut's foot landed right beside him. He successfully avoided the attack but was in a bad situation and had to stand up and run away as quick as possible. He swung his feet in a sweeping motion until he caught Juggernaut's sturdy leg and that gave him some insight into where she was positioned currently. From there he cast Echo on himself in the opposite direction to fling himself away from her and land on his feet after a bit of self-harm. It was painful to blast himself like that for a second time this fight but was also a far safer method of fleeing that stumbling in the dark and praying he didn't run headfirst into Juggernaut in the darkness. None of this solved his current predicament though so he had to stay on high alert...

Behind...

Ares' call was correct so his swift sidestep allowed him to avoid a punch with a beastly amount of force packed within it. This wasn't good enough, though, as Juggernaut was quick to step after him and wrap him up in a bear hug again but from behind this time. A headbutt would never work like this and she would be prepared for it anyway so, now that his bones were being broken again, he needed to find another way out of this problem. He could feel his body begin to snap and crack in various places and knew he needed to act fast but it was a real struggle. Rox and the eagle had been stuck outside the Entomb so he couldn't rely on them and it was jsut him and Juggernaut in this rage cage. No outside aid was going to save him from this sandstorm menace. He could feel her grip holding him close and preventing him from escaping as he begun breaking and dying in her arms. He wriggled around in the cold dead silence of this black abyss with no sounds present other than the occasional snapping of a bone or the whipping sandstorm howling in his ears but it was seemingly all for naught.

"You.... Have.... Mail..."

...

...

"Now's not a good time..." Ares could hardly believe his eyes but, as it turned out, he was not alone in here! This schmuck Loris Lax had come to deliver a letter to Ares at the worst possible time! Better yet, how did this idiot even get in here?! What happened to not bothering Ares when he was in the middle of something? Did this not classify? He was definitely in the middle of Juggernaut's arms! Not that Ares was necessarily complaining, this was likely a letter from his wives, who responded fairly quickly, and so he was in a good mood just knowing they were likely doing fine.... But again, Ares really couldn't get over this! Was this guy seriously capable of showing up anywhere and everywhere? Last time was inside a Containment Zone and now this? This guy would seriously make one hell of a covert infiltrator! Also, what was up with his constant monotone delivery that got progressively more scary the further into his catchphrase he got? Ares had a feeling he was going to get ambushed by Loris in incredibly weird situations often going forward... If he could show up now there was basically no limits to when he could possibly appear and so Ares just had to prepare himself for Mr Employee Of The Month over here to be extremely dedicated to his job... Well, for what it was worth, Juggernaut had been caught off guard, and assumed this was another one of Ares; tricks, causing her to accidentally loosen her grip... Ares had come up with a way out, and was going to try using Aqua Anatomy for the first time to escape, but that was no longer necessary as a quick Double Jump allowed him to spring upwards and out of Juggernaut's hold like he was a slippery pig bathed in mud. Ares landed beside Loris and took the letter. "Uh, thanks?... So... How's Peppy?" Ares wasn't sure if Loris was interested in small talk but he shrugged and responded regardless.

"Peppy... Still.... Peppy..."

Yeah but, like, is that her name or a description? Ares still didn't know the answer but he dreaded the thought of asking this guy, lest the end of his explanation became a bicentennial anniversary of the start, so he just nodded along and bid the ghost adieu as he vanished from sight. Juggernaut was still unsure how to proceed so Ares had some time to activate Omniscience, open up the letter, and start reading it despite the otherwise awkward situation... This made Juggernaut mad! Not only was he blatantly disrespecting her, he was clearly able to see in the dark whenever he wanted! Screw giving up, she was annoyed and wanted vengeance on this damnable punk! She charged him down but, now that he actually knew where she was in this dark room, he was able to easily dodge her slow and oafish strikes while still reading the letter... What had once been a doomed battle that Ares was struggling to even survive in had now become him effortlessly dancing around Juggernaut's reach with his swift footwork as he busied himself with a letter from his loved ones. It was a heartwarming read but he was only really skimming through it right now, to make sure everyone was safe and sound, so he could get back to the fight at hand and finish it up.

Ares wanted to train a bit more, truly he did, but he also wanted to read the letter properly, in full, and so this scrap was going to have to come a conclusion sooner rather than later. He'd learnt what he needed to about how incredible Sandy was and he had no regrets about offering to take her in to the sect. She had a hard time with him but it was a terrible fight for her and she'd do a lot better against literally anyone else so judging solely on the outcome wasn't wise. Actually Ares was interested to see how she'd do against Enyo in a fair fight... In many ways Sandy here was like desert Enyo and Bellona combined together into one person... Although way less horny... Anyway, a fight between her and Enyo would likely drag on for days due to how incredibly resilient they were and impossible to wear down in a short time period. Hell Ares hadn't even really gotten close to knocking her out so that was praise in and of itself. And yet he was convinced he could end this as and when he pleased? How? Well that was simple, the rule that would earn him his victory had been set up in advance after all.

Juggernaut felt a cold sensation start slithering around her neck before wrapping itself around her throat. She looked down and saw a ghastly red hand clinging to her and refusing to let go that she couldn't interact with despite her best efforts. Her own hand passed right through it and it was incredibly unnerving to see this horrible thing permanently attached to her because she could tell even becoming a sand elemental wouldn't shake it off her.

Clap

"And that's game!" Ares clapped his hands together to get Sandy's attention. "Your mana has run out... Or at least come close enough to running out that I win by default. That hand would drag you into hell and blow you up from the inside. Grim Cessation executes opponents with little mana remaining and allows me to regenerate mana from dead opponents. I hope that explains everything clearly so, unfortunately, no matter how hyped up you are this fight is going to end now. If it weren't for this letter I wouldn't have said anything, and we could keep going a bit longer, but I value this letter and want to read it now. If you really want we can train again some other time. Don't forget, when you join the sect I'll be readily available often and there will be plenty of other people to train with that will give you more interesting matches overall."

Though Juggernaut was reluctant, once more her brain acted without her permission and lowered the Entomb because it was done fighting this monster! It didn't want to Entomb Ares to begin with and finally having a valid reason to release it was a God send! Sure Juggernaut had been 'winning' temporarily but that sweet dream was crushed the second Ares started actually using the tools at his disposal so there was no reason to drag the fight on any longer when the result was obvious! Sandy disagreed with her brain on this one but it made the rules here and she was just a hapless victim of it. She could do nothing but sigh and accept the loss she knew well enough was coming to her. She'd agreed to give up if her mana ran out anyway so it's not like being persistent here would change anything unless she stubbornly acted liked a child. She didn't have it in her to embarrass herself like that, especially not in front of Ares who she had a deep respect for now. The fight was over. It hadn't gotten too crazy due to it ending prematurely but it was still one that was worth her time and so Juggernaut was decently satisfied. It had been a long while since she fought a human worth her time and, after years of waiting, she got what she wanted in the end... Though she would have preferred winning...