Chapter 409: Be at Peace, Find Sublimity

Crush

Ares kicked things off very literally as he lifted his leg and stamped it straight into the face of a hologram trying to tackle his waist. Ares shoved the foot down and stomped the hologram's face into the floor, breaking it into tiny neon particles that vanished into thin air shortly after. Ares had no time to celebrate as he was assailed by another hologram within the same timespan it took him to blink. This was jsut going to be the new normal going forward and he had nobody to blame for it but himself as he alone made the decision to do this. Ares wasn't exaggerating when he assumed he'd be doing this for about an hour straight depending on how long it took him to improve. He really was going to inch forward, and even that only if he was lucky, and brute force his way through this mess one way or another!

The new hologram attacking Ares was thrusting its cane at Ares' stomach so he placed the grip of his scythe horizontally in front of himself and twirled the scythe counter-clockwise as soon as the cane lunged over it. The cane's charge to Ares was cut short as Ares flicked it up and out of the hologram's hand before poking the hologram in the head with the butt of the scythe and cracking its skull. Two down, many more to go so Ares steadied himself and kept at it. This was a marathon, not a sprint, so getting overly excited early would just tire him out in the short term. He could ramp up to a frenzy and go buck wild but that wasn't wise as it would bite him in the rear when his limbs were screaming for rest and he wasn't even nearly done with his task yet. What he really needed was to create, and put himself into, an uninterruptable flow state, like he was drifting through the world as though he were a wandering ghost cleaving light spectres on his journey. He needed to not even see these holograms as enemies but rather small inconveniences that could be dealt with by nothing more than a flick of the wrist before he could even consider actually overcoming the horde. Such a state was possible but Ares was going to have to work for it because that serendipity was miles off compared to his current 'in the thick of it' mindset. He was embroiled in the throes of war, gritting his teeth, wielding his scythe in multiple different directions 'till he became a whirlwind of death taking full control of the battlefield with every ounce of effort he could muster. This was satisfying in its own way, and the passion of battle was energising, but it wasn't correct and Ares needed to accustom himself to finding comfort and peace within the danger. Temper the bubbling aggravation deep within, steel the mind and render it impervious to doubt, embrace fluidity and ethereal transcendence from mortal concerns and struggles.

Left, right, above, below, behind... No direction was left unchallenged by the Anubis holograms that were leaping at Ares from every possible avenue. They kicked off pillars to gain height and bring gravity to aid in their strikes but Ares was able to dismantle such tricks by cutting necks off with his scythe before they could draw remotely close. Attempts to slide into his legs with a disabling kick were curbed by stomping the scythe handle into ankles and snapping necks with a swift kick. Ducking under brutal punches from blind angles, narrowly avoiding toothy bites with a small lean before elbowing their jaw shut permanently and blasting their heads into smithereens with an Echo-laden punch, and tripping careless holograms that were more concerned with offense than defence. Ares dismantled every single attacker one by one and became a storm of well practiced violence, aggressive strategizing to pre-empt and destroy his attackers before they could destroy him, and efficient slaughter.

Ares' scythe shred through multiple tens of holograms with every passing minute. A single swipe reaped a life with no questions asked before curving back around to finish off another challenger, resulting in a ceaseless blade tip nimbly darting through the air like a firefly in the night. The shiny white tip left a glowing trail of silver sheared wind as it curved through limb after limb, dissecting holograms endlessly in one single, unending motion. The blade flowed like a shooting star in an eternal orbit around a planet, constantly circling around Ares' grip until it resembled electron orbit with Ares as the nucleus. An impenetrable barrier of sharp death that was poised to eliminate the foolhardy who challenged it. A hologram destined to die ran headfirst into the storm to try and grab Ares by the neck but was diced into countless chunks of dissipating energy, bringing its fate forward and prematurely sending it to an early afterlife. The area within reach of Ares had turned into a mass grave that was being filled at a frightening rate. If these bodies didn't disappear when struck down the room would soon be filled with the rotten stench of the defeated and deceased because Ares' rampage was seemingly unstoppable.

From an outside perspective he was unchallengeable and unbeatable. Aejaz wasn't even sure if Ares had swapped with Dominus, that was the nature of the performance he was putting on currently even in spite of the fact Ares wasn't at the point he wanted to be at yet. He hadn't reached flux, he wasn't in scythe mastery nirvana nor had he ascended his skills to the level he wanted them to be at to consider this endeavour a success. And yet he'd stunned the rest of the room silent. Tom Tom wore a grimace, Aejaz couldn't believe his eyes, and the other group sitting silently in the corner were dazed. This was weapon mastery on a scale Sheryashka could not possibly fathom and even experts from a higher domain like the sphinx would have to respect this regardless of whether the master was friend of foe. Only the briefest of moments existed in which Ares' full form was visible before he commanded his body, and the extension of it in the form of a scythe, to blur into action and reap another foe's life as though it were a passing trifle. Flickering between enemies with measured movements, irresistibly marching across scarred ground, he was a death sentence mid speech.

Truly frightening.

The prospects for Ares' future were utterly boundless. Even Dominus couldn't believe what he was witnessing because this was no ordinary cultivator he was spectating currently. Ares was defining himself amongst his countless advantages as a reaper of lives al the same even without all his extra toys. None of this came from Dominus himself, or his pillar or bloodline, this was all self-taught and his own talents laid bare in the most dominating of fashions. Dominus could offer no higher praise than admitting this was not something he could have ever done while he was still alive at Ares' cultivation level. The reaper's mark having appeared on Ares made sense now that this flurry of expertise was being witnessed first hand and there was undoubtedly no better candidate in all of existence for the position of reaper currently. And what tied it all together, making this sight truly awe inspiring, was that Ares wasn't slowing down. This was not some final blaze of glory before burning out into embers and ash, it was a ramping dread that grew as it gorged on the damned. It was evolving. Smoother decapitations, faster executions, smarter manipulation of space and range, quicker repositioning for the scythe after every swing. All of the above and even more, there was no stopping Ares anymore because he couldn't be stopped before and he was only becoming a bigger menace the longer he was fed sustenance in the form of these training-doll holograms,. The Anubis were unintentionally creating their own demise right before their very eyes but it was such an oddly alluring sight they couldn't bring themselves to stop it. Even Tom Tom was too blindsided and mentally stricken with shock to command them to halt their actions. Rather, for the Anubis, it was an innate sense of fear that drove them to keep sacrificing holograms. They delayed the inevitable. Ares was going to reach them and removing the holograms from the equation only sped up that process. This was a futile resistance to keep the monster at bay for as long as they feasibly could before it added them to the list of things to feast upon and adapt itself as it devoured them.

Ares remained unphased even when lasers from the Anubis started interfering in his business because they were little more than slight inconveniences forcing him to readjust his body by a few centimetres each time to slink past them. It appeared as though the lasers were bending around him or that he had an inbuilt radar for incoming lasers that allowed him to flawlessly dodge them each and every time. His massacre wasn't slowed, let alone halted, and he weaved his way through more and more holograms unabated by whatever was thrown his way. It had been five minutes of controlled carnage and measured mayhem in which Ares was a conductor of endless murder. The skill behind his assault was only doubling with time and he was infinitely close to reaching the exact state he'd been chasing since the start. He was no longer having to concentrate excessively on every single detail that affected his judgement as he could subconsciously parse through hundreds of options within a few seconds to prioritise the optimal route to success. This didn't put him on a one track path nor did his combat become linear in nature, it just served as a quicker method to construct a basic approach that could have his entire complex plan structured around it without wasting time on actually addressing what his attacker was doing. Nothing more than a demeaning glance at the pathetic level of opposition he was running into was needed to create a spark within him that led to infinite strategies for success.

Ares' expression, once filled with fiery decisiveness and cautious deliberation, was now solemn and filled with contempt for the holograms wasting his time in spectacular fashion. He wouldn't stop siphoning value from their shallow selves but he was long since past feeling threatened by them and the peace he was chasing was ruined by his agitation for these inferior things. Nonetheless his pursuit was still underway and this was an entirely different matter of tribulation he still needed to overcome. Even as he mowed down the masses, becoming an unreachable scythe lord who commanded all space around him unquestionably, he wasn't yet satisfied. Mobs of hollow weaklings were going to pick fights with him often and even the current level of passive and unfocused absolution he could deliver was not enough. It needed to be mindless, something he could do even in his sleep against an army of dregs if need be. He needed to be so above the riff raff that they didn't even register on his radar as his scythe dismembered their spines and rendered them lifeless.

This whole process continued for another thirty minutes before Ares' eyes looked distant and he couldn't even be reached by anyone in the room anymore. His body was on complete autopilot and he was resting in the corridors of his mind, discerning countless tactics from one another he could implement into his toolbox of scythe strikes. He was actively improving via theory and developing his understanding of combat while his body improved via practice at the same time because his mind was freed up from the fight around him. There were arguably two Ares present currently; one to swing, one to comprehend the nature of the swing and locate imperfections that needed ironing out. Ares had become a machine but one capable of experiencing a heavenly form of disassociation from itself. He was at peace in his mind and felt like he was seated atop a sea of soft clouds as his body became light and numb to the concept of stamina or stress. His muscles were relaxed and yet the power behind every swing had borderline tripled. His mind had slowed but his swings and dodges were impossible to track with the naked eye. His deliberation over every single step and movement was gone entirely and yet the beauty of every move and every transition into whatever came next was unparalleled.

Ares had torn through hologram after hologram and was close enough to the Anubis now that he could spit upon them in disgust at how worthless they were as opponents in their current state. The cane mastery looked almost childish to Ares now in hindsight and he felt insulted that he'd ever even struggled against these things. He could take on at least ten of them all at once with just the scythe alone right now if he had to. They weren't even weak, Ares had simply become that much stronger as a result of his dedication. But that was why. Dedication cultivation worked in mysterious ways and, so, unsurprisingly, Ares' newfound affiliation for the 'falx's inevitability' aspect, an aspect with a name that symbolised the ever-present, inescapable nature of death and its loyalest of servants, the scythe, had earned him a significant burst of power for his strenuous self-trialing. Ares' affinity for the aspect had only shot up exponentially since his parade of stygian offerings began and it was allowing him to dwarf even the legendary Anubis in their current state. Nothing he'd seen of them threatened Ares anymore and they would need to revise their entire approach to dealing with Ares by the time they next met otherwise it would be a one-sided battle so thoroughly humiliating they would have to run away on all fours with their tails between their legs, whimpering like stray, beaten animals.

The onus to improve was on the Anubis now but Ares had a gut feeling they could never replicate what he'd done here. It had been wroth the hassle and he was now feeling a lot more comfortable about his journey through this Riddlemyd and his adventure in Xasca in general. The pagoda skyrocketed his pressure from nonexistent to unbeatable, the converter amped his magic such that he could obliterate a small country if he tried, this taxing tango with death had improved his scythe mastery beyond measure and cemented his position as greatest weapon master in living history throughout the entire domain, and Garmr was around the corner to dominate any and all contests of strength. Cultivation perfection was on the horizon for Ares now and, realistically, only those with cultivations way above him would ever be contenders from this point onwards. Anyone in the same realm as him might as well be an ant and even being an entire realm above him wasn't going to cut it. This was what it meant to be a fundamental champion and Mako was lacking in that regard. Ares would be a role model, the poster child, for exemplary cultivators and outstanding talent forever more soon enough.

Long story short, the Anubis were unsavable. There were no orders Tom Tom could give them at this point that would change anything about the outcome and all Ares had to do was dance through the lasers and holograms, slice the nano-scarab swarms into tiny pieces, and relinquish the Anubis' heads from their bodies. Ares didn't even need disintegration magic at this point and he'd long since turned it off, that was how confident he was in his current ability to win and it was obvious to even a bystander he'd become the greatest threat in this room by a WIDE margin. It was only a matter of time until he breached the line of where the holograms started and could reach the Anubis with his scythe directly but, right as he was really getting into it, and about to unleash a scythe art for the first time ever without skipping to the future as he did with the Blade, he was snubbed! Blue balled! Deprived of satisfaction! He'd been jolted out of his flow state by the disappearance of every single foe in the room as the Anubis had been whisked away to safety elsewhere in the Riddlemyd via spatial magic! "Oi! I was having a moment! Give it back stupid cat!"

Ares put the scythe away and was wagging his fist at Tom Tom who was smiling wryly at Ares rapid switch up in demeanour. A reaper of countless souls one moment and an incorrigibly dumb moron the next... Still, Tom Tom knew better than to underestimate this guy because the full extent of his capabilities had yet to even be laid bare and he singlehandedly beat the wo weakened Anubis anyway. There was nobody else in Xasca who could do that, not even Sandy who'd been inside this Riddlemyd before and had her power level tested in a different way by Tom Tom, so Ares' power had been gauged to some extent but the end result was still unclear. How much magic was he really packing? Tom Tom had seen a bit but Fundamental champions were renowned for the magic mastery, nothing else. This scythe display was just something Ares himself could do and didn't even touch on the objectively scariest thing about him that Tom Tom had yet to fully understand. Ares threat level had risen to new heights after this and Tom Tom was going to have to go all in on the challenges from now on otherwise even placing them before Ares would be pointless. If nothing else, Tom Tom had to revise every single combat room going forward and decrease their frequency because Ares would breeze through them if there wasn't some kind of complication or trick to them... This guy was difficult to deal with! And it didn't help that Ares was somewhat keen when it came to the riddles as well...

Tom Tom was starting to worry about whether he could actually stop Mr Gold here from retrieving the DNA before it was shipped off! Well, not that worried. Sevorus would be a bit mad but he'd understand that fundamental champions were able to defy expectations and achieve that which a normal cultivator could not. Tom Tom wouldn't be blamed for losing to one, Sevorus was driven by reason after all and that was a reasonable outcome given what he knew of Ares' strength currently based on all the pagoda rumours and stories. Really, Tom Tom only had a dog in this fight for selfish reasons! Ares was the player, this Riddlemyd and the race to the DNA were the game, and he himself was the game-master. He just didn't want to lose because he was a sore loser! Ares was the first and, really, only worthy competitor that excited Tom Tom because the rest of the floors, previously inaccessible to average cultivators, would finally get to see the light of day! Tom Tom was going to have to dust off all the cobwebs, double check the hallways for escaped monsters from Sevorus' lab as best he could, and tidy up everything like a housemaid!... Well, maybe... The riddle everyone was stuck on currently was pretty despicable and Ares' raw power wouldn't solve it either because it wasn't a combat room. It was possible his magnum opus might just flat out stump Ares Too and keep him at bay forever... That would be sad and anti-climactic but a win was still a win and Tom Tom could then take pride in his great riddle! Either way, that was for the future as, right now, Ares was still on floor two. Or one, technically, if the tutorial floor didn't count which many agreed didn't.

Ares still had another two rooms to go, not that he knew that, but there was a chance he might get stuck on what was yet to come!... Or not. Tom Tom wasn't foolish enough to believe that these easy floors could contain Ares anymore. "I don't want you breaking my toys before they can display their strongest selves for all the world to see." Tom Tom was referring to the Anubis here and explaining why he removed them from the room. "Your performance was impressive but not anywhere near enough to deal with them at max strength, keep that in mind! Also, I;m not your sparring partner! I'm not going to summon crap for you to improve yourself with! It's unnatural you were even able to do that in this situation to begin with! Tsk, whatever, get lost already! Move on to the next room and take those sniveling wimps hiding in the corner with you!.. Not Lilly though, she's a brave little magical girl!"

"A what now?"

"Mind your own business!" The sphinx turned into stone and refused to elaborate to a confused Ares what he was talking about. Ares had never heard of such shows before so he was pretty lost. He understood that Tom Tom's favour for Lilly had something to do with 'magical girls' but that was all he was going to get out of this silly cat so it was better to just ignore it and move on. Ares sighed and turned around to go deal with the other group. He had no idea what their plan was from here on out but he wouldn't be shocked if they wanted out of this cursed place. This room was the worst it could have possibly gotten, and the group were alive, but not wanting to risk running into any more ridiculous rooms was rational too. Ares walked over, stood in front of the gawking group, and placed his hands on his hips.

"Well? What's the plan?" Unsurprisingly he received no response immediately... It seemed the group was going to need to think things over once more so Ares sighed a second time and walked away to let them discuss things in private. If he stood there in front of them like a statue they would be too nervous to speak their mind freely lest they offend him so he moved away for their own good. As he did so, Aejaz came running over like a rat scurrying along in search of cheese... Which was actually somewhat close to the truth as his intentions weren't far off.

"Uh, we've been in here for a while.. Are we still having curry tonight?"

...

This guy's priorities were out of whack! He had raised a pretty valid point though... Ares hadn't expected to get stuck on a room for nearly an hour straight... It wasn't too too late so if Ares blitzed through the remaining rooms he could still make it in time to send the curry before Blo Blo and Enyo gave up on waiting... "Ok, screw it! None of you have a choice in the matter anymore! I'm making an executive decision and you're coming along whether you want to or not!" That was the last thing everyone else in the room heard before they were telekinetically lifted up via annihilation pressure and dragged into the hallway at blinding speeds. Ares had kidnapped everybody and was Voidwalking them through the passageway quicker than anyone other than himself could fathom. He was clearly not messing around anymore, and he was't going to entertain any delays in his food delivery, so the next two rooms were going to be dealt with by a fully focused Ares and, quite frankly, stood no chance. None of Aejaz wasting everyone's time with silly guesses on riddles. No experimentation in combat rooms. No caution in parkour rooms. Nope nope nope! Ares wanted out! Five minutes or less! That was his promise and everybody else could just float through the air behind him as he carved out a path!