Chapter 413: An Endearing Entity’s Identity: Black Interlude Part 2
Beset on all sides but not out of options! Ares, or at least the pagoda clone, was quite advanced in a lot of ways compared to regular Ares, despite lacking all his new toys and improvements, because pagoda Ares had the benefit of infinite spare time and a higher cultivation base to play around with, and fully explore, his destruction pillar. As such he could come up with all sorts of nifty tricks that real Ares might have either not yet figured out or simply couldn't perform due to a lack of mana or a sufficient cultivation base to enable it. Well, this was all big talk because all Ares was going to do was the exact same thing he did with Perish Wheels to create Armillary but, instead, do it with Not Even Lights! He didn't have a name for this, and it wasn't an art yet like Armillary, but feeding black holes into each other created a star-obliterating spatial anomaly, the event horizon of which was shockingly massive and dwarfed planets. Ares could probably suck up planets made of magic if he really went for it with this trick but that wasn't necessary here as he only needed to feed enough black holes into each other to remove this grey dimensional nonsense giving him a hard time. Also, preferably, he would suck up those black splotches because leaving up the teleport portals while there were upwards of thirty enemies, between all the hounds and clones, looking to pounce on him was a terrible idea! All of this and he still had to keep an eye out for his own shadow and remain paranoid about it at all times.
Honestly, though fighting Black didn't seem to be harder than any of the other fundamental champions, it was definitely way more annoying and head-ache inducing. Black was annoying, Mako was manifold, Havanah was aggressive, White was persistent, and Sanity was tricky; that was how Ares categorised them in combat and, actually, just in general. If Ares had to rank them in terms of strength then he was at the top, and they were free to prove him wrong if they could, but after that it was as follows: Havanah -> White -> Mako ->Sanity -> Black. This was a tricky ranking because the difference between everyone was actually minimal. Sanity and Black were freely interchangeable depending entirely on who they were fighting against, for example, because they were both technically assassins its just hat one focused on the mental realm and the other the physical body. Also, Sanity could wipe the floor with Havanah every now and then during their training and it was, give or take, a fifty-fifty who won their bouts. Sanity needed a minute or two to get every one of her arts layered on top of each other and then you would be perpetually stuck hundreds of layers deep within your own head for eternity. Nobody was weak amongst the six champions. On a scale of 1 to 10, in terms of power, the fundamental champions were all within the 95-100 range, leaving average cultivators and prodgies in the dust. Ares himself was sitting at around 110, maybe 130 if Garmr was included. He could take any of them in a fight, he was confident in that regard, certain if the cultivation bases were ever even, but more than one at the same time and, at least currently, he was screwed beyond measure! All it took was for one of them to find a treasure like Mako's prompt potential pocket-watch and the gap in strength between him and everyone else closed significantly to the point it meant essentially nothing.
Ares was getting distracted with ranking everyone but it didn't much matter because he was in the process of enlarging his black hole and so he was actually quite safe. The clones and hounds were all derivatives of magic and couldn't exactly approach this anti-magic bomb sapping away at the air. They were hidden behind another dimension and could still feel the impending doom and pull of nihility. Hiding behind such fickle magic was an error they would not live to regret as Ares lifted his black hole amalgamation into the air and it rapidly expanded into a massive black sphere with dark rings circling around it. The centre looked as though it were mutating, bulging, and expanding with every single drop of mana it fed itself upon. What was really terrifying about this thing was the range of its pull as the clones were being slowly dragged through their dimensional walls. Honestly, this building sized black hole ominously dangling above Red Sun right now could probably reel in an art form outer space if two cultivators happened to be fighting near the atmosphere of this domain. It was a black sun dominating the skies above, like some kind of non euclidean primordial God commandeering a pitiful realm and dominating the immediate area. It required sacrifices daily and today's offering were the clones and hounds desperately trying to grind their feet along the earth in a bid to prevent themselves from being swallowed up and removed from existence. Their attempt to do so was cute and all but Ares wanted them gone so, now that they weren't protected anymore by the dimensions anymore, he simply used telekinesis on the ground beneath them all to trip them up and fling them all into the vortex above.
The black hole gobbled all the magical assassin threats up and expanded yet again but Ares had no interest in what it was doing up in the sky anymore because he was going to bring it crashing down like a meteor! He likened it to a dark sun but it was more like a moon that could command the tides because as soon as it touched the ground it would unleash waves of magic-seeking disintegration in every direction, Everything the black hole was currently would break and spread out to wreak havoc and cause catastrophes upon the landscape. Tsunamis of the ebon moon would wash over this city and bathe it in dissolving liquid fire. The disintegration would burn up every atom it touched and consume them, adding it to the already ginormous tide... Or, well, that was the plan... And it was still technically going to happen... But Ares couldn't command the damn thing! It wasn't obeying him and he very quickly realised why...
The black hole...
Was black.
Again, when apotheosising, a person would gain innate control over and hefty immunity to what their affiliation specialised in. Ares would control explosions, broken space, and any manner of disintegration found in the wider world. The latter two were rare but near-full immunity and control over explosions was nifty! Then there was someone like Havanah who could freely mould reality on a small scale without being too fussed. Anyone who tried to rewrite laws around her would be denied and she could probably make it harder to use fire magic in a cold region, for instance. Or at least reduce the power of such an attack. Reality could not be ignored and there were some things cultivators' magic enabled that really shouldn't work! Havanah would be on the case of these people and make their lives hard...
So, once more, Ares' black hole... Was black.
Black, the fundamental champion of the Black pillar... Could very obviously control anything black... Like the black hole. Duh! Ares was tempted to slap himself for being so obliviously blind to something so obvious! His disintegration aspect was going to be a bit tricky to bring out against this parasite because it would backfire immensely if he wasn't protecting it. He could use his own apotheosis affiliation to keep it in check, or just set up protection with nothingness or annihilation, but he had completely forgotten about this sort of trick and now his own art was betraying him! Ares had never had something like this happen before. The closest anything came to this was when Aejaz stole destruction magic and used it against him in training but the arts he summoned were his own, weaker, and he wasn't pilfering Ares' directly like this! this was the firs time Ares would be hit by, or have to deal with, a full power destruction art... And it was a tricky brain scratcher because he could no longer use magic to stop it! He could disintegrate the disintegration but the scale of the black hole was bigger than what he could muster in a short time span. Annihilation and nothingness would lose though nothingness would put up a good fight by chucking large chunks of this art far away...
Ares had two options here. One, he could cut the crashing black moon with the Blade. That ought to be ok but maybe a little painful because the excess disintegration would flow over him and burn his skin a little. He was still mostly impervious to this art but he was slow on the uptake and his immunity wasn't really being leveraged properly in this position. Plus it was weaker when not directly in the apotheosis form and there were other complications with apotheosis currently anyway. Real Ares was going to have somewhat of a headache with all of this apotheosis stuff at some point but that was his problem and it was unavoidable anyway! But as for this issue, using the Blade was fine to deal with tthe Not Even Light, and really not a bad solution, it's just that Ares wasn't satisfied! Sure it dealt with his own art but what about the damn grey dimension! The real black was still residing inside it, as it wasn't made of magic and so hadn't been yanked out of hiding like the clones, and Ares had to deal with it before he could solve the root issue. Ares had yet to actually launch an attack against Black directly and that was seriously irksome! It rubbed Ares the wrong way so he was going with solution number two. Garmr! The Blade could do everything Ares wanted of it but it was still slow and inefficient meaning it was time to let the dogs out!
In the blink of an eye Ares became his true self and snarled to himself as he cricked his thick neck, flexed his muscles and chest, and took a long deep breath. It always felt good to let the wolf out and get it some fresh air. He was exposed to nature, not in an immodest way, and feeling at one with the universe which was a tremendous feeling. There was an inner rage buried deep withing Garmr but it was placated by stoicism, reality, and a sense of calm superiority. Garmr could absolutely unleash its feral side, and that was for when things got ugly, but Ares commonly had no use for such a thing because it was as unsightly as it was unnecessary. Ares looked up at the incoming gravitational black hole bomb and simply begun strolling towards the point of impact. He was't transforming int Garmr to run away, that was nonsensical behaviour, he was strolling headfirst into the art with his arms spread wide in a welcoming fashion to assert dominance. It could land on him as directly as it wished too he was simply not phased by this magic.
Though it was barely perceptible, Black had raised an eye beneath all the face coverings at all of this because Garmr was naturally a rather awe inspiring creature and it doing this, so brazenly defying such a strong art, was comical. The logical outcome here was that nothing would remain of him when the moon smashed into him, not bones nor even a single patch of fur, but there was a nagging feeling within black that it wouldn't play out that way. Or, rather, this would be an incredibly suicidal and stupid if it was capable of killing him so it was to be expected that Ares knew he was safe. Still, doing this to show off... It was clear what kind of uncaring attitude Garmr-Ares had about the world at large. Boring! Havanah was interesting, and White also fought Garmr head on, but everyone else could do nothing but flee from him in terror or surrender and Garmr was not fulfilled! Maybe real Garmr / Ares would get some tough fights thanks to Ares' lower cultivation base but the pagoda one? The pagoda only really accounted for human Ares in comparison to the challenger so every time Garmr came out the fight ended. At least against the fundamental champions the fight wasn't definitively over as soon as he reared his head, as they were an obvious exception to just about every rule out there, but it was still just a walk in the park to him. Even Sanity, who specialised in what Garmr should assumedly be weak against, mental attacks, was not someone he felt concerned by. To have enough raw might to break through mental magic with sheer force of will was quite the task but if anybody could do it then Ares as Garmr was top of that list without question. And so, Garmr disappeared in a sea of black that crashed into the planet and immediately blew up causing immutable mayhem everywhere all at once.
The entirety of Red Sun was swept away and even the tallest building sunk beneath the tide eventually as its roots were rotted out from underneath it and everything above water was dragged below. It took about a minute for the tide to dissipate into the earth, revealing nothing but a wasteland of a few miscellaneous bricks, strips of metal, and planks of wood where buildings once stood. Total devastation and complete annihilation at the hands of the disintegration moon... And yet Garmr was looking rather disappointed because no more than two hairs on his exposed chest had been burnt ever so slightly. They were black to begin with, so it was hard to notice, but they'd changed a little and were singed near the tip if you looked real closely. He'd given his chest to the moon and it could not take even a single hair in its entirety. It was to the point that he was now standing on raised ground because even the earth beneath him was protected by his mere existence. A reverse crater had formed with the earth around Garmr's position sinking, putting him on an earthen pedestal like the unfettered champion of might he was. Was Ares pathetic for being unable to hurt himself or was he incredible for taking that hit like it was nothing? Well an annihilation-pressure enhanced Garmr with destruction magic and dragon blood fuelling him was a living nightmare, one that would only get worse when the Extinction Converter was eventually factored in as it boosted the magic boosting his physical strength...
Strength incarnate was the most apt name for Garmr and even fundamental champion magic, carefully channelled over a lengthy duration to further its power, struggled to leave more than a passing scratch. Plus it was destruction magic too he'd been hit by so the above point was doubly true for anyone who didn't have fundamental pillar magic as Garmr would effectively be a walking tank. Garmr wasn't unbeatable but damn was he borderline there! As if to further assert his dominance, Garmr walked over to Black, still hidden within their grey dimension, and reached forward with one hand. Ares rested his clawed paw palm up against the wall and slowly curled his fingers. The sharp nails dug into the wall barrier with a screech and eventually found footing while the hand itself gripped the wall that was supposed to be unbreakable. Cracks spread out from beneath his hand as it gradually formed a fist by crunching down on the wall, leaving Black stumped because this shouldn't have been possible. Magic, even for the fundamental champions, should have been the bare minimum requirement to even interact with this dimension and yet here was this monster gripping it with his bare hands! This was preposterous in a way that wasn't even laughable because it just made no sense anymore...
Crack
Parts of the grey dimension were starting to splinter and shatter like glass but Ares paused moments before finally breaking his way in and lifted his head up high. He promptly brought it right back down with a devastating headbutt, the momentum of which nearly caused a localised hurricane, and smashed his horned head straight into this mysterious dimension. Rather than being halted by the wall, his head broke directly through the dimensional wall and small shards of reality were blasted around him in a flurry as he tilted his low hanging head to make eye contact with Black a few inches away. If ever the fear of God had been put in Black then today was the day because the most fearsome creature in existence was glaring at it from above and what was going to come next needn't be described. Though black could sense the futility in its actions, and the inevitability of death, it was still a fundamental champion and refused to quit when the going got tough. It hadn't even used arts yet so no matter how fearsome this beast before it was it could still be felled eventually through determination and multiple days of chipping away a this thing's bountiful lifeforce. The phrase death by a thousand cuts wasn't really accurate here but Black was ready, willing, and prepared to sink a couple hundred million cuts into this despicable thing if it meant forcing it down onto a single knee if only for even a split second at least!
Ares' other clone, specifically the one in the room with Sanity, had asked about Black's magic out of curiosity. He had a rough grasp of everyone else' skillset because they were all actively chanting the names of arts whereas Black was convoluted in that regard. Fortunately all the capabilities of the fundamental champions were well enough documented as the fundamental organisation had a spreadsheet of everyone's aspects and arts to keep track of information and decide who was most fitting for whatever jobs came their way. As such, it was known that the 'greyscale' aspect was what Ares was dealing with in regards to that strange dimension earlier but there were also two other aspects under the black pillar that Ares had been taught about. While Garmr was going head to head with Black, it was having information funneled straight into its head form another source, which was particularly convenient, about the 'umbrageous assault' aspect and the 'clad in night' aspect. The former was offensively tailored while the latter was stealth and subterfuge oriented.
Chances are, the reason Ares' Omniscience failed earlier was because Black had been actively using a clad in night aspect art at the time which hid it from sight and wasn't beatable een by the rarest of treasures. Even if Aejaz used his Stalkers on Black he probably still wouldn't be able to track it as his mark would be removed the second Black vanished with this magic. It was an aspect that guaranteed survival in just about any losing fight because it was a free get out of jail card in that sense but it was also useful in, or at the start of, combat. Versatility was the name of the game with this aspect. Still, it was mostly self-supporting measures that enabled the umbrageous assault pillar to finish things off with incredible lethality. Namely, currently, Black had summoned tendrils across the entire planet that were lashing out at Garmr like millions of Spikes with free will.
The black pillar was essentially just a better darkness pillar in every way, and the darkness pillar God was naturally Black's mentor, although it wasn't here right now, so having access to multiple tens of thousands of Spikes at any given point was acceptable but would also make most darkness pillar cultivators drool in jealous. Plus they didn't disappear after launching one strike and instead continued to attack over and over again. Thousands of reusable spikes across the entire planet was an incredible sight and no doubt this would only become more impressive as Black's cultivation improved. It was entirely possible it would one day have thousands of building sized spiked tendrils effectively take over an entire planet and become some infested plague land when viewed from outer space. Black could theoretically assassinate anyone on a planet the second they were spotted, from the other side of said planet, as all these tendrils also offered surveillance, remote control, and acted like spatial portals on top of everything else. It was worth saying it again, Black was EVERYWHERE it wanted to be at all times, including right beside you in your shadow. This tendril art was a much more 'in your face' style of assassination but against a target like Garmr the more subtle methods weren't going to fell it ever. Black did have an instant kill art or two up its sleeve but the chances of making it work here weren't great for it.
As for Ares, he was very prepared to just take on the tendrils in Garmr form and ignore them but he wanted to check something first. Now that Black was ditching the hide and seek method of throwing clones at him from behind dimensional walls style assassination... Had it given up on its stealth / obscuring magic? There was no real reason to keep it running if Black wasn't trying to be subtle anymore so Ares wanted to try and sneak a peek at Black's true form before he got into a long battle with it and the tendrils, plus whatever arts it had up its sleeve, so he activated it while still in Garmr form and took a gander...
He was right...
He could see Black's true form....
And it was...
AMAZING!
Garmr froze on the spot and, despite his usually non-plussed appearance, a giant grin appeared on his face as he pointed straight at black and bellowed a single word. "CUTE!" Yes, contrary to its current stolen form, the entity that was known simply as 'Black', was incredibly adorable! Ares immediately swapped out of Garmr form and activated every single speed enhancement under his belt to start chasing down Black who turned and bolted for the hills! It didn't want to be caught by this lunatic! They were in the middle of a fight, why was he acting like this now!?
"Come back! I just wanna hug you!" Ares was chasing after Black with outstretched arms in pure jubilance with nary a hint of worry on his face. He'd abandoned the fight entirely because hugging the cute thing was way more important right now! Yes the body it was parasitising was just some ugly human but the thing hiding in the shadow of it was a wonderful creature that Ares was very familiar with! It was something he'd seen before, and regularly too, but he was deprived of ever sine entering this pagoda!
Black was fleeing because it didn't want to be hugged, however! "Go away damnable human! I don't give you permission to lay hands on me! Hmph!" For the first time perhaps ever, Black finally spoke and it was definitely not the sort of voice you'd expect from a world renowned assassin. It could probably mask its voice if it really wanted to, with magic, but it was frazzled by Ares determination to show affection and resorted to its somewhat higher pitched, natural voice.
"Aww c'mon! It's just a quick hug! You know you want to be petted really!" Ares chuckled to himself with a radiant smile as he kept hunting down the adorable Black and this whole process would continue to go on for a while. Ares would never give up! He had infinite time here in the pagoda and death was the only way out so Black also wasn't going anywhere! It could try and commit suicide but Ares would cheat and alter the runes to prevent such a thing if need be! There was no way in hell Black was leaving this place without a big ol' hug first!
As for why Ares was so determined... Black was a... Secret! Pagoda Ares was going to keep this identity a secret from real Ares because he deserved to not have it spoiled. If memories were ever shared between the clone and real Ares he would conveniently keep this one tucked away because the sheer joy of discovering Black's identity first hand was worth it! Plus Black would likely be more amenable to hugs from real Ares when they finally met anyway because, although it was running away right now, Ares was dead certain this thing wanted affection and attention! It was just being outwardly stubborn and prideful but really it was a big softie! Ares knew because every single one of these non-human creatures were the exact same in this regard! This one could be haughtier than the others, and speak in a much clearer tone, and had a bit of a tsundere streak in it, but it definitely would love hugs and head pats like the rest of its race! It would warm up to real Ares by association if the clone was successful here and so, in the name of having a cute friend to play around with in the real world, clone Ares doubled down on its efforts and swore to chase Black to the ends of this simulated world! And he would be successful eventually too, making the effort all worth while. Real Ares was in for a treat with this one and his family was going to expand for sure!