Chapter 431: There Are Some Mistakes You Can’t Unmake

"WOOHOO!" Ares, much unlike the giant scorpion he just run over, was having a blast. He'd never driven a vehicle of any sort before and certainly not one with a top speed as high as the caravan anyway. The ride was bumpy as can be, and even saying that was an understatement, but Ares was starting to get the hang of drifting in the desert and he kinda sorta understood why Blo Blo was so into this. Plus the cars she liked would go way WAY faster than this bucket o' bolts so Ares understood her passion for it! Maybe Ares himself would give this a try too, racing, when the time came. For now though, he was just having a jolly time sailing off sandy ramps and getting good air time before crashing back down onto the sad with a rough rumble that shook and stirred the soul... Well, Ares was enjoying himself at least but his passengers, the tied up trio, were infinitely close to throwing up all over the place. Unconscious? How could Ronnie and Bonnie remain unconscious in this waggon of madness? Naturally such a thing was impossible so they were awake and screaming their lungs out!.. Ronnie was, Bonnie was still kissing her teeth... She was really committed to that character trait! Or maybe she'd been cursed or something. Maybe if she wasn't a scavenger Ares would have given her constitution a look to check for defects and maybe try to cure her of her problem but there was no point going to all those lengths for a soon to be dead person who deserved their fate.

Mr Gold's wild ride continued for about another two hours until he eventually navigated the dark desert back to the wall after wasting some time playing around with the caravan. It was really late now but Ares had to take the slower caravan so he could carry the trio otherwise he would have just Voidwalked. The Puny Prisoners were still in use with those Federation tanks so this was the only solution. Not like he was complaining, at his cultivation he could stay awake all night and feel near enough nothing and getting to test drive the caravan awes fun enough for him to be ok with this use of time. He would Voidwalk the rest of the way back to Xasca city after dropping off the trio, though!

The caravan pulling up to the wall's checkpoint must have drawn a lot of attention as a bunch of guards were surrounding it by the time Ares finally opened the door. It was quite the rare sight so only one group fit the bill regarding who could possibly own it. The guards were expecting the trio to burst out and start attacking people, or maybe they were secretly leading an army here again, but instead the roped up trio were tossed out the caravan like a bag of trash and they rolled harmlessly to the guard's feet. Ares stepped out shortly after and spotted the lead guard here he spoke to earlier. She was on standby in the area because all of her duties were done and she'd assigned everyone else so flawlessly she basically had free time to do as she pleased. Instead of relaxing, though, she was manning the gate in case something unpredictable happened. One unforeseen disaster was enough so she was trying to prevent a second one when everyone else's guard was down. This was overly cautious but not entirely unwarranted. Regardless, this was going to be a positive event and not a negative one that fell into her lap so she eased up as soon as she understood the situation and stepped forward. "Well that was quick. I'd expected the hunt for them to take a couple of days at least... Based on the lack of injuries across the board I'm guessing you beat them quite handily too... What can I say? Enjoy all your stolen goods, I guess. Thank you for your help, we can take the trio from here and make sure punishment is doled out appropriately."

Ares gave a quick nod in response and watched the trio get dragged away to a tent for confinement. "What will their punishment be exactly? I'm guessing death?"

"Public execution, to be specific. We need to dissuade others from doing what they so carelessly did. If you're still around in about five days from now you might even see their corpses being paraded around the city."

"Huh, it'll be like a friendly reunion. Maybe I'll wave hello. Anyway, I got other stuff I need to focus on so I'll be on my way. Next time I return here would you mind filling in a bit more of the map you made earlier and informing me about some of the more treasure-rich locations? That'd be swell."

"Fine. That ought to square away the debt owed for defeating the scarabs earlier and bringing us these three. Until then." The guard waved and departed for a bed, presumably. Now that the trio were in the guard's possession the number of unexpected risks that could come creeping up on the wall were slim.

As for Ares, he was already Voidwalking away before anybody noticed him leaving. He would be able to return to Xasca city in under five minutes at the rate he was going. That was the expected time to return, anyway, but three minutes later he was Voidwalking over the gate and landing on an empty street. He'd rushed back because he wanted to take a quick detour and check out the slums! He wanted to know the way there, and roughly what kind of layout he'd be dealing with, so a quick peek at the black market destination couldn't hurt right? That was what Ares thought but, as it turned out, fate had other plans in store for him. His rush back had allowed time to play a cruel trick on him and line up his return to the city such that he was forced to freeze mid step as he passed by an alley due to what he saw down it out of the corner of his eye... If only he'd just been a minute or two slower. If only he'd not wasted so much time doing donuts in the desert with the caravan. If only he'd not had the desire to go check out the slums and come down this route... So many possible ways to have avoided this second encounter but, whether Ares wanted it or not, the mutated stepper psychopath was back...

We're really doing this, huh? Ares hadn't expected to see this thing again, and fight it, until the black market chapter of his journey commenced... He wanted to avoid fighting it in public but all the lights were off and nobody was roaming the streets so this wasn't actually a terrible chance. A fight with this thing would cause a ruckus, and some people might come outside, but they would quickly realise the scale of the battle was beyond them and either flee or hide back inside. Some buildings would get destroyed, and the stepper would force Ares to play hero with the civilians inside them, but ii would be way more manageable compared to fighting during the day and protecting hordes of gathered mortals... It looked like Ares' appointment with that evil creature was being pushed up ahead of schedule. It too looked surprised to see him again so soon but that momentary pause quickly turned into another one is twisted 'grins'. Its two eyeballs, one on each eye head, swung once more... But this time they seemed to be a bit... 'Happier?' Rather than a slow swing of the eyeballs, that relied on momentum to pull them up slowly near the edges before falling back down, now the eyes were acting like a metronome and keeping a constant speed throughout their swing. It was a small difference, barely even perceptible, but resulted in a vastly different type of greeting that indicated it was excited to have found Ares again as he was the one 'friend' it had that could actually see him. This thing was clearly very sentient and Ares loathed it. Disgusting thing. Its bloodlust and aura of madness were tactile as ever and, now that nobody else was around to cloud it, Ares could tell it was considerable. The reddish, twisted aura was creeping around the corner the stepper was peeking around and looked thick enough to corrupt any mortal struck by it. This stepper could probably passively drive weaker people to rage and despair just be standing next to them and cackling in their ear.

Sigh

Ares took a deep breath and turned to face the alley. Step by step he gradually entered the narrow path and disappeared form the main street much like those who were rumoured to have disappeared for 'unknown' reasons. Ares didn't plan on never returning, however, so he stared the stepper dead in the eyes with his recently activated Omniscience and kept advancing. He didn't have it on before and yet he was still capable of noticing the stepper due to the sheer aura of animosity it was letting out. Ares didn't have to use pressure to scan the area, the stepper had effectively come barging straight into his personal space and was right up in his face like a snarling pit bull with a spiked collar, foaming at the mouth. That was what being in he same area as this monster felt like. A rabid creature wearing a fake smile, ready to pounce and rip you throat out when the mask slipped.

Ares assumed the stepper would just idly stand halfway hidden around the corner until Ares finally approached but, as Ares made it about the halfway point down the alleyway, the stepper partially retreated a little more and retracted on of its arms. It looked like it was fetching something from behind the wall as Ares paused in his tracks and waited. This was an enemy he had to be patient around. Any openings or weaknesses would be capitalised on in a heartbeat so understanding the situation first was Ares top priority. Ares would take in and fully digest each of the steppers' tricks before carrying on so as no to be caught unaware later on by any details he missed. This was the first opponent Ares had ever faced that wasn't going to just try and fling overwhelming strength at him. Sure the stepper possessed great power in spades but it was going to try and wear Ares down mentally and goad him in cunning ways, Ares could tell. No matter what the stepper did, though, Ares had to remain unfaltering otherwise he would cede the edge. Put simply, Ares was at a massive disadvantage in every way. He wasn't a hero but, compared to the stepper at least, he damn well was. Even someone like Chen Lo would have been a saint before this thing so that wasn't saying much, The point was that there were no restraints and what this stepper could resort to was unpredictable. Who knows? Maybe it had already lured someone behind the wall before Ares arrived and was going to use them as a hostage? That was Ares first thought and it was also his last on the matter because the answer was revealed to him in gruesome fashion.

Like a torturer dragging its recently deceased 'toy' around by the hair, the stepper, inch by inch, tugged a small, mutilated body around the corner and spun it to face Ares who was left silent... He recognised this person who'd been maimed piece by piece... The child he protected from this very monster earlier was dangling lifelessly... No, it was worse than just being 'lifeless', life had long since fled whatever this rotting and festering object was. Body parts had been severed and reattached with blood stains still painted all over and no human had ever taken this grotesques shape before. Every limb was contorted and every bone broken, leaving nothing more than a malleable pile of flesh left for the stepper to have played with. It had poked holes into everything and filled the flesh bag with various liquids before burst the child like a bubble multiple times over if the dripping flesh was any indication. Just about every facial extremity had been painstakingly scratched off inch by inch. Ah but the head was still mostly intact, actually. It formed the centre of this abominable body-horror victim and was the focal point at which all else was connected. Rather, it had been left intact on purpose, intricately left pristine enough, aside from the aforementioned injuries, so that Ares could recognise it still.

In case the face wasn't enough, for Ares to recognise the kid however, the child's mouth was filled with a gag which was created by jamming the food and clothes Ares had bought him down his throat and choking him. He'd been abused for hours on end and finally suffocated on the very comforts Ares had gifted him to rob all the hope he had of a better life now that things were starting to look a bit better... The kid got greedy. Ares had told him to stay hidden but he must have had a taste of the high life, compared to the garbage he lived through on a daily basis, and wanted more which lead to him getting caught. He'd not paid Ares' warning any heed... But surely this was still too much? He was a bad kid for not listening to grown ups but that didn't mean this... Any of this was necessary, right? The hell he went through in his final moments; no kid just trying to survive and get by deserved that and Ares was a bit depressed seeing this. After all, wasn't he the same? If he were in the kids shoes, like he once was, would he have not made the same mistake? He was always the adventurous type way back when and would have disregarded the warning too.

This entire situation... Ares hated it from the bottom of his heart, truly. It wasn't even the sentimental issue of having a kid he worked on saving ending up like this, if it was just that Ares would have managed to keep a straight face... But this damn stepper had accidentally thrown Ares onto a landmine of past memories and agitated him for a very different reason than it intended to... If it was going to keep acting this way, though, it would hit on people's correct nerves eventually, and it knew that, but the way its eyes were swinging now indicated it knew it struck gold with Ares and hit the jackpot on its first try. The swing of its eyeballs had gotten a tiny bit longer, it was hunched over the kid even further and poking away at the puss-filled flesh, its other arms were all now creeping over the kid and one was pushing the gag deeper into the boy's throat. None of these gestures mattered for any reason other than to just annoy Ares and take glee in his facial expressions. This wasn't even strictly for combat. Yes throwing an opponent off was always helpful but this... Thing, at its roots, found this all very fun. The somewhat sad frown on Ares' face right now? That was all it needed to make all of this worth it. The stepper could die in five minutes and reach hell satisfied, wanting nothing more out of life. It was finished with the 'toy' in its hands so it checked it down the alleyway so that it landed right at Ares' feet. Ares looked down at it for a few seconds and then disintegrated the mass of flesh with a silent apology that he muttered to himself in his head.

Sigh

"It's my fault." Ares glanced up at the stepper and resumed his walk towards it. "You killed him but it was my fault. I'll take the blame for this. I should have known better than to resort to half measures with something like you and made sure the kid was kept somewhere he couldn't escape. He was just a kid, after all. A dumb kid that learnt a hard lesson about the risks of not trusting people they should. But kids are supposed to learn through mistakes, so I don't really blame him. I sort of want to, though... It's easy to blame the dead, and he definitely made a mistake, but I'm at fault, and your the culprit. He's still the victim in spite of it all... Just one victim, though, right? You've been doing this for how may years now? Hundreds of years at least? Bet you've had fun... But, you know, this time, in spite of the mistake that boy made, you made the biggest mistake of everyone here. I don't take well to being taunted like this. At all, really, but like this? This is picking a fight. I'll give you credit because I don't think I've ever been this riled up before. I'm not even mad, my bloodline's not acting up yet or anything, I just think this is all very personal?"

Ares was roughly ten steps away from the stepper now but he was walking along like he was taking a stroll in the park and not facing down a powerful foe as he clicked his knuckles. "I don't like you. You didn't need to kill the boy for that to be true either. Doing so barely even moved the needle, honestly. I don't know if that says more about you or me but I think it means we're both a little twisted in our own way. Still, I need to get used to this sort of stuff, because I'm going to be seeing a lot of it, but that's where the similarities between us end. I don't like this, you do. I don't like you, you seem to like playing with me. It's a bad idea, though, and now we're back onto the mistake you made. I never really clarified it and you don't seem to understand. I don't know if you're stupid because you understand the meaning behind my words but don't believe me or because you genuinely have no clue what I'm saying... But you have definitely made a mistake. It's one you're going to pay dearly for too. Take solace in the fact that we're different because I won't waste time on you, like you did with the boy, when I'm done with you, but definitely remember, as you're dying, that this was all a mistake.

See, there's levels to this.

There are weak individuals you can bully all you want and the chances of facing any sort of consequences with these people are low. These are the people you've been picking on all your life and you know them well. Maybe back when you were just a little stepper you were the same. Maybe. I don't know about your backstory, and how you became this way, but I really don't care. It's irrelevant.

Then there are fighters. These people won't go down without a little bit of extra effort. You know these people too. You've seen your fair share of arrogant and unruly brutes walking around this town and had your pick of the litter with them. They break easy despite their rough facade and will no doubt have begged you for mercy up until their final breath. Understandable. They don't know fear, because they expect others to feel it for them, so that first time they come across something they actually do fear they drop the pretenses and realise where they stand in the world.

I think the next category of person has left quite the impression on you because there's still a mark on the body you hide shamefully behind that wall from such a person. The original Xasca city settler, the fellahin leader who, all those years ago, wounded you and left you on the brink of death. These people are warriors who can give you a run for your money. Or could, once, anyway. You're above that now but, back then, you were at their mercy and would have needed to resort to all manner of dirty tricks just to scrape by with your worthless life. You probably only killed that fellahin person because you took hostages right? Maybe a loved one of his? Maybe a soldier of his that he cared for like family? Perhaps you even struck at his fresh wounds to reopen them and took whatever victory you could. Something of the sort. I don't blame you for doing it, I would too, but I don't respect you for it the same way I don't respect some of the things I do, and will have to do, either. Anyway, these people go out like heroes and never whisper even so much as a single complaint while you dismember them, and that scares you a little. Why wouldn't it? That's creepy behaviour. Those overly heroic types weird me out too. Caring less about their own safety and 'entrusting the future' to others while they die... Definitely not normal and they've absolutely got a few screws loose to think the world works like that in most cases.

Then there's you. Nowadays you're in a league of your own aren't you? Maybe Juggernaut could beat you, maybe she couldn't. Point being, you are definitely a class of existence that's rather unique around here. In this city, under the cover of night, with your invisibility, you are the apex predator in these parts for miles on end. There are no others like you so you feel confident and unfettered. Everyone you've ever met comes under one of the three previous categories and that allows you to feel safe acting like a bully. I get it. That power is addicting, right? I know. I don't get the urge to pointlessly use it on others but I do know that feeling. You're practically drowning in it and that's where you get that awful aura from. You think you're top of the world and nothing can touch you but that's just because you don't understand how vast this world really is. You can't grasp it and you never will."

Ares was now a mere few inches away from the stepper, looking up at him as though he were a child talking to an adult. Still, there was a kind of wisdom to Ares' defiant stance right now and so, despite being dwarfed in the height department, he still seemed like the more sagely existence of the two. "But it doesn't end there..." Ares shook his head. "See, above you, there is another type of person. They are stronger than you know and stronger than you will ever be. They've pursued strength for far longer than you have. You just chased it until any further improvements were irrelevant and unnecessary to what you do on a daily basis. You don't need to be any stronger than you currently are because you're already the strongest thing in Xasca, other than maybe the Riddlemyd stuff and the stepper brood mother. Still, point being, you don't thirst for power like you do for violence. You don't need to be at this level of strength I'm describing to pick a child apart; that's overkill and, if anything, you might accidentally destroy the body before you actually want to. You don't fear this type of person because, as far as your aware, they don't exist around here and, even if they did, you could just hide for a while and let them pass by. True, you're right. Plus most people wouldn't want to deal with you anyway because everything about fighting you would be a real headache. Expert cultivators are mostly unbothered by you and you are unbothered by them. To each other, you all might as well not even exist. Still, if a fight did break out, you would definitely not be the winner." The stepper confidently leaned down in front of Ares and placed its two head directly in front of him, as if in mockery to say that 'Ares wasn't this kind of person'. It truly believed Ares was easy prey. Still, Ares wasn't quite done just yet so he ignored the evil entity glaring him down and released his pent up frustration. The stepper was no more than a few centimetres away, though, so little more than a mere whisper was needed for Ares' voice to be heard.

"Listen well motherfucker, you have made a very powerful enemy." A blanket of pressure descended across Sheryashka as Ares' eyes turned into draconic slits and two small horns begun growing out of his head. The entire planet was being constricted and strangled by the overwhelming golden pressure flowing through the planet like destructive ley lines. "Did you think I was going to only rank myself a mere fraction above you? That I would do myself that disservice? I wouldn't rank myself below a God, let alone within the same realm of whatever manner of pathetic creature you are." Ares' pressure was going ballistic and even spreading out into Vraizon, clamping down on every single planet within reach and inciting fear in every living creature as his teeth grew sharper and a slight snarl was added to every word he spoke. "There are some mistakes you can't unmake and you, you insignificant worm, have made the biggest fucking mistake I've ever seen. I do not exist on the spectrum I laid out for you. You do not fear me nor are you unbothered by me because, quite frankly, you do not understand me at all. There are billions of lives in this universe and you just had to go and pick a fight with ME. I almost feel sorry for you, almost. You've messed with powers beyond your comprehension now and I won't make things easy for you. No, in your final moments, you will know true horror. I am not going to torture you, no, but I am going to make sure you feel regret and I will wipe that stupid smile of your face once and for all when I FEED YOUR FUCKING CORPSE TO..."

"ARES?!"

...

Sigh

Ares let out a long, drawn out breath and the pressure receded back into him like a funnel of wind. He reclaimed every ounce of pressure and the golden tinge creeping over the universe vanished as if it had never been there to start with. Aejaz' voice, from somewhere down the street, had interrupted Ares... But that was fine for now. "I will kill you." Ares spoke to the frozen stepper. "Just not yet. Consider this warning a kiss of death... Oh..." Ares' hand descended effortlessly through the thick aura of madness and patted the stepper on the shoulder before he turned around and walked away. "... And try not to make any more mistakes from now until our next meeting. That threat at the end just now? You may not know where I was going with it but I do and trust me; you don't want me to follow through with it. You really don't." With a friendly wave, Ares departed and left the stepper behind to process the strange sensation it was feeling. The hint of fear would dissuade most other intelligent creatures from anything involving Ares for a lifetime but this stepper was truly insane. Those threats? They were little more than a challenge to this freak so that awful grin of its soon returned. If anything, it was wider than ever...