Chapter 432: Bro Talk

"Ah, there you are!" Aejaz spotted Ares walking around the corner and exiting a nearby alleyway so he rushed over with a cold sweat trickling down his spine. "The hell have you been getting up to?!"

"Hm?" Ares gave Aejaz an innocent look and started whistling to himself while inspecting the sky. "Nothing. Just a quick stroll on this fine evening is all."

"... Brother, you have horns growing out of your head..." Aejaz wasn't buying it!

"It's a fashion statement?" Ares wasn't giving up!

"In what universe?! Also, how do you explain that pressure earlier?! I was half asleep when DOOM itself kicked the door down like I owed it money! I nearly shat myself in terror! Who else could do that across the entire planet if not you?!"

"... Maybe it was a ghost?"

"Not a ghost I ever want to meet! It can stay dead, and far away from me, if that's the case! Rather, if there are any ghosts in Sheryashka I think they all just collectively got spooked themselves! C'mon, spill it! What happened?" It was rare for Aejaz to probe for answers like this but it was also rare for Ares to engulf an entire planet in pressure like it was no big deal. The last and only other time this happened was due to a highly specific run-in with a rare treasure Ares needed but thought he was going to lose, the golden seed, and something like that shouldn't have happened again... Plus the pressure felt a little different, like Ares' bloodline had gotten more heavily involved and that was a huge red flag! Ares' bloodline hadn't acted up in how long now? Since back in Baja forest? It would stop being an issue when Ares reached bloodline awakening, so the closer he got the less likely it was to flare up at any given point in time without him actively enabling it, but yet here it was! Was it an accident or had Ares unleashed it on purpose? Aejaz had a lot of questions!

Ares kissed his teeth and scratched his head. "Really, it's nothing."

"... It was that stepper again, yeah? C'mon Ares, I'm not so stupid I wouldn't put two and two together. I know how bugged you were by it last time and there's been nothing else notable in Xasca that would get you going like that..."

"No comment."

"Tsk, this is because of me, isn't it? You were going to fight it but when I called out to you that thought left your head immediately because you didn't want to drag me into it... You think I'm too weak to fight it?"

"Tsk, you said it, not me. Don't go twisting my arm for answers you don't wanna hear!"

"I'm not a child, I can handle myself! I've been thinking about the stepper and I want to fight it too! What, are you gonna tell me I can't now? After giving me the choice earlier?"

"Yes, actually, I am. You. Are. Too. Weak. That's all. Who's fault is it anyway? You don't train unless I get on your case about it and you run away from every fight you don't have to take when I'm not around. Sure we're not in Red Sun, so you can't work for Hans, but if you cared enough about keeping up your training you could have found work here. Talked to Drai about it and done some stuff by yourself without waiting around for me to coax you into it like I always have to. Let's be honest Aejaz, you've improved but so what? Your natural talents and unique aspect are what's gotten you to this point and little else, definitely not any 'effort' of any kind. You aren't exactly dedicated to cultivation, are you? You don't get to live like this, constantly running away from training like its a ten legged demon with a nuke strapped to its back, and then complain when I don't let you fight something you clearly can't.

Don't get me wrong, you know I'll accommodate you because you're my brother, and you can live how you please, just don't expect me to risk throwing both our lives away to entertain the untrue thought that you are more capable than you are. There are limits for everyone and that stepper is it for you. I may have talked a big game to it earlier but the truth of the matter is that it is going to be hard to kill and a very difficult fight. The reason I'm not fighting now is because I don't want to have to babysit you, capiche? I don't care if anyone else dies and I don't care if that sounds selfish because its the truth. I picked the black market as our battle spot precisely so I wouldn't have to worry about saving people, at least not as often as I would have to in a place like this. I'm acting in your best interest here, and I know you know that, so don't get offended. I can see you getting mopey already! I won't lie to you and I certainly won't sugar coat the truth, I owe you that much as my brother. If you have complaints, I will hear them but, unless you grow wings and become the God of death himself, I'm not letting you fight the stepper. Give me the Prowler." Aejaz silently handed it over to Ares who started speaking again. "I'm going to need this for the fight but that's not why I want it right now. Look at this..." Ares transferred some memories to Aejaz using the Prowler and that left Aejaz somehow even more silent than he was before now that he understood the full animosity of the mutated stepper. There was still some combative attitude in the way he was walking, and he would have had a small argument with Ares for the things he was saying, but after what Ares showed him he had a lot on his plate to think about and go over.

Ares carried on while Aejaz was deep in thought. "You and me can both be unreasonable sometimes but I know that, when it really matters, we can let harsh truths like this slide and do what's right. Aejaz, don't get in my way with this one. You know it's wrong to be there when the fight kicks off and you know exactly why. I do not want anything to happen to you at the best of times and I categorically refuse to let anything to happen to you specifically at the hands of that stepper. If this all bothers you then you already know what to do. I told you a long time ago that you can't run from everything and, though you tried to rectify your mistakes, you never really cared much, did you? You gave up on the getting stronger thing as soon as I sopped hassling you about it because you reached a halfway decent point and felt you could go back to living a comfy life. Fine, I get it. You aren't really a cultivator at heart, I understand, but don't complain when what I want by my side in a fight to death is a real cultivator and not some namby-pamby fair-weather crook only truly capable when he picks on the weak."

...

Funnily enough, despite the bluntness of Ares' statements, neither brother appeared to really be too deeply engaged in the conversation. Ares was just berating Aejaz like usual for not taking cultivation seriously and Aejaz was aware that this stepper was a very different manner of issue than usual. Ares could have phrased it in a more polite way but Aejaz understood why he cared so much and didn't press him about it. If anything, the mood was still as light as it was when the conversation started, there just wasn't much being said as the bandit brothers walked their way back to the sect. They could have Voidwalked but there was still more of this conversation to be had, and they both knew it, so they weren't in any real rush. Ares did stop off at a stall that was still open, and bought some fūl for both him and his brother too along the way, so this was very clearly just a casual stroll and not something that was going to devolve into a massive argument like last time. It helped that Aejaz knew Ares was completely right this time and wasn't trying to deny it otherwise then Ares would get annoyed! He could have complaints about how rude Ares was in his delivery, or about him bringing up Aejaz' plentiful faults, but denying the root problem? That was a no go! Ares knew what he was talking about!

"... We cool?" Ares was checking just in case. He was fairly certain he knew the answer but it didn't hurt to make sure because Aejaz could get uppity about stuff like this every now and then.

"Yeah, obviously... Although I'm way cooler!" Aejaz gave a thumbs up and a spirited smile.

"Pft, since when did you get good at puns? Better yet, why don't you save that linguistic brain power for the Riddlemyd's riddles!"

"I keep telling you! That sphinx is getting all the answers wrong! It's not my fault his riddles are bad and his answers are worse!"

"Tom Tom would seriously cry if he heard you say that, you know?! Especially coming from you of all people!..." Though Ares and Aejaz were playing around it was evident the main topic was still nagging away at the both of them. "... Tsk, that stepper is a real freak. I know monsters can evolve and adapt, hell Rox is a great example of that, but what the hell went wrong with that stepper? It evolved in a hella weird way and I've never even heard of a monster becoming anything quite like it. They're already monsters as is, the last thing they need is a personality problem and a mean streak."

"Must have something to do with Sevorus." Aejaz shrugged.

"Ha, maybe. I mean, we can't keep blaming everything on him but he was directly involved with the steppers otherwise they wouldn't be invisible, right? Invisibility is something that sounds rather tech-y and he was combining alien lifeforms with high grade technology all the time, according to Tom Tom, so the shoe fits... What on earth was that guy thinking? Who knows what other crazy crap is lurking in that Riddlemyd. That hub room as well still gives me the heebie-jeebies... I wonder what the strongest thing I'll fight in Xasca will end up being. Tom Tom aside, he's obviously a special case and I don't know for sure that I'm gonna fight him yet, it's gotta be between the stepper brood mother, the stepper psychopath, and the final form of the twin Anubis right?"

"My money's on the psychopath... Just because the brood mother is the original that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon and I wasn't particularly wowed by the Anubis either."

"Maybe... The fight with the stepper is in just two days so it's not like I can really do anything to improve my odds before then compared to the other two, which are happening later, as well... Should I, gasp, CULTIVATE?!"

"Don't say that like it's a dirty word!"

"Aw c'mon, you know I hate sitting around in a room doing nothing!.. It's so boring... Better yet, you're the same as me! When was the last time you cultivated instead of running around thieving and improving your cultivation that way?!"

"Heh."

"Don't 'heh' me you little snake!... But maybe I should cultivate. Like actually cultivate. Take a day off to sit down and just do it. My cultivation really hasn't budged in a while so I might actually be able to claw my way up another stage if I try... You'd think I would have gone up a stage just via combat by now or by blowing crap up! It must be my bloodline. I've heard it mentioned here and there in books that having a more powerful bloodline can result in a slower ascent to the bloodline awakening realm when you start drawing near to it. Given how powerful Garmr is, Dominus' bloodline to ignore and enhance pressure accordingly, the draconic bloodline that lets me talk to animals, and my own unique bloodline that lets me infuse pressure with magic, I must be suffering from success! The universe at large is trying to keep me from becoming well and truly overpowered! At this rate I don't even know if I'll be at bloodline awakening by the time this trip is over... Which is extremely awkward! I was supposed to reach that realm before taking over the sect to further solidify the legitimacy of my promotion to the role of sect master. I might actually really have to sit around and cultivate, on vacation no less! This sucks!"

"Gotta eat our greens... Though I guess I'm not one to say that..." Aejaz gave a half hearted chuckle and his shoulders drooped. "I don't wanna be a burden. I felt a fire lit under my ass before to protect Allie but I guess living in peace in Red Sun for so long made me think nothing else needed doing. That feeling was only ever amplified after beating Fleeting Glimpse personally too as that was a pretty major wall for me... You're right. I shouldn't be like this, constantly looking for the easy way out... I'll work on it. No promises about the result or when I'll achieve it or anything but I'll definitely work on it at least. I guess it's my bad for thinking in the same way that stepper does. It's what you said to it, right? That it was strong enough to be content and feel like it never needed to strive for more strength that could be considered overkill?"

"Well yes but I'm really not going to compare the two of you, that feels all kinds of wrong. Like comparing Satan with a puppy."

"Sure but it's right, isn't it? If the stepper had bothered to cultivate more it could have killed maybe even you and bought itself more time in this world until you revived and came back for it. If I cultivated more I could have helped you fight it. Both of us have had ample opportunities over the years to improve ourselves further and just never taken them due to our own laziness and overconfidence... I know you aren't likening us to one another for any morality or personality reasons but, in that sense, I think it's true. I'm no better than some dumb monster who got content when I got everything I wanted... Not even. I still haven't accomplished my dream yet so I guess there's no real excuse other than my own reluctance and unwillingness to do things that I don't want to. Procrastination is a hell of a drug and I've been addicted a little too long... If I want to play hard, I've got to work hard. I'm grateful for you enabling me to indulge in the former while you dealt with the latter but after a while feeling useless starts to really get to you. This is the second? Third? Major time we've had this discussion in recent memory and I'm starting to get a little tired of hearing it. Not that you aren't right to say it, just that its wrong you should have to keep reminding me of something so basic in the first place.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to do anything about riddles, that's just not in the scope of my talents, but I can try to at least resolve myself to be a bit more proactive on all things cultivation. I shouldn't be so cowardly all the time... And what sucks is that when I work for Hans I'm definitely not! I feel so alive when I'm assassinating people but throw monsters into the mix and I 'panic' way too hard. Sure those steppers are ugly as sin but I should be able to fight them without wanting to run away and leave the problem to someone else, that's my bad. I mean they kinda look like spiders sometimes and yet even you're willing to fight them so what does that say about me? I don't have an excuse. I'm not so weak that I can't beat them with ease, and I know that well enough, so it's not even really 'fear'. When it comes right down to it, I think my 'fear' was mostly just that of throwing myself into the limelight. As in I 'feared' becoming a true cultivator, because I knew it entailed hard work, more than I actually did the threat of violence. I was cowardly, just for a very different set of reasons. Ah don't get me wrong, I do fear death too, but not so much more than anybody else that I have a right to act like this when others tough it out. I'm not really scared of steppers, just put off by them but who wouldn't be? I guess I just think that if I do too well your expectations for me are gonna climb even higher and my workload is just never gonna end! You're a real slave driver you know? Give you an inch and you take a mile! If I can walk, you'll want me to run. If I can run, you'll want me to fly. Makes me not even want to try because the list of things to improve upon is never ending..."

"... Did it never occur to you that I was only trying to push you to be the best you could and would stop hassling you when you reached that point instead of continuing to nag you? I know that everyone has limits, I just wanted you to, you know, get even remotely close to yours before I gave up on training you. I don't enjoy seeing you waste your talents, you know. There's a world in which you were the one fighting both those Anubis by yourself. There's a world in which you would be the one fighting that stepper psychopath. I'm not losing my mind, I know you can do it if you try, I just want that out of you for your own benefit. Why would you being stronger benefit me other than for the sake of peace of mind anyway? Sure the sect becomes stronger overall if you do but do you really think I would become some demonic instructor from hell who whips everyone into shape with mandatory suffering exercises at the cost of their free will? If I were weaker and more dependent on others, maybe, but the goal is that I can shoulder any and all burdens myself. You might take umbrage with that but I really don't care because this fundamental magic has to be good for something and this is what I choose to use it for. I just want you to have your own reason to use your magic too other than poxy amusement. It would be such a waste for such a powerful magic to be wasted on someone stealing bread in back alleys for the rest of his life. We've been through that part of our lives already and you need to move on. That was how we started off, it doesn't have to be how we keep living. In that paradise of yours, that casino you run in your dreams, are you still some beggar snooping around the customers and robbing them in such cowardly fashion with your magic? Is that really how you see yourself in those dreams or do you saunter through the building like you own the place? I know you well enough, brother, to know its the latter. I'm not saying the former doesn't have its benefits and time to shine, as an assassin it pays to know when to swap between the two, but for the sake of your own dream just please. Try a little harder? I can build you a casino. I can't turn you into the man in your dreams that runs it. That you have to do."

"Mm." Though Aejaz' response was simply a muffled mumble and a small head nod, it was a vey clear 'yes' to Ares and this was just how Aejaz seriously expressed himself in response to a talk like this. It meant he was more thinking about everything that was said rather than the current conversation and so Ares was satisfied with that. He was taking things seriously again for now. If Ares had to have this conversation with him a million times to really drill it into him then he would do it each and every single time Aejaz forgot about his motivation. If it weren't for the fact that it seemed to really bother Aejaz himself then Ares would drop the matter but the doofus clearly wanted this and so Ares wouldn't let up until he was actually where he needed to be in life. He'd made great strides but so what? Going from zero to nine was great progress, considering he was at nothing before, but if that progress was out of one hundred then who cared? He needed to keep at it instead of lazing around in the palace all day whenever Ares wasn't dragging him around. Aejaz was strong, definitely, but so much of that was due to his innate abilities. He was just as gifted as Ares in that sense but he really wasn't making fantastic use out of them. The fact that he was still probably the second person in the family was almost insulting to someone like Enyo who, nonstop, worked incredibly hard to keep up with cultivation in her spare time. Realistically speaking, Enyo had no business ever being second so long as Aejaz existed. Aejaz stealing fundamental pillars had secured his position in the world and yet he was still starting to fall behind others anyway. That was nobody's problem except his own and he needed to do something about it. There were plans in place already to improve his strength but what really needed changing was his mentality towards this whole thing. He couldn't keep trying to extricate himself from the world of cultivators, he was already in way too deep now to quit.

Regardless, the conversation had gone through the motions and all was said and done now. Much like how Ares discussed personal matters with Enyo and Bellona he'd done the same with Aejaz for now because it was needed. His matter was much simpler, though, because there was a clear answer to all of this and it was an incredibly simple message to convey to him. Stop being lazy! Aejaz didn't have any moral compass issues, like Enyo, and need to discuss the philosophies of justice or anything subjective like that. He wasn't being asked to do something outside his comfort zone like Bellona either. He had no excuse other than pure, unashamed, laziness. This guy was sloth incarnate! He was a dreamer but not a doer and that was a rough combination. The worst part was that he had all the tools needed to bring about his dream one hundred times over without breaking a sweat if he just got up and did it. Ares wasn't too fussed, though. For what it was worth, whenever Aejaz was serious, even if such a thing was rare, he was really serious and wouldn't fool around. Ares predicted that by the time Aejaz got his apotheosis form, which he was basically guaranteed given his talents, and had some more life experience, he would become a fearsome cultivator with a proper mindset to take on the world by himself. Ares wanted Aejaz to be fully independent by the time the Primordial barrier was down... No, not even that. Ares wanted Aejaz to be in an acceptable place by the time his adventures in Vraizon was over and done with, if not even sooner than that. he might need one more kick up the rear before then but Ares was starting to believe he was getting close to fixing this foolish brother's attitude!

For now, though, the bothers made it back to the palace on good terms and it was time to sleep. Tomorrow was another busy day so it was best to get some rest before then. Aejaz dozed off thinking about how to improve himself some more starting tomorrow while Ares... His mind was still on the stepper... The threat he made towards the end of his talk with it... Was complicated. Still, it was probably worth following through on to make sure the stepper was well and truly irreversibly dead and felt fear at least once in its life. Ares didn't believe he was capable of it, because the stepper was well and truly lost in a sea of madness, but he did have one trick up his sleeve that could maybe work... But again... It was really, REALLY complicated... Not in terms of complexity or anything, just that explaining himself after the matter of fact would be troublesome as no doubt a certain God was going to pester him for answers... Better start coming up with excuses now rather than later, Ares thought as he too dozed off. It had been a while since he last spoke to Astraeus and, unfortunately, it seemed as though he was going to be put in the hot seat by him again and interrogated once more... But if it meant horrifying that stepper, and establishing a predator and prey eco-system in its mind before death, then Ares felt like it was worth it. That piece of shit was going to get what it deserved and no less!