Chapter 541: Funerary Threat: Rhea, Calla, and Aster Interlude Part 2

"Can't we just kill it?" Aster, ever the optimist, and straight shooter extraordinaire, made the obvious suggestion regarding how to deal with Coffin.

"If you can find it, sure." Rhea shrugged. "That thing was always really good at hiding whenever it didn't want to be found. That and, you seem to be forgetting, it was always roughly as strong as a matriarch from the start. Now, with all the extra power at its disposal, I don't dare make guesses about how strong it is. At the very least, in order to be safe, you'd want at minimum two matriarchs and / or patriarchs going up against it just to be certain... Or maybe one Calla might do the trick..." Rhea wasn't just bigging up her friend here, Calla was a true menace that really didn't belong in the lower domains at all and was unquestionably a peak existence down here in Vraizon. "Actually, that could work." Rhea's mouth curved upwards as she gave a harmless suggestion. "Why don't we send Calla off-world to go look for the Coffin while Aster and I stay here to, together, guard the Umbra planet?

Hiss

Calla scratched the air towards Rhea and flung tiny droplets of poison at her. "Get away rom my husband you little leg spreader."

Rhea ducked under the poison, allowing it to splatter against the broken wall behind her and widen it exponentially as it was melted away, and gave a wry smile. "You're tongue is as venomous as your magic... It was jsut a joke! I was joking!" Rhea threw up her hands but didn't back down entirely. "I do need a place to live though. I mean, I went through all that trouble, and basically got kicked out of the clan, just to get you this information. You owe me."

"You can sleep in a barn with the rest of the pigs."

Hiss

Calla's immediate response left Rhea sighing to herself in self-pity. She put on a tired and betrayed face as she tightened her jaw and pursed her lips to the side. "I'm in no position to argue. If sleep in a barn I must, than sleep in a barn I shall. I just ask that you don't let my children find out about this great shame or else their sympathy will bore holes into my poor heart." Rhea shot subtle glances towards Aster to see if he was as weak willed as she remembered. Turns out, he was. Aster wasn't cold hearted enough to let this slide.

"Um, Calla..." The compassionate idiot that Aster is meant he was about to try and convince his wife to ease up on the mean treatment and spare Rhea a bed...

Hiss

And yet he was made to dance around the living room like a headless chicken as he dodged sprays of poison that burned his skin if they so much as even grazed him.

So much for that. Rhea's eye twitched as she watched this one-sided negotiation because she was starting to get annoyed! "Why are you hissing like a damn snake anyway?! Actually, don't answer that, it's because you are one! Lemme sleep in this damn house you stupid mutt! Better yet, why don't you go sleep with all the farm animals and leave me and Aster here alone you damn cow?"

Sensing the growing tension in the air, and being aware that this was only going to deteriorate into a cat fight if he stood idly by and did nothing, Aster utilised his vast knowledge of Calla-pacifying to find a topic to distract her with. He knew that, when it came ot Calla at least, happiness trumped all. If she had a reason to be happy she was very ok with dropping everything else, all her agitation include, to talk about it. He remembered that she wanted to speak to him about something earlier and now seemed as good a time as any to bring it up as it would mollify her and her current territorial mood. If Coffin was Calla's bad news there was still something positive left in the trunk and quite frankly, Aster was desperate! If frayed-tail Calla and bossy, defiant Rhea got into it here and now he would be the one getting dragged into the resulting mess and it wouldn't be pleasant! Calla would demand he attack Rhea and, when he inevitably refused, he would be attacked by Calla! And none of that even touched on what would happen if Rhea asked him to attack Calla. Either way, regardless, he would be stuck in the middle and get beaten up by both women! He knew what kind of fate was in store for him if he didn't act now so act and act fast he did! "Ahem, lovely and fluffy wife?"

Hiss

"Waitwaitwait!" Aster threw his hands up with a troubled smile as Calla's poisonous aura creeped towards him. "It just seemed like you had good news to share and I think it would be better to talk about that now before you and Rhea sort out your differences? Wasn't there something you wanted to say earlier?" Aster wiped the sweat of his brow and breathed a hearty sigh of relief when Calla's frown and scrunched eyebrows relaxed, giving way to a jubilant smile as if all the previous anger had been washed away by. The rage runoff was swift and suddenly the loving, caring, fluffy, and highly affectionate matriarch was back. Her tail wagged as she took a seat and swayed side to side, indicating she was in a mood that was better than anything Aster had seen in her in many years. He could already guess what all this meant. Calla's increased tolerance of Rhea, catfight notwithstanding, and the fact she wasn't wearing black all the time anymore either. Aster, like most other revenants, could be sharp at times and decode changes in behavioural patterns with their keen observation. Underneath his outward fealty and silly submissiveness to Calla there was an individual not dissimilar to Ares. As in, when it was time to put his foot down, or time to put away the idiot persona, he commanded any and every room he was in an his general intelligence rose by at least a few tens on demand. He was infinitely close to taking a firm stance with Calla earlier if she kept persisting on making Rhea sleep in the barn, she was the mother of one of his children and there was a limit to what he would tolerate. Of course he was also aware that Rhea was trying to exploit that but it was arguably Calla's fault she had a leg to stand on in the first place. Anyway, if he needed to stand up to Calla, seriously, he would do so later. No point in ruining her current merriness and it's not like he wasn't feeling good too if the news he was about to hear aligned with what he was expecting.

"I found Ares! He's..." Calla dove headfirst into an extensive rant about quite literally every single detail, no matter how minute, of her time in Sheryashka. It was quite excessive but Aster listened patiently as he knew how much this all meant to her... Although whether or not harping on about how 'fluffy' he was, she'd mentioned it nearly a hundred times, was necessary was another matter entirely. Being prone to repetition aside, and perhaps exaggerating a few things here and there about the quality of his cooking, it was an interesting story. Ares wasn't just 'doing well', he was thriving. A rough start couldn't stop him and now he was treading the same path as Mako. That was a relief as well because, despite Aster's confidence in the Umbra clan's next generation, that fundamental pillar was looking to be extremely obnoxious down the line. There were rumours that Mako was training in a secluded space somewhere on the Willow clan's planet and the few scouts, sent by the Starlights, that had gotten close were all beaten back by the kid himself which was no small feat given that some of these scouts were already above the transition realm. By the sounds of it, Ares was also capable of fighting people above him but it was slightly different. Mako's cultivation was higher, but Ares could cross wider cultivation gaps, so they were roughly the same in terms of power level currently...

Well, it might have seemed even at a glance but Ares had higher potential, that much was clear as a similar cultivation base between the two would reveal Ares' superior talents. For the sake of the Umbras, that mattered a lot. Ares might have business as a sect leader now, and as a fundamental champion he had obligations, but as a powerful revenant there was one more fate in store for him that he would hopefully not try to avoid. He was going to be the next leader of the Umbra clan. If he was that strong then it needed to be him, nobody else. Aster was a lingering relic from a past era. He remained unreplaced to this day because he was the strongest revenant, other than Calla who had no interested in leading, that was literally all there was separating him from an early retirement. There were some youngsters in the revenant clan with a lot of potential and if Aster was going to get one upped one day anyway then he would sooner pick one of his own kin to do it than handing over the reigns to another branch family. Ares having a fundamental pillar, and a mutated revenant form that was a history-defining legend in the making, meant there was no better option and could be no dispute about his rise to the position. Anyone who wasn't in the know might think that Verv, Skyzo, Venus, Fate, and Scar were all shoe-ins for the position but half of them didn't want it and the other half had serious competition.

Namely, there was a revenant kid running around who was the son of an old-guard revenant, someone who worked directly under Atria, the previous clan leader, and had various grudges left unfulfilled. After the split between domains, the old-guard revenant maintained his loyalty to Atria but couldn't justifiably take over the clan, and direct it where his anger dictated, because Aster existed. Still, he created a faction of revenants that had all been close to Atria and things were complicated in the clan because of it and the friction they brought to every clan meeting. There was more to the Atria story than people knew, her taking power and immediately abusing it to cause mayhem and shed massive amounts of blood was exaggerated, but only a select few really knew the extent of it. Those that did typically overwhelming favoured returning to the upper domains above Vraizon and enacting revenge while exposing hidden truths. Naturally, all their children agreed and one of them, the old-guard's son, by the name of 'Constance', was doggedly gunning for the position of sect leader.

Constance Still had a ways to go but his magic was frightening... All it took was one misstep for even Aster and his rule would be snatched out from right under him. Constance had a very unique passive magic that was simple but deadly to the extreme. 'Glass Cannon'. Every attack launched by Constance would instantly kill his opponents, no matter how trivial. Now, sure, that was ridiculous, killing someone by spitting on them for instance was absurd, but he also died in one hit to any attack launched at him. It was 'technically' even... If you ignored the fact he was an immortal revenant and could try an infinite number of times to kill you. It's not even like he had to cultivate, really. Constance could just fire regular guns at people, utilise powerful treasures above his paygrade, or come up with various devious traps to kill a person in unfair ways. He once dropped a bomb gadget into a lake and used mana to sharpen the spray of the water that burst outwards from the detonation point. It was a wide reaching, devastating attack that was far more lethal than it looked thanks to his magic. Constance was only in the first realm of cultivation at the time but managed to kill a peak bloodline awakening revenant with this little trick and everyone realised they had to be wary of him since as they acknowledged the true power he wielded.

Now, of course, all it took to shut Constance down was stubbing his toe on a table or something equally ridiculous. Aster could blow his nose in Constance's general direction and neutralise the threat... But where things got troublesome was when Constance was given aid and ample opportunity. If his father gave him a treasure that obfuscated his presence and made him invisible, and set up a chance encounter, then even Aster would bite the dust unknowingly. If Aster died then Calla was still here, sure, but she wasn't as politically savvy as Aster was and the clan's leadership would fracture, changing drastically by the time Aster was reborn and returned leaving him with less and little control over decision making due to his lacking power to enforce matters. Constance was a difficult threat and killing him, if it was ever necessary, would only provide a reprieve of about a year or two. Even as a baby Constance was unironically a threat as his magic didn't discriminate across age or cultivation. He was like an infected, undying zombie that just needed to bite you once. Was he a better combatant than any of Aster's children? No. Was he a fast cultivator, a prodigy the likes of which nobody had ever seen before? No. Was he a wielder of a fundamental pillar? No. Was his revenant form impressive? No, it was bottom of the barrel... But his unique magic kept him in the running and that made him a problem.

The last thing Aster wanted was for an Atria hardliner to take control over the clan as the direction it would take, with regards to maintaining relations with the other clans, would be thrown out the window. There was justifiable hate amongst the Atria lot, Aster was more privy to the details of their backstory than others and knew where their animosity stemmed from, but things were finally starting to calm down somewhat. If an Atria hardliner took over and marched the clan to war with the upper domains, which they would inevitably do, it would reignite the chaos that people were starting to get sick of. War with the Starlights, Willows, and Legions was draining and revenants were looking for more peaceful lives now.

There had to be a better way of dealing with the hardliners but Aster was at his wits end trying to make peace with these people. Perhaps Ares could find a way, it would be his job soon after all. Aster didn't like pawning off a complicated issue onto his son, especially one he'd never even met before or discussed this matter with, but Aster genuinely was incapable of resolving this animosity within the clan and, if he was being honest, it was because he wasn't strong enough. He couldn't break through to the upper domain, demand answers, and get the retribution that the revenants were long owed. He couldn't force the Legions, Starlights, and Willows to apologise for everything they put the Umbras through despite knowing nothing about the truth of why this had all happened to begin with. Even the Major issue had tied Aster's hands so he was more than happy to step down and let someone else, someone more capable, take over. In this case, Ares was perfect. It was maybe unfair to Ares, to give him more obligations in addition to the ones he already had on his plate, but Aster hoped he would see the clan's current plights and be willing to act.

According to Calla, being a fundamental champion meant he had sway, and had to visit the higher domains eventually anyway, so although burdening him wasn't preferable it would be a small burden compared to what he was already saddled with. Sending him up to the next domain, through the broken passageway, and having him conduct peace talks, as well as righting the various wrongs, was the best case scenario. Ares wasn't a hardliner, had the tools, status as a fundamental champion, and power to force reasonable and rational discourse, didn't posses any observable revenants traits so couldn't be identified if he snuck in, had no interest in war, and would one day become the representative of revenants as a whole. Though it was wrong for Aster to see his child in this cold and calculating light, as a tool to solve a longstanding issue within the clan, it was one of the reasons he was the patriarch to begin with. Strength meant a lot but Aster had to be capable of making choices like this and be unflinching even towards his own kin.

Previously, Aster had been thinking of dumping this all on Scar but the pressure was really too much. Scar was a fantastic cultivator, and calm to boot meaning he was suitable as a leader, but he would struggle due to the sheer scale of what he was being thrown into. Comparatively, Ares was a powerhouse who could navigate these situations with force, if need be, and so he would have an easier time. It was for that reason, and that reason only, he was the target Aster had set his sights on. He wouldn't push this on Ares immediately but it was something he was going to have to think about by the time the issue with Major and his Coffin was resolved and the domain found relative peace. Th only reason the hardliners were quiet for now was because the Legions were still a massive threat in the present day and making a mockery of the word 'ceasefire'. They were also the ones who had misunderstood the Atria incident more than anybody else, and given the Umbra clan the most grief when it really wasn't deserved, so the hardliners would never forgive the Legions and felt the need to 'deal with them' before leaving for the higher domains.

The hardliners could be ignored for now, while Major and Coffin were still in the picture, but Ares would have to return here someday, take up the mantle, and then solve their problem before the hardliners disbanded and took matters into their own hands. The revenant unity wasn't fractured, and it could still be saved, but a figure capable of bring the factions together, and accomplishing what they both wanted, was needed. Aster was in a brilliant mood knowing Ares was fine, and he wanted to meet him, go gambling, and spar in the wheat fields mano et mano, but he was also thinking practically for the future. Aster loved this clan deeply and he wasn't going to sacrifice it just because he didn't want to inconvenience his son. Being the leader of the clan was an inconvenience but it was mandatory to maintain the sense of comradery, and the close knit community that revenants always tended to foster. The quiet farm life, the homely and peaceful families sharing stories over warm soup and bread, the friendliness and openness... These things were all worth protecting and that was Aster's duty. It's not that the hardliners disagreed with this notion, they were simply taking a more destructive route to accomplishing the same thing, a route that would make enemies of everyone and constantly disrupt the peace to fight meaningless wars over well intentioned beliefs and actions. They needed to be kept away from power and Ares was, unfortunately, the key to that. Aster would apologise profusely on both hands and knees if need be but this was imperative... That and convincing Calla not to behead Rhea who was sneaking away deeper into the house to go look for a bed... Aster would much rather be out working the fields right now than dealing with these two women... Still, he had a feeling they got along in their own unique way. There was going to be a new face hanging around the Umbra planet and, truthfully, it was one he liked to see. Aster had constantly taken Calla's side year after year and shunned Rhea but, maybe for a short while at least, he could back the Legion woman and help her find somewhere comfortable to sleep. He felt like he owed her that much at least.