Capítulo 356: Chapter 356: Rock the Casbah: Ayane Ensemble Interlude
Elsewhere, outside the pagoda, inside which the Ares clone was listening to Dominus unknowingly and ironically harp on about some kind of 'massive Scylla monster', a certain old man had just returned from his impromptu trip half-way across the universe. Unreliable Old Master had located the nearest Transmit, wherever he landed after his random Teleport, and returned so as to continue acting as a guard. Kaleido couldn't help but be curious about the nature of this Old git's trip to which he found out that Unreliable, and Ject's troublemakers, wound up inside, quote, 'a cave full of spiders'. Kaleido didn't believe for a damn second that was the extent of Unreliable's hazardous luck so he queried further and it seemed as though this idiot had accidentally taken a trip to the spider realm and had a run in with what could essentially be called a spider Goddess of sorts. Unreliable didn't know what he'd just been flung into but it was actually quite a big deal and it was unlikely the people who were dragged along with him were going to survive their unforeseen and all-expenses paid holiday in hell. They were probably sedated with numbing venom and hung up in cocoons waiting to be devoured by a brood of planet sized 'spiderlings' right this very instant.
The 'queen' / Goddess of these spiders was about the size of an entire domain and housed these 'smaller' planet sized spiders within her and it was all, quite frankly, terrible. Death awaited anyone who dared pick a fight with the spider Goddess and so everyone just let it do whatever the hell it wanted off in the middle of nowhere, building some kind of domain of webs to live comfortably in with its ginormous children. It was like the spider in the corner of your house minding its own business so long as you ignored the somewhat inconvenient fact that the spider was roughly a hundred times the size of your own house. It was a good thing Ares didn't know this colossus beast existed as of yet but there was a very high chance he'd run into this thing and the mere sight of it would be repulsive enough for him to want to kill the damn abomination and rid the universe of its hideousness for his own sake. He probably wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully at night had he known such a creature was roaming around in the universe.
Anyway, Unreliable Old Master was back and ready to continue... Standing around and praying for the best possible outcome? He'd been quite lucky to get randomly Teleported out of the spider queen's insides but that was honestly to be expected with this doofus. Getting out of trouble was perfectly achievable, you just never knew when he was going to get into it. Anyway, Kaleido kept his distance from the old fellow and just kept doing his job. Eventually another big shot showed up but it was one on good terms with Ares yet again so Kaleido could ease up and not have to worry about a potential fight brewing. Caribou Coronos had arrived!... Or, more like, he'd been here for a while now actually... It was complicated but what he'd done, as far as Kaleido could tell, was arrive, go back in time to when he was still setting off, and then send himself forward to his future self's location. Essentially, he'd done the lengthy travel so he could go back in time and avoid the lengthy travel that his future self had already done. Surely messing around with time like this was asking for trouble? Wasn't he going to get his wires crossed one day and accidentally break a timeline or something? Kaleido figured it was best to not ask because, honestly, he didn't know enough about the space time pillar to even have a cursory understanding of how it all worked. He could be lectured for a million years by Coronos and still not get even half way to introductory comprehension so he just greeted the man and went through the standard admission process.
Coronos did get to skip the line, as Kaleido made had long since made an executive decision that anyone in Ares' good books was allowed to, but something rather unfortunate happened. As Coronos paid and walked by Unreliable to enter the pagoda he was whisked away by the Old fart and sent God only knows where. Fortunately for Coronos his time manipulation allowed him to rewind his body back to where he was but a moment ago and so he was spared the hassle of being dumped in a dangerous place. Unreliable was still probably wandering around, and might do for some time if there was no immediate threat to his life wherever he landed, but at least the VIP wasn't too inconvenienced otherwise there could be some very justified complaints Transmit would have to acknowledge. Unreliable was extremely useful but he was also somewhat of a liability in that sense. The amount of meetings he'd ruined were not small. Higher ups in Transmit waiting for their four o'clock to show, as they were multiple hours late because Unreliable happened to walk past them in the lobby, was somewhat of a common occurrence... Still, when he was useful, he was very useful and so Transmit let him stick around... For as long as he was able to, anyway, before he disappeared as per usual...
While Coronos was inside the pagoda and having a chat with Ares, primarily about whether or not he could summon a fake Astraeus within the simulated pagoda (to which the answer was ultimately a no), outside another guest had show up. It was yet another big shot but it was one that was incredibly hard to deal with... It's not like personality wise they were an issue... Maybe? Nobody really knew the answer to that. No, the problem was that this person was mute! Or they chose to live that way, at least, so getting any info out of them regarding what they wanted here was nigh impossible. Of course Ayane Ensemble here must have taken an interest in Ares for the same reason everybody else did but what was she actually after? More information? A spar with Ares? Just nosing around? Kaleido would likely never figure it out but her calibre and status was such that she was permitted to skip the queue just like everyone else who came before her if she wanted to. Before she could pay the entry fee, however, a third, and technically fourth, big shot showed up and these two were also problematic!
"It's Davey Do, the daring dude!"
"And Davey two, the mecha 'roo!"
The same old song and dance everyone and their mothers had heard a thousand times over signified the arrival of the dumbest duo as they slid into the spotlight. No, really, there was an actual spotlight for some reason. No doubt one of these idiots had learnt a technical for this very moment and improved their dynamic entrance by just a smidge to entertain themselves further. Everyone simply sighed and groaned but what else could they do? Get their asses beat for defying this obnoxious pairing? Anyway, the real issue here was that Davey and Ayane were not exactly friendly and a fight had very nearly broken out the last time they met back at the war camp where Coronos had been fighting the null legion. Davey wanted to destroy Ayane's home planet, after all, as he was in search of that medicine for his mother. They'd both learnt about Ares at the same time and it seemed like Ayane was at least partially aware that Davey was taking an intertest in him to potentially recruit him and have him on side for later during the ransacking of her home domain...
Them both having shown up at the exact same time was leading to a particularly tense atmosphere... For everyone other than those involved, apparently, as Davey simply flipped Ayane the bird, Kanga started trying to hop over to her to begin his failure-ridden flirting ritual, and Ayane started hurriedly walking away and towards the pagoda entrance to get away from these whackos. She was a silent and stoic woman but also somewhat dopey and a bit of a klutz due to her sheltered upbringing so her speedy walk just made her look embarrassed and hardly like the cultivation titan she truly was. Not many people had seen this clumsy side of her so it was quite a jaw dropping revelation, especially to the people who would be writing up countless tabloids about this. She was still just a relatively young girl at the end of the day so this awkward behaviour really shouldn't have been all too surprising but she was also arguably the strongest person in the world! Getting flustered and uncomfortable was one thing, but turning around and basically speed walking away form the problem was a whole nother level of anxiety! Also, you'd think Kanga would take the hint and give up... The person he was trying to hit on was literally running away from him at this point but he kept persistently hopping after her... At least he did up until he ran into the wall that was Kaleido demanding he fork over the entrance fee... Mountains may one day move but Kaleido was not budging until stardust had entered his pockets and it was actually a little impressive that he was able to demand the toll of both Gods and experts alike without batting an eye. The theory that the stronger you were as a cultivator, the more insane you were likely to be seemed to be holding true because everyone other than Coronos who'd shown up as of late most definitely had a screw or two loose in some form or another...
Inside the pagoda, one instance of the Ares clone was hanging around and minding its own business when Ayane showed up looking somewhat flustered... Kind of. Her face was still like that of a gargoyle's and completely unmoving but her general demeanour felt ruffled and gave to understand she was out of her usual comfort zone. She seemed to think it was safer in here than out there with that deranged kangaroo, however, so she was calming down quickly and observing the person in front of her. Ares didn't recognise this person but he received a run down pretty quick from Dominus before checking in with the clone who was talking to Coronos to get a second expert opinion and as much information as he possibly could. Ares learnt pretty quickly about this strange individual but he was really off-put by the fact that she wasn't speaking! She was just staring at him and doing absolutely nothing! This was easily the longest he'd ever gone in the presence of another living being without either speaking or trying to kill one another and he really wasn't sure what to do from here. It looked like she wanted to talk but was restraining herself because of the traditions of her home country so Ares took the initiative in her stead. "Hello?" Ares tried to greet her but it was to no avail as that look plastered on her face was going approximately nowhere as she kept relentlessly staring at him. "So, uh... Do you want to fight?"
Ayane tilted her head as she looked Ares directly in the eyes and seemed somewhat confused. She narrowed her eyes and looked nowhere in particular as she thought over her answer, let alone how to even get the answer across after she made her choice. Eventually she started to shake her head side to side but stopped and nodded instead. She stopped doing that too, about halfway through, and now Ares was back to square one and unsure of how to handle this odd person.
"Ok, so let me get this straight. You're probably thinking I'm going to help Davey destroy your home planet and so, although you personally don't want to fight me, the people ordering you around back home must want you to so you can get a feel for how much of a problem I'll be? This conflicts with what you want to do so you're at an impasse?" This was Ares' best guess given the current situation, according to what he'd found out from Dominus and Caribou, so he threw it out and received a short and serious nod to which he just scratched his own head. "Well the only way out of here is for you to die so there's going to have be violence of some kind at some point... And no, I'm not letting you kill me. I need to be here for various reasons so don't even ask!... Uh, not that you would anyway..." Ares felt like smacking his forehead... The woman was mute! She wasn't asking anyone anything! "Ah, give me a minute, my clone is speaking to Davey... And Kanga... How did they both even get into the same instance at the same time?! And what's with this cringey intro of theirs?!... Oh god, they're stupider than I am!" Ares kept mumbling to himself as he watched his other exasperated clone try to make head or tail out of the strange duo. They were getting along but no progress was being made on the conversation front so it was taking a while to get to the real meat and potatoes of why they were here. So many dumb jokes! That was all that was happening over there.... It was like three Ares were in a room together and there were, give or take, that many brain cells as well. Thankfully clone Ares got the memo and sped up the conversation and he eventually got the gist of things. Help from Charon regarding learning the scythe, and Davey's support in general, if he promised to help assail Ayane's home planet at a later date...
...
What was Ares supposed to do or say here exactly? Realistically, he had no vested interest in either of the two parties but one was offering him some serious benefits for siding with him while the other was just staring at him! Extra protection for Candy, a teacher for the scythe and general guidance, and all he had to do was follow Davey on a mission down the line to repay the debt... Sure destroying a random planet was a bit mean but apparently they had it coming and so Ares didn't fell altogether too bad for them... But Ayane's puppy eyes were hard to ignore! She wasn't trying to be cute or anything but the stare had gotten quite easy to look back at due to how often Ares had seen it in the last five minutes and so it lost a lot of its earlier edge. She almost looked like a kid silently begging her parent not to be mean to her friends who were being loud during a sleepover or something. Also, what kind of scenario was he in here?! It was as if he was having a phone call and occasionally telling Ayane to wait while he discussed the destruction of her home with the guy on the other end! Was he being tested here or was this really just terrible timing on their visits?! This was seriously a cruel joke if it was planned ahead of time!
Sigh
"Ok, look." Ares raised his hands to both Ayane and Davey at the same time and said basically the same thing to both of them. "You're putting me on the spot to do something that I have no idea if I actually want to go through with. I don't rightly know enough about the situation to make a proper judgement call and I don't think picking sides here is going to be the correct decision. Can I just put you both on hold for now? It's not like whatever decision I make will be relevant for however many years anyway so do you really need a response now?"
Over on the other side, Davey was hmm-ing to himself as he considered retracting his support for Ares because this wasn't how he envisioned things going. He understood Ares was in a tough position with little to go on but Davey was a selfish cultivator who didn't appreciate such half measures. Still, the ball was in Ares court because he was more useful to Davey than Davey was to him. Ares already had a lot of support and could learn the scythe on his own if need be. Plus Charon would already be heading over and it was likely too late to stop him as the deal had already been made so calling that off would lead to various issues. Namely Charon coming back for vengeance. He wasn't stronger than Davey but he could inflict some real damage if he went all out and threw his life away for it. Sure he was doing all this to save his life but if he felt that was no longer in the cards he would be hella pissed and that was not a skeleton worth toying with. Davey didn't like having to relent here but he figured he would make an exception and leave temporarily. He could ask again later so Davey and Kanga dipped by biting their own tongues and disappearing from the pagoda of their own volition. Ares was a little surprised they weren't interested in experiencing his might, be it pressure, Garmr, or magic first hand, but they maybe had a lot on their plate and had to consider if this whole thing was still worth it to them. If they knew how powerful Ares truly was, and could display his strength to them freely, then the bargaining power he would hold would be far more considerable so they didn't want him to have that edge. If he killed them, and they had to come crawling back into this floor of the pagoda, it would effectively be admitting Ares was in charge of the entire conversation and that was a no go so they left without kicking up a fuss. Doing so was still a tacit admission of that inconvenient hierarchical fact but it was less overt and so they were in a better position for being smart and taking the highest road available to them. They were dumb but quick on their feet when it came to matters like this, it seemed. Ares was pretty sure he would work with them eventually one way or another, as Ayane's home country supposedly was a real cesspit and that meant the Fundamental Organisation, as Davey mentioned, would want to deal with it... He figured he would be upfront with Ayane about this.
"Ok, so, I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this, but your home planet is not necessarily safe from me just because I sent Davey away today. I get that you seem to be happy..." How Ares could tell this stony faced woman was in a good mood, after hearing Ares remain neutral, was anybody's guess but he did an excellent job of spotting her subtle mannerisms. "... But I have obligations and duties too that I can't avoid. Just like how you follow orders, I have to do similar stuff here and there too so no hard feelings when I one day blow up your planet?" A rather upfront question... One that really shouldn't have netted him any sort of positive response, but it seemed Ayane was grateful for his consideration of her current conundrum at least. It wasn't much but it was a temporary solution that kept him out of the equation for now if nothing else. Most of the onus to deal with Davey was going to be on Ayane and so Ares being thrown into the mix would make the elders back home throw a real hissy fit at her for not being able to convince him to step aside. They didn't really care how she did it, they just wanted her to fix basically everything on her own and Ares opting out of Davey's mission, for now, was a huge relief. It was one less thing to be yelled at for. Why some of the elders were allowed to shout and scream, despite the traditions of the planet, Ayane never really figured out but it was still annoying to deal with each and every time. so the little extra peace and quiet she'd get as a result of this was something to be happy about. As for Ares, there was still hope he might not have to pay her home planet a visit. A thin hope but a hope nonetheless. She could tell he was strong just by looking at him and her heart was wavering. This had never happened before so she knew instinctually this was a fearsome foe she was staring down and she trusted her heart due to how intertwined it was with her magic. She never got to use her magic, necessarily, but sometimes it slipped out without her knowing and that was usually the cause of a lot of the berating that came her way. It didn't make noise, not at all, but it did insinuate that she was dreaming of, or thinking about, noise and it was a dead give away she wasn't adhering to 'tradition'.
"I think that almost about sums up everything you wanted to know, right? I'm guessing you'll maybe also need a bit more information about me to give to your elders back home, and you need to die to leave this place anyway, so I'll give you a proper send off. I'll warn you in advance, though, it's going to be a little loud compared to what you're used to!" Ares was going to blow this woman up! It was essentially just a measure to establish dominance and keep her away because he didn't know how troublesome a foe she could potentially be. She was still a powerful cultivator at the end of the day and so putting on a show to dissuade her down the line was worth doing. As such, he cheated and started using his magic for the first time inside the pagoda and it was a devastating event he was brewing.
The entire space above the simulated planet had turned into a murky gold and a pleasant rumbling sound drifted through the entire cosmos as small explosions started occurring all by their lonesome in the vastness of the empty sky above. Empty because any planet, star, sun, moon, or other such rock was immediately blown up the second Ares became ruler of this domain and started channelling mana freely without restraint. He didn't need to cast arts or anything, just flinging some mana around haphazardly was enough to cause this and destroy basically everything within this simulated domain with ease. Ayane's cultivation as high enough to drag Ares' up to essentially Godhood, more so than even when Ject was here because she was stronger than him and the pagoda took that into account. Unless Astraeus himself entered this pagoda, the clone here would likely never get any stronger than this but it was still quite a sight. With Voidwalk active, Ares hovered in the air as every inch of the world was covered in a golden hue and some miscellaneous objects even had their structural form reconstructed such that they were literally made out of gold now. Chairs, washing lines, etc... Any such everyday object, even if Ares stopped channelling mana right now, would remain golden forever more and their value had permanently increased. It was like a Midas touch.
Ares brought the rumbling explosions painting the sky downwards, turning the heaven's into a collapsing spectacle filled with churning golden clouds all congregating as they fell down to earth. Everywhere anyone looked, all that could be seen was bubbling death and disaster as it thundered down to the planet and annihilated everything in its wake ceaselessly and without remorse. It was a true force of nature that Ares had conjured with a mere thought and this entire planet was going to be thoroughly obliterated with nothing left to remain of its legacy afterwards. The sound was deafening but in a strange way such that its volume was actually rather low. It was as though the shock and awe had numbed Ayane's eardrums and she was listening to Armageddon in muted tones. It was a bizarre, otherworldly and almost ethereal experience as the sound appeared to become progressively more and more muted the closer the explosions came to her current position despite the sheer size of the catastrophe increasing more than a hundred fold. She could have resisted and fought back but she wanted to leave anyway and was curious about this oddly calming noise so she fully embraced it and succumbed to the temptation of nihility, letting the golden tide wash over her and soothe her mind.
Ayane's hair changed colour to a beautiful golden blonde and it seemed like her body shape and the weapon at her side were also changing but the sight was short lived as she was eradicated before she could change fully. Ares didn't get what exactly it was he'd been witnessing but Dominus did and explained it as best he could with what limited information he actually possessed. Ayane's magic, roughly, changed her capabilities based on the sounds reverberating in her mind and her heart. If she dreamt of old-timey bard-ish medieval music, for instance, she would transform from a sword wielding maiden into a greatsword wielding knight and her weapon proficiency would also carry over, allowing her to wield her new weapon just as perfectly as she did her old one. Her magic would enable her to summon a fire breathing dragon as well and so on so forth. Basically, her entire character as a cultivator, personality to some extent, and magical output changed depending on the sounds that inspired her. What she was about to transform into under the beckoning of finality, via annihilation, was unknowable but it seemed she was enjoying the rhythmic and soothing bass of the golden brilliance as it liberated her quiet mind. It was like a regal orchestral piece combined with a gruesome and raw heaviness that left an imposing and awe inspiring mark.
From time to time, back in her home planet, Ayane's hair colour would change as she was minding her own business which gave to understood she was day-dreaming of music or other such pleasant sounds like the chirping of birds. This is what had gotten her in trouble with the elders frequently even if she managed to not transform fully ever and keep her magic in check. She had to often times mute her own brain and distance herself from the beating of her own heart so as not to get sucked in to whatever she was enjoying and that left her in a weird state where satisfaction was always just barely out of reach. The musical edging over the course of multiple years was honestly close to driving her mad but she persisted in shutting out as much noise as possible and even avoided it on her travels outside her home planet. She couldn't avoid it here, however, and had literally drowned in noise for the first time in her entire life so it was no surprise this became an important memory for her and her memory regarding music and sound was completely picture perfect thanks to her affiliation with the sound pillar. She was going to get into a whole lot more trouble back on her home planet when her hair kept becoming golden once or twice a week as she reminisced about the rippling explosions playing her soul like it was a drum and shaking her to her core. Usually she would obediently stop but the experience of finally getting to listen to a 'song', even if one of devastation and sheer magical dominance, to completion would change that dynamic as she would obstinately refuse. It was hypocritical to demand she not even think freely when others could speak as they pleased and so this one event would cause her to be a bit rebellious on this matter. Eventually the elders would relent but only permit her to dream of this one sound and this one sound only which, ultimately, would do them more harm than good as it would light a fuse in Ayane. Ares said he wasn't going to get involved but what he'd done here today, even if unintentional, was perhaps more important than any other action that could have been taken as now Ayane would start to ask questions. Not out loud, necessarily, but she would finally start asking them and the fewer answers she got, the more suspicious she would become about the entire way of life her people propagated. Change was in motion and Ayane's silence was golden but for all the right reasons. In fact, this probably wasn't even the last the pagoda clone would see of her as she would start sneaking out to come listen to his explosions. It was a sound she'd never heard before and the impact was sizable, to say the least.
Ares would one day look back at these moments and be grateful as they would eventually be the starting point for his relationship with Ayane who would go on to become his final wife. It was a long way away but changing loyalties was a long process with many ups and downs and Ayane's stubbornness to not betray her home planet would slow things down a lot on that front. It would also be the reason that things ironically sped up between them too but that was a matter for later. What this did mean right now, though, is that the number of future wives Ares had met had gone up even if he wasn't aware of it currently as he treated this as nothing more than a quick encounter with a cultivation expert. The same could not be said of Havanah, however, as when she showed up, which would be soon, he would realise pretty quick that she and him were gong to be closely intertwined going forward. He would also get to see Candy again, and meet Cotton, so all kinds of love was in the air. It was a shame, though, because this was still the clone at the end of the day and real Ares wouldn't realise any of this was happening... For now, at least. Nothingness was a strange aspect and there were many things it was capable of that Ares had yet to fully experiment with. Linking separate consciences was absolutely a talent he would one day possess and so things were going to change going forward. Namely, even though it was completely overkill, Ares and the clone were going to be able to update one another remotely... The clone would gain access to new treasures Ares found, like the Converter, and Ares would get knowledge from higher domains and higher cultivation realms that the clone could access freely thanks to the pagoda's functions. It might have sounded like a minor benefit but having 'access' to the wider world, and everything happening in it, would help prep Ares for what was to come and stay updated, especially on the wives front as his clone would meet all but two, technically three, of them in due time. Plus any new arts the clone learnt in its own time could be stolen easily by real Ares so connecting his consciences was very much worth it. The thought to do so wouldn't come until a little later, namely one specific event in Xasca involving the two strange individuals he still didn't know the names of on the Federation, but it would happen soon enough! Right now, though, he was squabbling with his Adaptive Shot eagle after accidentally eating the last donut without consulting the peckish bird first... Some things never changed...
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