Chapter 351: Explosions Galore
Ares, bracing for the massive clusterfuck, put his shades on and took out a nice refreshing drink to sip on. It's not like he had anything else to do right about now because this fight he was taking, the meteor clash, had essentially already been won and so some celebration was in order! This was technically still a war but when you were as powerful a cultivator as someone like Ares you could treat the battlefield like a playground and have fun to your heart's content. There was really nothing else to do either as all the monsters, other than the Scylla, were in hiding right now. He could go and whack the Scylla a bit here and there but it was better to just hang about near the Federation and see if he could help protect them from any falling meteors and / or the destroyed scraps of them that escaped the messy catastrophe in the skies above. His Not Even Lights were doing a great job of picking up stray pieces of rock that had splintered off the meteors so Ares was making himself useful even when he was standing around doing nothing. Having the foresight to set the black holes up as a precautionary measure was why he could just kick back for now and watch the fireworks show.
Speaking of, the fifteen meteors, that belonged to Ares, were all about to collide so Ares did the wise move here and summoned a Quietus Edict zone over as much of the Federation as he could manage with his low mana reserves. Some unlucky few in the very back of the country might become temporarily deaf and have an unpleasant ringing in their ears but this was war, sonny! Gotta smell the gun powder in the air and the blood in the water! Hopefully nobody would develop tinnitus as a result of this but it wasn't incurable even for most mortals so they'd be fine either way! This was the price of winning a fight against a monster like this and its not like Ares asked these people to be so weak they couldn't even defend their ears from mere noise! It was either this or a face full of meteors so if he heard even a single complaint he would make them fight the Scylla in his stead!
Ares looked up at the red sky one last time before it instantaneously became a golden dreamland of bursting energy and uncontrollable, raw power when the meteors were, at long last, detonated. Destruction became the new ruler of this location and a golden glow tinged every single drop of water for miles, turning the sea a beautiful gold that shone like polished jewellery. Of course the monsters blowing up underneath the water and being torn to shreds while still alive by the sheer kinetic force assailing them must have had a very different view. Or maybe not, actually, a destruction death was always a fleeting serene experience in the very last moments. When all sound faded away, and too many limbs and nerves were ripped apart to be able to feel anything anymore, the gold would wash over their soon to be corpse and cleanse every ounce of their flesh. It was far less brutal than it sounded provided you were, ironically, the victim. Anyone who had to watch you die, however, would definitely not feel at ease in comparison.
A golden sea, a golden sky, and the earth pillar holding up the Federation, as well as the Federation itself, were all illuminated under Ares' Subjugation and it was plain to see who was in charge here just from the colour alone. The resplendent gold was a very clear symbol of Ares' presence and dominance and the mere colour would one day go on to give cultivators pause whenever they saw it. Some people would even stop trading in gold, the commodity, and its value for investment would see a global decrease in some areas. It would give a select group of people, namely those who dared to oppose Ares, a very real PTSD attack whenever it was anywhere in their remote vicinity. Some of the more ruthless clans, sects, and cults would even outright kill anyone they saw wearing the colour in any capacity, matrimonial rings included. Previously the devil's colour was assumed to be either red or black but gold would someday be added to that list to complete the trifecta because Ares, conveniently, was capable of wielding all three and so the comparison was most apt. Gold would still be the signifier that stood out the most of these three colours though as it was an entirely unique colour in the mana spectrum. There were some other gold arts, in pillars like ferromancy for instance, but golden mana? There was only one person anywhere in all of existence with that so, if you saw it, you'd best hope he was on your side. When Ares was, it was a reassuring colour and the proof was in the residents of the Federation finally braving the world outside their pyramid protection scheme and taking a gander at the golden world spreading out before them. Even some of the more timid cowards who'd been hiding under desks with their hands draped over their heads were breaking free from their shell and gazing longingly at the golden paradise in the sky. It wasn't uncommon for weaker minded people, or just people who were deeply enamoured, to drift mindless towards this magic but, thankfully, it was mostly in the air so it couldn't be reached. Even if anybody wanted to jump into the ocean for a swim in liquid gold they would have to descend the entirety of the Federation pyramid to get there and they would be stopped by the guards who still had their wits about them due to the tense situation that had spawned the need for this golden scenery in the first place.
As for the meteor clash, Ares had very clearly won as those fifteen meteors of his were enough to take down multiple hundreds of the Scylla's. Even then it was overkill as his own meteors had only really detonated as part of a chain reaction. He could have maybe dealt with this attack just of the back of about seven or eight meteors alone so he was very content with the power this art packed under ideal circumstances. Still, this was less than one third of this art's potency because there were still two other steps left to occur and so the monsters in the ocean were pretty doomed if they'd been brave and decided to try and defend themselves instead of fleeing back to their gigantic guardian, the Scylla. First up were the hundreds of mini Shock Beads buried within the meteors that had now been set free and were falling down from within the golden cloud like golden glass snowflakes. It was an imposing sight, watching a hailstorm of inevitable golden death rain down across a large area. It was almost like an arrow volley but far more lethal despite the blunt nature of the attack. It was infinitely better to get by an arrow than one of these things, that was for sure.
Either way, the explosions up in the sky were only just the start. The water that was only just tinged golden until now was about to be completely dyed in that colour down to even the lowest of depths and, even then, that was only if the water wasn't outright evaporated on impact. Each and every single bead rained down on the already turbulent waves and another round of golden obstruction reaped everyone's view of mother nature as the ocean was completely gone beneath a tsunami of annihilation. Th monsters in the vicinity were already dead but that didn't stop the explosions from rampaging across the surface of the water while also pummelling straight down and killing off any marine life that had been too stupid to leave despite the overwhelming aura of two armies, the Primordial Blade, and the meteors. Only non-cultivating fish would be so ignorant so there was no real loss of intelligent life in that regard. They could serve as fuel for Ares' converter and little else as their souls really weren't worth absorbing for any particular reason. To at least spare them somewhat, Ares changed his mind and only absorbed the soul of one fish to get the Converter boost while letting the others get caught in heaven and hell's nets to go straight to the afterlife. The magical increase he'd get from them was minimal so they could have fun in a proverbial big pond up in the sky. They might honestly be better off than they were down here provided they ended up in heaven. Ares didn't know what a fish had to do to end up in hell, other than just being generally ugly as sin as a lot of deep sea creatures tended to be, but the thought of fish swimming through lava as punishment was plastered in his brain right now. Not that there was anything else to be thinking about or looking at because the sea had become almost too bright to stare at even with shades. The shimmering on the surface, barely visible beneath the rampant annihilation magic, was almost blinding and though people on the Federation wanted to take in the sight they literally couldn't without blinding themselves so they were jolted awake by the pain in their retinas and had to turn away. Ares was still fine but there really wasn't much to look at and, yet, that problem was soon to get a whole lot worse. Before it did, though, there were two new developments regarding the aftermath of what had already happened.
First of all, the fragments of rock from the Scylla's blown up meteors were finally descending. They'd been through the absolute grinder that was the annihilation magic clouds up in the sky and tiny pebble sized chunks of rocks were falling quite rapidly and en masse. The amount was too plentiful to count but that was a good thing, actually. Not Even Light struggled with larger, single instances of powerful magic. What it was great against were small, but numerous, attacks or wide area arts with spread out cores. A wave was fine, a meteor was not. Small rock bits? Also fine. A single large object with a physical form was the correct way to bypass this art but, in order for that to happen, Ares would need to be summoning these things without thinking his next move through at all because he was very aware of this weakness. He'd only summoned them because he knew exactly what his own meteors would do to the Scylla's long in advance. If he hadn't invented his own meteor art, raising physical pressure walls would have been his next best option and so the weakness of these black holes weren't relevant because Artes never threw them out willy nilly. They were currently doing a phenomenal job of gobbling up any and all rock that came within a wide net that they cast. The pull of gravity was impossible for rocks even fifty feet away to avoid due to the fact that momentum was already pulling them down in their rough direction anyways and so the rocks sped up but only to their own demise. It was quite worrying though because if Ares cancelled the black holes before they were done the force with which some of those gravity boosted rocks would smack into the Federation with was considerable. They were rocks, yes, but they were also magic-infused and would pierce right through the pyramid, potentially putting holes into innocents down below.
Maintaining the smooth and unimpeded operation of these things was paramount for the sake of the Federation's safety so Ares paid that duty more attention than anything else. Not that he really needed to as his mana was already back up to full and this could effortlessly be treated as a background task. He didn't know how many monsters he'd killed already but it was a sizable enough amount for Grim Cessation to go buck wild. His Converter heart was also having a field day and churning away, bubbling and spouting lava everywhere like an enraged Vulcan had taken control and wanted to wash away the local village for defying his wrath. Ares could not physically count how many souls had flown into the Converter because even the Omniscience was struggling whenever he tried to check in on the mess with divine sense. The cluster of clumped souls was so massive that separating them individually to look at what they belonged to before death was impossible for anyone other than the most bored and meticulous of person. Ares was still waiting for his art to end but he had neither an OCD nor the will to count thousands of souls for basically no reason at all. The long and short of it was that he got a lot of magic power out of this. Sure the monsters were weak compared to him but their cultivation bases were still significant with most being around bloodline awakening. Any living creature in that realm was worth killing even if Ares had to go out of his way for ten seconds to do it so killing this many all at once was invigorating and he could feel new power constantly flowing through him.
As for the second new development of the aftermath, the earthen pillar, summoned by Geordie's Run Aground, was looking mighty shaky right about now. The wind from the explosions alone had been able to erode parts of the foundation, never mind the actual residual energy form the explosions tapering off near the art and scuffing its edges. Ares was playing a risky game here because if he destroyed Geordie's Run Aground wrong it would tilt the Federation diagonally and cause it to crash sideways into the ocean. That would be the greatest disaster in Sheryashkan history and only activating a Canis Stimulant would prevent it. It was a tool Ares really didn't want to waste so he was actively using his pressure to try and divert some of the excess energy being flung around randomly nearby. Ares could not control the explosion chains that were doing as they pleased, at least not until he apotheosised anyway, so for now he could only block them off from going any further in the direction he was actively guarding. He could maybe try and plant explosives all around the earthen pillar, to detonate it and have the thing fall straight down, but that was risky to try and pull off just for the sake of not having to worry about this place in the background as he did his own thing.
Honestly, though it was cool, the Federation in this form was starting to become a real obstacle for Ares who was devoting all his time and energy to defending it. The result had been good, and he invented Drop Rocks and Auriferous Subjugation, but its usefulness had come to an end and it was starting to act like a damsel in distress who needed saving every five seconds. No doubt this whole setup would do amazing work when the monsters started actually assaulting the fortified position but, right now, the monsters were too busy dying. It was rather rude of them to leave the Federation hanging on edge like this but when death calls they were answering each and every time. Unfortunately for them, death seemed to have the persistency of a scammer so it was going to take a while for the cannons on the Federation to see any real use. Maybe when this whole thing died down but, by that point, there wouldn't be many targets left. The sailors aiming those weapons would have one heck of a field day as most of the stress would have disappeared alongside the monsters' numbers. The real loser here was Ares who no longer felt like this was a war at all! Nobody other than him had contributed so far and Geordie had just been a showy paper tiger! Whatever, at least their time to shine, albeit dully in comparison to Ares' golden splendour, was coming up shortly... Kinda...
The aftermath of the meteor art looked like it was dying down, and the gold was starting to recede both in the sky and on the water, but only an unobservant fool would have forgotten, or not seen, a very important detail. You would have to be blind to not notice the entire rest of the meteors that had yet to do anything hurtling towards the ocean, ready for round two! Fifteen had detonated, good for them. Now it was time for the other 25, all of which were going to be unimpeded in their crash down to the ocean and therefore not dispersing their energy pointlessly through the sky in the slightest. These next few explosions were, somehow, going to be even bigger than anything that had come before them and so the chaos unfolding was about to maybe triple or quadruple in scale. Sure the Federation cannons could start firing again after this but, honestly, Ares wasn't sure there'd be any cannon fodder left... Maybe they could aim at the chunks of monster flesh that floated up to the water's surface? The small bloodied pools would act like bullseyes!... Ares almost felt bad, he was taking away everyone else's excitement. Fuelled by adrenaline and fear, sure, but the hype building up in everyone might just flatten and die down after this so it was going to be somewhat anti-climactic for them. Aejaz was probably depressed too because first he failed against the fire tank and, now, he was being robbed of his chance to fire a cannon! No doubt Aejaz would really want to do that... So much so, in fact, that Ares was almost certain that doltz was going to steal a cannon and hide it in a spatial ring to take home as a 'souvenir'. This guy was a massive child but Ares couldn't blame him because even he was a little curious to know what firing a destruction-magic cannonball would look like. Specifically what the area it landed in would look like, or, rather, not look like anymore because giving destruction that much force behind it was sure to leave a real lasting impression on the terrain. Point in case, here came the meteors of doom that were going to ravage this section of the ocean to the point where it likely wouldn't recover for multiple tens of years! Whoops! It was seriously a good thing Ares wasn't eco-minded as he seemed to have a bad habit of destroying woods and oceans wherever he went.
The first meteor landed and, well, show was over. There had been an explosion in the sky earlier, some more in the water recently, and now this. It was, quite frankly, impossible to see anything anywhere. The explosions were gradually a forming a vertical wall of gold that broke through the clouds and even pierced the atmosphere before trailing off. Honestly, depending on where Enyo and Bellona were right now, as they might be near a cost in the Grecian lands, there was a non-zero chance they could spot this art if they squinted hard enough with their divine sight. Ares was starting to get really showy with these big arts and, yet, they were only going to keep getting bigger and bigger. His planet destroying days were drawing ever nearer and he honestly might be able to do it by the time he opted to leave for Vraizon. It would have to be a smaller planet but if he went all in on a meteor storm... Now Ares wanted to test it! Obviously the planet would have to be devoid of life... Although his Converter would really appreciate it if that weren't the case... But still, it sounded like fun so Ares made a mental note to come back to that idea later.
Ares was getting distracted! There was a war going on! The fact he was winning it while thinking about blowing up planets was a pretty clear indicator it was not going well for his opponent but que sera sera. He still had to be on the lookout in case the Scylla had any more tricks up its sleeve as it was still a very real threat at the end of the day. Not to Ares, but just in general. It might not have seemed like Ares was showing it much respect but, truthfully, he was. Not quite as much as Mako, as the elf would likely also win this fight if he needed to, but the Scylla wasn't lagging too far behind. It was definitely the second toughest opponent Ares had ever faced, it was just too little too late for this thing to come trying to pick a fight with him. Ares was beyond Sheryashka now! Or so he thought, anyway. Given this place's propensity to throw random crap at him it was far more likely there were a bunch of ridiculous opponents yet to still face in even the strangest and most unassuming of locations. Knowing Ares' luck, this Scylla was going to be nothing more than a stepping stone to some of the bigger threats coming his way...
Anyway, that aside, the reason he wasn't doing anything right now is because he was lost in a world of gold. Everywhere he could touch and feel his magic was flowing freely and drowning everything within its warm embrace. The Federation was being bathed in the golden energy but, thankfully, Ares' anti friendly fire adaptation from Enyo was protecting all life. As for the buildings... Well the destruction wasn't actually too bad, as this was just the lingering mist from the explosions happening over yonder, but a lot of damage was being done to the Federation... Hopefully Ares wouldn't have to pay for any of it! If they tried to threaten him with a pay deduction for taking out the Scylla he might just drop some more meteors to change their minds... He was more than earning his pay right now and the Federation was just going to have to accept this minor inconvenience! If anything, Ares' own temporary abode was probably being wrecked right now too! Where was his compensation?!... For blowing up his own house... When he said it back to himself in his head, it really didn't' sound like the convincing argument he thought it was... Anyway, this golden storm was going to finally come to an end and then this battle could begin proper. The Scylla may very well have had more large scale attacks up its sleeve but surely the realisation that it was pointless must have been drilled home by now so it likely wouldn't bother. Ares was the major issue for it right now so these country destroying attacks were utterly pointless as he could just mitigate or dodge them with ease. It was going to have to focus and concentrate more of that power to direct it specifically towards Ares. Long story short, the real fight was about to kick off and the fading of this golden sauna, relaxing everyone's muscles and minds, would be the real start line.
Ares had no idea what kind of battle he was in store for as this was the first time he'd ever fought anything this huge before. Even the mecha dryad paled in comparison size wise so Ares felt like his attacks were just going to nibble away at this thing until it finally got bored and left... His brain did keep going back to that one unfinished attack he'd been working on as, if he could create a meteor storm in under a minute, surely he could finish a half-created art in a similar time frame? He actually had even longer than a minute to do it so it must have been possible right? Well he was going to find out one way or another because killing the Scylla without it only really left Ares with one option. The Canis Stimulant was still in his back pocket, so the outcome was definitely decided, it was just a matter of whether he'd need to chuck a valuable resource at this problem to end it for once and all. Regardless of how the outcome came to be, the Federation would be happy at least. Sure Ares' destruction had tickled the Federation all over but it wasn't much compared to what the Scylla would keep doing to it in the future. A medium dose of hassle now to prevent a larger dose over the course of hundreds of years. Bitter medicine, as it were, and Ares was the kind of person who left a very bitter taste in people's mouths!