Chapter 251: When Ares Snaps So Do Necks

"Aw man, I wish Aejaz were here to see this. He'd be just as ecstatic as I am." Ares sadly shook his head side to side and promised inwardly that he would recall everything that happened here to his brother later. "Oi, you!" Ares looked the kid directly in the eye for the first time since he barged in here. "Say one of your stereotypical lines! Come on, do it!"

The kid was bewildered as to what Ares was on about. He'd met other young masters besides himself but he didn't see what the fuss was. Of course this was because he'd normalised the existence and core of what a young master was from a young age. To most people, young masters were a rare breed that didn't often crop up. They lingered around their own social circles within their clans or sects and only occasionally made scenes in public. You had to be in the right time at the right place to ever bare witness to a young master at work. Of course, typically, you never should want to see it because if you could see it then you were almost definitely within range to get involved. Not everyone was like Ares who could safely deal with the obnoxious tantrums these people threw or the bodyguards they brought along with them. Ares' reputation alone should have been enough to fend off this kid but, as he'd just arrived, he'd become the perfect storm. Ignorant, narcissistic, incapable of controlling himself in the face of worldly temptations, be they food, woman, or treasures, and just down right weak! Well, that last part wasn't a guarantee. The real young masters you had to watch out for were the ones with talent who stood a cut above the rest. They posed a real threat themselves and were often prodigies in their own right who'd succumbed to their ever growing, never diminishing ego. Win after win had earned them fame, attention, and wealth that just perpetuated the cycle. These young masters crashed the hardest whenever they came tumbling off their pedestal but there was a reason they hadn't fallen off it for so long. "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about but I can tell you aren't taking this situation seriously. You really think I'm not going to go through with my earlier threats? You don't understand the position you're in. You're testing my patience and even that babe is ignoring you now. Your little rant earlier has seriously confused the both of us and I think we'd both be happier here without you."

It looked like the kid wanted to keep monologuing, which was understandable given his young master status, but Ares wasn't about to listen to some five minute speech without interrupting this clown. It was rude to jam himself into the conversation but it was far ruder that he'd been excluded from it to begin with! Of course this was technically a part of the young master experience but there were always some parts to every urban myth or legend that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Ares was more than happy to never experience a young master rant, he just wanted to see them wave their arms around in frustration as they were openly defied and go through the motions. It wasn't quite 'never meet your heroes', it was meet them but be willing to tell them to shut the hell up if they were being annoying. In this place, only Ares was permitted to be insufferable. He wasn't about to let this kid steal his whole flow! "Not that I'm not happy with this meeting but I'm going to have to give you a five out of ten. You've got the appearance and the initial threats down but everything past that has been disappointing, honestly. Your threats weren't backed up and you let me retort without trying to act on it. You've got a big mouth but you aren't actually really psychotic. A proper ten out of ten young master would have just ordered his guards to kill me by now. Also, you haven't even said one of the traditional lines yet. You've got to work on your game. Maybe go and have your parents spoil you a bit more? Sorry, I don't really know how it all works on your end. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask, but don't you know who I am?"

"Why the hell should I? My family is one of the top in this domain so unless you come from an equally big family you're nothing more than a frog in...

""A well!"" Ares jubilantly finished the sentence alongside the young master while clapping his hands and wiping away a tear in his eye after. "Beautiful! Just like in the books! You even got the condescending spit-blowing and aggressive facial expression right! You said the thing! I may have been too harsh on you, I'll give you two extra bonus points for that! You started good and had a bit of a rough middle section but it's looking like you're gonna stick the landing and go far, kid!

"..." The kid was speechless and just looked at Ares with a disgusted and confused look on his face. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Also, who the hell are you?!" Now the young master was a a tad worried. If this batshit loco maniac was holding his ground despite his low cultivation it's because he must have been assured of his own backing, right?! As far as the young master was concerned, there was no other possible solution for why this guy wasn't bowing his head even now that the two guards had unfolded their arms and taken a step forward.

"Name's Ares."

"... Ok, and?" The kid leaned his ear forward to listen carefully.

"And what?" Ares could have thrown out the Umbra name, and that may have very well scared the kid shitless, but where was the fun in that? Why ruin his fun half-way through? That was like solving half a crossword or a sudoku and then tearing the paper in half!

"Ares... What? What's your second name? What family do you belong to?"

"I don't have a second name..." Ares wasn't actually lying about this, he really didn't right now. The Umbras never had a second name because most revenants didn't. Dominus never had one and he was the origin so second names in the revenant world were actually kinda rare. Speaking of, Enyo and Bellona also didn't have one but that's because the Legions forbid anyone from having it. They weren't a Legion 'family', they were a Legion unit. That was their designation. Second names were messy and could potentially lead to family dynamics with bickering and power struggles so it had been avoided right form the get go. It's not that people like Rhea didn't have second names before, they were just expected to give it up when they married into the Legion. Technically, if Rhea brought back her last name, Enyo and Bellona could also take it on, and then by extension Ares could too when he married them if he wanted to. Ares wasn't planning on it, however, as he had his own plans regarding that. He'd already discussed it with Enyo, Blo Blo, and Candy long ago but it was a private discussion that involved talk about some pretty big secrets. For the foreseeable future, Ares would go without a second name and the same was true of his wives. Not that they couldn't keep their second names if they happened to have one. Up until Ares 'created' his own they were more than welcome to keep it. After that, though, he was going to be a little demanding and have them all change. He wanted everyone to be part of the family and it would be strange if only some of his wives took it on. Still, when Ares said 'it's not going to happen for a while', he really meant it. At the very least, it wouldn't become relevant before he married every single one of the prophesized wives it was that far away. "I belong to the family I created, that's where my allegiance lies."

"Ok, you know what? This farce has gone on long enough. These guys are at early transition realm..." The young master gestured to the guards who took another step forward to intimidate Ares. it was to no avail but at least they were trying. "You and them are gonna have a long talk in a nearby alleyway and you can take that other woman with you. If she wants to stay I don't mind entertaining her but I'm really not going to pay her much attention. You hear that?" The kid was talking directly to Bellona now. "If you wanna stick around I'll pay you some money to play around with you just this once but I'm only taking the other woman with me." The kid was looking at Bellona as if she were a fly. "You aren't my type but I'll make an exception today so be grateful. You can be the starter, the babe can be the main dish."

"Ok kid, that's enough. You've had your fun but you're going too far now." Ares was starting to get annoyed. Joking about taking his wives once was one thing but this level of idiocy wasn't going to be tolerated any longer. Ares was willing to hear it once for science, and just to get the full young master experience, but twice? Thrice? Still going? insulting Bellona like that? Everything that came out of this guy's mouth was just digging his grave even deeper than it was dug five second ago. On the bright side, maybe taking the parka off this guy's corpse would alleviate the foul mood that had built up in Ares? Here he was, supposed to be enjoying his date and yet this twerp was now ruining it. It would have been better if this just happened on a random day in the middle of nowhere. This was going to leave a bad taste in his mouth, Ares could tell. "You aren't leaving this place alive so you best start choosing how you want to die. I can either dig out your eyes and strangle you to death or rip out your heat and shove it down your throat. It's one of the two, and you aren't escaping that fate, so pick wisely. If you don't make a choice by the time I'm done with these two guards, I'll just do all of it."

"You..."

"And don't think for a second those guards are going to help you." Ares knew where the kid was about to take this discussion so he headed him off at the pass. "Early transition is not enough to stop me. They might put up a bit of a fight, and that's a hassle 'cos I don't wanna damage this building, but they won't win even fighting together. Speaking of which, you two chrome domes. I'm willing to let you two go. If you turn around and leave this loser here for me to mess around with, I'll let you live. If you go through with this, I'm going to kill you and all. Two of you can make it out of here alive or none of you can, I'm game either way."

The two guards looked at each other and snickered. The fact they were being threatened by someone almost two whole realms beneath them was something they'd never seen before and so it amused them to no end. They hadn't ever come across anyone even a single realm lower than them that was capable of beating either of them. Nobody had ever even come close, let alone two realms. This kid was seriously insane. One of the guards turned to the kid and asked a question he really shouldn't have as Ares had already made it clear this wife stealing conversation had gone too far and crossed a line already. "Boss, you said you don't really care about the flat one, right? After we deal with this idiot can we have her? Might as well make use of her if she's here right?"

The kid shrugged and waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah sure whatever. Just make sure to kill the guy slowly. Break all off his bones bit by bit and cut him into pieces starting from his lower body. Really torture him and make him regret this entire stupid interaction. Maybe in his next life he won't try playing hero."

The guard who asked the question originally turned to Bellona and spoke to her, which he really shouldn't have. He was screwed anyway but leaving himself open like this was just asking for it. "You, get up and come with me. We can get started already while my co-worker kills your fiancé. If you say no or cause a fuss I'll just make you anyway. I don't mind roughing you up. Actually, I'm gonna do it anyway, but I'll be at least a little more gentle if you come along obediently. So get on all fours and crawl after me like the little bitch you are..."

CRACK

Both the young master, and the guard that had yet to speak, turned to face the other guard as a golden blur shot straight into his head. They turned their heads just in time to watch in slow-mo as Ares' foot sunk into the guard's face and pushed it so far back his head snapped backwards and was limply dangling over his shoulders like a hoodie. The guard was still alive but neither of the other two people he arrived with were able to react to what was happening so they watched on, dumbfounded, as Ares dragged the dying guard by the hair out of the booth and flung him onto a nearby empty table; one that the intrusive trio could have ironically eaten at and not had this entire mess happen in the first place.

The guard's stomach was flat on the table and his head was staring at the ceiling as Ares walked over to the nearest wall and picked up a decorative cleaver off it. Ares wasted no time in walking rapidly back over to the guard, putting his foot on the guy's forehead, and placing the cleaver on his neck. He was going to cut his throat out while his snapped neck made him watch. The rest of the body couldn't really fight back due to the discombobulation of the head not being attached properly so it just sort of squirmed about like a flopping fish as Ares started hacking away. He could have cut it off in one swing but this guy deserved to go through it and so his throat spilled out onto the table piece by piece as he choked on his own blood. It had been a while since evil Ares and his tempestuous mood swings had shown up but they were both back in full force as his bloodline pressure was getting heavier by the moment.

The guard finally died but he was probably better off as the pressure running through the restaurant had become immense. It was only directly targeting the young master and the remaining guard but, for everyone else, it was lurking behind the curtain of reality like a stalking tiger, waiting to pounce and tear at their throats too. Anyone who wasn't the doomed duo was frozen stiff in their seats and even their hands, in the middle of scooping up food with cutlery, were deathly still. Only their rampant heartbeat and the saliva they struggled to swallow, due to their tense nerves, signified their status as anything other than a fresh corpse. Speaking of corpses, Ares disintegrated the dead guard on the spot which was not a good sign for the young master and the other guard for one pretty simple reason. Ares was capable of fully annihilating an early transition realm cultivator. The surprise attack was one thing, as he'd deliberately struck at a weak spot and utilised the momentum of the snapping head to facilitate his kill, but that magic was evidence that he was packing enough firepower to win against an early transition realm cultivator through legitimate means. Yes the guy was dead but a transition realm body was still a transition realm body. Ares was not all talk, not at all, and that was really sinking in right about now.

As for how Ares had pulled off this deadly assassination at blinding speeds. Annihilation pressure operating at max, Voidwalk, Double Jump, Echo, and the Utilitarian's (his treasure boot's) Stamp out art. Every single thing combined was enough to instantly kill the guard with a single strike. Ares physical strength was lacking? Not if he went all out it wasn't. In his current stater, bounding around this room quicker than even the guard could follow was absolutely possible. Getting the drop on him helped but that was his own fault for just outright pretending Ares didn't exist. He'd paid the price for his actions and now the other two were next. The other guard could die a quick death but only because Ares wanted to get it over and done with so he could divert his attention to the kid after. 

The remaining guard was stiff due to what he'd just witnessed but he was also alert enough to be on the lookout for any sudden movements. He was no longer confident in his ability to win here and the young master was just a burdensome problem he would rather not deal with. He knew better than to try renegotiate with Ares about leaving as he'd been pretty clear about the number of people that were allowed to leave here alive and, after watching him cut out a person's throat with a cleaver, the guard wisely understood he wasn't going back on his word any time soon. The guard opened his mouth to start casting an art but Ares had been watching his mouth like a hawk and beat him to the punch with his own art.

"Quietus Edict."

This was the first time Ares had used Quietus in combat and it was already proving its worth as the guard beating him without magic in this confined space wasn't going to happen. The guard was extremely confused right now as he was unable to sound off and chant as he could feel a slither of dark miasma invading his mouth whenever he tried. He was in a luckier position than he knew as Ares was basically unable to cast most of his offensive arts in here due to the limited space and the abundance of civilians. He did have Enyo's friendly fire mutation, preventing harm from befalling the innocent, but that didn't mean the building was safe and Ares didn't want to ruin Remmy and Gavel's business. Ares really wished the mutation could one day extend to buildings but, alas, for now it did not. The guard kept his vision trained on Ares who was prowling in a semi-circular patten towards him and analysing the current the situation, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. To enable such an opportunity, Ares whipped out the Black Ice Bane and cast "Crystalised Void: Tricky Rink". The art engulfed the floor and created a layer over it that held within some deadly surprises. Ares would prevent any annihilation detonations from the Rink, which also meant he was stuck using disintegration magic only with it, but it was mostly being used as a way to limit the guard's mobility and lock him down in one spot. The Rink probably wouldn't even end up attacking him as that really wasn't the point.

The guard could see Ares inching ever closer and his options were few and far between. Running was now impossible due to the Rink and holding his ground without arts... Well he saw how that went for the other guy. He did have one more idea though. Just like how he had to look after his troublesome young master, who had dragged him into this mess when he would have rather just eaten in peace, Ares had his own companions nearby! In fact, they were in a terrible position, stuck inside the booth and unable to escape the narrow room. Hostages! It was cheap, it was dirty, but there was nothing else to be done right now. If they could drag the hostages away safely then the young master would get the damn woman and they would leave with their lives. The guard would absolutely get a raise off this!

"Segregation."

"Diminish Power."

Both the ladies behind him immediately, but lazily, cast an art each the second he turned around to gun for them. They weren't stupid and could see this coming from a mile away so they each used their own measures which, combined, put up a impenetrable barrier. Enyo's segregation locked him out and Bellona's new art kept perpetually sapping the guard's physical strength. Even if he was able to break the barrier at the best of times he certainly wouldn't be able to now with Bellona ruining him in such a fashion. He couldn't even remove it because the art specifically kept reapplying itself over and over. Bellona knew that a major weakness to her measurement manipulation was being denied by the other person so she came up with arts for her unique aspect that basically tried, tried, and tried again. You could block it or remove it once but if it just kept happening it would slip through the cracks eventually despite your best efforts. It would take a defensive art of some sort to solve this predicament but Quietus was still up and running. Funnily enough, Ares had just been wishing his friendly fire mutation could do more but here it was enabling the sisters to speak so it's value was blatantly immense and yet he still had the audacity to complain and demand more! Damn fundamentals... It made sense though. If you were a fundamental you were essentially promised the world so now that he was only receiving half of it delivered straight to his doorstep Ares wanted more. It's not like the other fundamental were any different either, all of them had it in them to complain whenever they found any kind of inconvenience regarding their pillar. Of course a solution was almost guaranteed to exist but they wanted it now! ASAP! In this regard specifically, they very well may have been worse than any young master out there but, then again, it was all for a good cause and most cultivators would do the same if they were in their shoes and be equally demanding if not more.

Back to the guard, he could feel his muscles relax and all his strength dissipate into thin air. He struck at the barrier pointlessly and had to give up as all he was doing was creating an opening for Ares to attack. In fact, that was precisely what happened as Ares dashed forward the moment the guard looked to hold the sisters hostage. With Ares hurtling towards him like a comet, the guard had to make a snap decision and so he sacrificed the young master's safety by focusing entirely on his own defences. The guard couldn't protect him if he was dead anyway so this was just objectively the best decision. If the young master was murdered, so be it! This was all that stupid moron's fault anyway! Luckily for the kid, though, Ares didn't seem to be aiming for him so it worked out in the end.

Ares lunged forward with a straight and true strike as he'd put the Bane away for now. He figured it was for the best if he didn't wield a sword in here and he had a plan for dealing with this guard anyway.

BANG

With all the various benefits afforded to Ares thanks to his arts, treasures, and pressure the guard was sent stumbling back a step or two. He wasn't injured but his arms were hurting like hell as the force behind that simple punch was monstrous. Plus the Echo rattling around inside of him had done a number on his bones so the guard quickly realised he couldn't stay on the defensive forever otherwise he would break long before the Quietus ran out. He needed to try and make some moves so he swung at Ares as he was run down by the golden cultivator but Ares neatly ducked under it. The guard still had room to fire off another attack so he performed and uppercut with his other fist as he retreated backwards towards the wall. Ares slowed down his assault so that he could dodge the attack safely but he immediately put the pressure back on, metaphorically and literally as he directed a wave of pressure towards the guard. Once more, as the pressure connected, the guard was blasted backwards a few steps but this time his back was pushed up against a window which was precisely what Ares had been aiming for. There was an alley directly outside the window and, at the far end of it, was some city wall and nothing else. In other words, a line of meaningless objects and empty space that permitted Ares to unrestrainedly use his full force. This was what he'd been aiming for since the start and, now, he'd finally gotten it. The Quietus was ending but it was far too late as Ares ran up to the guard, used some telekinesis on his arms to temporarily halt them in place for the briefest of seconds, and threw an open palm at the guard's chest. What came next was pure chaos as even Ares had never experimented with a full power Annihilation Echo before. This was uncharted territory and he was admittedly a little excited to see how much damage it could do when he went all out!

"Annihilation Echo!"

Ares didn't know how much destruction would result from this attack but there was one thing he knew for sure; the guard was about to explode and it would not be a pretty sight!