Chapter 355: A Few Loose Ends

"Geordie, is there anything else you need me to do? Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be doing check ups or count personnel or anything, that's tedious and not my job, but I mean is there any likelihood of another fight or anything? Are there other monsters in this sector of the ocean? Can the Scylla launch an attack from the grave?" That last one might have seemed like a strange question but there was merit to it considering what Ares knew. Dominus had told him to go check the canyon and, annoyingly, the Scylla soul was not absorbed automatically by the Converter... That meant its soul was still lingering around an attached to something otherwise it would have gone to heaven / hell or straight to the Converter. It was odd because the Scylla was definitely dead though... Maybe it was capable of rebirth in some way and the soul was still clinging to whatever was left of the Scylla? With phoenixes, for example, the soul would hide inside the egg as they were being reborn. Ares really would rather not fight this thing again if he could avoid it just because he'd had enough fun for now and chucking that art really took it all out of him. Ares wanted nothing more than to solve these smaller issues and go back to his nice warm bed to relax in peace for a few days. There was nothing left to grab Ares' attention so he would be good to kick back until the krakyrn reared its ugly mug. Speaking of, that was something he had to discuss with these lot as well. "Oh and, do we have any kind of plan for how to deal with the krakyrn? Don't expect me to use Armillary on it because that's a disaster waiting to happen."

Geordie and Hunter both raised an eyebrow at Ares as that last point he made seemed like a questionable one. If he could just chuck an Armillary at the krakyrn and kill it without fuss then why wouldn't he? "No, you've done enough regarding your first question. As for not using Armillary... Sure the Federation is going to take a while to recover from your magical escapades but it's still a better situation we find ourselves in overall now that it's happened." Geordie said. "Why not use Armillary again and just rid this country of its troubles once and for all?"

Ares shook his head and held up two fingers to imply he had two reasons. "First of all, and this is entirely selfish, but I don't want to risk destroying the enabler. I don't know for certain that my magic can't possibly destroy a rare treasure if I'm not careful and I refuse to run the risk. It's not just some random treasure, it's an enabler and I'm not giving it up come what may due to how much value I'll get out of it in the future. Also, second point, the krakyrn is far more nimble than the Scylla. It's smaller and can fly meaning the chances of me hitting an Armillary is going to be close to zero. Yes the range on it is massive but I think the krakyrn is going to come closer to the Federation than the Scylla did to pester it more efficiently, right? It's more aggressive and doesn't possess an army to lead and have do its bidding while it sits in the back like the Scylla. It's not a backline general or strategist, it's a frontline warlord in terms of how it fights. If the krakyrn is no more than a few feet away from the Federation then are you sure you really want me to fire an Armillary at it? Really? Even if we just wait until it retreats there's a good chance it will do so by taking to the skies and aiming at a flying target with this slow and wonky art isn't possible right now. I will likely miss and then the enabler will go bye bye, fleeing off into the horizon.

I have goals I want to accomplish in Xasca and I really don't want to waste my entire trip Voidwalking over the ocean and fruitlessly searching high and low for the krakyrn so I can get that damn enabler. Armillary is useful, and extraordinarily powerful, but there's a time and a place for it and the krakyrn fight isn't it. Even Subjugation isn't really a great choice either... But that doesn't mean I don't have a plan to deal with the monster. Hunter, back in the auction house, you managed to chuck, that poison bird gadget into its mouth with relative ease, right? It seems like the krakyrn likes to open its gob to shoot magic out or breath fire so I'm just going to let it get comfortable doing as such before I punish and kill it with this." Ares pulled out something that anyone living in Heaven's Path would be incredibly familiar with, especially Fate. It was something he hadn't really used in a while but, if you knew what was in it, you knew where Ares was going with this. It was a sack of Shock Beads! He'd given Fate one the second time he met her, back in the forest before he had an argument with Enyo, and also chucked another sack at the mecha dryad later that same week. It was a good way of having multiple Shock Beads go precisely where he wanted them to mid combat as opposed to burying them all and waiting potentially eons for his opponent to set foot in the correct quadrant of the battlefield. It was crude but could very well work wonders if used appropriately. Fate had supposedly gotten use out of her sack but Ares wasted his on a foe with a tough exterior. He corrected his mistake later by summoning Beads inside the dryad's chassis and so he was gunning for a similar plan here. Chuck the sack inside the beast's mouth and then it would all be over and done with then and there. Ares' magic had improved drastically since the dryad incident and a sack chock full of Beads would absolutely do in the krakyrn if it was foolishly ingested. The sack was decently unassuming too so this had a very high chance of success compared to the idea of using Armillary.

It seemed Hunter was interested in this sack, what with being a bit of a trapper at heart and these things scratching an itch he didn't know he had, so Ares offered it to him. He could always make another between now and whenever the krakyrn showed up and having more people with these things wasn't a bad idea, actually, as it meant that the chances of someone successfully getting one down the krakyrn's gullet was that much higher. It's not like the strength of the individual who tossed the sack really mattered so there was a temptation to just arm everyone on the Federation with these things but that was careless. Ares didn't mind giving out the Shock Beads to experts who would use it properly but if the rank and file soldiers of this country got their hands on it Ares could envision a large number of people blowing themselves up accidentally. It was for the best that he just made a few of these and gave them to these two experts, Geordie and Hunter, as well as the Aejaz lot. Anyway, it seemed like, as far as these two knew, there was nothing else going on right now that needed Ares' immediate attention and he was free to go do as he pleased. The Federation likely wouldn't set off again for another day or so, at bare minimum, meaning Ares had plenty of time to go investigate the bowl and the canyon. Not that he really needed it, there was basically nothing in either other than dead monsters, wet ground, the Bane in the bowl, and whatever the Scylla left behind that its soul was clinging too.

Ares left the quarterdeck and Voidwalked over to, and above, the bowl, giving it another once over, and making some minor adjustments, before disappearing and heading over to the canyon because it was way more interesting. The bowl was exactly as he knew it to be and nothing had changed since he created it earlier. There was one monster, from the Scylla's army, that had the bright idea to try and sneakily claim the sword during the aftermath of the fight but it was frozen and disintegrated on the spot, leaving behind tiny black crystals that contained a few of its body pieces within them. An eye here, an ear there, it had met a gruesome end and could serve as a precautionary tale for anyone else interested in taming the Bane. Not that anyone capable of braving the bowl in the first place would likely be weak enough to succumb to the lingering magic in the Bane but the chance wasn't zero. Ares left promptly after making sure things were left somewhat messy, so as to leave an impression that would conjure images of an epic / heroic battle fought valiantly until the very end. Nothing of the sort had really happened, as the fight was so one sided it couldn't even really be called a fight for the most part, but burying a sword in the ground and then pretending it was the result of some kind of legendary saga was funny to Ares. He went along with that imaginary scenario and scuffed up the ground a bit for added flair to make it look like monsters were dragged through the wet mud and a real brawl had occurred in the watery rage cage that is the bowl.

Ares ventured over to the canyon and descended before doing some digging for about five minutes while he looked for... Something. He had no idea what exactly it was he was supposed to find here so it could very well have just been something tiny half buried in the floor that he already glossed over. Thankfully he had Omniscience so he was less worried about that potentially happening but, even still, there was an evil little thought lurking in the back of his head telling him he'd walked right by it. His perseverance was rewarded eventually though when he found a red ball looking thing on the floor a decent distance in front of him. He had a guess what this thing was and it turned out to be a good assumption when he walked closer and saw a heart of sorts floating an inch or so off the floor. It appeared as though the Scylla was technically not the skeleton body but, rather, all of its sentience rested in the heart and it could shed its doomed body to ensure the heart, which doubled as its brain, could survive.

The heart wasn't a particularly mobile thing so it had been stuck down here as it tried to slowly float over and into the water nearby. The lingering destruction mana must have dissuaded it though as it was worried it would die for real if it so much as tried to cross that annihilation and disintegration threshold. Ares figured this thing could regrow after death provided the heart wasn't fully destroyed but it was actually a miracle that such a thing had occurred given the nature of the art Ares hit it with. Maybe the heart had temporary invincibility and immunity to damage once the body died? Maybe the Scylla had some kind of last ditch defensive move up its sleeve? Ares had no clue but evidently this thing was still kicking and ready to rear its head again in the future if it wasn't dealt with now... And yet Dominus was telling Ares to store this heart in his Primordial Blade and nurture it with water... Was this thing a plant?! Was Ares actually going to have to build a moat around the sect?! Well, if he got a pet Scylla as a guardian then that would absolutely be worth it. Just the terror it could cause at around the peak of transition realm was already staggering so taking it even further over the course of thousands of years would definitely be useful.

Would the Scylla really not turn on him and betray him later for killing it now though? Ah whatever... It was better to just trust Dominus when it came to higher realm crap like this, and he was seemingly familiar with the Scylla to a degree that was worth respecting his opinions on it over, so Ares just shoved the still beating heart inside the Blade and let it float through space freely for now. There were currently no planets in his Blade but there were inklings of one potentially spawning soon and it might have something to do with his cultivation. Up until now there were mostly just a few small, uninhabitable stars, which he'd been using for something else, but actual planets would be nice. He wouldn't 'plant' the Scylla in them, because it probably wouldn't want to move afterwards like some kind of stubborn weed, but it would be helpful for other things that Ares was going to be discussing later today after he returned to the Federation. He had new plans for people like Jebben who were too difficult to come up with a reasonable solution for. Still, he wanted to run it by Onno first as he had every right to have some say over this fire-starting idiot's fate.

Speaking of, now that the heart had been stored safely, it was time to return to the Federation and finish up these miscellaneous tasks so Ares Voidwalked back and landed next to the Aejaz group while each of them were seemingly busy with this or that, namely co-ordinating with the sailors to ensure everything was alright in the local area and there weren't any monsters lurking about and hiding on the Federation. It looked as though there had been some kind of small hubbub just before Ares landed and the two unusual individuals had just left clutching their heads for whatever reason... Ares ignored that for the moment and turned to Aejaz first and checked to see if the massive grin on his face was related to what Ares was guessing it was. "So, got your hands on a cannon then did you?" A happy nod was the only response Ares needed to know he was on the right track. "Did you at least inform the Federation of the cannon's departure or is it going to be a bit of a surprise for them when they go looking through their armoury?"

Aejaz threw his head up high and off to the side while hmph-ing. "I'll have you know I did not steal this weapon! It was given to me for my outstanding performance during the Federation defence earlier!"

With an admiring whistle, Ares gave his brother props for a job well done and actually believed the guy. "Fair's fair. How many monsters did you kill anyway?"

"100 on the dot!"

"Really? That many? I'm surprised there were even groups that large left to shoot at... Since when did you become such a crack shot anyhow?"

"I lied!"

"..." Ares took a deep sigh and just stared plainly at his brother.

"If I said I got like only twenty or so confirmed kills I figured the Federation wouldn't think it was worth giving me the cannon over. It's not like they were counting so who cares what number I give them!? Not like I wouldn't have just stolen the cannon anyway if they declined my request!"

"Idiot..." Ares was surprised he was shocked at this completely predictable revelation. Had he really forgotten who this dopey brother of his was at his core? His ability to sell a lie was drastically improving, however, as he'd said 100 with such conviction that Ares' lie detector didn't trigger... This guy could seriously spout bullshit with such determination he could fool an otherwise infallible lie detector. Ares wouldn't be surprised if this guy, at some point today, actually genuinely believed that 100 kills jargon. While he was mid combat he must have felt truly in the zone and drastically overestimated his performance, allowing him to tap into that insanity for his lying later. He glorified his own performance to such ludicrous degrees probably because he was either A, doing that thing where he dreamt he was the hero again or, B, was coming up with an excuse ahead of time for why he absolutely needed the cannon. 'Look at my incredible performance with it!' To sell a lie, the best course of action is usually to believe in it fervently and whole-heartedly first. Aejaz had nailed that pretty well. "Anyway, those fake numbers that aren't even in the rough cannonball-park to being correct aside, where did those other two that were here go?"

"Oh, them? Yeah, it was really strange actually." Aejaz nodded before scrunching up his features and putting his chin in his cupped hand, making him look pensive and wise beyond his normal capacity for such things. "As soon as the Scylla showed up they both developed massive headaches and started seeing strange visions that they had trouble explaining properly. Something about a laboratory, perhaps? It seemed like they recognised the Scylla for whatever reason... Couldn't really get an answer out of them in a timely manner, though, and they were looking rough around the edges so we just left them on the side during the Scylla fiasco so they could rest. We tried talking to them again afterwards but it had only gotten worse and they were just spouting gibberish about some kind of experiment or whatever. They were mumbling so we couldn't even try and piece the tony bits of information together so we just sent them on their way to go and get some sleep or maybe get a check up with the Federation doctors if they aren't too busy treating the wounded from the fight. Did you need those two for something? I don't know where they're staying on the Federation, unfortunately, so it might be a while before you get a chance to speak to them again..."

Ares waved his hand dismissively and shook his head. "Nah, that's fine. I was just wondering who they were exactly? I didn't care at first but they've been popping up quite frequently so I figured I should just ask in case I ought to actually know."

A funny noise came out of Aejaz' mouth as he recoiled slightly and looked rather incredulously at his brother. "Ares... You don't know who they are? Really?"

"Ares they famous or something?" Ares was starting to think maybe he should know them... Still, they were so underwhelming that they fell into a kind of category Ares typically reserved for uninteresting people he never expected to meet again. Had he met these two before? Why were they relevant now? Had he met them through Hans? The sect? In the snatcher town? For the life of him, Ares couldn't tell...

"Ares... Those two are..." Aejaz was about to reveal all but was interrupted by Onno thundering over now that his conversation with Hunter was done.

"ARES!" Onno's shout distracted Ares to the point he completely forgot about the current conversation and it was buried in the back of his mind. It's not like the answer was important anyway as those two would no doubt show up again later, during the krakyrn incident, and he could get answers then. It's not like knowing now, right this instance, would make a difference anyway as they couldn't be too relevant to anything if Ares wasn't remembering them. As for Onno, he looked pretty pissed off right about now... "WHERE'S THAT BASTARD JEBBEN?!" And he had every right to be if this was what his ranting was all about. Ares scratched his head and cut Onno off at the pass, preventing him from spewing rage like how a hose wantonly spewed water.

"I don't mind bringing him out but is there any point to doing so? He doesn't seem like the type to relent just because you're going to yell at him and, if I do free him, even temporarily, he's just going to try and cause as much damage as possible before I lock him up in the Blade again. He'll start yelling about his connections to his father, right? He wanted to do that earlier, and take the family down with him, but you intercepted him in the middle of nowhere so his wish didn't come true. Do you really want to give him that small win just so you can pointlessly rage at him out in the open?" Ares gestured around him to the Federation which was still in Freefire mode. There wasn't anyone around on this level, per se, but the inside of the pyramidal structure was pretty hollow in most spots and yelling loud enough would result in a large chunk of people hearing it through echoes travelling down long corridors. This point seemed to stun Onno for a second so Ares kept up his persuasion. "I think it's better if you don't see him after all. You said you didn't want to back when your head was clearer. You probably acted impulsively once Aejaz contacted you and got involved in something you should have just let me deal with from the start. You shouldn't talk to Jebben until he calms down as well and gets his head screwed on properly. He'll relent on his current behaviours in a few years, I reckon, and you can have a much calmer talk with him then that will be better for both of you overall."

"..." Onno stared at Ares with a hint of curiosity and anger in his eyes. "What are you planning on doing to him?" It wasn't anger in the sense that he was worried Ares would torture the guy, more so anger that he wasn't going to do any such thing at all! This bastard Jebben had cause way too much trouble to get off Scot free! Some electric therapy or breaking of bones was in order to set this rascal straight! That was roughly what Onno was thinking. Ares, however, had a different definition of punishment that he was looking to start doling out, one that was more ironic.

"Put simply, slave labour. It won't be that bad, though, just really annoying for some rich spoiled brat like him. I want to start creating a world in the Primordial Blade for various reasons and so I'm going to lock up troublesome opponents I don't want to kill inside the treasure and force them to work. You don't want him dead and I don't want him roaming free so this is a happy middle ground that doesn't take up space or resources to Edal with. I'll dump him on a new-born planet and give him enough tools and resources to become a farmer. He can work on his plot of land, live freely, and cultivate even, but he has to fend for himself. He will become the first root I plant that will one day blossom into a fully blown civilisation. Sure it will be run by, and compromised entirely of, misfits but I'll keep watch over it to make sure the whole thing isn't burnt to the ground by those idiots. Basically it's a second chance and I'll be their merciful God watching on from above here and there.

As for Jebben specifically, he was basically gifted everything due to his familial nepotism so he can learn what it's like to live like the people he despises so much. He thinks not getting the inheritance is bad? Wait 'till he sees what it's like having to build up even the bare minimum from scratch; that ought to shut him up in a year or two after he gets a taste of hard, gruelling labour that he's so unfamiliar with. That or he can just sit there and starve, I guess. He doesn't look like he wants to die, though, so I imagine he'll keep fighting against famine even during the harshest of winters no matter how much he whines. Of course I stand to benefit from this too. I get farms to plant and grow resources in while not having to worry about what to do with obnoxious prisoners. They can build up multiple worlds that I can pillage from at any given time if need be and there might even be other unexpected benefits. This is a fundamental champion's personal treasure I'm shoving these sorts of people in so helping it grow is a priority of mine and I think this is a step in the right direction. The Blade will probably get more and more powerful the more I fill it out and turn it into an actual universe so Jebben is about to become a pioneer for an entirely new planet. Lucky him eh?... By the way... Your eyes are changing..." At some point during Ares' explanation, Onno's eyes were mutating and becoming a lot like his father's...

"Ah fuck me, just when I thought today couldn't get any damn worse... Yeah, I share Cash's bloodline so obviously I was gonna get these eyes too at some point. I hit bloodline awakening a while ago but tried to use mana to prevent the bloodline from forming but I got distracted during all this nonsense and so it just sort broke through the walls I'd set up. I really didn't want anything to do with that man but I guess I'll be stuck with these cursed eyes forever now. Such a simple slip up and now I gotta pay the price. Whatever, at least they're useful and have a benefit of some kind otherwise I'd be looking for a treasure to replace them pronto... And as for Jebben... Thank you for not killing him. I don't know how to feel about this confinement strategy of yours but I do think the punishment is a suitable one. You're also probably right about leaving him alone for a few years because right now I'd just punch him if anything... Yeah, fine, whatever... Guess I'm done here then..." Onno sighed as he looked around. "You really made one hell of a mess... I'm not on clean up duty, thank God, but I might have to oversee some stuff here and there so you've put some real work on my plate you know? Can't really complain, though, it would ave been far worse had you not intervened with that batshit magic of yours. That showing was undeniable proof that investing fully into Heaven's Path was the correct decision, however, so I'll take the win for what it is and just be happy I'm on the right team here..." Onno waved and walked away with Esme because he had nothing left to say and would probably feel the desire to beat Jebben welling up again if he just hung around knowing he was nearby. He chuckled in despair as Esme started talking to him about going shopping when the Federation was back to normal and so it looked like things would be fine on their end and they could go back to normal quickly.

And that neatly wrapped up everything for today... Aside from the mystery individuals form before with their odd headaches but that was a problem for future Ares to deal with. Right now he just wanted to go home and relax until the krakyrn showed as that would put the final nail in the Federation saga coffin. He also still needed to get his gifts from before delivered, namely the model car for Bellona, but that would happen during the downtime in the upcoming days and be a minor event to brighten up his mood and remind him that his was actually still a holiday! Maybe it was actually time to finally sit on a deck chair with Rox and Aejaz and just shoot the shit with shades on his face and a ice-cool cocktail firmly in his grip... And, maybe, if he was feeling generous... He might even let that damn eagle out of the gun to get some fresh air and snacks... Maybe...