Chapter 95: Pick Your Pizza and Drink Your Poison

"YOU INCORRIGIBLE SCUM!"

Calla gently placed her fingertip on her lip and tilted her head innocently with a confused look on her face. "Me? That doesn't sound right. I'm a good person! What's got your knickers in a twist, Rh~ea?"

"YOU... Agh whatever. Getting mad at you is pointless! Stupid revenant! You heard Sadie. Enyo and Bellona want to... Are going to marry the same damn guy. I'm more worried about Enyo than anything, I don't want her being led even further astray than she already was. I want to go down to Sheryashka but your stupid ass will just follow me like a damn pooch on a leash! I was at least trying to get some dirt on the guy so you could tell me who it is, but you just destroyed the talisman with that last attack 'cos you're a damn brute!"

"But I'm a cute little woman, I can't possibly be a brute. Rh~ea, you may be the only mother in the world that can be considered a brute!"

"... That's not the point... Look, Calla, I'm begging you here. Just let me go down to Sheryashka. Just for a day at least. Let me see my daughters and find out what kinda guy this is so I can at least rest easy. This is such a big moment in their lives and I want to make sure things are fine. Especially with Enyo, you know what she was like. As a mother, you should understand me when I say I just want her to be happy and free from the Legion clan's all-encompassing vice grip that it has over so many of our people. And then there's Bellona too. She hasn't had it easy either. She had such strict requirements for a guy that I'm honestly shocked she found one. Come on Calla, as a long-time friend, don't deny me this..."

Sigh

For the briefest of moments, Calla dropped the act and looked at Rhea with an honest gaze. "I have heard your passionate speech. I understand. In light of your heartfelt pleas and in consideration of your desperation to be a good a mother, I shall let you go down to Sheryashka one day before me!"

"STUPID MUTT!" Rhea rugby tackled Calla and smacked her around for a bit. When she got bored of hitting the dumb woman, she tossed her away into a nearby dirt pit where some parsnips were once growing.

Calla poked her head out of the pit with a small mound of dirt on top of her head and smiled at Rhea. "You should take it easy. Your girls are having fun and enjoying themselves. Your worried, but is your trust in them really so shallow that you have to go and smother them all the time? It's been a while since you've seen them, and things have changed I get that, but you can wait a bit more. Let them sort themselves out and experience love on their own for a bit. It's a fun time for them and they're living a new kind of life compared to what they'd known previously, especially Enyo. The last thing they need is for some overbearing parent to come breathing down their necks when all they want to do is spend time around the man they love. If you aren't panicking and rampaging anymore after having talked to Bellona, it's because you feel reassured enough by whatever she told you that you know you don't really have to go and check on anything. Your just being nosy, Rhea. Calm down and take it easy. You should be glad Enyo is free now, not stressing because of something pointless. Come inside the house and I'll make you some hot chocolate!"

Rhea tapped her finger on her waist repeatedly before kissing her teeth. "Yeah... Fine... By the way, what the hell did you do to Aster? I saw the bastard for all of two seconds before you sent him packing. You have such a good man and you really don't treat him right. You should just give him to me at this point."

"Hmph. He got what he deserved. You're really never going to get over him are you? I shouldn't have ever let you near him back then."

"It's not like you did it out of the goodness of your heart. You really weren't thinking right back then... Not that I blame you. I'm still thankful, though. I just hope it can happen again in the future."

"When I get my child back, I'll consider it. Until then, no." Calla opened the door to her mansion and invited Rhea in. "I hope this will be the year... It only gets more and more depressing every single time."

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Peaceful meditation is hard when surrounded by a large group of people, as it turns out. Ares was trying to check his cultivation gains, but a certain squabbling duo were bickering back and forth and making it impossible. Well, Charity couldn't actually understand Leo, but you could argue they were physically 'bickering'. Ares slunk into the kitchen where things were more peaceful and he could spare an ounce of concentration. Searching within himself for all the recent changes, he found out that he'd gone up a stage! Mental accumulation, 4th stage had been accomplished! Being a revenant and an adept, every cultivation gain mattered. The sooner he could get to bloodline awakening, the sooner he could start unleashing his true potential. Right now, he was only really half complete; maybe even less considering a few other things that were missing here and there. He didn't have his apotheosis form, he didn't have access to Dominus and whatever benefits he would provide, and there are a bunch of cultivation realms after transition that could further improve his deadliness in specific ways. That was all in the future though. Right now, he had pizzas to make! He'd dipped, ducked, and dived his way through the crowd in the living room and checked in on what everybody wanted so he was good to go. The only people he still wasn't sure about were Appa, Bellona, and Sadie as they had taken a while to come back. As for the rest, their preferred pizzas were as follows.

Ares: Sweet chilli chicken and peppers. For that spicy, explosive kick. Tanginess is king.

Enyo: Meat feast. Enyo really liking meat was not even remotely shocking to Ares who'd cooked her an immeasurable number of meat dishes up until now. Of course that wasn't the only kind of meat she obsessed over...

Aejaz: … Hawaiian... Disappointed. No further comment.

Allie: Garlic pizza bread. A little out there compared to the usual suspects, but a respectable choice nonetheless. Being an alchemist probably had something to do with her preference for ingredients that blended well together and produced an interesting taste. If anything, it was surprising she didn't want a larger mix of ingredients to concoct the perfect taste. Perhaps sometimes simple is best after all.

Leo: Sardines and tuna. Ares had been half right about this one, but he hadn't expected the damn furball to throw him a curveball and want a second type of fish as well! In hindsight, it was actually probably kinda obvious... The fella also wanted some lemongrass on his pizza too to give him a nostalgic taste from his old home.

Charity: Vegetarian. Health nut, healthy pizza. Well... As healthy as a pizza can be anyway. As an aside, she asked for extra mushrooms and olives. That was about as much flare as she wanted.

Gladius: BBQ base and ground beef. The first to order a different base other tomato! Gladius was the most level headed person in the room bar none, so you could say he was... Grounded! Being the odd one out was kinda his deal. He was, even now, waiting for Sadie to get here so he could ask her to train... 

Onno: Quattro formaggi. Ooh la la. How fancy. Prim and proper, good taste, ol' reliable. A bit heavy, but goes spectacularly well with some nice wine. The high-class businessman's pizza. For when you want to order pizza during a meeting with an important client in an Italian restaurant but want to maintain your formal edge. Etiquette personified.

Li Li: Buffalo chicken. Thick, but soft and fluffy pizza dough is mandatory for the best experience with these toppings. Li Li was tempted to ask for ranch dressing drizzle on top of her pizza but ultimately decided not to. She and Dirk were opting to share their pizzas with one another and Dirk wasn't much a fan of ranch so she passed.

Dirk: Pepperoni. A simple classic. Maybe he liked it because the meat was bright blood red? Maybe he wanted to be able to share it with Li Li so he picked something generally liked by most? Maybe he was a fussy eater? Maybe he really just had no preference? Why was such a simple pizza picked by such a mysterious individual? Who knows!

Lighter Duo. 50/50 pizza; one side is sausage and pesto, the other is pesto and sausage. Don't ask. Just don't even ask. Their reasoning is beyond your comprehension. Move on!

Esme: Ricotta and spinach, thin base. Appears more interesting than it actually is. Deceptively 'loud', but really quite plan deep down. Lowkey jealous of the other pizzas for being cooler than it is. Still good though. Then again, all pizzas are good. Except Hawaiian.

And that about summed it up! Almost, anyway. Sadie, Bellona, and Appa had just waltzed on in through the front door and that meant more orders to take! It seemed like Bellona wanted to chat with Enyo in the bedroom, probably about something involving him, so Ares took their orders pronto and got back to work. To round out all the orders, the last three were...

Bellona: Chicken tikka masala. A bit different from the rest and a pretty unique flavour profile compared to the others. A real stand out and not ashamed to be itself. A hidden gem that deserves a better reputation than it has. In some ways, it was like a not-so-distant relative to the sweet chilli chicken pizza.

Sadie: Meat calzone. Good with beer... Sadie had stopped off to buy beer on the way back. Coincidence? I think not...

Appa: Snappa... This one killed Ares a little on the inside. Sure he could adjust the flavour to whatever Appa wanted, but half the fun factor of a pizza was it's shape and the method of eating it. Appa had never had pizza before and was overwhelmed with choice so Ares made the Snappa's taste into that of a basic pepperoni and sweetcorn pizza. Snappas were great, and Ares was really proud of the invention. He would one day spread it far and wide but it didn't resolve the 'shades can't eat pizza' issue. Maybe there was a treasure out there that could aid him in resolving this dilemma? Ares would have to keep an eye out for something that could help a shade eat in some manner, although that was a highly specific item to search for. He wouldn't likely find anything in the domains within the Primordial Blade's cordoned-off zone but, once he got outside, he would scour the world at large! He had too. Appa loved the pizza Snappa almost as much as the candy apple and it squealed in joy as it popped one after another... Ares wanted nothing more than to see his daughter eat a pizza, followed by a candy apple, the proper way... One day, Appa. I promise you one day I'll make it happen.

While everyone was chowing down, Ares checked in with Dirk about his plans going forward. "Yo. When are we gonna go see your old man? The nationals end tomorrow and I'm gonna take a wild guess and say Accelyn ain't gonna hang around forever."

As he dusted his hands off, Dirk swallowed the bite of pizza he'd been chewing before responding. "Yeah, about that. I convinced my old geezer to talk to me again tomorrow after the match. I know it's hella awkward to have to go and do it straight after you get done with your fight, but Accelyn is leaving her accommodation in two days. The sooner we can get my achy breaky heart back the better. Ah, just in case she uses it during the fight, I should warn you in advance... My heart is a heamomancy pillar enabler. Crazy, right? Of course it has other effects for me specifically, but anyone else who uses it can wield blood magic with ease. That's why it's so rare... And why Accelyn betrayed me for it... The chances of something like that appearing is statistically rarer than even a five month fine grind blue as it requires, at minimum, for the cultivator to have an insane affinity for the pillar. It's value isn't why I want it back though, it just feels wrong letting a terrible person like her have it when there are plenty of other people I'd rather give it to if I could choose. Damn cowtits..."

"Tomorrow's fine by me. I hope this doesn't sound ominous, but I already know where you live so I'll make my way there after the match is over."

"... You've totally had Aejaz steal from us before, haven't you?!… Cunt..."

"Oh come on, it's just a bit of stardust from rich folk who won't even miss it. If it makes you feel any better, we stole way more from the Li clan!"

Cough

Li Li almost choked on her drink. "EXCUSE ME?"

"Hehehehe." Ares shifted away and hid amongst the crowd, enjoying small talk with everyone else. He chatted with Gladius about how it felt to let Dominus swing a spear, with Onno about how the sales were going, and with Appa who kept flaunting the fact that it had a secret it wasn't telling Ares. With a chuckle, he rubbed Appa's head and let it slide because he could figure out what the secret was. There was no need to confuse the matter and tell Appa so he just let the shade giggle at him and have its fun. The rest of the day passed and everyone slowly left, including Sadie who made a pitstop by Ares' room to have Enyo cure her drunken stupor. It was either that or let her loose in the garden again, so there was really only one correct choice here. Actually, on that matter, Enyo was ready and raring to complete the inner court disciple test. It had been scheduled for some time after the nationals and all eligible disciples could participate, so Ares and co were going to have to prepare themselves to move soon. After dusting off Leo's messy fur, Ares made a few Shock Beads, artifacts, and did some work on a few technicals here and there before hitting the hay and calling it a day... In the living room... He understood now why it was happening, but that didn't make the pill any easier to swallow! Ah well, at least he got a chance to cuddle with Appa again, that more than made up for it.

When dawn broke, Bellona yawned as she left the room. 

"Appa! Freeze!"

…

…

…

Bellona stared at Ares as he held Appa aloft in her direction.

"Eh? Why isn't it working? Is my Appa broken? Why is it only yours that works!" Ares bobbed Appa up and down, shaking the giggling shade as he searched high and low for the on-switch.

Thwack

"Idiot. Let me show you how it's done." Bellona stole Appa and aimed to kill. "Appa. Freeze!"

Crackle

"Alright mongrel, no lazing about in the hallways. Off to the kitchens with you." 

Third times the charm... Or not. Today marked the third failure in a row of Ares' 'don't get frozen by Appa' challenge. It was an especially bitter loss that stung at least twice as much considering he'd been cuddling with Appa the whole night! He gave Appa comfort and hugs and this was how it repaid him?! If Appa wasn't so cute, there would have been a price to pay for this treachery! 

The morning was like any other with everyone eating their fill before making their way out of the sect and to the coliseum. One more match and they would have locked in their place at the internationals. The only team left standing in their way were considered weaker than the Bhorashka lot so many people weren't going to bother to show up and watch. Really, what was the point? The Perish Wheel alone was enough of a guarantee so today was meaningless. There were even talks amongst the citizens encouraging the C.O to just give the win to Red Sun and cancel the last match. Of course the C.O didn't listen to any of it, but even they were already convinced of the results ahead of the match.

Ares and co arrived outside the coliseum and were surprised to find... No one! Esme and Li Li had beaten them to the punch in getting here every other day, so to finally get here ahead of them was unexpected. Enyo had to smack Ares around a bit when he tried climbing the outside of the coliseum. His dumb plan was to get to one of the higher layers and swoop down like a superhero making his grand entrance when the other two arrived. The expectation that they would arrive together was shattered, though, when Esme arrived by her lonesome. She looked around and was just as confused as everyone else as to where the usually punctual Li Li was. As for why she herself had taken her sweet time... Well she'd gotten to know Onno the previous day during the pizza party and had been having a chat with him near the entrance of the coliseum today. It seemed they were getting along quite well. Not as well as Li Li and Dirk though. That was readily apparent when Li Li appeared with rampant bed-hair and flushed cheeks. Yet another couple had climbed the stairs to adult-hood together. Ares attempted to climb the coliseum again, this time because he was fearing for his life and wanted to get as far away from Enyo as possible. She was unnervingly silent as her helmet stared daggers at Ares. It's a good thing Ares' regenerative abilities as a revenant weren't particularly effective yet otherwise he would have been in for a world of hurt right now. Enyo yanked him off the wall and dragged him, upside down, into the coliseum before tossing him onto the floor in the waiting room and sitting on his back. If she hadn't been wearing her armour, this might have been considered a reward instead of a punishment but, alas, that was not the case for poor, squashed Ares.

He was eventually freed from his detainment when the green light signalled the start of the final match... Although for some strange reason, he was still being dragged around by Enyo. She hauled Ares over the dusty floor of the arena in front of the curious spectators before chucking him on the ground and sitting on him again.

…

…

…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OH COME ON! WHY AM I STILL THE BAD GUY IN THIS SITUATION?! JEALOUSY IS A BAD LOOK! IT'S ALSO NOT AS COMFORTABLE AS YOU THINK THIS IS YOU SHMUCKS! Ares complained inwardly but just let out a tired sigh as he listened to Mr Clipboard rattle off the rules. Mr Clipboard paid Ares' and Enyo's antics no mind because he could tell if this farce went on any longer the crowd would start chucking rubbish again and he was in the line of fire. With his cultivation he wouldn't get hit or anything, but he still didn't want to be here when things got messy. Plus it would just dirty the arena for no good reason and give others unnecessary work to do. In the worst case scenario, the match would have to be temporarily halted while the arena was cleaned up and that was just a pain in the ass. Mr Clipboard would finally get to relax after this match and he could be free from the C.O's heavy workload! He could take a vacation to a sunny beach and drink cocktails under the sun! With these thoughts in mind he sped through the rules at a blistering pace before jumping off the platform and vanishing at the speed of sound.

Enyo got off Ares and rolled him along the floor with her foot as everyone got into position. She took a few steps back from Ares and waited for the horn to blare...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

… At which point she got a running start and booted Ares towards the talisman. "Go fetch you abstinent mongrel!"

Ares' soared like a bird until he came crashing down like a ton of bricks, but he did land next to the talisman, so that was a success at least. Whether it was because of his aerial mobility or because Enyo was secretly a sports professional was up for debate. Based on the raw power of her kick, Ares assumed it was the latter. Now that he thought about it, actually, Enyo would be really good at rugby...

Ares jumped to his feet and readied himself for a fight! But no one was anywhere near him... This was yet another example of Ares failing to do proper research before hand. If he had made any effort whatsoever to learn about his opponents, he would know they preferred to win matches by stalling for time. Having the talisman was irrelevant for what the Nomad group were aiming to accomplish.

On the other side of the field, the Nomad competitors had split into three separate groups. Front and foremost were the two golems, Bricky and Rocky. Behind them were the orc and human duo, Maso and Sado. And finally, all by her lonesome in the back, guarded by pervs and stones, was Accelyn, the key to their win condition and the Nomad group's greatest asset.

"Suffuse: Itch."

The suffering pillar was one that oriented itself around death and pain. To be precise, if you weren't dead, then you were probably in pain! Quite simple really. Given the nature of the pillar, it was generally advised to stay clear of anyone who specialised in it as pillar affinity was said, by some, to be indicative of personality. In all fairness, that conjecture had some weight to it. After all, the first person to have the suffering pillar that Ares came across was a seductress throwing her body around to betray and steal men's literal hearts. She clearly had a mean streak or two. Sure Dirk was partially at fault, being blinded by lust and whatnot, but at the end of the day most of the blame lay with her. As for how the suffering pillar worked, the three aspects that came under it were as follows: 'Negligent toxicology', 'grave lord', and 'scream for me'. Scream for me was an aspect specialising in torture methods and arts that were designed to cause more pain than actual harm. Aym's ability to poke random spots for severe anguish was a good example of the kind of art you could find under this aspect. Mental agony could also be inflicted via mental attacks and that was where this aspect really started to shine. The whole point of excruciating pain was to throw off your opponent, and toying with the opponent's brain directly was effectively the perfect way to do it. Long story short, if you wanted someone to be utterly miserable, and you cared about that more than actually killing them, this was the aspect to invest in. That's not to say the arts couldn't kill over a long enough period of time though and, if anything, that was for the best. Why? Because it paired well with the other aspects! Grave lord was a necromancer's go-to aspect. Summoning undead and making contracts with demons and such. You could create powerful amalgamations of corpses and raise recently deceased cultivators. All of the above would typically be weaker than their living counterpart, but they were mostly used to be frontline nuisances that delayed the opponent and extended the fight. Some dedicated grave lords could muster legendary undead that could slaughter entire armies on their own, though, so you always had to pay these creeps attention lest they summon a zombie dragon when you aren't looking. Still, as with the previous aspect, these two were really just there to by time for the negligent toxicology aspect to do its work. This aspect could summon, create, and spread various poisons. In a way, it was similar to alchemy. Instead of producing beneficial effects, however, it was more suited to killing people... People that you could then turn into more undead! It formed quite a nice cycle. Poison someone, keep them at bay with your undead, prevent them from getting past by distracting them with mental attacks, then raise them as undead after the poison does its work. Anyone stuck in this scenario would truly be suffering! This was one of the few pillars that had high highs and low lows. Good cultivators with this pillar could make every fight feel impossible and stonewall you to death. Bad cultivators would get run over and lose immediately over and over again. There really wasn't much of an in-between. As for the Suffuse series of arts that Accelyn had tapped into, they came under negligent toxicology and would essentially spread a poison over a large area. As long as the cultivator kept casting the art, the poison would keep spreading further and further. The type of art determined the type of poison. For instance, there was once a nefariously playful cultivator who Suffused a laxative type poison throughout a city over the course of several days. This may sound funny but, had he used a deadly poison instead, he could have just as easily turned the city into a graveyard instead of a sewer. This was doubly true if the cultivator made an effort to create an odourless, colourless poison. Toxicologists were dangerous and people in positions of power usually monitored those with an affinity for the aspect to prevent any wide spread plagues. Suffuse: Itch used a poison that was basically highly-concentrated acid. It would burn cultivators from the inside out and make them feel itchy as their organs were melting. The name was innocent, the result was not. If Accelyn was allowed to keep casting this art for long enough, she could cover the entire arena in this art and just kill the entire opposite team who couldn't escape. This was a tactic that took full advantage of the place in which the event was held as this wouldn't be possible in a larger, open arena. So far no team had dealt with the frontliners quickly enough to eek out a win against this team, but that was also because they were lacking something Red Sun wasn't, firepower!