Chapter 332: There Goes My Hero: Unreliable Old Master Interlude

Ares looked at the note one more time... This really was going to be the 'rub it in his face because he fell for it spiel', wasn't it? Ares didn't dawdle any longer, as this fate couldn't be avoided, and opened the letter and, sure enough, there were paragraphs as far as the eye could see about how much of a genius the person responsible for this outcome was... Ares skimmed through the nonsense and just memorised the important parts which could be summarised as follows... The guy who was responsible for this bait was named Jebben... That was it, really... There was seriously a lot of pointless garbage being spewed in this letter about how he was superior to 'some fundamental pillar' and blah blah blah. This guy was relishing in his win and Ares was honestly aa little annoyed for no reason other than because he had to read all this bullshit for basically no gain whatsoever! The only other piece of information he didn't currently know about, but would have found out soon enough anyway, was that the Firestarters had conducted another raid elsewhere and that one was probably going to be successful. They'd likely done as was promised they would do in the letter and strung up the burning corpses while creating a pile of ashes where the business they targeted once stood. Apparently it was some kind of transport business, one that helped deliverymen by selling them forklifts and other such convenient products for hauling goods. They weren't integral, necessarily, to the foundation of the Federation but this would still hurt the country at large due to the unique value they possessed. Everything else would slow down to a crawl without this industry opening their doors, potentially leading to the situation Ares had gone over in his head earlier, so from that perspective it was a pretty important target.

Ares sighed as the guards arrived and explained what he knew in full while emptying the Puny Prison. There were some funny looks from the guards when Ares mentioned the name 'Jebben' but he couldn't get an answer out of them as to who this person was and they were trying to hush him from saying the name aloud for whatever reason. Ares decided to co-operate as he could always just ask either Hunter or Onno about this guy and solve things thatta way. Onno would likely show up at the auction happening soon so Ares could hang around the entrance and discuss it with him in private when he finally showed up. That or he might just get lucky and catch him wandering around somewhere.

As for the Firestarters here, the leader was revealed to be the previous head of security for the Federation. He'd lost his job after being seduced by some rich noble who'd been using him from the start. She was the secret lover of the current head of security so two plus two equalled four, basically. She sold him out so her now-husband could get the position and the status that came with it. This was a revelation for the guards who would now look a their superior in a very different way, and he might honestly get the can for all this nonsense, but it didn't change the fact that this Firestarter was way out of line! It's not like he had a clean slate either otherwise that woman wouldn't have been able to dig up dirt on him to begin with! Everyone was terrible! There was also the one guy who'd tried to burn down the restaurant earlier, the one who Ares trailed back to the Firestarter base, and he didn't seem all too happy about te current situation. He'd been THIS close to revenge and fell at the last hurdle, only to find out he was nothing more than bait from the start. One of the guards who knew more about this situation clarified that the restaurant owner and employees had nothing to do with this guy's grudge and they had no control over what happened back then but that only made the perpetrator more annoyed because he'd been duped twice now! Everything he'd done for revenge was pointless and he'd been played like a fiddle by the person who promised him it. As for the other Firestarters, various tales of humiliation and backstabbing came out of their mouths, yada yada, but nothing relevant to the current scenario. Just a bunch of random cannon fodder used to draw Ares' attention elsewhere. That didn't mean they'd be forgiven though, nothing of the sort. The guards were going to drag them away and make sure they paid the price for their attempted actions in full. The people here might have been ok but the real victims elsewhere were dead as doornails, according to the guards who briefed Ares and told him it was basically as his letter described, and these lot were indirectly responsible and part of the same group so there'd be hell to pay.

As for Ares, he didn't much care. His job here was done and Jebben would get his comeuppance in due time. Ares was never a strategist to begin with so losing on that front was acceptable. Really, truthfully, he was the God of destruction who tackled issues head on with the power of annihilation on his side, not some mastermind orchestrating victory from behind the scenes. His methods were direct and Jebben would learn the hard way that there was no substitution fo raw power. Brains meant little without brawn in cultivation society and only the truly brilliant could weave their way through the backstreets of this world in such a fashion. Jebben beat Ares but so what? That was like a military strategist beating a caveman! Him celebrating early was silly because this caveman was about to club him in the back of the head! There were some really smart people and entities out there, and maybe then would Ares be concerned about having to deal with them, but this? Not falling for an obvious bait and thinking of himself as some kind of strategist supercomputer?

Ares was not impressed!

If anything, he was more 'impressed' that the rank and file, according to the letter, almost had fallen for it... They were going to go all in on the restaurant until Jebben stopped them... These Firestarters were weak and stupid! No wonder Jebben felt like a king, compared to the morons surrounding him he probably was. Had that inflated his ego and driven him to narcissism? Was that why this letter even existed? He felt the need to tell others what kind of crap he was dealing with and had to overcome? Honestly, if anything, Ares pitied the guy... If he'd been driven to vent about his co-workers in a long ass letter like this then clearly he didn't exactly have it easy micro managing these muppets... Ares looked back at the pathetic cultivators and they really were a sorry sight. Barely worth considering as 'combatants' or manipulable forces, driven solely by anger and resentment, and not an ounce of cohesion in their bones except for the leader... Actually, why was the leader, the previous head of security, thrown away like this? Surely his expertise would have been useful elsewhere in the long run? Sure he wasn't strong but that really wasn't his area of expertise or what he brought to the table. He would be good at mobilising forces quickly, efficiently, and in the right place at the right time... Then again, the strategist seemingly fulfilled that role also so maybe it was a clash of pride? Jebben wanted to be the only one puling the strings so he chucked away his only competition on this doomed expedition to get rid of him? Made sense, egos do apparently clash after all, and boy did this guy have a massive one if the phrasing of this demeaning letter was anything to go by...

Anyway, after the guards were done loading up and taking away the perpetrators on smaller police boats, they handed Ares twenty high grade and thanked him for his work before setting off. That left Ares and Rox to bask in the gratitude of the chef and his employees who offered precisely what he was after form the start, a free meal whenever he dropped by! This was honestly worth more to Ares than the twenty high grades! Though, really, the twenty high grades could pay for multiple meals here... But the point was that he valued the food more than the money! Ignoring the taunting letter, this was a major win for Ares and he would take it!... Though he was still curious as to who this Jebben guy was... Oh well, he would find out soon enough! He would also get revenge on these Firestarters when he crashed one of their meetings in a few days and boy did Ares wish he was attending the one with this Jebben fool so he could see the look on that guy's face! Alas, Ares wasn't feeling lucky in that regard so a face to face meeting probably wasn't going to happen just yet.

On that note, now that everything here had been wrapped up and taken care of, Ares shoved Rox into the Primordial Blade, gave him some snacks for a job well done, and went back home where he would cook dinner, pressurise the Blade some more, practice annihilation enhancement underwater in the bath, and cultivate in more weird positions! He'd formed a sort of daily routine as of late but it was all for good causes and he was improving as a cultivator in quite significant ways, no matter how odd he looked doing it! He had the privacy of the house shielding him from prying eyes anyways so screw it! Only Aejaz would really see and it's not like that guy had any expectations for Ares not acting like madman or a quack every now and then. Low expectations thy name is Aejaz!

Meanwhile, as Ares was relaxing after a long day of body tempering and Firestarter stopping, the pagoda was getting a bit more busy as people were starting to show up from further corners of the universe. The queue had gotten impossibly long and now people were being given numbers instead of having to wait on-site otherwise the planet would have been completely overcrowded by this point. A large neon sign had been hoisted above the planet, and was being dangled underneath a spacecraft, that showcased what number was currently being called up, allowing people to chill on nearby planets with cocktails in hand and watch on with their divine sense without needing to worry about missing their opportunity. It was safe to say Transmit was going to be making some serous moolah out of this particular endeavour! The individual charge for entry was low but with this many people here? They would be practically rolling in stardust.

As for Kaleido, he was feeling more secure now that his aid had shown up!... Kinda... The guy did show up but then he promptly, immediately disappeared again... That was to be expected somewhat given the nature of this individual. Kaleido was hoping he would return soon, though, as it looked like some cronies that Ject hired had shown up and were creating a scene... Kaleido really didn't want a repeat of last time and was even tempted to just fight them off here and now but, thankfully, the old man returned just in the nick of time. He came huffing and puffing back and nearly keeled over from his jog before Kaleido.

"Sonny... This... Place... Is really... Far... From home... You know... That?" The old man wheezed as he spoke, barely managing to stand upright so he could make his presence known to everyone else around who all collectively groaned in unison at this individual's presence. The big forehead, the short white hair, the croaky voice, the wrinkled and dry skin, the permanent hunch, and the corrupted spatial aura clinging to him for dear life... Yep, this was 'Unreliable Old Master' in the flesh... Unfortunately... This man had... Quite the reputation and his name really wasn't an understatement in any way. The old fella in question really wasn't strong, as far as being a combatant went, he could really barely defend himself, but there was a far greater risk involved when it came to trying to tango with this bastard that many people had suffered heavily at the hands of.

Apparently a God had stormed into Transmit one time to pick a fight and try and find out what they were up to behind the metaphorical curtain but this one old man, who's cultivation wasn't even that high, singlehandedly drove him away ten times in a row! An impressive feat!... At least until you realised how he did it, anyway... See this man was a problem for two reasons, both of which individually weren't a big deal but, combined? Combined this man became arguably the most obnoxious cultivator in the entire world regardless of whether he was on your side or not. First up was his Bad Luck art of the 'constant boon' aspect under the passive pillar. The name almost made it sound like a joke given how much of an oxymoron it was when contrasted with the aspect but, in a round about way, it really was a boon... Sometimes... It really did do as it said on the tin and gave this man atrocious luck in just about every single thing he ever tried to do. The Unreliable in Unreliable Old Master wasn't an exaggeration, this guy was more likely to do harm to your cause than aid it half the time and was why he was generally kept at arms length, even within Transmit.

A cultivator like this would usually struggle through life and die a quick death but this was where the second half of the equation came in. He had an affinity for the spatial pillar... But it was broken... Some asshole he fought against in his younger years had tried to steal away this affiliation and been half successful. The affiliation was almost removed entirely and wound up sort of halfway stuck in and halfway stuck out of his body. The consequences of this became readily apparent when the arts Blink and Teleport started activating randomly, constantly, without his permission... In short, this old man kept randomly disappearing all the time and would drag anyone nearby with him. Throw in the Bad Luck art and... Well... People went on some rather wacky rides through the universe whether they wanted to or not. Ending up in a pit full of enraged crocobears, being transported into the middle of a blizzard that could freeze even a God to death, or just getting absolutely lost in the middle of spatial portals that never ended. Anything, or more accurately anywhere, was possible when this old man's magic kicked in...

Whoosh

And there he went again... Just as he was about to make himself useful and maybe drag away Ject's hooligan challengers, he simply faded away and got Teleported to some random corner of the universe.... Again, the 'Unreliable' in his name could seriously not be stressed enough... Still, when he worked, he really worked and could even accidentally kill incredibly powerful cultivators. So it's not that he was hard to fight, it's that fighting him was completely random and your chances of success were ironically as abysmal as his own; which is to say completely and utterly fucked. The God that demanded answers from Transmit in the earlier story got Teleported out of the premises, and to the other side of the universe, by the Unreliable Old Master ten times in a row for crying out loud... The God gave up after because he genuinely couldn't be bothered to try again and see the stupid old man's face an eleventh time. He was arguably the weakest Transmit member but easily the biggest hindrance to any of their opponents.

Fortunately, for Transmit anyway, there was a means with which to negate this randomness to some extent. Transmit did have the power to teleport to people in their registry, after all, so Mr Unreliable, provided he wound up near a Transmit store, could teleport right back to where he wanted to go almost immediately via using the registry to lock onto other Transmit members or even sometimes customers. It was match made in heaven for him and so he quite excitedly joined them when he realised Transmit could help him partially overcome the spatial tomfoolery he suffered from multiple times a day. It was not uncommon for this man to wake up in volcanoes, burning alive. To make matters worse, he couldn't freely control his spatial affiliation at all so escaping these dangerous situations was entirely dependant on whether he got a random Blink or not. Despite his Bad Luck art, however, he seemed almost immortal for the most part. It's like the art knew it needed a host in order to continue thriving so it kept him alive just to keep inflicting terrible luck on him over and over again. It was almost like pre-meditated bad luck with a sprinkle of good fortune buried somewhere underneath the garbage. Due to this, however, the Unreliable Old Master had gotten quite complacent and cocky which just made him insufferable to all who opposed him as he really was extremely difficult to pin down and kill. All around an annoying old git! Everything about this man was agitating! And yet Kaleido was happy to see him pop back via a Transmit registry teleport, that was just the sort of effect he had on his allies who would become emboldened in his presence!

Whoosh

...

Or not.

It really was fifty-fifty with this fucker... Oh? Never mind, thank you kindly Mr Unreliable. Kaleido was about to curse the old man out until he realised that Unreliable had accidentally dragged away Ject's underlings with him this time and so this planet was free from their troublemaking for a while longer. It seemed like Kaleido won this particular fifty-fifty! It also seemed like Kaleido was exchanging the presence of one 'veteran' for the presence of another. This Veteran, though, was a real force to be reckoned with and needed not rely on such cheap tricks like Mr Unreliable, unintentional though they were. Veteran was the previous pagoda king after all... So was he here to try and reclaim his title? He definitely seemed a little stronger than usual, almost as if the percent of pressure he had available to him had somehow increased... Kaleido didn't need to be told that was what had actually happened, basically anything was possible whenever fundamentals were involved and it was confirmed that Ares had pulled this off already. Ares telling Veteran how to do it was a pretty self-explanatory outcome and everyone in the queue could tell he'd improved significantly. Was he going to betray Ares and come back to steal the throne!? What a twist! Or maybe he was just paying a new friend a visit... These people were overeating! Especially the journalists who were already penning down unscrupulous lies and speculation by the boatload... This was why Ares killed them on sight! He was right about these lot!

Anyway, Veteran had more than enough right to cut the queue and head on inside. It wasn't just a matter of nobody stopping him, he was THE pagoda guy basically since its inception up until now. He had hall of fame status and so nobody in their right mind would complain about this! Still had to pay the entrance fee though... Death, taxes, and the pagoda entrance fee. Veteran didn't mind though and coughed up the fee to a respectful Kaleido before heading over to the entrance and being sucked up and straight to the fifth floor. He was tempted to leave a part of himself in this pagoda, like before, and act as a trial giver for one of the lower floors, but decided not to volunteer himself on that front. He'd done his part for more than long enough and trapping himself back inside this place could honestly be considered self-flagellation at that point. He knew better because he'd experienced the millenniums of boredom first hand. He stood to gain nothing as Transmit wouldn't have anything to offer him and he wasn't curious about this place like Coronos had been. Coronos was interested in seeing if time flowed differently inside the pagoda and how separating himself and his conscience played out relative to experiencing the same timelines in two different bodies at once. He was quite dedicated to the time aspect and didn't fret over a couple hundred million years of being stuck in the pagoda. Not that he'd been there that long, necessarily, it was just that he was willing to spend eternity in there if need be to get answers. Veteran, though? He was glad to be out and his life was in full upswing right about now! 100% pressure enhancement, the return of his magic on the horizon, and plenty of mana dew thanks to the intel he got from Dingo. Good times aplenty.

As for why he was checking in on Ares, it was mostly just to see how he was holding up in the pagoda and get a glimpse of what Ares, when his cultivation was raised higher, was truly capable of. Veteran wanted to know just how crazy Ares could be, even against his new 100% enhancement, and so he'd returned out of boredom mostly. He still had cultivation things to improve on but he was at a point where there was nothing to do immediately other than wait patiently for his next opportunity. He could also check to see if Ares could maybe remove his magic-inhibiting curse here and now? Potentially? The reason it didn't carry over to reality last time was because it was just a simulation of him based on his real self's conscience. This was his real body, even if still just a simulation, so maybe that would work? He'd heard rumours that Armageddon and Ject came away from this pagoda with injuries so maybe breaking that barrier between reality and pagoda, to facilitate unchaining Veteran from his curse, was possible early? Veteran didn't mind if it wasn't, he could wait patiently, but he was a little excited at the prospect of his magic returning sooner than expected. He had a feeling he'd be disappointed but that couldn't stop his legs from carrying him here regardless. 

He appeared inside the fifth floor and, though he was aware it had changed, still took a moment to really have it hit home that this wasn't the empty street he was familiar with. All the decrepit buildings were gone and it felt strange to be back and not see them! That feeling of familiarity was still there though and this place was almost like a home away from home even though it had acted more like a prison that enabled some serious mental decline over the years. Stockholm syndrome, maybe? Well, place aside, Ares was sitting around and seemingly talking to himself? It must have had something to do with being able to hear Dominus now that his cultivation had risen... That or he'd gone insane already after being locked up here. Veteran would understand! "It's been a minute. You've not gone crazy this quickly, have you?" Veteran chuckled as he greeted Ares who turned around and instinctively let out an 'ah' sound as he pointed at Veteran. It seemed Ares hadn't been expecting a familiar face to show up this soon but he was definitely glad nonetheless!

"Vetty!"

"Don't call me that..."

"Veterinarian?"

"You really haven't changed..." Sigh "Here, on the house." Veteran chucked a vial full of blue liquid at Ares who hopped into the air and grabbed it with his teeth like an excited dog. If he had a tail it would be wagging right now because he recognised mana dew anywhere! This was the good stuff alright! Ares opened it up and immediately downed the 'drink' in one fell swoop.

"Ahhhhh. Refreshing!" Ares whole body felt like it was on cloud nine, his tongue especially, and so he was way more co-operative conversationally now. It was like mana dew made him less annoying which Veteran took note of because he imagined this would be invaluable information for him to know going forward. "So, whatcha been up to? I think I detect 100% enhancement on you, if my eyes aren't playing tricks on me, right?"

Veteran nodded with a grin. He was evidently happy about having broken his own barriers and achieving something that was previously thought to be impossible. He wasn't the number one pressure wielder anymore, not by a long shot, but he would keep second place to himself until the day he died! He was still proud of his mastery and if he just ignored Ares' existence, as it was anomalous and unfair to begin with, then he still felt like king of the pressure world! "Damn right I have 100% Didn't even really take that long. I thought it would be more time consuming but it went by surprisingly quickly. Guess that's just the kind of benefit I get for being a pressure maestro. I field tested it afterwards and got my hands on a bunch of mana dew with my new powers... It feels good to be back and in action again. I know I've said this before but I'll say it again anyway. Thanks, really. It feels like my life's gone from upside down to the right way up again after all these years... It's a really bizarre sensation. I almost feel too free, like I'm not even sure what to do with all the time I have at my disposal now... Ah but that makes me sound ungrateful. Far from it."

"That's fine, I get where you're coming from. D'ya come here to check if I can remove the curse?... I'll be honest, I don't think it will work... Armageddon was a result of physical strength, not my magic, and Ject required the use of one of my vessels and my weaponised core... I can try though. Sorry about not keeping the disintegration vessel handy but Ject was an immediate issue that needed dealing with. He had to be slowed down and there was no greater opportunity..."

Veteran shook his head. "I wasn't expecting success here anyway so that's fine. You're already helping me as is, I wouldn't ask you to compromise Candy's safety just for my own benefit... But Ject really was a massive idiot coming here without any protection, huh? You should see the state of the place he was last seen in before his run in with you. His raw, Godly essence was all over the walls, the ones that weren't blown to kingdom come anyway, and that stuff sold for ridiculous prices. You made some random people in a far off land very rich and very happy... Although definitely not Ject... He declared war on you... Obviously... But he really can't do anything for a good few years so don't be too concerned. We, your backers, are also keeping a very close eye on him and his whereabouts as he technically declared war on us too. Don't know if he thought that through or if he really just sees you as that much of a threat."

"I see... Well, let's try to remove your curse and see what happens. I'll need to kill you after and boot you out of the pagoda but that's fine, I'll make it quick."

"Pft, feeling cocky are you? I'm not the guy I was before. I've got new tricks up my sleeve and, hell, I might even cheat and show you a thing or two with my sword."

Ares gave a wry smile and tried to deliver the bad news to Veteran. "Uh, have you heard about my revenant form?"

Veteran simply snorted as if he didn't care. "Of course, everyone has now that Armageddon got his crap kicked in. He didn't go into specifics but I'm not afraid in the slightest. You won't be the first wolf I've hunted and not the first revenant either! I know how your kind fights, tooth and claw, so don't expect cheap tricks to work on me."

"... If you say so... Well, let's start with the curse for now..." Ares was going to have to beat it into this guy that Ares was just in a league of his own now. The combination of annihilation enhancement, Garmr, and destruction magic fuelling his revenant form with an adept trait and draconic lineage... It was just far too strong. It was actually completely unfair and nobody was ever beating this floor again because it was simply an impossible level of strength to recreate. Ares had been 'balanced' by the pagoda many times now and he consistently sat upwards of fifty to sixty realms above even average cultivators... As long as his cultivation wasn't shrunk to the point he didn't have Garmr, his wins were almost always guaranteed no matter what realm he was in. Veteran was about to get a rude awakening that Ares was hundreds of times stronger than he was when Veteran lost to the revenant originally. And that was a conservative estimate...