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Ares' internal monologue was... Rather revealing. Perhaps if one looked close enough, and scrutinised his opinion in vivid detail, they may even notice a certain pattern emerging. To Ares' credit, he'd been sitting around in the lotus position the entire day doing basically nothing other than thinking very hard. Ares was less a thinking man, though, and more a doing man so this was torturous in a way he wasn't very used to. He usually, AKA always, relied on dedication cultivation to push his cultivation up so actually cultivating in this 'barbaric' manner was borderline excruciating but he also concluded it was worth it. Bloodline awakening might even be one of the few, or even only, realms he would ever try and cultivate normally towards to speed up the process. Bloodline awakening was far too important to just wait patiently for and let come whenever it may so he'd done the adult thing and been responsible; setting aside however long was necessary to push himself over the edge the second he noticed he was nearing it. As for why he was sitting still instead of walking around and passive cultivating like usual, the answer was twofold.
Firstly, Ares' cultivation speed, though it pained him to say it, was much faster when he was being mindful about it... Or as mindful as someone chanting the aforementioned mantra can be, anyway. It wasn't a quicker cultivation method than picking a worthwhile fight, or destroying large areas and environments with his magic, his cultivation and war aura both benefitted from those two methods far greater than idling like this, but Ares didn't have much of a choice in the matter due to reason number two. It just wasn't safe enough to play with fire like that. Again, this realm crossing was far too important to leave up to fate. Higher up on this series of mountains he would start to come into contact with the two clans who both wanted him skinned alive, tortured for information, and then to have his corpse tossed off the mountain. It was bad enough there were scouts here and there where Ares was currently due to the lake, and could run into just like the Viking earlier, but it would only get worse the higher up he went. His tribulation was going to be an ordeal and the last thing he wanted during it was to be given the extra, completely unnecessary, challenge of holding off any Vikings or Throne disciples hunting him down in the middle of it. This could be avoided by just patiently hanging around lower on the mountains and, at that point, there wasn't really much else to do so cultivating normally, for once, was annoyingly his best option. That or destroying the two clans, as that would push him over the edge cultivation wise, but it would be much less of a hassle if he was, ironically, already in bloodline awakening.
Salvation from cultivation hell came eventually, thankfully, as Ares could feel himself reaching the nirvana he was searching for like a dog digging up earth in pursuit of a juicy bone. Getting there required some extra finesse, he'd spent the last few hours thinking about how to utilise nothingness in relation to pressure and had formed a foundation he would experiment with in greater detail later. Point being, though, he'd worked hard and wracked his brain all to get to this point and now came the part that was... Well it wasn't easier, the tribulation was going to be highly lethal, but this part was unquestionably more interesting than sitting around with his head in the clouds at least and so he preferred it. It spoke volumes that Ares would rather stave off death than boredom, which might have something to do with being fundamentally immortal, but if he found cultivation tedious, he found cultivation tedious. There weas nothing else for it and he would only do it when there was no better option available to him.
Anywho, now that Ares was over the steepest part of the hill he needed to prepare himself for what came next. The obvious immediate measure he took was to equip the Brotherhood robes and wrap himself up in them nice and tight for an extra layer of protection. There was a rune engraved on the robe that entered a sort of highly defensive mode that disabled the activation of all other runes but turned it into a mini fortress and so Ares naturally used that the second he found it. He wasn't paying attention to the name of the rune or anything, he owned this robe now and would have plenty of time to look at in detail later and compile a list of runes for future reference, but he was more than happy to have this fortress rune up and running as it gave the robe a reassuring silver sheen. It looked as though the robe had become metallic and the heavier weight Ares felt on his shoulders made him feel multiple times safer than he did previously. He wasn't expecting this rune to be enough to thwart whatever came his way during the tribulation, this would arguably be the most devastating tribulation, relative to cultivation and age, ever seen before in the history of the universe. The last one had already been pretty bad, Ares was desperate to avoid it rather than take it head on, and this one would likely not allow him to Skip it and would only be even more dangerous to tackle directly. The scythe during the last tribulation might have seemed underwhelming but that was only because it missed! That thing could have maybe cut through a planet under the right circumstances, I.E if it was any bigger, so only really Ares new how much his life flashed before his eyes when he felt forced to rely on an untested Skip in the moment. To that end, this tribulation being worse meant the Brotherhood robe was merely a formality and he would have to work much harder to come out alive, on the other side of this trial.
Ares was ready to undergo hell. What kind of hell it was, and what form it took, remained to be seen but it was high time he crossed over into the realm all revenants treated like paradise. This was going to be a massive changing point so, beyond his apprehension of the tribulation itself, Ares was admittedly rather excited. He already felt powerful and equally unstoppable but knowing he would probably be reaching his utmost cultivation peak, relative to age and the progress of his cultivation journey, was exciting! The only other thing that might come close to this in the future was actually becoming a God and ascending beyond mortality, more so than he already had as a revenant anyway, so it was no wonder he'd been thinking about this and had it on his mind twenty-four seven recently. He took a few deep breaths, triple checked his surroundings for any unwelcome intruders he would have to shoo out, made sure he wasn't hungry by eating some leftover shawarmas preserved in time in his Blade, took a drink to quench any lingering thirst, the whole shebang basically! He wanted to be in tip top condition for this for no other treason than dying here would be such a major buzzkill. Failure was one thing, and would be heart wrenching, but death? Ares would never live it down. He wanted there to be no excuses. He hadn't failed a tribulation yet, although getting fooled by Dido arguably counted depending on how one looked at it, and he didn't want to start now!
Ares stretched, rolled his neck, and lowered his head with a determined focus in his expression that meant business. With a wave of his hand he summoned the war aura flag, the Primordial Blade, and the Deep Blue for a potential Pelagic Prison. All the stops were going to be pulled out here and Ares would even unleash the full might of the war aura flags in triplicate if need be. No holds barred, by the end of this tribulation he would be in a new realm of cultivation and he would finally be reaching the real starting point of revenant enlightenment. Annihilation enhancement was on, pressure was building and bubbling around him, divine sense was on standby to locate anything odd creeping up on him, Garuda had been brought out and was securing the area with his minions, and even Rox was tasked with looking around in nooks and crannies by transforming into and mimicking small animals. Everyone and everything in Ares' arsenal was deployed post haste and there would be no unexpected interventions on Ares' watch!
"Alright... No time like the present!" Ares, as per usual, had arguably delayed things up until this point in every way he possibly could but was ready to dive right in and thrust himself into the deep end now. This was just how he very consistently operated; procrastinate until he felt a twinge of comfort and then abandon all cowardice in a moment of pure muddled brain chaos, do something irreversible, and then let future Ares take care of it. He wasn't immune to the thought of pain, he wasn't a psychopath who could just subject himself to misery on demand without hesitation, and it certainly made him think twice, but that feeling of rejection couldn't last forever and the second a crack appeared he was cultivating like a madman and pushing himself towards bloodline awakening despite what it entailed. It only took him a minute and he soon crossed a border within him that would now remain in a state of limbo until he either failed or succeeded. There was no more running away or delaying, the tribulation was starting and he couldn't close his eyes and pretend it wasn't. Even if a small part of him regretted being hasty, and wished he spent another day or two preparing, it had been thrown to the back of his subconscious, been given no quarter, and could no longer change the situation or force any more procrastination. Ares didn't ignore this part of himself, nor did he get rid of it, because caution was a good trait to have. It's just that also knew when to and when not to indulge it and now was an example of the latter.
"What have you got in store for me today..." Ares mumbled as he looked around him for any signs of his incoming doom and demise. He wished it would just show itself already instead of teasing his pessimism like this. There was no optimism in sight, he wasn't secretly expecting the tribulation to give up, go home, and reward him with a free ticket upwards in life, so he could only speculate how terrible things would be and the longer he waited the more his brain went down more negative paths. The worst of it came when the entire mutated mountain began to quiver and shake which soon then spread to the entire Isaz region as a whole. This was a country wide phenomenon and Ares still wasn't even aware of what came next. It didn't take a genius to know it wasn't going to be pretty, and this was definitely an event Ares was responsible for, he jsut wished he knew what the issue was already! Ares kept scouring the trembling mountain to no avail but soon his search would be rendered moot as the answered presented itself in a way that couldn't be ignored or missed no matter how blind a person was. The entire mutated mountain turned dark, as though a roof appeared above it and blocked out what little sun breached the frosty biome, and all those who without sufficient willpower who turned their gaze skyward fell to their knees and had their puny minds short circuited. A number of Isaz residents fainted in the middle of streets and monsters across the region whimpered as they scrambled back into their dens with their tails between their legs. The Throne and Nu Kings near the top of the mountain felt no possibility other than praying would get them out of the mess that appeared to be heading straight towards them because what was a descending onto his mutated mountain was nothing short of the rage of Gods.
Up above, piercing through the atmosphere with streaks of flame and burning air giving way to its incredible size and weight, was a black fur fist adorned with golden, red, and black runes. A meteor that encompassed everything Ares was at his core, his revenant form and his destruction pillar, had manifested in this inviolable form. A hand of supremacy, curled into a fist of judgement, darkened the skies and filed the air with ominous howling that was akin more to an orderly chant in a foreign language rather than anything beastly or uncoordinated. The spirits of revenant kind had gathered around this symbol of untainted revenant lineage, the fist itself was representative of unmatched power and kingly status that could not be denied. This was a smiting unlike anything the world, especially the lower Sheryashka domain, had ever seen or comprehended throughout all of history. This fist appeared to be the size of a small moon and its painfully slow descent only added to the gravitas of the situation, allowing despair and hopelessness to well within anybody on this side of the planet. Even those on the other half the equator, though, could feel something tearing at their souls and crushing their sanity with an overwhelming presence.
The destruction runes engraved into the draconic fist emanated an old God style foreboding aura, something from a bygone era that couldn't be deciphered and belonged in ruins of the past never meant to be discovered. They hummed and flickered, creating 3d holograms of themselves in the air around the fist that became floating relics that were the key to untold secrets about the philosophy of finality. It was a blend of uncontestable might, that couldn't be measured up to, and unchallengeable knowledge, that dwarfed any measly scholar's collection, that bore down on the mutated mountain. It truly seemed as though Ares was about to unintentionally drag a significant chunk of Isaz' population into the afterlife alongside him for his lack of humility when confronting this tribulation in an area that wasn't remote. He really hadn't expected thisand even his wildest dreams couldn't prepare him for such a spectacle... But the truth was harsher than that because it wasn't just a 'spectacle', it was realand it was, more importantly, headed straight for him.
Ares did not possess enough power in any conceivable way to destroy this thing, it was simply beyond him, and he was honestly more shocked his body could unconsciously generate this much absurd power if it needed to! He was seriously holding back on himself here! Although, in fairness, most of it came from Garmr. This tribulation was actually an accurate representation of his true strength, it's just that Ares, not yet in bloodline awakening, couldn't use this very strength to defend himself properly. If he could swap into his revenant form this challenge would look a lot less daunting and Ares, unbelievably, was convinced his Garmr form could slap that thing aside with a limp wristed strike. If Ares wanted that level of might he had to earn it by contesting it and proving he could control it first... Wasn't he just outright screwed, then? This whole mess was absurd! There was probably not a single other cultivator in all of existence who, at the level of bloodline awakening, could deal with a matter this urgent. Even the other fundamental champions probably didn't have it nearly as bad this because they weren't racially abnormal like Ares was! This was a unique form of cruelty established, by himself, to punish... Himself! Ares would never let anyone tell him he wasn't too hard on himself because this technically the level of challenge he subconsciously deemed appropriate to put himself through! He may have gone a bit overboard this time, however, and now any certainty he may have had about his survival had disappeared entirely.
Ares' mind took a split second to allow the shock to permeate and disperse before he was jumping into action and making sure all stations in his brain were active and working on solutions. Firstly, he put Rox back inside the Blade, because there was nothing he could do here other than keep gawking at the incoming fist meteor, and then went to desummoned Garuda for the same reason... Only to find out the bird had already scrammed. He recalled seeing Garuda's dumb face twist into an expression of horror, as its beak was jammed open, a few seconds ago so it must have fled in terror and embarrassment. Perhaps from now it might show a bit more respect to Ares in the future after realising this was the sort of threat its owner posed. Well one could hope, anyway, but Ares wasn't really concerned with some idiot bird's behavioural patterns right now as there was a more pressing issue looking to squash him out of existence.
If Ares didn't act, and act fast at that, this flattening would turn him into fertiliser for soil hundreds of feet deep so he immediately summoned an extra two war aura flags for added safety. There was no way in hell the war aura would give him a backlash for going to toe to toe with a fist that was as big as a small planet, he would literally never be able ot use the war aura to its full extent without a backlash otherwise, so he was good to go on that front. There was no internal gut instinct warning him he would be punished so he summoned all three flags and had them fly up to meet the fist in a scouting skirmish to start hacking away at it while Ares readied more defences down below. His plan of action was simple. Launch attacks form the ground to shave off some of the fist and reduce its lethality... By fractions, perhaps, but it still mattered! After that, he would set up grounded defensive mechanisms to reduce the final impact and, from there... He would shut his eyes, throw all his efforts towards this thing, and hope beyond hope that it would suffice and he'd live to see the sunrise tomorrow. He wasn't walking away from this regardless but if he could at least survive then that would be a luxury in this particular instance and one he would be immensely grateful for. Even if he lay bloodied in a pile of snow somewhere a win would be a win and that was the level of acceptance he needed to be able to stand up and fight in the face of impossible odds. Even if he ran anyway the tribulation would persistently follow him around the universe until he caved so he was well and truly in for it now. He'd made his bed and this giant hand was forcing him to lie in it, covering him with sheets, patting him on the head, and telling him bedtime stories. It was survive or die time and Ares didn't wanna die!
Ares was prioritising his safety to the point he hadn't even considered what would become of the mutated mountain. The Moongate Mountain had ties to this place and if it suffered a cataclysmic event, the scale of which could be seen in broad daylight, then what would become of the treasure? Would it even still be attainable or in one piece? Ares' mind would normally race to figure out a method of preventing such a thing but he was far too busy to worry about that right now! Even Dominus, who would be aware of Ares thoughts on the matter, was dead silent at he moment and he wasn't even muted! Him and Ignizz found something they could agree on in the sense that what they were witnessing was crazy and unfathomable. Luckily for Ares, though, Dominus was an individual with great foresight, so the mountain would be fine, but he himself really needed to find a way to make sure the same could be said about him!
This was going to be very, veryugly.