"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWCH!"
Ares' rear was on fire.
Ares knew he could be hotheaded on occasion but hot-bottomed was new territory! Enyo had metaphorically lit his ass on fire before over his destructive tendencies but having to pat his butt to put out a small flame was not something he planned on doing today. The exploding boat back up above the mountain had somehow managed to basalt open the mountain itself, destroying the stone slab which then allowed the remnant energy of the explosion to chase after Ares and stay hot on his heels. That was seriously on powerful explosion! The Nu kings and the Throne had both spent a lot of effort on trying to open up this stone slab to no avail so for this one explosion to do the trick just went to show how devastating the Torchbearer's plot could have been if it was successful. Ares had no idea where this abyss was taking him but he seriously hoped he'd get there quick otherwise he'd be enveloped by the explosion behind him and be forced to take an awkward defensive stance and suffer a fair bit of damage in the process.
"Turn 180 degrees and flip your body over!" Dominus shouted straight into Ares' ears and gave him the fright of his life. Ares had forgotten this twerp was still hanging about on his left shoulder and nearly had a heart attack when he was startled by the sudden yelling out of the blue. Even in spite of the shock, though, his body obeyed his brain which had decided Dominus' words were reliable and so he was already moving about to facilitate the positional changes. Ares went from stomach-down falling to a slightly angled seated position with his head leaning back somewhat. Of course there was nothing but air underneath him so this pose didn't seem to matter much, if anything his head was now even closer to the explosions above him, but Dominus reassured him this was for the best otherwise Ares would be in trouble later and need to change his position anyway. It was better to do this now as it would be incredibly hard later given the circumstances Ares wasn't yet aware of. Ares only had one chance at whatever Dominus' game was exactly so he knew better than to ignore apiece from the creator as to how best overcome it on his first go... Though there were tiny sparks on his hair, threatening to light his brain on fire if things didn't change soon as the fiery explosions raced down towards him! The explosions were ricocheting off metal walls in the dark, echoing all around, and Ares' ears were ringing while he prayed for a miracle. Thankfully he didn't have to duck his head and clasp his hands together for long as his prayers were answered when his rear landed on an angled slop of some kind and he began sliding down it at a speed that nearly made him throw up instinctively. He was now zooming lightning fast, away from the explosions above and behind him, but what exactly was the cause of this sudden, drastic increase in speed?
The pipes! Halfpipes, with the top sawed off, to be exact. They were raceways inside the mountains with speed boosting runes embedded deep into them. Ares had just landed inside one and was being taken on some kind of slip and slide wild ride to an unknown destination at the end of it all... Dominus was really a child at heart to design something like this. A mega slide through the inside of a twisted spiral mountain to reach some kind of hidden area? Plus the ride was....Quite thrilling. The explosions were still happening up above while Ares was hurled around bends faster than he could follow with his eyes so this was a surprisingly high octane event that had mini Dominus clinging onto Ares' shoulder for deal life while yelling 'wahoo!' at the top of his lungs. It was a testament to Ares' bloodline awakening that his blood could travel this fast outside his body and still remain solid without breaking is form... Actually, now that Ares though about it, Dominus took on a red appearance despite using his golden blood as the basis for this form... Did this guy seriously steal some of Ares' nothingness mana just to paint his blood red with the crimson coloured mana? The answer was yes and he would keep doing it too! His armour he wore religiously when he was alive was red and so it will damn straight still be red even now! Dominus seemed to be unwilling to relent on this matter for whatever reason so Ares would just have to accept it. Now wasn't the time to worry about that, though, as Ares was sent through loop-de-loops, down a hair0raising spiral, and even temporarily thrown off the slide, over a gap, to land on another half pipe that was a short fall away. This was probably the connecting point between mountains and now Ares had officially escaped the peak of the mutated mountain and, along with it, the radius of the chain explosions from the detonated Viking ship. Seemingly feeling safe now that the chaos was nowhere to be seen, even Ignizz hopped out of Ares' body and onto his free right shoulder to enjoy the ride. Ares was surrounded by children! Though, in their defence, Ares was also enjoying the ride so he couldn't really say much without implicating and chiding himself too.
The ride persisted for about another five minutes, during which Ares was thrown about like a ragdoll and forced to just accept whatever the slide had in store for him. Half the time he didn't even know whether he was facing up or down, west or east, forwards or backwards. It was truly a good thing he listened to Dominus' advice earlier otherwise he would be going through all this upside down like a stuck turtle. Turning around in the middle of this escapade was nigh impossible and would jsut result in pointless injuries so Arse was glad to have a more comfortable ride overall after receiving Dominus' timely advice. His peace of mind allowed his thoughts to wander, though, because he still couldn't piece together the information he already had to determined where he would end up once the slide was over. He recalled feeling the Moongate Mountain about halfway up this landmark and so what was the plan with this slide, exactly? Would it take him to some super secret facility hidden in the depths of the mountain where he would then be teleported to some kind of floating platform off the mutated mountain? Whatever happened, Arse was fairly certain the Moongate Mountain was protected by a barrier that made everything within it invisible. If not it would have been found years ago and claimed by the locals. Ares only knew it was there because he could feel it but nobody else would have a valid reason to scour every inch of the sky to the side of the mutated mountain in search of something they didn't even know about. The Celestial treasure was well hidden but now Ares wanted to know what the connection between this slide and the treasure spot was. Dominus merely kept telling him to wait and find out but Ares didn't like the tone of his voice much! Regardless, for better or for worse, the ride did eventually start winding down. The pipes were no longer all angled downwards in some capacity as some curbed Ares' momentum by forcing him to slide up small inclines. Dominus had measured out the velocity of an average sized human perfectly so Ares slowly came to a crawl at the peak of what appeared to be the last slide...
Ares looked around and further down the path he was being guided along. All he saw was a long cavernous, hollowed out path that led directly in a straight line. Perhaps this pipe would take him all the way down to the bottom of the mutated mountain and allow him to enter some secret base buried beneath the surface? Ares had no clue where he was at this point so he could only bite his tongue and bide his time as his seated body inched over the edge of the small hill he was sat atop. Once more he picked up speed as he travelled through the empty cave at about a seventy five degree angle downwards. His speed never quite ramped up to the insane levels it was at prior but that wasn't to say he wasn't still travelling faster than any Sheryashkan was capable of even with the aid of magic. This was the sort of speed someone like Calla could wield so i was enough to make he world around Ares blurry. He was lost in a world of murky gray brushstrokes but randomly, about ten seconds into this journey of the unknown, his vision changed once more and no longer was it clouded... At least in the metaphorical sense. His vision was literally clouded. As in the cave was a thing of the past, he'd been thrust out into the open air in a gap in the mountain and flung off the slide like a rocket! Ares had been spat out of the mountain like a piece of chewed gum and he was blasting through the sky, smashing through clouds, at a speed that caused the skin on his face to flap. Mouthfuls of mana rich clouds slipped through his lips as he waved his arms to try and find a sense of stability, once again reminding himself to be grateful of Dominus' earlier advice to change positions. It was arguably the most useful thing Dominus had ever said as Ares would be flailing about like a whacky inflatable tube man right now otherwise. Amidst the turbulent turmoil of racing through the sky, creating sonic booms as he went, Ares could sense the Celestial Cluster treasure rapidly approaching... Well, more accurately, he was the one approaching it. Fast.
Apparently this was Dominus' vision for acquiring the Moongate, a funfair amusement dialled up to eleven with extra thrill sprinkled in. Anyone who wanted this treasure would have to go through this as he'd been rather strict with handing out knowledge about it. Ares could have maybe just Voidwalked over thanks to his ability to sense it but anyone else would have to repeatedly take the slide until they were fired at the right angle and managed to snatch the treasure out of mid air. The Mooongate was floating miles above a random spot on the ground with no indication it was there whatsoever so the only correct way to align yourself with it was via the slide. This also explained why Dominus placed such great emphasis on making the mutated mountain able to reattach itself in various ways, it was to prevent the internal slide from being broken and irreparable. If such a thing were to occur even he himself might not be able to locate the treasure without the ability to sense it. Fortunately the slides were automatic in their readjusting and so whenever the mountains reconvened after dodging an attack there would always be a suitable entrance at the peak of the mountain, a pipe pathway inside, and an exit primed and ready to launch the victim / participant at their once-a-day chance. The exit only opened up when someone took the cavern path on the inside so following its trajectory, or climbing onto the ride from the outside, was impossible. All in all, it was a well thought out method of getting a kick out of reacquiring his treasures whenever Dominus died. He might as well spice it up and have fun with it so this was the end result...
But it wasn't a gimme either, there was still work to be done to get one's hand on the treasure. Ares was travelling way too fast to react to the presence of the Moongate and grab it as soon as he saw it floating in the air, there was simply no way he could do it even with Omniscience. No matter how responsive he was, no matter how quick his reactions were, his limbs were not able to move at the speed of light. Fortunately he wouldn't have to, as his momentum was beginning to fade and he was reaching the apex of his launch, but that didn't mean he would be moving slowly when the Moongate finally came into view. It would be possible but extremely hard and so Ares, aware of this, was concentrating hard and squinting as best he could to spot the treasure from even an inch or two further away than he would normally. Every benefit he could get meant there was a lower chance of having to do this silly game again as he was less likely to mistime his grab.
Ares was originally planning on using Voidwalk to fly back up to the Moongate if he missed it but, annoyingly, he'd sailed into an anti magic zone a few seconds ago that quelled that particular notion. As it turned out, cheating was impossible as Dominus had really thought this through and vetted this course thoroughly. Arguably way too much, as he was just giving himself grief for no reason after his suicide attempts, but that was just the sort of idiot revenant he was. Honestly, Ares would probably do something similar if he was in Dominus' shoes, this kind of elaborate nonsense ran in their veins and kept them occupied over the course of however many billions of years they would live for. Dominus had already lived through and done all the dangerous adventuring in his youth so challenging himself to earn his treasures back after death, in some hellish pit in the middle of nowhere, was boring and repetitive. Maybe once or twice was fine but not all his treasures needed to be guarded by some Cerberus-esque monster or death trap. Taking a more chill and relaxed path through life later on, and coasting down a fun slide here and there, was pretty reasonable all things considered. A lot of long lived species and immortals progressively went insane and revenants had to really consider how best to avoid it because they had immortality and longevity baked into their genes. They, revenants that is, all had their little quirks but most of the time it boiled down to 'being annoying in one way or another' to get a kick out their actions. Most revenants were lippy and disregarded authority, so much so it was considered a common trait amongst them, and while Ares, to some extent, was like this too he seemed to gravitate more towards using his destruction magic... Liberally. Whether that was better for the locals he pestered or worse than mouthing off was subjective... Though perhaps not even a debate as he usually did both so why compare them individually anyway?!
Anyway, Ares was mostly currently worried about the shape of the Moongate Mountain. He'd never seen this thing before so he was fretting over whether he'd be able to grab it with a single outstretched hand or not! If it was as big as his head then he might need to throw out both arms to wrap around it and that did affect how his body would have to be angled on the approach to it. Dominus was being snarky instead of helpful, though, so Ares flicked him off his shoulder and sent the humanoid blood blob crashing down to the ground. Naturally Dominus abandoned that blob and reappeared inside Ares, complaining loudly until he was muted and restrained somewhere he couldn't be a nuisance. Ignizz took this oportunity to do unto Dominus what had been done to him earlier and rattled on and on, directly into Ares' ear as if that somehow made his words even louder for Dominus, about crap Ares really couldn't be bothered to listen to. Ares' eyes twitched one too many times for his own liking so he shoved the lizard back inside his body too and muted both troublemakers while he focused on more important matters as the relic he was chasing was now no more than a few metres away. His flight speed had dipped considerably and he was at the border between stopping in mid air and being dragged to the ground by gravity so, as if on cue, the Moongate Mountain revealed itself over Ares head in a barely reachable spot. It was perfectly placed such that a person could reach it if they pulled their muscle to stretch as far as humanly possible and it was almost as though the treasure were taunting those whose sought it. Thankfully it wasn't massive, and Ares could grab it with one hand if he aimed for the front of the mountain. It was shaped like an ordinary mountain, an about the size of a laundry basket placed vertically on its side, but there was an entrance / walkway leading up to it that stood out a bit. There was an archway with a gong to the side and a gate embedded with a moon symbol on it and Ares could just about grip it if he really aimed his hand well enough. From there he could drag the treasure down with him and place it safely inside his Primordial Blade where he could access it freely later and work on adding it to his mental realm.
This was it, do or die... Well not actually. Ares wouldn't die but he would feel incredibly embarrassed if he made a fool of himself and missed. Plus he didn't want to sit around for an entire day just to do this again. The slide was admittedly a nice break from murdering everything with a pulse but there was no need for Ares to go in it again! Ares raised his hand like he was trying to make contact with a divine messenger from heaven, stretching the tips of his fingers as far they could possibly reach to find purchase on anything solid. He felt his body slipping downwards and he knew he had to take this chance by the horns so he closed his eyes, strained his arm once more, and shut his fingers around whatever he could hold onto no matter how minuscule. Soon after this last effort his body was falling through the sky... But, luckily, he'd managed to grab the Moongate Mountain on his first attempt!... Though he did use a bit of sneaky telekinesis to lower it slightly and make it more accessible...
Mana was stopped in the area but pressure wasn't! Or, well, it was supposed to be, Ares saw some runes on a bunch of nearby clouds that made pressure 'impossible' to control... But Ares was the pressure master supreme and no amount of measly, poorly constructed chains would hold him back. His pressure mastery was greater than Veteran's and even he wouldn't have been stopped by those runes, as his control was pretty flawless too, so what chance did those runes have of stopping Ares? Dominus had just been outclassed on the pressure front so Ares did, in the end, find a way of making this grabbing game easier than it was supposed to be. If he unmuted Dominus right about now he'd probably be raging away while Ignizz laughed at him in the background but Ares didn't care! He didn't want to do this again! He would have missed the damn treasure if he hadn't done this! it was tailor designed to be missed on the first go around! Dominus should have given up on being a thousand weapons exemplar and become a scummy scammy carnie instead! Also, Dominus might not have realised this yet, he didn't have a great angle to see what Ares had felt with his pressure earlier, but there was another problem that required Ares attention! Ares did not have time to worry about grabbing the treasure in a fair and honest way because there was something else on his mind! The slide gimmick was over and done with but, as it turned out, earlier actions, not even those of Ares', had cascading consequences and they were going to be extremely problematic in about a minute's time!
Ares looked up at the 'thing' above him and smiled wryly as there was little he could do about it right now. The anti magic zone around the Moorgate's little cubby in the air was rather large and Ares would need an Armillary at least to deal with this 'thing'. On that note, pressure wouldn't work either at the best of times let alone now while Ares' control over it was being fudged by the runes still. He could use it but not to the scale he'd need to in order to deal with the problem chasing after him. His only real option was to land and transform into Garmr as he did so which, by itself, wasn't an issue. The real problem was that there was trouble gathering at the foot of the mutated mountain too! There was the 'thing' above Ares and, now, there were a large group of people at the base of the mutated mountain who appeared to be Frozen Throne members following their patriarch to enact vengeance upon Ares. Again, on its own, not a problem he couldn't handle... But there were two other parties down there and one of them meant business. One was a venator and God only knows how they wound up in Isaz but, more importantly, the third and final party was a two mouthed man wearing a hat and walking around with an umbrella in his hand. This guy's cultivation was considerable and he was definitely someone who didn't belong in this domain. Ares had no clue what was going on down there but all of that, combed with the 'thing' above him... This mess was getting pretty complicated! All he wanted was that damn treasure and now he was being roped into a four way Mexican standoff against an indestructible purple alien venator, a mystery man lighting a cigar in his second mouth, and a bunch of angry idiots who should learn to read the room...
As for the 'thing' above Ares... Well, he was about to crash the party down below because he was bringing with him the destroyed rubble of the mountain that blew up earlier! Apparently the explosions dislodged another mountain too so Ares was being chased by an entire mountain as he fell through the sky... There was being a harbinger of destruction and then there was whatever the hell this was. Ares certainly had a flair for making an entrance if nothing else. It wasn't every day someone took a freefall while being chased by an entire mountain... It was safe to say the situation had devolved somewhere along the line. Regardless, Ares was the one bringing a mountain to a gunfight so, though double edged though it may be, at least he held some manner of advantage in the upcoming negotiations.