"Hello friends!"
"Go fuck yourself!"
Apparently Ares was not going to receive a warm welcome. After unburrowing himself from the snow, his best intentions were met with hostility so he was simply going to have to respond in kind!... Though he was already planning on killing pretty much everyone here so he wasn't the goodie two-shoes 'do unto others' type saint he was purporting to be in his own head. His actual goal was to distract everyone for long enough that the falling mountain reached a point where it could no longer be avoided by these people and then all Ares had to do was Shift away, letting gravity do all the hard work. Ideally he wouldn't raise a single finger to kill everyone and he could spend time going over his new treasure instead, a much more appealing choice to be sure. There were still a few miscellaneous things he wanted to do before leaving Isaz and, though it probably wouldn't take him longer than a day, it was all relatively boring and so the sooner he could get it over and done with the better. Things like using nothingness on his Backfire Bindings to help control annihilation with pressure, inserting the Moongate Mountain into his head, learning how to fuel Visitation like an empty gas tank, checking how to start learning One With the Universe, pressurising anything not yet still pressurised at this point, and maybe doing a bit more passive cultivation. A long list and one mostly filled with tasks that could be glossed over due to how boring they were to narrate to others. It's not like Ares was going to regale Enyo and Bellona, when he got home, with stories of him sitting around and concentrating really hard over minor developments in his mana wielding. These tasks might result in interesting changes once the processes were all done and said but suffering through the boring part was still, unfortunately, uninteresting but imperative. Ares wished he could Skip it but, alas, the art didn't work that way and probably wouldn't ever so he would have to manually sift through his long list and do everything one by one.
"Ahem. So who exactly let this thing out?" Ares pointed backwards over his shoulder at the venator mumbling 'kill?' in his direction like some horror show reject zombie. It seemed like the venator recognised Ares as the guy he smacked earlier in the spatial passageway between Sheryashka and the Lowe domain. Ares was the first human it ever saw so perhaps that left a lasting impact. The end result was it wanting to kill Ares so... Really nothing much different from the norm but there was as bit of extra pep in its step towards him for whatever reason so it looked like Ares had become its new favourite chew toy and he was going to have to deal with it. Everyone from the Throne seemed content to let him do it too because the venator was a surprisingly obnoxious foe that was a pain in the ass to deal with. As for Vargaraad, he was curious as to whether Ares even could kill an infinitely regenerating creature like that in the first place. He knew of Ares, he'd heard about his destructive reputation because it was pretty much unavoidable given how much he'd been up to as of late across the domain, but seeing was believing and this was as good a challenge as any to test him and his fundamental pillar on.
"Kill!"
"Yes yes, I heard you the first time." Ares rolled his eyes. "Please form an orderly queue to end my life as you will not be the only person in line and you were not here first." Ares dismissively waved at the venator without looking at him as he cast an "Esoteric Compression" in its rough direction and flattened it on the floor like a dried purple paint splotch on a canvas. Ares knew the mountain falling from above wouldn't even kill this thing, it would just turn it into a puddle capable of resurrecting itself somewhere down the line, but he could at least stall having to kill it until then as he dealt with everyone else first. The Throne were easy pickings but the real toughie would be this double mouthed and homburg hatted man casually leaning on his umbrella hilt. As for how to deal with him... Maybe the mountain could kill him? It was either that or some Garmr punches to the face if possible. How things would go from here on out was playing in a loop in Ares' head and his best bet was waiting for the mountain, checking to see if the mystery man could escape it or not, and turning into Garmr to catch and chuck the mountain after him if he could. From there, kill the Throne lot who would be pissing their pants at the sight of Garmr, as they'd never encountered him before, and then finish off the restrained Venator with soul disintegration which was tricky but doable ever since Ares learnt how to mess with souls back on the Federation. A simple flow chart but one that ought to get the job done with minimal branching paths that complicated things. It all mostly came down to how strong this unknown guy was, exactly, and whether he was even here to pick a fight in the first place. Ares had just assumed the answer was 'yes' because everyone else here was so why not him as well? Ares had a knack for making enemies and so he wouldn't be remotely surprised by the appearance of a new challenger in the ring, one he hadn't even picked a fight with intentionally.
"Ares, you've a lot to pay for. Killing my son was the first mistake and you've made many more since..." The patriarch of the Frozen Throne appeared to be going on some long rant but that just benefitted Ares and the mountainous ace hidden up his sleeve so he let him waffle on in typical villain style. It was pretty much bog standard 'I'm the bad guy and I'm going to do bad things to you' style spiel that was common amongst cannon fodder cultivators who had some degree of power but not enough to mater against anyone truly powerful. It was honestly a miracle these clowns weren't trembling in fear before the venator and the mystery man but they were either stupid and ignorant or had massive balls. Ares leant towards the former and decided to shake their will a bit and make them realise they weren't in a position to make threats towards anyone, they were the weakest link here by far and it was about time they understood it.
"Old man..." Ares interrupted the patriarch's never ending tirade, "I get that you love the sound of your own voice but, uh, maybe you should try looking up?" Ares grinned as he pointed and, funnily enough, everyone other than the patriarch looked up.
"Bah! I know you're a revenant, I won't fall for your stupid tricks! What? Are you going to run away when I turn my chin up and stare at the empty sky?! Are you going to pretend there's another giant fist hurtling towards me right this very moment? I won't be fooled by such petty attempts at provocation and misdirection!"
"Hmmmm. Good point. In that case, don't look up. Just stand there and don't move a muscle, I'm sure it will work out fine for you." Ares shrugged, helpless. He couldn't make the patriarch look up so he simply didn't bother! It became somebody else's job as one of the Throne elders nudged the patriarch and managed to eke out a few words before falling back into silence.
"Patriarch... You should probably look up..." The patriarch was borderline about to slap this idiotic elder for not only being fooled by Ares but then wasting his time too on top of that but he stopped when he realised he was the only person with his neck not craned upwards. The worried faces on the rest of his clan clued him in that maybe there really was something up there worth seeing. This realisation was only reinforced when a colossal shadow began creeping over the ground, leaving everyone suddenly in the shade despite it being mid day in the middle of nowhere with no roof over their heads. It couldn't be denied any longer, something above was definitely worth checking and so, when the patriarch finally succumbed to peer pressure from his own men, he nearly croaked on the spot, had a heart attack, and bit the dust. He was too old for this crap! He couldn't believe his lying eyes but, even after rubbing them, the gigantic landmass was still crashing through the sky like a meteor ready to desecrate the earth and signal the start of Armageddon.
"What the..."
Ares chuckled because the mass confusion he spread successfully was oddly satisfying to watch from the sidelines. Even the mystery man, usually calm and composed, raised a single eyebrow at this highly unexpected twist because it wasn't everyday someone threw a mountain at you, let alone someone only in bloodline awakening.
"If it makes you feel any better, this didn't really have anything to do with me..." Ares was telling the truth! He wasn't the one who turned the Viking ship into a mini nuke nor was he the one who flew or detonated it! Ares was 'responsible' for being in the firing line, and the ship wouldn't have been there if he wasn't, but that was being nitpicky! Ares had nothing to do with this falling mountain! Was that information able to console the patriarch at wit's end? No, not really. It's not like it changed his current plight of how to save everyone, that was seemingly impossible and he wasn't even sure he could save himself, but hey Ares tried to make him feel better and that was something! 'A' for effort but no one was going to give Ares a gold star because it was less impressive and more so like a pet dog bringing back a dead rat inside its teeth to its owner. If anything the patriarch was wishing Ares put the damn mountain back where he found it! "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Ares had taken to taunting the patriarch. "Aw hey come on, it's not that big of a deal. Don't go making a mountain out of a molehill! Hehehehe."
Sigh
Vargaraad could only heave a deep breath and shake his head at the typical antics of revenants. He lived on the Umbra planet for a good while so it's not like he wasn't familiar with this sort of behavioural pattern. Bad prank followed by equally bad pun at the expense of the victim, that was the bread and butter life blood of these people and it only confirmed what the Throne patriarch mentioned earlier. Ares was well and truly a revenant, Vargaraad didn't have to double check his wolven form or bloodline or anything, this one two combo was more than enough to prove it without a shadow of a doubt in his book. If Ares was a revenant then Vargaraad's attitude towards him was inevitably going to soften as he saw them as a ragtag, extremely large family. They'd welcomed him with open arms and never had any sort of issues with him, even going as far as to help him remain hidden from an entire domain hunting him due to the Central Land incident all those years ago involving his lantern. He went a bit overboard and wiped out most of the Red Sun city, sure, but arguably it deserved it! Once the Umbras knew his reasoning, he was upset at losing his precious family member who happened to be a revenant, they felt pity towards him and let him stay in their world... Though they did openly mock him plenty for multiple years about the whole thing. Taking revenge for an immortal and infinitely resurrecting revenant was... A bit overkill. Of course he didn't know that but it was still funny to the cackling wolves nonetheless. Sort of like a comedy sketch wherein an overdramatic man kneels, crying his heart out, over a dead body only for the person he assumed to be dead walks up behind him and tells him that body wasn't even theirs. Point being, though, the revenants were good, good*, people and Vargaraad got along well with them over the years. He even knew a lot of the younger generation and told them to keep their eyes out for his legacy treasure, the lantern, down in Sheryashka when they went down there for their training. He fully expected one of them to find it, and preferably bring it back to him as he only left it to make people think he was dead, but the situation grew complicated when they were all too late to acquire it. Cue Ares the unknown variable.
Legacy treasures were like personal treasures with more versatility because they could be borrowed out to others with full functionality. Aejaz could give Ares the concealed serpent but Ares wouldn't be able to resummon it from afar like Aejaz could. If it were a legacy treasure, however, then with Aejaz' permission, it would essentially become Ares' very own personal treasure for a while and grow alongside him, maybe even adapting to his own skillset and traits. Legacy treasures, upon being generated by the cultivator once they reached the legacy realm, were typically heavily specialised towards their owner, that was made them so powerful and deeply intertwined with a cultivator's lasting 'legacy', but could be gifted around and evolve as was needed in the hands of others. They'd return to normal after being given back to the original owner but it was a neat little extra bonus to make legacy treasures feel special. Most commonly, cultivators, before death, would leave their legacy treasure behind in a legacy cave or tomb for others to grab and help continue to spread their 'legacy'. They could set requirements to take the legacy treasure that were either discreet, and had to be figured out via lucky guesses or hints, or just outright have the treasure convey it to would-be takers as soon as it was touched. This could prevent unwanted criminals from ever laying hands on a legacy and misusing it in a way the owner never would have permitted or tolerated. Sometimes there were ways around this, again nothing in the cultivation world was ever truly concrete and exceptions were common, but it wasn't easy to circumnavigate and so the requirements were usually a good preventative measure.
In Vargaraad's case, his signature lantern was left behind and he put two requirements on it, one of which had to be met before the person could take it. The first was to be a revenant of the Umbra clan, which Ares ironically qualified for without either him or Vargaraad being aware of it, and the second was the person picking it up had to be so much stronger than the treasure's rough power level that it wasn't even worth using to them. In other words, it was a perspective thing. If anyone looked at Vargaraad's legendary town melting treasure and thought 'I can do the same thing now too', it would be unreachable for their grubby paws. Ares was unaware of what the lantern even was or represented and he only cared for it for a reason he hadn't disclosed entirely as of yet that had nothing to do with combat prowess. He hadn't even touched it a single time since obtaining it so he clearly didn't care at all as he had a million other ways of destroying towns if he wanted to. The reason Vargaraad made this limitation was because it wouldn't enable anyone who couldn't already do immeasurable damage to go on a murderous rampage while also forcing the lantern to be attached to someone who wouldn't mind giving it up when he came asking for it. To his credit, it's not like Ares was using it or anything so the assumption he would be willing to give it up if asked politely was reasonable...
But if Vargaraad thought Ares would actuallygive up the lantern in reality he was sorely mistaken. Ares did have a plan for the treasure, and it would be very relevant once he reached Vraizon, so giving it back was a no go at the moment. He passed the initial requirement check, it was his for now! He didn't mind giving it back after, necessarily, but until then no take backs! Granted all Vargaraad needed to do was touch it but Ares had it tucked away inside the blade, another dimension basically, so he was getting nowhere near it! Vargaraad could tell this was how Ares would think because, honestly, that was how most revenants would think. They were like wolves with juicy bones they didn't want to give up. He couldn't even be sure the young'uns he directly asked to go look for his weapon would want to return it afterwards. He really wasn't sure what to do about this situation but, for now at least, the more important first step was getting out of the way of the mountain. He was strong but his abilities revolved around an umbrella which, at his level, was not something that could be used to thwart an entire mountain's worth of damage.
"Departure." Vargaraad placed his shut umbrella over his shoulder, chanted, and unfurled it the very next moment with imbued mana to make it really pop. Departure turned the opening of an umbrella into a more impactful event that pushed the wielder away from the direction it opened. The most common use of it was precisely what Vargaraad was doing, placing it on the shoulder and firing it backwards to blast the user forward at speeds that could rival a bullet. It wasn't instant like a teleport but the time it took to move form one spot to another was minimal. Other than the fact that the body had to actually move from point A to point B, and was susceptible to obstacles and attacks during the traversal period, it was near enough instant to the point that even Ares missed it and he watched it happen. He blinked at the exact wrong moment and suddenly Vargaraad was just gone, nowhere to be seen. Like a proper gentlemen who knew when he'd overstayed his welcome, Vargaraad departed with grace but without flair. A swift and silent wind, he vanished without a trace leaving little but the memory of his esteemed presence. This left Ares to twiddle his thumb like an idiot but he did thankfully manage to use his divine sense to track down Vargaraad afterwards. He left the immediate area and reappeared on a nearby hill, sitting at the peak with his legs hanging off the edge and his umbrella laying neatly on his lap. Ares was unsure if this guy was after his life or not but he seemed to be able to defend himself so Ares didn't mind putting some pressure on him and sticking to his original plan.
With a quick roll of his neck, Ares began the transformation process for turning into Garmr as the mountain drew ever nearer. The Throne patriarch was debating whether to use his hidden talisman to blow up the mountain or another treasure to teleport himself, and a few trusted aides, away from this place. The former would save his clan but be an expensive waste that left them vulnerable to both Ares and Vargaraad while the latter, again, left his disciples to die pitifully while he ran with his tail between his legs. Again, he was in the middle of choosing to sacrifice his disciples, who were none the wiser about this double betrayal they'd come infinitely close to suffering, when he was suddenly saved by the appearance of Ares once more. Well, Ares had been here all along this time, rather it was the appearance of Garmr who would go on to be his saviour. At this point, the patriarch probably owed Ares more to the survival of the Throne than any of his forefathers or even him himself. He should consider constructing a statue in Ares' honor, not killing him! That was tangential, though, as the patriarch hardly had the spare brain capacity to contemplate such things. Right now all his mental space was filled to the brim with an ironic overbearing emptiness. Garmr had caused the patriarch's mind to blank and there was nothing left in there anymore. No words, no plans, no anger, and definitely no statues for Ares. He wasn't sure which was worse, the mountain or the monster. Either way, he was definitely going to have to put up with one or the other...