"Look pal, I know what a greedy, gluttonous bastard you are and I'm not going anywhere near you!" Ares called out the snake's hidden intentions and it seemed to be smart enough to understand its cover was well and truly blown. It made some kind of noise that vaguely resembled a kiss of teeth, which came from its hidden chest region behind the pillar, and slowly slithered its way out of cover, revealing its large, gaping second mouth. The size of its second mouth was about ten foot tall and three foot wide and the insides looked like a murky cavern, trickling with some unknown viscous liquid from the stalactite-esque teeth. Ares was starting to get real sick of Xasca monsters! Why were they all so damn sickening to look at?! Granted Ares hadn't seen that many of the myriad monsters this place had to offer but they were all either joke monsters with silly names or otherworldly aliens with disfigured bodily proportions and borderline stitched-on appendages! Maybe he should just let Xasca blow up after all! Honestly, this country was one species of giant spider away from Ares really taking that option into consideration right about now! As for the snake, it was prowling towards him, keeping its second mouth low to the floor and hidden from sight. Even still Ares could see the teeth crawling along towards him like centipede legs and it was safe to say Ares didn't want this thing to come anywhere near him! It's not like he'd lose a fight up, close, and personal, there were just some monsters he didn't want to fight at that range if he could avoid it for the sake of his sanity! Steppers were bad enough and this damn snake could get lost as well.
"Annihilation Echo!" Ares flicked off a high-powered, fully charged Echo but the snake curved out the way with one swift movement. The Echo flew right by its head, though, and was close enough that the wind pressure sheared off part of its skill before crashing into the wall behind it and causing the Riddlemyd to creek under the weight of the strike. The Echo's force was distributed across the Riddlemyd's structure but even still some of the wall collapsed and crushed the snake's coiling body near the floor. Damaging the Riddlemyd interior was a pretty difficult ask so that jsut went to show how much power Ares was packing in that simple flick of a finger. The snake in particular was starting to realise this wasn't some hopeless prey it could freely taunt and devour so it immediately went on the offensive and held nothing back. If Ares kept shooting enough attacks like that he would eventually cut off too much of its body, even if only accidentally, and the cobra would die. Having a longer body meant it could whip its lower half at opponents that tried to flee around the side of its mouths but it also made it a bigger target and more susceptible to wayward attacks that didn't hit its head directly so it was a double edged sword.
The snake raised its upper body and shot out its tongue at Ares in a bid to warp it around his arm or waist and drag him towards the large gaping mouth. This was one of the tricks these monsters had in their arsenal as they could treat their tongue like a lasso / rope of sorts. It was also capable of regenerating so cutting it off wasn't a permanent solution and the snake felt basically nothing whenever it lost a tongue. Going after the tongue was a complete waste of time but it didn't end there because the second mouth also had a tongue!.. Correction, the second mouth had multiple forked tongues that could spread out like some kind of tentacle monster and chase down fleeing targets. The snake was just distracting Ares with the one tongue for now but the others would all come flying out at him as soon as he was done swatting aside the first one. As such, Ares took out a random sword from within the Primordial Blade, activated Black Blossom with a quick chant, and slashed the incoming tongue before chucking the sword at the snake's stomach. Black Blossom would activate on strikes depending on the speed of them but throwing the weapon it was used on was always classified as a slow and heavy attack for the purposes of triggering a harder hitting shockwave from the art. Wherever the weapon landed a powerful Black Blossom burst would roar and charge forth, summoning a fiery disintegration explosion and a black petal tornado, annihilating any targets nearby in a cleansing hellfire. Ares was convinced he could kill the cobra if he snuck a bomb inside its mouth and this was one way he could go about it. He'd predicted the tongues rushing out of the second mouth, thanks to the notebook clueing him in to this creature's biology and habits, so the flying sword cleaved through each and every one of them, with aid from Ares' telekinesis to aim the sword slightly in mid air, and it looked to be clean sailing straight into the cobra's second mouth...
Clang
... But nothing was ever simple with monsters. The teeth on the cobra's chest extended and clashed with the sword, flicking it away from the monster and embedding the sword in the floor nearby. It blew up but hit nothing and sent a chunk of disintegration raging straight into a pillar, eroding at least half of it while spreading more petals in the vicinity that drifted around the room pointlessly. It was a devastating attack but it meant nothing if it missed the mark like this, unfortunately. This was a good example of why Ares hadn't messed around with chucking Black Blossom at foes before because it was just flat-out unreliable compared to the normal usage of it. That's not to say Ares couldn't find a proper use for it, just that he was better off using other attack from a distance if that was his goal... But, then again, the reason he'd done this in the first place was because his options were limited inside the Riddlemyd! These rooms weren't big enough for most of his attacks! Perish Wheel would not fit in here and the resulting explosion would cover the entire room! Technically that was fine, Ares wouldn't injure himself or anything, but Ares didn't want to risk accidentally attacking Tom Tom, as then he could retaliate freely, nor did he want the floor to give away to another lava pit or something. There were other traps in this place it's just that they weren't supposed to be activated as anything other than a punishment. If Ares triggered them manually with his recklessness he would be wasting his own time and be putting himself in danger for literally no reason whatsoever other than making this fight go a few seconds faster. According to Tom Tom there were larger rooms deeper in the Riddlemyd, where Ares could let loose freely, so Ares was jsut going to have to wait 'till he got near the upside down base of the floating pyramid because the floors there could expand outwards more without cannibalising on space for other rooms that needed to exist.
"Grand Annihilation." Ares threw out his golden fist and sent a tunnel of explosions racing towards the cobra that couldn't exactly finesse its way past this with a quick dodge like the earlier Echo. It opened its mouths wide and spewed a strange purplish jet of liquid from within that fought bravely against the golden tide but did not come out even remotely victorious, failing to save the cobra from its golden doom. The Annihilation washed over the cobra and Ares heard a small shriek come from his foe, as it disappeared under the bright cataclysm, followed shortly by raspy voice behind him.
"Half of your time to answer the riddle is already up. Your next warning will be a ten second countdown."
Ah crap, almost forgot about that... Code, tender, bell, bed... One word that links them all... It has to be that, right? Ares was honestly more worried about the riddle than the snake! Granted he would only have to fight two of these cobras if he got it wrong but that increased the chances of one of them getting their creepy gobs next to him and taking nibble and that was the last thing he wanted! Plus there was no guarantee the second cobra wasn't a stronger variant with a higher cultivation base. This one Ares was fighting was weak enough to not be a threat but if its mother came along and put up a real fight then Ares was going to be extremely unhappy. He wanted this thing dead and he wanted out of this room ASAP! Unfortunately for him, he still had to actually kill the gaping cobra and just blowing it up a few times wasn't going to be enough because it was a big and resilient fella. The explosions died down and the cobra was glaring menacingly at Ares and hissing with red eyes at him like he'd just killed its offspring or something. Clearly it felt indignant being subjected to such torment but if it thought things were going to get any better then it was sorely mistaken! Its peeled skin and bloody head were just the start of its woes and it was for the best if it just died quickly rather than keep putting up a futile fight.
"Ebon Tide!" Ares was giving his wate pillar enabler a go and combining it with the disintegration pillar to create a large wave of black magic capable of washing away a room full of foes. Granted there was only one foe in this room currently but that didn't reduce its effectiveness or make it any less of a good decision. Surge aspect magic was always powerful! Ares could control the scale of this art, so he wouldn't drown himself in mana, but he could certainly push back the cobra slithering towards him while also dealing a significant chunk of damage. The gaping maw on this cobra was permanently stuck open so disintegration magic was about to flood its innards and burn it up from the inside out. The cobra was about to get a brutal inner detox session whether it wanted one or not! On the upside, it would feel light as a feather from now on and be squeaky clean what with all the crap it'd eaten recently being full removed from its system. On the flip-side, however, it would only be feeling so light because its internal organs would have turned to ashes and melted away!
The black tide swamped the half of the room Ares wasn't standing in as the mummy Siamun behind him started his countdown for the riddle... Ares wasn't gonna get an answer better than the one he already had so he had to cross his fingers and hope he was just lacking knowledge about the outside world. He would definitely be complaining to Tom Tom about this afterwards, though! "Is the answer 'Bar?' As in 'barcode', bartender, barbell, and barbed?... Whatever the hell a barcode is..." If a barcode was a real thing then Ares hadn't heard of it! Technology in Sheryashka had its limits and, though there were some stories about vehicles and maybe some diagrams here and there, generally speaking Sheryashka was extremely far behind the entire rest of the universe in that regard. The tv and video player set he bought Bellona might honestly be one of the most advanced pieces of tech in the entire world right now and be within the top 100. If not including Neo Gear anyway but even they they were only really advanced in the robot creation department and leisure technology, or convenient technology, like kettles, slot machines, or irons, were basically non-existent.
"Correct." Tom Tom nodded and then went back to watching the fight but Ares still had a minute to complain to him about 'barcode' while the cobra was fighting for its life in the disintegration tide, trying to rise above it and survive.
"What the hell is a barcode anyway? Better yet, can you not use terms I'm not familiar with from the outside world for your riddles?! How can I possibly get the answer correct! You might as well ask me riddles in a different language at this point!"
"..." Tom Tom actually looked rather embarrassed for once. Aejaz' complaints earlier were all stuff he felt he could ignore because they were nitpicks at best but Ares' complaint here was a rather valid one and Tom Tom had massively overlooked this small complication. Barcodes were normal where he came from! Hell Sevorus slapped them on almost all his inventions to keep track of what was what so it was just a part of Tom Tom's day to day life! He would have to really keep an eye out for such things from now to make sure he didn't repeat the same mistake in the future. "You are right. From now on I shall treat you as a caveman!" Of course Tom Tom wasn't going to plainly admit he was wrong without at least fighting back a little by insulting Ares for good measure. "Anyway, a barcode is just a way of identifying a product in a store, typically. You scan it with another machine and it tells you what it is and how much it costs. That's all."
"Sounds pointless? Can't you just look at what the product is with your own eyes? Better yet, isn't the price marked on the shelf? Seems convoluted but I'm guessing there's a reason for it..."
"There are automatic machines to purchase things from instead of human vendors. It spreads out the workload so bigger shops can operate with less paid workers overall needing to clog up the checkouts. The machine tracks the price of every item you want to buy, even aromatically applies discounts, and then takes your money like any other shopkeeper would. Barcodes make that all possible and workers don't need to remember the price of every single store item manually or put stickers on things that might change depending on sales and whatnot. Of course some people still do things the traditional way but every major shop in the outside world uses barcodes as well or instead. Also, again, their useful as identifiers so you might see prisoners in some places marked with them as it functions like a Vermillion Record kinda. They're useful and I'm sure you'll get used to them in no time... Ah but you might want to worry less about barcodes and more about the toothy cobras 'cos the one you're fighting is back with a vengeance...."
As if on cue, the cobra resurged from within the fading Ebon Tide and hissed menacingly at the air all around as if to express its discontent. It was raging about and flicking the disintegration every which way as it tried to remove the magic from its rotting body. Ares gave it some time to do as it pleased while he considered the nature of barcodes and how they might be useful to him in the future. If he could implement such a thing into Red Sun then it would increase work efficiency which would be important going forward if there was a shortage of manpower after ascending to Vraizon. He didn't have the technology to copy this idea one for one but he was a fundamental champion and he could already envision a different means of accomplishing the same result with his nothingness magic! Technically speaking, Ares could connect machines to each other remotely with his magic if he just experimented a little and worked out the finer details of how these machines operated... Ares didn't know this but he would go on to unintentionally create a mock version of the internet with this trail of thought and, though it would only wind up being relevant prior to leaving the barrier and gaining access to real internet, it was still a neat invention that would far outclass anything else that existed within these domains. Ease of remote communications and access to information was a pretty nifty power to have and Ares could make it happen with some effort here and there. Naturally he'd need to enlist the help of tech savvy disciples and elders, like Lizzy, but it was definitely feasible and would be highly useful in the coming years!
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Ares wasn't entirely sure if that was the sound of an angry cobra or the sound of its insides burning away but, regardless, the noise was one that indicated his opponent was not satisfied with the way things were currently going. The monster had decided to go completely berserk, throwing reason to the wind and spraying purple liquid everywhere without pause. Ares simply raised a Crystalised Wall to take the brunt of the attack as evading was a tad difficult given how random the spewing was. Plus if the liquid melted down the wall then a disintegration tendril treat was in store for the cobra anyway so it was jsut hastening its own demise with clumsy and careless attacks like this. In the meantime, Ares was brandishing his scythe behind the wall and readying himself to launch an attack. He still wanted to create a scythe art! Originally he was going to come up with something that could be used to finish off an opponent with lethal precision up close but now he was thinking about a way to do so from afar... But why not combine the two? That was what Ares' brain was telling him and he was slowly but surely coming up with an art that levied his powerful magic in addition his talents with the scythe... What he'd create here would just be a foothold in the scythe art he would one day go on to perfect but it was a good enough start! Still, it was nothing compared to what he'd one day mould this art into as it was a truly nightmarish magic that would live on in infamy as the most annoying art of all time. Only Ares could come up with such a thing... Anyway, he gave it a temporary name and waited for a chance to try it out on the flailing cobra. He knew where he wanted to strike it, right below its head to chop off the brain, and so he used his Omniscience to safely peek around the corner until he found the opportunity he was searching for... Now!
"Teleopsia!" Ares leant around the wall and flicked a small blob of nothingness across the room that landed square on the cobra's rampaging head. The blob did nothing itself but couldn't be removed without a lot of time and effort and acted like a mark, an omen of what was to come. Ares spun the scythe in his hand such that it was in a position to launch a deadly, full force swing despite the fact that he was nowhere near the monster and not even looking directly at it. Still, as he raised the scythe, the nothingness blob merged itself into a copy of the scythe hovering directly above the cobra, mimicking Ares' movements down to a tee. Ares brought his own scythe down over thin air but the nothingness copy hanging above the cobra also came barreling down in sync with his strike and, in this fashion, Ares was swinging directly at the cobra's neck from across the room with his scythe in full safety.
For now, this art just moulded the nothingness into a copy of his weapon but actually having his real weapon strike at his foe, including any treasure effects or arts he imbued the weapon with, was very much possible... Plus other additions that only made this art more annoying. Multiple weapons at the same time? Check. Unlimited range so that the distance between Ares and the target meant nothing... No matter where in the universe they fled to he could still keep striking at them twenty-four seven? Check. Unlimited duration until the mark was forcefully removed, which was a herculean task to begin with let alone having do it with thousands of scythes raining down upon the victim? Check.
This art, in its full glory, was an eternal hunt used to prevent an opponent from ever thinking that escaping was a valid option in the face of Ares. It was better to stay and fight him, so he couldn't make use of this art, than to run as he would follow you to the ends of the world with this. Nothingness connected infinite spaces together so, by linking his opponent to the spot directly in front of him, Ares didn't need to move even a single inch to track a person he'd marked down. This art forced a person to hold their ground and fight but Grim Cessation put them on a time limit to win before they ran out of mana as well. Opponent's couldn't escape, They couldn't fight back, because destruction was stronger than their own magic without fail, and they couldn't outlast Ares either because of Grim Cessation. It was an unholy trifecta of nuisance that made him a real menace to fight against if you didn't have an overwhelming advantage and, even then, he still had way more tools at his disposal to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat or even run away safely enough thanks to the void and Pelagic Prison. This was just what it meant to be a fundamental champion, though, as they only ever got more ridiculous the more they began utilising the full extent of their magic. This scythe art was a poxy little thing right now but it would one day grow into a real troublemaker, the mere name of which was enough to inspire fear in a manner similar to that of Asura Rondo... Which Ares also conveniently knew... And could combine with this art... Inescapable Asura Rondos from across the galaxy that never ended... If it still wasn't clear why fundamental champions were above and beyond the entire rest of cultivation society then this sentence alone should have done the trick!
What came next was an obvious conclusion to the fight as the scythe sliced down in a beautiful curve and severed the snake's head in a clean flash of silver. Ares' scythe mastery was far too potent for the snake to even consider dodging and the result was final, the cobra was deader than dead... Although its second mouth was still squirming around and making Ares highly uncomfortable... Honestly, Ares wished Tom Tom would have teleported this thing away before he killed it just so he wouldn't have to stare at the corpse or remember it was fidgeting around near him even in death... Ares considered skinning this thing or bringing it outside the Riddlemyd earlier but, on second thought, he didn't wanna! Screw this thing! He had enough stardust as is such that he didn't need to feel desperate and go touch that convulsing corpse! He was done with this room and this floor! He'd completed the riddle and he killed the monster, it was time to leave thank you very much! No more creepy monsters!... Well hopefully. Ares didn't exactly know what lived over in the east of the desert and he very well might find more of these abominations today... Ares could only sincerely hope not... Well, if nothing else, he made a hell of al lot of progress on the Riddlemyd!