"Here seems good..." Ares gave the barrier a once over and confirmed his route back inside it was nearby. In the end, he decided to cultivate around the entrance on the off chance something went wrong, beyond what he could control. Defensive measures were taken, as in Ares summoned Garuda and had him keep watch in the surroundings as an added layer of insurance, but for the most part Ares was letting fate take the wheel. He sat down with his legs crossed, hovering in empty space thanks to Voidwalk acting as a platform, and calmed his nerves. He'd already put the Brotherhood robe on, his pressure was ready and waiting to enhance his durability the second it was needed, and his mind was at ease and prepared to overcome whatever mess was in store for him.
Please don't go overboard. Please don't go overboard. Please don't... Motherfucker... Ares began his ascent to tenth stage and prayed inwardly he might catch a break but, unfortunately, as he opened his eyes and saw an impossibly large, black scythe hovering above him, he knew the only thing he was catching was a beating. I wanted you to to cut me some slack, not cut me in half! Ares complained because, honestly, that scythe meant business and the tribulation wasn't playing around with him anymore. He didn't feel like death was around the corner but it was hardly more than a few streets down. If the challenge he faced continued escalating like this he might actually get murdered by the tribulation when he tried crossing over to bloodline awakening. Worrying about that now, however, when there was an omen of grim murder hanging on the horizon, was pointless. Expecting more golden lightning, like the last tribulation, had backfired spectacularly and all plans he'd made to counter such a trial were now irrelevant. It was his own fault for associating tribulations with weather phenomenon, he'd charged right into that misunderstanding head first himself. To be fair, in all the various books he'd read, lightning was the most common form of tribulation for cultivators unless they really defied the norm. People like Veteran or Armageddon likely had different variations which, now that Ares thought about it, should have made it obvious to him he would be no different. With all due respect to various legendary figures of the past, if Ares' tribulations weren't special, then nobody's was going to be.
Hmmm, so how do I tackle this? Ares' mind remained calm but it was excavating ideas and possibilities from the depths of his psyche like an oil baron in pursuit of a well-buried motherload. Improving my own scythe mastery on the fly, and working on my reaper's mark journey here and now, doesn't seem like a good idea... Dominus had clued Ares in to who that grouchy skeleton back at the tryouts were and, so, for various reasons, Ares didn't want to fight fire with fire and try to out-scythe the tribulation. First of all, if that Charon fella came back, after sensing Ares' reaper mark popping up again, Ares was deader than dead meat. He assumed Charon had it out for him and was just being polite in the Brotherhood tryouts earlier, not publicly disturbing the little event they put on, as that was what Dominus told him, and he knew the guy from personal experience, so Ares just believed it. Also, secondly, unless Ares underwent immediate enlightenment right here, right now, his scythe mastery would not carry him over the edge and get him through this tribulation cleanly. Even then the level of enlightenment he'd need to stand a chance was not something he could just whip up because he was in a problematic pickle, like he sometimes occasionally did, this would require something substantial and therefore something he wasn't going to conveniently find within himself at this moment in time. He needed to improve his scythe mastery, sure, but this was not the way to go about it and was far too reckless, even for him. Ares did not feel confident he could make sufficient advances with the scythe just yet, as there was a lot more experimentation needed regarding the direction he wanted to take his talents, so that was ultimately a no go. Scythe rejected!
Annihilation... Is not the answer... It just wasn't suitable for the task at hand. No amount of massive explosions is going to phase the scythe if its covered in disintegration, that would be like trying to destroy a knife using an ocean. The annihilation would just be sliced through and the scythe would remain unharmed. It would slowly be corroded by the annihilation energy, much like how a knife would become rusted if left in the ocean, but there was nowhere near enough time available to Ares for such a strategy to be at all functional. That scythe was going to come barreling down towards head with lethal rapidity in a matter of mere moments so swamping it with Annihilation was no bueno. Maybe Armillary could overcome the edge disintegration possessed over annihilation in situations like this but there was no time to cast it and Ares' mana was acting up a little. His mana was turbulent and unsteady which was perhaps a part of the tribulation itself. In order to summon a scythe like that the mana source, AKA him, would need to expend a lot to keep it running. He felt like an idiot, fuelling his own tribulation and struggles, but it was a conditioned reflex all cultivators developed from the moment they were born. As soon as they entered Meridian conversion or flesh unfettering, the first two realms, the body became wary of excessive power and learned to regulate it. Much like how you could try to drink water until you inevitably died but your body would give you warning signs and make you feel sick to put you off continuing down that path.... Though, arguably, Ares felt more sickened by the sight of the scythe than anything he ever felt wielding his own power freely. Still, he knew his body was looking out for him for his own good, and he couldn't stop it anyway, so moaning wasn't going to change his fate and coming up with a useful idea would. Annihilation rejected!
Heh, maybe I could use everyone else as sacrificial lambs? Ares was joking, obviously, but a crowd was starting to gather. It was probably mostly people who were spectating the tryouts earlier as they no longer had any reason to still be on that planet. Perhaps they were on their way home and encountered Ares' ancient and foreboding power running riot across the domain. Tracking down the source wouldn't be hard and they might have assumed a rare treasure was revealing itself or something of that nature. There was actually nothing for them to gain here and all they could do was either watch or interfere, the former being more logical given his Brotherhood status which was a good deterrent. Ares could also drag them into his mess if he was crazy and wanted to pick a losing battle, he already had enough on his plate, but he had no such intention. It might lessen his load, as having others become targets too would ease his own burden somewhat, but he would probably end up paying for it later anyway. Tribulations were hard to cheat so if someone else helped him a second scythe might appear and, at that point, it wasn't worth the risk. It was up to his own truthful, unbiased mind to analyse whether it thought Ares succeeded or not which was why the previous tribulation, at the tryout, wasn't an issue. Sure he pawned off a lot of lightning on other people, he'd been a bit of an asshole back there, but he still dealt with most of it later on the hill by himself and was perfectly Ok. Maybe if he struggled with the remainder of the lightning would he have judged it unfair, as in he only got by thanks to the other distractions acting like lightning rods and saving him from getting zapped continuously, but the tribulation couldn't shake him whatsoever and there were no issues. Decoys and sacrificial lambs rejected!
Disintegration... Is limited in scale because it's acting up... Disintegration vs disintegration would be an interesting sight but, alas, the mana in his body flaring up, as mentioned earlier, was predominantly his disintegration mana. It wasn't unusable per se but competing against the scythe in the sky with whatever disintegration he had left was asking for trouble. Much like how you'd have to be a psychopath to bet on a tiger cub killing its father, there was no way Ares' remaining, pitiful, disintegration supply would somehow overcome his own personal supply being levied against him by the tribulation. It wasn't a realistic option so... Disintegration rejected!... But that only meant one thing, that there was only one other option available and up for discussion... And it was troublesome...
Nothingness.
The hell am I supposed to do with nothingness?
Nothingness, an aspect Ares hadn't dabbled with or delved into all together too much and was still somewhat on the sidelines compared to annihilation and disintegration. He was aware of its potential, it was a fundamental aspect so let's not kid ourselves into thinking it wasn't overpowered, but how best to exploit it? That was a tricky question. If disintegration beat annihilation, then annihilation probably beat nothingness. Nothingness connected vast spaces but annihilation could destroy vast spaces so such a confrontation was doomed form the start. However, again, destruction was a cycle and all three aspects harmoniously blended into the destruction of one another which meant that nothingness had to be capable of destroying disintegration. All three aspects kept each other in a check and balance situation so that, in the end, even if there was nothing left in the universe save for these three aspects, they could finish each other off and bring about true nihility. It wasn't the goal of the destruction pillar but it was possible as that was the core tenet on which it was founded; true death of the universe and anything that existed within it. So, getting back on track, how was nothingness supposed to save the day here by beating down the scythe? His body was being truly relentless with this tribulation as it was targeting his two weak spots. Nothingness and defensive arts. Both needed a look at. Suddenly Ares' flaws were thrust into the limelight and he was being tasked with correcting this fault like a circus clown with a fear of heights made to walk a tightwire. there was an audience and everything.
Speaking of, the peanut gallery appeared to be getting quite feisty. O rather, one individual amongst the crowd, who Ares just about recognised as a challenger of the tryouts from a little while ago, was glaring at empty space. Of course, from the man's perspective, Ares was sat right in front of him and there was no better opportunity to ambush the person who got what he wanted. He was jealous, angered at the prospect of losing out on the chance to become a Brotherhood disciple thanks to Ares' tribulation stunt, and so he viewed this as the perfect opportunity to lash out and get ironic payback. Again, though, he was glaring at empty space. There was a chance for some expert to come disrupt Ares, hence his backup plan of escaping to Isaz, but if it was just some no-name no-fame fool he beat already, and couldn't even remember the name of, Garuda was more than enough firepower to deal with such a wastrel. The man was knee deep in illusory hell, directing all his pent up rage to an Ares that didn't even exist. He tried to stab the fake image but it kept distorting and appearing elsewhere as Garuda was leading the man away to a secluded location. The man didn't know this but there were two small crows on his shoulder, neither of which he could see, that were going to give him 'the business' as soon as they were out of sight and out of mind. They were disintegration aspect off-spring too so their brutal peck-down was going to really lay the hurt on.
Admittedly, this sight did look incredibly strange form the perspective of everyone else. Some, presumably drunken, man with hollowed and black eyes began randomly taking swings at empty space only to have two birds escort him away from the premise. It was highly unusual but there was also an understanding that, whatever it was that was happening, Ares was not as helpless as he looked while he was undertaking this trial. He'd set up some nasty defences and the amount of force needed to break through them would be considerable. It was actually literally just Garuda but his new power level was at the point where he could be confused for an array of psychic-attribute runic defences. It was no longer worth risking a fight for those with petty grudges regarding the outcome of the Brotherhood tryouts. Plus that other guy, the violent, disillusioned man who was taken away, would likely be marked by the Brotherhood going forward and while it wasn't necessarily kill on sight, it would definitely be unpleasant for him going forward. Worse still, if his name spread then there were extremely few shops, organisations, and sects that would ever do business with him, off any kind, ever again. He'd have to become a lone cultivation, a rogue who scarped by under harsh conditions, all because he tried to pick a meaningless battle with somebody he couldn't even beat to being with. His life was over and he hadn't even really done anything, he'd failed from the get-go. It just wasn't worth attacking the Brotherhood and this was a fantastic example of why. You'd never get anything out of it and only really ever stood to lose, none of which accounted for the fact that you probably wouldn't even win a battle anyway.
Ah crap... Though the man himself was insignificant, the small interruption he brought forth was more effective than Ares liked to admit. His mind had wondered elsewhere and now the scythe was mid motion and barrelling towards his neck. There was no way he was dodging this thing, Ares had a feeling in his gut it would follow him to the ends of the earth if it had to, and he still didn't have a method of defending himself properly so the outlook was poor. He could enhance his body to the utmost, and utilise the Brotherhood robe too, if he was truly desperate... But that would result in extreme misery and not a happy ending in the slightest. The clock was ticking and he barely had another seven or so seconds to come up with an idea that would save his rear but nothing was relay coming to mind. His understanding of nothingness shot up recently, thanks to his analysis of the negative space passageway that brought him out of Sheryashka, but that meant nothing in the current situation. So what if he understood negative space? It wouldn't save him here. Normal spatial magic could, it would make the space between the scythe and his neck effectively infinite, causing it to run out of mana long before it could spend the eons required necessary to break through the spatial blockade and reach Ares... But nothingness? Unless Ares wanted to connect the space between the scythe and his neck, and hasten his demise to near instantaneous speeds, it wasn't going to be useful! Nothingness was a dud and he wasn't convinced it could solve this problem, at least not the way he was currently looking at it...
But what else was there to consider? Time? Space and time were closely interlinked with one another but how would that help? It's not like Ares had ever delved into time but wouldn't the issue theoretically be similar to the issue he had with space? So what if he could achieve negative time just like he could negative space? Wouldn't that, again, just make the process of him getting smacked around happen faster? If normal time could elongate the process of the scythe beheading him, then wouldn't negative time just skip to the gory part? Or was he misunderstanding how negative time worked? What even was 'negative time' anyway?! Ares had a brutal headache... This demandable aspect was far too complicated for an idiot with a lazy brain like him and he had hardly enough time to work it all out... Nonetheless, as the scythe drew ever nearer, his brain worked overtime to try and solve this mess...
Wait... negative space is the absence of space, not the inverse of it... So negative time shouldn't be the inverse of normal time, it should be the absence of it... So... If... AH FUCK IT! Ares didn't have much time to deliberate over his assumptions, nor the minor enlightenment he just experienced, so he chose to put his findings to the test and either celebrate his impromptu genius or fail the hard way. Either what came next would be great, and solidi his understanding of nothingness at a concrete level, or utterly atrocious and there was no in-between. He was even risking death here. Ares could very well not do any of this; he could just defend like like his life depended on it and wind up battered and broken afterwards. He'd live shamefully, but he'd live. Ares wasn't above looking like an abused idiot in public, he didn't care if his tribulation committed domestic abuse and bloodied him from head to toe, but he wasn't planning on letting it happen anyway because he felt like there was an alternative that would lead to great places if he could make it work.
The absence of time is not the avoidance of it, it is the non-existence of it and all that it achieved. This was the thought running through Ares head and, while he didn't have time to go over the finer details, he believed this understanding would allow him to delve into a whole new realm. He couldn't possibly dredge up all the secrets this one idea contained within it, he was busy not dying, but he could at least use this framework to put his nothingness to good use for once! Voidwalk was convenient, as was Grim Cessation, so too was Shift, but Ares had yet to weave nothingness into combat in a more impactful way and today would be the day that changed. He took a deep breath, waited for the scythe to come crawling over his flesh, and calmly chanted as he felt the cold sting of ruthless metal tickle his neck.
"Skip."
Ares glanced left, where the scythe came from, before glancing to his right, where the scythe now rested. By all accounts, he should have been beheaded. The curvature of the swing was beautiful, perfect even, and yet Ares' head remained firmly attached as though the scythe passed right through him like a non-physical entity. It hadn't, and it wasn't, the scythe had 'technically' executed him, it's just that Ares had 'Skipped' over that time period and deleted it in hindsight. Put simply, if second one was when the scythe was to his left, second two was when the scythe cut through his flesh, and second three was when the scythe finished treading along its warpath and came to a halt on his right, second two had been 'Skipped'. It happened but was then undone, turned into negative time, undoing and destroying everything that split second contained within it. The fate associated with that second, everything the scythe accomplished in it, was unravelled, obliterated, and turned into nothing. This might have seemed like an Omnipotent art that could shape the very foundation of reality but there were many catches and downsides that were also readily apparent to Ares who was thanking his lucky stars everything worked out. There was a very real chance he died like a moron here for reasons that were very possible.
For instance, using the prior example, what if second one involved the scythe swinging, and second two involved the scythe landing on Ares' neck and remaining lodged into it? There was no intermediate second to Skip, all he would do is Skip right to second two, AKA his death. His understanding of negative time earlier wasn't entirely incorrect, he could hasten his own demise if he was careless, and this was a very real issue he had to be mindful of. Skip was a powerful art but it was also high risk high reward. If he stood inside one of his annihilation explosions, for instance, he could Skip a second or two but his explosions lasted long enough that, when time resumed as it should, he would still be inside a tide of gold. Skip needed the target to be in motion such that Ares would no longer be in harm's way at the end point of its trajectory. He Skipped the middle, he didn't change the start or ending and that meant Skip wasn't versatile, it was just incredibly good at what it did. It was a defensive art, by all means, but it wasn't something he could rely on consistently. Skip needed to be practiced before he felt comfortable using it with any sort of regularity; it had the potential to outrival even Absolute Reversal in terms of the punishment he would face for misusing it even a single time. He could maybe even use it offensively when he felt comfortable with it but, for now, it was something he would have to experiment with outside of combat. He was already lucky not to have his head lopped off today and using it anymore would be pushing his luck.