Dawn broke and Ares rubbed his tired eyes. Yesterday wound up being a whirlwind of events that left Ares little time to sleep. individually nothing he did was enough to exhaust him but, put it all together, and he was worked to the bone. For starters, he had to finish housing the fellahin which included Lara and Arla, the two sisters. Lara was made the official cartographer, grand librarian, and data bank manager of the sect, all positions that hadn't been existed prior. Ares felt like a corrupt government official handing out suspiciously well paying 'jobs' but he'd seen Lara's work first hand and knew she'd be a valuable asset to the sect. She was given her own office in which disciples could visit and impart knowledge to be stored for later reference. If anyone came across a monster, place, or resource they were unfamiliar with out in the wild, the goal was to have Lara's vast array of stored documents, pictures, and general information provide an answer. Of course all this information had to be built up first but Lara's incredible drawing talents meant there was never any confusion, doubt, or mistakes made and the process went smoothly. She had a lot of work at the start but eventually it would be the reverse and she could sit around all day without having much to do. She was quite content with the position though, and enjoyed the work itself, so she finally had a rewarding job and one that put her in a position of less hassle. Ares had purposefully stationed reputable disciples at her office to make sure she wasn't bothered twenty-four seven by men or women who found her attractive like what happened back in Xasca's Transmit. Of course it's not like none tried but they were shooed away or told to make haste with whatever business they had. If anything, these disciples became rather pumped and vowed to go make countless discoveries all in the name of visiting Lara's little den for a minute or two. There weren't many dedicated explorers in the cultivation world, people whose sole goal in life was to broaden horizons, but Heaven's Path would foster and nurture a couple all of their own thanks to Lara's presence... The reason was shallow but the result was acceptable!
As for Lara's sister, Arla... There was nothing really special for her to do right now. She basically had the choice of leading the fellahin stragglers and setting up a small society or becoming Lara's assistant. For now she chose the prior but, once everything was up and running, she had free reign to do whatever she fancied really. Ares gave her time to figure out what she wanted to do and left her to it while he found an open area in the desert biome and sparred with Sandy for the first time in a while. She'd already planted some seeds back home and was feeling a bit bored so came to check out the desert biome again and found Ares with little to do. He still wanted to bring out the Anubis but he indulged Sandy and spent a coupe of active hours going back and forth. Naturally Sandy couldn't win even a single time but that was an unreasonable expectation given how much power Ares was packing nowadays. Still, getting to test her raw strength, and elemental prowess, against Garmr was good for Sandy's own development. Afterwards, Sandy went to go check on her brothers while Ares finally got down to business with the Anubis and... Well, things didn't exactly go according to plan. Ares could have sworn he recalled Tom Tom saying something along the lines of 'the Anubis, when summoned by the rod artifact, will be in their first form'. This, or something to that effect, was definitely stated, unequivocally, by Tom Tom! Ares wasn't going crazy! And yet...
Woof!
Bark!
... It's not like Ares didn't mind having two playful puppies running around in the sand pit, he really didn't, but this was not the level of guardian he was expecting! The two black Ibizan hound puppies, sitting on their rear and looking up at him, were undeniably adorable, and some manner of imprinting seemed to be taking place as they affectionately nuzzled his leg, but Tom Tom had some explaining to do! Ares summoned one of his heads, by calling out into the void, and he appeared with from the ground with a smug smile that froze on the spot when he saw the problem. Tom Tom had been getting cocky elsewhere due to his stumper riddles torturing the disciples but the sight of two Anubis puppies curbed his excitement a little. His master, Sevorus, told him the Anubis would be at their 'earliest' form when summoned form the rod and it seemed like he misunderstood the nuance of that statement a tad. It's not like Sevorus was trying to give him a riddle but now Tom Tom found himself on the other foot for once and was incredibly embarrassed by the existence of the two little ankle biters. He came face to face with Ares who was merely simply silently pointing at the puppies rolling and running around in circles with the zoomies, trying to chase each other's tails, and there was no response to this. He'd promised powerful guardians... Well, the puppies were powerful in the sense that they attracted a large gathering of female disciples, their popularity was overwhelming. They were hardly the bloodthirsty, highly skilled maestros of death they had once been though. They'd grow, it probably wouldn't even take that long, but Tom Tom had metaphorical egg all over his face even if nobody else minded. Ares was only really outwardly complaining, as was expected of his role as a sect master, but as an individual he held a crippling weakness for cute things and the puppies were really sweet. It was strange to think these two derpy, tongue-out puppies had once tried to reap his life thrice over but, well, stranger things have happened in the cultivation world so this was pretty minor all things considered. Anywho, it's not like Ares would have been able to install the Anubis as gate guardians immediately anyway, he hadn't solved the lacking sand issue at the southern entrance, so functionally this was a complete non-issue to begin with. It had taken him by surprise, is all. For now, alongside Nibbler and Appa, the Anubis twins would be little more than a comforting presence Ares could go and play with in his spare time. That was a role in and of itself that held value! Though whether Ares would be able to get a word in edgewise with the puppies instead of the raving female disciple fan club was another matter...
Ares assumed he was done for the day once he was finished with the desert biome but, little did he know, his job as a wife entertainer had only just begun. Ares had spent some time with Sandy, taking her shopping and sparring with her, so dues were owed elsewhere. He spent another couple hours watching classic films with Blo Blo and, when they finished, he took her out for a 'ride' in her model car souvenir. She used her measurement manipulation magic to increase the size of the model while Ares used his telekinesis to 'drive' it along the road at a slow and steady pace. It was pretty late so a calm and peaceful cruise under the night sky put Bellona to sleep pretty quickly and Ares brought her back and tucked her in... Only to accidentally wake her up when Enyo stormed in and demanded her needs be met. Ares had played with Blo Blo and Sandy the entire rest of the day so he found it hard to turn down Enyo's request. Bellona and Sandy evacuated the room to get some peace and quiet but they ended up staying up later than usual watching some films in Blo Blo's room before they conked out. Ares hadn't seen them since as he was preoccupied with fulfilling Enyo which was a task all unto its own. His duties as a loving husband went long into the night, including but not limited to bringing out his dragon horns so that Enyo could use them like handle bars for her own amusement, so he was worked all day and all night in two very different senses and he didn't get much time to rest at all. He stumbled out of bed in the morning and wanted nothing more than to crawl back into it but knew that would be a death sentence as Enyo would pincer him in her claws like some kind of clingy crab. She did try to get up and pull him back to bed but Ares, half awake, managed to Skip out of arm's reach and Shift down the hallway in a bid to escape. He made it to the front door where he found Nibbler gently headbutting it to knock and call for him as the little fella wanted to see Hunter's soul for a bit. Ares obliged and took a seat on the floor with his legs crossed, letting Nibble rest on his lap he put the soul carefully in front of him. Nibbler let out a few soft cries and nudged the soul but got no response. Still, rather than be dispirited, Nibbler got up, barked thankfully at Ares, and left to go train with Sadie. Understanding his desire to help his parental figure, Sadie had been sparring with Nibbler from time to time and he became a regular addition to training sessions alongside Rox and the old neighborhood crew (Charity, Gladius, Dirk, Li Li, etc...)
Ares then found Appa in the front garden, playing hide and seek with Leo who was hidden somewhere amidst the tall grass, and figured now was a good time to talk to her about what he found in Isaz. He waited patiently until Leo was caught and then sent the tiger inside for a couple of minutes while Ares had a considerate conversation with Appa and informed her about the passing of the two old folks who looked after her. She was sad but had matured enough in recent time to not be overwhelmed. Instead, she found happiness in knowing Ares brought the hut and diary with him. Ares took both out of the Primordial Blade and found a nice little corner for the hut in the back garden where it would remain undisturbed. Appa went to spend some alone time inside it and read the diary while Ares headed back to the front garden. Even though she had bags under her eyes, Ares found Sandy back on the gardening grind and working hard. Not even a lack of sleep was going to stop her from watering even if it was the last thing she did! Though she'd likely go back inside and crash ona bed afterwards... Ares quietly made her some pancakes with bacon and syrup, plus a nice warm coffee, and left it on a chair behind her that she'd notice when she was done for the day as he Voidwalked over to the northern entrance to finally get started on the moat. He wished he was more awake for this but beggars can't be choosers and the longer he delayed this the longer he delayed everything he had to do that came after. Visiting the sect HQ was still in order so there was no time to be dilly dallying!
Ares arrived near the to-be demolition site and noticed something out of the corner of his eyes that everyone else seemed to miss. Had he not been informed about its existence a short while ago he would have walked straight by it, none the wiser of its presence. The Brick By Brick was here! Yulo's treasure... He did say he would find a hiding spot to avoid Rud and he was probably successful given tha the hadn't been dragged back into office work as of yet. Yulo likely chose this spot here so that he could keep tabs on Ares' moat work by poking his head out the front door every now and then. He did say he wanted to see how the changes panned out so this made sense... Ares was tempted to rat him out for the fun of it but it was pointless as Yulo would see it coming and bolt. Might as well let him be. Or so he thought but the front door opened up as soon as the other disciples nearby rounded the corner and out came Yulo himself with a wave of the hand. "Yo."
"Hey, what's up?" Ares hadn't expected to meet Yulo again for a long while and, yet, here he was.
Yulo shrugged. "Just curious. Now that I think about it, I really don't know why you're demolishing the sect wall at all? Shouldn't you build the moat in front of the wall and then make a bridge over it to the current entrance?" Technically he was right. This was how most normal moats were made and it didn't make sense to do it the way Ares was planning because it wouldn't protect the outer walls from being scaled.
"Typically you'd be right but I think the existence of the Scylla makes up for it. I actually can't build the moat out front because there isn't enough space. If I make it too big it will affect the farm land. I can expand the sect, and move the farmland inside it, after; from there I'll be able to build the moat properly, but for now this is the only real option. Besides, most cultivators can fly so whether a moat is even really helpful is debatable. Maybe if I made some underground runes that applied a no fly zone, then sure, but right now I'm more concerned with housing he Scylla as it's the core of the defensive setup at the north. I'm taking a lot of temporary measures, and that's not great, but it will work out in the long term and that's my current priority. Until everything is up an running as it should be I'll be the only defense the sect actually needs. It's a cocky and arrogant statement but I have the skill to back it up."
"No that's fine, I was just wondering why you were creating such a weird moat. I guess the Scylla is bigger than I thought it was. I figured the water might ruin the farmland and nearby soil, I didn't think it would be too large to coexist with the farmland." Ares sent Yulo a white ball of remembrance via Past-Present Polymerisation and he whistled to himself upon seeing the scale of the Scylla. Ares also bundled in the Anubis in their final form for good measure and Yulo was pleased. "Damn, I have to admit that the sect will really be having quite the glow up with you around. No disrespect to Slick, he's done a fantastic job, but the quality of the sect is really going to skyrocket with these guardians. I'm guessing you'll be keeping an eye out for two more right? One for the east entrance and one for the west too?"
"That's the goal... Though I really shouldn't be thinking that far ahead when I haven't even made the moat yet."
"Alright, well don't let me stop you. I'm going to head back inside my Brick By Brick now 'cos a Rud clone is about to patrol through this area." With those final words, Yulo disappeared and blended into the background once more. As if on cue, the Rud clone waltzed around the corner and kissed its teeth upon spying Ares. It turned around immediately and quickly walked away, not wanting to have to deal with him. Aers actually wasn't going to hassle him this time, he still felt bad dumping Tia on him the other day, but apparently Rud saw Ares as a bad omen and refused to be in contact with him if he could avoid it. A wise decision for the most part but Ares still felt a little disappointed he couldn't mess with him as easily any more. Rud was prime rage-bait, doubly so now that Ares had become sect master and could boss him around here and there.
Ares moved on and, finally, he was at the northern entrance. Before he got started he went outside to go have a word with the farmers, warning them the entrance would be unusable for the rest of the day and they should take a break until tomorrow. Some of them agreed but some actually lived in houses outside the sect and didn't have to go back in for whatever reason so they were free to do as they pleased without Ares' construction work affecting them in any way. Once the farmers were informed, Ares then put up a barricade of sorts both in and out of the sect using various objects he stored in his Primordial Blade for one reason or another. It looked incredibly strange, piles of wood, clumps of metal, and strips of long tape, but it served its purpose of causing those who came across it to halt and check the nearby sign. Some disciples needed to leave, or enter, the sect for mission requests so Ares had set up a sort of waiting room off to the side that he would frequently visit and ferry everyone to other side of the wall using Nothingness magic. He could have done this for the farmers too but running such a service would clog up too much of his time and he'd spend most of his day doing that instead. The number of disciples taking on a mission specifically in the north, requiring the use of this exit, were far fewer than the number of farmers wanting to constantly go in and out of the sect with their wheelbarrows full of goods. It was manageable for Ares so long as it was just the occasional handful of disciples, most of whom accepted these mission requests in groups and could be ferried in batches... Though, in hindsight, Ares would remember he could have just set up a Shift marker and teleported everyone across instead of using telekinesis on them... Better yet, such a method would have been automated and taken up less of his time by the end of the day... Oh well, his brain power was being directed towards the moat itself so such a thing slipped his mind completely.
As for how to handle the moat, the first order of business was acquiring sufficient water to fill it up. This part wasn't tricky at all, he simply Voidwalked to the nearest ocean and cut up / stored a large chunk of it in the Blade. It looked quite cool floating through space like a body of water frozen in time, hovering like a see through aurora of flowing waves. Not that it would stay in there for long as Ares rapidly moved on the next order of business and placed disintegration markers along the walls. These served as end points for where Ares' destructive rampage would come to a halt, stopping the annihilation from spreading further. He wanted to break a large part of the wall but he didn't want to obliterate it entirely, after all. The disintegration sliced through the walls and created a thin barrier at two intervals, trapping the now-separated chunk between them. Ares put on a hardhat he stole from one of the blacksmithing disciples passing by, told everyone to stand back, much to their own bemusement, and then unleashed a wave of Grand Annihilation one after another without any breaks. Rocks were blasted every which way amidst the golden chaos and Ares had to use telekinesis to save a few disciples from getting concussions or potentially worse. Any of those rocks could have wound up lodged inside their brains if he wasn't careful but, then again, this was a pretty easy task for him as far as his power level went. he could hover above the scene of carnage and pinpoint every last projectile with perfect precision.
What Ares was left with at the end of his mini rampage was a whole load of rubble, stunned onlookers, and the early stages of his moat building exercise. It was looking promising but there was still a lot of work to be done... Though until he was finished a good number of sect residents would wonder what the hell their sect master was doing now. It's not like Ares informed anyone he would be doing this so, as far as everyone nearby knew, Ares had gone mad and was just blowing the sect up for the love of the game. Hell some of them hadn't even seen his desert biome yet so there was a fair bit of doubt creeping around. Doubt that Ares would simply have to blow away with his hard work and effort so he kept at it and used an Ebon Tide to wash away the remaining rubble with disintegration magic. It was already lunch time by the time he'd dealt with the wall and he wasn't even halfway done with this endeavour yet so he was tempted to keep going without taking a food break... But Enyo and Blo Blo turned up with bubble tea and toasted meat pitas so he couldn't very well turn down such a kind gesture could he? He took a break with them and sat on a bench, enjoying a pleasant chat... Or, it was pleasant but only after he explained himself. He hadn't told either of them about this either so he was being reprimanded for casually blowing up the sect without prior warning. Enyo, especially, was really laying on the narrow glare quite thick as if she was unsure if Ares was fobbing her off with excuses. Thankfully Yulo appeared, like a saviour, and asked for updates while explaining to Enyo that Ares was taking this very seriously... Though he did say it was surprising; he really did think Ares would take advantage of the situation to blow up more of the sect for fun... Who did they think Ares was?! If he was going to do that, he would do it for the cultivation benefits, not jsut the fun of it! Actually, Ares had benefitted from destroying the wall, his cultivation went up a single stage. He'd entered bloodline awakening and been passive cultivating since whenever he found time to do so. Bloodline awakening was the hard part, the major wall, so his cultivation speed was back to normal now and he could progress smoothly whenever he wanted. It wasn't a surprise he was already going up stages despite never having put much overt effort into it. Anywho, Ares got to blow up a big wall and gain cultivation so, though tired, he considered this to be a very good start to the day.