The mecha blocked his Perish Wheel? Ares didn't care!

The mecha squashed Rox like a bug? Ares didn't care!

Mecha = cool? Ares cared!

Why would he care about literally anything else right now other than every guy with an inner child's dream toy? He wanted one! Hell he wanted two! Ares was quite literally mindlessly drifting towards the mecha with his hands outstretched and a bit of drool on his chin. A good chunk of people in the crowd were leaning out of their seats and trying to inch as close to the mecha as humanly possible because everyone wanted a taste. In Ares' head, two words just keep repeating themself over and over again, Me want! The sleek and modern design... The way the rain pitter pattered as it bounced off its bulky frame... The raw reliability and power emanating from its mere presence... Ares was in love! Could this be my third wife?

Ack

Ok, maybe not. Ares had been pierced from behind by Enyo and Bellona's fierce glares as they could apparently read his mind like an open book... Were these two psychics?! How did they know what manner of stupid nonsense Ares was babbling about in his head?! Also, were they seriously jealous of a mech?! So many questions but what Ares knew for sure was that the mech was like a priceless jewel and Ares wanted it! He would never get it, that was for damn certain as it belonged to Mako now and forever, but that didn't mean he couldn't maybe convince the elf to let him ride it at some point! No doubt that mecha was tailored for creation magic, and God only knows what it was capable in Mako's hands, but if Ares could pilot a mecha with destruction magic... No wonder Ares was salivating at the thought of it! He would become a human aerial nightmare doing bombing runs over enemy territory, dropping miniature nukes and firing disintegration lasers that blotted out the sky! Alright, that was it! Ares was stealing that damn mecha if he had to! One way or another Ares was getting inside the cockpit of that thing even if it killed him, it was worth it!

Ares wanted to inspect the thing closer but he was still in the middle of a fight and so that likely wasn't going to happen... Also Bellona and Enyo were staring daggers at him so he was forced to give up. BUT he would still heave laborious sighs throughout the rest of this match, at least three to four times, as a sign of indignant protest! His wives must have been blind, that was the only excuse Ares could come up with for why they couldn't feel the romance of a sturdy death machine repurposed for the sake of good, cleaving through hordes of foes. Ah tragedy... Actually, wasn't Bellona a huge film nerd? Wy didn't this appeal to her! At the very least, surely she would be interested in 'driving' it no?... Wait a minute... Don't tell me... It hit Ares like a ton of bricks but there was a non-zero chance Bellona didn't know what a mecha was! Maybe she was blissfully unaware this thing could be ridden! It wasn't impossible she'd never seen a film or show about mechas before... Maybe they didn't exist in Vraizon? Down in Sheryashka, though there wasn't any electronic media really, there were still plenty of stories about metallic, hulking robots that could be piloted to save the world and fought for what was right... Actually, if that was how Ares framed it, maybe even Enyo would be more accepting of this new wife... Ack Ok, maybe not. FINE! Ares gave up on wedding the robot. Not that he was serious about it anyway... Hopefully... Regardless, Ares would have to inundate Bellona into the mecha cult at some point after this match! She needed to become erudite in the rule of cool and one such classic example in the form of mechas. Enyo almost definitely wouldn't care unless framed as a justice thing but Bellona? She might not know it yet, but this was right up her alley!

As for the mecha itself, Mako's work on it was evident. There was an insignia that was shaped like his eye mutation on the chest with the word 'Victory' blowtorched into the frame directly underneath it. He'd also done some aesthetic work here and there and some neon lights were buried into the frame as they ran along the chest, arm, and leg portions primarily. As for functional changes, some of the weapons seemed to be fiddled with here and there which made sense. It was basically a foregone conclusion that this thing could be freely customised to Mako's liking, much like how Fate's H.I.JACK could swap around weapons on the fly. Obviously Mako must have had a greater array of options, even being able to create his own weaponry on demand and tailor the mecha to his needs and wants because the extent of his pillar was far greater than anything Fate could realistically do. Maybe Mako could even have spares and backups with to modify the mecha on the go. It was like a giant action toy that could replace its parts at will and so Mako presumably spent most of his time optimising various parts to make them more deadly and efficient. Maybe some more defensive metals for sustained combat against swarms of foes, perhaps a more mobile set of jets for quick traversal, and scout technology for stealth missions. Things like invisibility camo and thermal vision were almost guaranteed to be implemented, or available to implement, via kits Mako could swap onto the mecha at his discretion. Throw in Mako's creation magic and this thing was seriously no joke in combat.

If the fire power it was packing was considerable, and the physical might was equally as prominent, then Mako would become a strong cultivator the second he was able to fully wield this thing. Mako's main downside was that he kinda did literally nothing without magic and this glorious machine would rectify that on the spot. As it was version one and still in its infancy, Ares assumed there would be some kind of drawback to it; probably a limited fuel source that Mako couldn't just create on the spot would be Ares guess. Also, Mako was definitely not strong enough to use this thing to its full potential right now. Seeing as how he hadn't hopped inside it yet, and seeing as how a lot of the weapons and lighting on the mecha seemed to be powered down, it was essentially in battery saving mode right now. It might be able to move around and swing is fists a bit before running out of energy but, given how mythical of a treasure this thing would inevitably be, that was more than enough to pose a serious threat to Ares' life right now.

Ares didn't really have much of anything that could deal with this. His best bet was looking to be flying high in the sky to avoid it until it ran out of steam but if it could fly then Ares would be caught off guard and subsequently screwed. It would only get one shot at Ares but it only needed one as it looked strong enough to kill Ares in a single blow if he couldn't contest it. It had just crashed down into orbit so those jets were definitely partially functional for at least a few seconds and Ares was willing to bet he wasn't outrunning it even with his annihilation enhancement operating at max. The turntables had turned yet again, for the umpteenth time this match, and now Ares was the one being pressured into going all out to respond in kind to the new development. He could use his God summon to rid himself of the mecha but then he wouldn't have it for Mako's use of Terros later on and that was not good in the slightest. Ares had no idea what Terros had in store for him but he was a God and it was bound to not be pretty. Sure Terros would be limited by Mako's cultivation but not only was Mako decently above Ares in that regard... Terros was a GOD! He was not an ordinary summon and couldn't be compared to ordinary summons unless your goal was to insult him to his golem core. In short, Ares needed to save Astraeus to deal with him so that wasn't an option.

...

Ares sighed aloud to no one in particular as he could see where this was trending. Fight fire with fire. He really didn't want to whip out the Primordial Blade and unveil it to the general public... Really he didn't... Things hadn't gone quite how he planned it all way back when he first heard about the tournament, as he wasn't remaining low key at all around the Legions, but was he really going to give up on keeping the Blade a secret too? The whole revenant thing got kinda complicated due to his relation with Enyo and Bellona so keeping it a secret was nigh impossible but he didn't actually have to bust out the Blade here. It was risky but he could try surviving without it... But should he potentially throw away this match because of his old reservations after circumstances had changed and he no longer needed to cling to them, wouldn't that be foolish? Now that people knew roughly about his situation, and people were aware of the two fundamentals with unique pillars and their role in society, a lot less people would be willing to target him. Plus his revenant connections would do good work in that regard too...

But still, there would be a bunch of people undeterred by that who wanted his weapon for themselves. Furthermore, the 'kill Ares' faction in the Legions might get some new members after the reveal of this thing. They might be aware he had some kind of treasure, as Mako did too so it was basically set in stone, but without actually seeing it some people likely just wouldn't care. If he brought it out now and showcased its overwhelming power minds would be changed... But, on the flip side, maybe some people had already changed their mind due to the whole Garmr situation anyway and could no longer be convinced? Legions who were undeterred by Garmr wouldn't be fussed by one more ridiculous addition to Ares' arsenal but those who were would double down and cause an even bigger stink back home, rallying behind a cause that had a lot of decently stacked evidence against Ares. His decision to keep the Legions alive back when he turned into Garmr had just become that much more important but how many people could it realistically keep convinced if he brought out the Blade too? It was all impossible to tell right now...

There was a lot for Ares to consider here but he was leaning towards just going all in and wielding the Blade because Mako was using his own treasure. Was Ares a bigger coward than Mako? Hell no! If Mako felt confident in his ability to defend himself after painting a target on his back then why wasn't Ares capable of presenting himself in such a domineering fashion too, unphased by petty thieves? Now his situations was a tad different, he had a much larger family to worry about implicating in his mess and protecting, but was he so weak willed he was going to hide his Blade until he became unassailable? What then? Would he even still need it at that point? And what about after he entered the wider world outside the Blade barrier? There would be more people who were stronger than him and wanted the Blade there too so what then? Hide it more? Would he even be able to? The more Ares thought about it, the sillier hiding it seemed. The original decision made sense back when he was unaware of the extent of his future regarding the fundamental stuff but, now that he was destined to become a household name without fail, having secrets was exponentially more difficult. At the very least, the fundamentals having tailored, mythical treasures each was not something that could be kept on the down low. People already probably knew as the other four fundamentals had been roaming the outside world for some time now and forged their own reputations. Ares didn't know this right now but Havannah literally carried her giant sword around with her everywhere she went and made no effort to keep it out of everyone's sight, she flaunted it if anything.

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It wasn't an easy choice to make but Ares understood he sort of had to at this point. It was the simplest way of countering the mecha and not doing it might even backfire horribly. If the spectators put two and two together, understanding Ares also possessed a treasure, but noticed him not pulling it out then they might assume it was an even bigger deal than expected. 'Is he hiding it because he doesn't want us to see how powerful it is?' Such a thought would lead to an even greater number of potential robbery attempts as curiosity was a helluva drug. It was to the point that Ares might even have to fend off less people if he was just upfront about it here and now... Damn Mako! This moronic fool was so determined to win he was pulling out every stop in his arsenal and holding nothing back, even to his own detriment! After today, he would have more people hassling him for the mecha than Ares would for his sword! His treasure was way more desirable from the standpoint of a regular cultivator! He was sealing both their fates but his own by at least twice as much...

Mako was really going all out to try and win this fight so it would also be somewhat disingenuous of Ares to back out now and not follow suit. It also didn't help that Ares could taste victory right around the corner. What did Mako have after this and Terros? Anything? Unbeknownst to Ares, Mako still had his most powerful art up his sleeve but that was a problem for future Ares to figure out. Still, right now, he was convinced the win was in the bag so long as he dealt with Mako's remaining tactics in the correct way. If he didn't fuss around with the mecha and just whacked it with the Blade then he would either come out on top or go even and force it to retreat after running out of fuel. Ares couldn't wield the Blade for too long either, and there would be repercussions to swinging it even inside its sheath, but it wasn't a fight that would go in anyone's favour really. Predictably, the power level of the treasures was about even... Although, actually, Ares might hold a slight advantage. The main drawback of the mecha right now couldn't be avoided because fuel was a limited resource. The same was not true of the Blade as Ares' stamina and will power was the main cost here. Sure it meant that, after the fight, Ares would walk away in a worse state than Mako who needn't exert himself physically... But Ares would still be able to use the Blade after and Mako would have no way of dealing with it. The downside was hefty but so was the upside and Ares felt confident he could handle it. Annihilation enhancement and his bloodline would keep him afloat long enough to finish the job, he was sure of it.

While the mecha beeped and booped as it stood up at Mako's command, Ares reached inside himself to grip onto the Primordial Blade. This was the first time he'd ever properly used it in a fight. He'd blocked that one attack with it a while back, and threatened to prod some people with it on occasion, but actually holding the thing for a long period of time? He hadn't even practiced with it because of how early a stage he was at in terms of controlling this thing's power. The sheath was glued on and he couldn't even remove that yet so he felt it was pointless to mess around with it. The Blade was only really functional as a storage device to him which was borderline blasphemous... Well... It was going to get its turn in the spotlight now at least! Let's see what this thing can do... Naturally Ares wouldn't be able to cast arts with it, that was an absurd expectation, but he could swipe it at Mako and his mecha and that ought to be good enough. This thing could pierce metal in its sheathe like it was a straw going through jelly... But that raised a question... How tough was the mecha's armour exactly? Could it withstand the Blade? Most likely but Ares was about to find out the hard way to what extent!

Before Mako could order the mecha to function in auto-pilot and run Ares down, as that was the best he could do with his treasure right now, he spied a strange object as it appeared in Ares' grasp from seemingly nowhere. Ares had a strange habit of performing this weird magic trick and making items just appear from thin air without a spatial ring's involvement. he never carried one around so something fishy was definitely afoot and Mako could tell this thing, whatever it was, was responsible one thousand percent. Everyone in the coliseum could feel some manner of warped space emitting from this new object Ares had pulled out before they could even properly visually identify it. Of course that didn't take long as a sword was pretty standard stuff. It was a cultivator's bread and butter so nobody had to be told what it was after seeing it... But that was an ordinary sword... This thing was clearly different.

This was no Black Ice Bane, this was something way more impressive and the ancient aura oozing off it made that apparent. Mako felt it in his gut that this was Ares' special treasure and, though he would never make the trade, he was envious of what he was seeing. There was a simplistic beauty to a perfect sword and, if he was being completely honest, it looked to be a bit more powerful than his mecha. The mecha's main benefit was its customisability and adaptability as it was in line with his creation magic that could do anything and everything. That was where most of its power lay... This sword seemed a lot more heavily focused and specialised. Sure there were probably some miscellaneous benefits it could provide, like storage and time alteration, but its sole purpose was very obviously to destroy everything it pierced. The chaos Areas would be able to wreak with the weapon when he could control it... Mako couldn't imagine it but he knew it was going to be on a scale that he himself could never replicate.

Mako had assumed that the gap between fundamentals, regarding their capabilities, wouldn't be too wide. What one could do, another could maybe do in a convoluted way if they put the effort in... That illusion was shattered upon seeing the Primordial Blade. At the peak of their respective existences, the champions would be unmatched in their specialties and an entity that could not be replicated in any way. Ares' capacity for destruction was going to grow to unfathomable heights and Mako had a small blip of internal crisis as the thought that 'he couldn't beat that' appeared for the first very time in his head. Destruction was combat tailored way more than creation so if the two pillars kept evolving in a way that accentuated their respective advantages then Mako would only fall further and further behind no matter what he did... Mako shook his head to clear it all up because that was not a thought he wanted to entertain. He would find a way to be number one no matter what Ares became! He was a fundamental champion too and he refused to believe there would ever be a massive difference in terms of magical output between them! For now, Mako watched his mecha head towards Ares. He would find out how much of a fight Ares could put up with his weapon and then adjust his own measures accordingly.

Ares lightly threw the Blade up into the air and caught it while taking in the minimal weight of the weapon. It was surprisingly light which wasn't something he'd ever really gotten to appreciate before. He had grander plans for this treasure, one of which that might even eventually go on to change its shape from the sword it currently was, but until then he could still appreciate its current design. It was incredibly easy to slice with this thing as there was no resistance whatsoever so, combine that with how light it was, and you could swing this thing for days on end with no stopping and never feel fatigued. It was a fantastic weapon that sword masters would kill for. Ya Ye was in the crowd somewhere and he was undoubtedly one of the few people who cared more about Ares' treasure than Mako's. The same was also true of Poniard, Dirk's father, and just about every single swordsman throughout the coliseum. It was painfully clear to these experts that this sword dwarfed every other sword they'd ever seen, and would ever go on to see, throughout their entire life. It almost felt wasted on someone like Ares. Sure he used a sword occasionally but he wasn't really tied to hip with the weapon category like some more dedicated cultivators were. He messed around with other weapons and mostly used the Bane as a gateway to his Crystalised Void arts and Gamble. It was a waste! Although, to be fair, that was probably why Ares was thinking about trying to change it to something more suitable but he just didn't have the means or the cultivation base to fiddle around with that right now. He had ideas but not the necessary tools so he put it off for the foreseeable future. Plus he wanted to at least use this thing as is before changing it! It wouldn't lose functionality if changed, Ares would make sure of that, but an experience like this was worth having once or twice before it left for good.

As the mecha wasn't sprinting towards him, because Mako ordered it to take a more cautious approach after the Blade was unveiled, Ares also slowly paced his way forward in kind, leading to a standoff in which both individuals were closing the distance and building the tension. The mecha wasn't able to use its weapons and Ares couldn't unsheathe the sword so both were handicapped and it would come down to who could land the cleaner strikes. There would be no foul play here, just a clash of mythical weapons in a contest of raw skill and might. Ares might not have the strength to beat the robot but he was a talented human so he held the edge in terms of technique. It was in his best interest not to go head to head against this thing but, despite it towering over him as it was about two and half times his size, he wanted to give it a go just once. He wanted to feel first hand how much force this bad boy was packing! He trusted the Blade to keep him safe in this exchange. There would be serious recoil after the collision, and Ares might sustain some minor injuries to his wrist, but nothing major should break here!... Hopefully!... Maybe? Well there was only one way to find out so Ares initiated the fight with a dash. He was low to the ground as he dragged the Primordial Blade into a rising slash. He generated less momentum for his strike with this approach than an overhead slash but, if the sword was blasted backwards due to the difference in strength, then Ares would be safer in this scenario. Going for an overhead strike and having your arm pushed back sky high was a recipe for disaster but, like this, his hand would be forced low to the ground but be kept closer to his body overall. It was a safer approach but made winning the clash harder in the first place. As Ares was just in the testing phase, though, he was ok with losing here and he fully expected it anyway. Still, results couldn't be predicted accurately ahead of time so he braced himself as the mecha fired off a simple punch. Who would win this clash between two of the greatest treasures that would ever exist? It was time to find out!