As Ares was waking up in the Elliot, and cooking up a bunch of personally tailored feasts for Sandy and Aejaz to enjoy during their trip to Red Sun, elsewhere something relatively important was happening. There was certain individual who was highly affiliated with Ares and should have logically been a part of his day to day life by now but surprisingly wasn't. His position should have been similar to that of Dominus'; someone who stays by Ares' side and provides him with much needed assistance be it as an advisor or combat ace up his sleeve. This individual was currently outside the Primordial Blade barrier but that shouldn't have mattered as their clone was very much capable of getting inside and locating Ares. Or, rather, it already had, it was just too busy sleeping to make itself useful... This was a problem that Terros acknowledged a while back and he offered to help Ares sort out of the root of this issue so he'd taken a trip to a faraway domain in the upper echelon's of cultivation society to check things out himself. The individual he was searching for was Ignizz, the fire God... If Terros could have a word with the original then the copy would be stirred awake and this current atrocious state of unprofessional affairs, in which a fundamental champion was not being actively guided by a God companion, could at long last come to an end.
As for where Terros was searching for this free spirited God lizard, Ignizz was known for... Well, many things but, amongst those various rumours and half truths was the fact that he liked to spend essentially all of his time in the domain he created... 'Dragon's Lair'... There was a slight issue with this name.... Ignizz was not a dragon at all! He was a salamander... Ignizz was widely considered to be the most pathetic God, and was bullied often, but it had nothing to do with his race and everything to do with his inability to get over his race. He tried every trick in the book to become a real dragon and never managed it or even came remotely close. Despite being a verified God he was still regularly looked down on by mortal dragons and even some species of wyverns and drakes. Though those who didn't know him well would cite Ignizz' laziness as his number one weakness it was actually his utterly demolished pride as an 'inferior' creature that he kept trying to rectify to no avail. He was frequently verbally trounced on by just about anyone who cared to try and the constant humiliation led to him being the most pitiful God in all of human history... Fortunately things couldn't get much worse for him so the fact that the was a raging buffoon didn't exactly move the needle much, it was just another trait on the long list of those that did him no favours.
Still, whether anyone else liked it or not, Ignizz was indisputably a powerhouse to be reckoned with or else he wouldn't have ever managed to become a God. Forming his own domain relatively early in his Godhood was proof of his talent and many people initially respected him for that... He just still wasn't a dragon... Seriously, if he spiffed up his image, took pride in his storied salamander heritage, and carried himself with dignity befitting his role in this world he would be one of the more feared and respected Gods out there without a doubt. In fact, somewhat unbeknownst to Ignizz, many strong cultivators gathered under him in recent years and it wasn't just those looking to become the next fire God and usurp his position. Those who valued raw might alone, and didn't care about personality flaws, no matter how numerous, often found themselves leaning more towards him than other available options... Though these 'worshipers', and that term was used lightly, didn't spend much time around him personally; he was a bit too lazy for their liking and so merely acted under his name from far away which led to him being mostly unaware of their existence. It left Ignizz feeling somewhat lonely but... Technically speaking he had... 'Companionship'...
In order to explain the situation that Terros was witnessing play out in real time before his very eyes, after he entered the Dragon's Lair, it needed to be explained what exactly the lair was. The easiest way to think about it was to imagine the entire domain as being one large volcano that drifted through space. Inside the volcano were countless large chunks of igneous rocks that floated around atop the lave and these made up the various planets of the domain that life could live atop and thrive in. Beings with a natural tolerance or resistance to extreme heats could predominantly be found living here, such as sun elementals and various beings that were born in hell, like imps, but also cultivators and experts looking to train in harsh conditions would frequent this place too for body tempering. Ignizz was rather blasé and unconcerned about who he let into his domain and so it was basically free to enter so long as you could do it without forfeiting your life. The major reason for this low price of admission being that he wanted people to experience his 'draconic greatness'... As he so termed it. Of course he got depressed every time someone came to his domain for the properties of said domain and not to witness his elegant form wrapped around the volcano itself. His coiled form, resembling that of a dragon guarding its lair, was more of an afterthought than anything else and so people rarely spared him more than a glance before ignoring him. Plus he wasn't an actual dragon, and looked like a kid wearing a cape calling himself a hero, so people felt very comfortable disrespecting and ridiculing his presence even to his face if need be.
That aside, Ignizz' 'companions' were actually just fire spirits that he himself created from he lingering fire mana hat was pretty abundant in this domain. He would get bored of the lack of attention and perform various stage dramas and theatrical plays to a literal captive audience of wisps he created. He made sure to shape them to resemble various critters and races to make it feel more real. Though their clapping and cheers always felt rather hollow and forced... Ignizz was truly pathetic in many ways but what made him hard to get along with, even amongst the Gods and Goddesses that didn't care about his multitude of shortcomings in the brain department, was that he was well and truly lazy. He slept for long periods of time often and was basically impossible to wake up or get the attention of during those periods. Even those who tolerated him could never tolerate his sleeping schedule and habits on top of his personality as it was all too much to handle. Terrros fell into the latter category, who weren't too fussed by him as a person but was driven over the edge by his constant siestas, as it was that very same sleeping habit that was rendering Ares Godless! Somewhat so, anyway, as Ares still had Astraeus' support but that wasn't how this was supposed to go a all! Ignizz accepted his job of guarding a fundamental champion with a yawn, back when he was summoned to a meeting of the Gods, and everyone's worst fear at the time was proven to be correct now that Ares had confirmed this idiot's clone had yet to show up! Fortunately for Terros, Ignizz was reported to be awake right now and doing his usual draconic shenanigans so he was going to go and pay the idiot lizard a visit and give him what for. So, going back to what was mentioned earlier, this is the set up to the scene Terros was currently spectating on one of the igneous planets inside the volcano.
Ignizz had decided to downsize himself and put on another play for his wisps, turning himself into a tree-sized flying reptile. HIs body was a shiny black but streaks of wavy orange fire raced down his frame all the way to his tail that resembled the feathery fletching of a handcrafted arrow. Though his Godly presence was muted somewhat, due to taking on a smaller form, he gave off an oddly celebratory air that contrasted his occasionally bleak pushover personality. Of course whenever he wasn't being bullied he was a happy idiot, confident to get things wrong and speak with empty pride at the top of his lungs. He had an unnatural amount of determination and swagger for someone considered to be so utterly worthless but it gave him an air of joy that was hard to match when he was in his element. No matter how many times he was put down in the dumps, and told he could never become a real dragon in the harshest ways possible, he would always be back to his chipper, self-fellating self not too long later. His attitude manifested in his magic too as he wasn't really an expert in traditional fire as most people would expect him to be as the God of the fire pillar.
Ignizz' specialty was actually fireworks! He even had a legacy treasure that was pretty famous called the Fireworks Quiver that mimicked the design of his tail. Any projectile stored inside the quiver became a firework bomb that exploded once it hit its target and the result was a fiery spectacle of flashy colours but, most notably, destructive flair. Again, Ignizz was an idiot but he was a strongidiot. Strong enough to turn an entire domain into a new year's display if he went all out... Though, right now, he was swirling swimmingly around through the air and using that same miraculous magical magnificence and firepower to create small fireworks that trailed behind him. He was putting on a small dance of dragons that was considered traditional in ancient circles... But it was also one that would be ridiculed harshly if performed by some random roadside lizard like this. Thankfully no draconic ancestors were here to see this otherwise they might start a war with Ignizz after being insulted and disrespected in such a way as this dance was reserved for emperors and draconic Gods alike. This was well and truly a sacred dance he was performing and, better yet, they would want to know how he even found out about about it! This performance was supposed to be under lock and key with only a handful of people knowing how to perform it due to the intricacies in weaving mana into the dance! Truthfully Ignizz could be pretty resourceful when he wanted something, usually if not always draconic in nature, as all he had to do was put out a reward of fire pillar related goodies if cultivators brought him the bounty he was after. Those who were new to working for Ignizz assumed it was because dragons, and anything related to them, were rare and beneficial to cultivators. Those who knew of Ignizz' real desires understood it was just because he was a dragon fanatic and that he wanted to collect anything related to them because, in some cases, it literally helped him sleep at night. There were plenty of rumours about him cozying himself up on top of his bed made of dragon scales, with a cover made of dragon leather, at night. Even his nightcap had cute little dragon horns coming out of it!
"Hear me roar you filthy non-dragon peasants!" Ignizz bellowed in the deepest voice he could muster before spitting fire out of his mouth towards the sky and doing his best dragon impression. It was surprisingly good, actually, but that in and of itself was quite sad because it raised questions about how much he practiced roaring in front of a mirror in his spare time... The answer was probably a lot... Regardless, the wisps all took a bow and worshipped the false dragon while Terros merely emerged from the earth as a floating rocky eyeball and watched the proceedings with disdain. He wasn't the type to bully Ignizz, his existence was tragic enough such that he basically bullied himself, but he couldn't help but feel immense disappointment in this lizard every time he saw whatever it was he was up to. Sure his Godly presence was muted now but... In its full splendour it was captivating, really. You wouldn't think it but Ignizz could be very impressive... Which is whythis prancing around and general idiocy was bothersome! Terros couldn't help but think it was such a waste of an impressive being to reduce themself to this...
Ignizz' performance carried on for some time, during which he constantly professed himself to be a mighty and resplendent dragon multiple times over as if trying to convince himself more than his own audience, until he eventually spotted Terros and froze on the spot... This was the other problem with Ignizz, he didn't 'own it'. Sure he was quirky but maybe if he took pride in that at least then maybe some people would respect him for being honest about his desires... But no. The saddest truth of them all was that he tried to hide his depressing desperation and clinginess to becoming a dragon and failed miserably each and every time. Terros catching Ignizz in the act like this was actually a common occurrence. Well not always Terros himself specifically as, at this point, there were only maybe a handful of Gods that hadn't yet seen Ignizz acting like this. Even then it was only because those Gods had never even met Ignizz that they could even claim to have not seen this side of him. Basically everyone's first meeting with this silly salamander was watching him embarrass himself openly an then get awkward about it when he realised he was caught. If someone like Tom Tom was born under a lucky star hen Ignizz was born under a tremendously unlucky star instead 100%. All he wanted to do was act like a dragon in the privacy of his own abode and domain and, yet, somehow, some way, he was always caught doing it with his proverbial pants down.
"You... You..." Ignizz stammered a bit but coughed to himself and snorted. "... You just arrived right this very instant? You should have informed of your visit in advance, Terros! No need to drop in unannounced like this!" Ignizz was puffing himself up and pretending Terros hadn't seen anything and, generally speaking, it was well known by the Gods that going along with this pretence was the quickest way to move the conversation on. Ignizz didn't have to keep stammering and sputtering to defend himself like a unfaithful wife caught in the act and the person talking to him didn't have to stare at him was accusatory eyes until he relented. That entire process was skipped nowadays for convenience's sake because, though they had a lot of spare time on their hands, it wasn't often someone talked to Ignizz if they weren't in a hurry and / or didn't need something from him... Poor guy, he was used like a tool... Though it was still mostly his own fault! How could somebody who wants privacy and sleep all the time, and never anything else, make friends anyway?! If he wasn't asleep he was pretending to be a dragon; that was basically his entire life and there wasn't room for anything else other than maybe, occasionally, fireworks displays and attending meetings he was forced to.
"You know as well as I do, Ignizz, nobody is ever going to bother informing you in advance of their arrival. If anybody where to try you would either be asleep, and so it would be pointless, or you would be awake only to then be asleep when the agreed upon meeting date came about later. You sleep so often its's basically impossible to get a word in with you if we aren't a bit more forceful in our approach the few times you happen to actually be awake. Please understand the hassle you are... I mean put us through..." It was quite common for even the most patient of deities to insult Ignizz even if only accidentally during their meetings with him. He was so unimpressive and aggressively wimpy that insults naturally flowed through the mouths of those who talked to him. It was truly rare to come across someone this hopeless...
"You could just not disturb me when I'm sleeping..." Ignizz sounded like he wanted to cry a little but Terros felt no empathy and sighed in response, an action which shook the entire domain because he forgot to hold back.
"You sleep more than enough. So much so, in fact, that it's caused problems againand someone needs to clean up after you. I'm here precisely because You. Won't. Stop. Sleeping. And your little lizard clone with Ares has yet to wake up an do its job!"
"Ares?... Oh... Hahaha, yeah... Ares... That one woman? Yeah I know the one... I'll get right on it..."
"... Ares is a woman now? I don't recall such a thing and I doubt he does either! Just admit you've forgotten who he is already instead of trying to pretend you remember you damn piece of salamander s..." Terros took another sigh to interrupt his tirade and help compose himself because dealing with Ignizz could be a real challenge sometimes. It was better to put up with someone like Ares because at least the conversation followed a logical process even if the end result was insults or being toyed with. With Ares, the conversation had meaning and actually got somewhere... Ignizz was just a damnable fool who had to be coaxed into admitting he was lazy before the consequences so his laziness could even be discussed properly! "How is it possible you've alreadyforgotten about your duty?! The clone! For the fundamental champion! Of destruction! ARES!"
"Hmmm." Ignizz appeared to be really thinking hard on the matter. His front leg was raised to his chin, his eyes were closed, and his head tilted slightly downwards as he frowned in contemplation. It looked like he was giving himself a headache by straining his brain and Terros honestly wouldn't have been surprised; it wasn't uncommon to pull muscles when they hadn't been used in a while! "Oh yeah! Wait a minute, I remember now! After I made ha clone, and sent it down to Sheryashka, I felt a bit sleepy and took a nap. Making clones is kinda draining, 'cos I'm no good at it, and getting it through that barrier wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world either you know? I think I deserved some rest after all that hard work!"
"Nobody cares! Why would I be chasing you up over your own personal naptime?! I would never get any rest if that were my goal! I'm complaining because your clone is also asleep and has been this entire time!" Terros could have sworn he heard Ignizz mutter 'lucky bastard' under his breath but, for the sake of his own sanity, decided to ignore that. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused your fundamental champion?! He had to find out about Xhilihx and the end of the world through ASTRAEUS! A God that isn't even in this dimension! Plus he was a slave his entire younger life which is a slap in the face and an insult to the fundamental champions' prestige! It's disgraceful someone of his status and pedigree went through what he did, all because you weren't there!"
"... But he's alive still though, right?" Ignizz looked humbled, like a kid who got scolded by his teacher for not handing in his homework on time, and so he was trying to weasel his way out of it because he roughly understood the significance of his fuck up.
"No thanks to you! Luckily he's a revenant otherwise he would have already been dead! He died day one; born and murdered! I've roughly gathered information about what happened to him, through my own fundamental champion, and I'm certain it could have all been avoided if you weren't messing around! You were told this was a serious matter and you've flunked out on your responsibilities for far too long. Mistakes have been made but continuing to make them is unacceptable so wake up your damn clone already before I punish you!" Terros was on the verge of yelling which was a rare sight. Even someone as arrogant and occasionally insufferable as Mako had never driven him this far. Ignizz was objectively not even more intolerable than Mako, his entire character was simply extremely easy to get annoyed with for some inexplicable reason. It's as though there was a plague-ish air around him that intoxicated those next to him with anger and resentment for his very being. "Seriously, I'm warning you Ignizz! If you don't get your act together I will confiscate some of your dragon toys! I hear you recently got your hands on some kind of dragon tooth spear, right? How about I take it from you until you do your job to an acceptable level?!"
"Noooooooooooooooo! Not the spear! Please anything but the spear! It's too cool to have taken away from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Ignizz was bawling sizzling tears because he really loved that new spear. He played with it every day and it had been a major part of his performances as of late, he was even going to use it in today's act if he hadn't been interrupted. It could cover the user in draconic armor and was as close as Ignizz could get to becoming a real dragon without having to play around in simulations that he knew were fake. It had rapidly become his most prized possession so this was going too far! "OK OK! Calm down! No need to drive such a hard bargain I'll wake up the clone!"
"Good! Besides, Ares had some draconic lineage himself..." Terros knew that Ignizz couldn't be trusted completely as there was a chance he'd run away and hide his spear somewhere safe the second Terros turned his back. from there, risk free, Ignizz would keep putting off his job until he eventually dozed off and Terros was forced to return to chew him out again. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened so he was taking a different approach this time to tackling Ignizz procrastination an luring him over to Ares with the only thing he'd fall for. Dragons! Plus it wasn't even untrue, Ares was an incredible species of revenant and had a dragon crossbreeding mutation. Ares was by far and away the most unique dragon out there so Ignizz would fall over himself to go see it first hand. Terrros could tell this measure was successful because Ignizz showed a rare excitement in his eyes that was reserved strictly for all things dragon. All he had to do was keep hinting at how incredible Ares was and he'd actively make an effort to get his clone up an running to see it personally. "I've truly never seen anything like it. He's one of a kind and I imagine the ultimate draconic life form."
"You... You're not lying to me are you?!" Ignizz' tail had turned into a sparkler and his mood had done a one eighty, becoming cheery as can be as he landed on the floor and clambered over to Terros' eye. He came face to face with the rocky eyeball balboa and was oozing expectation. "Please tell me you aren't jsut saying this to get me to work! I swear I'll do everything you want me to if this isn't a lie!"
Terros' eye shook side to side. "It's all true and you can verify it yourself by collecting publicly available information. Rather, the dragons have gotten up in arms about it lately and trying to officially disavow him as a dragon but nobody is buying it. The common consensus is that Ares is a calibre above even real dragons so their feathers have been quite ruffled recently."
"Calibre... Above?..." Ignizz could barely speak properly as his breathing had become almost perverted. "I'll do it! I will contact the clone immediately! It might take a few days for him to wake up but I'll make sure it's done by the end of the week!" Part of Ignizz' excitement lay in the fact that becoming a dragon was actually not impossible, just extremely hard. There were various myths and rumours about how to do it but a few things were pretty much certain: the dragon in question had to be of a pure bloodline, actually willing to help an inferior creature which was incredibly rare in and of itself, and had to be stronger than the individual they were helping. Ares was a pure blooded dragon, he might feel like repaying Ignizz for his aid during his formative years if he hurried up and got to work now, and Ares would one day be stronger than Ignizz as a fundamental pillar God! It all checked out! Ding ding ding! Alarm bells were ringing in Ignizz' brain and so he skedaddle away deeper into his Lair. Terros, feeling incredibly tired as a result of dealing with this lizard, simply shook his head and left as his job was done here now... Though he did have a small smile on his golem face because, in a way, it was kind of charming that Ignizz might one day actually become a dragon. After all this time, and all his searching, maybe he'd really get his wish? How quaint, dreams sometimes do come true.