Warlock of War: My Ares System

“You know I can hear your thoughts, right?” 

“Tch… alright, whatever. Tell me, and then we can finally talk about where the hell this place is and how I can even get back to the underworld.” 

“Of course, and to start off, how about the head wings? Those are obviously the head wings of Hermes, the god who sends messages across the universe. Your speed will increase greatly, but if I had to recommend something, it would be not to pick this one. I have no doubt that you’re talented, but the jump in speed would be so hard to control it would take you another century to even try to use it for a split second. I mean, at the least, they look cool. They replace your ears, and it looks… well, pretty badass. From the god killers I’ve seen before, the ones with this are normally the strongest ones, but also the ones who die first. Normally, by their own lack of control of this speed.” 

“Hmmm… Okay, and the next? The string muscles? What does that even mean?” 

“This is probably the most painful process because your muscles will be ripped to shreds. To long strings that continue all the way throughout your body. Every single muscle would essentially be connected to every other muscle, meaning it’s very hard to control, but just not as hard as the head-wings. These allow for incredible strength, push and pull. And paired with a good weapon, you could split mountains with ease. And due to every single muscle basically being one, your explosiveness is out of this world.” 

“Would you recommend these, then? We haven’t discussed the last enchantment, but this seems hella good. Are there any downsides besides making it a bit harder to control my strength?” 

“There could be if your control is horrible. Your muscles could completely explode out of your skin and ripple across… well, where you currently are. If that happens, even I can’t help you. You’ll need to help yourself or just sit there. Forever. Until the end of time because you’re a demi-god.”  𝑶𝚟𝓵xt.𝐂𝑶𝓜

“That feels like something I should have known before,” I deadpanned before scrolling all the way down to the final god-killing enchantment: [Life Manipulation of The Great Sage].

Every single one of these enchantments had explanations and such, just like the demonic enchantments, but I just ignored them since the god beside me held more intel. I should have probably asked him before picking my demonic enchantment previously, but I guess he wasn’t even around to help. 

Despite the demonic enchantments holding a skill package, these god-killing enchantments only came with what they advertised. I guess that means they’re overpowered enough in their own right, making anything else stacked on just unfair.

“Life Manipulation is something people rarely pick. It’s mostly used for magic specialists like yourself, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend you pick it. As by selecting this option, you will be the enemy of all demons as soon as they find out. And that is something awful for you since, obviously, you’re in hell, but you’re also constantly under the surveillance of a demon lord.” 

“W-Wait, even now? He’s watching in on this?” 

“No,” The god chuckled, pushing a few cats from off his face, allowing him to look straight at me. “The simulation you were in was something out of his jurisdiction, and of course, he can’t see into my own domain: The Timeless Palace.” 

“I-I see… so what does he see now, then?” 

“He should only be able to see you where you first entered the simulation. The passage of time is completely different in the simulation compared to hell. I mean, especially hell since the time dilation is something equivalent to… every hundred or thousand years… mmmm, well… nah, I can’t really remember. Still, a certain amount of time is equivalent to a year on the overworld. Something like that.” 

“Okay, that’s enough time. I don’t care about time right now. Just tell me what Life Manipulation does,” I quickly diverted the subject despite me being the one directing the subject in that direction. It was a bit rude, but I wanted to finish this up so I could proceed with my life. 

“*sigh*… so, Life Manipulation is how it sounds. You can manipulate the life of somebody. The power varies depending on how much of a gap there is between your magic stat and somebody else’s. But, this wouldn’t be much of a god killer if your magic stat was low, so the skill makes up for that by increasing it… just like the other skills. Did I mention that?” 

“I just inferred you meant that. Anyways, can you please be more specific about manipulating somebody’s life? Like their life span or something?” 

“No, an essence. Have you ever heard of the saying experience points are the lifeblood of the world? Of the universe?” The time god asked, and as my eyes widened and I swallowed a drop of saliva to moisten my throat, it felt as if time had stopped around me. Everything was moving in slow motion as the realization of just how overpowered this skill was flooded into me. But, that also ignited the idea of just how powerful the other skills were.

The time god didn’t make it seem that impressive, but now in comparison to this skill… I could hardly keep my excitement together. I kept switching back and forth between which skill would be the best for me, but first stopped myself. I needed to know if there was anything more to this overpowered skill. 

Every other one had a destructive downside, so why can’t this one have one? 

“Any downsides?” I asked, causing the man to smile viciously as he embraced a new collection of cats. And as they swirled around him, almost dancing like fairies in the wind, he split open those sly lips of his. 

“There is a guaranteed downside which shoos everybody away from it. Your mana heart and mana veins and everything in your body that regulates, controls, and uses mana will explode out of your body. Think of a supernova. And now think of that energy being mana. That is what will explode from your body.”