Chapter 12 - Key Of Insanity

As Ares was deep in his thoughts, the Ruler started talking. "As I said, when Mystic asked me to help you, I agreed. Your wounds weren't hard to heal. After I finished healing you, I was going to banish you to earth, but since you betrayed us, I thought of something more fun." 

Ares looked at the Ruler, concerned. ( What did he do? ) 

The Ruler seemed amused as he continued, "What I wanted to do, required The Key Of Insanity." 

"What!!"

Ares was shocked, and rightfully so.

The Key Of Insanity is a magical item. It can take away a large portion of magical energy from a person. It can also take away from a group of people if they are all within The Key Of Insanity when it activates. They're rare, and only five have ever been discovered. Nobody knows where they came from or who made it.

Ares started thinking about all of them and immediately put the pieces. 

( He stole my power... )

As Ares realized this, anger filled his blood. He then tried to get up off the floor.

The Ruler saw that and thought it was a foolish effort. "You should give up before it's too late. The more you struggle, the more pain you'll have to go through." 

Ares didn't listen to what The Ruler was saying and continued trying to get up. 

The Ruler didn't believe Ares could stand up. "I thought you put the pieces together already. Even at full power, you could bȧrėly resist my magical pressure. What makes you think it'll be any different now." 

"Grrh." Ares continued to struggle, but he didn't give up.

"GRHHH." ( Fight the pain. )

Ares was slowly but surely getting up from the floor. 

The Ruler was quite surprised by this. ( How is he resisting my magical energy? ) 

Using all the power he could, Ares was now standing up. 

Although he was wobbling, The Ruler was shocked he was able to stand. But it also impressed him. "I should've expected something like this from the God Of War. But what was the point of that? I hope you don't think you can fight me in that state." 

"Where..is it?" At this point, the ground started to crack from the pressure.

The Ruler looked at the Ares with confusion.

"What are you talking about?" 

"Where is The Key Of Insanity?"  Ares was starting to look pale from resisting the pressure. 

"HAha." The Ruler laughed for a moment before reaching for something behind his throne.

"I had a feeling you would ask for The Key, so here." Then The Ruler tossed a small object on the ground.

Ares looked over at the area he threw the small object. He looked back at The Ruler and asked a question.

"What..is..that?" 

The Ruler looked over at Ares and casually said. " It's The Key Of Insanity."

( ...There's no way he'd just give it to me. ) Ares wasn't convinced that The Ruler would just give him something so valuable, even if he did ask for it. 

Ares wanted to go over and check it out, but when he took one step, he collapsed on the ground. Ares couldn't withstand The Ruler's magical energy.

( Damn it. I shouldn't have done that. Now I can't move. ) 

The Ruler saw this and started clapping. 

*Clap* 

"I'm surprised you were able to hold out for so long. Let me stop that for you." 

As soon as he said that, Ares felt the pressure ease up.

Ares tried to move and noticed that there wasn't any more pressure holding him down. Ares was relieved that he could move again without feeling pain.  

( I can finally move normally again...I feel sore all over. ) 

Before getting up, Ares laid down for a minute, recovering from his soreness. 

Eventually, Ares got up and walked over to the small object.  

Ares picked the object up and examined it. ( I've never seen a Key Of Insanity before. I wouldn't be able to tell if he was lying or not. )

After examining the conjectured Key Of Insanity, Ares asked The Ruler a question. 

"How am I supposed to activate this? I heard rumors that say you only have to touch it, but if this is The Key Of Insanity, then I guess they weren't true...Unless you lied to me."

"You really think I would go so low and lie to you?" 

"Yes, I do. But besides that, you haven't answered my question yet."

"Well...you could believe me, or not. What I gave you is the actual Key Of Insanity, but it's only one piece of the original Key Of Insanity."

"..."

"..."

Ares was confused. "What do you mean, it's only one piece?"

The Ruler was silent for a moment as if he didn't know how he should answer. "When I used the Key Of Insanity on you, I then banished you to earth moving around erratically, and I couldn't do anything about it. I was trying to get control of the Key, but I couldn't get hold of it. I didn't understand what was happening." 

Ares wanted to interject but didn't know what to say, so he stayed quiet and listened. Curious about what the Ruler was going to say.

"After a while, I was starting to consider asking for help. But then, all of a sudden, the Key Of Insanity completely stopped moving. When I used the Key Of Insanity on you, it was the first time I've used one, so I ȧssumed everything that happened was normal...but then another problem arose."

Ares was curious but didn't know if should trust what The Ruler was saying.

"I started seeing cracks in the Key Of Insanity and it began acting erratically again...and you may not believe me, but the Key Of Insanity...broke the ceiling of the palace and created a huge dark cloud full of magical energy."

"..."

"..."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Ares burst into laughter. 

"Hahaha, you're right.. you really expect me to believe the Key Of Insanity formed a dark cloud made of magical energy. Yeah right