Ares, The God of War

“Oh, oh, oh, that sounds amazing.” Ares exclaimed, “Since that’s the case, do I have some awesome ability?”

“Hmm, there are pros and cons.” Hecate raised an eyebrow and pondered for a moment, then replied, “The good thing is that when you practice those magic spells with side effects in the future, the side effects will no longer affect you.”

“What about the cons?”

“The downside is that no matter what magic you learn, you won’t be able to enjoy the benefits that come from attribute compatibility,” Hecate continued.

Ares rubbed his head, thought for a moment, and then exclaimed, “So, what this means is that I’m an outsider, I don’t get local benefits, and I’m not subject to local jurisdiction?”

Hecate nodded, “That’s pretty much what it means.”

“So what am I good for?” Ares pointed at the blue cube and asked, “Could it be that as an unregistered individual, I can break through that seemingly incredibly powerful barrier and just go straight in?”

“Of course not.” Hecate smiled slightly, put her hands on her hips proudly, and said, “But your teacher once developed a very, very powerful magic that only men like you, who have no origin, can use. Come closer, I will teach you that magic now!”

…

A moment later, within the imaginary space, Hecate looked with satisfaction at an amorphous energy block floating before her.

She praised, “Not bad, not bad, as expected of you. A Main God learns magic quickly.”

The amorphous energy block rippled slightly, and then Ares’s voice emerged from it, “Teacher, is this what you call a very, very powerful magic? Turning myself into a mass of… magical power?”

“Not magical power, it’s an Aether block.” Hecate wagged her finger to correct him, “This is a type of hypothetical attribute. It should have been converted into one of the four attributes: earth, wind, water, and fire, but the peculiarity of your origin allows you to cast this magic, allowing you to maintain the form of Aether. Hmm, it seems my conjecture was indeed correct; only someone without an origin like you can…”

“Hmm? Conjecture?” Ares asked suspiciously, “Teacher, you’re not experimenting on me, are you?”

“Cough, cough, you’re overthinking it. No matter what, I, Hecate, would never experiment on my cute disciple, alright?” Hecate coughed twice, waving her hands repeatedly to cover up, “Besides, this magic of yours is just the beginning. There’s a whole string of subsequent ideas that I once imagined but couldn’t complete. If you complete them, you might be able to create a very powerful magic.”

After placating Ares, Hecate waved her hand and said,

“Alright, go try it now. If you maintain this Aether form, that thing’s defense mechanism should not classify you as a sentient individual, and the defense mechanism will no longer block you.”

“Then I’ll give it a try.” Ares hesitated for a moment, then struggled to split his Aether-transformed body in half.

“…” Seeing this, Hecate couldn’t help but retort, “Is it really necessary? I definitely confirmed that this device had no offensive capabilities before letting you in.”

“Of course it is. Better safe than sorry. When facing the unknown, I must protect myself, and the same goes for you, Teacher.”

Ares replied while painstakingly controlling his current “body” as he floated towards the blue cube.

His spirit entered the physical interior of this cube, and then he looked up and saw the infinitely distant barrier that Hecate had spoken of. Ares controlled his body, floated in front of this barrier, and carefully separated a portion of the Aether that his body had transformed into, slowly approaching the barrier.

Unexpectedly, this barrier truly ignored Ares completely, just as Hecate had said, allowing his portion of Aether to float inside. The device seemed to regard him as a mass of energy that could be recycled and utilized.

However, once inside, this part of him lost contact with the outside world. It seemed that the concept of “infinite distance” also caused his mental signals to decay.

Since there was still a part of “himself” outside, he wouldn’t truly die. Ares continued to go deeper. After crossing this barrier, he “found” himself in a pure white space, and at the center of this space was a small blue light, wrapped in a faint membrane of light.

Although that light membrane looked fragile, in reality, it should be the so-called “Eight-Dimensional Spiritual Particle Barrier” that Hecate was utterly helpless against.

Ares continued to control his Aether-state body, came before this halo, and then carefully extended his “hand” towards it.

He, in his Aether state, encountered no obstruction. In fact, a suction force emanated from within the halo, pulling him in abruptly.

…

Hecate, waiting outside, began to extend her spiritual sense to carefully observe the movements of Ares’s portion after seeing him enter.

Although she was the one who let Ares in, she didn’t fully intend to exploit Ares. After all, Ares was her magic disciple, and furthermore, Ares, who only wanted to live a peaceful life, was quite likable to her, given her own laid-back personality.

However, after Ares’s Aether block crossed that conceptual barrier of infinite distance, Hecate’s spiritual sense could no longer penetrate. She waited for a while, then began to grow anxious outside, but since a part of Ares remained outside, she had to maintain her teacher’s dignity in front of him, so she could only turn her back to him, feigning calmness.

“Could he really have been eaten?” The Moon Goddess, with her hands clasped behind her back, looked at the cube in the sky and muttered to herself in a low voice.

However, just as she became impatient and wanted to try forcibly breaking through that conceptual barrier of infinite distance to see what was happening inside, she heard a soft “hum” sound in her ear.

Subsequently, a dispassionate voice spoke in the language of the Greek Pantheon:

“Command confirmed, object to be parsed detected, commencing parsing.”

“Object parsing in progress, please wait.”

Accompanying this voice, Hecate saw lines of light slowly descending from the blue cube, beginning to scan the starship cube.

“Did it succeed?” Seeing this, Hecate breathed a slight sigh of relief.

At this moment, the portion of Aether that Ares had transformed into also floated out of the cube. The two Aether blocks merged into one, and then slowly transformed back into the War God’s original form. Seeing him emerge, Hecate quickly composed her expression, feigned confidence, and nodded to Ares, “How was it? Disciple, I didn’t lie to you, did I?”

“It was alright.” Ares nodded distractedly, not paying attention to Hecate’s current appearance.

Through the mental reintegration, he also had the memories of what had just happened. When he, transformed into Aether, was sucked into the core of that cube, he hadn’t had time to change back and contact the core as a sentient being to obtain the device’s operational permission. Then, he saw that within the Aether block that his body had transformed into, the black crystal suddenly jumped out on its own. This thing spontaneously reverted from the Aether’s material state to its solid form, and then Ares didn’t know what operation it performed there, but anyway, this thing hacked into the cube’s core, helping him obtain the highest operational permission for this cube.

And after obtaining the highest operational permission for this cube, Ares also understood its true identity: it was a similar alien observation device to the “mooncell,” the main stage where the “Holy Grail War” took place in a parallel world.

Ares didn’t know if this thing was placed in Tartarus in his current parallel world, or if there was another one on the Moon in this world. In any case, Ares had now become the highest authorized user of this device.

However, this thing is not as versatile as the machine that constructed the Holy Grail War. That machine was built to observe Earth and human history, evolving to that extent after many years of development. But in the current era, human civilization has just begun, and this machine only retains some observation records from the First and Second Divine Ages.

But it was originally a device of the same level as the yusei Ark, and it was more than enough to parse a damaged core of a starship.

“How long will this thing take to parse?” Hecate asked, watching the light rays continuously scanning the core.

“I don’t know, but it definitely won’t be something t

“Teacher, where are we going?”

Inside the bottomless tunnel, Ares followed the petite Hecate, treading carefully.

After Ares agreed to Hecate's terms, the Moon Goddess, without resting for a moment, immediately opened a portal and brought him to the stone temple within Tartarus.

Ares had been to this stone temple before. It contained only a statue of Hecate that she had sculpted herself to mislead others. In reality, the temple was her secret laboratory. Last time, Ares had also tested the black crystal, which called itself the “Multiverse Intelligent Navigation System,” there.

However, what Ares didn't know was that there was another secret beneath this stone temple. After they arrived at the stone temple, Hecate cast a spell on her statue, and then, beneath the statue, the entrance to the tunnel they were currently in appeared.

In this era, the Underworld and Hell are physically connected to the earth. The most typical example is Sumer; one only needs to dig a hole in the ground to fall into the Underworld. The Greek Pantheon is no different.

However, unlike the earliest and simplest Sumer, Hades in greek mythology is a bit more restrained. He obscured the Underworld, preventing the possibility of entering it by simply digging a deep pit from the surface. Nevertheless, some caves in Greece that lead underground can still directly reach the River Styx.

And further down from the Underworld is the bottomless Tartarus. Theoretically, this should be the lowest level of the small world partitioned by the restraining force for the Greek Pantheon. However, Ares and Hecate are currently at the bottom of Tartarus. The tunnel before them is bottomless, and it is unknown where it leads. The darkness within the tunnel is also peculiar; it can even obscure Ares's divine eyes after he cultivated Magnetic Field Rotation.

After Ares asked this question, Hecate did not answer, only telling him to keep following her.

The teacher and student continued downward for an unknown duration until a massive magic reaction finally appeared in Ares's perception. At that instant, the darkness before him vanished without a trace. He and Hecate had, at some point, arrived in an imaginary space.

The world stretched endlessly, with only countless straight blue lines extending to the horizon. Those were the spirit particles pulsating within this imaginary space. In front of Ares and Hecate was a massive blue cube, roughly a thousand meters in length, width, and height.

Those blue spirit particle lines extended from within this cube, spreading throughout the entire imaginary space. The broken core he had retrieved from the Starship was also there, lying directly beneath this large blue cube.

“I call this thing Tartarus,” Hecate told Ares. “During the Titan War, to avoid the conflict, I secretly used magic to sneak into the then-empty Tartarus. I found this thing in the deepest part of Tartarus’s darkness. Instinctively, I felt it was very important, so I hid it in the depths of Tartarus using imaginary space. To this day, I am probably the only god in the entire world who knows about this thing.”

After speaking, she even reached out and patted Ares's arm: “Disciple, don’t sell me out. If Zeus really knew I was hiding something like this, he might just eat me directly, like Metis.”

“If I sell you out, you’ll definitely sell me out too. Then we might both end up being sliced up by Zeus as a teacher and student meal,” Ares quipped, then looked at the blue cube and asked, “Teacher, what is this thing?”

“It is the core of Tartarus, or rather, it is Tartarus,” Hecate smiled. “Of course, just like the conceptual gods like ‘Uranus,’ ‘Chaos,’ and ‘Gaia,’ Tartarus is not something from our Greek Pantheon at all. I suspect it might be an observation device left behind by some advanced life form that once visited Earth in ancient times. I don’t have authorization for this thing, but after continuous research over the years, I have figured out some of its simple uses.”

“You want to use it to analyze that Starship cube, don't you?” Ares understood.

“Yes, I see they are both cubes, so they might be from the same origin. But analysis is possible, the problem is…” Hecate frowned, a troubled expression on her beautiful face. “I don’t have its authorization. I can only pile on magic to try and hack into its deepest core to gain its permission, but I failed. My power is not enough.”

“You can't get in, and you expect me to?” Ares thought for a moment. “Oh, or rather, you brought me here to use me as a power bank, to replenish your magic when you run low?”

“Neither,” Hecate shook her head. “After the last attempt, I realized that the core of this thing is not something we can enter right now. That light-year barrier, without analyzing its technology, is an infinite distance that cannot be broken through even after countless centuries. Moreover, there is an even sturdier eight-dimensional spirit particle barrier inside. Wasting more magic on it is meaningless.”

“Then why did you bring me here?” Ares asked. “I can't help you with this thing.”

“I just wanted you to try. Perhaps you don't even know it yourself, but shortly after you began your training, I helped you determine your ‘Origin’.”

Hecate said:

“Your Origin is extremely special, which is why I suggested you try. It might have an unexpected effect.”

“I see,” Ares suddenly understood. Although this setting seemed to have been discarded by the author of the previous world, according to previous works, Magic user families would determine the Origin of their offspring at birth. A person's Origin fundamentally determined the properties of their magic. For example, Matou Sakura's “Imaginary” allowed her to manipulate imaginary magic, and Shirou's “Sword” made him more adept at using projection magic to create swords.

Ares had been training for a long time, yet Hecate had never mentioned his Origin.

He had previously thought that divine-era magic didn't require understanding such things as Origins, as awakening one's Origin was also a bad thing. Although it could grant greater power, the personality would mostly be swallowed by the Origin. Someone like Shirou, he thought, would probably become a form where he “couldn't live without selling swords.”

But he didn't expect Hecate to suddenly bring it up today, saying it was because his Origin was too special.

Hearing Hecate's words, Ares still felt a little anticipation. After all, in his opinion, Origins like “Sword” and “Imaginary” were already powerful enough, but in Hecate's eyes, such Origins were probably only considered acceptable. He just didn't know what his Origin truly was.

So he decisively asked, “Teacher, what is my Origin?”

“You have no Origin,” Hecate replied. “Unlike the Origin of ‘Void,’ your Origin is directly nothingness, it is non-existence. It's as if you weren't born in this universe at all.”

Ares had already started planning to exploit Hermes the moment he learned he was going to meet him with Apollo.

Unlike opinionated gods such as Apollo and Artemis, this kid had firmly stood on Zeus's side from the very beginning. He was untrustworthy and unapproachable, and later he even served as Zeus's eyes and ears. For someone with many secrets like Ares, the weaker Hermes was, the better.

Actually, Ares had originally wanted to snatch Hermes's winged sandals, which he relied on for survival. Without those shoes, Hermes would be useless as a god. However, Zeus would never stand by and watch one of his sons take away another son's divine artifact. What he wanted was a balance among his children; if they mutually restrained each other, no one could threaten him. But if one son became too strong, that would be problematic.

However, snatching Hermes's Caduceus was still a pure gain for Ares. He remembered that this staff had the ability to induce sleep. Although it couldn't make Zeus, the King of Gods, fall into a deep slumber like Hypnos, the God of Sleep in greek mythology, this staff at least possessed the power to put Argos, the hundred-eyed giant, to sleep.

With this Caduceus, Ares gained a lot more room for maneuver in his future plans.

Apollo, who had also come to demand an explanation, also obtained a new musical instrument from Hermes. Evidently, this instrument, named the “lyre,” captivated Apollo, the God of Music. He even disregarded Ares's dissuasion and insisted on giving his brother two divine cattle, a male and a female.

Both Ares and Apollo were very satisfied with their gains from this trip. After returning from Argos, Apollo immediately took the lyre and went to study accompanying musical scores with his subordinate gods, the Muses.

Meanwhile, Ares created a burrowing marmot familiar, which carried Hermes's Caduceus all the way to Hecate's Tree Palace and handed the staff to her.

After carefully storing his “trophies” from this expedition, Ares threw his clone back onto the divine throne in the God of War Palace on Olympus, then continued to advance his plans by training those humans.

Several days later, one afternoon, as Ares's main body sat in the garden in front of Hecate's Tree Palace, deep in thought about a magical problem he had created for himself, a teleportation portal suddenly appeared. Then, a weary-looking Hecate slowly emerged from within it.

When she first stepped out of the portal, she was a tall, perfectly proportioned, beautiful woman with waist-length purple hair. After taking only two steps, she seemed to deflate, reverting back into the form of a small girl.

Seeing Hecate's sudden return, Ares blinked, then abruptly stood up and walked towards her.

“Teacher, you're back,” he said, pulling a smile, and asked Hecate, “Have you figured out what that giant magic cube is?”

“Not yet, my power alone isn't enough.” Hecate yawned and shook her head, “Let me recover first, then we can talk.”

“Oh.” Ares nodded. At this moment, Hecate peered towards the back of her Tree Palace, asking as she looked, “Where's my dog? Has he been eating well these past few days I was gone? Has he not torn anything of mine apart?”

She wanted to go to the doghouse in the back to check on Cerberus, but Ares subtly took a step across, using his height advantage to block Hecate's line of sight.

“Teacher, don't worry, that ungrateful dog has been eating and sleeping well these past few days, living a very healthy life.” He forced a smile, showing concern for Hecate, “You look very tired. You should rest quickly. Come, come, let me help you make your bed and cover you with a blanket, okay?”

With that, Ares pushed Hecate's back, trying to guide her into the Tree Palace, but the Moon Goddess forcefully stopped. She turned to look at Ares and asked,

“What's wrong with you? Did you do something in my house while I was away? You never show me such a disgusting smile normally.”

“W-what could I have done?” Ares said, shuffling his feet, glancing at the sky, and whistling.

“You definitely did something!” Hecate then turned and walked towards the backyard. “Move aside, let me go check back there!”

“Ah, wait a moment, Teacher.” Ares spread his arms, trying to stop Hecate. However, as he reached to embrace Hecate's waist, Hecate in front of him suddenly turned into an illusion, scattering like purple butterflies. Behind him, the Moon Goddess's figure had silently appeared without him noticing, and she was walking towards the backyard.

“Ah, never mind, it's not like I could really hide it from her anyway,” Ares thought to himself, looking at the purple butterflies filling the sky. “I still have a long way to go on the path of magic.”

Seeing him squatting in place as if giving up resistance, Hecate looked at him suspiciously, then went to the backyard and immediately saw the sight that made her gasp.

In the goddess's backyard, there were two groups of people. One group consisted entirely of robust men, each one of them. They were shirtless, practicing various martial arts under the command of an Ares clone, sweating profusely. Their sweat flowed over their glistening muscles, even reflecting the sunlight. From time to time, one-on-one wrestling and boxing training would break out among these strong men, with occasional sounds of flesh colliding and the excited panting of the men.

The other group wore black robes that covered their entire bodies, even obscuring their faces. They sat together in a circle around an Ares clone, who was also wearing a hooded robe. The group was muttering something in low voices. Although Hecate could tell from the occasional words they spoke that they were discussing magic, no matter how she looked at them, this group did not seem like good people.

The Moon Goddess silently observed the two groups, then glanced at her demonic hound, which was curled up in its doghouse, intimidated by the War God's might. Her blood pressure instantly shot up, reaching a certain threshold.

“A—res! Get over here!”

…

A moment later, inside the Tree Palace, Hecate sat barefoot on her hammock, legs crossed, arms folded, and chin raised, still looking somewhat angry at Ares.

And the War God, who was always arrogant and confrontational even in front of the twelve Olympian gods, now sat obediently cross-legged before the Moon Goddess, bowing his head in apology:

“Teacher, I was wrong.”

“So you do know you were wrong!” Hecate raised her voice, shaking her foot somewhat indignantly, and continued, “I am a goddess, after all. You brought so many humans here, to live on my territory, and they're all men! If you had to bring people, you should at least bring some women, right? What would Aunt Leto, Apollo, and Artemis think of me if they came here?”

Ares lowered his head and thought for a moment: “Praise Teacher for your great vitality?”

Slap!

As soon as he finished speaking, Hecate struck him on the head with a magic whip.

“Don't hit me, don't hit me, I know I was wrong.” Although the magic whip couldn't break his defense at all, Ares still had to surrender to Hecate for the sake of those humans. “I really couldn't find anywhere else to settle these people. They won't stay here forever, Teacher. Just let me borrow this precious place for a while, okay?”

“Ha.” Looking at Ares's attitude, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, Hecate sighed deeply. “Fine, ever since I took you as a disciple, my troubles haven't stopped. I knew I shouldn't have let you in… Are those humans outside the ones Prometheus asked you to hide for him?”

“No, he only asked me to help humanity when they faced a crisis of life and death.” Ares replied, “But I thought this way would be more efficient and allow me to gain an advantage in the coming era, so I did it.”

“Hmph, if you want to gain an advantage, that's fine.” Hecate stroked her chin, her eyes darting around, then she raised a finger and said, “You can continue to keep those humans, but you have to do me a favor.”

"Fi-fight?" Hermes asked, his mouth twitching. "Brother, we have no grudges, why would I fight with you?"

"Ah, I'm telling you, I'm not very smart, and I don't understand your twists and turns, but I know Apollo is the God of Prophecy, and if he says you stole his cattle, then it must be true." Ares shook his head. "Besides, we are all Zeus's son. Regardless of whether we have a feud, we can always communicate with our fists."

He grabbed Hermes's shoulder, not allowing the young god to use his speed to escape, then showed Hermes a sinister grin: "Before I came, I heard you invented an interesting sport here in Arcadia, it seems to be called... boxing? I'm very interested in it, why don't we two brothers practice now? If you can beat me, then this whole Apollo business will be over, alright?"

Hermes looked at Ares's strong, chiseled muscles, then at his own arms, thin as kindling, and quickly shook his head.

"Hmm? Don't want to fight me? Right, it would be too much bullying you to fight me." Ares turned his head, exchanged glances with Apollo, then smiled: "Then let the victim, Apollo, fight you. How about that, hmm?"

Hermes looked at Apollo again upon hearing this. The latter happened to brush his golden hair, more beautiful than a woman's, with his hand, revealing strong muscles beneath his sleeve that were as perfectly proportioned as a Greece sculpture. Hermes thought for a moment, then still shook his head desperately.

"Neither this nor that, then what do you want?" Ares grabbed him, then thought for a moment, revealing a look of surprise: "Could it be that you want to take on both of us by yourself?"

"I don't—" Hermes was interrupted by Ares before he could speak. The latter burst out laughing, patting his back as he laughed and said, "Oh, oh, I misjudged you. As expected of Zeus's son, to have such spirit! How about this, if you really want to take on two, then I'll decide for Apollo. Regardless of win or loss, we'll consider this matter settled!"

You want me to die—

Hermes's eyes widened in fright, and the observing Goddess Maia also anxiously rushed forward, pulling Ares's arm and shouting, "God of War, no!"

"Go away, Auntie, do you also want to box with us?" Ares slightly raised his arm and pushed Goddess Maia aside: "I don't hit women."

After pushing the Goddess of Wind and Rain away again, Ares simply pressed both hands on Hermes's shoulders, firmly gripping his body, and leaned down, saying, "Don't make us wait too long, I'm very impatient. If you're not quick about it, I'll lose my temper, and I won't be responsible for what happens then."

After he finished speaking, his fingers tightened, pinching Hermes painfully.

Feeling the creaking sound coming from his shoulders, Hermes quickly pleaded, "I surrender! I surrender!"

"So you admit you stole my cattle?" Apollo looked at him and sneered.

"I just thought it was fun..." Seeing Apollo's clenched fist, Hermes quickly shouted again, "I didn't touch your cattle except for sacrificing two to the gods! They're all safely in the cave where I was born!"

"Hermes." Zeus's voice sounded again. He said, "Quickly return the cattle to Apollo. Don't do this again next time."

After he finished speaking, Apollo, Ares, and Hermes and his mother all felt a powerful will disappear from the place. The King of Gods had already left.

"Little thief, hurry up and take me to get my cattle!" Apollo urged Hermes.

The Goddess of Wind and Rain, Maia, wanted to follow, but she was stopped by Ares. Intimidated by the God of War's fierce might, she dared not continue to follow and could only watch helplessly as her son was taken away by two fierce male gods.

Ultimately, this matter was originally Hermes's own mischief. Even Zeus had stated that Hermes should return the divine cattle, so Maia's further opposition would be useless and would only needlessly incur the displeasure of Ares and Apollo, the two main gods.

Under Hermes's guidance, Ares and Apollo each grabbed one of his arms, directly escorting him to a hidden cave at the foot of Mount Arcadia.

The entrance to this cave was very narrow, only allowing two people to pass side by side, but it was quite spacious inside, with a large open area. The more complex inner caves were even divided into areas such as a living room and bedrooms. Not long ago, when the Goddess of Wind and Rain, Maia, was being pursued everywhere by Hera for having an affair with Zeus, it was in this very cave that she secretly gave birth to Hermes.

Apollo's divine cattle were also here. Seeing his herd, the God of Light released Hermes and walked to the cattle to count them. He found that the number of divine cattle was indeed as Hermes had said: he hadn't touched any of them except for the two sacrificed to the gods.

Hermes himself was a deity, so there was no need to wonder who he sacrificed to. In the entire world, only the King of Gods, Zeus, was worthy of receiving sacrifices from another deity. This was why Zeus had appeared and spoken earlier, intending to make Apollo and Ares give up their revenge on Hermes and his mother, giving him, the old father, some face.

"You've seen the cattle, can I go now?"

Seeing Apollo finish counting the cattle, Hermes struggled slightly, looking eagerly at Ares, and asked.

"No, brother." Ares smiled, "This matter isn't over yet. You stole the cattle, and we'll pretend the sacrifice to the gods didn't happen, but you can't make us come all this way for nothing."

"Exactly." Apollo also walked over, nodding in agreement with Ares's words upon hearing them. "The amount isn't important, but you have to give some compensation, right?"

As they spoke, the two main gods, like two petty thugs, pressed the junior Hermes against the cave wall, holding him so he couldn't leave.

Hermes desperately cried out to his father in his heart, but Zeus completely ignored him. It seemed the King of Gods also approved of Ares's and Apollo's statement.

So, the God of Thieves could only sigh inwardly, then pulled out a tortoise shell from his embrace. This tortoise shell had strings on it, looking like a musical instrument.

"Oh?" Apollo's eyes lit up when he saw it, and he quickly asked, "What is this? A zither?"

"This is a musical instrument I invented, called a lyre. I made it from a tortoise shell and sheep intestines." Hermes looked at the tortoise shell in his hand, somewhat reluctantly, but still silently handed it to Apollo: "Can I offer this as an apology?"

"Yes." Apollo patted his shoulder, then took the lyre made from the tortoise shell and played a few simple notes with great fondness, his face full of joy.

Hermes hadn't even had time to breathe a sigh of relief when Ares's face suddenly appeared in front of him, asking anxiously, "What about mine? What about mine?"

"Uh, Brother, as for yours..." Hermes scratched his head in a bit of a dilemma, whispering, "I don't seem to have anything else on me..."

"How can that be?" Ares pointed to the winged shoes he was wearing on his feet, "I think these shoes of yours are pretty good."

"You can't have these!" Hermes bent down in a bit of fright, protecting his shoes: "These are my lifeblood!"

"Then you still have to show something," Ares said disappointedly.

Hermes thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers: "Then how about this?"

As he spoke, he reached out and suddenly summoned a golden staff. The head of this staff had a pair of wings, and two snakes were coiled around the staff.

"This magic staff was a toy my mother gave me." Hermes reluctantly handed the magic staff to Ares: "It has the magic to make people fall asleep. Do you think this will do?"

Ares snatched it, weighed the snake-coiled staff in his hand, then laughed, "Ha, it feels pretty good. I can use it to hit people later!"

After speaking, he released Hermes's shoulders and patted his head at the same time: "Good, kid, you're quite sensible. When you come to Olympus in the future, I'll look out for you!"

"What?" Upon hearing Apollo's words, Ares immediately switched his focus and said to him, "Someone dares to steal your cattle?"

The cattle of the God of Light, Apollo, were naturally not the kind Epimetheus molded from mud that were now running around on the ground, but rather divine cattle bestowed upon him by Zeus. There were fifty of these cattle in total, and every single one of them was full of treasures.

Apollo himself usually couldn't bear to slaughter these cattle for food. Only during special periods when the gods held large feasts to celebrate something would he occasionally butcher one or two, inviting everyone to taste them, and even then, it depended on whether the god hosting the banquet could earn Apollo's respect.

Even if Zeus wanted one or two of these divine cattle, he would first have to discuss it with his son. At this moment, Ares could only think of one deity in the entire world who would dare to be so audacious.

Indeed, after Ares finished asking, Apollo said with a furious expression, "The scoundrel who stole my cattle is a son born from Zeus's affair. This devil truly has the guts of a bear and the courage of a leopard to dare lay hands on my cattle!"

"Zeus had another affair?" Ares thought for a moment. "Right, Hera has been breaking more things lately. Who is his affair with? A god? Or another race?"

"It's Maia, the goddess of rain and wind," Apollo replied. "I already know where Maia and her son are hiding. Let's go, come with me."

Ares thought for a moment, then stood up and said, "Alright, let's go!"

The son of Maia, the goddess of rain and wind, and Zeus, was Hermes, the future God of Commerce, Travelers, and Herdsmen, and the messenger of the gods, who would later become one of the twelve great gods of Olympus. However, this "brother," to Ares and Apollo, was merely someone who could run a bit fast; other aspects were not worth mentioning. Even if Ares stood before Hermes and let him strike freely, Hermes would not be able to break through the defense of the God of War's divine power avatar, even if he exhausted himself to death.

He was able to displace Hades or Hestia to become one of the twelve great gods of Olympus partly because his father was Zeus, and partly because he was extremely loyal to his father.

Unlike the group of double-crossers like Athena, Apollo, and Ares, Hermes genuinely offered all his loyalty to Zeus. He understood that unlike his siblings who possessed inherent strength, his ability to thrive on Olympus depended on his father. If Zeus were gone, Hermes would be nothing more than an annoying fly to Ares and the others.

Therefore, Ares and Apollo did not bring any weapons on this trip; they simply went with their hands in their pockets. The two main gods clearly did not take Hermes and Maia seriously at all.

Led by Apollo, Ares and he arrived at a mountain range called Arcadia. Deep within these high mountains, shrouded in thick mist, sat several temples, extremely difficult to detect. That was the residence of Maia, the goddess of rain and wind.

Apollo and Ares landed directly between these temples. Seeing the divine power emanating from the two, the mythical creatures serving there dared not stop them, only watching helplessly as the two gods entered their deity's sanctuary.

"Is anyone there?"

As soon as Apollo entered the temple, he began to call out.

"Coming."

Following Apollo's call, a moment later, a beautiful goddess emerged from the back of the temple, approached Apollo and Ares, and bowed slightly to them:

"It is the esteemed Apollo and Ares. Your Highnesses, is there something you need from me?"

"Goddess Maia," Apollo looked at the goddess, who exuded the aura of a married woman, and then asked, "I don't want to waste any more words. Let's get straight to the point: where is your son?"

A hint of panic flashed in Maia's eyes. She forced a smile and asked, "Why does the noble Apollo seek my son?"

"Alright, stop playing dumb, auntie," Ares stepped forward, interrupting Apollo, and said to Maia, "Apollo is the God of Prophecy. You shouldn't think of hiding something like this from him. Call your son out. For the sake of your entanglement with Zeus, we don't want to make a scene too ugly, otherwise..."

He clenched his fist at the goddess, making his knuckles crack loudly.

Before gods other than Hecate and Prometheus, Ares always remembered his mission, maintaining his image as a rude and unlikable character.

Goddess Maia looked at Ares's fist, which was as big as a casserole, and her eyes welled up with tears in fear. However, at that moment, her lover Zeus's voice suddenly echoed in her mind:

"Maia, it's alright. Go and bring our child out. Let him meet his two elder brothers."

Upon hearing this, Maia's face showed a helpless expression. Despite her myriad unwillingness, she could not defy Zeus, the King of the Gods. Therefore, after Ares finished his threat, Maia reluctantly turned back into her temple and brought out a young boy wearing a feathered hat, a short-sleeved tunic, and winged sandals.

This young boy, like Apollo and Ares, bore certain characteristics of Zeus. Perhaps because his mother was the goddess of rain and wind, who was more compatible with Zeus in terms of attributes, this young boy was also Zeus's most similar son to date. He had white hair and white eyes, but unlike Apollo and Ares, he was very thin and lacked divine power, seemingly not having inherited Zeus's strength and power.

Upon seeing Apollo and Ares, the young boy also appeared somewhat afraid, and the moment Apollo saw him, a furious expression appeared on his face.

"It's you, you little scoundrel!" He rushed forward, scaring Maia into quickly shielding her son behind her. "Give me back my cattle!"

Hermes, shielded in his mother's embrace, rolled his eyes, and a lie instantly came to his lips: "Divine cattle? I don't know anything about that."

He looked at Apollo with innocent big eyes and said, "Brother, how long have I been born? How could I possibly have the ability to run out and steal your divine cattle right under your nose?"

"You!" Apollo angrily clenched his fist, but after glancing at Maia, he suppressed his temper. Hermes's lie was clearly a deliberate attempt to shift the blame onto Apollo, saying things like "under your nose" and "I've only been born for a few days." If Apollo admitted it, it would mean that in front of Hermes, he couldn't even guard his own divine cattle, which would be even more humiliating.

However, Apollo had brought Ares along precisely to deal with such situations. So, upon hearing Hermes's words, Apollo gave Ares a look, and Ares, understanding, stepped forward.

With his strength, he pulled away Maia, who was trying to protect her son, then steadied the small, young god, who was a head shorter than him, by the shoulders, and looked down at him with a smile.

Hermes looked at Ares, his body somewhat stiff, but he suppressed his fear and forced a smile, asking Ares, "Big brother, I really haven't seen any divine cattle."

"No rush, no rush, that's not important," Ares said, patting his shoulder and laughing heartily. "We can talk about these things later. Come, let's have a fight first!"