A massive impact sent Ares staggering back. Cracks spider-webbed across the ground in a hundred-meter radius; even adventurers near Orario's northern boundary lost their footing, collapsing into a tangled heap.
Alfia kept her gaze fixed on Bell, crumpled on the ground. Her expression had reverted to a composed, almost placid mask, all traces of maternal protectiveness and doting affection buried beneath layers of stoicism.
"Get up."
Her words were soft. Almost gentle, to those who didn't know better.
"It's just a burst heart."
She said it the way someone might comment on a passing breeze. Casual. Dismissive. Her gaze held his, steady and unblinking.
"You won't be defeated by this."
You can't be.
"Meteria didn't give birth to a coward."
Bell coughed up a spray of blood, yet met her eyes without flinching.
Bones began to protrude from his severed stumps. Muscles rapidly wove around the bare skeleton, followed instantly by a fresh layer of skin. The newly formed skin flaked away from a single hand, abyssal black refusing to be bound by mortality.
His regenerated fingers dug into the dirt as Bell forced himself upright, his legs trembling like leaves from the trauma of a burst heart.
He stumbled midway, but an arm wrapped around his waist, catching him and steadying his stance.
"Aunt?" Bell looked up at Alfia, his head tilting slightly.
Alfia ignored him, bringing her free hand up to grip his chin. Disregarding the blood smeared across his skin, she examined his mature face, his long hair, and sharp jawline, then gave a curt nod.
"You've grown."
You grew up without me there.
She pulled back, finally turning to face Ares.
The god had just stopped brushing dust from his forearms. He was staring at Alfia with something between recognition and genuine wariness—an expression that didn't suit a man who'd been acting casual a moment ago.
"The Silence." He said.
"You know who I am." Alfia spoke. Not a question.
"I know who you were." Ares rolled his shoulders. "I also know you should be dead."
"So should a lot of things." She replied.
Ares bent into a stance without another word.
Alfia glanced at Bell.
Clunk.
He met her gaze and nodded.
Thump.
A heavy beat resonated from his chest. His heart had fully regenerated.
BOOOM! BOOOM!
Twin vapor cones ripped into existence as Bell and Alfia launched toward Ares, closing the distance in an instant.
A heel screeched toward Ares from the left; a fist tore toward him from the right. Ares was caught between them.
His arms moved with effortless ease. One hand caught Alfia's heel, the other wrapped around Bell's fist, stopping both attacks dead in their tracks.
Alfia didn't slow down. A sharp crack rang out as she intentionally shattered her own ankle, smoothly sliding the joint back into place to slip free of Ares' grip, landing a vicious kick directly to his cheek.
BAAM!
Ares took a step back. Bell seized on that opening, perfectly mimicking her maneuver. He snapped his own wrist, popped it back into place, and smashed Ares' opposite cheek.
BAAM!
The god of war pulled back, fluidly dropping into another combat stance, his expression turning genuinely focused for the first time.
"Aunt." Bell called out, prompting a glance from her.
In that split second, Ares lunged, reaching Bell in a blink.
Bell reacted without thought, elbow tearing toward the god's chest, but Ares' hand was already moving to deflect it.
A moment before contact, [Ittou Shura] deactivated. Bell's strength plummeted to a Level 4's, slowing his elbow just enough that Ares' hand swiped past it due to the sudden shift in momentum.
"[Ittou Shura]." Bell snapped his elbow up. His strength spiked back to its peak.
BOOM!
A devastating uppercut crashed into Ares' jaw.
The god didn't flinch, his free fist already hovering a mere inch from Bell's shoulder.
A fraction of a second before it could land, a voice rang out from Ares' flank.
"[Ittou Shura]." Alfia's strength skyrocketed—burning Bell's mana rather than her own vitality—catapulting her power straight to Level 5.
Ares still managed to jerk his arm back to intercept her punch, but the sheer force hurled him away.
Bell dropped into a low stance and exploded forward, a sonic boom trailing in his wake.
A second shockwave echoed right behind him as Alfia matched his pace perfectly.
They became twin parallel streaks of black and white. One attacked from the front, the other assaulted from behind. A fist struck from the right, a heel kicked from the left. Flames licked from below, while sonic force battered from above.
Ares' knuckles met every single assault. He blocked, deflected, and countered, his speed climbing so high his fists became invisible—always arriving exactly where they intended to strike.
A shockwave flattened the surrounding earth as Ares' fist buried itself deep into Bell's stomach in an uppercut, launching him straight into the air.
Blood erupted from Bell's eyes, but even as he was launched skyward, he extended both arms at a slight upward angle, locking his gaze on Ares below.
"With this treasure, I summon..."
Ares tensed his legs and leaped, closing the gap in seconds. Alfia launched herself from the ground at that exact same moment, her hands locking around the god's ankles and dragging him back down.
"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General..."
Ares' descending fist and Bell's clenched hands were a hairbreadth away.
"Mahoraga."
The wheel above Bell detached from his head.
Then the air solidified, a pressure that had nothing to do with mana and arcanum spread in all directions, affecting mortals and gods without distinction, filling them with a quiet dread.
A hulking, white outline loomed into being above him. It had no features. No expression. Just that grin—wide, wrong, and patient, as though it had been waiting for this moment.
Bell kicked off its abdomen, launching himself back down toward the falling god.
Ares twisted mid-fall, bending his spine backward to drive a fist toward Alfia below him. Her knee came up and caught his knuckles. In that same instant, Bell collided with Ares from above.
The world spun as all three plummeted, Mahoraga trailing in their wake.
Bell dived further down and hooked an arm around Alfia's waist while throwing a punch at Ares ahead of them. Ares countered from his position, striking back while falling upside down.
Fist met inverted fist.
BOOOOM!
The impact repelled them in opposite directions, breaking their falls. Bell and Alfia collided into Mahoraga, who wrapped its massive arms around them. All three were launched backward, crashing into the earth and sending a wall of dust sweeping through the battlefield.
Ares himself slammed into a formation of Rakian soldiers, disappearing beneath a pile of bodies.
As the dust settled, Bell walked out from the devastation, a sword of flame in his grip.
Alfia followed at his right, cracking her knuckles.
The Divine General followed at his left, an eerie grin still spread across its face.
Soldiers were sent flying in all directions as Ares emerged from that pile, an iron sword in one hand and a steel spear in the other.
He looked at all three of them.
The boy with a wheel that adapted with each rotation.
The woman who should be dead.
The thing that smiled like it knew something he didn't.
Ares rolled his neck, tendons popping. He shifted his grip on both weapons, settling into a stance that belonged to no single era—something cobbled together from every war he'd ever witnessed.
"Stand proud." His voice carried across the battlefield. "You are all strong."
He raised the sword.
"But I am war itself."
...
..
.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
With this treasure, I summon...
Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
...
Alfia is so broken. She copied [Ittou Shura] with a single glance. She's my favourite from now on.
...
Ares feels like a real villain right? Not those template villains which all novels use. I've given the real Ares short dialogues, but each tells us something about him, his past, his thoughts, his motivations etc.