After arranging for Deimos, Ares multitasked, educating the demigod youth who flowed with divine blood, while simultaneously observing the situations in the heavens, on earth, and among various factions.
Time in the Greek World continued to advance amidst the chaos, with various forces vying against each other, experiencing both victories and defeats. The two masterminds behind all of this, Athena and Ares, maintained this state of affairs with a tacit understanding.
In the tenth year of the War, Hades, under Zeus's various threats, inducements, persuasion, and coercion, finally held his nose and ascended to the summit of Olympus, unleashing his second divine authority, Plague, which he had not used for a long time.
When Hades, who controlled Plague, finally decided to wield his hammer against the enemies in the world, the effect was immediate. The opposing Snake-Footed Giants quickly contracted a strange illness. Although they still possessed vigorous vitality and would not die directly from this Plague, their infected clansmen soon lost the ability to move due to the Plague.
This Plague quickly spread among the Snake-Footed Giants' communities, severely depleting the Snake-Footed Giants' combat strength and causing them to suffer successive defeats in the War. Even three of their thirteen most powerful Giants contracted the disease. However, this was still not enough to completely defeat the Snake-Footed Giants. Under the command of the mysterious "military advisor" on the Snake-Footed Giants' side, the infected Giants quickly isolated themselves. They chose to transform their forms, sacrificing their mobility, and through a mysterious connection, focused on providing their energy to other healthy clansmen. This, in turn, made the remaining Snake-Footed Giants stronger and caught Zeus, who had been daily dueling the Giant Race leader, somewhat off guard.
In another confrontation with Alcyoneus, Zeus was almost directly cut down by the suddenly much stronger Alcyoneus. However, as the old God King who had led the gods to overthrow the Titans, and with his destiny not yet exhausted, Zeus's ability to preserve his life on the battlefield was extremely strong. He ultimately fled back to Olympus in a sorry state, saving his dog's life, which was a pity.
However, Hades's Plague spread beyond the Giant Race. In the mortal realm, even humans in many regions began to contract various strange illnesses, starting from Olympia, the closest to Olympus, then Athens, Delphi, Cyprus, and finally reaching the Sparta region, where people gradually began to contract strange illnesses.
However, because the gods had received advance notice, they all followed Athena's instructions and prepared various countermeasures in advance. Therefore, although they could not completely eradicate the influence of Hades's divine power, they still managed to control the Plague with great difficulty.
During this period, Deimos and Kratos, the brothers watched by Athena and Ares, also slowly began to grow. Kratos, under the tutelage of the Sparta High Priest, became a powerful Spartan warrior. He participated in Sparta's expeditionary forces, fought various enemies, achieved brilliant military exploits, and quickly rose to become a leader of the Spartan legion.
As for Deimos in the Death Realm, although he was completely isolated from the world, the intensity of his growth was in no way inferior to that of his brother, Ares.
Within the Death Realm, he also received instruction from the clone Ares had arranged to be there, and he even had a divine-level opponent, Thanatos, who would not truly kill him, as a sparring partner.
And it's unknown if Deimos truly possessed some special quality, but under Ares's guidance, Deimos not only learned Electric Current Propulsion but also successfully awakened the ability of Magnetic Field Rotation, becoming the second person in this world, after Ares, to possess the power of Magnetic Field Rotation.
Although his magnetic field strength was only a mediocre tens of thousands of horses, it was already enough for him to traverse the Greek World. Of course, tens of thousands of horses of power were still not enough for him to defeat the Death God clone Ares had deliberately arranged there. Therefore, Deimos was still confined within the Death Realm, daily studying how to defeat the Death God outside and successfully escape.
For Deimos, this was both a form of imprisonment and a form of protection. The current world was indeed not suitable for him to emerge too early; otherwise, Zeus, who was extremely wary of him, would certainly blast Deimos to dust with his most powerful force the moment he escaped the Underworld, without a second thought.
Another hero, Heracles, who could be considered on par with Kratos, also slowly completed his last few trials during this process. After returning to the Kingdom of Mycenae and showing King Eurystheus the Ares's belt he had taken from the Amazon Queen Hippolyta, Heracles accepted other tasks from Eurystheus. He traveled to Libya, where he defeated Antaeus, the son of Sea King Poseidon, and then arrived at the island of Erytheia in the Gades Bay, where he defeated the Giant Geryon and his three sons, as well as their monstrous two-headed dog, and brought back their cattle.
Afterward, he embarked on a journey to the sacred garden of the golden apple, killing countless monsters along the way, and incidentally killing a "son of Ares" that Ares didn't even know where he came from. He helped Atlas hold up the sky, found the wise Sea God Nereus, and also paid his respects to his dear Comrade Prometheus in the Caucasus Mountains.
Of course, with Ares's reminder, no matter how pitiful Prometheus appeared or how he pleaded, Heracles remained unmoved in the end, shook his head, and left.
Finally, he successfully killed Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon guarding the sacred garden, obtained three golden apples, and returned to Eurystheus's kingdom to report his completion.
As for why Ares knew so much detail, it was because the person involved was currently beside him; Heracles himself told him all of this.
"Hmm, so your last task is to lead away Cerberus, the guard dog of the Underworld?"
Ares, with his hands behind his back, walked with the much more weathered Heracles across the wilderness outside the Hell Gate of the Underworld, asking him simultaneously.
"That's right."
Heracles frowned and said,
"I originally thought that Hades had gone into seclusion, and this task wouldn't be difficult compared to what I've done before. But then I heard the news that Hades had returned. Although I've defeated Sea King Poseidon, I still don't have the confidence to defeat that Hades on the land of the Underworld."
"It's good to know your limits. Your current task indeed cannot be completed by brute force."
Ares nodded:
"But this is a coincidence. You have a good teacher, so your task this time is a freebie."
"How so?" Heracles asked curiously.
"Although that dog is the guard dog of the Underworld, before that..." Ares pointed to the distant Hell Gate and said to Heracles, "Its other identity is the pet of Goddess of the Dark Moon Hecate, and Hecate is my magic teacher, understand?"