Ares finally shed the last trace of his mortal disguise.
Pieces of divine armor materialized from the void—bracers, chestplate, greaves—
and when the bull-horned helmet settled onto his head, the fake limping gentleman was gone.
What stood before them now was the embodiment of slaughter and conquest—
the true God of War.
Visions of countless battles swirled around him—
the Battle of Thermopylae, the wars between Saladin and the Crusaders, the devastation of World War I.
Endless heroes threw themselves into war chasing ideals and glory, though far more never returned.
Thea's eyes were almost drawn in, but she quickly shook her head.
These projections weren't aimed directly at her—
and now that she was walking the divine path herself, she could resist their pressure.
Damn… he's actually pretty scary.
Thea was briefly shaken by the oppressive aura Ares leaked effortlessly.
But with her broadened horizons, she recovered quickly and turned to glance at Diana.
On the level of pure life-force, Diana was undeniably stronger.
Though the weight of Ares's divine domain struck her as well, she snapped back to clarity almost instantly.
"You think this is my true power? You're mistaken! Hahahahaha—!"
Ares's body split into two, then four, then seven armored Ares clones—
each wielding a different weapon: swords, axes, great hammers.
"That Amazon mage over there! Got any tricks left?
This is divine power—you think your pathetic spells can challenge it? Hahaha!"
His disdain toward Thea was loud and clear.
He barely even looked at Diana—preferring to mock Thea first.
Oh hell no.
Thea was no longer the paranoid, half-traumatized girl from Star City.
Her strength had grown, and so had her pride.
Ares was only pushing them down because his war-god aura worked as a suppressive field.
But this wasn't his true body—
and compared to Horus's might during their old battle, Ares's avatar was much weaker.
What was so amazing about divine power anyway?
Thea muttered coldly to herself:
"I have some too."
She channeled the sliver of godforce inside her into the Eye of Horus.
Divine sight activated.
The world became clear as day—every illusion, every falsehood laid bare.
A single beam of mystical golden light swept over the group of Ares clones—
"What—!?"
Ares didn't even understand what had happened yet—
but six of his divine clones evaporated instantly under the beam.
Only the real Ares remained, holding two swords awkwardly mid-pose.
"This… isn't Greek divine power!"
Ares was stunned.
He had thought this was an internal conflict among Greek gods—
never imagining Thea carried another pantheon's blessing.
The Egyptian gods, despite their current friction with Thea, were at least responsible.
Horus, for instance, spent his days flying around judging the world under the name of Ra—
very diligent, very serious.
Compared to them, the Greek gods were…
not like that at all.
Zeus, as king, set the worst possible example—
transforming into bulls and birds to chase women for fun.
If the god-king was that irresponsible, the rest of the pantheon naturally ran wild.
They had plenty of divine arts for singing, dancing, partying—
but combat-related skills like piercing illusions were few and far between.
Ares once massacred a whole generation of gods.
Yes, he ambushed them—
but also because the Greek pantheon genuinely wasn't built for actual warfare.
So now, suddenly stripped bare by Thea's divine sight beam,
his magnificent multi-body technique collapsed instantly.
Those six clones weren't illusions—
each was a fully equipped divine avatar, crafted with painstakingly saved god-power accumulated over decades in the mortal realm.
In a blink, half his reserves were gone.
Ares was livid.
He was not known for patience or generosity—
and after being repeatedly humiliated by Thea, he finally snapped.
He hurled the two swords in his hands toward Diana—
and with a painful expenditure of divine power, transformed them into two massive barbarian warriors.
He didn't expect them to kill Diana—just delay her.
"You little ant—rejoice!
Your pitiful life will be personally harvested by the God of War!"
Ares reached into the void again and pulled out a blood-red spear—
then shot toward Thea, eyes blazing with fury.
Oh crap crap crap crap!
I pulled aggro!
Aren't you supposed to be Diana's mortal enemy!? Why are you coming after ME!?
She darted a glance toward Diana—
the two barbarian warriors had locked Diana in a brutal clash,
and Diana still couldn't fly at this point…
Thea, faced with a berserk Ares charging straight at her, immediately turned tail and ran.
No joke—
she didn't have centuries of divine power stored up.
She was a glass-cannon archer.
Getting stabbed once by that murderous spear and she was DONE.
So she ran. Shamelessly.
But not mindlessly—
in the air she weaved through rooftops and ruins, using buildings as obstacles to slow Ares down.
But Ares carried memories of his true self—
his airborne speed and maneuverability far surpassed Thea's hoverboard.
He closed in repeatedly, intercepting her path at every turn.
In barely ten seconds, Thea had brushed shoulders with death multiple times.
The situation dire, Thea used one of her hidden trump cards—
her shadow-pattern clone dropped to the ground and sprinted off.
"A petty trick."
Ares wasn't as specialized as Horus,
but as the God of War, he had basic illusion-breaking capabilities.
He ignored the clone completely and kept chasing Thea.
But that was exactly what Thea wanted.
This wasn't a distraction—
this was a setup for a 2v1.
Though the shadow clone's consciousness was weak due to the mana cost, it could still use Thea's spells.
And under Eternal Night, it also gained spell amplification.
Debuffs of various kinds rained down on Ares,
and Thea herself—dodging and kiting on the hoverboard—kept firing magic arrows nonstop.
"Catch!"
Diana, still wrestling the two barbarian warriors, saw Thea in danger and threw something her way.
Thea fired another explosive arrow to push Ares back, caught the thrown item—and froze.
It was the Godslayer Sword.
Diana absolutely meant well.
But Thea now wanted to grab Hippolyta by the collar and scream:
"IS THIS SWORD REAL OR NOT!?
I'M ASKING ONLINE—URGENT REPLY NEEDED!!"