Thea stared at the shining greatsword in her hand.
Complaining about Hippolyta was pointless—
because the moment she caught the sword, Ares lunged at her again.
They were too close now.
It was far too late to draw and nock an arrow.
Facing Ares's spear swinging like a storm, Thea could only brace herself.
In a heartbeat she dodged four, five strikes.
Ares seemed puzzled that she kept evading instead of counterattacking.
He suspected she was plotting something, so he didn't go all out—holding back a bit.
But the difference in skill was simply too large.
Ares's divine office as the God of War held the distilled essence of countless warriors throughout history.
Even stripping away divine power, purely in technique, Thea's two years of learning couldn't compare to an aggregate of thousands of masters.
Even the Sensei—Ra's al Ghul—would lose to him.
How could Thea hope to match him?
She made a small mistake, her movement lagging for half a breath—
Ares thrust straight at her heart.
With no other option, Thea had to choose sword-to-spear.
She had already made up her mind:
if the sword shattered, she would instantly swap places with her shadow clone below.
The clone's destruction meant nothing—she could remake it with stamina—
but without her hoverboard, she would be dead meat against Ares.
CLANG!
The sword and spear collided.
Thea's strength was crushed almost instantly—
but the sword itself?
Completely unharmed.
Not even a crack.
…So this was the real Godslayer Sword?
And now Thea completely lost track of the "original plot."
Why did it shatter instantly when Diana used it, but it stayed intact in her own hands?
She didn't believe she was some kind of "chosen main character."
Which meant—
there was a truth behind this that she hadn't uncovered yet.
With a nervous heart, she exchanged a few more blows—
still nothing.
The blade remained whole.
Even stranger, she sensed a faint emotion from the sword—
joy?
What the hell?
She had asked Diana before—Diana had never felt any emotions from the sword.
For now, though, the sword's durability let Thea fully unleash her (very limited) swordsmanship.
But compared to Ares, it was nothing.
Ares didn't know the sword's secret.
But seeing Thea begin to counterattack, he realized she had no hidden scheme.
He dropped all hesitation and began a full assault—
—and Thea was immediately overwhelmed.
She wanted to send her shadow clone to help Diana so Diana could come help her—
but Ares's attacks came faster and faster.
Without the clone's support, Thea wouldn't last thirty moves.
She barely blocked another sweeping strike, used the force to leap back, and finally pulled open distance.
"Vandal! Buy me time!"
Thea thrust out her right hand and released the elk from her ring.
The elk—seasoned from years of fighting alongside the Goddess—responded instantly,
enlarging itself mid-stride, lowering its sharp antlers, and ramming Ares head-on, dragging him several kilometers away.
Floating just above the ground, Thea faced her shadow clone.
Together they prepared a spell far beyond her current level—
Shadow Labyrinth.
The main body began chanting softly.
The clone gathered power and etched runic structures.
The spell drew strength from her Chosen ability,
from the shadow-clone's auxiliary casting,
from the magic patterns of her Silver Moon Bow.
Then—
just as the elk's desperate cry signaled it could hold no longer—
Thea finished the spell.
Her mana was nearly drained dry.
She dispelled the clone to recover a sliver of stamina.
She bound the completed spell into an arrow.
Sensing the elk's position, she opened the Eye of Horus—
saw Ares rushing back—
lifted her bow skyward, aimed—
—fired.
It was a light-arrow shot, speed nearly at its limit.
With the Eye's divine targeting, the arrow flew straight toward Ares's heart.
Ares was still a god.
His battlefield instincts were unmatched.
He hadn't expected her arrow to be that fast.
Only when it was right before him did he react.
Friction between the arrow's shadow energy and the air sparked lightning—
any fool could see how lethal that shot was.
Relying purely on instinct gained from countless battles,
Ares shifted his body half a step aside.
The arrow pierced through his right chestplate and exited through his back.
"Nothing but that—… wait, what—!?"
Ares had been gravely wounded,
but his pride as a god refused to admit being hurt by a mortal.
Yet before he could finish boasting,
a mass of pitch-black shadow was curling around him—
dragging him backward, trying to swallow him whole.
A high-tier spell.
Ares had never seen it, but the energy level was unmistakable.
Whatever this thing was, it wasn't going to treat him to dinner.
If he were at full strength, such a spell couldn't restrain him.
The gap between gods and mortals wasn't something technique could bridge.
But this was only his avatar.
His god-power had no source—once spent, it was gone.
After Thea's gender-biased debuff, after all the interruptions, the losses—
he had already burned through twenty percent of his reserves.
And he still needed enough left to face a nearly full-power Diana.
He hesitated.
The elk—veteran of countless battles and shamelessly cunning—
saw that hesitation, took a running start,
and in full view of Ares's outraged expression—
rammed him straight into the labyrinth.
"Go help Diana,"
Thea instructed the elk weakly.
Her magic was exhausted, only slowly replenishing.
Ares was only temporarily trapped.
No doubt he could escape—it was only a matter of time.
Diana would have to carry the rest.
Diana had been panicking earlier.
Not realizing her shortcomings until now—
she couldn't fly, so the two barbarian warriors locked her down.
And she lacked any high-impact finishing moves.
Her shield had slapped their faces purple, but the results were mediocre.
But with the elk's assistance, she quickly broke free.
She flung out her Lasso of Truth, snaring both warriors, and slammed them repeatedly into the ground until they burst into smoke.
Only then did she vent her frustration.
Remembering Thea, she rushed over at full speed.
"Are you hurt!?"
Seeing Diana ignore Ares's escape and check on her first made Thea's heart very, very warm.
What did that mean?
It meant her "route strategy" was working beautifully.
But now was not the time to flirt—
Ares could emerge at any moment.
Thea tried to hand back the Godslayer Sword—
but Diana shook her head.
"It wasn't my choice.
The sword told me to throw it to you.
It chose you.
You're its true master."