Ares dragged the Giant King's corpse and stood for a while in front of Hades's black palace, but he did not enter. Instead, he cast a blinding magic, then dragged Alcyoneus's corpse and turned to head for Tartarus, the lowest level of the Underworld.
The body Hecate left in the black palace was merely a puppet; her true self was currently in the imaginary space below Tartarus, with the spiritual supercomputer 'Tartarus.' Therefore, Ares's destination for this trip was not Hades's palace but the depths of Tartarus.
Of course, sending Heracles away in advance wasn't because Ares distrusted him, but because even if he knew about Tartarus, he couldn't help, and it would only increase the risk of exposure.
Ever since Ares gained the highest authorization for this spiritual supercomputer using the mysterious crystal on his body, he also granted Hecate authorization. Coincidentally, this observation device had just finished analyzing the core of the Wandering Star starship, freeing up its computing power. Thus, the Moon Goddess moved her operations there. With this special device, which surpassed current Earth technology, Hecate's various research endeavors became much more convenient.
When Ares arrived in the imaginary space with Alcyoneus's body, he found Hecate holding a stone tablet, lying on a wooden recliner. After transferring her base, the Moon Goddess, for comfort, had used magic to create a floating ground in the originally empty imaginary space, and then set up tables, chairs, and a more comfortable lying spot on it. When Ares saw her, she was still in her smallest 'energy-saving form,' with a pair of snow-white, slender, cute little feet crossed, making Ares feel an uncontrollable urge to pinch them.
Suppressing this urge, Ares carried Alcyoneus's body and walked to Hecate's side, calling out softly to her:
"Teacher, I've brought the Giant King's corpse."
"Oh, put it there."
Hecate glanced at Ares, her feet subconsciously curling up, but she quickly handed him the stone tablet in her hand with a normal expression and said:
"Come and see, this is my latest research."
Ares took the stone tablet and found that it recorded a rather abstruse and profound magic, involving many divine natures and divine offices. Even with his current magical attainments, it was difficult to discern the essence of this magic at a glance.
He held the stone tablet and read it carefully twice with some difficulty before discerning some clues.
"Teacher, what is this?"
"Do you remember the stone tablet you gave me? The 'local specialty' you said you brought back from another world?"
Hecate hugged her knees, changing to a more comfortable sitting posture, then looked at Ares and said with some pride:
"That's right, I successfully transformed it into our magic."
What Hecate was referring to was naturally the Prometheus Scripture that Ares had brought back from the God Slayers world. Sealed on that stone-like magical book was a full-power strike from a deity using their own authority. This strike, when used against Gods of Disobedience and deities, could strip a specific divine authority from the opponent and make it their own, posing a considerable threat to gods.
According to the 'fate' secretly plotted by several entities in that world, this strike was originally supposed to be used by Kusanagi Godou to seize the Persian God of War Veleslana's most important 'Warrior' authority, thereby defeating Veleslana and becoming a new God Slayers.
However, due to Ares's interference, Kusanagi Godou's Scripture was intercepted by him and acquired through semi-coercion. As a main god, Ares naturally didn't need such a cheat-like item to deal with a God of Disobedience, so he brought this magical book back and gave it to Hecate.
Ares hadn't originally intended to research anything from this magical book. If Hecate's research yielded no results, this item would just be a fireworks collection for her amusement. But he hadn't expected that, with the help of the spiritual supercomputer 'Tartarus,' Greece's strongest magic controller actually researched a magic from it.
"According to you, what's sealed on this magical book is a strike from Prometheus of another world." Hecate pointed at the stone tablet and explained to Ares:
"After being imbued with legends by later humans, his authority is completely different from our 'Prometheus.' His power can directly usurp a specified divine authority from a deity. The magic I researched is the same."
"Wouldn't that make one invincible?" Ares murmured, "I'll go to Olympus right now and use this magic to usurp Athena's wisdom and Zeus's lightning, then I can crush both of them with one hand."
"You're thinking too much. Such a heaven-defying magic definitely has limitations. Firstly, it has a chance of failure, and a significant one at that. However, the weaker the target of usurpation, the greater the chance of success. If you can beat a god to near death, then their authority will be like your own warehouse, you can take as much as you want."
Hecate explained while raising a finger:
"Secondly, this magic only usurps authority; it cannot help you digest it. If you usurp too much authority, you won't be able to digest it all at once, unable to fully exert their power, and it might even cause conflicting authorities on your body, harming yourself."
"That's still strong enough." Ares held the stone tablet and exclaimed, "This magic can completely change the current situation. Moreover, as the user usurps more authority, the conditions for using this magic will become increasingly lenient, like a snowball, growing larger and larger."
"It can even allow humans who learn it to directly defeat gods and become gods themselves!" Hecate crossed her arms, lifted her face with a proud expression, "I plan to call it 'Hecate's Ascension Art,' how about it? Aren't I amazing?"
"Amazing, amazing."
Ares clapped for her, then smoothly asked:
"So, Teacher, how are our 'main tasks' coming along?"
"Hmm... more or less."
As soon as this was mentioned, Hecate also frowned with some distress:
"No matter how I calculate, this matter is still very dangerous for you. At the final critical moment, no one can help you; you can only rely on your willpower to get through it. I still think this method is too risky."
"But it's the only way for me to be completely free, isn't it?"
Ares clasped his hands together and pleaded:
"So please, Teacher."
Hecate stared at Ares for two seconds, then sighed:
"How troublesome, you always like to push these things onto me!"
"Teacher is so good, thank you, Teacher."
Ares called out with a cheeky smile, then Hecate repeatedly called him "disgusting" and kicked him with her small feet, driving him out of Tartarus's imaginary space.
As soon as Ares returned from the imaginary space to the dim, lightless Underworld, the smile on his face vanished.
He looked back at the slowly closing passage behind him, then let out a long sigh.
Ares had long known that his fate line had been cut by the Three Goddesses. Though he seemed to be at his peak, he was actually like a candle in the wind.
The power from fate constantly tried to influence him. If Ares hadn't created some otherworldly solution to suppress the influence of fate, he might have already lost his mind, gone to forcefully roll in bed with Hecate, weakened himself to the extreme, and then waited to be harvested by Athena in one fell swoop.
And more importantly, not only him, but Hecate's fate line had also been quietly cut by the Three Goddesses long ago.