On the edge of the God of War Palace, on Olympus.
Ares, Zeus's son, who had just been bestowed the title of God of War by the new God King Zeus, sat there in a daze, gazing at the endless sea of clouds in front of him, lost in thought.
The lower gods and Nymphs serving him in the God of War Palace looked at him with concern, fearing that this violent God of War would, upon taking office, stir up a few wars on Earth for excitement.
After all, even before Zeus could lead the gods of Olympus to defeat Cronus and his supporters on Mount Othrys, Zeus's son Ares had already been born. In that era, Ares's bloodlust, belligerence, and cruelty had already spread throughout the world on the battlefields of the War of the Gods.
However, Ares was clearly thinking of other things at this moment. Besides staring blankly at the sea of clouds, he held a black crystal pendant in his hand.
In fact, although his physical body was still Ares, his spirit had clearly merged with, and been completely replaced by, a spirit from another dimension.
Two kinds of memories were interwoven in his mind: one, as Zeus's son, filled with the clang of weapons, overcoming obstacles, blood, and battles on the battlefield of the war against the Titans; the other, as an ordinary human, living a peaceful daily life on a beautiful blue planet.
After staring at the sea of clouds for a long time, the constantly interweaving and chaotic memories and consciousness in his mind finally converged into one, restoring his clarity of thought. Then, this handsome red-haired god lowered his head, covered the side of his face, and muttered:
"I just went to a sauna, and I actually turned into Ares from greek mythology?"
After the two segments of memory and two consciousnesses merged into one, the newborn Ares finally gradually sorted out his current situation.
He had only been in a sauna room at a steam bath for a while. When he felt the temperature drop and added a scoop of water to the stove, steam diffused, and then he fainted. When he woke up, he had already arrived in this world and become Ares.
As for those bloody memories, they should be the memories of the previous Ares, the Ares born in and belonging to this world, from the Titan War.
Withdrawing his gaze from the clouds, Ares lowered his head and looked at the black crystal pendant in his hand. This pendant was an accessory he had casually bought at a pawn shop back in his hometown.
The price of this pendant was just street stall level, and it wasn't intricately carved with any superb craftsmanship. He bought this pendant simply because he saw his friends around him liked to wear pendants like crosses and other pendants, so he decided to get one for himself to play around with.
Now, he had traveled through time and space, and this black pendant had also accompanied him to the other side of time and space. Needless to say, the reason for his transmigration was probably this black pendant, nine times out of ten.
But why, of all things, did I become Ares...?
Sighing inwardly, Ares stood up from the edge of the God of War Palace, feeling the powerful divine power boiling and flowing like magma throughout his body.
Comparing his current state with the previous Ares's memories, he found that his power had not diminished in the slightest due to a change in owner. Now, his power was worthy of the name of a god. If he wished, even if he casually threw his weapon to the ground, it could cause destructive power no less than the Nuclear explosion.
As the God of War, he could greatly enlarge his body, making himself tall enough to fight Titan giants. He could also summon various weapons such as his flaming longsword, great shield, and spear anytime, anywhere, and easily ignite wars between non-divine races on the ground.
However, feeling this surging power, Ares felt no excitement, for he already knew Ares, this god, very well.
He is the god of War, combat, daring, civil order, and rebellion; a bloodthirsty murderer and conqueror of defended castles; a symbol of strength and power; bloodthirsty, gory, the personification of human military disasters, and later the guardian god of the Thracians and Spartans, one of the Olympus Twelve Main Gods, the child of Zeus and Hera.
But at the same time, He is also the most embarrassing of the twelve most powerful Main Gods on Olympus.
If one were to speak of the deeds of Ares, it would undoubtedly be a history filled with bitterness, humiliation, and shame. Although this god was the true bloodline of the chaste Heavenly Queen Hera and Zeus, he was always suspected by the King of Gods of being a child born from Hera's infidelity, because Hephaestus, Hera's previous child, was weak and ugly.
Therefore, Ares was never favored by Zeus. In his life, he was first deprived of part of his authority as God of War and God of Victory by his half-sister Athena, and then suffered setbacks at the hands of various figures. He was beaten by his father Zeus, by his second uncle Poseidon, by his mother Hera, and also by his siblings Apollo, Artemis, and Athena.
He had an affair with his sister-in-law and was captured by his own brother Hephaestus in a fit of rage with a golden net, then dragged before the gods, losing all face. Even in the Trojan War, Athena, through the mortal Diomedes, was able to wound his wrist. Except for the Spartans who always worshipped him, even mortal playwrights called him a "despicable god."
To be a Main God to this extent, from Ares's current advanced perspective, it would be better to just die.
[I need to find a way to reverse this embarrassing situation.]
Ares thought.
But at this moment, the sea beneath the sea of clouds in front of him suddenly became turbulent, and a huge whirlpool even appeared in the center of the sea, visible even from Olympus.
Then, Ares heard an angry roar from the direction of Zeus's God King's Hall:
"Zeus! I didn't expect you to be like this! I misjudged you, you are no different from your father Cronus!"
This angry roar shook the sky, scaring the Nymphs in the God of War Palace into trembling. Ares looked towards the God King's Hall and saw Oceanus, the god of the ocean, one of the previous generation of Titans who had sided with Zeus in the Titan War, storm out of the God King's Hall, then leap down Olympus and return directly to the ocean.
In Ares's Earth memories, Oceanus was already a member of the second generation of gods in greek mythology. Although he was not imprisoned in Tartarus and lost his position after the Titan War, his status was gradually replaced by the third-generation God King Poseidon.
But in Ares's memories, Oceanus was still one of the Olympus Twelve Main Gods.
Because Olympus was newly established at this time, Zeus had not yet had time to engage in his future romantic affairs. Important deities such as Apollo, Artemis, and Athena had not yet been born. Therefore, among the twelve Main Gods, there were still many second-generation Titans who supported Zeus.
At this point in time, the positions of the Olympus Twelve Main Gods were God King Zeus, Heavenly Queen Hera, Sea King Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Prometheus, Oceanus, Helios, Selene, Hephaestus, and finally Ares.
Apart from Zeus's siblings and children, among the current twelve Main Gods, Titans like Prometheus were included in the list of twelve Main Gods because they had sided with Zeus's faction during the war.
And among these Titans, the most influential speaker was naturally Oceanus. As a second-generation god, in terms of pure divine power, he was no weaker than Sea King Poseidon. Moreover, his daughter was Zeus's first wife, Athena's birth mother, the original Goddess of Wisdom Metis. This goddess played a crucial role in the war; it was she who created the emetic that made Cronus vomit up Hades and others whom he had swallowed, bringing the two sides to a stalemate.
If this father-in-law of Zeus were to get angry, even the current Zeus would have to curb his temper and speak kindly.
However, Ares found it strange; why would Oceanus suddenly be so angry?
So he walked towards the God King's Hall. Of course, the current Ares was different from the reckless and idiotic former God of War. He wouldn't touch the irritated Oceanus, but instead found Prometheus, who was standing at the entrance of the God King's Hall, looking at the ocean with a troubled expression, lost in thought.
"Prometheus."
Ares greeted the future God who stole fire.
"Ah, it's Ares." Prometheus's thoughts were clearly elsewhere at the moment. Hearing Ares's voice, he asked distractedly, "Is something wrong?"
"Hmm."
Ares subtly leaned closer and whispered,
"Why is Oceanus angry?"
"Alas, this matter is a bit complicated."
Prometheus looked up at him, then lowered his head again, sighing. He clearly didn't want to discuss this topic with a brute like Ares.
Ares glanced at the clouds. Although the sky was still clear, some clouds looked unusually thick, indicating that God King Zeus was not in a good mood. He then looked into the God King's Hall and whispered to Prometheus,
"Since it's inconvenient to speak in detail here, let's go to my God of War Palace. There's plenty of space there, and no outsiders."
Prometheus looked at Ares with great surprise. In his impression, this was definitely not something the crude God of War would say. This God had always been one of the Gods on Olympus least aware of the atmosphere.
But before he could think further, Ares had already grabbed his arm and dragged him all the way to the God of War Palace, dismissing the Nymphs and lower Gods serving in the God of War Palace.
"Alright, speak."
Ares turned and said.
"Why is the God of War so persistent?" Prometheus asked hesitantly.
"Because Oceanus came from Zeus, right? His anger must be related to Zeus," Ares said. "As Zeus's son, and also a great God on Olympus, I think I have the right to understand the reason."
Prometheus looked at Ares, and his attitude softened. He nodded and said, "You're right, you do have the right to know about this."
So, after a slight pause to choose his words, Prometheus slowly began to narrate: "Ever since the Youxing Vanguard, an extraterrestrial visitor, broke through the barrier of Chaos and descended to Earth, scattering and separating the original divine essence..."
[Hmm? What the hell? Is this timeline a bit off?]
Ares, hearing this, quickly interrupted Prometheus and asked, "What did you say? Youxing Vanguard?"
"Ah, I almost forgot. It's normal for a third-generation God like you not to know. This was already a matter of Uranus's era." Prometheus thought for a moment, and considering Ares's usual intelligence, he decided to skip this matter: "In short, you only need to know that that thing caused huge losses to all the Gods at that time."
"Oh, oh." Ares nodded, signaling Prometheus to continue, but at this moment, he was already feeling a bit uneasy inside.
If he remembered correctly, the Youxing Vanguard was something that only existed in a very popular world in the anime circle of his previous life, and in that world, Gods like him were destined to perish sooner or later.
"Ever since then, our God King has been burdened with the curse of being overthrown by his own descendants, just as Uranus was overthrown by Cronus, and Cronus was overthrown by Zeus. When Zeus became God King, Cronus also uttered a new prophecy." Prometheus said, "The child of Metis and Zeus will gain power stronger than him and overthrow him, becoming the king of men and Gods. So just now, Zeus, like his father, devoured his wife Metis."
Metis was Oceanus's beloved daughter, no wonder Oceanus was so furious just now.
"Because of this, Oceanus has sworn not to support Zeus anymore, nor to return to Olympus." Prometheus sighed, "Olympus has just been established, and one powerful main God is already missing from the Olympus Twelve Main Gods."
"So that's how it is." Ares nodded. He wasn't surprised by this at all; it was completely expected for Zeus, that monstrous father, to do such a thing. Moreover, it was because of this incident that the most brilliant jewel of Olympus, Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, was born later.
[However, according to my past memories, Prometheus should have some ability to foresee. If it's him, he should be able to foresee Athena's birth, and he definitely wouldn't show such an expression.]
Looking at the troubled Prometheus, Ares felt suspicious, so he pressed on,
"Prometheus, besides this, have you foreseen anything else?"
"H-how could that be?" Hearing Ares's words, Prometheus smiled, trying to brush him off: "All I'm worried about is the discord among colleagues caused by this matter."
"That's absolutely not true. You have the ability to foresee. If it were just Goddess Metis being devoured, you absolutely wouldn't be so worried." Ares pressed on, "You've definitely foreseen something, haven't you? Tell me, Prometheus, and in exchange, I will help you unconditionally once in the future."
"This..." Prometheus took a step back, looking somewhat surprised and uncertain.
In his impression, Ares would normally never say such a thing.
"Tell me, otherwise, I'll tell Zeus that you're hiding something from him." Ares ignored Prometheus; even if the other party suspected, they couldn't find out his true identity. He was now the real Ares, so he threatened confidently, "You rebelled against Cronus back then, Zeus will absolutely not completely trust you. If I just tell him about this, what do you think Zeus will do to you?"
As he spoke, Ares also held his shoulder, preventing him from escaping.
"This... I, alas." Prometheus hung his head, finally compromising helplessly: "Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone."
As the God of Wisdom, Prometheus had calculated everything, but he never expected to fall into Ares's hands. Before coming, he hadn't really taken Ares, that brute, seriously, and the original Ares was indeed a simpleton who could be easily fooled by his words.
Now Ares was controlling him. Unless he could break free from Ares and complain to Zeus first, he might be able to twist black into white with his glib tongue. However, he was not the future Athena. Ares was a God of War after all, and in a fight, Prometheus couldn't possibly be his opponent.
So he honestly said, "I foresaw the future where Zeus is killed by Zeus's son."
"Oh, I see."
Ares was not surprised by this either.
Although in mythology, the Greek Pantheon did not end in Zeus's era, given the nature of the Greek Pantheon, it was not surprising for Zeus to be overthrown by his own child.
If the Youxing Vanguard was real, the age of Gods would end sooner or later, and perhaps the age of Gods in Greece ended this way.
Thinking of this, Ares casually asked, "So, who is this child who killed Zeus?"
"He is a demigod." Prometheus seemed to foresee that terrifying figure, and cold sweat seeped from his forehead: "His name is Kratos, or you can also call him Kratos."
"Hmm, hmm?!"