"What did you say?!" Hearing this, Hera's anger surged to its peak. Her eyes turned red with fury as she rose from her throne and approached Ares, trembling as she said, "Ares! I am your mother! Are you going to betray me too?!"
"No, mother, I'm doing this for your own good." Ares earnestly used the same persuasive tactics he'd employed in his previous life to convince leaders and sell products, first taking her side and speaking favorably for her: "Mother, please calm down for a moment and think carefully. Goddess Leto is not a mortal; like you, she is also a child of the Titans. Her children with Zeus will certainly be extraordinary in the future. If you persecute her now, you will be making enemies with her children in the future."
"What if she's a goddess? Even her father, Coeus, has been imprisoned in Tartarus. What right does she have to seduce the man of me, Heavenly Queen Hera?" Hera angrily retorted, "Does Heavenly Queen Hera have to humble herself before the daughter of a criminal?"
"It's true that Goddess Leto's father supported Cronus, but Goddess Leto herself firmly sided with Zeus. And Hera, think about it, several of the twelve great gods on Olympus now are second-generation gods who once served Cronus. Can Zeus truly trust them?" Ares painstakingly persuaded her, "The children in Goddess Leto's womb have clearly inherited Zeus's power and bloodline. If they are born, Zeus will surely enthrone them as chief gods among the twelve great gods, and take the opportunity to ostracize Helios and Selene, weakening their power and authority. Offending two future great gods would be greatly disadvantageous to you, Hera."
"This..." Hera hesitated upon hearing this. She was well aware of how she had attained her current position. If she weren't Zeus's wife, her name would never have appeared among the twelve chief gods.
As a Heavenly Queen, Hera's power was not truly strong. Her character and qualifications as a goddess could not compare to her sisters, Hestia or Demeter. Even now, Poseidon and Hades among the twelve gods completely ignored her, and Helios, Selene, and Prometheus would certainly not help her.
If, in the future, when Zeus cheated, not a single one of the twelve gods of Olympus was willing to speak up for her, then she would truly be unable to restrain her husband, only able to let him do as he pleased outside, unable even to get angry.
But Hera, upon second thought, still felt a surge of anger: "Leto seduced my man first. As Heavenly Queen, why should I swallow my anger?"
"So, mother, you're just worried about losing face, and I'm here to help you solve that problem." Seeing that the time was right, Ares immediately volunteered, "Today, you can continue to do whatever you want, and I, Ares, will go help Goddess Leto with the trouble she's facing. That way, I will have done a favor for Goddess Leto's children, and since I am your son, even if they don't like you in the future, they will give you a good way out for my sake, Ares."
After Ares volunteered, Hera thought for a moment, then agreed to Ares's plan.
Ares was her child, and in her heart, she unconsciously did not guard against Ares as an outsider. In her view, if something were to happen in the future, Ares would definitely stand by her side.
Of course, whether Ares would stand by her side now was debatable. In any case, Ares certainly did not view Hera and Zeus as parents at the moment; the character of these two Heavenly Queens simply did not deserve to be called parents.
And the biggest beneficiary of this matter outwardly seemed to be Hera, but that would only be if Ares truly obeyed Hera wholeheartedly. If Ares had his own ideas, then needless to say, the biggest beneficiary would definitely be Ares, who played both sides.
He helped Goddess Leto, first gaining the favor of Artemis and Apollo, the siblings. Secondly, Zeus would also somewhat let go of his prejudice against this son of his. And Hera, on her side, also thought Ares was working hard for her future. By stepping forward this time, Ares simultaneously gained the favor of three great gods on Olympus.
This was entirely beneficial to him, so after gaining Hera's consent, Ares quietly left, returned to the God of War Palace, took his weapons and equipment, then leaped from Olympus, falling into the depths of the sea, arriving at the isolated island in the ocean formed by the meteor goddess Asteria.
Asteria was Goddess Leto's sister. Because Heavenly Queen Hera had forbidden the earth from providing her a place to give birth, this sister stepped forward and prepared a birthing place for her sister. When Ares arrived here, he could see that besides this floating island, which would later be known as "Delos Island," four massive adamantine pillars had also risen from the sea. These four pillars helped the drifting Delos Island stabilize itself. Ares felt a divine power containing thunder from these four pillars, which was clearly also Zeus's doing.
As Ares looked at these four pillars, he wondered if it was his imagination, but he always felt a gaze descending from the sky, falling upon him. He feared that if he had come to harm Goddess Leto on Hera's behalf, inexplicable lightning would fall from the sky.
However, Ares's purpose for this trip was to help Goddess Leto, so he openly withdrew his gaze and ignored the power and pressure Zeus focused on him. He walked directly into the depths of the floating island, arriving outside a solitary temple on the island.
He did not restrain his presence, so when he arrived outside the temple, someone was already waiting at the temple entrance.
It was a maiden, dressed in a moon-white gown, of great beauty, and from her emanated a new, and somewhat similar to Ares's origin, divine power. Although this divine power was not yet as strong as his current power, it already showed the nascent might of a future great god.
The maiden held a divine bow in her hand. Upon seeing Ares, she immediately drew her bow and nocked an arrow, aiming it in Ares's direction and threatening, "Stop! Who are you? State your name!"
Ares looked at the maiden: white hair, large breasts, a serious expression that always seemed to carry a hint of foolishness. Indeed, it was undeniably that love-struck virgin goddess who forcibly squeezed into her man's Spirit Origin on the card. So he looked up at the sky, sighed softly, lamenting his tragic fate.
Seeing Ares suddenly sighing towards the sky for some unknown reason, the nascent goddess Artemis was somewhat bewildered. However, because her mother was giving birth to her brother in the temple behind her, she did not relax her vigilance at all.
Seeing Artemis's stance, Ares voluntarily took a step back, then released his grip on his sword hilt and spread his hands to show he had no hostile intentions.
"I am Zeus and Hera's son, the God of War of Olympus, Ares." He introduced himself to Artemis, "You might not believe it, but I've come here to help you."
"Why would Hera's son help us?" Artemis asked, disbelievingly.
"Because I am not only Hera's son, but also Zeus's son, just like you," Ares said, pointing towards the temple, "In the future, we will all gather on Olympus eventually, and I don't want to be antagonized by you for such a reason. As fellow children of Zeus, we are all siblings, and I think it's better for us to get along well."
Artemis hesitated upon hearing this. She kept glancing into the temple, from which came her mother's painful sounds of giving birth to Apollo, making her very worried.
Artemis was born with the authority of a goddess of childbirth. Her divine power could greatly alleviate Goddess Leto's pain, but Artemis was truly unable to feel at ease about Ares, this "Hera's son."
Fortunately, the standoff between the two did not last long. Outside Delos Island, the sky slowly grew dark, and a huge monster on the sea had already shattered the storms and waves raised by Poseidon, heading towards Delos Island.
Seeing this, Ares turned directly towards the beach and said to Artemis, "I'll go deal with Python. Goddess Leto is about to give birth; let her give birth first, let her give birth first."
With that, he disregarded whatever Artemis behind him might think and walked out on his own, arriving at the sea.
With one step, Ares's body grew with the wind. After taking three steps, his body had swelled to a size capable of fighting the Titans of old. Although even at this height, he was still just a "midget" in front of the Titans who once propped up the sky, it was more than enough to deal with the giant snake Python.
As if sensing Ares was about to do something, the storms and waves on the ocean quietly receded. Losing the natural disaster that blocked its way, the venomous Python's speed increased. It rode the wind and waves, and in less than two minutes, it had already arrived near Delos Island. Its huge body was half submerged in the sea, half standing upright on the water. On its black, inverted triangular head, Python's fierce eyes were tightly fixed on the tall God of War blocking its path, its eyes filled with confusion.
It had been ordered by Hera to come and kill Goddess Leto, but now the God of War, Hera's son, stood in its way, preventing it from acting.
However, Ares paid no attention to the confused Python. Upon seeing the monster stop, he had already summoned his spear, raised his divine shield, and prepared for battle.