Ares had already started planning to exploit Hermes the moment he learned he was going to meet him with Apollo.
Unlike opinionated gods such as Apollo and Artemis, this kid had firmly stood on Zeus's side from the very beginning. He was untrustworthy and unapproachable, and later he even served as Zeus's eyes and ears. For someone with many secrets like Ares, the weaker Hermes was, the better.
Actually, Ares had originally wanted to snatch Hermes's winged sandals, which he relied on for survival. Without those shoes, Hermes would be useless as a god. However, Zeus would never stand by and watch one of his sons take away another son's divine artifact. What he wanted was a balance among his children; if they mutually restrained each other, no one could threaten him. But if one son became too strong, that would be problematic.
However, snatching Hermes's Caduceus was still a pure gain for Ares. He remembered that this staff had the ability to induce sleep. Although it couldn't make Zeus, the King of Gods, fall into a deep slumber like Hypnos, the God of Sleep in greek mythology, this staff at least possessed the power to put Argos, the hundred-eyed giant, to sleep.
With this Caduceus, Ares gained a lot more room for maneuver in his future plans.
Apollo, who had also come to demand an explanation, also obtained a new musical instrument from Hermes. Evidently, this instrument, named the "lyre," captivated Apollo, the God of Music. He even disregarded Ares's dissuasion and insisted on giving his brother two divine cattle, a male and a female.
Both Ares and Apollo were very satisfied with their gains from this trip. After returning from Argos, Apollo immediately took the lyre and went to study accompanying musical scores with his subordinate gods, the Muses.
Meanwhile, Ares created a burrowing marmot familiar, which carried Hermes's Caduceus all the way to Hecate's Tree Palace and handed the staff to her.
After carefully storing his "trophies" from this expedition, Ares threw his clone back onto the divine throne in the God of War Palace on Olympus, then continued to advance his plans by training those humans.
Several days later, one afternoon, as Ares's main body sat in the garden in front of Hecate's Tree Palace, deep in thought about a magical problem he had created for himself, a teleportation portal suddenly appeared. Then, a weary-looking Hecate slowly emerged from within it.
When she first stepped out of the portal, she was a tall, perfectly proportioned, beautiful woman with waist-length purple hair. After taking only two steps, she seemed to deflate, reverting back into the form of a small girl.
Seeing Hecate's sudden return, Ares blinked, then abruptly stood up and walked towards her.
"Teacher, you're back," he said, pulling a smile, and asked Hecate, "Have you figured out what that giant magic cube is?"
"Not yet, my power alone isn't enough." Hecate yawned and shook her head, "Let me recover first, then we can talk."
"Oh." Ares nodded. At this moment, Hecate peered towards the back of her Tree Palace, asking as she looked, "Where's my dog? Has he been eating well these past few days I was gone? Has he not torn anything of mine apart?"
She wanted to go to the doghouse in the back to check on Cerberus, but Ares subtly took a step across, using his height advantage to block Hecate's line of sight.
"Teacher, don't worry, that ungrateful dog has been eating and sleeping well these past few days, living a very healthy life." He forced a smile, showing concern for Hecate, "You look very tired. You should rest quickly. Come, come, let me help you make your bed and cover you with a blanket, okay?"
With that, Ares pushed Hecate's back, trying to guide her into the Tree Palace, but the Moon Goddess forcefully stopped. She turned to look at Ares and asked,
"What's wrong with you? Did you do something in my house while I was away? You never show me such a disgusting smile normally."
"W-what could I have done?" Ares said, shuffling his feet, glancing at the sky, and whistling.
"You definitely did something!" Hecate then turned and walked towards the backyard. "Move aside, let me go check back there!"
"Ah, wait a moment, Teacher." Ares spread his arms, trying to stop Hecate. However, as he reached to embrace Hecate's waist, Hecate in front of him suddenly turned into an illusion, scattering like purple butterflies. Behind him, the Moon Goddess's figure had silently appeared without him noticing, and she was walking towards the backyard.
"Ah, never mind, it's not like I could really hide it from her anyway," Ares thought to himself, looking at the purple butterflies filling the sky. "I still have a long way to go on the path of magic."
Seeing him squatting in place as if giving up resistance, Hecate looked at him suspiciously, then went to the backyard and immediately saw the sight that made her gasp.
In the goddess's backyard, there were two groups of people. One group consisted entirely of robust men, each one of them. They were shirtless, practicing various martial arts under the command of an Ares clone, sweating profusely. Their sweat flowed over their glistening muscles, even reflecting the sunlight. From time to time, one-on-one wrestling and boxing training would break out among these strong men, with occasional sounds of flesh colliding and the excited panting of the men.
The other group wore black robes that covered their entire bodies, even obscuring their faces. They sat together in a circle around an Ares clone, who was also wearing a hooded robe. The group was muttering something in low voices. Although Hecate could tell from the occasional words they spoke that they were discussing magic, no matter how she looked at them, this group did not seem like good people.
The Moon Goddess silently observed the two groups, then glanced at her demonic hound, which was curled up in its doghouse, intimidated by the War God's might. Her blood pressure instantly shot up, reaching a certain threshold.
"A—res! Get over here!"
…
A moment later, inside the Tree Palace, Hecate sat barefoot on her hammock, legs crossed, arms folded, and chin raised, still looking somewhat angry at Ares.
And the War God, who was always arrogant and confrontational even in front of the twelve Olympian gods, now sat obediently cross-legged before the Moon Goddess, bowing his head in apology:
"Teacher, I was wrong."
"So you do know you were wrong!" Hecate raised her voice, shaking her foot somewhat indignantly, and continued, "I am a goddess, after all. You brought so many humans here, to live on my territory, and they're all men! If you had to bring people, you should at least bring some women, right? What would Aunt Leto, Apollo, and Artemis think of me if they came here?"
Ares lowered his head and thought for a moment: "Praise Teacher for your great vitality?"
Slap!
As soon as he finished speaking, Hecate struck him on the head with a magic whip.
"Don't hit me, don't hit me, I know I was wrong." Although the magic whip couldn't break his defense at all, Ares still had to surrender to Hecate for the sake of those humans. "I really couldn't find anywhere else to settle these people. They won't stay here forever, Teacher. Just let me borrow this precious place for a while, okay?"
"Ha." Looking at Ares's attitude, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, Hecate sighed deeply. "Fine, ever since I took you as a disciple, my troubles haven't stopped. I knew I shouldn't have let you in… Are those humans outside the ones Prometheus asked you to hide for him?"
"No, he only asked me to help humanity when they faced a crisis of life and death." Ares replied, "But I thought this way would be more efficient and allow me to gain an advantage in the coming era, so I did it."
"Hmph, if you want to gain an advantage, that's fine." Hecate stroked her chin, her eyes darting around, then she raised a finger and said, "You can continue to keep those humans, but you have to do me a favor."