In the imaginary space at the bottom of Tartarus, the flow of time was chaotic compared to the outside world.
When Ares came out and successively connected with his clones, restoring his mental link with each of them, he was astonished to find that five years had passed in the outside world since he and Hecate entered Tartarus.
Fortunately, before Ares followed Hecate, he had separated a part of his consciousness and maintained his clones in their respective working states, which prevented his clones on Olympus from being exposed by the gods. Although this carried the risk of mental fragmentation, Ares only used it as a temporary stopgap, so there was no major issue.
Many significant events had occurred within these five years. First, there was the succession of divine authority on Olympus: Zeus brought Hermes to Olympus, and during this period, Hades also voluntarily withdrew from the ranks of the Twelve Great Gods of Olympus, ceding his position to Hermes.
Moreover, after this little scoundrel arrived at Olympus and took over Hades's position, he immediately took a liking to Aphrodite, who had just divorced Hephaestus and was unattached. With Zeus's encouragement, he succeeded, which made Hermes even more loyal to his old father.
Secondly, Prometheus finally took that step for humanity. He once again deceived Zeus, dividing a bull into two parts: one was good meat covered with hide, and the other was bones covered with suet.
Zeus chose the bones. Of course, Ares didn't believe that Zeus, the God King, who was nearing his peak in the Greek Pantheon, couldn't see through Prometheus's little trick. However, Zeus definitely did it on purpose, then seized the opportunity to rage and hang Prometheus, who had asked for trouble, on Mount Caucasus, having an eagle peck at his liver daily.
Ares could even clearly discern Zeus's thoughts: even if this ritual had binding power over all gods, the human species created by Prometheus would be destroyed sooner or later, so whether this ritual existed or not made little difference.
This idea was perfect and correct, but unfortunately, at least in Ares's perception, among Zeus's children, at least he and Athena, two main gods, did not wish for humanity to be destroyed.
Others, like Apollo and Hephaestus, might also harbor pity in their hearts for this species that was like the gods.
The gods on Olympus, regarding this matter, were not entirely in agreement with Zeus, the God King.
However, despite saying so, the gods of Olympus outwardly followed Zeus's instructions, slowly acting to destroy humanity.
On the day Ares reintegrated his consciousness and took over his God of War clone on Olympus, Ares, who was on a routine patrol of Olympus, suddenly encountered Hephaestus on the road.
This was not uncommon. Although Hephaestus was a severe homebody, he would occasionally come out to stroll along the Olympus corridor and get some fresh air after work.
What surprised Ares was that Hephaestus had some bruises on his face, looking as if he had been beaten by someone.
"Hephaestus, what happened to you?" Ares walked over and carefully examined Hephaestus's unremarkable face: "Did someone hit you?"
He asked in surprise, "Did you anger Zeus?"
In Ares's perception, on Olympus, apart from Zeus and himself, there didn't seem to be any other god who dared to beat Hephaestus.
"No." Hephaestus shook his head, his expression looking a bit awkward.
"Not Zeus?" Ares's face showed surprise, "Then who? Who else would dare to hit you?"
Hephaestus looked up at the sky, his face resembling a middle-aged man smoking, then sighed, "It was Athena."
"What? Athena? She dared to hit you?" Ares indignantly rolled up his sleeves: "She's gone too far! Does she really not know who the boss is among the fourth generation of gods on Olympus? Don't worry, I'll go find her and demand an explanation!"
After speaking, Ares angrily started to walk towards the Goddess of Wisdom's temple. Seeing this, Hephaestus quickly pulled him back and shouted, "Don't go, don't go! This is my fault, I deserved the beating, I deserved it!"
Ares stopped, turned his head, and asked suspiciously, "Really? Could it be that woman has some leverage over you?"
"Oh, no, really." Hephaestus was a bit shy. He looked left and right, then pulled Ares to a secluded, deserted corner and quietly told him, "You are my best brother, so I'll tell you the truth. This is what happened…"
After hearing Hephaestus explain the whole story, Ares understood what had happened.
It turned out that to deal with humanity, Zeus had initiated the mythical "Pandora" project. He ordered Hephaestus to create a new human in the likeness of a goddess, then have her seduce the foolish Epimetheus, who still lived on Earth and led humanity, and incidentally bring various calamities to the human race.
Hephaestus accepted the order but faced difficulty when choosing a model.
Zeus's requirement was to make Pandora as beautiful as possible. Logically, Hephaestus should have invited his ex-wife Aphrodite to be the model. However, 'ex-wife' implied that the conflict between Hephaestus and Aphrodite was irreconcilable, especially since Aphrodite immediately got involved with Hermes after he ascended Olympus.
Hephaestus didn't want to find his ex-wife, and he estimated Aphrodite wouldn't agree anyway. So, after much thought, Hephaestus simply chose Athena, a goddess he admired.
As the saying goes, men and women working together are most likely to spark passion, at least Hephaestus thought so. During the creation process with Athena as the model, the more he looked, the more beautiful he found Athena to be, even more beautiful than his ex-wife Aphrodite.
And during Pandora's creation, Athena, the talkative goddess, also chatted and laughed with Hephaestus, occasionally showing charming and approving smiles, which gave Hephaestus the illusion that Athena was also slowly falling for him.
So, when he felt the atmosphere was right, the clumsy Hephaestus, in a rough manner like forging iron, proposed to Athena.
Then he was violently beaten by the angry virgin goddess, turning him into his current state.
"Sigh, I told you long ago, Athena wouldn't fall for you, why didn't you believe me?" After listening, Ares lost interest in troubling Athena. He patted Hephaestus's shoulder and said to him, "Listen to me, let Hera arrange for you to marry one of the Three Goddesses of Grace or a similar goddess. Although they aren't the most beautiful, at least they won't cause you so much trouble, and you can live a good life with her."
Hephaestus was somewhat unwilling but eventually nodded. He covered his eyes, and tears shimmered through his fingers: "Brother, you're right. Ugly people don't deserve love."
"…" Ares was speechless, unable to respond.
"Oh, right." Hephaestus, who was lamenting the unfairness of divine life, seemed to remember something and looked up at Ares again: "I've moved Pandora's model to the God King's Hall. Zeus and the others are blessing that woman. You should go there quickly too."