After this series of actions, Ares successfully made his clone one of Heracles's teachers.
Good concepts should be instilled from a young age. Ares did not want Heracles to grow up into a tyrannical scoundrel like Zeus. In his opinion, Zeus's blame could even be placed on Gaia, because in the beginning, Zeus, who had escaped from Cronus's clutches, was clearly raised by someone sent by the planetary suppressive force.
Although he didn't know which irresponsible scoundrel raised him, it was clear that Zeus's foster parent only took responsibility for raising him, not for teaching him, which led to Zeus becoming who he is today.
However, now, with Ares's clone in charge of early education, he wasn't worried about Heracles becoming like Zeus. Fortunately, because the moral and ethical concepts of the Greek gods were generally below the normal human standard, Ares only needed to teach Heracles to be a normal person, which would be enough for him to become a morally upright and pure-hearted Hero in Greece.
Heracles was temporarily stabilized, but at the same time as his birth, many Argo Heroes were also born in the Greek World in the same era, such as Atalanta, Theseus, Peleus, and so on. It's worth noting that the Argo of the golden-haired Jason carried a total of fifty famous Greek Argo Heroes. Although in Ares's view, the quality of these fifty people varied, and the character of many could hardly be called "Hero," these fifty Greek Argo Heroes were all objects of contention and struggle between him and Athena.
Fortunately, Ares did not intend to control all fifty of these Argo Heroes. He already felt that a portion of them were unworthy as Argo Heroes, and frankly, apart from Heracles, the other Argo Heroes would be mostly useless in his war against Olympus.
Therefore, apart from a few whom he considered victims of the gods' conspiracies and would try to rescue, he only needed to protect the great Hero Heracles and prevent him from falling into darkness.
Heracles's matters temporarily came to an end. Inside the Hall of Ares, Ares's divine power clone stood up. He was pondering whether to remind Artemis to pay attention to any female infants that might be abandoned in the wilderness by irresponsible kings who favored sons over daughters, but just then, his brother, Apollo, walked over with an anxious expression and called out to him:
"Ares, are you free now?"
"What's wrong?" Ares temporarily put aside his thoughts and asked, "Did someone steal your stuff again?"
"Mm." Apollo said, though he didn't seem very angry.
Ares then asked curiously, "Is it cattle again?"
"No." Apollo shook his head. "This time, someone stole my woman."
"Huh?!" Ares was greatly astonished. "Stole your woman? Doesn't that mean they cuckolded you? Why aren't you angry?"
"Because I've already dealt with the woman who cuckolded me," Apollo shook his head.
"What happened?" Seeing Apollo's hesitation and incomplete explanation, Ares sensed something was amiss and pressed for details.
Under his repeated questioning, Apollo finally revealed the truth to him.
It turned out that some time ago, Apollo's lover, Hyacinthus, had accidentally died during a date, hit by a discus Apollo himself had thrown. Apollo was heartbroken, but during this time, he fell in love with a woman named Coronis.
Various unmentionable things happened during this period. In short, this woman later became pregnant with his child, but during this process, she fell in love with another man named Ischys. A crow came and informed Apollo, who then flew into a rage and directly shot the woman. Her lover Ischys was also shot by Apollo's sister, Artemis, when she came to his defense.
However, at this time, because Coronis was already pregnant, Apollo, before her cremation, cut open her belly and took out the still-living child inside.
This was nothing. In this era, even if a king was betrayed, many would kill their queen. From gods to mortals, the status of women in the age of gods was generally lower than that of men. Except for people like Ares, who had concepts from the 21st century, few would treat women of equal standing with equality.
Not to mention Apollo was a noble god. Currently, his prestige among the general public in the Greek World was even higher than that of Ares, Zeus, and others. For such a god to be cuckolded, his merely killing the adulterer and his own woman was already considered merciful to the Greeks.
However, after finishing, Apollo then said in a somewhat ashamed whisper:
"Actually, Coronis didn't betray me. Ischys was just her servant, and nothing happened between them…"
"Ah?" Ares widened his eyes upon hearing this. "Then didn't you kill the wrong person?"
"Yes." Apollo coughed and mumbled, "So I turned the crow that informed me into black. But Coronis's soul has already gone to Hades, and I can't get her back. I can only try to compensate her."
"Oh." Ares thought for a moment. "So what does that have to do with you coming to me? I can't go to Hades to get her soul back for you."
Actually, he could, but Ares and Hecate didn't want to set a precedent for such things.
"This…" Apollo hesitated, then beckoned to Ares, "You'll know if you come with me."
Ares, full of suspicion, followed Apollo to his Temple of Light. Inside the temple, Ares saw a small cradle, and in it, a white-haired male infant was quietly sleeping, sucking his thumb.
"His name is Asclepius, my child with Coronis."
Apollo scratched his golden hair, somewhat distressed, and said:
"But he's just a demigod. Olympus can't accept him, and I don't know where to raise him…"
"Why didn't you consider this when you were busy doing the deed?" Ares questioned with a pair of dead fish eyes.
"Hehe." Apollo chuckled softly, a bit embarrassed. "At that time, who had the mind to think about that?"
Ares stared at the infant and asked again:
"What did you say his name was just now?"
"Asclepius."
Asclepius… Oh, the Greek Dr. Asclepius.
Ares remembered the legend of this child. Asclepius was the best physician in the Greek World and had a compassionate heart. Through his efforts, the number of Deaths throughout Greece greatly decreased, and Hades's Underworld was even empty of phantoms for a time.
Asclepius's medical skills also reached a level where he could snatch people from Hades's grasp. What he was most famous for was the immortality elixir he concocted using the Gorgon's blood bestowed by Athena.
However, because Asclepius's medical skills were too profound, Zeus felt that if this continued, humans would no longer fear Death, and his authority as the King of Gods would be completely gone. So he simply sent down a divine lightning bolt, directly striking down the innocent Asclepius.
This Dr. Asclepius was also one of the Argo Heroes on the Argo, and he was also a Hero Ares planned to recruit. So, after some thought, Ares said to Apollo:
"This is easy. I know the best babysitter in the world. I'll help you entrust this child to him for upbringing."