Vol.5 Ch.9.2 – Ares II

Thank all the stars but Ares just followed us quietly. I had worried he'd be constantly abrasive but he was quiet, except for the grunts of effort that kept coming out of him as he trudged through the clouds.

I had made sure to use my appraiser's loupe on every single piece of gear he'd put on before we had left, just in case. And I had found that if I ever had to fight him I'd have my work cut out for me.

His breastplate had some absurd defensive enchantments on it and even with Helios Edge powered with my Qi techniques I wasn't sure I would be able to put a dent into it. His sandals gave him true footing to the point where nothing less than a cannonball would so much as rock him a step backwards. His arm guards were essentially impenetrable for anything less than a Mythic weapon like Athena's spear so if he ever had time to interpose his arms between his body and an attack there would be no way to harm him. Well, mostly. I was pretty sure a lance of fire washing over his body after he blocked a thrust from Helios Edge would still suck. And then there was his weapon. Ares carried with him an enormous sword called the Blade of Deimos, nearly as big as the one Albrecht carried, though looking much more refined. The blade was essentially a giant version of Helios Edge, capable of summoning swathes of fire to accompany his slashes and enchanted for sharpness and armor piercing besides. Nothing would stop slashes from this weapon cold. I was pretty sure a direct hit from it would shear Helios Edge's blade clean off.

As for why I went through the effort of checking out his gear? Well, even if he was on our side now, there were still a few outstanding debts between him and us and the sooner I could collect on them, the better. Not only that but I didn't fully trust him yet. There was still a chance, however slim, that he was the traitor we were looking for. It was unlikely and I will admit the main reason I still harbored suspicions about that was that Yume hoped he was the traitor but it nonetheless made me hesitant to trust him. But at the same time, even if he wasn't the traitor we were looking for that didn't mean that Ares was on our side. He had stated quite explicitly that he wanted to take my women from me, particularly Yume, and he had proven before that he wasn't above simply enslaving people he wanted.

And so I made sure to always keep myself between him and my women and I used a little mirror to keep the guy in my sights even as I walked ahead of him. If he showed even the slightest interest in attacking one of us I would do my best to cut him down. Because while his armor was tough and his arm guards were damn near impenetrable there was one weakness to his equipment, one that I had made sure to memorize: His head was not protected in any way, shape or form. If he turned out to be our enemy all I needed to do was to wait for him to turn his back so I could cut his fucking head off.

But for now he made no attempts of any kind. He simply followed us across the clouds, quite a bit slower than us because he refused to adopt our bunny hops. As ridiculous as they looked, with those bunny hops we quickly made our way to the next tholos on our way, the one belonging to Demeter. And unlike all the other tholoi we had seen thus far, the occupant was quite easy to tell from a ways away.

“Are those veggies growing on the clouds?” Selene asked in fascination.

They were. There were vegetable patches directly on the clouds. Squashes, peppers, cabbages and various root vegetables were growing in neat patches that surrounded one half of the rock spire of Demeter's tholos while the other side held patches of various berry bushes. Strawberries, blueberries, lingonberries and so on. There were no fruit trees though. Maybe they were too heavy for the clouds.

“Are the clouds really arable land?” I asked.

“They aren't,” Hermes said. “But that doesn't really matter to a goddess of the harvest, now does it?”

“Huh,” I said. I supposed it made sense. Well, no, it didn't make sense. But it made as much sense as Demeter's daughter Persephone's ability to grab fresh vegetables out of thin air.

“In all fairness, it requires an obscene amount of energy from Demeter,” Athena admitted, “so this is mostly a vanity project for her. Her and her clerics would probably be much more powerful if she didn't waste so much on this.”

“Now that sounds like the Demeter I know,” I said.

As we continued towards the tholos I noticed something weird though.

“Those cabbages aren't doing too well for being raised by a goddess of the harvest,” I said.

“I mean, she probably hasn't spent much time caring for these plants lately,” Alisha said.

“Yeah, but that doesn't seem to matter. The other plants are doing fine. But the cabbages...” They were brown and shrunken, looking somewhat rotten. And they smelled like... sea water? Weird.

“Let's get in there and save her,” Melinoe said. “I think that's a bit more important than the cabbages.”

“It is,” I agreed. But internally I couldn't help but think it weird.

And so we ascended up the steps to the tholos, then paused a moment for Ares to catch up with us. Credit where it was due, he was clearly exhausted from trudging through the clouds but he did his damndest not to let it show. When he had finally caught up we went the rest of the way up. And what we found there was... bad.

I had expected the goddess of the harvest to be surrounded by a group of goblins, either hiding behind some kind of barrier the way we had found Hestia or being violated by them but that was not what we found.

Demeter's tholos was an enormous plant nursery. Rows upon rows of flowerpots were arranged in concentric circles around a large four-poster bed, wine vines snaking their way around the posts. And on that bed was Demeter. Or rather, what was left of her.

Under ordinary circumstances Demeter was a stunning woman, her gorgeous looks belying her absolutely toxic personality. She had long, fluffy brown hair, ample curves and ever-so-slightly tanned skin. Her face should have been perfect except for the frown lines that made her look like a hateful crone whenever she was around people who didn't unquestioningly adore her. But that wasn't what she looked like right now.

Her limbs were gone. Not just gone but rotted off, the stumps a vile, gangrenous color. The rest of her body was bare to the world and it was a mess of bruises, swollen in places and dented in others, where ribs had been broken. Someone must have gone through great lengths to keep her alive through all the trauma.

And that someone was currently looming over her, rutting into her body like a madman, growling obscenities at her. Her face, twisted up in fury every time I'd beheld it, was caught in a look somewhere between rapture and horror, as though she was aware how much she had been hurt and disfigured but despite that she couldn't stop her body from reacting to the violation.

The figure doing it to her was, unfortunately, clad in a dark brown cloak, and it was a type I recognized. There was a specific type of magical cloak that, if worn, obscured the wearer's face and slightly muffled their voice for as long as it was being worn. They were absurdly expensive and outlawed in every major city of the kingdom but, surprise, criminals didn't much care about whether they were allowed to wear such things.

Most prominent of all, though, was the unpleasant smell that surrounded the man, like brackish water and manure. This was the guy Ares had told us about, I just knew it. The traitor who had helped the Holy Maiden conquer Olympus.

I was still considering how to approach the situation when Ares muscled his way past me. “Can't really blame you for doing that to old Dem but that doesn't mean I'm not going to knock your block off.”

“Ares,” the hooded god said, ceasing his thrusts into the barely responsive Demeter. He pulled out of her with a wet slurping sound and put his dick away before circling around to stand in front of the bed. “And an entire circus you brought with you. How delightful. The Holy Maiden and I were searching all over for some entertainment. The goblins finished off most of the theater performers while you were stuck in your little black blob, you see, and we've been terribly bored.”

“Only entertainment you're getting is when we string you up by your own intestines,” I said, moving forward to stand slightly behind Ares. If this was going to be a clash with a god I wanted the bastard to take the brunt of the damage. He could come back to life. I couldn't.

“So it's like that,” the hooded god said. His voice was a deep rumble, though thanks to the cloak's effect I didn't recognize it.

“Yeah,” Ares said, and then launched a huge haymaker at the hooded god.

The god reached out and caught Ares' fist, stopping it cold and causing an enormous blast of air that nearly knocked us all over. Then the god tried to slug Ares but Ares, likewise, caught the fist, creating another blast of air.

“Your time in that black sphere didn't weaken you I see,” the god said.

“And you didn't grow any stronger from fucking Dem into a mess,” Ares said, then leaned his head back and threw a savage headbutt at the hooded god.

The guy didn't rock back. He didn't crumple. Instead he flew away like a cannonball, out of the tholos, and went skipping along the clouds.

“That wasn't it, was it?” Anna asked but before Ares could answer her the hooded god righted himself, then cast a miracle that caused a geyser of water to blast out from his palms, which he used to launch himself back at Ares. A moment before impact the god spun around and launched a kick at Ares that sent him flying out of the tholos.

Remember what I said about Ares' sandals keeping him anchored to the ground? The fact that this guy could send him flying despite that told me everything I needed to know about how much I didn't want us to get hit by him.

I was about to draw my weapon and try to figure out some plan of attack but the god barely paid us any mind. Instead he launched himself off of the rock plateau to chase Ares down.

But Ares had already righted himself and was waiting for the cloaked god with his sword drawn. When the god had almost reached him he swung his blade through a wide arc, bellowing: “Raze! Flames of War!”

Instantly a wave of almost white-hot fire exploded out from him, and even from this far away I could feel the same greasy sensation on that miracle that I had felt from the collar Yume had worn. Apparently the fucker didn't just use these things, he created them.

But the hooded god was not impressed. As he soared through the air he summoned a cloak of water around himself and as the searing hot fire hit the water it caused an explosion of steam that blasted Ares off his feet.

By the time Ares got back up the hooded god had drawn his own weapon. I had assumed he hadn't wanted to draw a weapon before for fear of us recognizing him but unfortunately the weapon he drew didn't clear up anything.

He drew a greatsword. It was much larger than Helios Edge but still much more reasonably sized than Ares' Blade of Deimos and the blade looked weird. At first glance the blade seemed rusted over but then I realized that the orange I was seeing was copper. Whatever alloy this weapon was made of included a large amount of copper. I didn't see the benefit of that yet but I was sure this weapon would have some nasty properties.

“Nice toothpick you got there,” Ares taunted. “Just as tiny as your prick.”

“I can't tell you for how long I've wanted to shut you up, Ares,” the hooded god said and I had to admit I couldn't really blame him. “Drown all,” he intoned. “Befouled Tides!”

Instantly a maelstrom of brackish water began swirling around the two gods, hemming them in.

“Don't just stand there with your mouths hanging open or I'll take it as an invitation to shove my cock in there later!” Ares bellowed, clearly talking to us. “Get a move on! I'll take care of this little bitch!”

“He's right,” Hermes said. “Let's leave that to him.”

“Yeah,” I said, my mind already racing as I calculated just how good of a situation this was. We had found the traitor and him and Ares were fighting each other. Not only would we not have to deal with Ares' bullshit from now on, he was also keeping the Holy Maiden's most dangerous ally busy.

But for now that left us with... Demeter. I really, truly despised this woman but what had been done to her was vile. Or at least that's what I thought.

Demeter was lying on the bed, all her limbs gone and her expression suggesting that she was catatonic. The smell of rot mingled with the scent of her sex, a truly vile combination. By the time I reached the bed Melinoe was already leaning over her, cupping her cheek in one hand.

“Grandma, it's me,” Melinoe said, much more softly than what I had expected. From what I'd heard Melinoe's opinion of Demeter was worse even than my own, but right now she was almost tender with her.

Demeter opened her mouth and made animal noises. For a moment I thought her mind was too broken to speak but then I noticed that only a ragged mess of flesh was left of her tongue, almost as if that hooded god had bitten it off. Or maybe she had bitten off her own tongue as a form of attempted suicide. If so I couldn't really blame her with the state she was in.

“Grandma, I'm going to kill you now, is that alright with you?” It was possibly the most bizarre sentence I had ever heard but in this situation it truly was a gesture of kindness.

Demeter's eyes focused on Melinoe properly for the first time and then gave her a small nod.

Melinoe raised her ritual dagger and rammed it into Demeter's forehead. The goddess' mouth went slack for a moment and then her entire body vanished, only to reappear a foot away from where she'd vanished, except this time she was whole. And she was pissed. Just not in about the thing I had expected.

“Of all the people who had to come save me it had to be Felix bloody Tailor and my good-for-nothing granddaughter! What humiliation.”

“You're welcome, ma'am,” I said, because my Mom taught me to always be polite. Alright, no. It was because I knew there was no better way to piss Demeter off.

“You vile little shit-stain, don't think I will forget this humiliation.”

“You know we didn't actually have to save you, right?” I said. “I don't even expect gratitude from you, you nasty old crone, but a little less vitriol would be appreciated.”

She sat up and glared at me. I held her gaze without blinking.

“Demeter, we...” Athena began and instantly Demeter's gaze and ire snapped over to her.

“You brought this cur here, Tina? Really? Not just him but also that little harlot that Hades fucked into my daughter?”

“That's enough, Dem,” Hestia said, her voice colder than I had ever heard from her. “We didn't save you so you could insult everyone present. We need your help to save the rest of Olympus.”

“I would sooner beg that whoreson to violate me again than help these mongrels.” And at the words her hand nearly subconsciously went down to her crotch and began to softly rub.

Hestia slapped her. “Outsiders, Dem. We're under attack from Outsiders,” she said with emphasis. “You can have your little temper tantrum later but for now we need you. The world itself is at stake.”

“Let's just leave her,” I said.

“Are you serious?” Hestia asked.

“Ares is still fighting the traitor,” I said, the words punctuated by the sound of their weapons clashing outside. “We don't have the time to convince this walking liability that she should get her hands out of her cunt and help us.” Demeter's fingers instantly stopped their movements and she leveled me with an even fiercer glare than before.

“You're right,” Hestia said, getting off the bed, leaving Demeter sitting on it on her own.

We left the tholos, Demeter's glare following us the entire way out.