The God of War, a being who symbolized raw strength and absolute authority—someone whose name alone once made armies tremble—was now being called a liar to his face. For a moment the words hung in the air, heavy and impossible to ignore. It was not simply an insult. It was a challenge to everything Ares believed himself to be.
"No one has ever dared to talk to me like that!" Ares roared.
The ancient war god's arrogance had always been towering, but now it twisted into pure fury. Violent lightning burst from his blazing eyes as divine power erupted from his towering body. The energy exploded outward like a nuclear blast, surging across the battlefield in a destructive wave.
Boom! Boom!
The reinforced concrete fortress surrounding them crumbled instantly, collapsing like fragile sheets of paper under the pressure. Massive slabs of concrete shattered and flew through the air as the shockwave tore through the structure.
Shabak raised both arms in front of him, bracing himself with everything he had to block the overwhelming surge of divine power. The demonic warrior gritted his teeth as the blast hammered into him like a tidal wave.
Diana reacted just as quickly. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and lifted her shield in front of her body. The force slammed into it with terrifying power, pushing her backward despite her strength. Her boots dragged through the stone floor, carving two deep trenches as she struggled to hold her position.
Across the battlefield, purple ripples of energy spread across Victor Kent's body. The cosmic power surrounding him clashed directly against the violent divine aura sweeping toward him.
A massive section of wall, weighing several tons, was ripped loose by the shockwave and hurled straight toward him.
Buzz!
A beam of purple energy sliced through the flying debris with surgical precision. The wall split cleanly into two perfectly smooth halves that whizzed past him on either side before crashing to the ground.
Victor didn't even glance at the wreckage. His eyes remained fixed on the figure rising into the sky.
"Mortal," Ares said slowly, his voice echoing like distant thunder. "I admire your courage."
Fragments of steel scattered around the ruins suddenly began to vibrate. As if drawn by an invisible force, the broken metal pieces shot toward Ares and fused together around his body.
The steel melted and reshaped itself, forming a thick and brutal suit of armor that covered him from head to toe. The armor looked savage and ancient, radiating an aura of ferocious beauty that perfectly matched the god who wore it.
Ares stood suspended in the air, stepping onto nothingness as if the sky itself supported him.
A battle axe gradually formed in his hand, its blade forged from the same molten steel. The weapon pulsed with terrifying divine power that made the surrounding air feel heavy and suffocating.
"But today," Ares continued coldly, "you will learn the consequences of offending the gods."
"God?" Victor replied calmly.
His voice carried no anger, no fear, only quiet certainty.
"You're not qualified to call yourself a god in front of me—a mortal."
The words were spoken as if they were nothing more than a simple statement of fact.
Ares's expression twisted with fury.
"Mortal, you are too arrogant!"
Like a falling meteor, the war god dove from the sky. His massive battle axe swung downward with terrifying force, cutting through the air with enough power to split mountains.
Diana sensed something strange in Victor's words and immediately reacted.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, she hurled the Lasso of Truth toward Ares to help restrain him.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The golden rope shot forward at incredible speed, extending through the air like a streak of sunlight before wrapping tightly around the charging war god.
But Ares only glanced at it.
The raging storm of divine power surrounding him exploded outward, instantly blasting the legendary artifact away.
"My sister," Ares said with chilling indifference. "Wait until I finish dealing with this mortal. Then I'll come for you."
His attack was already descending.
The ground beneath Victor's feet sank several inches under the pressure of the compressed air waves created by the incoming strike.
Victor clenched his fist.
Cosmic energy gathered instantly in his palm, compressing into a dense, translucent sphere of glowing purple light. Without hesitation, he thrust his fist forward to meet the descending axe.
Shabak watched the scene in disbelief.
Facing the enraged ancient God of War, Victor was actually meeting the attack head-on—with his bare hands.
It was madness.
Throughout human history, warfare had always revolved around weapons and steel. Even the most powerful warriors relied on blades, spears, and armor.
Although Ares's weapon had been forged from ordinary steel fragments, once infused with the authority of the God of War, it became something far more terrifying.
It was now one of the hardest and most destructive weapons in the world.
With a single strike, even vast plains could be torn open and transformed into deep canyons.
Bang!!
The ground detonated as if millions of tons of explosives had been triggered at once. A massive shockwave blasted outward, sending waves of shattered earth rolling away like a violent tide.
At the center of the newly formed crater, Ares swung his axe again and again with furious intensity.
His eyes widened slightly.
The figure beneath his attack had not been torn apart.
Under the massive axe blade, a single fist was blocking the strike.
"Only those who possess power beyond human imagination," Victor said calmly, "can be called gods."
He had taken the full force of the attack without suffering the slightest injury.
Cosmic energy exploded from his fist, surging forward like a violent storm.
"And compared to me," Victor continued, "your strength is actually pretty weak."
A ferocious force pushed back against the axe. Ares staggered a step backward as Victor immediately followed up with another punch.
The ancient war god's anger deepened further.
"Put away your worthless arrogance," Victor said coldly. "Fight properly. I'd rather not have the process of killing you be so boring that there's nothing memorable about it."
"Kill me?" Ares repeated, his voice dripping with disbelief.
"How dare you say that, mortal."
Despite his fury, Ares could not ignore what he had just witnessed. The man before him possessed power equal to his own.
Shock and rage twisted together as he swung his battle axe again.
The strikes were wide and devastating, each one carrying enough force to shatter mountains.
Bang! Bang!
Victor moved through the storm of attacks with surprising composure.
Sometimes he countered with bursts of energy. Other times he met the axe head-on with his fists.
Even while battling the furious eldest son of the Heavenly Father, Victor showed no sign of weakness. In fact, he appeared far calmer than the raging god he was fighting.
Ever since the Black Emperor template's synchronization had surpassed sixty percent, his ability to absorb kinetic energy had increased dramatically.
Victor analyzed the situation even as he fought.
"Ares's armor and battle axe are only temporary constructs," he realized. "The real weapons he used during the ancient wars aren't here."
"They must have been destroyed—or lost—during the rebellion against the Olympian gods."
If Ares still possessed the legendary weapon that had once nearly killed Darkseid, Victor wouldn't dare block his attacks so casually.
Buzz!
Victor dodged another savage swing of the axe and raised his palm to strike back.
Ares immediately blocked the attack with one armored arm. The furious God of War endured the blast of energy with his powerful body and roared as he lunged forward.
"A mortal dares to speak of killing gods?" he snarled.
"I promise your head will become my trophy."
Ares's face twisted with savage excitement as lightning erupted from his axe.
Even if this mortal possessed strength equal to his own, Ares believed the final victor could only be him.
Clang!
Suddenly, a sharp metallic impact rang through the battlefield.
An attack came from behind.
Ares sensed the danger instantly. He spun around and raised his axe to block just as Diana's weapon struck.
The Vulcan Sword slammed into the blade.
The invisible edge of the weapon sliced into Ares's axe head, nearly splitting the entire weapon in two.
"Victor was right," Diana said firmly. "You really did lie to me."
Her eyes lit up with realization.
From her perspective, the sword in her hands still looked like nothing more than a simple hilt. Yet despite lacking a visible blade, it had just cut through the weapon of the God of War.
"With that sword," Ares growled darkly, "you and that mortal will share the same fate."
His trick exposed, the war god's expression turned grim.
He trapped the sword against his axe and suddenly lifted his leg, kicking toward Diana with overwhelming force.
"You haven't even awakened your divine power yet," he sneered. "In my eyes, you're just a child swinging an adult's weapon."
Diana's face hardened with anger.
She crossed her bracelets in front of her body to block the incoming strike.
But before Ares's kick could land, a torrent of purple energy blasted into him.
The explosion hurled him backward through the air.
After tumbling several times across the ground, Ares finally managed to slow himself by digging his axe into the earth.
He rose slowly and glared toward Shabak with a dark expression.
"Useless trash."
Even though he had just been cursed at, Shabak didn't dare talk back. His expression twisted in humiliation as the wound across his chest began rapidly healing.
He glanced nervously toward Diana.
Originally, he had intended to stop her and create an opportunity for Ares to deal with the mortal alone. But the Vulcan Sword in Diana's hands could effortlessly slice through his defenses.
Several strikes had already forced him to retreat repeatedly.
The battlefield fell into a tense standoff.
Two stood on one side. Two on the other.
Their eyes locked together, murderous intent flashing like sparks in the air.
Compared to the three warriors who looked somewhat battered, Victor appeared completely unscathed. His clothes weren't even torn.
He stood calmly in the ruins, radiating quiet strength.
But the truth was more complicated.
Victor was actively manipulating energy to maintain that appearance.
"Just because I can block Ares's attacks with my bare hands," he thought, "doesn't mean I'm actually much stronger than him."
Absorbing kinetic energy made him extremely difficult to harm. As long as the incoming attacks didn't exceed the limit of what he could absorb, they were effectively meaningless against him.
Anything beyond that limit would still rely on the natural durability of his powerful body.
If an attack was truly overwhelming, it could still injure him.
"Kill them!" Ares suddenly roared.
The war god charged forward again, with Shabak immediately following his command.
Victor and Diana leapt into action at the same moment.
The four figures collided once more among the shattered ruins.
The mountain fortress built against the cliffs had long since been reduced to devastation.
Now the battlefield hosted four terrifying combatants.
One was the ancient God of War himself. One was the daughter of Zeus. Another possessed the powers of six demon kings of hell.
And the last was a mortal whose strength rivaled that of the gods.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The deafening shockwaves produced by their clashes echoed across the mountains.
Each collision of fists, weapons, and divine power shook the entire mountain as if the earth itself were trembling beneath their battle.
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.