Perseus, of the constellation Perseus, Zeus's son with Danaë, was imprisoned in a high tower by her father, Acrisius, due to a prophecy that the child born to Princess Danaë would eventually kill his father. During this time, Zeus transformed into golden rain and met with her, and from their union, Perseus was born. He was also, in the original myth, the Goddess of WisdomAthena's foremost sycophant.
After Hecate's calculations, Perseus had not yet been born in this world. Oddly enough, Heracles's mother, Alcmene, was supposed to be Persephone's granddaughter in legend.
After Ares told Hecate about this, the Moon Goddess thought for a moment and then replied, "Perhaps the flow of this world was altered the moment Ares transformed into Cadmus."
The course of history was forcibly accelerated by him, and the stories of numerous Argo Heroes were rapidly pushed to the forefront by an unseen hand.
This matter itself was not a big deal. Although Heracles and Perseus are two of the few Argo Heroes in greek mythology confirmed to be blood relatives, the timeline of greek mythology is inherently very chaotic. Within Greece, due to the belief in polytheism, there were numerous sects, and the legends of each sect differed. Furthermore, each sect hoped that their main gods and Argo Heroes could lord over other sects.
Over time, this led to the peculiar phenomenon of a chaotic greek mythology timeline. If one were to truly follow the timeline of greek mythology, putting everything else aside, just taking the Argo Heroes as an example, more than half of the fifty Argo Heroes who sailed with Heracles died at his hands either before or during the Argo Heroes' voyage.
Could it be that the Argo Heroes was a new 'Battle Royale' map at sea? Was Heracles the toxic zone at sea? It seems highly unlikely.
Therefore, Ares did not take this matter too seriously. Although this might be a sign that he had altered some fate, as Hecate said, fate had already been changed the moment he interfered with the affairs of humanity in the Silver Age.
However, Perseus's identity as Athena's foremost sycophant and Zeus's son was still an excellent bargaining chip to exploit. Ares put a lot of thought into crafting this identity.
He first went to Argos, found Princess Danaë, who was imprisoned in a high tower by King Acrisius of Argos, rescued her with divine power, and then sent her to live in Sparta, the sanctuary of Ares.
Subsequently, Hecate, in her capacity as Regent of the Underworld, ordered Hypnos, the God of Sleep, to personally visit Olympus. He used his divine power to make Zeus, who was engaged in intimate activities with Ganymede, fall into a deep slumber, and then made him dream of transforming into golden rain and meeting the human princess Danaë.
Hypnos is a second-generation god. Although he usually lives a bit numbly and is a bit simple-minded, his skills are not to be underestimated. Although he cannot defeat Zeus, he can make Zeus fall into a dream. As for Zeus himself, if he gives him a spring dream, he will certainly not blame the God of Sleep. Besides, he himself doesn't know how many women he has been with, so he will most likely take this spring dream as real.
The only one to be careful of is Athena, and that's easy to handle. After gaining control of Persephone, a great weapon against Athena, in the Underworld, whenever Ares needs to cause trouble, he only needs to go to the Queen of the Underworld's palace and tell Persephone to take her to play with Athena. Then the Queen of the Underworld will be very happy to help Ares distract Athena's attention.
Next was Perseus's physical problem, which was also easy to handle. With the selfless dedication of the friendly Poseidon's son, Halirrhothius, Ares and Hecate had long understood the physical structure of the fourth-generation gods. As for a demigod body, that was even simpler.
Ares already had Zeus's blood in his body. He only needed to extract some spiritual particles from it, and Hecate could effortlessly create a demigod body with Zeus's bloodline.
And ever since his identity as Cadmus was seen through by the Goddess of FateKroto last time, Ares had implemented various protective measures on his clones. These were all magic and sorcery taught to him by Hecate, used to block the perception of the suppression force.
As for why Hecate knows this kind of magic, well, she's a sorceress, don't ask, just say it's for work.
Under Chiron's intentional or unintentional guidance, Perseus quickly mingled with a group of Greece's future Argo Heroes and soon stood out among them, becoming the strongest, even Heracles was not his match.
After all, Heracles was still a bare-bottomed child at that time, possessing divine power but lacking mature martial arts and combat experience. He simply couldn't defeat a small account personally controlled by Ares.
However, one day, just as Ares was controlling Perseus's small account, beating a group of future Greek Argo Heroes until they screamed, Hecate suddenly appeared beside Ares's main body and asked him,
"Ares, I want to discuss something with you."
According to the time, Hecate should be on duty in Hades's black palace right now, but Ares was used to her acting as the temporary Queen of the Underworld, working three days and resting two. Originally, her clone was covering for her in Hades's palace. When subordinates like the Twin Gods, the Three Judges, or the Styx Ferryman asked her questions, Hecate's clone would only answer with a concise "Approved" or "Not Approved."
And the only major concern in the Underworld, Persephone, had also been controlled by Hecate and Ares using the "Athena Doll" method. She stayed in her palace every day, playing intimate games with that doll, so happy that she forgot to return.
Therefore, it was not strange for Hecate to be leisurely strolling around at this time.
However, Ares had never seen such a hesitant expression on Hecate's face, so he asked,
"Alright, teacher, what do you want to discuss with me?"
"It's like this."
Hecate carefully considered her words, then slowly said,
"Ares, would you mind having another younger sister?"
"A younger sister?" Ares asked in surprise, "Are you pregnant? Or is Hera pregnant again? When did this happen?"
"It's not about that," the Moon Goddess said, "I'm talking about a junior disciple, a junior disciple!"
She explained the matter in detail to Ares, and then Ares understood.
It turned out that in earlier years, Hecate had owed a favor to Helios, God of the Sun. After the emergence of humans, Helios, following the footsteps of Zeus, had also left his bloodline on Earth. His descendants became royalty and then established a kingdom on Colchis.
Colchis had now passed down to King Aeetes's generation. King Aeetes had a beloved daughter who was found to possess extraordinary magical talent from a young age. According to the requirements Ares had put forth to human ancestors in the Silver Age, such a promising individual naturally needed proper education to help her achieve her potential.
So, King Aeetes prayed to Helios, hoping the Sun God would use his authority to help this princess find a sufficiently high-ranking teacher. At this time, Helios remembered Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, who had already retreated into the Underworld. He used their past connection to approach her, hoping Hecate could take this princess as her apprentice.
"King Aeetes's sister Circe is also one of my subordinate deities; I taught her some magic in the early years," Hecate said. "This family is also my distant relative, so when Helios came to me, I couldn't ignore him."
"So that's it." Ares thought for a moment and couldn't help but find it amusing. He said, "Teacher, I didn't expect you to even ask for my opinion on taking on an apprentice. Isn't taking on an apprentice something you should decide on your own?"
"Yes," Hecate said, narrowing her eyes at Ares. "If my first disciple hadn't provoked the planetary suppression force and only had two hundred years to live, forcing me, his teacher, to help him hide things, I would have already brought in a second disciple."
Hearing Hecate's words, Ares awkwardly rubbed his nose and, changing the subject, asked, "What's this princess's name?"
"Medea." Hecate thought for a moment and replied, "I remember that's the correct name."
"Medea?"
Hearing this name, Ares was startled. This princess was closely connected to the myth of the Argo Heroes, and in the future, she would be a prominent figure on the Heroic Spirit Throne. Her magical skills were indeed very superb and exquisite. The myth did not elaborate on who Medea learned her magic from, but now it seems her magic was very likely taught by Hecate, the Goddess of Magic.
And the birth of this princess also indicated that the Argo Heroes on the Argo Heroes would begin their adventures within a few years.
So, after thinking for a moment, Ares said to Hecate, "Teacher, taking on this apprentice is no problem, but please allow me to prepare first."
"What do you need to prepare?"
Hecate asked with some curiosity.
"A new identity," Ares replied without looking back. "Teacher, it's better to be safe than sorry. Although Princess Medea is just an innocent little girl right now, I don't want to expose our secret in front of her. If she were to reveal it in the future, our master-disciple duo would probably have to go study magic with the Titans. Medea can become Hecate's disciple, but she must be the third disciple."
After hearing this, Hecate agreed with the reasoning. So, she waved her hand and said, "Do as you please then. I'll go bring Medea over now. Hurry up!"
"Mm."
...
During the time Hecate left the Underworld to go to Colchis to pick up her new apprentice, Perseus, who was originally chasing and hitting Heracles with a spear, suddenly threw down his spear and looked towards the horizon.
Heracles, who was desperately swinging a wooden stick, trying to block Perseus's spear, stopped in surprise when he saw this. He looked at him and asked,
"Perseus, what's wrong?"
"Heracles, there's a limit to martial arts," Perseus said with a weathered tone. "I've learned one thing from this short life: the more humans delve into martial arts, the more they perceive its limits and fall into difficulties, unless they transcend the limitations of martial arts."
"What do you mean? Perseus, what are you talking about?" Heracles asked, confused.
"What I mean is!" Perseus stomped his foot abruptly, pointed at a group of Argo Heroes he had beaten black and blue, and loudly declared, "I'm not learning martial arts anymore! Heracles!"
After speaking, he laughed heartily and ran into the distance, leaving only his words in the wind: "I want to transcend martial arts! With magic!"
Hearing Perseus's wild laughter, a group of young Argo Heroes were terrified, and Heracles put down his wooden stick, turning to Chiron who had walked out and was looking at Perseus's retreating figure. He asked,
"Teacher, has Perseus gone mad?"
"Don't mind him, let him be," Chiron gently lowered his head, stroked Heracles's head, and then said loudly, "Even if Perseus leaves, don't slack off on your training. Come, continue. The most important thing in learning is constant review, and this is the same in martial arts. Pick up your weapons; today's training is far from over."