After arranging Amphitryon and Alcmene, leaving behind a stack of action guidelines, and entrusting the couple to the great Regent of the Underworld, Hecate, this divine avatar of Ares hastily departed the Underworld.
On the other side of Thebes, there was a youth in desperate straits, waiting for him to comfort and guide.
Ares quickly arrived before Heracles's residence. Upon seeing the huge hole in the house's wall, Ares realized he was already too late.
However, he had roughly anticipated such a result when he left to help Amphitryon and Alcmene, so while there was some regret, it wasn't a surprise.
Ares first stood outside Heracles's home, transforming himself into Heracles's mentor, the elderly priest of Thebes, before stepping into Heracles's house.
The hero's home was in disarray, as if a high-speed truck had crashed directly from outside the house all the way into the inner bedroom. All the walls along this straight line, from the outer wall to the inner bedroom, had huge holes smashed through them. It was clear that Heracles must have been in some kind of hallucination at the time, rushing into his home in extreme anxiety.
As Ares entered the house, he also sensed the crystal pendant he had given to Heracles earlier. Sure enough, his connection to the crystal pendant had disappeared, indicating that Heracles's pendant had been lost or destroyed for some reason.
Fortunately, ever since the ornament he gave to Medusa was crushed by Athena last time, Ares had left a contingency on that crystal pendant. Therefore, even if the crystal pendant was destroyed, Ares was not worried about not being able to catch Athena red-handed.
He continued forward, following the large hole smashed by Heracles, all the way into the bedroom. In this dilapidated bedroom, Ares saw Heracles. At this moment, the great hero of Thebes was kneeling blankly in the center of the bedroom, staring straight ahead. In front of him, his wife Mégara and their two children lay quietly in a pool of blood, long since lifeless.
Looking at Heracles at this moment, Ares sighed, his anger towards Athena, The Fates, and Gaia intensifying. Leaning on the priest's long staff, he came behind Heracles, stood silently for a moment, and then spoke:
"Heracles?"
Hearing his voice, Heracles turned his head blankly. After staring straight at Ares for a moment with those empty eyes, hot tears suddenly welled up.
"Teacher..."
He choked, trying not to cry out loud, and said to Ares:
"I still... couldn't control myself. I actually committed such a mistake..."
"That's not your fault."
Ares patted his shoulder, then asked:
"The crystal I gave you, you lost it, didn't you?"
Heracles nodded, tears streaming down his face:
"It was knocked off by a wild boar while I was hunting today."
"Then the matter is clear," Ares said. "You've been set up again."
Upon hearing Ares's words, Heracles stood up. He lowered his head and glanced at the bodies of his wife and children, then clenched his fists and asked Ares in a voice filled with rage:
"Who is plotting against me?"
"If you knew, what would you do?" Ares asked.
Heracles did not answer, merely glancing at the large bronze club he kept in the bedroom. His actions clearly conveyed his meaning: he would use this great club, gifted by Ares, to smash the skull of the one who plotted against him.
"I can tell you, but you must promise me that this time, you will follow my teachings," Ares stated his condition. "The person plotting behind the scenes is not someone you can handle right now. For your own safety, you must endure."
Heracles clenched his fists and knelt on the ground. Then, he took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and nodded, "I understand, Teacher. I swear by the River Styx, this time, I will definitely restrain my anger."
"Alright then."
Ares said, standing up and walking into the living room outside the bedroom. He glanced out the window, and after confirming no one was around, he carefully walked back into the bedroom.
Heracles would never go mad and kill for no reason. There must be Athena and The Fates behind her manipulating this, after all, the man who would appear in the future also killed his most beloved relatives in a fit of madness; this is considered a traditional art of the Greece gods.
And this killing also indicated that the great and tragic journey of destiny belonging to the hero Heracles was about to begin.
Ares found it difficult to interfere with Heracles's destiny, because from the very beginning, embarking on this arduous journey of atonement was actually Heracles's own choice. Given Heracles's current mental state, if he were to force Heracles not to take this difficult path of atonement, it would instead be helping Athena.
Heracles's temper was quite stubborn. If Ares really forced him, this fellow might just stubbornly go against Ares, and then, he might directly defect to Athena's side.
However, no matter how clever Athena and The Fates' schemes were, they were ultimately underhanded tricks. Ares also had a trump card against them, which was his stance and purpose.
His current stance has always been on the side of Argo Heroes and humans, and his purpose has always been to help himself and humanity liberate from the planetary suppressive force Gaia and its lackey gods. Therefore, Athena cannot openly tell the Argo Heroes her purpose, but he can confide in these Argo Heroes and basically tell them anything.
Doing so would certainly be more popular than Athena manipulating schemes from behind the scenes, silently guiding the Argo Heroes like puppets on strings.
And now, facing Heracles, whose arduous destiny was about to begin, Ares also decided... he would stop acting and lay his cards on the table with this old brother.
Using divine power and mental power to perceive and confirm that there were no divine power, magic power, or other reactions within a five-hundred-mile radius, he beckoned Heracles to stand beside him. Then, Ares reached out and pressed Heracles's shoulder, and with the War God's divine power, he created several boundaries, then pulled Heracles into a space similar to a Unique Boundary.
Heracles suddenly saw a raging sea of fire rushing towards him in his vision. The scorching sensation from the flames made him instinctively raise his arms to shield his face. When the scorching sensation around him receded, the young great hero was astonished to find himself in a magnificent divine palace.
And his teacher, the elderly priest of Thebes, was already calmly seated on the divine throne within the divine palace, gazing at him with tranquil eyes.
"Teacher, who exactly are you?" Heracles, sensing something amiss, hastily asked Ares.
"I am your teacher, Heracles, I am the priest of Thebes, an elder who watched you grow up," Ares said, and suddenly, crimson flames ignited on his body. The color of these flames was like blood, burning from the left side of his body to the right. During this process, his original posture and appearance burned into ashes like a piece of paper, and then, beneath his original appearance, as the flames passed, the figure of a handsome and imposing man was revealed.
After this figure was fully revealed before Heracles, Ares continued, using his now changed voice, "But I also have another identity, Heracles. I am your half-brother, I am the guardian of Olympus, the destroyer of city-states, the overseer of War. I made Hera nurse you in the wilderness, granted you miracles, and brought you back to your parents. My name is—"
"War God, Ares." Heracles gave a wry smile, then, with a hint of helplessness, humbly knelt on one knee: "I never imagined that even my teacher was a deity."