Kratos lay quietly on the bed in his room, his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
His adoptive mother, Atalanta, and the High Priest had gone out together, he didn't know for what, but Kratos didn't care about any of that; his mind was replaying the brief memory from before he fainted.
In this memory, the god in his mind had been distorted by Athena into the image of Ares; he saw the tall and handsome red-haired God of War, with an arrogant and disdainful expression, grabbing his younger brother. He roared, swinging his sword and charging forward, yet he couldn't shake that mountain-like figure at all.
The God of War merely pushed him gently, and Kratos felt himself flying backward, crashing heavily onto the ground, his vision blurring.
In the last moments before darkness consumed him, Kratos only remembered his brother being swept away by a storm, an incarnation of the God of War, soaring into the sky and disappearing to who knows where.
"Deimos…"
Kratos's fists, hidden under the covers, clenched tightly.
Facing the gods, whom mortals both feared and worshipped, a hint of unwillingness welled up in his heart.
"If I had been stronger then, even a god, I would have…"
"Kratos."
Just as thoughts like "he can be replaced" began to surface in Kratos's mind, a voice interrupted his train of thought.
Kratos turned his head and found that his adoptive mother, Atalanta, who had just gone out to speak with the High Priest, had returned. She had combed her hair and walked in, carrying a basin of clear water, looking very virtuous.
Kratos was actually quite curious; even though his adoptive mother was so beautiful, he had never heard of any man in Sparta trying to pursue her. Given Atalanta's beauty, it would have been quite normal for her to be taken as a concubine by some noble man in Sparta.
But he didn't think too much about it; after all, these matters were too complex for a seven-year-old child like him.
Atalanta brought the basin of water to the bed, dipped a cloth in some water, and gently wiped Kratos's eye corner. It was then that Kratos realized a scar had appeared near his eye.
And this scar had been left by a god.
"Do you feel a little better?"
Atalanta gently pressed on Kratos's scar and then asked.
Kratos shook his head, then said with some resentment:
"If I ever get the chance, I will definitely return it to Ares!"
Atalanta's movements paused slightly. She opened her mouth, then remembered the High Priest's words, so the truth on the tip of her tongue remained unspoken. She merely said softly:
"Sometimes, you can't just see the surface of things, Kratos. You must learn to think for yourself, otherwise, you will be easily used by others."
"Oh."
Kratos responded blankly, but from his expression, it was clear he hadn't understood Atalanta's meaning.
"Remember what I said."
Atalanta reminded him sternly again. Kratos agreed, then thought for a moment and suddenly said:
"Adoptive mother, I want a tattoo. Can I?"
"A tattoo?"
Atalanta was slightly surprised and asked:
"Why do you want a tattoo?"
"I want one exactly like Deimos's."
Kratos replied:
"I'm afraid I'll forget I had this brother. If I have a tattoo, I won't forget, and someday, I will rescue him from the hands of the gods and make him personally acknowledge that I am his older brother!"
Atalanta smiled upon hearing this. She nodded and said:
"Of course, you can. If you don't mind, I'll do the tattoo for you."
…
His gaze temporarily retracted from Sparta, a part of Ares's consciousness transformed into mist within the Underworld, beginning to patrol the Realm of the Dead.
He maintained this state, wandering through the Underworld for not long before being discovered by Hecate, who was seated in the Black Palace. However, the Moon Goddess said nothing; instead, she used her authority to make the mist in the Underworld denser today, helping to conceal him.
With their unspoken cooperation, Ares successfully found Deimos, who had been taken by Athena, in the Underworld.
He was being held by a black-robed Underworld deity, heading towards the Death Realm, Thanatos's "fief" in the Underworld. However, this black-robed deity was not Thanatos, the master of the Death Realm, but Minos, one of the three Judges. Naturally, this person was also Son of Zeus, and Ares and Hecate had known for a long time that Minos had colluded with Athena, becoming her "stake" buried in the Underworld.
The reason was quite simple: the three Great Judges of the Underworld were said to have been fair, upright, and noble figures in life, but the gods knew this was merely a boast by Zeus to elevate his three sons.
In reality, these three Judges were neither just nor noble, and they had committed no fewer evil deeds than other Greek male kings. Leaving aside Rhadamanthus, who had been replaced by a changeling after Ares disposed of him, Aeacus, one of the three, had once raped Psamathe, the daughter of the Sea God Nereus, and Minos was even more despicable: seizing power, usurping the throne, exiling his brother, waging foreign wars, breaking oaths, killing his son, and feeding young boys and girls to the Minotaur, the monster he created from his own wickedness. Minos had essentially committed every bad deed a Greek king could commit.
That such a person could become a Judge in the Underworld, arbitrating life, death, good, and evil, ultimately came down to the fact that Minos's father was the King of the Gods, Zeus.
If the three Judges hadn't kept things in order all these years, Hades would likely have dealt with the three brothers long ago.
And Minos's reason for working with Athena was also quite simple: years ago, he drove out his brother, Rhadamanthus, and then usurped his throne in Crete. To solidify his position, Minos swore an oath to Sea King Poseidon, promising that if the Sea King proved his usurpation was legitimate, he would do whatever Poseidon asked.
So Poseidon granted Minos a white divine bull. However, this fellow, seeing the divine bull, wanted to keep it for himself, so he sacrificed another bull to Poseidon, which enraged Poseidon. The furious Sea King cursed Minos's queen, Pasiphae, causing her to suffer from "zoophilia," developing an attraction to animals other than humans.
What followed was a series of unfortunate coincidences and rather heavy-handed developments, and then Queen Pasiphae gave birth to the monster Minotaur, whose father was the white divine bull granted by Poseidon.
Minos was cuckolded, and by a bull no less. As the powerful ruler of Crete, he certainly couldn't swallow this humiliation. However, his target for revenge was Poseidon, a figure he could never hope to reach. Therefore, Minos could only endure the indignity and choose to forgive, right up until his death.
But after death, he fell into the Underworld and was appointed one of the three Judges by Zeus. Backed by Hades, Minos gained the capital to challenge Poseidon, but this was ultimately just empty talk, as Hades would never allow him to provoke his own brother.
The turning point came when Athena began to lay her plans. The Goddess of Wisdom was well aware of the gods' desires, so she used these enticing "promises" to successfully deceive Triton, and also lured Minos and Rhadamanthus onto her rogue ship.
The true Rhadamanthus is now dead, his soul also having been dealt with by Ares, who possesses the concept of "soul scattering and annihilation of the soul," meaning he is as dead as can be. But Minos is still alive and working for Athena.
Clearly, by carrying Deimos now, he intends to frame the innocent Thanatos for this matter.
Thanatos and Hypnos are loyal followers of Hades; they obey whoever Hades tells them to. Now that Hecate is in charge of the Underworld, this blame naturally falls upon Hecate and Ares.
Of course, Ares would not let Minos and Athena have it so easy. So, upon seeing Minos stealthily enter the Death Realm, Ares's mind stirred, and he dispatched a divine power clone, departing from Hecates Garden in the Underworld, quietly heading somewhere.