The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon

Chapter 80 – One Punch Teacher Ares

Let’s skip over the pitiful love story of some handsome boy.
This isn’t some world where men are wild, and women are cunning, so there’s no need to start a fight over, “Hey, are you eyeing my girl?”
Besides, if that guy tried to approach Atalanta now, he’d end up with something broken, and Theseus was sharp enough to know that at a glance.

Moreover, he didn’t have time to worry about such things these days.

As soon as Theseus, with a visibly irritated face, left the room, it felt awkward to continue our conversation, so the gathering was adjourned.
Having spent the entire day on an external mission, I had a day off tomorrow.
We had drunk wine to our hearts’ content, and everyone scattered, planning to sleep in late.

But my day was just beginning.

“…Eris?”

“Heh? So now you can sense me without using that strange aura?”

As I pretended to head back to my quarters, I casually called out her name, and under the faintly brightening dawn sky, my view was suddenly filled with a strikingly vivid pink.

The troublesome child of strife and discord… no, the goddess.
And by bloodline, my elder sister Eris.

Her long pink hair shimmered seductively, and though her eyes were the same crimson as Atalanta’s, they had a sinister glint that reminded me more of blood than of jewels.
Her Greek-style dress of a peculiar glow clearly revealed her ample feminine curves, and her mischievous and sadistic beauty was enough to momentarily captivate even me.

However, seeing the ominous aura she was cloaked in and the sadistic gleam in her eyes that overshadowed everything, I was reminded of how important first impressions truly were.

“Hmph… you’re holding up better than I thought. You’re tougher than you look. Ares and my sister aren’t exactly the types to go easy when they teach.”

“Well, I’m not so weak as to be knocked out with a single sword strike, unlike someone.”

Unlike someone, I’m not that fragile.
As I smiled gently, deliberately for her to see, Eris’s face, which had been grinning as she prepared her decisive blow, suddenly turned cold.

“What, does that bother you?”

The Goddess of Strife and Discord, and a bratty goddess who makes you want to punch her just by looking at her, was leisurely engaging in a war of words with me. To understand this better, we have to go back a few days.

As I was nearing the end of what I called my adaptation period, Chiron summoned me after a long time.
Personally, I was also looking forward to having a sparring match with the centaur who wielded the ultimate spear technique known as the Crazy Wind Spear technique.
However, during the adaptation period, the grueling schedule filled with 18-hour days, and even almost a week taken off that had to be compensated for, kept me incredibly busy.
But the prospect of officially taking time off to have fun made me cheer and rush to his office.

However…

“It’s been a while. Young brother.”

“Heh… Tsk, didn’t break a single bone, did you?”

Unexpected figures were there to greet me alongside the centaur.
I completely ignored Eris, who glared at me as if ready to spit.
With a bright smile as full as her heart, the black angel welcomed me, and I responded with a bright smile.

“Sister Nemesis!”

“S-Sister…”

“Sister?!”

“Cough, cough, cough!”

“Ahem! Aheuck?!”

Ah, the word “sister” that slipped out without me realizing caused a tremendous ripple among these mythical beings.
Nemesis, with her stern face, flapped her wings and turned her head.
Eris, as if chewing bitter herbs, glared at me with a contorted face.
Chiron and the mysterious, handsome man coughed repeatedly as if something was caught in their throats.

“Wow, calling the Goddess of Judgment, whom even father fears, ‘sister’ so casually? Chiron, where did you pick up this guy?”

“Ahem, he’s certainly made my time here anything but boring.”

To describe this man, I’d call him a battle fanatic.
A handsome man with a refreshingly bold impression, with dark blonde hair mixed with an oddly familiar oak color, extending to his shoulders.
However, when I faced his fiercely upturned smile and his gleaming red eyes that seemed to gauge their prey, a chill ran down my spine as if encountering a wild beast.
Moreover, seeing him chatting with Chiron without hesitation, and Chiron also showing respect, it was evident that this person was a god.
And not just any god, but one with quite powerful strength.

“Hmm… Look at this.”

The male god, who had been making eye contact with me for a moment, then raised the corners of his mouth as if intrigued and approached me.

“…Oh.”

Strong.
Strong, strong, and strong.
Each step he took, his slowly moving arms and hands.
His gaze that examined me, and his head that tilted as if amused.
Every movement was a preparation stance for battle, to break and tear apart the opponent.

I knew someone exactly like this.
A unique Divine Demon in the history of the Demonic Sect who reached the pinnacle alone, surpassing the Heavenly Demon’s level without the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
A man so powerful that ordinary titles could not contain him, so he was called the One of the Demonic Path, the Demonic Lord.
His ruthless hands and the blood-stained region were praised as the devotion of a Shura.
He was the first of the Twelve Divine Demons and was praised as the unparalleled Giant Demon, the Shura Demon Lord.

‘To see such an existence again.’

The only difference being that the Shura Demon Lord was only human.
Over time, he controlled his fighting spirit and will, but the god before my eyes seemed to have no need for such control.
Revealing his fighting spirit and murderous intent as he stood before me, looking down at me.

“Ares! I told you to stop that!”

“Nemesis, please calm down. I’m just greeting an old friend who helped me get back at that insufferable Athena.”

“…Ah!”

At the urgent call of Nemesis, I couldn’t help but marvel at the name of the male god who raised his hand to calm her down.

“The God of War, Ares. The Warlord Ares, King of Warriors!”

The War God of Olympus, the god who presides over war.
He generously supported my poems that I composed with a wild boar’s inspiration, the big shot of Passos Island!
Even though I had lived through many events and led a turbulent life, I, too, had spent a hundred years as a pilgrim pioneering martial arts and the head of a great sect that served the War God.
From my perspective, meeting a living War God was quite an inspiring event.
Moreover, with such a powerful fighting spirit and determination, how could I not feel reverence as a warrior?

As a warrior, a pilgrim of myth, and a priest of the War God, I greeted him with my respect.

“It is an honor to meet you.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize just by hearing the stories about you… This is interesting.”

Ares, who was staring at me intently, nodded in admiration, pulled me by the shoulder to sit beside him, and hummed as he spoke.

“I understand why Father and Mother are so concerned. Even that prude and that wild beast growl whenever your name comes up. I heard even that brat of an uncle got wrecked by your lover.”

Ares looked at me with a fierce smile, like a lion smelling blood, as if he were proud.

“Right, if you were born with a bell, you should at least stir up this much trouble.”

“Oh? The prude and the wild beast—you mean Apollo and Artemis?”

Eris, sensing the interesting scent of conflict, flapped her wings and floated up, squeezing between Ares and me to peer into my face.

“What is this? Didn’t Eris know? I heard that Apollo went on a reconnaissance mission to avenge his sister, but returned scared after seeing my young follower going wild.”

“What?! Is that true?”

Eris’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me again as if she had seen something new, but I still didn’t quite understand the situation.
Suddenly, the headmaster called me, and here I was greeted by three high-ranking gods…

“Ahem, Dianes. The reason I called you here is none other than…”

“Why even say it? By the order of King Zeus and Queen Hera, the daughters of the Night and the God of War have descended to guide the newly born young god.”

Ares cheerfully interrupted Chiron’s words and patted me on the back.

“Yes, just as Hermes said. With such material, I must step in. Who else but me could handle such a monster?”

Even without speaking, I understood what Ares meant.
I could grasp it as well.
The instinct for combat that only warriors who have fought and rolled on the battlefield their entire lives, pursuing a peculiar aesthetic in those moments, could comprehend.

“First, let me explain how this happened…”

“Sister, wait. Before we start, shouldn’t we give it a test?”

Before Nemesis could finish her explanation, Ares interrupted again.
I could see a delicate vein bulging on Nemesis’s white forehead, but Ares, like a burning wild boar, dragged me to a nearby plain.

Inside the infinitely vast arena created by Ares’s power, I and the War God fought with such fervor that it was hard to distinguish between sky and earth.
I began to earnestly learn what it truly meant to face a god.

As I walked, bickering with Eris, we arrived at the barrier created by Ares’s power, located outside the forest.

“Hmph… Then I’ll go up and watch~”

“Do whatever you want.”

“Tsk!”

At my indifferent farewell, Eris huffed and disappeared.
With a battle-ready stance, I entered the barrier.

As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by the bright sun shining in the middle of the sky, the vast, endless wasteland, and the arena surrounding it all.
And in the center of that arena, a god who noticed me, instead of a greeting, unleashed a massive divine power and laughed fiercely.

“Πόλεμος ρομφαία!! σώμα προέλαση!!”

There was no grandiose aura nor an explosion of divine power.
Without any forewarning, a gigantic sword manifested in the hand of the distant War God and was swung horizontally towards me.
And filling the gaps of that massive sword, thousands upon thousands of flaming spears rushed at me.
It was an attack that felt like an entire legion was advancing.

Moreover, those were neither just large swords nor merely sharp spears.
Each one boasted immense destructive power, akin to the attacks of the advanced martial artists I’d encountered during the Great War of the Demons, and each aimed precisely at my openings and vital points.

A situation utterly unreasonable and absurd.
The choice was one of two.
Dodge, or counterattack.

“As expected of a battle maniac. Striking first without even a greeting.”

If this were in a game, I would have thought, “Wow, this is insanely unfair. This game is doomed,” and surrendered at 15 minutes.
But this was my reality, and one I’d faced countless times in my past life.
Experiencing it now from the other side, I understood why the people from the Murim Alliance would flee in terror at just the sight of my robes.

“Making someone who just ran all day sweat again!”

-Shaaah!

As my internal energy and demonic energy flowed through my entire body, my whole being ignited into a pitch-black mirage.
In an instant, two demonic arts manifested in my hands as powers.

“Dark Binding of Ten Thousand Membranes, Asura’s Heavenly Arts – Wrathful Thunder Fist.”

The bottomless pit of the Dark Binding Hell that devours everything.
The roaring thunderous sound like the wrath of an enraged Asura.

The black sword, barely the size of a medium sword, bit into the colossal greatsword like a mountain, and the pure force of the clash and the divine aura roared like thunder, tearing the ground and air.

-!!

A massive shock of strength against strength.
It was right after the moment so intense that even the air forgot to scream, and the ground forgot its firmness.
Just as the enormous turmoil that was hard to believe as a mere prelude to the fight began to subside.

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Don’t lose your focus!”

In an instant, Ares closed the distance with earth-shaking steps.

“I never did!”

Normally, this would be the time to exchange compliments like, ‘That’s an amazing martial skill…’ ‘You are also a formidable opponent.’
But Ares swiftly closed the distance and initiated hand-to-hand combat.

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With each clash of fists and divine power, the ground shook as if bombarded.

“You’ve grown a lot, really grown!”

“Well, isn’t this the time to grow?!”

-BOOM!

With a forceful punch, I sent Ares’s straight punch flying backward.
We both took a moment to catch our breath, maintaining a cautious distance.