"It worked."
Ares's heart was filled with excitement as he watched the mountain wall collapse and felt the surging, alien energy boiling within him.
As early as when he mastered Magnetic Field Rotation, he had been contemplating such a power combination. Magnetic Field Rotation was a force capable of controlling almost everything, but it couldn't control magic. This was because in the universe where Magnetic Field Rotation originated, there was no such thing as magic on planets. However, Magic Circuits could convert other energies into pure magic.
Ares at the time thought, if he could input Magnetic Field Rotation into a Magic Circuit, then convert the corresponding magic from the Magic Circuit, and control it using the methods of Magnetic Field Rotation, could he achieve an almost omnipotent magic? However, Ares didn't have a Magic Circuit at the time, so he couldn't perform this operation.
But after Hecate inscribed the Magic Circuit onto his body, Ares, through this experiment, finally successfully confirmed his conjecture.
This was an almost omnipotent magical mode. Using this method, Ares, a "black household" with no attribute bonuses, could, like Tohsaka Rin, the "dragon tsundere" with all attributes of earth, wind, water, and fire, manipulate various elemental magics at will. He could even control the magic of the six major conceptual elements.
Moreover, as his internal magnetic field power continuously strengthened, accompanied by the increased resonance between the magnetic field and the outside world, the difficulty and quantity of magic he could wield would also increase daily.
"This power shall be called Magic Rotation," Ares thought, clenching his fist.
After returning to Hecate's Tree Palace through the teleportation gate, Ares did not hide anything and directly told Hecate this method along with the cultivation method for Magnetic Field Rotation.
The Moon Goddess was also very interested, but after hearing that practicing Magnetic Field Rotation required undergoing the self-abusive "Electric Current Propulsion" training that Ares had previously endured, she regretfully gave up.
According to Hecate, the reason she chose magic as her primary focus was her fear of physical pain. Training like a muscular brute was worse than death for her.
Ares let her be. Anyway, he had told Hecate every detail of the method, so he didn't feel indebted to her. As for whether she learned it or not, that was Hecate's own business.
The research on the power system had come to an end. Next, Ares began to focus his energy on his next plan.
Watching Zeus create Pandora and Pandora's Box, Ares finally recalled what event this was.
In mythology, after Prometheus twice deceived Zeus, the enraged King of Gods ordered Hephaestus to bind him with chains to a giant rock in the Caucasus Mountains. Furthermore, the King of Gods sent a giant eagle, born of Typhon and Echidna, to peck at Prometheus's constantly regenerating internal organs day and night.
And after this, the King of Gods still felt unsatisfied, so he unleashed his wrath upon Prometheus's innocent creations, humans. He commanded Hephaestus to create the beautiful Pandora, and also made Pandora's Box, into which the gods placed all the calamities of the world.
When Pandora married Epimetheus, and due to the curiosity given by Zeus, she uncontrollably opened the box, releasing calamities. Zeus then naturally ordered Notos, the God of the South Wind, to unleash torrential rain, destroying humanity with a flood.
According to mythology, only two humans survived: Deucalion, Prometheus's son, and Pyrrha, Epimetheus and Pandora's daughter. They were the ancestors of humanity in the next era.
And the next era was precisely the most brilliant era in greek mythology, gathering numerous heroes and leaving behind countless popular epics—the Age of Heroes. A considerable portion of the Heroic Spirits who dominated the mainstream of Earth in this universe originated from this era.
If Ares's guess was correct, Athena must have placed her bets on this era, and he was doing the same. To survive until after the Common Era, Ares had to leave his mark in these many epics.
So, after the completion of Magic Rotation, Ares immediately began to continue his arrangements.
He did not go to see Prometheus. Just as the God of Forethought had once evaluated him, Ares didn't quite understand why Prometheus was willing to pay such a huge price for his creations. He couldn't guess whether Prometheus was truly a holy god with noble ideals or had other motives for humanity.
But in any case, the current bound state of the God of Forethought at least restricted his activities. Whatever his purpose, as long as he was bound on the Caucasus Mountains, it could not be realized.
During the following period, Ares juggled three tasks: on one hand, he managed the War God's divine duties on Olympus, keeping an eye on Pandora's movements after she was sent to Earth by the gods; on the other hand, he continued to use his clones to instruct the powerful humans he had chosen as seeds; and the remaining energy, Ares devoted entirely to the creation of humans with Hecate.
This creation of humans was not the other creation of humans. Ares was still bound by the Oath of the Inhibitory Force, so even if he wanted to create in that way, he wouldn't dare. Therefore, Ares and Hecate used Prometheus's and Athena's methods of creating humans, secretly making a new generation of women corresponding to the men within the Tree Palace.
Ares used the goddesses on Olympus as models, shaping a number of women corresponding to the number of men. Hecate, while they were still clay figures, inscribed a considerable number of Magic Circuits within their bodies.
Not only that, Ares also took the time to secretly pluck a strand of the curiosity Zeus had bestowed upon Pandora, dividing it into several portions and giving it to these women. The first generation of men had no curiosity, and Ares felt this was unacceptable. Although curiosity often led to misfortune, it was also one of the driving forces of human progress. Humans lacking this were incomplete.
So even if the first generation of men had no curiosity, as long as they combined with these women, their descendants could inherit everything from them.
While Ares was secretly planning and arranging everything within the Tree Palace, Athena was not idle either. Several years after Epimetheus and Pandora combined, when their daughter Pyrrha also married Deucalion, Prometheus's surviving son, this goddess secretly manipulated the couple through dreams.
She gave Deucalion and Pyrrha revelations in their dreams, then guided the couple to cut down the strongest trees on the high mountains, make them into a large ship, and place a pair of seeds and younglings of all creatures on Earth onto it.
After years of arduous effort, Deucalion and Pyrrha, with the help of Athena, successfully obtained an ark capable of surviving the flood. On the day the ark was completed, Athena also secretly used divine power to obscure the gods' vision, and, unbeknownst to the gods, placed two baskets of stones on this ship. However, while her actions fooled the inattentive gods, they could not escape Ares, who had already secretly planted his eyes around Deucalion and Pyrrha. On the day Athena placed the stones, Ares's avatar also quietly arrived at this ship.