Actually, the description "came aboard" isn't quite right; it should be said that Ares's avatar had already quietly blended in with the ship since its construction began.
Unlike Athena's high-level maneuver of entering the stream of dreams, Ares, without the arrogance of a chief god, was more willing to lower his status. As early as when Deucalion and Pyrrha began selecting animal young, Ares secretly attached a wisp of his spirit to a lamb in their sheepfold.
Ares chose the most beautiful male lamb, and the lamb he possessed was naturally chosen by Deucalion and Pyrrha and placed on the ship. Thereafter, Ares hid deep within the lamb's spirit, silently observing all the actions of Deucalion and Pyrrha as guided by Athena.
As a key subject of Zeus's attention, the Goddess of Wisdom Athena's will could not remain in the mortal realm for too long, lest it arouse the suspicion of the King of Gods. Thus, after misleading Deucalion and Pyrrha into carrying those two baskets of stones onto the ship, Athena departed.
The moment Athena's attention departed, Ares's spirit emerged from the lamb's subconscious. He controlled the little lamb, and while chewing on the grass in its mouth, it came before the two baskets of stones and observed them carefully.
After the Magic Circuit rotation was completed, Ares's cultivation in the magical arts also increased by a notch. Now, he was able to discern what tricks the Goddess of Wisdom had played with these two baskets of stones.
Indeed, these two baskets of stones were not ordinary stones at all. The myth about "mother's bones" was all a lie. Even if Deucalion and Pyrrha had divine blood, they had not awakened their divine power, and Gaia, the planet's consciousness, was even less likely to help a group of creatures living on her surface.
These two baskets of stones had clearly already been created by Athena and infused with souls, just one step away from forming the "prototypes" of humans.
It seems Athena was determined to become the ancestor of humanity in the Greek World and usurp Prometheus's achievements.
Fortunately, Ares had already discovered Athena's plan. Therefore, after seeing through the Goddess of Wisdom's scheme, Ares's true form directly summoned the men he had previously chosen as seeds, and the women with Magic Circuits in their bodies, whom he had created with Hecate. He then said to them:
"The time has come, children. Zeus is about to unleash divine punishment and destroy humanity. And now, I will send you to the ark. You will become the sparks of humanity, causing human footprints to once again spread across the earth. You will establish nations on the earth. I will call your nation a great nation, and you will become its rulers, turning away from evil and doing good, never abandoning your oaths. I, Ares, will grant you unending ambition and unyielding courage."
He bestowed upon these humans concepts useful for human progress that he possessed, such as struggle, competitiveness, and curiosity. He then meticulously instructed them on what to do in the future and made them swear an oath never to reveal their connection with Ares to anyone other than Hecate. Finally, Ares invited Hecate to cast a spell, transforming these humans into two baskets of stones identical to Athena's, with the men in one basket and the women in another.
Hecate then performed a disguise spell on the stones transformed from these humans, making it impossible for Athena to discern their authenticity. At night, when the gods rested and the veil of Nyx, the Goddess of Night, covered the earth, Ares quietly passed through Hecate's teleportation gate and arrived at Deucalion and Pyrrha's ark, silently performing a "The Cat Substitutes for the Prince" (a literal translation would be "civet cat for prince," meaning a secret substitution) with his two baskets of humans and Athena's two baskets of stones.
After the two chief gods had plotted and carried out their treacherous acts behind the back of Zeus, the King of Gods, the next day, as if a switch had been flipped, Pandora, who had been married to Epimetheus for many years, had children, and had almost forgotten about the magic box she carried, suddenly remembered the matter.
She recalled the gods' warnings, wanting to forget about it, but at that moment, Pandora's curiosity was like a flood with an open valve, impossible to hold back.
As if by a ghost's prompting, she stood up and quietly went to the inner room. The magic box was a wedding gift given to her and Epimetheus by the gods, so even though it was useless for improving their lives, Pandora and Epimetheus had specially built a room for it and devoutly enshrined it.
Pandora entered the room, saw the patterns on the box, and could no longer resist her curiosity, reaching out to touch its lid.
"I'll just take a look, just one look, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Hypnotically comforting herself, Pandora's hand applied a slight force, pushing open a crack in the box's lid.
At that instant, countless terrifying black mists surged out of the magic box, carrying gusts of foul-smelling gales. They transformed into the most evil and malicious spirits, flying past a horrified Pandora and heading towards the boundless earth.
At the behest of their respective masters, they entangled themselves with the human race. In an instant, the once thriving human race was beset by various natural and man-made disasters. In some places, earthquakes began, and the earth split open with giant fissures, directly swallowing entire tribes. In other places, humans silently aged and died, turning into piles of white bones.
In some places, humans were plagued by various unexplained Plagues, which spread among the populace, causing decay and corruption. In other places, humans clashed over trivial matters, eventually escalating into large-scale Wars that implicated several tribes.
Seeing these disasters on earth, Pandora quickly closed the magic box, and the lid of this magic box, as Zeus had expected, locked in Athena's so-called "world-destroying" bomb.
In the heavens, Zeus, the King of Gods, sensed the opening of the magic box and immediately summoned all the gods to the God King's Hall. He looked through the olympus holy fire at the various disasters happening on the earth, laughing with uncontrollable glee.
"Old pervert!"
Seeing this, Ares cursed under his breath.
Perhaps feeling somewhat out of character, Zeus quickly reined in his laughter once all twelve chief gods had arrived. He surveyed his surroundings and said in a deep voice, "You have all seen it. The human race has completely corrupted and cannot be kept. Therefore, I have decided to destroy humanity. Let us discuss what method would be best?"
"War!" Ares faithfully fulfilled his persona, raising his hand first and shouting, "We want War!"
"While War is good, it is not thorough enough," Poseidon retorted. "There will always be victors and losers, and the ultimate victors among them will survive. I do not think it is appropriate."
"What?" Ares glared at Poseidon, immediately retorting without hesitation, "Can't there be mutual destruction in War?"
"Enough, Ares, I understand your feelings." Zeus waved his hand, dismissing his foolish son. "Poseidon is right this time; War is indeed not thorough enough and inefficient."
He thought for a moment, turned his head to look at his divine lightning, and then said, "Let's just use heavenly lightning to destroy them."
"Zeus, no," Athena interjected. "Your heavenly lightning is too powerful; it will not only destroy humanity but also harm the earth. If that happens, Gaia will come looking for trouble with you."
"True." Zeus gently countered, "Then, Athena, do you have any good ideas?"
"I think we can use heavenly fire to destroy the world," Athena said, seizing the opportunity. "Let Helios fly his Sun Chariot around the surface of the earth, and all humans will die."
"Hmm, good idea, but there are places heavenly fire can't reach. What if some humans hide underground?" Zeus nodded, then chuckled, "I think we should use a flood to destroy the world. Hmm, where is Notus, the God of the South Wind?"
"Zeus," Eurus, the God of the East Wind, replied, "He is currently moving bricks at the mine."
"Then go find him quickly," Zeus commanded. "Tell him to atone for his mistakes. If he does well this time, I will directly waived him from his punishment."