The moment Halirrhothius saw Ares, he turned pale with fright, immediately realizing he had been set up.
He lifted his leg, intending to run, but as the weakest level god, how could he possibly escape from an Olympian Main God who controlled battle? The instant Ares saw him turn, he raised his hand and grabbed him by the back of the neck, lifting him back as if he were a small chick.
"Where do you think you're going, little brother?"
Ares smiled very kindly, while tightening his grip, making Halirrhothius's neck ache.
"Ares." Halirrhothius was lifted directly by Ares's neck, his feet flailing in mid-air, then he cried out in panic, "Please let me go! I promise I'll never bother Artemis again!"
"If apologies worked, why would I even be here?"
Ares snorted, clenching the fingers of his other hand into a fist, producing a terrible crackling sound.
Halirrhothius's eyes trembled with fear. He swallowed, then stammered a threat, "Aren't you afraid of Poseidon's wrath?"
Upon hearing this, Ares tilted his head strangely and couldn't help but chuckle, "Damn, think about it yourself, would I be afraid?"
When Halirrhothius heard him say that, he too showed a look of despair. Indeed, Ares, the God of War, was notorious among the gods for challenging everyone and everything. Not to mention his father, Poseidon, he even dared to defy and disrespect Zeus.
So, in the end, he could only desperately plead with Ares, "All the gods are watching. Can you give everyone some face and go a little easy?"
"What do you think?"
Ares sneered:
"Besides, didn't you just say that by this small stream, even a Main God wouldn't sense anything if they weren't paying attention?"
With that, he raised his fist. In Halirrhothius's eyes, the fist gradually approached his face, growing larger and larger.
Afterward, Halirrhothius's shrill scream echoed through the forest:
"Father, save me!"
...
A moment later, Ares, looking completely satisfied, dragged Halirrhothius out of the forest.
Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, was waiting outside the woods for her brother who had gone to avenge her. When she saw Halirrhothius's lifeless eyes, as if he had lost his soul, she showed a satisfied expression and then thanked Ares:
"Thank you, Ares. He got what he deserved. Now, my worshipper can rest easy following Thanatos to the Netherworld."
"No problem, we're all brothers and sisters. For things like this, help when you can. If there's ever another good… *cough*, another difficulty like this, just come find me!"
Ares patted his chest, then smiled at Artemis:
"Well, I'll be going now. I just 'dealt with' this guy in the forest, but I think it was too light. I'll take him to the Netherworld and let my teacher, Hecate, figure out how to torture him. I guarantee he'll never dare to provoke you again. Oh, and by the way, I can also ask my teacher to pull some strings with my uncle to have your worshipper sent to Elysium."
"I appreciate your trouble."
Artemis continued to thank him:
"Ares, you too. If you ever need help in the future, just come find me. Help when you can."
"Next time, for sure."
After exchanging pleasantries with Artemis, Ares's avatar truly dragged Halirrhothius and entered Hades's domain through a cave in the ground.
Charon, the ferryman rowing on the River Styx, naturally dared not ask Ares, a Main God, for money. He dutifully ferried Ares across the river and even pointed him in the direction of Moon Goddess Hecate's current residence.
Ares thanked Charon for his kindness, but instead of going to Hecate's Garden, he dragged Halirrhothius to the Netherworld Magic Workshop, which Hecate and his main body had built together.
His avatar threw Halirrhothius into the entrance of the Magic Workshop and then left directly, as if he had notified Hecate in advance. As his avatar left, his main body also walked from inside the Magic Workshop to the entrance, catching Halirrhothius, whom his avatar had thrown in, and then dragged him into the interior of the workshop.
Inside the workshop, in the enormous underground cavern opened up by Hecate's magic, various mysterious instruments and magical materials were already laid out. The floor was covered with magic-infused patterns, and the walls and ceiling were fitted with countless pipelines specifically for magic flow.
In the center of the cavern were four mechanical humanoids, about five meters tall, with their internal body structures still exposed, appearing to be half-finished. Hecate was currently standing on a very tall chair, somewhat laboriously installing a magic furnace core into one of the mechanical humanoids.
Seeing Ares enter, she called out without turning her head:
"Oh, Ares, come here quickly and hand me that screwdriver from Tool Station Number Three. The position of this pipeline needs to be adjusted."
"Teacher, take a break first."
Ares called out:
"I brought you a new 'gift'."
"A gift?"
Hecate turned her head in confusion and saw Ares toss the unconscious Halirrhothius onto Hecate's experimental table. She blinked, stunned, and said:
"A low-level god without a divine office, seemingly of the Sea God's bloodline. Where did you get him?"
"This guy is Halirrhothius, Son of Poseidon. He raped Artemis's priestess and killed her. I avenged Artemis, so I just made use of the waste."
Ares clapped his hands and said to Hecate:
"A blank Fourth Generation God's divine body will be of great help to our research, won't it?"
Hecate blinked, then floated down from the high chair. She came to the experimental table, pinched various parts of Halirrhothius's body, then nodded in satisfaction:
"Good, all parts of the body are very well preserved. Hmm, how come there's no soul? Did you really finish him off?"
"Of course." Ares blinked: "Besides you and me, only dead people can enter this workshop for me to feel at ease."
"Never mind, if he's dead, he's dead." Hecate thought about Ares's fate, then about the atrocities Ares had just mentioned this Son of the Sea God had committed, and immediately felt that killing him was irrelevant. So, she wiped her hands with a towel and then said to Ares:
"I'll research the physical structure of a Fourth Generation God. Bring me my tools."