Hecate moved swiftly, and in no time, she had thoroughly understood Halirrhothius's bodily structure. Along the way, she also helped Ares eliminate the lingering consciousness of Halirrhothius's soul that had not been completely dealt with in his body.
With Typhon's foundation, it was incredibly easy for the Moon Goddess to understand the body of such a low-level Fourth Generation God without a divine office.
Although Halirrhothius's body structure was easy to understand, it didn't mean that he, as a material, was meaningless. At the very least, after understanding the bodily structure of a Fourth Generation God, Hecate was already able to create blank divine bodies for Ares to use as backup avatars.
After extracting the last bit of value from Halirrhothius's body, Hecate lost interest in it. She asked Ares:
"I'm going back to play with Mechanical God-making. What are you going to do with this body?"
"I could just dispose of it, but I think it has greater value."
Ares stroked his chin, then separated a wisp of his spirit and entered Halirrhothius's soulless body. He skillfully manipulated the body; Halirrhothius opened his eyes, then winked at Hecate and smiled.
"What value does this person have? Just a playboy."
Hecate looked at Ares, who was toying with Halirrhothius's body, with a hint of disdain, as if seeing her disciple rummaging through a trash can:
"Are you going to help him draw the hatred of the Main Gods?"
"Exactly, exactly. Although Halirrhothius himself is a good-for-nothing, he is, after all, the Son of Poseidon."
Ares, controlling the body of "Halirrhothius," smiled at Hecate:
"What do you think, if Halirrhothius dies in Athena's territory, will there be a dispute between Poseidon and Athena?"
Hecate blinked, then sighed to Ares:
"You are truly cunning. Forget it, I won't bother with your schemes. Do as you please. Main body, come here and help me pass the tools. Let's continue working."
"Oh."
Ares agreed, his main body following Hecate back to the four First Generation Mechanical Gods in the workshop, while another part of his energy controlled Halirrhothius, who walked out of the Netherworld Magic Workshop and arrived before the River Styx.
Halirrhothius was, after all, a Son of Poseidon, so Charon didn't make things too difficult for him. After Halirrhothius gave him a few copper coins, the ferryman carried Halirrhothius and sent him out of the Netherworld.
After leaving the Netherworld, Ares quickly changed his expression, transforming his face into the usual cynical, faint smile of Halirrhothius, the Son of the Sea God. After finding a clear spring and bending down to confirm that his current complexion was perfectly fine, Ares manipulated Halirrhothius and headed directly towards the location Athena had chosen, which he had previously heard about from Apollo.
...
On a plain at the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, surrounded on three sides by mountains and bordered on one side by the sea, a group of humans, carrying large numbers of carriages, horses, and supplies, had traveled thousands of miles from other city-states to this place.
They followed the guidance of the great Athena and stopped before the bay named Saronic Gulf, where they settled and began to build their home.
When Ares, controlling Halirrhothius, arrived at this place, the city-state had already begun to take shape. However, among these buildings, the fastest to be erected was the magnificent Parthenon Temple, specially prepared for Athena.
Ares manipulated Halirrhothius to circle the bay and quickly discovered the differences among these humans. Among them, even the leaders in power and the priests holding divine authority had not inherited the secret arts of previous generations of humans.
It seemed that this group of humans had been carefully selected by Athena. Perhaps Cadmus's actions in Thebes had also aroused Athena's suspicion. Before leaving, although Cadmus had handed over all authority to Amphitryon, chosen by Athena, the divine authority in Thebes remained firmly in the hands of the original priests. The main deity worshipped in the temple was still Ares, and even Amphitryon could not interfere.
And this priest was naturally a secondary account created by Ares. This kind of high-ranking alt account usually had no problems but could firmly occupy an important position in a city-state, making Athena extremely uncomfortable in Thebes, unable to widely promote her worship.
So this time, Athena specifically selected a group of common people. They were all poor people or slaves from various city-states, called upon by Athena using her divine authority, to come to this plain and prepare to build a home from scratch.
Ares transformed into a mortal again and went to peek at the nearly completed Parthenon Temple. He wanted to see if among Athena's current priests there was that poor girl Medusa, who was defiled by the Goddess into a monster and celebrated by later generations for becoming the achievement of a certain hero.
Since he had already decided to fight the Gods to the end, Ares also let loose and decided to intervene in matters he found displeasing, and incidentally, to disgust Athena and further instigate disputes between her and the Sea God.
However, perhaps Medusa had not yet matured. She was still living on her birth island with her two lesser Goddess sisters and had not yet come to Athens to be Athena's priestess. Therefore, after Ares circled around, he did not see the maiden among the divine personnel.
The current Athena priests were all mortals. They had just escaped from slavery, and although their hearts were filled with gratitude for Athena, they sometimes even got the steps of the rituals wrong during sacrifices. However, Athens was in its infancy, and Athena was not the kind of fool to shoot herself in the foot, so she let these mortals be.
Ares explored Athens briefly and roughly understood the city-state's background. So he went directly to the bay, and using the water affinity of this Son of the Sea God's body, he leaped directly into the ocean, heading to Poseidon's Golden Palace at the bottom of the ocean.
Poseidon's Golden Palace was not a secret; it was, in fact, an open secret among the Gods. He was not often on Olympus; he spent more time in this Golden Palace.
This Golden Palace housed the treasures he had collected from all over the sea, and it was home to a large number of his children and the sea beasts and lesser nymphs who served them, and of course, his beautiful and enchanting queen, Amphitrite.
As close brothers, Poseidon naturally knew how attractive his Queen was to Zeus, and since he had transformed into a stallion to rape Zeus's wife Demeter first, Zeus must have been holding a grudge and would certainly seek revenge when he had the chance.
Poseidon, of course, could not let Zeus succeed, so Amphitrite had always been required to live in this palace, rarely appearing before the Gods.
As one of the Sons of the Sea God, Halirrhothius was not the most favored son, but because of his lustful nature and having introduced several beauties from the land of Greece to his father, he was considered a minor favorite of Poseidon. His request to see his father was not difficult.
Thus, after sending his request to Poseidon through the handmaidens, Ares was quickly summoned by Poseidon and met his familiar second uncle in Poseidon's bedchamber.