The moment Ares's restraint broke, the sky answered.
Lightning tore through the ceiling and struck the castle with a deafening roar, the entire structure shuddering before collapsing in on itself. Stone shattered, pillars cracked, and the grand hall was reduced to rubble in seconds.
From the clouds of dust,
Ares stepped out.
His form was no longer hidden. Armor began to form over his body, piece by piece, dark and heavy, forged from raw divine energy. Two spears manifested in his hands, their edges glowing faintly as power pulsed through them.
Across from him,
Diana burst out of the debris.
Her sword cut through the dust as she lunged forward without hesitation.
The clash came instantly.
Ares met her charge with both spears, crossing them to block her strike. The impact sent a shockwave through the ground, scattering debris in every direction.
Diana twisted mid-motion, redirecting her momentum and slashing again.
Ares countered with fluid control, his twin spears moving like extensions of his will. One deflected her sword while the other thrust forward, forcing her to pivot and dodge at the last moment.
The fight escalated rapidly.
Diana advanced with relentless pressure, her strikes growing sharper as her power surged, while Ares responded with calculated precision, using both weapons to keep her at bay while striking from impossible angles.
Their weapons clashed again and again—steel against divine force—each collision sending sparks and shockwaves across the ruined battlefield.
Ares spun one spear and hurled it.
Diana raised her sword and deflected it, but the force pushed her back several steps. Before she could recover, Ares was already in front of her again, the second spear driving toward her side.
She blocked it at the last instant, their faces inches apart, both pushing against each other.
"You are strong," Ares said, almost approvingly. "But you still hesitate."
Diana's eyes hardened.
"I don't need to be like you," she replied.
She broke the lock, spinning low and slashing upward. Ares leaned back just enough to avoid the blade, then countered with a sweeping strike that forced her to leap back.
They circled each other briefly, the air between them crackling with energy.
Then—
They charged again.
"So this is what a god's fight looks like?" Steve asked, standing beside Daniel, eyes fixed on the battlefield.
"Nah," Daniel replied calmly, watching without concern. "This isn't even close to full power."
Below them, the fight shifted.
Ares drove forward and slammed into Diana with overwhelming force, his kick sending her skidding across the ground. He straightened slowly, a dark laugh escaping him as he rolled his shoulders, power building around him.
"Do you truly believe you can kill me?" Ares's voice thundered across the ruins. "I am Ares—the God of War. I have fought for centuries… I have killed gods."
He launched himself into the air, his leg coming down like a falling weapon aimed straight at Diana's head.
At the last moment, she pushed herself up and leapt back, the impact striking the ground instead. The force of it blasted outward, carving a massive crater into the earth.
Before the dust could even settle, Ares was already moving.
He tore a chunk of broken stone from the ground and hurled it at her. Diana stepped in, her sword flashing as she cut straight through it, the boulder splitting cleanly in half.
But Ares was already there.
He appeared in front of her in the same instant, his fist driving hard into her stomach.
The hit landed clean.
Diana was thrown backward, her body crashing through shattered walls before slamming into the ruins behind her.
Ares walked forward slowly, his presence pressing down like a storm.
"You are not even a full god," he continued, his tone filled with cold certainty. "Just a demigod who grew up sheltered on an island."
He stopped, looking down at her.
"And you think you can stand against someone like me?"
Diana didn't answer with words.
Her arm snapped forward, the Lasso of Truth uncoiling in a flash of golden light, slicing through the air toward Ares. For a brief moment, it looked like it would wrap around him—
—but his hand shot out and caught it.
The glow of the lasso strained against his grip, yet he held it with ease. With a sharp pull, he dragged Diana off her feet and slammed her into the ground with brutal force, the impact cracking the earth beneath her.
Before she could recover, the sky above darkened.
Clouds churned violently, twisting into a storm as lightning began to gather around Ares, coiling and snapping like living energy. His armor glowed faintly under the flashes as he raised his hand, drawing the storm toward him.
Electricity surged into his grasp.
"Let me show you," he said, voice low and absolute, "what power truly is."
Then he hurled it.
A massive bolt of lightning tore through the sky and crashed toward Diana, splitting the air with a deafening roar.
For a fraction of a second,
everything went white.
And then—
Diana moved.
She rose into the strike instead of away from it, her arms lifting as the lightning collided with her. The force should have torn her apart—
—but it didn't.
The energy wrapped around her instead.
Her eyes ignited with blinding light as the lightning surged across her body, not destroying her, but feeding her. Power coursed through her veins, wild and uncontrollable, yet she held it.
The ground beneath her feet shattered.
The air trembled.
Then she vanished.
In a single instant, she crossed the distance between them, appearing directly in front of Ares before the thunder had even finished echoing.
Ares's expression shifted—just slightly.
Diana didn't hesitate.
Her sword drove forward, glowing with divine force, cutting through the storm itself as it plunged straight toward his chest.
The blade struck.
*****
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