Chapter 456: Ares has truly done all sorts of bad things.

Ares collapsed on the ground, his eyes vacant, making meaningless sounds with his mouth.

At this moment, his whole body was pitch-black and shining, more than half of his hair was charred, and he looked as miserable as anyone could possibly be.

Although Ares could use the power of lightning, this did not mean he was immune to electricity, otherwise he wouldn’t have been hung up and whipped by Zeus.

This made complete sense.

After all, Thor was known as the God of Thunder, yet he still frequently crashed and burned from being electrocuted; Ares was merely the God of War, so it was completely reasonable that he couldn’t withstand the lightning.

Darian looked at Ares, who resembled a piece of charred coal before him, and immediately chuckled: “What a glutton, eating your own skill.”

He did not give Ares a chance to recover, taking his life while he was down.

Through the magic on the lightning rod, Darian summoned it back from Ares’s hands, then raised his arm. A massive surge of fear soared into the sky, and a yellow light illuminated the entire heaven.

The power of fear quickly gathered high above, gradually condensing into a gigantic spear, which was none other than an enlarged scale model of the Spear of Longinus.

The tip of the spear pointed vertically toward the ground, suspended high in the air like the Sword of Damocles.

This Spear of Longinus was outrageously huge; the spearhead alone was over a hundred meters long, and the shaft thrust all the way up into the clouds, with no end in sight.

The entire giant spear hovered like that in the high sky, its cast shadow almost covering nearly half of the battlefield, filled with a terrifying oppressive feeling that made it hard for people to breathe.

Everyone looked up at this Spear of Longinus that blocked out the sky, their faces filled with indescribable shock.

What a huge spear!

“Starting from today, Earth… Earth only has one God of War, and that is me, the God of Battle.”

Finishing his words, Darian’s arm immediately slashed downward.

The giant spear in the high sky fell simultaneously, the sound of the spearhead cutting through the air extremely heavy, kicking up visible white shockwaves on both sides as if the entire sky had been ripped open.

Ares’s pupils contracted sharply, forcing his body to dodge, but countless black hands suddenly burst out from the ground, pressing him firmly against the Earth.

Having just suffered a wave of thunder bombardment, he was completely powerless to resist and could only lie on the ground, watching helplessly as that giant spear smashed down toward him.

Rumble—!!!

The yellow light instantly occupied the center of heaven and Earth.

Accompanied by a mountain-shaking tremor, the Shockwave wrapped in gravel and dirt pushed toward the surroundings, the ground beneath their feet collapsing frantically and rapidly spreading in all directions, the entire scene resembling the arrival of doomsday.

Darian and Barry quickly retreated, running hundreds of meters away before stopping their footsteps.

Behind them, a large cloud of dust had already been kicked up, blotting out the sky.

When the dust cleared, a huge crater appeared ahead, with the ground collapsing completely within a radius of hundreds of meters.

And right at the center of the crater, Ares’s appearance was even more miserable than before; all the armor on his body was shattered, going into battle with bare skin, not even a shred of covering left, streaking out in broad daylight—truly lacking in public decency.

However, considering Ares’s hometown was Mount Olympus, by local customs over there, it was practically as normal as could be, nothing to make a fuss about.

Barry noticed that Ares’s body was still moving and swallowed hard: “He actually didn’t die from this.”

Darian shook his head: “How could a god perish so easily.”

Just as Ares himself said, he was the God of War; as long as war did not cease, he would not truly perish in a real sense.

Much like Parallax, the embodiment of fear, he belonged to the category of mechanic-based monsters.

Not to mention that Ares had personally created a war that swept across the world, absorbing who knew how much power; he certainly wouldn’t go offline just like that.

However, Darian also had a way to deal with mechanic-based monsters.

A mask appeared out of thin air in his hand, shaped like an evil ghost, with a curved horn growing on each side of its forehead, radiating an unsettling dark aura throughout its body that made people shudder.

Darian tossed the mask into the air.

The next moment, a large amount of black energy surged from the surface of the mask, pouring downward like thick ink.

Supported by that black energy, the Death Mask slowly rose into mid-air and continuously enlarged.

The black qi beneath the mask gathered more and more, gradually outlining a massive body nearly ten meters tall.

Finally, a complete Grim Reaper appeared at the center of the battlefield.

It wore that evil ghost mask, beneath which there was no face, only a churning mass of darkness, draped in a tattered black robe whose hem fluttered wildly without wind, emanating an aura of death that chilled one to the bone.

Ares looked at the Grim Reaper before him, sensing a familiar aura from it, yet not quite the same.

He tentatively spoke: “Thanatos, is that you?”

The Grim Reaper did not reply, directly reaching out to grab Ares.

That pitch-black giant palm reached into Ares’s body without any obstruction, then slowly pulled outward, dragging out a translucent Ares.

Ares felt his soul being pulled out of his body bit by bit, his expression changing drastically.

He immediately wanted to summon the power of thunder to take out the Grim Reaper in front of him, but found not a single movement.

“How could this be!?”

Ares turned pale with fright.

But right now didn’t allow him to think carefully, hastily switching to telekinesis, but still there was not the slightest reaction.

Seeing that his soul was about to be completely pulled out of his body, Ares instantly grew angry.

Being fellow gods, did they really think he was easy to bully?

Ares frantically squeezed the power within his body, blood qi gushing out, grabbing the arms of the Grim Reaper with both hands and trying with all his might to prevent the other party from continuing to pull.

His muscles bulged to the limit, blood vessels protruded all over his body, and his entire face turned red from holding back, actually forcibly pulling his soul back a few inches.

Darian saw this scene and couldn’t help muttering: “Could this Grim Reaper really be this weak?”

The Grim Reaper seemed to have heard his words, feeling immensely insulted.

Suddenly, its other hand reached behind its back, pulling out a huge scythe from thin air.

Darian curiously glanced at the scythe’s information.

Darian: “???”

Could this Grim Reaper have come from the Japan?

Just as Darian was complaining inwardly, the Grim Reaper had already slashed down with a blade, the scythe carving out a pitch-black arc as it struck Ares’s soul.

“Ah!!”

Ares instantly emitted a heart-rending scream, his soul suffering heavy damage, and the strength in his hands involuntarily loosened.

The Grim Reaper took advantage of the momentum to exert force, dragging his entire soul right out.

Immediately afterward, the belly of the Grim Reaper split open rapidly, revealing a black-hole-like gap with bottomless darkness churning inside, as if connecting to some endless abyss.

A powerful suction force surged from the black hole, dragging Ares’s soul toward the inside.

“Dammit!”

Ares cursed angrily.

If he were at his peak state, he would easily be able to shake off the Grim Reaper.

But he had just been heavily weakened by Darian, and his power had not yet had time to recover, giving him no way to resist.

However, Ares still didn’t give up. Half of his body had already been sucked in, with only his hands still clinging desperately to both sides of the Grim Reaper’s belly, resisting with all his might.

“I am the God of War! How could I be taken down by something like you…”

Before he finished speaking, a large foot suddenly appeared in Ares’s field of vision, rapidly enlarging in front of his eyes and fiercely stamping onto his face.

Bang!!

The power of this kick was astonishingly huge; Ares was kicked backward.

His hands could no longer hold on, and his entire body lost balance, being sucked directly into the churning darkness in the belly of the Grim Reaper.

“No—!!”

The scream came from deep within the black hole, growing smaller and smaller, and then abruptly stopped.

That mass of darkness quickly gathered, completely engulfing Ares’s soul.

Soon, the belly of the Grim Reaper returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

The Grim Reaper glanced at Darian, then its body gradually became transparent, disappearing from the spot along with the mask on its face.

Without Ares’s soul, Ares’s physical body automatically dissipated on the spot, turning into ashes.

Barry exclaimed: “That guy has disappeared.”

He couldn’t see the Grim Reaper and Ares’s souls, so he didn’t know what had happened.

Darian didn’t explain either: “It’s time to let this war end.”

He grabbed Barry and flew straight into the high sky, finding Diana and Arthur’s positions again.

These two people were still at the place where they had fought previously.

Diana had her body pierced by a sword by Swann, but it didn’t hit a vital spot—after all, Ares still needed Diana to continue this war; she was only severely injured and had lost combat capability.

Arthur’s situation wasn’t much better, having been beaten nearly to death by Darian, and he still hadn’t recovered yet.

Darian brought Barry down to the ground, came before the two of them, and said: “The mastermind has been taken care of by me, and all of this was planned by Ares.”

“He used his power to control Artemis and Orm, making Artemis kill Hippolyta, and made Orm induce Mera to assassinate Diana, deliberately stirring up the war between Atlantis and the Amazon, so that he could extract power from the war and grow stronger.”

Hearing this, Diana’s expression changed drastically.

Of course she knew who Ares was; when Hippolyta was still alive, she had told her stories about Themyscira.

And Ares was the villain in the story, who could be said to have done all kinds of evil things, to the extent that she once believed during her childhood that all the bad things in the world were orchestrated by Ares behind the scenes.

Diana had an incredulous look: “You aren’t lying to me, are you!”

Darian said disdainfully: “With your strength, do I need to lie to you?”

Diana and Arthur: “…”

What you said makes so much sense that I am actually unable to refute it.

Just now they had witnessed that major battle firsthand; that level of power had already exceeded the scope of their cognition. If Darian really wanted to deal with them, he wouldn’t need to waste so many words at all.

The expressions of the two turned complicated.

If this was truly a conspiracy, then what was everything they did for?

Arthur gritted his teeth, raising his hand to point at Diana: “Then what about Diana killing Mera? That at least is a fact!”

Diana’s face stiffened, and just as she was about to speak, Darian had already preempted: “No, Ares did that as well. Ares secretly used his power to stimulate Diana’s intent to kill and anger, making her kill Mera in a state of loss of control. When all is said and done, she is also a victim.”

Anyway, Ares had already entered the Grim Reaper’s belly; the blame could be arbitrarily piled onto his head since dead men tell no tales.

“What!?”

Arthur was stunned, turning to look at Diana, and immediately asked: “Is that really true?”

How could that be, I was very calm at the time.

Diana was about to answer when she saw Darian looking over, smiling with unusual friendliness.

Diana forcibly swallowed back the words that had reached her lips.

Her face stiffened as she nodded, saying dryly: “R-Right… seems like there was something like that.”

But Arthur wasn’t a fool, pointing again at the helmet on Diana’s head and saying: “Then why are you wearing Mera’s helmet?”

Diana: “…”

Yeah, why indeed?

Darian answered preemptively again: “Ares attached magic to the helmet, which can continuously influence Diana’s mind, making her make all sorts of irrational judgments. Moreover, this magic would also penetrate into the subconscious, making Diana always want to keep the helmet on her head, unwilling to take it off.”

“Think about it, after Diana put on this helmet, did her whole person change, becoming ruthless and tyrannical, completely different from her in your impression?”

Arthur’s expression slowly changed.

He recalled carefully, and it indeed seemed to be like that.

Although he always felt something was a bit off, it also seemed like everything now made sense.

Arthur looked dazed: “So that’s how it is, could it be that I really did something wrong…”

Diana was shocked.

After listening to Darian’s words, she almost believed it herself, even beginning to wonder if she had truly been controlled by Ares at that time.

Arthur remained silent for quite a while, gritting his teeth as he said: “Ares truly did all kinds of evil! Recalling it now, it seems like my treatment was the same as Diana’s, making a lot of irrational judgments—Ares must have influenced my mind as well.”

No, you’re different; you’re just purely being an idiot.

Darian complained inwardly and nodded: “That’s right, Ares did all kinds of evil; this war from beginning to end was just a setup by him, and all of you were used by him.”

Barry was quite innocent, thinking what Darian said was the truth, and said angrily: “This Ares is truly a bastard! To make the entire Earth look like this for his own selfish desires, he really did all kinds of evil!”

Diana originally didn’t want to speak again, but then saw Darian’s gaze sweeping over once more.

The corner of her mouth twitched: “Ares truly did all kinds of evil.”

Everyone present reached a consensus: no matter whose fault it was, everything was Ares’s fault.

Arthur let out a long sigh and lowered his head.

“We of Atlantis are willing to surrender; all troops will withdraw back to the ocean and no longer wage war against the Amazon.”

“This war ends here!”

Diana pursed her lips tightly and was silent for a moment: “The Amazon is willing to surrender and declare a truce with Atlantis. The Amazon warriors will evacuate New Themyscira and return the land to humanity.”