Chapter 57 - Prelude to the End

The God of War rose from the rubble, unconcerned about his wounds, with a mad dog attacking him with everything it had. Ikki smiled faintly and counterattacked.

It was good to use more of his power!

If anyone witnessed the scene of the two fighting, they would be shocked by the power. The two appeared as flashes of red and gold light battling across the entire island, moving faster than lightning. Every exchanged blow created craters, uprooted trees, and even destroyed small mountains. The whole island trembled, and the vibrations spread across the ocean!

Dark storm clouds could be seen in the sky. It was as if an apocalyptic event were unfolding in that place!

In addition to their inhuman power, anyone watching would have felt a strange sensation at the size difference between the two, but despite that, Ikki was clearly gaining the upper hand. After a series of exchanged blows, he identified the fighting style of the God of War: a mix of no-holds-barred fighting and various martial arts.

It was as if he had learned mixed martial arts and then researched and mastered styles like Taekwondo, Aikido, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and even some martial arts that only existed in ancient records to refine his fighting style. It was well-refined and well-executed—that was his assessment. He also recognized the effort behind Ares' strikes, the result of years of rigorous training, pushing his body to the limit to reach his current level.

If there was one thing Ikki liked, it was seeing people work hard for what they desired. Only then could he truly recognize someone. So, despite being enemies, he acknowledged the God of War and decided to use even more of his power.

His eyes glowed faintly. During the exchange of blows between Ares and himself, Ikki dodged a kick and, faster than before, punched the God of War in the face. The punch left Ares dazed with a ringing in his ears, but he bit his tongue to regain his senses and attacked the King of the Greek Heroes once more.

Ikki planted his feet firmly and caused the entire island to crumble beneath him. From afar, one would see it rising in countless pieces as if a meteor had struck it, before he gathered momentum and kicked Ares in the face, who had attacked him in that moment.

Ares turned his face to the side, spitting out all his teeth and another gulp of golden blood. In his confused and dazed state from the impact, his instincts screamed at him to dodge a spinning kick coming from above. Thanks to his reflexes, he managed to avoid it successfully! But his eyes widened when he saw the path the kick had created through the clouds in the sky, which had formed earlier in their battle.

Seeing that his first kick was evaded, Ikki simply continued his spin and landed another kick to Ares' chest. The God of War, eyes wide, had no time to react or defend.

This kick felt like a divine mountain crashing onto Ares' chest, causing him to spit more golden blood. The Greek deity's mind went completely blank. All he could feel was an agonizing pain, as if his body were a puppet with its strings cut, collapsing forward toward the ground, his consciousness slipping away.

He would have flown back faster than a falling star if Ikki hadn't applied the power of his "source" to the attack.

"It seems like it's over, God of War," Ikki said calmly, with no humor or mockery as he had shown when facing monsters or Hercules on his journey up to this point.

Ares collapsed forward onto the only remaining piece of the island that they had been standing on. Had Ikki not cast a small spell to hold this land together, it would have turned to dust under his stomp.

He walked past the fallen Ares, who lay unconscious, and everything around him changed again with his speed, before he stopped in front of the God of War's motorcycle on Santa Monica Beach.

"I would never lose to a pup of a god like you," a hoarse voice reached his ears.

Sighing, Ikki grabbed the helmet in his hands, before looking back. There was Ares, his clothes torn and painted golden with his own blood. He was panting, and his eyes seemed to glow with hatred, like a supernova.

He limped toward Ikki, muttering ancient Greek curses. As he muttered and his mouth moved, cracks and pops could be heard clearly.

Ares used all his remaining strength, moving quickly. In an instant, he closed the distance between himself and Ikki, snatching his sword from where it had been lodged in the sand and appearing in front of the King of Heroes. He swung the sword down, as if he wanted to split Ikki's head in half.

But to his disbelief, Ikki caught the blade with just his finger. The finger held the sharp blade like a cruel hook.

What kind of strength did someone need to hold a sword with bare hands? No, it wasn't strength. It felt like a mortal wielding a wooden sword trying to strike a mountain with unimaginable weight.

While Ares was still in shock that his blade was being held like this, Ikki gently pressed his finger against the body of the blade, causing a tear to appear on the God of War's chest, splattering golden blood on his face.

Ikki had just used one of the applications of the [Sword Qi], which could cut any target within his vision at any point, materializing cutting "energy" attacks on his targets.

Ares' eyes widened even further as his mind went blank, trying to comprehend what had just happened!

How had he lost so easily?

Could a demigod be this strong!?

As he pondered this, his body tilted forward, and his sword fell from his hands. Before he collapsed onto the ground at Ikki's feet, the sound of his body breaking the silence of the beach.

By now, the police should have arrived at the beach due to the noise of the destruction, but Ikki had isolated the entire Santa Monica Beach using illusion manipulation and presence, creating an environment where no sound could be heard from the outside, causing people to ignore the location.

Since the battle had ended, he decided to stop using his two abilities.

With the Helmet of Darkness in hand, Ikki walked toward his friends, who were looking at him from afar with wide eyes. It was no surprise, as they had briefly witnessed how powerful their friend was! He had wiped out half the beach with the force of a single blow!

They were curious to know the rest of the battle since they had traveled somewhere in the middle of the ocean at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow. All they knew was that they were there due to the vibrations and tremors coming from the horizon.

Ikki, about to take another step, stopped. At that moment, he looked back and saw the God of War rising with an apathetic expression, holding his sword. Golden blood gushed from all his wounds, and he spat out some more, but despite the effort, he walked slowly in Ikki's direction.

His intention was obvious—he still wanted to continue the fight! Was it pride, or something else? He should have realized he had no chance, yet he kept rising. Ikki couldn't help but think more highly of Ares.

He was a true warrior.

Despite that, something stopped him.

It was as if a cloud had covered the sun, but worse. The light faded. Sounds and colors disappeared. A cold and heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, lowering the temperature to freezing. This sensation made one feel that life was not worth living, that fighting was pointless.

The darkness dissipated.

For a moment, Ares seemed a bit stunned.

He lowered his sword and managed to utter a few words, his voice hoarse: "Don't think it's over, Ikki Phoenix. I will take your life. Until then, be careful..."

With these final words, he began to glow.

Annabeth, who had been running toward him with her friends, shouted, "Ikki, don't look!"

Ikki merely turned and continued walking toward his friends, who had stopped running and weren't looking in the direction of the God of War. Annabeth must have explained the gods' divine forms to Percy, as he was doing the same.

With his supernatural senses, Ikki felt Ares disappearing.

He continued walking toward his friends.

But before he could reach them, he heard the sound of leathery wings flapping. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats and flaming whips descended from the sky and landed in front of him.

The middle Fury, who had once been Mrs. Dodds, took a step forward. Her canines were exposed, but for the first time, she didn't seem threatening. She looked disappointed, as if she had planned to devour him for dinner but realized he might give her indigestion.

She bowed:

"Ikki, our lord is grateful for your services. Thank you for recovering our lord's helmet..."

Ikki was amused. Hades must have a good opinion of him after all this. He tossed the helmet to his father's subordinate and said:

"Return this to my uncle..."

Alecto bowed again before, along with her sisters, taking flight on their bat-like wings. They hovered in the smoke-filled sky and disappeared.

By this point, his friends had caught up with him and were staring at the scene in awe.

"Ikki..." Grover looked at Ikki with wide eyes, saying, "That was so... incredibly..."

"Terrorizing," Annabeth finished, relieved to see Ikki unharmed, but shocked nonetheless.

"Awesome!" Grover corrected.

"Yeah. And fast. It lasted at most two minutes?" Percy wondered.

The three had only seen parts of the fight, as Ares and Ikki moved too quickly for normal eyes to follow. They only saw the strikes and the destruction, the rest was a blur before they moved to the middle of the ocean and continued their battle.

Everyone looked at Percy, who blushed in embarrassment, but coughed and said, "But wow, you're really Superman, indestructible and unbeatable!"

"Of course. Until I find my kryptonite," Ikki joked, amused. After this fight with Ares, he was more confident that he could handle any enemy this world threw at him. Still, he felt that he needed to get stronger.

There were enemies he felt unprepared to face in this world—like the Primordials and some of the stronger Titans.

"Anyway, we need to get back to New York. Tonight, we can't waste time," Ikki said calmly.

"It's impossible," Annabeth denied, until she remembered that Ikki could teleport them through the shadows. Her eyes brightened. "Unless we..."

"Fly or use my teleportation ability," Ikki completed.

Annabeth looked at Percy and then at Ikki, saying, "Flying, like in an airplane, something we can't do because of Percy. After all, he could never do that unless he wants Zeus to strike him down from the sky, especially while carrying a weapon with more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"

"Teleportation..." they all agreed, coming to a consensus after considering Annabeth's words. Even though Ikki wasn't at all concerned about his father's attacks and doubted that he would be struck, he agreed that this was the best option.

They could get to their destination faster and complete the mission.