"Lord Ares we found it." A voice from his side caught his attention.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes my Lord, I confirmed it personally."
"For your sake, I hope you're right," Ares said before picking a towel to wipe his hands, they were soaked in blood. A body lay beneath his feet, the poor Dryad was sprawled on the floor, now lifeless. After her pointless attack, he had flung her into the wall, and she initially passed out; his temper wasn't.
Usually, the sight of blood anywhere even on him was something he admired but the blood he had on him reeked of Nymphs, and he despised them all with an unparalleled passion.
"Take me to it." He said before summoning the Aether and vanishing out of sight.
He appeared inside another house, this one much bigger and lavish. The Aether was an exciting thing. The more powerful your connection is with magic, the easier and quicker it was to move through it. For a god like him, crossing continents only takes about a couple seconds to accomplish while a lesser god like Hybris would usually take a few more seconds.
With that in mind, one would then assume that the further away one has to jump then the longer it would take but that is where they would be wrong. Travelling through the Aether was like using a shuttle, if the distance got increasingly further, then the faster the shuttle will get.
Ares would take only a few seconds to get to Mars, which was several millions of miles away, but would take slightly less time when crossing continents. It was likely that the Aether adjusted the speed relative to the distance one wanted to jump. So, jumping to the furthest reaches of space may take him a few minutes as his speed will be increased to deal with the astronomical distance.
The minor god immediately went straight for the door as they exited the building, Ares following closely behind. Outside they were met by a handful of Supernatural, one of them opened the door for the two and Ares went in first followed by the lesser god. Their entourage consisted of three cars all unmarked as they left the parking lot and headed straight to the place he had been searching for close to a decade now.
They drove for over two hours before the driver said they were at their destination. Ares quickly jumped out, trying as much as he could to suppress his impatience. You would have thought that after looking for close to a decade he would have been more humbled.
Outside the vehicle Ares was met with a large field of short grass that had been cut recently. Behind him, he heard Hybris getting out and approach him.
"Welcome to Crete my Lord," she said.
Ares paused to take a deep breath of the ancient Island before returning his gaze at the few structures and tents erected several yards away from his position. He had finally found the place.
Taking giant steps only his tall frame could afford, he made short work of the distance and entered the small compound filled with about a dozen more humans.
Two men dressed in blue overalls and a distinctive white colored helmet approached him and gave a slight bow. Ares took off his shades, and the two were rewarded with a pair of round dark brown eyes. "Your work is done here, grab your men and leave."
"Understood sir."
One of the two turned and barked orders for his crew. It was five minutes later that they all were already packed with equipment in hand when they began leaving. Ares turned and headed for the large dug-out hole on the ground. Behind him, the sounds of screams and gurgles reached his ears. The fewer people knew about his plans, the better.
Reaching the hole, he pushed aside a mounted hydraulic winch and jumped into the dark tunnel. He landed on his Fendi lace-ups, kicking up a few specks of dust in the process.
The place was roughly round shaped, and several metal supports erected at various points of the old cave. On his right hand was a large flat wall, on it a few runes inscribed onto it.
"Vetus antrum deum, aperti ad mandatum meum."
There was a period of silence before the sound of rock grinding against rock permeated throughout the empty cave. The large wall began sliding open to his left. Grabbing one of the portable solar lanterns, he walked towards the dark opening and was soon swallowed by the darkness.
The light from his lamp illuminated an old path that went down and deeper into the cold cave. It was a big moment for him, yet he felt unfulfilled, like something was missing...an audience.
The cave he was in was the most guarded secret among three brothers. It was where—as the humans would put it—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divided the world. The level of ignorance mortals possessed was second only to animals.
The Supernatural is also partly to blame, they were the ones who came up with fables that mortals picked up and turned them into gospel.
For starters, the tale of the rise of The Big Three as rulers of the cosmos. Ares chuckled to himself as he came across a short wider path that led to a flat ground surrounded by large stones that formed a circle.
On reaching the circle, he saw several markings and symbols drawn on three large stones centrally placed inside a smaller circle. There were three symbols on each stone, but his interest was drawn towards only one; the one with the mark of the Thunderbolt.
For such a big secret, it was so poorly guarded.
Crouching in front of it, Ares wiped the surface of the large stone, and several lines of runes appeared. It was the spell he was looking for. What humans and perhaps most of Supernatural didn't know, was the ritual that took place there, long before the dawn of men.
The universe as they call it, is technically only one of the four Spatial Dimensions that makes up the Cosmos which is part of the totality that is Kaos.
Just like the Dimensions, three forces helped shape and influence Creation. The Cosmic Power wielded by Kaos and his progeny. The Divine Power wielded by immortals and a selected few and finally Magic. Just like the Aether's influence in the other three dimensions, magic is the only power that can connect all three.
After the fall of Titans, Zeus and his brothers performed three spells that bonded them to the three primordial beings as a reward. Zeus got the lion's share and bonded himself with Ouranos, Gaia and Aether while Poseidon bonded with Gaia. Hades bonded with Nyx. The connection was only possible due to the nature of magic.
Going through the runes written on the stone, he got out his phone and made sure he captured every character on the rock and placed his phone back into his pocket.
A small pebble fell on to his head, and Ares immediately looked up. Raising his lamp, he was just in time to spot small cracks forming on the roof, gradually branching down into several more cracks. Another rock landed near him before he felt the first tremor.
"And I stand corrected."
Ares picked his lamp and began sprinting for the cave's entrance. By the time he was out of the dark cave, large boulders were randomly falling from the roof, and the ground was in full-on earthquake affecting both his balance speed. He had only moments before the hole he jumped out of collapse in on itself.
Outside he found Hybris and the team leaning on the vehicles for balance while the entire establishment was brought to the ground. Large fissures began to cut across the field he was standing on.
"You and the men get out of here." He shouted over the sound of the cracking ground.
"What about you?"
"I have what I came for," Ares stated before muttering a short spell and disappearing from the site.
…
He appeared seconds later at a large castle, he pushed open the large double doors and strolled inside. The sound of shoes hitting the hard marble surface echoed throughout the massive hallways. It wasn't long though before he reached his destination. The castle's underground chambers.
There was one particular chamber that had light other than the one lighting his path. Opening the door, Ares found whom he was looking for.
"Tell me you brought something else other than your musk?" A female voice asked without turning.
"I brought something else other than my musk."
Circe sharply turned to face Ares who had a sinister smile plastered all over his face. "You found it?"
"It wasn't easy."
Circe rose from her seat, there were several objects and bottles over the table that she was working on. "Let me see."
Dusting himself off, Ares took out his phone and gave it to her. After working on it for a couple of seconds her eyes grew wide, she quickly walked out of the room and began ascending the stairs all the while her eyes never left the screen, Ares followed behind silently.
After a long series of lefts and rights she turned and pushed one of the doors open with her back before entering it. Unlike the last room, this one was filled with books organized in several rows of shelves. She walked to the back of the room where there was a large wall mounted storage drawer unit.
Peeling her eyes away from the phone she placed one hand over one of the drawers and muttered a few words. There was a clicking sound before she pulled back the draw and picked out a large grimoire.
"I'm guessing you stole that?"
"I know all of my mother's protective spells."
"Won't she notice it missing?"
"Not unless she's looking for it, I put a duplicate book in place of this one," she answered without looking up as she sat at one of her desks and began going through the pages.
"Found it!" Circe declared before bringing the phone down next to the book, there was an unfinished series of runes that were the same as the ones in the phone.
"It's the Dominion Spell, the one you brought is the other half of the complete incantation. But we still need one more ingredient for it to work."
Ares knew what she meant, he'd been on it for close to two decades now. Athena had always been one step ahead of him, but he knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. Sooner or later she'll slip up and one of his many minions would find him and relay it back to him.
"I'm close."
"But that's what you said nineteen years ago?" Circe pouted.
"Watch your tone when speaking to me. Do not mistake my cordial outlook for familiarity. You're nothing more than a means to an end."
"And your promise? You promised me Styx if I helped you. I even stole for you."
"You'll get your stupid River but don't test my patience. As of now make sure we don't miss anything."
"Yes, Lord." Circe nodded.
"Good, get it done," Ares said before vanishing from sight.