[3rd POV]
Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in all of Greece based on her appearance alone.
For Ares, the god of war in mythology, Aphrodite was the most important woman in his life.
In mythology, Ares would get extremely angry when he found out about Aphrodite's infidelity, rushing down to the Earth to slay any mortal human who dared to commit adultery with the goddess of love and beauty.
Aphrodite, on the other hand, would get jealous when Ares had affairs with other goddesses. She even cursed Eos, the goddess of the dawn, with an insatiable desire for humans as punishment for Eos's affair with Ares.
However, for Ares today, Aphrodite was nothing but a big problem.
First, because all the other gods, including Zeus, were chasing after Aphrodite's affection, their jealousy and rivalry led to even Zeus himself failing to claim her.
In anger, Zeus ultimately decided to marry her to the ugliest god, Hephaestus.
Now, if Ares were to have an affair with her, it would cause trouble among the gods and his brother.
Secondly, many of Ares' problems happened because Aphrodite caused trouble.
It all started when Eros, the little god of love, shot Hades with an arrow, making him uncontrollably desire Persephone to abduct her to the Underworld.
This made Demeter, Persephone's mother, broken, causing all life on earth to wither.
Later, Aphrodite got into a fight with Athena and Hera over a golden apple, which triggered the most famous war in Greek history—the Trojan War.
Every time, Ares got dragged into fights with other gods because of Aphrodite, making enemies of every god on Olympus, and barely escaped with his dignity.
In short, calling Aphrodite a "troublemaker" would be no exaggeration. At this point, Ares wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from her as possible.
Actually, it would be best if he stayed away from all the goddesses!
In mythology, Ares' hatred of Poseidon arose from an incident in which Poseidon's son violated Ares' daughter, Alcippe.
Ares got so angry that he killed Poseidon's son, igniting a feud between the two gods.
If he simply chose not to have children, Ares could avoid all these problems forever!
Moreover, Athena was probably starting to notice that Zeus had plans for her.
To protect herself, she would likely take the opportunity to swear an oath of virginity. Given this, Ares came up with a new plan.
With Athena as a shield, Ares's new plan would make perfect sense for his persona and wouldn't cause him too much trouble.
As Ares pondered his plan, he returned to the tree palace and told Hecate, who was busy with her magical research.
After hearing Ares' news, Hecate made a face and muttered, "Tch, looks like I have no choice but to go this time. I'd better find a way to make myself look uglier."
Hearing this, Ares raised an eyebrow and said, "All the other goddesses want to look as pretty as possible at Zeus' banquets. Why would you want to make yourself look the opposite?
Hecate rolled her eyes and replied, "If I dress too beautifully, what if Zeus starts noticing me? I'd rather sleep with a sea monster than have anything to do with that pervert!"
"Are you still afraid of Zeus?"
Ares asked, surprised, "You should be stronger than even Athena, right?"
"So what?"
Hecate shrugged, "In this era, aside from the one destined to overthrow him, no one can challenge the king of gods."
"If Zeus really tries to cause trouble for me, the only thing I could do is curse him and try to shorten his time as ruler as much as possible."
"Overthrow?"
Ares' curiosity was piqued, and he quickly asked, "Hecate, what do you mean by that? You never taught me this before."
"Why would you want to know?"
Hecate turned to look at him with a sly smirk forming on her lips, "Do you want to start a... rebellion?"
"Ridiculous, I'm just curious."
Ares said solemnly, "Hecate, you're insulting my divine status. I will always remain loyal to Olympus!"
"Oh, really?"
Hecate looked Ares up and down, snorted, and laughed, "Well, you don't have to be so scared of me. Honestly, I'd be happy if Zeus, that old pervert, died sooner. As for gods like you, I'll just pretend I didn't see anything."
Ares didn't respond to Hecate's words, ignoring her completely. This left the Goddess of the Magic, Hecate, feeling somewhat helpless.
After thinking for a moment, Ares suddenly asked her, "Hecate, about that makeup... could you help me with it too?"
"What do you need makeup for?"
Hecate gave Ares a disgusted look, "The mighty god of war, secretly a pretty boy?"
"No."
Ares replied, touching his face, "I think I'm too handsome. I'd like you to help me make myself look a little uglier."
"Pfft!"
Hearing Ares' words, Hecate spat at him in disgust, then, without even acknowledging him, she turned and opened a portal leading to a different dimension, and vanished from the palace.
"I was being serious."
Ares muttered to himself.
Seeing Hecate disappear, Ares felt somewhat helpless.
After thinking about it, Ares realized that what he said might have been a bit shameless.
He was afraid that his status as the God of War might somehow attract Aphrodite.
Right now, Ares wanted to make himself look worse than Hephaestus, hoping that when Aphrodite saw him, she'd just walk the other way to avoid causing him trouble in the future.
However, if he, a male god, had to wear makeup to Zeus' banquet in this era, it would likely be seen as disrespectful.
After thinking carefully, Ares decided to abandon the idea.
After all, once his new plan was in action, Aphrodite probably wouldn't be interested in him anymore.
...
Five days later, Ares had prepared his attire and was ready to set off.
Hecate was ready too, finished her makeup, and appeared before him.
She had taken on the appearance of a young woman, wearing a deep purple gown with her purple hair falling over her shoulders.
However, she used white powder to make her face pale and painted many mysterious symbols on her face with purple paint.
Finally, Hecate had painted her lips bright red, resembling Joker, looked like a witch performing tricks at a circus.
Seeing her in this state, Ares was left speechless.
At this moment, Hecate looked more like a monster than anything else, but one thing was sure—if she went to Mount Olympus looking like this, she wouldn't have to worry about any gods showing interest in her.
After making sure everything was ready, the master and disciple set off, heading toward Mount Olympus.
To be continued...
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A/N: I hope we reach the top 20 and goodluck... please shower me with some powerstone...