A fire tornado swept through the forest, a massive display of power that would have been noticed by Ares long ago if not for the two gods hiding the commotion.
It had to be said that Ares was truly blind, still searching the camp in a blind rage for Griffith and Athena.
Although the movement could not be detected by divine sense due to the gods' intervention, it could not be hidden from the naked eye.
When Agamemnon arrived and saw the scene, he was stunned into place.
But once he realized that Achilles and Griffith might have been fighting there, he forced himself to keep moving forward.
"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! You jerk Achilles, couldn't you have just pretended not to see them?
I never see you being this active when it comes to actual fighting!" Agamemnon naturally blamed all the trouble on Achilles.
At the same time, his last bit of hope was crushed.
Those two had clearly encountered each other.
But with Griffith running away while carrying a person, there was no way he could have escaped the pursuit of the fleet-footed Achilles.
He had to help him.
Even at this moment, Agamemnon still hadn't figured out a way to help Night secretly without exposing himself, damn it!
He couldn't worry about that anymore; there was no time left.
He had to reach him before the War God found them.
With a rush of blood to his head, Agamemnon charged forward without thinking through a battle plan.
By the time he approached the fire tornado, the ring of fire had already faded.
The entire forest was dyed a deep crimson.
The earth was scorched, the sky was dim, and stray sparks were everywhere, making the area look like a hot, desolate wasteland.
Night stood alone, holding the spear horizontally in the middle of the burning circle.
Feeling the terrifying power of the solar fire and a surge of vitality, he could tell his internal injuries were completely healed, though his appearance remained covered in blood, making him look quite miserable.
In fact, he was perfectly fine.
The double-spear technique he learned in Rome even gave him the urge to pull out the Arrow of Artemis and swing it alongside this spear.
Perhaps because this was a conceptual weapon, he could even attach the piercing attribute of Achilles's divine spear to this item, making the already destructive weapon even more terrifying.
What kind of horrific true damage would be dealt by combining an absolute piercing attribute with solar fire?
Just thinking about the scene felt like looking at a masterpiece.
Since Achilles's spear could be attached to this weapon, the same should apply to Hector's.
By then, he would hold two weapons symbolizing the most terrifying forces of nature, representing the light of the sun and the moon, both with the absolute piercing attribute attached.
He would hold one in each hand.
Once that moment came, the power of Hector and Achilles would become his boosters, sending him soaring to the heavens!
There was nothing left to fear; this power was so great that Night almost felt arrogant enough to challenge the War God Ares to a single duel.
Well, perhaps he should reconsider that.
Recalling the pressure and intimidation he felt when facing the War God, who was completely unrestrained and overbearing, the feeling of divine fear he had experienced was simply incomparable to the times he had met Apollo or other high gods.
But Night believed this did not mean Apollo and the others were weak.
On the contrary, among the twelve Olympians, those figures were immensely powerful, each with astonishing achievements, and they were likely far stronger than Ares.
It was just that the previous gods had shown some restraint when facing him, while Ares was filled with malice, which made the pressure feel much greater.
If Night had ever seen the power released when Artemis fought Athena, he would have understood that the gap was much larger than he had imagined.
After all, it's always been Athena beating Area onesided everytime they fought.
Even though gods fighting on Greek soil instinctively gathered their divine power into a single point to prevent it from exploding and destroying the earth, fearing the wrath of Gaia, the primordial grandmother of the gods, whom even Zeus dared not easily provoke, the destructive power that leaked out was still enough to easily destroy a continent.
If the twelve Olympians went all out, they could destroy the world and cleanse the surface in three minutes.
Compared to that, the light cannon Night had released earlier didn't even reach the normal attack limit of the twelve Olympians.
His ceiling hadn't even reached their floor.
He was better than the weak, but worse than the strong; he could only bully those weak gods who didn't even possess the authority or divine power of true gods.
Presently, even with Helios's divine spear, he was still no match for Ares and had no right to fight him yet.
He was no better than a child holding a lethal weapon; at most, if an adult was careless, there was a tiny possibility of being taken out by a child with a gun.
Suppressing his fighting spirit and the urge to blow the War God Ares's head off, Night forced himself to stay calm.
If he had enough strength, he would properly repay the War God for all of this in the future.
He should even thank Ares for causing all this trouble; otherwise, he never would have obtained such a powerful divine artifact.
If he had stayed in Greece, Night might not have been in such a rush to return the armor, and he would never have had the chance to let Helios witness that shocking scene of him tearing the armor away, which led to this result.
This was destiny.
It was fated that the hero Griffith would return stronger and beat the War God Ares into the ground in the future.
Perhaps he could even continue the epic he invented about Kratos the Dragon Slayer, adding a chapter about becoming a new War God after killing a god.
"Someone is coming... it's Agamemnon. You need to keep going, Griffith," Athena said, her words interrupting his thoughts, as he put away the divine spear, slinging it across his back.
He nodded, thanked Helios, and bid him farewell.
The Sun God promised to continue guiding his path as long as Night never forgot the courage to face fear directly, and then Helios vanished.
A golden chariot lit up the horizon again, and the chariot burning with solar fire dashed into the sky.
At this moment, Agamemnon finally arrived, only to see Griffith standing in the center of the hellish landscape, bare-chested and covered in blood, with the spear slung across his back, looking like he was struggling to stand.
His body was covered in shocking wounds from his neck to his abdomen, and even his arms were a mess.
Every detail burned into Agamemnon's eyes.
Suddenly, a string inside Agamemnon's mind seemed to snap.
Who, who did this? Was it Achilles?!
No, that was impossible.
If Hector hadn't been lucky enough to dodge that light cannon, he would have been a ghost under Griffith's hand.
Griffith was already the strongest hero in Greece.
Even Achilles couldn't have injured him to this extent.
Agamemnon's eyes instantly turned red.
When Agamemnon then saw Achilles standing off to the side, his focus shifted.
The point wasn't Achilles, but rather what Achilles was holding in his hand, the divine armor that Night had just stripped from his own flesh, still dripping with fresh blood and looking completely different, appearing archaic, sacred, and woven with crimson and gold.
That, that was...?
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)