Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 956: Humanity’s grudge Part 3

Nothing was going Aphrodite’s way and she was starting to realize her situation would not improve without her taking direct action, but this was precisely what she hated the most. It wasn’t that she lacked power, especially now that her followers reached the hundreds of thousands, a feat impossible in the classical era where the entirety of Greece which was were most of her followers lived was about half a million.

She was now more powerful than ever, but risking getting hurt was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. If Uriel was powerful enough to make her bleed with a punch, she didn’t want to think what would happen if she became the target of his repentance skill.

Unlike Zeus, Ares and most of the gods who considered humans to be nothing but sacrifices to gain power, Aphrodite who due to her former lack in physical strength had to resort to manipulation soon learned that humans were actually far more dangerous than they gave them credit.

That was the reason why she bestowed her blessing upon all hunters whether they believed in her or not. She considered it an investment that would pay out one day and she was not mistaken as now hunters made a line to make offerings to her. This made her the most popular hence the strongest, a fact that even Zeus was unaware of.

"Why did it have to be this way?" She clicked her tongue in frustration watching Ares take a stance against the hunters along with Athena, though the latter receded the full control of her body to Hazel.

"Don’t you know shame? How dare you attack the gods that protect the people of this city?" Hazel’s cold eyes glared at Uriel, then shook her head. "I shouldn’t be surprised, really. Even though you’ve helped us in the past, you always did it for selfish reasons." freewēbnoveℓ.com

"And what if that’s the case? Will you do anything?" Uriel arrogant reply would have caused an uproar in the people surrounding them, but everyone remained silence to not miss a word of their conversation.

"You don’t know right or wrong, all you know is destruction and murder." Hazel continued in a further attempt to make Uriel’s determination waver, but he showed absolutely no reaction. Hazel thought it strange as she knew Uriel to be similar to her in the sense that he saw the world as black and white in the most radical way.

"I want you out of this city and you want to stay, this won’t be solved by words. So what’s it gonna be?" Uriel said with a mischievous grin.

"Finally, someone understands!" Ares said as he lunged forward with a short bronze sword which was promptly blocked by Medusa whose vambraces not only stopped the slash, but also threw the god off as they activated. "get out of the way, you insect." Ares spat on the ground.

Medusa remained calm and slowly walked back to her position and fixed a strand of hair that had gotten in her face, before speaking. "We won’t let you pass."

"Is that so? Hey, you! The leader, are you not ashamed of staying in the back while the women do all the hard work?" Ares taunted.

"Not really, no." Uriel shrugged with a smirk.

Luna looked at him, thinking for a second that Uriel acted too much like himself to actually be Water warlock possessing him, but all doubts where cleared after the conversation that followed.

"You really are that weak."

"Think what you want, but I don’t deal with minions." The tone was so arrogant, so coldly disinterested it made everyone think Uriel could never act like that. Not even if he was acting.

At that moment Ares was irked by Uriel’s refusal to face him in a one on one battle. As the god of war, Ares was much more comfortable fighting stupid soldiers that would throw away their lives for meaningless concepts such as honor, duty or even pride, but Uriel was different. Most people assumed the god of war would be a brave warrior, when in reality it was the complete opposite and had left many warnings about this to his companions.

"War is not a noble thing and people with morals will always suffer the most. When you face him, make sure to remember that he will use any and all underhanded methods. He is nothing but a coward that manipulates people against each other to collect the spoils himself. Even now, he’s probably hosting tournaments and killing those who win because he’s afraid they might become stronger than him. He’s physically powerful and has a lot of combat experience, but don’t worry too much about that small fry because his weakness is..." Luna read from a notebook left by Uriel in a monotone that left the god of war speechless.

"Shut up! I’m the greatest warrior there ever was!" Ares cut Luna short then repeated the last sentence as he glanced around him were people looked at him with disapproving eyes. Sweat started trickling down his forehead as the same eyes that looked at him as though their savior shifted on the spot.

Accustomed to being honored and praised for his might, believing himself to be surrounded by enemies was a new experience to him. Not just that, the fact that they might have figured out his weakness actually scared him because not even he was aware of what his own weakness was. Fighting for hundreds of years and winning every single time had made him confident in his power, but he was also aware that all gods had a weakness.

Some were easy to find, others not so much, but all gods were destined to learn it someday. All but him, who had yet to lose his first battle due to using dirty tricks and cheating his way to the higher echelons of divinity.

At that moment, he didn’t think how unlikely it was that a group of humans had somehow figured out his weakness. Especially after they casually dealt with two minor deities with nothing but a few scratches in exchange. Afraid and feeling completely surrounded, Ares turned to show the only emotion he allowed himself to show in front of others, rage.

"What is that imbecile doing!?" Aphrodite covered her mouth as she darted downstairs, hoping to reach the battlefield before Ares managed to activate his skill, but she was late.

The flux emitted by Ares was far greater than anything most of the inhabitants of the city of New Texas had ever experienced. It spread through all the corners of the city and while it didn’t cause any damage, its effects didn’t last long to show up.

Soldiers started converging on the Celes tower from all the four districts, all wearing matching equipment that made them look unified as soldiers, though it was clear from their expressions of fear and cries for help that they were anything but soldiers.

The armors moved to the beat of an unseen drum as the soldiers marched despite the unwillingness of the people trapped inside of them after Ares activated the Draft skill which caused everyone who offered prayers to Ares in exchange for his blessing to be forced to come to his aid.

"What is going on?" Asked a hunter in a shout as the only thing he could see was what lied precisely in front of him. He was unable to even move his neck to the side as his own body seemingly betrayed them.

"Why can’t I stop?" A huntress who at first thought she had received free equipment, cried for help to be released of the cursed armor.

"You finally showed your true colors." Uriel snickered and Luna added.

"His weakness is... I don’t know, but I know you can figure it out.’ that is what it says here."

"I think we just did." Medusa laughed merrily.

The soldiers started coming from all places and pushed the people that had crowded the place wanting to see the fight first hand, only instead of just pushing them they also mindlessly trampled them on the ground causing several injuries.

"I’m sorry, I can’t control myself!" A hunter shouted in despair and many such expressions followed.

"I don’t care if you think you figured it out. Now your only choice is to kill this garbage soldiers and stain your hands with blood or surrender and meet your end by my sword."

In response to Ares words, Uriel silently lifted his revolver and opened fire six consecutive times without even looking, though all the bullets met a target directly in the center of both eyes. A difficult feat even for sharpshooter rangers as the helmets they wore had but a narrow slit that barely allowed sight and was mostly decorative.

"I hate repeating myself," Uriel sighed. "what’s it gonna be?"

Losing six followers was nothing much for Ares, who had also become popular with hunters that wanted to become stronger, but the absolute disregard for human life was something he didn’t expect when he summoned his followers. After all, those affected by his skill had lost the ability to fight for themselves which made turned them into nothing but paper soldiers and they served much better as hostages.

"Crazy, this bastard is crazy!" Ares shouted as he unwittingly took a step back.

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