Hearing those words, Mike froze, his expression turning strange.
Ares... fought himself?
What kind of absurdity was this?
Even though his mind was flooded with questions, Mike didn't interrupt.
If Ares had brought it up, he would explain it eventually.
"You've always wanted to learn Fate's Reversal, haven't you?"
Ares suddenly shifted the topic, his tone casual.
"After today, I'll teach you the third use of Fate's Reversal."
The first two uses of Fate's Reversal were both about locking health, though the restrictions differed.
Mike had heard that Fate's Reversal had four uses.
The third was Ares's creation.
As for the fourth, if Mike rembered correctly, it was Cedric's unique invention.
Mike hesitated, debating whether to ask about what had happened back then.
In the end, he couldn't hold back.
It wasn't just curiosity-Mike needed to understand the past if he wanted to figure out how to save Ares.
Ares seed to consider how to explain, but then he waved it off.
"Forget it. It's too complicated to explain."
He suddenly stopped walking and raised his right hand, as if hailing a cab.
Mike blinked, and a white horse appeared before him.
[Wow-SSS-grade talent!]
The Eye of Truth was clearly envious of the white horse.
If it could, it would love to be a free SSS-grade talent too.
When the white horse appeared, Mike imdiately understood what was about to happen.
If it was too complicated to explain, they'd just go see it for themselves.
Suddenly, a thought struck Mike.
If the white horse had always existed, didn't that an it could use its ti-reversal ability to observe everything Mike had ever done?
Mike felt a sudden urge to pay more attention to his image.
At the very least, he needed to prepare so iconic lines for his final battle with the Supre Demon God!
The white horse flickered, and that familiar sensation surged through Mike's body.
Hold it in!
This ti, he didn't throw up!
Standing beside him, Ares chuckled and said casually, "If you feel like throwing up, just do it."
Mike, though his body felt like jelly, stubbornly replied, "I'm fine!"
Ares raised his hand, his tone serious.
"You'll feel better if you let it out."
Hearing Ares's kind tone, Mike's face turned pale.
He knew that even if he didn't want to throw up, he'd end up doing it anyway...
After a mont's thought, Mike punched himself in the stomach.
"Blegh-"
Ares nodded in satisfaction and explained, "If you don't throw up now, it'll feel worse when we get back."
He wasn't a sadist. If he didn't have to, he wouldn't put Mike through this.
And if he did want to tornt Mike, he could just draw his sword-why bother with all this?
After finishing the ritual of vomiting, Mike turned his attention to the scene before him. Unlike Mike, Ares showed no signs of discomfort, fully embodying the composure of a Supre Being.
That said, his figure seed slightly dimr than before.
Mike forced himself not to dwell on it, focusing instead on Ares's battle with the Supre Demon God.
Ares had tid it perfectly.
When Mike looked toward the Supre Abyssal, the swordsman had just made his entrance.
Unlike Nathan's lone battle, Ares wasn't alone.
Behind him stood another figure-Apollo.
Mike's eyes lit up. A century ago, Apollo had already reached near-Supre-level combat
power.
But his excitent quickly faded.
Apollo stopped in his tracks, not stepping forward.
Not just Apollo-another powerful figure hidden in the shadows also halted.
Ares's voice echoed in Mike's ears.
"They would die."
Ares explained, "No one but can return alive from the Supre Demon God's hands."
Mike: ...
Classic Ares. Even now, he can't resist bragging.
Ares chuckled self-deprecatingly and added,
"Humanity always needs at least one Supre Being alive, right?"
Nathan could die in battle. Ares could fight to the death. But Apollo couldn't.
Humanity could be passionate, could be heroic, but it needed to preserve a spark of hope.
Now, with Ares severely weakened and Apollo as humanity's Supre Being, they had to protect the next potential Supre Being-Thor.
Mike fell silent again, saying nothing.
From the mont he arrived in this world, everyone had told him that humanity needed three
Supre Beings to hold back the abyss.
But what did it an to be a Supre Being?
A Supre Being was the pinnacle of an era, a singular existence.
Three Supre Beings? The phrase itself was a contradiction.
There could only ever be one Supre Being.
It wasn't until recently-until today-that Mike fully understood what had happened over
the past three centuries.
What humanity had sacrificed to get here.
And what it would have to sacrifice to keep going.
Mike was montarily dazed, lost in thought, until a surge of killing intent snapped him back
to reality.
Ares had arrived at the Supre Abyssal, standing at its edge.
He had co to fight-to face his fate.
This was the fate that no Supre Being could escape.
But Ares didn't believe in fate.
He wanted to see which was stronger: fate, or the Broken Sword in his hand.
Mike gasped sharply.
He suddenly realized sothing.
The Supre Abyssal wasn't open!
In other words...
The second battle between humanity's Supre Being and the Supre Demon God wasn't
because the Supre Demon God had erged.
It was because Ares had gone to him!
At that mont, Mike wanted to wave a glowstick and cheer for Ares.
What Ares did next left Mike completely captivated.
Ares spoke calmly.
"Wake up!"
Countless sword lights converged into a massive blade of light, slamming into the Supre
Abyssal and waking the slumbering, gravely injured Supre Demon God.
ROAR!
The Supre Demon God's roar echoed across the Supre Abyssal.
But his roar was quickly drowned out by a cold, irritable voice.
Amidst a rain of swords, the swordsman bellowed,
"Co here and let cut you twice!"
Ares's entrance was nothing short of spectacular.
For a brief mont, Mike entertained an unrealistic fantasy.
Maybe... Ares could win?
But alas, he wasn't watching a live broadcast-this was a recording from 300 years ago.
Knowing the outco of the battle, Mike felt like a reader who'd been spoiled. The
anticipation was gone.
After this battle, the bad news was that the Supre Demon God survived.
The good news? Ares survived too.
But judging by Ares's words, his survival wouldn't last forever.
At most, he'd live until Apollo's final battle with the Supre Demon God.
Otherwise, humanity's powerhouses wouldn't be so anxious. Cedric wouldn't have carried his sword case to the Forest of Truth.
Mike guessed that after he left, Cedric would return to Apollo.
What they'd discuss, Mike didn't know.
But... it didn't matter!
When Mike returned to the Forest of Truth, he could just ask Apollo directly!
For now, Mike focused all his attention on the battle unfolding before him.
In truth, witnessing a battle between humanity's Supre Being and the Supre Demon
God was a privilege few could claim.
Simply rembering this fight and reflecting on it from ti to ti would yield endless
benefits.
The last ti Mike had watched Nathan fight, he'd gained valuable insights.
Even when fusing the Greed Source and the Source of Calamity, the process had gone more
smoothly.
The impact of these battles was profound.
If nothing else, Mike could learn from them for the next hundred years.
This ti, however, Mike's strength had grown since the last battle. The stronger he beca, the more he could understand.
And unlike Morpheus's fighting style, Ares was a pure swordsman.
Every strike Ares made brought Mike new insights.
As for how the Supre Demon God defended, Mike didn't care.
He couldn't learn it anyway, so why bother?
Mike had no intention of becoming the Supre Demon God.
In fact, at Ares's level, defending against his swordsmanship was almost impossible.
The Supre Demon God employed the simplest strategy to counter Ares's attacks: playing
dead.
Throughout history, the tactic of "playing dead" had been widely used in battles between powerhouses.
Once soone started playing dead, thickening their skin and numbing their heart, all
physical and spiritual attacks beca ineffective. They simply lay there, embracing their weakness, becoming invincible.
The Supre Demon God's version of playing dead was straightforward.
His health bar was thick enough to endure Ares's attacks.
Either Ares would cut him down, or he'd outlast Ares.
This level of combat wasn't about depleting mana or stamina-it was about burning one's
source.
Every strike Ares made consud his own life force.
In other words, Ares was fighting with his life on the line.
At first, Ares's strikes were swift and relentless, each one severely wounding the Supre
Demon God and weakening his aura.
But as ti passed, Ares began to sweat, and his strikes slowed. The Supre Demon God's
aura plumted to its lowest point.
Then...
Before Mike's eyes, the Supre Demon God dropped from level 1999 to 1998, and his aura
instantly returned to its peak!
Mike: ???
Is this cheating?!
For most enemies, depleting one health bar ant moving on to the next.
But for the Supre Demon God, depleting one health bar ant a full reset!
It was as if every level the Supre Demon God lost equated to Ares killing him once.
Mike rembered Apollo ntioning that after Ares's battle, the Supre Demon God had dropped from level 1999 to 1899.
In other words... Ares had killed the Supre Demon God 100 tis?!
What the...
Even knowing how formidable Ares was, Mike hadn't imagined it would be this terrifying!
The relentless strikes took a heavy toll on Ares.
But even Mike could see that Ares couldn't afford to stop.
Though the Supre Demon God was playing dead, he hadn't given up on counterattacking.
If Ares showed even the slightest flaw, the Supre Demon God would seize the opportunity
to retaliate.
At that point, not only would Ares fail to achieve his goal, but he'd also lose his life.
So, he couldn't stop.
Strike after strike after strike!
Countless sword lights flashed before Mike's eyes. For the first ti, he realized just how many techniques a swordsman could have.
Ares even improvised new moves on the spot, slashing however felt natural.
Watching Ares in his pri, Mike truly understood what it ant for every move to be at its
peak.
As the strikes continued, the Supre Demon God's level steadily dropped.
Half an hour later, Ares had killed the Supre Demon God seven tis.
For the first ti, sweat appeared on Ares's forehead.
And that wasn't a good sign. Mike's pupils contracted as he noticed a detail.
Ares's sweat wasn't clear-it was faintly pink, tinged with blood.
He wasn't sweating. He was bleeding.
The blood-sweat stained Ares's clothes, blooming into dark flowers.
Mike's mouth fell open, unable to hide his shock.
So of his questions were answered in that mont.
Why did Ares always wear white or black?
It wasn't a preference-it was practicality.
He liked wearing white, but during battle, the blood would stain it black.
Most of the ti, the blood belonged to his enemies.
But this ti, facing the Supre Demon God, Ares was being pushed to his limits.
Mike stood there, helplessly watching as dark flowers blood on Ares's clothes, helplessly watching as his white robes turned black.
White robes stained with blood-still the Sword God.
When Ares finally stopped attacking, both sides paused.
Not because the Supre Demon God was honorable, but because the repeated level drops
were taking a toll on him.
The many Supre Beings fused within him were beginning to lose control.
If Ares could keep slashing for three more days and nights, the Supre Demon God might
actually die.
But Ares was also nearing his limit.
His relentless attacks, burning his life force with every strike, had severely wounded the
Supre Demon God-but they were also killing Ares.
Everything ca to a standstill, as if this mont would last forever. Neither could kill the
other.
Until... Ares struck again.
Mike couldn't imagine how Ares would survive the Supre Abyssal, how he would cut the
Supre Demon God down to level 1899.
What Mike couldn't imagine, Ares could achieve.
He was humanity's Supre Being.
It was that simple.
The black-clad swordsman leaped into the air, his Broken Sword radiating infinite light.
As before, the Supre Being's final strike robbed Mike of his vision, plunging him into
darkness.
The gap in power was too vast. If Mike could see the strike clearly, his eyes might be permanently damaged.
Even the Ares standing beside Mike squinted, unable to look directly at the sword light.
He took a mont to marvel, "Not bad. I really am incredible."
Even now, Ares couldn't resist bragging.
Mike heard the sound of the sword falling.
The technique felt familiar.
In that instant, Mike felt his hands and feet go cold, his blood freezing as ti seed to
stop.
"Watch closely!"
The Ares who had unleashed the strike stood proudly in the sky, a faint smile on his lips.
With pride and the resolve to die, he delivered his final blow.
"This is my... final Fate. And what I'll do is make Fate Reversal!"
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