Ares' gaze fell on the wooden cage, and he casually pointed to a specific spot.
"Remove that stick."
Mike blinked, montarily stunned, before realizing Ares was asking him to do it.
He stepped forward and began working on the stick.
Each stick was ford from tightly interwoven sword energy, tangled with the others, making it incredibly difficult to remove.
It took Mike five full minutes to carefully extract the stick as Ares had instructed.
Holding the stick in his hand, Mike turned to Ares and asked, "Now what?"
Ares nodded slightly. "Put it back."
Mike: ...
So, five minutes of effort, and Ares didn't even know how to solve the puzzle?
Mike had just wasted his ti.
Ares, completely unfazed, added, "Young people need to exercise more. Don't slack off." Mike sighed, shaking his head as he followed Ares' instructions and replaced the stick.
"Wouldn't it be faster if you did it yourself?" Mike asked as he worked.
Ares answered without hesitation, "It would. But I don't feel like moving."
Mike chuckled, shaking his head again. After putting the stick back, Ares gave him a few more steps to follow.
Mike carried them out one by one.
As the cage shifted slightly, Ares nodded in satisfaction.
"I knew that wouldn't work."
Mike: ???
So Ares still didn't know how to solve it, but he refused to admit it?
With no other choice, they started over.
Mike replaced the stick, and Ares guided him through another attempt to break the cage.
Ti flew by, and before they knew it, half a day had passed. A third of the cage had been dismantled.
"Whew-"
Mike plopped down on the ground, exhausted, staring at the now-wobbly cage.
He needed a break.
Taking advantage of the pause, Mike casually asked, "Bro, is Apollo okay?"
Ares nodded. "He won't die."
Mike: ...
So, in Ares' eyes, as long as soone wasn't dead, they were fine?
Mike shifted the topic. "And this kid..."
He was curious-how had the Supre Demon God ended up like this?
Or rather, what was the truth behind all of this?
In the past, if Mike had asked, Ares likely wouldn't have answered directly.
But now, with the situation being what it was-and with Mike's strength nearing the threshold of a quasi-Supre-there were things he needed to know.
Keeping secrets at this point served no purpose.
Ares spoke casually, "Do you know how the Supre Demon God was born?"
Mike nodded and recounted what he knew.
"In the previous era, before the Apocalypse arrived, a mysterious and powerful entity known as [Truth] forged the Tower of Truth. It promised the [Truth Source] to the Supre Beings of the Nine Races. In the end, all the Supre Beings rged with the Truth Source, creating the Supre Demon God..."
This was the version of events Mike had pieced together from his own investigations.
Since Shadow Nine had already fled to the Supre Abyssal by the ti Mike gathered this information, there was little room for fabrication.
Even so, Mike recounted everything honestly, leaving room for Ares to correct any inaccuracies.
Ares listened quietly, nodding slightly before continuing.
"Those who rged with the Truth Source, aside from a few unlucky fools, were nothing but greedy idiots."
Ares' tone was sharp as he elaborated.
"They wanted more than their fair share of the Truth Source. Their greed led to this ss."
This was new information for Mike.
"Uh..."
From the corner, the child timidly raised his hand and asked cautiously, "Are you talking about ?"
The air grew still.
The child's question left Mike montarily speechless.
"Uh..."
Mike turned to Ares, silently pleading for help.
Ares smirked. "Why don't you take a guess about his origins?"
Mike thought for a mont, piecing together a theory.
"Is it possible... that he's actually the Supre Demon God's consciousness? If he grows
stronger, he'll break the Tower of Truth's seal and destroy everything..."
If that were the case, Mike would face a classic moral dilemma: kill the child to prevent the apocalypse, or spare him and risk dooming countless lives.
The plot was starting to sound like a bad novel.
"What nonsense have you been reading lately?" Ares asked, shaking his head in
disappointnt.
"You're just like Little Nine."
Mike: ...
Ares, clearly done with riddles, pointed at the child and said, "He's not the Supre Demon
God. Have you ever seen a demon race take on a human form?"
The child's eyes lit up at this, as if he wanted to say sothing.
But he seed wary of the swordsman before him and shrank back into the corner, listening
intently.
Ares' point was valid at first glance.
Mike frowned, trying to formulate a counterargunt.
"He may look human, but..."
When Mike first t the child, the kid had asked if he was a demon race.
After learning the child's identity, Mike had assud that, in the Supre Demon God's eyes,
humans were the real demons.
"Do you think soone like him could be fooled by sothing so superficial?" Ares asked,
shaking his head.
"The stronger soone is, the more clearly they see the truth."
Things were suddenly getting interesting.
Mike's curiosity deepened. "Then what's his deal?"
Ares' lips curled into a cold smile.
"Do you even know where you are?"
Wow-
Mike's mind raced as he considered the possibilities.
He glanced around, his breath catching as a terrifying realization struck him.
"This place... could it be..."
"Dream Co True?!"
When Mike said the na, Afterskin wasn't surprised at all.
He had lived through those events and knew more of the truth than most.
What surprised him was that Thor didn't already know.
"Exactly," Ares confird with a slight nod.
"This is the space Morpheus created during his final use of Dream Co True. The ability still
influences this place.
"That's why Shadow Nine had to return to the Supre Abyssal to reclaim his talent."
Mike frowned, puzzled. "Why would Morpheus do this?"
Mike knew bits and pieces about the events of the past.
Morpheus (Nathan) had once consulted Apollo about how to kill the Supre Demon God.
According to Apollo's calculations, humanity would need nine Supre Beings to sacrifice themselves in succession to have a chance at killing the Supre Demon God.
For Morpheus, this wasn't an impossible task.
Nine generations of death battles, starting with Morpheus himself.
But Morpheus had to consider other possibilities.
What if humanity lost? What if the Apocalypse arrived before they could kill the Supre Demon God?
As a trailblazer, Morpheus naturally thought further ahead. The more he planned, the farther
humanity could go.
He decided to do sothing extra-to minimize the Supre Demon God's threat and
preserve hope for future generations.
That's how this scene ca to be.
When Dream Co True acted on the Supre Demon God, it attempted to isolate his "good" consciousness, combining it with the Truth Source to create a childlike form.
This child was then protected within this space, shielded from the corruption of the Supre Demon God's darker impulses.
If Morpheus were still alive, he could have done more-strengthened the child and used his
good side to suppress the evil.
But Morpheus was dead.
The arrangents he left behind could only protect this small space and keep the child safe.
As ti passed, the space would weaken, and the child would inevitably face greater dangers.
When Ares had fought in the Supre Abyssal, even after using Fate's Reversal, the Supre Demon God had nearly managed to trap him there.
Even if the Supre Demon God couldn't kill Ares, he could have severely injured him.
Ares' escape had been 90% due to his own strength.
But the child's existence had contributed, however slightly.
After listening to Ares' explanation, the child hesitated before speaking.
"Um..."
His gaze darted between the three adults, and he cautiously asked, "You're not lying to
about all this, are you?"
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