**Chapter 204: I'm Scared! I'm Just Pretending! (Part 2)**

Lightning. Many fierce gods love to use it.  
It consumes a lot of magic power, but its destructive force is equally high.  

 Everyone knows lightning can’t last long, but its purpose is to take out an enemy instantly.  

 Take down one, intimidate the others.  

 This tactic never fails.  

 Ares, the god of war, using lightning just shows how angry he was at Atreus’s refusal.  

 He never imagined that after hitting Atreus with a lightning strike, not only did it not kill him, but Atreus deflected the lightning back. This wasn’t just embarrassing — it was an immense humiliation for a god of war like Ares.  

 It wasn't just that Atreus was a “mortal” with demigod power but without divine lineage. Even if Atreus were a legitimate Olympian god, he shouldn't have been able to fight back like this.  

 During the war of the gods, Ares had beaten many deities.  

 Even if he was careless this time, the outcome shouldn’t have been like this.  

 Ares hesitated, and that cost him.   

His majestic military uniform was blasted to pieces, leaving much of his body charred. For a mortal, that would be expected, but for a powerful true god, it was deeply humiliating.  

 “AAAAAAHHH—” It wasn’t from pain, but from rage and shame.  

 A violent wind element swirled around Ares, and even the torn fragments of his clothes strangely began circling his body, drawn by the turbulent wind element.   In less than a second, under the intense gaze of Atreus and the others, Ares thrust out his palm. The chaotic lightning serpents instantly gathered into one and then a spear of lightning shot toward Atreus again.  

 This time, Ares didn’t underestimate Atreus. He used at least sixty percent of his power.  

 Normally, that would be enough to crush an Olympian god.  

 Ares wasn’t overconfident — in his mind, this strike was undoubtedly the final blow to break the camel’s back.  

 After a brilliant white light flashed, the lightning struck in front of Atreus.  

 In Ares’ imagination: this pesky mortal wouldn't be able to resist. Even if Atreus were a "state-of-the-art" tank, he’d explode like a watermelon.  

 The violent lightning continued to tear through the fragile mirror-like space, and parts of uncontrolled spatial magic even leaked out.  

 At that moment, a figure flickered to the side. Two slender female arms crossed in an X-shape, blocking the lightning.  

 What should have been a devastating lightning strike didn't penetrate the defense. Instead, the lightning serpents twisted and writhed like eels pinned to a cutting board.  

 The silver bracelets clearly held some invisible magic, restraining the torrent of lightning. The serpents of electricity, like venomous snakes trapped in a jar, struggled but couldn’t escape the barrier. They were all reflected back to the center.   

In the next moment, a dazzling silver flash appeared, and the lightning serpents became as docile as soaked snakes ready for wine. All the lightning converged into an orderly sphere, tightly controlled by Diana in a small area.  

 Other than Atreus, the two other onlookers were stunned by the scene.  

 If Atreus’s earlier **Lightning Return** was a reflection, Diana’s power was **Control**. She had even stripped Ares of his control over the lightning and sent it back to him the next second.  

 Ares was furious!  

 This time, he was truly enraged!  

 His genuine thunder had been intercepted and controlled again, then turned back against him.  

 Even though Ares wasn't known as a god of thunder, the difference in their ranks was clear. To have his lightning reflected twice by a demigod two levels beneath him — how could he keep his godly dignity?  
“AAAAHHH—YOU SCOUNDRELS!”   

If Ares had harbored some admiration for their talents and thought about recruiting the three of them as followers, all of that vanished now. He only wanted to destroy them!   

The immense divine power shook the heavens and earth as it surged within Ares’ body. His roar made the castle and even the ground tremble.  

 This time, he was going all out.  

 The divine power erupted, turning entirely into wind elements, causing a terrifying storm within the chamber.  

 The storm, mixed with meter-wide lightning serpents, sent Atreus and the others tumbling in all directions just from the wind pressure.  

 The chamber quickly disintegrated under the violent power. The fifty-meter-high castle built against the mountain shook like a sapling in a gale. Older sections of the structure were instantly uprooted, and watchtowers and turrets were blown away in the blink of an eye.  

 The great hall’s walls, made of one-meter-thick stone slabs, and the roof of massive stones were reduced to rubble, like a pile of blocks kicked apart.  

 The three no longer cared about the mortals’ fate nearby.   

If Ares wasn’t defeated here, all of Belgium might be destroyed.  

 Faced with Ares' full-powered strike, Diana still intended to withstand it. Her face flushed red as she braced her arms in an X-shape, taking a stance.  

 But at the critical moment, Atreus’s voice reached her through their soul connection.  

 “Hey, dear Diana, did you forget what I borrowed?”  

 “Ah!” Diana suddenly realized.  

 So, in the next instant, as Ares expected, she was sent flying.  

 The immense kinetic energy of the lightning made her spin like a top.  

 This scene satisfied Ares. His ultimate move finally crushed the enemy like a siege engine rolling over them.  

 The god of war thought: without that annoying daughter of Zeus, how could that little mortal stop my thunder with his petty tricks?  

 He wasn’t wrong — Atreus couldn’t stop it.  

 Atreus estimated that to block this attack, his **Wind Element Control** would need to be at level 500 or higher.  

 If he had that kind of power, his name would be Thor, not Atreus.  

 But since he was the **Godslayer**, as long as he could kill a god, the method didn’t matter, right?  

 A smile never fades — it just shifted from Ares’ face to Atreus’s.  

 In the previous moment, Atreus’s face had been filled with terror, regret, and despair.  

 The next moment, with a mocking expression, Atreus revealed the truth to Ares:   “I was scared!  
I was pretending!”  

 In the final moment before the lightning reached Atreus, he pulled out a shield that absolutely shouldn't have been there.  

 It was a round shield about one meter in diameter. Despite the beautiful patterns on it, the surface was smooth like a mirror.  

 Looking at it, it gave the illusion that you weren’t seeing a shield but your own reflection.  

 Ares instantly recognized it. His voice, like a soul tormented by nightmares, whispered its name: **“Aegis!”**  

 **Aegis**, also known as **Zeus’ Shield**, **Goat-skin Shield**, or **Medusa’s Shield**, was most famous for its role in Perseus’ defeat of Medusa. He used it to block Medusa’s petrifying gaze and slew her using the shield’s reflection.  

 It might not be the best at defending against physical weapons, but against energy-based attacks, especially light-based ones, it was the best in the world.   Under the astonished eyes of the two women and the terrified eyes of Ares, the lightning rebounded once again — back toward Ares!  

(End of Chapter)