Beyond The Impossible

1 light-year from Earth

All soldiers in the Ares army expect to die in battle: it’s never a question of whether they will have a violent death, only how long it will take. That’s why there are no escape pods on his ships.

When Ares and Vesta clash, the dreadnaught serving as the fleet’s current capital ship is completely vaporized in seconds.

That doesn’t mean the rest of the army is eager to expedite its demise, and they don’t waste any time resuming the voyage to Earth… they know very well that their god has no desire to spare them from the collateral damage.

<Not too bad, aunt. When did you learn how to fight?> Ares tells her, dispersing the raging fire that surrounds them with a swing of his sword. Which has no reason to work in space, so he has to magnetize his sword to affect the ionized plasma.

<You have no idea what I’ve been through in the past twenty-seven hundred years, Ares.>

<Neither have you.> he retorts, attacking her with blinding speed.

Vesta barely has enough time to dodge his sword, something that Ares anticipated: he grabs her by the hair, his hand protected by a gauntlet that allows him to touch something hotter than the surface of a star, and pulls her closer to hit her face with his knee.

<You want to play goddess? I’ll indulge you!> he adds, grabbing her arm and flying towards the center of the solar system.

<Let’s fight like gods then!> he says, accelerating beyond the speed of light.

 

Triton, moon of Neptune

The voyage takes an instant to reach the orbit of the ice giant: the effects of the Palladium, which is still on Earth, limits faster-than-light travel past Neptune.

Despite the enormous deceleration, Ares is still moving fast enough to throw Vesta at the moon at over 100,000 miles per second.

Vesta hits the surface, her impact creating a huge crater while her heat melts several tons of the frozen nitrogen that makes up the moon’s landscape.

Ares calmly lands in the middle of the devastation, his only regret being the fact that this place is completely uninhabited.

<Come on, that was just a little love tap! Even you can’t be this weak!>

The ground rumbles. Triton is geologically active thanks to cryovulcanism: icy eruptions gushing from a mantle of liquid water and ammonia beneath the surface, heated by the gravitational tug-of-war with Neptune and by what little sunrise the moon receives.

In other words, nothing compared to the heat that is now wreaking havoc on this icy world: geysers of nitrogen and ammonia are erupting all over the place as the moon is essentially boiling itself.

<I’ve had dreams about this day. Nightmares.>

Ares looks around: the thick fog is obscuring his view. The atmosphere that has been created is carrying Vesta’s voice, but the confusing echoes caused by the melting ice mountains is making it difficult to pinpoint her location.

<I’ve thought about what happened the day we would meet again. I’ve wondered how I would pay you back for all the suffering you have caused for so. Many. Years.>

<Did any of those dreams involve you hiding like a coward?>

A slight increase in temperature energizes the weather system, generating a wind that pushes away enough fog to allow Ares to finally see Vesta.

Her body is fully engulfed in flames. She’s floating a few inches above the ground, a byproduct of her melting anything that comes into contact with her. But Ares can feel that it’s not only flames.

<You’re using the Blood, I see. That didn’t help the Demons… they had all the Blood in the universe at their disposal, but I still broke their little world.>

<You have nothing. The Demons are free.>

<What!?>

<You didn’t even notice. You killed millions of people just to get your personal army, and yet you didn’t realize they are no longer under your control.>

<As if I ever needed them!>

<Get used to the feeling of loss, Ares. I will take everything from you… your army, your armor, your weapons, your pride. Just like you took everything from me.>

<I’ve had enough of this. You wanted to fight like a god!? Let’s fight!> Ares replies, once again brandishing his sword.

<Wait.> Vesta tells him, raising her hand.

<If you want to beg for mercy, you’re got the wrong god!>

<I just wanted to make things clear: I want you to hit me with everything you’ve got.>

<What?>

<Communing with the Blood has unleashed my full potential. I don’t know how long I will control the raging fury boiling inside of me… we better finish this quickly before someone gets hurt.> she explains, pausing long enough to show an irritating smile.

<Besides you, of course.>

<You know what, aunt? I’m really, really going to enjoy breaking you!> Ares replies, leaping forward and swinging an indestructible sword that weighs as much as an entire planet.

The blade reaches her body, slicing through it like it wasn’t even there… but instead of flesh and blood, it’s only cutting through pure incandescent plasma: it passes through Vesta, who reforms her body once the sword is through.

The immense pressure wave released by the attack wipes away the atmosphere of half the hemisphere, but Vesta is seemingly unaffected.

<What is this trick!?> Ares complains, swinging the sword another time… and once again he only manages to do absolutely nothing.

<I wasn’t born flesh and blood. You are too young to remember a time before mortals, Ares… but I remember. I remember being fire incarnate. And you can’t wage war against a wildfire, little god.>

Vesta disappears by melting into the ground. Ares moves around frantically, trying to predict where the opponent will try to attack him… and he’s completely dumbfounded when the ground explodes beneath him, with Vesta grabbing him by his foot and dragging him to orbit.

<Just fight me, you coward!> Ares insults her; he was so taken by surprise that he loses the sword, which is set to become Neptune’s newest satellite as they fly towards the giant blue planet.

<I thought you wanted to fight like gods. Let’s.> Vesta taunts him; no matter how much he tries to break free he has no way to really attack her, because every time he tries to hit her he ends up only holding fire in his hands.

Seconds later, the couple passes through the white clouds of frozen methane of Neptune and the 1,300 mph winds of its atmosphere.

Seen from orbit, Neptune’s characteristic blue color is marred by bright red spot that appear all over its surface, as Vesta unleashes several blasts of pure incandescent plasma far hotter than anything the planet has ever witnessed.

The armor of Ares would normally protect him from this… it was able to shield him from multiple point-blank supernova attacks from Apollo… but the cracks crated by Quantum are all Vesta needs. Even if less than 1% of her power reaches him, Ares has little defense over her most powerful blasts. And he’s so unaccustomed at being at the receiving hand of a no holds barred beatdown that she manages to drag him all the way down to Neptune’s mantle.

They pass right through the water-ammonia ocean held together at a pressure 100,000 times that of Earth’s atmosphere and emerge on the other side of the planet.

<He’s all yours!> she says as she tosses the God of War through a pentagram of fire.

 

Arcadia Planitia, Mars

18 light-minutes from Earth

Ares crashes down on the red sands of the planet that humans have named in his honor. As he gets back to his senses, he can feel more and more Blood energy around him… but it’s not coming from the same aura that powers Vesta.

It’s from the hundreds of thousands of Demons that are coming out of truly massive pentagram portals, pouring in from Hell itself and surrounding Ares from every direction.

<Did you really think Hell wouldn’t have its vengeance?> Torn asks him, holding his Blood scythe.

His wife Agony and his daughter Laceration stands right by his side, but they are not the only once to hold tight to their weapons… every other single Demon is armed.

<Take your best shot. You won’t have another one.>

<We won’t need it. In the name of Noriko Null, Regent of Hell, we hereby sentence you to death. SOUL RESONANCE!> Torn yells.

<Soul Resonance! Soul Resonance!> six hundred thousand Demons shout in unison, channeling the power of over 70 million living Demons.

<INFINITE CUTS OF ENDLESS DEATH!!!> they all yell.

So much Blood energy is flowing through them that Mars outshines a full Moon. An incomprehensible amount of blood weapons enter through every single crack in Ares’ armor. Weakened by Vesta’s unrelenting attack, he can’t prevent the Blood from infiltrating every single microlesion… even a crack the size of an atom is enough to allow the Blood to push through it.

It’s like being shivved in every pore, a hundred thousand times each second.

The god screams… and incredibly, impossibly, his armor shatters into a million pieces.

Ares falls down on his knees, naked, now exposed to the full blunt of Hell’s fury.

Those mortals have done the unthinkable: they are shattering the will of a god. He can hear his mother yell at him for being weak, Athena mocking his lack of strategy, and all the other gods laughing and laughing at him for the rest of his immortal life.

<ENOUGH!!!> he finally snaps, punching the ground to create a Martian quake so powerful that, were it to strike Earth, it would utterly annihilate an entire city.

In this case, it’s enough to create a vast chasm to distance himself from the Demons, who scatter in an attempt to save their lives.

<I’ve had enough of this! You are all going to DIE!!!> he screams, his voice no longer distorted by the helmet and shaking his fist in the air; the wounds on his naked body quickly heal, with one very notable exception… the hole in his chest.

<So that’s why you wore the armor.> Vesta tells him, creating a wall of fire to make sure the Demons won’t interfere with the rest of the fight. Her eyes are on the god’s chest, and not only because she’s not particularly fond of her nephews exposing themselves. It’s because she remembers causing that wound in the fight they had right before her exile: the hole goes all the way to his heart, which is visibly beating and pulsating with divine energy.

<When I’m in this state it’s hard for me to keep control… it’s getting difficult to resist the urge to kill you. Please give me an excuse, Ares. I beg you.>

<I’m a Class-2 god. It will take everything you have to put me down.>

<The Hellfire Inferno overpowered Apollo’s supernova. It will be more than enough for you.> she says, gathering her energy for a mind-bogglingly powerful blast.

<And it will completely annihilate Earth.>

<What?> Vesta asks, holding back her power.

<How long do you think your precious planet will last if you unleash a supernova-level attack within its own system?>

<I… I don’t want to destroy Earth…> Vesta realizes, powering down.

As soon as she does that, a sword weighting as much as a planet emerges from a portal behind her: it pierces her back and emerges from her stomach, flying right into the hands of Ares.

Looking at the wound, Vesta doesn’t see fire this time: she bleeds a copious amount of divine blood, feeling too weak to stand up. She falls down on her knees, only to watch Ares approach her laughing as he holds his sword.

<You almost had me, you know? If only you didn’t care about these pathetic wastes of flesh, you might’ve killed me. You had your moment, Vesta, but you should’ve known… I’m the God of War. Unbreakable. Invincible.> Ares boasts, lifting his sword and preparing to decapitate her.

<Any last words, aunt?>

<Take your best shot.> she defiantly replies, closing her eyes as Ares swings his sword.

She can’t see the flash of light, or something moving through the wall of fire protected by a personal forcefield.

When she opens her eyes, she can see the petite figure standing in front of her: a girl in a green leather jacket holding a black sword.

Ares looks at her in utter confusion, watching his own sword melting away and being completely absorbed into the SoulScourge after the two blades made the slightest contact.

<Nice work, Vesta. I’ll handle the god from here on.> Noriko Null says, her silver eyes shining as the God of War himself takes a step back in fear.