Ares

**Ares** is the God of War, Violence, Battlelust, Rage, Destruction, Carnage, Courage, Guardianship, Military Forces and Military Forces of the Greco-Roman Pantheon. He holds the fifth throne on the High Olympian Council, as well as the commander of the divine army of Olympus.

He is known and worshipped by the Romans under the form of **Mars**. While the Greeks envisioned Ares as a brutal and fearsome being who relished in conflict, the Romans viewed Mars as a guardian, one who brought honor and strength in battle and was considered to be the greatest of the gods after Jupiter.

He is the second-born son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of Mount Olympus, the younger brother of Hephaestus, the twin brother of Enyo, and the older brother of Hebe and Eileithyia. He also has many half-siblings through his father's numerous affairs, such as Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hermes, and Dionysus.

He has many famous offsprings, both immortals and half-bloods alike, such as Phobos, Deimos, Eros, Nike, Hippolyta, Penthesilea, etc. The majority of his demigod children is living in both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.

He's part of the Team Imperial Lords of the Battleground as the sole "Rook", mainly due to a favor he owned to the its King Verethragna.

## Overview

**Ares** is the god of war, conflict and blood-lust in Greek mythology. He is one of the twelve Olympians and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.

The Greeks were ambivalent toward Ares: although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering." His twin sons Phobos and Deimos and his lover, or sister, Enyo accompanied him on his war chariot. In the Iliad, his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him.

Ares was most often characterized as a coward in spite of his connection to war; he responded to even the slightest injury with outrage. He is well known as the lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship.

Ares' main attribute was a peaked warrior's helm. Even in domestic scenes, such as feasts of the gods, he was depicted either wearing or holding his helm. An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. Ares also had numerous mortal (or divine) offspring. Many of these inherited their father's violent temperament and in myth were often cast in the role of villains. In one myth, he created the Amazons.

Ares is also the counterpart of the Roman god, **Mars**. Ares, like Mars and Nergal, is a deity associated with the planet Mars.

## Appearance

Ares appears as an extremely handsome man with tanned skin and a muscular body akin to that of a well-trained soldier and numerous scars scattered across his torso. He has short, spiky black hair with a buzz-cut on the sides, adorned with vulture feathers at the nape of his neck. His eyes are blood-red and are described to be filled with an endless amount of bloodlust and cruelty. Whenever he's angered, his eyes become blazing pits of reddish-gold fire.

When he first appeared on Mount Olympus, he wore a black jacket on his shoulders, much like a cape, and matched it with a light-gray dress shirt, black pants, and a loosely-knotted tie, along with black boots.

When travelling on Earth, he tends to wear clothes reminiscent of a 1950s rebellious "greaser", similar to most of the war deities. He typically wears ripped jeans, combat boots, a black leather duster, and a red muscle shirt under a bulletproof vest, with a large hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wears a necklace made from a heavy padlock and thick chain, and red-tinted wraparound sunglasses to cover his eyes.

To complete his thuggish biker guise, his war chariot also takes on the shape of a black Harley Davidson motorcycle "the size of a baby elephant" with a flame pattern paint job on the gas tanks.

In battle, he wears a blood-stained Imperial Gold armor that "burns with harsh light", along with a gleaming helmet that covers most of his face, only letting out his glowing eyes that create the illusion of them being on fire. He also carries with him a golden shield decorated with scenes of gruesome deaths that is always smeared and dripping with blood and gore.

## Personality

Originally, Ares was an aloof, cruel, impetus, proud, and violent god who seemed to only care about fighting and killing. He was extremely sadistic, roaring with laughter while fighting against stronger opponents. Because of this, he was greatly hated and feared by many, gods and mortals alike.

He was extremely reckless, overconfident, narcissistic, and foolhardy, leading to him making crucial mistakes in a confrontation. He was supremely confident in his abilities, to the point of believing that he was invincible. Despite being a skilled strategist, his temper tended to make him focus on brute strength, and his arrogance often led him to underestimate his opponents, allowing clever fighters with less skills to get the better of him. Because of this, despite being a fierce and excellent warrior, his reckless nature sets him apart from other war deities. He also valued physical strength in a fight, as opposed to astute strategy, and enjoyed bloody wars which he deemed the most vicious, and therefore, the most exciting.

However, after millennia of endless slaughters and senseless wars, he has come to despise war and become more mature and honorable than he was before. Nowadays, he is an informal and to-the-point kind of god, preferring to informal speech and wastes no one's time with his presence any longer than he has to.

Due to his immortality, he envies mortals and their vastly shorter lifespans, as well as their ability to die as opposed to his never-changing status as an eternal god. He believes the brevity of mortal life is what makes it special - A lesson that he passes onto all of his children and their descendants.

Having seen millennia of death and suffering, he comes to value life and strives to protect those he cares about despite the restrictions he has as a god, resulting in him sneaking around and bending the Ancient Laws as much as possible to protect his mortal lovers and children. He also respects the natural order, especially the order of life and death, and can go beyond his way to maintain the balance if necessary.

He has a soft spot for his family, especially for his daughters. And while he can be a strict parent to his demigod children and wants them to be as independent as possible, he is extremely protective of them. In addition, he also cares a lot for his mother and will come to defend her everytime she and his father fight. In Chapter XXX, when he accidentally hit her, he quickly became wracked with guilt and embarrassment.

After greatly suffering under the hands of the Aloadae, he gained a soft spot for prisoners of war and would severely punish anyone who chose to treat them disrespectfully.

### Roman Form

Ares can change into his Roman counterpart of **Mars**. As Mars, he becomes more disciplined as well as even more militaristic and warlike, which is shown by his focus on martial victory rather than sheer conflict. While the Greeks envisioned Ares as a brutal and fearsome being who relished conflict, the Romans viewed Mars as a guardian, one who brought honor and strength in battle and was considered to be the greatest of the gods after Jupiter.

## History

Ares is one of the Twelve Olympians from Classical Mythology who rule over the Greco-Roman Pantheon and was greatly worshipped by humans of Ancient Greece and Rome. He is the Hellenistic God of War, Battlelust, Courage, and Civil Order.

## Powers and Abilities

As one of the Twelve Olympian Gods, as well as the son of two Elder Olympians - Zeus and Hera, Ares is undoubtedly one of the strongest gods of the Greco-Roman Pantheon. He is noted to be amongst the greatest of Zeus' children, only beneath his eldest - Persephone, Hephaestus, Artemis, and Apollo - in terms of power.

Due to the advancement in mankind's warfare, alongside how destructive human wars had become, his strength had become greatly increased in modern times, even reaching near Chieftain Deity-level of powers. This, in combination with the rise in Hellenistic paganism in the modern age, make him a very powerful deity.

---**Divine Physiology:** Ares possesses all the traits and abilities of a deity.

* **Superhuman Physical Capabilities:** Ares possesses physical capabilities beyond that of regular humans, even considered to be greater than the majority of supernatural creatures. As a war deity, his physical capabilities are greater than other gods outside of the domain.
	+ **Superhuman Physical Strength:** He possesses vast supernatural physical strength to outmatch the majority of supernatural species. He is one of the few Olympian gods capable of fighting against Hercules hand-to-hand using his immense physical strength.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:** He does not require food, water, oxygen, or sleep to sustain himself, but could still grow tired after exhausting his physical limits. He does, however, regain his stamina very quick, enough for others to mistaken him for having limitless stamina. According to Apollo, he could fight non-stop for decades, even centuries, without feeling physically tired.
	+ **Regeneration:** He has a incredible healing factor that allows him to heal from any damage he takes except for external sources that interfere with his regeneration power. He could regenerate his entire body, replicating every body part and organ, in minutes.
* **Divine Energy Manipulation:** Ares has shown to be very skilled in manipulating his divine energy.\*\***Energy Constructs:** He could turn his divine energy into tools, objects, weapons and other items, create semi-living constructs and/or create structures/buildings of varying permanence.
	+ - File:Divine Sword Rain.gif  **Divine Sword Rain:** In Chapter XXX, he created numerous amount of swords from his own divine energy, then launch all of them toward a designated spot, annihilating anything within it. These swords also possess a tracking ability, capble of hunting down his enemies in multiple smaller swarms, as well as capable of exploding when coming into close contact with their designated targets.
	+ **Power Bestowal:** Ares could grant various powers to individuals in the forms of blessings, as long as these powers related to his domains, with his famed Ares' Blessing being one of the most notable blessings he had ever granted.
	+ **Deification:** Ares could turn mortals into minor deities, with their domains being parts of those within his jurisdiction.
* **Omnilingualism:** Ares possesses the ability to speak or communicate in any known language, dialect, and even those of alien origins, as long as this language could be spoken using a human's vocal cord. However, this power only translates to speaking and hearing these languages, but couldn't write or read them.
* **Worship Empowerment:** Through his worshipers, Ares could have any of his abilities bolstered to a higher degree, depending on the number of worshipers he gains. Depending on the belief on his worshippers, he may even develop new and special abilities unique to him.
* **Sacrifice Empowerment:** Through offerings and sacrifices, Ares could have any of his abilities bolstered to a higher degree, depending on the number of offerings he received. Depending on the number of offerings and sacrifices he received from his followers, he may even develop new and special unique to him. In Chapter XXX, through the sacrifice of 1,500 virginal humans, his powers were said to be boosted to the point he could fight on-par with his brother Hephaestus, who is said to be Zeus' most powerful son.

**Master Magician:** Ares has been shown to be very skilled in combative and destructive forms of magic, mostly specify in wide-are bombarding attack spells with immense amounts of destructive force. He often uses his magic in tandem with his physical skills during combat, enhancing the damage caused by his attacks by multiple times.

* **Olympus Magic:** In Chapter XXX, he bombarded the entire banks of all the five rivers of Hades with hundreds upon hundreds of destructive Olympus Magic spells just to lure the Artificial Devils of the False Hades out.
	+ File:Ares' Blessing.gif  **Ares' Blessing:** He could bless those who had shown bravery and leadership during battle with a magical blessing. Those under this blessing will have their physical and magical capabilities greatly increased, as well as being put under a pseudo-invulnerable state. However, if they are under this blessing for too long, unlike they are his children or descendants, negative feelings such as wrathful, battle-lust, bloodthirst, etc. will be increased to the point where they would completely under a berserk-like state, hindering their mental capacities, as well as their sense of reason.
* **Roman Magic:** Ares is extremely in-depth in the Magic System used by the Ancient Romans and the Roman demigods, which is more battle-oriented than its Greek counterpart (Olympus Magic). His proficiency in Roman Magic is great enough to cast one Roman spell after another without any difficulty.
	+ **Avellatur Legio:** In Chapter XXX, he created a legion made out of fiery soldiers armed in Roman armors, carrying with them gleaming spears and swords. These soldiers were extremely powerful, each being at least Ultimate-Class in terms of raw power, with abilities like that of skilled warriors.
	+ **Semper Penetrabilior:** He could use Roman magic charms to make all of his attacks to bypass all of his opponents' defenses, both physical and magical. In Chapter XXX, he applied various Roman hieroglyphs onto the weapon constructs he created from his divine energy, making them capable of piercing through Crom Cruach's nearly-impenetrable scales.
	+ File:Ardens Flamma Bellum.jpg  **Ardens Flamma Bellum:** He could conjure golden flames that could burn anything they touch out of existence, being the material manifestation of the concept of "war destroying anything that it comes across". The flames radiate an immense amount of divine aura that could greatly affect devils, gods, monsters, and mortals alike. The flames themselves are powerful enough to rival the Hell Fire conjured by the Devils from the Phenex Clan, which is said to be as hot as the sun itself.
* **Defensive Magic:** In Chapter XXX, Ares created a barrier of golden magic energy that was powerful enough to endure Sudhana's True Samādhi Fire which is powerful enough to severely burn Sun Wukong - one of the strongest beings of the Chinese Pantheon - at his prime.
* **Necromancy:** Ares could use his magical mastery to manipulate the dead, as he is the god who governs over the souls of the deceased warriors on the losing side of every war, as well as the souls of warriors who didn't receive a proper burial or funeral rite. His necromantic power, however, isn't as powerful as that of the gods with death-related domains such as Hades, Thanatos, or Hecate.
	+ **Undeath Manipulation:** He has authority over undeath creatures and beings, as shown in Chapter XXX when he commanded 1/4 of Hel's undeath troops to return to their respective afterlife, just by channeling his divine power within his voice. In Chapter XXX, he created a giant army of over 10,000 undeath warriors, each ranking at least High-class in terms of power.
* **Teleportation:** Ares could instantaneously appear and disappear at will.
* **Flight:** Ares could fly using magic without the need for wings.

**Master Combat Specialist:** As the God of War, Ares is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest combat specialists in the entire Greco-Roman Pantheon. In Chapter XXX, Azazel warned both Team Vali, Team Rias, and Team Issei about him, saying that he is one of the most dangerous opponents that they might have to face in the Azazel Cup.

* **Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Ares possesses immense skill in hand-to-hand combat. He has personally trained his daughter Griselda and the high-ranked warriors within his and Olympus' divine army. In Chapter XXX, he easily defeated Heracles in just a few simple moves.
* **Attack Prediction:** Ares could easily interpret and predict his enemies' attacks and react to the incoming attack, brush off, or avoid the incoming attacks even from a dead angle. In Chapter XXX, it took little-to-no time to predict every single one of Cao Cao's following attacks, even saying them out-loud to humiliate him further.
* **Combat Perception:** Ares could instantly understand his opponents' thinking and fighting methods, allowing him to anticipate his opponents' moves. He could understand his enemies' strategy, he is able to find their flaws and weaknesses and take them down with little effort.
* **Weapon Proficiency:** Ares is extremely proficient in all forms of weapons, from close to long-range, and from ancient to modern.
	+ **Master Spearman:** He is a Master Spearman, possessing skills, techniques, and abilities unable to be replicated by mere mortals. He possesses immense spearmanship skill, capable of wielding the spear to its utmost potential. While he doesn't use the spear in the modern times as often as before, his skills with the spear haven't become rusted but perhaps even greater. In Chapter XXX, he easily overwhelmed Cao Cao, the wielder of the famous True Longinus, while using only a basic light spear made out of his own divine energy.
	+ **Master Swordsman:** He is a Master Swordsman, possessing skills, techniques, and abilities unable to be replicated by mere mortals. He possesses immense swordsmanship skills, capable of wielding the sword to its utmost potential. His incredible swordsmanship alone could overwhelm Vasco Strada, who is the Catholic Church's most powerful Exorcist.
	+ **Master Marksman:** He is a Master Marksman, possessing skills, techniques, and abilities unable to be replicated by any mortal beings. He possesses immense marksman skill, capable of wielding the gun to its utmost potential. He could easily use his marksmanship skills to their utmost potential, and taking out numerous opponents with it. He is capable of molding his own divine energy into bullets and shot them out to greatly damage mortal beings. He could also manipulate the trajectory of the bullets he shot with nearly-perfect precision, as shown in Chapter XXX when he telekinetically controlled his bullets to make a sudden U-turned to attack Susanoo in the back.

**Master Technician:** Despite what most people think of him, Ares is a very skilled Technique-type fighter, having spent millennia perfecting his skills and abilities to the utmost perfection. In Chapter XXX, Athena stated that he is one of the greatest Technique-type fighters of the Greco-Roman Pantheon.

**Master Tactician:** Ares is dominantly experienced and knowledgeable in all forms of military tactics arts, making him an extremely dangerous enemy to cross. According to Athena, unlike most Gods of War, he doesn't show any hesitation or shame when it comes to underhanded, deceptive, or abusive tactics. In Chapter XXX, to lure out the hiding the Artificial Devils created by the False Hades, he bombed the entire banks of all the five rivers of Hades, annihilating numerous innocent souls and causing billions-worth of drachmas in damage control in the process.

* **Adaptation:** Ares could easily adapt to the conditions and environments around him, allowing him to virtually fight in any possible situations.

**Master Strategist:** Despite what history and the myths portrayed him as, Ares is an extremely talented strategist, capable of rivaling his younger half-sister Athena - the Goddess of Strategic Warfare. He often creates centuries-long plans of action that always ended in his favor, such as the Hundred Years' War and the American Civil War. As stated by Ares himself, it is much easier to control things when the opponents are underestimating you, possibly implying about his brutish and violent nature usually shown to all but his closest allies and family.

* **Probability Computation:** Due to hundreds of years of planning and calculation, Ares could easily see the variables of any situation and predict the potential outcome of any event.
* **Psychological Intuition:** Ares possesses an incredible understanding of psychology, capable of applying it for various purposes, often by changing the perception or behavior of others through underhanded and deceptive tactics. He could use his great psychological understanding of the mind to both help those with mental or emotional problems, as well as manipulating others into horrible acts, ranging from violent outbursts to even murders.
* **Fatal Flaw Detection:** Ares can predict the Fatal Flaw within those with mortal or demi-mortal beings, as shown in Chapter XXX when he told Katarina of her own Fatal Flaw - Devotion - and warned her how such simple virtue could easily ruin her.

**War Manipulation:** As the Greco-Roman God of War, Ares possesses divine authority and immense control over all forms of conflict, including both mental and physical, regardless of the area and numbers involved. He could also draw energy both from the conflict alone, as well as the dying. In Chapter XXX, Griselda claimed that he is currently one of the greatest Gods of War, even more powerful than more older Gods of War such as Horus, Odin, or Verethragna.

* **War Inducement:** Ares could manipulate people and events to induce war and chaos within an enormously large radius, ranging from a city to an entire country.
* **War Empowerment:** Ares could empower himself by war and all forms of conflict. In Chapter XXX, Hermes mentioned that while the Great War in between the Three Factions was happening, both him and Athena were so empowered by the Great War to the point they were even stronger than the six Elder Olympians.
* **Army Manipulation:** Ares can control the collected minds of an army within the Greco-Roman territory. He possesses amazing abilities fitting for training, controlling, and leading an army. He could also summon forth his personal army of over 500,000 warriors to his side.
	+ **Morale Manipulation:** He could manipulate the morale of his troops, bolster their willpower, and inspire them to fight. Those with their morale boosted their morale have their strength, stamina, and battle prowess greatly increase. He could also lower the morale of the opponents to lose their will to fight, thus reducing their combat-effectiveness and making them doubt their chances of victory.
	+ **Immense Charisma:** He is extremely charismatic, capable of charming anyone who talks to him in just a short amount of time. In Chapter XXX, he was able to convince Yanluo Wang into allowing him access to the lower levels of Diyu within just a few minutes.
* **Battlefield Manipulation:** Ares could manipulate the battlefield, as well as everything within them, including both the environment and the beings within. In Chapter XXX, by utilizing their authority over the battlefield, he and Athena were able to overpower their uncle Poseidon.
	+ **Life-force Absorption:** He could absorb the life-force of all living beings within the battlefield to either increase his own life-force or restore his health and stamina.
* **Weapon Manipulation:** Ares possesses immense control over all weapons without supernatural origins. He could telekinetically control both close and long-ranged weapons, as shown in Chapter XXX when he controlled the missile coming toward him and Griselda, making it stayed just a few centimeters away from his forehead before redirecting it back from where it came from, possibly destroyed an entire military base in the aftermath. His skills, however, are still inferior to Gods of Smithing such as his older brother Hephaestus, Lugh, or Amatsumara.
	+ **Weapon Creation:** In Chapter XXX, he created Griselda her infamous weapon sword - Evláveia, which is capable of absorbing the souls of all those slain by it to increase her own power. He could also create an unlimited amount of ammunition such as bullets, bombs, or arrows.
	+ **Weapon Replication:** He could recreate all the non-supernatural weapons he had come across.
	+ **Weapon Negation:** He could partly negate the power of supernatural weapons within a 100-meter radius from him. In Chapter XXX, he rendered all the weapons owned by the USSCEA useless with a single glance. In Chapter XXX, he weakened all of Kiba's Holy Demonic Swords' powers to the point they were barely more powerful and deadlier than a butter-knife.

**Emotion Manipulation:** Ares has the ability to manipulate the emotions and feelings of others, mainly as a means to create war and violence. Griselda stated that this is one of his greatest skills, as it could easily create conflicts within groups and alliances by messing around with their emotions, leading to internal fighting, betrayals, and even their deaths and the group/alliance's disbandment.

* **Wrath Manipulation:** Ares can sense and manipulate the rage and anger within others, either increasing or decreasing them to create his most favorable outcomes. In Chapter XXX, Issei stated that he felt "as if [he] wanted to punch a wall" and "wanting to pick a fight with somebody" just by staying in his presence.
	+ **Tranquil State:** He can help others control their own anger, allowing them to think with perfect clarity even under immense situations and lessen the chances for them to be affected by emotional or psychological manipulation.
* **Hatred Manipulation:** Ares can manipulate the hatred and feelings of resentment within others.
	+ File:Killing Instinct.jpg  **Killing Intent:** Ares can give off his immense killing intent, capable of paralyzing his opponents in fear, causing them to even hallucinating their own deaths, even kill some weak-minded ones as their minds shall believe their death as a reality. He can also suppress their own killing intent, preventing his opponents from discovering it, thus making them unable to perceive his next move or prepare the next appropriate move in advance.
* **Violence Manipulation:** Ares can manipulate all forms of violence, including both mental and physical ones, as well as control how violence progresses. He can draw energy from the violence alone, as well as the ones hurt by it.
* **Fear Manipulation:** Ares can sense and manipulate the dread, fear, horror, and terror within others. He could also detect and control psychological traumas within others under the conditions as they are origins of one's fear. He can radiate an aura of pure fear that could reduce others to fear even the most harmless of things to the point of becoming catatonic.
	+ **Fear Inducement:** He could evoke and increase the fear and terror of others by releasing fear-inducing chemicals within one's brain. He could bring strong-willed warriors down to their knees with fear alone, slowly ruining their sanity, and altering their brain's ability to percept their surroundings.
	+ **Fear Negation:** In ancient times, warriors would often pray for him and his twin-children, Phobos and Deimos, to bless them with fearlessness in the battlefield.

**Agriculture Intuition:** Due to his association with farming by the Romans through his title of Guardian of Farmers, Ares possesses great knowledge about agriculture, especially knowledge about farming. When he was young, he was personally trained by his older half-sister Persephone in a variety of subjects, ranging from combats to agricultural subjects such as plant breeding and genetics, plant pathology, plant physiology, etc.

* **Plant Manipulation:** Ares possesses a powerful ability to manipulate plants. In Chapter XXX, he created giant beasts out of wood and thorned-vines to attack against the Titans. In Chapter XXX, he created blood-red vines that bound Hel's flying aircraft and dragged it deep into the earth.
	+ **Accelerated Growth:** He can speed up the growth of plants, making them bloom instantaneously, causing them to mature at a supernatural speed, and creating abundant and unusually large products. In Chapter XXX, he made the entire field of flowers he was standing on to bloom despite it was in the middle of winter.
* **Animal Manipulation:** Ares can summon and control animals to come to his side and do his bidding. However, it should be mentioned that his control over livestock is superior to his control over beastly and wild animals, with the exception being the animals attributed to him like wild boars, vultures, wolves, etc.

**Immortality:** As a god, Ares is an immortal being who could live indefinitely unless he's either faded or killed. However, if he doesn't received the necessary faith and offerings he required, his powers will become weakened through time and his body will physically become weaker and older.

* **Nigh-Invulnerability:** He cannot be harmed or killed by conventional weaponry, aliments, or diseases. Only immensely powerful supernatural poisons and weaponry are capable of affecting him.

## Equipment

 File:Ares' Spear.jpg  **Aurora Sanguis:** Ares' infamous spear/sword and Symbol of Power. It is a gleaming spear made out of steel and gold that could shift into a single-handed sword (*xiphos*). It was created by Hephaestus from Imperial Gold and pieces of Empyrean Steel as a 100-year anniversary gift. Through charging the weapon with divine power, Ares could create a golden light that could extensively annihilate an area the size of Kyushu in a blink of an eye.

* **Bellum dei Cheiroballistra:** He concentrates his divine energy into the spear, covered it in a destructive crimson-colored aura. He then thrusts his spear forward repeatedly, each thrust sending an arrow-like shot of said aura toward the opponent, which Ares can telekinetically control with his mind to manipulate its speed and direction. It is extremely effective when fighting against opponents with strong regenerative ability, as shown in Chapter XXX when he used this technique to kill the King Hydra whose regeneration ability was modified to the point it could heal any injury immediately after it received them.

**Ereípia Aímatos:** Ares' personal shield. It is created by Hephaestus from Celestial Bronze based on the Aegis co-owned by Zeus and Athena, with the face of the fearsome Medusa engraved upon it. It could transform into a bulletproof vest that he usually wears in the mortal world. In Chapter XXX, he transformed it into a gleaming chakram to use in direct combat.

**Phobos & Deimos:** A pair of divine bayoneted handguns, named after Ares' deceased son and daughter. It has the power to solidify fear and terror into physical bullets, making anyone hit by these bullets to suffer their worst fears, taking away their fighting capability. He can transform them into two one-handed twin swords, one is black while the other is white, each has the power to corrupt the mind of all those scratch by either of these blades. He can also connect them at their pommels to create a dual-bladed melee staff.

**Ares' Chariot:** Ares' personal chariot, usually driven by either him or Phobos or Deimos. In the past, it is a red-and-gold war chariot, decorated with pictures of grizzly deaths in war, and pulled by four flesh-eating, fire-breathing horses. In the modern age, it appears as a futuristic motorcycle "the size of a baby elephant" and is created from futuristic mechanics and giant bones, with the seat apparently made from "Caucasian human skin". Several modifications were installed into the ride, such as missile launchers, machine guns, and other kinds of weaponry.

## Weaknesses

### Harming, Trapping, & Banishing

* **Witchcraft**: As witchcraft is a form of magic wielded by witches to oppose those of heavenly nature, pagan gods such as Ares are susceptible by witchery. There are many witchery spells and rituals that can be used to trap, weaken, and hurt him, with some rituals rumored to be capable of even killing immortals such as the pagan gods.
* **Celestial Weapons**: Weapons made out of sacred metals, such as Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold, can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, including pagan gods such as Ares.
* **Lack of Worship & Offerings**: As a pagan god, Ares gains more power from the prayers, offerings, and sacrifices from mortal devotees, and is dependent on it to maintain his immense divinity. If he stops gaining offerings from his loyal followers, his powers may become immensely weakened. Due to his essence being tied to the Western Civilization, he can gain power from those associated and symbolized by his divine domains, or associated with him or the myths surrounding him.

### Killing

* **Divine Weapons**: The divine weapons of the gods, which are crafted from sacred metals and are imbued with their wielders' divinity, can be used to kill or injure fellow immortal gods like Ares. However, due to his immense power, only a god’s Symbol of Power is capable of killing him.
* **Enochian Weapons**: Ares can be killed using weapons made out of Enochian metals.
	+ **Longinus**: As the Longinus are Sacred Gears made out of Enochian metals of the highest-ranking, forged by Heavens' forges with the highest-quality Enochian technology and are imbued with fragments of the Biblical God's divinity, those with enough skills and experience can absolutely and permanently killed Ares, to the point where he can never be reborn or resurrected again.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Ares can be killed using weapons made out of Faustian metals.
* **Primordials' Weapons**: Weapons created and wielded by primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely obliterate every and any being in existence but other primordial entities, erasing their entire existence from the worlds so that they can never be reborn, or resurrected again without being saved by God's omnipotence.

## Attributes

Ares' main attribute was a peaked warrior's helm. Even in domestic scenes, such as feasts of the gods, he was depicted either wearing or holding his helm. The god's other attributes included a shield, a spear and sometimes a sheathed sword. Although his shield was often decorated with an emblem of some sort, ancient artists simply used a generic one drawn from their standard repertoire rather than something specific to the god.

Ares was usually dressed as a standard Greek warrior with a short tunic, breastplate, helm and greaves. The breastplate was often ommitted in favour of a simple tunic, and he was sometimes depicted nude except for the helm and shield. Ares can be quite difficult to identify in ancient Greek art as there is little to distinguish him from other warrior figures.

### Sacred Animals

Ares was associated with certain birds, such as the vulture and a few species of owl, which ancient augury identified as portents of war, sedition and ill-fortune.

In **Metamorphoses 21**:

"*Zeus loathed them [the giants Agrios and Oreios] and sent Hermes to punish them . . . But Ares, since the family of Polyphonte [mother of the giants] descended from him, snatched her sons from this fate. With the help of Hermes he changed them into birds. Polyphonte became a small owl whose voice is heard at night. She does not eat or drink and keeps her head turned down and the tips of her feet turned up. She is a portent of war and sedition for mankind. Oreios became an eagle owl, a bird that presages little good to anyone when it appears. Argios was changed into a vulture, the bird most detested by gods and men. These gods gave him an utter craving for human flesh and blood. Their female servant was changed into a woodpecker. As she was changing her shape she prayed to the gods not to become a bird evil for mankind. Hermes and Ares heard her prayer because she had by necessity done what her masters had ordered. This a bird of good omen for someone going hunting or to feasts.*"

He was also connected with the wild boar (due to its penchant for viciously charging at anything and it being extremely hard to kill) and the wolves, as shown in the myth of Romulus and Remus when he commanded the She-wolf Lupa to come and save his demigod sons from death in the wild. Infamous monsters such as the Stymphalian Birds and the Mares of Diomedes were also associated with him.

The poisonous serpent was sacred to him. In ancient art he was often shown holding a serpent, or with a serpent-device on his shield.

## Etymology

### Ares

The etymology of the name *Ares* is traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή (*arē*), the Ionic form of the Doric ἀρά (*ara*), "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation". There may also be a connection with Ares' Roman form, Mars, via hypothetical Proto-Indo-European \**M̥rēs*;[*citation needed*] compare Ancient Greek μάρναμαι (*marnamai*), "I fight, I battle". Walter Burkert notes that "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war." R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name.

The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀀𐀩, *a-re*, written in the Linear B syllabic script.

The adjectival epithet, *Areios,* was frequently appended to the names of other gods when they took on a warrior aspect or became involved in warfare: *Zeus Areios*, *Athena Areia*, even *Aphrodite Areia*. In the *Iliad*, the word *ares* is used as a common noun synonymous with "battle."

Inscriptions as early as Mycenaean times, and continuing into the Classical period, attest to Enyalios as another name for the god of war.

### Mars

The word *Mārs* (genitive *Mārtis*), which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as *Māvors* (*Māvortis*), is cognate with Oscan *Māmers* (*Māmertos*). The oldest recorded Latin form, *Mamart-,* is likely of foreign origin*.* It has been explained as deriving from *Maris,* the name of an Etruscan child-god, though this is not universally agreed upon. Scholars have varying views on whether the two gods are related, and if so how. Latin adjectives from the name of Mars are *martius* and *martialis*, from which derive English "martial" (as in "martial arts" or "martial law") and personal names such as "Martin".

Mars may ultimately be a thematic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos, having originally a thunderer character.

## Trivia

* His birthday is on March 1.
* He likes B-graded horror movies, whiskey, and baklava.
	+ He dislikes senseless wars and conflicts, abuse, and jars, especially *pithoi*.
* The planet Mars was named after Mars due to its blood-red color and him being the god of war.
	+ The month of March (from Latin *Martius*) is named after him.
	+ Martes and Mardi, meaning Tuesday in Spanish and French respectively, were named after him.
	+ The word "martial" derived from Mars.
	+ Ares, in terms of rocketry, are three Shuttle-derived launches of vehicles under development under NASA program named after him.
* He is Zeus' least favorite, and possibly most hated, divine offspring.
* In myth, he is portrayed as a military general or professional warrior, but in the modern era, he takes on a 1950s "Greaser" persona.
* He was the one who influenced the American government into allowing ordinary citizens weapons, as well as making the constitution allows more freedom when it comes to punishment by law.
* He is the only Olympian to ever be put on trial by his fellow gods for murder (of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius). However, as he was defending his daughter from rape, he was ultimately acquitted.
	+ The trial is said to have taken place on the Areopagus in Athens, which means "Hill of Ares" as it was named after him in honor of this irregular event.
* He was very venerated by the Spartans, who would worship him through human sacrifices. They also had a massive statue of him chained in the city's center, which, according to legends, signified Ares' status as Sparta's patron god and would bring its citizens victories as long as it was chained down.
* He is the Amazons' most worshipped god, as the greatest Amazon warriors are always his daughters and descendants.
* He was often associated with the northern region of Thrace, whose native people were viewed by the Greeks as barbaric and war-like. It was believed to be his birthplace and many of the native tribes claimed to be descended from him.
* He hates being compared to his characterization in God of War.
* He is one of the first Olympian gods to have connections with the Eastern Pantheons, the other two are Poseidon and Artemis.
	+ He is the godly father of **Sun Tzu** - the famous Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of Ancient China. He is the author of *The Art of War* - an influential work of military strategy that affects both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking.
		- According to Sun Wukong, Sun Tzu had actually written The Art of War in honor of his godly father.
	+ He is the godly father of **Wu Zetian** - the famous first and only female emperor of China. Originally just a concubine within Emperor Taizong's harem, she rose to power after marrying and becoming the emperor-consort of his successor, his ninth son Emperor Gaozong. After his death, Wu Zetian became the administrator of the court - a position equal to the emperor until her death.
	+ He is the godly father of **Nakano Takeko** - a famous Japanese female warrior who fought and died during the Boshin War. She and other women stepped forward on the front line without permission, as the higher-ups did not allow them to fight as an official part of the domain's army. As the samurai class abolished and a western-style national army was established with the reformation of the Meiji era, she became one of the last samurai in history.