The God of War

Noel woke up, surprised to find no pain in his body. Just moments ago, he was writhing in agony, but now he felt eerily numb.

As he opened his eyes, he discovered himself in an unfamiliar location, standing amidst a gruesome battlefield.

The ground beneath his feet was littered with bodies - humans, giants, vampires, werewolves, demons, and others. Blood stained the earth, and an unsettling silence hung in the air, devoid of any sign of life

Then he saw a tower of bodies and at the top of the bodies sat a man, he has long curly hair with a handsome look, the aura around him was godly as the man was meditating while sitting atop the pile of bodies.

Noel moved towards the man as he found the only living being in the whole battlefield who could answer his questions.

As Noel came closer, the man opened his eyes and found the existence of Noel surprising, he asked, "Who are you?"

As he spoke, an aura came from his body and oppressed Noel. Noel stumbled backward as he couldn't move forward, he even wanted to speak but failed to utter a word because of the oppressive aura.

Man noticed Noel's condition and retracted the aura, Noel sighed in relief, if the man in front didn't retract his aura, then he would have blown away just by his aura alone.

Noel answered as he looked at the man, "I'm Noel… who are you?"

Instead of answering Noel, the man asked, "How did you get in here?" His aura again spread around the battlefield but Noel felt nothing as the man didn't let Noel be affected by it.

Noel shook his head, "I don't know how I came here, what is this place?" He asked as he remembered wearing a necklace given by Sameera and the next moment Noel felt pain all over his body and then he fainted.

Man didn't answer as he glared at Noel, looking if he's lying or not, Noel didn't glare back at the man and looked here and there, then to his surprise, he found a spear hanging on the man's back.

The spear looked familiar, except that the spear he saw was made out of bones and the spear on the man's back was made out of some unknown material.

Noel spoke, "That spear?" Man found that Noel knew about his spear, as he took the spear in his hand, "Have you seen my Doru before?"

Noel heard this and his heart started beating fast, he spoke, "Doru! The spear wielded by God of War, Ares, son of Zeus and Hera, one of the 12 Olympian Gods?"

Ares raised his eyes, "So, you do know me? But you haven't introduced yourself, mortal?"

Noel couldn't believe that he was standing in front of the God of War, he answered, "I'm Noel, just Noel."

Ares frowned. "What kind of introduction is that? Did that man send you?"

Noel shook his head, confusion etched on his face. "I don't know what you're talking about. Who is this man?"

Ares spoke, "Seems like you have become one of his pawns or hope to change the fate of those people, if he hasn't revealed himself to you then I cannot tell you his identity but that man is a trickster, be aware of him."

Noel with frustrated tone, "Who is the man pulling strings from behind, is he God or a demon? Why does everyone around me not want me to know who he is?"

Ares spoke, "You should not concern yourself with something which is unknown to you, instead why don't you think, how you'll go out of this place."

Ares smiled, awaiting Noel's response.

Noel thought to himself, "How can I not find this curious? This guy knows the answers to my questions, but what he said is true. For now, I need to focus on my situation."

"Where am I, and how can I leave?" Noel asked.

Ares stood up from the pile of bodies, and to Noel's astonishment, the bodies across the battlefield began to disintegrate into nothingness. The once-grisly landscape transformed into an empty, serene space.

Ares spoke, "this is my small world, also known as God's consciousness. When Gods died, they didn't die actually, and imprisoned inside their own consciousness, attached to their artifact."

"If you recognized my spear, then that means you have come in contact with my Doru," Ares said.

Noel nodded as he remembered the spear made of bone attached to the necklace given by Sameera to him.

"Wait!" Noel exclaimed. "You've died? Who could possibly kill the God of War?" He struggled to comprehend the unimaginable.

Ares didn't answer his question and continued. "So, only I can send you back to your world or more like your consciousness back to your body… but on a single condition," he declared.

Noel's instincts warned him of trouble. He steeled his heart. Ares spoke,

"FIGHT ME."

Noel thought in his mind, "are you for real? Me fighting you? How is that possible?"

He denied straightly, "I decline, can't we do something else?"

Ares spoke with a serious tone, "No other condition. Fight me or stay here forever."

Noel felt kicking his ass, but could he? Hell no.

He answered, "How is that possible? A mortal like me fighting a God like you. I can't even come closer to you, and you want me to fight, but how?"

Ares pondered and laughed. "Isn't that simple? I'll limit myself to your level. If you can touch my body even a single time, then you won."

Noel looked at him, "you truly are War monger."

He didn't have much choice, so he agreed, "go easy on me?"

He knew even if Ares could limit his power to the same level as his, he's still a god with experience of god knows how many eons.

Noel only knows a single stance, and that was a boxing stance.

Ares was standing carefree in front of him, as he called Noel to make a move.