The War God’s Challenge

The golden skies of Olympus shimmered under the divine light, with clouds drifting gently around marble bridges and skyborne gardens. After securing an alliance with Zeus himself, Riser and Thalia were granted the rare freedom to tour Olympus not as guests, but as honored dignitaries.

The minor gods watched them with a mixture of awe and curiosity. Riser, the Sun God who had destroyed Vritra. Thalia, daughter of Zeus, who now walked hand in hand with the devil her heart had chosen.

But peace in Olympus is always fleeting for where gods tread, pride follows.

As Riser and Thalia strolled through the hanging gardens of Aphrodite, passing celestial nymphs tending to ambrosia trees and divine beasts lounging in eternal sunlight. The atmosphere pulsed with beauty and a kind of immortal stillness untouched by time.

Thalia looked radiant, her cerulean armor replaced by a flowing white dress with golden embroidery. Her long dark hair was braided loosely, cascading down her back as she smiled up at Riser.

"You know I used to dream of coming to Olympus," she said softly, voice laced with bittersweet pain. "It always felt like a potential home gilded in gold. But today, walking here with you, I feel that my home has always been with the one I love."

Riser's hand gently tightened around hers.

"A home is precious," he murmured. "But if you want to leave here and head back. If this place begins to cage you once more I'll walk beside you. Wherever it leads."

Thalia smiled, eyes glinting like starlight. "You always say the right things."

"Only because I mean them."

They stopped at a crystalline overlook, revealing all of Olympus in its divine splendor temples, arenas, theaters, and sanctuaries floating on beds of silver mist and cloud.

They sat down by a divine fountain, where nymphs whispered songs older than time. The music was a language even the gods barely remembered and yet it touched the heart.

Riser reached into a flame portal and brought out a crystal goblet filled with golden nectar.

"Not wine," he said with a smirk, "but close enough."

He handed it to her and lifted his own cup.

"To us."

"To fire and thunder," she replied with a soft laugh, clinking her goblet to his.

The warmth of the moment shattered as the sky above them rumbled not with natural thunder, but with divine pressure. The air grew heavy, humming with tension. The clouds above turned crimson, and the ground beneath cracked with force.

A voice echoed across the area.

"So this is the boy who thinks he can walk Olympus like he belongs here."

From the rift in the clouds descended a towering figure. Bronze skinned, clad in crimson and black armor, his great spear rested across broad shoulders. A blood red cape snapped in the wind.

Ares, God of War.

His eyes, twin furnaces of contempt, fixed on Riser like a predator sizing up prey.

"A devil playing house with Zeus's daughter. How pathetic."

Thalia immediately rose, stepping in front of Riser.

"Ares. Don't start."

"You've grown soft, Thalia," Ares sneered. "Ever since you gave your heart to this flaming bastard, you've dulled your edge."

He turned his gaze fully to Riser.

"And you," he said with a scoff, "strut around Olympus with your chest puffed like you're one of us. But you're not a god. You're a child with borrowed fire."

Riser rose slowly, golden eyes calm yet burning with growing heat.

"You talk a lot, Ares," he said. "Is that what war gods do when they're insecure?"

The spear on Ares's shoulder tilted slightly, his grin widening.

"I challenge you, Riser Phenex. One on one. A duel before all of Olympus."

Thalia gasped. "Ares, no. This is a political visit"

"This is personal," Ares thundered. "Let the gods see what happens when a war god crushes a bird trying to touch the sun."

Riser stepped forward.

"Then let Olympus see," he said. "And when I beat you, maybe you'll learn that arrogance makes a poor shield."

The Duel Declared

Trumpets blared from the temples of Hermes. Banners unfurled across the sky. A proclamation thundered through the divine winds.

"Ares, God of War, challenges Riser Phenex, Lord of Kuoh, to a duel in the Grand Arena!"

The arena was a colosseum forged from stardust and adamantine, suspended in the highest layer of Olympus. Gods, demigods, muses, and even half Titans appeared granted rare passage by Zeus to witness what many whispered could be the fall of a god or the rise of a devil beyond reckoning.

Zeus sat high above, lightning crackling silently at his fingertips. Beside him sat Athena, eyes cool and calculating, and Apollo, his gaze unreadable.

Thalia stood on a private balcony, white knuckled as she stared at the sands below.

Before the Clash began

Ares stood in the center of the arena, his spear glowing with blood red energy. He laughed as the crowd chanted his name.

"I hope you brought more than tricks, devil boy," he called out. "Because this is Olympus and I am the god of every battlefield!"

Riser stepped into view. He wore the obsidian and gold armor Kaijin had forged each plate etched with solar runes. Across his back rested his weapon Rita Ignis Regum, an axe sword imbued with the essence of the sun.

"I don't need tricks," Riser said, his voice steady, calm. White flames rippled around his body. "I turned Vritra to ash. You're just another god with an ego."

The crowd roared. Some laughed. Others gasped.

Ares snarled. "You'll regret those words."

"Only if you live long enough to remind me."

Clash of Titans Begins

Then

Crack and Boom!

Ares moved first, launching forward with such speed that the air cracked in his wake. His spear blazed with raw war energy, howling as it descended toward Riser's head.

Riser blocked it in a single smooth motion, flames bursting from his axe as the two weapons clashed.

The impact sent out a shockwave that shattered clouds and forced even demigods to shield their eyes.

Each strike rang like a divine bell. Ares fought like a hurricane all fury and momentum. But Riser moved like the sun itself blazing, constant, unyielding.

"You're strong, Phenex!" Ares bellowed, laughing. "But I am WAR itself!"

"And I," Riser roared back, "am the SUN that scorches even gods!"

His aura surged a wave of solar fire that melted stone and glass. Around him, the air shimmered as if Olympus itself was burning at noon.

Ares stumbled for the first time.

Sweat dripped down his brow.

"I see it now," he growled. "You're not just fire. You're wrath. But let's see how far it burns!"

He raised his spear high, channeling the essence of every battlefield ever fought.

Riser tightened his grip on Rita, white wings unfurling behind him.

"Come then, War God. Let's find out whose legend burns brighter."