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Ares slowly walked across the battlefield. Everywhere lay torn bodies, spears, and shields. There wasn't a single patch of ground clean of blood. The battle had only recently ended, and most likely both sides of the conflict were licking their wounds, so these bodies of warriors wouldn't be dealt with anytime soon.
The man himself had only just finished with the last remnants of the enemy. He no longer even remembered which side he was on and who exactly had prayed to him for victory. The main thing was that at this rate, the side he was on would soon win if the opponents continued to follow such a stupid strategy.
The God of War stopped before one of the corpses. The helmet was completely shattered, revealing the remains of a face that was too young. Even boyish. Sighing, Ares took out a golden coin from somewhere and, opening the dead warrior's mouth, carefully placed the coin under his tongue. Charon wouldn't care at all about the orphaned and destitute state of the dead man, but at least he now had a chance to get into Elysium or into Hades's house for service.
The man straightened up, surveying the place where he was once again. He needed to do this with many warriors before Thanatos managed to send them all down to the underworld, but something else interested him now. The absence of one deity who had been fighting alongside the God of War and who was neither among the corpses nor anywhere near the battlefield.
After examining the area for a long time, Ares finally noticed, in the distance, a cliff on which sat Eris, hugging her knees. Exhaling in relief, the God of War walked toward her. He quickly reached the right place, but took quite a while to climb to the top. Perhaps he should have just appeared before her, but there was something strange about his friend that hinted he shouldn't do that. Having reached the top, he adjusted his armor.
"This time you climbed much higher. Do you want to survey your work or…"
He said, smiling, but when the girl turned to him, he immediately fell silent. Her eyes were swollen from tears. The hair on her head was more disheveled than usual and was torn out in some places. Every minute she sniffled and her lips trembled. Her already unhealthy body looked even worse because of terrible wounds and dirt. Any moment now, Discord seemed about to burst into tears again.
Ares frowned, quickly sitting down beside her.
"What happened? Did they wound your wing again? Did you fly into a tree? Or…"
"Nemesis…"
Eris replied quietly, sniffing again. The man's eyes widened. He knew very well what his friend's relationship with her sister was like and knew very well what she meant to her. If she decided to mention Retribution, then…
"What? What about her? More bad rumors? Did she get some wound? Did she curse someone again? What did she do?"
"She was here… I met with her."
The girl lowered her gaze, pressing her head to her shoulders. The God of War exhaled slightly nervously, placing one hand on his head while his interlocutor began to rapidly babble.
"I. She. She appeared. I was fighting. And I. I. I saw her! She was looking at me in shock! I. I don't know why, but I shot at her! Right in the head! I. I missed! That's probably good… But I shot at her! And she. And she. And she disappeared!"
Here Discord started crying again, clenching her hands until they cracked.
"I don't know… I don't know what to do… What if… What if… What if she hates me even more… What if she never appears again… What if I never see her again… What if…"
Eris sobbed, her head lowered. Ares carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her.
"Hush, hush. She did appear, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"And what did she look like?"
The girl sniffled again.
"I don't know… I didn't get a good look. I—!"
"Did you see any wounds on her?"
"N-no."
The winged one continued to answer in a quiet voice. The man slowly nodded, deep in thought.
"You were on the battlefield, right?"
"Yes, but I—!"
Eris tried to object, lifting her head, but was quickly interrupted.
"I know that Nemesis participates in wars, and I know she is well aware of how difficult it is to distinguish ally from enemy during a battle."
The God of War quickly looked around and, not finding any suitable cloth, swore quietly and, wiping his blood-stained hands on the clean part of his armor, began to wipe his interlocutor's tears with his hands.
"And look at it from another perspective. You were worried she was wounded or in danger. If she appeared without wounds, that means she's fine and safe."
He spoke while Discord looked at him with tear-stained eyes.
"And that's even a good sign! She appeared now, which means she can appear another time too."
"Really?"
The girl asked quietly, and Ares nodded confidently.
"Really. We just need to figure out exactly how to provoke her appearance. Maybe something happened on the battlefield that summoned her."
"Maybe."
Eris nodded, and Ares smiled contentedly, removing his hands from her face.
"Exactly. She probably had too much work. After all, retribution is a much more disheveled thing compared to discord. So we need to make it so that she… Hmm… Notices you."
"Yes?"
Discord tilted her head to the side, blinking in surprise. The man nodded again, carefully pulling out one of the twigs from his interlocutor's hair.
"Yes. We'll find a way to draw her attention to you, rather than to work."
"For sure."
The girl nodded confidently, releasing her hands, on which bruises were beginning to appear.
"We'll make sure she appears again. And so that she doesn't run off to who knows where anymore."
"Yes!"
Eris replied a bit louder, looking somewhere into the distance. The God of War thought for a few minutes, then waved his hand.
"And let's start… With your appearance."
"What's wrong with it?"
Asked Discord, then slowly lowered her gaze to her body. During her… dark period, the girl hadn't really cared about her appearance. Her chiton was almost completely torn, barely covering intimate places. All over her body, due to hundreds of battles, clumps of dirt had accumulated because she didn't see fit to wash. Her wings also looked disgusting due to the same dirt, wounds, and places where there were no feathers.
"Oh…"
The winged one said quietly, finally examining her appearance. Ares chuckled softly, seeing the embarrassment on his friend's face.
"Let's do this. You go now to the bathhouse that's in my room on Olympus. Soak well, and I'll find a mortal who can keep their mouth shut and come up with a good outfit for you."
"So that it's flashy and bright!"
"And so that it's flashy and bright."
The man nodded as his interlocutor stood up from the ground.
"If anyone asks, tell them I gave you permission, and if one of the gods asks, then…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll figure something out. You know me."
Eris smirked as usual and, moving her wings a little, soared into the sky, flying toward Olympus. After a few minutes, the God of War's smile disappeared, and he, sighing heavily, put his hand on his face. He closed his eyes tiredly, not knowing what to do next.
With each passing day, it became harder and harder to distract his friend from obvious problems. Ares, although far from understanding family relationships, even he perfectly understood the obviously terrible situation. If things continued like this…
The man sighed heavily again and looked at the battlefield below. Right now, unfortunately, he had plenty of other work to do to think about this. Besides, Discord was unlikely to accept his advice if it was directed at her beloved sister.
It seemed that the only thing left was to hope for the will of the Moirai and their help toward their younger sisters.