Fate/Ultimate Antagonist

[81] I Call It Efficiency

Among the three Spartan brothers, the one with the weakest physique, Kratos, had actually signed a contract with the vanguard of the wandering star.

Even Ares, despite her slow wit, now fully understood... it was Kratos who was the one prophesized to overthrow the gods.

"I can't believe... I misjudged..."

Adorned in crimson armor, the dark-haired woman smirked, twisting her neck.

"No! It wasn't a misjudgment on my part. It was you deliberately misleading me back then, Athena!"

A hideous scar twitched on Ares' face.

Though her aura gained a touch of ferocity, it did not mar her refined beauty.

She roared.

She glanced at Vergil behind her.

On her face, a look of utmost disdain and scorn crept in involuntarily.

Clearly... the opportunity to subvert Zeus's rule was right before Ares' eyes.

But this sister ruined it!

The silver-haired youth, with indifferent eyes, spat blood from his throat.

Vergil had endured Ares' torment for over half a year.

He believed his brothers Kratos and Dante would come to rescue him, clinging to that hope.

But... it was too agonizing.

Nevertheless, Vergil was just a twelve-year-old boy.

In this endless and relentless torment,

Ares deliberately imprisoned him at the bottom of this scorching magma temple, where the raging flames ceaselessly burned Vergil's flesh.

The boy's body was crushed and scorched by the searing magma repeatedly, every inch of his flesh burning.

Yet those potentially fatal injuries, under Ares's divine power, constantly reassembled, healed...

In this cycle of tearing and healing, the number of times was beyond count.

Vergil's body gradually became more robust, muscular, and filled with strength.

But he had been unable to use his limbs for too long, forgetting how to move, almost forgetting his combat skills...

He desperately wanted to tear Ares apart, desperately wanted to see his brothers' smiling faces, and even more so, wanted to tell Kratos about the gods' conspiracy.

But all he could do was tremble...

Day by day, enduring this pain and torment.

But he was too weak, too powerless.

"Power..."

That pent-up anger and desire for vengeance, yearning to break free.

Vergil had never wished to have more power, like this time.

If he had the power, he would have been able to protect his brothers and his father that day...

Ares's divine power both tormented and transformed his body.

So Vergil had been trying his best to provoke the god of war... because he knew, Ares wouldn't let him die easily.

He knew that he would inevitably become the bargaining chip that Ares used to threaten his brother.

It was because of this that thoughts of death appeared in his mind, tinged with a desperate longing.

Under this endless pain and torment, Vergil struggled to maintain his precarious sanity.