Chapter 8 -

After the exchange Ares had with the stranger, he thought about what to do, (Even if I continue, I'll just be walking aimlessly, It's been nearly 300 years since I've been in heaven, everything looks so different.)

10 minutes later walking in the endless hallway, Ares finally found a set of stairs. Feeling relief he was about to go down, but before heading down, he heard a voice of a man. Ares turned around and was surprised at what he saw. A man was running at Ares yelling at the top of his lungs.

"HEY, YOU, STOP!"

Confused, Ares started looking around for other people, but there wasn't so Ares looked back at the man approaching him.

Even from the distance, Ares was at, he could see that this man was exhausted and sweating profusely.

Ares was tempted to leave because he didn't know anyone, and even though he hasn't been in heaven for a long time, he still might be recognized by a few people.

But amongst all the concerns, he stayed. He only remained because he thought that if things went awry, he could escape if necessary.

"Thanks....for waiting" The man was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath.

"Now...tell me...are you, Ares?

Ares looked the man up and down before saying, "Who are you?" wanted to play it safe, and didn't want to reveal his identity to anyone.

"My bad... You can call me Louis, and I'm sergeant major of the Heavenly Guards." As Louis said this, he pulled out a badge that showed his credentials.

Ares took a closer look at his badge and was surprised. Everything Louis said was true. This surprised him because becoming a sergeant major of the Heavenly Guards isn't easy and required you to be extremely powerful to get there.

"That's interesting," Louis said with a face full of curiousness

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ares thought that Louis's reaction was strange

"Well, you're different than I imagined." Louis gaze still hasn't left Ares face

"Is that a compliment?" Ares was wondering if Louis just dissed him subliminally

"That's not important, all we need to do is leave," Louis said, completely dismissing Ares's question.

"What are you talking about?' Ares said

"We need to pay a visit to The Ruler."

Subsequently, Ares recalled the moment Reiki told him the same thing and was back querying about his locations.

"If you're taking me to him, then I can't go. Ares said

"I didn't mean to send the wrong message, what I meant was, I already have someone taking me, so you don't have to trouble yourself. I was just looking for him.''

Louis stared at Ares peculiarly and said "If you don't mind me asking, who is this person?"

"I don't know who he was, however, if I remember correctly his name was Reiki."

"Are you being serious?" Louis said with a worried look.

"Yes." Ares looked at Louis and thought (Why does he look worried? That old man was weird, but he didn't seem bad.)

"That old geezer, what is he doing?" Louis said to himself while looking down

"What's the problem?" Ares said

Louis swiveled his head back to Ares and said, " Well, the problem is, he wasn't supposed to be here, he should've been waiting at the palace with The Ruler, however, he's a huge fan of yours so I presume he snuck off to meet you."

"Reiki did appear to be a supporter of mine, but I still don't understand how that's a concern." Ares didn't believe that what Reiki did was an issue unless he had a high rank in the Heavenly order.

"Anyway, I got off track, like I was saying earlier we need to hurry and proceed to The Palace," Louis said hastily

"Before that, shouldn't we look for Reiki, I only told him to wait outside my room while I got changed." Ares still didn't want to leave, in case Reiki was still nearby somewhere

"If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Although Reiki is pretty strange, he's been around longer than I've been alive, he knows this place like the back of his hand." After Louis said this, Ares seemed convinced and was ready to go.

As they were finally leaving, Louis appeared to have a boost of energy and said, "Alright, Great God Of War, are you ready to visit The Ruler!"

In response, Ares stood there in silence for a moment before saying

"I'm ready, let's go."