"Come on Nori, just two more kilometres to go."

Kye yelled out to his shadow wolf friend who was running beside him, tounge hanging out of her maw as they ran around the field as part of Ares' training regime. Nori was keeping in step with Kye as he ran as fast as he could for the distance. His control over his body had increased in the 3 months since his birthday and pushing his body to its maximum was now a simple task. Kye had also started bulking up, with there being visible muscles on his stomach and his thighs becoming defined.

In the 3 months since he had recieved Nori from Hephaestus, they were inseparable with Kye even stop having showers and taking baths instead to wash with Nori. Nori was a pitch black wolf with pristine blue eyes that added to her beauty. Her height at only 3 months was already 80cm, just as tall as an average adult wolf. She would apparently grow much larger than this during her lifetime, with most average shadow wolves reaching about 1.6 metres tall. Kye and Nori crossed the end line for their run and Kye collapsed onto his back panting hard. Nori came up to him and licked his face. Kye desperately fought her off to save himself getting covered in slobber, laughing all the while. Ares put on a small smile when seeing the sight before yelling out.

"Come on kid, training's not done yet!"

Kye pushed himself up off the ground and jogged up to Ares.

"What next Teacher?"

Ares pointed with his chin to a benchpress rack.

"Do your maximum weight for 5 reps and then shift to half that for 20. Do this for 10 sets."

Kye nodded and loaded up the bar with 65kg of weight and began his maximum weight reps. For an 11 year old kid, this was a very impressive maximum weight. Ares just nodded at the sight before taking a seat on a tree stump to watch over Kye as he did the exercises. Kye's swordsmanship was getting better as well, with him starting to develop his own style that flowed well with his current level of dark magic. His most deadly stance had him form several lithe shadow appendages on his back which struck out with incredible speeds. He coupled this with large and dangerous swings with his greatsword which were covered by the rapid pierce attacks from the shadows. Kye had put up some valiant fights against Ares in their spars but was still unable to do little more than slight scratches on Ares' arms. When the sets were done, Kye came and sat next to Ares on the tree stump with Nori sitting on Kye's feet.

"You've been doing well kid. That wolf of yours is getting stronger with you as well. You're gonna be fierce opponents one day."

"I hope so Teacher."

Ares internally sighed. This was a common theme with Kye right now. Because his only frame of reference right now were 3 gods, Kye saw himself as unbearably weak. Despite Kye understanding this, there was a limit to the mentality of an 11 year old when it came to inner feelings like this. To that end, Nori couldn't have come at a better time. Her presence in Kye's life had brightened the kid up a lot and he started softening up slightly when he wasn't training. Ares didn't really agree with this but he stayed silent. His very existence was tied to battle and war and none were more aware of this than the blood red-haired god himself. Kye was not a god of war, even though he might train like one. He was just a human kid who had been given a power he had to work hard to use. Hephaestus was a great influence in his life, showing Kye what his natural intelligence for machines was worth and giving him a motherly presence while he was away from home. The brown-skinned goddess had recently absolved him of having to cook and started taking care of the chore herself, saying that "If he's this serious about training, it would be unfair of me to make him do things like cook.". Ares pat Kye on the back and stood up.

"Come on kid, lets go get some food eh?"

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Kye nodded and followed behind Ares as they went to the kitchen where Hephaestus was doing the dishes.

"Hephaestus, I said I would do the dishes!"

Kye exclaimed and pushed past Ares to take Hephaestus' place at the sink. She smiled and let Kye take over and went to prepare some drinks. While it was undeniable that Kye was being affected by the gods in his like, so to were they being affected by his presence. While many gods blessed children, it was very rare for them to ever come to them for training and those that did only ever stayed for a few months at a time. Gods tended to be fickle and their training harsh, this pushed children who lacked conviction away and those that had conviction but had wealthy families would train with privately hired tutors. Kye had taken the full training of three gods on and seemed to be holding up just fine. Though his mother had already noticed it, Hephaestus came to realise shortly after Kye's birthday that Kye was having severe self-esteem issues and he was slowly retreating into his shell. Hephaestus took on a more motherly disposition and began taking care of Kye more and more.

Ares warned her not to overstep but Thanatos argued that one comforting presence among his teachers would allow the others to push further and would allow them to push Kye further. Ares accepted this reasoning and now they found themselves in the current situation. Kye would train harder than he did the previous year but felt overall happier because he valued Hephaestus' presence in his life more and more. Ares and Thanatos both thought this was important to Kye's growth and increased the time Kye spent with Hephaestus but upping the intensity of their own training sessions. They were pushing Kye to his absolute limit, both mentally and physically, and he was getting very strong for it. Though Kye called both Ares and Thanatos 'Teacher', he called Hephaestus by name even during their lessons, something that she insisted on. Ares' own training now inclused several lessons about unarmed fighting and different martial arts that helped Kye improve his body awareness. Thanatos was teaching Kye about the arts of assassniation and killing swiftly, with him teaching Kye a very dangerous dark magic ability called [Shadow Step] which allowed Kye to sink into the darkness and reappear elsewhere.

Kye continued his training and relationship with the gods like this for the next year and when Kye turned 12, they ramped up his training once again. Kye adapted himself to the increased pressure as always and kept up with the demands of his teachers. Nori continued to grow and was now a full metre tall. Kye and Nori became even more attached to one another, with Nori even picking up on some of the skills Kye had learned through Thanatos including the dangerous [Shadow Step]. Having a metre tall wolf pop out of the shadows would scare anyone but when coupled with the very dangerous 12 year old next to her, many would die of heart attack let alone the actual assassination. it seemed that Kye's skill [Atlas's Voice] had a passive effect which caused many to feel a crushing sense of dread when Kye didn't try to restrain it. This aspect of the skill would prove useful in the future but for now, anyone but those who he was close to was affected by it. When a merchant came by one day to procure some specialist equipment from Hephaestus, he had been brought to his knees by this pressure, almost as if gravity had increased and pushed him down.

So for that year, on top of the regular training, Kye was trying to learn how to control this aura. This continued for the year and the day before Kye turned 13, he had a revelation about his skills after studying with Hephaestus and trying to restrain his aura. Kye came to understand that his bloodline magic needed a catalyst to work and that the only way to use it would be to have artifacts that he could channel with energy. With this revelation, Kye and Hephaestus set out to create items that would allow him to utilise his power. Kye had become a genius with runes and had successfully created an artificial rune that could be programmed with different effects. His lessons with Hephaestus had become brainstorming sessions where they would work on blueprints together for gear. After a years worth of work, they had designed four parts of gear for Kye's powers. A greatsword and gauntlet for [Atlas's Power], an armoured jacket for [Atlas's Body] and a neck chain for [Atlas's Voice]. It was with the creation of these blueprints, they moved into Kye's 14th birthday and the last 12 months of training Kye would have before his debut at the Divine Academy. The years seemed to fly by but now that there was but a year left, Kye felt the pressure mount even more. Kye would use this last year to finally enact his plans about the business he had planned, a chain of clubs that catered to younger people who would be participating in the coming Divinty War, where the emphasis was not on drinks, but rather music and entertainment. The pieces were now in play for Kye, all he had to do now was move them correctly.