Ares joined Cascade under the guise of being chased by members of the Vale. He feigned injury, covered in blood, when it was absolutely not his own. He beseeched the Circus for safe harbor and happily took up a magic act with Domino, fought along side the merry band of resistance fighters until they accidentally wound up in Hell after a brief interaction with The Black Knight.

In hell, the party discovered Ares' affiliation with the one true queen of hell, Lachesis Kadenza pax Bellona von Carnelian. They also discovered his grudge against Rocco's father Hugo, and that the man that killed him and caused his transition intoa vampiric state was none other than Issac Graves, Rocco's bodyguard. They also discovered Rocco was prince of said hell kingdom, and some form of descendant to Lachesis. This went about as well as one could expect. The brand on Ares' thigh was removed, and his queen recognized him as her champion.

Ares assisted with a handful of Resistance events, getting mages to a resistance base and meeting members of the Calloway royal family. They fought Monsignior West, a Vale Officer who had been kidnapping mages, and helped begin to expose the Vale's corruption. He met up with Issac, who agreed to help kill Ares' former mother figure, after Ares realized that he was less her child more her pet, and a source of magical energy for her. They found out she was a lich. That's sure to come back and bite him in the ass. While his friends Vivienne and Rocco were being commended for their work by the Vale (for...exposing West), Ares tried to sneak into the Patriarch's office to steal a sword. That went poorly. He, Vivienne, and Issac formed a plan to steal said sword, as Vivienne had been recently branded by it. After much ado and one very conspicuous murder inside the Rockfort Circus, the team stole the sword and Ares soulbound himself to it, because he's an idiot. They also rescued a bunch of mages (including Kimberly Quinn) in the process. Whew.

Unfortunately immediately after that, Ares tried to let Bishop talk to the Hollowed Blade longsword that they'd stolen from the Patriarch, and things went sideways. Bishop's soul, which had been split into a handful of the cursed weapons, did its best to merge. Kairos managed to teleport them out of the base into somewhere safe. That turned out to be just outside Calendora, the country formerly locked in a timeloop that Bishop is from. There, they spent several days figuring out how to get into the city: the gods Monty and Honestly guarding the gates and handling the intake policy. Eventually they made their way in, met with Bishop's fellow sphinx brother, his vampire retainer, and had a few blessed days of relaxation while they figured out how to get home, and get the information they sought from Calendora's history. Unsurprisingly this took them back to hell, where they went through every room of the seven deadly sins, may have accidentally released a piece of Pride, Vivienne died, and they finally found the throne room where they learned about Rocco's lineage and how the weapons they were seeking were being used by the Vale.

Ares learned his brand came from Hugo Greylock, and they discovered who held each of the weapons. They investigated a pool, and Lachesis refused to answer Ares' questions about the weapons and how to remove brands witout him placing the rapier on the pedestal it belonged to. After all the things he'd been through, Ares refused. He found he cared more about his friends than power for the first time in his life. They also discovered a pool of magic underneath the fountain in the throne room, and met Jericho for the first time. Later in Calendora, Ares went out with Velvet and did some vampire bonding, and wound up getting railed by him before they left. They discovered a temple to Bishop, and above it, the place where Kairos had killed Bishop over and over again when the city was stuck in its loop, revealing their dear friend was a God.

Since they've returned to the Rockfort Circus and the city of Cordelia, they've fought a kraken and won in the name of the Resistance. In the aftermath of Bishop's death during the fight and his resurrection, Bishop's former retainer Emilio took Ares' swords and ran. They chased him down and found him climbing onto the back of a dragon with the Dark Knight (they now knew to be Hector) and another large knight in armor that they found to be Nicollete (a former friend of Talmage's) after a fight. Ares summoned the Hollowed Blade back to his hand, but the Rozen Rapier, his trusty partner for the past five years, was taken from him.