When Ares cut Athena down, he immediately understood that something was off. She had activated Vengeful Explosion at the last moment. She made Ares suffer the same amount of damage, but since he was sturdier, he would survive, but as for Athena…
While he was bleeding from his left side with a big wound. Ares watched Athena fall. He was sure that he had split her in two, and yet, her presence was still there. Her armor fell off, split in two, but Athena didn't die… Ares then saw the wound in Athena's body already closed. It seemed it had been cauterized, but how? How could have she done that so fast? Even if that was what kept her alive, it didn't explain how she healed the interior of her body. At that moment, Ares noticed that the armor had fallen, but the backside of the armor was still intact.