Thanks to Lilithakaducky for your comments, thanks to all of you that are reading.
Italics are speaking between cosmos.
He was free.
Hades could feel that power that had seeped into his temple, that embodiment of light that was now long gone from the world above. Athena's power, and yet not. Her gold warriors, yet not.
The soul within knew who it was, the name. He only acknowledged him as the Dragon Saint. He had thought he had crushed his heart.
Obviously death wasn't enough to chain such a soul. This time, he would make sure to completely dissolve it.
"My Lord," he wasn't surprised they had come. Of course they would have sensed it.
He had underestimated the Saints, he would have to fix this, "I know. Phoenix has been released, the Dragon Saint is on the move, even though he is dead. Likely they'll be heading for the wall to retrieve Athena and Pegasus. I want you both to make sure they do not reach them."
"And leave you unguarded, My Lord?" Thanatos questioned, as if disliking the idea.
"I have Pandora, and I have Cygnus. And even without, I have myself," he had defeated them once, he'd do it again.
"Cygnus may yet break from you now that his companions are free..." Hypnos said cautiously.
"He won't. There's very little left of Cygnus inside himself," he nodded to the still, empty eyed form standing guard nearby. The former Saint of Athena hadn't even shown the least bit sign of sensing his comrades.
"Andromeda then..." Hypnos mused.
"Is dying," or so could be seen from his black hair, "Leave, do as I bid you. They must not reach Athena."
"They will not, my Lord," Thanatos assured him, before both of them bowed, and disappeared to do their task.
He had faith they wouldn't fail. But this had taught him that he could not leave anything to chance...
"Cygnus," the call brought those dead blue eyes to him, and inwardly, something in him was crying.
He stifled Andromeda, choking the life from that other soul bit by bit, even as he addressed the shell of the lover left behind. Cygnus knelt before him, head bowed, purely the servant.
"Yes, my Lord?" even that tone was lifeless.
"I need you to intercept Phoenix and Dragon before they reach the gate. Kill them if you can. Should they reach the gate, assist Thanatos and Hypnos in destroying them," with any luck, it would take them all out, he wouldn't have to kill Cygnus himself.
The Ice Saint nodded, bowing his head again before he stood, "As you wish, my Lord," he swiftly turned on his heel, going to do as told.
'Ikki.'
It was so soft, whispering through the pain of moving, the strain of living. The chains had left their marks, upon his wrists, in his soul, leaving him weak, as he strove to keep up with the glowing form of a friend both dead and alive.
Yet, he had thought...
'Ikki? Brother, listen?' there it was again, the faintest breath past his ear.
That made him stop, so suddenly that Shiryu noticed, and turned to look at him with those gold tinged eyes. Phoenix shook his head, motioning that he didn't know, when he felt something brush his shoulders, as if delicate hands were touching them.
'Hyoga is coming,' was the urgent warning.
"Shun," Ikki found he couldn't breath, couldn't move for a moment, knowing this was his brother, the same that he had almost believed lost to Hades.
"Ikki, duck!" Shiryu's warning came almost a moment too late, as instincts came into play, and Ikki did as told.
The shot of pure frozen cosmos was so close he could feel it brush over his bare back, burning the skin with how cold it was. The wall further up formed ice, thick enough to trap him if he had been the one caught in it.
Swiftly getting to his feet, he turned, to glare into the shadows, trying to pick up a hint of gold, something to let him know where the other was.
'To the right,' that whisper again, just before another shot came from that direction.
Again, Ikki barely had time to move, before an answering blow came, from behind him.
Shiryu's shot flared, bright, almost blinding as it struck at the shadows. There was a grunt of pain, as it hit, too fast to be avoided. In that short moment of light, their attacker was revealed. Blue eyes, dull and almost gray, stared at them as the blow struck, the blackened armor of Cygnus seeming to absorb even what the shadows could not.
The former Athena Saint hit the wall behind him, cracking it with how hard he had. Ikki prepared himself as seemingly unfazed, Hyoga rose once more.
"There's barely anything left of him..." Shiryu commented, unattached and unemotional, where there should have been shock, perhaps horror, but nothing.
Ikki was painfully reminded of how things had changed, how close to the ending things were. But he could feel what the Dragon Saint had. Most of the cosmos still powering the Cygnus Saint was dark, charged with the soul that had stolen his brother from him, had trapped him for so long.
If anything, it seemed they were only fighting an extension of Hades, and nothing else.
Another blast of ice, as silent as the rest had been, and the Phoenix Saint returned it, his cosmos powering the fierce fire in him, channeling it into flame that met and blocked the frozen death aiming for him.
'Ikki,' again, he could only vaguely hear that call, and would have been weary of it, if he didn't know his brother.
This was Shun. Hades couldn't imitate such pure love as that.
'Shun,' he reached for him, for that soul he hadn't felt in so long.
He couldn't imagine how he had managed to do it, to reach past the god, just to him. He had truly thought that Shun's last fight had been when he had urged him to kill him.
Which he had failed...
'Brother, it's alright. I still have a chance to end this... I had to wait, gather strength, for this,' Shun soothed, 'I am glad you weren't the one that had to finish this...'
Ikki's throat tightened, as he felt that warm cosmos wrap about his. Yet he focused, blocking the attacks coming to him, knowing that any that hit his unprotected body would likely kill him. There had been no way to retrieve the long destroyed Phoenix Cloth, at least not yet.
Shiryu's blows shattered through their stalemate again, ground breaking as they again slammed into Hyoga, who this time blocked it, with one hand, while the other continued the battle between fire and ice.
Ikki's arms were beginning to ache, as he felt the Ice Saint's cosmos rise in power, fueling his attack to greater heights. Phoenix fought to match it, every step of the way, though it felt like fighting Hades himself again, and his weakened self couldn't take the strain.
'We need to finish this quickly...' Shun insisted, 'You need your strength for the battle ahead, as does Shiryu. Brother...' that ghostly voice was silent for a moment, and Ikki couldn't help but fear that Hades had found out.
'Break Hyoga's mind,' that suggestion eased his fear that his brother had been taken again, but at the same time...
"What?" he couldn't help but voice it out loud.
Shun was asking him to...
'Hades put a seal on it. One that I cannot break. His soul is dying and we don't have much time left...I don't,' indeed, he did feel weaker, the soft touches were long gone, showing how he was trying to conserve what little he had left, 'Use your Demon Fist...'
'It could kill him,' though Shun knew that. He'd seen it at work so many times...
'I know,' there was pain there, brief, but deep enough to be soul rending, 'I hope it does.'
That simple phrase nearly halted him, if he hadn't been fighting for his life. He could hear Shiryu powering up for another attack, likely one far stronger then he'd thrown previously.
'Do it. Please,' that tone was begging, perhaps crying.
Kill his brother's love... Kill his brother in arms...
Shiryu's dragon blow flared, and broke through Cygnus's defense, stopping his ice attack as it once more threw him into the wall, burying him for a moment.
'Now, Ikki!' the cry prompted him before he had to think, fist raising, that power surging through his veins. He unleashed it before he had time to breath.
It struck just as Hyoga started to right himself, standing unsteadily just as it pierced his mind. Those eyes widened in some form of shock, before without a sound, he collapsed backwards, hitting the rock and sliding to the floor, much like a puppet with its strings cut.