"Hiei, are you alright?" Yukina asked as Hiei woke up from his unexpected faint.
"What the hell happened? You just fell over!" Yusuke exclaimed.
"It's nothing." Hiei replied. "I was just having a word with Serafin. He explained a lot to me." Hiei glanced over to where his father was still going at it with Athanasios. As far as he could tell, they still seemed to be on even ground, in fact it seemed as though no time had passed at all.
"Hiei, I hate to tell you what to do, but I don't think Serafin is trustworthy." Kurama said.
"Yeah, he's the guy who made Athanasios immortal in the first place! You shouldn't believe a word he says!" Kuwabara shouted out.
Hiei paused for a moment. He hadn't thought to ask Serafin why he gave Athanasios immortality in the first place. "It doesn't matter." Hiei said finally. "As far as I'm concerned, he's the only one around here who's bothered to tell me the truth about what's been going on."
The others sighed in defeat, knowing that once Hiei had made up his mind, they wouldn't be able to change it.
"So, what now? It doesn't look like those two will be finished for a while." Yusuke asked as he motioned to Koray and Athanasios.
"Now it's time I joined the fight." Hiei stated as he began to walk over towards the on-going brawl.
"Are you crazy?" Yusuke and Kuwabara exclaimed in union. "You can't compete with those two!"
"Hiei, you could be killed..." Yukina said as she tugged on her brother's arm.
"Yeah, it's possible..." Hiei said with a sad grin, as he avoided Yukina's eyes. "But you know, you really don't need me there to protect you anymore. You're a strong person... I'm sure you'd do just fine without me." With that, Hiei pulled away from his sister and continued on towards the fight.
As Hiei drew near, Koray and Athanasios ceased their fighting and turned to look at him with curious eyes.
"Well, well..." Athanasios muttered with an amused grin. "It looks like someone else has come to die."
As soon as Athanasios spoke, black flames began to surround Hiei. The energy was different than his previous attempts; it was much more intense, and flowed out of Hiei's entire body. As more energy was channelled, the flames spread out further, threatening to engulf everyone in the vicinity.
Koray stared at his son, surprised that he was putting his life at risk like this. "Hiei, listen... You don't have to-"
"Spare me the speech. I've made up my mind. I'm doing this because I want to." Hiei interrupted. "And besides, I'm sure she wants to see you just as much as you want to see her."
For the first time, Hiei saw Koray smile sincerely, as he said, "Thank you."
Suddenly, black flames surrounded Koray in the same way they surrounded Hiei. However, Koray's aura was far more powerful. As the two energies collided, they filled the air with a hot and heavy aura. Athanasios' expression became panicked, as he found himself directly between Koray and Hiei's black flames, which threatened to destroy him. The immortal tried attacking the two of them with his aura, but it disintegrated under the combined aura of the two fire demons.
"I admit, you two make a great team." Athanasios stuttered nervously. "You know Koray, I've been thinking; since you have Serafin stalking around in your head, do you mind if I ask him a question?"
"What's on your mind?" Koray said.
"Ask him why he bothered to grant me immortality in the first place, if he was just going to end up destroying me later on."
For a moment, Koray remained silent. All eyes turned to him anxiously awaiting a response. Finally, Koray sighed and said, "You won't find the answer satisfying."
"I don't care. Tell me!" Athanasios demanded.
Koray hesitated, but eventually gave in. "He says he did it... because he was bored."
"What...?" Athanasios muttered as he stared with wide, displeased eyes. "That's it?"
"After living as long as he has, all his duties became repetitive and boring." Koray explained which only caused Athanasios to become angrier. "When you came to him with your request, he realized that there had never been a situation like this in the mortal world during his reign. He knew it would give him something more challenging to deal with. That's all."
"No, that can't be true..." Athanasios muttered. "That means this whole time, I was just..."
"That's right, this whole time you were just his toy." Hiei said with a confident smirk.
"Think about it." Koray continued. "If you can barely stand up against Hiei and I, two being who aren't even immortal, then you never posed any threat to the underworld."
Athanasios became completely speechless as Koray and Hiei's energy reached their maximum. The mere aura they gave off seemed to suffocate him, and he realized that he truly didn't have a chance of winning. After all, the two fire demons hadn't even used their technique yet.
As Hiei readied to send out the dragon of the darkness flame, he felt a sensation like none before. It was exhilarating, and even though he felt it draining away his mortal life, he felt more alive than ever before. The power coming out of him was so strong he had only ever imagined possessing it. He felt strong sense of superiority over not only his opponent, Athanasios, but over the entire world.
"Hiei, are you ready?" Koray asked.
Hiei glanced over to Yukina one last time, then back to his father. "I'm ready."
Simultaneously, the two demons released their respective dragon of the darkness flame. The black flames that had gathered around them shot into the air, sending off an even stronger aura than before. The two energies began to take the form of huge dragons. Hiei's was recognizable by his friends as the long, thin Chinese-style dragon, except this time, it was much larger and had wings. Koray's dragon, on the other hand, came out even larger than Hiei's. It took the form of a western-style dragon with four legs, wings and even horns.
Once completed, the two dragons flew down towards Athanasios, who could do nothing but stare as his destruction drew closer and closer. Upon impact, a large explosion that resembled a nuclear bomb made with black flames erupted. Athanasios' body was completely destroyed, completely erasing him from existence.
As Hiei and Koray were consumed by the explosion, they felt their lives quickly fading away. But strangely enough, neither of them felt any pain or fear. They were overwhelmed by a strange calm, and felt free.
"Koray, I want to thank you for your services to me." Serafin said as he appeared in front of the fire demon in his human form.
"It was an honour to serve you." Koray said with his usual smile.
"As promised, I will send you to your loved one. You've more than deserved it." Serafin said as he extended a hand to Koray.
"Then it's my turn to thank you." Koray replied as he took Serafin's hand.
Suddenly, everything around him faded, and became replaced by grey, misty surrounding. Koray looked around, and spotted a figure in the distance. As he approached it, he could make out feminine features, which were very familiar to him. His face bore a hopeful smile as he could now make out the light blue color of her long hair, and the recognizable kimono that all ice maidens wore.
"Hina?" He called out softly.
The woman quickly looked up, slightly startled. Her deep blue eyes widened as they met with Koray's. The two started at each other for several minutes, before a smile grew on the woman's face. "Koray... It's you..." She said in a tone that was barely a whisper.
"Yeah. I've come back." Koray replied with a wide smile. The two ran to each other, and tightly embraced each other. From that moment on, the two lovers would never be parted again...
"Well, Hiei, it looks like you have another choice to make."
"What do you mean?" Hiei asked.
Serafin chuckled, amused by Hiei's density. "You're dead, but you no longer have a set destination. Having been born in the other world, one would say that you should be sent off to Spirit World. I could even arrange for you to be with your parents. But we both know that's not what you want."
"Yeah, I don't think I'd be able to stomach that..." Hiei muttered as the image of his father acting all lovey-dovey came into his mind. "I'm not too big a fan of Spirit World anyway, if you know what I mean. Got any better ideas?"
"You could come down to the Underworld with me. You've certainly proven yourself worthy of joining the immortals. I could use a fine warrior like you. And if you enjoyed the experience of using the powers of the immortals, you could have all that power and more at your everyday disposal."
"More power than what I just used..." Hiei said with a smirk. "Sounds like fun."
And with that, the two demons became engulfed in flames and disappeared.
"It's been a year since our last meeting." King Enma said with his deep, thunderous voice. "I take it Athanasios is gone for good?"
"That's right. Hiei and Koray passed on as well, but I suspect you already knew that." Kurama said firmly as he, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Yukina and Koenma stood in King Enma's presence in order to explain what had happened in the other world.
"Indeed, I was most surprised when I found out that fire demon somehow infiltrated the deep corners of Spirit World in order to be with that woman." King Enma replied with a scowl.
"He didn't do it. Serafin did." Kurama explained.
"So you even know about the demon kings..." King Enma sighed. "What about the Island of Wind? How are they holding out?"
"Fine, actually." Kurama replied. "When we left, the Generals had finished a large-scale raid on the Island of Fire. Most of the remaining members of the Black Knights have been imprisoned. And Archelaus is now ruling the Island of Wind."
"I see." King Enma said. "Junior, I'll leave you to take care of the rest."
"Sorry, dad, but I'm not going to erase their memories again." Koenma stated firmly.
"What's this..?" King Enma muttered.
"Personally, I don't agree with the way you've been handling affairs that have to do with other worlds." Koenma explained. "So I'm taking over. And these four have volunteered to help me."
"This is mutiny!" King Enma exclaimed.
"No, dad. It's politics. I'm just as much a ruler of Spirit World as you are, and I have every right to take this on." Koenma stated.
"You don't really think I'll just sit around and let you do this..." King Enma said as he stood up.
The boys and Yukina readied themselves for whatever was to come, but then suddenly the giant door to the room that they occupied was blown up. All eyes turned to see what had happened, but then black flames filled the room. Out of the fire emerged a small figure with spiked black hair, who wore black armour. Everyone instantly recognized him.
"Long time no see, huh." Hiei said with his usual smirk.
"Hiei!" Yusuke exclaimed as he ran over and tackled his old friend, followed by Kuwabara and Kurama.
"Hey... Get off before I kill you!" Hiei shouted uncomfortably.
"Would'ya look at that, not even death can cure his bad attitude." Yusuke said, making everyone but Hiei burst out into laughter.
"What are you doing here?" King Enma demanded.
"Just delivering a message from Serafin." Hiei replied, causing King Enma to shudder. "He wants to inform you that he'll be pleased to make negotiations with you bastards, provided it's the toddler who's handling it."
"Watch it, short-stuff..." Koenma muttered irritably, while Yusuke and Kuwabara giggled in the background.
"And another thing, which comes from the both of us," Hiei said, sending the king of Spirit World a piercing death glare. "You leave my parents alone. If you do anything to separate them, or make them miserable, I promise we'll repay you ten-fold."
As Hiei said that, the black flames spread further into the giant room, melting down the walls and ceiling.
"Well, that's all." Hiei shrugged as he turned to leave. "I better get going. It's against the rules for me to be here too long."
"Hiei..." Yukina said, attracting the attention of her brother. "I'll miss you." She said with a smile, which Hiei returned.
"Take care, buddy." Yusuke called out.
"Yeah, you were a pain in the ass, but I guess I'll miss you anyway." Kuwabara said.
"Try not to terrorize too many people." Kurama said jokingly.
"Hn. Whatever." Hiei said with a wave of his hand as he disappeared into the black fire.
END
So, that's all. I'm kind of sad to see this end, as I've been working on it for some time. Amber Moon is definitely one of my favorite fanfics that I've gotten around to writing. Thank you to all the readers that have supported my story, I can't tell you how great it is to know that other people enjoyed reading it. I hope you all liked the ending :D