Author's Note: Well, look who decided to finally make his comeback. I didn't expect to take this long to tell the truth, but I became engrossed writing other stories in Questionable Questing and then my 13-year-old laptop just went and died on me and it took me several months before I could replace it.

Blegh… Well, at least I finally managed to get things back on track. At any rate, let's start already.

Disclaimer: I own nothing; copyrights to the different series and/or franchises that appear in this fic belong to their respective owners.

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Prologue

IN THE COMPANY OF THE DEAD

Part 8.1

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Violetta shrugged as she stood in front of Phoenix. "Meh… Not that I care… It is not my job to have pleasant conversations with those that try to assassinate Lord Hades, but to beat the shit out of them! So, how about it, bird boy? Think you are man enough to last long enough to give me a good time…!?" She declared with a manic grin as she bumped her fists together, causing the floor under her feet to crack by the transmitted force before leaping at Ikki with her fists rearing back in a double-handle axe strike.

"Let's get WILD!" The female specter declared as she plunged towards the spot where the bronze saint was standing. Phoenix just clicked his teeth in annoyance as he dodged, letting Violeta smash upon the floor and break everything apart as she caused a small tremor due to the sheer strength of her attack that struck with the power of a small detonation, throwing clouds of dust and debris all around.

"Hey… Don't run away, I promise I'll make this fast…" The heavily scarred woman mockingly declared as she climbed out from the small crater her assault had created on the marble floor.

"Oh, I agree on that last point, this will indeed be fast…" Ikki said darkly as his Cosmo began to rise, a scorching flaming aura surging from his form that began to smoother the entire throne room in an asphyxiating heat, too hot as to cause the marble tiles of the floor around the bronze saint to slowly start melting.

Violeta braced herself against the raging flames the best she could, raising her own Cosmo in kind to act as a barrier, yet Phoenix own Cosmo proved superior if the flinch on her eye was any indication. "Tsk… Don't you dare look down on me! You hear me!" She declared before launching herself against Ikki once more, trying to break through his Cosmo with her own, darkness and flames pushing and warring against each other, flooding the entire room in swirling erratic shadows.

However, the assault of the female Specter was doomed to failure from the very beginning as Ikki's burning Cosmo swirled around him in a whirlwind of fire, stopping Violeta in mid-air who was unable to even lay a single finger on him before completely rebuking her aside with lashing tongues of flames.

Violeta was pushed backwards rather violently, but she was able to take control of her momentum and land safely back to the ground on her feet. Nonetheless, there was great surprise on her face after such unexpected development. "W-what!?" She declared in stupefaction, unwilling to believe her attack had been foiled with such insulting ease.

"As expected, your pathetic weak attacks cannot ever hope to lay a single scratch on me… Though I must say I'm impressed you weren't burnt into cinders by my flaming Cosmo after getting a lick of it. So, it seems there actually can be someone component among the ranks of failures that are the Specters. Then again… It's not like it is a high bar to overcome or anything like that in the first place…" The dark blue-haired saint declared in a mocking tone.

"Hooo! You have quite the mouth on you little boy… Perhaps it is time for me to start taking the kid's gloves off…?" Violeta replied with a sinister smile as she once more bumped her fists together, creating a small shockwave as the ground underneath her feet cratered. "I should thank you though… I'm not usually able to find willing dance partners capable of keeping up with me and making me sweat. You should consider yourself lucky!" She declared with a toothy deranged smile that told she had nothing but violent intentions towards Ikki and the rest of the Saints.

The Phoenix saint just scoffed at the less than subtle threat. "Bold words coming from a flunky of Hades, I seriously doubt you are the hot shit you believe yourself to be, considering how pitiful the rest of your fellow losers/ I mean specters are…" He replied with his usual disdainful and derisive demeanor.

It did nothing to lessen Violeta's smile however, as she even offered him a nod of agreement. "Yeah, I don't blame you for looking down on the rest of the specters. They are quite the sorry bunch that's true…" She declared as a matter of fact, which unsurprisingly brought her no small number of glares from the rest of her surviving comrades.

"Violeta what in the nine hell's you think you're doing by saying such things, you muscle-brained she-male!?" A blonde specter with the face of a woman but the voice of a man said with great affront.

"Shut up, Veronica! You all know this to be true!" Violeta replied harshly, silencing her fellow specter. "You lot depend solely on the blessings that Lord Hades and the twin Gods have bestowed upon us to do battle! Without the protection and power granted by our Sapuris, you all will be less than useless since none of you ever tried to master and cultivate your Cosmos on your own. I am the only one among the entire rank and file of the one hundred and eight specters in the service of Milord Hades capable of fighting against other Cosmo Users without the need of wearing a Sapuri to do so! It is the entire reason as to why only I was granted the honor of being the sole personal bodyguard of Lord Hades, tasked with guarding and protecting the body of his mortal vessels. Something not a single one of you was capable of achieving, which is why you all are so pathetic and weak in my eyes! Of all the Specters, I am the only one who actually trains to develop my Cosmo, making me the strongest among all the warriors in the army of our Lord!" She announced proudly without a single shred of humbleness and did nothing to hide her look of disdain towards the rest of her brothers-in-arms.

Veronica began to grith her teeth in outrage, he wanted to refute such claim but a challenging look from Violeta forced him to keep quiet since he knew very well deep within his black heart that what the Specter of Behemot was saying was true. If he were to dare face Violeta in straight up combat, he would undoubtedly lose. That didn't mean he had to like such fact though…

It was the same for the rest of surviving Specters, they all wanted to object but kept their tongues in check; either due to the need of showing a united front in the face of their most dangerous enemies, because they secretly knew Violeta's words to be true and were ashamed of it, or maybe it was due to the pointed stares from the three judges of hell wordlessly commanding them to keep their mouths shut. Whatever it may be the case, the result was the same…

Seeing she was not going to be getting any complaint, Violeta turned her attention back towards Ikki. "Well, then… Seeing I'm getting the tacit agreement of my fellow specters, I guess it's time for the two of us to return to our business. I've yet to show you my displeasure for the way you treated Milord Aiacos…" She declared as her Cosmo began to rise and a dark foreboding burning Aura enveloped her.

"And what the hell do you care if I kicked the ass of one of the judges of hell or not? Do you have a crush on him or something to feel outraged on his behalf…? I'm surprised a disfigured thug like you is able of holding a torch for someone else. It would be cute if it weren't so repulsive a thought, then again… It should not come as a shock that the only kind of girl that seems to show any interest in such a pathetic loser comes from the ass-ugly butch type!" Ikki stated with all the derision and disdain he was able to infuse in his words.

Violeta was not the smallest bit amused by that as her expression turned flat, losing all trace of levity, a visible anger slowly began to take hold of her features until her face was nothing more but a fierce mask of rage. "I'm going to enjoy killing you Phoenix saint!" She proclaimed before unleashing the full power of her Cosmo with a roar.

A powerful shockwave spread across the throne room, physically pushing back anyone that hadn't been able to brace themselves in time as Violeta's muscles hardened, veins thickening and becoming easily visible as she prepared to launch her next attack. "Time to take the trash out!" She declared as she reared back, winding her arms at the ready.

"Go ahead you mannish freak! Do your worst!" Ikki replied in defiance, rising his own Cosmo in answer to Violeta's own hostility, flames blazing with searing intensity at the expectancy of an attack.

BRUTAL REALITY!

Violeta declared, before smashing both of her fists into the ground instead of against Ikki, catching the Phoenix saint off-guard as he hadn't expected for Behemoth's target to be anything else other than himself. However, Violeta's intentions became apparent almost immediately as the entire floor beneath her fists simply crumbled apart; and not only just the floor, but the entire mountain where the tower was built atop began to shatter all the way down to the base as the shockwave of her impact began to spread across the throne room. The entire section where Athena and her saints were standing that led straight to the giant double doors at the entry just shattered into dust, bringing the entire structure of the tower on that side down with it.

Athena and her saints could do nothing but stare with eyes wide as their footing simply disappeared and they suddenly found themselves on a freefall, none more surprised than Phoenix himself, as an expression of stupefaction became plastered on his face for a moment and then he was simply gone; his entire silhouette being swallowed by an abyss. All of a sudden, the light from the exterior of the tower flooded the whole room as the entire front section where Athena and her saints had been standing was no more, roughly one fourth of the entire mountain and the tower lying at its top being erased from existence in an instant thanks to the inhuman strength of the Behemot Specter.

Most people would rightfully assume that would be it for the goddess and her protectors, but experienced enough Cosmo Users are capable of sensing the presence of others of their kind and Violetta was still able to detect the Cosmos of Athena and her saints, thus there was not a single trace of satisfaction on her expression. Something that the rest of her fellow Specters failed to detect.

"W-What…!? Violetta, you did it! You crazy bitch, you've managed to defeat Athena and her Saints at last!" The androgynous Nasu's Specter declared in awe at seeing the unrestrained destruction product of Behemot's attack.

Violetta just scowled at hearing such words and snapped back at her fellow Specter. "Veronica, shut up! This attack is not enough to deal with the likes of Athena and her Saints, do not commit the mistake of doing an early victory celebration when it is unwarranted…" She chastised harshly.

"The hell you're talking about you battle-addled woman!" Veronica replied with scorn, feeling incredibly insulted and humiliated at being scolded by the female specter whom he didn't held in high esteem to begin with.

"That is enough Veronica! Violetta has the right of it!" Rhadamanthys interrupted, silencing the Nasu Specter. "Can't you not sense it! The Cosmos of both Athena and her Saints haven't diminished in the least, they are still alive and capable of being a thorn in Lord Hades' side…" He stated in a tone of complete certainty, tolerating no manner of complaint.

"Hmmmph…" The androgynous specter did nothing but huff instead of giving a proper reply. As a Specter that had been assigned under the direct service of the God of Death Thanatos, Veronica was outside the regular chain of command that most of her fellow specters were part of, so she didn't have to pay any kind of homage to the judges of hell as his superiors like the others did. Nonetheless, he knew better than to try to cause any kind of insubordination at this current time, especially when in the presence of Lord Hades.

Any further discussion had to be put on hold as a golden glow began to shine from the depths of the abyss where the Saints had fallen into, the intensity of the golden light turning more and more luminous with each passing second until it blinded all sight. Anyone who looked could do nothing but brace against the light poorly by trying to shield their eyes with a forearm.

"Tsk… The hell is this!?" Violetta exclaimed rather annoyed behind her fists.

All of a sudden, a scalding surge of flame lashed out from the edge of the newly created precipice, striking towards the Specter of Behemot. Violetta found herself overcome by an abrupt feeling of danger, her fighting instincts warning her of an imminent serious threat towards her person, causing her to leapt back in attempt to evade the unexpected attack. She was only partially successful in her dodge, forcing her to quickly cross her arms in front of her to shield herself the best she could before the jet of flames smashed against her in full.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The scar-riddled woman could nothing but scream as her right arm was abruptly split at the elbow in a shower of blood, her severed forearm being sent flying away by the sheer force of the attack, the poor Behemot Specter was thrown to the ground and left to wallow on her misery as she clutched at her bleeding stump as result.

"PHOENIX BURNING WINGS!" Ikki yelled as he rose high in the air with a flame-wreathed fist, showing to the entire world how ineffective Violetta's previous attack had been despite its wide-spread destruction. From the confines of the abyss Athena and the rest of her saints reappeared, rising in the air none the worse for wear and floating above the abyss with the same ease as if they were standing on the ground, the wings of their armored cloths fully stretched and resplendence in their magnificence. It was pretty clear they had received no discernable damage after falling from the top of the mountain.

"Y-you… YOU BASTARD!" Violetta exclaimed in a fury towards the Phoenix saint as she pushed herself back to her knees despite her crippling injury, streams of crimson blood dripping from her wound generously, seeping between her fingers despite the pressure she was applying with her other still uninjured hand.

Ikki simply dropped back into the ground without a care in the world, unmindful of the horrible maiming he had cause to the Behemoth Specter. "Hmmmph, it's not my fault that you were not paying attention to your surroundings in the middle of a battle. As I've said, it would require more than cheap tricks to defeat a Saint of Athena. Though I mut say you kept surprising me woman, that's the second time you've managed to survive one of my attacks… Though of course, it seems you weren't that lucky in getting away in one piece…" He stated with a smug sinister grin as he glanced down at the Violetta's severed arm that was lying close to his feet.

"Keep laughing you Motherfucker, it will be really funny when I cave your face in to repay you for this humiliation!" The scarred woman declared through gritted teeth as her life blood kept oozing away between her fingers. Some of her fellow specters were starting to become really concerned for her sake after witnessing such a nasty injury.

"Violetta, calm down! You'll only worsen your injury at this rate, perhaps you should retreat and let some of us step in and aid you in dealing with the saints…" Minotauros Gordon called out, wishing to support his fellow specter in need.

The scar-riddled woman, however, was having none of it. If anything, the suggestion that she needed help was pretty insulting for her pride as a warrior. "Shut up Gordon! I do not need any help from the lot of you! This little scrape is nothing, just a flesh wound. As long as we Specters draw breath, no injury possess any threat to us no matter how crippling thanks to the blessings of our Lord Hades. So, why should I CARE about losing one God-damned arm! I could lose all of my extremities and it would matter none as long as my heart keeps beating inside my chest!

Besides… If I am having trouble dealing with the saints, what makes you think any of you will fare any better than me!?" She demanded, turning her neck and giving a pointed stare in the direction of the Minotauros' Specter.

Ikki couldn't help but openly laugh at the reaction of the crippled woman. "Well said woman… You losers should listen to her, she seems to be the only one among with an actual brain between her ears…" He declared mockingly with that infuriating smile of his.

Violetta immediately snapped in his direction. "I don't want to hear anything from you, you blasted roasted chicken! You and I are not done yet by a long shot!" She barked with unbridled fury burning in her eyes towards the Phoenix Saint.

"Yeah, well… I believe you are one arm short from being able of laying a hand of me, you ugly she-male…" Ikki jeered in reply without missing a beat.

"Ikki…" Athena chided warningly as she and the others quietly landed right behind the phoenix saint, giving a look to the hot-blooded youth that he should mind his words better.

"Brother, I think you're being too unnecessarily cruel with our enemies…" Andromeda Shun said as his gentle demeanor sometimes put him at odds with the much rough and tumble attitude of his older sibling.

"Hmmmph… Perhaps you might be right Shun, we do have to show greater consideration towards the disabled after all…" Ikki replied with fake concern which unsurprisingly pissed Violetta even more who began to growl at Phoenix's backhanded comments.

"Brother!"

Ikki ignored his younger sibling and turned once more towards the Behemot Specter. "But you are right we are not yet done you and I you crazy warrior woman, so here…" He stated before kicking Violeta's severed forearm towards her in a single movement. "Stick that back into place and let's continue with our little dance, shall we?" He stated with a sinister tone.

The scar-riddled woman easily caught her dismembered limb with her still hale arm, for a moment a look of confusion appeared on her features as she glanced at her newly returned body part before returning her gaze back towards the Phoenix Saint, unable to comprehend why would he do such a thing in the first place.

"Courtesy from the likes of you? I am surprised you are capable of showing good manners towards your enemies…" Violetta admitted grudgingly, keeping her eyes leveled over Ikki.

The Golden Clad Saint just scoffed. "Don't misunderstand my actions, I am simply ensuring there will be no doubt about my victory over you by complaining that I had an unfair advantage due to your dismemberment. It is not fun beating upon the impaired after all, so do not make the mistake of believe I will be sparing you any pain just because you're a woman…" He declared with his usual bravado.

Violetta couldn't help but chuckle at the sheer arrogance. "Fu, fu, fu… That's mighty fine by me…" She stated before sticking her maimed limb back into her stump, taking a few seconds for Hades' blessings to activate, but once they did, it was as if her forearm had never been severed in the first place. The warrior woman making a show of moving all of her fingers one by one to show she was in full control of her body's actions.

"Now… Let's begin with round three, shall we…?" Violetta declared with a wide smug beaming smile, bumping her fists together and causing a small thunderclap as result that rippled through the air.

Phoenix simply nodded at that. "Yes… Let's…"

A sudden silence fell upon the environment, as if the world itself was holding in breath in anticipation of what the next move of the two combatants would be. The pause stretched, and then it was abruptly broken as both opponents rushed at each other and meet midway in the air with a thunderous clash.

The strength of the impact was similar to that of an artillery strike, a loud deafening detonation that made the teeth of anyone present rattle due to the sheer force. Saint and Specter became locked in a battle of wills, for a moment it seemed as if neither of the two had a particular advantage over the other.

"Not bad boy… You're certainly giving me a nice workout…" Violetta said with a shameless smile as the two enemies touched feet back on the ground and pushed against each other. Despite the female Specter using every bit of her great strength capable of shattering the Earth and toppling mountains, it didn't seem it had any kind of visible effect on the Phoenix Saint, who wasn't even breathing any different than he would during a casual stroll.

"…But I'm afraid this is the part where I bury you!" The scar-riddled woman declared as she began to flare her Cosmo, a dark miasma of cosmic wind swirling around her profile and lashing out against Ikki, but as how it had become the norm by now, any attack made by the servant of Hades failed to penetrate the defenses of his Divine Cloth. The Phoenix Saint chuckled in response.

"I wouldn't be so quick in singing victory just yet, in case you have forgotten, you've still failed to even give me a single scratch…" Ikki replied with a derisive scoff.

"Well, I'm not the kind of gal who likes using her nails in a fight… I prefer to simply pound my enemies into dust with my bare fists!" Violetta declared with a manic grin before rearing back and attempting to smash Ikki into the ground with a double axe-handle, the saint simply blocked the attack by grabbing her by the wrists with his own hands, the soil under their feet splitting apart by the transmitted force.

"Yeah, I wager. I might had confused your bullheadedness for bravery and consider it something to be praised, if it weren't for the fact of how boneheaded stupid it is to throw hands with someone capable of controlling fire…" The Phoenix Saint declared insultingly.

Violetta seemed perplexed for a moment. "What the hell do you mean by that!?" She exclaimed with a visible frown.

"Haven't you ever heard you shouldn't ever try stepping inside a Kitchen if you're afraid of getting burned?" Ikki replied with a deadpan before his Cosmo exploded out of his body in a massive conflagration of flames, coiling serpents of fire that enveloped his body completely as they expanded outward. Violetta could do nothing but hastily try to wrap her own Cosmo around her own body in a desperate attempt to shield herself before the flames engulfed her completely. It didn't take long for her to start screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

The wails of the Behemoth Specter echoed throughout the devastated throne room as she was slowly being literally burned alive by the flaming Cosmo of the Phoenix Saint, her entire profile nothing more but a shapeless shadow that could be seen writhing in the middle of a wall of fire. Ikki simply smirked at his handiwork.

However, not for nothing had Violetta been chosen as the personal Bodyguard of Hades out of the rest of the 108 Specters. Despite the horrible agony she was undergoing, somehow, she was able to push herself beyond the pain and continue fighting in the name of her lord.

"FUCK YOU, YOU BASTARD! I WILL NOT FALL TO THIS!" Violetta howled in a maddened frenzy before rearing her head backwards and slamming her forehead forward with a powerful headbutt that smashed at the top of Ikki's skull. The raw strength behind the impact was so unbelievable great that the Phoenix Saint found himself immediately being slammed into the ground, sinking into the rock by the strength of the attack and disappearing into the bowels of the wrecked mountain as he simply kept falling at a distressing speed, stone and soil splitting apart at his passing and doing nothing to stop his momentum.

With Phoenix gone, the flames abated after his departure, revealing the sorry sight of the Behemoth Specter after having to endure such intense heath. Even though she had managed to protect herself somewhat from the flames with her own Cosmos, the damage had still been serious enough, nonetheless. Her skin was burned raw, red, and rash welts covering almost all of her skin's surface which added to the unsightliness of her scars even more. Her hair hadn't been burned away despite everything, but it was covered in soot and smoking heavily. All in all, Violetta was left in a pitiful sorry state.

"U-urgh…. Fuck…" The heavily-scarred woman didn't even had the strength to utter complete sentences, and could simply grunt in pain as she fell to her knees. To proud to show weakness in the face of enemies, she struggled to keep her back straight despite her obvious exhaustion, thus she glared towards the rest of the saints who were simply staring back at her as they flanked Athena.

"The hell you're looking at pretty boy…!?" She barked towards Andromeda Shun with a scowl, the green-haired boy simply watched solemnly with an expression of boundless melancholy as blood began to slowly dribble down from Violetta's temple and trailing across her right cheek. It was clear her latest attack towards Phoenix had injured her more than she had tried to do him.

Whatever answer the green-haired boy might have given would be forever a mystery as the ground beneath Violetta's feet was starting to faintly rumble, a barely perceptive tremor that became louder and more evident with each passing second, indicating that something was making its way to their location.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" The scar-riddled woman declared with obvious dejection at the revelation that the Phoenix Saint was not yet out of action.

Ikki's golden armored form simply busted out of the ground in a shower of shattered stone and dirt, once again, the attacks of the Behemot Specter failing to cause him any kind of discernable damage as he simply stepped out from the hole he made with a huff. "Not bad you crazy woman… You are undoubtedly one of the most annoying and frustrating enemies I've ever fought, but I must commend your will to continue fighting even in the face of the inevitable…"

Violetta simply snarled in reply, uncaring of Phoenix's words. "Save your breath! I have no need for your pity, just get on with it and finish it!" She barked, keeping her back straight despite having been forced to her knees as she clutched her side.

Ikki just shrugged without a care. "Suit yourself…" He replied before lifting and rearing back a fist in preparation for the coup-de-grace. "This is the end…" The golden-clad saint declared, only to have his forearm being clasped by an armored hand, stopping him from carrying out his attack.

"That is enough, Phoenix…!" The judge of hell, Garuda Aiacos, commanded with undisguised hostility; having suddenly materialized right besides Ikki to stop him from finishing Violetta's off, clutching the arm of the Phoenix's saint tightly as if wanting to break it with his mere fingers.

Ikki said nothing, and simply clicked his teeth under his breath at the unwanted interruption.