Hellhound III
Hades watches his wife fondly as she gushes enthusiastically to their host about his achievements. Their host is listening intently to Persephone's recollection of one of his greatest battles with bated breath.
"You should've seen it, Izanami. During the Great War, the Biblical God attempted to travel through our section of the Underworld with Legions of Angels to flank the forces of the Devils." Persephone explains.
"Now, we wouldn't care what the outcome of that manoeuver was, but the Biblical God offered nothing as a tithe for travel through our territory." Persephone flashes a malicious grin.
Out of the corner of his eye Hades notices the fourth person at the table begin to stir, any drowsiness fading as she listens in on the story.
"With no payment received and no respect shown, my dear husband brought forth the forces under his command and the souls of powerful warriors to bar their entry. While the armies battled fiercely, my husband stood alone against the Biblical God, fighting him to a standstill." Persephone beams with pride as she describes a grand battle, the clashing of armies, and a conflict of the greatest gods.
"It was a beautiful, befitting a clash of the strongest. The infinite light of the Biblical God held back by my husband's divinity and the power of the Underworld."
Persephone sighs and gazes at Hades with a soft smile, "Clad in his full armor, Kynee upon his brow, wielding his staff or his bident at times, my husband was like the manifestation of darkness, battling back the manifestation of Light. It was a battle worthy of an epic."
Hades watches Persephone fondly and shakes his head, "My wife exaggerates. If the Biblical God determined he must pass, I would not have been able to halt his advance. He merely decided the injuries he would suffer from overpowering me were too great a risk."
"Was he truly that strong?" Ibaraki interjects, straightening up in her seat.
Hades glances at her, considering the question with a frown, "Strong is shallow praise for the Biblical God. As someone who fought him personally, he is boundless… and the depths of his power are unknown to me even after battling directly against him."
He turns and gives Persephone a fond look, "I wouldn't have been able to hold him back if my wife hadn't protected our realm from the effects of our battle."
Persephone smiles daintily behind her hand, "I didn't do much, darling. I merely ensured the souls of the dead weren't extinguished. We still had to rebuild the majority of the infrastructure afterward."
"Ah yes, now I remember. You conveniently allowed the section of our palace that you wanted to be renovated to be destroyed." Hades rumbles with a small grin.
"You can't prove that." Persephone fires back playfully.
"Remember, the Biblical God created beings as strong as the Seraphim. How powerful must he be to do that?" Izanami explains, back on the original topic using a potent example from her perspective as a creator Goddess.
Hades watches Ibaraki's vision become distant as she sighs happily. Suddenly a mischievous grin slides its way onto her face.
"I'm not sure I believe you're as strong as you say you are." She provokes him with a cocky grin. "Maybe you should demonstrate your strength for us with a friendly spar."
Hades looks at her, annoyed, "Do you think my ego is fragile enough to fall for petty provocations?"
Persephone pipes up from his side, "Oh that sounds exciting, my love! I always enjoy watching you show off. Would that be alright, Izanami?"
Izanami pouts at me then sighs, "Only if you promise not to kill, Ibaraki. While I enjoy her presence in my domain, I doubt she wants to become a full-time resident so soon."
Hades nods at Izanami, "I will ensure she survives the experience. Restraining myself enough to keep her alive is doable."
"I'm right here," Ibaraki grumbles irritably. "Don't write me off that quickly."
"I apologize if her request offended you, Hades. She is still drunk. Thank you for being so lenient with her." Izanami says to Hades with a smile.
"I don't get drunk. Besides, why would I want him to hold back?" Ibaraki whines, causing Hades to roll his eyes.
Despite the strength she possesses, she is far from being his opponent. Even while holding back, harming her beyond repair or creating insurmountable trauma for her is possible.
Persephone chuckles, shaking her head, "Most people would be ecstatic that the god they arrogantly challenged won't kill them. Accidentally or not."
His wife's statement causes Ibaraki to tilt her head in confusion, "I'm not like most people. Your husband is neither the first god I will fight nor will he be the last. If I die during one of those battles then at least I died fighting the strongest opponents."
"You're quite spirited, aren't you?" Persephone says, tilting her head as a grin appears on her face. "You remind me of Cerberus before they were properly trained."
"Care to elaborate?" Ibaraki's eye twitches and her smile turns aggressive.
"Hm, I don't believe I will," Persephone responds airily.
Ibaraki then turns to Hades, recognizing that she was outmatched in a battle of words with his wife, "So, are we going to fight now?"
Hades ignores the urge to sigh and stands, "I suppose now is as good a time as any. I hope you are the type of mortal who learns quickly. I would hate to demonstrate the difference between our power more than once."
Glancing at Izanami for permission to exercise his power within her domain, he teleports them all to a clearing far away from the palace.
"I appreciate your permission to use my power here, Izanami," Hades says, not even glancing at the young Oni who thinks herself worthy of a fight.
"Oh, no need to thank me. It's hardly polite to restrict visitors within your domain." Izanami demures and smiles, turning to Ibaraki, "My friend here would also be angry with me if she found out later that I was forcing you to hold back."
With a bitter smile, Hades re-evaluates how much he should harm Ibaraki in this fight. Izanami was warning him by mentioning that Ibaraki was a friend.
Hades nods and looks at Ibaraki again, "I'm unsure how to approach this. I agreed not to kill you and my wife finds you amusing… yet, you lack respect."
A dark shadow wraps around him, whisps of divinity morphing into wailing ghosts and skeletal limbs, twitching or howling in their agony. "I've taught respect to spirits more unruly than you within my house."
A deep red Touki wraps itself around her as she shields herself with her arms. The winds begin to howl through the plains, carving furrows in the ground as Hades' divine aura pushes against the stale air of Yomi. The ground beneath them churns from the divine aura Hades emits and Ibaraki finds herself sliding backward despite maintaining a firm stance.
"You are determined, I'll give you that." Hades remarks before his aura of divinity swells with greater power, pushing her once more.
The shadow of dark divinity that surrounds him unfolds across the horizon like a crawling chaos, blanketing all within sight in a harsh blackness.
Ibaraki crouches low and uses her hands, digging into the dirt and clawing towards him. Her Touki extends along my claws, digging even deeper into the ground to give her the grip she needs to continue moving forward.
Persephone giggles off in the distance as Ibaraki bares her teeth and growls, mirroring the image of a rowdy Cerberus.
Hades feels a faint feeling of respect welling up within him as he watches her push onward despite her skin peeling away and her bones creaking from the pressure.
Her Touki swells outward in defiance; a faint image of the mountain king, the White Tiger, corrupted with her demonic divinity, snarls at him.
Ah, Eastern Martial Arts is it? Quite a rare sight for him, especially a martial artist who has reached Transcendence.
However, that terminology only truly applies to human martial artists. A Yokai would have to reach a higher level of proficiency to transcend the limits of their body.
Now only a few feet away, Hades looks down at her and sighs, "You've forgotten the purpose of this exercise, haven't you? You wanted a fight. Your goal was never to grasp me, it was to do battle."
After a moment he decides to show her something interesting. He decides to show her the difference between the martial techniques of the East and those of the West.
Her eyes widen as a skeletal staff appears in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, he switches his grip so the skull points to the ground before winding up a swing, "Perhaps this will sober you up."
With technique honed over millennia, a simple swing of his staff becomes art; A perfect motion, with no waste or inefficiency.
His staff collides with her chin, abruptly and violently throwing her backward. She rockets off into the distance, drifting bonelessly through the air, flipping and spinning for an eternity before she crashes painfully into a distant mountain.
Hades nods to himself as he imagines the damage to her body; every bone in her body must have shattered from the impact with the mountain, her jaw would have become powder from his strike, and her skull would have been a loose collection of fractured pieces rather than a coherent piece of bone.
Nothing needs to be said about her muscles, skin, and organs. All her internals would be in disarray after that strike.
Yet he controlled his strength enough to ensure she would barely survive, something he could sense from this distance.
"Hades." Izanami intones menacingly, her delicate features harshened with anger and her voice taking a haunting quality from her divinity, "I thought my subtle warning would be enough. Was I wrong?"
"I ensured she would live." Hades responds calmly, "I merely showed her the difference between us."
Izanami glances to where Ibaraki was sent flying and suddenly smiles, "Oh, I don't think you managed to deter her."
Hades follows her line of sight and frowns at what he sees.
Ibaraki is slowly dragging herself out of the mountain, blood dripping down every inch of her skin, steam pouring off her mangled form as it twists and jerks back into shape. The most worrying part of the image, however, is the manic grin on her face and the pure joy in her eyes.
"She's one of those types then?" Hades muses with a faint sigh. He pinches his brow and turns back to Izanami. "I would have chosen a different method to show her the vast gulf between us if I had known."
"It looks as though you will have to play with her for longer, Dear," Persephone laughs, "Do entertain us."
"That will be up to my opponent." Hades says with a wry grin, "I will do my best though, Love."
Off in the distance, Ibaraki's Touki grows as the fires of her fighting spirit are fanned, the previously faint image of a tiger grows more and more defined as her Touki sharpens.
Hades shakes his head and his lips twitch upward, "I can see the resemblance to Cerberus now. They took a few attempts before submitting as well."
Ibaraki dashes back towards them, devouring the distance between them with a beastly fervor. She suddenly darts side to side and accelerates, vanishing briefly.
Hades scoffs, not tricked by the maneuver, and never once losing sight of her. "Petty tricks."
He leisurely brings his staff to bear, blocking a ferocious slash from her claws. He can feel the malicious divinity roiling within her Touki and glances at her curiously. "Interesting but you misunderstand the essence of what you're trying to achieve."
He parries her attack and she spins, whipping her leg out and performing a spinning heel kick. Blurring her form is the image of a demonic tiger, swiping a heavy paw towards his head, the mighty claws overlapping her heel.
Hades smashes the image apart with a casual swipe and Ibaraki's eyes gleam brightly. She breathes in deeply and roars, the tiger that reappears behind her mimicking the roar and amplifying the waves of Touki that pulse outward.
Shaking his head, Hades jabs his staff outward, dispelling the waves of Touki, "Sound as a vector of attack is versatile but fragile."
Ibaraki's eyes are sharp as she draws her fist back and fires off a powerful punch, the entirety of her Touki following the attack and blasting towards Hades.
"Better." He says with a nod, forming a barrier in front of himself and the torrent of Touki collapses upon him.
The attack is strong since it carries the entire weight of her fighting spirit but it still doesn't come close to cracking his barrier.
The hair on the back of his neck stands up as he notices a void in his senses. He reaches backward with his free hand, pinching his fingers and stopping the blade that was headed for his nape.
He feels the smallest cut form on his palm and grins, "A divine blade. Yet not one suited for you, I see."
Hades releases her sword as he feels her pull away, the void in his senses disappearing as she releases whatever method she used to obscure herself from him.
He turns and relishes the shock on her face, "Merely ceasing to exist is not enough to fool the strongest. A sudden void in our senses is enough for us to defend or even to instinctively lash out at that nothingness."
She clicks her tongue and sheathes the sword, clearly unused to the weapon. It's a shame, the weapon was an impressive one.
For a moment she takes a stance akin to an archer before shaking her head in frustration. Then she breathes in deeply and glares at him, "Prepare yourself."
With that said, a deep red haze begins to form as a sinister divinity oozes from her pores. The same divinity that colored her Touki red, yet undiluted by her fighting spirit, coalesces into a suit of armor that tightly wraps around her body. She twitches and her gauntleted hands flex as the malicious divinity grows stronger.
Hades watches curiously as Ibaraki struggles to stop herself from immediately charging towards him, when suddenly her Touki returns, slowly merging with the armor. Golden characters begin to shine intensely along the armor, as her Ki is absorbed into the divine construct.
Finally, Hades notices the raw malice transform into something less evil and more primal; the ferocity of a wild beast rather than a tyrant's rage.
Her limbs crack and creak as she shifts into a fighting stance again but she manages to control herself admirably.
Hades grins and shakes his head, "Come then, show me your determination."
She repeats the opening slash of her claws she used earlier but the image of the tiger that forms behind her has lost its majesty, becoming wilder, possessed with feral intensity. Yet that change has only increased the power behind the strike and Hades finds his casual block being pushed back.
Snorting, he uses a bit more strength and pushes her away.
Ibaraki crouches down low on all fours, blood spurting from the seams in her armor as her body contorts into an unnatural stance, yet when she pounces her speed has increased massively.
The demonic tiger formed from her Touki rakes its claws across the sky before they descend upon him and Hades hides a chuckle as he imagines an overexcited Cerberus jumping towards him.
A magic circle forms beneath him as he fires a beam of divinity forwards, destroying Ibaraki's momentum, and giving her a brush with Death. After a brief moment of weightlessness, Ibaraki touches the ground again and her head snaps upward to stare at him.
"Death's grasp isn't something to block or evade, it comes for all." Hades whispers chillingly.
A deep rumbling growl rises from her armor and after a second her body snaps to a powerful stance, grasping at an invisible sword.
Then Hades sees it, between her gauntleted hands, a piercing silver aura explodes into a towering sword. From the sword, he can sense a trace of accomplishment, the blood of a powerful dragon spilled upon the edge of the blade.
The silver aura, the malicious divinity, and her Touki move in tandem as she slashes downward toward him, and for the first time in the spar, Hades smiles fully and brightly.
He calls upon the full weight of his divinity, blowing her armor, her Touki, and the sword away effortlessly. "Ah youth, to shine so brilliantly once again. You've made me recall the days when my brothers and I took on the world. When we battled the Titans and the Giants, clashed with the other Pantheons, traversed the Gap in search of challenge."
She staggers as her enhancements are stripped away and Hades attacks with his staff again.
Faster than she can perceive, the skull on the end of his staff is jabbed into her stomach in a truly divine thrust. Or so he would have assumed, yet he watches as her eyes twitch downward, the veins around her eyes bulging from stress.
Hades smiles as she falls to her knees, coughing up blood. He reaches down and grabs her horns, tilting her head up to meet his gaze, "Did you see it? That is the result of carving away all frivolity and excess. The end which came after dripping Ichor from my palms as I honed my existence to perfection."
Her eyes are bright but distant and he can tell her mind is elsewhere, likely replaying the strike a moment ago. He lets go as her Touki erupts with startling intensity, her eyes gleaming with mania as she returns to the present.
She mutters under her breath as she stands again, reaching for the sword on her hip, "...Simple, it's simple, isn't it?"
As she draws the sword and attempts to mimic his thrust, the muscles in her arms bulge uncontrollably, her skin tearing apart as blood bursts through the wreckage.
"Fuck!" She curses as her arm snaps back into shape and she growls at him as she attempts the thrust again, yet the same result occurs, "I can see it! Why can't I grasp it?!"
She leaps at him, releasing a towering aura of silver from her sword as she slashes downward. Hades calls upon his divinity and forms an impenetrable sphere of darkness around him, blocking the slash as Ibaraki howls with rage.
"Did you see it?" Hades asks calmly, unphased even as she continues to slash at his barrier with reckless abandon. "You may have seen the motion but do you have the experience to perceive the essence? Can you understand a millennia of diligence when your life is a blink in a god's eyes?"
Hades swipes his staff horizontally, blasting the barrier outwards and pushing Ibaraki away, "You've yet to understand the depths of your soul, the nature of your being, yet you try to grasp another's essence? Arrogance."
Hades dismisses his staff and retrieves his bident, the two prongs gleaming with deadly intent. His divinity drifts from his fingers, coalescing around the weapon, wreathing it in inky blackness. A piercing howl forms as the prongs vibrate, the harsh sound reminiscent of the wails of the damned.
He stares at Ibaraki, looking dignified as he holds his weapon like a monarch heading off to war, "You saw nothing. Watch carefully and perhaps you may glimpse what you seek."
Hades glances off into the distance and nods before demonstrating the full might of his masterful thrust.
His divine aura that had stretched across Yomi collapsed onto his bident, stripping the underworld of even the darkness it possessed under his presence. Color is lost, sound loses meaning, and the fabric of space around them shakes under his might.
As he thrust forward with practiced precision, his divinity follows, the physical force unified with the weight of his sovereignty.
Everything between Hades and the mountain in the distance he had targeted isn't destroyed or damaged.
No, it ceased to exist, drifting in the now-empty expanse as ash upon the breeze.
His divinity combined with the physique of the mighty Olympian gods and technique honed over millennia brings Death upon everything in his path.
He turns to Ibaraki who is staring upon the void with distant eyes, "Look within, grasp the essence of your soul, and master it."
He smiles down upon her, feeling fond despite his initial misgivings. As so many heroes who walked the halls of his House, or monsters whom they slew: perhaps her arrogance is grounded in a spark of greatness.
If she had been born within the domain of Olympus… No, thinking of such things is folly.
Yet as that thought strikes him, Hades feels a small crack form within his resolve. If he found a mortal like this here, what about elsewhere? Was writing off the beings of other mythologies as unnecessary too premature?
The Devils and Angels, the enemies and creations of YHWH may disgust him still, but what does he know of other beings?
Hades shakes his head to dispel such thoughts.
"Mortals have confused the legends of my brothers and me over time. We did not draw lots as the poet Homer described. We were born to rule, and each of us knew the domain that suited us. We then went forth and mastered that domain with painstaking effort and diligence that most mortals can not comprehend." Hades intones softly and with authority.
"I wear the mantle of Death, not due to an innate ability, but due to my efforts. I was born a King, but chose my Kingdom… and my Queen." Hades says, sending Persephone a small smile.
"I recommend you find a teacher, Ibaraki. Unless you wish to spend millennia struggling by yourself." Hades recommends gently. "You are quickly approaching a wall that is difficult to overcome alone. Your efforts are meaningful but you've spread yourself thin, confused yourself, and obscured your essence."
He can tell that Ibaraki can barely hear him, too focused on frantically replaying his final strike in her mind. Therefore, he reinforces his voice with his divinity, not colored with Death this time, but the colorless divinity he was born with, that of a King.
"Find a teacher, Ibaraki. Look to the strongest and allow them to smooth your path for you. Yet never stop looking within yourself. Only you can grasp your origin, your essence, and truly step into the realm you're reaching towards." Hades commands her, authority oozing from every syllable. "Once you've found that, accept my Brother's invitation and visit Olympus. You will need experience to refine that essence."
Hades looks towards Izanami and bows deeply, "Thank you for inviting us to your realm, Izanami. I hope we can continue this friendship into the future."
Izanami smiles brightly and returns the bow, "I'd love that, Hades. You don't need to leave yet though."
Persephone hugs Izanami tightly, startling a squeak out of the Goddess, "Oh don't worry too much! We'll visit again if you'll have us. Besides, this was only ever meant to be a short visit. We can only take Cerberus on a walk for so long before the dead within our House start to get ideas."
Persephone laughs and shakes her head, "They never learn, no matter how many escapes to the mortal world fail. Either way, it's been fun, Izanami. Feel free to give us a call or even visit whenever you wish. We'd love to host you one day."
Hades is more reserved but smiles softly, "You will be treated as an honored guest. I hope to see you again soon."
Izanami looks away in embarrassment and nods, a blush appearing on her cheeks, "We'll see…"
Persephone titters in amusement and the two gods teleport away, leaving Izanami alone with the distracted Ibaraki.
Izanami sighs and is about to shake Ibaraki out of her fugue when the rhythmic tapping on sandals and heavy breathing drift into her ears.
She turns to see one of the few remaining residents of her palace running at full speed towards her, his spectral form still caked in soot and his tools bouncing against his waist as he runs.
When he arrives in the clearing, he takes a moment to catch his breath before he looks at her with a crazed light in his eyes.
"Who's sword just lit up the sky just now?" He shouts roughly, looking like he wants to curse the wielder or hug them simultaneously.
"Which bastard was it who packaged such a sublime essence of the sword into such a shoddy exterior!" He pants, spitting on the ground and rolling up his sleeves.
"For the bastard that inspired me for the first time in centuries, I'll destroy it and make something worthy of that essence, or the name Muramasa ain't worth shit!" He growls, red in the face with excitement and rage.
-AN-
Hey everyone, welcome back to the story! I hope it's of the quality you all have come to expect and I continued off well. It's been a minute since I've written a chapter but I'm hopeful it won't be far off. The importance of the content and the difficulty of the choreography and characterization were especially daunting. Sorry, this took so long, it's been hard to find the time and motivation to get this done sadly. As much as I love writing Fighting Spirit and enjoy the reactions of you all, work and maintaining my life outside work have been time-consuming. I really need to grind away at work and pay off those student loans, not to mention the vague hope of accruing savings beyond that lmao. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it and that the next chapter comes relatively swiftly after this.