A God?

In a crossfire between the imprisoned Lord of the Underworld and the weaken queen of flora life, it was clear that the power of Peony was far stronger than that of the trapped Underworld's Lord. If the God of the Underworld did re-emerge, then she would definitely be having difficulties against this fellow.

Hours passed as the God of the Underworld continued to launch his onslaught of attacks at her. But, all were deflected by her barrier as the golden bird took this chance to rest his wings. As if in a sheer desperation, the shameless god released a large amount of blue hell fire and quickly conjured into a slender, muscular humanoid figure. He has bluish-gray skin, flaming blue hair, yellow eyes, and sharp teeth behind his scowl, much like the Shroud brothers.

"Of all the things that always come knocking on my door. This time is some heroine wanna be chick." The man grumbled quickly under his breath before raising a brow and sternly pointed to the golden bird, "You! Come here."

Nothing.

"Hey, you! Fire chicken! Over here!"

There was a rise in their surrounding temperature as the bird simply snorted in disdain and remained next to Peony's side.

"What about some gold and silver?" The god asked hesitantly under the pressure of the bird.

The bird turned to him and, with a gust of wind, blew him away into the distance!

"Okay, okay! I get it! I get it!" Hades scowled and teleported back before them with a snap of the finger.

He raised a brow in confusion as he realized that he could not teleport within the barrier much to his surprise. He was a god for goodness sakes. He, like any other divinity, can travel back and forth as they please without even blinking. Yet, he, a god, could not teleport past her barrier!

He scowled angrily upon realizing that there was someone else aside from his siblings that he could not overthrow in this world.

"Wait, wait, wait! What is this?" Hades reached out to touch the barrier but was quickly shot back afar before teleporting back and grumbled, "Right, right. Should've seen that one coming... Seriously, where is pain and panic when you need them..."

He quickly summoned a number of skeletons from the ground to attack them, but all were obliterated by the golden bird's strange fire. Then, he brought out the three headed dog, Cerberus, but a single peck on each other their noses and a glare from the bird's crimson eyes forced them to retreat with their tail between their legs and whimpering in fear as they run back on wobbly legs. One by one, he began throwing monsters at the young girl in hopes of killing her and getting his hands on the soul to prevent them from remerging.

Slowly, the smug smile that had once been on his face quickly fell into disbelief in horror as the girl remain seated before the overblotted vessel. Once all options ran out, the golden bird finally burned him with his nirvana fire.

"God damn it!" the god cursed under his breath and stomped his feet on the blazing robe, "Come on. Come on! Hurry up and die out already!"

However, no matter what he did, the fire would not perish much like those blot that had been burnt away.

"Why? No, wait. Wait! W-why is not put out?!" The god's face paled to a sheet of white drained of the blue skin it once bore and turned to her in horror, "What... what did you do?!"

No matter what they do to stop the flames from consuming their body, it would not work. Nirvana fire is different from normal regular hell fire. It has the ability to burn away the evil energy in the world and all who touches it will be burned till not even the ashes remain. Their flesh, their bones, their ashes and their soul. All will vanish when come into contact with this golden bird's fire.

The only thing they have advantage over this hungry fire was that Peony and itself could not be burned by this fire.

Finally, Peony did not react at all. She did not bother to see nor hear the pleas of the old god as she continued to meditate in silence with closed eyes.

The mad god took off his burning sandal of haze and threw it away making it puff out of existence, then drew a blade and sliced off the burnt part of his robe making it also disappear in a puff of smoke. He turned to the young girl again and suddenly saw that she had also began to absorb the dark and holy mana around them with a look of disbelief and horror across his face as he saw this.

"What in the world are you?!" He shouted in confusion very well on the verge of madness.

It was then that Peony opened her eyes slowly revealing her deep violet eyes that was seemingly in deep thoughts as they were undauntingly laid upon his measly figure as her soft lips slowly parted in a soft yet firm tone, "What are you?"

"I'm a god, you monster! Die already!" he shouted indignantly and summoned a large amount of fire and skeletons at her.

However, all of that fire became nothing in her eyes as she easily absorbed it all into her body as she simply stood on her feet once more. With one hand raised in the air and a domineering air about her, she raised a brow in annoyance as she muttered softly with a hint of disgust, "God? I see... Then... Writhe in pain and anguish."

Ruby red fire sprouted from her feet and surrounded her body in the shape of a large flower bud. Sensing her awakening, the bird returned to her side and awaited her beckoning. Hades knew something bad was going to happen and sent his skeleton soldiers at her in an attempt to stop her without harming himself. However, all was futile, with a burst of mana, the flower burst open in twelve beautiful ruby petals and the ruby fire engulfed the skeletons sending them back and writing under the fire in pain and agony. Screams and cackling echoed in the air as the dropped their weapons and could only hold their skulls in their hands and hug their shoulder with blood red tears streaming from their eye sockets.

Hades covered his ears in irritation and shouted, "Oh, just shut up already! Now, go!"

However, it was all futile as though the strings attached to their body no longer bound them to their lord anymore. They crumbled to the ground as their cries and screams of agony echoed in the room. Some cries soon became audible screams, which then slowly turned into screams of silence as blood continued to drip from their bony jaws and empty eye sockets. They sat there like a statue looking up only to see nothing but the ceiling that have covered their eyes from the beautiful blue sky of heaven that still barely shone behind the back of their minds. The blue skies, the white clouds.

However, even those dreams turned to ashes as pain and agony clawed into their entire begining. One by one, those souls bound to the god had their will burnt away as they began to scream just for the sake of screaming and cried with no understanding of why they cried. They soon knew nothing but pain and no longer remembered why they were in agony.

Hades, the god and lord of the dead watched this in horror and, for once in over millions of years, recalled the feeling he once held when he first entered the world.

Fear.

Disgust.

Agony.

He looked up in disbelief at what was happening around him only to be stunned. It was then that he noticed her hood robe was burnt away in that red fire revealing her small slim figure standing on top of a ruby lotus. Her clothes were that of a bright red brocade lined and embroidered in white koi fishes. A under layer of black cloth was revealed from the thigh embroidered in silver lotuses. She wore black long-sleeved gloves embraced by a thin silver lining blooming with small silver lotuses. Her red and crimson hair flowed back by the wind created from her torturous flames and a soft red lips pulled back into a harsh snee with her eyes glinted with a hint of madness in her eyes. Her image, her presence greatly resembled that of a mesmerizing mad goddess as her eyes never left his figure displaying pure disgust and hate, like as though she was staring at a decaying corpse.

A sudden unbearable pain jolted him awake as he looked down in horror to find that his entire body had been set ablaze in this dark red fire. He could hardly believe what was happening as he struggled to fight against this atrocious fire. He hollered in pain and was shocked to find that he was really in pain. A clone of smoke like himself? In pain?!

"I-it hurts... It hurts! Gah!!! Help! Help!!!" He screamed in pain and horror as the fire continues to sear his pale blue skin away.

This was just a clone. Not his real body, but why?! How could it hurt him?! Why does it hurt so much?!