Chapter 108

Hakuji was, despite the situation, enjoying himself quite a bit. With each touch of Cocytus' halberd his flesh would explode into chunks of ice and just standing near Phlegethon would turn his flesh to ash.

It was exhilarating! He was dancing on the edge of death, even his regeneration slowing in front of these two nigh unstoppable forces! All he could do was punch, punch, and punch again against those forces until they died. 

But, as fun as was, it had to end and it had to be soon. Hakuji was immortal and would never die, that wouldn't change anytime soon, but his regeneration did have limits. Specifically, burns and the like were hard to heal and while his stamina was unlimited his time was not.

Taking a brief glance around Hakuji was half relieved and half worried to see the absolute beatdown Lavinia was giving all with the same cutesy grin on her face. She seemed to be taking way too much enjoyment from it though he of all people couldn't really talk about that.

"Do. Not. Look. Away."

Raising a hand Hakuji effortlessly blocked the halfbard cutting through the air, its blade sinking a few inches into his flesh before his powerful muscles contracted around it trapping it in place like a vice. But, for as long as he held it his arm was stuck frozen solid for as long as he held it.

Fortunately, Hakuji was quite quick with his hands. Striking dozens of times in the time it took for the ice to crawl from his finger to his wrist, grey tainted blood shot out of Cocytus' mouth, his body rocketing backward a few meters before he managed to catch himself on one of the many towering bone pillars.

Cutting his wrist while rolling out of the way of Phlegethon's towering blast of crimson flames Hakuji had a new hand up and running in the time it would take a normal man to blink. Shooting forward like a spring loaded rocket Hakuji barreled forward, his fist reared back long before he was near his opponent.

Anticipating the wall of fire sent his way Hakuji's fist blurred, a torrent of wind shooting toward his opponent that parted the flames much like Moses did the Red Sea. Stepping on thin air to move forward once more it was natural that he was burned but he continued on regardless.

At the end of the flaming tunnel was Phlegethon whose body was entirely coated in flames so hot the bones around the crackled and popped like miniature fireworks. If Hakuji had smirked in a grin of pure excitement, he wouldn't have even realized.

Perhaps it was because he was loved or maybe it was because his King was a monster in the form of a youth but Hakuji had been given something by his Sun. An authority over flames that only beings like Primordial Gods could even hope to fight against.

And Phlegethon, as strong as he was, was not primordial. Then again, Hakuji had fought Nyx and she wasn't particularly strong so maybe he was wrong about that statement from the start though he wasn't so sure about that.

Controlling the flames Hakuji instinctively willed life into them, the flames burning brighter and hotter until the entire world seemed to be lit ablaze. Empty eyes of blazing bones glared at him in hatred as the sky burned a fierce crimson.

It took barely a second for most of his skin and muscle to melt away revealing his bones, his half destroyed body and excited grin literally melting off his face surely making for a strange sight. 

All it took was a bit of effort to control his body with magic, his badly burned borderline corpse sparing through the air of his opponent. As for the aspect of flames, Phlegethon had a certain level of fire immunity. However, that was limited to his own flames.

Magic of all kinds would almost never damage the user simply because it was made of their own energy and their wavelength was intrinsically imprinted upon it. Hakuji hadn't done anything to remove that wavelength but adding his own and his Sun's to the mix had certainly muddled it up. Enough so that the magic cast by Plegethon wasn't recognized as his own.

Screaming in pain that shouldn't have existed Hakuji fist rapidly approached the flame aspect's chest, his mind set on piercing the aspect through the chest and making him a 'donut' as Aqua and Ruby would often call it.

Dropping from the sky the ice blue halberd cut his arm right in two, the bone instantly burning after being separated from his demonic energy's protection. The rest of his bone was quickly frozen, the chill emanating from Cocytus' very being dousing the flames.

"Are. You. Alright?" Cocytus questioned his brother, his eyes locked onto the horrific sight of Hakuji. Bits of burned flesh stuck to his bare bones, his face was half melted off and yet he grinned like a fool, and he stood proudly naked. It was a terrifying sight to be sure.

"Do I look alright?" Plegethon shot back angrily, finally forcing the flames fully off. It was far from as bad as Hakuji's current state but bad burns littered the form of Phlegethon. The right half of his face in particular was badly damaged, his eye completely unusable and most of his teeth showing from his cheek.

"No. You. Do. Not." Cocytus seriously relied, completely content with allowing their opponent the time to regenerate from his wounds. The two of them were badly damaged and they needed the respite just as much as their opponent.

Cocytus, despite remaining strong, had suffered the worst of it as the front liner. Many of his organs had been obliterated and most of his extraordinary durable exoskeleton was crumbling apart revealing the gooey interior.

"That was sarcasm you dolt." Insulting his sibling with a click of his tongue Phlegethon didn't know what he was more annoyed by, Cocytus' density or the fact that Hakuji had already regenerated basically to full.

"I. Did. Not. Know. That." Cocytus replied calmly, his breathing calmed by the momentary respite that felt more refreshing than anything the aspect of frost had ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Unfortunately, Hakuji had no intention of letting their rest continue.

"Let's turn up the heat!" Even when he wasn't fully healed Hakuji shouted excitedly, a strong urge to battle in his eyes.

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