Ivan saw that his opponent seemed to be taking his sweet time thinking and laughed, this wasn’t a book club, this was a fight.

Before Hades could digest the situation Ivan dashed towards him, and slashed down with his scythe.

Seeing he is unable to doge in time Hades put his weapon up and managed to blocked it in the last second, he was wondering what blocked his attack, he knew that throwing anymore of the same type would be meaningless but he needed to buy some time to think.

Ivan saw that the ground beneath him started to freeze but didn’t avoid it, instead he put more strength behind his weapon..

Hades felt the opponents strength, and used his weapon to move the scythe do the side to dodge, the scythe fell down and cut through the earth like sharp knife was cutting paper.

Hades used his weapon to cut the space and instantly teleported away several meters, looking at Ivan he frowned.

Honestly speaking Hades was extremely strong, but he was better in 1 vs many weaker than him than, 1 v 1, his powers were suited for attack with wide range, but the strength behind them wasn’t all that good, that however shouldn’t be taken the wrong way their power was still tremendous, to a point of being able to freeze a whole army like nothing, but for an opponent of the same level as him they werent all that threatening, but how many people on his level were there in the whole Fire kingdom, he wast an ordinary person, but one admitted by the king of this country as the lord of Inferno, the chance of seeing someone on his level this far out of the capital, were like winning the lottery, yet here was an opponent on the same lvl, he could only let out a light laugh, and dodge cause Ivan was in front of him and was attacking.

Hades knew that this wasn’t a serious fight, since both he and his opponent were fighting till now but none of them showed their full power, but at a fight of their level a slightest mistake would mean dead, and it seemed that Ivan wanted to see more of his strength and wouldn’t let go until it happened.

While Hades was thinking, the whole place started to look like it was put in a blender since Ivan didn’t stop his attacks even for a second.

Hades once again cut spaced and teleported away.

He raised his hand and a ball that looked like the frost bullet appeared in his palm the only difference was that this one was much bigger and its color wasn’t blue but pure white, in the air around it ice cubes started to appear

Hades ”absolute zero”

Ivan saw it and smiled, he stopped attacking and took a stand, hitting the ground with the handle of the scythe

Ivan ”you do know that this wont do shit to me right, you can do better, I believe in you”

Hades nodded but he still proceeded with his attack, this time however he didn’t shoot it but cut the space to appear in front of Ivan, the scythe wilder stood still showing no trace of fear.

The moment the attack landed straight up on his opponent chest, Hades once again teleported away.

Hades eye twitched, the attack followed the same pattern like the previous one, the moment it landed it seemed to be going in the body of the opponent but actually disappeared, this time however Hades seemed to have some understanding, after attacking again he could tell that the attack didn’t seem to land on Ivan and instead was like they were send somewhere else.

Ivan stood there like Hades hadn’t done anything ” I told you its not about power, you get it now, right”

Hades nodded, this time he had used his strongest single target freeze technique, unlike the frost bullet where it could freeze a mountain, this one could turn whatever it wanted to into ice, no matter what resistance they put, the downside was that the range of the attack was small, and even Hades had to be careful not to be there when it takes effect, or even he might freeze himself as well.

Of course this didn’t mean that this was his strongest attack, but it was his strongest freezing one, but now he had to make a choice, which power he should expose.

But that didn’t take much time since he was sure than the rest probably wouldn’t be able to harm Ivan as well.

He didn’t know what was around his body, but he was sure it was like some sort of armor which he currently had no idea how to deal with, so he had only one choice as to what he should show.

He took a stance with his weapon, his eyes turned pitch black, like ink drops on white sheet of paper.

From Hades body a pure dark flame started to come out, it gave an unreal feeling.

Seeing this Ivan smile grew thicker.

”well, I am pleasantly surprised” saying so Ivan took his stance as well, slight breeze went through the battlefield, his weapon started to vibrate.

Ivan “ I took several from your attack, lets see if you can take one from me”

Ivan was nowhere near Hades, but his scythe made vertical slash, no special attack could be seen on first glance, but all the flowers and weed around him seem to turn black and fall lifeless on the ground.

Ivan “Death whisper”

The invisible attack headed towards Hades in a straight line, it wasn’t too fast but Hades knew that Ivan had done so purposely, he wanted to see what his opponent would do, but from his actions so far, even if Hades dodged the attack, it would probably follow him, he needed to face it head on.

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The now pure dark eyed hades smiled, he waved his weapon, and blade from the black fire that came around him flashed forward, everything in its path and even things that weren’t but were close seemed to start to age, then rot, then die, if a Death whisper was painless dead, then this attack was an agonizing one, as your body would grow older, year by year, you would become weaker and weaker but till it couldn’t even move from old age, but the agonizing part was that all this happened in less than a second, and the brain knew that, unable to handle the reality the brain might decide to die before you even died to the attack.

The two attack met in the middle between Hades and Ivan, no noise or a resounding shockwave escaped from their meeting, the attacks just seemed to want to eat and engulf each other, like two starving beasts that had just met, the black fire fought against the invisible force, but both didn’t fall back and just stood in place, unable to advance either, it seemed that the attacks had an equal strength, everything beneath them started to lose its life, even the earth started to turn black.

Seeing his attack being forced in its tracks Ivan smile seemed to get more and more sincere, like a kid finally finding a good friend, or a new toy.

After a few seconds both attacks disappeared, Hades vanished from his place and appeared above Ivan, the black flame which brought death to everything enveloped the two ended trident and slammed at Ivans head, the latter raised his scythe and blocked it, not taking the hit close to his body.

Their fight once again turned in a magical show, they disappeared and appeared, their weapons clashed with each other, black flames, and the invisible force fell everywhere.

The whole place they fought on started to turn black, the previously ground filled with grass and flowers seemed to have disappeared, rotting stench started to take its place now.

Far away Inferno, Day and Night spectated the fight, Day who was looking at it couldn’t say anything.

Day{he really didn’t take our fight seriously at all, even at the end when I thought I had made him a bit serious, what saint, what god prince, I am just a fucking joke }.

Day couldn’t help but have those thoughts, he had thought he was strong but looking at the current fight he knew that he wouldnt last even a few seconds, let alone the difference in power between them, their skill and experience seemed to be not on a whole different level but on a whole different world.

Day then looked at inferno who looked at the fight casually, and reminded himself that for the latter, this really must be noting, but then a strange expression appeared on the gods face, a frown with a light smile could be seen.

Day ”what are you thinking about”

Inferno looked at him and thought for a second before replaying.

Inferno[it seems like Hades has elemental power as well]

Hearing this Day just let a sigh {of course he has, why wouldn’t he}, he couldn’t help but feel jealous at his friend, if he could even fully call him friend yet.

Inferno saw Day not speaking and continued.

Inferno[I didn’t sense it at the start since he seems quite good at hiding it, its probably his secret weapon in case of emergencies, and if I got to say, it really is a good one ]

Day looked at the black flame, and a thought appeared in his head.

Day”wait, did you give it to him, but when did you do it, you were always with us”

This was the first time that Inferno looked at Day like he was looking at Night.

Then shook his head, realizing why there might have been misunderstanding.

Inferno [no I didn’t give it to him, just because it’s a flame doesn’t mean that I gave it to him, this blessing seems to be one of the god of dead, it makes it so that everything the black flame touches is sucked of its life energy making it age at a lightning pace, leaving behind only rotting corpse, Day in case you fight Hades never, and I mean never get close to that black flame]

Day nodded, but then a question came into his mind ”but Ivan seems to be ok even when he is close to it”

Inferno didn’t say anything, he didn’t know how the latter did it as well, his instinct told him that Ivan should be human, but he was sure that something was off. Not because he was too strong, after all even Hades was a pure breed human, with the strength of a monster, but for some reason something told him that this wasn’t the case for Ivan.

Day saw the latter not answering and asked something else.

Day”what exactly do you mean by blessing anyway”

Inferno just answered straight here, he didn’t have to hide anything.

Inferno”well simply said, the god of dead gave a bit of its power to Hades, making him able to use this black flame, even if it’s a flame its closer to death manifesting and just taking the form of a flame, but its not an actual fire”

While inferno explained more about blessings the fight of Ivan and Hades seemed to be coming to its end, the fighting place seemed to look completely like a graveyard now, with the only thing missing being the tombstones, nothing was spared.

Hades and Ivan both appeared in their place, the dark flame enveloped Hades and the normal looking Ivan who made everywhere he passed die met in the middle of the field and their weapon once again met the dark flame, and invisible force clashed once again.

“BOOM”

This time a booming sound escaped, proving that there was much bigger power than in the previous attacks.

After a strong clash Ivan and Hades landed on two opposite sides of the graveyard.

Ivan looked at him and nodded ”ok I think that is enough, you pass”

Hades covered in black flames looked at him with confusion, but Ivan didn’t clarify.

Ivan pointed with his finger down ”the circle you are looking for was behind the door I showed you, all you need to do to stop it, is just to destroy it, when you do an artifact will appear, its yours, its name is Seikago”

Hades” those are not the only answers you should give us you know, do you really think that I would let you go this easily”

Ivan just laughed in response and shook his head .

Ivan “well those are the answers you will receive”

Before he could finish his words Hades teleported to attack him.

But Ivan disappeared instantly making Hades attack empty air, where Ivan was standing three bracelets were left, while the one who left them was nowhere to be seen, only his words resounded for a moment.

Ivan “those can change appearance and hide your power, I think you might need something like this”

Hades looked around in disbelief, his opponent really had escape without a trace.

Far in the distance Inferno made expression which scared even Day.

Day quickly asked ”what happend”

Inferno answered with an angry voice which contained repulsion, like he had just eaten something disgusting and barfed it out.

Inferno[I finally know what my haunch was telling me, I don’t know how I didn’t think about it, Ivan was indeed human, but only half]

Day saw the god turn around probably looking for the person who had just escaped with a killing intent in his eyes, Day was sure that if he found him now he would kill him and not even Day would be able to prevent it.

He then walked towards Night like he was checking if the kid was alright, but Day was really curious now, you cant start the sentence and leave it like that.

Day asked prepared not to back down”so what was the other half”

Inferno looked at Day and gnashed his teeth while answering.

Inferno [the other half was the most repulsive thing for a god, a being which the gods hate the most]

He stopped for a second and looked Day in the eyes, emphasizing his next words

Inferno[a being which you should not fight under any circumstances..]

Inferno then looked at the grounding suppressing his most basic instinct, to kill.

Inferno [..a demon ]