Let's Make A Bet!

Peony, with one swift movement, closed the distance between her and the chains and pinned them down using several daggers. The ground quaked as though in anger. However, she was not fazed.

Standing her ground before the vessel and the crack from the ground, she spoke loud and clear as thought announcing to the entirety of the underworld itself, "A century have passed since the entrance to the underworld was passed to be guarded to your descendants. But, how many years has it been since you've been banished back into the underworld? Having failed your rebellion and having been forced to guard the underworld by your siblings. Your own family. As the eldest, you've seen cruelty and tragedies, love and happy endings even when you've become sick of it. All who lived under the rule of your youngest brother have all become your subjects in the end. However, your own blood continues to bear the consequences of your decision."

There was a low rumbling quake on the ground as Peony continued, "It's unfair that nothing was ever rightfully returned to you. It's unfair that nobody gave you the attention and sympathy. Understanding and life could never go hand in hand for you. However, you cannot be one to talk of this when you have decided to take on this rebellion. You, yourself, have broken the rules that you've agreed upon yourself, even if you didn't want to. What right do you have in hating on the gods around you? Have you ever taken any steps to challenging this unfair situation or showed any leniency towards your own blood in some form? Or is the Lord of the Underworld still as petty as his siblings that he would not lend a hand to his own children and take on their price for them but declare that sparing them to live on the surface as a part of your so-called 'kindness'?"

More chains appeared from the ground, but Peony destroyed them with a powerful wave of spiritual energy as she huffed in dismay, "Lord of the Underworld, King Hades! I, Peony Xue, Princess of fairy kingdom and Empress of all plant spirits and fairies, wishes to make a game!"

Suddenly, the shaking of the ground continued to rumble as Peony continued, "I am not here to demand you to destroy the curse of the Shroud family. Let us wager if the deceased child of your house can remerge with the other half of his lost soul. Swear an oath with me! Should I win that Ortho manages to remerge with his soul, you will let those who trespassed into your domain and this child free and take on the responsibilities of letting one soul escape! However, I swear, if I lose, I shall remain in the underworld with them forever!"

Almost immediately, the shaking finally stopped. A sign that Peony took as affirmative.

Hearing this, Maisey shuddered in horror. It was all going as according to Peony's plan. When she shared this plan with the other higher ups and her parents, everyone was strongly against this. She, the mother of life, would gamble her life away for the life of a small child that have long passed. There was a small rolling of movement as if thrown into a pit of laughter. However, none but Peony could hear their voices. She turned away from the vessel now thrown into a blaze and, with a cocky smile across her face, and a mixed look of pity and amusement shone as she laughed, "Haha! If life was balance, then balance would be chaos itself. If unbalanced, all the more we can play, can we not?"

It was then that her seemingly soft smile appeared crooked and a mad glint shone in those eyes of former mixed feeling, "That's why, let us play this game, Milord! A bet! The winner shall take all as the loser gets their souls ground against the mud to nothingness. Polished for no purpose and feel just for the sake of amusement."

Suddenly, the blue flames burst from the cracks below as Peony simply pointed a finger and the blazing bird hushed it away with just a single glide across the cracks. Chains erupted from the cracks in an attempt to strike at Ortho's vessel.

Peony chuckled and their surroundings suddenly grew colder and colder. In just a mere second the temperature dropped into a very low and negative number shocking Maisey as he was unprepared for this. The cold chains quickly became unable to move as the heat around them melted into perspiration and finally frozen in place without her batting an eye. She snapped her fingers as all of the many chains that had surrounded them shattered like a hollow glass statue. Nothing and will always be nothing in her eyes. She noticed more crawl out of the crack and sent the giant bird after them.

Those chains burst out in an attempt to grab the bird, but it all fazed through it as they melted away into a puddle of molten metal. Stunned and confused, Maisey cried out, "What is the god doing? Why is he attack us? Why is he going after the soul?!"

"Why do you think he is?" Peony questioned him back with a sigh of dismay, "We led Ortho into the underworld and brought him to his long-lost vessel to remerge and reappear from the underworld. To grant him safe passage, we gambled with the Lord of the Underworld, didn't we?"

"That's right!" Maisey nodded, "You agreed that, if Ortho fails to remerge with his soul, you will remain with him forever, but, if he succeeds, he will- No way!"

He gasped as it finally dawned on him, "He's intentionally going to disrupt the process so Ortho fails and we will remain stuck here forever!"

"Good to see that you can think through the lines." Peony smiled in approval when she heard this and confirmed it with a nod, "The God of the Underworld once raised a rebellion against his own blood kins for the unfair bias treatment and isolation he's experienced from them. He had decided that there was no room for talk from the very beginning. That no one understood him even a tiny bit. However, how was one guy ever going to have the chance at winning without putting aside the fact that they are family or that he was physically weaker than those around him. The only one weaker than him are those in the underworld who could easily be destroyed by the gods above. So, he had to play a little dirty and unfair. He decided to risk it all in the end and have his family's enemies join forces with him. He never played fair from the beginning, so what was the use of playing fair with a cheater?"

"And, you're cool with that?!" Maisey shouted in disapproval, "Also, I thought the legends shown him as a kind ruler! Where did that go?!"

Destroying another batch of chains with a quick sweep of her arm, Peony sighed, "Living in the Underworld for so long, just how much of this kindness can he retain over the millennia of years? Living here all alone by himself. Having no one to connect with and, to top it all off, maintain order by keeping those dead stay dead and from wrecking chaos. They would never listen to a kind man's words just because he is right. No. The lord of the Underworld lost so much of his kindness that he's forgotten what it feels like to be kind. Now, the only time he offers kindness is through the last bit of sanity amongst the ocean of madness born from a ruler and a god."

Saying this, Peony took a seat on the ground cross-legged as she sighed, "This will take a long time, so let's just sit here and wait."

"What?!" Maisey cried out in horror, "But, what if those chains come and attack you?"

It was then that the large fire bird appeared by her side as she smiled, "Don't worry. For now, it would be best for you to enter the spatial ring. During this period of time, the Lord will do all it can to pry me away from interfering with his plans. Having failed his previous rebellion and punished, he would be reluctant to take on another punishment. That's why he'll start attacking those around me first. Although Maisey is one of the strongest fairies in our kingdom and has no problem touching metal, you are still susceptible to the blot here and may fall for his tricks. So, you must stay out of sight."

Maisey looked to her hesitantly, but he slowly nodded his head and reluctantly dove into her ring. After seeing this, Peony then set an array and began to meditate and utilize the hell fire around her to her advantage. Although hell fire was weaker than her nirvana fire, it was the perfect fodder for her fire to feed on. So, as the chains came to strike at her and the flames tried to reach her, the chains was deflected and the blue hell fire was absorbed into her dantian. Compared to the nervana fire, it was far weaker and could barely leave a burn on her as she continued to cultivate her power. The blot that took this chance to attack soon found themselves in the everlasting flames of her golden bird.