Chapter 96: Colors of Flames

After Zephyrus and I discussed about the Gods in the hotel room, we decided to go to the arena that the Japanese Gods Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, and Bishamonten are training us in.

"Oh, there you two are." At the distance was Bishamonten, he seems to be waiting for us two to come. "Come, let's start our training."

We followed Bishamonten to the arena and saw that Lucas was laying on the ground; sweating from fatigue and he was breathing heavily.

With him were Homura and Asahi cheering for him and Miyu and Ayame looked in awe seeing Lucas, maybe they were impressed by how Lucas trained with Bishamonten.

"So what are we gonna do Master Bishamonten?"

"For today, you and Zephyrus would duel. Whoever wins will... Hmm... Whoever wins will be given an award, just name them to me right now."

"Wait! What do you mean duel?!" I was shocked to hear that I'm gonna have a duel with Zephyrus, because no matter how you look at it, Zephyrus is far stronger than me.

I looked at Zephyrus and I saw him smiling at me smugly, he looked at me straight in the eyes and spoke. "If I win, I want you to tell me more about the Great God War and who Ea is, Bishamonten."

"That's understandable, I'll tell you about it only if you win." Bishamonten looked at me and asked. "What do you want as a reward Haruki?"

I couldn't say a thing, because I'm already on the losing side here, so saying what kind of reward that I want is completely useless!

I looked at everyone behind me and their faces were all saying. 'Don't ask us, it's up to you to decide that.'

"Ahh..." What do I say? Because my loss is already decided and if I tell him that I want to quit, they will be disappointed in me and my friends are watching me so I have to do my best to impress them, especially since I've bragged to them about my position as the current King of Hell, and if I were to lose to one of my Archdukes then I'm a failure as a King.

"So Haruki, is there something you want as a reward if you win?"

Then I have to do this... And I'll do my best to win this because I know exactly what I wanted as an award. "If I win, I want you to tell or help me locate where Luna is hiding."

Everyone was surprised when I said that, Bishamonten and Lucas look proud of me, Zephyrus was speechless but looks proud from what I said, Homura and Asahi look about jealous from my declaration but were happy, while Miyu was translating it to Ayame in sign language in disappointment and jealousy.

"Haha!" Bishamonten proudly laughed. "Sure, good thing I've already located where she is! I'm rooting for you Haruki, you better win! Haha!"

I looked at Zephyrus and asked him in confusion. "Did I say something wrong..?'

"No, actually you said something right." He said with a smile, he looked at the floor and looked at me again with a serious face. "Sorry Haruki, but I'm not gonna lose."

"Hehe... The same with me..." I replied anxiously.

Everyone is already sitting on their chairs to watch us, Bishamonten was the referee of our battle, and we two are on our sides gazing at each other.

I looked behind me to see what the others are doing besides spectating us, and there I saw Susanoo and Tsukuyomi with them watching my duel with Zephyrus.

I was freaked out when I saw the two come to watch my duel with Zephyrus, now that they're here, failure is not an option anymore.

Finding and speaking with Luna is what I want to do now, also if I impress the Japanese Gods, they can recognize us, devils, to be someone worthy of being allies with them.

Bishamonten was in the middle smiling. "Ziz Zephyrus, are you ready?"

"Yes!" Zephyrus shouted in excitement.

Bishamonten looked at me and asked. "Hotaru Haruki, are you ready?"

"Yes..." I replied nervously.

"Okay, both of you ready your weapons!"

Zephyrus closed his eyes and raised his hand. "Solis Pluma!"A single feather that shone like a star landed on Zephyrus' hand, then it started to transform into a sharp haladie.

His weapon a haladie is a double-edged dagger, to clarify what it looks like, it's like two daggers put on top of each other, and you can use it as both a close-range and throwable weapon. If someone like Zephyrus were to use a haladie as a weapon, then it means that they're highly skilled in assassinating.

So if I'm gonna fight Zephyrus I need to analyze his fighting style, based on his weapon being styled for assassination, he is gonna be a lot like Sora's. That means that he'll do many sneak attacks and his biggest weakness is attacking me face-to-face. But if his fighting style is gonna be different than Sora's, then I'm gonna get easily defeated by him, nonetheless, at least I know that he's an assassin like Sora.

I raised my hands and shouted. "Ignisvem!" This time the small finch that's made out of fire appeared on my hands and slowly transformed into Ignisvem. "I'm ready Master Bishamonten."

Before I started to ready for my duel with Zephyrus, I looked behind me one last time to see how's everyone's doing. My friends' eyes are full of spirit and excitement for my and Zephyrus' battle to start, and the two Gods Susanoo and Tsukuyomi are mumbling something to each other.

To be honest, even if I say this many times, I'm afraid... I'm afraid that the Japanese Gods would call us useless, which is why I want to win this fight. if they could see that the current King of Hell Haruki Hotaru is someone worthy to be their ally, then that means they can accept the devils as a race that's worthy of their protection.

And if I defeat Zephyrus here, I might accept myself as someone who's equally as powerful as him and my friends.

"Okay... The duel of Hotaru Haruki and Ziz Zephyrus starts... Now!"

Zephyrus throws Solis Pluma on my left and in a blink of an eye, I saw him in front of me. There was another haladie on his arm and behind me was the other haladie that he threw.

I was surprised by my situation right now, it felt like time went slower when he was about to stab me on the chest with the haladie he was holding and the haladie that was flying from behind me was almost near my neck already.

What do I do now? In just 1 second I've already lost, it just shows how weak I am compared to my friend...

"You're not gonna give up are you?" On my mind, I heard her voice. The mysterious beautiful blonde girl spoke to me. "Even if it seems impossible, I know that you can do it Haruki. After all, you're the King of Hell aren't you?"

"I- I am..." Yes, she's right, I can't give up that easily, because. "I'm the King of Hell..." My fingers moved all on their own, and the moment they moved a large explosion came out of my body; destroying the haladie that Zephyrus threw and making him jump back to his location.

Ignisvem was glowing a bright blue light and its blade changed, before it was colored red with orange on it, but now it turned to blue. It is hotter than before and it has small smokes coming out of it.

"With the power of the Legendary Greek bird the Pheonix, you can use any type of flames as your weapon." That's what she said to me on my mind.

"I can use any type of flames?" I remembered Turkey telling me about the feathers of the Pheonix, she said that they consist of the color of red, yellow, orange, blue, and white flames that are just like that of the stars. So if I can use them, I have the advantage in fighting Zephyrus now.

Looking at everyone now, I saw the three Gods Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, and Bishamonten being intrigued by the sudden turn of an event, Lucas was just smiling like he expected something like this would happen, and my friends were in awe and their mouths were wide open from seeing what has happened.

Zephyrus was sweating from nervousness after seeing what happened, but he has no sense of defeat on him yet. he held his Solis Pluma tightly, he shook it, and the haladie clones itself.

And again, in a blink of an eye, Zephyrus was behind me. I noticed that he would try to attack me from behind so I blocked the hit with my sword.

The moment my sword and his haladie met, Solis Pluma started to melt so he snickered and he revealed his wings.

I was confused about why Zephyrus suddenly revealed his wings, but I was most surprised when I saw that his wings were different from mine and the others. Phenex has wings made out of fire instead of bat-like wings like ours because she's a Pheonix, so it makes sense for her to have those types of wings, but Zephyrus on the other hand has wings with feathers like that of an angel, but instead of its color being white, it's blue.

"Now it's getting interesting." Lucas said with a smile.

"What is Lucas? I can see how cool Zephyrus' wings are, but what are you talking about that's interesting?" Asahi asked in confusion, Homura is also the same; he was confused by what Lucas said.

"Well, it's actually got to do about the original Ziz that'll make this battle interesting-"

"It's got to do with the story of Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz right?" Miyu disturbed Lucas in enjoyment. "In Abrahamic Mythology, specifically Jewish Mythology, it is said that Ziz is so big that when she's flying her wings was big enough to cover the sun."

Lucas was surprised by what Miyu had said and at the same time, he was freaked out by her intelligence about the original Ziz. "Are all girls in this age that smart?" He whispered to himself. He could only smile and reply. "That's correct Miyu, I'm impressed that you know of the former Archdukes Ziz and even know how big she is and her gender. Most humans on Earth haven't even heard of the name Ziz before, but for you to know it I'm amazed."

"Thanks, Lucas..." Miyu said happily, she looked back at Zephyrus' wings and she was confused too. "Hey Lucas, why is Zephyrus' wings blue? In many stories and information about Ziz, it is said that Ziz was based out of the Sumerian Legendary bird Anzû and many scholars also based Ziz on the Greek bird the Pheonix too, so with Ziz being based by those two birds, why are Zephyrus' wings blue? Isn't supposed to be either red or orange?"

Again, Lucas was shocked to hear what Miyu has said and he was now starting to get afraid of how intelligent Ayame is too. "It's surprising that you know that too Miyu... But to answer your question, it's got to do with the color of the flames."

"Flames?" Miyu, Homura, and Asahi all confusingly said.

"You said that Ziz's wings were big enough to cover the sun right? And the color of the sun is mostly yellow and orange which is why Ziz is depicted to have either red, yellow, or orange feathers. But what others don't know is that she can change it to blue and white too, depending on the color of the flames she can convert as energy, and right now that Haruki's flame is color blue and the same with his sword being blue which is made out of the feathers of the Pheonix, he converts Haruki's flames to energy."

"Which is why it's interesting!" Miyu said excitedly. "Even if Haruki's sword became blue and might have become stronger, Zephyrus is catching up to his strength by converting Haruki's flame as his source of energy for him to become strong. Which could only mean-" Miyu's eyes were shining in excitement. " Which means that Zephyrus has the advantage of winning right now."