1.1 The Reaping

Mortevallis, The Underworld.

It had been an endless cycle of waiting. Twelve rebirths, each one about five centuries long and separated by another century or two. All endured for the sake of her waiting for his reincarnation so that she could finally reap her due revenge. Time never seemed to go fast enough when you truly needed it to, the sentiment amplified a million times worse with her immortal existence.

So she'd thrown herself into the work  that had been cut out for her, draining herself to the bone so she could repay Hades' life-saving grace and no longer be at the mercy of anyone. Reaching the zenith was her only goal in sight as she waited for that double-dealing vermin's reincarnation to finally resurface.

It had taken millenniums to feel the tangible ache in her soul that alerted her of his presence but it was finally here and Aethera didn't want to waste a second longer. Her mind worked rapidly through every technique she could possibly use to gut him from the inside out, incarcerate him and disperse his soul so he never had the chance to come back again, much like how he'd slipped from her grasp the first time around.

With a mere thought, she was brought to the abyssum in the blink of an eye, the vault where junior reapers were called in and dispatched to the necessary souls that were to be harvested, just in time to see the one chance she'd waited ages for about to be reaped up by someone else.

"Alexandros Xenakis. Time of death: 08: 36 am. Cause of death—" the scroll keeper had been meticulously reading out the details of the mission about to be assigned to the junior reaper when he was abruptly cut off by her arrival. The pallor of the human skin mask he'd adopted was ghastly as he hastened to give a ninety degree bow, reverently calling out, "Your Supremacy."

Aethera paid no mind to the fumbling initiate who struggled to get into the similar reverent bow, gaze fixated on the parchment the keeper had been reading out of. Any other day and he'd be dead for failing to get his act together. This time, she was willing to let it slide. Anything else paled greatly in comparison to the importance she placed on reaping that scourge herself.

"Rise," she commanded without inflection. "I'll have the scroll."

The keeper's skin turned even more pallid as he darted the demoness before him a hesitant glance. "It's way beneath your sphere of—" he stopped abruptly when her ruthless aura invaded his with a mere deepening of her glance, dimming his aura and threatening him with his own imminent extinction. "Of course, Your Eminence."

Aethera impassively accepted the scroll he hastily relinquished even as he dropped to the ground wheezing, the junior reaper stooping to his aid to send a stream of vital energy and regulate the rampant and turbulent energy that had been her doing.

With another thought, she was on the bounds of the mortal realm, her ethereal apparition invisible to the eyes of the humans going about their usual mundane business. Glancing at the scroll and committing the information to memory, she stored it away before focusing on the soul bind.

The battle between she and her nemesis had left her leaving an indelible mark on his soul, purpose to alert her should his soul ever be reincarnated no matter the body it chose. She wasn't sure yet just what had ensured she remained in the dark of his existence but that could never wipe the call on her soul to his imminent demise.

08: 28 am.

Eight minutes to spare.

"Alexandros Xenakis," her voice was a fleeting whisper but deep with the caress and promise of death. A promise to be slow and merciless, excruciating. A promise that lingered.

If the Greek hadn't been sure of his mental issues from before he'd fought his way out of the mental home, then he was certainly sure of it now. He was mad. Thoroughly mad. "Do I know you?" his voice was hoarse with illness as he tried to sit up halfway, gaze fixated on the 'presence' before him. In short, he himself wasn't sure what he was currently looking at.

The presence, malevolent with the dark swirls of mist that billowed from its cape outward, was in a hooded cape through which he could see little of save deep sockets that seemed to draw his life force with a mere pull.

"You don't remember," Aethera noted calmly, sure she'd have found it even stranger and more of a cause for alarm if he actually did. "It's alright. I remember well enough for the both of us."

"You have the wrong person," Alexandros' gaze was frenzied as he struggled to hobble off the bed and get far away from this cottage that had begun to feel like a safe haven but he now recognized was anything but, especially not with the being even more manic than he languidly lingering behind him and just watching him stumble out with his limited energy like a lion would a slab of meat.

08: 31 am.

Aethera flexed the bony phalanges of her right hand slightly, dark mana shooting out of her fingertips with a whoosh and materializing as a snake-like whip that latched onto the wrist of the other.

Alexandros grunted as he was dragged recklessly across the hardwood floor and the other end of the rope was bound to the bedpost, restraining him even tighter when he gave it an experimental tug. "What do you want?" he asked on seeing that much would get him nowhere, the only thing it was achieving strangling the little blood he had left in him.

"You're not cheating death again," Aethera's gaze was cold, unimpressed as she watched him finally give up on resisting. Only she knew how incensed she was watching his soul escape with the help of the precious talisman he'd had on him back then. "Not this time. Not on my watch."

08: 34 am

"I don't know what you're on about," Alexandros muttered distractedly, glancing in the direction of the grained door and trying to will his friend to burst in any moment now. Theo had been been the one to deliver him before he could get caught in the crossfires of the battle between the Xenakis family clan and a rival clan. He'd been nursing him back to health and had stepped out to get something for them to eat. That had been hours ago. He should be back soon.

He had to.

Aethera scoffed like she could hear his thoughts even though she didn't need to. His expectancy was visible on his face. Though it was next to impossible for whoever he was wishing to materialize to his aid, not when she'd cordoned the whole space with her aura to ward off anyone who might try to interfere.

So his savior could be back. Or not.

She just watched him, relishing the sadistic high she got from watching his yearning grow and then slowly begin to ebb, then raised her bony hands and hooked the digits slightly. His soul seemed to repel every pull from her and she felt her countenance darken as she hastily invaded his psyche, crippling it and forcing his soul with no form of retreat but to try to rush out and escape.

08: 36 am.

She unlocked the soul urn she'd selected, imprisoning till she was ready to figure out exactly how to incapacitate it and taking a final glance at the shell of a body, scoffing under her breath. She hadn't even needed to wield her scythe.

She must have been blind to have fallen for such a weakling.

1.2 The Debt

Palace of Shadows, Asphodel Meadows, The Underworld. 

"Where's the soul you reaped?" Hades' voice was deep and ominous, resonating in the dark space around them, sure to have caused the reporting scroll keeper and junior reaper breaking out in cold sweat if they so much as had the ability to. They quickly scurried away to safety when Hades waved them off with a dismissive hand gesture. His gaze was dark, expression brooding as he met the chilling darkness from Aethera's as she stared back unflinchingly.

"I'm keeping it."

"It's not yours to keep," he said coldly, the dark billowing smoke materializing at the feet of his throne not giving much precedent to his true emotions, if even he felt any. "You'll cause a tear in the veil and lest you forget, you still have a debt to repay."

"A debt to pay?" Aethera sneered in response, slowly levitating in the air and shedding the outer skeletal skin he'd bestowed to make carrying out her work easier and regaining her usual youthful appearance. The burnt flare of bright orange seemed especially piercing in the usual dark and dreary space. "You say that so easily when I've already repaid you a million times over!"

"Are you trying to revolt?" Hades' tone had dropped lazily as he tapped his fingers idly against the cold obsidian surface of the arm of is throne, seemingly indifferent to the blazing wrath of the phoenix before him.

"Open your eyes," her words were full of unwavering conviction and her resilience in wanting to sever all ties with him. "I already am."

He'd saved her from death's precipice that not even her immortal endowments could save her from the rupture to her soul upon letting dark magic stoke its claim on her. But that life-saving grace had been repaid ages ago, more than a million times over with her working herself to the bone for his stupid legacy.

The only reason she'd even hesitated to come apart from her position here was that she had more say exerting her right to easily obtain that backstabber's soul as the only Supreme Reaper of Mortevallis. That and for the hold he had over her life that he brought out to put her in her place every time she tried to go off he rails.

It was what he held over her even now.

Aethera's gaze glowed a fiery copper as the mark of the flame began to burn fiercely from where it was situated between her delicately carved brows. "You can try," she encouraged, tone dismissive as she summoned the faint hold she still had on her powers, the glowing apparition of the age-old phoenix materializing behind her buying her five minutes of kill-time. But that was enough. Not nearly enough to get Hades off her case. Just enough to reclaim the entirety of her powers and retrieve the strand with him.

She dug deep, connecting with the spirits deep within the earth and that of the only sun god above, Helios. She reconnected with the phoenix heart stone that had been hidden who knows where and which she'd ignored in favor of committing to her assignment and not getting swayed from the prospects of revenge.

Tapping into it slightly, she absorbed all of its power, feeling the swift delightful rush of fiery vigor that rushed through her veins and had her meeting Hades' gaze again with even more confidence.

Hades thought it was a pity as he let his aura engulf and close off the space all around them. He rescued her from the brink because he thought a phoenix would bring even more results to his realm. She had. If she wanted out then nothing was stopping her. He just didn't guarantee that she could step past Charon and even further past the loyal Cerberus.

With a flinch of his fore and middle finger, dark mana was rushing for her, seeking to infiltrate her powers and absorb it for himself. The powers of a phoenix should bring his own realm to higher heights, no?

Aethera just gave a sneer. "If you're not careful," she began, welcoming and embracing the darkness he slammed her way. "This greed and thirst for power should soon be your downfall." Lest he forget, she'd been working with the darkness for millenniums and doing her best to come out on top without fail.

First starting as the lowest level reaper initiate then a junior reaper before she slowly graduated to envoy then lieutenant. She stagnated at elite for many cycles of her life before finally coming out on top as supreme. This little darkness was child's play to her so she didn't do anything to negate it, instead accepting it and completely fusing it with her own phoenix blood despite the slight backlash it had on her, causing blood to well up in her throat which she hastily forced back down.

Hades watched her stand her ground and felt his lip curl in a frown. The power of the phoenix went eons back and if they really came head to head in a battle, it was hard to say who would come out on top. Yes, he was a god but the phoenix was a powerful mythical beast in its own right and her regenerative abilities would certainly prove to be a problem.

"Do you have to do this?" he asked, tone abound with irritation as he stared at the flames that only seemed to burn brighter defensively.

"Did you hide his existence from me?" Aethera ignored that question that had its very much obvious answer to ask one of her own instead. "I should have been alerted of his existence upon his birth into a new body. I could have easily taken care of the blight when he was just a babe."

"I couldn't let you disrupt the order of life and death so early on," Hades had no qualm admitting to this particular fact. "I shouldn't let you have this even now but I can let you have the soul. Obliterate it if you so desire."

Aethera paused, but remained highly on guard. "What's the catch?" she finally asked.

"I saved your life," he began, pointedly ignoring how her eyes seemed to light aflame. "And got many lifetimes of your return in service to me. If you're saving this soul, you'll have to part with something of yours."

"I don't care about the soul," she muttered testily.

"I'm still doing you a favor," he said. "And would only let it go if you relinquish something in return. It's the law of give and take."

"Fine," she said, nose flaring slightly. "You can have my next rebirth." She didn't waste a second more once she saw him incline his head in a slight nod of agreement and made her way out of there. She'd let him have the next five hundred years because this was extremely important to her and the offer was one she'd made knowing how much power Hades wanted on his side to go against Zeus in the coming battles, especially if it was one as phenomenal as hers.

Five hundred years.

And that was it.

1.3 The Resolution

Erebus Oasis, Original Dwelling of the Phoenix.

So, Aethera passed the next hundred over days in leisure. Too bad what was leisure to her was the hunter's torment. Every day, she cut off a strip of his soul, making him loose a part of his being every time she did so. But it was hardly enough and she was still researching all of the ways she could torment those fragmented soul strands before finally vanquishing them once and for all.

Before she'd begun, she'd channeled some of her strength to him so he could at least recollect his memories from the past and know she wasn't just hurting him without probable cause or reason. And every day, without fail, he beseeched her to look into those memories. That what she knew was just the part of the story and she was only viewing things with the limited perspective she had.

He was all forms short of depicting her a frog in the well, really.

So, that day, as normal and mundane as the rest, she'd taken a look into his memories before getting into mercilessly cutting off it another strand of his soul. There was only so much to his soul left anyway that if anything she saw in his memories left her in the wrong, then she was more than content with how far she had carried this out.

It was only coming to the ending of that place in time that she realized she really had perfectly taken on the role of the frog in the well.

First, she watched with melancholy and a tipping smile their first interaction after he'd stumbled onto her nest for the first time. He hadn't been Alexandros then, but Kallias, a brave hunter who was out to hunt and eradicate the world of the existing mythical beasts after a particular kilin had laid waste to his parents and siblings.

For some reason, he hadn't been able to pull his weapon on her even though Aethera doubted he could have been of much threat to her back then. She had only gone through about two or three rebirths thereabout but was still far more than a human with a rickety bow and arrow could handle.

Then he'd kept stumbling back over and over and they'd gotten much closer, more so when he finally got to see her human form for the first time. Then things were taken a dark turn when the dark sorceress, Sybil, was popping up, greedy for the essence of the last phoenix.

That battle had ensued and Aethera had had her hands full trying to fight against dark magic and also protect Kallias who's own weapons were not much use. Hence, she wasn't on guard against him and found herself on the receiving end of a hard blow when Sybil had suddenly imbibed the tip of his spear in dark magic which he hastily plunged in her back. Perhaps the damaged wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't fighting in her mortal form.

That was what had brewed the millennium long revenge that she was only just getting to fulfilling. But that didn't come close to what had truly happened.

Humans were far below on the ability spectrum of the world back then and Sybil had easily infiltrated his mind, controlling him and his senses to do her bidding and attack her.

Aethera felt like she even put the phrase 'frog in the well' to shame. In the end, there wasn't much else she could do at this point with most of his soul having come close to being vanquished by her. Still, she was an age old phoenix for a reason and her ability to restore and reshape life couldn't have come at a better time.

So, she fused back every fragmented piece of his soul that she thankfully hadn't obliterated just yet and imbibed him in a body she conjured from her memory. She was helpless in that regard. Alexandros' body was long cold with death anyway.

When she was done, the man stood before her, with memories of two lifetimes and over a hundred days of pain, not saying a word and just staring into those copper red eyes that were both familiar to him and unfamiliar in the same vein.

And Aethera understood. They weren't the same person, no matter how much she wished that were so. Kallias, the hunter she'd fallen in love with, hidden agenda or not, was his own person and very much long gone. Alexandros was Alexandros.

There was not much they could do but part ways there.

And so they did, millenniums worth of memories resting in the chasm that grew between them as Aethera returned to Hades.