In which Phi meets an old enemy's friend. Things escalate without warning.

(Just added the song above cuz I realised how much it fits)

Phi, the God of Destruction, destroyer of beyblades. On the outside, he seems to be a calm and collective blader, until he unleashes his darkness upon those who stand in his way, his jet black scleras with his red and blue irises stabbing deep into their souls. His partner, Phoenix, had done his bidding since childhood, shattering countless opponents and dragging them into the pits of despair, not excluding his own twin brother, Heartz.

But alas, his rampage ended when he met his defeat to Aiga Akaba and his beyblade, Achilles. That fateful battle greatly impacted Phi. A powerful blader like him who claimed to be a god amongst mortals, was defeated by a child.

Nevertheless, this battle never truly marked his end. He still beyblades to this day. He had mended his relation with Heartz. He no longer craved destruction. It seemed that Phi had completely changed to become a better person.

Now, Phi found himself in an unfamiliar place. It was a grand hall that was being held up by massive pillars of quartz like an ancient palace. In front of him was a hallway that seemed to go on forever.

Suddenly, the sound young children giggling rang out from behind.

Phi turned to see two young boys running towards him, both in white cloak-like garments. He was able to make up their appearances.

One seemed to be older. He had a tan complexion with freckles on his cheeks. His short and messy hair was brown in color. His eyes were like emeralds.

The younger boy also had tan skin. He had crimson hair that was long and tied into a ponytail. His eyes were gold.

The two boys ran past Phi, as if he was invisible. What was peculiar to Phi was the red-haired boy.

'That boy. I've never met him before. Yet, he seems so familiar...' he thought.

He decided to follow the two. The hallway was quite long. It took Phi a while to reach the end of the hallway. When he reached it however, the two children he encountered were nowhere to be found. What he did find was a massive golden door, decorated with motifs that resemble plants.

'Perhaps they had gone into this door...' Phi thought as he slowly pushed the door open.

What lied behind the door was a sight that amazed yet puzzled the nobleman.

A massive and beautiful throne room that was entirely made of quartz. On each side of the room were tall white pillars that supported the ceiling. What was bizarre about the room were the statues between the pillars. They depicted a tall figure clad in armour resting its hands on the hilt of a massive sword. Phi instantly recognize who the statues were depicting.

"Achilles." Phi uttered.

Suddenly,...

"Still have the guts to say that name, I see." a male voice echoed.

Phi turned to the throne. There he was. The source of the voice. A young tan man with long crimson hair and green eyes. He was in an armour of red, silver, gold and blue. He sat on the throne with his legs crossed and his right cheek resting on his fist.

"It's been a while, God of Destruction." he said with a smug look.

"I don't think we've ever met before. Who are you?" Phi asked, trying to keep his calm demeanor.

"You don't know me? Well, I can't really blame you for not remembering me, in this form, at least. Even my master didn't recognize me."

"Your master?" Phi was utterly puzzled. Who was this man? How did he know who he was? And who was this 'master' he was referring to?

The red-haired male began to laugh. "My, my. Did your loss to Aiga really wiped out all of your memories of him and me?"

At this, Phi's eyes widened in realization. The man sitting in the throne before him was...

"Achilles, Aiga Akaba's beyblade..." he said. Phi had seen the bey spirit multiple times before, but to see him in a human form and talking to him directly was very unexpected.

The man, who Phi now knew was Achilles, seemed satisfied. "The one and only." he responded.

"Why are you here?" Phi asked. "Are you still angry at me for what I did to you and your blader?"

"Oh, Phi. That all happened two years ago. How about we have a little chat? Maybe help yourself to some tea? I know you love drinking tea." Suddenly, a small table with a teacup and saucer appeared in front of Phi. A small, fancy chair conveniently manifested behind Phi, though he was a bit cautious about sitting on it.

"Come on, sit! Make yourself at home!" Achilles said. "Don't worry. I assure you that it's not a trap." At this, Phi sat down. "Also, the tea isn't poisoned, so don't be scared to drink it!"

Phoenix's blader looked into the cup that was in front him. It contained what a teacup would normally contain --- tea. He took the cup and sipped a bit of the drink cautiously.

'Huh, it turned out normal after all.' He thought. But there was still something that made him uneasy. All this time, the beyblade of the boy he once called his 'toy' seemed...happy about his presence, as if he had reunited with an old friend when Phi knew that they were far from such a thing.

Achilles noticed Phi's discomfort and asked, "What's wrong, Phi? Are the accommodations I gave you not enough? You can just ask me if you wish for something." He asked in an uncomfortably concerned tone. In his hand, a goblet filled with what seemed to be wine magically appeared out of nowhere.

"No," the fire blader replied. "It's just...odd to me that you'd give me so much comfort. After I cursed you and made you do those horrible acts, you chose not to torment me. Why is that?"

"Well...I could, but I'm not really in the mood to torture you right now." Achilles said with a tone of boredom. "So, what have you been up to these days?" The bey spirit changed the topic as he sipped on his wine.

"Nothing much, really," Phi replied. "Heartz and I have made up for each other. Me and Dr. Evel made a new Hades for him as an apology, which he accepted. He still gets on my nerves sometimes. He is the younger brother after all."

"Ah, typical Heartz," Achilles humored, drinking more of his wine. "I wonder when we're gonna meet again. I must admit, even if I was being forced by Aiga, the battle with Hades was a thrilling one!"

'Great, Akaba's bey is also a masochist...'  Phi thought uncomfortably. He felt like he was at the Mad Hatter's tea party in Wonderland, struggling to keep his calm posture.

"How's Phoenix by the way? Have you upgraded her?"

"Why do you care about her?"

"Just asking. She was so fun to be with." the red bey said dreamily. "Phoenix is just so different from you. She's beautiful, innocent and the fact that she doesn't even want to fight me when she has the power to. I'm quite jealous of Hades for having such a sweet companion."

This made Phi cringe a bit. Has Achilles fallen in love with his beyblade? How could he fall for someone who had made him do despicable things?

"Now back to the question. Have you evolved her yet?"

"Not yet. Though, I am having plans to evolve Phoenix into a Sparking bey." Phi replied.

Achilles chuckled. "Well, you better hurry up. I've heard from Valkyrie that we're going into a new era of beyblades."

"Is that so? I've been spending my time in Dread Tower a lot so I haven't heard much."

"Yep! A brand new system! I think it has something to do with explosives or whatever...I don't know." Achilles drank more of his beverage.

'Beyblades with explosives? Now that would make for an interesting battle.' Phi laughed a bit inside.

"Well, I think this marks the end of our little 'reunion'. I hope you enjoyed the comfort I gave you, Phi. You better hurry up with Phoenix's evolution. Who knows? Maybe you and Aiga can meet again, and you can take the chance to destroy me for real!"

That last sentence. It shocked Phi to his core. He didn't expect such a statement coming from the mouth of his major opponent's beyblade.

"Achilles, the blader you and Aiga once fought is gone. I no longer hunger the destruction and despair of others."

"Aww, really?" Achilles whined. "How sad. I actually favoured the old you more. Your arrogance just makes me psyched for a good battle! Oh, well. I'll just find another person that'll peak my interest."

"You truly are a blood knight, aren't you?"

"It's my nature to fight and shed blood. You could say it flows in my veins."

At this point, Phi was done. He didn't want to be involved in whatever madness Achilles had in store for him. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Phi was about to leave, but before he could stand up from his chair...

"Hey, aren't you gonna finish your tea?" Achilles gestured at the cup and saucer.

Phi took a glance at the cup and saw that there was still some tea in it.

"Can't you just finish it on your own?" he responded.

"Why should I? It's your favorite drink. You deserve to finish it more than I do."

Phi sighed. "Fine then. One last drink and I'm leaving." He took the cup and drank with his eyes closed to savor the taste.

However, the tea didn't taste like it should. It tasted...metallic and had an unpleasant smell.

Phi looked down into the cup. His eyes widened in horror at the contents of the cup. In his shock, Phi dropped the cup, causing it to shatter on the white floor and reveal the real liquid inside of the cup.

Covering the floor was a deep red liquid.

'B-Blood?!' Phi thought. He proceeded to stand up from his chair and spat out the liquid violently. He placed his hand over his mouth and tried his best not to throw up. Phi then tried to run but found himself not being able to move, as if he was tied up with ropes.

That's because, he was.

Phi saw what was preventing his escape: red strings entangling his limbs like puppet strings. Phoenix's blader then turned to Achilles on the throne. The red spirit's eyes had a glint of madness in them.

"Where are you going, 'my lord'?" he asked mockingly. "There's not even a door for you to leave through."

Phi looked behind him and found that the door he used to enter the room had vanished, leaving only a white wall. Then, the entire room began to change.

The room, minus the throne, began to disintegrate into red threads. The entire room vanished, revealing the true realm that Phi was transported to. It was a dark and hellish labyrinth of red threads that entangled each other, the air and sky tainted with a hazy crimson and the only ground that existed in this realm was a shallow sea of wine red water that seemed to have no end. The only light in this cruel world was a sun heavily blocked by clouds, as if the clouds felt that Phi didn't deserve to see the light of redemption.

"Wha-What is all of this?!" Phi questioned in a frenzy of fear. At this point, he could not keep his calmness any longer.

"Remember how I said that I wasn't in the mood to torment you? Well good news! That mood has returned!" he laughed like a madman.

The red spirit proceeded to step from his throne. He walked to the white-haired noble. With every splashing step that Achilles took, Phi felt as if death was approaching him, ready to claim his soul in the most painful way. He couldn't bare to look at the crazed hero.

Achilles got closer and closer, sword in hand. When he was close enough to Phi, Achilles used his blade to lift Phi's lowered head, forcing the Phoenix blader to look at him.

"You know, Phi, I'm quite jealous of you." Achilles said.

"J-Jealous of me?" Phi stuttered.

"Yeah.You seem to never feel suffering when you were trying to perfect your title as the God of Destruction. All you had to do was launch Phoenix into the arena and watch as your opponents lose and get shoved into the abyss of despair."

"You want to know how I made it into the books of you humans? Well I'll tell you; I SUFFERED!" Achilles yelled in a sudden burst of rage, his voice booming and almost demonic. "I WENT THROUGH THIS HELL OF SWORDS, BLOOD AND GUTS TO GET THAT GLORY! But then, my good-for-nothing commander scarred my honour, my best companion died, and somehow, that cowardly prince managed to snuff me out of the war with a single arrow! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HUMILIATED I FELT?!"

After that burst of emotion, Achilles breathed in and out to collect himself. Phi on the other hand was looking more terrified than he already was.

After gaining his composure, Achilles spoke, "The point is, Phi, you've made everyone around you suffer, not to mention that your victims consisted of a bunch of young kids and your own brother. It's about time you have a taste of your own medicine. Now..." he walked back to his throne, before turning to Phi with sadistic look.

"Let's see how much of a god you are when facing impending death!"

The red liquid that surrounded the crimson realm began to rise. It slowly went up to knee level, waist level and then to the upper part of Phi's body. The white haired man struggled to free himself from drowning. He tried to scream and beg but for some reason, nothing was able to come out of his mouth.

Before the liquid fully engulfed his head, Phi heard Achilles speak.

"This was all your doing."

.

.

.

With eyes opened wide, Phi sprung up from his bed in the Dead Gran. He was panting profusely with sweat droplets rolling down his neck. He was coughing as if he had felt the liquid in his nightmare rush into his lungs. Beside his bed was a small table with his bey, Phoenix placed on it. Phi didn't notice it, but it was glowing faintly, worried about its master's well-being.

Phi woke up the next morning, all disheveled and tired. It's safe to say that he didn't have a good night sleep. He still wondered if what happened last night was just a dream or his former enemy's beyblade really decided to haunt him for all he had done in the past.

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Also guys, Achilles just drank wine but I don't condone drinking (I just wrote it cuz it fits that classy villainous trope). In fact, never EVER drink anything alcoholic! Trust me, one sip and congratulations,you just ruined your life from there.