Time began to move in a perceptible way once more. A low growl escaped his lips as his paralysis was thrown off.

“That the shit?” asked Harry intelligently, when Scott’s hands slapped upwards and gripped his wrist tightly.

Pupils still narrowed, he tightened his grip on the godling’s arm and squeezed. Harry started to laugh when he felt the attempt to exert pressure on him.

“Are you still not done you— Eargh!” shrieked Harry as his wrist snapped like a twig. The words ‘Immortal Object’ continued to float above him in defiance of the fact that he had just received damage.

He threw Scott aside by his hair then cradled his arm against his chest. “That hurt!”

Harry shook his head, bewildered. “That fucking hurt!” he bellowed.

Scott rose slowly from the ground, his body beginning to shift and writhe in unnatural ways. From the nearby graves. From the grass. From the trees. From the Earth itself, began to flow an eerie green energy. That energy; cast of remnants of soul stuff flowed toward its master. His wounds began to heal at rate far beyond the norm for him.

“Do you hear them?” asked Scott in a quiet and somber voice.

“What? How did you do this, you damned cheater!” asked Harry. He flicked his wrist and it snapped back into place. The wounds faded quickly, though not nearly as quickly as he would have liked for them to heal.

“Of course, you don’t hear them,” said Scott. He gazed at Harry for a moment. No, he looked through him as though he saw something else.

Harry screamed at him when he felt the mental probe. “Fuck you! That’s it!”

The divine drunkard threw his hands forward and shouted out a word. Scott had not heard him speak it before, but now he understood that it was how he had thrown him against the wall earlier. That word was ‘Rebuke.’

The wave of energy washed over Scott like before, but this time he was not thrown against a wall. The wave of energy did not touch him at all.

“That…” Harry was at a loss. It was impossible. No mortal could withstand the effect of an administrative rebuke. It was akin to receiving a warning from the system. Nothing could ignore it. Even an arbiter could be rebuked if it were brought about by a tribunal.

“So many voices,” said Scott. He tilted his head to the side and acquired a faraway expression as though he was listening to something. “So many frightened children crying alone in the dark.”

Harry could stand it no longer. He lunged forward and rushed toward Scott. He would rip the annoying bastard apart with his own two hands.

Scott was lost in his thoughts, his mind focused on the cries of the children. Harry struck him across the face with a hard right and followed it up with a left hook that knocked the confused man over the top of a nearby tombstone.

Shocked out of his dark reverie, Scott rolled to the side to avoid a hard kick aimed at his face then sprung backwards like a hunting cat.

Harry glared at him then rushed in again. He threw one of his beers at him with the force of a cannonball. Scott narrowly avoided it, only to be caught up in Harry’s flow. The man connected another series of hard punches that left Scott feeling tenderized.

Blood pouring from his nose, Scott managed to block a punch to the face and countered with an elbow to Harry’s face. This angered Harry. His strength and speed grew several times over.

“You think you can beat me, boy!” snarled Harry. Spittle flew from his mouth like white foam as he pummeled Scott.

Even though his fists flew strong and fast, Scott’s ability to regenerate managed to keep pace. The energy streaming into him bolstered his regeneration and continually acted to restore his body.

Slowly, his speed and strength also increased. His body began to heat up. Mist rose from his body as the sweat poured along the curvature of his flesh.

Harry screamed and launched a furious haymaker that managed to tag Scott across the jaw. It snapped, but quickly refit itself back into place. Scott merely looked at him and allowed the fight to continue.

Soon, Harry grew desperate. There was something terribly wrong about this encounter.

He tackled Scott to the ground, despite the other man’s best efforts to dodge, and repeatedly pounded him in the face. No matter what he did, however, Scott regenerated.

“Why won’t you fucking die!” snarled Harry in frustration.

Scott looked up at him, his fractured eye socket growing back in a split-second. “How does it feel, Harry?”

“Wha—?” asked the enraged divinity.

Scott threw him off like he was nothing, and then rose to his feet. “No matter what you do, you can’t win.”

“Strike me down again and again. I will get back up,” said Scott. He stepped toward Harry and the surprised divinity took a step back. “Admittedly, it is a close thing, but you aren’t strong enough to beat me. I’m not a child anymore, Harry.”

“Fuck you…” said Harry. “Damned cheater.”

“Do you know what it’s like?” asked Scott as he took another step.

Harry spat a wad of phlegm and glared at him. “You sure like to talk a lot, you little bitch.”

“To be small, Harry,” said Scott, ignoring the man’s words. “Do you know what it’s like to be small? To do everything that you can? To release every bit of your rage, but in the end do nothing at all?”

Harry barked out a laugh. “What is this? Are we supposed to be having a moment, together, you little shit?”

The angry deity cut his hand through the air then snarled. “I don’t know what trick you’re using, but it’s running out. I can see that the flow of energy is slowing down. Hell, you can barely stand up.”

It was true. The flow of energy from the graveyard and the surrounding environment was indeed slowing down. His entire body trembled as though he would drop to the ground and any moment.

“Should have killed me if you could, when you had the chance,” said Harry with a snicker. “Not that it would have mattered. I don’t even need tokens to revive.”

“It was never my intention to kill you Harry,” said Scott. “We didn’t want that before, and don’t want that now.”

“What then? Are you going to talk me to death?” asked Harry.

Scott straightened his back. His eyes shifted into a sober expression, but he refused to allow them to tear up despite what he knew was to come. He needed to be resolute. “No, Harry. I’m going to help you.”