43 — THE GREAT HORN
The footsteps echoing off the marble faded from the House of Aries as the Bronze Saints left the temple to climb the stairs to the second Zodiac Temple.
Mu walked to the entrance of her House where she saw, through the Crystal Wall, the army of obsessing Ghosts that huddled at the corners of the stairs, on top of broken columns; their bodies translucent, for Aries Mu knew that this was just a harbinger.
She stepped inside the Crystal Wall causing the wall in front of the entrance to crumble and converge into her Gold Cloth.
In a flashing blink, a golden glow filled the entire stairway to the foot of the mountain obliterating and undoing all of the ghosts, clearing the ruins and stairways of absolutely every Discord sentry who had ventured there.
Standing at the entrance to the House of Aries, Mu saw how there wasn't a hidden soul left. Again peace reigned in her temple.
With her eyes lost on the stairs, she noticed on the horizon to the left a huge mountain peak on which a fire clock was built. Big enough to be seen by entire length of the Twelve Temples, no matter how high you were.
Her Cosmo rose to the foot of her house.
The four Bronze Saints quickly climbed the stairs that connected the House of Aries to the next temple. They still felt the renewed strength of those Cloths restored by Mu; they reflected in silence on the secrets of the cosmos and felt a certain anxiety to understand what kind of battles awaited them in those temples.
"The next temple is the House of Taurus." Shiryu spoke to them, breaking the silence.
"What kind of Saint are we going to find?" asked Hyoga.
"Could be an ally." Seiya asked.
"What do you mean, Seiya?" Shun asked.
"Master Mu is on our side. Aioria is the Leo Saint and has sworn loyalty to Athena. Aioros is Sagittarius and it was the Saint who died to protect her. There was also that Gold Saint that brought Saori back home from the Sanctuary."
"Let's not forget the Gold Saint who went to the Ruins to fight Eris. He also stood before Athena." Hyoga pondered.
"And my Master too." Shiryu said.
"Your Master, Shiryu?" they all asked.
"Yes, the Old Master was the Libra Gold Saint long ago." Shiryu said. "But he no longer wears the Gold Coth, and no one has taken it in his place."
"I see. What I mean is that perhaps we have more allies among the Gold Saints than we think." said Seiya.
"Make no mistake, Seiya." Shiryu spoke, bringing him to reality in a serious voice. "For there was a terrible Gold Saint in the Five Peaks. And I think she is the one responsible for Xiaoling's death."
The four Bronze Saints stopped their run up the stairs to listen to Shiryu.
"Do you think Xiaoling was attacked by a Gold Saint?" Seiya asked.
"Yes, that makes sense." Shun said. "I heard that the place I trained on, the Isle of Andromeda, was also attacked by a Gold Saint."
"Yes. Her name is Death Mask." Shiryu said.
"What a horrible name."
"So we must be prepared, as we will not only have allies in the Twelve Temples. And that's why Master Mu wanted to prepare us."
They looked at each other in silence knowing they would have to be brave and vigorous from that point on. Taking a deep breath to follow, they set to keep running when something on the horizon caught Shun's attention.
"Look!"
In the distance they saw a huge mountain peak where, on its top, it had built a wonderful clock.
As far away as they were, they could see little of its details. But if they were close, they would see a beautiful stone building of four stores above the cliff. A narrow staircase connected each floor and, at the highest point, rose another smaller stone building, supported by four beautiful statues in each of its corners. The platform supported by the statues was a clock with four identical faces: a huge circle divided into twelve sections, each indicated by a zodiacal icon, and all of them converging in the center, where a golden sun shone in decal on the stone.
As they stared in wonder, above each section of that clock, one by one, white flames began to glow.
"It's the twelve hours we have to get back to the House of Aries and save Athena." Hyoga guessed.
At the entrance to the House of Aries, however, Master Mu snapped her fingers and, enchanted by the clock, the Bronze Saints noticed that one of the white flames had gone out. The Flame of Aries.
"Dammit, we only have eleven hours now." said Seiya.
"Let's go!" called Shiryu.
And they hurried on, for the second temple, the House of Taurus, was already before them.
The temple of the House of Taurus was very different from that of the House of Aries. It was bigger, taller, but also much more abandoned; the columns that held the facade had many cracks and the interior of the house were no different. There was no lights on it as well.
So they entered and realized that the central corridor was absolutely filled with rubble, fallen stones, the remains of columns, the ground terribly uneven, as if a war had actually taken place inside.
They trudged through the House of Taurus until they finally found its protector. They descended from a huge block of stone to what appeared to be the floor of the place in a flatter, less bumpy spot surrounded by columns and tall platforms.
It was a gigantic Gold Saint.
It was easily twice the height of the tallest of the four; his armor covered every inch of his body. The helmet extended into two powerful curved horns at its side, while a low-spiked mohawk split its helmet in half.
In addition to the enormity of the Gold Saint, what surprised the four Bronze Saints was the fact that that imposing presence before them was standing with folded arms and eyes closed.
"Is he sleeping?" Seiya asked, not understanding.
The four walked on tiptoe as if, in fact, they didn't want to wake up the huge golden bull in front of them. They couldn't feel his presence or his cosmos. Shun noted that even his Chains didn't seem to realize they were facing an enemy.
"It doesn't matter." Hyoga spoke. "If he's asleep or whatever, we have to get through this house soon."
They all agreed and rushed forward when a flash lit up the House of Taurus and hurled them into a nearby pile of rubble.
They got up, startled, and noticed that the Gold Saint remained still. Eyes still closed.
"He didn't even move." commented Hyoga.
"It's not true." Seiya said. "Gold Saints can move at the Speed of Light with their techniques. He is attacking us. But we can't see."
"At the Speed of Light?" asked Shiryu.
"Yes. Maybe we'll only be able to see his movements if we tap into the essence of the cosmos." replied Seiya.
"The Seventh Sense." Hyoga guessed.
Shun got up helping his friends and stopped in front of that opponent.
"My name is Andromeda Shun." he began. "We are the Bronze Saints who fight for Athena."
"Shun..." warned Seiya, but the boy wanted to try.
"Athena has been injured and we need to get to the Camerlengo before the day is out to give her a chance to live. The Master Aries Mu is also by our side and would be here were it not for the invasion of Eris. Please let us through."
There was no response.
The Nebula Chains kept chill, not realizing that before them was an enemy.
"He doesn't even consider us a threat." Shun said. "That's why the chains don't move."
"It's useless, Shun." said Seiya. "We'll have to beat this Gold Saint if we're going to go on."
"Right." said Hyoga, lighting up his Cosmo. "You know what to do."
The enemy was huge and the Bronze Saints remembered the successful strategy they used on Skull Island against one of Geist's renegades. They would need more power this time, but what they did was similar. Hyoga jumped, conjuring a thin layer of ice in front of him so he could slide up to the legs of the huge Gold Saint, Shun jumped to release his Chains and keep him paralyzed while Shiryu and Seiya followed each by one of his sides.
No one saw it, but they were all hurled with a desperate force capable of distorting their visions, hurling them against a thick wall of rock that exploded, sending the Bronze Saints into what appeared to be a storeroom with as many barrels as chests.
Seiya still lived. Probably his friends too. But when he woke up, he saw around him the bodies of his unconscious friends. He was very dizzy and didn't know how much time had passed, whether seconds, minutes or hours. He remembered where he was, why he was lying there, and also that Athena needed him.
He got up and tried to wake up his friends, without any success.
Through the hole in the wall formed by their bodies, he saw the Gold Saint walking away. He stepped through the hole in the wall and reemerged in that courtyard. From behind, he saw the Gold Saint stop and look at him.
"You should have stay dead in there like your friends." said his extremely deep voice.
"Athena needs me." said Seiya. "I need to fight."
He put himself on guard before that huge Gold Saint.
"If you want to go through this House, you'll have to beat me." he threatened, before presenting himself with open arms. "You will have to defeat Aldebaran, the Taurus Saint."
And then his right arm came down and his huge hand just slapped the ground in front of Seiya, sinking the stone and causing the blocks in the ground to shake, so that Seiya found himself unbalanced as rocks exploded towards him. The trembling was such that he had to jump between rocks that rose from the ground to fall before him. He jumped high to a marquee supported by a few columns.
Aldebaran again crossed his arms and with his powerful leg he stepped violently on the ground, causing a wave that shook the stone from where he had touched to the columns that supported the marquee where Seiya was. The columns below simply shuddered and collapsed, bringing down the balcony where Seiya was sheltering; he fell by the building, buried by the stones.
Calmly, but breathlessly, Seiya threw aside a large block of stone, standing up to fight the Gold Saint who still stood with his arms crossed and a smile on his face.
"Aren't you going to use your technique again, Aldebaran?" he asked mockingly.
"I don't see the point." said the giant.
But Seiya saw only a clear flash in the huge man's chest and again he was flung away, bouncing to the ground, cracking the stone and crashing through another thick wall. He had used his technique again. The Pegasus Saint found that his breathing became uncontrolled, so that whenever he was hit, it was as if a truck simply ran over him violently.
Lying with sore bones, Seiya thought about Saori and how he had only eleven hours to get to Master Camerlengo; if all the Gold Saints were strong like Aldebaran they would have no chance. In fact, he didn't even stand a chance against the golden bull, let alone to think of those who awaited him beyond that temple.
The essence of the cosmos.
"The Seventh Sense."
He heard his voice speak to himself as if to remind him of what was important. He thought that Aldebaran was indeed attacking him with violence, and that he was not standing idly by; he was the one who couldn't see, as the Gold Saint moved at the Speed of Light when using his technique, Seiya knew.
The Speed of Light.
He got up and immediately fell to his knees again, such violence from that huge man; through the hole in the wall his body had caused, he saw the unmoving posture of the Gold Saint, arms crossed. Seiya imagined it was like a sword that becomes fatal precisely the moment it leaves its scabbard to strike its opponent.
He remembered his few yaido classes in that same Sanctuary with his Master Marin. She stood in precise posture, both hands in the scabbard of a sharp sword, as he well knew. But her posture was extremely disconcerting, as it wasn't exactly like she was on guard during his normal workouts; that posture with the sword made Seiya extremely insecure, as he didn't know exactly how to attack her. It was a perfect defensive posture, but also an attack one, because from any side or height, she knew exactly how to draw that sword to wound him in any way; and his scarred young body was living proof of that.
And how many afternoons had he spent trying to find a loophole in that damned stroke of her sword. Marin told him that yaido was the art of sword drawing, and that its true power was when the sword was inside the scabbard; Seiya couldn't understand that, because it was with the sword in the air that his body was hurt.
"But it's when she's in the scabbard that you're clouded with fear." said Marin.
Now he remembered. Perhaps Aldebaran attacked like the unsheathing of a sword; his crossed arms were just the posture Marin put herself in. The perfect attack and defense posture.
"I need to get him to undo his posture. The sword, when out of the scabbard is a dead sword." he babbled in the dark of his Master's lessons.
Indeed, after Marin drew her sword and attacked Seiya she was vulnerable, and that's how he finally managed to neutralize his Master and get her out of her sword. He would need to do the same with Aldebaran and finally realized that in order to do that, he needed to see the movements of the Gold Saint. In other words: his cosmos needed to touch the Seventh Sense, if it were possible.
Seiya finally left the hole he was in and returned to the central courtyard of that destroyed temple, where he no longer found the Gold Saint. A desert everywhere he looked. He was no longer there.
He did, however, heard a strange tinkling in the distance, echoing in the dark, and a very low humming bass; Seiya followed in the direction of what he heard and what he found on the second floor after climbing some wide stairs of high steps was amazing. The huge Gold Saint, with his wonderful armor, was seated in front of a huge table with the most varied delicacies, vegetables, fruits and meats.
Seiya jumped on the table making the plates shake slightly and bringing a shock to the face of Aldebaran who, about to supper, was without his helmet, revealing his short hair and practically a unibrow on his forehead.
"I can't believe you're going to have lunch in the middle of a battle!" Seiya accused, standing on the table that Aldebaran was about to eat.
"Well, I thought you were dead, little grasshopper."
Seiya kicked the gap in the golden helmet, lifting it like a football that he caught with his hands in the air.
"Put on your helmet, 'cause I already know how I'm going to beat you!" Seiya provoked.
"Give me back my helmet, you punk!" he said, getting up angrily and taking the helmet from Seiya's hands. The boy didn't know which was more important to him, the huge banquet he had interrupted or that golden helmet.
Seiya fell off the table when Aldebaran's huge hand snatched the helmet from his arms, but he got up again on the other side of the table.
"I'm going to make you draw your sword and I'm going to cut that horn of yours you like so much!"
"My horn?" asked Aldebaran, smiling. "I see that you finally figured out, but you also sound very delusional. Maybe your brain isn't working after being beaten so much. I'll tell you this: if you manage to do what you say, then I'll concede the battle, what do you think?"
Seiya thought it was great and put himself on guard right there, when he saw that the Gold Saint rose from the chair and approached him; with a flick of his huge fingers, Seiya was hurled down the balcony and downstairs like a fly.
Aldebaran followed, jumping up and planting his hard feet on the ground, which he shook.
Seiya shouted his technique in the temple and launched the Pegasus Meteors towards the Gold Saint for the first time; Taurus didn't even move as the Meteors swept through him. Seya remembered exactly what had happened to Aioria. He saw again the flash on the Gold Saint's breastplate and felt himself hurled through three other walls; the destruction was spreading. As hard as he tried, he couldn't see at all.
This time, he couldn't even get up, because Aldebaran was in front of his body again.
"I'm going to bury you right here in the House of Taurus so you stop getting back on your feet, Pegasus." he announced, lifting his right foot and placing it on the Bronze Saint's chest lightly.
Seiya used his arms to lift that huge golden foot off his chest and lifted it as best he could.
"Don't try to fight it, Pegasus. If you weren't so stubborn, you would already be resting in peace without any pain."
"Athena needs me!" Seiya spoke through gritted teeth as he tried with all his strength to avoid that huge step.
But he was not able to stop the strength of that Gold Saint and, finally, Aldebaran opened a ditch with his foot, sinking more and more Seiya's body with his golden cosmos — under the foundations of the temple through the rock of the mountain on which that temple rose.
Darkness.
The dim lighting of the House of Taurus did not reach the depth where Seiya had been buried. Buried alive. The strength of the Gold Saints was truly unparalleled. At no time in that fight or that attempted battle, Seiya had come close to seeing or approaching Taurus. And there, in the darkness of his cave, little by little Seiya realized that his senses began to fade, disappearing in the immensity of his death.
He could see nothing, the stones cutting and collapsing around the temple were very far away, the taste of blood in his mouth was no longer metallic and the sand on those rocks no longer bothered him. Then he just heard his heart beat. What seemed to be the only thing he had left.
But it wasn't.
He still had his Cosmo.
He still had Cosmo.
And he felt a cosmos in the darkness; a terribly comforting cosmos he didn't remember feeling in his entire life. But now he was slowly regaining his lost senses. Seiya moved his right arm and found some stones with his hand, stones and sand. He remembered his Master Marin. He remembered Cosmo.
The stones were made of sand. And also made of everything that existed in the universe. Part of everything.
He needed to be a part of everything to touch the essence of the cosmos.
Then he remembered where he had felt that cosmos that woke him up in the darkness; in other ruins, now far away, where a girl stood before her young friends to tell them she was a Goddess. The Goddess Athena.
"Saori." his voice babbled in the darkness.
His mind drifted away and he experienced remembering Saori's face at various times in his short life; in the orphanage when they were very young and hated each other, in their reunion in the Mansion, an imposing projection against the sky, slowly and sadly in the swing of a garden, her serious face set in valleys and battles, her constant preoccupation.
He felt her cosmos burning.
"Can you hear me?"
He could, but he couldn't answer her.
"I'm sorry, Seiya." he heard her distant voice. "I hope you can understand me someday."
Between consciousness and dreaming, Seiya now remembered that moment.
"Thank you for saving Shiryu." Saori's voice spoke, distant through sounds of beeping.
His Cosmo burned bright.
He heard his name called over and over, echoed against stone walls, again between life and death, unable to respond. Saori's warm hug asking something in his ear.
"Please, please, please."
What did she ask for?
Protect Athena.
His eyes opened.
From the bottom of that ditch dug by the Cosmo of Aldebaran, a blaze of light made the House of Taurus brighter, revealing a brilliant and bluish aura, alive, like flames; the Gold Saint was astonished when he turned his back and saw that, from the bottom of that cave, the body of Pegasus Seiya was rising.
"What is happening? How can your cosmos be that powerful? You should have died by now. Why don't you give up?"
"Because I'm going to cut your horn off." said Seiya, alive in front of him.
On his back, that living energy, strong as flames but incredibly gentle, drew itself like a wonderful white winged horse. It was the flames of Pegasus. Seiya traced the stars of his constellation in the air and his hair shook as that enormity of his cosmos was concentrated in his fist. He punched the air raining down his Pegasus Meteors.
"I already told you that your blow is of not match against me." boasted Aldebaran, arms crossed.
That's when he realized that the Meteors were different. They were faster, which wasn't a problem for him, but they didn't seem to be rushing to hit him either. He looked back and saw that Seiya's Meteors seemed to pass through his body only to return to Seiya's fist in an impossible way, drawing an arc in the air. They all converged at just one point ahead of Aldebaran; his Gold Saint's eyes clearly saw how that confluence of meteors was drawn into a shape that resembled the orbits of stars and planets. For it was like an atom orbit.
"What is happening here?" Aldebaran was surprised. "He's about to cause a Big Bang. That means that his cosmos is dangerously approaching the Seventh Sense."
The orbits drawn with Meteors finally converged at just one point and Taurus saw a huge Comet hurled at him at a speed very close to the Speed of Light. He had to uncross his arms.
He pulled out of his posture for the first time and put his right arm in front of him to prevent that cosmos from actually obliterating the entire house; Seiya's Comet slammed violently with his right hand and finally dissipated. On the other side was Seiya, confident.
"The sword is dead." Seiya commented. "You will no longer be able to fight like that, Aldebaran."
"Seiya! Seiya! Need any help, Seiya?"
The boy saw beside him the faces of his friends rising, finally awake, and their voices echoing.
"No," he replied. "Leave it to me, I'll cut the bull's horn by myself."
Aldebaran laughed again in the Temple.
"I agree that your Cosmo is far beyond the threshold for a Bronze Saint, Seiya, but don't be fooled just because you made me stretch one arm to hold your Comet."
And he again crossed his arms.
Seiya knew he would use his technique again. But he also felt his body renewed, his eyes alert and his cosmos immense in that House of Taurus.
"The Great Horn!" roared Aldebaran in his deep voice.
And then he saw it perfectly: Aldebaran uncrossed his arms violently forward, creating a terrible golden wave that was actually the size of his body. It traveled at the Speed of Light and Seiya tried to put his hands in front of him to stop that runaway train, but he was taken and released by that enormous power.
His friends, now awake, despaired of their friend who had been shot with that huge cosmos of Aldebaran. They called his name and went to where his body was sure to be shattered, but found him getting up. To the amazement of the three, as well as Aldebaran.
"It's okay, now I can see how you do it." said Seiya.
He placed himself in front of Aldebaran and his cosmos burned with force; Taurus crossed his arms again and caused his golden aura to flood the house for what clearly appeared to be the final clash.
"The Great Horn!" roared Aldebaran.
"Pegasus Comet!"
Seiya cast his Atomic Comet again, but again it was swallowed up by the golden and terrible cosmos, blasting a crater where it was; for the Comet, though mighty, could not stop the terrible Great Horn of Aldebaran. And everyone saw with amazement that, in Seiya's place, there was only a deep pit.
They called him by name and went to the hole in hopes of rescuing him from his bottom, when his voice rang out in the House of Taurus again.
"I'm here!" he announced into the air.
He swooped down through the high House of Taurus, carrying his right arm in the air like a sword; he descended with violence and broke the left horn of the golden helmet of Taurus Aldebaran. The huge horn swung elegantly through the air and stuck to the ground behind them both.
Seiya had actually broken the bull's horn.
All in there had their mouths open.
And so was Aldebaran.
Seiya walked away to face him, ready to restart the battle.
"What about now, Aldebaran?" he asked with a smile on his face. "Are you going to admit defeat or do you want to lose the other horn?"
In front of the huge man, Seiya clearly saw how the bull's fury slowly dissipated from his face, transforming into a huge smile followed by a deep and pleasant laugh.
"You're right, Seiya. I lost." he commented, running his left hand over the missing horn on his helmet.
He walked over to Seiya and placed his huge hand on his shoulder.
"Marin taught you very well." said his deep voice. "And I utterly regret all the yaido lessons I gave her when she was an aspiring Saint."
And he started laughing again.
"You've proven your worth and, as promised, you can pass through the House of Taurus."
The other Bronze Saints approached Seiya, excited.
"Seiya, that was impressive." Shun said.
"We are so sorry for not being able to be of any help."
"Don't mention it, Shiryu. But we have to go, as I feel too much time has passed and we need to hurry."
"Wait a second." said Aldebaran gravely.
And he stood before them like a huge bull.
"Only Seiya was able to defeat me. You didn't do anything."
Their mouths fell again and Seiya put himself on guard to protest, when Hyoga put a hand on his shoulders and stopped him from proceeding with the complaint.
"He's right, Seiya. And besides, we only need one of us to make it to the Camerlengo. Go at once and we will soon be with you." said the Cygnus Saint.
Seiya looked at his three friends and nodded with the plan, but not before leaving a hint.
"Guys, his blow is like unsheathing a yaido's sword. Remember that!" he said before running for the exit.
"Hey!" scolded Aldebaran behind him. "You punk!"
Taurus' flame went out.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: I made sure to bring Aldebaran eating a feast that appeared in the movie Legend of the Sanctuary, haha. Man, it's too good.
NEXT CHAPTER: LIGHT AND DARKNESS!
Seiya arrives at the Gemini Temple and is faced with a labyrinth, which causes the Bronze Sainta to separate and make an important promise. Aldebaran protects the House of Aries.