51 — A GIANT WARRIOR
The House of Leo, with a facade as opulent as imposing with its pair of wonderfully carved lions guarding its entrance, was undergoing an unusual process of destruction incompatible with its beautiful entrance. Several fallen columns, broken slab sections and stretches of stone in a trail of destruction had already spread across the battered and uneven ground. The temple was very well lit by many great torches of fire hanging from the columns that still stood.
The person responsible for that disregard for the structure of the temple was none other than its own owner: Aioria, the Leo Gold Saint.
His victim crawled across the uneven ground stained with his own blood; leaning on a crumbling, fallen column in front of him, he finally managed to get back on his feet. Aioria did not spare him from his terrible power and, were it not for that Bronze Cloth restored by Aries Mu, perhaps the boy would have been dead for a long time.
"You don't know when to give up."
Aioria's voice was deep and terrible.
Seiya looked up, wiped the blood that insisted on running down his face and took as deep a breath as he could. In front of him, the imposing figure of Aioria had his white cloak placed delicately over his left shoulder, so that his figure was both elegant and terrible.
Him, of all people, who Seiya remembered well having sworn loyalty to Athena when he was shocked by the cosmos of the Sagittarius Cloth, his brother's Cloth. The Bronze Saint arrived at the House of Leo with renewed spirit, believing that there he would have a powerful ally in that race against time. But the fury with which he was repeatedly struck by Aioria's golden cosmos immediately when he arrived before the Gold Saint was only no more violent than the destruction of the light and hopeful expectation he carried with him.
"What happened, Aioria?" Seiya asked, putting in a few words the immense anguish he still had in his chest.
Aioria was silent, eyes closed.
"You saw the Sagittarius Cloth wake you up from the lies you were living, why are you attacking me like that? You look like someone else. What happened to you, Aioria? Please tell me!"
He said nothing again and that was actually the first time Seiya seemed to have any opportunity to try to talk to him.
"Miss Saori is unconscious in the House of Aries, hurt by a Golden Arrow! She needs our help!"
But the man looked distant, as if he had suddenly passed out.
"The Camerlengo is the only person who can remove the arrow and that has to be done before the clock's flames go out, otherwise Athena will die. Do you understand that, Aioria? Athena will die!"
"Athena will die?" Aioria asked, finally opening his eyes, startled.
With open eyes, Seiya saw from closer that Aioria had an obsessed expression, his eyes seemed glazed and the color of his irises were much smaller. He immediately put his hands to his head, as if trying to contain within his mind any monster that tried to open his skull. He trembled with the effort to ward off those terrible pains.
Seiya had seen that before and tried to reason with him.
"That's why we need to get to the Camerlengo anyway, you need to help me!"
Aioria then closed his eyes, as if to prevent what was causing his enormous pain from flowing through his eyes, locking himself inside and controlling what was hurting his mind.
"Do you understand now?" Seiya tried. "There's no point in fighting here, let me go by the House of Leo, Aioria."
"No, I can't!" he roared angrily, gritting his teeth.
The Pegasus Saint moved a few steps away, not at all ashamed of feeling cornered by that imposing presence. It really was a Golden Lion and his helmet, Seiya observed better now, even seemed to simulate the hair of a jungle king, letting his short, lighter hair appear, but elongating its strands like a golden crown.
"I said already. Anyone who tries to go through the House of Leo will be killed. The only way to go through this temple is over my dead body, Seiya!"
The eyes again open and sick, for he looked like a maniac.
The man in front of Seiya wasn't the same Aioria he had known as a younger boy; once, he quickly remembered, Seiya ran away from his training chased away by the other Greek boys being harassed as a foreigner. Marin tried to tell him to continue training, but Seiya didn't see the point for that anymore, since he could never be a Saint if he wasn't born there. It was Aioria who convinced him to go back to training with Marin.
It was Aioria who interceded for him in the battle against Cassius.
He saw Aioria swear loyalty to Athena.
For there he could no longer see Aioria. There was something else on his mind.
He knew that something terrible had happened to that old Aioria.
And something even more terrible would happen to him, for the truth was that Saori was still suffering in the first House and Seiya needed to get to the Camerlengo if he wanted her to live. And it was everything he wanted most.
It was terrible, but he would have to attack Leo Aioria. And it was terrible, for he would face the mighty Lion Saint.
"I have no choice. In that case, I'll have to beat you here, Aioria!"
He burned his cosmos, still looking in Aioria's lost eyes for any trace of that good man.
He didn't find it.
The Pegasus Saint rushed towards the Gold Saint with his shining fist to unleash his incredible Meteors, but found himself hurled against columns again. It was all very fast. Seiya only saw Aioria's right shoulder flash a golden glow and, in the next instant, he was on the ground again.
He couldn't see Aioria's technique.
He knew that Aioria used his technique close to the Speed of Light, in such a way that he didn't have any chance of even knowing what he could do against it. He couldn't avoid that technique if he couldn't see it.
He got up with great difficulty again.
"No matter how, I need to see his blow. I need to see his technique at the Speed of Light. I need to reach the Seventh Sense."
He burned his cosmos trying to remember the hole in the House of Taurus where he saw himself part of everything by losing part of his senses; he closed his eyes to plunge into the darkness and his Cosmo soared again.
Aioria walked towards him, as it was clear that he would not give up.
Seiya asked his own cosmos for a miracle.
Focused on spreading out across the universe and touching the Essence of the Cosmos, Seiya for the first time felt close to him the presence or at least the subtle cosmo-energy of his friends. From Shun and Shiryu. He felt even farther away, deep in his chest, the surge of Saori's life.
But he really saw himself invaded by an immense force when he recognized in the cosmos that he manifested within himself, as he sought to be part of everything, the strength of Marin. Marin's Cosmo. A Cosmo that Seiya recognized so well, he missed so much, and in that moment it was as if she were beside him.
He opened his eyes and finally saw.
When Aioria's right shoulder shone, he clearly saw that it was the lion's fist manifesting hundreds of beams of light, like golden rays crossing his sight in all directions; up, to the sides, diagonally, forward, crisscrossed. A random array of lights that Seiya knew that if he touched any beam, he would have the body destroyed.
But he could do nothing to avoid them and he was hit again, flying against columns bringing even more destruction to the House of Leo. He thought of Marin, who he was sure was also fighting somewhere in the Sanctuary.
Shun and Shiryu ran very hurriedly through the stairs that connected the House of Cancer to the House of Leo; the Andromeda Saint saw when the fire clock appeared on the horizon that the Leo flame was weaker, still burning, but clearly fading in time.
They were very apprehensive, for the destruction in the Leo's temple was such that, even if they weren't there, they could feel the cosmic crash subtly in the distance.
"Shiryu, something is weird."
"Can you feel it too, Shun?"
"Yes. Seiya is fighting in the House of Leo."
"We need to hurry to help him!" said the girl.
"It's not just that."
"What do you mean, Shun?"
"The Leo Gold Saint is Aioria. That is the Gold Saint who was in the city and swore allegiance to Saori."
"But then…"
"I don't know. Something terrible must be happening."
They continued with their chests heavy and ran up the stairs as fast as they could, but when the steps ended on a plateau before continuing to climb forward, Shun saw a huge person appear, stepping between them and the temple that was already approaching above.
He was easily a boy who was twice their size, with muscular and large limbs, an extremely strong chest, but who wore no armor except for simple protections on the legs, shoulders and arms. It wasn't an armor like theirs. Closer, Shun noticed that he was missing an ear.
"I can't let you into the House of Leo."
"Who are you?" Shun asked, just to confirm what he already imagined.
"I am Cassius."
Cassius, Shun reflected. For both he and Shiryu also knew the story as Seiya told them about his training time in Greece, how he was being chased by Shaina and his henchmen. The greatest of them, his great rival, Cassius. Which he had to defeat to get the Pegasus Cloth. And that he did it by ripping off one of his ears.
"So you were the one who fought Seiya for the Pegasus Cloth."
The memory seemed to make the boy irate.
However, there in front of Shun and Shiryu was an extremely tall and muscular boy, but they knew he couldn't even control the Cosmo. Without a Cloth, it wasn't a threat to Bronze Saints like them, accustomed to terrible battles.
"Come on, Shiryu."
And the two began to climb the stairs again to get to Leo, as they could not waste time there.
"I told you I can't let you get through."
"That means you're going to have to stop us." Shiryu spoke simply. "By force."
"If that's what you want." Cassius laughed mockingly.
Then they heard, very low but perceptible, Seiya's voice scream inside the Lion's temple, which was already very close.
"Perhaps the battle on the House of Leo is over." Cassius commented looking at the temple.
"What do you mean?" asked the Bronze Saints together.
"Aioria is now just a fighting machine."
"But that doesn't make sense, he swore loyalty to Athena." Shun spoke again.
"But unfortunately Aioria no longer has control over his mind. And if he has no mercy, Seiya will surely die. Maybe his body parts are already scattered around the house."
Both Shun and Shiryu felt even more urgent to move on and stop wasting time with that conversation that could not help Seiya at all. After all, Cassius had been easily defeated by the boy and could not even control the cosmos.
"Let's go at once, Shun." said the girl.
But Shiryu felt, too late, as the air around her spread decisively and her stomach was hit violently by a monumental force, as if a train had hit her without her expecting it.
Shun shouted her name seeing her friend being thrown by Cassius down the stairs; he had hit Shiryu using all his body strength on his shoulder to hit the Dragon Saint in the stomach, throwing her many, many meters below. Cassius then stopped in front of Shun, still shocked to see the speed that unarmored boy had; certainly not the same weakling Seiya had told them.
Cassius punched the ground between Shun's legs, causing a huge hole making the Andromeda Saint jump to escape; but when he jumped, he saw his leg being taken by the huge hand of Cassius who, howling, slammed Shun's body against the rocky mountain wall and also against the stairs, like someone beating a rug.
And he also threw him very far away from there, so that both he and Shiryu would have to overcome all the steps they had climbed again.
The boy was not a Saint, nor was he wearing a Cloth, but as Shiryu felt the pain in her stomach, she was sure that inside Cassius there was a Cosmo about to emerge.
The destruction of the House of Leo was enormous, but Cassius could still hear Pegasus' suffering in the temple. It didn't take long for him to find Seiya lying helpless on the temple floor while Aioria, the Gold Saint, stepped on his leg.
"It's time to put an end to this fight."
"Wait." said a strong voice in the darkness.
Cassius stepped into the light, interrupting the torture of the Pegasus Saint.
"Cassius?" Aioria found it strange when he saw the huge warrior in his temple.
Seiya was also surprised to see his old rival there at that very last moment.
"I will not give up Seiya's life to anyone. He is mine!"
The huge boy placed himself between Aioria and Seiya's fallen body.
"It's been a long time, Seiya." he said in his deep, menacing voice.
The Pegasus Saint rose slowly to his feet, seeing in front of him a face that had haunted him throughout his childhood.
"Ever since our fight I have only dreamed of the day I would get revenge on you." and then he turned his face so that Seiya could see the scar in place of the ear he had cut. "Every time this scar ached, I dreamed of killing you once and for all, and that day has come."
"That's right, Cassius." Aioria spoke behind him. "Seiya deprived your dream of becoming a Saint."
"Seiya, I'm glad to see you here. And you know what? I'll finish you off!"
He let out a contented laugh before threatening decisively.
"I'll tear you apart!"
Seiya put himself on guard to fight Cassius again, but saw how the huge boy's gaze looked over his shoulder. To Aioria.
"That was everything I wanted most. But before that..."
Cassius roared, but his fist didn't go in Seiya's direction; the huge boy spun on his axis and threw all his strength towards Aioria, who parried his huge fist with his left hand. As the boy was gigantic, Cassius' closed fist was the same size as Aioria's entire hand. The Gold Saint, however, with his strength, began to crush the fist closing his hands slowly, breaking his knuckles little by little.
"What are you doing, Cassius?" he asked looking at the huge boy with a sadistic smile on his face.
Cassius howled in pain.
"Cassius?" Seiya surprised, standing up.
"Seiya, I'll hold him and you get out of here!" he ordered.
Cassius then approached Aioria, taking advantage of the small distance between them and took him around the waist, lifting him into the air and crushing him with his giant strength.
"What happened to you, Cassius?" Seiya asked, confused, because everything was changed there in front of him.
"I'm not doing this for you." said the boy through gritted teeth. "I'm doing it for Miss Shaina."
"Doing it for Shaina?" confused Seiya.
"That's right! Listen, Seiya. Master Aioria is under the control of a terrible spell." and then turned his attention to the Gold Saint's fanatical eyes. "He won't get back to normal until he kills someone personally."
Seiya was astonished.
"Quickly, I'll take care of him. Get out of this temple now!" asked Cassius.
"Cassius, let go of me!" Aioria spoke slowly.
"No way!" Cassius replied, squeezing him even more tightly.
Aioria raised his arms and hit Cassius' shoulders with violence, making him spit blood on the floor. And repeated several times, making the boy hesitate, but Cassius, closing his eyes, saw Shaina's face suffering and he drew strength from within to walk a few steps, squeezing even more tightly against Aioria's body.
Seiya saw how around the body of the huge boy and rival glowed a white aura that, in fact, was his Cosmo that burned. After all, maybe Cassius could finally feel the Universe inside him.
"Seiya, what are you waiting for? Run away!"
The Pegasus Saint got up to leave, but Aioria's golden Cosmos manifested with force and he finally got rid of those strong arms like trunks, hitting Cassius with his knee in the stomach. The boy fell suffering on the ground and Seiya ran to his body, but was pushed away by him.
He held Aioria's legs, still lying in front of him.
"Stay away, Cassius, I have nothing against a soldier like you!"
"Never, master Aioria. I'll only let go when you go back to what you were."
"Then you will die first!"
Aioria kicked Cassius' chin raising his body in the air, such was the strength that the Gold Saint had, and with his fist he hit the boy's stomach with his golden technique. Seiya watched, with horror, as the golden glow passed through Cassius' body, coming out of his back.
The force had been such that Cassius' huge muscled body rolled in the air and crashed into a column before falling to the ground. Seiya ran to him, desperate. He was bleeding from his chest, his face was cut, and his mouth vomited the blood that flowed from within. He still tried to get up, but he couldn't.
Seiya held his body worriedly.
"By Athena, Cassius, why did you do this?"
"I told you. Aioria cannot break the spell until someone dies before his eyes."
"That's no reason for you to die." said Seiya.
"But if you die someone will be very sad. I already said that I don't do this for you, Seiya. It would break my heart to see her suffering. I couldn't stand it. She is everything to me."
Seiya saw that from the huge boy's eyes tears started to flow; and he seemed surprised when he wiped the sadness from his eyes. He let out a husky laugh.
"Funny to realize that I can cry."
"Cassius!" Seiya reacted when he saw that the boy trembled with pain.
The Pegasus Saint looked over his shoulder at the Gold Siant and saw him suffering inside his mind, but his broken voice caught his attention.
"I'm going to kill you both." he threatened.
Seiya understood that the outcome would be terrible if something was not done, so he placed himself in front of Cassius to face Aioria and burned his Pegasus Cosmos. Beside him, however, he saw that the huge Cassius had placed himself at his side to fight and the white aura that Seiya saw around his body came back to help him.
"Come on, Cassius! Together we can win!" Seiya said.
The Gold Saint Cosmo also rose in the temple and the trio faced each other for the last moment in that House of Leo. Aioria kept his demons inside his mind and his voice reverberated like the roar of a lion.
"Lightning Bolt!"
Seiya couldn't see Aioria's technique, as Cassius stepped forward between the two and placed himself between him and Aioria's golden fist, so that his huge body covered Seiya from any wound that that terrible technique could do to his body. While enduring with immense suffering the technique of the Gold Saint, Cassius had the strength to shout to Seiya to attack Aioria.
"Come on, Seiya! Bring Aioria back!"
The golden glow faded and Cassius's body fell to the ground in front of him; Aioria had his eyes fluttering looking at the large body stretched out in front of him. Seiya jumped in the air and ignited his Cosmo with fury as if he had wings, to descend like a shooting star and hit a very strong kick in the face of the delirious Leo Saint, throwing his helmet away inside that temple.
Aioria stumbled back and, supported by a column, slipped to sit on the floor, out of breath. His eyes twisted with pain and both hands on the head.
Seiya didn't waste any time with the Gold Saint and knelt beside Cassius' badly wounded body.
"Cassius! Cassius, don't let go now."
Cassius had his eyes fluttering, saying goodbye to his life, while his quivering mouth called out to Shaina, when finally his face fell to the side with a smile on his face. Seiya couldn't help the tears in his eyes as he touched his deceased friend's shoulder. He pulled his face to him and hugged him, seeing that on the once so hateful face of Cassius, a short smile froze on his mouth forever.
Shun and Shiryu had arrived and were now beside their suffering friend.
Seiya looked from them to Cassius and finally over his shoulder to see the Gold Saint.
Aioria got up from where he was and walked over to Cassius' fallen body.
"What have I done?" he asked, worried.
Seiya was devastated when talking to Aioria.
"I see you finally got back to normal." he said when he saw Aioria's hard eyes, in deep disappointment. "But Cassius…"
"Cassius." Aioria lamented when she saw him so hurt.
"My friend Cassius." Seiya said. "It's time for you to become a star and protect Shaina."
A deadly air between them all.
"I didn't know he was going to let himself get killed." Shiryu commented beside Shun.
"He sacrificed his own life." Shun commented.
"To wake me up." Aioria's deep and heavy voice spoke.
"And let me live." Seiya completed, in tears.
Aioria knelt beside him and the cloak he wore on his shoulders stretched over Cassius' huge, bloodied body.
"Cassius. Your death will not be in vain."
They all looked at each other and Shun put his hand on Seiya's shoulder, who stood up, because his mission was not finished yet.
It was then that they felt a cosmos so powerful that, for an instant, they were amazed. Aioria, the Leo Saint, ignited in gold and his cosmos illuminated the House of Leo entirely. Seiya put himself back on guard fearing that Aioria had returned to his diabolical state, because the cosmos was even more violent than before.
"I'll personally go to the Camerlengo to get this over with!" he roared.
And then he turned to Seiya, who saw his eyes flicker with hatred, but in a very different way than before; it was the same Aioria he knew, but something had enraged him so that his anger was not the result of a spell, but of many years of persecution and lies.
"Will you fight by our side?" Shun asked.
"I will fight alongside Athena!" announced Aioria, as if for the entire Sanctuary to hear. "And for Cassius."
Seiya felt his chest fill with hope, because that strength from Aioria was exactly what he expected when he arrived at the Lion House for the first time.
"You should all hear this!" he spoke gravely to the Bronze Saints. "You must fear the Camerlengo. He's not who you think he is."
And then hope shattered among them all; when Seiya came forward to ask what Aioria meant by that, something even more terrible happened: again he saw that the Leo Saint was thrown to the ground, tormented by headaches.
"Aioria!" shouted Shun and Seiya when they saw him suffer.
His voice babbled and he pulled Seiya closer so he could speak to him.
"I'm sorry, Seiya." he began, with pain that affected his speech. "I can't go on until I banish this spell from my mind completely, but I'll be with you soon." he spoke between a lot of pain and shortness of breath. "It's unfortunate, because the one you'll face now is the worst of all the Gold Saints. The one closest to the gods. Virgo Shaka."
And then his headaches again knocked him to the ground, while Shun and Seiya tried to help him anyway.
"The closest to the gods?" Shun asked.
"What does that mean?" said Seiya.
Aioria tried to keep his mind clear and his voice sounded with extreme difficulty.
"Remember this! Remember what I'm going to say very well, Bronze Saints." and finally opened his eyes to meet them. "Don't let Shaka open her eyes."
"Shaka's eyes?" asked Shiryu.
"Yes. When Shaka opens her eyes, everyone around her dies."
And then the pain invaded his mind again and he pushed them away.
"Go at once, Athena needs you!"
Seiya looked at Shun determined to move on.
"Come on, Shiryu!" called the two.
And the three Bronze Saints finally departed the House of Leo.
Far away, Shaina woke up alone in her bed and couldn't shake the deep sadness that sank in her chest. A huge part of her life had left her.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: The battle with Cassius' intervention is the same as in Manga and Anime, the difference is that here I needed to make Aioria rage and swear the Camerlengo to death, but not being able to join Seiya because of the remnants of the Demon Emperor in his mind. It's always a balance to try to alter and make the Gold Saints less stupid, but at the same time try not to mess too much with battles that are classic and precious.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE DEMON OF CANON ISLAND
Ikki leaves for a volcanic island to retrieve his left arm, when he realizes that the island village is plagued by a demon.