56 — HOUSE OF LIBRA
When they left the House of Virgo, which was trembling with the power of the Gold Saints that shook it, the first thing Seiya did was stand outside and give his friend Shun a strong hug. He hugged back, understanding what was going on in his friend's chest, because he knew that, deep down, he also had a huge sadness for Seiya not having found his sister yet.
"It couldn't have been easy to leave Ikki like that, Shun." Seiya said looking at the boy's teary eyes.
"It wasn't, but we are Athena Saints and we need to move on." he said.
"I'm sure she'll find a way to get back to her old self, Shun, after all she's the Phoenix, an immortal bird, and we've seen her coming back from Hell other times." Shiryu spoke confidently, and Shun let out a smile that her friend couldn't see, but she certainly felt it.
"Thank you, Shiryu." he replied, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Let's go now! I'm sure Ikki wouldn't want me to be crying here. We need to save Saori!"
They agreed among themselves and set off at a run. As soon as they rounded the first curve up the stairs, Seiya and Shun saw with amazement that it was less than five hours before the Fire Clock's flames were completely extinguished. They had wasted too much time in the House of Virgo, Shaka was really the one closest to the gods and her power was unparalleled; lucky for them that Aioria had finally regained his consciousness and allowed them a chance to move forward.
"We're super late." Shiryu lamented when he learned from his friends the situation of the clock. "We have less than five hours."
"No, Shiryu." Seiya corrected. "We still have five hours and we'll make it. Aioria is now on our side!"
"You're right, Seiya, I'm sorry."
"Don't feel sorry, Shiryu." soothed Shun. "I bet it wasn't easey to see Saori when you were at the Threshold of the Underworld as you've said."
"You're right." Seiya agreed.
"Hyoga and Xiaoling were there as well." she remembered. "I feel like we can still save them if we can get to the Camerlengo."
"And that's what we're going to do, Shiryu!" Seiya's excitement filled the girl.
"I wonder how is the situation with the army of Eris." Shun remembered.
"I'm sure Master Mu won't let anyone get to Saori."
"Yes, I know. You're probably right, Shiryu. Anyway, Eris isn't the one who really worries me in this whole story."
Shun and Shiryu felt like their friend had become very mysterious before he continued.
"It's the Camerlengo." he finally said. "Aioria said that he is the evil soul inside the Sanctuary."
"At the same time, he's Saori's only chance of being saved."
"What kind of person is this Camerlengo?" Shun wondered.
They did not know. Few actually knew what kind of person the Camerlengo was. Aioria was one of those people, but the Leo Saint had stayed in the House of Virgo and, ahead of them, they had one more temple to cross.
"Look! It's the House of Libra." Seiya announced to his friends.
"Libra!" exclaimed Shiryu. "Seiya, the House of Libra is the ancient temple of the Old Master of the Five Old Peaks."
"Is that so, Shiryu?" Shun and Seiya were startled.
"Yes, he was the former Libra Saint and no one has taken his place since then. So we shouldn't have any problems as it will be empty. So we should save time and soon we'll be in Scorpio."
"That's good news, Shiryu. See, luck is already turning in our favor. Let's go!"
They finally entered the seventh temple, the House of Libra, and found a place clearly abandoned; dark, with few torches lit and absolutely no sign of recent habitation. There was no threatening or peaceful cosmos that could betray the presence of a magnanimous Gold Saint. It really looked deserted, so they simply ran without worrying about being surprised.
Until the meager firelight on the temple columns began to reveal a strange sculpture in the distance of the corridor. And when they finally got closer, what they saw was a huge block of ice standing upright, easily twice their height. And inside the block of ice, locked in a deep sleep, was someone they knew.
"Hyoga!" Seiya and Shun exclaimed when they saw their friend frozen.
"What are you saying, Seiya?"
"Shiryu, Hyoga is in front of us, but he is frozen inside a huge ice coffin."
What Shiryu heard was as incredible as impossible, after all Hyoga was the Ice Saint himself. However, she blindly approached the block of ice and realized that she could actually feel how the temperature in the temple was dramatically colder a few steps ahead. Her hands undoubtedly found the surface of a dry, terribly hard block of ice, which didn't run down her hand but sublimated an icy mist that was rising from the block.
"Damn, that's why we felt his cosmos disappear at that time." Shun commented.
More than that, however, Shiryu felt, close as she was, that Hyoga's heart was still beating. That Hyoga's Cosmo was still burning. Very subtly, almost minimally, but it was still there and she could feel it.
"He is still alive." Shiryu announced to her friends.
Seiya and Shun perked up.
"What is he doing here?" Seiya asked.
"Hyoga was hit by the Gemini Saint's Another Dimension who claimed to be able to send him to another world." added Shun. "But it looks like he ended up at the House of Libra."
"And you saw Hyoga walk on the Threshold of the House of Cancer, didn't you Shiryu?"
"Yes. That means he still lives, but slowly walks towards his death. We can still save him!" she said.
"Okay, so let's get him out of there as soon as possible!"
Libra's House lit up with the white aura of Seiya's Cosmo, which covered his body; Shun and Shiryu backed away so he could use all his strength to shatter the ice in front of them and free Hyoga from its prison. But, as strong as were the Pegasus Meteros that Seiya fired at that block, he didn't even scratch the ice. The boy still tried several times, to the point that with his bare hand he tried to cause any crack in that wall. Shun also tried to join his fist with his friend threwing his Chains. The three of them combined their fists and nothing happened. Not even a scratch.
"This is one hell of an ice, how can it be so tough? Not even the ice created by Lady Crystal, Hyoga's master was that powerful. Who could do something so tough?"
"Damn it." Shiryu said, finally realizing herself. "I think I know who it might be."
"What do you mean, Shiryu?"
"The Old Master once told me that he still knew a few Gold Saints, like Master Mu and the former Pontiff of the Sanctuary. But he also spoke of a person whom they considered to be a scholar, a scholar who fulfilled the role of Master of the Sanctuary Library. But that wasn't his only fame, as it was also said that he was a Siberian Ice Mage."
"From Siberia?" Shun wondered, remembering. "That's where Hyoga trained."
"Yes," Shiryu said. "That Ice Mage is the Gold Saint of Aquarius."
"Aquarius Camus."
"Seiya?" the two asked when they saw that their friend seemed to know him.
"I remember now when I was in Siberia with Hyoga, he asked about his Masters to little Jacob and that boy told him that Master Camus had not returned."
"Master Camus." Shun mused. "He didn't return, because he was here in the Sanctuary."
"So that means that Hyoga was trained by two different masters." Shiryu concluded.
"Yes," Seiya replied. "Perhaps it was through this scholar Camus that he learned of the Galaxian War and was sent to punish us." Seiya reflected, looking at Hyoga's calm and white face inside the ice. "But if the master of Hyoga is the Aquarius Saint, why would he be in the House of Libra? And why would he do this to his own disciple?"
Seiya was confused, but he also knew that time passed and, every second, closer to Saori's heart the Golden Arrow was. He punched the ice again, not understanding what they could do for his friend, already suffering terribly from the possibility of having to leave him there.
Supported by the huge ice coffin, Seiya felt Hyoga's Cosmo pulsate as Shiryu had previously felt.
"Damn, I can't believe we can't do anything!"
At the height of Seiya's despair and the hopelessness of his friends, they heard a very loud noise as if the stones were dragging in a low rumble; a golden glow caught the attention of the Bronze Saints and they noticed that on a wall to the right of the huge ice coffin dozens of stone blocks were moving by themselves, slowly, revealing a recess in the House of Libra.
And when a fair number of stones moved into the wall, a golden scale revealed itself to be resplendent, emanating a brilliant golden aura.
"It's the Libra Cloth!" Shun announced.
"My Master's Cloth, I can clearly feel his Cosmo here as if he were really among us."
"Now what?" Seiya asked himself.
The golden aura of Libra's Cloth glowed even more intensely and Seiya noticed how Shiryu too, suddenly manifested her greenish cosmos with a lot of intensity, almost without her will.
"Your Cosmos are resonating, Shiryu!"
"You're right, Shun." she agreed, also surprised. "Perhaps the Libra Cloth can help in freeing Hyoga."
"Are you going to wear it like Mii used the Sagittarius Cloth, Shiryu?"
"I don't know."
"Shiryu!" called Shun. "I may be mistaken, but the Libra Cloth doesn't seem to be only a protection like all of the other Cloths; some parts of it look like weapons."
"Weapons?" Shiryu was surprised.
"Shun is right, Shiryu. I can see a trident, a sword, and that looks like a triple bar."
"And the balance is made out of two golden shields." Shun completed.
"The cloth is split into weapons?" Shiryu mused, alone.
"I don't understand either, Shiryu." said Seiya. "I remember Marin telling me that the Athena Saints have always fought without weapons."
And he looked at Shun who nodded, as if that rule was known to him too.
"The only exception was given to the Saints of the Isle of Andromeda." he said. "Both the Silver and Bronze Saints of the island all wear strengthened Chains so that we can aid in Athena's defense."
"I see now." Shiryu finally spoke. "Perhaps the Old Master has given us the opportunity so that we can use Libra's Weapons to destroy the ice."
"Ah, that may be it!" Seiya celebrated, excited. "I'll get the trident!"
But his hands, upon touching the Libra Cloth, were immediately repelled by the golden balance.
"Only Shiryu's Cosmo resonated with the Cloth, Seiya. I think only she will be able to do that." Shun said.
"Ouch, that master of yours seems so bad-tempered, Shiryu." cracked Seiya.
"And besides that," she added. "I don't think the trident is a good choice. We need a more precise weapon, otherwise we can destroy the ice coffin, but also end up killing Hyoga inside."
Shiryu seemed to ponder which weapons could be the right choice for that task, her cosmic aura connected with the golden scale. A piece of gold flew off the scale towards Shiryu and she took it by the hand. It made up its mind.
"The sword."
Shiryu placed herself immediately in front of the huge ice coffin in which Hyoga was frozen standing. She asked her friends to back off briefly and lit her Cosmo, brandishing the Golden Sword in front of her; a small but absolutely wonderful sword and light in hand. The cut had to be precise, she knew very well.
She reached out so that the tip of the Sword touched the ice, so that she knew perfectly well the distance she needed. She picked up the Sword and leapt with it to make a cut from the top to the base of the ice block with the golden tip of the blade. Upon reaching the lowest part of the ice, Shiryu rose and gave a light punch to the center, as if to unleash the forces inside the ice so that it would collapse.
Nothing happened at first.
"Try again, Shiryu." Seiya asked, but she asked him to wait.
Finally they realized that the thin line that the Sword of Libra had drawn from top to bottom was lit by a slowly descending light. And the coffin exploded its ice all at once into small pieces that immediately evaporated into the air, leaving behind only an icy mist around them.
"It worked!" Shun celebrated.
"The Sword of Libra is incredible, it destroyed the coffin with a single stroke." Seiya observed.
The Sword then freed itself from Shiryu's hands and returned to the Golden Scale which was out of balance; and when the weapon returned to the totem, the shields balanced again.
"Hyoga!" exclaimed Shun.
Seiya looked at his friend's body that appeared under a fog of evaporating ice. His skin, his cloth and the clothes he wore underneath were still very white. He ran to his friend and tried to hear his heart, which was beating very slowly.
"His heart is beating very slowly. It can stop at any minute."
"We managed to get him out of the ice, but…"
"We can't take care of him here." Seiya spoke to Shiryu. "What can we do?"
"I'll take care of Hyoga." Shun announced.
Shiryu stood up and Seiya looked at his friend who felt resolute.
"I'll take care of him, my friends, don't worry; hurry up and head to the next temple. We've already managed to save him from the ice coffin, I'm sure I'll be able to get him back."
There was a smile on his face that made Seiya confident that he would really be able to bring Hyoga back from that icy hell. Seiya agreed, as they really had little time there. He felt Shiryu's hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, Seiya. Shun will take care of him."
"OK, Shiryu. Don't take too long, Shun, we're waiting for you."
The Andromeda Saint watched as his two friends broke into a run forward to the stairs that would ascend to the next temple, the House of Scorpio.
Shun lifted Hyoga's body in his arms and took him outside too, under the hot sun that still burned that afternoon in Greece. He laid him out so that he could receive the light and heat of the sun and also began to talk to him.
"Listen to my voice, Hyoga. I know you can hear me." he began, sitting down beside Hyoga's lying unconscious body. "You know, my master always said that the human body is the best for warming up another cold body, but you were hit by the ice of your master, a Gold Saint. I don't think that alone will be enough. Nor this hot sun that shines in the afternoon. Keep listening to my voice, Hyoga."
The Andromeda Saint tried to stimulate Hyoga so that he would not get lost in the immensity of his unconsciousness. Shun took Hyoga's cold hands in his own, tested the temperature of his face with his fingers and noticed that he was still terribly frozen.
He sat down beside Hyoga so that when he lifted his friend's torso, the two were facing each other. Shun hugged him, nuzzling his hard hair against his chest. The Andromeda Chains came loose from his two fists and wrapped Hyoga's hips and legs up to his feet.
And there, sitting and embracing, Shun finally manifested his wonderful rosy Cosmos that covered his body with a beautiful and warm aura, but also spread through the Chains, warming Hyoga's entire body with a tender, affectionate and comforting sensation.
Shun concentrated with his eyes closed, noticing as best he could Hyoga's heartbeat beside him, seeking any breath from his mouth near his neck. He tried to remember how he had felt part of the Universe when he defeated the Gemini Saint, because his Cosmo needed to reach levels like that if he wanted to reach the cold air of the Aquarius Saint that covered Hyoga's body. It was necessary for him to touch the Seventh Sense.
He slowly felt how his Cosmo touched the Universe, clearly remembering the moments he suffered deliriously with the cold of the Black Swan and was saved by the Cygnus Saint, Hyoga, who was now suffering in his arms. His Cosmo was so nurturing that Shun realized that around them was not only his rosy aura, but also the subtly infinite white of Hyoga's cold Cosmo, which was gradually emerging from his body. He was doing it.
He burnt even harder his Cosmo so that he could finally pull out Hyoga's beautiful Cosmo from inside him. They were so close together and connected that a deep sadness invaded Shun that was none other than the pain that throbbed inside the Cygnus Saint for his mother. An immense longing that burned more and more intensely with his cosmos that resurfaced. The longing for his mother, a figure whom he considered a lost brother, his master, a girl lost in the crowd.
The effort had been so much that Shun fell unconscious.
But Hyoga opened his eyes, reborned.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Barely any change, just more development. The famous scene from the House of Libra, I have made a little less explicit, but no less affectionate for that.
NEXT CHAPTER: SURRENDER OR DEATH
The House of Scorpion is the temple of Miro, a terrifying Gold Saint who paralyzes Seiya and Shiryu, but both are saved by the rebirth of Cygnus Hyoga who will fight Miro.