62 — THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK
The winds that blew high on Starhill were mighty, so much so that Marin was surprised by violent gusts that threw her off balance on that plateau while she was facing the Gemini Saint.
The Gold Saint appeared as the guardian of the Temple of the Stars that stood on that huge hill; but just as he came, he suddenly disappeared as soon as night fell, fading away in the strong wind. Marin reflected that, without a doubt, it had been a miracle that had gotten the Gold Saint out of her way.
She rose, taking advantage of the fact that she was alone again, and ran into the temple carved into the stone of that gigantic hill isolated on the horizon. The temple was dark, as there was no torch or any source of light inside that temple that could even be lit by her. And as soon as she entered the darkroom, she realized why and how she would need nothing to guide herself: her silver cosmos ascended around her body without her controlling it and a glowing aura lit her way into the temple.
As it was an isolated stone spire between mountains and lower hills, this plateau was relatively small, so the Temple of the Stars was not large. It consisted of a short inner corridor that led to a carved stone plinth, where a beautiful large silver cup rested with a wide bulge and a protruding rim. Marin's silver cosmos reflected against the metal of the cup and also gleamed off the surface of a dark water that, oddly enough, didn't seem to be standing still, but moved very subtly within the cup.
"The Crater Cloth." Marin guessed in the darkness.
She looked in awe at that Silver Cloth, like hers, but unlike her own it had distinct properties, as she well knew. The Crater Cloth gave its Saint the important task of verifying and even guiding the decisions of the Supreme Pontiff in his stellar readings, which, in general, were taken in that Temple, as it was the closest point to the sky.
She walked around the cup and, near the bottom, noticed that hidden in the darkness there was a very subtle purple glow oozing from the base of a wall, as if a lighted anteroom had hidden itself, locked by a door. She left the Crater where it was and approached the bottom of the Temple, where she observed, thanks to the light of her cosmos, that it was an impassable wall, without any sign of a latch or means of opening.
"Get out of here." the echoing, deep voice of someone behind her came.
She turned around startled and noticed that the Gemini Saint was back.
Her body froze as she was now trapped deep in the Temple against a Gold Saint who, she well knew, was capable of manipulating dimensions and attacking her wherever he chose. She didn't have the same ability.
Marin had to attack.
She jumped from where she was, but her mighty kick found no one, as the Gold Saint reappeared beside her as she returned to the ground and enveloped her in a dark sphere, dotted with stars, which engulfed her completely. Inside that cosmic egg, Marin didn't know how much time had passed, but when its shell cracked, she was once again outside the temple. Under the starry sky, but still on top of the mountain.
She saw rising from within the temple carved into the rock the haunting figure of the Gemini Saint, whose helmet hid his eyes in the shadows. Marin pondered the reasons why he hadn't ended her life right there; there seemed to be something preventing him from using all his power inside the Temple.
But there was nothing to stop him from using all his power out there.
Marin noticed how the Gemini Saint raised both hands and from them golden spheres spread across the sky gleaming like small golden balloons with a hard glow; and at his cosmos command, the spheres all converged to strike Marin, as if she were the center of a consuming primordial explosion. And that's how her Silver Cloth was all destroyed by the Gemini Saints' overwhelming technique.
Her own silver mask, which so well hid her face, was now cracked as much of her body protection. Still, it took more than that to topple a Saint like her, and with enormous difficulty she again got to her feet. The Gemini apparition walked slowly towards her, arms outstretched, every step of his legs painting that plateau with a celestial fabric dotted with stars. It was the end of her, her Eagle Cloth had no wings and her cosmos had been destroyed by the stellar explosion.
But as seemed common that whole day, another miracle seemed to happen, for someone came from far away at the right time to save her skin; a huge Cosmo, capable of rivaling those of the Gold Saints, invaded the stone plateau and a deep, decisive and very welcome voice conjured maximum technique from it.
"Exorcism of Disruption!"
In front of Marin, the image of the Gemini Saint distorted like a sliced and displaced photograph; the image shook violently, as if trying to resist that unexpected powerful intervention of none other than Mayura, the Owl of Athena. Her technique was powerful and capable of expelling unwanted hosts who couldn't be wherever they wanted.
And that Gemini Saint was certainly too far away from the Temple he was supposed to protect, so that it was one of two: he was either really there, or he was very far away. The dark body in the shadows under the frightening Gemini Cloth faded slowly into that terrible technique of Mayura and what was left between them were the parts of the Gemini Cloth scattered on the floor.
For he had never been there.
Marin looked up and saw Mayura standing, her eyes hidden, but her body clad in silver-colored armor mottled in bronze. What little you could see of her body, fully bandaged. The Gemini Cloth that spread out in front of her glowed one last time and vanished into space and away. Mayura came to her and lifted her.
"You accomplished your mission, Marin."
"Yes, Master Mayura." she said, getting up.
"So let's find out together what happened here."
Leaning on Mayura, Marin walked again into the Temple of Stars where together they noticed the subtle movement of water inside the Crater Cloth. Marin drew Mayura's attention to the glow at the back of the temple; she knew it was a hidden place they needed to discover whatever the mechanism for entering. But Marin noticed how Mayura simply stepped past the wall and disappeared on the other side.
An illusion.
Marin took a deep breath and also entered a small room, where she immediately came face to face with the source of that purple glow: a body lying on a stone bench.
His purple aura still glowed around his body, as if his cosmos still insisted on burning. The room she was in, Marin noted, had empty bookshelves on three bare walls; the only thing there was really the body of a mature man, whose age lines had already taken over his face, with long hair, a black cassock stained with dark crimson with a decisive hole in the fabric at the height of the chest. Underneath pretty bangs, Marin noticed he had two distinct marks above his eyes.
"He's from Jamir, the land of Mu." said Marin, confused.
"It couldn't be any different." said Mayura, who couldn't see anything. "I recognize his Cosmo, even if it's slowly fading like this, since it's been dead for a long time."
"Who is he?"
"This is Master Arles of Jamir, brother of former Pope Zion and the true Camerlengo of the Sanctuary."
Marin looked in amazement beside her at Mayura.
"The real Camerlengo." mused Marin.
"The Supreme Pontiff's right-hand man for all his life."
"And what is he doing here?"
"He couldn't be anywhere else. Whoever murdered Master Arles of Jamir could not bury him in a ditch, for his Cosmo shone for many years to come."
"How can this be, Master Mayura?"
"A trick. Master Arles was the greatest healer from Jamir, a deep expert of the human body."
"I remember that, the People of Jamir dedicate themselves to the art of healing." Marin remembered.
"Not only that of Cloth, as it is wrongly assumed. For Master Arles was the one who prolonged his brother Zion's life as long as he could to lead the Sanctuary for over two hundred years."
"Two hundred years?"
"Yes. Since the last Holy War."
Marin marveled, for ever since she had arrived at the Sanctuary, as a young girl, she remembered how much Pope Zion was respected and how beside him had always been that huge priest in a black cassock and a golden helmet.
"You spoke of a trick, Master." Marin mentioned.
"His Cosmo goes out slowly like one of the Fire Clock flames, but unlike those flames that take one of our hours to extinguish, the Cosmo flame in this body took many years to go out. It may have a few hours before it burns out for good, but it has undoubtedly smoldered around his corpse all these years. And so it was because he wanted it to be that way. I believe he knew he would be killed."
"Do you think he prepared his body to be a proof of his own murder?"
"Exactly. None of this seems far from his ability. The one who killed him could not get rid of the body or even burn it until this aura was extinguished."
"But now it's fading." Marin said, noticing how the glow was already more subtle than it had been when they'd entered the room.
The two of them stood there watching as the glow of the purple aura grew more and more subtle until finally Master Arles' dead body cosmo was erased forever. Marin held her breath and Mayura no longer felt that energy that insisted on burning for so many years.
"Rest in peace, Camerlengo Master Arles."
The two held their hands close to their chest and closed their eyes in respect.
"If this is the real Camerlengo, who is the one hiding under the golden helmet?"
"The Gemini Cloth gave us the answer."
"The Gemini Saint?" Marin asked her.
"Him," Mayura replied gravely. "The greatest of all the Gold Saints."
And there, before them, a victim of his fury. Marin's chest, however, was invaded by a terrible feeling: that his dear disciple's cosmos had gone out in the universe. She looked back and saw that the illusion was gone, so that she could clearly glimpse the temple's exit.
"Go, Marin." asked Mayura and handed her a gift. "There is little time left to save Athena. I will take care of the Temple."
Mayura gave Marin a pretty pendant to put around her neck, a silver chain with an antique drachma in the center on which the profile of Athena using a Helmet was inscribed on one side and the Galician owl representing her on the other. She knew what to do.
Alone, Mayura reflected on that corpse in front of her.
"Killed fifteen years ago."
The white rose stuck in Shun's chest slowly dyed its petals red, one by one, little by little, sucking the boy's blood. He walked with difficulty past the dead body of Aphrodite, now covered in roses of the most varied colors. He walked through the destroyed hall of fountains and reached the exit for the dying night.
His conscience, however, was already far from there because of the poison of the Royal Demon Roses and the blood that was being taken from him more and more by the Bloody Rose stuck in his chest. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious were the two bodies of Shiryu and Seiya thrown on the stairs covered by a funeral procession of roses.
"Andromeda." Shun heard Aphrodite's broken voice call to him.
Shun returned inside the Pisces House and saw that Aphrodite was trembling at his last words.
"I see now that I was wrong. It's not true that that girl's strength doesn't compare to the Master's."
"Aphrodite..." said Shun, putting himself beside her.
"She is fragile and adorable." he said, crying. "But her power is infinite, for her strength is in all of you who believe in her. I was wrong. I asked her to show me what kind of Goddess she was, but I wasn't able to see that each of you was the true power she carried, even though she was sprawled in the House of Aries. And you have defeated all the Gold Saints."
"But it's too late now." Shun lamented when he remembered Seiya and Shiryu stretched out in the procession of roses, as well as him gradually losing consciousness.
And he went to the ground. For Aphrodite didn't answer him again either, dead at last.
As soon as he had fallen unconscious, as if orchestrated, there appeared at the foot of the stairs ahead a glow from which the Silver Saint, Marin, holding her pendant given by Mayura, appeared. She looked ahead and saw the bodies of Seiya and the Dragon Saint still wearing their cloths. She ran towards the pupil when she saw him lying on a carpet of red roses; he was sleeping peacefully and comfortably, heading for his death, she well knew.
Of the few people who knew some of the Gold Saints and their abilities, Marin knew very well the Sanctuary's last line of defense: a procession of poisoned roses that protected the Temple of Athena. If she tried to venture onto the rose mat, she would fall just like Seiya and Shiryu; but she noted how the Cloths of those two Bronze Saints still gleamed, so that the two, even fallen, were in far better shape to face the false Camerlengo than herself, who had just been smitten by the Gemini Saint.
What was left of her Silver Cosmo she would use to give them a chance. She finally stepped onto the carpet of roses and placed herself a few steps ahead of the Bronze Saints; she raised her arms as if to spread the wings of the Eagle of her constellation and her Cosmo swept the roses around the two fallen boys. Marin had her aura of silver, but with golden and even bluish accents, a colorful and beautiful glow.
But she needed to do more than that. She spread her legs to brace herself on the stairs, brought her right fist close to her waist and raised her left hand to the sky where she asked the stars for the strength she would need. And as if the stars fell from the sky commanded by her fist, she ripped the stairs covered by Aphrodite's roses with a wonderful meteor shower that crossed the entire length of the stairs that connected the House of Pisces to the Temple of Athena. And she obliterated the roses, clearing all the way through.
Seiya saw all that and thought he dreamed of his Master, because for so many nights he saw her shooting her meteor shower as if to teach him how to do it correctly. And here she was again, repeating exactly the meteors he was inspired by.
"Marin?" he tried calling to her.
She turned to the boys, who looked like they were slowly returning back to life; she gasped for air, for the pilgrimage to Starhill and the terrible battle with Gemini had cost her all her energy. But she was still able to call out to her pupil, whom she took by the arms.
"Get up, Seiya."
The boy was not dreaming, because they were really the wonderful Meteors of his master, it was the voice that called to him as he had done for so many years. But still, it seemed like a distant dream.
"Get up, Seiya." beside the boy, Shiryu was also trying to get up. "Yes, come on, Dragon. You two still have a chance to save Athena."
"What happened to you, Marin?" Seiya asked when he saw the sorry state of his Master.
"There is no time for this." she said, pointing to the temple that rose in the distance. "You two must go. There is only one flame left in the Fire Clock, but ahead of you is the biggest challenge of all. You will need to unite your Cosmos, your forces, your lives if possible."
"What do you mean, Marin?" Shiryu asked her.
"The man in that temple is not the true Camerlengo of the Sanctuary, but one of the Twelve Gold Saints."
"Gemini." Shiryu said, remembering his friend Shun's warning.
"I'm sorry, Seiya, but Gemini is the most powerful Gold Saint among all within the Sanctuary. The most terrible battle is before you."
"We'll make it, Marin." he said confidently. "Me and Shiryu will make it."
He looked hard at that mask of his Master that he so admired; now so torn from her own battles, for he was sure that whatever it was she had been doing thus far was surely in the sense and duty of protecting Athena. How he was there.
"Seiya, I am deeply proud of you." she said and hugged him. "Of all of you." She reached out a hand on Shiryu's shoulder. "The hope of all of us now resides in both of you. Go and save Athena."
They went. Marin staggered and had to brace herself against the rock wall that rose up beside the stairwell, then slowly fell back, unconscious from the exertion.
Pegasus Seiya and Dragon Shiryu were the last Bronze Saints standing.
Together, in silence, in immense pain, indescribable fatigue, but incredible fiber, Seiya and Shiryu ran for the last steps. Seiya looked to the side and remembered how her friend, even blind, refused to take care of her eyes beside her Master and came to fight beside them; he remembered how it had been she who had given him a chance to fight in his restored Cloth against the Black Saints; and if he wasn't an eternal stone statue by now, it was also thanks to her.
For Shiryu's part, it was also special to have her friend Seiya by her side. If she sometimes felt confused about her mission at first, she felt very especially how unshakable was her friend's will to always go forward, always by their side. Always fighting for them all.
And, each in their own way, they remembered all who had stayed behind so that the two could have that chance to reach the final Temple: Shun, who was dying in the House of Pisces; Marin, who had helped them in the procession of roses; Hyoga, who had made it snow that night asking them to be always together; Ikki, who had lost all of her senses against Shaka; Xiaoling, who was trapped on the threshold of the Underworld; Alice, who sacrificed herself to give Athena a chance. And Saori, who still had a golden arrow stuck in her chest.
And that was why they were there.
Buried in memories, they crossed the staircase, invaded the night-darkened Temple, crossed the main nave and found themselves before a huge locked portico, painted entirely in white and adorned in gold. It was the entrance to the altar on which the Camerlengo sat.
"We're here, Shiryu." Seiya announced.
On the other side of that immense door was the incarnation of evil inside that Sanctuary. A mad man responsible for the attempt on Athena's life when she was still a baby, a pernicious figure capable of deceiving an entire nation by posing as a traitor a boy who had all the qualities of a hero. A killer of corpses without names or faces missing for so many years. A terrible mind manipulator who had victimized Ikki, Crystal, Aioria and perhaps many others who could never return from their madness. On the other side of that door was the cause of that bloody battle.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: The ideas here are original. I really enjoy playing with this concept of Jamir's people being good at healing in general, not just Cloths. Arles' plot about predicting his own death comes from wondering why his body was burning cosmos when Marin found him in the Anime.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MASK
Seiya and Shiryu finally reach the last Temple and are faced with the true face that hides behind the holy figure of the Camerlengo.