Lance's Role

by Thrudgelmir2333

A 'shonen' fic that sequels Next Dimension and Lost Canvas. In 1960, the Pope of Athena receives three prophecies from an old enemy that irremediably set the course of his reign over Sanctuary's tragic history and almost two decades later a Saint of Pegasus finds himself put through the unfolding of a new age of violence caused by the Pope's actions. Please enjoy and review.

77. 3A: A Most Alrauneing Flower

Notable OCs: Pegasus Lance's Saint Generation, Civil War Saint Generation, World War Saint Generation, Daemon Lucifer's Specters, Maiden Elisa, Priam's Black Saints; Knights of the Zodiac;

Notable Original Concepts: Mount Olympus Training Ground, Sanctuary Court, Teos Cloth, Athenian Empire mythology, Isle of Gardens, Stardust Prison, Hades' Dark Princes; Desert Beyond, Sanctuary's Allies; Sanctuary Town Layout & Buildings; Kido Mount; DQI Geography;

Recurring/Cameo OCs of Jenny DeVic: Mrs. Schafurwatt, Cyrus

Recurring/Cameo Concepts of Jenny DeVic: Great Bodyguard Legend, Golden Line Heritage, Sanctuary Orphanages, Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests, Sanctuary Nobility, 88 Knights Festival

{======================|A3|======================}

Author Notes:

-This chapter has been betaread by EpicElly, from Discord;

-Reached 1.7 Million words, yay

{======================|A3|======================}

Please enjoy and review ^_^

{======================|A3|======================}

Dark clouds encroached on the wide, frozen Alpine stream valley leaving the rendezvous area of the Saints. The deep gash between the peeks was full of pine trees, steep drops, boulders and snow, forcing the existing roads exist between drops and rises of the mountains. Daylight was still visible, but the forest was thick and shadowy, making it difficult to penetrate it with the sight.

Zipping through the snow-packed pine trees infesting the mountains, Aquila Daese, the Diamond Paladin of the extinct Knights of the Zodiac, jumped and landed from branch to branch without so much as disturbing the birds, despite the fact she was wearing a full set of armor. Her blue eyes tracked a dark-green vehicle driving down the mountain road. It's next destination was the Po Valley, far to the south. Her 7th sense was locked onto it but, being Sanctuary that she was dealing with, she never knew if they'd go through a stardust covering or other trick to hide their faint signature from being pursued.

The Diamond Paladin reached an overpass above the winding road the green jeep crossed through. Every now and then, she got close enough to spot the blonde head inside the car through the window, chatting and laughing happily. It relieved Daese to see her younger sister so relaxed, especially among Saints of Athena.

In fact, such moments made Daese hesitate in her mission to retrieve her sister. If Cerah was happy, did Daese have the right to yank her out of her life? Unfortunately, the question would need be shoved under the rug in lieu of more important matters, as Daese suspected the Specters planned to attack the convoy, which could very well force Cerah to reveal her Silver Cloth to Sanctuary.

It was already a bit of a miracle that Cerah hadn't done so during her fight against Worm Raimi. Daese thanked Athena for it, but letting a confrontation happen again was toying with fate. For all she knew, the two Saints with her and the Saintia Olivia were veterans of the Civil War that would kill a Knight on sight. This could be Daese's last chance to secure her sister while both Lucifer and Sanctuary were locked away or looking away, respectively, but attacking two Gold Ranks was dangerous, even for a Paladin. Her hope was that, in the confusion of the eventual Specter attack, she could sneak Cerah out.

She touched her temple so as to focus her mental message. "Priam, I've found her. I'm moving in as soon as I can."

"Good, be careful. Sanctuary was unable to identify you when you fought Daniel(*), but if you overstep yourself…"

(*) "The Goodbye" Storyline

Always the concerned Sagittarius, that Priam. "I know. I will. How are things on your end?"

{======================|A3|======================}

Death Queen Island

{======================|A3|======================}

The fiery impact of Guilty's foot crashed unto Priam's blocking arms, forcing him back. "I've found the Phoenix Saint! He's being… uncooperative."

Burning like a firebird, Guilty cackled and assailed the hooded archer with a barrage of flaming fists which pummeled his blocking arms like a meteor shower. "AH, AH, AH! Show me your power, Gold Saint!"

"He is?! Do you need help?!"

With a skillful bob, Priam dodged a swing and then rose his leg at the speed of light, blasting a kick on the demon's face that sent him screaming into the air. He then then nocked an arrow of light on his composite bow and fired multiple missiles that punctured Guilty's scars, stunning his immortal cosmos and pinning him against a rock.

He saw Guilty scream in pain. "I'm sorry, Saint Phoenix. You gave me no choice. I tried to aim away from your nerves, though." He then answered Daese through their link. "Don't worry about it, Daese. I can handle him. Once I get my answers about the Teos Cloth, I will return to base."

"Alright, just remember... just because he's a Bronze Rank, it doesn't mean he isn't dangerous." she answered. "Please don't make me regret not stopping you…"

The burned Priam sighed. Unfortunately, this gambit was their only choice. He wasn't lying when he told Guardnia that he and his group were no threat to Sanctuary anymore. Being reduced to an injured Gold Saint and a vengeful Paladin, plus a few survivors of the Civil War, Priam's faction might as well be dead. Hades' looming invasion was just making everything worse. The only choice, therefore, was to cut their losses and create conditions for influencing the future of Sanctuary again in a positive direction.

"I won't. I hope you get your sister, Daese. I'll see you back in Japan." He messaged, before ending the conversation. He then approached the demon, who was already struggling to remove the cosmic arrows by shoving his pinned body back and forth. "Please just stop struggling! You're bleeding. My Crystal Shard Arrows are made of laced lightning, the type of power that the seal of the Titans is made of. You would sooner rip your limbs off than those arrows."

Guilty laughed coarsely. "I'm immortal, you pacifist moron! Your techniques mean nothing to me…! You can't burn your energy forever. Eventually you'll let go…and when you do…"

Pacifist he was, but Priam was no fool. His sharp eyes narrowed on the demon. "Judging by your age,… you've been here for a bit, Saint Guilty. If you were the fully realized Mara, you'd have already let the world know of your terror years ago. I doubt you fear Sanctuary, so a knight of the Goddess you may be, but your Cosmos is clearly cracked and your powers chained to this damned island. Aren't they?"

The demonic man roared in struggle and frustrated. This powerlessness of his was all Lance's fault! "AAAGH! I'll twist your fucking neck if you don't release me! And burn what's rest of your body to ash!"

Resting hands on bow, Priam ignored the threats. "Please, tell me about the armor. What did you feel? You must have sensed its cosmos." Priam insisted. He needed to know if it really was Teos so as to decide his next move.

Guilty, however, only laughed. "You mean the one that almost splashed lava all over me when it shot out the Queen's Mouth? Perhaps I have,… but what is a former Sagittarius Saint doing, asking about a fairytale Cloth? Do you want it for yourself? Why don't you knock at Sanctuary's door and ask for it?!"

The rebel felt no need to lie to a damned slave of the Phoenix. "If you must know… I want to save Sanctuary."

The demon widened eyes behind his mask. "Oh? Save it? He, He, He…. But you're one of the ones Sanctuary now calls 'Black Saints', right? Not like the ones that come from my island, though…"

Priam only stared quietly.

"I remember the Maidens teaching us about you in Greece, before I came here." Guilty pressed on. He could tell what type this Sagittarius was right away and exactly how to hurt him, even if he had Guilty pinned to a rock. "Tell me, Priam of Sagittarius, was your war worth it? Did it bring you peace? Is that why you act like such a self-righteous hero, wanting to save Sanctuary? Mm, mm, mm… an odd thing for a traitor to desire. Maybe you regret everything you've done and your consciousness has grown heavy?"

The Sagittarius sterned his glare. "Well, you would know about heavy consciousnesses, wouldn't you? Guifi Taitano?"

The demon staggered.

"You're the boy, aren't you? Guifi Taitano?" Priam questioned, resting hand on bow as if it were a cane. "I went through Arles' records of this place before coming here. Someone wrote a very strange report about your death. It was almost like they were trying to protect the memory of you." Priam revealed, though he wouldn't tell the demon of his source. He tried to imagine the red eyes behind the ugly mask. "Something about them seemed… incomplete, though."

Guilty shook in anger. "Lance, that traitor! What stories has he been spreading to Sanctuary about what happened?!"

Priam softened his gaze at the poor creature before him, like beholding an injured cat. "But now I see the truth; the person who wrote that report was protecting what really happened to you. I'm not a fan of censorship, at least when it comes from the Pope, but… Someone out there cares very deeply for you, Phoenix Guilty."

"CARE FOR ME?! HIM?!" Guilty roared, his body bleeding as he fought against the puncturing arrows. If only his damn star point weakness wasn't making him numb. "I will kill him one day, when the Goddess finally lets me have him, and I will kill you too unless you tell me why I should answer any of your questions.., Black Saint!"

The emphasis that Guilty put on the term wasn't lost on Priam. Being the Saint of Phoenix, he likely dealt with the real Black Saints, not the rebels and criminals that Akassius had decided to brand as such.

"Considering the girl reported dead alongside you, I can put two and two together and figure out exactly how you became this.. thrall to the Phoenix that you are now. My treason was motivated by a very similar pain to yours, and a fear that I may have to relive it, so I thought… we could find common ground."

"I have no common ground with anyone who wants to save Sanctuary, rather than tear its fucking mountain to the ground!" Guilty hissed.

Priam rested hand in hip. "Who says the two aren't the same?1"

{======================|A3|======================}

Southern Swiss Alps

{======================|A3|======================}

The jeep's tires tore through the thin snow layering the road, making its way gradually through the mountain valleys. They had already left the rendezvous point a couple of hours earlier, but the paths out of the Alps were long and windy through steep turns and narrow corridors. With the fear of Specters stalking them, Suisho had to drive carefully until they were within the reach of Sanctuary and its Allies.

Fortunately, the passengers made the trip feel quicker by filling the hours with conversation. Cerah was a bottomless well of joyful curiosity, asking questions about everything Olivia and the Saints could answer about life in Sanctuary Town, ranging from how different it was from Rodario to what was it like to work as a Saint.

All throughout, she tried to figure out the Bronze Saint sitting in the front passenger seat a bit more; Saint Lance seemed like a cool, if reserved person, which was the least she could say about someone who took a bullet for her, but Cerah was more intrigued about what it was that made miss Ghisi recommend him specifically to the mission. Was it the fact he was red-eye-cursed like Lucian? Miss Ghisi didn't know Cerah was associated with the Daemon Specter, but it was still considered an oddity. Saint Pegasus had mentioned he was friends with Adriana, but considering the 'project' that the noblewoman wanted to involve Cerah in, it couldn't be just that.

Saint Suisho, by contrast, was entirely outspoken, fully answering everything they had to ask, even as he drove the vehicle. It was funny to Cerah, because she had always heard that ice-user Saints were shy and introverted, while fire-users were more social and joyous, yet the two Saints seemed to have that entirely switched around, with Saint Pegasus being by far the quiet one.

Case in point, there was the way Suisho talked about his Silver Cloth. "Yes, ha, ha, people say my Silver Cloth can read the future, but I don't think we'd need to go through all this trouble to protect miss Iraklidis if I could see where the Specters would attack, would we?"

Cerah blinked curiously. "I wonder how such a rumor started, then?"

Olivia answered this, "A long time ago, Cerah, people say the legendary Master of Rozan, Saint Libra Dohko, saw himself as a shriveled old man in the Crateris Cloth's waters." Her blue eyes noticed that Saint Lance seemed to turn head slightly at this in curiosity, something he had done little throughout the drive. Perhaps Saint Dohko was an idol of his, as he was to many Saints.

Cerah realized she was talking about her teacher's hated enemy. "That's right! There's supposed to be one Gold Saint who is really, really old, right?"

"Correct. Since so few Gold Saints survive Holy Wars, people have believed ever since that this meant the Cloth prophesized his survival." Olivia added.

"Old? He's a straight up mummy." Saint Lance commented. "I very much doubt he can make the Libra Cloth fit around his tiny body anymore."

Cerah chuckled at the image of a small old man wearing a Gold Cloth. "Have you met him, Saint Lance?"

The Pegasus Saint felt the focus inside the vehicle turn to him and smiled, feeling a chance for a little payback on his teacher's pranks. "Um, yes, I've delivered Saint Libra a couple of messages from the Pope during my stay at the Zodiac. I think they are old friends."

Cerah leaned in until her seatbelt was tight. "What can you tell us about him?"

Suisho glanced at Lance. "I'm very curious as well? Many rumors abound Saint Dohko in Sanctuary, including about him fathering many children in his long life." Suisho commented. "Is that all true?"

Lance frankly couldn't be sure, given his teacher's proclivities, but Misopheta Menos was supposed to be a secret, and he would respect it. "I doubt it. Like I said, I've met him and…well… I don't know if your Cloth can tell the future, Suisho, but it definitely got the shriveled part right."

All three eyed him curiously. Cerah's was the first to ask "What… What does he look like?"

"Don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful and wise Saint, but…" Lance covered the smile in his mouth, trying to look professional. "But he also looks like a cast member of that Muppets show now on TV.2"

Olivia, who was the most composed of the four, gasped out a laugh in pure surprise at the image Saint Lance made to pop in her head, startling the rest of them.

She composed herself self-consciously, even combing her cut hair. "E-excuse me." She had seen puppets of that show in the props of the drama club and now pictured a Kermit sitting on a rock dishing out quips of comical wisdom. "Saint Lance! That can't be true, can it?!" She only saw him trying to contain more snickers and her jaw dropped "Dear Zeus, it is?!"

"We can only trust Pegasus on this, I'm afraid." Suisho affirmed. "Sometimes Gold Saints will show up at the MMC, but not Saint Libra. People often joke in Sanctuary that there are only eleven Gold Saints in Sanctuary, plus a Chinese back-up."

Cerah perked up at another Saint curiosity. "The… MMC?"

"Yes, we Saints typically work through a place called the Mission Management Center, miss Héloise. They're the ones that processed this convoy operation. It's just a big bureaucratic building we write reports for. Even Saints can't escape red tape." Suisho elaborated, never taking his eyes off the road. "It used to be that we operated a bit more freely, but during our most recent Civil War, the army was reformed and a tighter observance of the troops was imposed. I kind of appreciate it, though… It keeps things organized.3"

Cerah nodded along. Saint Suisho spoke in a very polite and thorough manner, very much like she'd expect of a soldier or policeman. "That makes sense. I guess with the Cosmos being so dangerous, it's important to keep an eye on everyone."

The dark-blue haired Saint nodded. "Sometimes a couple of things escape them, though… like a Worm Specter infiltrating the Saintia Academy. We're deeply sorry about that, by the way. Sanctuary should have stationed someone at your school as soon as the False Holy War broke out."

Lance shrugged. "Why do something that makes sense?"

Olivia shook her head, coming to the defense of her school. "It's quite alright. The academy is full of talented and brave girls and teachers. I may not look like it since you're all here to protect me, but… even I can fight."

Lance's red eyes glanced at her over shoulder, intrigued. "Is that so?"

Olivia nodded at him proudly, raising her chin, and her fists clenched, having felt much training. "Even before being an Academy student, I am Herackles Aguilon's granddaughter. I'm nowhere near my brother's prowess, but… I would have given that Worm Specter something to remember these fists by if Cerah hadn't come to my rescue."

Cerah clasped hands and awed. "So cool!"

The determined glint in Olivia's eyes reminded Lance of the look of Aguilon at a Coliseum challenge, so he had no doubt. "Would you take a Gold-Rank's challenge? Perhaps we could spar sometime and put you to the test?"

The black-haired girl smiled confidently, but wasn't dumb. "Of course, Pegasus…. so long as it's Mach 5." which got her an impressed smirk from the Bronze Saint.

"You seem pretty proud of your school." Suisho commented.

The star-reader's smile softened from pride to nostalgia. "Yes... I wish I could stay there, in fact. I have many happy memories from it."

"Because of your friends?" Lance asked.

Olivia suddenly hesitated and stiffed, something that caught Cerah's attention. In fact, Olivia looked out the window regretfully and intertwined fingers on her lap.

"No." she finally muttered. Olivia looked out the Wagoneer window, lost in thoughts.

She had actually spent most of her tenure at the school either surrounded by starry-eyed classmates prostrating before her talent in class or caught amidst the intrigue of fellow classmates vying for her position of popularity with the Saintia candidates. The fact she qualified for an armor, so much that Director Albus just entrusted her with the Equuleus Stone, had only widened the gap between her and everyone else, so much that her rise to the position of class president had become both a sign of her success as of her isolation. At the academy, therefore, Olivia was either deeply admired or deeply envied or, even worse, the subject of aristocratic girls' games of influence. A lot of times, Olivia felt her pet owl was her only companion in the school.

Lance respectfully left it at that. "I guess true peers are difficult to find even in schools that you like."

Feeling her friend tense, Cerah tried to lighten the mood. "Saint Lance, can I ask, how do you know miss Ghisi?" Cerah queried. She saw him widening his eyes. "Oh, she's my academy sponsor. I was just so surprised when she personally asked for you."

Unbeknownst to Cerah, Lance had been trying to figure Cerah out as well, so he reciprocated. "Me and Adriana are friends." He then tried to mind his words, remembering how often Adriana insisted that they downplayed their connection for safety. "We… met during my stay at the Zodiac and cooperate in a couple of things. We also fought together during the False Holy War."

Cerah gasped in amazement. Adriana also fought Lucifer? This corroborated how she encountered Cerah near the Zodiac.

Suisho chuckled. "You know, Pegasus, you haven't told me yet if you managed to take out any of those bastards. I would have loved to have gotten a few myself4, but when I told my sister Yushira that I would be working with you, she didn't seem to remember you being near the Zodiac."

"That's because that battle had multiple fronts being fought, from Andromeda Island to Tibet." Lance explained. Hell, he felt that he spent half the time during the War running from one battlefield to the other. "People only know about the attack on the Zodiac because, for some reason, Sanctuary Town itself was left untouched. I don't recall someone named 'Yushira' there, either."

"Did you at least see the boss, though?" Suisho asked.

Lance shook his head. "We can't really talk about that part, Saint Suisho, sorry."

Cerah sweated. This was a lot to take in. They were talking about Lucifer, her mentor, and now she discovers that Saint Suisho and Saint Yushira are siblings?

Okay, one thing at a time. "Did…did the Specters do that many awful things?"

Lance perked his brow. What kind of question was this? "You fought one at the Academy, didn't you? I'm sure you can imagine what they are like?"

Cerah recoiled in her seat. How could she explain what she was really asking? "W-well, yes, but, I heard the ones in the big attack in Sanctuary were different? People have been calling them 'False Specters', right? I wanted to know… how bad the real ones are?"

Suisho seemed bothered by the question as well. "Miss Cerah, why would that matter?"

"Because Lucifer is a Specter…" she thought to herself sadly, remembering the Daemon's last words to her at the Stardust Prison, which could be the last she'd get before his execution. This was the man who raised her in Daese's stead. Cerah didn't want to believe he was a murderer, even after what she saw at Aries.

Seeing that Lance was quiet, Suisho answered for him. "We don't know the full details, Miss Cerah, but a lot of Papal Guards died. It's safer to assume there's no discernable difference."

Cerah frowned. "Right, I feel silly…"

"It's not your fault, don't worry. You just asked a question." Lance assured. Memories of the soldiers encased in Papillon Ainsel's cocoons, or Aldebaran's bones broken by Behemoth Torak, came to him. "However, I fought in that war and I saw them do a lot of ugly things well beyond what people saw at the Aries Temple. Suisho is right in that you should assume the real Specters are the same or worse."

Cerah smiled with them, though it was a smile full of regret at her teacher's actions. "If you fought in that war, I believe you, Saint Lance. I hope… not too many got hurt."

"You would be right, Cerah." Lance revealed, causing her to perk up. "We actually lost far fewer than we thought we would. When the attack began, we were really worried, but you know what? The Gold Saints currently at the Zodiac are stronger and smarter than everyone thinks, especially those stupid nobles trying to kick them out."

The two girls brightened up, especially Olivia. "That's a relief. Then the academy is safe with Saints Cancer and Pisces."

Lance irked at the idea of Deathmask being responsible for anything, but feigned a nod. "Yeah."

Suisho looked to the rear view mirror and mental messaged Pegasus. "Good, the girls seem to be in okay spirits. The Pope will be happy about this. If we keep this up, the mission will go just fine and we might earn ourselves a bonus."

Lance looked away. "Uh, is that what you think?"

Suisho spared him a brief glance. "What do you mean, Pegasus? I know the Pope's stingy, but-"

"Not THAT, I mean HER!" Lance took a brief respectful glance at Olivia.. "Cerah is fine, Suisho, but the other one looks to me like we're taking her to a goddamn guillotine…. I can't blame her, the Zodiac is a fucking depressing place for anyone that isn't a tree-sitting monk."

Suisho couldn't keep track of it too well, busy as he was driving. "Really?... She sounds relaxed. She's laughing and…"

Lance shook head discretely. Olivia was hiding it, but Lance knew a sad soul when he saw one. There was a lack of life in her voice that reminded him of Guifi when he was with Nina; trying to be happy but bearing deep scars of pain on the inside, or when Shinta tried to hold on to his stereotypical optimism even when he was deeply hurt.

As such, Lance could pick up on it a mile away. "I've been friends with other people who do this all the time." Lance explained. "She knows she's basically going to be in house arrest, but doesn't want to upset her friend or burden us with her problems, not when a huge hassle already being raised all around her, so she's smiling and laughing so that she won't feel like she's weighing anyone else down."

This was a surprising amount of emotional insight from such a famously anti-social Bronze Saint. Suisho would took another look through the rear view and indeed noticed a faint frown in her "Mm, wow, I didn't pick up on it. You might be right. Do you think… she might try something later?"

"If you had murderous Specters chase you around because they thought you were someone else, and people were being forced to risk their lives to protect you needlessly, wouldn't you feel depressed?"

Suisho hummed, looking intrigued. "A fascinating question, actually5… I hadn't considered it." He shifted to a higher gear as they reached the depth of the valley pass and sped up. "Unfortunately for miss Olivia, though, it's none of our business."

Lance nodded, folding arms and going quiet. This was just the reality of it. He felt sorry for the girl, now that he was getting to know her a bit, but he wasn't going to shove his nose into someone else's problems like a certain Andromeda Saint would. After they were done giving her to the Pope, everyone would move on with their lives.6

{======================|A3|======================}

Far Above

{======================|A3|======================}

As the dark battleship rested its stomach on a cloud, the gigantic metal rail gun mounted on its forecastle spun its lower gears, causing the launch catapult to rotate to a specific direction. Deadly Beetle Stand then spun a large crank installed nearby, making the forward tip of the long rail to rise and rise until the needle on the crank reached the 30º marked on the protractor. They were so high in the sky that this was all they needed to shoot an object into the stratosphere, where stardust burned off of millions of years of meteoroids lingered.

Alraune Queen and three Terrestrial Stars that would accompany him approached the catapult platform. They were Dullahan Cube, Gorgon Ox and Reaper Grim. They each had their objective in their mission and each had undying loyalty to the cause.

Yet, Gorgon Ox hesitated, staring at the long rail mechanism apprehensively as Deadly Beetle Stand gestured at him to get unto the loading space. "Is… Does this thing really work? I mean, have we tested it already-"

With a lash of his Surplice's vines, Queen wrapped a grip around Ox and tossed him screaming into the launch catapult, at which point Stand pulled a lever and the huge rail gun loaded with thunder, firing its internal mechanisms. It pushed the Gorgon Specter through the barrel length with such acceleration that he shot into the air at the speed of sound. The battleship's crew watched as Ox vanished into the clouds with a twinkle of his armor and his Cosmos signature disappeared in the thin stardust.

Deadly Beetle Stand took his binoculars and tracked Ox. "He's descending on the target area."

Alraune Queen smiled. "Looks like it works. Next?"

"Y-yes, sir!" Dullahan Cube obeyed, getting unto the catapult.

Queen then turned to Grim, the Terrestrial Insidious Star, the third major warrior involved in the mission. He was a very tall man, too tall even, to the point of making his armored muscular body look disproportioned. His legs and arms in particular seemed stretched thin, contributing to a skeleton-like silhouette, and a big mane of aged white hair descended down his back, which combined with his mask gave Grim a very ghastly aesthetic. Stereotypically, he carried a huge scythe with him, with bright runes across its edge and a single metal wing peen. It rested over his hood-coated shoulder plate that was larger than the typical Skeleton soldier armament.

Despite his intimidating appearance, Reaper Grim was known to be a poor fighter in the Underworld, on the same caliber as the likes of Frog Zelos, which was why he usually stayed out of the action. His skills lied mostly in the psychic realm, similar to Papillon Myu.

Queen had to look up to meet him in his skull mask's eyes. "Do you know your role in this mission?"

"Yes…" the Terrestrial answered. His voice was grave and cold, like a cold wind through a dark cavern.

"Which is interesting, because I'm not sure I do." Queen sneered. His nose cringed at the rotten stench the Specter emanated, like Grim just left graveyard duty at the underworld swamps. "You have received direct orders to participate in it from Pandora and the Emperor, which is why I accept your unpleasant presence, but I don't see what good a Specter that can't fight will be on the field, other than giving our attack squad cover from Sanctuary's eyes."

"Do you believe you don't need my services, lord Alraune?" Grim asked. "That's very brave of you, fighting without the coat of my shadows hiding you from Sanctuary…"

"I am not foolish enough to not fear being surrounded by Gold Saints who detect the battle I'm about to start, so no, I don't." Queen assured. "But I also question the reliability of a Specter who swears loyalty to a dead Dark Prince, rather than a Judge."

The Terrestrial Star chuckled. So, this was the problem. "His Honor, Judge Aiacos, has informed the Emperor that someone very important to my Master will be present in the battlefield. If I can, I would like to retrieve that person… unless of course, we somehow fail to defeat the Saints."

The red-haired Alraune scoffed. "Fail? Me?! Who do you take me for? One of the replacements?!" he then stepped on the launch catapult himself and gave his final orders to the remaining Skeleton Soldiers. "Men, drop over the coordinates I ordered you once you initiate the attack. This Prince servant here will see what a warrior of Judge Rhadamanthys can do!"

The Skeletons cheered, raising their scythes. "For the Demonic Star!"

Reaper Grim then watched Stand activate the launch catapult and fire off Queen as well, who vanished into the air with a confident dash, rather than the screams his two underlings let out. He would get on as well, but he had no need of such machines to sneak past the eyes of Sanctuary.

Instead, he reflected on the foolishness just spoken to him. The Judges? Outshining Prince Michael? What arrogance. Those three had fought the Gold Saints for eons and never prevailed without the help of a barrier. Even the battleship they stood on had been victim to a Judge's failure to kill a Sagittarius. Grim's Master, on the other hand, took one step into the Lost Canvas Holy War, and the feared Virgo Gold Saint was eliminated. The path to the Underworld's future lied in returning Hades' Right and Left Hands to him, and now that the Underworld was gaining strength with Athena still gone, the Emperor's final triumph was at hand!

He took his scythe and slashed the air, forming a dark portal of swirling shadows into which he vanished. It was time for work.7

{======================|A3|======================}

Chapter 77

Third Arc

Episode 5

A Most Alraune-ing Flower

{======================|A3|======================}

Swiss Alps

{======================|A3|======================}

Watching the far-off mountain peaks pass by from her seat, Cerah frowned, seeing the dark clouds thickening around them. Soon, they'd block the entire sky, just as night was about to fall on them all, making the trip a bit scarier.

She perked up, spotting flashes of light amongst the closing clouds. Perhaps it was lightning? The light was flashing in a fading way, though, as if the source was arcing above them towards the mountain rises ahead, plus they were followed by a couple more.

"Is something wrong, Cerah?" Olivia asked, noticing her alarm.

The blonde Knight hesitated, but shook her head. "No, nothing, I just thought I saw shooting stars."

Suisho glanced at her through the rear-view mirror8. "That would be quite something, with this terrible weather above us. Maybe a storm is brewing instead. I will try to get us out of this area quicker." And he sped up through the valley road, heading for a pass to the southeast.

Lance folded arms apprehensively. His instinct told him something wasn't right. He had to put up with many sudden storms during missions, especially to tropical climates, but his well-trained precaution always made him wonder if they were falling into some kind of trap when it happened. He wished he had his Cloth Box closer to him, instead of all the way in the back, but when he thought about it rationally, he actually preferred the armors shielding the passengers like Suisho had suggested.

Cerah noticed the tension in the air, making her heart beat a bit faster as well. Olivia in particular seemed fearful.

…

The blonde Corvus looked out the window and saw the clouds thickening. "Boy, it's getting so dark, isn't it? Where did this weather co-"

Suisho slammed the brakes, pulling the jeep over so harshly that piles of roadside snow flew everywhere, startling the whole group! The Silver Saint looked out the window and his eyes followed a strange shadow in the gathering rain clouds.

Olivia's breath sped up. "W… What's going on?!"

"Was it something I said?!" Cerah asked

The two Saints, however, shared a silent, concerned look and stormed out of the jeep, banging the doors shut. Olivia blinked, bewildered. She turned to the blonde girl next to her, but Cerah looked just as confused.

Outside, Lance joined Suisho in staring at the darkening clouds. "You felt that too, didn't you?!"

Suisho nodded. "Yes, Pegasus. Miss Cerah's senses once again have proven quite sharp. All far-away cosmos signatures are starting to weaken. This is no coincidence. We're being jammed."

Lance gritted teeth, reminded of the problems this caused during the False Holy War, when Papillon Ainsel used his damn glowing butterflies to cut off communication throughout all of Sanctuary's cells. Was this the real Papillon Specter's doing? Or some other Underworld bastard with similar abilities? Observing the clouds, Lance felt like their darkening was synced with the ever weakening of the countless cosmos signals around them coming from urban areas and the Saints fighting the Specters to the north.

Following their gaze from the car, Cerah sweated. She was having a strange sensation, the same she had right before Hades attacked Eurydice and blinded her, like the day was dimming in an unnatural, unseen way and their own shadows grew thicker under them, reaching out to hold them in a cold embrace.

Cerah opened the door and stepped out. "S… Saint Suisho? What's wro-"

"Stay with Olivia, Cerah!" Lance barked, making the girl yelp in fright and slide back inside. Lance himself went to it and searched for Suisho's radio. Taking it out, he tuned it to the frequencies he knew from Aiolos. "Saint Sagittarius, this is Convoy 12, can you hear me? I need a status update. Over."

There was only static. Lance held it patiently, knowing there was probably a battle going on in Germany.

As he thought, eventually there was a response. "….oy 12, this is Sagittarius. "*gush* -still fighting! Specters are backing away from our decoys. A Judge has shown up, but *gush* seems favorable. Over."

"A Judge?!" Lance gasped. The kids were fighting one of the three top Specters?

"Is it Garuda?!" Suisho asked. "He was the one reported to be commanding the enemy battleship! Try to find out, Lance."

"Saint Sagittarius, is the Judge Garuda? Over."

Aiolos answered. "Negative! It is Wyvern Rhadamanthys. He *static* very vocal about it!" Aiolos confirmed. He sounded like he could barely talk and was probably directing the fighting. "*static* Be on the lookout for the battleship, Saint Pegasus. Over and Out."

Suisho tensed. "So, it's Wyvern…"

"Does that mean anything?" Lance asked him. He had fought Specters but he wasn't experienced against Judges. In fact, Lucifer seemed to have made a point not to include them in his forces.

"It means the forces of Hades are serious about this. Sanctuary lore says he is the most brutal of the three and typically commands invasion ground forces." Suisho explained. "Last war he was defeated only by the efforts of a prodigious Leo Gold Saint. I wouldn't be surprised if the three Gold Saints in Germany are being pushed back."

"Shit!" Lance thought, his danger sense shooting up. Why wouldn't they send their airforce after the decoys?! Now he understood why no one was tracking them in the terrain! "They're following us through the air!" He went back into the vehicle in a hurry and mentally messaged his team leader. "Suisho, let's go! We're not safe here!"

Suisho nodded, rushing back. "Right, we'll take a turn to the southeast road and leave this mountain before we get surrounded!" Suisho warned in the 6th sense, trying not to frighten the girls. "If push comes to shove, we'll blitz miss Olivia into safety. Inform Sanctuary, Lance."

Lance staggered. "What?! We should do it right away! If they put a Specter in front of us with that battleship's catapult, we won't have a window to do that anymore!"

But Suisho squinted negatively at this. "They're looking precisely for that. If we use lightspeed unnecessarily and waste even a single microsecond covering needless kilometers, they'll surround and overwhelm us with their Celestial Stars before the Gold Saints can say 'come to me, Gold Cloth'! We've been safe so far because we've taken things slowly."

Lance gritted teeth. "But-"

Suisho narrowed his eyes. "That's an order, Pegasus! One you could have gotten over with already."

Lance tried to relax, remembering his promise to respect Suisho's chain of command. "…Alright." Lance looked at the darkening clouds. "Home Base, this is Pegasus Lance, over!"

The static got worse and worse, confirming Lance's fears. "….. ase, Pegasus…is it? Over."

Crateris Suisho stepped around Lance, watching him argue with the radio. His narrowing eyes glanced between the Bronze Saint and the clouds, feeling far off cosmos signatures disappear behind the jamming. The radio was their only communication line to Sanctuary now.

"Things have taken a turn for the worse. Saint Suisho and I believe we are falling into a trap. We're taking our vehicle as far as we can, but then we'll ditch it and lightspeed towards you! Over!"

"….repeat that!...static…..ver!"

"SHIT!" Lance roared, banging the talkie in frustration.

Crateris Aiacos slowly walked towards Lance, feeling themselves now isolated from outside cosmos readings. They were in the Alps. The Specters had them in a jamming field. And Lance had his back turned without his Pegasus Cloth. No one could tell anymore what they were doing or where exactly in the mountains they were.

He reached for his pocket and took out the dagger of stardust he brought from the Valiant. Either Queen, Sylphid or Gordon would show up soon with their Skeletons. Rhadamanthys' men would have them all surrounded, meaning that Suisho could blame his fellow Judge for the deaths of Lance, Cerah and Olivia to Sanctuary once the curtain of shadows around them rose.

Garuda Aiacos, as he was known away from home, hadn't lied to Lance; he disagreed that Olivia was Athena's mother, especially after seeing her with his own two eyes, and thought Rhadamanthys' plan was idiotic, as most of them were. However, Aiacos was in a position to control Sanctuary's reaction to Wyvern's foolishness. He had the men of Athena convinced he was just Crateris Suisho, a highly reputable Silver Saint, and if he could rid the Emperor of a Gold Rank Pegasus Saint while protecting his own secret mission…. Well, that was all the better.

He braced the dagger tightly, knowing from earlier that Lance had his defensive cosmos constantly up and therefore he had to aim carefully. "Sorry, Pegasus, but this is it for you. I'll be seeing you in Antenora."

Cerah gasped in the car, seeing the shine of cosmos exploding far above them. "SAINT LANCE, IN THE MOUNTAIN!"

"BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS!"

Lance's red eyes widened and Aiacos stopped, both seeing a surge of light burst out at the top of the peak above them! From far up above, a gigantic flash of white light, like a massive guillotine blade falling down on them all, descended with slashing force and thunderous sounds towards the jeep! The Pegasus Bronze Saint jumped in between at lightspeed and clashed against it with an armful of cosmos. He screamed with the impact, but managed to parry off the blow, redirecting its angle away from the passenger's seat!

Yet, the jeep still got struck, slicing it clean across the front row and blowing the vehicle off along with the cracking mountainside, making Olivia and Cerah scream! The entire mountain road then cracked open and collapsed aside, sending all four down a giant avalanche of rubble! The thunderous avalanche consumed the terrain, sliding trees, snow and boulders down the road, destroying it completely as the guillotine flash impacted the valley's lower reaches and burst into a flash of light that illuminated Grim's jamming dome around the mountains.

Alraune Queen landed on the sliding rubble, watching the chaos of falling objects unfold below. "Blast! That Bronze Saint…!"

Gorgon Ox and Dullahan Cube landed next to him. They shared concerned looks. "Was that… Lord Aiacos with them?! "

Queen widened eyes. He was focused on harnessing the force of the catapult shot from the Valiant to empower his attack, so he had no time to study the group of Saints before losing his chance to kill all of them.

"You saw it too?! It can't be! What would Aiacos be doing around here, without his Surplice?!" Queen protested. "I thought he was off in whatever secret mission the Emperor had him do!"

"Maybe this IS the mission? I think he was going to shank that Bronze Saint." Cube commented. He clenched teeth, watching the snow avalanche subside and settle in the darkness. "B-boy, he's not gonna be happy with us when he gets out of that avalanche.9"

Catching them both with his tendrils, Queen raised them screaming into the air and tossed them down the deep valley now covered in rubble and mud. "THEN FIND HIM! And find the Whore as well! I want her head in my hands within the hour!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Down in the darkness of the valley, Lance burst out of the snow with a panicked scream, crawling out fearfully. He coughed and trembled, trying to get his bearings in the snow, feeling his brain flashback to terrifying moments in Mount Olympus of getting caught in snow slides while fleeing from wolves.

He took several deep breaths to calm himself. "W-what… what the FUCK just happened?!" he screamed at himself. He tried to sense out his friends without alerting his presence to the Specters. "C-Cerah?! Olivia?!"

He looked around and, to the best he could tell, he was at the bottom result of the avalanche, standing on an inclined layer of snow much lower down the mountain than they previously were. Judging by how high the tree trunks around him were, there were several feet of snow below him that could easily have buried the jeep with the girls and the Cloth boxes. He could have gotten separated from the others or, worse, be the only survivor.

Yet, somewhere ahead of him, a voice responded. "Here! W-We're here!" Cerah shouted, pulling Olivia out of the back wreckage of the jeep. "H-HELP!"

Lance followed the sound of their voices into the shadowed, inclined avalanche pileup. He tried to move carefully, knowing from experience that a slip in the snow in the dark could be catastrophic. Eventually, he discovered that the valley was deeper than Lance thought and the avalanche had carried them down only a portion of the mountain.

Before him was, therefore, another big drop and Cerah and Olivia hanged on the edge by cliffside roots, while the jeep had, from the look of the moved snow, slid off the edge entirely and fallen below with Pegasus and Crateris Cloths.

Immediately, Lance got on his stomach in the snow, something that took some nerve from the cryophobe, and he reached down as much as he could to take their wrists. "A-Are you two okay?!"

It was tough to see in such dim conditions, but he saw their silhouettes move their limbs without hurting, which was kind of miracle.

"Y… yes!" Olivia confirmed, shaking and reaching up to his arm. "I think the Cloth boxes saved us from the worst…but they got blown out in the fall."

"Take my other hand, Olivia!" Lance instructed, to which the Saintia nodded and swung her hand until their wrists connected with eachother's fingers. "O-Okay, you first!"

The black-haired girl hesitated, trembling and looking down at the dark dro-

"O-Olivia, eyes on me!" Lance shouted at her. He had been in these situations in Mount Olympus and could tell how terrified she was. Cosmos couldn't make you fly after all.

Olivia gulped. "D-Don't look down! Don't look down!" she told herself, trembling. Lance struggled to pull Olivia up, but with his chest firmly planted on the ground, he had little leverage. Fixing her eyes on Lance, she reached up with her free hand as he pulled and clawed deep into the top ground.

She crawled deep into firmer snow ground, her heart beat like a jackhammer. "Oh, thank you, A-Athena…What was that light?! Who attacked us?!"

Lance focused on helping Cerah. He recognized the attack pattern, though, from battling Lemon, Lucifer's warrior (*).

(*) "A Fateful Encounter"

"It's… It's a Specter! The bastards found us somehow! Okay, Cerah, your turn! Can you climb up?!"

Olivia made her white cosmos explode and threw her small fist at his face! "SHOOTING STAR FIST!"

Lance screamed, blinded by the surprise attack, but the shower of white meteors that came out of Olivia's knuckle flew around his head and struck someone off to their side. Lance looked over and saw a Skeleton Soldier standing there with his scythe over Lance's unarmored body. Smoking craters now filled the bastard's torso and he coughed out blood before falling back.

Olivia just saved him.

Pulling Cerah into the even ground, Lance stared at Olivia bewildered. "T…thanks!"

Olivia breathed heavily and looked them over, making sure she didn't hit him accidentally as well. "N-No problem."

Cerah stared in shock. "T…That was just like Saint Yushira's technique! But it fired in rigid straight angles!" but more pressing matters surged to the top of her mind when she saw the fissure in the road cut up by the Specter attack. "Where's Saint Suisho?!"

Alarmed, Lance rushed over to the edge of the destruction. "He must have gotten hit by that big attack that I redirected. Either that or we got separated when we fell."

"Is he alright?! He wasn't wearing his armor!" Olivia recalled.

For some reason, though, Lance couldn't find his cosmos. "I can't find him! Did he get knocked out somewhere down there?!"

"I'VE F-FOUND THEM!" the fallen Skeleton screamed, crawling away towards the crevice where the rest of his squad was. The Pegasus Saint widened eyes in horror. "L-LORD ALRAUNE, I'VE F-F-"

"BLADE!" With a furious hand swipe, Lance's Blade technique instantly silenced the Specter by slashing his throat. "S-SHIT! We have to leave! Cerah, can you scour the area?!"

"Emission Lenses!" Using her technique, Cerah then scoured the lower grounds of the mountains for Saint Suisho's cosmos radiation, but what she saw made her gasp in fear instead. "S… Saint Lance, I see Saint Suisho deep down the valley as well as the Cloths, but they're in separate locations and there's Skeletons all over the area! In every direction! And they're coming here!"

"How many?!"

"T…There's too many cosmos… dozens! I think maybe over a hundred." she counted, making Olivia suck her breath in terror. Cerah herself was getting flashbacks to her battle with Gryphon Urial's men. A battle that ended with her in a coma (*).

(*) Side Story 1

Lance saw more shadows with scythes coming down the mountain side, amidst the trees, and he took the two of them by the hand. "We don't have a choice! We have to go down there and recover our Cloths, or they and Suisho might fall into Specter hands!"

"But Saint Lance, what about miss Olivia?!" Cerah mentally asked. "We can't put her in peril."

Lance's red eyes moved between them anxiously. It was time to form a strategy. He could use Cerah being next to him to figure out the enemy movements in the dark and the cosmos buffering, but he also needed her to locate the armors or they'd get killed the second they ran into a Celestial Star.

Cerah saw the hesitation in him. "Saint Lance… I'll get your armors!"

Lance widened his eyes at her bravery. "Are you sure? Don't take this the wrong way, but this isn't one lonely Terrestrial who underestimated a schoolgirl!"

She nodded, completely understanding his concern. "Y-yes, you can trust me! I can sneak around better than most people think and the Specters aren't after me or would think I'm a threat."

If this was true, Lance had to admit it was the better option. He turned to Olivia. "Alright, Miss Iraklidis, you're coming with me, then. We're making a breakthrough to the south!"

But the black-haired girl hesitated. "W-wait, but Cerah… You're accepting her plan, Pegasus? But the Specters…!"

"We don't have a choice. Your safety is our priority, not hers." Lance argued. He saw Olivia open her mouth to try to protest, but he stopped her. "This is what you brought her here for, right? Let Cerah do her part."

Olivia, however, didn't feel okay with this. Yes, Cerah had saved her life once and was clearly strong, but Olivia was still class president and felt responsible for the first-year student. "I… I know, but…I never thought we'd…"

Cerah took her hand reassuringly and looked determined. "Miss Olivia, don't worry, you can trust me. I won't let these Skeletons lay a hand on me." She wished she could mention her Corvus Cloth, but that was a secret. She headed off before Olivia could stop her. "Good luck!"

"WAIT, Cerah!" Olivia shouted, but the girl rushed down the snow pile's safe descent and vanished into the dark. Her heart sunk in terror, wondering if she brought Cerah to her death. "D-Dear Goddess, no…"

Lance understood her fear, but he also knew an Alraune was on their asses, so he gently encouraged her along with a push. "Olivia, come on! They're coming!"

Hearing the sound of metal boots skittering around in the snow above, Olivia steeled herself and nodded, rushing along.

{======================|A3|======================}

Eastern Valley

{======================|A3|======================}

On some other part of the valley, towards the east slopes, in a dark, forested depression, Aiacos felt himself pulled by the arms by metal-dressed hands from the cold snow rose from the snow with a wince, surrounded by Skeletons.

"He's… he's alright!" one Skeleton cheered.

"Your honor, it really is you! Someone inform Lord Alraun-" Aiacos's eyes snapped open and his hand caught his throat. The Skeleton gagged. "L-Lord Aiacos!"

"Y-You fools! I was about to kill that Bronze Saint! You just made everything worse!" he sneered, pressuring the neck more and more.

The Skeleton tapped his wrist desperately, gasping for breath. "P-please, ….we…. didn't….know…."

But Aiacos was incensed, his blue eyes cruel like a freezing storm. "Who told you all to listen to Rhadamanthys?! You had orders from me! You're the crew of the Valiant, my airship, and your duty… is to obey!" and with a twist of his wrist, he snapped the mook's neck aside, killing him. "I will remind you of that… in Antenora."

The rest of the Skeletons panicked, not wanting to be next. "L-Lord Aiacos, please! We can still salvage the situation!"

"Y-yes! The Bronze Saint and the girls got caught in the attack too and Lord Grim's jamming is still active!" another pointed out. "We can still make this a resounding success!"

Standing up straight and dusting the snow off of him, he squinted at the presence near them. "No. Even if I spared you lot, it's too late for you all."

They exchanged looks. "W… What do you mean-"

"DIAMOND BEAK SLASH!"

Aiacos jumped back, dodging the gigantic wave of golden light shaped like a giant sword slash wave that struck the area, obliterating the Skeleton Soldiers surround him and flaring up the valley. Landing atop a boulder, he looked up at the burning field of golden fires to see an armored blue figure raising herself from her attack.

He watched his men practically dissolve into the purifying light. "Those powers… you're a Knight of the Zodiac, aren't you?"

Aquila Daese's green eyes stared at his blue ones challengingly. "Correct, Specter."

Aiacos scoffed and made darkness swirl around his body, summoning his Garuda Surplice. "Are you the one who killed Worm Raimi?"

"No, but I do share blood with the culprit." Daese thought to herself, stepping out of the dimming light. "I am Aquila Daese, Paladin of Diamond. That's all you'll know of me before your cleanse."

Aiacos chuckled and rose his arm towards the shadow he cast on the ground. "So, you won't say…"

She watched with a chill up her spine as the shadow birthed a wash of darkness that took over the arm, before swirling to the rest of the Specter's body. It formed the Judge's horrible armor, shaped like the Hindu bird monster. "This man… is no ordinary Specter!"

Aiacos chuckled as his beaked helmet formed around his head. "What a shame. I would love to thank the one who punished him for creating this mess. That doesn't mean we can't have our own fun, though, right? What do you say, Knight of the Zodiac? Shall we reignite our great Holy War?!"

Daese sneered before she kissed her gauntlet to bless herself with Athena's love. Her aura then burst, igniting her in a pale blue flame. She had no idea why a Judge was here as well, but Athena damn her if she'd let him get a foot closer to Cerah.

{======================|A3|======================}

Valley South

{======================|A3|======================}

Lance and Olivia made their way down the mountain slope towards south, trying to move as shadowy as they could so as to avoid detection by the Celestial Star that ambushed them. The Pegasus led the way, using his experience of infiltration to find a safe path through the dark mountain forest and, before long, they began entering ground where the snow was firmer, indicating they left the avalanche pile.

Eventually, they reached an area were the forestry was lighter, allowing the little moonlight penetrating the buffering clouds above them to illuminate something dripping down Lance's arm.

She froze. It was blood. "S-Saint Lance! Your arm…!"

Lance shook his head. "I'm alright." He took part of his hands' bandage wrapping and covered his wound with it.

Yet, he suddenly seemed alarmed, looking around like a startled animal.

"What's wrong?" she asked, wondering if he was in pain.

Alarmed, Lance took her suddenly and pulled Olivia tightly towards the bushes, covering her mouth. She muffled a protest, startled, but quieted down when she saw the column of Skeleton Soldiers appearing in front of her, rushing right through where they were standing earlier.

Her eyes enlarged in terror as she observed how silent they were in their metal armors. One after the other they moved past them, a turn of the head away from noticing the two teenagers in the snow-covered foliage. Even now, aware of their presence, neither her ears nor her locked 7th sense heard their movements or sensed their cosmos, yet her eyes saw scythe after scythe, spear after spear, sword after sword…

"Whatever you do, don't make a move. They will hear it." Lance warned. He waited until her breath seemed calmer to let go.

The moonlight shadows of the Skeletons kept flashing through the two Saints' faces. Over and over. The Skeletons were so many. And they were so quiet. And they were all after her. She pressed herself against Saint Lance's chest, wanting to flee from all this terror, yet knowing there was nowhere to go.

He felt her terror and held her closely against chest to calm her down. "It was getting too quiet. Not even the animals were making a noise. And I didn't notice I was bleeding so much until you pointed it out." Lance explained. "They will soon realize my blood track has ended. That's when they will search the area."

She nodded, understanding. Her hand grasped the Cloth Stone around her neck. "Then that's when we'll attack?" She felt him nod. Her eyes steeled. "Leave it to me, then. My power level is lower so I can make less of a ruckus."

He pointed at a figure leading them who was wearing a heavier set of armor and a beaky helmet. "That one's a Specter. Are you sure?"

"Gorgon Ox, Terrestrial Race Star. His armor possesses weak points above the arms and on the neck line. His Eye of Charge technique can petrify his victims by turning their own cosmos against them.10" She eyed Lance over shoulder. "He's especially effective against high power levels like yours."

The Saint widened eyes, impressed.

She smiled proudly. "Surprised? The academy isn't just for noble girls to hold books over their heads, Saint Lance." She then warned him. "You're going to see a flash, though, so you might want to mind your eyes."

"The blood trail has ended!" Gorgon Ox shouted. "They're somewhere around here! Search the foliage!"

The two snapped in alert. Just as Saint Lance predicted, the Specters began beating their scythes around the snow and roots to find them. One Skeleton began heading in their direction. Their hearts beat fast. Lance made mental plans to interfere if things got ugly, though he hoped he wouldn't have to.

They saw him raise his scythe right over their coverage.

Tossing out her winter coat, Olivia snapped into action, grasping her Equuleus Cloth Stone as she lunged forward. "BURN, MY COSMOS! EQUULEUS CLOTH!" A blinding blue flash came out of her chest, blinding and startling the Skeletons, and her body was covered in light blue metal plates of an armor. Her empowered arms grappled around the Skeleton in front of her and she executed one of her grandfather's moves. "KORNEPHOROS!"

A skillful toss of the arms span the Skeleton with such force that he was launched screaming like a hurricane beam at the rest of his comrades, crashing through and disrupting the entire group before they could aim their crossbows at her.

Ox gawked and pointed. "It's her! The Whore of Athens!" he tried to focus on a mental message. "Lord Alrau-"

With a martial shout and a dash jump, Olivia landed her armored foot on his face at supersonic speed, stopping him!

She then span over towards his men as she landed, her fist already immersed in light. "EQUULEUS-" Winds raised around her like a forming tornado, before condensing around her small fists. "SHOOTING STAR FIST!"

Stunned by the armor on the girl and the skill with which she went through these enemies, Lance watched this wind-element variant of Aguilon's famous Meteor Fist shoot out an array of small but sharper, faster, and more numerous comets of light than the ones the giant was known to pummel people with. It went over their weapons and guards in strange tight angles, ignoring their defenses, and blasted the mooks armors apart with pin-point blows, striking weak points in the metal so precisely that the plates seemed to come right off their bodies like disassembled parts, all while doing the work of sharply beating bruises into all of their bodies.

The Skeletons collapsed all around her, unconscious and their armors destroyed.

Lance's jaw dropped. "W… what?"

She turned to him with a rather show-off-y smirk. She was dressed in a much prettier Bronze Cloth than his blocky old Pegasus, wearing a style similar to the one that Fake Tenma had in Lance's simulation spars with Dohko's former student at Rozan (*), possessing elegant metal pieces with complete upper torso protection, pointy triangular shoulder armor, a winged headband, balanced tassets and a sleek pair of greaves going up to her knees. More surprisingly, her tassets were over a short silk skirt that seemed to materialize out of the armor over her pants.

(*) "Revelations + Steed of a Feather"

Lance wasn't sure what to be more outraged by; the fact it came out of nowhere, or that it made his good old horse-helmet Bronze Cloth look like an unprotective piece of garbage. "What the HECK is that CLOTH, Olivia?!"

Her blue eyes darted self-consciously "Yes, well, I suppose it's a bit of a surprise, isn't it?"

Lance stared at her blue fowl protection. "Surprise?! You pulled that literally out of nowhere!"

She took out the pendant director Albus gave her, which was now missing it's sapphire. "I was keeping it inside a Cloth Stone. I'm… sort of unofficially the Equuleus Bronze Saintia."

Lance recognized the term from the Papal Guard leader's explanations about Knights of the Zodiac. "You mean it's one of those magical necklaces that just pops a Cloth out?"

She sweated and her head bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry for not letting you all know, Saint Lance. It's a treasure from the academy, guarded inside a Cyrulian Cloth Stone. Ideally, no one would have known I had it by the end of this."

Lance collected himself. Regardless of how he felt, this was good news for their mission.

Gorgon Ox rose from the ground, holding his cracked helmet. "Y-You… witch! A-Agh,… not only are you the W-Whore, but you use blasted Cyrulian tricks, too?! Judge Rhadamanthys is right to want you dead!"

Sick of this, Olivia confronted the Specter. "Would you STOP calling me that? I am not who you think I am! Just because I can read the stars, it doesn't mean I'm Athena's vessel, or anything of the sort! Why don't you people just leave me alone?!"

Gorgon cackled coarsely. It wouldn't shock him, given how poor Raimi's evidence was. "U-ugh… even if you're not, I'd still jump at the opportunity to kill a bunch of Saints like you! Two less profligates around only means two less fools standing in the way of Lord Hades' paradise! This is holy war, after all! In fact…" he then rose and burned his aura of red-wine mirk, alarming them. "I think I'll do just that! EYE OF CHARG-"

With another rather angry martial yell, Olivia blitzed in and punched the gap in his neck line right in his throat, smashing his trachea in before he could petrify her or Lance. The Specter gasped, feeling his breath cut short and blood gushing out, and he collapsed again, this time feeling his consciousness falling into darkness.

Lance stood back, amazed and even a bit scared. No fuss, no muss, her opponent was just dealt with. "W-wow!"

She shook her pained hand, then stiffened and combed her hair. "…Apologies, I lost my patience. I just want this nightmare to end."

"Oh, I'm afraid we're just beginning, Saintia."

The two Saints widened eyes in alarm!

At the speed of light, a pair of hands crossed above their owners' head before shining with cosmos, manifesting an image of a guillotine in the skies. "BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS!"

All Olivia felt was a shaking and the sound of trees being torn through violently. Her meager supersonic senses couldn't hope to react to what was coming.

Lance, however, could; with a lightspeed dash and a pillowing layer of cosmos, he took Olivia to the ground, saving her from the massive wave of black light that came flying in, sharp as a swinging blade and long as a horizon. It shaved entire forest chunks off the ground, sending trunks and snow into the air, blasting into the ground and making the mountain roar with the impact, triggering avalanches far away.

Standing atop of a pine tree's pinnacle ahead of them, from where the attack swung, Alraune Queen laughed. "Good reflexes, Saint of Athena."

Lance growled and took a stunned Olivia back protectively. "STAY BEHIND ME! He's the Celestial Star!" She backed away and nodded, seeing the dark-armored man with the shockingly high cosmos. Lance then confronted his foe. "You're the one behind this attack, aren't you?!"

Jumping off the tree and descending with a light flutter of the metal petals on his Surplice, the Specter bowed. "Yes, I am Alraune Queen, the Celestial Demonic Star, one of Judge Rhadamanthys's Three Elites."

The unarmored Pegasus studied the adversary. As suspected, he was wearing the same Surplice as the False Specter Lemon used when he fought Lance at Rozan. However, Queen looked younger, no older than Lance, having likely been revived soon after Lemon's death as the True Alraune, his hair was of a curlier and darker red and his posture was less aggressive and more relaxed. Lemon had seemed to Lance as a man tense with the role he was in as Lucifer's subordinate, while this guy seemed perfectly comfortable in the metal shoes he wore, naming his Judge Master with a tone of pride.

"You did quite well to survive my Full Moon variant." Queen commented, noticing the blood-stanched wrappings in Lance's arm. "And then you dodged my follow-up… you must be a Gold Rank, then? I wouldn't get cocky if I were you, though. Full Moon is, shall we say, a bit of a birdshot version of my move, one that I fired too far up to kill a couple of Bronze strays if I'm being completely honest."

Olivia stepped back in fear. That big attack that almost killed all of them was just an opener to this Specter?

Lance scoffed. "It sounds to me like an excuse for fucking up your surprise advantage."

Queen laughed "I don't need the element of surprise to kill Saints… I just enjoy the reaction frozen on their faces when their heads roll through the air." He then burned his Cosmos aura and made the battle stems of his Surplice's petals tense, aiming at Lance. "I wonder which one… will decorate yours."

Lance and Olivia staggered, seeing the aura swell into a spreading miasma that filled their ears with the sounds of dying gargles, like the last gasps of hanged men. It was darker and steeper than the energy Lance had once felt from Alraune Lemon, one of Daemon Lucifer's four False Specter Elites, possessing a macabre, abysmal character to it that could only come from a soul that had allowed itself to be raped by Hades' curses for thousands of years in a row.

In fact, the only adversary in Daemon Lucifer's army that Lance had felt this kind of evil energy from, was Lucifer himself. "Is this the cosmos… of a True Specter?!"

"Let's begin. Mandrake Spear!" Queen shouted, thrusting hand, causing one of his lower stems to launch at him with a drilling thrust at the speed of light.

Lance countered, igniting his fire aura and raising hand to form his transparent Cosmos wall. "BARRIER!"

A shattering clash occurred between the two techniques, one with a galaxy-tearing contact point that splashed a cosmic image of an evil Alraune creature striking a knight's shield with her tendrils. The barrier shattered, but the attack was redirected, glancing off towards the ground with earth-shattering force.

Such was the force, though, that a blunt shockwave blew Olivia off with a scream. She fell with a roll, guarding herself with her armor plates, and collided with a tree. Raising her eyes, she saw Saint Lance launch himself at the Specter without armor, landing a powerful knee kick over Queen's arm guard. She recoiled at the ferocity that then ensued as the two gold-rankers went at it, blasting countless impacts in the air as they parried eachother's attacks.

Alraune laughed, blocking Lance's attacks effortlessly thanks to the disparity in armor. "Suicidal, aren't we? I like you!"

After dodging a rising knee, he rose his armored fist at the Saint to teach him a lesson. Lance, however, dodged the swing by throwing his body aside with surprising skill. " The Saint rose back up with his impetus and swung up, triggering the Cosmos image of a horseback knight thrusting a spear. "LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!"

His signature technique struck the Specter's crossing guard like a thunderbolt punch, shocking the Specter with electricity and knocking him back a bunch!

The Specter recoiled, but recovered quickly. His mouth dropped in renewed interest. "Ah, ah, I see! So, you're not useless without your cloth!"

Lance struck his Rozan pose, bending fingers together like dragon claws and leaning his right side forward. Unfortunately, looking at the smoking scratch in Queen's forearm, he had to disagree with the Specter.

"I struck him as hard as I could and he barely has a dent in his armor. I think I hurt myself more than him." He glanced at Olivia. "Between the two of us, I can actually last against a Gold Rank, but without a Cloth of my own he'll eventually rip me to shreds with those slicing techniques. Hopefully Cerah will be back with the Cloth or we're all in big trouble!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Valley Southeast

{======================|A3|======================}

The chaos of the battle between Pegasus and Alraune sounded through the valley in a loud, echoing bam that shook the ground.

Cerah screeched her feet to a halt on the sound, hearing the firework of attacks going off towards the south, where Saint Lance took miss Olivia. She saw faint flashes amongst the trees in that direction and felt the ground quake faintly. Earlier, she even swore she saw another avalanche and trees being thrown into the air.

She gulped, hoping they were okay, and focused on her task.

With Emission Lenses active, Cerah saw the two blinding cubes of Cosmos ahead in the dark, as well as the Skeletons moving around. It was easier to navigate the Academy, which had a layout she knew, and the woods where she battled Cyclops Servo and Gryphon Urial's men, because it had less snow and smoother terrain, but in the snow-packed Alps, her Emission Lenses were earning her quite a few bruises from just ramming herself straight against a pine tree. Rocks and trees didn't have cosmos her technique could read, after all.

With trepidation, she made it to where the two boxes had fallen. After she and Olivia were tossed out of the jeep, the valley's topography had funneled it down a frozen stream run until it got caught on crashed trees, halting the wreckage from falling further beyond. The two big boxes were still inside the waggoneer rack and a pair of Skeleton Soldiers approached it.

She took a deep breath and grasped her Cloth Stone. "Lightcraft: Corvus Cloth!" and with as faint a flash of cosmos as she managed, the obsidian rock around her neck fragmented into light specks that dressed her body in the black, avian armor.

Still, the two Skeletons paused and turned. "What? Did someone take a picture or some-"

Within a fraction of a second, with a Mach 5 dash, Cerah jumped kick the first so hard it instantly knocked him out! The other barely had time to grip his scythe before she cut it in half with a chop, disarming him, and blasting his body with a series of supersonic punches that popped the air loudly, shattering his armor and silencing him.

She breathed out to cool her body down as the two Skeletons fell, losing consciousness. Raised in the Underworld by Lucifer, Cerah knew it was pointless to kill them, since they'd just revive later. Triggering Hades' curses by finishing them off would actually make them become active in the area faster than just leaving them unconscious. She allowed herself a smile of success, managing to take them out without her armor flash alerting anyone else.

Ripping off the trunk door with a cosmos hand pull, she tossed it aside as lightly as she could and beheld the two Cloths. As expected, Pegasus and Crateris were unharmed, save for a few scorch marks from Alraune's attack. This confirmed that the two armors had, indeed, saved her and Olivia from the Celestial Star's attack. She took the Pegasus Cloth out first and strapped it over her arms.

She then reached a conundrum when she turned to Crateris. "Oh… what about this one?"

How did this work now? These boxes were so big and heavy, so did Saints really stack them over each other when multiple ones were being carried by one person? The idea seemed silly to her and it would likely make her a huge target, speeding through the forest back to Lance and Olivia with a stack of boxes over her back like a Tetris tower. Cerah wagered that the glint alone would attract half the Underworld to where she was.

Suddenly, a big shockwave at a distance opposite to where Lance and Olivia were alerted her! She saw, to the east, a geyser of two energies, one dark like a Specter and the other pale blue, both powerful like a Gold Rank's. The pale blue energy felt very familiar to her somehow. Was it Saint Suisho? He had that White Lotus Hurricane ice technique after all that he used on the Black Saints. 11

"He must be fighting a Specter, too!" she concluded. She decided to just reach for Crateris and pull it out by the strap, even if she had to carry it by hand through the snow and mud. "I can't dally around, then!

Suddenly, an exterior force struck the wrecked jeep from the flank, ripping open the seats and knocking Cerah aside to the cold ground. The Corvus Knight winced and crawled away, seeing the jeep assaulted by a dark-armored man with an alien-like helmet of big yellow eyes who took the Crateris Cloth box and kicked the wreck aside.

Cerah stood up. "STOP! GIVE THAT BACK!"

The Specter raised face at her, freezing her with their large, creepy glare, like two cat eyes in the dark. "Or what?"

She stepped back hesitantly, recognizing his armor now. "You're Dullahan…Dullahan Cube! Terrestrial Shadowy Star!"

Strapping the Crateris Cloth around his arms, the Specter jumped down to her. "Mm, correct. Did the boarding school teach you that? I feel so honored that Sanctuary would remember me. I did battle their Taurus Gold Saint, I suppose."

In reality, Cerah hadn't been at the academy nearly long enough for it. She was just raised by a very strict Specter. Her eyes narrowed. "Why do you want Saint Suisho's Cloth?! I thought you were after miss Olivia?! Give it back, or else!"

Dullahan burst into laughter. "Saint Suisho, you say?" he mocked. Sanctuary really had no idea, did it? "Now I understand it all. I guess whatever happens now, Queen is going to have one Judge angry at him."

The blonde girl clenched teeth. First, they try to kill them, and now they laugh at her? "What are you talking about?! What's so funny?!"

The Specter burned his cosmos, igniting his aura and making the chilly winds pick up. "You can learn all about it once you're in hell!" He focused cosmos in his hands and projected his lethal illusion. "DEATH MESSENGE-"

Bursting her aura of yellow rays, Cerah launched at him. "LIGHTCRAFT: ARMBLADE!" A flash of forging light sprouted a wing-shaped blade out of her forearm guard and in a single, supersonic motion, the Knight blitz past the Specter, slicing him across the chest with a Surplice-cleaving slash of burning light.

The Specter screamed, shocked, and the large box flew out of him into Cerah's hand, who swing it over the Pegasus box on her back, docking them together.

Blood filled the interior of his mask. "H-how…"

Reforging her arm plate back to normal, Cerah wiped her hot forehead. "Sorry, but I can't afford to let you cast that. I know what your technique does. I saw your False Specter, Hedron, use it many times in the Underworld."

His mask split apart, revealing a brown-haired head with a face stamped in confusion. "He…dron? H-how would you… agh!" Cube felt sensation over his body disappear and he collapsed, unconscious.

Cerah shook her head in lament. She knew the False Specter's struggles and knew that the True Specters, though crueler, faced similar lies from Hades. "I hope the Judges don't torture you for your failure, Specter, but I have to protect miss Olivia." She looked in the direction she felt Saint Suisho battle a Specter. If it wasn't for the jamming, she'd try to communicate with him. "Saint Crateris would certainly want me to take Pegasus to Saint Lance first. I'll hide Crateris and do that, then double back. Hopefully he isn't fighting a Judge…"

{======================|A3|======================}

Aiacos dodged the razor-fast flying kick aimed at his head with a bob, before his tensed fingers rose up at her face. "DIE! GARUDA FLAP!"

Aquila Daese, however, twirled her body over to prevent getting caught by his dark-powered grip, which instead struck an area of trees so powerfully that the mere force shaved countless trunks off their roots into the air. The shockingly fast Judge swiped around, blasting the terrain with the force of his cosmos like flapping a huge wing at her, and Daese got knocked back painfully into the snow.

Seeing her stunned, he laughed psychotically and threw hands towards her "WHITE LOTUS SPEAR!" Air and water cosmos around him coalesced into twelve focus points that shaped into sharp shards of ice. These fired off, aimed at her.

Dease however charged forward, crossing her arms. "Lightcraft!" With a flash of light, her armor vanished off her body, lightening her, and she was able to squeeze quickly enough through the shards' tunneling death to dodge right past them and land with a roll.

The Judge stepped back, startled by the maneuver.

"Now, RETURN!" There was another flash that coated her with the Aquila Cloth again and she swung her fist up, immersed in light cosmos.

Aiacos blocked it with an arm cross and his power swelled to fuel a series of counter punches that pummeled her back. It bashed her back but the blows failed to penetrate her Silver Cloth. He had to contain himself, so that the rest of Sanctuary doesn't uncover who he is, but he'd release just enough power to smash this remnant to oblivion like the rest of her kin!

{======================|A3|======================}

South Valley

{======================|A3|======================}

"AH, AH, AH, DANCE FOR ME, BRONZE SAINT! DANCE!" Queen begged, lashing out more slicing attacks at the Pegasus Saint.

Blazing his fire aura, Lance leaped back repeatedly to dodge the air-sizzling flurry, gasping fearfully at the ferocity with which the ground around him was cut apart. The snow was blown away by the force of the blows, revealing the cold muddy ground underneath before the thrusts and lashes of Blood Flower Scissors shredded it with impacts more akin to artillery blows, rather than blade cuts.

Occasionally, the Celestial Demonic Star charged at him directly, striking the Pegasus' naked defenses with his metal-clad punches and kicks to pummel the Saint some more, weakening him before another round of stem slices.

Olivia was taking cover away from the fighting. She wanted to help, but all she could see were beams of fire and darkness striking back and forth with occasional glimpses of the two lightspeed fighters. The Equuleus Saintia had the distinct impression that a careless attempt to help could end with her skewered against the floor before Saint Lance could stop it.

However, more and more, that darkness seemed to be pushing back the fire…

Screeching his feet back, Lance bobbed his body to dodge a series of thrusts that grazed him, lightly slicing his skin, before leaping to avoid getting caught by their closing. He jumped high over them and descended with a dive kick, but Queen effortlessly blocked the blow with his arm despite the force cratering the ground beneath him. A rotating kick from the Specter pushed the Saint back harshly, who had to put extraordinary amounts of cosmos into defense to survive these blows without his Cloth, and barely had time to reroute his energies back to offensive and movement capabilities before a new round of lightspeed darkness strikes came from Queen. Impacting Lance all over his body, the Specter laughed psychotically at the sight of the spasming Saint.

"What's wrong, Bronze Saint?! Where's the ferocity of Athena's warriors?! You're reacting far too slowly!" he provoked, dropping an axe chop blow on Lance that forced him to cross guard, exposing his abdomen to a kick that blasted Lance back like a hammer swing, shooting him to the floor. Queen crossed his hands above head.

Recovering, Lance looked up and gasped at the sight of a massive guillotine illusion.

"BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS!" Queen commanded, lowering the 'blade'.

The two Saints screamed when a gigantic blade of light came down on Lance, blasting the ground he laid on with such cutting force that the valley sunk down, dragging trees and boulders into the destruction. Olivia was blasted back and lost track of what happened. She looked up and saw Saint Lance had fortunately escaped the destruction, roll-jumping back at the last second.

The Saint landed with a frightened look, staring at the deep fissure now between him and Queen that quickly collapsed into itself. Even if he had survived that killing slice, he'd likely have been buried alive.

"You're quite the martial artist, aren't you? Dodging my guillotine like the little monkey you are." Queen asked. "I don't know whether to be impressed or annoyed…"

"Y-You'll be turning tail back to the Underworld, instead!" Lance responded, harnessing his energies.

Queen laughed at his bravado. "I don't think so. You're skilled, Saint, but without your armor you can't do much. You've been fighting me for a bit and I've hardly had to strain myself. You, by contrast, can't focus your cosmos attacking me because you're too worried about staying alive. Once again, Specter superiority proves itself."

"What superiority?!" Olivia asked, outraged. She saw the blood dripping off Saint Lance's cuts. "You're nothing but killers who bully the innocent!"

Queen glanced at her, having almost forgotten about the girl in his fun. "Not to get into a debate about whether innocence even exists in a world without Lord Hades' ruling hand, but yes, we are superior."

Queen then made one of his stems lean closely against his own Surplice's joins, as if he was about to cut its links to make it fall off his body and give Lance a fair fighting chance. The two Saints staggered.

He smirked at their reaction. "I bet you would love this to happen, wouldn't you? However, even if I suddenly went insane and decided to take off my wonderful Surplice, that wouldn't change a thing. Do you want to know why?... Because I am blessed."

Lance, who had heard this before from Lucifer's fanatics, only cringed. "Not this speech again!"

Queen's arms spread out. "I am one of the Hundred and Eight chosen by Hades, the humans he has chosen to be above all others! Even if death was an end meant for me, I'd face nothing in the Underworld but the loving arms of my brothers and sisters! So unlike Saint Pegasus, I have nothing to fear…"

"Then you're just a fanatic!" Lance accused. "A privileged sick fuck who thinks he'll face no consequences for anything! That's not being fearless! That's the most cowardly thing I've ever heard!"

She doubled down on it, clenching her teeth in disgust. "… Saint Lance is r-right! You and your Specter ilk are nothing but the world's biggest cowards! Every single one hundred and eight of you turned your back on the rest of us so you could hide in the Underworld, hide from DEATH! You just accuse us of defending sinners because you gave up on human life yourself!"

Queen tensed. One of his stems danced menacingly around his arm, as if about to pounce at her. "You might want to watch your words, Saintia… Athena or not, I can help Minos decide if you land in Ptolomea for your heresy… or Giudecca for your defiance. I assure you there's a big difference in pain between the two. And in length."

"Fuck you." Lance flatly spat at him. "Do you think you can intimidate Saints of Athena with threats of hell?! Every warrior who's earned their Cloth already knows what Hades has in store for them! That's why the False Specters had more bravery than you."

This particular seemed to incense Queen in particular. "… Excuse me, Saint?"

Lance narrowed his red eyes menacingly. "I fought Lucifer's men. In fact, I fought your equivalent False Specter. And you know what? You being more legitimate than them at the eyes of your lying Emperor, or even stronger than them, means SHIT, because even if they were cruel pigs who deserved to be stopped, at least they had the fucking balls to defy your God!"

Queen only blinked. He couldn't believe such a thing was being said to him to his face.

Yet, Lance continued. "And you know what the best part was?! The degree to which they showed how useless your God is! They cut off our communications, captured our fortresses and even almost killed half the Golden Zodiac. I almost died more times than I could count trying to stop just one of those bastards! They even kidnapped the Virgo Saint! They came closer to beating us than you 108 immortal stars ever have!... And they did it without your stupid fucking death god or his Barriers!"

…

A disconcerting silence came over the battlefield, with Queen having absolute horror stamped on his face. Olivia sweated, feeling stuck between wanting to cheer what Saint Lance said and fearing what kind of madness he awoke in the Alraune.

…

Queen laughed. His tone seemed deranged. "…I underestimated how rude you Saints are. Comparing me to a replacement? Insulting the Emperor in such a way? I… Ah, ah, ah, ah….." His aura then burned high, deepening the darkness of the valley. His eyes widened in hatred at the Pegasus and he thrust his hand at Lance. "YOU TWO WILL HANG OVER THE PITS OF TARTARUS FOR THIS! HANGING ALRAUNE!"

The two Saints gasped and stumbled, feeling the ground crack beneath them. Queen's two lower battle stems, which had punctured underground without them noticing, came out and wrapped around their feet like lassos. Their bodies were flipped up high in the air and hung, making their blood rush down to their heads.

Lance struggled "S-SHIT! BLADE!" he cried, forming a chop of cosmos in his hand and reaching up with a trained body curl.

But one of Alraune's two upper stems caught his Blade's wrist and tied it together "NOT SO FAST!" and he harshly slammed Lance on the ground, cratering the ground. Lance screamed and Queen dragged him out by the restraints.

Olivia saw him being pulled to Alraune and tried to struggle, but her slim body frame couldn't pull her up high enough to grab her restraint. "N-NO! SAINT LANC-"

Queen's fourth stem struck her harshly in the stomach, silencing her. "QUIET, FALSE GODDESS!" He pressed her off to deal with her later and focused on Lance, pulling him closer and closer in reach of his Blood Flower Scissors. "I'll deal with the Equuleus Saintia later… you, Saint Lance, must first pay for the insolence you committed."

Lance only eyed him challengingly. He tried to focus his cosmos and struggled, but the Damascus stems were powerful and reacted with even tighter wraps. He needed way more physical strength if he wanted to break free, even with Cosmos. "Blast! This would be a damn good time to unlock Chi!"

"Are you ready? I will teach you the full difference between the replacements and the true thing!" Queen promised, raising his hands over head.

Lance sweated, seeing the guillotine illusion form above. The terror of having his neck cleaved crept into his heart.

Remembering Dohko's lessons on Chi, he tried to focus on that fear. He tried to let it fill him, even forget he had cosmos, so that his heart would beat as fast as he could. Yet, the strength he saw Dohko summon to lift that rock at Rozan wouldn't appear. What was he doing wrong?! Conditions were perfect! Cosmos wasn't enough and he was about to get his head chopped off!

12

"You seem regretful." Alraune mocked. "Worry not, Pegasus. That is what the Underworld is for, to make you repent for your offenses."

Olivia struggled to get up and widened her eyes at the illusion of the guillotine blade dropping on the Pegasus. "S-Saint LANCE!"

"BLOOD FLOWER SCISS-"

"PRISMATIC SHOT! TIMES 100!" Cerah shouted, coming in out of nowhere and swinging a giant ball of light in her hand as hard as she could. The small sun impacted on Queen's face, exploding into a blinding flash of light, stumbling him back and interrupting his attack!

The two Saints gasped. "C-Cerah!"

The Corvus Knight panted, her fist smoking and pained. She held her arm at the burnout.

"I… I'm sorry I'm late!" she begged. Unstrapping the Pegasus Cloth Box, she put it down. "I o-only just arrived cause I was looking for Alraune to lower his guard."

But the two Saints stared in utter bewilderment. "C…Cerah, what the fuck are you wearing?" Lance asked.

Cerah blinked. She looked down and her breath stopped. She had forgotten to turn off her armor!

The knight stepped back in horror, feeling her friends' eyes on her black Cloth. "Oh no. Oh, no! Oh no, no, no!" Her hands shook. "I… I c-can explain! I s-swear! Miss Olivia, Saint Lance, j-just hear m-"

"C-CERAH, WATCH OUT!" the restrained Lance screamed.

She turned and froze at the shadow standing over her.

The arm bashed her like a steel bat, sending her flying through the air! The Corvus Saint lost sense of where she was and her body rolled painfully through mud and rocks until it crashed unto the rubble, sending dirt everywhere.

…

Her green eyes refocused and her body burned in pain. Half her body felt broken. The lightspeed bash had hit her like a running locomotive, nearly splattering her body. Memories of what Urial had done to her came rushing back. Goddess save her.

Lance and Olivia paled at the sight of her bloody body as Alraune stepped over them to go to her. They couldn't tell if she was dead or not.

Queen rubbed his eyes instead of the cheek she hit. "Agh… you sneaky cunt! So, you're a Saintia, too?! My goddamn eyes, ugh…"

Cerah shook. She had only managed to flare his eyes? She hit him with everything she had. Even Gryphon Urial had taken pain. Was this the power of a True Specter?

{======================|A3|======================}

Daese blocked Aiacos' powerful kick, whose force bashed her down on the ground with quaking force and a shower of dark cosmos that seared her armor. With a counterstrike, the Paladin blasted the Judge off with a blast of light that scalded him harshly enough to make him scream and stumble back.

She stood up, shaking. Her blue aura burned still, but she felt herself losing the fight. "His armor is too thick! And he's so skilled… I have to think of something!"

Aiacos winced, but the burning subsided. He stood up with a sly smirk. "I think I'm getting used to it… the pain of your Cyrulian light, that is."

The young blonde Paladin stepped back, fearful. She raised her fists.

The Judge continued. "I was taught to fear the Knights as a Specter, that your specialization in the Light element made you a unique threat to our Surplices, that the Paladins, in particular, could cut through a Celestial's armor like raspberry marmalade." Aiacos smiled. "Perhaps because I am also a Saint, your Light doesn't burn me as much as it would Minos and Rhadamanthys? What do you think, Paladin?"

Suddenly, Daese gasped, feeling a certain cosmos dip dangerously to the south. Her head turned. "W-what? Cerah?!"

Aiacos rushed in and his foot blasted her head, sending her flying. He then executed his technique. "WHITE LOTUS SPEARS!" The deadly array of ice shards formed and shot the Paladin's body in several spots through her Silver Cloth, pining her painfully to a tree.

Daese struggled, trying to push herself off, but the cold numbed her limbs. She had to save her sister!

Aiacos approached her. "I do not like hurting women. I really don't! I have a dear sister back home, after all, as well my perfect servant waiting for me to release her from her torment. That's why I've been holding back. But I want to know why there are Knights infiltrated in Sanctuary's ranks, so I'm open to reconsider my policy." He threatened. "Were you the Knight that Raimi spoke of? Why are you intruding in this mission?! TALK!"

She eyed him with poison in her emerald orbs and blood in her mouth. "B-by the blood of my dead brothers and sisters… I will burn my cosmos to its last before I ever do what a Specter asks of me! You want to know why I'm here?! I'm a Knight of the Zodiac! And if my blood can be used to rust the sword of a single Specter, it will!"

He burned his cosmos and grasped her throat to prepare his Garuda Flap. "Admirable. I will be as Zeus, then, and reward your heroic bravery… by making you join the stars!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Lance and Olivia struggled desperately against the metal stems, seeing Queen approaching Cerah. Lance in particular tried to crawl towards the dropped Pegasus Box, even if he had to pull the handle with his teeth.

Queen laughed at their sight and made Lance's stem pull him far away from the box, smashing him into a tree. "Why don't you two stay nice and quiet for now?"

Olivia burned her cosmos as high as she could, but all her blue energy did was lightly warm the Damascus filament around her body. "UGH! N-NO! STAY AWAY FROM HER!"

"TOUCH HER AGAIN AND I WILL SMASH YOUR FACE INTO THIS MOUNTAIN!" Lance threatened.

Queen shook his head in lament and turned to Cerah. "Do you hear that? Look at the trouble you've caused them, little Corvus. You've punched above your weight… 200 thousand TIMES above your weight…"

With great pain, Cerah crawled over to face him. Her bruised body bled. "P-please… let them go."

The Specter perked his wine-red brow. "Excuse me?"

"M-Miss Olivia is worthless to you. She isn't Athena. She is just a Saintia that many of us admire." Cerah negotiated. "B-But I am not…"

Lance and Olivia exchanged quizzical looks. "Cerah, s-stop! Don't try to bargain with him!"

The Specter, however, hummed in intrigue. "I'm listening…What value do you have to the Emperor then?"

Though her body was half-broken, Cerah burned her cosmos and stood back up. She looked at the two Saints. They were real members of Sanctuary, while she was not. "I'm… a Knight of the Zodiac. C-Corvus Cerah. That's why I have this armor… I'm the one who defeated Raimi…"

Queen widened his eyes.

"I k-know the Specters hate my people." Cerah admitted, breathing harshly. She felt like she could fall apart any second. "L-Let miss Olivia and Saint Lance go… Give me your word as a Celestial Star, as a servant of the Judges, that you won't harm them anymore …and you can give me to Pandora."

Olivia gasped!

"C-CERAH, DON'T BE STUPID!" Lance roared. He saw with terror that the Specter smiled in interest. "You don't know who you're dealing with!"

Her head shook. She had lived with the Prince of Specters for many years. He had done harsh things to her and Sanctuary, but one thing Lucifer could be counted on, was being honorable.

Queen held chin. "I don't deny I'd like to leave this place sooner than later, and a Knight would make a good consolation price if that woman over there really is a fraud. What makes you think I would say 'yes' to that, though?"

"CERAH, HE'LL JUST KILL US RIGHT AFTERWARDS, DON'T DO THIS!" Lance urged, struggling madly. "YOU CAN'T TRUST THESE BASTARDS! They're cynical fucks who think you're BENEATH THEM!"

Cerah stared him as firmly as her wounded body let her. "Alraune Queen… you served the Princes of Hades in the past, right? I know that your people want to conquer Sanctuary, but also that you have values of your own…Please, let my friends go."

Queen scoffed. "You're no ordinary Knight… Why would you assume such things of your sworn enemy?!"

Cerah then braced herself. She took a look at Olivia and Lance, knowing they'd never trust her again after this. "Because… I was trained by Daemon Lucifer."

Everyone widened their eyes.

Lance, in particular, felt his world go more and more insane. "What?! Lucifer… trained her?!" His head was boiling with the amount of information he had to absorb and contrast with what he thought to be true. "What the fuck is happening?!"

…

Queen laughed outloud.

Cerah stared in horror. "W…What?! Why are you laughing?!"

"What's NOT to laugh?! Do you even hear yourself, blondie? You must be telling the truth about Lucifer training you, because only the Princes had such silly ideas about the Underworld in their heads. Let me teach you something about Specters -" Queen derisively said, smiling psychotically. "We and you… are not the same! Sure, we fight under Gods and our particular telenovela of wars has been going on for an unexpected number of millennia… but even IF you were valuable enough for me to say yes, I would spend a cold day in Cocytus before I ever entertained some sinner's illusions that they can bargain with me, a True Specter of the Underworld."

She stepped back. "B-…but-" Her eyes wept angrily. "HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?! Aren't you trying to save the world in your own way?!"

Queen frowned. Her delusions were starting to sound less amusing and more typical. "The men of the Emperor are not unenlightened savages like Daemon who 'seek to conquer' and pretend humanity can be saved if it's just 'guided'. We are cleansers of the world. We are here to end this pathetic human experiment, not fix it."

The blonde girl gritted teeth. "B… but you're human, too! You're mortal, just like us! H-how could you…. Think like that of….?!"

His head leaned patronizingly. "We are chosen by God. You stupid, brainless monkey cunt."

Even Lance, who had battled the False Specters, began to shake in distress at this callousness. "… Is that what you think Lucifer's mistake was?! That he wasn't as genocidal as you?!"

Queen turned with a nod. "That's right, Pegasus. You Saints won against the replacements because they were never of the fiber that made the Terrestrial and Celestial Stars of Hades. If Lucifer had commanded us in that war, Sanctuary would be a mountain of death by now!" Alraune then cringed his nose in utter disgust and spat at the floor. "That's why his betrayal was so utterly repugnant! His ambition to rule on his own made him waste his talents on the replacements! When he could have been loyal to the Emperor and given us, True Specters, our final victory over Athena!"

Rage filled Cerah's broken body and her body exploded with Light Cosmos. "P-PRISMATIC SHO-"

Queen commanded a new attack with a thrust of his hand. "MANDRAKE SPEARING!" His lower left petal shot out its stem with lightspeed force from underneath his arm, tearing through the air with a tip of dark, twisting, concentrated wind like a lance blow.

Lance gasped and Olivia screamed in horror.

Cerah screamed as it struck her armoured chest, piercing through and paralyzing her with the sheer impact force and projecting her body into the ground, crashing through the humid mountain rubble. Blood splashed aside. The blonde girl coughed, hugging her own stunned upper torse with pain flashing all through her and something like a metal cable stuck inside her. It suddenly jerked, paining her, before Queen made it sprout out to let her blood flow freely.

The Demonic Star laughed. "You reacted too slow, little girl. I'm afraid Mach 5 isn't much against one of the Emperor's Celestial Stars. I'm not done with you yet, though." With a twirl of his finger, the bloodied stemmed whipped towards her neck and wrapped it tightly, constricting her breath. Cerah grabbed it desperately, but Queen then began the next phase of his technique. "Hanging Alraune!"

One of Queen's free tendrils then snapped into action, grasping Cerah's throat and lifting her off her feet.

"N-NO, STOP!" Olivia screamed. "She's just a first year Saintia! Take me!"

Queen ignored her and pulled the Knight up, making her scream breathlessly.

"SHE TOLD YOU TO DROP HER!" Lance roared. "DO IT OR AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I'LL SMASH YOU BACK INTO THE UNDERWORLD WITH THE REST OF THE FALSE SPECTERS!

The Alraune scoffed, fed up. "Frankly, I wasn't revived yet when the Exodus happened… but being reminded of it stings all the same. The Emperor was so hurt by it…" Queen confessed. He licked his lips and caressed Cerah's check with his hand as she gasped for air. "Look at this; her lungs are losing air, making her skin pale under the moonlight even more and her eyes roll up. Her heart is beating fast, pumping adrenaline into her, heightening her senses to make sure every breath isn't her last. If you photographed it, it would look almost like a moment of ecstasy!"

With a sudden tensing, the stem's middle point bent, as if an invisible support beam held against it, before the entire thing rose into the air, lifting the screaming Cerah further into the air. The other two Saints watched in terror as the girl's feet kicked the air desperately and she clawed at the tendril holding her.

"Does it hurt, Knight of the Zodiac? I hope it does!" Queen sneered, smiling maniacally at her gagging and bleeding. He rubbed his own cheek where she punched him "My Surplice still remembers… long ago, in some forgotten Holy War, I feel that I was killed by a Knight of the Zodiac. Out of all of Athena's profligates, you and your ilk are the most sinful, daring to make your personal mission to murder our loving Emperor, scalding our Surplices with your Light Cosmos and cutting our heads off with your lightcrafted weapons. The best thing that could have happened was Sanctuary deciding to exterminate you all for good!"

Lance eyed the collapsed Pegasus Box and tried to crawl at it, but Alraune's arresting petal stem only tightened more around him. Fed up, he began burning his Fire Cosmos, causing the binding to heat up. Lance screamed, feeling the heated Damascus metal burning his unarmored body.

"Saint Lance, NO, you'll kill yourself!" Olivia urged.

But Lance kept at it, burning himself more and more. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Your friend is about to DIE!"

Olivia staggered. "W-what? I… I…."

Lance's body was now a furnace of cosmos, budging so hard that the stems started to shake. If he could only unlock Chi, he could free himself. "I don't know what the fuck they teach you in that school, but you don't get an armor unless you're ready to use it to help others, even with your LIFE! Isn't it the same for Saintias?! You can sit there and half-ass it if you want, but I'm saving your friend, even if it KILLS ME!"

The black-haired girl stared in utter shock, but the sight of Cerah's struggle made her steel herself. Goddess, what was she thinking?! He was right! Olivia began burning her cosmos higher than she ever had.

"N-No… I don't want to die! D-Daese…!" Cerah internally screamed, delirious from the lack of air. Her body burned up with Cosmos of Light, but it was powerless against the Specter's grip. More and more cosmos was burned, yet all it did was make more darkness blot her sight. "D-Daese, h-help me!... H-HELP!"

"No."

{==============|A3|==============}

January, 1967

{==============|A3|==============}

Cerah's eyes widened, recovering her sight fully. The battle around her was gone!

Instead, she found herself before a familiar scene.

Daese held her by the hand and eyed Daemon Lucifer hatefully. "I don't understand! Why not?! What else could you possibly want?!"

Before them stood Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial Star of Pride, folding his arms rejectingly. "Why should I house a Knight with me, in the Underworld, even? Because you're one of Priam's friends? Do you have any idea how much you'd put me and my plans at risk, especially at this stage?!"

Cerah blinked. Both of them were much taller than they should be. Or was she remembering something from a time Cerah was much younger?

The Specter recounted "Priam has lost his war. Akassius has defeated him at what Sanctuary is now calling the 'Battle of the Spire'. Even I, Daemon Lucifer, here deep in the Underworld, have learned of it. His alliance with me is now worthless, if he even lives still."

Daese gritted teeth. "Don't you dare say that! Priam has been fighting Sanctuary for years. We both know he must have lived!"

"Do we? The Sagittarius Gold Cloth being back at Sanctuary certainly isn't very promising. Frankly, I already expect to see him walking into the Hall of Judgement at any minute, so what duties do I have to a dead man?"

"You gave us your WORD, that you'd help us! That you'd shelter us in our time of need!" Daese screamed, tears filling her face. "We gave you everything you could ever want for it; Sanctuary secrets, information on the Pope, even the modern layout of the temples and keys to Cyrulian castles. We've stripped ourselves BARE for you!"

"And now you ask something far more, little Knight. You ask me to bare my neck, which I much value, under Hades' sword." Lucifer contrasted. He pointed at something far off in the whiteness, likely Giudecca. "Do you think he sleeps, per chance? That he does not see what happens in his realm? Do you think I will house a whole group of you in the Underworld for years on end, as it fills up with False Specters, then True Specters, without him ever noticing?"

This made Daese pause hesitantly. Her brain rushed to think of a way to argue for their safety. Well, if the Specter wouldn't take all of them… "You…It doesn't matter. You're a Specter, but Priam said you were different from the rest, that you had pride in your vows! All I ask… is for you to shelter a small girl in a time of need."

The Specter's red eyes widened "What?!" and he pointed at Cerah. "Her?!"

Sniffing, Daese felt her heart tear up. This was the hardest thing she's ever had to do, harder even than leaving her dead Cyrulian brethren behind. "Me and Priam's men can still run from the Gold Saints… but my sister Cerah is small and sick. This war isn't her fault, either. You're a Dark Prince with many capabilities, aren't you? Saving and caring for a single little girl without Hades knowing should be easy for you. In return…"

Lucifer narrowed eyes expectantly. "In return, what?!"

Daese took a deep breath, stepped up and held chin high to accentuate her maturing body. "I… will become yours!" her green eyes then closed in utter horror at her own words. Athena forgive her for this. "F-Forever."

The Specter seemed stunned at her offer. Little Cerah blinked confusedly, not understanding any of it.

Daemon Lucifer squinted offendedly at Daese. "Who do you take me for? I am not Minos." He then knelt down to Cerah and touched her forehead to feel its heat. "I imagine you'll probably hide in some hole in the Amazon or the Congo. This girl will die if you take her with you. I can see you're determined to save her, though. It must be a tremendous sacrifice for a Cyrulian knight to offer herself to a Specter. Very well. I will take your sister as my vassal. Zeus knows I will need better allies than Priam for my plans."

"Y-You will…?" Daese gasped. Her teary eyes narrowed at this strange generosity. "Is this some trick?! If… If you touch her in any way!"

The Daemon scoffed. "Again, you have me confused with someone else of great perversion. I might ask something of her, yes, but it's nothing that a brave Cyrulian Knight wouldn't do of their own volition for someone in need. IF she proves her worth, anyway."

Daese turned to her younger sister. "C-Cerah…?"

The little girl looked up. "Daese, what's happening?"

The Aquila Paladin stroke her small cheek. "I have to go now… our friends at the boat need my help."

Cerah gasped. "W-where are you going?! Daese, don't leave me here!" she cried, looking around at the 'whiteness'. "It's… it's cold and dark… there's no sun and there are dead people everywhere! I don't know where this is!"

The Paladin shook her head and hugged her tightly, kissing her head. "I know, I know! I don't want to leave you here, but… but those men in golden suits are after us. You're going to have to stay with the Prince now."

Cerah glanced at the Prince in terror. He looked like a tall vampire man with a black cape and a monster face on his armor. She held on to Daese as hard as she could. "N-NO! I want to go with you!"

Daese held her back, knowing this would be the last she would feel of her sister's warmth for many years to come. She burned her cosmos so Cerah could feel it. "I l-love you, Cerah! Don't forget it."

The little girl gasped, sensing the heat of Daese's stars impressing into her body. The Specter's harsh hand grabbed Cerah by the collar and pulled her way. She screamed. "D-DAESE!"

The teenager wept, reaching out. "I LOVE YOU!"

{==============|A3|==============}

Cerah screamed, feeling the memory of the heat of the Aquila's stars burning in her body. The light brimming off her skin burned brighter and the stem hanging her by the neck heated up. Lance and Queen widened their eyes in shock, both sensing a burning even hotter than the Pegasus Saint's flames.

"DO IT, BURN IT HIGHER!" Lance shouted, realizing what was going on. "Focus on that feeling and don't let go! That's the essence of the cosmos!"

Then, to the shock of both Alraune and Equuleus, Cerah did so, illuminating herself like a huge star body until the tendril grew white hot with cosmos. Alraune Queen stepped back hesitantly, but was too late; there was a bright burst of cosmos from Cerah and the stem snapped, releasing the coughing girl at the same time a tremendously hot cosmos signaled through the stem, going back to Queen and scalding his entire body, making him scream.

Stumbling back from the pain, Queen looked up in rage. "Y-you… what did you DO?!"

Cerah coughed, holding her neck, and slowly recovered her senses to find herself glowing! "M… my cosmos!"

Lance's 7th sense felt her energy rise higher and higher, a reading he recognized from his own experience dueling Olivia's grandfather. "She did it! She unlocked the 7th sense!" he realized. "CERAH, STRIKE HIM NOW!"

A bit rattled, Cerah still nodded at the Pegasus and tried to focus this surging energy in her fist like a compressing star. However, so much was coming out that her mind didn't adjust right away and did it too slowly. "T…There's so much of it! I can't believe it!"

Alraune took the chance to dash at her with a chop hand. "I won't give you the chance to use it! BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS!"

Just like with her battle with Raimi, the Corvus Knight sensed the enemy's blow coming in at a much more manageable speed and her experience in fighting superior foes like Urial and Cyclops so far allowed her to overreact, tossing herself aside instinctively to dodge two massive guillotine blades of cosmos that formed in the air and tried to cut her head off. The blades cut the terrain apart, marking a gigantic X into the forest grounds that made the mountains shake and rocks avalanche down on the valley.

Rolling to a still, she focused her senses and felt her fist glowing hot like a sun, and launched herself. "PRISMATIC SHOT! TIMES TEN!"

Olivia gasped, sensing the overcharge. "Wait! C-CERAH, DON'T! YOUR COSMOS!"

The blow hit at the speed of light with the force of ten converging prismatic shot rays, striking a recovering Alraune Queen right in the stomach with Damascus-slaying force, blasting Alraune's chest wide open with a powerful fistful of yellow cosmos, scalding the Damascus metal and bursting it into small pieces. The Demonic Star screamed, gasping blood out and thrown off into the ground, cratering through it and exploding into a big flash of light that shattered trees and fissured ground all around it.

The tendrils around Lance and Olivia loosened, freeing them.

Cerah breathed out, her face stamped in disbelief at her own new strength as the Specter crashed through more and more rubble.

Suddenly, however, a flash of horrible pain went through her whole body and she collapsed, breathing harshly and screaming in pain. The wound that Mandrake Spearing inflicted on her now caught up with her straining.

Olivia rushed over to her. "CERAH, NO!" she turned her friend over and saw with fear the blood coming out of the Corvus Cloth crack. "Oh no…"

"What happened?!" Lance asked.

She turned. "It's her technique's ray multiplication, Saint Lance. It works fine if you're a Silver Rank, but when you're fighting with the 7th sense, at the limits of what humans can do with the Cosmos… Goddess, Cerah had no idea what she was about to do to herself."

Lance irked fearfully, imagining himself trying to fire off something ten times stronger than his Flame Attack off his hand. Did he cause this by encouraging her? "F-Fuck, is she going to be alright?!"

Olivia lightly touched Cerah's attacking arm. It was burning hot, shaking and Olivia touching it made the blonde girl go into a screaming fit, like poking a bent limb. "I don't know, but we have to get her out before more Specters show up."

Lance admired how cool-headed she kept about this. He looked over, saw his Pegasus Cloth Box that Cerah risked her life to get him, and turned with rage to go confront Alraune. "Stay here, Olivia!"

Meanwhile pushing burned rocks off of him, Alraune coughed and rose from the mud, feeling pieces of his chestplate fall to the ground. "T-That Knight…! I thought she'd sent me to Hades with that attack! I'll cut her damn head off for t-this!"

"HEY, YOU!" Lance called, stepping towards him.

Queen looked up and-

The large, metal box of the Pegasus Cloth crashed on Queen's face with a loud thud! The Specter screamed and rolled aside to the ground, grabbing his bleeding face, and Olivia covered her mouth in sympathy pain.

"Did you enjoy that, you fucking sadist?! Laughing at some girl you're asphyxiating?!" Lance roared, taking the box by the strap again and hammering down on the Specter's head, bashing him in so hard that his Surplice rang like a struck bell. "I hope you get your turn at the Circles, then, cause that's where you're landing next!"

Queen tried to get up amidst the bashing, but barely got on his hands before the box swung at him a third time like a golf club, striking his exposed chest and sending him rolling into the air into a tree. The Celestial Demonic Star came tumbling down, breaking a bath through snow-filled pine branches, and frantically fought to get his bearings before he got another 400 kgs of metal swung at him.

Lance, however, dropped the box, holding it by the chain. The Specter was recovering, now was his chance to test Mu's work. He pulled the chain, causing the box faces to collapse aside, revealing a shower of white light. "Let's see how you do, now, against a Gold Rank in armor! Flap your wings, PEGASUS!"

"N-NO!" Queen protested, blinded by the spectacle of light and cosmos that came out to illuminate the valley.

All everyone saw was an object shining so brightly, that a silhouette of a winged horse was all that their eyes could make out, before it broke apart into several pieces that flew around Lance like dancing comets of Cosmos. Striking his body and immersing it head to toe in light, the pieces coalesced their shine into a solid shape, revealing the product of Aries Mu's handiwork and Daemon Lucifer's blood worked unto the old Bronze Cloth.

It was shown so with a shockwave of pale energy that repelled debris around. The old horse-shaped helmet was replaced by a band protecting Lance's cheeks and ears with wings while centering his forehead with a tiny, red-eyed Pegasus head with pointy golden flank tips. The old chest piece, which was barely a dish plate strapped over the heart, was now a full torso protection with a collar guard, segmented breastplates adorned with curved gold lines and a set of pointy triangular shoulder pads doubled by round, skin tight shoulder covers, also decorated. The old forearm guards and gauntlets were thinner, but sharpened, possessing tighter protection, and the right gauntlet in particular was marked with two red triangles akin to the dragon eyes on the Teos Cloth's gauntlet.

The metal belt was reworked extensively, now being leaner while also centered by the same golden-eared Pegasus head as the head band, while the rectangular tassets were kept from the old version, but lightened in the same scale as the forearms. From his collar guard, a dark-red cape formed out of light, flowing with the wind.

Even Lance himself was taken by surprise by all this. "Mu… Holy shit, Pegasus is completely different now!"

Even the segmentation of the armor plates was rethought; the arm and chest divisions now were formed by thin openings in the metal that allowed for greater bending, revealing the black mail padding underneath the white metal when stretching or closing fingers.

The greaves and gauntlets had suffered a significant transformation, too. Lance's leg protections now extended upwards past the knee to protect his thighs as well and the metal was fractioned and thickened to provide both greater protection and flexibility. Invisibly to onlookers, though, was the bracing between the plates inside the boots, which was included to help absorb the powerful force of the charge of Lance's techniques that would normally wear out the leggings.

As for the gauntlets, the simple fingerless metal protections from before were now added an internal black mail coating extending past the finger holes over the first knots. These, which were the contact point of Charge Fist, were padded and linked with filaments to his wrist to conduct cosmos better. Lance now felt the warmth of his cosmos coursing through them directly to the tip of his fists, lessening the mental strain of doing energy control.

The sensation of just wearing it was incredible! Energy coursed through the places as Lance burned Cosmos with an ease that he had never felt before and, for the first time wearing the Pegasus Cloth, Lance truly felt like he was dressed in a knight's attire, rather than a horse costume.

He beamed in excitement, looking himself over like he got a new car.. "It… feels way stronger than even a Silver Cloth!" he looked over his shoulder and saw the black cape. "Not sure about the drape, though… I guess it can't be helped, considering who donated the blood.13"

Standing up with a bleeding face, Queen's eyes widened, feeling the energy radiating off the Bronze armor. "That's the Pegasus Cloth?! It can't be!"

{======================|A3|======================}

South Valley

{======================|A3|======================}

Aquila Daese gasped mutely, feeling her throat tightened by the Judge's Damascus grip. Her body burned its Light cosmos to melt the ice pinning her, but the asphyxiation made her unable to concentrate.

Aiacos' head turned, feeling Queen's cosmos all but disappear. "That was… Pegasus' Cosmos! Why is it so high?!"

The pressure released microscopically, letting air and blood flow back to Daese. Her mind focused and her cosmos burned. "D-DIAMOND WING FLAP!"

A blinding flare of Light cosmos came bursting out of her back like an eagle proudly showing its wings, making Aiacos scream and stumble back, releasing her. Daese dropped to the floor, holding her throat and feeling blots in her eyes. She saw Aiacos roar angrily and realised her chance was brief.

The Judge recovered, focusing on tracking her with his 7th sense and charging his next attack. "GALACTIC I-"

Her cosmos exploded and she dashed at him. "AQUILA! CHARGE FIST!"

Aiacos gasped. "Wait, WHAT?!" And the attack struck him like a beam of light, rather than a punch, blasting him backwards with a scalding heat that corroded bits of his Surplice. His heavily armored body collided back against a rock and he stumbled forward, stunned.

The Paladin screeched her feet on the ground to halt her momentum and turned direction away from the Judge. "CERAH, I'm coming!"

Aiacos gasped, hearing her get away. He still couldn't understand what just happened. "I'm certain of it… she just used a technique listed on Pegasus Lance's file." He recalled. Saints often registered their signature moves for various reasons, both out of tradition and to protect themselves. His sister, Crane Yushira, often got into a lot of trouble with Sanctuary precisely because she had a habit of violating this 'copyright' by stealing everyone's moves, even Meteor Fist. He recovered, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Prisons damn me, she's gone! Things can't get any worse!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Valley South

{======================|A3|======================}

Queen burned cosmos, emanating his ghastly aura filled with the lament of the hanged, and sneered. "This won't change a thing! It's still only a copper and tin can! Against the Damascus of Lord Hades' Surplices, it's worthless!" And he charged, swinging his fists full of power. "Let me SHOW YOU!"

Catching the enemy's fists, Lance's heel braked on the ground and his power surged, initiating a struggle between the two. Alraune laughed and pushed, burning his Celestial Star aura against Lance's Bronze Saint one, showing off how powerful he was as his tremendous force pushed Lance back by his hands.

"SEE?! You're still completely outclassed!" Queen mocked. His strong arms pressed on, causing Lance to irk and recoil down, bit by bit. The Alraune's three surviving stems coiled, preparing to crucify the Pegasus where he stood. "I'll show you the difference between that bronze can and a Surplice of Hades!"

Lance gritted teeth, struggling.

"What in Athena's name are you doing?" a voice sounded in his head. "Do you think this is all you can do, hold him at bay? What, are you worried that I'll break?"

The Saint staggered. "Pegasus?!"

"Who do you think?"

Lance concluded it had to be the winged horse, but the Cloth sounded so different now. The meek voice that protected him during the False Holy War was now firmer, confident and even a bit demeaning. It kind of sounded like… Daemon Lucifer.

"Stop holding back, and burn our cosmos as high as you can. I can take it." It advised. "I want to show you what I'm capable of now!"

Lance nodded, narrowing eyes and letting go of all the hesitation he had subconsciously accumulated when handling his old Bronze Cloth. All that Queen saw, to his increasing horror, was Lance's white aura swell and his fingers clenching harder around his hands, pressing painfully. The Bronze Saint stepped forward, pushing him back a bit, then again, then again.

"What?! What have you done?!" Queen sweated in fear, feeling his feet drag back. He scowled in hatred and commanded his attack. "MANDRAKE SPEARING!"

All three stems sharpened like before and conducted a simultaneous stab at close range, but Lance suddenly zipped out of sight with a white flash, dodging the blows which instead punctured and shattered the ground, quaking the mountain.

A fist came out of nowhere and exploded on Queen's exposed torso, blanking his world!

Recovering, the Specter swung a leg immersed in cosmos at the threat, but Lance bobbed beneath the kick at a shocking speed before landing a white gauntlet on his face, shattering the rest of his nose. Stumbling backwards with a nose-muffled scream, Queen, fueled by pure disgust at the Saint, swung back again and again, lunging at the Saint with light speed punches and kicks that missed the target or were parried by steel-hard arms and knees.

Lance panted. "What's wrong, Specter?! Afraid to DIE?!" He lunged forward to dodge a wrathful flying kick from Alraune and used the momentum of his spin to axe his heel into the Specter's chest, blasting him off to the trees.

Shooting back into the fight like a dark meteor, Queen, swinging past Lance with a missed fist, even tried to grab his cape, but his fingers went through it like it was made of light. It earned him a rolling heel counterkick from the Pegasus that sent him flying off into a boulder, cracking it and dropping snow over the Specter.

Tendrils came shooting out at Lance! The Bronze Saint dodged the thrusts, which sliced apart terrain all around them, and stepped as skillfully as he could over the ensuing whips which broke the ground apart. Suddenly, with a maneuver twist, the tendrils wrapped around his wrists and Alraune came flying in with a chop hand. "BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS: EXECUTION BLADE!"

The image of a terrifying, hooded executioner with a huge decapitating sword was projected, startling the Saints.

This was a big mistake, though, to 'chain' someone who sparred with an Andromeda Saint!

Stepping back and pulling his bound fists as hard as he could, Lance burned his cosmos to the max. The immense force which he did so twirled the Specter, throwing him off course and sending his charge at the Pegasus spinning, causing the big blade of black light to miss the bound Saint, instead sawing off countless trees in the other direction. With a war shout, Lance then threw his hands over himself, pulling the Specter high into the air, before pulling wrists down to make Alraune come meteoring to the floor, head first.

The metal cords loosened, freeing Lance.

He then blitzed in with a raised fist. "PEGASUS… LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" and a truly giganting thunderbolt in the shape of a punch struck Alraune, blasting him deep into the ground with such force that it threatened to crack the entire mountain.

"YES!" Olivia cheered, clenching fist triumphantly at the sight of Alraune disappearing into the collapsing floor.

Lance landed, feeling utterly invincible. Cracks of lightning coursed everywhere, electrifying the area. He looked over himself and saw nothing, not even a scratch on Pegasus, from all the attacks he blocked.

"Are you impressed?" Pegasus asked.

"Y-yeah…" Lance answered, feeling like the horse, somehow, was raising its head like a proud stallion in some world the two of them shared. He clenched fist. "Pegasus, you're incredible, now! With this… I can truly invade the Underworld!"

A flash went through Olivia's 7th sense and she shouted. "Saint Lance, UNDERNEATH YOU!"

"HANGING ALRAUNE!" Queen roared, fed up. The ground beneath Lance cracked and two stems that had dug under the earth sprouted out, wrapping quickly around his ankles and pulling into the muddy floor, binding the Saint. The Specter blasted himself out of the rubble with a bright purple beam and emerged, laughing coarsely. "H-HA, HA, HA, I G-GOT YOU AGAIN, Bronze Saint!"

Lance burned cosmos and tried to pull his feet, but the powerful Damascus, together with the snow-humid ground, made it nearly impossible. "S-SHIT!"

Queen crossed wrists high above his head, bleeding all over. All he could think about was how much Gordon and Sylphid would mock him for his setbacks, which fueled his cosmos into unprecedent levels. It now brimmed with such intensity that its murky dark red tainted the air around them.

"You'll pay for this humiliation! No one injures a Celestial Star of Rhadamanthys, especially not some two-bit Bronze Saint bitch!" he hissed. The image of a guillotine hanging over Lance emerged around them as his cosmos gathered and manifested his intentions.

Realizing he had no choice, Lance crossed arms defensively, tanking himself, and raised his cosmos. His red eyes locked on Alraune's and he formulated a plan. "D-Do your worst, then!"

"Ah, ah, you'll regret those words!" Alraune hissed. "This is no ordinary Blood Flower Scissors. It's the same version with which I blasted all of you down this mountain! At close range, it will do more than cut you in half! It will wipe you away like a deck of cards in a storm!"

Lance's only response was the igniting of his fire aura, which blazed threateningly against Alraune's shadows. He saw the weakness in his enemy's pose and prepared himself .

Queen hesitated, seeing the glare in his red eyes. His Surplice rattled his memory, digging up old thoughts, searching through faces of the past, and a familiar glare was found. He shook head in denial and focused his cosmos and thoughts on the intent to chop this offender's body in half.

Olivia gasped, finding the area drowned in the terrible darkness of the Alraune. The cruelty in his energy made tree branches seem to birth shadows of men and women dropping from them with a rope tightening around their necks, snapping them instantly before their legs could so much as flail. It was as if the mirk of the Forest of Suicide, in the 5th Prison, was being brough to the Surface world, making her hold her neck protectively and feel the presence of harpies and mandrakes' eyes all around her.

The Specter took a setup step and brought down his hands in wide arcs "BLOOD FLOWER SCOSSORS!" they formed a full circle on the descent, triggering the darkness in his free stems to rouse and whip forward accordingly, firing off the gigantic wave of slashing white light. "FULL MOON SLASH!"

Ripping through the valley, the attack tore ground, tree, snow and air, figuring more like a destructive tidal wave of cosmos than a whip slash. The Pegasus Saint took it on full front and felt his body blasted back, His heels tore through the mud, digging his feet in, and his crossed arms felt pressed as if was trying to stop a running plane. His black cape fluttered back, casting a searing shadow on the mountainside, and his body screamed in pain with the crushing force of the Specter's cosmos.

Yet, his flame roared louder and the Saint roared as well, bashing off the wave with an uncrossing of arms, searing it into countless tinier slice waves of energy that flew off in every direction but his own and Olivia's. The ground ripped apart and his white armor shined, unsmudged.

Alraune Queen gasped at the smooth, uncut surface of his gauntlets. "W-What?! NO!"

Lance's feet fired off the mud. "PEGASUS!"

Alraune screamed in fear. "NO, IT's just a Bronze Cloth!" He saw the Saint flying at him and, for a moment, he felt his eyes deceive him as he detected the shadow of a cosmos on it in the shape of a demon. "D…. Daemon Lucifer?!"

"LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" Lance shouted, swinging a fist clad in thunder that struck the Specter's exposed chest at full force, making him gasp blood out and be hammered unto the ground. His body cracked the mountain side, pushed down by the bolt, and the rest of his Surplice cracked.

Lance panted, standing over the defeated Alraune Specter. He turned over to Olivia. "Are you alright?"

The Equuleus Saint nodded. "Y-yes! Is it… over?"

Lance harshly kicked Queen's side. The Specter groaned and rolled over, but seemed unable to pick himself back up. "He's still alive… but I suppose it's pointless trying to kill him. We also don't know where Suisho is yet."

Olivia approached him carefully. "We'll have to bind the Specter, first. Then we can turn him over to the Stardust Prison in Greece." She turned her head, feeling a screech in the cosmos. "What…?"

Lance perked up. "What is it? Did you pick up Suisho's cosmos?"

"I thought I felt… I don't know how to describe it. It felt like something has-" Her eyes then widened and she lunged at Lance, pulling him down. "WATCH OUT!"

Yelping, Lance got tossed down by her and a massive swing of a large metal blade missed the two by a hair's breadth!

Rolling them over in alarm, Lance pulled Olivia in and looked up, seeing a new figure floating over Alraune. "W-what the fuck?!"

Olivia narrowed eyes at the threat. "I f-felt him tearing in through the jamming! It's their psychic!"

The arrived man rested his scythe over shoulder. The very tall Specter in bone armor stared at her in particular. "Not bad… I imagine you're the star-reader Raimi mixed with being the Whore."

"Oh for fuck's sake, another one?!" Lance hissed.

"Who are you?!" Olivia shouted, equally exhausted and not recognizing the Surplice from her studies.

The man bowed his head deeply, his levitating body keeping perfect balance in the air. "Terrestrial Insidious Star, Reaper Grim, loyal servant of the greatest of all the Specters, Dark Angel Michael."

She staggered confusedly. "W… who?!"

Lance irked fearfully. "That name…! That's the guy Lucifer and Roshi kept mentioning as the 'other prince'!"

Grim chuckled at their separate reactions. His skull mask's eyes stared at Lance in particular, the best friend of the Prince's current self. "I can tell the name is familiar to you, Pegasus."

While Olivia was out of the loop on Dark Princes, her cosmos reading was skilled enough to tell an important detail. "You're the one manifesting this jamming, aren't you?! Let us go, NOW!"

Shockingly to the two of them, the Specter agreed. "Yes, yes, of course! With Queen out of the count and Lord Aiacos injured, I can't really do anymore what I wanted anymore..." he said, still staring Lance in the eyes. "However, I still have a job to do."

With a screech of the air, the levitating man then shot straight at Lance at the speed of sound, raising his huge scythe and his lower body leaving a trail of black smoke in the air. He swung the huge weapon straight at the Pegasus!

Lance reacted instantly, punching at the threat. "FLAME ATTACK!" His knuckles fired off the huge orange blast of flames, but shockingly, the Reaper Specter simply phased through the fire cosmos, letting it blast a burning path through the background forests. "W-What?!"

"SAINT LANCE!" Olivia screamed, launching her own attack. "SHOOTING STAR FIST!" Once again, the bright meteors of light simply punched through Grim's smoke body harmlessly, failing to impede him, making her gasp. "W-What? It's like he's not even there!"

Grim laughed and swung down his scythe down at Lance, who staggered back in alarm and tried to roll away.

The sound of metal being punctured screeched through the forest, blood splashed through the air and a male scream filled the darkness.

With a mighty pull, the harrowing Alraune was dragged from under Lance's feet, far away from the two Saints. Awakened, Queen roared in pain. "AGHH… Y-YOU BOTTOM-DWELLING F-FREAK! THAT HURTS!"

Grim laughed and pulled the scythe, dragging Queen away. "Ha, ha, ha, ha… It's the least you deserve, don't you think, Queen? Lord Rhadamanthys will be very upset with you! You've forced me to clean up your mess!"

The Demonic Star struggled against the scythe as his blood trailed through the ground. "H-How dare you drag me like a rag on the floor! R-Release me!"

With a powerful kick, Grim knocked the exhausted Specter unconscious. "Quiet, now… Failures to the Emperor don't get to complain about pain." Grim lectured. His free hand raised and burned darkness cosmos. "Levantine Door!"

A frightening pool of purple shadows birthed open in front of him, sucking in air like it led to a dimension of emptiness. Olivia guarded herself, resisting the powerful pulling force it created. The two Saints could feel the cosmos of many Specters emanating from the portal, indicating it was some kind of shortcut to their home base.

Lance rushed at him. "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Back to my overlords, of course. I'm not stupid enough to think I can take brave warriors like you two on." Grim flatly answered, picking Alraune over the shoulder.

Burning his cosmos, Lance pointed his finger, ready to fire the Underworld Wave. Perhaps with it he could force this clear escape route of his to close.

The Terrestrial Star's dead face stared at him challengingly "Oh…Will you really attempt that, Pegasus? Just to catch me and Queen?" he titled mockingly, hinting at his awareness of Lance's past as the Cancer Saint. "It might work, yes… but what of the Star Reader? You wouldn't break your word to your Pope, would you?"

Shaking hesitantly, Lance realized the checkmate he was under and lowered his hand. "S-Shit How the hell do you know that?!"

The Terrestrial Star laughed. "Don't worry, we'll see each other again. I have many tasks ahead of me if I want to return my Prince to his throne…" The Reaper Specter promised, dragging a screaming Alraune inside the portal to Heinstein Castle. "… and your death will be important to them."

An otherworldly screech sounded as the portal shut closed, causing the wind pulling force in the area to recede to nothing. With it, the supernatural darkness filling the mountains lifted, leaving behind the natural darkness of the night. They could now see the far-off lights of electrical lamps in distant mountain roads and their cosmic senses began picking up the energies of Saints and cities.

Lance's armored fist banged frustratedly at a tree. "Fuck! Who was that guy?! What the hell just happened?! And why does he want me dead?!14 I thought this was about Olivia! What the hell is going on now?!" He shook his head to dispel the fog in his mind. He went over to pick up Cerah. "One thing at a time…"

Equuleus Olivia rushed in as he picked her up. "Saint Lance! Is Cerah…?!"

The Pegasus Saint nodded, showing her the girl in his arms. "She's alive, yes, but…" he stared at the black metal pieces on her. "Olivia, what the hell is she wearing?"

The black-haired girl studied the crow headpiece. "I can't believe it, but….Saint Lance, this is the Corvus Silver Cloth. It's been lost to Sanctuary since the war." She looked at him with shocked realization stamped on her face. "This must be how she saved me from Worm Raimi. Cerah is not a Saintia like me… She is a Knight of the Zodiac."

The Bronze Saint hesitated in how to react. His understanding of what the Knights of the Zodiac were was very limited to just what Maximus, Shion's Papal Guard commander, had explained to him. While this all showed why Adriana was interested in Cerah, Lance understood enough of Maximus' words to know that getting caught was bad for the girl, which meant she risked everything to save the two of them.

In Lance's mind, there was only one thing to do then. Return the favor. Gently, he laid her down between them. "You'll have to explain that to me later, Olivia. For now, we have to conceal the armor. We can't let Suisho see it."

"Yes, of course!" Olivia determinedly said. She carefully searched Cerah's neck for the pendant she ought to have. Indeed, Olivia found a thin chain necklace that was missing its gem. "This must be her Cloth Stone."

"Can you make it go back in?" Lance asked.

She shook her head. "I'm not bonded with Corvus, so no. We'd need someone with Lightcraft knowledge, like the alchemists that programmed my stone for me." She thought about it for a bit. "We should strip her of it manually and hide the pieces close to here until Cerah wakes up."

Lance's face went warm. It was the only choice, though. More importantly, he still didn't know what to make of Cerah's reveal as a servant of Daemon Lucifer.

Before they could get to work, though, there was a bright flash of pale blue energy and Cerah's black and grey armor bubbled into photons in the air, leaving her body and ripped clothes behind. To Lance's amazement, the dots of light then circled around at high velocity, whirling into the necklace and concentrated until a crystalline shape was formed, which then materialized a smell obsidian gem.

He was agape. "Wow, nice job! I wish my armor did that."

Olivia blinked. "It… wasn't me. The armor must have done it on its own."

"This is all kinds of confusing, but we have to take her to medical attention. I don't like the look of her wounds." Lance narrowed his eyes sharply. While Cerah's life came first, questions would need to be answered later, especially by Adriana. With the cosmos jamming clearing now that Grim had left, he focused on his 6th sense. "Saint Suisho! Can you pick up this ping?"

…

"Is that you, Pegasus? Yes, I can hear you…I'm picking up my Crateris Cloth right now. I can feel your cosmos now."

He turned to Olivia. "He's alive." He said, triggering a great wash of relief in her. "Suisho, we need to take Cerah to Sanctuary right now. Can I lightspeed the fuck out of here?"

"Go ahead, you have my permission. I will… clear the rest of these Skeletons."

Lance hesitated and exchanged a concerned look with Equuleus Olivia. "…Are you alright? You didn't get attacked, did you? We've been fighting for our lives all this time so we had no idea what happened to you."

EN: Corvus really said "hell no you ain't touching me". Grim is ominous for sure, I haven't read to know if Lucifer willingly gave blood or not, but that's a verrryy interesting connection to the Spectres. Wonder if there's going to be any negatives to it?

{======================|A3|======================}

Valley Southeast

{======================|A3|======================}

The wounded Dullahan Cube clawed at Aiacos' foot as it pressed on his head harder and harder. "L-LORD AIACOS, PLEAS-"

The Judge coldly crushed his head in, splashing the snow with blood and brain matter. "…Be quiet. Rhadamanthys will deal with your incompetence later…"

"Hey, Suisho, did you hear me?!" Pegasus Lance asked.

The Garuda Judge turned his Surplice back into his shadow and picked up his Crateris Silver Box.

He cleared his throat, a habit he had between changing persona, and answered. "Yes, I was sprung by a couple of strong stragglers. A Dullahan Specter I thought was dead on the ground just tried to ambush me." The Judge then winced in pain. He looked over and detected a burning bruise from Aquila's Charge Fist. He'd be angrier, but this would help his alibi. "I was unconscious until a little while ago, but when the j-jamming lifted, the feeling of all your cosmos woke me up. I also see the jeep is wrecked. Nam will kill me for this…"

"At least we're alive." Lance pointed out.

Aiacos groaned dangerously. "Yes..." He had half a mind of changing this. The Emperor's cause came first, though. He also wasn't sure if he could eliminate all three of them before the Gold Saints rushed into the area, now that Grim had to take Queen back. "I'll see you all back in Sanctuary."

{======================|A3|======================}

South Valley

{======================|A3|======================}

Rushing through the trees and keeping her cosmos signature to a minimum, Aquila Daese arrived at the edge of the battlefield where she felt Cerah's cosmos disappear and slowed down, knowing there were Saints around. Carefully, she moved from behind the rubble of the fighting, her heart beating faster at the destruction caused by the Specters. There were fissures, torn tree trunks, avalanched mud and snow, blood splatters and even some fires all over the place.

Her eyes froze at the sight of her younger sister in the middle of the battlefield at the Equuleus' Saint feet, broken and bloody. She covered her mouth to stop a cry from coming out and hid herself behind a snow pile. "N-NO, C-Cerah!"

She heard footsteps approaching the Equuleus. "Suisho gave me permission to lightspeed, Olivia." A male voice said.

"Wait, what's going to happen to her?" Olivia demanded to know. "She's… she's not a Saintia. They might kill her for this!"

The hiding Paladin froze. "They know?!"

"Olivia, I don't know, it's all very strange. My friend Adriana might be able to help us, though." The male Saint said. The owner sounded like he got down and picked up Daese's younger sister. "We need to take her to the Hospital. I know the Ophiuchus Saint and he can save Cerah. I'll carry her. You just hold on to me."

Olivia nodded. "O-okay."

Daese felt her pulse accelerate. They were taking her back, knowing she was a Knight?! No, she had to stop them or the next time she saw Cerah, it would be in a guillotine! She stepped out of her hiding spot, ready to attack, to declare war on all of Sanctuary if she had to, to save her family!

And froze, widening her eyes at the tall Pegasus Saint of charcoal hair and red eyes preparing to zip away. "What?! L… Lance?!"

There was a flare of light and the three companions boomed away to Greece, shock waving the snow, trees and small fires. Daese's hair locks fluttered around her stunned face. The two Saints were gone with her sister. They hadn't even noticed the Paladin.

…

It really was him.

The small desperate mountain boy she met at Olympus' doorway, long ago, abandoned by Kerberos Kastiel, was there. He was the Pegasus Saint and he had Cerah.

A great peace came over her heart, calming her whole body. Her shaking stopped and her eyes wept. For the first time in a decade, Daese knew for sure that her little sister was in good hands.

{======================|A3|======================}

Chapter End

{======================|A3|======================}

Next Chapter: Chapter 78 – Third Arc – Episode 6: The Black Lion

Release Date: December 25th (oh, oh, oh)

Description: Once more in Sanctuary, the Saints who took part in the battle with Queen try to get their bearings on their situation and decide their next move. Olivia in particular is overcome with sorrow, unsure if she deserves Cerah's forgiveness. Meanwhile, the time for Aiolos' duel with Galarian Steiner arrives ahead of schedule...

Author's Comments:

This was one of those high-action chapters that just become logistical messes during production, much like that one where Lance has to rescue Shaka from the False Specters. When I sent the chapter for Elly to Beta-reader, I went as far as prepare a little flowchart for the four separate location points of view that the chapter would be dealing with, because I was worried it looked to overwhelming. I originally intended for there to be more action, specifically between Aiacos and Daese, but the chapter was getting too big so I cut down on my plans. Sigh, the limits of writing.

The big revelation in this chapter is that, yes, Crateris Suisho is actually Garuda Aiacos. I did plant a large number of hints in the past two chapters so I kind of expect that some of you, especially ND readers, saw through the disguise from the moment he was introduced. There's still more to explore about how he landed in this position and why, but we'll leave that for future chapters.

This is the first chapter delving into Olivia as a character. Avid Saintia Sho readers (Saintia Sho SPOILER alert, skip this paragraph) will know that the reason she is getting mixed up by the Specters as Athena's mother is likely because she is the mother of another very important Goddess vessel, just not Athena. Additionally, Olivia is also the mother of that manga's Equuleus Saintia. Plus, that manga's other Equuleus Saintia. So, you know, it felt fitting to give her the Cloth.

Character-wise, I'm still practice phase with her. While my goals for her role are more or less formed, I don't have a solid feel yet of what she's like and how to distinguish her, so I apologize if one thing or another still feels wonky. Saintia Sho is a great manga but it doesn't give us much in terms of what Olivia is like, especially in her formative years. Right now, I'm going for a "introspected who puts in work to socialize", which seems to me like the type that would become popular in a school, being both smart and charismatic with peers.

There was also more I wish I could have done to depict Queen as a Specter, since this is our first encounter between the main characters and a True Specter (hence all the gloating Elly noticed in beta-reading, that was me showing off how psychotic they are compared to the False Specters). Time and space in writing is short, though, so we gotta move on.

The good news are that the next chapter is almost completely done. A glut of postponed scenes (including a Shinta-Albiore scene that would have gone here) allowed me to start it off with almost 10,000 words already done, so there should be no schedule problems for December.

Anyway, be sure to leave a review or share the story if you enjoyed this chapter, or if you want to criticize it even. Like it on Reddit and generally support this project if you enjoy it. You can find me in all those places under the Thrudgelmir2333 name.

Also, make sure to check out the Saint Seiya Reddit Discord server, where I'm currently one of the co-admins. Other writers like Jenny DeVic also can be found in it. You can hang out with the rest of the English-speaking SS community.

See ya \owo