Heaven won't save you?! Athena's Saints face a scorching wrath

The path to the Mother Goddess was filled with surprising challenges. While Demeter and her confidant made way down a spiral of stairs into a deep pit, five of Athena's Bronze Saints struggled to get to her main quarters. Four temples called Gardens were led by warriors who looked up to Demeter like family.

First was The Garden of Plutus, guarded by the Terrae of Dancing Fibre, Loom Pan; the second was The Garden of Catasterismi, guarded by the Terrae of Universal Supernova, Boron Ginga.

Now, three Bronze Saints reached the third temple – The Garden of Androktasiai. The structure was built ordinarily; when Ryuho, Souma and Yuna reached there and went inside the hall, however, they began to feel sick. It wasn't visually revolting; to compare, it not like the masks plastered among the walls of the Temple of Cancer or perhaps the looming, demon-like structure of Pandora's castle. It was more like the feeling of unbelonging. Every corner, here and there, was shrouded in shadow, darker than Casterismi. The Bronzes only realized that they reached the cella when their eyes reached a spotlight that fell upon a throne. Sitting there in wait, basked in an eerie dim glow, was the next Terrae.

Androktasiai (an-dhrawk taah see-eh) sings of mortal coil. There are various ways to naturally feel pain, and to die afterwards - the clutches of diseases, the daggers and swords of war, the toil of labor, the searing aches and intolerance of pain, or oneself from complete despondency. To forget kindness and memories, to be destroyed by lies, or to be frightened by them would also be considered "loss" leading to "death". In other words, conflict, fright, and death were abided to. The goddess Eris, one of the greatest enemies of Athena, amounted to the word Androktasiai. They were her children: demons that ate battlefields' stupor like roasted flesh, bathed in it and wrought their lair. Therefore, the Garden was given the subtext "Thine Decline is Life."

To think that Demeter had such a temple?

"You're here at last," said the 3rd Terrae, another female after Pan. "Despite his title, my brother is a fool. He carries too much compassion for you all, but I have no such thing to hold me back."

After meeting Ginga, the contrast was obvious. The Stole wrapped her in a sleek darkness, its jagd shape alike to various weapons left on a battlefield; maybe the pieces of a torture device extracted and tossed aside. Her skin was near pale, and her long hair was the color of midnight on a new moon. With her crimson eyes, as she sat languidly on her throne under a shadowed baldaquin, her entire appearance invoked some devil in fantasy tales. Effused a malice to make anyone's spirit chill, opposite the mother of the Earth. Just who was she?

"Do you really think I'll allow you do harm my sister and survive?"

Pan was like a child who partially held back her impulsiveness to protect her mother; Ginga was an orthodox young man who was cheery, but also understood duty; but this one, her female voice possessed a calm rancor as if she was forever wronged for several lives. Her look and manner seized the attention of the Bronze Saints.

"You have no idea," she said, her words drawling, "the marrow in my bones pulsating… from the thought of this moment. Going to my arm, my fingers…"

"Itchin' for a fight?" Souma was the first to offer the challenge. Ryuho, however, felt edgy and desperately wanted at least one of Demeter's confidants to understand what was at stake. It was not that he was being cowardly, but after seeing that Kouga was the second Terrae's friend, he remembered the humanity in most.

"Surely, you must stop your mother!" Before there was another word, Ryuho's head suddenly veered. Seeing the female Terrae's hand lift, his instincts spoke to him and he felt a rush. He looked behind him and gasped – in the wall was a smoking, melted crater. It glowed, encrusted with magma. The woman's hand, covered in a clawed gauntlet, smoldered.

She continued. "Intoxicated by destroying you. The way you talk, the way to barge here with demands, it is like trampling through foreign lands and killing the weak."

Quickly enough, Ryuho, Yuna and Souma realized that this enemy carried no room for talk. Her eerie aura spoke that if she wasn't cast aside, their Judgment would lead them to the ends of Hell's rivers and prisons.

She finally stood up from her throne and faced the three Bronzes, but her posture was open. "I am the Terrae of Scorching Fury, Swithern Megaera. Those who face me with meet an inevitable death. My burning rage will take all of you, and bound you to the Abyss." Yuna, Souma and Ryuho prepped themselves in a side-to-side line. It was only a matter of who would move first, and how would this Terrae fight.

"Of course you are ready," said Meg. "The aphrodisiac of violence and war consumes humans."

"How in the hell are you different?" spat Souma.

"As the Swithern Terrae, as Demeter's guardian, I only represent what is natural. Even trees and crop are removed, whether cut or burned, to make room for land to be of more use. Even if it takes time to heal. Everything takes time to heal."

"That does not mean that must be the fate of the Earth," said Yuna. "We will see it through."

"No gloats!" Megaera swished her arm and the entire temple exploded with brightness. The Bronzes screamed as they were struck by an orange wave of flaming texture. It lasted for a few seconds; they managed to stand through it. Meg's lovely face showed in full briefly; she scowled under the darkness.

"Your arrogance to protect everyone makes me so angry."

After the attack, Yuna, Ryuho and Souma were completely puzzled, not noticing any sort of impact. They didn't feel harmed and they could still fight.

"A fiery type huh? I guess I am the right guy for this job. Lionet bomber!" Confident, the smiling Lionet Saint rushed and made a flying charge towards the Terrae. The fireball struck-

Two of Meg's fingers, dissolving the flame haloing Souma. When his Cosmos died down, the shock in Souma's face was appetizing for Meg, whose eyes fell upon him with callousness. She still spoke with a calm that bellied the flame she used earlier. Was something hiding itself?

"Eventually," she began "The Cloth you pride yourselves with, what makes you pride yourself as Saints, will be useless."

Yuna quickly realized that the Terrae was nothing to toy with and suggested a synchronized attack. Souma jumped away to join the others and in seconds, all three attack with Yuna leading with one of her spiraling kicks.

Her heel fell on the black Stole, Ryuho and Souma attacked with both fire and water covering their fists, striking low. Meg stood unfazed.

An anxiety welled up within the three Bronzes as they saw, for the first time, a smile creep upon Meg's mouth.

"You shouldn't touch things you have no comprehension of." There was no time to comprehend the statement as the Bronzes were sent backwards. They suddenly began to float, and then the entire atmosphere changed to a forest. Meg disappeared. It was no different from Virgo Fudo's abilities, just a visual, until the trees changed. A corrosion fell upon their trunks, the leaves, and then there was crawling smoke. Now, an attacking shockwave ate at the Saints. It wasn't over – after the corroded trees, Souma, Yuna and Ryuho saw, smelled, and heard everything from people burning and melting inside the Brazen Bull, people getting skewed by spikes on boards, wars, horses trampling on women and children, roaring iron cannons, people being corroded in iron barrels, Scaphism, sawed upside down, everywhere.

It lasted for a moment in order to bury in their bodies and minds that this was torture.

"Harbor whether bravado or fear," said Meg from behind the illusion. "Like a general and his army, my very presence will summon the powers of death and enrapture you."

The Three Bronzes could do nothing but scream in agony, dropping to the ground.

"Despite being warriors, despite your justice, you cannot protect everyone."

Souma was the first to get back up, but not without a struggle. His legs nearly buckled under him, and each step led into a stagger. He felt the hit, he was truly attacked, his ears whistled and importantly, and then a tight gurgle filled his neck. He gurgled. Everything around him was hazy and he was unable to respond promptly to a dark blurry block rushing towards him. Megeara caught up to him.

"You can't save everyone!" Meg grabbed Souma by his neck, and Lionet's eyes nearly rolled at the back of his head. He was a corked tight bottle; he heard a crack of bone from his neck stretching; Meg's grip was so strong, or enraging, Souma felt like his head was going to be pulled off.

"Souma!" Ryuho noticed Souma's agony and went in, but it took him a while to notice that when he moved his mouth, no sound came out. Did he imagine his voice in his head? He was also moving strangely, dropped and swung a slow hook for Meg's chest. Meg threw Souma away like garbage and caught Ryuho's attack. Her gauntlet's clawed fingers closed down on Dragon's hand, and Ryuho's jaw opened as he trembled. He heard cracks slipping through his knuckles. Meg let him go, his hand dangling, and not a second wasted, the Terrae throw a hook against Ryuho's face. From the strength of giants, he flew into the crater like a thrown ball, and fell onto his back motionless.

"You cannot accomplish everything because you're used to having your way…through strength," Meg looked over to the other two. "The strongest will eventually perish. All things perish. Did you notice that you're getting weaker?"

Souma only manage to get back onto his knees. Everything was completely out of wack and could not be recalibrated. He could not see, his ears whistled, and his muscles felt thin. As for Yuna, the moment she stood back up, her instinct to move completely ceased. She could not take another step, nor bend a single finger, and her entire flesh shuddered in helplessness.

"We're getting weaker?" Souma grumbled, to which Yuna's thoughts went for the worse outcome too quickly – "Then how, do we defeat her?"

Needless to say, the Bronzes were left confused. After Ryuho, Megaera threw a beam at Souma and launched Lionet into the air by a pillar of flame. At the summit, he exploded, the shards of his Cloth flying in different directions. He did not move after that. As for Yuna, she ate a heavy punch in the stomach. That's all it took to take her down.

That was when Megaera's demonstrated her will to have them killed.

And that was when Kouga faced his friend in a speed of light war.