And now, another fortnight, another chapter. Review please.
One he was assured that Seiya was asleep and tucked in his own bed, the God of War had decided to take a walk around the cabin grounds. He was surprised to see that he wasn't the only one walking about as he noticed the Unicorn Saint brooding by a tree and decided to surprise him. The way that the blonde-haired man jumped was so comical that he wished he had had a better viewing point.
"You seem a bit... on edge," stated Ares, as he crossed his arms and have the Unicorn a good look over. "Has Athena started picking and choosing her favorites again?"
"Something like that," muttered Jabu, and Ares sighed.
"My sister has always been like that, she looks to only those who she shows interest in," growled Ares, annoyed. "But you deserve far better than that."
"She made me love her," sighed Jabu sadly, causing Ares to give an exasperated sigh.
"That is exactly what she does-what better slaves than those that love her for being the Goddess Athena?" asked Ares, but showed an open palm as a sun-like sphere of Cosmo appeared from it. "The power of Cosmo has practically infinite possibilities, and you can use it to manipulate those possibilities. Fawning over a Virgin Goddess seems rather wasteful, don't you think?"
Closing his hand and causing the sun-like sphere to disappear, the God of War gave a mock salute and headed off back towards the Cabin, the Unicorn Bronze Saint staring at his back the entire way.
When Seiya next awoke he found himself lying atop of a bed rather than in it. While he was shirtless and barefoot, the mountain chill had in no way upset his sleep. Instead Seiya felt warm and comfortable and the source of his comfort electrified him in such a way that it made him doze back into a comfortable half-sleep. Then he remembered he was sleeping shoulder-to-chest against Ares, the God of War, and the Goddess Athena's brother.
He bolted up-right with a yell, causing the God of War to stir.
"Do you always stiffen up and scream like that when you realize who you are sharing a bed with?" muttered Ares grumpily.
"Do you always sleep with any Saint that comes into your room without your permission?" countered Seiya, and Ares smirked.
"I only sleep with Warriors," stated Ares, as he shrugged. "Although there was the odd fling or two with the Goddess Cytherea, you probably know her in the myths as Aphrodite."
"Who cheated on her husband with you," Seiya pointed out.
"Me and a lot of other people," defended Ares, with a pout. "Hephaestus was more than likely to turn wife and lovers both into smears on his Anvils while hammering armour, than sleep with any of them!"
"Point taken," chuckled Seiya, before asking a question. "Have you ever been in love?"
"Once and that was predicted by Cytherea," explained Ares, arms behind his head. "She said I would have a single true love and it would be my eternal soul mate, then Athena won him over to her side as my bitch of a sister does and he eventually died in battle, that was that. But how I am falling in love with you, confuses even me, if that had been my only love."
"And why did you let me stay, why sleep with me?" asked Seiya, suddenly.
"Other than the fact that the Gold Saints are too loyal, Ikki's personality is too much like my own, Hyoga is cold and has a soft and weak emotional underbelly, Shun is a crybaby that I would have to encourage through the motions, and Shiryu has so much knowledge in the martial arts that he'd bore me into a Coma?" Ares rhetorically stated.
Ares smiled affectionately as Seiya clutched his stomach and shook with laughter. While not exactly the most flattering description, Seiya had to admit Ares hit the nail on the head in his descriptions. Ares grabbed him suddenly and soon Seiya found himself on his back with the War God straddling him, face hovering above his own with a wolfish smile.
"More importantly. You have his passionate brown eyes and exotic skin, defiant streak in your nature and he too was my Little Pegasus," announced Ares, making sure to beat every complimenting point home, but suddenly frowned as he realized something. "In fact, the similarity to Bellerophon is..."
Suspiciously accurate...
"I think it is about time for me to move on," announced Ares, surprising Athena as she read a book sitting on the patio outside of the villa.
"What do you mean now?" asked Athena, and Ares cuckled as he walked past, she only noticing that he had donned his poncho before coming out to join her.
"For such a smart Goddess of Battle Strategy, you would know that having two deities sitting in one place would be such a welcome target to our enemy," stated Ares, with a bored expression. "I'm just gonna give them something else to worry about."
"Have some restraint, Brother," begged Athena, and Ares glared at her.
"Whatever," dismissed the God of War, walking off with a single wave over his shoulder.
The God of War trudged on through the many clearings of the Hida Mountains as he took six hours to reach an entirely different peak, and all the while he detected the killing intent following him across the mountain range and smirked darkly as he considered, the majority of the False Pope's Forces had moved from their original encampment however they were not following him in entirety across the entire of the Northern Alps.
The only one with enough rank to command a few of the more rambunctious Silver Saints would be a Gold Saint, and the only official Gold Saint loyal to the Pope was a certain rambunctious Crab, Cancer Deathmask. It seemed that he was leading a few of his fellows to hunt down the God of War, without informing the False Pope, more the fool was he.
Entering into a clearing upon the tallest peak, Ares smirked as he sensed the Cosmic energies of the traitor Saints approaching him, raising his head up he looked at the constellations spiraling in the night sky and spiked his own Cosmo so that his enemies could detect where he was. It was a good day to die, but who would be the ones dying today?
"Ares, God of War!" announced a voice, and Ares's smirk grew wider. Ah, the Crab.
"Whatever is it that you want, traitor Cancer Gold Saint?" asked Ares, impassive by the fact he had been surrounded by the Gold and four other Silver Saints.
"We want to know why you fight with that false Athena. Why fight with her when we can fight for you, join your Cosmo to ours and we can protect you from anything that threatens you," stated Deathmask, with a smirk. "You can be protected and worshiped in the perfect world the Holy Father of the Sanctuary plans to create!"
"Otherwise," stated Cerberus Dante, and Ares felt more than saw the chained balls of Cerberus wrap around his arms and draw them up vertically to his body. "We get to kill you."
With a roar crimson lightning rippled up the chains and shocked the Cerberus Saint before the chains flung themselves off Ares and pinned their master to a tree, the remaining Silver Saints were also in various states of disrepair as they lay about the clearing just as unconscious, crimson ripples of Cosmo carefully caressing along their bodies as though keeping them in an unconscious state. The only one still awake, was a certain Golden Crab, who stared at him up from the ground in horror.
"You had the audacity to claim that just like Athena, I would have need to hide behind Saints and their temples!?" snarled Ares, as he prowled closer to the Cancer. "I am not like Athena, if my men were to jump into the fire then I would jump in beside them. Already you were my enemy, but now... you have made it personal!"
Ares raised a hand overhead and crimson flames and lightning built up in his hand as an outline of crimson Cosmo glowed around him, he would have blasted the Cancer Gold Saint into the Underworld he was so besotted with if he hadn't redirected his attack to burn a number of flying roses to ash and to blast the recently arrived Pisces Aphrodite against a tree, Ares's lip curled as he looked at the man that had caused this war just by killing a Silver Saint that had been minding his own business.
"Ah, two Gold Saints at my mercy at once, what a marvelous hunt this is!" snarled Ares, as he held spheres of pure flame in each of his hands and aimed at the two Gold Traitors.
And naturally Ares was once more distracted from his task as a blast of pure energy appeared and impacted the shield of Cosmo that Ares swiftly raised, the blast eventually broke its way through his shield however and he found himself shattered through a number of trees, the famous Galaxian Explosion was as devastating as he remembered and he groaned as blood dribbled from the wounds created on his stomach and from his open mouth.
The last thing Ares remembered seeing was the boundaries of time and space bend around him, and falling back into open space, as a helmet with two faces stared at him as it faded into the distance.