WARNING: Violence, blood, broken bones, depiction of a seizure.
Betrayal
Thetis' gentle hand pushed Julian's chest back down to his chair, and, as if grasped by the confusion of a rude awakening, he stared on unresponsive. "Lord Poseidon, it is best if you remain seated," she whispered, so he allowed himself to rest back against the seat. While Sorrento remained close to the table, she brought the other man farther back and tended for his state, seeing that he had been now afflicted by a headache.
Saori's jealous eyes wandered now to the flutist, who turned away from watching his childhood friend. "Sorrento, you are another one I did not expect to meet here," she told.
He did not reply, seemingly censoring his words and awaiting Poseidon's lucidity to return him. Because she was met by silence, Shun sought to sate his questions: "Do you know these people, my Lady?"
"That man right there is Julian Solo," she revealed, "the first to conquer my love in tens of thousands of years. He is not Poseidon."
"Do not reduce his role to your pretexts. This man is in fact our Lord, head of Atlantis!" Sorrento finally replied.
"You know Julian's soul well, and I know the soul of my uncle like the back of my hand! As water with oil, they cannot mix," Saori argued and thus shifted her attention to her beloved, who seemed awestruck, paralyzed under Mermaid's care. "Julian, you must fight back!"
To hear her voice and see her face seemed to resurface him once more. "Saori, I…" though this attempt was thwarted yet again when his headache assaulted him, and Thetis calmed him with more whispers, apart from a soft shoulder massage. Poseidon fought him for dominance of that mind, it seemed.
"You speak yet as if you were Saori Kido, though nothing changes the truth of your identity, Lady Athena," Sorrento told, and unlike his colleagues, there was no hint of disrespect in how he referred to her. For all intents and purposes, he understood her role and harbored no hatred for the woman, something made clear by the tone.
"I may be both Saori and Athena, but Julian shall never be the same as my uncle," the goddess insisted.
"Each day that passes, their souls become more attuned to one another. A limb never answers back to its owner; it simply obeys their intent, as it is an extension of them. Similarly, there will come a day when no difference between Mister Solo and Lord Poseidon persists, and whether you accept it or not, they will be one."
"No, I cannot allow this!"
Sorrento scoffed at Saori's exasperation; he thought that to be a manifestation her weaker human side rather than her wiser godly one. "And what will you do, spill his blood in vain? The wisest goddess acting recklessly by heart alone, how unbecoming…"
Athena nearly snarled, yet contained her fury as much as she could. "Julian saw you as a friend," she reminded him. "Betrayal stands among the most unbecoming of acts, so I surely have nothing on you."
"Let us hold back our insults. This is a peace meeting after all — that is how it was devised," the Mariner said. Saori looked at Julian's blank stare, his stiff, stressed posture, and remembered that his unfortunate fate had no bearing on the welfare of humanity. That, after all, was her highest duty. "Take a seat, Lady Athena. Our Lord is unable, so I will conduct business in his stead."
"I beg you pardon," she answered, eyes shut and hands held casually together, "since I would rather stay put for now. This situation made me anxious."
"There is nothing to be anxious about. Please, take a seat."
"Present your terms, Mariner," Nachi ordered him.
Sorrento sighed and, after a brief pause, conceded: "As you will." Thereon his quietude overstayed, and from outside came the rumble of thunder, echoing from the distance and filling the streets with its loudness. That, for whatever reason, brought a smile to his lips.
Intently watching, Athena frowned when he remained wordless long after the thunder; only the sound of Thetis' murmurs to Poseidon could be heard in the room. Again Nachi grew impatient. "Stop wasting her time and talk!" said the Bronze Saint.
Conclusively, Sorrento's hand rose in the direction of the windows. "Rain is sure to fall in the coming minutes," he commented.
"So?"
His shut eyes finally opened once he finished: "Thereon it may never end."
Athena's frown sunk deeper. "What are you saying?"
"At this very moment, the most prestigious priests of our Lord's cult stay under the protection of the pillars, where they have meditated for weeks. Together they focus on cursing the Earth's sky with neverending rainfall. Once Lord Poseidon joins them in his Mainstay, humanity shall be doomed to extinction."
"You fool!" the goddess' voice raised. "It is war you seek in the end!"
"Call me no fool, for this is not my doing, but your uncle's. He has elected to raze humanity with a deluge."
When Athena's eyes hunted Poseidon's, she saw a calm, albeit somber man; due to his continuing battle with Julian for dominance, his gaze remained blank, oft dazzled, though she spoke unto him regardless: "Coming the end of the Trojan War, my father prohibited us from meddling with the affairs of humankind, let alone involving them in our own. They are innocent people!"
"Innocent?" Sorrento doubted that. "Now with that I must disagree." In that moment Thetis' attention seemed to turn to her friend, who continued talking. "To steal from your fellow man, to threaten your fellow man, to hurt your fellow man, to kill your fellow man, to…" thus he paused, apparently affected. The next word came only in thought, but he could never utter it with tongue — a force within imprisoned him. The anger this caused muffled his voice, and Mermaid seemed more troubled than prior. "This race that I must call my own is a revolting one, a danger to those who separate themselves from their filth. Even then, they insist on being a danger to themselves, their Earth, and its creatures. It is only ideal that we void their existence. Lord Poseidon aims to replace them with a wise and kind species, a species fashioned after you, Lady Athena."
"No!" the goddess exclaimed. "I will bring an end to this insanity no matter what it takes!"
"The terms which he brings to the table are simple — if you wish for the soil that is humanity to survive, stand down and allow the Marina full reign over Sanctuary. All of its religious and military operations should be under our control, otherwise, be prepared to watch them pay their due toll."
Despite no Cosmoi being felt outside or inside, Shun and Nachi also appeared agitated; Thetis responded to that by slowly getting up beside her god. "So he has called this meeting to blackmail me," Athena said.
"Alas, you misrepresent our Lord's goals. Blackmail is a harsh word for what he seeks. Mankind's corruption has grown too far; if not curtailed by less compassionate warriors, we might as well extinguish them."
"Are you under the impression I do not wish to purify humans of their every ill? I cannot! I respond to Heaven, as should my uncle," the woman argued. "No matter, I am not one to be blackmailed. I shall not agree to this."
"I must admit that I find this hard to swallow," Sorrento told, "that a most sacrosanct maiden — the maiden above all maidens — would wage another war against her blood, and in the name of such lowly rabble. My admiration for you was misplaced."
"I have done it before, and I would do it again." The atmosphere in the room soured further once the most minute spark of Cosmos was felt, far down on the road outside. Although Athena looked straight on, the boys had trouble keeping their eyes glued on the Marina in front of them. Nachi nearly took a step closer to the window, until the goddess' hand preemptively held his wrist, stopping him. She continued their talks, understanding what was about to come: "Tell me one last thing, Sorrento."
"Yes?"
"Why?"
Looking at the woman, he saw a mix of pity and care, a true compassion which his heart missed. Nonetheless, he raised the chin and resisted, knowing well what she meant with a question seemingly so innocuous. To that, Thetis finally let go of Poseidon's shoulder and walked forth, protesting: "Because our Lord wills it!"
When Athena shook her head negatively after, a brief chain of Cosmoi was felt, now further up the surrounding buildings. The Marina were even more tense. "You share my uncle's revolt. What have humans done to you, Sorrento?"
It was Thetis who answered once more: "He does as our Lord wills, there's nothing else to it."
Yet Sorrento thought more deeply. "Perhaps…" he mumbled.
"Don't entertain her. She's trying to manipulate you," said Mermaid.
The energies outside grew into a constant, sparking from a diversity of locations and intensifying with every second. The realization in the meeting room rendered the atmosphere even more severe, and once it was clear that combat had broken out, the side of Atlantis wished that Athena would avoid getting involved in the fight until Poseidon was fit to partake in it.
However, Shun did not take any chances, and subtly raised an arm to reveal the circle end of the Andromeda Chain, sliding out from beneath a sleeve. Sorrento, attentive to his movements, had a similar idea and slid out a metallic flute from a sleeve his own, its polished surface flaunting an orange hue.
Before they could initiate their combat, two sources of power encroached the windows from outside, so those within braced for impact, with the exception of the gods. The glass crashed to allow in turbulent rain whistling past the edges, and an armored man got launched well past the wall on the other side, followed by Seiya landing into the table to crack it into pieces.
"ROLLING DEFENSE!" Shun shouted, although Athena had already used her Cosmos to reduce the shards of glass to smithereens. Seiya stepped off and flew through the newly opened hole in the side wall, hunting his enemy, while Nachi stood guard under the chain's protection, shielding the goddess.
They felt drops of water being carried by the turbulent gales, a sign that Poseidon's deluge storm had reached that part of Greece, and from its haunting noise cut through an expertly song. Sorrento's flute somehow overwhelmed the wind's wash through the medium of Cosmos, and, coming in touch with its otherworldly sound, Andromeda's chain acted up and swirled to leave them unprotected.
Thetis took advantage of this and blasted beyond the speed of sound in Athena's direction, though Nachi launched himself in opposition, intercepting her with greater force. "DEAD HOWLING!"
Sharp streaks of light engulfed Mermaid and, with the unbearable drag, the two were thrown together through the other wall, into an adjacent office, where their rumble continued despite their lack of armor.
Next, Sorrento assaulted the chain with staccato, and it became clear to Shun that his weapon would no longer respond as it naturally did. Instead, he had to force its path with Cosmos, unlike how he oft used it as an extension of his own will. The sound of that song served as a many-headed enemy that pushed back against the metal, obligating him to push back each time if he didn't wish himself and Athena to be exposed.
"How does he do this?" he muttered, and soon he felt the goddess' marvelous power burn beside him. Her hair floated in an arc about her head, and once her eyes shone, Sorrento braced for inevitable impact.
A light filled the meeting hall, bleeding into the neighboring rooms through newfound openings, and the two warriors felt their bodies be pushed to the corners, limp like rag dolls. Once Shun opened his eyes, he saw the blurry image of a standoff over the table's ruins, and those were both Athena and Poseidon, the first with her fingers aimed forth, and the latter with a fist raised in defense.
With the debris and water vapor from before, it had been difficult for her to see the face of her beloved; in the other hand, now, so up close, she somehow could not recognize him. In his eyes was genocidal ambition rather than Julian's seaward lust, and in his lips was the sated grin of a man who anticipated that clash for hundreds of years. No semblance of the other man's soul appeared thereon.
"Dear niece," he spoke, now with the voice of the Sea God, "we finally meet again."
With a mighty growl, Athena swung to release a burst of energy, demanding: "Leave Julian now!" To the two remaining youth in the room, the gods suddenly appeared as shapes of light, and a violent conflict ensued between them.
Their movements were immediate, but precise in both offense and defense. The woman led the battle, faster and more experienced, although her uncle did not lag too far behind, always tapping off her advances, strides, and punches. Seeing how fast they roamed back and forth from one end of the room to another, and how they seemed at the verge of exiting its confines, Shun took advantage of the moment to throw the Andromeda Chain towards the enemy.
Poseidon so trivially tapped it off without turning, although this nigh imperceptible distraction was enough for Athena to force him into a desperate dodge. Once a boom of light came with one of her wild, broad swipes of the arm, he twirled in the air and flew back. Next she stepped with such force that one of her heels cracked under the weight, but the momentum was affected by Sorrento's song, which restarted once he was up.
Lifted in the air, Athena did not lose composure, and crossed both hands to protect herself from the upcoming attack: a forceful wall of icy winds thrown by her uncle, the likes Earthlings would only meet in forsaken, frozen continents. Thanks to her, the frost was turned into fine dust, and thus Andromeda was also safe.
Behind the god, Pegasus slid in, crashing through another panel of the wall and sending its materials flying until he came to a halt. Chrysaor's characteristic trident flew in his direction, and with a quick roll to the side, the youth dodged it, so it got deeply embedded in the window wall.
"Seiya!" Shun called, but his friend charged to meet the foe that continued his assault without offering a reply.
Krishna entered and distributed a series of fast moves which Seiya could perfectly read, something they could not do to the battle between the heads of Sanctuary and Atlantis. Indeed, while their battle was loud and intense, it too was disturbed by the absurd clash of gods, one which brought every inch of structure in that portion of the building down to the risk of devastation.
Andromeda and Sorrento focused on aiding their other allies, where their abilities alone may have proven worthless in tipping the scales between Athena and Poseidon. Displaying the golden shine of the Seventh Sense, Shun was able to hold one of Krishna's arms from behind while he exchanged missing swings; when Seiya advanced to take advantage of this, it was also with the Seventh Sense that Sorrento pushed his arm off utilizing a perfectly aimed cadence of notes.
Before Seiya could comprehend what was going on, he and his opponent were surprised by a great flash, and suddenly he was faced with a few droplets of blood. Where Krishna once stood, now was Lady Athena, turned in the opposite direction. As she dodged one of her uncle's strides, she catastrophically landed with immense power over the Mariner-General, and therewith Chrysaor was pushed into the flooring. Whether he was unconscious or dead, it was unclear by then.
Disregarding the possibilities, Seiya instead focused on dealing with the other Mariner as soon as the goddess leapt to continue defending herself. He had an enviable view and touch of Sorrento's alien abilities, who dodged his light-speed attacks with a mix of physical avoidance and musical premeditation. Although sound was slower, the man somehow ensured that the notes affected his limbs so that he was always in a position prone to escaping. Like Shun, he was an expert at fighting without fighting; he read, reacted to, and manipulated his enemies in order to achieve victory.
Puzzled, Seiya did not comprehend how his fists gained an apparent life of their own, refusing to land any punches or turning limp at the touch of the other's attire. More debris flew from another end of the meeting hall, and it was obvious that the gods' romp continued to distant rooms and spread mayhem to the remainder of the office building. The much less chaotic situation made it easier for the Saints to fight.
While Pegasus kept Sorrento busy with ineffective strikes, Shun harassed him with the chain. Their speed and synchrony made it impossible for the young Mariner to keep up, and, unavoidable as it was, he ended up with his back turned to Andromeda. Instinctively, the boy sent the square end to injure his arm, an otherwise exceptional decision for him.
It was in such way that he split Sorrento's wrist after cutting through his formal clothes, and so it became stiff a moment. The missed notes this entailed opened an interval for Seiya to attack without obstacles: "PEGASUS METEOR FIST!"
The two were sent into the wall, crossing Shun by a hair and halting their momentum against a panel that crumbled behind them. That casually, the enemy fell unconscious, and they were left with two fallen Marina-Generals in the meeting hall.
While checking on them to ensure they would not awaken any time soon, Seiya heard multiple bangs echoing from outside. They could feel many battles taking place in the streets, over the buildings, or by the building's entrance. Understanding that it wasn't safe to stay idle, Shun caught his attention. "Quick, I will tie them up!" he said. "Go check on Lady Athena!"
Without debate, Seiya nodded and ran out the hall, following the grotesque trail of destruction in their wake. The ruination spanned through multiple apartments and floors, never minding the importance of the columns and pipes it affected. As he passed by the open plan this had created, he saw the rubble of desks, cubicles, receptions, restrooms, and waiting rooms; thankfully, he did not meet the sight of a single civilian body. Instead, when he entered one of the affected offices a few stories down, he saw one of the handful of workers in the building that day; since dust yet clouded the air, he knew the battle had recently struck them.
The men and women panicked loudly as their senses returned to them: "What happened?"
Much like their appliances, computers, and tables, their office clothes had been coated in dust and small particles. "Was that… was that a bomb?" a man babbled, spying from behind his chair.
Seiya scanned the place and made sure that none of them were dead or severally hurt. "Are you guys alright?" he asked.
"Huh…?" A man began to check the colleagues around him, ensuring that they could move. "I think we might be," he told.
"It's not safe here. Run downstairs and leave before this place collapses!"
"C-collapses?" a woman gasped. Their vision was still blurry, but Seiya's appearance was promptly a strange one to them, dressed in such alien armor.
"What's going on?" someone else questioned.
"We're not sure yet, but it's not safe," Pegasus said, and the building subtly shook another instance. "Come on, get out!"
"Okay, we'd better run, guys!"
As the white-collar workers finished aiding each other up, Seiya left after Athena and abandoned them. One of the secretaries bemoaned the hell they were in: "I knew working on a Saturday couldn't end well…"
Seiya continued speeding and skipping through the open sections of the dilapidated building, only slowing down to pass through narrow sections. From a side, he sensed the power of the gods grow from the distance, coming in his general direction. By little he managed to avoid their turbulent passage, the waiting room in which he stood ending up decimated; wood crumbled and flew to the corners, the stuffing of seats puffed like smoke into the air, and the carpet was ripped to shreds, burnt and smeared towards formerly closed-off sections.
He made chase despite their superior speed, and he noted that, by her seemingly more active nature, Athena dominated the fight. In fact, rather than fighting back, Poseidon seemed to bait her across the building, wasting her time for some deed they couldn't predict. At face value, they assumed he expected the Marina-Generals to encroach their position and defeat her that way, but with the many powerful Saints standing in their way, victory seemed certain for Sanctuary.
They finally stopped in a corridor, surrounded by the many doors of empty offices. Athena successfully arrested her uncle and, with a forceful push of two fingers to his throat, slammed him to a wall, which shook as if about to crash down.
Poseidon had a good look of her furious expression; to see the otherwise serene goddess with her brows furled, such fire in her green eyes — he knew that to be the raw stare of a warrior-maiden unfettered. There was a mix of awe and honor in his heart.
"Time and time again you fail to best me in battle," she nonchalantly reminded him.
The man chuckled. "I am never disappointed in your power," he said. "Even among the gods you are an odd fighter, undeniably your father's daughter."
"Then why insist on facing me?"
"Because I have been made aware of your weakness."
Athena's grimace grew subtly deeper, and thus she heard the steps of Seiya behind them. She did not fully turn her attention even when he yelled: "Give up, Poseidon!"
When Poseidon stamped him lips with a grin, she wondered whether the presence of a Saint chimed into his plans. "Seiya, do not bother with me. Go aid your friends instead," she calmly ordered.
"But…"
"Do as I demand!" she firmly spoke, for Poseidon's Cosmos slowly grew, and she burned her own. As she had predicted, the enemy growled and reached for Pegasus, so she blasted him with a ripple of energy so intense that it blew part of his suit asunder, then charred and ripped the skin of the neck, chest, jaw, and part of the face.
Even moving amid a bloody mist, Poseidon never relented. Seeing that young man defenseless in face of his power, he continued, but Athena's assault did not stop then; she forced her whole body into his and tackled him in a parallel direction. They slid many meters away and, after struggling for a split second, swung at each other with incalculable violence.
Seiya barely had the time to process what took place, even less attempt and aid the one he was meant to protect. The last thing he saw was the clash of energies that filled the corridor with a brighter flash than the last, initially eerily mute. Therewith the bodies of both gods were sent in opposing directions, each through a wall and deep into different corners of the building. Soon winds pushed towards the windows, forcing the Bronze Saint back without control, and the sound of the explosion shook the entire district.
After a brief blackout, he opened the eyes in a daze to locate himself. The corridor, now barely visible through the dust, was seemingly emptied of any people but him. Hastened, he got up and nearly fell back down, for his knees faltered from a sudden pain which he soldiered through. The more sustenance he found for each step, the quicker he ran towards where he last saw Athena, by the time that much of the debris had already settled.
There he found two distinct holes in the walls, one for each fighter. Assuming his Lady's direction, he entered one of them and stumbled towards the edge of the floor. Over an office's carpet, under the watch of a wide window that displayed the rainy day outside, he found her convulsing body, the spitting image of the incident in the mansion a long while ago. He came to notice that this had also taken place when she was struck by Sagitta's arrow, and that such illness had not left her even after a whole year.
"No, not again!" he complained, immediately crouching and holding her head in his arms so that she would no longer bang it against anything solid. "If you don't wake up soon, something bad could happen."
Slow steps came from the opening behind him. Poseidon failed nearly every step he took, and his state was much bloodier than his niece's. It was clear that, in terms of strength, he had lost that latest clash, although Athena's epilepsy meant no obstacle stood between the Marina and their goal. No Saint could stand alone against a god and his strongest subordinates.
His left shoulder had dislocated with the blast, and so casually he used the other to put it back in place. After a loud grunt due to that painful operation, his silhouette appeared to Seiya, who protectively took the woman's body in an embrace and pushed his back against the window.
Poseidon did not attack; first he raised both hands forth in reception, saying: "Hand her to me, Saint."
Frustrated and knowing he would not survive such a foe, Seiya's pursed the lips and calculated modes of escape. His duty, however, would never change. "Over my dead body," he said.
Those receptive arms now menacingly spread. "Then over your dead body it is," the god finalized.
In the fleeting instant where he felt Poseidon's energy rise, he understood there was no more leeway for mistakes. Seiya reckoned the instructions to the Seventh Sense and, unlike what he had been doing until that point, ensured that they were strictly adhered to in his next moves. With his will pure and well-aimed, the Bronze Saint somehow burned Cosmos faster than the man before him, and launched his body back through the window, flying out with Athena tightly held in his chest. In that moment he felt like Aiolos did in face of Shura's wrath; there was a grave sense of responsibility, but also a dire sense of impending doom. Death would likely meet him at the bottom of that fall, he imagined.
Poseidon charged after the youth, and finally the situation outside became clear to them. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Saints alike engaged with a slew of Marina-Generals. The bangs, flashes, and shock waves echoed close to or far from the office building, and where only the sound of rain would befall the neighborhood, instead there was the war-like cacophony of superhuman battle.
Not far below, two blurs swept through the sides of the building, crashing glass as they did so; these were Aiolia and Marin hunting after a man covered in a golden Scale. No matter how fast Leo was and how prompt Eagle was at supporting him, this enemy continuously eluded them. Stepping off the windows and releasing thousands of shards against them, the helmeted man flipped in the air, his direction disturbed by the passage of a falling Seiya with Athena in arms. With a quick correction, the Mariner summoned an explosion that sent him in a downward direction, avoiding the two Saints another time.
They were en route to the streets below, where the debris from the sidewalks and roads partially occluded the view. A trio of Bronze Saints fended off a Mariner their own; they were Hydra Ichi, slow but dangerous with each swing of his fangs; Dolphin Alicia, much faster and more fluid as she swung walls of icy water at the foe; and Piscis Austrinus Anka, potentially fatal with moves way more relentless than her shy personality ever could be.
To their dismay, the enemy had no trouble dodging them, seeing that he was stupendously faster than the three. No matter that they had been trained to achieve the abilities of great Silver Saints, they did not attain the luck of the Bronze Saints against Aldebaran, being avoided without ill. It would've been hopeless had it not been for the landing of one of such miraculous warriors; Cygnus Hyoga rushed from behind them to directly reach the opponent.
Wrist to wrist, gauntlet to gauntlet, the young man's icy punch blew to large chunks against the other's defense. The force was such that the Mariner trembled, and at first his lips under the helmet opened to a gnarl to realize he dealt with another user of the Seventh Sense; then they widened to shock upon noticing something else.
Another swing came, thus the enemy slammed it off and opened distance, side-flipping away. Standing in the middle of the road, he walked about while outlined by servants of Athena, although his head was constantly aimed at Cygnus, to whom he tightened a fist. With Cosmoi burning, the group strode for another bout, and it became difficult to comfortably dodge with Hyoga's addition.
"GLACIAL HORN!" Anka shouted, twisting her body from aside. This was trivial to tip off to the Mariner; evading Alicia's kick and pushing Ichi off, he traveled near the speed of light to melt the incoming spikes and bump Anka away, so she fell with her back to a sidewalk.
From there he turned and barely defended another of Hyoga's harsh strikes, returning with one his own. Each of their incoming moves blew into light and sparks, releasing a thump thereafter. Before another series of attempts came, the enemy swept an arm forward and shouted: "DIAMOND DUST!"
Yet another warrior appeared capable of that technique, and with the winds he generated, he was quite proficient at it. Throwing the arm back as they separated, Hyoga easily whipped the ice off it, but seemed estranged to witness one of Poseidon's minions also using such ability. He wondered how truly universal it had become over the years.
Ere they could continue proving their power, Seiya dropped in the vicinity, forming a crater and spreading dense clouds of dust to fill the streets. Even a kilometer afar, civilians hiding from the chaos saw their umbrellas crumbled or wiped away by the forces.
Simultaneous to this conflict, multiple others took place over slightly afar buildings. Shiryu and Aldebaran alternated the front of a battle against another of Atlantis' Generals. While Taurus charged from platform to platform, top to top to try and pin down the enemy, Shiryu looked for an opening from the corners.
At a point the Mariner, impatient, attempted to counter the Gold Saint. "EAGLE CLUTCH!" they heard him shout. The warrior was faster than Aldebaran, and would've struck him at least partially had it not been for Shiryu's intervention. With the shield forth and a sudden peak of energy, he was able to cut through the enemy's forceful move, gaining a few scratches and being sent spinning past him.
To not lose the beat, Aldebaran pushed through the Mariner from the other end, opening the path for Dragon's next move. "GREAT HORN!" he yelled himself, and whereas the foe would've stood unperturbed before, he now tumbled in disorder.
Shiryu, yet in the air, saw the opportunity his ally had created and, with a mighty punch forward, produced a labyrinth of bright, greenish lights at the other man. "SOARING DRAGON!"
The Mariner kicked himself up and flew aimlessly in the sky out of desperation, which dodged the attack by a hair. Not to be caught inattentive a second instance, he recomposed before he had even reached ground, then dove in to continue their fight.
Atop a neighboring building, a concurrent struggle took place between June, Geki, and the most bizarre of opponents. Although this General was equally adorned in a golden Scale, they could see that this man's skin was so incredibly pale as to appear corpse-like, and the lower half of his face was afflicted with red rashes so stark against the other hues below, helmet shadowing the upper remainder of his semblance. His method of attacking was just as strange, often standing in a single place while Chameleon assaulted him at blinding velocities.
Sometimes Bear traded places advancing, but no matter how much they tried, it seemed that this stationary opponent always dodged them. Although he appeared to be idling in a place at first, after they snapped at him, he therewith idled elsewhere. June was puzzled by this since, with her knowledge of the Seventh Sense, she surely expected to see at least some of his shifting from place to place.
Inquisitive, June experimented advancing not at him, but the space beside him, with the intent of catching him by surprise. This almost came as a success and, for a split second, she was able to see in the little light they had the enemy's true position. Indeed, as far as she was concerned, he concealed his exact location through some form of visual trickery.
Once she flipped her whip towards what appeared to be open air, the foe raised both hands, stretching claw-like red nails to the sides. Suddenly heightening Cosmos, he advanced towards her, though the amazon was able to crouch and sweep against his legs, which swept him off air. Geki saw this and launched himself into the Mariner's body, finally hitting him and scrambling for dominance over the ground.
Taking a hold of the other warrior, Bear flexed his muscular arms and tightened him by the throat. Even as a comparably weaker opponent, he had a full grasp of that neck and constricted him so that no air could pass through: "HANGING BEAR!"
With a scowl, the Bronze Saint turned up to the unsightly lower half of the General's face, and what he saw was not the view of a losing fighter. Quite the opposite, between his chapped lips were the exposed, yellowing, scrambled teeth of a mad man, widened into a sickening smirk. Without hesitation, the Mariner brought his revolting hands to Geki's face and covered his eyes with Cosmos-glimmering palms. That promptly, the Saint appeared catatonic.
"What the hell is going on?" June asked herself. At first it seemed like their battle was about to end, but now it seemed that, without intervention, Geki wouldn't escape an ill fate. Using extreme violence, the girl sent herself flying towards the Mariner to double kick him into the distance. The man gasped and flailed, reaped away from Bear as if his hands were becoming glued to his eyes; as he tumbled to the building's edge, his helmet momentarily fell to reveal the remainder of his appearance: betwixt tight eyelids were pale irises; the bags of his eyes were saggy, dry, and loose, as was the skin on his forehead; his head had some remaining tufts of graying hair, although most of it was now clean, exposing that his rashes extended even that far. Amid euphoric laughter, the Mariner put the helmet back on while June checked on her ally. "Geki, what was that about?"
Fallen to a knee, Geki breathed deeply. Next he sighed, apparently attempting to speak, though he could not even mouth words for a second. "This… this man took me through hell," he finally muttered. Chameleon turned to the enemy and watched him assume the same cross-like posture from before. Whoever that was, he was deserving of his position, she thought.
While the opponent prepared another set of impromptu illusions to confound them in the coming minutes, he was engulfed by a rising sphere of flames whence shot out two burning men, racing to the skies. They twisted in the air and launched each a swing of energy at one another, this before diverting the path of their extreme race to the top of a taller building.
Once they landed surrounded by black smoke, it was clear that this was Ikki face to face with yet another Mariner-General. Although he was on the offensive at the time, his first kick and every subsequent move was missed, no matter how beautifully executed. There came a point when the enemy merely turned, parried a strike with a push, then slid forth with an elbow to the Bronze Saint's chest, striking him in full.
Taking the brunt of the force, Ikki spun to punch the back of his head by surprise, so the enemy crouched and barely noted a light approaching him from behind. The Mariner threw an uppercut and felt his hand be held without issue; the one he met was the tranquil Virgo Shaka, who seemed to aid Phoenix in that situation.
Despite this, the Gold Saint casually allowed him to let go of the hold, which he certainly needed in order to defend Ikki's incoming fist. From there, whenever he attempted to fight back, his hand was pushed back by some magnetic force, similar to how Sorrento redirected Seiya's attacks. The calm Cosmos surrounding them pointed to the culprit being Virgo once more, so the General turned to him.
"OM," the long-haired man stood in meditation, hands and fingers intricately positioned while overseeing combat. That was enough to render Ikki unharmed.
It was clear to their enemy that no amount of insistence would break through Shaka's enviable discipline. If he wished to win that battle, he'd first have to strike down his defenses, and so he dodged one of Phoenix's next attacks by jumping up, then dropped towards Virgo without scruples. This came as a failure; the Gold Saint evaded him and his ally approached to continue assaulting him. Whereas Shaka beautifully shoved off every single one of his advances, the Mariner could barely dodge Ikki's sequences of moves, which wouldn't be sustainable in the long term.
Eventually, in his stubbornness, it came to be that the Saints attacked him in a way previously thought unlikely. In the blink of an eye, Shaka vanished from view, and the Mariner was quick to notice his power raging from above. He bounced preemptively to meet him halfway through, though this was a ruse; Ikki caught him from behind and kicked him with an explosive, fiery kick that launched him towards the other end of the building top. He would've struck some construction beyond the road had it not been for some form of invisible wall that halted his momentum.
So quickly recomposed, the man fell down to a crouch; at the bottom he met the sight of Aries Mu, who had erected that Crystal Wall in order to keep him from destroying any more infrastructure. Before they could exchange words, Ikki's indomitable hunt continued, and the General dodged it, uppercut his next swing off-center, then kicked him back to turn and strike at the Crystal Wall. Despite the force with which he hit it, the thing only wobbled, and attempting to destroy it had been vain for the time being.
What came next was a fast exchange of defense and offense; he would parry Ikki off and turn to slam that wall again, and again, and again, with Mu finding greater difficulty in holding it back each instance. It was when Shaka's arrival seemed imminent that the Mariner grew impatient and, to everyone's shock, yelled familiar words: "GALAXIAN EXPLOSION!"
Mu's eyes widened; the man spread both arms and exhaled a vulgar cloud of stars, galaxies, and nebulae, which vibrated and crumbled the Crystal Wall. Shaka and Ikki were launched off into the far distance, and the same would've happened to Aries, had it not been for his layer of protection.
Regardless of how confused he was left, the Gold Saint stood in defiance. There were many words he meant to speak to one capable of such a frightening technique. It seemed the Mariner had words too, or so it seemed under that familiar grin his. He took a few steps towards the other man, who stepped back out of safety. Ere their questions could be made into words, the sound of Seiya, Athena, and Poseidon striking the ground near the site of the summit echoed, and with all of the dust covering the streets, they understood something big was about to happen down there. The Mariner-General flew off towards the impact while the Saints were stunned, an act which Mu soon followed, intent on protecting his Lady.
At the landing, the elite warriors of both gods convened for combat. Their fighting could initially be assumed through naught but sounds, lights, and other disturbances. From the veils, the shapes of men and women clashing in deathly battles came to view, first being that of Thetis and Nachi, who descended from the building to continue things in the streets of Athens.
Their moves were like blurs, difficult to interpret with the debris yet so thick in the air, though it seemed they fought at an equal footing. However, by some miscalculation, Wolf lost a step and took a palm-heel strike to the stomach, followed by a spinning kick straight to the back of the head that dropped him to the road.
To the Marina, it was a moment to give the Saints no quarters, therewith Thetis bounced off the ground and descended towards Nachi to finish him off once and for all. With the right hand incorporating a large amount of Cosmos, she stiffened it into a spear-like shape and thrust it at the young man's neck.
From her side, however another source of energy grew till it struck her off course. "THUNDER CLAW!" Shaina's voice resounded. Initially out of control due to the shock, Thetis spun and landed with a hand to the asphalt, able to see Ophiuchus' outline only thanks to the purple glow of her sparks. The amazon turned and, from behind her raven black hair, those grim blank eyes of her mask confronted Mermaid.
Because Nachi was also standing, Thetis retreated into a cloud of debris, whispering: "Thanks for that, buzzkill."
That was not the only place where a Saint was in grave danger. Worse, deep into the crater formed by Seiya's fall, he and Athena were watched by a hidden bloodthirsty gaze. As the Pegasus Saint protectively held the goddess and crawled out of the hole with her, he met the confusing sight about him, alert, albeit dazed by the sound of fighting. Those eyes, hateful and vengeful, traveled through the smoke, slowly prowling with murderous intent. Those weren't Poseidon's; they were hidden under the darkness of a scaled helmet bearing the figures of bearded tritons, tails coiled around the skull.
This Mariner-General saw the right moment, oh how helpless and exposed Lady Athena seemed to him, and therefore took a sure step forth. His hand, however, which was about to be lifted to inflict death upon the goddess, was struck by a black rose that chipped the very tip of a gauntlet. This caught Seiya's attention, and the golden-armored warrior that cut through the fighting was Pisces Aphrodite; he had another black rose between the lips, a white rose over his ear, and a bundle of red roses in the left hand.
Interrupted, the Mariner's fist shook in frustration. He insisted on walking towards Athena, though Aphrodite did not allow him. "BLOOD ROSERY!" he yelled upon raising his secondary hand, whence came a maelstrom of crashing ice that disheveled the red roses into many a petal and thorn. The polar low made the General's view of Athena grow blurred once more, and Pisces had the time to stand in the way, ready to fight him in order to protect the two behind. "Take Lady Athena out of here, Mister Seiya!"
Little strength had returned to Seiya still, but he did his best to lift Athena's unconscious body and walk with her, always avoiding signs of battle. With time, the debris settled and the situation was clearer to all of those present, so a question sparked in Pegasus' mind.
Feeling a cold run up the spine, he spied over a shoulder, stopping along the way an instant. His question was answered by a presence not too distant: Poseidon himself had landed long ago, and he walked towards him. He comprehended that there was no escape for a warrior of his abilities in face of a god. Even though he could run, he was technically that man's hostage, and so was Athena in that most vulnerable state.
As a barrage of fighters passed, Poseidon was always unscathed, though one among the fray deemed it best to separate and focus on him instead. With the hopeless intent of ceasing his march, Scorpio Milo threw herself against the god. A brief step aside followed by an icy blast aimed at the shoulder was enough to push the Gold Saint a meter away.
Because the plates of her armor were unavoidably frozen by such technique, her old scars from her fight with June burned in deep pain. Even still, nothing would make her stop protecting Athena's life, or at least nothing but death. Glowing gold and lensing the light around her outline, she divided the path between Poseidon and Seiya.
"There's no standing up to a god!" Seiya warned her. "Don't kill yourself, Milo."
Milo did not listen; Poseidon simply raised his hand and, before she could advance, her legs felt stiff. She would've been able to continue attacking, but her blood appeared to chill inside her veins; heating herself up with Cosmos, it would be a matter of time for her to try and foolishly attack once more, that being until the god walked past her without fighting.
"Do not waste your lives," spoke the head of Atlantis. "My object is my niece, none else."
Releasing herself from whichever freezing curse befell her, Milo nearly fell to her side as she turned. "Seiya, do not let him take her!" she called.
"Stay back, Milo!"
Finally up close, Poseidon once more raised his hands in reception to the Bronze Saint and ordered: "You recommend that she heed my words, so do the same yourself. Hand my dearest niece to me."
Quiet, Seiya simply held Athena tightly, shielding her face in particular. "Watch out!" Scorpio called, and suddenly an arm was tied around the youth's throat, tightening it enough that it became effortful to breathe. The Mariner-General who held him bore a sarcastic grin which Poseidon did not possess.
"Let go, boy. This isn't worth your life now, is it?" he said.
"It is!" he insisted. "Athena protects all we have. I won't lose her without fighting."
"What fighting is at hand?" Poseidon argued. He forced a palm against Seiya's forehead, who crossed the eyes to stare at it in awe; that was the closest he had ever felt to death itself. The cold in his spine worsened, and his tan skin paled. "Have you not noted yet that I do not wish to murder Athena? I do not wish to kill a Saint, let alone my own kin, let alone a being so sacred! You need only hand her to me, and this needless battle will be over."
Without a way to safely fight back, Seiya had no words, no actions, no reactions — there was only staring at the hand ready to blow a hole into his brains. Saints and Marina alike began to note that their respective conflicts had become superfluous, with their goals concentrated in the same place, so one by one they collected into opposite ends of the road to encircle Pegasus and the others.
While some fighting still took place, Shun's voice called from above: "Do not make a rash decision!" He dropped from the ceiling and landed on the sidewalk, holding only one end of the Andromeda Chain; the rings spanned all the way to the floor where the botched meeting took place, and it was clear he had hooked it around a hold so that he could hoist down the unconscious bodies of two Generals: Sorrento and Chrysaor Krishna.
Thetis, avoiding the attacks of both Shaina and Nachi, nearly got struck when she saw the state of her childhood friend. "Damn it! Sorrento!" she shouted. Having dodged one of Ophiuchus' ruthless attacks and skipping behind the line of Marina, she was shielded by a colleague of higher rank. Seeing what was taking place, the other two Saints joined their own line formed behind Scorpio.
"Be quiet," Poseidon ordered the Mariner. He knew now that they only had a partial edge over Sanctuary, but questioned Shun as if otherwise: "By this you mean the lives of two Marina are worth the life of Earth's patroness, Saint?"
"I do not care for weighing their worth," Andromeda responded. "If you insist on taking Lady Athena, we will not rest until we have her back, and we will keep these two Marina under our custody."
"Just kill the lot of them!" one of the Marina-Generals yelled, only to be chastised by his lord another time.
"SILENCE, SCYLLA!" the god shouted in fury, and the tensions among the Marina were much more palpable. There was no point in not admitting it: "A false step would yield a bloodbath, and we have little to gain from that in the long term. Temper your edges."
An uncomfortable wordlessness succeeded. Only the muted noise of debris rolling and rain falling could be heard in the coming seconds, till someone had the courage to speak up. "So we must make a choice, Poseidon," Shun pressured him.
"The rain shall not come to a halt," the god revealed, having thought his next terms. "Things shall remain as they are. You may keep Siren and Chrysaor, and if any harm comes to them, you will no longer see Athena in your lifetime."
"We will not allow you to take her!" Aiolia yelled from within the group of Gold Saints, though when he pushed forward in presumptuous haste, his friends blocked him. "You have no business setting your hands on our Lady!"
"I vow not to harm her. Surely, if no harm comes to Siren and Chrysaor, and as long as Sanctuary does not get in our way, your Lady should live a healthy life in this century and the next."
Leo shouted and appeared ready to attack, but Mu held him before his Cosmos grew so large that the battle was rekindled. "Aiolia, stay calm! Whatever comes to be of this, Atlantis shall be punished for their crimes," he told.
There was one last obstacle for the Marina to have their way. With that gelid hand still touching Pegasus' forehead, Poseidon ordered a third time: "Hand her over, boy."
"I… I can't," Seiya stammered.
"Are you making fun of Lord Poseidon, kid? Do you have any idea what's about to happen to you?" the General who had a hold of his throat growled.
But Poseidon's threat was much more formal and terrifying. "If I ended you here," he said, "there would be blood. Each Saint would be slaughtered before Athena could aid you, and you would be the one to blame. Are you willing to take responsibility?"
Seiya lowered his head and shut the eyes tightly, gritting teeth behind his lips. Putting his arms forward, he did not look at himself giving possession of Athena's body to the enemy. "Do not give her away, Seiya!" Aiolia said, but the Bronze Saint saw no other way out.
Poseidon gently smiled. For a moment, the tone of his voice stood between that of Julian and the god prior, saying: "You have done well, Saint. This was the safest choice in your predicament. Do not feel ashamed." The eyes of the Marina soon turned to the states of Sorrento and Krishna, hanging beside a Clothless Andromeda. Before they came up with any weird ideas, nearby Saints stood guard about them — it was hostage for hostage, after all.
The accord was settled. The men and women of Atlantis took steps back and slowly took their leave, whereas Aiolia, once more, shouted at the enemy: "Savor this for the time being! We will have your head on a pike soon enough!"
Having his grovely voice fully back, Poseidon did not turn. He merely cackled and raised the head to yell in response. "You are preoccupied with a deluge, Saint!"
Before she left, Thetis gave a last stare to her hanging friend. She, too, did not want to leave without giving a token of her frustration. "If any of you lay a finger on Sorrento, I will drown you in your own blood!" she said and skipped to accompany her allies thereafter.
In disarray, Seiya fell back to a sit, head hanging low and face partially hid by hair. Shaina approached to offer him solace him, and so did his friends after that, while voices were raised among the Gold Saints.
"This is an act of war, Mu!" Aiolia continued to debate.
"It is, though even in war one mustn't act rashly," Aries calmly replied.
"If it is rash to wish to protect Lady Athena, I gladly accept the label," the other said. "But there is no stopping what I will do to every Mariner, every Atlantean soldier I find wandering the Earth."
Mu shut his eyes and shrugged in confirmation. "We are at war after all."
"Good... good!" Aiolia repeated that more fiercely. "I will slay every Mariner I meet. Every single damn one!"
Concluding, Leo glowed with power and sent his own body up the buildings, only to then vanishing into the distance. The Gold Saints stayed back to tend for their allies, although Marin came close to the mistake of chasing after him. "Do not bother, Miss Marin," warned Mu.
The amazon sighed, knowing it would be superfluous in the end. "Yeah, I know. He is not the kind to be open-minded," she said.
"Instead let us look after our own, send news to Sanctuary, and inform the sentinel." Aries looked back at Seiya's situation; the guilt in his heart could almost be seen with the naked eye, how desolate he sat despite being surrounded by those he loved. "Were this urgency not to be taken with the utmost seriousness, I am not sure Seiya would ever be able to forgive himself."