As the sun rose high in the sky, Yato opened his eyes.
He was surrounded by rubble, ash and corpses. Yes, he was still at the castle town where him and the other saints were sent to engage the specters. Now, however, it seemed like he was the only one there.
Apparently the enemies had thought he was dead, when in fact he'd just been knocked unconscious after his defeat. Yato survived by pure, dumb luck.
"The others are probably dead or left without me." He concluded, mumbling to himself as he checked his body for more serious injuries.
It was then that he noticed Tenma's body on the ground. The unicorn saint quickly rushed towards it, hoping that he'd be still alive. But as picked up the pegasus in his arms, he soon realized that the breath of life had completely left him. His heart had stopped, he was dead.
"Tenma, you idiot…" He said, trying to fight back the tears. "I never liked you, but how do you think Lady Athena will feel when she finds out that you just went and died!?" He yelled. "She really cares about you!"
The unicorn saint started shaking Tenma's body trying to wake him up, without any success.
"Arguing with a corpse won't bring your friend back." Said a feminine voice, making Yato quickly turn around.
There was a cloaked figure watching him from one of the burned rooftops.
"A specter!?" Yato quickly got on his feet and squared up, ready to fight.
The figure then lowered her hood, showing the face of a young blonde woman. She had sharp features and wore a really long red scarf around her neck. Her long hair was tied up in a ponytail. The girl looked beautiful, but undoubtedly was also a warrior, Yato could tell that just by the way she carried herself.
"No, I'm not." She answered calmly, jumping down to the ground. "My name is Crane Yuzuriha, I came here to retrieve the pegasus saint and any other survivors on behalf of my mentor."
Yato dropped his guard.
"You're a saint?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
She nodded. Crane was a sacred cloth of the silver rank, which technically made her Yato's superior.
"Listen, the pegasus saint can still be saved." She explained, crossing her arms.
"But how?" Yato asked, confused. "He's dead, isn't he?"
"According to my mentor, it might still be possible to bring him back." The woman insisted. "Grab your friend and let's go, he'll give you the whole story."
Yato wasn't sure whether to trust her or not, but since she was a silver saint, and Yato couldn't think of any reason why anyone would want the body of a dead bronze saint, he decided to bite and give this a shot. After all, if she was right, he could bring his rival and frenemy back.
The unicorn saint simply nodded, taking Tenma's body in his arms. And as soon as he did that, him and Yuzuriha were enveloped by a shining light coming from the girl. She was elevating her cosmos for some reason, but before Yato could ask anything, everything around him suddenly changed.
Now, he was in some kind of mountain range that he'd never seen before. Certainly that was a place he wasn't exactly familiar with. And so he came to the conclusion that they'd been teleported. The morning sun was still in the same place, meaning that no time at all had passed.
"Where are we?" He asked, looking around at the sprawling mountain ranges.
"Jamir, it's a secret area in the himalayas. Home to a saint enclave that operates in tandem with the sanctuary in Greece." Yuzuriha explained, walking in the direction of a large stone pagoda that was located nearby.
Without any other choice, Yato followed her.
Eventually, they stopped at the big pagoda's front gates.
"My mentor is waiting inside, let's go."
"Alright." The unicorn saint stepped in, a bit wary.
What he saw once he stepped foot in the big hall inside the pagodas made his jaw drop: multiple broken sacred cloths, he'd never seen so many in a single place.
Waiting for his arrival was an old man with long white hair and a teenage boy. As soon as Yuzuriha went in, she kneeled in front of the elder.
"What is this place!?" The unicorn saint took a step back, a little overwhelmed at what he'd just seen.
"Listen up, kid." The old man spoke. "There's no time to waste, so I'll be quick."
"I had Yuzuriha bring you and the pegasus saint here as part of a secret mission given to me by Grandmaster Sage himself."
As he listened, Yato did notice that his voice sounded quite similar to Pope Sage's.
"That's my mentor, Altar Hakurei." Yuzuriha introduced him. That meant he was also a saint, as Altar was also figured among the silver rank of cloths.
"It's a mission that can not only help us win this Holy War, but also finally break the cycle and defeat Hades for good." He elaborated.
Yato listened quietly, trying his best to take in all of that vital information being thrown at him.
"But first, we need to fix that shattered cloth of yours." Said the mentor.
"Here in Jamir is where sacred cloths get repaired after sustaining too much battle damage. After all, they're made to be as durable as possible, but not even the strongest ones are invulnerable."
As he heard that, it finally clicked in the Unicorn saint's head what there were so many broken pieces of cloths scattered around the hall.
"Take off your armor."
As instructed, Yato removed his sacred unicorn cloth, placing it in a small pile of broken pieces on the ground.
"Yuzuriha, you know what to do." Hakurei ordered.
"Yes sir."
The woman then walked up to the pile of broken pieces and raised her wrist, making a small cut on it with a pocket knife, which caused blood to start flowing from it and into the shattered pieces.
"What are you doing!?" Yato asked, extremely confused.
"Sacred cloths aren't common armor, there's magic involved. And after they're damaged to a certain extent, only the blood of a saint can allow for it to be repaired." Hakurei explained as he watched his pupil's life fluids drench the cloth.
As too much of her blood was quickly being lost, Yuzuriha started fading, only managing to close up the wound on her wrist with a couple bandages before collapsing, getting caught in Yato's arms before falling to the ground.
The unicorn saint had caught her instinctively, probably feeling bad at what a woman he'd just met had done just for the sake of restoring his armor. Yato believed that he at least owed her that much.
"You shouldn't let a girl do things like this!" He protested.
The old master rolled his eyes.
"Yuzuriha is a saint just like you and me, and as such, she's willing to risk her life to help us defeat Hades." Hakurei then went to collect the blood soaked pieces of armor. "If you want what's best for her, go put her to bed while I fix your cloth. She needs rest after losing so much blood. Don't worry about the pegasus for now."
Hearing the suggestion, Yato left Tenam on the ground and took Yuzuriha to a small bedroom to the right of the hall, laying her on a bed and sitting on a nearby stone chair.
He never knew that this secret enclave existed, but it did make sense. Only a few among the saints knew the secrets of the sacred cloths, after all, if it wasn't like this, others would be able to forge similar items and that wasn't what Athena intended when she shared those secrets with humans. This meant that steps would have to be taken to avoid that dangerous knowledge from spreading.
As the girl slept, Yato thought about how nonchalant she'd been when she sliced her own wrist to pour her own blood into the cloth. She'd probably done that multiple times to help her mentor, so maybe it was a bit foolish of him to worry so much. Still, he was grateful to her. Later on, the kid that was with master Hakurei showed up to serve them some bread. His name was Atla, he was a personal apprentice of Hakurei and was being prepared to take over Jamir once his mentor was no longer able.
Eventually, more or less a day had passed, and soon, Yato and a now fully recovered Yuzuriha were called back into the main hall. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single hint of decomposition in Tenma's body, he looked exactly as he did yesterday.
Hakurei had finally finished work on Yato's cloth, and it looked better than ever. The young saint excitedly put the purple pieces back on, noticing how they felt lighter but even more durable than they'd been before.
"I also reinforced your unicorn cloth quite a bit on top of repairing it, after all, you're gonna need it for what comes next." Hakurei now had a strange curved sword strapped to his belt.
"What comes next?"
"Look at the flower bangle in the pegasus saint's wrist." The old mentor pointed it out. "Its flowers are so fresh that it looks like the thing was made yesterday. I trust you've known the pegasus for quite a bit, so tell me, for how long has he had it?"
Now that Hakurei had said it, Yato realized that he'd seen Tenma with that bangle since the day he'd arrived at the sanctuary, which had been many years ago. And yet, the flowers in the bangle still looked fresh, colorful and alive. It didn't make any sense.
"He's had it for as long as I've known him." Yato answered. "But how can it be possible that it still looks like that?"
"That bangle was made by Lady Athena herself, likely when she was still a kid growing up with the pegasus in Italy. I can feel a hint of her divine cosmos within it." Hakurei continued. "Unknowingly, she must've put her divine blessing in the bangle, which is what has caused the flowers to stay alive for so long."
"The same goes for the pegasus. Athena's divine cosmos on the bangle is keeping his soul from crossing the river Styx and truly entering the land of the dead, from which there's no coming back without the express permission of Hades himself." The old mentor sighed.
"Right now his soul is stuck between life and death, wandering the margin of the Styx not knowing where to go or what to do." Hakurei went up to Tenma's body and grabbed his arm. "But as you can see, it won't last long." He showed Yato the bangle from up close, and then the unicorn noticed that a few of the petals were falling off of the little flowers.
"Once all the flowers dry up, Lady Athena's blessing will expire and the pegasus will be stuck forever in the underworld." Hakurei put the bronze saint's arm down. "Before that happens, you and Yuzuriha will have to go down to the border between this world and the underworld, and then rescue his soul."
"What? And how are we gonna get there!?" Yato asked, flabbergasted. "Is it possible to visit the underworld as a living person?"
Hakurei smirked.
"Yes, but it won't be easy." He picked the strange curved sword. "Are you prepared to risk your life to save the pegasus?"
"Yes! I'll do anything to bring back that idiot!" Yato smiled, confident.
"If only so I can settle the score with him once and for all!"