Slowly but surely, Pegasus Tenma regained consciousness.

As he opened his eyes, he soon realized that he was in an unfamiliar place. His arms and legs were bound by chains, and his surroundings looked like those of some sort of torture dungeon, lit only by a couple torches on the stone pillars that held the structure together. As he looked around, he couldn't see anyone else. Medieval torture devices were all around the place over there.

"Where am I?"

Confused, but still determined to figure out what the hell was happening, Tenma started trying to free himself from his bindings, to no avail.

"Finally awake, huh?"

…

The unknown voice sent shivers down the bronze saint's spine, now aware that someone had been watching him. It also probably was the same person who chained him in that place.

"Who's there!?" Tenma asked, alarmed.

A man clad in black armor then stepped out of the shadows, a specter. This one, however, was a lot bigger than the ones Tenma had seen before. He was at least 7ft tall, which made for an incredibly intimidating presence.

"A Specter?" The young man finally realized what was happening, he'd been captured by enemy forces.

"Certainly. I'm Mandrake Fyodor, the Star of Pain." The specter introduced himself. "And you're the Pegasus Saint, am I right?"

Tenma gave him the silent treatment, staring him down with a defiant look in his face.

"Want to know where this is, Pegasus?" The specter sounded amused as he asked that question. "This is the limbo that exists between life and death, you're in the margin of the river styx."

"So this is the underworld?" Suddenly everything started coming back to him. The mission, the destroyed village, his defeated comrades, Alone…

"Am I… dead?"

He was taken aback by the sudden revelation, he vividly remembered having his internal organs stop functioning after Alone painted that "x" on his portrait. But if he was really dead, why hadn't he crossed the styx?

"Unfortunately no, not yet at least. "Fyodor explained. "Lord Hades did strike you with a killing blow, but for some reason your soul didn't join the other dead going to Charon's ferry. Instead I found you unconscious laying on the ground, most curious indeed."

Tenma raised an eyebrow, there was something weird here and he didn't exactly know what it was. He'd been killed, but at the same time he wasn't truly dead. What the hell was going on?

"I do plan on throwing you on that ferry myself if I have to, but first, I thought that maybe I'd have a little fun. That's why I brought you here." Fyodor had a malicious grin on his face.

"As we speak, Minos, one of three great judges of the underworld, is marching with his troops on the sanctuary." The specter revealed, Tenma's eyes quickly widening as he heard that.

"That can't be!" He yelled.

"Sasha…" He was struck with worry for his childhood friend, knowing that an attack of that magnitude would likely create a lot of casualties.

"Did you know, pegasus? The mandrakes were demonic herbs born with a human face on the feet of hanged corpses. Legend says that when they're plucked from the ground, they produce a scream that's so horrifying that it can make anyone who hears it go insane." Fyodor touched the breastplate of his armor, which had the design of a metallic human face in it.

"Where are you going with this!?"

"Why don't we see for ourselves if the legends are true?" A dark miasma started emanating from the specter, the human face on his breastplate opening its mouth in a horrifying sight. "Let's see for how long you can hold on to your sanity after hearing the Mandrake's horrifying screams!"

Suddenly, a bone chilling shriek erupted from the human face on Fyodor's armor. It was by far the most bizarre sound Tenma had heard his entire life, the sound waves immediately started giving him the strongest headache he'd ever felt, and before long he was screaming too, his entire body now in severe pain as the horrifying sound just kept coming from the servant of Hades.

And with Tenma being bound, there was nothing he could do. Compared to the blow Alone struck against him with his magic, this was much, much more painful. And to top it all off, it didn't seem to affect the specter. He didn't know for how long he'd been hearing those sounds, after all his senses were all getting distorted.

…

It looked like there was no hope left for the Pegasus.

Until…

"Hey! Shut the hell up!"

A man in purple armor grabbed Fyodor from behind, startling him and causing the Mandrake's screams to stop.

"What!?" Fyodor was taken by surprise, with the man behind him exerting an immense amount of force, lifting him up from behind and throwing him backwards, suplexing him against one of the stone pillars, shattering the thing entirely.

"Yato!" The pegasus yelled, happier than he'd ever been at the sight of his old rival.

"You really thought we wouldn't be able to sneak up on you with all this noise?" The unicorn saint got back on his feet as he taunted Fyodor, who was still on the ground. "Think again, asshole!" The unicorn then removed two pieces of fabric he was covering his ears with to protect himself from the screams.

"What are you doing here, Yato?" Tenma asked. "You're dead too? How did that happen?"

The unicorn frowned, crossing his arms. "No dumbass, It's nothing like that."

"There's no time for chitchat, we gotta get out of here now." Yuzuriha came out of the shadows, also removing the ear protection she'd used. "We were lucky that those mandrake screams gave away the pegasus' location right away, but we still can't be wasting time."

"Who's she?"

"I'll explain later, first we gotta get you out of here." Yato answered, heading to where Tenma was in the intent of removing his chains.

He, however, stopped as he noticed that Fyodor was already recovering from the surprise attack. Now back on his feet, the specter looked quite furious. "I didn't expect there to be so many rats of the sanctuary running around this place."

"But hey, let's look at the bright side. I just gained a couple more torture subjects." Fyodor smirked, his dark aura emanating once again. The specter concentrated a dark energy blast on his right hand and then threw it against Yuzuriha.

However, before the attack could reach its target, Yato jumped in front of it and thoroughly blocked it with his purple gauntlets, receiving no damage whatsoever.

"Wow, the reinforcements made by that old man are no joke!" He commented, excited.

Yuzuriha looked a bit puzzled that the bronze saint had protected her like that, but she was still grateful for it.

"There's no need for any of that bodyguard nonsense, we'll protect each other ok?" The unicorn saint joked, winking to her right after. He then turned back to face Fyodor, filled with determination. The warrior lady couldn't help but smile, her first impression of Yato hadn't been the best, but maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"Be careful with the screams!" Tenma warned the duo. "From that distance they'll probably still disorient you if he uses them!"

"And you're just now telling me that!?" Yato barked, as Fyodor once again charged up his powers.

The face on his dark armor once again contorted itself and started screaming, immediately affecting Yato and Yuzriha, causing them immense pain, but since they were farther apart from the specter than Tenma when he got tortured, the scream didn't rend them completely useless.

"Damnit!"

As Tenma watched his friend get attacked by the horrifying mandrake screams, he was suddenly reminded of the orphanage in the village. Of the death and devastation that Hades' armies inflicted upon the world. And now not only was his rival and comrade about to suffer the same fate as his family, Sasha was also in danger with the imminent attack on the sanctuary by the judge Griffon Minos.

And he was on the brink of death, bound by chains and unable to do anything about it. His mind went back to his childhood days, when that big rock that diverted the river and almost flooded the outskirts of Tenma's home town. Back then he tried his best to destroy the rock, but being but a human, no matter how hard he tried, he failed. And if it hadn't been for Dohko, he'd be dead too.

Here, however, he couldn't count on Dohko to bail him out. All that Tenma could count on was in his willpower.

And he for sure as hell wasn't gonna let people close to him get murdered by specters again.

His cosmos started surging from inside him, a blue aura emanating from him as he felt a newfound cosmic strength fill his entire body. Back when they first spoke, Dohko talked about how strength of spirit was more important than physical strength when it comes to being a saint. Tenma finally understood what that meant after all those years.

With two powerful swings, Tenma shattered the chains that bound his arms, and with the power of cosmos infused in his arms, he easily broke the ones on his legs too. Now he was free, free to pummel that specter into oblivion.

There was still the matter of the scream however, from this distance it wasn't as crippling as before, but attacking under its effect would be far from ideal. And Tenma couldn't think of any other way.

But suddenly, Yuzuriha removed the enormous red scarf she wore, and by infusing it with her own cosmos, she managed to completely manipulate it at will with her mind. And that's how she managed to wrap Fyodor's torso with it, muffling the sound coming from his armor.

"What the hell!?" He yelled, trying to break the hold with force. "Release me this instant!"

"Yato, Pegasus, do it now!" Yuzuriha holding onto the scarf with every last bit of her power. "Hit with all you have! I won't be able to hold him in place for much longer!"

"Right!"

The two answered in unison, elevating their cosmos in complete synchrony with one another. Tenma and Yato may have been rivals during all those years of training, but their numerous sparring sessions had given him an immense amount of synchrony in battle.

The Pegasus and the Unicorn then rushed the specter, determined to end him with a single combined blow.

"Pegasus Meteor Fist!"

"Unicorn Gallop!"

Tenma struck Fyodor's torso with the vicious barrage of lightning fast punches that was the meteor fist, shattering the black armor, while Yato, on the other hand, landed a devastating cosmos infused dropkick right on the specter's head, breaking his neck.

The combined might of both techniques turned out to be too much for the specter, who fell down backwards right after, dead. It was only with teamwork that those three saints managed to defeat that mighty foe.

"We did it!"

Tenma smiled, raising his fist in victory.

He didn't know how exactly he was gonna do it, but one thing he knew for sure, he'd pummel every single specter in the world if it meant keeping tragedies like the one that befell his town from happening again. His fiery determination now fully ignited once again.