Lance's Role

by Thrudgelmir2333

A 'shonen' fic that sequels Next Dimension and Lost Canvas. In 1960, the Pope of Athena receives three prophecies from an old enemy that irremediably set the course of his reign over Sanctuary's tragic history and almost two decades later a Saint of Pegasus finds himself put through the unfolding of a new age of violence caused by the Pope's actions. Please enjoy and review.

3. 1A: Kastiel

Notable OCs up until now that I own: Pegasus Lance; Andromeda Shinta; Heracles Aguilon's Silver Saint Generation; Taurus Daniel's Gold Saint Generation;

Notable Original concept (until now): Sanctuary Town; Pegasus Temple;

Recurrent/Cameo OCs belonging to Jenny DeVic: Cassiopeia Cassandra; Behemoth Torak (Toruk); Mrs. Schafurwatt

Recurrent/Cameo concepts belonging to Jenny DeVic: 88 Knights Festival; Golden Line Heritage; The Great Bodyguard legend; The Sanctuary-sponsored orphanages; Andromeda Island's geography

Author notes:

Please enjoy and review.

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Present time, at the Pope's halls

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Aiolos saw the mood among the four adults grow increasingly tenser after their earlier words about unity among the Gold Saints. Taurus Daniel sighed and looked away; Capricorn Kirin exchanged glances with the Pope's mask and Aquarius Malta just folded his arms and stood silent. The Sagittarius Saint wondered if there was something wrong and decided to break the mood. "I have a question." He asked, gaining their attention. "Do you think Saint Lance's training, as characterized by the absence of his Master, had more benefits than repercussions?"

The red-haired Aquarius Saint raised a brow. "What do you mean? Do you mean if Kastiel's absence did more good than harm? Personally, while I agree with upholding Jason's Exile rules, I think not. It's important to instill morals and respect in young trainees early on."

Taurus Daniel then scratched his chin and smirked as he realized something. "Then again, if Kastiel didn't believe he could help Lance change, then maybe he wasn't a good teacher anyway."

Aiolos nodded and turned to the Pope. "I concur with Saint Daniel, your Holiness. What guarantees do we have that Kastiel's decision was a correct one? How do we know he was up to the task in the first place?"

Shion, though he favored Lance, had an objection to Aiolos' question. "I trust my Silver Saints, Saint Aiolos. I do not believe the Kerberos Cloth would choose to take Kastiel under its constellation if it did not trust his judgment. I believe Saint Lance's training conditions were a result of several unfortunate circumstances, including the late age he was brought into Sanctuary and his attitude. But we would not be having this discussion if the situation had not turned itself around after he miraculously became a Saint despite ten year olds being considered already too old to unlock cosmos. Unfortunately… things would only get worse before they got better."

Gemini Saga already knew what the Pope was talking about. When he, Aiolos and Aiolia were still in the late phase of their stay at the Sanctuary-sponsored orphanage in Greece known as Heart of Sasha, they had heard stories of the incident caused by the Saint who returned from Mount Olympus. This event was actually one of the biggest obstacles to favoring Lance's promotion.

Then again, Saga had no particular interest in Saint Pegasus being promoted to their ranks. Though it was nice to see the empty Houses being filled by qualified allies, the idea of Sanctuary Town's headache becoming his neighbor and comrade wasn't exactly filled with perks. He looked over to Aiolos and Mu and saw that they were clearly curious about Lance as they kept asking questions about him with no particularly accusative tone and having defended that Kastiel's decisions was wrong merely out of a moral question.

"The adults, on the other hand, don't seem particularly thrilled." Saga thought, his eyes narrowing. "That talk about their unity sounded a little too fishy. I wonder what they are really thinking about all of this." Saga scratched his chin. "Lance is strong, though. As a Gold Saint, with the proper guidance, he could probably turn into a strong figure. Should I invest in him like Aiolos, then? It's just Lance's defiance that worries me…"

Mu suddenly grabbed his wrist and pulled it. "Hey, Saga, what's 'defiance'?!"

Saga's eyes opened wide in shock. Aiolos laughed out loud at the look on Saga's face and petted the Lemurian's hair, who smiled sheepishly at the Gemini Saint. "Mu, defiance means to challenge your leader and so on. It can have a rather violent aspect to it, though." explained Sagittarius.

"Okay, then, but why was Saga thinking about Lance doing it?" Mu asked while pointing at the Gemini Saint.

"Mu, I think I already told you that it's rude in human culture to read people's minds!" the Pope snapped. Mu staggered and stood up straight forward like a good little boy. "I'm sorry, Saga, please forgive him. He's still in the young, Lemurian phase in which kids can't help but invade other kids' brains with telepathy."

Saga shook his head nervously. "It is okay, your Holiness." Saga then made a mental note to keep a barrier up around his head everywhere he went with Mu. "Mu, I was talking about what Lance did to Kastiel after he returned from Mount Olympus. It was a pretty famous occurrence at the time. You could say it was Lance's first act both as the Pegasus Saint and as the delinquent he became known for."

"Oh, okay! What did he do, then?" asked the Lemurian kid.

Instead of answering Mu's question, Saga, for some reason, turned to the Pope. "Your Holiness, I think you can explain this better than anyone else in this room."

Shion nodded and sighed at the memory of Lance's deed. He still remembered that day as if it had been the day before. Truth be told, he was not present for the most part of it, but he had gathered enough information from the witnesses to elaborate a decent tale. "It was not his first sin and it was definitely not his last. Lance's infamous career started two years ago, on the day he returned to Sanctuary Town."

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Chapter 3

First Arc

Episode 3

Kastiel

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Two years before, mid-January of 1974, in Sanctuary Town's Coliseum

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Sagitta Nam, a blonde young man serving under Athena who was known for his early work at undercover missions and for spending far too much of his latest years behind a desk in Sanctuary, entered the Coliseum's arena through the gladiators' entry and looked around for Kastiel. The sound of metal clashing against metal was accompanied by shouts and roars as Kastiel's newest regiment sparred in the field and made his search a bit harder. The Sagitta Saint eventually found Kastiel sitting on one of the side benches with his Cloth in the Box next to his feet together with Mr. Aguilon, his pet bloodhound. "Hey, Kastiel!" he called.

Mr. Aguilon barked in excitement, calling his owner to the newly arrived. Kastiel petted him to calm him down. The dark-blonde haired Italian Kerberos Saint's blue eyes looked up at the Sagitta Saint and offered him only a slight hand wave, bored as he was. "Hey, Nam, what is it?"

Nam looked over the regiment Kastiel was drilling. "I just came here to see how you were doing with the newbies. Are they ready for action? Lately, there have been several Black Saint uprisings all over the world. We need as much manpower as we can if we want to keep a grip on things. Also…" Nam then pulled out a stack of papers for him to look over. "Here's the regiment's paperwork. It's mostly data about the soldiers and a couple of signature requests at the end."

Kastiel sighed. "Shit! When did things get so complicated? We didn't use to keep records on anything." He grudgingly accepted his duty and stored the paperwork inside his Cloth Box to take a look at it later.

Nam chuckled. "I know what you mean. It must be especially hard for you since the Pope's giving you paperwork over all your dogs at Kerberos Island, as well. Ever since the Black Saint uprisings started, His Holiness has reformed all the bureaucracy so that he can keep track of everything!"

Kastiel scowled. "I shouldn't have to report where have I been picking up the dogs at or if I've detected any Black Saint hex in their poop as of late!"

"You tell me! Luckily, I kind of like the deskwork." Nam confessed. "So long as I keep myself in shape, I prefer to do it than going through missions again. I've always been more of the coordinator than the muscle."

Mr. Aguilon the bloodhound rushed off and started barking loudly. Kastiel's eyes looked over to one of the Coliseum entrances and saw that the bloodhound was heading towards a couple of his men gathering around the entrance to the arena. "Yeah, just don't let anyone call you a coward over that or anything…" Kastiel commented, though distracted by the sight of the soldiers apparently arguing with someone as the dog barked all around them.

"Hey, I've done my share of dangerous work!" Nam protested, beating armored chest with his hand. "But I'm not like any of the top tiers who just rush ahead at the smallest scent of trouble." Kastiel then pushed Nam slightly aside and headed towards the shouting soldiers. "What's wrong?" Nam asked.

Kastiel was followed by his comrade as he approached the group of soldiers. "Hey you guys, who told you to stop?! What's going on here?" he demanded to know. The soldiers turned to him and moved away to reveal the person that had just entered the Coliseum.

Kastiel stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened in shock.

Sagitta Nam joined Kastiel and saw that the soldiers were surrounding a young man whose sharp, narrowed red eyes instantly put him at odds. He seemed to be wearing a red shirt, a pair of jeans, a set of bandages tied around his forearms and hands and, finally, a Bronze Cloth Box on his back. Nam looked at Kastiel and realized his face was pale. "Whoa, Kastiel, what's wrong? Do you know this guy?"

Mr. Aguilon growled and barked at the teenager. Lance scowled at him. "I always hated that fucking dog!" he muttered. He then turned to the two Silver Saints. "Yeah, he knows me, alright." He said with a hint of contained scorn in his voice. "Or have you forgotten me, already? I suppose it is to be expected, considering how fast you got rid of the sight of me."

One of the soldiers, under Kastiel, who could just see the threat in the Bronze Saint's eyes, nervously stepped forward. "Hey, don't just ignore us, you punk! We asked you what you wanted with Saint Kastiel!"

Lance didn't even turn to him. "None of your business!" he spat. Lance then saw that Kastiel was keeping up the look of shock in his face and addressed him. "What's wrong? Do you really don't recognize me? Truth be told, I find that kind of hard to believe considering you made sure I was perfectly aware how much of a freak my eyes made me look like."

Kastiel blinked and he sweated hard. It couldn't be! Was he seeing things? Gulping hard and summoning his composure, Kastiel finally spoke. "L-Lance, is that you?" he muttered. "You're…you're alive!"

"Well, you sure are shocked!" Lance narrowed his eyes forward and gritted teeth. "You asshole; you really expected me to die, didn't you?!"

A soldier suddenly punched his cheek, making his head snap to the side. "Watch your mouth, Bronze Saint! You're addressing Saint Kastiel of Kerberos, who's clearly a rank above you!" The other soldiers around him gripped their weapons and took aggressive stances.

Lance saw this and rubbed his hurt cheek. He kept eyeing Kastiel with such fury he could barely contain himself. Rather than shout out his anger, though, he found himself chuckling. "Saint Kastiel? Don't make me laugh! Where I come from, Saints don't leave little kids to die in a frozen, mountainous wasteland filled with wild animals!" he growled. "You and I…We have something to settle, so don't you dare hide behind your men!"

Nam's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. "Wait a minute, Kastiel, is he thatkid? You know; the one you said that had failed to pass the Jason Exile's test?"

Kastiel got serious as he finally processed the reality of the situation. Lance was alive. Not only was he alive, but he had the Pegasus Cloth, too. What had happened in Mount Olympus during the last four years? Had he returned for some sort of revenge? Moreover, Kastiel was having a bit of a tough time recognizing him. Lance was a lot taller and more muscular, not to mention that the look on his eyes and the determination in his voice were completely different. "I must say, I am shocked. I never thought you would make it on your own. I guess you lucked out, Lance. Congratulations, you proved me wrong!"

Lance widened his eyes in shock. "Lucked out?! Do you have any idea what I went-"

"Don't give me that line." Kastiel interrupted. "I told you before, Lance, you're no better than the thousands of others out there in Sanctuary. It's impressive that you managed to unlock your cosmos at ten years old and even more impressive that the Pegasus Cloth would choose to take a rebellious punk like you under its protection. However, if you're here for some sort of hysterical confrontation or pathetic attempt at revenge, then you're wasting your time." He said. "I'll see you on the battle field. Come on, Nam." Kastiel then walked away, followed by a reluctant Sagitta Saint who kept shifting his eyes from Lance to Kastiel and vice-versa.

Lance's eyes burned with indignation. His cosmos-enhanced foot struck the ground loudly, shattering just enough to produce a tremble to get Kastiel's attention. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" he shouted. He then pointed his finger at Kastiel. "Saint Kastiel, I challenge you to a duel!"

Nam gasped and Kastiel's foot soldiers stopped what they were doing. Many of them even put themselves between their drillmaster and the Bronze Saint to protect Kastiel.

"Are you serious?" asked the Kerberos Silver Saint. He saw Lance nodding. "What is this about, Lance? Is this about some sort of injustice you think I committed against you? It is no injustice to warn you about a test's requirement and fail you for not living up to them. It is also no injustice to tell a failing kid who cries about not being able to unlock his cosmos that he won't become a Saint." Kastiel then smirked. "And it is specially no injustice to tell that crying kid too afraid to stick his hands in a freezer that he's not man enough to challenge me to a duel. I mean, do you seriously think I'll accept it?" Kastiel then laughed and walked away. "HA, HA, HA! I'll accept your challenge when you can beat any man in this arena!"

Lance watched as the soldiers burst into laughter as Kastiel calmly walked away from the scene. He took out his Bronze Cloth Box, causing many of the experienced soldiers in front of him to rush ahead to constrict him before he could pull the chain. As soon as Lance grabbed the Cloth Box's handle, there was a blinding flash of white light that engulfed him completely.

The soldiers roared and theirs fists rushed forward towards Lance's silhouette within the bright light. Something rushed forward at them and crashed with the two soldiers of the front, knocking them away. The third one stepped back a little and grabbed the sword at his waist, but Pegasus Lance, now wearing his Cloth, dashed forward from the light and struck his chest with a powerful kick that knocked him away. One from each side then jumped on him with weapons already in hand. Lance span around once to not only dodge a stabbing spear tip but also position himself to deliver a powerful elbow blow that shattered the guy's chest plate and floored him. Having no time to turn to the other one, he blocked the winging sword with his forearm guard, jumped and side kicked the guy's face so hard he flew through the air, spinning and screaming towards Kastiel.

Kastiel and Nam stopped their march when they saw something twirling past them and crash on the sandy floor, unconscious and bloody. They widened their eyes, looked at each other and turned around. Nam gasped and Kastiel's jaw dropped a bit.

Lance's foot struck the ground with cosmos to shatter it and release a cloud of dust that screened the area. He heard soldiers all around him gasp in confusion. A couple of ones closer to him were able to detect him and immediately rushed in with their fists or weapons. Lance blocked several sword swings from the first one that engaged him with his fore arms. He then started dodging them for a bit before the soldiers tried a wider swing. Lance crashed his armored fist against it, shattering the steel blade before knocking out the soldier with a palm blow to the throat that made him cough out blood.

The soldiers that managed to escape the screen dust widened their eyes in horror as they saw four men being blasted away from the dust cloud, screaming and crashing on the floor. Something white then leapt from the dust cloud and started blitzing among them, taking them out with sudden punches, kicks and hand chops to their armor weak spots. The last three soldiers stepped back several times to try to get a hold of the situation, but they only saw their comrades falling one after the other. They put themselves on the defensive, but something engulfed in a very thin layer of white cosmos suddenly jumped upwards from the group of falling bodies, landed in front of them and took out two of them with a punch to through the shield and to the chest each.

Lance's red eyes looked up at the last soldier, a much larger man wielding heavier, green armor and a mace. He was blonde, his skin was tanned, he had a scar over his left eye which looked slightly smaller than the left one and he had a rather demented look on his face as he licked his lips. "He, he, he, you're strong, Pegasus! And those red eyes! I like your style. You remind me of a friend I used to have." said Jaki, the dreaded foot soldier recruit, who then raised his mace and swung it sideway. "I hated his GUTS!" Lance's eyes shot open and he leaned his whole upper body backwards so as to dodge the swing. "STAY STILL!" Jaki roared as he brought down the mace on the Saint.

Lance suddenly blitzed away from the mace's path, which crashed on and shattered the floor he stood on. A sudden, bullet-like concentrated impact of cosmos, which was actually Lance's foot, then crashed down on the stuck mace, breaking through its metal and shattering to pieces. Jaki staggered in horror and stumbled backwards. Lance leapt forward and hit him straight in the chest with a dash kick which stunned his huge, muscular body. Jaki fell on his hand and knees and grabbed his injured belly while Lance leapt back for distance and dashed forward once more to finish off the brute with Charge Fist.

"Get out of my way!" he shouted.

At the last moment, however, the corner of Lance's eye saw a flying, spinning ball covered in many deadly looking spikes rush straight at him. Lance's foot stomped the ground harshly to stop his motion and leapt away right before the ball crashed on the floor he was going to be stepping on. Lance panted with the adrenaline and sudden fear of being crushed.

Lance looked to the source of the attack and saw Kastiel, armor on, squinting right at him.

The Pegasus Saint backed off and allowed Jaki and the few foot soldiers still capable of moving escape. The one whose arm was shattered by Lance was still screaming on the ground.

Lance looked at the wreck on the floor Kastiel's weapon caused and gulped. "That was your regiment?" asked Lance. "Figures the best student of someone like you would be the one you spent the least amount of time working on."

Nam saw Kastiel stepping forward to the arena. "Wait, is this really happening? Kastiel, are you nuts? Don't accept his challenge!" he demanded.

Kastiel pulled for the chain of the spike ball he just threw, causing it to jump from the wrecked ground into his hand. "You have some nerve…I guess all that time alone in that mountain really did serve to help you grow a pair, but do you really have any idea what you're treading upon?" Kastiel asked.

The Pegasus Saint eyed the Silver Saint angrily. Just looking at the man who abandoned him in Mount Olympus was enough to push his patience to the edge. However, if he wanted to get his way, he had to hold that anger in. He saw the other Silver Saint taking Kastiel's barking bloodhound away by the leash. He probably wouldn't interfere, but Lance should still be careful.

Lance dragged his foot forward a bit, held his right hand next to his side and bent his left arm in front of his chest so that it would be perpendicular to Kastiel. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

Kastiel's chained spheres dropped loudly on the floor to intimidate his foe. Lance didn't seem affected. "I'll accept your challenge, Lance, but listen well…" he warned "when I win, you'll be turning over that Pegasus Cloth and you'll never step in Sanctuary ever again! I'll use every one of my resources as a Silver Saint to see that a misguided bastard like you gets banned from this sacred place."

Lance's eyes narrowed. "When I win, you'll be wishing you never dumped me on that cold place or run into me on the street ever again."

Kastiel smirked. "Those are tough words coming from someone who wet himself at the sight of Mount Olympus' snow." He teased. He would now show Lance the difference between Bronze and Silver Saints.

Lance carefully analyzed his opponent. As expected, Kastiel's pose was a lot more relaxed and confident than his own. He saw his would be Master charging his cosmos, making it burn around his body in the form of a silver colored flame. Kastiel suddenly dashed forward. He probably already knew exactly how he would engage him. Thanks to years of spars and combat, Kastiel would know exactly how he would effortless block his attacks, how devastatingly he would counter him and how humiliating the Pegasus' defeat would be.

Fortunately, so did Lance.

Kastiel's left fist rushed forward in a punch, causing the mace end chained to it to fly forward. Lance blocked the punch and carefully leaned his head forward to dodge the flying chain. He then crossed wrists in a low guard to block the right fist and rushed his foot upwards to strike Kastiel right in the face. The impact, however, only fazed him for a second and Kastiel's arm swept Lance's leg away before his elbow quickly struck Lance's chest. It hit the Pegasus' plate strapped to it, however Lance was able to recover fast enough to dodge and arm swing, but not to avoid the punch that exploded right in his mid-section. Lance gasped and coughed out something red. He stumbled backwards several times and barely had time to open his eyes before he detected a spike ball heading straight to his face.

Lance screamed and dropped to the floor to save himself, but the second spiked ball Kastiel had hurled to the sky was now being pulled back so as to descend right on top of Lance, who rolled away several times to avoid being crushed.

All Lance heard while rolling away was the sound of fast steps and rattling chains. A palm suddenly struck his chest, raising him to the air, before several Mach 5 blows exploded on his body. Kastiel smirked and Lance coughed out blood. The Silver Saint's fingers went tense and rushed forward for the kill.

But Lance suddenly recovered his strength, caught the wrist with one hand and rushed forward with the other. Kastiel caught it, too, starting a power hold. Both fighters' muscle tensed and teeth gritted in effort. Kastiel, however, was able to pull back his hands while keeping Lance at bay with a sudden kick to the chest.

Lance leapt backwards several times to regain distance but, without delay, Kastiel's silver spheres started flying at him. "Shit!" Lance thought as he started dodging the massive sphere thrusts. "I can't afford to keep my distance from him because of his weapons, but I can't get too close because he's got the upper hand in close combat. I have to do something."

To make matters worse, Kastiel's silvery aura started turning red. He pulled back one chained sphere to the floor next to him and swung the other one around in the air in preparation. When he gathered enough energy, he swung it back again at Lance. "Steel Ball Attack!"

To Lance's horror, the metal spiky ball flying at him suddenly split into many hundreds of thrusts all aimed at him. Lance instantly fled to the right to escape the attack, which was sending countless metal thrusts at him. They crashed with the arena's floor, filling it with the sound of metal crashing with rock and shattering to pieces at machine gun fire rate.

Kastiel couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Lance fleeing his shots. "Ha, ha, ha! See, Lance, this is what happens when you challenge a man who can hurl these things a mile per second!" he mocked before he made a slight adjustment to his attack trajectory by pulling the chain to his right.

Lance's eyes detected a huge flying object flying straight towards the path he was fleeing to. In a reflex, he boosted his movement with cosmos and attempted to run past it but his mouth let out a scream when a sharp spike grazed his side, slashing him, before the sphere crashed on the floor.

The Pegasus Saint fell over to the floor and grabbed his bleeding side, wincing in pain. He looked over the spot to see how bad it was. "Damn it, this armor barely covers any of my torso! I barely have anything to protect my vital areas. If he gets me directly I'm dead." However, Kastiel didn't let him recover and resumed his attack, forcing Lance to keep blitzing to the right to avoid getting crushed.

Lance growled in frustration both from the attack and Kastiel's laughter. Rather than keep running away, though, he stopped as soon as he was deep enough into Kastiel's left flank and, to Kastiel's shock, his white aura of cosmos exploded in size. Lance then rushed straight ahead at the Silver Saint.

Kastiel blinked at the cosmos he was feeling from Lance, but shook his head to get his mind off it. "Trying to take advantage of a blind spot, huh? Don't be silly!" Kastiel berated as he pulled for the chain of his right sphere, with which he had been attacking with, and swung the chain of the left spear right at Lance.

Lance's eyes focused on the steel ball. He had wondered why Kastiel only used one of his spheres for his technique and the fact that this ball wasn't filled with that red cosmos proved his theory. When the timing was right, he made his cosmos explode to its true height, filled his legs and right arm with it and attacked "PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!"

Before the chain could stretch fully in Lance's direction, the Pegasus Saint suddenly warped forward with supersonic speed and Kastiel's flying mace ball was suddenly struck by a bullet-like missile of white cosmos. "I'll crush your hand!" Kastiel shouted. There was a brief sound of metal clashing with metal as well as of Lance's gauntlet cracking, however, and Kastiel's sphere, to his shock, bounced right off. "What?!"

Lance suddenly appeared right next to him. Kastiel react in time with an arm swing, but Lance's fore arm suddenly blocked it with more speed than what Lance should be capable of before a sudden roar was heard and a kick that came straight out of nowhere crashed with his face, knocking off Kastiel's headpiece and flooring it together with his owner.

Nam watched in shock as Kastiel hit the floor and rolled around on it until he crashed with the arena's wall. His headpiece was heard clinking on the ground and Mr. Aguilon whimpered and barked somberly for its master.

"No way;" Nam thought to himself. His blue eyes were practically bulging out. "Lance saw that Kastiel needed to pick up acceleration and cosmos from his swings to fill just one of his spheres with enough energy for that technique, which was why Kastiel was swinging around in the air just before the move. Because of that, when Lance forced Kastiel to use the stationary sphere so suddenly, it didn't pack as much strength as the one he used for the technique and bounced right off his punch!" Nam stared at the Pegasus Saint. "He pulled it off. Kastiel used the technique too long on him and Lance was able to stop making it work on him. Not bad."

Nam then realized that Lance, a Bronze Saint, had actually gotten the drop on a Silver Saint. How strong was he, then?

Meanwhile, Kastiel picked himself up from the floor and looked at Lance in a state of shock, still not believing he lost that round with the Bronze Saint. "I don't understand. At his level, his senses shouldn't be able to follow the movements of my attack, much less keep away from it long enough to analyze it. My attacks were at Mach 5! As a Bronze Saint, Lance should barely reach and detect Mach 1! What just happened?"

"That's some look he's got in his eyes, as if he hates you and everything about you. He looks like a wild beast. Kastiel, what are you doing?!" The Kerberos Cloth shouted within his thoughts. "Get back up and defeat that Bronze Saint! Don't humiliate yourself. But most importantly don't humiliate 'me' by letting a Bronze Saint getting the drop on you."

Kastiel ignored his Cloth and held his bleeding forehead. He looked at Lance, who awaited his comeback. "I hope that made you feel better, because now you really pissed me off!" He stared at Lance while recharging his cosmos. The silver aura appeared around him again. "You must really hate my guts if you're willing to go through all of this shit!" He commented.

"What the hell do you think?!" Lance asked.

Kastiel dusted his Silver Cloth with his hand. "I guess it's expected. Those four years in that mountain must have turned you into a wild animal. More and more, I'm shocked that the Pegasus Cloth would choose you."

Lance gritted his teeth in contained anger. He couldn't believe the bastard! Had he absolutely no regret at all for leaving him in that mountain? "What the hell do you know, huh?"

"I don't believe Lance is really capable of using the same speed I do. That must have been a cosmos power spike just now. He's seething in anger and that tends to make the cosmos go crazy." Kastiel deduced. He took a good look at the color of Lance's aura. "His cosmos is big for a Bronze Rank but it looks pretty standard and underdeveloped, too. Judging on the lack of color change as he burns it, I don't think he managed to unlock an Element, either. That blow must have really been a fluke." He twirled the chains of his spheres around his hands a couple of times to strengthen the grip on them. "I know the rules of Jason's Exile as well as that of the Training Grounds. I know that a violent punk like you, who was sent to that place for getting into fights with the other orphans and calling Athena a whore, wouldn't get the favor of the Pegasus Cloth." He provoked. He then lifted both spheres up in the air and started spinning them around himself.

Lance watched, a bit mesmerized, the huge steel spheres flying around Kastiel in perfect circular patterns without the chains ever getting entangled or even touching. He felt a bit nervous at the sight of those dangerous weapons being flung about so casually. "His cosmos only turns red when he picks up a large amount of momentum and energy so he shouldn't be able to attack dangerously like this…" He reminded himself. Kastiel started groaning in effort and picked up the speed of the chain twirls, making the spheres fly around even faster. Lance widened his eyes. "Shit, he's charging his attack!"

Lance's white aura exploded and he dashed forward to try and strike Kastiel. The Silver Saint, however, with a mere wrist movement, made a sphere swing right at him from the left. Lance staggered, halted his march and leapt back to dodge. Kastiel smirked and played around a bit more, sending more horizontal swings that forced Lance to step backwards and forwards while dodging in increasingly elaborated ways.

Lance yelped when a sphere missed him by a hair as he dropped forward to the floor. He heard Kastiel roar and take a loud step forward on the sand before waving his arms upwards and bringing them down to the floor. Lance gasped as heard the chains rattle violently and saw Kastiel's aura turning red. There was a sudden darkness and Lance only saw Kastiel and the two flying balls encased in red cosmos fly at him.

Lance gulped deeply. Kastiel and the two balls seemed to create the illusion of three enormous, canine heads roaring at him and charging forward. "Kerberos Claw!" someone shouted in the darkness.

Lance blinked twice and saw the darkness and the leaping Cerberus disappear to reveal broad daylight and two mace balls charging straight at him. Lance leapt back to dodge the first one, which for a second seemed to turn into a canine paw swipe, but the second one would catch him still in the air. In a desperate move, Lance's hand released a large aura of white energy which he shot at the side to propel himself away from the second swipe which crashed behind him.

As soon as Lance landed, though, he only saw the chains of the two fallen maces stretch upwards. Kastiel had leapt high in the air, stretching both chains to the limit, and used to tension to propel himself right back to the floor in descending, cosmos empowered kick.

Lance backed off and let him crash like a meteor on the ground. The impact shattered the floor and screened the area with dust. Lance couched and raised his guard, but Kastiel quickly emerged from the chaos like a hell hound. The Silver Saint pulled for the chain of his left hand to summon the respective sphere while he engaged Lance in melee. Several furious, quick japing swipes with the hand that resembles blows from a foe with claws forced Lance on the defensive for the important second that took for Kastiel to catch the large sphere that he lifted up with his hand.

Kastiel's other hand pulled for the other mace which swung forward horizontally in an almost blind manner. Lance's first instinct was to duck and so he did, but while this allowed him to dodge the lethal swing, it allowed Kastiel to get through his defense. The Silver Saint's cosmos burned around his hand, its fingers tensed into shaping claws and harshly bashed against Lance's small chest protection, crashing straight through it and striking Lance's chest directly, stunning Lance and making his world go red. Kastiel then caught him by the neck with his free hand.

Lance screamed, but the shout was muffled when Kastiel's fingers tightened harshly on his neck. "It's OVER!" Kastiel shouted. Reliving his battle with Bellerophon, the captured Lance was pinned against the ground and Kastiel raised the spiked sphere he grabbed earlier to finish him off.

Nam gasped and his fist tightened. As it was a duel, a death was not a surprise. Was Kastiel really going to do it?

Silver cosmos engulfed Kastiel's hands and sphere. Lance's red eyes watched in horror as the same darkness as before emerged, turning Kastiel into a three headed dog, the two side heads being the hand pinning his neck and the sphere that would now kill him. "Good bye, Lance!" the central head shouted. "Kerberos Bloodbath!" The dog head's illusion around the spiked sphere then launched down on Lance's face at Mach five to rip it off.

Nam shut his eyes when he saw the ball crash down on Lance's face. He stayed like that for a couple of seconds and only heard the sounds of Mr. Aguilon's barking and whimpering. "Kastiel…d-did you kill him?" he asked out loud. He opened his eyes slowly to see if there was too much blood. Kastiel's Kerberos Bloodbath was practically a death sentence to anyone who got caught by it. Getting your face smashed by a spiked ball of steel wasn't exactly something to just walk it off after all.

However, Nam had another shock when he realized that not only Lance was alive and well, but Kastiel seemed to be struggling against him.

Lance's red eyes narrowed in effort as he desperately fought off Kastiel's grip on his neck and the sphere of steel. To Kastiel's shock, the Pegasus Saint had managed to catch both his wrists despite the fact that he was moving at a speed five times faster than what Lance should be able to detect. The descent of his steel ball had been stopped in its tracks and his grip on Lance's neck was now being fought off. "W-what? You saw through the technique? That's impossible! At this speed and at point-blank distance…"

Lance's body started burning up with white energy to counter Kastiel's silvery one. Kastiel kept pushing down on his foe, knowing that if he held down Lance he could still finish him off right then. Lance knew this and started searching desperately for a mean to fight back. It was now clear that Kastiel would have no mercy on him after humiliating the Silver Saint. If he lost, he would die.

Lance's white cosmos started transferring itself to both hands so as to hold Kastiel at bay while the rest went to both his legs. With some effort, his empowered left foot was able to place itself on the ground. "Pegasus…"

"Don't even try it!" Kastiel warned, sweating as he tried to overpower Lance. He could see through techniques, too. "That move won't work at this position! You need distance and a launching surface to give yourself the momentum and acceleration for it and now you lack both of them." He confronted. "Face it, you crybaby, you LOST!"

"SHUT UP!" Lance shouted as he let go of Kastiel's choking hand. He then suddenly grabbed Kastiel's head and brought it down swiftly so he could bash his own against it as hard as Pegasus could.

The impact was loud and painful. Kastiel screamed when the front tip of the ridiculous horse helmet Lance was wearing was smashed against his forehead and felt his world go black and blood gush out his new wound. Lance then roared. "…CHARGE FIST!"

The floored Pegasus used his empowered left foot to propel himself up while raising up his other one in a powerful, supersonic upwards kick that crashed with the center Kastiel's chest plate, the immense cosmos packed into the attack unleashing a short explosion of white light.

Kastiel screamed once more and rolled around on the floor while Lance leapt away for distance. He got on his hands and knees but felt blood go up his throat, out his mouth and onto the Coliseum's sandy floor. He coughed several times and looked up to see Lance panting and anticipating his comeback.

The Silver Saint put his hand on the spot Lance's kick hit him on. He never thought the technique could be used in the form of a kick and with such power. Kastiel saw that there was blood in his hand and a crack on his chest plate.

Kastiel had enough.

The Kerberos Silver Saint roared at the top of his lungs and his aura instantly turned red as he burned his cosmos to his limit. A small vibration shook the floor, causing Lance to lose his balance and stumble forward. "You fucking punk, I'll kill you!" He shouted as he launched a sphere upwards.

Lance looked up at the sphere, but brought his eyes down when Kastiel started twirling around in the air his second sphere. Lance winced in pain and grabbed his chest. The fight had dragged on longer than he thought and Kastiel hit the breaking point of his patience. "This is it! I have to act fast and finish this!"

"Now I'll show you, Lance, the difference between the ranks!" shouted Kastiel as he closed his fist tightly, causing the chain of the sphere he sent upwards to tense and stop its flight. "The difference between the Silver Saint elite and the snotty, arrogant brat who got lucky with a weak Cloth! Take this!" Kastiel then brought down his arm, dragging down the sphere which descent on a wide arc right on top of the Pegasus Saint.

A sudden sensation of danger hit him and Lance widened his eyes at the tremendous speed the first sphere was moving. He charged his cosmos as much as he could and leaped towards the right to dodge the ball which crashed down on the floor and shattered to the point it landed on an underground floor of the arena.

Kastiel's eyes followed Lance's flight with a smirk below them. "You're MINE! I'll show you real Mach 5 speed. KERBEROS!" he roared as the second sphere, that he had been spinning around by the chain until then, engulfed itself in a large, blood-red aura of energy with its own spikes. Kastiel then launched straight at the spot he calculated Lance would be at. "HELL BASH!"

The Pegasus Saint's feet finally hit the ground, but the new attack was already coming straight at him. Lance instantly realized that, having just landed, he had no time to dodge with the speed the sphere seemed to be moving. He gulped deeply, bent his fingers, joined his hands by the wrists and thrust them horizontally. "Pegasus Barrier!"

Sagitta Nam watched as Lance's hands burned with cosmos and created countless transparent rings of increasing size which stacked up until forming a semi-spherical, transparent wall in front of him. "What?! That kid's nuts! There's no way a barrier can stop that attack. He's going to get trampled over!"

The ball immersed in red crashed with the barrier a bit above its center, making it shake and unleash a cracking sound. Kastiel, expecting his attack to smash right through it, smiled when the barrier shattered completely, but his smile turned into a frown of horror and confusion when the sphere all of a sudden fell limply on the ground, all of its momentum and force mysteriously lost. "W-what the-"

Lance blitzed forward. "PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!"

Kastiel tried to react, but a sudden, concentrated blunt force hit him square in the chest, right on the spot of his armor Lance had cracked. Kastiel screamed out in pain as he felt the bullet like punch smash through the weakened armor and blasting his chest head on, sending vibrations throughout his whole body. The Silver Saint's body became tense and he unleashed a shower of blood from his mouth on top of Lance's back.

The Silver Saint's legs lost strength, but he was held on in that frozen stance by Lance's fist as silence filled the arena. Even his dog, who stopped fighting against Nam's hold, had stopped barking. Kastiel looked down on Lance's back and saw him breathing in silent anger. He couldn't see his face, but Pegasus was probably seething with rage.

He felt the fist abandon the hole in his armor and Lance stepped back to let Kastiel fall to his knees and hands, defeated. The Silver Saint trembled and looked up to see the student he had abandoned, the child he had cruelly left alone in that training ground for not having been able to shatter a rock with his bare hand and change his attitude, look down on him in contempt. Kastiel then looked at the hole in his chest and felt the strength of his Silver Cloth wavering. "He beat me… and he damaged… my Silver Cloth!" he muttered between harsh breaths and coughs.

Kastiel collapsed on the floor, another body in the middle of dozens of foot soldiers Lance had taken out that day. He watched Lance walk next to him and stare down on him for about ten seconds. Ten seconds of contempt and pent up anger. What was he going to do now?

Lance panted harshly in exhaustion and held the bleeding spot he was slashed on earlier. He grabbed his chest as he tried to contain the desire to spit on the bastard in front of him. He thought about this moment so many times. So many nights he dreamed of returning to Sanctuary and getting back at the cruel, horrible person who left him in that mountain. Now the moment came and he wasn't sure what to do or say.

As such, he muttered the first thing that came to his mind. "H-how could you?!" Kastiel's eyes rolled up to look at Lance's face, which was growing red. He was trembling and he probably had a lot on his throat to say. "How COULD you?! I was ten years old! I was just a kid! How could you be so monstrous as to leave me there?"

Kastiel chuckled. His laughter was weak and thick. "Didn't you say… you didn't need me? Didn't you say you'd do it all by yourself?" Kastiel then saw Lance's eyes welling up. "Well, there you have it… all grown up…"

Lance's foot stomped his side, turning his smile into a pained frown and a scream. "What kind of person are you?! You knew I was having a hard time! You knew I was older than all the others so it was much harder for me to unlock cosmos and you… You just left me there! Y-you might as well have buried me there yourself!"

Kastiel winced in pain and grabbed the spot Lance hit him on. "I am sure… t-that all these years… you've been telling yourself all the reasons I had to keep investing in you that you could imagine so that you could throw them… at my face." He muttered. Lance had caused him a lot of damage so it was hard to say awake and talk coherently. With some effort, he managed to roll over to his back so as to confront his student. "But the truth is… t-that all those reasons don't matter shit!"

Lance blinked. "W-what?"

"I t-told you before, Lance, a million times… You're no different from the others!" Kastiel hissed. "You are just like all the other hundreds of kids that every year are picked by a master and taken to a Training Ground. You are just like all the other thousands of kids who fail to unlock their cosmos and die!" He stared hard into Lance's red eyes. "Y-you probably think you just showed to me how wrong I was, right? T-that you're stronger than the rest and that you'll show it to everyone…Now what, Lance? N-now that you've had your petty little p-payback, what will you do?! I'll tell you; you'll become a Saint like everyone else here! Like all the other kids, you got picked! Like all the other kids, you got sent to a training ground with a master and like every other kid you'll now become a good law-abiding warrior of Athena, because if you don't, they'll just label you a traitor and kill you!"

"Fuck YOU!" Lance snarled.

"You'll… do it, Lance, like the rest of us, because it will be the last meaningful thing you'll have in your pitiful life!" Kastiel spat. "And if you can't even… appreciate that… If you can't accept that you're now a Saint and you'll have nowhere else to run… and nothing else to invest your anger on… you might as well just kill yourself!" he said. He made a short pause, perhaps just catch his breath. "You don't like Athena, you don't like your master and you don't like Sanctuary…but I bet that having that Cloth on your shoulders feels pretty good, doesn't it, and so long as you carry it, you'll be bound by the rules you've have only spat on until now."

Lance's hand rushed to him and grabbed him by the collar. He lifted the Silver Saint up and held his closed fist at his face, ready to make him pay. Kastiel was starting to lose his senses, though. Lance felt his eyes well up even more. "F-four years!" he snarled. This time, a tear managed to escape his eye. "Four fucking years in that cold mountain, four fucking years in that desolation, four years running away from wolves and Black Saints who kept trying to kill me. I… I just won't forgive you! I will never, ever forgive you!"

Kastiel's eye caught the sight of Nam suddenly gasping at something and stepping back. He wondered what it was about, but was too weak to inquire. Instead, he addressed Lance. "I did my job… like every other Master in Sanctuary. The unfair rules that you followed in your Path… to the Pegasus Cloth and the monstrous cruelty you've been a victim of are just the norm in Sanctuary. It always has been. You'll see. Even the most kind-hearted and successful of the Masters in Sanctuary would do the same to you as I did, but you're just too much of an angry kid to not make it all about yourself!" he spat. "No one will pity you for your past in this place. You should just forget about it… and move the fuck on…"

Lance pushed him back to the floor. Angry and trying hard to contain his tears, he stepped on the fallen Silver Saint and started burning his cosmos in his hand. "…Goodbye, Silver Saint Kerberos Kastiel!" he said.

Kastiel's rolled up and he awaited the moment Lance would hammer down his fist of cosmos.

However, a powerful, booming voice was then heard. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF ATHENA IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Kastiel's eyes saw Lance turn around and cancel his attack. The Pegasus Saint seemed extremely alarmed by whoever had arrived. Kastiel's head rolled to the side and saw a man dressed in a white cloak and wearing a golden, bat-winged helmet complimented by a black mask that completely hid his face and several rosaries around his neck. Kastiel widened his eyes at the sight of the Pope himself shouting at Lance and demanding explanations, but the world then became engulfed by darkness as the Silver Saint lost consciousness.

Pope Shion approached the arena with furious steps. Saint Sagitta of Nam instantly went to his side and knelt down. "Your Holiness, you're here!"

Shion waved his hand upwards to signal the Saint to rise. "Saint Nam, what has happened here?" Shion's eyes then turned to the young Bronze Saint standing over Kastiel and his face went pale inside his mask.

Lance watched with a dumbfounded look in his eyes as the Pope himself was told by the Sagitta Silver Saint what had occurred. The mere presence of the tall, masked man astonished and belittled the young Bronze Saint, who never in his life thought he would get to see the second in command of Sanctuary in person, much less on the day of his return to Sanctuary.

Shion nodded calmly at Nam after hearing the full summary. He headed over calmly to Lance. He took a long, good look at his red eyes, at his features and at the Cloth he was wearing. The whole combination was turning his world upside down. "It… it cannot be! But… he has the red eyes and he looks just like-" Shion halted his own trail of thoughts, not wanting to jump into conclusions. "What has happened here, Bronze Saint? What is your name?!"

Lance sweated and stood silent before the merciless gaze of the mask in front of him. He was still seething with anger over all that had happened in that arena, but the Pope's presence was just throwing him off course so much. "I'm Pegasus Lance."

"So tell me, Pegasus Lance, why are you not kneeling before me? Have you perhaps not been educated in Sanctuary's ranks?"

Lance staggered. His first instinct was to argue or tell the man to fuck off, but he hesitated deeply. The man in front of him wasn't Kastiel or even a Gold Saint for that matter, but the Pope himself. "I…" Lance tried to answer, but he was too baffled. He narrowed his eyes in frustration. "Are you going to arrest me or something?!"

Sagitta Nam gasped at the defiance in Lance voice. The Pope, on the other hand, stared at him for a while before asking. "How old are you?"

Lance raised a brow. What did that matter? "I was born in 1960."

"What do you mean by that? Don't you know your own birthdate?!"

Tension spiked between their eye contact. Lance gritted teeth in frustration. His desire to punch the man's face was conflicting with his desire not to get executed publicly, so he contained himself by trying not to look at the mask directly. "No…"

Shion hummed to himself. "His age is just about right! Could it be?" he wondered.

Sagitta Nam grabbed Lance's shoulder and tried to push him down. "Hey, what are you doing? That's the Pope, you know?! Get on your knees!" he shouted nervously.

Lance brushed him off. "Get off me!"

The Pope ignored the struggling between the two and addressed Nam. "Saint Nam, call the hospital and have someone carry Saint Kastiel and all these men away from the arena. Also, make sure his pet dog is taken care off."

Nam bowed. "Y-yes, your Holiness."

The Pope then turned to Lance and the tension rose. "As for you…Well, Saint Lance, it is needless to say that this arrival of yours to Sanctuary is a complete embarrassment! Very little stops me from ordering your immediate arrest! I hope you are proud of yourself for what you have done, for your punishment for it will not be light!"

Revolt filled the youth's heart. "What?! Wait a minute! You can't punish me! I fought him fair and square-" Lance protested.

"Be silent!" The Pope ordered, watching Lance's anger diminishing before he stood their remaining quiet. "I'm afraid today's a black day for the Bronze Saint's division honor. I was having such an excellent day and now I am faced with such a spectacle. I believe myself a tolerant man, but I will not have such an insurrection in my ranks. Yes, Saint Lance, you may scowl at me like that all you want, but you and I still have a lot to talk about!"

Lance gritted teeth and looked down at the floor. He struggled valiantly not to let out his frustration. "I don't have anything to say to you about what I have done!"

The Lemurian old man folded arms behind his back. "That's unfortunate. People who do have something to say about what they have done are often those who are truly just and innocent, but hopefully you'll grow up to regret this. Hopefully, one day, you will realize how childishly you acted today."

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Present time, two years later (1976), in the Pope's Halls

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The Pope folded his arms behind his back. "That day, two years ago, Saint Pegasus Lance began his career as a Saint of Athena by placing in the hospital approximately forty foot soldiers and a full-fledged Silver Saint. Saint Kerberos Kastiel spent two days in bed before he could carry his functions again."

Capricorn Kirin followed. "This was all in the report written at the time, signed by both Sagitta Nam, who was a formal witness to the fight and is currently on assignments, and Heracles Aguilon, who supervised Kastiel's recovery and has now also faced Lance in battle as well."

The other five Gold Saints exchanged glances with each other. Mu and Aiolos were taken aback by the tale while Malta and Daniel only exhaled loudly before folding his arms. Saga remained stoic in his spot, impressed by the story but not letting himself show it. "So you just happened to enter the Coliseum, your Holiness?"

Pope Shion nodded. "That's right. That was the day I met Pegasus Lance for the first time and was, indeed, the first in this room to meet Saint Lance." he began "It was right after his fight with Kastiel ended. I noticed the commotion coming from the Coliseum while taking a stroll through the area and decided to see if some sort of unauthorized duel was taking place."

Daniel and Malta nodded, having also heard of the commotion that day, though only finding out about what happened when Lance was already out on his first assignment. In other circumstances, they were sure that they wouldn't have let Lance get away so easily. As for Kirin, he was quite simply absent, training near his hometown in China.

Shion chuckled. It was a serious matter, but so much had passed since then that he couldn't help but amuse himself with the memory of the day he met the red eyed child. "He didn't take my intervention well. I could easily tell he was feeling frustrated and angry with my lecture. Back then, aside from his extraordinary power for a Bronze Saint, I only noticed in Lance a Saint with some serious gaps in proper conduct towards others as well with a highly neglected education and unacceptable attitude. I asked him what he thought that Athena would want of her Saints and his answer wasn't kind..." Shion then scratched his chin.

Mu, his student, noticed his apprehension. "Is something wrong, Master?"

Shion looked at him as if startled by something. In truth, there was something else he noticed in Lance, something very important. "Back then, the first thing that stood out to me was his red eyes. I immediately thought of Hecate's third prophecy that a red-eyed child, the reincarnation of a powerful warrior, would be born that year and the child would have a pivotal role in the war." He thought to himself. "Lance had red eyes and his age was about right to fit in the prophecy. It was almost ideal, meeting him like that, with him having already become a Saint. However, Hecate said that the child carried the flames of hatred in his heart… this could only mean the Cloth of the Phoenix, but Lance being under the protection of the Pegasus Cloth disproves that theory." Shion then realized Mu and the others were awaiting an answer. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just that I had a feeling about Lance back then, when I met him, but it is nothing I haven't eventually shaken off."

"The kid obviously held a grudge against Kastiel." concluded Kirin "How can we expect him to handle the responsibilities and etiquette of a Gold Cloth then?"

"I agree that Lance's action against his superior was a bit… out of control, but Kastiel abandoned him to die in Mount Olympus! How would any of us react in his situation?" spoke Aiolos.

"I said it before and I'll say it again; Kastiel did only his duty." interfered Malta. "I apologize, but what Lance did was an offense to our law! Attacking a superior officer is a very serious crime in Sanctuary, sometimes punishable by death!"

Aiolos didn't give up. Maybe what Lance did was wrong and violent, but he just couldn't blame him for his anger. He still couldn't believe how cruel Kastiel had to be to be capable of abandoning a child, regardless of rules or behavior. "Well, I disagree completely."

All the Gold Saints stared at him. Saga, in particular, had one of his 'what the hell are you doing, you idiot?' looks.

Aiolos, however, stood his ground. "Lance challenged him formally and Saint Kastiel accepted. Saint Nam must have accepted to act as a witness, too. If you're going to accuse Lance based on law, maybe I should remind the room that Sanctuary accepts duels as proper justification for ignoring rank and reason in battle."

Saga glanced at him. "Aiolos, maybe that's true, but-"

Aiolos interrupted him. "Wait, Saga, I know that you're probably going to say that Lance should have kept his head cool and taken the higher ground, and I concur that that would be the ideal outcome, but I refuse to hold this action against him in this discussion of whether or not he deserves to become a Gold Saint considering he fought Kastiel in a just manner with just reasons and that he has done much work for the Sanctuary since then. Shouldn't we also keep that in mind?" Aiolos then turned concluded the conversation via 6th sense in a way the Pope could eavesdrop, as established by the meeting rules in the Pope's Halls. "Saga, you know that you and I have done bad things too. At the Heart of Sasha orphanage and even before that, we've had to fight for our lives so that we could get to Sanctuary, isn't that right? And we also have had to fight for our honor and for our pride. How is that any different from what Lance did?"

Saga opened his mouth to argue back, but couldn't find the argument he sought for so he kept quiet. "So you're saying you and I are not any better than him?" Aiolos nodded in confirmation. Saga smirked. "I see." He said out loud, making the three adults and Mu wonder what Aiolos had told him to change his mind. Whatever it was, it was private. "Alright, Aiolos, I'll give."

Capricorn Kirin thought it necessary to interfere. "Listen you two; even if you disregard the fight Lance had with Saint Kastiel on itself, it does not change the fact that it demonstrated a great sense of rebellion in Saint Lance. Saint Pegasus is known for having a much accentuated anti-Athena mentality and very few traditional Saint values."

"So the problem is Lance's attitude, huh?" asked Mu.

"It's the main problem." said Kirin.

Mu turned to his master, who still remained silent. "Your Holiness, you have known Lance the longest out of all of us. What can you say about him?"

Shion shook his head. "Preferably I would have my personal opinion of him disregarded in your discussion. You see, I consider him more of a conflict than a problem. I have witnessed much growth in him but I still recall his past and see a lot of his old self within him, which is partly why I asked all of you to come here rather than appoint him on my own, as I usually do." He explained, keeping to himself the 'Hecate' factor. "So we have discussed his entrance to the ranks and now I, who have met him for the longest and accompanied his growth, will tell you what I can about the person he has become after he settled matters with Kerberos Kastiel."

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Meet Shinta

Release Date: 6th July, 2014

Description: Six months have passed since Lance's fight with Kastiel, and Sanctuary Town and Rodario's ears are filled with the rumors and reputation the dreaded Pegasus Saint as created around himself. As part of his punishment from the Pope, Lance is called for yet another mission dealing with Sanctuary's enemies.

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Author note: I still remember writing this chapter in the first version of the story two years and a half ago because it was a particularly hard chapter to write for some reason. This revamp of the chapter ended up being just as hard, if not more, and maybe that's because the point of it is fairly straightforward and uninteresting and I tried my best to reverse that, though it ended up doubling the chapter's size and changing it deeply.

Kastiel was a big problem because, originally, I didn't have much planned for him past this point. He was only supposed to be the figure that turned Lance into that angry Bronze Saint who was toughened up by the isolation in Mount Olympus, so I never really characterized him much and I didn't come up with much this time, either.

On the brighter side, another one bites the dust and I'll be able to move on to more interesting parts of Lance's early life. From here on out, the extent of the revamp in each chapter will vary but, generally speaking, should reduce significantly after the 1st Arc

Thank you for reading.