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.

7. 1A: Bonds Forged By Fire - Part 2 of 3

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): Pegasus Temple; Sanctuary Town; MMC; Sanctuary Forts and Outposts

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 and tests

Author notes:

Please enjoy and review.

{======================|0|======================}

A couple of moments earlier, at the eastern Alps foot...

{======================|0|======================}

The Saint and Soldier regiment followed their leader, Silver Saint Cynthia of Cassiopeia as they arrived at the gates of Peloponesia, a Sanctuary fortress located in western Austria, almost next the mountains. She was a blonde woman in her mid twenties with red outlines around her mask's eyes, a white trainer and who carried a silver-colored Cloth Box around her back.

She had just gotten back from East Berlin where she and her men had been discreetly supporting the construction of passages between the two halves of the former German capital. A lot of their work had involved blasting underground rock passages open with their fists while trying to disguise the sounds and avoid damaging the city's sewers, but also escorting people across the Wall.

The Amazon looked at the fortress' defenses. It was more of a fort than a fortress, since it lacked the high towers and inner castles of medieval fortifications that overlooked the walls from within. Rather than following the old method of escalating rings of defense, Peloponesia, much like the outposts it oversaw such as Ismara, consisted of several small buildings surrounded by a close set of taller walls. The only difference between this particular Sanctuary fortification and the rest which granted it a 'grander look and purpose', was the double walling and the fact it had Saints guarding it, rather than just foot soldiers.

In a world with people capable of punching through steel, walls played an inglorious role. Rather than being what held the invaders back, they were more for preventing the defenders from being caught by surprise by forcing the attacker to make noise when initiating battle. The double walling of Peloponesia would then give them enough time to organize themselves, even if just a little. This almost always meant that the walls were also connected via a reinforced bedrock so as to prevent the foe from digging under them without the defenders noticing. It was often joked in Sanctuary that the only thing stopping the walls and forts from becoming obsolete was the fact that the cosmos couldn't make you fly.

Many people and soldiers advocated that they should should reinforce the fortress' walls, and many other defenses throughout Sanctuary's zone of control for that matter, with the same material that allowed Cloths to withstand earth-shattering attacks; stardust. The alchemic substance was virtually omnipresent in any Cloth, Surplice or God Robe out there. Many structures in the Golden Zodiac contained it and using it to make the walls actually resistant to cosmos attacks and, as such, it was often requested to be used by many people wanting to preserve the soldiers' lives. There was a problem with this plan, though.

Stardust was rare.

Despite being a component of alchemy, stardust was one of the toughest substances to obtain. The silver-colored substance was mostly gathered from meteor shower impact zones or obtained from a very unique mine networks, which by themselves were mostly located in meteor crash sites, and the material was still always obtained in scathingly small amounts. Synthesizing it had been proven impossible unless one threw a huge rock across space and waited for it to be exposed to certain radiations and exploding stars and then return in one piece. Most of the stardust ever gathered had been used to build armor and only the Lemurians seemed to be able to work with it. Last time she had checked, the Black Market had price tags on the stuff ranking near the billions of dollars per pound. The only thing really stopping people in Sanctuary from taking advantage of this was the Golden Zodiac's promise of a slow, unpleasant death in Cape Suinon.

It was said that, once upon a time, an Aquarius Saint had tried to make a fortress out of ice that was eternal, claiming the stardust construction was inefficient, so he arranged blocks of unbreakable ice to form walls before layering them with rock and cement to make the building safe to use. Everyone quickly realized, though, that not only the occasional rain would cause the entire structure's ice skeleton to swell, wrecking the fortress in the process and freeze everyone in it to death, but the untimely death of the Saint caused the supposedly eternal ice to weaken and crack, rendering the point mute.

She greeted the gate guard, who had the portcullis raised so they could enter. They were to report to the leading officer and to be reassigned immediately.

The blonde Amazon turned to her men. "Alright, we're at Peloponesia. Good job, everyone. After all those weeks escorting people across the wall, it feels good to be back, doesn't it?" Several of them nodded and let out small cheers of agreement. "Take the chance to rest. I'm sure the Fort Commander will have more assignments for us soon," she instructed. Her subordinate Saints and soldiers started spreading out towards the forts inner buildings to go on with their lives.

One of the Bronze Saints who were assigned to work with her shook her hand. "Thank you for everything, Saint Cynthia. You helped a lot. We were having a lot of trouble digging the passages without the Soviets noticing."

"Don't mention it. It's my job to instruct." she answered. "If the guys back at Berlin just stick to the plan I laid out for you you'll be fine."

"What will you do now, Saint Cynthia?"

Cynthia took a moment to think about her next move. Sanctuary always had something to do even if the Silver Saints seemed to spend most of their time goofing off in Sanctuary Town. Still, there was the small chance they would give her some off time."If possible, I'd like to go meet a student of Saint Cepheus Guardnia who graduated half a year ago. I haven't seen him in a while...not since he became a Saint."

The Bronze Saint widened his eyes. "Saint Cepheus Guardnia, the King of Andromeda Island? You mean someone actually survived his training?" Cynthia didn't seem to enjoy his comment, as she lowered her chin slightly and remained quiet for a bit, a subtle Amazon gesture that usually meant a narrowing of eyes behind their masks. "Oh, I apologize, I didn't mean to insult him."

She raised her hand. "It's fine, but Guardnia is a dear friend of mine. I've worked with him my whole life. Yes, Andromeda Island is the second worst Training Ground, but Guardnia does his best to maximize survival rates there and nothing has been more devastating to him than having to see each and every student of his die." She then sighed. "Though, to tell you the truth, I didn't expect Shinta to survive either... He's a good kid. I hope he's doing okay." The Bronze Saint's expression darkened a bit. "What? What is it?"

"Oh, nothing, Saint Cynthia, it's just that... I've heard that Pegasus Lance paired up with a Saint named like that."

Cynthia stared at him for a while. "What?!" she suddenly shouted. "Pegasus Lance, the guy that beat up Kastiel? Why is Shinta with him?!" she demanded to know.

The Bronze Saint shrugged his shoulders. "I-I'm not sure, Saint Cynthia." he stuttered. Her revolt was quite clear from her tone of voice despite her masked expression. "A lot of people wonder that, too. It's a really bizarre combination. They say the Pope paired them up-"

"WHY?!" she shouted once more. "Why would he do that?! Doesn't he know what kind of person Pegasus is?" Cynthia grabbed her temples and felt her heart fill with worry. Was Shinta okay? Did Guardnia know about this? She found it unlikely, he would never allow such a thing to happen, even under his Silver Cloth's influence. "Oh, dear Athena, even after all that trouble in the Pacific... why does the Pope keep tolerating that Saint?" she muttered. Her first instinct was to rush off to Sanctuary to find Shinta and learn more about his situation, but duty called first. She had to finish her affairs there and then try to find an opportunity to return to Greece.

The Bronze Saint saluted her. "I hope everything turns out to be fine. May Athena be with you, Saint Cynthia," he wished before heading off.

Cynthia nodded, but was too preoccupied to properly answer. She had to talk to Guardnia and, if possible, with someone in the Golden Zodiac. She couldn't let this stand, but first, to report to the Fort Commander.

However, when about to head to the main building, she was then treated to a commotion and spectacle as she saw several soldiers gathering around what seemed like a couple of Saints escorting said leading officer out.

Cynthia rushed over to them and confronted the situation. "Excuse me, what is going on here?!" The officer didn't answer. It was then the Amazon noticed he was in shackles. "Is this an arrest?"

The escorts flashed their Papal Guard pins. "Please, step aside. This is an official matter of the Golden Zodiac. If you were to answer to this man, please report now to the new officer in charge." He then pointed at the person.

Cynthia's eyes widened behind her mask. She saw a very tall, stern-looking man in his late thirties with long, black hair and short beard demanding in equally stern voice all sorts of reports from the soldiers around him. The man turned his hawkish green eyes to her and decided to grace them with his towering presence.

Up close, the man seemed even more imposing. He narrowed his eyes at the former commander. "Is that incompetent still here? Take him away." The two Papal Guards instantly obeyed and carried the prisoner away. His green eyes then turned to the Amazon's mask. He saw the Cloth Box in her back and immediately identified her rank. "Saint Cassiopeia? Are you one of the disorganized idiots working in Peloponesia?"

Saint Cynthia widened her eyes, but shook her head politely. She had dealt with his type before. "Actually, I was operating in Berlin, so I'm just temporarily assigned here. Would you please explain to me what is happening here? Is the Commander going to jail?" she demanded to know.

"Former Commander, and no, he is not going to jail but he is going to be facing an investigation." He raised his chin at the Silver Saint. "I am Ionia, the new Fort Commander of Peloponesia and its outposts. I was assigned to turn this mess of a fortress into a properly organized military institution by order of the Pope and by recommendation of the Noble Council." he declared without any form of salute or other introductory gesture, clearly uninterested in showing any subordination to her.

Cynthia looked around. Everyone seemed to be doing their job. The guards were attentively watching everything and everyone, she could hear shouts and insults from the drill square and all the regiments seemed to be marching in formation. "Everything seems fine to me." she commented.

Ionia scoffed. "Oh, yes, fine indeed! Which is exactly why the man formerly in charge is currently being taken away to Sanctuary to face accusations of security incompetence and perhaps, with some luck, treason."

Cynthia widened here eyes. Now she just had to know what happened. "Would you mind explaining to me once and for all what is all of this?"

"Information leaking and a significant one at that." Ionia explained. "It was discovered that several documents were missing from this fortress. Personally, I find it inexcusable that a frontier fortification would allow something like that to happen. The people here kept so little track of their documentation that it wasn't discovered until a little while ago that some file offices were illegally accessed. The security measures are completely out of date!" he complained. "Right now, the Three Judges could be looking at a list of each and every outpost in the Austria-Bavaria area. This is the most important frontier between Sanctuary and Hades' Land. In times of war, those outposts duty switches from law enforcement and village protection to scouting and vigilance. Their secrecy is imperative! If that wasn't enough, I found out the contact links we keep with said outposts are unreliable. Some of them don't report for weeks on end!"

Cynthia nodded, not wanting to start a discussion she couldn't really argue against. The fact of the matter was that due to the nature of the Gods' reincarnation cycles, real war wasn't waged all of a sudden and peace with certain deities was often pretty much safeguarded for centuries on end. No one wanted to start a war with Sanctuary without their God by their side; the Specters were no exception. She admitted that this created a rather lax attitude during peace time because everyone knew war wouldn't start for another twenty years.

The result was that the outposts, such as Ismara, reported very little and not very regularly and this was sort of tolerated and understood by the overseeing forts, such as Peloponesia. Ionia, however, didn't seem like the kind of person to tolerate any sort of indiscipline and laziness. As a trainer, Cynthia understood his frustration completely. As a former trainee, though, she sympathized with the guards that had to watch all the boring "nothing" and do elaborate reports on it for guys like Ionia.

"Guardnia would love this guy." she thought to herself. "You seem to have a strong intention of disciplining everyone here. As a Trainer, though, I recommend you back your words with gestures. Foot soldiers need a strong leash, not a loud one."

"Words are power." the tall man commented. "Don't worry about me. I have full intention of seeing my duty through."

"I never doubted it. You must admit, though, that the new bureaucratic system imposed by the Pope is a bit...paranoiac?" she asked, referring to the Pope's sudden insane craving for information about the tiniest things. "Several of my comrades often complain about it, Saint Kastiel of Kerberus in particular. I also found several things required in my report charts wildly unnecessary, such as the birth date and eye color of several of the people involved in some of my missions."

Ionia instantly squinted at her. "The number of Black Saints has been rising precisely because Sanctuary had zero control over things." Ionia argued. He had noticed Cassiopeia was yet to salute him. "That same old bureaucratic system even made hierarchy unclear, since there was no established superiority relation between your rank of Silver Saint and my position of Fort Commander. People did what they wanted when they wanted without anyone knowing or bothering to check. Not on my watch, though. In fact," he then pulled out a chart with a list of the outposts. "since you're still assigned here until I let you loose, I want you to go inspect several of the unruly outposts under my jurisdiction immediately. Start with Ismara, since they've been detecting signs of unusual Specter movement in the area. I've received word that two Bronze Saints were sent there already, but I want to send someone that will report to me, rather than to the MMC. Determine the exact nature of that movement and demand a full report from the soldiers in charge of the outpost. You can take a couple of the useless excuses for soldiers here if you wish, but I expect a report from you as well."

Cynthia watched as Ionia went on his way and wondered how long it would be before Sanctuary started getting complaints from the soldiers about him. Strict as he was, Ionia still didn't seem to have been military at one point as there was no bragging about a former Saint title or even the emanation of a strong cosmos. She wasn't sure what exactly he meant with words being power, but unless Ionia had strong retainers to act as drill sergeants, the soldiers would never listen to him for long.

He reminded her of Akassios, the codename of the Gemini Saint preceding that new, blue-haired youth the Pope put in the third temple. Akassios, too, was a strict person who demanded a lot from everyone around him, which was why he had been able to organize a counter effort during the Third Civil War eleven years before, when everything was in chaos. But Akassios was ridiculously strong, even for his rank. People respected his willpower and feared his strength.

Then again, she could be wrong. Maybe Ionia had served as a Saint in the distant past and just wasn't showing that off.

Still, she sighed. She was used to authoritative people like Ionia but would have liked an opportunity to go check out Shinta. If she wanted to get off Ionia's hook as soon as possible, she would better start right then and do a perfect job while at it.

While heading back to gate so as to leave, she passed by a pair of soldiers arguing.

"Calm down, man." one said. "It was very late. You probably just saw things."

"I know what I saw, okay?!" said the second soldier. "I'm telling you! I saw something moving around in the offices at night. It looked like-"

"Batman?!" The other interrupted, sick of that crazy story. "Come on, man! Be serious! You were half-asleep and probably drunk off your ass! No one could have sneaked like that into the Fort with everyone keeping watch."

"It wasn't freaking Batman!" the second soldier protested. "I'm telling you, it looked like a demon of some sort...Maybe a Specter or, I don't know, something! I thought it was nothing but now everyone's saying there was a leak! What if-"

"Keep quiet, you idiot! The fort's office keeps losing papers all the time! Even if you're telling the truth, if Ionia finds out about that rambling of yours he'll have you shipped off to Bluegrad just like the old commander for not stopping whatever you thought was going on. Besides, Holy War isn't supposed to come until another two decades. Hades probably hasn't even formed a proper army yet and is probably just sitting his ass in that Underworld throne of his with some Nymph blowing him."

"But Ionia said-"

"Fuck what Ionia said! I'm not having my ass frozen in Russia over his zeal. Damn the Gods, I have a life here, a fiancee in Innsbruck! Why would a Specter show up here like that and not kill anyone, huh? The walls are fine and everyone is accounted for. Why would he leave without sabotaging us in some way?"

The second soldier seemed to calm down with this point of view. "Y-yeah, good point,... you're probably right. I was a bit drowsy then. It was probably one... of the office guys. Maybe they forgot something there... Or maybe something else..."

The first soldier then seemed to notice Cynthia passing by. He squinted at her and dragged his friend away into the barracks. "Come on, man, let's go!"

Cynthia's mask stared at them for a while, memorizing their faces and making a mental note to, when she got back, mention them to Ionia. She felt sorry for them but their conversation was way too fishy to just let go of it, especially with an information leaking incident having just happened.

The Amazon Silver Saint then left the fort of Peloponesia, charged her cosmos and headed out towards Ismara at the speed of sound.

{======================|0|======================}

Some time after she had left the fort the Silver Saint finally reaching the German forests that filled Ismara's surroundings. She slowed down a bit so as to enter the tree-filled terrain more easily and started sprinting across the woods. Her mask looked up to the sky and saw strange rain clouds moving around in the distance. Was it raining in the villages up ahead?

As she made her way, her thoughts returned to Guardnia's star student. She still remembered meeting him for the first time, when Shinta was ending his second year. His Master had brought him and his classmates to Rodario for the Eighty Eight Knights Festival, a yearly cultural celebration that took place in Sanctuary. She remembered thinking that out of the whole bunch in Cepheus' tutelage, the green haired pacifist was the one the Island who would probably claim the Cepheus Cloth next.

Shinta shocked her by being the only one to survive.

"Maybe he's okay." she thought to herself, reminded of the amazing spirit the boy had. "But he's paired up with someone who got away with attacking a Silver Saint superior... I don't like any of the stories afterward either." she recalled. Between having grown attached to the sweet kid and him being proof that Guardnia wasn't a failure of a Master, Cynthia couldn't help but worry about Shinta's well being. She was sure that after getting his Cloth, Shinta would go straight back to Japan to be with his mother, so what was he doing teaming up with an Assault Saint?

As if to provide an answer to her worrying heart, a familiar cosmos suddenly flared up right in front of her. Cynthia's eyes widened in shock. She stopped her march by a clearing and sent a mental message forward. "Shinta?! Is that you?"

It took a bit, but an equally surprised mental voice was returned. "Saint Cynthia?" A pink-armored Saint suddenly rushed out of the woods before the Amazon and stopped at the sight of her. Shinta's jaw dropped. Though stressed by the urgency of his situation, his mouth couldn't help but quirk into a wide smile. "Saint Cynthia! What are you doing here?"

"I...I should ask you the same. I was heading for Ismara, an outpost up ahead." she explained, raising her hand at the northern regions and still baffled by the coincidence of meeting Shinta in that place. "I was going to inspect it for a bit at request of the new Commander of Peloponesia, down south. You... Shinta, why are you here?"

Reminded of Ismara, Shinta's expression suddenly became grim. He'd love nothing more than to catch up with the Amazon, but he had an urgent job to do. He thanked Athena that Saint Cynthia showed up there so suddenly. "It's... It's horrible! S-Saint Cynthia, Ismara is... Ismara is in ruins."

Her mask stared at him for a bit. "...Wait, what?! Ruins?!"

Shinta's eyes welled up for a second. He nodded frantically. "Y-yes! Me and Saint Lance were just heading for it for an assignment and... and everyone there was dead."

"What are you talking about?" she wondered. Athena, her entire day had been nothing but twists. She could tell that Shinta was clearly bothered and stressed. She grabbed him by the arms."What happened?"

The green-haired Saint nodded obediently and told her how he and Lance had been sent there at request of the outpost only to find it razed. He also said how Lance thought Specters were behind as well as his plan of action to have Shinta ask for reinforcements.

Cynthia listened carefully. This was serious. She looked the teen over. "Are you okay? You weren't attacked on the way here, were you?"

Shinta shook his head. "I'm fine, thank you, but Lance needs our help. He said he'd be careful, but he wants to try and stop as many of them as he can. We have to go to him."

"Hold on, don't worry, I'll ask for help, okay?" The Silver Saint touched her temple to help her concentrate for a long distance mental message. The Amazon was more experienced at it than the Andromeda Saint and could surely reach further than him. She tried to pick up the cosmos at Peloponesia. However, as soon as she tried to form her message and send it, she felt a shadow loom over the two of them.

Both Saints looked up to see the rain clouds multiplying and expanding. A foreboding feeling ran up their spine as the sun was covered up and the distant cosmos they could barely pick up back at the fort started vanishing from their reach, as if somehow jammed.

Their heads then turned to the direction the clouds came. "...Shinta, what villages are in that direction? Isn't there a mining town there?" she asked the Bronze Saint.

Shinta nodded as a drop of sweat ran down his temple. "I-I think there's a village called Arcadia that way, yes. Me and Lance saw it at a distance when we were heading for the outpost." Shinta then gasped. "Oh no! That's the direction Lance went!"

The Amazon gulped. She put her hand on Shinta's shoulder and nodded at him for encouragement. "Darn it! I can't ask for help via mental message."

"What do we do then? Can we call for assistance any other way?" Shinta asked.

"Not unless one of us heads for Peloponesia. You should head there, Shinta. It will be safer for you and-"

"NO! I don't want to leave it to the two of you just like that! What if you get killed?" Shinta protested, surprising her. "I can help, you know I can."

Cynthia nodded. "Yes, Shinta, but your cosmos-"

Shinta grabbed her hand suddenly and his eyes narrowed in determination. "I... I can do this. I can help the two of you. Just don't ask me to let two people I care about throw themselves into danger while all I do is go back for more help. I'm a Saint and...I can fight, too. I can fight to protect you and save those people."

The Silver Saint's widened eyes stared at the pacifistic boy vow that he would fight by their side. It felt like just the day before Guardnia would be asking her for advice in how to motivate Shinta to raise his fists. Cynthia then remembered why Shinta had been able to pass all the tests of Andromeda Island despite the fact neither Guardnia or herself believed he could.

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. "It still feels hard to believe you're not a trainee anymore. You have become quite the man. Guardnia must be really proud of you."

The Andromeda Saint widened his eyes, touched. "Saint Cynthia..."

"...Alright, Shinta. You win."

Shinta seemed to brighten up. "You'll let me help you?"

"Yes. It's a miracle I ran into you here, Shinta. If we combine our chains, we'll probably save more lives than by having you go back even further. Maybe if we meet up with Pegasus we'll have a chance to stop the raiding group." she suggested. She had no liking towards Saint Pegasus and what he had done to Kastiel, but now was the time to forget about the past and fight together as Saints. "Hold on a bit."

Shinta watched as Cynthia put down her Cloth box, opened it up and took out from within a flare gun. "Are you going to call for help?"

The Amazon covered one ear, pointed the gun upwards, unlocked the safety and pulled the trigger, firing a bright flare into the sky that burst into a shower of light. "There have been situations were I couldn't afford to use a mental message for fear of interception. Hopefully this weird weather will make the flare more visible at the distance. If one of the nearby villages spot this, they'll answer with a flare and go call for help." She then bit her lip inside her mask. "I should have brought a couple of men! I could have sent one of them back to get reinforcements, but I had no idea something like this could be happening. I also wish we had met each other after so much time in better circumstances. I had much to ask you."

Shinta waited for a bit to see if anyone replied to the flare. "It's good to see you, too, Saint Cynthia." he confessed. At the distance, a small flare was shot in reply. Shinta's eyes softened, worried about Lance and scared of the rising tension he was feeling. The two of them then sprinted towards the mining village of Arcadia.

{======================|0|======================}

Chapter 7

First Arc

Episode 5

Bonds Forged by Fire

Part 2 of 3

{======================|0|======================}

Meanwhile, in Arcadia...

{======================|0|======================}

Alexis flipped the page on her math book and started writing down more exercises. All of a sudden, the light shining on her notes from the window dimmed. Her green eyes looked through it. "It's dark already?"

Her Mom spared the dark clouds a glance. "Probably rain, but it is a bit sudden..."

The teenage girl tried to focus back on her studies. Math was probably her least favorite subject, right next to Greek and Sanctuary History. She'd much rather be at PE class most of the time than learning about past Popes and Gold Saints. There was nothing particularly fascinating about memorizing Athena's human names and how many Specters each Gold Saint killed.

In fact, hard working as she was, the villager girl still had a tough time in most school subjects. She always felt more comfortable with classes with a bit less focus on theory and more on practice. Alexis did her best to keep her grades up, but often found herself sighing with how unenthusiastic she felt with most of her homework.

She saw her dad wincing in his chair over the pain in his leg and back. Her Mom was cleaning dishes and seemed to complain about similar things every so often. Alexis' eyes softened and her hand rested on the notebook from all the writing. She stared at her knuckles for a while, thinking deeply about what she had seen that afternoon.

She stole glances towards her parents repeatedly for a bit, trying to gather courage to let out what was in her throat. She sighed deeply, summoned her bravery and finally let it out. "Hmm... Mom, Dad?"

"Yes, honey, what is it?"

"I was thinking... what if I..." She then hesitated. Her father stopped what he was doing and turned to her. "What if I joined the... army?"

The sound of a plate falling and crashing on the ground was heard. They turned to her mom and saw her pale and wide-eyed. "W-What?! What did you say?"

Alexis stuttered. "I-I... I mean... I thought that maybe I could do something to-"

Her mom rushed over and gabbed her by the arms. "Alexis, where did you get that stupid idea?! Do you even realize what you're asking?" she asked frenetically. She turned to her husband. "Did you say something to her today!?"

"N-NO, I didn't!" the father quickly excused. "I mean, we passed by that group of soldiers recruiting, but I dragged her out of there. Alexis! Why are you saying something like that? The army is no place for you!"

"B-but I..." Alexis tried to find words. Her parents kept glaring at her as if she had said something sacrilegious. "I thought I could help around the house. They said they pay well and I fit the recruitment requirements-"

"Help?!" her mom shouted. "We don't need any help, Alexis! What in Athena's name gave you that idea?! We're doing fine! Just because your father is a bit achy from the mine work and we haven't been able to farm enough-"

"MOM, I saw the bills!" Alexis found herself shouting, sick of her parents keeping it away from her a dire situation that had been dragging on for months. "I-I saw the bills. You haven't been able to pay several of them for months now...If you drag that on for too long... I-I... I d-don't..." She felt her eyes welling up and her throat tightening. "You guys look s-sadder every day...I j-just wanted to help...I could go try to become a Saint and I'd send you guys money every now and then."

The expression on her parents' faces darkened at the realization that their secret was out. No longer feeling the need to hide it, their faces fell immediately to the depressed frowns they had been trying to hide from her for so long. Her father got up from his table. "Alexis, honey, you have to understand that the situation is... it's not your responsibility. It's not so bad either." he tried to fake a smile. "Sometimes there is plenty of work and money and some days aren't. That's life. You don't have to go join the army just because of it-"

"NO! Absolutely NOT!" her mom shouted. "My daughter is not joining the Saints! I won't let her!"

Alexis' teary eyes narrowed. "W-WHY, Mom? I d-don't want to be here costing you money. I want to help you."

Her mom grabbed her shoulders. "Alexis, listen, I know those letters look serious, but you're not going to decide something to stupid and irresponsible just like that! You're going to stay here and finish your studies! I am not letting my daughter do something where only one out of ten boys survive basic training!" She then turned her face away in guilt. She shouldn't have said that.

Alexis' stared at her in shock. "Is it because of that?! B-because I'm a girl?" She then remembered seeing those parents signing in their sons at the drafting table with barely any hesitation. Her eyes narrowed. "What, i-if I was a boy, you'd send me, no problem?!"

"Honey, it's not that; I j-just..."

"Your mother didn't mean that, Alexis... It's just-"

"Then why?" Alexis demanded to know. "I...I don't do w-well in school. I don't have a lot of f-friends... Why can't I leave it and do this for you?"

"Alexis, we..."

The red-haired girls' eyes closed to contain tears. "I feel different from everyone else...I don't like anything the other girls do, but I don't go along well with the boys, either." She lowered her head and avoided her parent's eyes. "I just... I j-just wanted to... try something else..."

Her parents stared at her for a while pondering on what she said and exchanging looks with one and another, wondering what to say. They'd definitely would not allow their only daughter to do something so reckless and foolish, no matter how genuine her intentions were. Her Mother grabbed her by the hand and sat her down. "Alexis..."

"I just wanted to help..."

"Alexis, look at me, darling..." Alexis tried to lift her head, but only trembled a bit. "Listen, Alexis, we're not letting you join the army, that's final. Darling, do you know that, if... a woman joins the army of Athena, she has to join the Amazon sisterhood?"

Alexis' teary green eyes finally looked up to her mother. "Y-yeah, so what?"

"This means that... you can't become a foot soldier. If you join Sanctuary's army, once you step on your Training Ground you have no choice other than to become a Saint. This doesn't just mean you'll be facing high odds of failure. This also means that the only way out, even after the third year, is a coffin."

This seemed to gain Alexis' attention. "B-but Mom, maybe I could pass, maybe I could become a Saint! Even if the odds are small..."

Her Mom sighed. She knew the correct way to make Alexis forget about this idea, but it was not a pleasant one. "Alexis, when I was young, I had a friend almost at your age who wanted to become a Saint, too. Unlike the rest of the girls of the village, she joined the army even though everyone told her she would just get herself killed. Regardless of that, we kept receiving letters of her telling about how she was still determined to make it through despite how hard her Training Ground turned out to be. Six years later, we got word that she became an Amazon Bronze Saint, with her mask still intact and everything."

Alexis wiped her teary eyes. Where was her Mom getting with all of this? "What about her?"

Her Mom's eyes saddened and her frown deepened. "She kept on sending letters, though more disparately as time passed on. One day, we found out that through her parents she had been depressed, complaining how she couldn't get rid of the mask and how she was having trouble relating with people because of it. She started visiting her parents more and more often and one day... we found out she had been assaulted. Someone in Sanctuary attacked and... raped her."

Alexis widened her eyes, old enough to know what this meant. "She was violated?! By whom?"

"She wouldn't say...Athena knows that the Sisterhood did everything to find out and maybe she would have eventually said, but... a couple of days later she died. She hanged herself in her Training Ground." Her mom finalized. "Alexis, I don't want you not to join the army because you're a girl, but because it is a harsh, ungrateful shot in the dark that rewards you with nothing but misery. Yes, being a woman in this army makes it even worse, but... I don't want to risk having my daughter go through all of that, specially with Holy War coming within our lifetime." Her Mom's eyes started welling up.

Alexis sat there silently, trying to think of an answer. She could feel her parents were just trying to protect her, but an urge to return that favor just drove her to try to fight back. Unfortunately, the devastated look in her Mom's eyes completely disarmed her. "M-mom, what s-should I do?"

She hugged Alexis tightly. "Listen, Alexis, I know that... you don't get along with others because you're always so... so serious and hard working but,... whatever you do in your life... whomever you finally choose as your friends and family, I want you to know that we're proud of you and we love you, okay? Just don't ask something that stupid ever again..."

Alexis' nodded calmly. "O-okay, mom." She then rested her face on her mom's shoulder.

However, all of a sudden, a loud, thunderous sound of an explosion and something heavy and wooden crashing down to the ground was heard together with an earth shake that sent all three of them into full alert and stumbling. "What was that?!" her Mom wondered out loud.

All three of them stood very still and listened quietly. Another blast was heard followed by several screams and the sound of metal boots rushing around at the distance. Echoing roars and shouts were also heard.

The family's faces went pale.

Alexis' father jumped into action "Go to the backrooms! I'll go see what's happening!" he shouted as he headed towards the front door. He saw his wife and daughter nodding and heading away. He grabbed the door's handle and opened it. His whole body froze in place.

Before the man, a scenario of chaos enfolded itself as several villagers ran screaming across their street towards the south exit of the village's precinct so as to escape the mad rampage of Skeleton soldiers punching, slashing, kicking and shooting people down with their crossbows. He saw several of his friends and coworkers being slayed left and right as they desperately attempted to outrun the attackers.

His mouth opened in horror and his eyes instantly looked for any soldier on their side, only to find the few in the area being slowly isolated and pinned down into outnumbered fights by Hades' men. The cruel sound of metal clashing with metal and tearing flash was escalating. Smoke and fire was seen from the distance and explosions occurred every now and then on the north side, where the attack began.

Before him also stood a tall man clad in full body armor shaped after a skeleton with eyes shadowed by his helmet and teeth bare in rage. His protection was splashed with blood all over and so was the cruel, curved edge of the battle scythe he held as he was just finishing to remove it from a fallen villager. The soldier turned to him and rushed at him at the speed of sound.

"D-DAD!" Alexis screamed to the top of her lungs, trying in vain to get her father to move. The Skeleton Soldier stopped before her father and roared in anger. Time slowed down for the teenage girl as she saw the cruel, dark warrior swing around his scythe and bringing it down on her father, slashing him straight across the torso. Blood sprayed out from his chest and mouth before his entire upper body collapsed upon the red pool that had formed.

{======================|0|======================}

Northern entrance of Arcadia...

{======================|0|======================}

Lance, now armored with his Pegasus Cloth, rushed through the wooden palisade's destroyed gate, past the burning houses and dead soldiers and villagers. He came across a group of Skeleton soldiers serving as a rear division as they finished tearing down the houses their vanguard had attacked and finishing off the survivors. His eyes narrowed and burned with hateful fire as he caught sight of them cutting down the villagers. They also noticed and turned to him.

Lance's teeth gritted and his fist tightened. This would not be easy. Overconfident as they were due to their zeal and 'chosen people' complex, Hades' foot soldiers were tougher than Athena's. They also took a sadistic pleasure in torturing their victims, a practice they obviously obtained from serving in Hell and would have no mercy on a Saint like him.

Lance's angry face was interrupted by a sudden puzzled look when he saw the soldiers gritting teeth at him. One of them stepped forward with raised scythe. "Look, a Saint! A Saint of Athena!"

Another nodded. "Yes! Another fool. Another sap serving their almighty bitch!" he growled.

"LET'S KILL HIM!" a third one roared before a group of five charge straight at the Bronze Saint.

The Pegasus Saint stood there for a second, confused, but he quickly snapped out of it when the first one engage him with a diagonal scythe swing and an angry roar. He charged his cosmos into his gauntlets and forearm guards and bashed the enemy's edge so as to block it before crashing his fists on the attacker's ribs, stunning him. Lance, quickly kicked him away, but two others rushed at him with spear thrusts which he dodge by sidestepping. He instantly riposted by punching one's face, jumping and delivering a devastating kick to the other which sent him flying against a ruined house.

The other four recovered their momentum and all charged at him with a roar. Once more, Lance was taken aback by their strange attitude but pulled himself together fast enough to dodge another scythe swing, catching a swordsman grip and then breaking it with a sudden twist, parrying the spears and stepping back before suddenly vanishing into thin air. The swordsman screamed in pain and the others stood confused for an instant before a round of thunderous supersonic blows crashed all over their armors, shattering them to pieces before a second round of fewer, heavier attacks knocked them out.

As soon as Lance reappeared landing on the floor nearby, he already had the rest of the mob charging straight at him. He growled in frustration, tensed both hands into chop stances and burned his white cosmos. "Pegasus BLADE!" His arms, from the tip of his tense fingers to the elbow, were suddenly engulfed in a white, flaming aura which then condensed into a skin-deep layer of white light, transforming his limbs into a set of twin cosmos sword blades.

Lance dashed forward towards his attackers and slashed straight across his assailant's scythe, splitting it by the shaft, before blocking an arm swing and following it with a slash across the foe's side. Several weapons attacked from all around but he kept on parrying, blocking and counter slashing as best as he could. A particularly daring foe managed to force him into a cross parry with downwards slash before kicking Lance's chest.

The Bronze Saint stumbled backwards with this before being attacked several times on the back by a foe he had managed to disarm, flooring Lance who then found himself laying down in a middle of a group of enemies trying to kill him.

He instantly rolled to the side to dodge several weapon stabs and stomps before executing a rolling kick that tripped a couple of his foes. He tried to get up, but the pressure the Skeleton soldiers were putting on him only allowed him to get on his knee before he had to start blocking again.

"Damn it!" he thought as he felt himself slowly being pinned down. He could take on a Silver Saint, but Skeleton Soldiers were so tough and relentless that they were capable of just keep on the pressure until the foe cracked, even if several times stronger than any of them. When his frustration hit the limit, he made his white aura explode before launching himself at them in a spinning slash with his Blade, cutting down several of them while stunning and startling the rest.

He took the chance to switch tactics. "PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!" His cosmos exploded once more before he suddenly struck a tougher foe in the chest with a bullet-like punch in an all out charge. He stomped the ground to let the guy fly before twisting himself so as to switch momentum to the others. Repeating this tactic while carefully choosing targets allowed him to execute a powerful flurry of Charge Fists at each opponent down to the last one, finally and instantly knocking down the entire group at the expense of a lot more cosmos than he initially intended to spend on them.

The last one screamed and stepped back before the white blur that was Pegasus bashed on his face as hard as he could, shattering his helmet and breaking his neck. Lance landed on the floor with a heavy pant and surrounded by fallen foes. His white gauntlets burned with cosmos and were dripping blood.

He cursed their resilience but then wondered what was going on. "What was up with these guys?" he then looked up to the black sky. "And what is with this jamming?! One of them must be causing this. I have to find him." He had already sent Shinta to fetch help, but the situation seemed more serious than he initially pictured. Hopefully, the Pope would get off his ass and actually send a Gold Saint but that would be wishing too much.

Lance then left the area, heading towards the center of the village were the bulk of the enemy was at. Several slashed down villagers, militia and guards were among the wreck, but most were dead and the rest was unconscious or unable to get up.

One particular victim caught his eye. The captain of the guards, distinguished by his heavier set of armor, lied on the floor dead, with claw and bite marks as if he had been attacked by a pack of animals. Lance's eyes, experienced from his time in Mount Olympus, instantly recognized it as the result of a wolf pack attack. "Who attacked this guy?" he wondered.

Suddenly, another fiery explosion was heard at the distance. Lance's eyes briefly turned to the eruption of orange fire cosmos at the other end of the village and deduced that the Specter leading the attack was probably there. Before he turned directions towards it, he followed nearby screams and entered a neighborhood where the skeleton soldiers were slaughtering several people he could still save. There was so much going on all around Arcadia that the Pegasus barely knew who he should turn to help first. His first instinct had been that of rushing after the leader, but if there was weaker foes over there he could quickly take out, he would save a lot more lives in less time.

He burned his cosmos to the max and rushed into the mayhem of dark armors and victims, taking down one enemy after the other as fast as he could. He did not even stop to help the victims up, who just rushed towards the southern exit without even as much as looking at Pegasus as soon as they found themselves saved. Lance's red eyes turned towards another scream far off from one of the houses and was treated to the sight of a Skeleton Soldier cutting down an old miner at a house before slowly entering inside.

Lance turned back toward the leader and then the house. Does he go after the leader, or is it possible that the explosions were being caused by someone else? He swore that through the chaos, he heard a very faint scream of a girl after that miner was killed.

{======================|0|======================}

The teary-eyed, terrified daughter was pulled back by her mother as the black-clad soldier of Hades stepped over her father's corpse with a bloody scythe in hand while baring sharp teeth in his face. Her mouth was agape in horror and she found herself tripping on her back with her mother as the enraged man enclosed on them.

He kicked away the furniture in his path. "You're scared of me?! Why? You should be thanking me! I'm saving you from this disgrace of a life." he protested, as if he really was doing them some sort of unwanted favor.

"STAY AWAY!" the mother screamed as she hugged Alexis tightly. "G-Get away from us, you murderer!"

"This pathetic, miserable life just waiting to be snuffed away at some God's whim. You think you'd live good lives if it weren't for me? Think again! The only thing you look forward to is to be abused and forgotten by Sanctuary or trampled underfoot by some stupid, fucking war! But don't worry!" He brandished his scythe. "I'll save you from that!" He then roared and swung down his weapon.

Alexis screamed and crawled back as much as she could, her teary, green eyes wide open in terror. She raised her hands in an attempt to defend herself, expecting they wouldn't do much against his large metal weapon.

"BLADE!"

A white gauntlet grip suddenly caught the man's wrist to stop his attack from behind before the soldier's chest suddenly exploded into white, piercing light in the shape of a sharp sword edge. A scream and a burst of blood filled the house and the soldier fell to his knees, revealing to Alexis a tall, red-eyed teen just over her age armored with a white horse themed Cloth. The Bronze Saint let go of the Skeleton Soldier's wrist, tossing him to the ground after the fatal blow.

Both mother and daughter gagged and stared at the sight of their savior for a bit. The red eyed youth turned to them. "Stay inside! There are still too many!" he ordered.

The mother shakily nodded in obedience. Alexis, who had never seen a Saint in her life before, kept staring at the guy, even forgetting for a small bit the situation they were in. Her green eyes turned to the fallen man at their door. "D-dad! DAD!" She tried to get up and go to him, but her mother hugged her to stop her. "N-no-o!"

The panting Lance stared at the sight of the teary girl for a while, his anger fueled by the sheer sadness in front of him. "Fucking murderers! They'll pay for this! They'll pay for ALL of this!" Deciding to hunt down each and every one of the miserable bastards behind the attack, he walked outside with a purpose and launched himself at the enemy soldiers raiding the streets.

Alexis felt her eyes burst into tears against her mother's shoulder as the sound of Bronze armored fists was heard bursting through armor and breaking bones outside. Her equally teary mother tried to whisper her words of comfort, but her trembling voice did little the calm herself, let alone her daughter. They slowly walked over to the father and stared at his corpse, but the sight of the horrible wound and all the blood made them break down even worse.

Alexis touched her dad's face. "N-no, dad, NO!" she sobbed.

"I-It's okay, Alexis, don't c-cry." her mother whispered before reaching for a fallen tablecloth and laying a sheet on top of her husband. "It's g-going to be alright, darling. I'm here for you."

She could barely listen to her mother's words. Her teeth gritted in sadness and frustration. How could this have happened? One second they were arguing over her future and the other this horrible, chaotic hell was set upon them. Her small cosmos burned with her anger as she screamed and punched the wooden floor, only barely cracking through it.

Amidst the tears and wailing, Alexis caught sight of the enraged Saint trying to avenge them by killing all the Skeleton Soldiers outside. The Pegasus Saint's elbow blow hit one's throat before countering a blocked scythe with a powerful side kick, instantly killing the two soldiers. There was still so many cornering him though and they were so strong. The Bronze Saint found himself stepping back a bit as over a dozen foes started gathering in front of him.

It was then that Alexis truly caught sight of the chaos the peaceful village of Arcadia had been thrown into. The dirt roads were stained red with murdered villagers, several buildings were ruin or encased in fire. The black smoke rising from the streets covered the sky even further and occasional fire explosions were seen at the distance together with small earth tremors. It was like their town had been thrown into hell by Hades.

The red-haired girl then saw on top of one of the roofs a man crawling around and taking position so as to face down on the street. He was wielding a crossbow and aimed it at the Bronze Saint. "Watch out! On the roof!"

Lance's red eyes instantly detected the sniper shooting a bolt at him. He side-stepped instinctively, narrowly avoiding an arrow that would have skewered his leg. The Skeleton mob in front of him then charge all at once to take advantage of his distraction. He narrowed his fierce red eyes. The first thing he did was dash straight ahead at them so as to take one out with a powerful side kick to the head, quickly jump over him and drop kick another so hard it shot the foe straight at a damage support wall of the burning house the sniper stood on.

The house crashed down, forcing the sniper to jump down to join the fight. The Pegasus Saint, however, made his white aura exploded by burning his cosmos to the max and in the next disappeared so as to deliver a multitude of Mach Five blows that shattered the armors of the mob and killed them.

Lance panted heavily as the many enemies fell to the floor around him with grunts of pain, exhaustion and death. His aura extinguished itself and his eyes looked around. He noticed, with a sting of failure in his conscience, that he had only managed to save those two women in the house.

He then grabbed his side when the searing pain of a scythe cut started burning. "D-damn it! Taking out all those guys helping Kastiel was so easy... But Hades' men are just something else." He turned to the direction from where he had seen the earlier fire explosions. "It has stopped?" he wondered. Had the Specters killed everyone else? He turned to the two women. They both had their faces reddened and marked by tears. The red-haired teen, in particular, had quite the traumatized look on her face, but who could blame her since she had just seen her dad be cut down in two by a madman?

The whole street was burning. They wouldn't be safe in their house if the fires kept spreading. Feeling the intense heat all around him and his adrenaline flowing from all the hard fighting, Lance grabbed his temples in dizziness and couldn't help but be reminded of Death Queen Island.

"You... You're not safe here, anymore. The north side of the village is cleared. You should be able to flee through there now." he said. Normally, he had a tough time talking to women, specially young girls about his age. He would stutter and find it difficult to know what to say. The seriousness of the situation, though, helped him override that weakness. The young girl seemed to awaken with this. Her mother started pulling for her and telling her to obey the Saint, but the traumatized teenage villager just seemed to be somewhere else. "GO!" Lance yelled.

Alexis snapped out of it. She started hearing her mother's shouts again. "C-come on, Alexis, let's go!" the older woman screamed.

Lance's red eyes stared at her until she started moving away, though she kept glancing back at the scene of chaos around her burning house. The Pegasus Saint wondered if she was going to be okay.

"What did you do to my men?!" someone asked behind him.

Lance's senses went into full alert and his Bronze Cloth's cosmos exploded in intensity so as to protect it's owner. Lance turned around. He and the two villagers froze in place as they found themselves being glared down by a man standing on top of one of the roofs, amidst the flames. He was armored with the Bennu Surplice, a dark-colored, full body winged armor complete with pointy, segmented double sets of shoulder and thigh guards, elegant forearm covers with spike elbow extensions, a tall neck guard and a chest protections consisted of many overlaying shaped like pairs of wings.

His hair was white despite his young looks and his eyes were green and narrowed at the Saint with the utmost spite and rage. The Specter gritted teeth at the sight of all the fallen Skeleton Soldiers around Pegasus. Leaping down from his porch, his cosmos revealed itself in the form of a flaring aura of orange fire waves erupting from beneath his feet and dancing all around him.

Lance locked eyes with him. "You're the leader, aren't you!?"

Bennu nodded. "That's right. I am Bennu Yakos, servant of the Pride Star!" he introduced himself. "I'll ask you one more time! Did you kill my men?"

Lance raised a brow. "What, Pride Star? That's not the star of the Bennu Surplice." he recalled. If he had it right, Yakos should introduce himself as the Celestial Star of Violence. Lance overlooked the minor detail, though. He raised his knuckles, partly to prepare himself and partly to show off the Skeleton Soldier blood on them. "What do you think?!"

There was a brief instance where Lance was able to see Yakos stare at him even harder before the Specter suddenly blitzed forward. The tired Pegasus barely had time to step back before someone covered in fire cosmos grabbed him by the collar raised him and crashed a metal fist on his face so hard the Saint was shot across the street and crashing against wooden wreck of a former house.

Yakos marched towards the Saint, barely able to contain his rage. He picked up the insolent punk by the throat and raised him high in the air. "I'll snap your fucking neck!"

Lance gagged in pain and suffocation. He grabbed Yakos wrists and tried to punch it off, but the Surplice was powerful and seemed to absorb most of his force. For some reason, though, Lance suddenly felt Yakos' grip alleviating slightly. He looked down on the Specter and saw him stare back, confused by something.

Yakos blinked. "His eyes... are just like-" Lance's foot suddenly exploded on his chest, stunning him and freeing the white-armored Saint. Yakos coughed and stepped back, his confusion gone and replaced with increased rage. "Fucking murderer! I'll make you pay!"

"MURDERER?!" Lance shouted. "Have you looked at what you and your men have done today?! This whole village is burning... everyone here is dead because of you! First Ismara and now this, and you have the nerve to call me that!?"

Yakos seemed to hesitate. "...Yes, murderer! You're all murderers, you Saints, and so are we!"

It was Lance's turn to stare at him in confusion. "What? What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"I can't end it! I can't do anything about it... About these pitiful existences!" Yakos complained, looking down on his trembling hands which then closed tightly in anger. "I was promised something else. I was promised something truthful and with a happy ending. But I was lied to! I'm not destined for anything! I'm just...some fucking doll! But if I can't change them,... if I can't give new meaning to our lives, then I'll just end them!" He suddenly took a pose and his cosmos started charging up.

The red-eyed youth sweated nervously as he was presented with an aura of orange energy around Yakos that slowly inflated and danced more viciously. Yakos roared out loud to the skies and his cosmos burned to the max, darkening the area around them. The image of a massive, dark-feathered bird then showed up behind the Specter, screeching loudly.

Lance stared at the bird, reminiscing a scene from his past where, somewhere else, some time ago, he was in a hellish place filled with fire just like the burning Arcadia and someone filled with hate and spite was charging an attack just like Yakos' at him.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the two villagers behind him. "They're still here. I have to save them." The massive bird in front of him opened up its wings and screeched even more, paralyzing the two civilians with fear.

The Specter's green eyes glowed in accordance with the bird's. His right hand then raised itself and gathered all the cosmos of his aura around it before condensing it into a small, sun-like sphere of fire. Yakos glared right into the Saint's eyes. "I'll burn you all into ash! CORONA BLAST!" He then threw his fist forward, shooting the small sphere which then exploded into a size much larger than Lance.

The Pegasus Saint widened his eyes at the terrifying concentration of cosmos in front of him. Being no amateur at facing fire, though, he instantly threw both his hands forward. "PEGASUS BARRIER!" His palms projected the large, transparent layer of cosmos in front of him. He kept burning his cosmos until it reached the appropriate size and then braced himself for the impact.

The enormous sun blast crashed with the barrier and exploded once more into an uncontrollable outburst of flames. Lance watched as the Barrier did its job of dispersing the energy of the unfocused attack along it's spherical surface and away from the three of them, blasting and burning through everything around them but still successfully protecting them. Lance awaited patiently for the attack to wear off completely.

However, the exploding burst of flames did not seem to end. In fact, Lance had to widen his eyes as the flames started receding back into the original sphere, which then started grinding against the barrier. Small, bright cracks started showing up all around the protective field. Lance raised his hands and started projecting more cosmos, determined to protect the two behind him.

"It's no use! DIE!" Yakos screamed before his fire cosmos aura increased in size, pushing his attack further.

Lance gritted teeth as he felt the added pressure of Yakos' assault. The Corona Blast started concentrating further at the same time it was fed more power. Lance's stretched arms started trembling and his feet dragging back. "NO!" he yelled to himself. "This is not just about me! I'm protecting someone now! I can't fail!" He then burned his cosmos to his max.

Yakos watched, frustrated, as the Saint grew brighter and as the Barrier's cracks started receding.

"You're doing it, Lance!" The Pegasus Cloth suddenly cheered for him. "Come on, just a bit more. I'll help you."

Lance looked down on his gauntlets and watched, amazed, as Pegasus started shining even further, bringing out energy he had no idea the armor had. It was with relief and further amazement that he saw the cracks on his Barrier disappearing and the pressure on him relieving. "Pegasus, you... you're helping me?" He saw the parts of the armor tremble, as if Pegasus itself was trying his best to help its owner. He looked over his shoulder. The two civilians were fine, but the three of them were trapped by the attack. He had to push it back.

Yakos' cosmos exploded to its maximum intensity. "It's over!" he yelled.

Lance suddenly felt a huge burst of strength suddenly push against his barrier. The cracks appeared all over again, this time bigger and multiplying rapidly. "What? NO!" he screamed, realizing his technique was failing. He pressed on, trying to fortify it with his cosmos, but his fingers started feeling numb and his vision was trembling. "N-no, I won't give up."

Alexis felt herself being hugged once more by her mother and pulled back, but they were pushed against the ruins of a house and had nowhere to go. She saw the Saint suddenly fall to his knee and his stretched arms shake. "I-Is this it?" she wondered. "Are we going to die?"

Lance tried to stand back up, but his cosmos was starting to failing. His concentration was waning and he felt like suddenly had a huge weight on his shoulders. It was then that he realized it was his armor. "N-no! I c-can't..." The barrier in front of him was practically filled with bright lines of damage. He felt like he was holding a piece of glass in front of him that would break at any moment. "I WON'T LET YOU KILL THEM!" he shouted. His Barrier then shattered completely and the Saint leaped backwards and tackled them both to the ground so as to take the attack.

Alexis felt the Corona Blast then run them over and exploded one final time into a flash of burning light right on top of them. All she could hear was the sound of roaring flames with the weight of the Saint and the sensation of crashing through wooden ruins of a house which then fell right on top of them.

Everything after that was filled with darkness and heat.

{======================|0|======================}

Yakos lowered his hand after the burning cosmos around it doused and stared at the burning wreckage before him. The explosion of Corona Blast had blinded him for a moment, but the sight of the fallen Pegasus Saint on top of the two other motionless women was proof that his attack had landed a hit. He walked over to Pegasus and kicked him harshly to see if he would react.

There was no response.

Pleased with one less Saint in the world, he hurried to go help Kairos speed up the work before Black Raven ended, intent on satiating his rage with more blood.

{======================|0|======================}

The weight of fallen wood beams was on his back and the sound of burning and heat of flames was all around him. The fallen Bronze Saint struggled to open his red eyes. He was lying on top of rubble and everything was shaking. He was definitely bleeding from somewhere and little metal white splinters kept falling down from the cracks of his Cloth. He grabbed the small plate that protected the left side of his chest and felt it to be half shattered. "W-what happened?" he wondered.

"...M-mom?" someone asked in front of him. Lance looked up and was treated to the sight of the two women he had tackled down. The young, red-haired girl covered in soot seemed to be crawling on the floor towards her mother, who laid on the floor with half a house on top of her, bleeding from her mouth and with lifeless arms stretching on the ground. Alexis grabbed her hands and felt them cold. Her forehead fell on the ground in defeat. "N-no, m-mom! MOM!"

Lance stared at her and felt memories rushing back into his mind of his fight with Bennu Yakos, recalling how he had tried to protect the two civilians with his Barrier. However, despite giving his all and even getting help from his Cloth, Yakos overpowered both Saint and Cloth. Lance had then tried to tackled them down the floor in order to take the bulk of the blast in a desperate attempt to save the lives of the two villagers.

He had failed.

{======================|0|======================}

Chapter End

{======================|0|======================}

Next Chapter: Bond Forged by Fire, part 3 of 3

Release Date: August 17th

Description: Shinta arrives at the ruined village of Arcadia together with Saint Cynthia to save the surviving villagers and to look for Lance. However, there is no sign of the Pegasus Saint and the Specters are still thirsty for blood.