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.

33. 2A: Revelations - Part 2 of 3

Notable OCs: Pegasus Lance's Saint Generation, Civil War Saint Generation, World War Saint Generation, Daemon Lucifer's Specters, Maiden Elisa, Priam's Black Saints; Cyrulian Refugees

Notable Original Concepts: Mount Olympus Training Ground, Sanctuary Court, Teos Cloth, Athenian Empire mythology, Isle of Gardens, Stardust Prison, Hades' Dark Princes, Desert Beyond, Sanctuary Town Layout & Buildings

Recurring/Cameo OCs of Jenny DeVic: Mrs. Schafurwatt, Cyrus

Recurring/Cameo Concepts of Jenny DeVic: Great Bodyguard Legend, Golden Line Heritage, Sanctuary Orphanages, Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests, Sanctuary Nobility, 88 Knights Festival

Author Notes:

-Updated the OC & Original Concept listings above;

-Thank you to Sternhimmel for the named review and feedback

-LR has now finally reached the 100 reviews hallmark! Thank you all so much;

-Double Celebration! Today LR celebrates its 8th birthday. Thank you very much for reading the story so far;

Post-Posting Note: Please login before reviewing as often as you can, especially if you wish to make questions. I can't respond to 'guests' since they don't have contact info on them with their feedback ; )

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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"Today Pandora spoke to me about the duties that will expect me, should I get the Surplice and the Celestial Absolute Star. It's not bad enough that a glorified maid gets personal privileges with the Emperor, but she thinks she can act with authority to me! What a farce. I know perfectly well what my job will be: the destroyer of Sanctuary, so saying that it comprises of 'Three Functions' is just a formality. Every Specter, Terrestrial or Celestial, knows what must be done. I will be no different.

Speaking of people who can't read the writing on the wall, Michael asked me today if there was a way we could both survive our training.

Another joke of a warrior.

I can't wait to snap his neck and take the Dark Angel Surplice for good, but the Emperor says we have to wait until we become adults and wait I shall. Though, in all honesty…. I'm not sure why it matters. Rhadamanthys and the others were anointed to their Surplices way before adulthood, as far as I can tell. Sylphid is walking around with the Basilisk Surplice, blessed by the Celestial Victory Star, and he's just seven years old. His fingers are barely developed enough to hold the feather pen properly but he gets to walk around in a suit of armor that would make a French gendarme die of shame.

That's the reality of the Specters, though… so why will the Dark Prince be different? Does it have to do with one of the Functions? Maybe a long time ago, to first earn their Stars, Aiacos and the others have also had to wait until adulthood? Or maybe the Emperor doesn't wish to sully himself with the blot of having children murder each other for his favor, like that hated Athena does.

Regardless of the reason I will keep taking notes about my upbringing. It has become a pleasant experience, writing these journals. They make me reflect back on things a bit more thoroughly, but I will have to be careful in the future. The other day I caught Zelos standing outside my room and this book laying just on the table, ready for his grubby hands."

-Third entry from Lucifer's first journal, May of 1503

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The storm of white, bright, whizzing meteors tore across the air, illuminating the misty valley and about to gulp up the red-eyed Pegasus Saint. Collecting what little sense he had, Lance crossed his forearm guards and took on the blunt impact of the starting wave of punches, gritting his teeth and feeling his heels drag back in the water and dirt, his whole body reeling. He felt like countless knuckles bombarded his body all over from simultaneous angles. Employing the method he developed against Aguilon, he finished blocking the first sequence of striking punches square on and attempted to stay alert to the heavier unblockable blows as their speed rose and rose, hitting his guard and armor plates faster and faster with heavier and heavier attacks until, finally, on the upper corner of his eye, he saw a much larger meteor flying through the rapid fire straight at his head for a sneak shot.

Violently bobbing his body to the side, he dodged the trick blast which still grazed his forehead and attempted to swing his arm over Tenma's punch to arrest him, but to his shock he only swooped through specks of light in the air, dodged. With no time to figure out where Tenma's physical presence had gone to before the Meteor Fists returned, he urgently readjusted his hand movements to block the rest of the incessant technique punch by punch. He feet-worked his way back to desperately gain some distance and balance and finally felt Tenma landing the first punch on his rib just as he attempted to get out of the barrage's way.

He gasped in pain and lost focus, allowing the rest of the meteor rain to strike his body over his arms in rapid succession, battering him silly and bashing him back into the air, beaten. Tenma smirked and dashed forward after finishing his move, intent on capitalizing his small victory with a finisher.

Feeling light in the air, Lance's eyes widened and he dodged a sudden swing with a body flip with a yelp. His forearm parried a white-armored lunge and he attempted to counter with a wide punch, but the light blur in front of him rapidly flew around him and struck his kidney, stunning him, before a punch at his guts straight on and landing a jump side kick straight on his head, sending the taller Pegasus spinning in the air to the ground. Lance gasped and grumbled in pain and frustration, getting up and feeling completely incapable of controlling the fight.

His red eyes widened when his senses alerted him to a killing blow and he rolled over to dodge a punch that sent the water up in the air and cratered the ground below. His foot swung and tripped Tenma over with a yelp, giving him just enough seconds to rise back up from the ground, catch his breath and try to attack the shorter Japanese Saint with a straight kick that landed straight on his head, bashing off Tenma with a scream and blood splatter. With the flow of the fight back in his favor, Lance rushed off to continue the combo with a dash and swing.

Almost unsurprisingly by then, the unbelievably fast predecessor seemed to just blitz away, dodging the punch, and countered from an off-angle with an overhead punch wrapped in light that Lance parried it off with an arm swing and countered with a vicious elbow blow to the nose, sending Tenma crashing to the water and roll off away from the still dazzled Lance, grabbing his bloody face.

Recollecting his thoughts, stepping back and raising his arms in a defensive dragon-style form, Lance gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes in fury.

"What the f-fuck! The cosmos I'm feeling doesn't seem higher than a Silver Rank, but he's so fast! The Meteor Fist isn't supposed to be so effective! How is he moving like this?!" To further aggravate him, Lance noticed that Tenma had something else to his advantage. "And why isn't his helmet an embarrassing horse face like mine?!" he pointed out, referring to the elegant, winged headband piece on Tenma's forehead.

Even the Pegasus Cloth felt embarrassed by this, having admittedly seen better design days. "I t-think he's using an upgraded version of me. M-maybe we should focus on the fight."

Tenma got up and wiped the blood off his nose. "Ah, so strong… I didn't see that one coming… I can't afford to repeat that mistake." He then clenched fists and recharged his energy, confidently bursting back his aura of white flame. "I feel my blood pumping… I wonder how you'll respond to this next move!"

The 20th century Pegasus couldn't believe the recovery rate of his opponent. "Damn it, he's just a freaking Bronze, how is he moving and getting back up so easily?" Lance complained.

Dohko chuckled. "Yo-oh-oh, another word of warning; Tenma can employ the Light element, so even though he's not a Gold Saint, when his cosmos reaches its peak burning, he can tap into light speed much more instinctively than you can. I would watch out for sudden speed bursts," he then rubbed his whiskers pensively. "Though I forget what exact instance of his growth I've called here…"

Lance flipped. "WHY ARE YOU ONLY TELLING ME THESE THINGS NOW?!"

Tenma saw his distraction and dashed at him. "Take this!"

His attention back into the fight when the water erupted with a set up step and a blazing body of light shot at him. This forced Lance back on the defensive with a series of desperate forearm blocks to try to hold back Tenma's insanely well-sequenced punch combos. "S-shit! What kind of silver rank is this?! He's fighting harder than most Golds I know!"

The purple dwarf master saw Lance's feet drag back again. "Uh-oh… watch out for the fence."

"The what?!" Lance asked, half-busy trying not to get killed. The furiousness of Tenma's successive strikes then pushed him back so hard that, despite his blocks, Lance got shoved back to the edge of the pond and his back suddenly hit a wall he couldn't see, literally shocking his body with a punishing voltage of Cosmos, sending him into a screaming fit and falling down on his hands, gasping.

As ghost-Tenma confidently smiled and assumed a passive pose, waiting for his opponent to pick himself back up, the Libra Saint explained himself. "I guess I should have told you that, too. I put up a seal around the field so I could set this whole scenario up. Not much of a point in trying all this unless I can make it so your opponent doesn't stop being solid. Try not to hit it if you don't want Seiryu's energy to shock you."

The modern day Pegasus Saint growled in anger, wiped the blood from the bruises on his face and stood back up, ready to fight. "Alright then… I fuckin' get it." His cosmos burned, emanating a thin white aura, and he eyed Tenma furiously. His fingers tensed into the makeshift trios of dragon claws, his right foot dragged forward and his energy focused, ready for the counter. "Let's raise the ante, you twerp!"

To his surprise, Tenma chuckled excitedly. "That's a powerful cosmos you're emanating, I can't wait to test my progress against you." Closing his fists next to his waist, he manifested his own white aura, making his blue eyes shine like a star. "This battle will allow me to become an even stronger Saint, for sure, and I'll be able to protect Athena. Let's do our best."

But his unwilling sparring partner could just vomit at such optimism and idealism. "What is with this kid?!" he growled, vexed at meeting such a mirrored version of himself.

Dohko couldn't stop chuckling from his perch. "Hi, hi, hi, I swear to the Gods, it's like watching a cat argue with a dog!"

The red-eyed Pegasus crossed his arms and charged his white aura furiously, eyeing Tenma with nothing but the purest hate. "Alright, you want to play at being a Knight of Athena? Then let me show you a real Pegasus Saint move!" Mocking Tenma, he then began moving his hands to form the constellation points like an amateur too, causing his aura to increase in burning intensity and the background to begin to turn into the image of a nightsky.

A happy, boyish grin filled Tenma's face. "A contest of 'Meteor Fists', then?" he prepared his own set, moving hands up, down, left and right in a much more graceful manner to shape Pegasus' star lines. Upon finishing, he re-assumed his stand-by stance and narrowed his eyes. "Let's see who's shooting stars can outnumber the other's, then. PEGASUS!"

Lance also finished his charge, adopting a different stance with his right hand closed next to his waist and left pointing at Tenma as if aiming. "PEGASUS!"

The duo of white, thin auras then rose up and swelled to burn into a duo of large flames, illuminating the whole valley. The old master watched in excitement as two separate images of the same constellation of a winged horse were projected in a background of a starry sky, but Tenma's Pegasus was proudly prancing on his hind legs, showing off its majestic wings as if about to stomp down on its opponent, while Lance's projected a wing horse that was coiled down, wings lowered, its legs tense as if about to explode into a cavalry charge.

The Master couldn't be more interested in this. "Time to see which move is superior."

Tenma made the first move and confidently lunged his punch. "METEOR FIST!" and he shot out the familiar, furious barrage of large meteor of white light.

But his opponent instead shot himself like an energy blast straight at him and blazed through the meteor barrage, red eyes focused on target and right fist still immersed in the attack's energy. Tenma gasped but had no time to react. Just as his foot stepped back, Lance shouted out his move and lunged his fist "CHARGE FIST!"

He then instantly accelerated right into light speed and trailed his own image across the battlefield through a tiny opening at the center of Meteor Fist, striking Tenma right in the chest with the super-powered bullet punch. The fooled youth screamed out in pain and his armor plate gave in, cracking, sinking and ultimately collapsing, letting the laced bullet strike his flesh. Speeding across the battlefield with a light-trailing blaze, Lance's charged force brutally pinned Tenma against the field's edge barrier, shocking the materialized memory warrior into a shouting, fuming flurry.

Lance panted and stepped back, letting his adversary fall down on himself. He saw the gaping hole on Tenma's armor. "H-how was that?!" Suddenly, Tenma's whole body burst out in light, blinding Lance and sending out a force than then bashed him up the air and away from his adversary. Barely landing on his feet, the red-eyed warrior growled exasperatedly. "D-damn it, what the hell is it now?!"

Amidst the eruption of light, Tenma rose again, breathing heavily and eyes immersed in determination to defeat his opponent. He locked his attention on Lance and prepared himself to resume the fight. "You are powerful… I must be more careful, but I also can't afford to waste time here." his hands rose once more. "I must defeat you, whoever you are."

"What the…but I hit you as hard as I could!" Lance protested, flailing arms and urgently resuming his stance. "I've stopped people's heartbeats with that kind of blow! What kind of fucking slasher movie is this?!"

"Well, heh-heh, I think it's clear now which one is more stubborn," mocked Dohko.

The student eyed him. "Roshi, this isn't funny!" he then felt Tenma's cosmos rise to frightening levels. "This experiment of yours is going in a dangerous direction, stop it right now!"

"Absolutely not, Tenma is fighting exactly as he should." Dohko asserted, shaking head and shocking Lance. "It is you who must arise to the occasion and fight to unlock the lightning cosmos."

Lance stepped back nervously as Tenma rejoined the pond's center, ready to tussle. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?! I don't even know where to begin and fighting someone you've clearly made immortal!" Burning his white aura anew and made it flow around himself over and over until it adopted a new, orange tone. "Fine, then if I can't punch this guy down -"

Tenma hesitated, sensing a new move. "Uh, what is this?"

"Then I'll burn him down! PEGASUS -" Lance then punched forward yet again, but Roshi then waved his hand up from where he sat.. "FLAME ATT-" A flurry of water then burst from the pond, washing over Lance, gagging him and dousing down his technique, sending his energy reserves crashing down. Lance coughed repeatedly and spit out liquid, completely drenched "ROSHI, w-what the hell are you doing n-now?!"

The Master tapped his cane disapprovingly. "NO burning, you're here to be taken to the limit and unlock lightning. You must push your cosmos so it will unlock a new element and using your old one will just give you a backdoor. Do it again and I'll douse you like a dog in heat."

Lance growled in unbridled rage but had to turn his attention back to the fight when Tenma suddenly blitzed at him and resumed the melee with a starting jump kick which Lance barely had time to block. The following land stomp was harder to dodge, and so was the rising punch drenched in light cosmos which the Cancer-born had to block with his palm. Tenma's flurry of strikes continued in the form of what looked like rays of blue light firing faster and faster at different targets in Lance's body, which Lance had to block or dodge in a desperate series of increasingly harder movements.

"Damn it, he's getting faster, stronger and more annoying! It's like his specialty is spamming the hell out of his foes until it works somehow!" he found himself barely dodging a punch with a head bob and felt a bit of fear. His mind rushed through all of his training and close combat techniques, but it felt like all the finesse of his dragon style movements were pointless against Tenma's combos. "T-this is bad, I'm getting tired just trying to keep up with this kid's movements. I need to change the fight's pace!" With this in mind, Lance dragged his foot forward as he blocked a punched, feinting Tenma into trying to counter him with a left hook, but this let him catch Tenma's left fist and hold it down. Lance rushed ahead and caught the shorter fighter's right one as well, holding down Tenma.

The Pegasus Saints found themselves in a gritty power struggled, pushing on to see which was stronger. Cosmos burned furiously and the two white auras attempted to outsize each other. With a satisfying sound of feet dragging back, it seemed like Lance began to overpower Tenma. Possessing superior brute physical force, he pushed the youth back from the center of the field, robbing him of space, before suddenly dropping Tenma's hands and executing a perfect straight kick at Tenma's stomach just as his startled opponent pressed his weight forward, further smashing in his chestplate and bashing him back.

The newfound distance was perfect and Lance took advantage of it. "PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!" his aura exploded once again and he shot himself forward in a body-image trail, fist point burning in white like a hot bullet.

Having seen the technique, though, the injured Tenma merely smiled confidently. He swung his whole body to the left, letting Lance's punch fly up his right, and swept the pond with his foot to strike the charging Pegasus, tripping him over and sending his whole momentum spinning through the air to the ground.

Tenma watched him crash down painfully on the watery floor, near the barrier. "I'm a Saint of Athena, no attack will work on me twice!" he reminded, feeling victory near.

"Ugh, oh s-shut up!" Lance complained, feeling his ears buzz from the spinning and shakenly getting back on his feet. He was spending a huge amount of energy just on the defensive. Eyeing the jovial opponent over his shoulder, he couldn't help but feel infuriated at the absurdity he had experienced so far, feeling all his best-trained combat moves crumbled before what seemed like a complete hack of a fighter. "Fine… you want a new technique?!" he menaced, turning around and feeling the energy surge up his back.

The Master widened his eyes from his standing point, sensing the familiar energy of the Dragon God being summoned. Even the tiger Ma Chao angrily growled by his side, interested in the fight for the first time. Dohko stood up from his seat. "Lance, don't use it, I won't allow you!"

The taller Pegasus Saint shook his head, annoyed, feeling he had heard Dohko say something but unsure thanks to the buzz. He instead focused on Tenma, whose innocent smile seemed to mock him. "I'll show you something you've NEVER SEEN!" His aura then exploded and the tattoo on his back burned. His foot slid forward and Lance prepared himself to launch. "ROZAN!"

Tenma's blue eyes widened, recognizing the technique. Dohko saw this and panicked, rushing down the overlooking rock. Within the space of nanoseconds, however, the Japanese youth's cosmos erupted. "PEGASUS!"

Lance charged forward before the dragon technique locked his movements, blasting up the pond water with the force of his steps. With a dancing leap, his leg swung with a kick at Tenma to force him to parry with an arm, compensating the need to get to close, before the Greek landed in close distance with a heel drop. He struck Tenma's face with his left punch, making sure to keep his right one free, to lock him in place, before stepping into his field of defense, igniting the dragon's cosmos into a loud, guttural roar and unleashing his uppercut, "SHORYUHA!" His fist rushed from below Tenma's guard and up to Tenma's chin, packed with green, flowing energy.

But the semi-stunned youth instinctively threw the huge white meteor just off the side and over Lance's arm, "COMET FIST!"

Dohko gasped and reached the barrier just as the insides of it exploded with the light of clashing attacks, sending out sound shockwaves that made trees around the field wave back as if in a storm, the sound of shattering armor heard underneath the outburst of bright energy. The light subsided and, just as Dohko predicted, the worst happened.

Lance's red eyes bugged out and blood dripped from his mouth. Shaking like a leaf, he felt the white gauntlet firmly planted on his chest through a broken hole in his armor, grinding around, while his own punch had just failed to reach Tenma by a matter of inches. The Pegasus Saint from the previous war had seen the characteristic weak point of Rozan Shoryuha, milliseconds short moment where the left hand lowered and exposed the heart, and flawlessly exploited it to land a critical, comet-size attack.

Let go by his opponent, Lance stumbled back, grabbing his wound, and his whole body went into arrest, his heart seeming to skip a beat.

"O-Oh no, Lance!" the Pegasus Cloth pleaded. "H-hold on!"

But to punish the owner further, the reflux of the cosmos of Seiryu's move then flowed back into Lance, just as it had happened with Guardnia, further shocking his body with a painful swerve of energy like an internal whiplash. He fell to his knees, unable to answer the armor. The world began to go dark, blood splattered out through his lips, and finally Tenma burned his cosmos again to immerse his fist in a finishing attack. The sound of glass walls crashing was heard and a small, dwarfish figure seemed to strike Tenma's back, making him vanish into bright specks of ectoplasm, just before Lance blacked out completely.

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Meanwhile,

The Underworld,

Fourth Prison - The Swamp of Darkness

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Among the burning coffins in the black-sanded wasteland, Wyvern Rhadamanthys tensely paced across the Prison, eyes burning with fury. If the stress that the incompetence of his subordinates guarding the 3rd Circle wasn't enough to drive him nuts, his last training session with the Prince had been on his mind for days, trying to decipher the meaning behind not only his repeated failures to defeat his sparring partner, but also his parting words.

Take your time, Rhadamanthys. On this choice lies your future, your pride.

Wyvern stopped, feeling it ring again in his mind. His teeth gritted in rage upon feeling the Surplice's mental tentacles once again prod his brain for answers and lost memories. What did this mean? Was someone, especially the Prince, hiding something critical from him? But the prince himself hinted at it, so what if he was not Rhadamanthys' enemy? What if, somehow, Wyvern should really reevaluate what's been going on in the Underworld? Feeling these thoughts prod his brain like cattle, his anger suddenly erupted and his large armored fist smashed a nearby coffin, crushing the agonizing skeleton inside.

What complete tripe; what choice was there to make? What was there to think about? Only one thing should be on his mind; the annihilation of Athena's cowardly army. Nothing else mattered!

Flapping his large armor wings to unleash a huge blast of winds, Rhadamanthys took off to the air and flew over a crevice into the fourth prison's domains. Normally he would be in charge of the Fifth and Sixth Prisons, but Garuda Aiacos, lord of the Third and Fourth Prisons, had been suddenly called to Giudecca and requested the Wyvern to briefly pass by his jurisdiction and make sure everything was in order.

Since he still didn't know the reason for all of this, Rhadamanthys touched his own forehead to contact the Garuda with a mental ping. "Aiacos, are you at the Palace already? Has the Emperor really called you to Giudecca?"

A mental message from somewhere eventually responded. "Yes, but I believe things are more complicated than I was led to believe."

The single-browed youth widened his golden eyes. "How so?"

"It turns out it this will be a strategy meeting, from what Pandora has hinted me. Perhaps Lord Hades has grown tired of waiting to recharge his powers…. though I confess that warring so soon worries me."

The judge flapped in midair to stop his glide and sustain his flight for a second. A strategy meeting? How strange, Lord Hades usually did not concern himself with having earthly defenses other than Pandora's castle, usually relegating it to Prince Lucifer. "This is unexpected, does he have an attack on the Saints in mind?"

"Perhaps, I will tell you more once he speaks to me. I won't be able to message you once inside his room." the Nepalese Judge assured before severing connections.

Wyvern's teeth gritted. He had no quarrel with Aiacos, but why had the Emperor chosen to confide with him first? This was another unacceptable lack of confidence in the Wyvern that Rhadamanthys would have to correct.

Scores of passing Skeleton Soldiers watching the scene of the testy Judge venting out his murderous rage made them tuck their scythes and pretend to ignore him. No one wanted to question such a visibly perturbed beast, even one as young as Rhadamanthys. The last person who challenged him had gotten their face smashed on Guidecca's steps on the day of Hypnos and Thanatos' return. Lately, the blonde Specter had been especially irritable and even Minos and Aiacos avoided him.

Looking over the River Styx, Rhadamanthys halted his angry march once more, trying to take solace in the stark beauty of the Underworld. He could always refocus his senses back on the task at hand when he thought about how he had gotten where he had always felt he was destined to be; as the Judge of the Emperor Hades. The Swamp of Darkness that coursed through the midlands of the Underworld, made him drop his jaw when it exposed corpses washing up ashore. The dead branded with their sins of extreme rage and despair now swam up shore.

Outraged more than usual, he picked one up high in the air and immediately blasted him back to the river, filling the valley with fearful shouts and splashing the black water everywhere. "What is this?! Who has left the river in such state?! LYCAON!" he called, referring to the New Specter left in charge of this Prison. Looking over, however, his golden eyes saw nothing but Skeleton Soldiers nervously shake their heads or flee. "WHERE is Lycaon?! The dead are leaving the river and moving up to the Fifth Prison! How dare he leave this in such a state?!"

But the passing soldiers continued to shake like leaves. One had the bravery to step up and try to answer. "W-we… we don't know, Lord Rhadamanthys. Lords Troll and Golem were here recently and talked, then they just left us in charge, but our powers aren't enough to keep the Prison in proper condition, not with all these dead!"

The Wyvern walked up to him and punched the man across the river valley, making him fall in the river, desperately swimming up but was grabbed and pulled down by the dead.

"USELESS, all of you! I don't care if there's a Third World War going on in the surface and whole cities are being put to the bombs; the Emperor would weep at the sight of you! Where did they head to?!" This time, however, they were more hesitant to answer. "Tell me now or you'll all take a bath! After I drop you from a fifty foot cliff!"

"THE S-Second PRISON, sir!" one shakily answered, not daring to look the Judge in the eye. "I s-saw many headed down there."

This made the Judge halt for once. "The Pyramid of Gluttony?... What in Hades' name could they be doing there, a picnic?! The Second Prison is half of Griffin's domain, too. Is he asleep?!" he pondered, flapping up his wings and lifting himself up into the air to order the grunts. "Do I also have to watch over Minos' domains?! You useless scrubs will get this place back in order before I have to get the dead to do it for you!"

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Chapter 32

Second Arc

Episode 3

Revelations - Part 2 of 3

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Second Prison - The Pyramid of Gluttony

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The Specters closed in on Lucifer, slowly surrounding him. For some time, Lucifer imagined that they must have grown tired of all this unrest and rounded up beneath Alraune Lemon. He knew that, sooner or later, this generation of Specters would catch on on how badly they were being screwed and would rise up and revolt against him. His 7th sense scoured the area and beyond, counting his opponents and checking on the Judges.

"I see… you took advantage me calling the Judges to a meeting with the Emperor to stage this." concluded Lucifer, feeling the three Judges' powerful cosmos in the Underworld all outside where they should be already. "I'm almost curious as to where you got that information…"

A varied collection of smirks and chuckles were seen and heard. Suddenly, out of the whole group, the Worm Specter and a new Cyclops Specter that had replaced Servo stepped forward, taking Alraune's side.

"Daemon Lucifer, Celestial Star of Pride…" Worm Samuel squealed, a man of grey hair packed inside a fanged, bug-eyed purple helmet and pasty white skin covered by dark-red scaled plates wrapped with dangling, tri-fanged appendages. They clanged with anticipation. "...Keh, keh, keh, keh! How the mighty have fallen! It seems you have dropped your guard…"

Large, red gauntlets cracked their knuckle bolts. "He, he, he, and not a second too soon" Cyclops Balgo, Servo's former protegé, laughed in accordance, the yellow eye on his forehead, the Eye of Arges, shimmered and locked onto Lucifer. "You will pay for humiliating us! For treating us like garbage! Most importantly for Lord Servo, who died in your service!"

Lucifer smirked. These men were obviously underestimating him. He was capable of admitting that the half-baked trap they pulled together caught him by surprise, but only because he couldn't imagine they'd muster the courage to go for it.

Cyclops Balgo saw the smile on his face and sweated nervously. "...You think you should be laughing, you worthless bat?!" he asked, feeling the fortitude of the mob around him fill him with confidence.

"We'll teach you fear by the end of the day!" declared Lycaon Coronis, the wolf-armored Specter with his fanged fists clenching in rage.

The Prince of Hades folded arms, staring them all down. "Fear? What do I have to fear from you?" he asked, scanning the large group with his red eyes. "I am the Dark Prince of Hades, the closest Celestial Star to the Emperor, and you're just a bunch of replacement warriors."

A faint angry murmur was heard coursing through the mob with this buzzword. Cyclops Balgo in particular was angered, bashing his fist on a nearby rock, smashing it into dust. "... Again with that title! Celestial Star of Shit, is what you are!" Cyclops shouted, raising his gauntlet in outrage.

It was then that Lucifer noticed the figure of calmness among the storm, Alraune Lemon, the powerful Specter elite who gestured the group to keep their wits and stepped up to the Prince. "Don't let him disconcert you," appealed the red-haired, plantoid-armored man. "This has always been his usual tactic, constantly belittling us all with these worthless names to make us think we cannot question him. He's no better than us, I assure you all."

With his suspicions of who was responsible confirmed, the Prince's energies roused, making his cape flutter in a windless chamber and the room darken, intimidating the lesser mob. "So you really were the one to put them up to this. Good to know. I now know which dog sic'ing fool to destroy first."

Alraune Lemon scoffed at the light show, pointing a tip of his tentacle at the fallen, three-headed dog by them. "That cur? You don't frighten me, Prince, I could have defeated Cerebos myself." To prove this, Alraune's cosmos suddenly burst and, as if sparked, his tendril suddenly whipped off at lightspeed at the unconscious monster, striking its belly and bashing the gigantic body further against the wall, making the entire pyramid shake from the impact. Clouds of dust fell from the ceiling as the torch flames flickered. "You showed nothing special, like always. Your titles are false, and now your head will roll!"

This had an encouraging effect on his warriors, who all nodded and grunted approvingly, eyes locked on the Prince.

The other tentacled warrior in the chamber stepped up. "Do not worry! I, Worm Samuel, will show this man the power of the true Specters of Hades!" he then pointed his palms at Lucifer, "GIANT HOLD!" Several worm-like appendices shot out from Worm's surplice, flying across the room and entangling Lucifer's every limb, torso and even the neck. The worms tightened themselves around their mighty prey, holding it still. A single tentacle rose up to stare its glass eye at Lucifer's annoyed face, as if threatening to tear him apart should he move. "Heh, heh, heh, behold, the mighty Prince restrained!" he called, arms waving at the scene. "Should I tear off his face, or snap his neck?"

Cyclops Balgo stepped forward, the Eye of Arges burning in yellow energy. "Option number three, I smash his face off his neck!" Cracking his knuckles and charging towards Lucifer, his fist suddenly was wrapped in earthly energies and swung, overlapped with the illusion of a real cyclops swinging its mace down at Lucifer. "POLYPHEMUS KNUCKLE!" The blow that had years early nearly killed Cerah then bashed straight on Lucifer's face, bursting into a huge shock wave that shook Worm's arresting appendages and pushed away the rubble in the room against the walls.

A shout was heard and blood splattered everywhere. The mob cheered in support at the first blood being drawn from the Prince and the Cyclops unleashed his fury on their anathema. The powerful punches continued, echoing their force through the Egyptian halls.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Sanctuary

House of Taurus

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Feeling the sunlight lowering behind the mountains, Taurus Aldebaran prepared to close the huge doors to his House. He had been playing soccer all day with his new buddy and maintained only a casual vigilance, not even wearing his Gold Cloth. Saga had told him it was fine so long as he didn't take the it outside its Temple.

"Hey, Aiolia, come on, it's getting dark, your brother will be here soon," he warned. The Leo had been dropped off with him for the day after some strange incident where Aiolos found his younger sibling just outside Rodario's premises.

The five-year old, brown haired child rushed along the much taller Brazilian boy to help him out, huffing and puffing to push the large wooden door half. He eventually had to get help from his friend, who joined the two together and loudly clanked them into place. "Aldebaran, your House doors are too big! How do you manage this gigantic temple everyday?"

The 6-foot seven year old Taurus dusted hands, making Aiolia cough with the large clouds of dust he somehow collected in his fingers. "Ah, it's easy, Master Daniel taught me everything that there is to know about this place. I wanted him to get his rest real soon so I worked extra hard to earn my Cloth."

Aiolia noticed the key in his belt. "Aren't you gonna lock the doors?"

Aldebaran's fists rested on his hips. "Nah, then how are ya gonna get up to Leo, dummy? I'm just gonna keep them like this for appearances. You gotta lot to learn about being a Go…" he then remembered Aiolos' warnings about talking training and retraced course, taking a toy out of his pocket and squishing it. "Uh, I mean, look what I got here."

Aiolia's blue eyes widened like marbles. "OOH! Is that…" he grabbed the plushie. The different layers of terry cloth over cotton made it seem like real armor over skin. A big grin was stitched on its face, its chest was pumped out and the comically large arms were proudly resting fists on hips like a superhero. "An authentic Herakles Aguilon plush?! Is it from your special collection?"

The older boy chuckled and ran a finger beneath his nose, proud of his massive action figure, badge, trading card and memorabilia treasury that he amassed with the chore allowance from Master Daniel. Toys from outside Sanctuary were usually not allowed, meaning most kids only had access to simple wooden blocks and scraps, homemade balls or cloth dolls. Anything like a puzzle or a toy box were saved for the wealthier children of nobles or tourists, so elaborate merchandise like this was considered a real treasure.

"Yup, being of the Taurus House has its perks, ya know? Pull its cord."

The little Leo candidate indeed found a ring corded in the plushie's neck and pulled it. It made a whirring, retracting sound and then the plushie spoke! "I got a rock in my sandal!"

"YEEH!" Aiolia practically screeched in excitement, making Aldebaran wince, and ran his fingers through the toy's feet in search of it. "IT CAN TALK!"

Aldebaran rubbed his pained ear. "Ouch, watch it, I don't wanna go deaf."

"I LOVE IT, can we trade?!" Aiolia begged, humming and running his mind through his own measly goods back in Aiolos' chest. "Umm… I have a few Silver Saint cards I managed to get from the 88 Knights Festival game."

"Pfft, I have the full collection," Aldebaran assured, burning his golden cosmos to shape a small cup of light. "I even beat Camus and Mu at the tournament and got the trophy."

Aiolia gasped and thought again. "UMM...I can add in an extra soccer ball and some crayons I can throw in!"

"I'm not five, either." the giant seven-year old reminded, still skeptic.

Sweating bullets, the young Greek patted his own pockets, desperately seeking for a bargain chip. He pulled out the plastic-wrapped sweet that Lance got him and eyed it indecisively. Aiolos told him he could eat it if he got his homework done. "Oh… I guess I got this chocolate."

Aldebaran rubbed his own chin. "Hmmm… I guess I could use some after-practice protein boost." he practically yanked it from Aiolia's fingers. "Deal, no backsies."

Moving up the stairs to them, Aries Mu then walked in on Aiolia half-heartedly examining his new collectible and Aldebaran anxiously unwrapping the chocolate goodness. "Aw, I want chocolate too."

"Uh? Oh hey, Mu, what's up?"

The toy's string was pulled again. "You're my favorite sparring partner!" It was enough to win Aiolia's heart all over again. "Puny God no smash Aguilon, Aguilon smashes puny God!"

A smile of recognition was brought to the lilac-haired Aries' lips. "Hey, I think I designed the voice mechanism for that one, ah ah, I'm glad you like it. Some of the recorded lines were kinda… silly, though. Saint Herakles improvised a lot."

The Taurus Saint broke the chocolate in two and shared a half with the Aries. "So what's up, Mu? What brings you to my abode of badassness?"

"Actually…" he started, smiling nervously like he was about to make an embarrassing request as he accepted the candy bar. "I was wondering if you could stay as the front guard for another period."

Aldebaran's eyes widened. "Again?... you know, at this rate we might as well switch Houses."

Mu shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "Sorry… I can't help it, I got orders from my teacher. I promise I'll be back as soon as possible. I already cleared it with Saga and he says that I could even take my Cloth. I can't miss this chance to catch up on my studies," he confessed with a sad pout.

This reminded Aiolia of the earlier conversation he had with Aiolos and Lance. "He wouldn't be the only one, Al'. Lance also left to finish his training. I also saw Saga practice by the hillsides, so everyone is working super hard."

Mu hummed. "That's weird… I could have sworn he didn't pass through my temple today."

"I could swear he's been gone for days," confessed Aldebaran, surprising them. "Saga has the weirdest schedule out of all of us, no one ever seems sure where he is or doing what. If I were crazy I'd say he somehow divides himself in two with his crazy space powers for multitasking."

Mu smiled. "Oh that's just silly, Al'... why just two and not three?" he pointed out, though Aldebaran seemed unamused. "Well, I think his Cloth has strong illusion powers by itself, people probably sense it at his House thinking it's him while he's off doing something."

The muscular, brown-skinned boy knew this too well, having gotten lost in Gemini once, but still folded arms resignedly. "In any case, about you leaving, it's just… I feel nervous about being on my own with just Saga backing me up. I'm worried about what might happen. Ever since the festival I haven't felt safe with temples just emptying around mine." He then accepted Mu's request with a sigh. "Alright, I'll keep an extra eye out, if I can manage it."

Mu patted his huge should sympathetically. "Don't' worry, I'll be back before you know it, Big Al'. Hey, Aiolia, come on, I got some new toys made I can sell you at my Temple just before I leave."

Already half-thinking about how he would convince the Pope he could handle the front guard on his own, Aldebaran watched the over-excited blonde boy rush with another scream of happiness behind Mu down the stairs. Aiolos wouldn't be content with Mu badgering his little bro with his 'great deals' again. The Taurus Saint just hoped that all of this wouldn't lead to another thunderbolt hitting the Pope.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Underworld

Second Prison - Pyramid of Gluttony

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

The cheers of the crowd of revolting Specters died down into a preoccupied cacophony of whispers as they observed the shocking scene of broken metal and splattered blood. Cyclops Balgo panted heavily, sweat filling his face, and stepped away from the restrained victim of his punches after the massive beating he delivered. His own dark-red gauntlets were shattered open, the pieces on the floor, and his knuckles were exposed to flesh and blood that dripped down.

His teeth gritted in frustration. "Y-you… t-this can't be!"

Arrested before him by Worm Samuel's metallic tentacles still stood the Prince, defiant red eyes glaring right into Balgo's shadowed orbs, his body and armor still intact. For a full ten minutes, the crowd watched Cyclops hit him over and over with the mighty Polyphemus Knuckle, but there wasn't a smudge on his impeccable Daemon Surplice of purple and red plates or even on the exposed face of the silver haired man that Balgo had repeatedly tried to cave in.

Even Worm Samuel now stepped back in fear, feeling his appendages were wrapped around a monstrous beast that would tear him to pieces, but something terrifying, an electricity in the air, paralysed him from unwrapping the tentacles. "Y-you're not human!"

Lucifer narrowed his cursed, crimson eyes and muttered "Pathetic…" Suddenly, with a simple shout, his body seemingly exploded in purple light, destroying Worm's metal weapons to pieces much to his shock. He tossed the pieces still laying on him to the floor. "No wonder Yakos and Kairos were crushed so easily. Even with me completely vulnerable you couldn't even so much as scratch my face. I hope you two have had your fun, because now the spectacle will be turned on you!"

Samuel fell on his back in terror and crawled back. "NO, STAY WAY!"

A lightning-fast grasp caught a lone, intact worm tentacle on the ground and pulled the small man up into the air. Samuel flew right into Lucifer's grasp by the throat, choking him, and the merciless Prince immediately bashed his head straight into the yellow brick ground, shattering it through rock and breaking his helmet to pieces. Blood splashed all over Cyclops' foot and the rest of the crowd took an instinctive step back, disturbed by the speed of the vicious finisher.

Lucifer eyed Cyclops with fury. "And how will your death meet you?"

Clenching his naked, bruised fists, Cyclops roared in desperation and burned his cosmos. "D-DAMN YOU!" The yellow eye of his helmet shined brightly directly at Lucifer. "DARK CRAT-" a fist immediately swung right through the metal eye, shattering it to pieces and breaking the spell before it could even start. "G-GAH! N-NO, you basta…AGH!"

"You're a shy cry from your predecessor, aren't you?" asked Lucifer, unimpressed by Balgo's flimsy attempts to grab his wrist and legs as he dropped to his knees.

"I'll KILL y-you!" Balgo then blindly swung his free fist, but it was instantly caught by Lucifer's other hand which then squeezed it like a hydraulic press, intensifying his suffering and sending him into another screaming feat.

The Prince's hand began charging energy, but instead of lighting up his gauntlet like a flashlight inside the hole he just punched into his enemy's helmet, the temperature in the room seemed to drop and shadows began flickering in the room. Eventually, as if swooped over by a vacuum, the shadows flew around the two of them into Lucifer's hand, engulfing it into a black grasp around Balgo's bloody forehead. "Let me show you a real spell of terror! ETERNAL DARKNESS!"

An inhuman scream was heard and the grasp erupted into a torrent of shadows, completely swallowing up the Cyclops inside a unknown, alien-looking dome of darkness. Lucifer then let out a war cry and fired his blast, swallowing up Balgo entirely from inside his one-eyed protection in an exploding ball of purple energy that screened the room with smoke. The mob stepped back in alarm, the clouds of smoke running through them. A single, loud bang was heard and the large broken body of Balgo was spat out to their feet, helmet completely destroyed and half his head burned off with energy, now mostly bald and scarred.

The lowly Specters stared at their friend in terror. "W-what… was that? What kind of a-attack was that?"

"The way he screamed…" Lycaon muttered, now thinking twice about his choices in life.

Lucifer kicked off Samuel's unconscious body off the platform he stood in and faced the crowd. "Which one of you is next to face the terror of the Underworld?"

Partially pressured by the gaze of their peers, partially disgusted by Worm and Cyclops' easy defeats, the Specters of Golem and Lycaon then stepped forward, though with less enthusiasm than their predecessors.

Lycaon Coronis was the first to speak. "You took out those two, so what?! There's no way you can stand up to all of us!"

Golem's heavy gauntlets cringed close. "Resist all you want, Prince, but you'll break to one of us."

Dark cosmos burned around Lycaon, projecting the image of a werewolf in the background. "I'll tear you to pieces, Prince! HOWLING INFERNO!" Lycaon then launched a jagged blast of dark cosmos at Lucifer.

The ground shook and several boulders from the rubble from Cerberus caused suddenly lifted up into the air. "And I'll crush him beneath our feet!" said Golem. "ROLLING BOMBER STONE!" he then launched them towards Daemon almost at the speed of light.

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, whose red grew more intense for an instant, and, seeing both attacks approaching him, "GREATEST…" two orbs of purple and white formed in each of his hands "...CAUTION!" he then pointed them at the Specters, somehow causing them to explode into multiple rays of light that then converged and formed a flying, screeching demon of dark cosmos.

With jagged teeth, dangling claws, stretchy wings and large horns, the manifestation flew across the room like a nightmare, running through the combined attacks of Golem and Lycaon, destroying the rocks of Rolling Bomber Stone into pieces and literally devouring the blast of Howling Inferno. It then flew towards the two attacking Specters with a haunting screech. Both Specters were grabbed by the demon and taken towards the skies, exploding on the ceiling. Golem fell back on the floor, lifeless and with his surplice completely smashed up. Lycaon followed, his Surplice very damaged but, apparently, still alive.

He eyed up the prince, blood flowing down his eyes. "That was… Judge Rhadamanthys' attack. T-too much...power..." he muttered.

"It seems I don't even need my own attacks to deal with you lot. It's time I finish this," declared the prince, already preparing his next move. The other Specters, frightened, took a step back. "Who is your next champion?!"

Alraune Lemon suddenly wiped the wall with his Surplice's appendages, shattering the rock in warning. "Where do you think you are going? You slid down the tablet doors, remember?" he pointed out to his wavering followers, "Not only are the doors locked, but do you really think this guy can keep up this effort against thirty Specters?"

"Twenty six." corrected Lucifer, smirking.

Alraune, along with a few braver ones, remained still, emotionless examining Lycaon's fallen body and moans of pain. He scoffed at Lucifer's joke and took a step forward, challenging Lucifer with just his proximity. "You don't think I brought only the rabble to deal with you, Prince? I have obtained some very powerful followers, including some faces you might recognize," he then snapped his fingers to signal his elite.

Out of the crowd, a small number of Specters stepped forward. Some of them were already noticeable among the many faces due to their size, some due to their extravagant armor. The most powerful Specters in Lemon's mob got to his side and presented themselves.

Behemoth Torak, the large, black-haired student of Gryphon Urial with the blue-colored Surplice shaped like a rhinoceros. Sphinx Neferti, the brown-skinned, black-haired woman who guarded the Pyramid of Gluttony and had been nearly tortured by Pandora. Nasu Erika, the blonde, mysterious, pale-skinned Specter most members of Hades' army knew little about but heard rumors about her cannibalizing her victims with her powers. Finally, Papillon Ainsel, a tall white man of curly blue hair wearing the butterfly orange armor with large, multicolored wings took the flank, completing the quartet of elites.

Joining up together, the four Specters were indeed a formidable force, even against a Judge. Lucifer ran his eyes through them and took special notice of Neferti. "Oh, Sphinx… now I understand how this pathetic trap was laid."

She presented her harp and looked down, pathetically. "My apologies, Prince. I was surrounded and made the judgement that the time of to decide our our fates had come, so I told them about your intentions to call the Judges."

"Indeed, it has," Lucifer confirmed, his smile gone, he then faced Papillon. "And you, Ainsel, I figured your absence as of late was due to kidnapping children, not conspiring with that snake."

Ainsel politely bowed. "I was undergoing my metamorphosis, your Darkness, but I could not miss this grand occasion, Prince. It's not every day you see veils of deceptions as grand as this one shatter like this."

The Star of Pride finally rested his gaze on Lemon himself. "You will pay for this, Alraune, sooner than you think."

The proud, plantoid Specter laid out his arms and tentacles, presenting his force. "Then you finally see how you don't have a chance, Prince? I never even dreamed I could beat you with the force of our weaker hopefuls. To take you down, I knew I needed truly powerful allies, and what better way to start off your demise than to get some of your most trusted servants on my side?"

The lower Specters nodded, their confidence reaffirmed. "Y-yeah… with these four, we can kill the Prince for sure!" one affirmed. "Let's get him!"

The five powerful Specters approached Lucifer, outflanking him. The mood of the crowd energized itself again and fists rose in support of the elites. "Ah, ah, what will you do now, Prince?" asked the Bat Specter.

"He can't do anything." concluded the Deep Specter, backing the five elites from the sides and smirking like a devil. His hand then flared up with a toxic miasma cosmos. "The Judges and the Prince are powerful, but when it comes to Gold-rank fighters, quantity matters much more than quality. Between Torak's strength, Ainsel's psychic powers, Neferti's music, Erika's tricks and Lemon's power, Lucifer is completely on our own. And if he tries anything special, I'll add my poison to the mixture, and Bat has his soundwave powers. This is the day the Prince dies."

The arrogant conversation was not lost on the Prince. It was true the Alraune Specter had gathered some varied powers underneath him to ensure the Dark Prince wouldn't have an attack avenue he would be completely dominant in. However, it would be a cold day in hell before he would be taken down by a plot as pathetic as this.

"You went through some trouble, Alraune Lemon," the demon confessed. "Sometimes your misguided ambition impresses me. If only you put your energy into supporting your comrades, maybe Guen and Maia would still be alive."

Alraune halted and scoffed. "That line again? How original, but I will tell you what I told everyone else here; they were fools to follow you blindly to begin with. Your mission to Andromeda Island was misguided and suicidal. They were thrown to their deaths by you, not me."

There was a concurring murmur flowing across the many Specter's mouths. Lucifer's red eyes scanned their mood carefully. It was time to turn this franchise around. "Not for nothing, my dear Specters; I've learned important information from their excursion to Andromeda Island, and Daemon Lucifer does not make the same mistake twice… I wonder if you could say the same?"

The red-haired man scoffed. "What are you talking about, Prince? Are you just throwing random nonsense, hoping to confuse my men?"

"This is far from the first time you've shown your treacherous hand. I've had my eye on you for a while, Lemon," said Lucifer, folding his arms. "You are a large fish, but you're in a much larger pond, and that will be your undoing, and of your little friends."

The angry murmur that followed in the crowd was matched by Lemon's annoyed frown. "Stop with the nonsense, you bat-helmeted freak. You got nothing on me, I've turned your men against you and all I had to do was point out how weak you are as a leader." His aura of cosmos charge and his arms spread to the sides. "You don't even have the support of the Gods! Thanatos now despises you for letting his nymph bride get away and that woman, Pandora, whom you fawn over, has nothing but contempt for all of us, you included. I have an army on my side! Who do you have?!"

Lucifer glared at him intently, making Lemon quiver for a brief second. The Prince then snapped his fingers.

And with this, Torak, Neferti, Erika and Ainsel all walked ahead of him. Lemon's eyes widened. "H-hey, what… where are you going?!" The four elites ignored him and took Lucifer's side, standing below his platform in standing guard.

The other Specters also jaw dropped and shouted in protest. "What is this?! Treason?"

"What the hell are you four doing?!" screamed the Deep Specter.

"Neferti, you traitor!" shouted Bat, showing fanged teeth. "I'll burst your ears for this!"

The Sphinx shook her head at the crowd and the flabbergasted Alraune Specter. "You fools are the traitors, not me. You turned your backs on the light of Prince Daemon Lucifer."

The Deep Specter stepped forward, disgusted. "Light? You cynical scumbags, I'll kill you!" his aura manifested into a large, flowing miasma. "I knew we couldn't trust you! I'll fill your corpses will toxic poison until your lungs burst!"

But the huge Behemoth Specter folded his arms and stared down threateningly at him, the silhouette of a rhinoceros monster manifesting briefly, making Deep's aura flicker away in sheer fear. "The second any of you attack the Prince, I will flatten you."

Erika rested her hand in waist condescendingly. "Seriously, what a poorly put together rabble. They honestly put their trust in Lemon rallying us? This is laughable," she mocked, an evil smirk on her face. She turned to the Prince. "They've been planning this for weeks, Lucifer, and I'm afraid this was all they came up with: an ambush on Neferti followed by the same trick against you. No wonder you're so unimpressed."

"It can't be helped," assured the silver-haired Celestial Star of Pride. "But now I'll set things straight with these hopeless fools."

Alraune tightened his fists in rage. "What is the meaning of this?! I had your word of honor! Why are you siding with this bastard?!"

It was Ainsel's turn to mock him, genuinely confused at how Lemon could think he had their loyalty. "A much better question would be: what made me think I could usurp the Prince? Lemon, you silly thing, the Specters are treated less than dirt as it is, and Lucifer is the one that has been making sure it hasn't been less than less than dirt."

The specters were jawdropped with this claim. "W-what… Ainsel, how could you say that?!" Deep asked.

The Nasu Specter laughed out loud. "If you think the Prince's commands are harsh, then know that serving directly under the Emperor would make your heads spin in despair." Argued Erika, shrugging her shoulders.

"Even now his Judges think of nothing but punishing the dead and use you as tools for it. But the Prince has given you structure, command, and a reason to fight for." added Behemoth Torak, serious as a door nail. "And it is far more than any of you undignified warriors have deserved. Word of honor… don't make me laugh."

Pappilon Ainsel glanced at the taller man. "I don't think they're the kind to appreciate those things, Torak, like me. But it does make me wonder what made them think that killing Hades' Left Arm would make things better?" He then ran his purple, sunken eyes through the crowd. "Tell me, you all, did you really think Lemon was the kind of guy that could lead you all to Elysium? A guy that let Basilisk and Minotaur risk their lives and fall because of his own selfish ambitions?"

The long-haired Behemoth shook his head. "This was a hopeless revolt from the start. Even if by a miracle they succeeded, Lemon would just drive them to their ruin or sacrifice them for his own benefit."

The many Specters couldn't believe their eyes and looked at each other in fear, shame and confusion. Alraune's eyes reeled, feeling outflanked by the accusations.

"Did Lemon lie to us? He told us we'd have the upper hand!" one queried, panicked.

Hearing a weaker voice now questioning him made Lemon snap to reality. "I did not lie to you idiots! They're t-tricking you like always!" Lemon screamed at his men. His aura then flared up, a mass of energy of reddish brown color, charging his power and bolstering his strength before pointing at the Prince. "It's you, Lucifer, you're the cause of all this! You, your silly pretensions to power and your lies to keep us down. I'll make you swallow your worthless titles."

"I do not lie," Lucifer warned, red eyes suddenly narrowed. "I will warn you once, Lemon. Now submit to me or be destroyed!"

"Go to hell, you fake demon! I'll show everyone you're no better than us!" screamed Lemon, making his plant tendrils arouse with energy. He roared, charging his power, and the image of a guillotine ready to fall appeared behind him as his arms crossed in the air. "Those other four fell, but I am much more powerful! BLOOD FLOWER SCISSORS!" His arms descended in arcs as if targeting the sides of a neck and his tentacles shot out in similar movement patterns at the speed of light, instantly crossing the distance to Lucifer, flying over his four guards and closing in on his head to decapitate the Prince!

But the two tentacles suddenly bashed against an outburst of Lucifer's terrifying cosmos, which casually exploded in all directions in a blinding flash, shattering the metal appendages to pieces which clanked on the floor.

The mob gasped and gawked.

Alraune sweated bullets and widened eyes in terror. "W-what… this attack broke Neferti's instrument! He destroyed it by just releasing his power?" As if a musical note was struck, Alraune then screamed in pain, grabbing his chest, and fell to his knees. "AAH… W-what is happening?! G-Gahh!"

"Thank you for reminding me of what you did to my favorite harp," said Neferti, walking up to him and materializing her repaired large string instrument into plain sight. She played another set of notes and Lemon screamed again, a bulge in his metal chestplate now prodding visibly. "Now I'll see how you like something close to chest be taken from you."

The Prince turned to the men gathered by Lemon. "As you can all see… Lemon's trap has been turned on him. Now who else thinks they can defy Hades' chosen champion, the Celestial Star of Pride?!"

Complete silence was heard in the crowd with the only occasionally whimper and scream from Lemon as Neferti made his heart pump harder and harder inside his chest.

Somehow, the Bat Specter, the Terrestrial Searching Star, gathered enough bravery to speak his mind. "D-damn you. This is why we took Lemon's side in the f-first place. W-why do you torture us like this, you bastard?!"

The Deep Specter also joined him, despite seeming increasingly clear that their coup was doomed and they would be thrown into Tartarus for their affront. "For years and y-years we hear about how you lord over us… we were chosen by Hades and yet you act like we're nothing like dirt!"

"To me, you are nothing but dirt," confirmed the Prince, merciless.

The Golem Specter, who finally picked himself back up from the rubble he was thrown into, looked up revolted at the Prince. "W-we pledged our souls to this place… I s-spent half my life torturing countless people, because the Emperor promised us s-salvation! I made f-family and friends roll the boulders of greed up the hills, tossed them down the pits of fire, did everything for Hades, and yet you give nothing back! Now you replace us with these...p-punks and children…" he whined, the memories of Shylphid's mocking fresh in his mind.

This gave pause to the Prince for some reason, who signaled Neferti to stop squeezing Alraune's heart with her music, letting him spasm and gasp on the floor, sweating in terror. In fact, all the four elites seemed to share complicit glances.

"Maybe we've tortured them enough, Prince," suggested Papillon Ainsel.

The fly-armored woman, Erika, scoffed. "I disagree. They deserve to be torn to pieces!" She gazed down condescendingly on the Specters. "Look at you lot, conspiring like cowards against the Prince, listening to Lemon's pathetic schemes, and now acting like you're the victims. I wish I could feed you all to the flies."

"D-damn you! Of course you wouldn't understand!" shouted out the Deep Specter, his voice muffled by his full-face mask. "You're all strong, much stronger than us! We're not super-prodigies like those freaks, Rhadamanthys and the others! What could we do but bank our hopes in Lemon? He told us he'd give us justice!"

"Justice?!" roared Behemoth Torak, instantly silencing the room with his deep, imposing tone and frightening blue armor. His fists clenched, threateningly grinding muscles. "The only justice you deserve in this world is what you can get with your own damn strength, and all I see are cowards who didn't fight for their own dignity. You deserve no better a fate than Yakos and Kairos! If you really wanted a different outcome, you should have knelt before the Pride Star."

It was the Dullahan Specter's turn to cry out. "At least they had the courage to leave! Your precious Prince let them go! It's just like Lemon said, he has no interest in us!" For some reason, Nasu Erika burst out laughing. "W-what's so funny, you witch?!"

She covered her mouth in fake politeness. "Those two? Ah, ah, ah… I'll have you know Bennu Yakos died praising the heavens to give Lord Lucifer victory. A just ending, if you ask me."

"It's true," confirmed Papillon, nodding mockingly. "We both saw it from afar, with our superior sense. After he got sniped down by the Gemini Saint, Bennu saw the light and understood who he should have listened to all along," he laid out his hands. "I recommend you do the same."

This revelation silenced the revolters, who felt chills run down their spines as they felt completely incapable of penetrating the veil of indifference before them. The five powerful Specters seemed unwilling to sympathize with their plight and more and more it felt like they would be wiped out for their punishment. The sight of Lemon still gasping for breath on the ground beneath Neferti's greave was even less encouraging to their cause, which now seemed completely sunk in a well of despair.

Dullahan couldn't accept it. "You… you're l-lying-" he then suddenly got blasted straight in the chest by a dart of purple lighting, sending him screaming to the ground and spasming.

Lucifer's fuming index finger lowered. "That will be the last time I'm accused of lying by you worthless replacements. The next to try will have his brain fried inside his skull before he can complete his sentence," the Pride Star threatened, looking each Specter in the eyes and visors. "I am the Dark Prince of Hades, the top commander of the Emperor's forces. Anymore disobedience and disrespect will be rewarded with complete annihilation."

The mood of the mob lowered to complete depression, with their helmeted gazes lowering, arms laying out, and some even sitting down and kneeling in defeat, shaking their heads.

"This c-can't be happening…" one despaired

"I can't take this… This is a nightmare…" another wailed, grabbing his head.

"Why h-has Hades forsaken us?!" the Deep Specter cried out, finger shaking uncontrollably. "We were the chosen ones, he came to us and promised Elysium…"

And amidst all this hopelessness, one of them, the Bat Specter, slowly walked forward, presenting himself, looked up at Daemon Lucifer and asked. "Lucifer… please tell us… What did you mean by 'replacements'?"

The four elites suddenly smirked, sharing another complicit look with one another. The Prince jumped down from his higher platform and walked up to the mob. "We have stayed here long enough, I want the Pyramid cleared out. Those of you who wish to take my hand and swear loyalty… meet me by the Desert Beyond's edge to the west." he then walked off and blasted down one of the sealed stone tablet doors to rubble, opening a path out of the Pyramid. "Follow the dilapidated road signs where there is no road, and you will find your destination. There you will see the light."

Sphinx Neferti then noticed the fallen Cerberus and the ruins caused by the battling. "After you clean this place up." She then harshly kicked Lemon's rib. "That's for causing this mess in my Prison, you snake!" and joined the other three to follow the Prince out.

The many Specters looked at one another, left alone to make a collective decision or pondering who would pick Lemon back to his feet first. The Prince wanting them to come to that place could only mean one thing; he wanted to tell them something without the Emperor and the Judges knowing. With a broken leader, disregarded cries and nothing to look forward to but an eternity of continuing to be ruthlessly humiliated by the Prince and the other upstart Specters like the new Judges, the Specters, one by one, made up their mind and began defeatedly lifting the broken pillars and shattered wall rocks back into place.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Many Hours Later,

Earth,

Rozan Mountain

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Back at the Master's house, Dohko entered the living room, seeing the young teenager finally awaken and sitting up on the blanketed floor bed that the teacher brought him to after the disastrous fight with Tenma. The Pegasus Cloth rested safely inside its box by Lance's side, who in turn rubbed his eyes and head like he had a migraine.

"Welcome back, you were knocked out for a while," mocked the dwarf, resting his hands on his cane and was sitting by his student.

"Ugh… w-what happened?" groaned Lance. "O-ow, why does my chest hurt so much?"

"You did something naughty that you were not supposed to," recalled the Master, referring to how the Greek misused the Rising Dragon force once again. "Keep going at it and Seiryu might decide your little contract with him isn't worth it."

The Pegasus Saint was probably still too doozy to remember what happened, since he seemed to just wince and groan complainingly like he always did. Dohko noticed that the Pegasus Cloth itself was already emanating faint signals of energy, probably in a mental conversation with its owner and filling up the gaps in his memory with what happened. This was a useful perk of one's armor being alive; it acted like a decent black box for when you screwed up.

Truth be told, Dohko was concerned for a while; the Comet Fist hit square on Ascending Dragon's opening, something the Master feared could happen if the technique was used on Tenma. It was hard to calibrate exactly what instance of Tenma's life was reproduced by the wisps of the valley through this summoning trick, especially since Dohko was no necromancer like the Cancer Saints. It seemed like a good idea at first; a worthwhile experiment to try to jumpstart Lance's path towards unlocking the lightning element. Tenma had ideal fighting characteristics for this task, like having an element very similar to Lightning's characteristics, namely Light, and the fact that he had the same armor and stubborness as Lance would hopefully force the new Pegasus Saint to exhaust his options and break new ground within himself.

It was certainly a faster method than the hours-long training sessions of lightspeed sparring in the middle of rainstorms he had resorted to last time he managed to get his student close to unlocking the new element. Dohko thought it would be less risky, too. Sometimes he was wrong.

Seeing Lance nodding or shaking his head at the Cloth box, confirmed to the Master that they were talking and made the Libra wish he had the same special power as Shion to converse with armors without restrictions. As it was, one could not speak with armors without their permission unless you had some sort of bond with it, and there was a lot Dohko could ask the Pegasus Cloth if only he had the ability to. Unfortunately, the Pegasus Cloth was one of the shier of the eighty-eight, according to Shion. It seemed to barely converse with Tenma back in the day, if ever, preferring to commune with him silently as if they needed no words for it.

Perhaps being so talkative to his new owner was further evidence that Lance was not, in fact, Tenma's reincarnation, as it indicated that the constellation felt the need to commune with the Greek with much more direct effort, lacking bonds from previous lives. Lance's stories about how he got picked to get sent to Mount Olympus also suggested he was initially either meant for some other constellation (and Death Queen Island came to mind with this) or that he lacked affinity altogether. The latter was far from uncommon, as people were usually only born with the protection of their Zodiac.

Dohko certainly knew a bit about the risks and hardships of having to commune with supernatural entities, as a lifetime spent in Rozan with the Libra and Dragon Cloths forced him to. There was good reason they were technically ownerless at the moment; both had dangerous personas, one of which nearly killed Lance at the bottom of Rozan's waterfall lake not too long ago, and he wasn't even directly interested in their Cloths. Still, it was an interesting experiment. Dohko was not the kind of person to dwell on memories too much, and he could use the summoning trick as a picture book all he wanted if he wished to see the face of old friends from the past, but it was not often he got to see two Saints of the same armor going at it, contrasting styles and attitudes. It was certainly an enlightening experience, if not for the student, then for the Master.

There was also, confessedly, an odd pleasure in seeing the real Pegasus Cloth in action from a third person's perspective. Maybe it was a stronger revival in Dohko's memories of who Tenma was than a fake ghost. He certainly didn't think he'd get to see the armor so soon in his lifetime again.

And after what happened with Tenma, Dohko wasn't sure if he wanted to.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

The party of Saints ran across the Underworld, now in the Fifth Prison were the coffins of heretics burned until time itself would end. The Underworld seemed like it really was ending; the ground rumbled and shook, fracturing all around them into geysers of green, angry fire, forcing them to steer around as fast as they could. The starry sky clouded itself for the first time ever and made thousand-mile long lightning bolts course across it. The wailing dead wandering about cried louder than ever before, making the Saints punch and kick them out of the way as they tried to grab the group members. Time-space itself seemed to want to tear in half as the way ahead of them seemed to distort itself, further delaying their escape.

Sasha reached a crevice and stopped, seeing the dark river Styx ahead, and pointed her staff ahead at the wooden platforms left behind by the fallen Lycaon Specter. "Quick, everyone, to the rafts! We're half-way through!" The ground beneath her left foot suddenly gave in as another massive fracture tore through the ground and Sasha slip down with a yelp.

"SAORI-SAN!" Andromeda screamed, catching her by the wrist, his chains snapped off back at Guidecca. He lifted her up and held her close, feeling her shaking in fear. What happened at the Palace still seemed to be affecting her. "T-this is insane, it's like the whole Underworld is falling apart!"

"It's just like when we first beat Hades… except in the Underworld instead of Elysium." Sasha commented.

The worried Gold Saints who rushed to their side, Dohko include, overheard this. "Sasha, what do you mean? You sound like you experienced this before."

But Athena only gave him a comforting look. "Nothing… perhaps just memories from previous lives." she lied.

"There's no need for rafts, either. DIAMOND DUST!" cried out Cygnus, using what little cosmos he had left to blast the dark sludge with a cold wave so powerful that even the mystical river formed a bridge of solid, ragged ice to cross. "Come on, everyone, if we stick around we'll be trapped."

The group agreed and rushed down to cross the bridge. Just before Dohko and Shion stepped on it, there was another harsher quake and the Libra stumbled, stopping him. Amidst the panic, this paused him long enough for his senses to expand again and notice the fighting back in Giudecca.

Shion approached him. "Dohko, are you alright?" He then saw his friend's shadowed face lift to reveal two huge streams of tears. "D-Dohko?"

Dohko gasped for breath, his face reddening. "It's gone… his cosmos has extinguished… Tenma is dead."

The other Saints stopped. Andromeda in particular gawked. "T-Tenma-kun… he…"

It was then that the Aries Gold Saint sensed, indeed, the sudden disappearance of the two massive signatures wrestling back at Hades' palace. A wash of sadness and solemnness came over him, realizing what happened. Still, he hardened his Lemurian traces and patted Dohko's shoulder. "Let's not dally, Dohko."

"S-Shion… I..." the tiger could barely form words, looking away in shame.

The Lemurian shook his head. "We can't afford to lose ourselves here. Tenma has accomplished what he sought to do; to face the Darkness and give us a chance to live." he then faced the others, chin held high. "We must not stop, not now, Saints of Athena or the sacrifices made so far will be thrown to waste."

Still, the failure combined with the sight of Dohko's silent weeping made the Dragon Saint shake and tear up as well. His drake-shaped gauntlet punched a riverside boulder, smashing it to smithereens. "Damn it, if only I was stronger! If only we could have fought through the Princes!"

Having met Tenma first, Andromeda was even more inconsolable. "If only I could recharge my God Cloth…"

Phoenix, as usual, stayed strong, closing his eyes in a brief solemn honoring. "It can't be helped… especially after fighting Hades all over again. We did the best we could with what little we had."

"Brother…" Andromeda cried out.

"Just like the Po-... just like Aries says, all we can do is not fail in our mission now that we've come so far. It's a miracle Tenma managed to make a stand for us as it was. We cannot throw that away," he reminded, inspiring the Saints back into shape. He saw Athena stopping ahead, wondering what happened. "Let's not tell Saori for now. We'll have time to mourn later."

With newfound determination, the group nodded in accordance with themselves and immediately rushed through the ragged ice bridge, followed behind by the two Gold Saints. Libra Dohko comforted himself with Phoenix's steely words, knowing he was completely correct. At least he would take solace that his student's final act of bravery did not go to waste.

Then, as if to make his hopes all come crash down, a piercing, sky-splitting screech was heard, making them stop halfway through the ice passage. Faces paled, temples sweated and gawking mouths and eyes raised to the skies in disbelief and terror.

"W-what?! It can't be?!" Cygnus gasped.

The sky darkened and, far off, a large shadow glided through the cliff peaks, chasing them. A spectrum of pure rage emanated from it, even far off.

"The Darkness has not fallen yet?" Sasha asked out loud, amazed. "Why won't this just end?!"

The Underworld skies rumbled again and more and more fissures and geysers opened up in the Fifth Prison. The gliding shadow reached the shore of Styx and came crashing down before the ice bridge, spreading black, shadowy miasma everywhere. The Saints raised fists and gritted teeth, ready to fight.

The figure lifted itself, large streams of blood dripping down on the floor like puddles amidst pieces of broken Damascus, indicating heavy injuries. The same mad red-eyed look from before gazed up at them and blue sparks of electricity began to crackle until, finally, the black cape usually adorning it gave way for the terrifying metal wings, now heavily cracked and holed by its most recent battle. Its arms then rose into the sky, lifting up an armored body, and with a crackle of a thunderbolt in the sky, the monster tossed it to the ground, revealing a battered, young corpse with a hole in its chest amongst its many wounds.

The sight of the battered facial features froze the Libra in place. Memories of the laughter of his little brother figure filled his head, wrenching his heart and contrasting with the cold, dead body on the shore. Dohko stared at the scene wildly, feeling his hair arouse up like a feral beast and his eyes sharpen into slits. "TENMA!" he screamed, before rushing back to the bridge to face the monster. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Roshi, NO!" the Dragon Saint cried out, grabbing the Libra Saint and pulled him back. "WE HAVE TO GO!"

Shion saw the beast of darkness screech and rush at them."Crystal Wall!" his reflective barrier bashed off the enemy and Shion helped Dragon drag off Roshi. "EVERYONE, RUN!"

"Let me GO! TENMA!" Dohko screamed.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

The old, purple dwarf watched the modern Pegasus Saint get up and pack his armor on his back, finished with his conversation with it. He had the sudden instinct to tell him to sit back down, but shrugged it off. "How do you feel?"

Lance winced again, touching his chest. "Sore… but surprisingly okay."

"Impressive recovery nonetheless, I suppose it's something you naturally develop as a Pegasus Saint," commented Dohko.

He looked at his watch. "Still the same day? I guess ghost imitations don't hit as hard as it feels."

"Still knocked you out, heh heh heh. Let's take another walk," mocked Dohko, leading his student out the door to the grove outside. The sun was already high up in the sky, reflecting rainbows off the waterfall everywhere. The huge white tiger was crawling in the bushed, playing with some captured vermin. "Come on, Ma Chao."

Walking down the grove's slope, the student kept rubbing his head and chest, trying to recall the fight as best as he could. All he remembered were painful meteors of light relentlessly coming from all directions. "What the hell happened in that fight… I could barely do a thing."

"You learned a pretty valuable lesson, not to underestimate the Pegasus Saint, yo oh oh. Sometimes you get a taste of your own medicine," commented Dohko, who looked up to the clouds above. "I think Seiryu isn't feeling it for now, we'll have your next practice session later at night."

Lance shivered into a stop. "You wanted me to go back now?"

It was unusual to see this. "Oh, you don't want to jump back into the fray right away, this time?" he laughed at the embarrassed look on his student's face. "Yo oh oh, it's important to keep stimulating the training of your cosmos while the iron is still hot."

The Pegasus took the chance to reflect a bit more thoroughly on his spar as they walked onto the dirt paths and more memories of what happened resurfaced. What a nightmare of a fight. He felt like he was trying to hit a bumblebee during the close encounters and like he was under machine gun fire when on the defensive. No matter what he did, Tenma seemed to adapt within seconds and his perception of how Lance's attacks worked was terrifyingly high. Just like Dohko had warned him, using a move once seemed more than enough for it to not work on Tenma again, which felt like an insane parody of the Saints' legendary boast. It was hard to think of him as just a simple Bronze Saint abusing the perks of the Light element.

Immediately he began searching for answers for the problems he encountered. He wasn't faster than Tenma, clearly, so he should probably stop trying to outpace him when the boy burned his Light cosmos to its peak. Combined with his smaller stature, engaging with Tenma in close skirmish for too long was probably a bad idea too, even if Lance got the feeling that the Japanese boy's movements weren't as well trained by Dohko as his own combination of street fighting and the Dragon Style martial arts.

How in God's green earth would he be able to hit Tenma hard enough to keep him down, though? What could he do about those crazy meteor fists that just seemed to fire on and on and on, irrationally adjusting their size and speed until they somehow worked? The 'block & dodge' pattern trick he developed against Aguilon wasn't working, but why was that?

He grabbed his own mouth pensively. How was Tenma delivering such force per punch, yet somehow was too far to be countered when he employed Meteor Fist? Something wasn't right about this at all. Cosmos was a miraculous power, but it should have a structure to it, even in levels as high as that of a Gold Saint. His memories then returned to the journal he found on Dohko's study, which had comments about training Tenma, and the Pegasus Cloth's strange thoughts when pressed for answers about him.

Something was definitely not right about this person and what Lance was being told about him. "Tenma isn't just a Bronze Rank with a speed trick, is he?" he asked, getting Dohko's attention. "He must be Gold-Rank, at least!"

Dohko's eyes looked away slyly. "I don't think I ever said anything about him being a Bronze Rank," he reminded. He saw the white tiger bring him up the armadillo she caught. "Ma Chao, no, that's disgusting."

"How does he have Aguilon's technique? Is it originally from the Pegasus line? If so, why does the Herakles Saint have it and why hasn't Pegasus tried to teach it to me?" A sour frown then filled Lance's face and his hands shook. "You know what, Roshi? Nevermind… I should be used to having like a million unanswered questions by now." The white tiger then dropped the dead armadillo on his feet. "... thanks a lot, you huge sack of fur!"

Dohko laughed and patted the tiger to get her to leave them be. "Don't be a drama queen, it's not that complicated. You never communed with the Pegasus Cloth significantly, have you? From what you told me, you didn't even know you could speak with it until after you met the Andromeda Saint," pointed out the master.

Lance irked; pointed out like this, it seemed really obvious. He still felt like someone had made him trip over a cord. "Alright, that makes sense, but… I'm just sick of these totally avoidable shocking twists. I feel like I could have just been warned about them."

Completely ignoring this complaint, Dohko then widened his eyes when reminded of the pink-armored Saint. "Oh, speaking of which… you haven't told me how your friend's been doing."

Lance raised a brow. "What do you care?"

Discreetly doing his best to appear not so interested in it by shrugging his tiny shoulders, Dohko's mind rushed back to the Andromeda Saint he met the previous War. "No reason, he just seemed like a nice person. He's also seen me in my young form, so sometimes I worry…"

"That's your own fault, isn't it? I tried to get you to stop blurting your secret when he visited us." lambasted the student. His red eyes then looked away somberly though. "He has been… busy. We haven't spoken in a while."

"Lovers' spat, uh?" Dohko guessed, resuming his walk.

"How original, Roshi!" Lance spat back while following him. "Next you're gonna joke about how I should send him a box of chocolates, right?"

"So what happened this time?" the dwarf questioned. "I'm curious because of what I've seen of him. I think it would require you to break some sort of whininess record to get him to lose his patience with you."

Sighing over the Master's lack of willingness to take him seriously, the student reluctantly accepted to relive the stupid, embarrassing conversation that drove him over the edge with Shinta. He set it up by reminding the Master of what happened during the Festival, namely the encounters with Cetus, the attack on the Pope and, most importantly, the gravity of what Guardnia had done. The Pegasus Saint used it to justify his own stance on the deceased Cepheus Saint, pointing out he had no positive bias towards him like Shinta did, so his conclusions on the Silver Saint were obviously more rational.

Finally, he detailed the argument itself, telling Dohko all about how Shinta tried to convince him there was an understandable side to Cepheus' actions and how everything basically spiraled down to a personal fight over their ideological differences.

"Do you see how serious this is?" Lance ended on. "He was willing to completely look over outright treason. All because of some shitty good-feelingness he's always parading about!"

The much calmer Dohko raised his brow so high it made his straw hat tip up. "Serious?... From what you tell me, the matter of the fighting was already resolved, under control, and the boy was in mourning. I don't see how it's important to make sure he understands the person he's always looked up to was a scumbag, especially without firsthand experience of Guardnia's teachings." He then scoffed playfully. "Personally, as your teacher, I'm hurt by your cold-heartedness."

Lance's face twisted in puzzlement. "Hurt..?" he didn't mean to offend his teacher. As much as he hated Kastiel, Dohko had shown Lance that mentors weren't all bad. "Umm… sorry, Roshi, I mean, you-"

"Yo, oh, oh, don't overheat yourself thinking it over. So what happened next?" he asked, deflecting the matter like fluid water.

He hesitated, but Lance made an effort to resume his tale. He told Dohko all about how the conversation devolved into an exchange of rants and how Lance ended up kicking the Andromeda Saint out of the Zodiac for calling his motivations into questions. The four months of silence followed, though the Pegasus made sure to mention Andromeda's occasional attempts to reestablish contact with letters sent to the Temple or requests by Aldebaran to let it go. All the time Dohko gave him what seemed to be incredibly skeptical looks, like he couldn't believe how childish the two parties were being.

"Look, don't look at me like that, what was I supposed to do, not care about how he basically said I was just mad about my own sad fate?" Lance pointed out. "His over-forgiving attitude has always irritated me, I just never thought it would reach such levels because, so far, he's also managed to show some pragmatism. But this was ridiculous!"

"Pfft, you're both silly." mocked Dohko, so dismissive of what happened that he looked away and kept guiding Lance through Rozan's forest. "If I got angry with my fellow Gold Saints back in the war like that, we would have been torn apart by the Specters."

They finally reached a spot where the forest cleared up to reveal an open, dry field of many large, pointy boulders. Dohko walked up to one of them and tapped his cane on it. "This is where you'll be practicing to unlock your element. There's mineral and Symplegade deposits around here for when the Rozan river used to course through this place. They will help you go more all-out."

"Okay, fine, I'll work on what to do about Tenma here, but what about Shinta, do you really think it's fine to just… forget the fact that Guardnia tried to kill us?!" he insisted. Dohko then hit his leg with his cane. "OW! What the hell?!"

"I didn't think I would have to resort to this again. I thought you were no longer the angry kid that walked up my door, asking who the legendary Roshi was, but apparently it's back to basics!" Dohko ranted, his tone strangely harsher. "Do you still have the last letter he sent you?"

Lance rubbed his sore leg. "Ugh… of course not, I burned it! We're not supposed to accumulate correspondence in the Zodiac and the dummy even wrote up classified shit in it!"

Dohko eyed him very sternly. "Right now, you'll work on your training, but when you have some time, you're going to write up a response to him."

"Why?!" Lance demanded to know.

Resting his hands on his cane, Dohko then reminded him of something critical. "You already lost a friend, haven't you? Do you want to know what it feels like again?"

The angry look on Lance's face suddenly faltered. His frown softened and his mind returned to an island of fire and hate.

He tried to protest. "It's not the same! Guilty's situation couldn't possibly be more different! It's not fair that you bring him - ..." but the Master's petrified glare was enough to silence him. Images of the mask burned inside Lance's head. His fists clenched and he rubbed his face in sadness. Suddenly, he ceased to only think about the angry moment he went through with Shinta at the Temple of Cancer and the wider world became apparent to him.

"Well?"

Lance shook his head embarrassedly. "No… no, I don't want to remember."

This was enough to satisfy the Master, who breathed deeply in memory of his own losses. "I know… what it feels like to lose a little brother figure." Flashes of Tenma's armored corpse at the feet of the bastard responsible for it went through Dohko's eyes. He shrugged them off. "From what you've told me, you probably already know the ongoing pain of knowing to have failed so spectacularly to have aided someone on your level. Imagine failing someone not that you feel you just want, but that you feel you should have taken a bullet for."

The Pegasus Saint folded his arms suspiciously. He'd be damned if this moodiness and sudden strictness wasn't about Dohko's lingering thoughts over Tenma, too. What was Lance to him, a memorabilia to his teacher? Knowing better than to think so lowly of Dohko, though, after all the lessons he's been given, the modern Pegasus Saint sucked it up, sighed and made an effort to focus on his task, picking a target among the many boulders.

Walking up to a particularly large one, he ran his hand-wrapped fingers on it, feeling its roughness. If he regulated his cosmos just right, he could probably make use of the same rock more than once. But what the fuck was his plan anyway?

Grumbling embarrassedly, he had to admit he had no idea. "Any hints? I mean, you watched the whole fight, you probably got a better view of me being knocked the fuck out."

Dohko looked away and ran fingers on his whiskers. "Well, I'd start by not using the Ascending Force, for once," he reminded.

"God, will you let that go?! It's a useful move!"

"It will also get you in trouble with an angry 50-foot dragon God," countered the Master, who then made a serious effort to help out his pupil. "Let's see… you seemed okay on the skill sense, then again Tenma was never a... complex fighter. What you need is to insist on the Lightning element. It's the only one that can stand up to Light in terms of speed generation and it has superior offensive impact."

The student laid out his arms exasperatedly. "My problem isn't that I couldn't damage him, I broke right through his cloth!" he argued. "It's that he wouldn't stay the hell down and kept blitzing and spamming me with meteors! Which, by the way, I can't even tell how he pulls those off!"

This surprised the Master. "What do you mean?" he tried to recall his student's boring over-emotional life stories. "You told me you've fought the Herakles Saint. He's famous for having Meteor Fist..."

"Yeah, but when he threw them he had direct physical involvement!" Lance scratched his head, running his mind through all the information he could collect about Tenma. He kept in mind not to mention he knew Tenma wasn't his student so Dohko wouldn't think he's been snooping around his journals or being told things by Pegasus. "Your little friend from your memories, on the other hand…"

But a slight frustration in the student's tone was not lost to the Master's ears. "What about him?" asked Dohko, wondering if Lance knew more about Tenma than he should.

"His meteors seemed... to lack physical presence, I couldn't understand how he was moving and attacking," Lance described, trying to figure out in his memories how he would counter something like this. "When I fought Aguilon it was completely different. He was physically engaged in the punches, so I don't understand how I was pinned down so hard and yet Tenma would only change position at the end of his thrusts." Dohko then burst out laughing so loud it made birds fly off the trees, making Lance's face go as red as his eyes. "Okay, knock it out, I didn't mean it that way!"

He wiped a tear from his eye. "Heh, heh, heh! I didn't think he'd make you pop so easily. No wonder you feel nervous about talking to your other friend. You're probably having all sorts of second thoughts."

"Oh, AH-AH! Will you just… freaking help me out with that damned overpowered move?!" the red-eyed teen asked, at the end of his patience. "I don't wanna go back in your ring only to get pummeled harder than the first time."

Dohko eyed him slyly, as if seeing a private joke in his confusion. "It seems to me you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how Meteor Fist works," started Dohko. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Herakles Saint really did employ it differently, given his massive size and muscle weight as compared to Tenma, who's scrawny by our standards, but, at its core, Meteor Fist is probably one of the most basic, honest-to-goodness run of the mill cosmos moves out there."

Lance winced, confused. "Okay… how is that?"

Dohko's tiny fist bumped on the boulder. "You've probably heard the analogy before; the power of Cosmos is like an explosion." he then pointed at Lance. "In my opinion, your Charge Fist technique is a pretty close approximation to how cosmos used to be employed in fights, which always made me guess you developed it partly cause you had no training or education from Saint Kastiel. It has a short application time, allowing it to take efficient advantage of how brief the energy peak of a, well, explosion is."

This hit the nail right in the head, making Lance quiver. The Charge Fist move was, indeed, a pretty straightforward application of the explosive burst of energy cosmos provided, first launching him off his starting spot by burning in his feet and legs, then allowing him to strike his opponent full force in a single swing by burning the rest of the allocated power entirely on the attacking limb.

"But if your Charge Fist is like a single Magnum bullet being fired off, making full advantage of a gun's trigger and firing force, Tenma's Meteor Fist is machine gun fire." continued the Libra Gold Saint. "It consists not of a single explosion of cosmos, but a single per punch he throws at you. Add to this, however, the ability Cosmos gives you to push your reflexes to the same speed as your attacks."

Lance grabbed his chin pensively, already reaching to the conclusion. "He can… adjust the timing, speed and intensity of his cosmos explosions in real time," but this wasn't satisfying. "But… I sort of already knew that. Aguilon did the same. The difference is…"

"Direct physical involvement?" guessed Dohko, to which Lance nodded. "I'm not surprised you're confused. This is, again, a result of your lack of formal training to become a Bronze Saint. You conditioned yourself to think that Cosmos requires physical investment for when you want to enhance your physical attacks."

"Well… doesn't it?" Lance asked, bewildered. "I mean, it's not like-"

"What was I teaching you at the hills, back when you asked about the war? I bet you haven't been practicing it." Dohko interrupted, narrowing his eyes.

A light bulb turned on in Lance's head, staggering him. "Energy blasts… cosmos projection into missile attacks…" He felt stupid all of a sudden. Of course, why would it be impossible for Cosmos to hit at a distance? But something wasn't right, still. "But the impact of his attacks… you've shot at me were energy blasts during training. It didn't felt like that, his hits were too focused, too effective, too… well, physical."

Dohko smiled confidently, as if a carefully laid point in the conversation had been reached. He turned to a far off, smaller boulder to their side and focused on it, taking a deep breath. Lance blinked, wondering what he was up to, and watched as the Master pulled back his green, silk sleeves and clenches his right fist. Then, with a sudden martial shout, the tiny Master threw a lightning fast punch in the air, the air around them blew away and a sudden, low pop was heard, like a bullet striking a paper target, followed by a much louder puff off a large cloud of rock dust behind the boulder.

Not believing his eyes, Pegasus gawked at the state the boulder was left in. Despite barely any cosmos having being burnt, or Dohko even leaving his spot, a perfect, circular hole was blasted right through the boulder to the other side. The remaining structure of the rock was completely unharmed, no cracks or fissures whatsoever, and even the interior of the orifice was perfectly smooth.

Something ran wild inside Lance's brain, as if a law of physics had been broken right in front of his eyes. "How, how, h-how did you do THAT?!" he stuttered. "How did you just… punch through that so perfectly and at a distance?! And with such perfect energy usage, not damaging the rest at all?!"

The cringey, old man laughter returned and Dohko wrapped hands together in sleeves, the figure of a typical Asian master. "Yo-oh-oh, I have my secrets, you know? But this is just a theoretical demonstration, something to prove to you that it's possible to not only project physical force with the cosmos, which was what Tenma did to you, but to perfect it to this extent. In the Rozan Dragon Style, it is the tool necessary to enhance the Rozan Ryu Sho technique, which you haven't learned, and has been typically called the 'Spear Fist', after the analogy of the Dragon Cloth's gauntlet being the world's strongest spear."

Lance's mind relived the entire fight, applying this knowledge. Now it made sense; while Aguilon was committing his body into his meteors, taking advantage of his weight and strength, Tenma, being much smaller and faster, was projecting his fists, allowing him to bombard Lance safely from a distance and only commit himself in the last punch. This meant that it was really no use countering Tenma with the Charge Fist more than once; he might have gotten the drop on him the first time, but it's likely that the second and third would get him shot down like a knight facing Gatling fire.

So how was he supposed to do, this without mentioning Tenma's insane endurance and his other moves? "You really picked a doozy of an opponent for me, didn't you?"

"A great choice, wouldn't you say?" Dohko happily agreed. "Perfect to get you to make use of your Gold Saint advantages AND push you to use a new element."

Lance grumbled. Something told him it would be easy to take down Tenma with the Pegasus Flame Attack and Eruption. He doubted that those lame Meteors could do much against a flying inferno wall. Well, if fire was a banned card in his deck, and skirmishing wasn't gonna do the trick, then he would really have to come up with something new. Maybe now that he understood how Tenma's technique worked he would come up with something.

As far as he could tell, he was facing two major issues; he couldn't keep up with his opponent and he couldn't knock him down. The helplessness of it all made him feel like wanting to grab the fight and shove it down a garbage chute, and maybe the secret was in this fulminating frustration he felt while trying to desperately change the rhythm of the fight.

He practiced a straight punch in the air. He then did it again, trying to pay attention to the feeling of his arm muscles stretching like a snapping snake bite. "Like a lightning bolt. Like my attack is tearing through the air..." he thought, over and over, trying to inspire himself towards the solution. Now that he thought of it, what would he do if he faced an opponent like Tenma or Cetus for real? He wouldn't have Daniel or Dohko to bail him out next time. If he faced such an overwhelming opponent to the point they're invulnerable to Lance in the future again, he would need the means to conduct an attack with a piercing power that fire simply could not provide.

Dohko saw a shine in his red eyes. "Ohh, do we have an idea?"

Clenching fist and pointing his palm at the large boulder, Lance dragged his feet into position and focused his glare. His cosmos began burning, making the air wave with heat, specks of orange light begin to emanate and his hair fluttered. "What if I…" Suddenly, his energy started coursing down the arm into the fist. The layer of Blade suddenly formed, encompassing his and forearm, and the energy generated by the cosmos began more rapidly coursing, like pressurized water, into the knuckles.

The master stepped back, worryingly noticing what he was doing.

"If I combine the knowledge of my techniques…" he thought.

"You could maybe achieve something incredible." encouraged the Pegasus Cloth, guiding him. "And perhaps with your thoughts firmly set on your desire to fight for a cause, you'll make my stars shine!"

Lance's fist suddenly ignited into a large flare, burning with fury and illuminating the area. The flames spiraled around the fist in standby, charging and charging as Lance tightened the constrictive Blade layer. He felt the offensive power of his fist reach threateningly high levels, to the point he wasn't sure he could control it with his meager skills. His head sweated but he tried hard to keep it under wraps, carefully measuring how much power he could put into this safely. The flare swelled and swelled in increments, raising the temperature of the air and making the warrior's armor glean orange instead of white.

Dohko observed, intrigued. He now saw a familiar sight, the projection of the starry background around them when a Saint would use his constellation's move, with the stars of Pegasus shining in brighter contrast with the rest, shaping the winged horse. Eventually, the image solidified itself, but instead of Tenma's prancing horse, ready to fire the Meteor Fist, this Pegasus, just like during the fight between the two homologues, held its wings down and bent its forelegs back, ready to explode into a cavalry charge.

And a spear of fire became briefly visible, poking from behind the wings, as if an invisible knight was saddled on the steed. Dohko's hand flurried into a watery cosmos, shaped like a drake, and suddenly rushed through the projection, catching Lance's forearm and instantly dowsing off the cosmos of fire with his own watery energy.

Lance gasped, feeling the relapse of his strength and the collapse of his set up, and looked at the Master in startle. "Roshi…"

"You're on to something risky, aren't you…?" the old dwarf commented, looking stern. "You're on the right track, exercising your focus like that, but hold your horses for now. This won't be enough for you to beat the Meteor Fist."

Lance nodded, sweating nervously about the discovery he had. If this could work… "You're right… but I have a couple of good ideas on how to do it. I'm not good with multiple attacks, but maybe I can develop something similar just for the situation." He beamed in anxiety. "Roshi, I want to try my hand at fighting Tenma tonight. I promise I won't try anything risky, I just want some more experience. I'll spend the afternoon practicing in this field for now."

The Master conceded, finally detecting a hint of sense in his student. "Very well, but I'm not jumpstarting your heart if you screw up, you brat, heh heh heh!"

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Meanwhile, Andromeda Island

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

The two kids landed across the sand with a slide from the jump, pulling off every little trick in the book to control the fall from a jump while chained to each other. Albiore coughed, feeling the hot sand glue to his sweat-drenched body. His limbs felt like they were made of lead and Elda had to help him get back up. "C-come on, Al… just a few more times." she pleaded.

He gawked and coughed more. "N-no, I can't! I n-need to rest…"

The girl stared at him, wiping her forehead. She couldn't put up much of an argument, as she was filled with scratches, bruises and tears from all the dangerous, difficult practice jumps. The problem was that if they didn't get themselves in shape and jump properly across the distance they marked in the sand, when the time came for the real thing they would fall to their deaths. Saint Shinta's lenience wouldn't do much to help them then.

Albiore was never the stronger of the two; though then again few of the kids at the orphanage were as talented for fighting as Elda. Even though they both felt their bones shaking and their muscles tense, though, in equal strain, Albiore seemed to crumble more easily than her. The brown-haired, grey-eyed girl took off her red neck-kerchief that Rebecca had given to her to give herself some breathing room. Usually she'd only need to think of her heroine to motivate her, or the shit-grin of that purple haired bully back at the Coliseum, whoever that was.

As much as she tried to focus on her objective, though, this time she was genuinely in trouble, mainly due to the kid chained to her. Elda found herself cursing her friend, since she's never had to depend on anyone else to get her marks and her life was on the line.

Saint Shinta told her to be patient, though, and this just made her extra frustrated that Al' wasn't cooperating a whole lot with him. Her cheeks puffed and she lightly tugged her chain to get his attention. "D-darn it, this is a drag… what are we gonna do, Al'? If you can't make the jump properly, neither can I."

He gulped, picturing the blood splatters on the ground. "I know, I'm t-trying…"

She touched her chin, not entirely unsympathetic. There was a time she had needed Rebecca's help too, but she wasn't the type to word kindness like hers or Saint Shinta's directly, as much as she appreciated it. "Why don't you try thinking about how you owe me for getting us in trouble? Maybe that will fire you up." But he looked at her weirdly like she was missing the point. "Sorry, I just don't know why it's so hard for you."

Albiore stood up and looked at his body print splattered across the sandline, while his friend's had landed rightly over it. If it were to happen at the Cliffs, Elda would make the jump, Albiore would not, and his weight would likely drag her down with him. Only a miracle would save them, then.

As such, he fought to urge to bite back at her. Elda had always been like this even at the orphanage, leaving everyone in the dust and berating them for not succeeding, not understanding that her talent was the freaky part, not everyone else's difficulties.

"It's not like I'm not motivated, Elda." he reminded. "I want to pass. I don't wanna die, either."

"Then what's your issue?" she asked, folding her arms. It wasn't easy to constantly hear about how she didn't understand, either.

He kicked a patch of sand. "I… I don't know. Maybe I'm heavier than you, maybe I just can't do it!" Albiore then looked away. "But I don't have a choice, do I?... If I want to become a Saint…"

Something about Albiore's words made her raise her brow in suspicion. No one at the orphanage, especially her, knew much about Al's past. They knew he got brought by a Silver Saint from Argentina, in the midst of some ugly conflict there, and that the Maidens had told the kids not to tease him about it. This wasn't out of the kindness of their heart, as Sanctuary's orphans were expected to scuffle for dominance towards getting shots at being trainees, but because apparently he had angrily beaten the crap out of everyone who tried so far.

She also knew he wanted to be a Saint, not why. She knew he couldn't stand the smell of grilled food, but, again, not why. Katya, the blonde, ice-eyed Swiss girl who constantly bragged about how she would be a Saintia and get the Northern Crown cloth, once gossiped to her that someone had slipped meat into his sandwich from lunch's chicken skewers and Al' instantly got sick in the stomach and didn't rest until he found the joker and sent him to the infirmary. All in all, a pretty problematic and moody boy who kept a ton of secrets and didn't make a lot of friends other than her. She herself shared some violent trends and a talent for soccer that made the boy's teams ashamed to show their faces.

Saint Shinta passed by and saw them finishing practice. "Oh, there you are, I was worried. You two suddenly vanished after finishing homework," he observed the marks they've been drawing. "I wish you wouldn't do extra practice without me knowing. I'm glad you're trying hard, but you could injure yourselves. Have you been making progress?"

Elda sighed. "I am, but Al is stumped, Saint Shinta."

The blonde boy gawked. "Elda!"

She shrugged her shoulders, ignoring him. "He can't land after the line and he won't spit out his problem or ask for help," she ratted out. Her life was more important that Al's little insecurities. "Can you help him, please, Saint Andromeda?"

Shinta smiled, heading for the boy. "Of course."

"NO, I don't want your help!" Albiore screamed, squinting in suspicion and backing away.

Shinta gasped in surprise, but he grabbed Albiore, holding him still as lightly as he could. "Don't be silly, let me check you." He tried to sense the strain in his energies and any chain marks on his skin that could indicate how Al was adjusting to his position. He chuckled when he spotted the cause in markings by Albiore's ankle and associated them to the deeper footsteps in the starting line they chose. "Al'... I told you to sync up with Elda's movements."

Albiore's face went red like a tomato. "I… I knew that! She just moves too fast, I can't keep up!"

"I'm trying to get to the other side," she stressed, squinting. "We obviously won't make it if we make a half-hearted jump!"

"Whow, whow, slow down, you two," warned Shinta. "Elda, don't worry about moving fast enough for now. You two should give top priority to making the steps and jumping at the same pace, coordinated, and making sure you don't hurdle yourselves with the chains. You can worry about speed, later."

"This whole pretest is stupid!" protested Al. "What is jumping over cliffs gonna teach us about the cosmos?"

Shinta sweated. "It's… an important exercise. And it just so happens the constellations you two have been blessed with are heavily connected, so you'll benefit from communing with them this way sooner rather than later. I know that maybe the deadly drop is unnecessary for what you're trying to accomplish, but everyone in the island has… it's…"

It was Albiore's turn to puff his cheeks and fold his arms. "It's what?!"

Shinta's thoughts turned to the late Cepheus Saint and he frowned sadly, making Elda widen her eyes. "It's tradition… of course." he admitted, waveringly. He tried to force himself to smile. "Remember, Elda, slow down to Al's pace and try to get yourselves in sync properly. If you can do that, then you can start worrying about speed and jump length. Remember, you still have a couple of weeks left, don't panic. I'll help you the whole way… just don't think you can't ask me for it. Come on, let's go."

Elda stared at her friend sternly as Saint Shinta walked away. "Great, guess I gotta hold your hand on this one. Seriously, Al', that you're having friction with this guy is beyond me."

Albiore looked away, angrily. Small tears of frustration formed beneath his eyes.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Underworld,

Second Prison

Pyramid Outskirts

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

The huge, winged figure climbed up the protruding boulder raising high above the valley, allowing his gold eyes to survey the landscape of the prison like a hunting wyvern for the missing Specters and Skeletons he had suddenly sensed in the area.

"Where did those useless rabbles go? I'm a Judge and yet I'm forced to scour the Underworld for slacker replacements. When I find them…" He then spotted a large number of dark-armored people leaving the entrance of the Pyramid. "There!" He leaped off the edge of the cliff and spread out his scaled armor wings, gliding down the distance across the valley to swoop down in the area.

The mob of Specters slowly made their way outside. Many of them didn't know what to do now. "Did you see Cyclops?... He looked like he saw the apocalypse after that strange spell."

"I know, he looked like his soul got sucked out." confirmed Lycaon, trembling all over.

"Are you guys gonna listen to Lucifer?" asked Dullahan. "You know, about showing up tomorrow there?"

The Bat Specter nodded. "I… don't think we have much choice… what else is there to do?"

Lycaon looked up hopelessly at the starry sky. "Yeah…" His blank eyes widened, however, when he saw the gliding shadow. "W-wait, what the hell is that?!"

The Specters looked up and pointed at him, spreading out to get away from the beast. "Look out, whow!"

Wyvern Rhadamanthys landed right in front of them with a burst of dark sand, fist on ground, and raised up tall to meet the eyes of the Specters with a glare that could wet a hero of Ancient Greece. Thirty men, as he could best count, all standing right outside Sphinx's domain as if it were nothing while the rest of the Emperor's domain was unguarded and without attendance.

This made his blood boil to dangerous levels.

"What is the meaning of this? A picnic by the Acheron river?!" he roared, making several back off. His cosmos aura burned in the form of emanations of purple shadows all over his body.

Golem gasped, trembling despite the size difference. "We… w-we were…"

"WHY is your Surplice damaged?!" Rhadamanthys demanded to know. "And why don't I hear the barks of the Cerberus?! Why are the dead coggled up in the stairs to the Pyramid and why shouldn't I tear you all to pieces this very moment?!"

Amongst the mob, Behemoth Torak, the blue-armored tall man that had a confrontation with him at Guidecca's steps two years earlier, presented himself. "It's all fine, Lord Rhadamanthys." he calmly explained. "We were called here."

The Judge didn't believe this for a second. "Called?!... By whom? Tell me or I'll make your face sink in the ground a second time!"

"By Alraune!" another voice announced.

Rhadamanthys looked up and saw Prince Lucifer standing above one of the entrance statues' heads. "Lucifer?!"

The purple and red armored devil jumped down, landing between the Judge and the crowd, presenting himself. "It's Prince Lucifer… you wouldn't suffer a Celestial Star not name you as Judge now, would you, Rhadamanthys?!"

The Wyvern stepped back, suspicion filling his head. None of this made sense. Lucifer called them here? Then why did all the whelps look terrified and hollowed out? As he moved his eyes through the crowd, he saw beaten, disheartened looks staring at him that had nothing to do with Wyvern's arrival. The only ones seemingly relaxed were Lucifer and his four closest warriors among the weaklings.

Behemoth eyed the Prince. "We have sneaked the unconscious ones out."

Lucifer glanced at him in complicity and then faced his Judge apprentice. "Alraune Lemon summoned these Specters here, they wished to confide with me about their future," he said, carefully weaving his characteristic lie with the truth.

Rhadamanthys scoffed. "Future?... this rabble?"

The Daemon Specter laid out his hand. "I have called for a strategic meeting with Lord Hades, I'm sure you've heard. Aiacos already headed there," said the Prince, which checked out with what Wyvern knew, if his nod indicated anything. "I believe Lemon heard of it and wished to voice his concerns is all. They were… duly noted."

Rhadamanthys squinted harder than anyone thought it was possible to do without closing one's eyes. "I don't believe this for a second… but alright, Pride Star."

"Now let us go, Rhadamanthys, you'll want to be present too," Lucifer advised, patting his shoulder patronisingly and guiding them out of there. "I have great plans for the army in my command, how to destroy Sanctuary with it, and they will start soon. I'm sure you'll be interested in them."

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Later that night,

Rozan Mountain

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

"PEGASUS… METEOR FIST!" Tenma yelled, firing off his meteors with his punch.

Dohko stood close to the barrier, practically smooching his face on it, and watched as his student once again braved the onslaught of the meteors of light cosmos, doing his best and recently acquired knowledge to attempt marginal improvements at deflecting, dodging and overall counting the attacks, only for to succeed with a few and be pummeled against the shocking encirclement by the rest with a shout and scream. Fuming all over in his armor, Lance charged back out there and engaged Tenma in melee, determined to find a weak point and test out his theories.

Dohko couldn't help but smile, not just from Lance's successive blunders at it, but at the feeling of happiness it gave him to see the fight. It was still a complete catastrophe as Tenma gleefully sped around Lance and countered his every move, but there was a degree of improvement and enthusiasm on Lance's part. For the first time since he first taught him the benefits of the Dragon Style, Dohko was sensing excitement for teaching and in his student for growing, reinforcing the notion that pitting him against Tenma in this makeshift arena had been an excellent idea.

Wounded and bruised all over by this second fight and dragging back from another infuriating blow from Tenma, Lance growled determined and charged his base cosmos to the maximum level. Initially it burned normally in its pale blue and white associated to Pegasus' energy, but then Dohko widened his eyes when he spotted faint sparks here and there in the aura as Lance positioned himself and made his move "CHARGE FIST!" and he rushed off to try and fail to hit Tenma, making the sparks dispel as quickly as they appeared.

Dohko sat back and appreciated the rest of the experiment. It elated him to see he could still inspire a young heart to try so hard, especially against someone as despairing to fight as Tenma. It showed that the master had not lost the ability to project his passion for Rozan's teachings onto others. Dohko wasn't sure what awaited this particular Pegasus Saint, and it was likely Lance would never see Holy War for himself, especially with Hades and Poseidon, but maybe, just maybe, the passing of the baton would be enough for now.

Dohko's small hand discretely rubbed his chest, reliving the pain of having failed Tenma.

He would not fail this one, though, absolutely not.

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Chapter End

{======================/Ξ\.◊./Ξ\\======================}

Next Chapter: Second Arc – Revelations - Part 3 of 3

Description: After a strategy meeting between the Prince and the Judges, the Specters of Hades gather to hear Lucifer's words to them, but the truth turns out to be far more painful than they expected. In China, Lance continues to attempt to improve his odds against Tenma and, in the midst of it, ponders Dohko's words about his disagreement with Shinta.

Author's Note: Funny story, as I finally finished this chapter I got the scare of my life when, in an attempt to cut it to a separate file, I overwhelmed Google Docs' memory and almost lost the contents. Lesson for the future to let GD do its work for a second before I repeatedly click ctrl-V in horror at thinking I lost 20,000 words : p

In the first scene, one thing I really wanted to do with this fight between "Tenma" and Lance was to capture how terrifying it must be to have to fight a Godslayer like Seiya or Tenma. If you think about it, it's a really frustrating thing to go through; their attacks are non-sensically effective and they always get back up, no matter how hard you try to punch them down.

It's LR's eight birthday at the date of this chapter's release and, to further elation, it has finally reached the mark of 100 reviews. It's tough to look back on all of it and realize that, if anything, I wish I had posted more, done more work, but life, and exams, get in the way.

Old readers will recognize the middle scene with Lucifer and the Specters from version 2, but will also notice that it has been changed heavily and repurposed. This is because I have decided to leave it's second half, which was vital for LR then and will be so now, as well, for the last, third part of this Revelations storyline.

Finally, make sure to check out Hitagi Gahara's SKD scanlations of Next Dimension, Saintia Sho and others. The writer of this fanfic is proofreader of Saint Seiya Next Dimension's English releases and they're your current top source for high quality scanlations in English. Also, if you're interested, contact me through PM and get an invitation to the new SKD Discord server, where you can get updates on Sho and ND directly, not to mention chat with me and many other english-speaking SS fans.