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.

40. 2A: Lance vs The Volcano

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:

-MAJOR NEWS; As of the publishing of this chapter, Lance's Role has surpassed Jenny Devic's Love You Kill Me wordcount and officially has become the WORLD'S LONGEST ENGLISH SAINT SEIYA story;

-Seriously, wtf, the LONGEST English SS story in the WORLD 0_0 ;

-And to celebrate this, check my Twitter account right now, because Bluefeather has completed a commission for none other than Lance's Role character Daemon Lucifer, with some color consultation by my friend Yunilicious. Go check it out right now, everyone, it turned out amazing!;

27/07/2022: Finally got around to fix up this chapter's grammar and eliminate the endnote markers

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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"Something incredible has happened. We were observing Aiacos' behavior during his attack on Sanctuary and Suikyo's persona completely took over. Somehow, the Saint came out from within the Specters, yet his battle with Sanctuary continues.

More importantly, we have detected the arrival of a pack of strange Bronze Saints with gold-rank training. So far we have confirmed an Andromeda and a Phoenix. Our spies were sure that Andromeda was still unclaimed in its island and Phoenix was owned by an Amazon named Haisaku. I told them to check again. They came back saying the Cloths were now gone. So now their eyes are gone, too.

The Andromeda, in particular, has caught my interest… if reports are true, he is demonstrating incredible powers with his chains which could be useful if 'repurposed'. Connecting pieces of broken dimensions with one another with simple metal links while Suikyo and Odysseus spread chaos at Sanctuary is no minor feat. In fact, it resembles the powers of the Underworld chains.

Speaking of chaos, Mephistopheles Yona has been acting bizarre, lately, as well. Me, Michael and the Judges never trusted that creep, but ever since the attack on Cain's Gold Saints has begun, Yona has been shifting around the corners more so than usual and raising questions about Tenma. Zelos told me he caught Yona muttering to himself about 'his meddling brother'.

I'm 100% CONVINCED he is plotting something, but Alone won't listen to me! That I have to rely on Zelos to keep a grip on 'another' scheming Specter says something about how much this stenches of treason.

The good news is that the Cain Gold Saints are dropping like flies, half because of Aiacos, half because of one final mystery arrival… 'Ophiuchus Odysseus'. I can't believe it, a 13th Gold Saint! It's like a nightmare out of the Teos myth! Michael and I will sally out secretly as well to confirm the return of the Ophiuchus Saint. We may have to eliminate this 'Odysseus', lest he forms an alliance with Asmita's party."

-Entry from Lucifer's 23rd journal, dated 1751

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Rodario

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The sun was setting on Greece after another hard day of work and Cerah Héloise made her way back home through the streets of Rodario. Her new bosses made her and the other servants wear stuffy outfits which, albeit dignified, were unfit for the warm Mediterranean Autumn. This meant that after several hours making sure their kitchen was clean, their spoiled kids fed, their rooms were tidied up and the garden was taken care of, the extra Drachmas barely felt worth the trouble and the sweat stains. She made sure to treasure these savings, though; they would allow her and Eurydice to live a bit more comfortably and the Cyrulian girl had an enormous debt to pay the Nymph, which she would happily do so.

Going through the village's center known as the Fountain Street, her green eyes spotted a shop of glassed display and a belled door. It had many little ridiculous-looking trinkets for tourists, like little statues in the shape of Athena's colossus or the coliseum, Hellenistic necklaces and decorations, bracelets shaped like Zodiac signs or decks themed after constellations.

They all looked like the kind of thing you'd sell to a dumb tourist.

She huffed indignantly and walked away. What a rip-off! It was a cute little shop, but did people who stumbled into Rodario really fall for these tricks? And they were so expensive! Especially that shiny keychain shaped like a-

Her green eyes widened, her feet screeched to a halt and she instantly turned back and pressed her face on the glass, completely enamored! Laid out among the trinkets, there was a silver-colored keychain shaped like a wing opening to the left with an emerald-eyed crow head poking its beak out to the right. It was shaped just right, the beak and the wing not being too pointy or too long to fit nicely inside a metal ring to which the tiny chain was attached to!

The obsidian pendant at her neck pulsated a bit. "It's 'shiny', isn't it? It would look good when you go out, a cute little thing to hang by your wrist." Corvus surreptitiously spoke to her. "Or it could just make a great gift for Eurydice. You really don't show enough how much you appreciate her watching over you while you had your coma, do you?"

Not consciously noticing the voice in her head, she walked inside and asked the owner, a Greek old artisan man reading a newspaper published from Athens. "Excuse me, sir. How much for that crow keychain?"

He eyed her from top to bottom, weirding her out, and closed his newspaper. "Seven hundred."

She was positively stunned. "Seven hundred Drachmas?!" and her hand reached for her pocket right away. The average salary in Sanctuary was about eighty-thousand, which was barely enough to get by, but more than enough for a little pick-you-up-gift every now and then. "That's great, much lower than I thought, here it-"

"Dollars, miss! Seven hundred dollars." he corrected before he tapped his pen on the display. "It's hand-crafted."

Cerah's eyes were stunned in revolt at this. As a Cyrulian light-crafter, she could tell this keychain was machined. "Hand-crafted?! Are you sure about that?!"

"YES, with real silver." he stressed, giving a more concrete reason for the obnoxious price. He looked her over again. "Something tells me you can't afford it."

Cerah found it a bit hard to believe a quaint little gift shop had tourist trap wares made out of genuine precious metals, but Lucifer had taught her not to offend. With an ashamed face for having misunderstood the price tag and falling for this situation, she excused herself and walked out. What was she going to do? Say she could tell he was lying because she was part of a wanted traitor group?

Her brisk pace took her through an unknown direction in town. Suddenly, she didn't understand why she got so attracted to what was basically a piece of jewelry. What kind of Knight was she? Sure, it looked nice, and any teenage girl like her liked to get a present for herself occasionally, especially one with personal meaning like representing her Cloth, but why did she tell herself that someone selfless and blind like Eurydice would appreciate it as a gift? Was she stupid?

Also, what the heck did he mean, something told him she couldn't afford it?!

Cerah found herself by the fountain with the big statue of all the Gold Saints. The reflection of the water showed her how much of a mess she looked like. Admittedly she was a homely girl, with passable looks for Cyrulian blood. Both her face and the yellow of her hair were a bit too pale thanks to generations of people living inside damp castles throughout Eastern Europe without modern care, but her life in particular had left her a mess, spending years training under a brutal teacher before being in a coma for two years and waking up in a place where she could only get a job burying her nose on the floor for much wealthier people. The result was messy curly hair, a tired look and smudges on her face which she had not even noticed when heading out.

No wonder the shopkeeper thought she was poor. Heck, she was poor.

The sudden melancholy forced a frown on her and made her wander around some more. "Eurydice,... sorry, I'm going to be late a bit, is that okay?"

After a beat, a mental response was returned. "Is everything okay? Did the day go well?"

"Uh, yes." she lied. Lucifer would kill her for it, back in the day. "I just want… to get to know the town."

Somehow, Eurydice must have deciphered her true feelings, because a respectful silence was given to the young girl, who then tried to walk-out her depression.

There were more important things to think about anyway. If she and Eurydice were right, it was likely that Lucifer would be making some sort of grand move right about then. He could be fighting Hades as she stood there. If this was true, Holy War could be on the horizon and the people around her would be soon in danger, and Cerah had no idea on which side to stand on in that matter. This dilemma beat people thinking she looked poor, or being poor in itself.

She happened to be walking by the fabled exit towards the mountain pass, which would take you to Sanctuary Town itself should you cross it. It was guarded by a pair of guards dressed like hoplites. To tourists, they were two security guards preoccupied with the risks of hiking in Rodario's trickier hills and mountains who took the time to make sure no foreigners accidentally entered the risky preservation, but in reality they were there to control traffic and prevent undesirables from stumbling into the heart of Sanctuary.

All it took was for her to get a few dozen feet close to them for the spears to immediately cross as a warning. "Pass, please?"

She stepped back fearfully. "Sorry, I don't have one yet."

"It's against regulation to cross the mountain after working hours unless you have your pass." the guard enforced, eyeing her sternly. "You're not a tourist, right? You should know that."

She gulped and backed away. "Right, I'm sorry, I'll be on my way."

She took a seat on a street bench by the exit to think about things for a while. She just wanted some distance from the rest of the people of Rodario for a few minutes. If the guards took issue, and they did if their stern stares were anything to go by, it was their problem. She was still in a public place, for Athena's sake. To be perfectly frank, she always pictured Sanctuary to be a guarded place in more than one sense, but considering she had lived in Rodario for close to two years and was passing off as a citizen, they could at least not treat her like Cerah had rabies or something.

This gave her enough of a break from her own depression to be melancholic about someone else; how was everyone doing anyway? Being with Eurydice so far, Cerah felt busy with concern as it was, but the Nymph wasn't the only person in the younger girl's life. How was Lucifer doing back in the Underworld? She could make a few guesses based on the dreams he transmitted to her through the Dark Angel's feather, but how was he really doing? If he was fighting, was he alive? Was he making progress with Pandora? Did he miss Cerah? Her finger twirled her neck-length hair bang in reflection.

Wondering if someone missed her was a good way to get her thinking about Daese, though, another mental can of worms for Cerah. Being a bit older, she wasn't exactly tearing up at the immediate thought of her sister having left her, but blood was blood, and sisters would be sisters. What was Daese doing right then? What was she thinking? Did Cerah even remember enough of what her sister was like to make an assumption?

Cerah's attention was suddenly caught by a tall young man who also walked up to the road exit for Sanctuary Town. His head was hooded and he carried a black, polycarbonate modern bow around his torso, the arrow holster concealed by his cloak on his waist's side.

"A hunter?" she guessed. It couldn't be; the bow was too fancy. It was probably a Coliseum athlete.

The soldiers stopped him with the cross of spears as well. "Hey, don't play games with us; down with the hood and show us your pass!"

The young man obeyed, gently exposing his face and hair from the darkness of the hood.

Cerah's jaw dropped, seeing the color of his hair! It was silver!

She gasped and stood up to him. "Lucife-" she then covered her own mouth.

"Hm?" The young man turned to her. "I'm sorry, miss, did you call me something?"

Cerah blinked and took her chest in horror. While his neck length hair had the same color, his eyes were water blue, not red which were a curse mark, and he wore a brown cloak of reinforced-pad shoulders to conceal a black, leather-clad armor pressed against a muscular frame that, aside from its dark tones, had nothing in common with the Daemon Surplice.

This tall young man was not her mentor.

Moreover, the large, black longbow strapped by its string around his upper body and the holster with red-feathered arrows was belted to his waist reminded her that her old teacher preferred close-ranged weapons, like spears and javelins. There were also subtle facial differences, as this young man lacked some of the hardened features Lucifer sported after a lifetime of battle. He didn't seem much older than herself.

Her face went red with shame. "I'm so sorry, I… confused you with someone else."

He stood there quietly, sharp blue eyes narrowing further as if he found it strange that someone could mix him up with anyone in the world. The female refugee was reminded of Aiolos, the young boy that Dr. Iaso brought to Eurydice's house. They had the same sharp gaze, like that of an archer or sniper that had you in their sights, or anyone else accustomed to trained observation.

"That was an odd name to call me." he noted. "You shouldn't be saying it in vain, either. Ironically, Saints don't look too kindly on Christians."

She squinted at the thought of it. "I'm not one, I just-" What was she going to say; that she was a Satanist instead? Her head shook. "... it's just… you really looked like someone I know. That hair is pretty unique."

He smirked charmingly, as if the idea of his rarity personally appealed to him. "Really, my hair...? You must have met some interesting people. What's your name?"

Hesitantly, she spoke. "Cerah. Cerah Héloise."

He smiled gently. "Héloise? A French surname? So it seems you're not an uncommon person in Sanctuary yourself, are you, Cerah?"

The flattery did fluster her. The mentioning of Sanctuary also was evidence that this guy was not a simple tourist looking around for temple ruins. "I'm not… important."

His eyes then surveyed her arm, which she covered self-consciously. Much like with Saint Aguilon, it seems the slightly toned shape of her muscles was a dead give-away to her lies. Throughout the day she would be able to hide it with her stuffy servant outfit, but now she was out in the warm sunset so she hadn't concealed them.

But as if he could tell this made her uncomfortable, he looked away respectfully, relieved her. "Isn't importance a relative thing? Surely everyone is important to someone."

Eurydice came to her mind, but mostly because of how the concept of duty was ingrained in her by blood and training. She also didn't know how to respond to such compliments; it wasn't something Lucifer had gotten her used to, exactly. Another thing to distinguish the two silver-heads.

"Uh, I mean… Yes! Yeah, I agree." she forced out of her mouth. Having gotten past the initial confusion, she realised that the young man was quite attractive, making her smile awkwardly, hold an arm behind back and tip one of her feet on the ground, excited that she was being given such attention. "Are you… a Saint? A hunter?"

His expression suddenly hardened for just a fraction of a second, something that might have gone unnoticed if Cerah was a regular person and not a highly trained bodyguard and Cosmos user. "Well, not exactly… but I think you could already tell that, right?"

She gulped. This guy really was sharp, but Cerah had teeth of her own. "You don't carry a Cloth box, but that by itself doesn't mean anything. Saints don't carry their armors everywhere they go." she pointed out, to which he nodded approvingly at her logic. She pointed at his bow and his chest. "But you carry a weapon; Saints are against that, unless it's part of their Cloth, which you don't have with you. I don't think you're a regular hunter, either, because you wouldn't be bringing a reinforced vest inside that cloak to hunt mountain rabbits."

He turned his cheek, impressed. "Not bad… What else can you tell about me?"

She smiled in excitement at the mystery. "Let's see...At first I thought you might have been an athlete…but you're going to Sanctuary Town and the Old Coliseum here in Rodario is the one with target practice."

He tucked his longbow as if he realised how much it exposed his secrets. His blue eyes observed her with increased curiosity the more she discerned about him, though.

She held her chin pensively. "...I heard there are Undercover Saints, but you stand out too much. You're too young to be a veteran, and you're too… handsome to be a Coliseum fighter." she pointed out, a bit self-conscious. "I also think your equipment is too good. You have money to pay someone to get you weapons and clothes. My guess… is that you're a noble, the son of veteran or politician."

He snorted amusedly and folded his muscular arms. "I see. What makes you conclude 'that' in particular?"

She smirked confidently, not willing to lose. "I've been working around for some families. I can spot spoiled brats from a mile away already."

He nodded approvingly. "You're spot-on in the logic,... but not the conclusion. I'm not a rich kid, my family has been gone for years." he revealed, killing her smile. "I'm a bow-for-hire."

...

Cerah backed her head away, feeling hit by a truck.

Mercenaries defend purses, not Athena.

No castle is safe in the hands of mercs.

Never a knight has been born of a Sellsword.

The only good merc is a dead merc!

Nobody taught her these words, and it wasn't Corvus whispering in her ear, either; they just popped inside her head as if stored in her very blood,

Practically reading her thoughts, the Corvus Cloth reacted to her fears with a cackle. "You were barely a child when they collapsed and you're already brainwashed to this point. Cyrulians were effective, indeed. Weren't you crying about how you wanted your sister back that night you lost? Weren't you screaming you didn't give a damn about Cyrulia?"

A subtle sigh came out her nose. It was silly to think these things. It was just a guy. "So you… work for the army? You help Saints?"

There was a pensive hand-in-waist from his part. "If 'helping Saints' means eliminating problems for the Pope, then yes."

She twitched her brow; things were going so well and now this. "Just tell me you're not a scumbag, damn you!" In this case, it was a lifestyle with a code that conflicted with what Cyrul's teachings of knighthood passed down her people. Even if she wasn't a knight or paladin, Cerah still believed in many of their better virtues.

She had to. Right?

She blinked pathetically. "Are... Are mercenaries even allowed by Sanctuary? Aren't people who misuse the cosmos labelled as Black Saints?

He could easily detect the confusion and disappointment in her face and exhaled gently to concede her point, giving her a sly look. "Mm, you're right… I must be doing something bad, then."

Her expression darkened, her imagination running wild. It wasn't so much that she didn't understand that people had to do what was needed for a salary, quite on the contrary, but her Cyrulian blood just made her bite her tongue before giving sell-swords sympathy.

It wasn't personal. He could be a murderer, after all! Or a kidnapper! Or worse. "So you have to do… questionable things."

He didn't seem particularly interested in saying otherwise. Before the conversation could be taken further, though, the two guards observing them lost their patience and one of the hoplites approached them. "Excuse me, but you can't stand here dallying around if you don't have a pass to get to the 'mountain reserve'."

The silver-haired arched pulled out a card. Cerah's silver-ranked senses saw it was inscribed with an authorization of the Golden Zodiac, further deepening the mystery of this man. It was immediately approved by the hoplites, though they still gave the mercenary a dirty look, reinforcing Cerah's assumptions that sellswords wouldn't be well-regarded in a religious and chivalric society like Sanctuary.

Before he went on, the silver-haired youth gave her some parting words. "I'm sorry I am not who you expected, miss Cerah. This is just my job, but I understand your... concerns."

She shook her head, feeling awful. "I... I didn't mean to offend you! I just-"

He gave her that gentle smile again that made her heart beat fast. "You didn't. Something tells me you're a bit less boring than the common Sanctuary dweller, though. I would have loved to find out for sure." he assured, tucking his longbow away as if to expose his less dangerous side. "Have a good day, miss Cerah."

The guilt-tripping was so hard that she had to puff her cheeks like balloons to not respond with 'I'm sorry'.

Cerah watched him walk away. It was fine. It was totally fine. He seemed interested in her and nice enough and hot enough, but so what? He was a sellsword, Goddess knew what kind of things he agreed to do for cash. She had important things to do. Other people to focus on. Eurydice was probably wondering why she was taking so long. Also the fact that the archer kinda reminded her of Lucifer, her mentor figure, freaked her out just a tiny bit too much.

I mean, maybe the guy killed people. Maybe he did terrible, horrible things, like…. Maybe he pushed old ladies off houses they couldn't afford and set dogs on fire! Maybe some jerk told him to kick babies for cash and he would just say 'how hard?'

Her obsidian pendant slipped out of her shirt, and the feeling that a huge crow landed on her shoulder was felt. "You really want to believe those ridiculous thoughts, don't you? Anything to justify your fears..." it mocked. "Mm, mm, you just KNOW this is why your sister thought it was okay to leave you in Lucifer's little bat nest. Safe little Cerah would never reach out of it to grab the shiny spoon."

"WAIT!" she called out. She wasn't sure why, though, it was clear that this was not the straight-coded person she assumed. Now what was she gonna say? "I... didn't get your name?"

He eyed her hesitantly. Maybe mercenaries weren't comfortable with divulging too much information.

Still, he spoke. "You can call me Leon."

"Leon! Will..." she gulped hesitantly, not sure what to ask that gave words to what she felt in her chest. "Will we meet again?"

He nodded confidently. "I'm sure of it." and he then made his way into the mountain pass out of her life.

Cerah smiled, a mix of self-pride and happiness making blood flow to her cheeks. Maybe it took a little push and it wasn't exactly a traditional exchange, but it proved Eurydice right when she said Cerah had courage.

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The next morning,

Andromeda Island

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The sun was barely poking out of the eastern horizon. The green-haired Master stretched his arms and made his way to the mess hut, where he began making breakfast for everyone. Like always, Shinta was up earlier than everyone else, owed to his sense of duty to his schedule instilled in him by his genuine desire to set a good example, but unfortunately Elda and Al had failed to catch onto the attitude just yet. So far they only got up right before it was time to eat. The famous oat and cereal mix known as the 'Breakfast of Saints' was rich in vitamins but poor in taste, but the kids knew they needed it for strength throughout a training day and would with sudden diligence awake in time to get it.

After a while, when the smell of warm milk and cereal was felt in the air, the two young figures came rushing inside.

"Good Morning, Master Shinta," Albiore respectfully greeted.

"Mornin' Saint Shinta." Elda casually said, promptly sitting down at the table. "Boy, I'm starvin'."

The Andromeda Saint smiled and greeted them back, but tapped the chalkboard on the wall before putting the food on the table, causing both kids to run up to it and write their daily goals for the day. It was important to start making them take initiative in what they needed to do for training and schooling, since Masters were only with trainees for six years, at most.

They still did so with varied enthusiasm. Elda just placed crosses on all the training hours with the nonchalant spirit of someone who took it like a walk in the park, but immediately slowed down when it came time to pick if she would study math or history that day. Albiore respected both fields of training and studying, but took forever to pick the best amount of time for each.

Sometimes a little push was needed with him. "Al', if you put more chain training hours today, we can fit a recreation hour at the end of the day since your scores in class are more leveled out." Shinta encouraged. "Don't toss out any cosmos training, though, you two. We really need to get that done by your first year."

"Okay, Master. Mmm…" the blonde boy thought it over, tapping the chalk piece like a pen on his palm. Hours of recreation meant the same as 'free time' but worded in a way where they could say it was vital to his education. They had to do a set amount of progress each day based on credits, a rather unpopular system, but it meant that Shinta could trick the kids a bit into thinking they could rig their work.

He looked over to Elda's schedule and just saw her putting all her crosses on training in such a way that let her keep pauses in between to shove homework time on. "Why are you doing it like that?"

"So I can rest, duh!" she teased. "Also, I'm gonna take the notes with me to the grounds, then if I don't feel like finishing up something, I can just tell Saint Cynthia that I was tired and the seagulls ate my homework. It's a perfect system."

Somehow, the Argentinean could tell that she and Saint Cynthia would have another 'bad talk' about her education before too long.

Albiore eventually shoved more crosses in the morning slot to leave the free time and Shinta clapped hands before making his chains delicately drop the bowls on the table, to which Elda and Al' immediately preyed on. Watching Elda devour hers despite the terrible taste kinda made Shinta wish he had her as a classmate back when he was training under Guardnia. The Breakfast of Saints was so stomach-turning that kids that could eat more than one cup were revered as heroes who would happily take what everyone else couldn't.

Even the more reserved Argentinean frowned like a bulldog at the taste. It would make Shinta feel terrible, except nobody in Sanctuary knew how to make the protein bomb taste good. "Do you have your chains cleaned and ready?"

"Yes, Saint Shinta." they choired.

"Today's training will be a bit tougher because I'll be watching you both. Saint Cynthia will be away for today."

Elda turned her two bowls in. They were so wiped clean that Shinta could see his face reflected on them. "Where is she going, Saint Shinta?"

As if reading her thoughts, the blue-armored Amazon walked inside the hut. "I'll be reprimanding and retraining a member of my own order, unfortunately." she confessed. Such was the cross to bear as a trainer. "Saint Crane thinks she's too cute with her act, but for as long as I'm around, I'm not letting anyone in the order think they can get away with finishing her missions on her own."

Albiore blinked. "Why is that a bad thing?"

"It's a teamwork matter, sweetie." Cynthia explained. "To keep it short, if you rush off on your own, especially after your team leader made a plan for your Saint group, just because you think you can get things done faster, you can put the whole group in danger. It also insults your friends who joined your mission. Yushira has been a Silver Saint since she was ten, and still has a hard time understanding that."

The Andromeda Saint didn't recognise the name. "Yushira? That's a Japanese name."

The amazon held hand in hip. "Actually, she's from Tibet. I don't really know why she has a name from your country..."

"I don't think I've met her. Is she from my year?"

Cynthia shook her head. "She's also a bit older than you, Saint Shinta, which makes me wonder how she can act so much more irresponsibly… Libras in Sanctuary are like that, I suppose. Yushira works mostly in undercover work, which is likely why you haven't heard of her feats," Cynthia explained. "Unlike Assault Saints, who get to brag about what they do, Undercover ones have to content themselves with Nam's pats on the back. Yushira resents that sometimes, but it's what her talents steer her towards."

"So Saint Cynthia is called when Saints need retraining for when they screw up," concluded Albiore. "I guess that's the distinction between Masters and trainers?"

She tilted her head and patted his blonde hair fluff. "That's right, Al. Don't worry, though, Saint Shinta. I got someone of trust to come here while I'm gone. He'll help you with the day."

Shinta's eyes perked up. "Really?" he had never worked with anyone on the island other than Saint Kastiel. "I thought Saint Kerberus was busy."

The pleased look on the blonde boy's face sickened Elda, but she put it aside to tell him of her plan. "PSST, hey Al! If we're gonna have someone standing it for Master Cynthia today, we should tell them that we can just train close to the Living Area and be done by lunch!"

He just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think it's such a good idea to try that. It's probably someone who trained here before, and Master isn't going anywhere, either." His eyes then shifted. "Also, I don't want to get in trouble with him now that I'm starting to like him…"

She punched his arm. "NO, trust me, substitute teachers are always push-overs. They let you do whatever you want! If they don't we can make them cry out of the island." she insisted. "Don't you want to play soccer in the afternoon instead of spending it punching rocks by the desert? Just follow my lead!"

The Argentinean sighed. Elda could be such a slave driver sometimes, it made him think she could get away with being mean because she was a girl. Fortunately, being the only male out of four children prepared Albiore for this eventuality.

Saint Cynthia shook her masked head and looked at the wall clock. "It's someone else. In fact he should be here any sec-"

*THOOM THOOM THOOM THOOM*

Everyone gasped! "Wha?! What's going on?!" Elda screamed.

"Is the volcano acting up again?!" Albiore asked.

Shinta then gulped, wondering what could he have possibly done wrong. Is he not calm enough? Is Cynthia on that time of the month, but was too embarrassed to admit it?! "I'll go check, stay inside!"

The door got suddenly shoved right open, knocking Shinta to the ground, and a large, long-haired teenager came in. "BOOM! HA, HA, HA, HA! It is I; the Andromeda Island volcano!"

The green-haired boy gasped and then a smile beamed up on his face. "Aldebaran?!"

"Ah, ah, come here, training buddy!" The disguised Taurus Saint lifted the greenhead by the waist up in the air with a bear hug, spinning the Saint up around the air. Putting him down and dusting the Saint, the young boy apologized. "Sorry for the noise! I really wanted to try that on ya!"

But the Bronze Saint was so happy to see his training partner again he didn't even mind. "It's okay, it's okay! Everyone, this is my friend Aldebaran from my time at the Golden Zodiac. We lived together under Saint Daniel of Taurus, who recently retired. Aldebaran was a junior gardener."

Once the shock was overcome, the words 'Gold' and 'Saint' instantly attracted the attention of the kids, who came up to the visitor. "WHOOW, wait, you lived with a Gold Saint?" Albiore swooned. To think he felt jealous of that dumb kid Orpheé at the festival. "What was it like?"

"I still live with Gold Saints!" the teenager from the Taurus House bragged. He counted backwards. "All twelve... eleven... eight of them."

"Forget that; why are you so tall?!" Elda gawked. Aldebaran seemed about their age, yet she and Al barely reached up to his elbows. "Look at him! I could stand on Al's shoulders and not reach his head."

A cocky thumb poked its owner's chest. "It's easy; I eat fifteen bowls of 'Saint Breakfast' EVERY DAY! Then I do hundreds of push-ups and pull-ups along with runs up and down the Zodiac stairs." He then combed his own hair with his hand. "A training regime so harsh, even my hair has muscles!"

Albiore raised a brow. Why did a gardener train so hard?

Andromeda Shinta couldn't be happier. "Saint Cynthia, thank you so much for inviting Aldy!" Something was off, though. "Wait, how do you know him?"

Cassiopeia Cynthia, however, was at a loss for words. "I… don't. He's not the one I called."

Aldebaran smirked. "Yeah, I'm just in it for the ride. A certain someone came to drop by Mu and I figured that since Mr. Alchemist keeps bailing on the front temple and leaving me to guard the door, I'd ditch him for once and come spend a day off with you!" He then turned to the door. "Come on in, guys."

Eight-year-old Deathmask walked in and raised a waving hand. "Sup, bitches? So this is Andromeda Island?" he looked around and picked his nose. "Not bad...not bad at all. Hey, Shinta, how's it hanging?"

Albiore irked in recognition. "...Oh no."

Elda's head went tomato red. "YOU!"

"Mephisto, I missed you!" Shinta exclaimed, pulling the boy for a hug to the shock of the two students.

The street boy hissed like an angry cat. "AH, OKAY, knock it off, you know I hate that! And I'm Deathmask, remember it!" Mephisto struggled Shinta off and then saw the two kids behind Shinta. "Oh, hey, it's you two losers, ah! Sorry, ticket shop is closed today, but asskickings are still on sale!"

And in the midst of the sudden outbursts that Albiore and Aldebaran then had to break up between the kids, Shinta managed to lose himself in awkwardness at the sight of his best friend. "Lance…?"

The Pegasus Saint took a beat to answer, as he got busy holding up Deathmask by the collar so high that Elda couldn't reach him, but the red-eyed Saint eventually retorted. "Hey, Shinta. I hope you don't mind me dropping by unexpected."

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

Chapter 40

Second Arc

Episode 7

Lance vs the Volcano

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

Southern Germany,

The Underworld Surface Outpost

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At the forward outpost constructed by Cyclops Balgo, the Skeleton Soldiers nervously tried to make their day during the last hours of the sun. They all knew this was the agreed day of the revolt and that night they would either be free of Hades or utterly destroyed by Thanatos. With this in mind, it was quite hard to focus on watching the boring borderland against Peloponesia's scouts.

Cyclops, Worm and Bat sat in chairs set up on the bailey. Balgo in particular tapped his huge fingers on the chair arm and looked at his watch. "What is taking so long…?" he pointed at the battlement guards. "Keep the ballistas armed. We might need cover for a get-away."

The fanged Bat Specter, Brune, reasoned to them. "We'd be dead by now if Lucifer had failed. Let's wait a bit longer."

One of the Skeletons at the battlements pointed in the direction of Pandora's castle in the distance. "THEY'RE HERE!" he screamed, alerting everyone and running around to ring the bells, sending everyone to an excited frenzy. "LORD LUCIFER IS HERE! THE FALSE SPECTERS ARE HERE! WE HAVE WON!"

A cacophony of relieved shouts, gasps and calls were heard and the outpost guards rushed to the bailey and improvised portcullis. Cyclops shoved the excited guards aside. "OUT OF MY WAY! Don't just stand there! Lower the bridge, open the gates, and let the Prince through!"

With celebratory gusto, the Skeletons worked the mechanical chains, making the large wooden door outside collapse over the ditch, and the iron bar gate crink as it rose up into the gatehouse's ceiling. Led by Daemon Lucifer, the False Specters and the False Skeletons that fought in the Underworld for their freedom orderly entered the fort, greeted by arm-raised rows of outpost guards who screamed their names and shouted words of triumph.

"The Prince is here!" some screamed

"We did it, we're FREE!" some elated.

"We have beaten the Gods, A-HA!" one dared to laugh out loud.

Rows and rows of black-armored men greeted one another, setting spears and scythes aside. Some hugged each other in sheer happiness, others shook hands respectfully with the higher-ranked Specters and several even tossed spare crossbow bolts out the walls like confetti. Cyclops, Worm, and Bat in particular made their way to Lucifer and the Elites. They bowed their heads and showed their words of appreciation.

"Lord Lucifer… we can't tell you how fantastic it is to see you with us." Bat Brune started, receiving an approving nod from the Prince.

Worm Samuel noticed the disgruntled look on Alraune Lemon's face. "Heh, Heh, heh, not in a celebratory mood, Lemon? Cat got your tongue?"

The tendril-armed Specter gritted teeth and looked away, feeling surrounded by idiots treating Lucifer like a hero. There was nothing he could argue against his leadership at the moment, he would have to wait for another opportunity.

With the center of attention on him, Lucifer sensed that the men expected some words for him. They even quieted down when he climbed the stairs to the battlements to visually rise above them. Red eyes surveyed his expectant forces and a breath was taken. "Men, … from today onwards, till the end of time, you are no longer Specters of Hades!"

Fists rose into the air. "Hurrah!"

"From today onward, you are FREE of his grasp!" Lucifer roared.

Another round of fist salutes. "HURRAH!"

The Prince's hands rested on the railings. "Today something without equal has been done; not since the days of the Emperor of Sanctuary have men asserted themselves over their god so clearly! Today, before the self-determination of warriors like you, before your desire to seize your destiny, your cosmos has been burned and the authority of Olympus has been reduced to NOTHING!" he shouted to the roaring applause of all before him.

A Skeleton came up to Behemoth Torak, asking for his attention. "What is it? The Prince is speaking, can't you see?!" but the Skeleton then whispered something into his ear that made his eyes widen. "What?!"

The Prince continued. It was time to secure the fanaticism of these men towards him. "So ask yourselves this, men? Did I lie? Was I wrong to say you could break free from the same chains you thought were only cast onto the dead?"

"NO!" Troll Grendel shouted.

"You saved us, Lucifer!" Deadly Beetle Gauromydas roared, standing out in the crowd. "It was HADES who lied!"

"YEAH! LONG LIVE THE PRINCE!"

The Celestial Pride Star smirked. "And do you think I lie when I say we can now turn our scythes to Sanctuary and reap the same triumph?!" Lucifer confronted, laying out his hands.

"HELL NO!"

A scythe rose to the air. "Their blood will wash our steel!"

The Daemon gauntlet was raised in fist. "THEN WHO WILL YOU MAKE THE RULER OF SANCTUARY?!"

And a crowd of fists and spears thrust the skies. "LORD LUCIFER!" they shouted to the heavens. "Long Live! LONG LIVE LORD LUCIFER!"

The cheers and the celebrations continued and the former Prince of Hades smiled ear to ear, elated with the sensation of power coursing through his veins, as if the dark army in front of him had become so securely loyal that they were as a direct extension of his will. This wasn't the end, though. He would not rest until a great triumph, like those of ancient Roman times, was held in his honor in the streets of Sanctuary, which rightfully belonged to him. Rose petals would be thrown from the rooftops, a laurel crown would be placed on his head and that weasel Shion would walk in chains behind his chariot, humiliated by the toss of rocks from his former peo-

"Lord Lucifer." Behemoth Torak interrupted his fantasy. He staggered when the annoyed red eyes zoomed on him like a bird of prey. "I a-apologise, but you must come to the Peloponnesia road gate. We have visitors."

"Visitors?!" Lucifer questioned. Who could it possibly be? "Fine, take me to them!"

And with expedience, Behemoth Torak and Sphinx Neferti led the prince through the triumphant crowds, all which happily gave way to their savior. The portcullis on the other side of the front was raised by Cyclops' men and the Prince came out the fort to meet the arriving party.

The Dark Prince staggered; before him was an entourage of about a dozen men, all cloaking their figures but clearly wearing Sanctuary hoplite cuirasses underneath. A pair of familiar faces, one with severe burns, brown curly hair and goggles and another with wavy blond hair, pale skin and green eyes, awaited him.

He scoffed. "Well, well...If it isn't the 'hero'." Lucifer ironised.

The former Saint of Sagittarius known as Priam stepped forward. "Hello Lucifer… I think it's time we have a talk. A diplomatic one, if you will, as allies." he worded, clearly slighted.

Backed by a whole army, Lucifer wasn't the least bit intimidated. In fact, several of his men already aimed crossbows and battlement ballistae at Priam. "I don't see why. In fact, if I wasn't so generous about giving my men something to do, I wouldn't know what would stop me from kicking all of you losers out of here myself." his hand then raised to give a signal. "Fire on my mark, Skeletons."

Priam's eyes flashed gold and laser-like beams suddenly snapped in the air, shooting and shattering the ballistas, startling the False Skeletons.

Lucifer tisked. His bad habit of underestimating Priam's generation has returned. "You Civil War Gold Saints always irritated me!"

"We will talk Lucifer!" Priam insisted, uncharacteristically assertive. "Don't think you can just go have your WAR with my people-"

"YOUR people?! Watch your mouth, you disgrace of a Gold Saint! I may be a Specter, but the people of Sanctuary are more mine than yours!" he snapped, startling the Black Saint rebels.

A golden aura darkened the background, however, making the stars of Sagittarius shine. "Don't test me, Daemon…! I've fought the whole of Sanctuary already. Don't think for a second I'm afraid of fighting you!"

The blue-armoured Aquila Daese then made her move. "And if you don't talk, I will blast that fortress apart and wipe out every Specter you put in my way until I find my sister! Now where IS SHE?!"

While the idea of being coerced by this rabble clearly offended his False Specters, Lucifer knew family ties would precede logic and the girl wouldn't stop until irreparable damage was caused to his forces, which he wanted to preserve. He also wasn't kin on having a Civil War Gold Saint mad at him, even if it was the worst warrior of them all, and not with the amount of intel Priam had on his plans.

Therefore, at much disgruntlement, the Daemon accepted. "March with us, then, and you can have your talk. We have no intention to stick around. If Hades was able to harm Eurydice, then we aren't in the clear until we leave the barrier ourselves." He turned to his men. "DISMANTLE THE FORT! Carry the supplies we smuggled here on hand! Leave nothing behind, False Specters! We are leaving for our next home!"

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

Andromeda Island

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

When Cynthia saw that Lance's student and hers had some sort of past spat involving Coliseum tickets, she thought they would be the two most difficult people to keep apart, and for a second wondered if this had been a terrible mistake. Maybe surprising Shinta by inviting his best friend for a day had backfired.

She was wrong about the first part at least.

"LANCE!" squealed Shinta as he hugged the Greek Saint so hard it made Aldebaran feel proud.

"Ugh, another blow to my dignity!" thought the Andromeda Cloth, feeling squeezed.

"Okay, Shinta, relax a bi-"

"I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU! This is such a great surprise!"

Lance carefully shoved him off. "Okay, Shinta, that's enough! We haven't seen each other for that long!" Pegasus hissed, holding the green haired teen at bay with his arm.

The Andromeda Saint had a smile on his face the size of a crescent moon and held his arm like he didn't think it was real. "But I'm so happy you're here! I thought you were training in China!" he resisted the temptation to mention he also thought he was still mad at him and dragged the Pegasus Saint by the wrist to the kids so hard it almost ripped it off. "Come meet my students! This is Albiore, from Argentina!"

The reserved blonde shook Lance's exasperated hand respectfully, recognizing him. "Hello Saint Pegasus. I know you, you're the Cancer Temple representative who came asking us to give Master that letter." he pointed out. "Why didn't you say you knew my Master?"

Lance grumbled and rubbed his own sore wrist. "Can't you tell already why?"

Albiore instantly smirked and even covered his mouth to hide it from Master, who blinked at Lance's answer in confusion. He liked this guy already.

When in contact with the trainee's grasp, the more experienced Saint suddenly felt an electrical jolt in his own cosmos, a sensation akin to when he shook former Gemini Saint Akassius' hand back in the dinner party in Kastoria and a flare of cosmos was felt. He had learned in the meantime this was usually a sign that the person you met had potential for or even unlocked an element of the Cosmos you already had.

On the other corner of the mess hall, Aldebaran and Cynthia tried to keep Elda and Deathmask apart. The disguised Taurus Saint put himself between the two and felt like the girl could tear him to shreds to get to Lance's pupil.

"Whow, okay, everyone, let's calm down!" the Taurus appealed.

Deathmask cackled. "Yeah! We don't want someone's nose to get broken."

"Starting with yours!" shouted Elda, doing her best to get out of Master Cynthia's grasp, but the Amazon was so strong that she didn't even need her chains to lift the girl up from the ground. "What is a jerk like you even doing here?! Shouldn't you be off hustling tourists in Greece?!"

Deathmask shrugged and showed her what his middle finger thought. "None of your business, but maybe you can try getting the answer out of me on training today. If you can even fight a boy"

"I'LL BREAK YOUR STUPID MOUTH WITH ONE HAND, ASSHO-"

"ELDA!" Cynthia shouted.

And the girl immediately halted, her anger was replaced by a shame so hot her whole face went red for having pushed her Master to yell at her. Even Albiore was stunned.

This delighted the Cancer punk. "That's right, be quiet, girl. Don't you know who I am? What conceit to claim you could beat the great Deathmask with one hand. Pah, I'll beat you with one finger!"

Feeling her student ashamed and depressed, Saint Cassiopeia looked at Lance wondering where he found a trainee like this. Whoever Deathmask was, he acted as provocative as the old rumors surrounding Pegasus described him as, which had sort of a poetic meaning, but still.

Just as Cynthia thought he wouldn't do anything, Lance interfered and picked Deathmask up from the floor by the collar. "If you're so sure, Mephisto, then you can do all your training today with just that; your finger! Now stop picking a fight with Cynthia's kid or I'll tell Saint Cancer and he'll throw you into the Underworld Well for the rest of the week!" Deathmask irked and held his tongue. When Lance was sure Deathmask was compliant, even begrudgingly, Lance apologised. "I'm sorry, trainee Elda, you kinda said last time I was here you had history with Mephisto, but I was hoping he would make amends today, or I wouldn't have brought him."

Taken positively aback by Lance's tact and how it seemed to ease the tense pulse on her student's veins, Cassiopeia Cynthia let Elda down and gave her a chance to speak. "Go on, Elda."

"It's fine… I guess!" the young girl assured and she extended her hand, reminded of her etiquette. "My apologies, Saint Pegasus."

The Bronze Saint was happy to shake her hand. "No need to be so formal, you two can just call me Saint Lance." When he did so, though, just like with Albiore, his cosmos flare up in recognition of a latent element in her, this time of 'fire'. For some reason, even though Cosmos was a power metaphorized as an explosion, users of fire weren't as common as he imagined, so meeting one always perked Lance's interest.

Saint Cynthia touched her temple like she was getting a mental call from someone telling her to hurry up. "Shoot, I should get going if I want to get to Greece by morning time there." She turned to Pegasus. "Did you get all the precaution notes I send you? Can you navigate the island? I know you'll be with Shinta, but you can never be too sure."

The Pegasus Saint nodded confidently enough. He's had two real battles on the island already, both of them inside its test dungeons, so he should be fine. "Don't worry about it. I'm surprised you called me, though."

"Why?

"Well," his red eyes wavered. "I kinda guessed you thought me more… problematic."

The masked woman touched her chin. Lance's bad fame had died down a bit in Sanctuary, but it was mostly because he's been away for so long doing whatever he was. People still resented him for his poor relationship with other Bronzes and Silvers and what happened with Kastiel, not to mention the rumors circulating around his trip to Death Queen Island, but after meeting him in Arcadia and working together with him at the Festival, Cynthia could tell he was a good, albeit ill-tempered, Saint.

That temper would be an issue, though. "I'm not worried about those things, but I do wonder if you're gonna be alright with the kids and the volcanoes."

His brow raised. "What do you mean?"

"HEY, GIVE THAT BACK!" Albiore suddenly shouted at Mephisto.

The Sicilian boy studied his sketchbook. "Uh, so this is what you do with your day? That's pretty lame. What, you play Tic-Tac-Toe on this, too?"

Elda saw Al' eye Deathmask like a mad dog and wondered if the Argentinean would snap at him like he did with Orpheé. "I'd listen to him if I were you, you jerk!"

Mephisto shrugged and held the book up high. "Make me!"

"MEPHISTO, I TOLD YOU TO STOP!" Lance shouted, taking the sketchbook off his hand.

*RUMBLE*

Everyone looked around, startled. "Uh oh…" Cynthia gasped, walking outside to see puffs of smoke in the distance coming out of the mouths of the two volcanos that inhabited the island.

"What was that?" asked Lance.

"I think that was the 'volcanoes'." commented Aldebaran, wondering if getting away from Sanctuary would mean spending the day keeping Deathmask in check.

"This is what Saint Cynthia meant, Lance… you might have to watch your temper while you're here with me." Shinta explained, concerned. "The volcanoes used to be used as forges by Lemurians for Cloths. They are sensitive to powerful cosmos. Whenever Master Guardnia would be about to battle, they would always spill out ash, so he had to learn to control his emotions."

Deathmask tossed Albiore his stupid drawing book back and cackled evilly. "AH, see Lance, if you get pissed at me, you'll blow us all up! Better take a chill pill today!" he mocked, already making the volcano stirr a bit again.

Aldebaran suddenly flanked him, ruining his provocative mood with a firm arm pat. "I'm sure Mephisto will be on his best behaviour today, though, don't worry."

While the Andromeda Saint was relieved that Aldebaran was there to help out too and keep the rascal Mephisto in check, he wasn't so sure they were off the hook. He saw Albiore and Elda already poking each other about how he let Mephisto just take his book so easily and wondered if he would have to file a report to Lord Shion saying their antics caused Lance to break the Earth. "Let's get the day started, then, everyone!"

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

Hours later,

Sanctuary, Leo Temple

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The five-year old Aiolia stared at the golden box that sat right in the middle of the Temple he lived in and prayed. Every morning, as Aiolos taught him, he would give mom and dad his respects before he had to go off to practice and then stay with Milo and Aldebaran. This would usually be for the rest of the day. At first he'd be taken to daycare in town, but after Aiolos found him practicing by himself, the Sagittarius Saint decided to keep Aiolia near people he could trust with him.

The little Greek boy also wanted to be up early because Aiolos didn't have many opportunities to be with him except for mornings and after his own training and hospital work, which meant Aiolia would see his beloved older brother only for a brief few hours per day at best. He knew this partly because Saga helped Aiolia set up his schedule, back when he was making sure everyone knew when and for what they could take the Gold Cloths off at the Temples. The Gemini was so kind that he rotated it around letting Aiolia play with Aiolos at least twice a day.

So when the guards of the temple said a 'Gold Saint' was moving up the Temples, Aiolia rushed to see him. He didn't know why the Sagittarius was climbing back up so early, since Aiolia always wanted to be awake when he went down to go to work with Dr. Iaso, but who cared?

When he got to the entrance, though, the poor boy was distraught to find none other than the last person he would have liked to see; the new kid on the 12th temple called Aphrodite talking to his temple guards. Aiolia contained a scared screamed and hid by the Temple's entrance pillars.

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

"Say hello, Aiolia!" Aiolos encouraged, patting his back to push him towards the new Pisces Gold Saint.

A toothy smile was shown by the Leo. "Hi!" he called, but the 'girl' was in a really foul mood. The boy scratched his head and tried to say something nice. "Um…I saw your garden at your temple, it was so well tended," he tried.

Surprisingly, it had a moderate success and Aphrodite begrudgingly let out a faint smile, which elated the Leo.

He tried again. "You look pretty. Where are you from? You're the first girl to joi-"

The 'girl' sneered, flickered her wrist and the small boy screamed as he took over from the lightning fast red dart that nearly skewered him. Cancer Lance's face went as red as his eyes. "APHRODITE, STOP THAT!" he then shook his head at Aiolos. "I'm so sorry, Aiolos, he doesn't mean to do this."

"I do mean it!" the Pisces assured. "And next time I won't miss!"

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

Aiolia shook like a leaf and observed him for a bit; even then and there, Aphrodite's hair, gentle posture, porcelain-like skin and beauty mark made him look so feminine that the young boy had a hard time believing the Swede's true gender. Aiolos got really upset with Lance when Aphro' attacked him, and fortunately they managed to work it out, but it didn't mean the little Leo was any less terrified of the vicious Pisces. One time, when Aiolos asked him to draw how his day went, Aiolia even decided to picture Aphrodite like a piranha, because it was the only way he could describe the older boy.

The Papal Guards seemed appeased with his admission badge. "Sorry for keeping you, you may head up."

The gardener grumbled for having his time wasted and climbed up. Then, even though Aiolia was hiding excellently behind one of the pillars, the Pisces spotted his shadow and called him out. "You're Aiolos' brother, right?"

Aiolia hesitantly came out. "Um… yes." he kept his distance, though. Aiolos didn't want him to talk to strangers and as far as Aiolia was concerned, the Pisces was a stranger.

"Why are you hiding there?"

Wasn't it obvious? "I'm hiding cause…" he then held his tongue. Even if it was true Aphrodite was mean, Aiolos wouldn't want him to be rude.

His hesitation must have spoken through action what he tried to hide in words, though, because Aphrodite tisked and shook his head. "Typical…"

What was this guy's problem? Aiolia was better off getting rid of him as soon as possible. "Do you need anything? I can call someone up for you." But Aphrodite shook his head. "W-what are you doing here, then?"

He shrugged. "My beloved 'sponsor' called me down to Taurus to ask if I wanted to visit Andromeda Island for the day." he sweetly explained. Lance hadn't taught him that much to be called a teacher, but he didn't entirely mean nothing to the cyan-head. "I said no, obviously, so he had me do Aldebaran's gardening chores for him to keep me busy."

The curly-haired Leo gulped. "Why not go? Andromeda Island is-"

"-a sandy pigsty?" Aphrodite suggested, smiling with the prospect of finding something in common with someone on the Zodiac. "I know, Mephisto and Aldebaran can go if they want, but I'm not gonna get my hands dirty -"

"Actually, I was gonna say 'its where Shinta lives'." Aiolia corrected.

This made the Swede suddenly glare at him so hatefully that the Leo almost gasped. The Andromeda Saint was incredibly nice and would often play with him and Milo, not to mention he was a shockingly good soccer striker, making him rather popular with the Zodiac kids who desperately wanted a counter to Aldebaran.

For some reason, though, Aphrodite disdained him. "Couldn't you have thought of a better reason to go there?!" he bitched. "Humpf, why do I bother?"

"I-I'm sorry, I'm just a kid." Aiolia protested, shaking like a sugar cane. "And you're like, so mean! I don't know what you like!"

A mischievous smile then filled Aphrodite's face as he saw the young boy about to piss his pants. "Hm, I have good reasons for being mean, it puts people in their place." The Pisces' vicious gaze then locked on him like Aiolia was made of dust beneath his foot. "Aren't you a Gold Saint like I'm soon to be?"

The boy wasn't sure what to answer. He lived in the Temple as if the Pope wanted him to become the next Leo, after all, but he didn't own armor, unlike Milo who already got Scorpio like it was nothing, so Aiolia cautiously shook his head.

"You're not?!" Aphrodite reacted, outraged. "How can that be? Just look at this huge place. It's the fifth lock to Athena's sanctum and you're left here all on your own. If you're not gonna be the Leo Saint, who will? That ugly maid?"

"HEY, don't talk about Mrs. Shafurwatt like that!" Aiolia demanded, suddenly finding his courage. The nice old servant who mostly worked for Milo at the Scorpio Temple always took time to take care of his clothes and asked him if he wanted hot chocolate. "What is with you, Aphrodite? If you don't say you're sorry-"

This just made Aphrodite laugh. "Oh, no, I'm so scared. Mm, mm, the little kitty cat is gonna scratch me. Rowr." he teased. "Don't bluff me, kid, I can tell you're barely old enough to kick properly."

The young Leo was agape. He hated Aphrodite so much. Why did a guy as cool as Lance tutor him? He was even worse than Deathmask, Aiolia's neighbour, which was saying something considering the Sicilian boy made a habit of stealing Aiolia's toys.

He let out a high-pitched martial shout and struck the pillar with a side leg swing, smashing an imprint on it with the power of his latent cosmos, startling Aphrodite. "I can kick just fine! I'll do this to armor, too!"

The sharp blue eyes stared at the damage the five year old caused. He then carefully took his hand, where a black rose sprouted from the sleeve around his wrist. With a flick of his pulse, then, Aphrodite shot the flower like a dart and the same spot Aiolia hit was struck so powerfully that the pillar was impaled right through, blasting a perfect hole with a loud sonic boom and then cratering the temple floor right beyond it.

With senses sharpened by his latent cosmos, Aiolia gasped when he saw a mosquito get pinned by the rose's nip right in the center of the new crater.

"Everyone with cosmos can smash a rock. It's what babies do when the 7th sense comes to them like a whim. It's hardly something that will frighten off golems like the ones I trained with, much less Specters." A sly smile then crept on his lips. "Is this what gets you so afraid, so eager to hide in Aiolos' wing? That you're put here even though you can barely do anything with the Cosmos?"

This time, the young boy's hands clenched. "GO AWAY! I'll call my brother if you don't!"

The cyan-haired boy scoffed and walked past the kid, making sure to give him a good shoulder shove. "Is that what they call the Leo Saint's bravery? To rely on others?" he mocked. "Behold world, it's Aiolia! Brother of Aiolos, the best archer in the world! A coward Aiolia is, helpless without his precious brother!"

Tears jerked out the eyes of the youngest member of his generation. "JUST GO AWAY, YOU JERK!" Aiolia shouted at the gardener as he vanished up the Temple.

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

Andromeda Island

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

As Shinta guided the group of five southwards to the deserted cliff areas, the sun rapidly made the temperature rise past a hundred and ten degrees when it was barely ten o'clock. The Master advised them to stay in line until they got to the equipment storage by the Andromeda dome temple so they could quickly aid each other should someone feel ill or about to pass out. Half the group was trained at gold-level, but the green-head was taught to be sure, not do guesswork, on the deadly Training Ground.

Aldebaran followed behind Elda and Albiore and took big swigs of his canteen. His big head was drenched in sweat. "Oof,... why is it so hot in here? Good thing I listened to you, Shinta, and brought like five extra jugs for myself."

To be frank, the kids were very surprised the big gardener not only was coming along with them, but he kept up with the Saint aspirants. "Hey, Al, do you buy this guy's bullshit about being just a gardener?" Elda whispered.

"I don't know." confessed Albiore. Big Al', as Shinta was nicknaming him, almost looked like the star of that new 'Rocky' movie the kids at Gift of Alone orphanage once smuggled. "I was born a Taurus so I was told by the Maidens that everyone at my constellation house is ripped like Stallone, regardless of rank. Also, he's from Brazil, it's much hotter up there than in my home country."

"Eyes forward!" Saint Lance snapped, quieting them down. The stern Saint was taking Shinta's precautions very seriously, perhaps a bit too much.

"H-HEY, WAIT UP!" someone at the rear yelled, and the group took pause. Huffing and puffing, Deathmask was walking in a handstand position with his flexing index fingers through the scalding, dry ground. He had been told to keep up with them like this since the Living Area and a thin line of cosmos around the hand helped him keep his whole body weight held up on that small support points. "S-slow down, damn it! If I work my finger harder, I'll freaking snap it off!"

"No, we're already going as slow as we can! Just do it faster, Mister I-can-beat-you-with-one-finger!" Saint Lance lambasted. "By the end of the day I'll make sure your finger is the most powerful part of your body or my name isn't Pegasus Lance!"

Elda's cheeks puffed as she hid a chuckle. "Serves him right."

But Saint Shinta took the lame side like always and flipped the young Italian boy over. "Lance, let him walk the rest of the way; the ground will get much sandier from here on out and he could get accidentally stuck and stumble over." he asked with a kind smile.

Red eyes rolled. "... Fine." he then saw the black dome where the Andromeda Cloth was usually stored and the group arrived at the Elysium Cliffs. "So this is where we're gonna do the climbing?"

The Andromeda nodded, walked inside the dome and came out with a huge stack of rolled up metal chains. "Yes, it's a critical part of their training, it improves their skill with the links and it develops their team work and strength." He then carefully sorted out a beginner's chain rolled and asked Lance to hold out his hands. "This is gonna be yours, Lance, but watch out, they're heavier than they look."

"Pfft, come on Shinta, it's a begginer's chain, give me some credi-" but when the metal kilos were dumped on his arms, he nearly stumbled forward, making the kids laugh. "W-what the hell, these are like a ton!"

"Pfft, come on, Saint Lance, it's just a beginner's chain." Elda parroted, being handed her own set and casually putting it around her shoulder. Lance grumbled and headed for the cliff. Albiore then poked her with his elbow rather harshly. "OW, Al, what?!"

He pointed at the far off smoking volcanoes. "That!"

She sweated. "Oh, right…can't make him mad...Sorry."

After handing everyone their set, the Master took the initiative. Rolling his Andromeda chains like a cowboy lasso, Shinta then launched his triangle chain up in the air and let it pierce the top of the tall cliff. He tugged it to make sure it was secure. "We're going to do just one climbing round for a warm-up before we spar, everyone. Remember, don't stick your fingers in the links. Mephisto, Al, you're going to have to share a thicker spare chain I have for Boote cloth applicants. If you need any help, just ask Lance, okay?"

Lance felt the eyes of the two gold ranks fall on him as Shinta and his kids began climbing like it was breakfast. He embarrassingly tried to find the end that he should toss up and the end he should keep down and nearly got the two mixed up. The two years he spent watching Shinta employ his weapons in missions with the grace of an acrobat suddenly seemed a lot more impressive to him.

"It's okay if you don't know what you're doing." said Aldebaran, chuckling.

"Yeah, just admit you're as clueless as us!" suggested Deathmask, smiling ear-to-ear.

Groaning like an angry dog, Lance just tried to use the chain like the roped roof hooks he would sometimes use in his assault missions with an ease surprising even to himself. He tossed the chain up….

...and managed to hit Albiore right in the back of the head. "OW!"

Lance's face went red. "Shit, sorry!"

Already half way through, Shinta worriedly looked down. "Do you need help, Lance?"

"YES, HE DOES!" shouted Deathmask.

"NO, I'M GOOD!" Lance shouted louder. He stepped further away from where the others started climbing and tried again. This time he managed to get the chain to hook around a boulder, tug it, set his foot on the rock wall and started climbing up. Once he mentally compared it to his experience with other scaling tools, it got easier.

Deathmask took the axe-tipped chain meant for Boote applicants and immediately grinned, eyes shining as brightly as the edge. "Oh-oh, this chain actually looks kinda cool!"

Not liking his smile one bit, Aldebaran took it from him. "Give me that before you scalp someone!" He then carefully tossed it against the wall, rather than towards its top, and began scaling it like a hiker. "Just piggyback on me and we'll get up there and TRY not to take my pocket money while you're at it."

The Italian begrudgingly held on to the huge teenager, who promptly climbed up.

While the three visitors from the Golden Zodiac struggled to get up the cliff, the three Andromeda Islanders took the opportunity to take a breather.

Preoccupied with the rising heat, Shinta approached the kids, his green eyes shifting. "Albiore, Elda, do me a favor," he messaged, "No matter what we do today, or what Saint Lance and the others ask, don't mention Saint Kastiel or how he's been helping us here regularly at the start of your training. If you do, I'm afraid the the whole island might explode."

The two kids stared at the Andromeda Saint in surprise. When they first got to Andromeda Island and began their Elysium Cliff pretest, some days the Silver Saint of Cerberus, a big gruffy chain-user who owned several dogs, would pass by and chat with the Master about how best to deal with some of the aspects of training. Apparently, Saint Cynthia knew him from childhood and he had been a sort of rival of Albiore's grandmaster in the distant past.

Albiore nodded. "Okay, Master."

What was his connection with Saint Pegasus, though? "Saint Shinta has secrets, uh? Who'd knew?" Elda questioned.

The Argentinean concurred it was odd. The pacifist would happily tell them everything out of naiveté, such as his embarrassing stories about grandmaster Guardnia teaching him not to cry during practice spars, and now Saint Kastiel's visits were some sort of issue?

It took at least half an hour for the less experienced members of the group to get up the Elysium Cliff, but probably because Aldebaran and Lance picked a smoother side of the hill and kept slipping down the smooth metal links.

Shinta still gladly gave them a hand in the final few feet. Lance was always helping him and it was good to help him in return. "Nice job, everyone. Not bad for your first climb!"

Deathmask wheezed and took a seat by a rock. "Thanks… that was like… nothing."

Elda fumed, not even winded. "I bet it was; you got carried up here! Poor Big Al'!"

The boy by her side already saw the writing on the wall. "Please don't call him that, Elda."

"Uh? Why not?"

The Argentinean sighed. How would he explain this? "Cause if you do, everyone will pick up the habit of calling me Little Al'."

Aldebaran chuckled and ruffled his blonde hair. "AH, AH, I like it! Little Al' and Big Al', one's from Argentina and the other from Brazil! And we are both Taurus too! What are the odds?!"

"They will be pretty slim to none once I pick my Greek name." Albiore assured, walking into the circles while mentally scratching off 'Alouadae' from his mental list of potential future Saint names.

Shinta clapped his hands loudly to get their attention. "Okay, everyone, it's time for the sparring! You know the rules, usually you do short one-on-one skirmishes in the ring and then would take potshots at me and Saint Cynthia, but considering we have guests…" and then came the part he was nervous about, at least as far as competing with Lance. "Saint Lance, do you and Mephisto mind participating?"

His red eyes practically livened up with the prospect of combat and he put on his Pegasus Cloth. "Sure, of course, Shinta."

Elda saw him put on his horse-shaped headpiece. So, it was true that most Bronze Cloths had an awkward design. "Ah, that's a funny helmet, Saint Lance," red eyes suddenly froze her up and she tried to dial it back. "Sorry, uh...didn't mean to give you a long face-"

Deathmask laughed out loud, the ground shook again and Shinta dragged her out of Lance's sight. "Okay, OKAY, come sit there with Al', Elda, ah, ah!" he nervously ordered. Shinta saw all the cracks in Lance's armor. "Awh, what happened to Pegasus?"

The gauntlets in particular looked completely busted, as if they've been punching a Gold Cloth. "Roshi did; the old man pulled a really slick training regime on me." Lance explained, referring to his final fight with Tenma. He had not gotten Mu to repair Pegasus yet, the reason being the Lemurian said that when the armor isn't 'killed', sometimes it was healthier for the Cloths to let their auto-repairs do their thing. "It's okay, I can spar just fine."

Shinta shook his head and smiled. "We just let the kids take potshots at us, not spars. We don't want to discourage them, after all." Sometimes Lance's unfortunate lack of education in Sanctuary really showed. He then took a whistle and blew it sharply. "Alright, Elda, Albiore, you're up!"

They got up and headed for the ring. Albiore made sure to check if his chains were okay but he noticed Elda was just casually equipping them right away. "You're not gonna make sure-"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Al', how much do I ever really use the chains in spars?"

Only the black-haired tomboy could think like this. "That's not the point, it's about good habits."

Oh great, this again. "My habits are fine; I train way more than you do."

This was a total falsehood. "We have the same schedule!" Albiore pointed out, squinting. "Also, that's completely besides what we're talking about."

"Why do your kids sound just like Saga and Aiolos?" Lance messaged Shinta, who looked away guiltily.

The Master took out his whistle and blew it. "*BEEP*! Elda, please check your chains! Saint Cynthia wouldn't like you being so careless with them even if you don't use them."

Elda made her hands go through the links with a frustrated sigh. Why was Al' such a preacher? Was this an Argentinean thing? At least Saint Shinta was polite enough to get her to obey without feeling leashed around. "Okay, they're fine, I checked, see?"

Albiore frowned. "No, you didn't! Do it right!"

"Gosh, Al', quit badgering me about it! You're such a nitpicker!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"YEAH!"

"GET into the ring before I KICK YOU TWO INTO IT!" Lance shouted, making everyone, including Shinta, jump in startle.

The little arguers instantly quieted down and rushed inside the circle marked on the sand. Despite Kastiel's neglect to teach him anything about it, or anything in general, Lance actually recognized some of the protocols the two kids followed as they entered the ring from his time at the Heart of Sasha orphanage, which was meant for Greek and Italian kids. Unlike the martial artist Dohko, who when rejuvenated would make Lance bow respectfully in Asian fashion (and smack his head if necessary to accomplish it), Sanctuary teachers only asked for a short nod and a cross of fists as a greeting, an allusion to hoplites banging their etymological shields with their phalanx spears.

Shinta, however, must have broken the norm and taught Albiore and Elda to give a bow as well, which they did. Lance sat with Aldebaran and Deathmask on the side to watch the spar.

"This oughta be good." mocked Deathmask, who then cupped his mouth. "HEY GIRL, DON'T SLIP ON YOUR HEELS!"

"UGH! What heels?! I'm wearing sandals!" Elda kicked dirt at him. "JUST… SHUT UP, ASSHOLE!"

Lance grumbled. Why was Mephisto so provocative? He saw the Sicilian kid grinning like a devil but the mentor stood quiet this time, formulating a plan to teach him a lesson.

Shinta then whistled the start of the match.

===Albiore vs Elda===

The two kids focused and Albiore held up his hands defensively, chains hanging loosely from his wrists. They were lacking the battle tips featured in real armor chains to reduce accident risk and force the kids to make use of their less offensive techniques. Elda, however, wrapped hers around her hands like knuckle braces, relaxed her body and held her feet only slightly apart, a hybrid pose somewhere in the middle of her own street fighting habits and Cynthia's elegant battle dance.

Once more, Lance took interest in the girl; his own fashion of combat combined elements of his training with the Dragon Style and his improvised moves from back in the day when he was known as Kastiel's bane. Could they have more in common?

The blonde boy took his attack chain, spun it around a bit and then, with a set-up step forward, cried out and swung his weapon at her. Elda dodged with a body bob, tucking her arms close to herself, and Albiore swept his other chain up diagonally as she did so to catch her off guard, wrapping her arm around her body. He leapt high into the air and Elda had to block his jump kick, but his strength made her light body stumble back and her foot had to stomp the ground to stop her from touching the ring.

Aldebaran saw Shinta write counts on his paper and deduced this was a hit-based system. "Very different from Lord Taurus' style; he just counted beatdowns."

Shinta smiled. "He sure did, but with this lower trench we have to be careful."

Another screeching shout was let out by Albiore as he struck Elda's blocking arm as viciously as possible, trying to penetrate her guard. He managed to trick her into letting him neutralise her right hand, but even then he couldn't seem to get over her defense.

Shinta saw a flaw in him, as well as an opportunity to show Big Al' and Lance his teacher side. "Albiore, don't commit yourself so much! You're falling into her tra-" And just as predicted, before Little Al' could even react, his last flinging punch was brushed aside, his belly was struck by her foot and with a dance-like swing of her body, Elda flanked Al, causing Al's own chain to fly over himself and tighten around him. "Oh, no."

Elda's free hand pulled the chain and her foot struck Albiore's leg, knocking him down. "Give up!"

Albiore gasped. "N-NO!"

Shinta whistled again, ending the match.

"Alright, my turn, aha!" Deathmask celebrated, getting up and rushing to the ring, but not before missing the opportunity to bump into Albiore on his way out. "Watch it, loser!"

Albiore grumbled, cursing the boy, and took a seat by Saint Lance's side. "Jerk…"

The Pegasus Saint felt bad. "Don't take him seriously. Mephisto is gonna get his." He then turned to the other Bronze Saint. "Hey, Shinta, are you sure letting him spar with your kids is a good idea?"

The Master finished scoring the first match, frowned and shook his head. "No… but Elda pulled me aside earlier and really insisted on it. I think she would have found a way to fight him when we weren't looking if I said 'no'." he explained. "Please don't let Mephisto dump her in the Well."

The Pegasus Saint nodded. He could tell Elda wasn't his direct responsibility, but Cynthia's, so he wasn't going to give Shinta a hard time over it. "If he does, I'll dump 'him' in freaking Tartarus."

The Cancer apprentice cockily strutted inside the ring. "Mm, so this is your little sandbox, huh? Cute place."

Elda smiled confidently and took her pose again. "I've been waiting for a chance like this for months!"

He just held his hand on hip and laughed as Saint Shinta whistled the start.

===Deathmask vs Elda===

Wasting no time at all, Elda let out a martial shout and dashed straight at Deathmask. Practically playing around with the idea of really beating her just with his finger, the boy casually lifted his hand and snapped his index forward like one of Aphrodite's killing moves, but he simply missed her as she super sped her way outta there.

Before the onlookers even took notice of what she did, Mephisto had to raise his arm to block an ascending side kick that snapped loudly against his muscles. Elda's fists and legs shined with orange cosmos and executed a flowing combo of punches and kicks on Mephisto, who dragged his feet back and parried all her blows with gentle movements of the palms of his hands.

Just as he was about to ring out, he slid to the side to let her fling away and chuckled. "Hm, hm, hm, not bad for a scrub. Your technique is good. Did you learn that from keeping the flies off your food?"

The girl gritted her teeth.

"Elda, focus, don't let him get to you." shouted Shinta. "Remember Saint Cynthia's moves."

The tomboy nodded obediently and took a breath. Saint Shinta was right. She almost fell for the same trick he played on Albiore. The only solution was to keep Saint Cynthia's lessons in mind if she really wanted to teach this guy some respect for others. Gathering her concentration, Elda hummed and kept her cosmos line thin and stable, preparing herself for her next-

Mephisto yawned like a bear. "Ahhh, I'm bored! Time to finish this!" he then flicked his finger and a resulting sonic boom struck the girl, sending her flying and screaming out of the ring.

Saint Shinta caught her and laid her down, whistling to signal the end of the match.

Elda struggled against Shinta's arms. "UGGHH! NO, THAT'S CHEATING! LET ME AT HIM!"

The Sicilian laughed at her face. "Come on, it's just playing in the sand! Don't be so butthurt, girl!"

Albiore just stood there wondering what the heck just happened. One second he was feeling this strong cosmos from Elda, more than she had ever used on him, and the other she ringed out cause the punk flicked the air. What kind of training did the Gold-Rank receive?

Aldebaran and Lance, who knew better, just sweated and shook their heads. "I should have signed up for these two, I'd be beating a lesson into Mephisto's head right now." confessed the Taurus.

The Pegasus Saint simply narrowed his eyes, making his decision about his plan.

The green-haired Saint lifted the girl up and managed to sat her by the rocks, calming her down. "Elda, please, you'll get another chance," he pleaded.

Her face shook like a red bomb. "I can't believe this! I can't!" Tears of frustration then tried to leave her eyes, but she bit her lip to restrain it. What would Rebecca and Saint Cynthia say of her like this?

"Albiore, you're up now."

The blonde boy snapped his eyes at the Bronze Saint. "Me?... I can't beat him! Not like this!"

Shinta frowned. It was true that it was an unreasonable thing to ask him at this point. He knelt down by the boy, took his shoulder and smiled. "It's okay, it's fine if you just give it a shot. Mephisto is a bit… mean, but he's not going to hurt you… too much."

Albiore was barely encouraged by this.

Shinta saw his hesitation and reached in to hug him, relieving his anxiety. "I'll be watching. Show him what you got."

Mephisto yawned again. "Oh come on, I'm falling asleep here. Will someone challenge the GREAT Deathmask?! Are you not entertained?!" he called out, laying his arms.

The Argentinean nodded at the Master and nervously walked into the ring. He saw the big grin on the gold-rank trainee's face and wondered how many bruises he was gonna get out of this. This kid wasn't looking to just embarrass him like Elda, after all.

Elda cupped her mouth. "GO, AL'! PUNCH HIS STUPID FACE!"

Stepping inside the ring, he felt a bit encouraged by Elda's show of trust, but it still felt like a small flicker of hope before the foe before him. He bowed his head like Saint Shinta taught him.

But Deathmask just spat to the side. "Quit that greeting shit, get ready to fight like a man!" he then assumed a slightly more invested pose than before, almost promising a bigger beatdown than he gave Elda with it, by tightening fists in the air and grinning. "What happens in the ring stays in the ring, as they say, but your loss is gonna be for the ages!"

Albiore gulped.

Saint Lance's voice was suddenly heard inside his head. "You're not gonna lose."

The boy looked over and saw the Saint tapping his finger impatiently on thigh and stare right at him. "What?"

"Just follow what I tell you."

Shinta clasped hands worryingly and then blew his whistle.

===Albiore vs Deathmask ===

A tense second followed the match's starting signal. Albiore kind of expected instructions to immediately begin, but he took the initiative of setting up the pose taught to him by Shinta. He laid his chains defensively and watching Deathmask for any sudden moves.

"He's too fast for you to measure his movements, so don't attack him like you did with Elda." Lance began. "You're not gonna be able to hurt him, either. Your only chance is a ring-out."

What? But if he couldn't attack, how would he push this guy off the ring? "Then what do I even do?!"

"First, stay quiet; don't respond to his provocations like your friend did or give him any reason to want to end the fight prematurely. You're not gonna be able to block the air current trick, afterall, but 'keep' him engaged."

Albiore felt pulled in three different directions. "I get the feeling you're telling me I'm at the mercy of his attention span."

Lance grimaced. "Pretty much."

Deathmask waved his hands up and down as if he was trying to imitate kung-fu. "Let's see, I think I'll beat you with some of Lance's moves."

"Lift your right!"

Mephisto swung his leg. "AYAHH!" but it got parried by Al's chained arm, the impact nearly caused him to fall him back. The Sicilian moved around him with a strut, like a confident predator. "Impressive, that was my second weakest kick you just survived."

Shinta gasped, surprised that his student saw through that, but the Argentinean just rubbed his arm like a truck hit it and sweated. "O-Okay, what do I do now?"

Deathmask then waved his hands like a cat. "Hey, Lance, watch this!" then he stepped forward.

"CROSS NOW!"

Albiore obeyed with his arms.

Mephisto shouted. "CHARGE FIST!" and gave Albiore a simple karate punch with such force it almost shattered the chains wrapped around his wrists. Albiore screamed, his feet dragged back almost to the edge of the ring and the Gold-Ranked trainee gave chase with a raised finger. "AHA, time for the DEATHmask blow!"

"Watch the distance, DROP back and raise your leg as HIGH as you can!"

And then, to everyone's amazement, as Deathmask pounced on the vulnerable target, Albiore measured the timing, balanced back till he dropped to the ground and kicked up, striking Mephisto right on the stomach with just enough force to direct him right over the smaller boy, causing the shouting trainee to get wrestled over and out the ring, landing on the hot sand.

It took a second for everyone to realise what just happened. Shinta beamed up like a rainbow and blew his whistle.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Deathmask roared, banging fist on the sand.

Aldebaran laughed like a gorilla, Elda practically screamed in excitement and Albiore just blinked like he was not sure if he had died or not. He felt Saint Shinta lift him up and hug him again. "Albiore, I'm SO PROUD of you! You beat a gold-rank trainee in a match! Great job!"

"AH, AH, AH, I'm gonna tell the WHOLE Zodiac about this!" Aldebaran celebrated, patting the boy's back. "You, little 'Al, would make a fantastic Taurus trainee!"

"AL, how did you do that?! Elda demanded to know, tugging his arm.

"I'm… not sure." he tried to look at Saint Lance to thank him mentally, but the three of them smothered him too much with celebratory affection.

"This is bullshit! How did that little bitch see my movement?!" Deathmask protested as Lance lifted him back up to his feet.

The Pegasus Saint scoffed. "Movement? You mean your cocky little one-finger strike jump? Don't be a baby, at least you won one of the matches. Besides, it's just playing." Lance reminded him. He then gave him Shinta's whistle. "You can signal the next match."

Deathmask immediately took the shiny, Andromeda-engraved whistle. "Oh, cool!"

"Also, mock my technique, will you?"

Trapped and shadowed by the taller Saint, Deathmask tried to give Lance on of Mu's sly grins, but the trainer dragged him out of there before he could cause more damage.

Albiore looked up at the Saint Pegasus as he made his way to the ring. "Thanks for the hints."

The teenager winked. "No problem. Don't tell your teacher, just keep the bragging rights." he advised, triggering a slight smile in the boy.

The three trainees sat back on the rocks along with Aldebaran, who patted Deathmask's shoulder to cheer him up, but the ten-year old boy felt like he was going to cause the volcano to erupt with as mad as he was. He looked over, saw Elda show her tongue and cringed at it, wishing Lance wasn't there so he could rip it out of her mouth.

Albiore stared at the two Bronze Saints entering the ring tensely. There was a subtle meeting of a gaze that ignited some sparks, as if they had lingering issues beneath the smiles and hugs. "So which one of these two is stronger, Aldebaran?"

The disguised Taurus Saint rubbed his chin intriguingly. "I don't know," he confessed, though he tried to make some calculations on the spot. "Shinta beats him at cosmos, for sure, I don't care what those volcanoes think, and the rule of thumb is to always trust that metric above all others…"

Cynthia's student stared at him; wondering why did the gardener-for-hire cared so much about fighting? The heck did he know about Cosmos? "...I sense a 'but'?"

Aldebaran sweated nervously. "Lance has a temper problem... and he punches hard."

"Oof, you can say that again." Deathmask agreed, rubbing the back of his head, before blowing into the whistle.

===Lance vs Shinta===

The two Saints immediately went into their stances, with Shinta keeping his feet apart parallel and hanging both chains at stomach-height while Lance adopted his 'dragon hands' and placed his left foot ahead of right. Since their techniques were so devastating, they agreed beforehand to just have a hand-to-chain match.

While Elda observed the match so casually it looked like she wished she had popcorn, Albiore took the opportunity to pay attention to how both of them got ready for the offensive. This was the first time he would see Bronze Saints fighting each other, his first experience attempting to analyze the other's movements as Saints legendarily did. More importantly, he wanted to see with how much action his teacher backed up his lessons; after all, it was hard to picture Saint Shinta being too rispid, much less battle someone, given his tendency towards speeches on pacifism.

Surely the Pegasus Saint had him outmatched in aggressiveness alone, right?

Maybe it was just the hot sun above them, but Albiore could actually swear he saw Saint Pegasus drop a nervous sweat to the sand.

Deathmask booed. "JUST FIGHT ALREADY!"

A vein popped in Lance's head and the far off volcano spewed out a geyser of fire which startled them all and made the earth shake. Lance stumbled, unused to the island's tectonics, but Shinta slid to the side and launched his offensive chain diagonally, grazing his uncovered cheek and drawing blood. Lance gritted his teeth, groaned and dashed into his defensive perimeter, but Shinta dodged his swing, rolled over to the right and launched himself back up with a pointy kick that bashed the Pegasus guard and pushed Lance back.

Chains were redrawn and the Pegasus Saint groaned, stepping back. The kids widened their eyes and Aldebaran smiled smugly; his green-haired buddy could be real cheeky when he wanted to.

"That's a hit!" Deathmask scored. "Don't fall behind, Lance, AH, AH, AH!"

Shinta didn't mean to humiliate him, especially with an angry island sensitive to him beneath their feet. "Sorry…"

"AH, nice hit, Shinta, keep going!" his pink Cloth urged. She would lick the blood of her chain if she could. "Also, you 'know' you wanted that, silly. This is your chance to get back at him, mm, mm."

The green-haired saw the Pegasus re-adopt his Dragon stance and became concerned; in all honesty, he had no idea how to get past Lance's martial defences and he just got lucky Deathmask teased him hard enough to affect the footing. Their spars weren't public. Aldebaran did not realize that, ever since Lance started training under Dohko, Shinta's hit rate dropped like a rock thanks to the kind old Master's defense-loving Dragon style.

In fact, Shinta had to relearn all of Lance's fighting habits. Long were the days where Shinta could just take advantage of Lance's old unrefined beat-em-up attitude. A gentle sigh at this was actually let out by the pacifist. He might have to wait half a minute or two before Lance made a mistake.

Defying his prediction, Pegasus Lance suddenly dashed forward, stepping into his chain range. Shinta irked and pulled for his weaponry, causing it to lash out reactively at the charge, but Lance suddenly slid beneath the mid-height first swings, turned over and rose up to uppercut Shinta's forearm guard with a thunderous sound that made the clouds above rubble.

Albiore saw his teacher suddenly flustered and stepping back. "Chains are best used from mid-to-long range, Saint Lance nulled Master's advantage." he noted in the brief instant.

This hesitation almost proved fatal for Shinta when Pegasus's foot slid forward to strike and stun his leg, but the pink-armored Saint's Andromeda's chains tried to coil back, causing Lance to have to leap back around to avoid getting wrapped up like a mummy. His cosmos burned ever so slightly, allowing him to recuperate his momentum, blitz to Shinta's flank and attempt another close-in strike.

But the experienced chain user then collapsed forward towards his attack, a rather daring move, and managed to graze back Lance's punch, hit the floor, roll and swing his arm to whip his defense chain around Lance's leg with a sparking release of pink cosmos. The contact between the two burning energies caused the projection of the stars and myth constellations in the background, the most common illusion associated with Saints battling, and the kids gasped to see the chained princess in the sky arresting the neighing, winged horse's back leg with her chains.

The pink electrical sparks, however, were met with golden ones at the surface of the Pegasus greave, countering the shock into neutralization and making Shinta widen his eyes. "Lance, you…"

The red-eyed Saint smirked. "Sorry, those aren't gonna work on me anymore." he then walloped Shinta's cross guard with a swing kick of his free leg, forcing him back further.

But the smallness of the ring space didn't allow Shinta to distance himself enough and Lance's dragon-claw fingers struck his armored stern as hard as a real punch, whopping the Andromeda Saint's breath like a broken wooden board. Standing back up with a stumble, the Master tried to strike the chained horse Saint with his triangle end, but the experienced Greek saw the whipping pattern coming and purposely blocked with his forearm guard, which he then pulled in to drag Shinta back into his pace and strike him right in the stomach, forcing a gasp out of his mouth and keeling him over.

Albiore was stunned. While Saint Shinta was fighting a lot more seriously than he ever pictured him capable of, Saint Lance was just seeing through all his moves and weaponry and countering appropriately. He didn't even look like he was tiring himself with it. It all looked so efficient that he would be shocked if Master could pull this around.

"So much for chains controlling your fight, huh?" wondered Elda, sweating. It wasn't pleasant to see a teacher as nice as Shinta get manhandled like this, but it proved her point about the metal link weapons. "My bet is on Saint Lance now."

But just as Lance tried to capitalize on the fallen Andromeda to try to punch his head into the ground, the green-hair narrowed his eyes in determination, snapped back into action by rolling over to dodge his friend, released the chains off the Pegasus and twirled around to launch a frontal assault with their edge points at mid-distance.

Though Lance was surprised, he managed to quickly leap upwards to dodge the thrusts, but while in the air, Shinta swung back his arms like a saw and the Nebula Chains caught the flying horse right in the air, where he couldn't use the ground to brace for a maneuver, and Shinta arched the Pegasus back down to the ground, launching him straight at a far off rock way beyond the ring's limits.

Yelling a rather ugly curse across the air, Lance crashed straight through it, collapsing the age-old boulder on top of him. The Andromeda Cloth recoiled its chains and cackled in Shinta's ears.

Deathmask blew the whistle. "ULTRA RING-OUT! Lance loses!" he announced, laughing hysterically.

Saint Pegasus groaned yet again and Albiore turned to Elda. "Sorry, you were saying something about chains being useless?"

She folded her arms in pout. "Yeah, sure, show me a Specter who accepts a ring-out, Al!"

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

Sanctuary, Virgo Temple

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

As the midday sun finally arrived, Shaka left his inner gardens to sit by the entrance of his temple in meditation. It was important, even after two centuries of pause, to keep the solar energy charged in the armor for the time when war with Hades would arrive. It was a good habit he wished all the other members of the Zodiac indulged in.

Meditating by the sun with his armor also allowed him to amplify his sensitivity and getting in touch with Buddha more closely. As the only Gold Saint born with the 8th sense, Shaka had an ironic vulnerability to the infinite wisdom of the enlightened one. It used to be that he would weep at the realisation of his own mortality, but acquiring the Virgo Cloth gave him the extra ears of Aestrea, the Goddess of Justice represented by the armor, to listen to his questions, allowing him to cope with his coil better.

If only all the other Gold Saints realised what terrible questions the Virgo Saint grappled with, they would cease to act so impatient with him, especially that ghastly boy, Aphrodite.

And speaking of ghastly things done by the cyan-haired gardener, Shaka, despite keeping his eyes closed, 'saw' with his cosmos the young somber boy Aiolia walk up the stairs, perhaps heading for Sagittarius to seek some comfort in his brother's house. Another flaw he didn't understand; Aiolos was out, working at the hospital and furthering his karma, but his little brother was so dependent that he would go to an empty Temple just to feel as if a brotherly blanket was on him anyway.

Attracted by the strange, empty energy his cosmos often emanated, the curly-haired Leo looked up and saw the Virgo Saint. "Hi, Shaka." he hesitantly greeted, to which the blonde Indian merely nodded. "Sorry, are you meditating?"

"Yes."

Aiolia scratched his hair. It seemed as if the Virgo was just sitting there. He wasn't floating or burning his cosmos or humming or anything. It looked terribly boring. Aiolia then looked around, trying to think of a good way to get past him without disturbing his concentration. "Okay, I'll just…"

Shaka sighed. He couldn't just let Aphrodite's meanness keep spreading unhappiness. It was likely Aiolia would become the next Leo Saint and the Pope wouldn't want any of them to feel like they couldn't work together.

"I sensed your conversation with our future Pisces friend." he started. He supposed he should say something 'nice' to Aiolia to balance out the damage. "He acts so rudely, does he not?"

Aiolia livened up; so it wasn't just him who thought so. "He does! What's his problem?"

"I believe it may be some sort of mixed Darwinist-narcissistic compulsion motivated by an environment of survivalism created by growing up around the Royal Demon Ro-"

The five-year-old gawked. "A narci-what?"

Shaka sighed again. "Aphrodite doesn't think you're as pretty as he is, so you're 'inferior' to him," he explained in softer words. "It reeks off his karma. Why, his aura of repulsion to others is only surpassed by mine. Our motivations for it differ, of course. What he doesn't realize, obviously, is that it's one's inner self that counts, not the external."

The Leo candidate hesitated to agree; as far as he saw it, the reclusive Virgo Saint could be just as rude as Aphrodite to others, often passing judgement on their lives that nobody asked for. Aiolos taught him to try to get along, though, and Aiolia would.

"So…where are you from?" asked Aiolia, trying to break the ice.

"I'm from India." answered Shaka, almost as if he was doing the child a favor by answering.

Aiolia widened his eyes "Really? India? You don't look like it. You know, with the blonde hair and…and skin tone."

"My eyes are also blue…"added Shaka. "These are traits of the Golden Line heritage Saints, who are widely thought to be the ones who are able to draw the most cosmos and most easily. This merely proves that, despite my nationality, I'm actually a descendant of the 'Golden Line' Saints."

"I-I see." answered Aiolia. He was still not used to the way Shaka talked to people. He was so distant and aloof, never turning his face towards people, yet addressing them despite of it. Aiolia felt really uncomfortable around him, as Shaka inspired within him the feeling that he was committing some sort of sin by being in his presence. "They say you are the most powerful Gold Saint, even more powerful than Aiolos and Saga. Is that true?"

"My cosmos is, indeed, the highest." Shaka answered.

And with this simple sentence, the Virgo ceased the subject, apparently uninterested in prolonging the conversation. As silence fell between the two, Aiolia felt even more uncomfortable with Shaka's presence. He tried to think of something to talk about, maybe something he had in common with the Gold Saint despite the rank and the Cloth. It was a difficult task, for Shaka did not open up a bit and, therefore, Aiolia got the feeling that he still didn't know anything about his closest neighbor.

The Leo felt more and more awkward. He considered the option to leave but, before he even decided anything, Shaka, shockingly, decided to take the initiative.

"In fact…" he started, catching Aiolia's attention "…it was through my Cosmos that I was found. As a child, upon reaching the borders of Nirvana on the shores of the Ganges, I began to leak an enormous amount of cosmos, drawing the attention of the Pope all the way to Greece. A few days later, as the witnesses of my enlightenment worshipped me, the people in the Ganges River saw a child beaming with light in the shore, levitating in the air and seemingly oblivious to the misery around him. That child was me and they deemed me a God."

Aiolia widened his eyes. "People thought you were God?!"

Shaka chuckled. "Yes, at least until Shion emerged and told them otherwise before taking me here. I wouldn't blame them. The transcendence brought by Nirvana has brought me to a level that is Closest to God. Such reaction from ignorant, poor people is understandable."

The young boy scratched his head, vexed. "Yeah, but…I can feel your Cosmos and it is pretty powerful….but the others are pretty strong too."

Shaka smiled softly "Power of the Cosmos? You believe that it was that that made me the Closest to God?"

Aiolia blinked twice "Hmm…What else could make you the Closest to God?" he asked, being hardly an expert on the subject.

For the first time in the conversation, Shaka turned his face towards Aiolia, as if finally acknowledging his presence. "Power is not divinity, little Aiolia. That is but an illusion. The true path to Godhood is neither through Cosmos nor through the power of subjects or, in other words, status, but through transcending."

Aiolia scratched his head; another complicated topic. "Trans…cending?"

"That is right. It is by evolving the spirit rather than the cosmos or authority that one may walk the road towards Godhood. For it is not our power or subjects who make who we are, but our very souls. In reincarnation, the only thing in common is the soul."

Aiolia scratched his head, confused "Alright…But, in order to evolve the soul, you have to train it, right? How do we do that?" In truth, Aiolia wasn't really that curious, but Shaka seemed to be interested in talking for the first time.

"To train the soul? Through meditation and the 8th Sense, of course." Shaka flatly revealed.

The little Leo widened his eyes, bewildered. "...There's an eighth Sense?... How strong is it? Does it give you a lot of Cosmos? Is it when I first used my 7th and felt a buttload of energy?"

Shaka sighed, but patiently explained. "That is too simple a way to look at it, Aiolia. The 8th Sense isn't brute power, but it merely establishes a link between the Cosmos and the soul, thus enabling one to tap into the spiritual dimension. The difference between having only the 7th and then having the 8th is not one of quantity; it's more like that between a circle and a sphere."

Aiolia was completely lost. "I see. I think I understand, sort of…"

"Then you'll surely understand why I am considered the Closest to God. It is because my soul is the one which has evolved the farthest, reaching the ultimate transcendence through the path to Nirvana. By doing so, I can actually act, judge and seem to be considered a God, to the point that I can read your karma well enough to know that you just lied to me." Shaka suddenly accused.

Aiolia staggered a bit, gulping harshly "Oh. I'm sorry, but-"

Shaka smiled again "It is alright. Through the same method, I can see that you lied with good intentions, so the bad karma isn't so impactful. I'm sure you'll live to compensate it."

Aiolia then had an idea "So, you can read people's karma?"

"I can do more than that. Through the proper technique, I can manifest it in the form of rewards or punishment." the Virgo bragged

Aiolia smiled "Read mine!" he suggested, excited.

"Your karma is quite good. You are a child, so you have not yet sinned with true malice."

Aiolia sighed. What a relief. "Okay. Do my brother!"

Shaka raised his chin a little, as if to inhale deeply, before answering "Your brother has ended lives and caused suffering, having lost moral innocence long ago, but never without necessity and always following a code of honor and chivalry. Moreover, when he does not sin, he tries his hardest to be kind and compassionate, sacrificing himself before others and helping those around him. His karma is quite strong in the righteous path, having protected you throughout your childhood."

"Is that good?..."

Shaka smiled. "It is one of the best I've sensed in a Gold Saint. Aiolos is quite like a 'knight of the zodiac', the way I see it."

Aiolia grinned, so proud of having Aiolos as a brother. "Do Saga!"

The Virgo hesitated. "Saga…is a conflicted one."

Aiolos widened his eyes "He is?"

"Yes. I actually pity his inner struggle. He is someone who yearns to fall to his instincts and fulfill his ambition, but his rational and moral side forbids him to do so. However, because he suffers so much to try to do the right thing, and because he succeeds to so quite often, his karma is good."

Aiolia looked to the floor, reflecting "Wow…I never thought Saga felt like that. He always looks like he's got it all figured out." He then looked back to Shaka, having just come up with a brilliant case. "Do Shinta!"

Shaka rubbed his chin. "Saint Andromeda Shinta has a very clean karma. I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like him. He hasn't shown signs of temptation frequently and often seems oblivious to evil passions. Also, whenever he absolutely has to sin, his enormous guilt tortures him immensely, far more that Saga's, and always tries to fix it to the point that whatever bad karma emerges within him is always almost immediately cleansed…He's someone that I would actually like to keep an eye over, were it not for his own second-guessing…"

While he would love nothing more than having the popular Andromeda Saint back at the Zodiac, even Aiolia could see the issues in this. "Really? I can't really see him training under you, especially because he's so much older than us."

"Once again, age is irrelevant to me, due to Nirvana. It is yet another trait of a soul close to Godhood."

Aiolia ignored Shaka's comment, having not understood his earlier point fully "Do Lance." Shaka's expression seemed to darken a little with this suggestion. "What's wrong?"

Shaka looked towards the direction of the areas outside the Golden Zodiac, causing Aiolia to follow his change of glance. It was as if Shaka knew where the person in question was right that second and could see him even with closed eyes and disguised cosmos.

"I don't entirely trust him," confessed Shaka, reliving his conversation with Libra Dohko in his mind.

"What? Why? Is something wrong with his karma?"

Shaka narrowed his eyes "In the past his karma was quite bad, that is true, and at some points reached almost putrid levels. He has killed a lot of people and not always out of necessity," he revealed, causing Leo to widen his eyes. "His good will and the patience of others has allowed him to recover from the brink of malice, however, and now I see him as someone worthy of a chance."

"Oh…" Aiolia muttered, but then he realized that Shaka's tone implied a but "Is that all?"

"As the Cancer Saint, he will have to grapple with the evil of the 4th House, an evil that believes defiling the dead in the name of Athena is acceptable." Shaka admitted "Every House grapples with its bad side but his in particular has a recent history of tragedy, one that the Civil War Generation has fought to censor."

"But he is now our Patron Saint, right? That's good." Aiolia countered.

Poor naive Leo. "You should beware of your lower neighbour, Aiolia. The Cancer Saint is rarely the paragon of his generation."

The little boy irked. This was all too complicated for him. As far as he knew, the only really bad people in the Zodiac were Deathmask and Aphrodite. "I'll bet Deathmask's karma is way worse than his."

Shaka looked up as if to check this in the very air itself. "Mmm, maybe I'm a bit rusty, but I think our Cancer Saint is quite mad right now."

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

Andromeda Island,

Central Volcanic Valley

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

The afternoon had arrived. Near the core of Andromeda Island there was a path that ran in the valley formed by the two volcanoes. While they were considerably apart from each other, to the point that it allowed them to dominate the landscape and make the island comically infamous for its semblance to a woman's chest, the volcanoes were so hot, tall and constantly fuming that the terrain right between them was said to be the place on Earth that resembled Death Queen Island the most.

This central volcanic valley was usually the spot for endurance training. As beginners, they would just transverse it routinely every other day, but in later years they were expected to do exercises and spar there, using cosmos to counter the environmental hazards. Lead by the Andromeda Saint and reared by the Pegasus, the column of six travelers advanced through the ash-darkened trail, occasional taking peaks at the source of the heat and suffocating air.

Deathmask sweated like a pig and took another big gulp from his canteen, wiping his forehead. "Ahh, what an infernal place! Are we there yet?"

Shinta kindly smiled at the Sicilian boy and wiped his forehead with a brown fabric. "We are half-way through, don't worry. Also, please go easy on the water, Mephisto," he patiently asked. He's already had to give Mephisto his canteen so the kids wouldn't have to share theirs.

Deathmask snickered; Shinta had always been a piece of cake to take advantage of. The boy wouldn't be shocked if one day he managed to swipe that expensive looking silver pendant of the Bronze Saint for himself. He irked, though, when he felt the chilling sensation of Lance's blood-red squint in the back of his head. Somehow it forewent even the omniscience of the 7th sense itself.

The two Andromeda Islanders, more or less used to the environment, continued to be amazed by Aldebaran's ability to face the dangers of Andromeda Island with a smile on his face. Just like back in the desert, not only was the big kid barely fazed by the heat, but he did his best to help the group, taking their hands to climb up to higher rocky paths, offering them some of his water and even asking Albiore at one point if he wanted to be carried for a while when he seemed about to pass out.

Elda in particular was highly suspicious of him. "Less and less I believe he's just a gardener. He looks more jacked than Deathmask, for Athena's sake."

Lance observed her. He knew he should have refused Aldebaran's volunteering to join them, but the Brazilian said he would he either see his old training buddy that day or the duel ring with Lance. He wasn't scared of wrestling the Taurus Saint out of a stupid idea… but he was not-not scared.

There was only so much he could excuse, though. Kids were dumb, but they were observant, too. "Gardening is very… intensive at the Taurus House. Aldebaran also had to get used to playing soccer with the gold-rank trainees and they don't hesitate to cheat with cosmos," he half-lied. "He could take a volcanic shower rock to the face and live at this point."

The Saintia candidate didn't buy this, but was intrigued anyway. "What is the process that you have to go through to live at the Zodiac?"

"Why do you want to know?"

She shifted her eyes. "...It's the best way to become a trainee… and trainees then get to be Gold Saints, right?"

The rear leader raised a brow at her. "You want to become a Gold Saint?... Why?" he asked, tone betraying bewilderness.

The black-haired tomboy glanced at him like he was dumb. "Why? Oh, ah-ah, very funny, Saint Lance." Such a stupid question, it was like asking why you'd want to be rich.

"I'm serious, what's your reason?" Lance insisted, genuinely curious. Personally, being a Gold Saint had only brought him trouble.

This time, Elda noticed he seemed honest and took a brief second to process it. Was there something wrong with it? "Well… for starters, I'm looking for someone, a Saintia named Rebecca." she detailed. "I've known her since I was a kid and really wanted to be with her in Sanctuary. I heard she became a Saintia and became second-in-line for Master Cynthia's Cassiopeia Cloth. When I asked her about it, though, Saint Cynthia didn't seem to know her."

"Oh,... I'm sorry, Elda."

She kicked a basalt pebble "… I just figured becoming a Gold Saint was a way to…"

Lance paused, as well as Albiore, who was hearing this the first time himself. "To find her?... Or 'impress' her?"

Elda shifted eyes self-consciously, rubbing her own arm. "I don't know… maybe? Who cares?" she frustratingly bit. "I wanna get a Gold Cloth, so what? Everyone does! Even Albiore here! He's obsessed with getting better scores and grades!"

"I'm not obsessed." Albiore defended himself. "It's natural to want to score higher."

Her hands rested in hips. "No, you're obsessed! I've seen that crazy book of yours!"

"Oh, you mean my sketches?" Albiore mocked, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, they're so tell-"

She shoved him hard! "I mean your other book you tell no one about! You keep a tally of everything, even your spelling mistakes, and you got a weird list of names in Spanish! In red ink!" she lashed back, knowing perfectly well from her days at the orphanage what this sort of thing meant.

Albiore's eyes widened. "You went through my things?!"

"No, dummy, you leave them out in the open! We only have one hut to sleep in! Be more careful with it, will ya?!"

He shoved her back. "That doesn't excuse you-"

"HEY, you two, SHUT UP and stop fighting before I sow your lips together!" Saint Pegasus shouted, paralyzing the two of them and making the island shake. He snorted self-consciously, though, when their scared expressions stared at him.

Shinta stopped when he heard the yelling and saw the three of them were falling behind. "Is everything okay?"

Lance nodded, embarrassed. Why did other people arguing piss him off so much? At least Saga and Aiolos disagreed on things that mattered. God, did he feel crazy. The heat reminded him too much of Death Queen Island, too.

"It's fine, Shinta, I just slipped." he lied, before turning to the other two, trying to control his volume. "Now listen up, you runts, I don't know what you're used to getting away with around Shinta and Cynthia, but you're on thin fucking ice with me if you think starting a fight with eachother when you need to concentrate to get through a valley of liquid fuck fire is such a good goddamn idea! Got it?!"

Their pale faces nodded rapidly. "Yes, Saint Lance!" they concurred in unison.

Lance took a deep breath. "I have to calm down or I'll get everyone killed. This dumb island and it's stupid forge volcan-"

"Lance, are you alright?" asked Shinta, interrupting his thoughts and grabbing his shoulder. He could lie all he wanted about slipping, but the Andromeda Saint knew better than everyone when the stoic Pegasus hid frustration. "If you want to head back home, I understand."

"Yeah, Lance, don't pop that vein." mocked Mephisto. He then looked over and saw Shinta's weird triangle chain stretching down. "Uh?"

The green-haired kid looked at his trainees. "Elda, Albiore, move up in the line next to me, alright? I'm sorry to say that because of this delay, we're speeding up our walk." he announced, taciturn, making the two groan. "If you behave for the rest of the way and we get the trail done by 5pm, though, I'll let you take a short swim at the beach."

The prospect immediately improved their mood and distracted them from their argument. "YES! Thanks Saint Shinta." Elda cheered.

Aldebaran saw the look on Lance's face. "You're scary, bro, but Shinta is a master of carrot-and-stick teaching, ah, ah. He can thank Master Daniel for that."

The proud Pegasus grumbled. "Mephisto and Aphrodite tend to give me little reason to think it would work on them. Rather, they tend to hang me with the rope I give them."

"Yeah, I got the message from the Zodiac. Apparently Aphro has already gotten into some squabble with Aiolia." Aldebaran confirmed, making Lance sigh.

Meanwhile, the purple-haired Sicilian boy watched the Andromeda chain work without Shinta realizing it, drawing on the black dirt. "E...L...W…" he read.

"Okay, everyone, let's keep going." announced the Master. He frowned sadly at his kids. "Saint Lance is a bit to blame, but I wish you two had kept your problems aside today."

"It's not my fault, Master!" Albiore defended. "Elda always provokes me!"

"It's not my fault, Saint Shinta, Al' acts like he's so self-righteous!" Elda in turn messaged.

Shinta irked. Since mental messages weren't 'grouped', it made them useful to talk privately in public, but it was also jarring to hear two opposite sides thrown at him like this at the same time. He then saw Mephisto looking at the ground. "Deathmask, what's wrong?"

He pointed at the ground as the chains finished adding two dots and a parenthesis. "Your chains wrote something."

Everyone looked down. Elda and Albiore paled. "Uh-oh."

K A S T I E L W A S H E R E : )

Lance's eyes widened.

*THRROOOOOOM*

Everyone screamed, the ground split apart, the two volcano mouths spewed out a minor eruption of lava. Belches of black smoke filled the skies. Sizzling droplets of magma showered the slopes. The Andromeda Saint instantly hugged the two trainees protectively, pulling them down and wrapping chains protectively around. Deathmask screamed like a banshee, Aldebaran stumbled over and Lance saw the black ground right in front of them burst upwards in a geyser of lava, lifting up an entire basalt rock plate.

His white cosmos burned and he immediately tackled the plate, larger than himself, but its tons weighed down on the Silver-rank energy he burned and his foot dug into the floor. The four kids screamed as the saw its shadow engulfing them with streams of lava run outflank them from behind the plate, surrounding the group.

"Is everyone okay?!" Shinta shouted, to which he got panicked nods. He then rushed over and helped Lance hold the boulder up, grunting with its unexpectedly dense weight. "If this falls over it could smash us down, we have to do something!"

"I know!" Lance groaned, but he felt his feet slip back. Lava from the streams of the torn fissures was piling up and rapidly increasing both the weight and the heat of what the two Saints held up, forcing them to burn even more cosmos. "S-shoot… if we punch this, there's a lava bath waiting for us on the other side! Shinta, sorry, this is my fault!"

"N-no, I don't wanna die! Al', let's push too!" screamed Elda. She and Albiore rushed over and tried to burn their little cosmos to help hold the rock up, but scalded their hands!

"No, stay back, you'll hurt yourselves!" Shinta ordered. He turned to the Gold trainees. "Mephisto! Aldebaran! Can you get help?!"

Separated by the lava stream from them, Deathmask and Aldebaran backed away. "We'll try to bridge you with another rock!" the Taurus Saint shouted.

"There's no time for that! It won't save us from this, either!" roared Lance, feeling the boulder get thinner and thinner as the lava ate it up.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Albiore asked, terrified.

And as all hope seemed lost to the kids, the Master and his friend smiled at each other. His pink aura burned. "First you're gonna apologise for disobeying me and misbehaving -"

Lance's aura then turned green and he took his right fist. "- and then you're gonna leave this to the adults!" The sound of a roaring dragon was heard and his fist struck the rock. "ROZAN! SHORYUHA!"

And Shinta's cosmos infused hand struck it as well as the Cloth pieces of Andromeda fell off him. "Nebula STORM!"

A burst of draconic water and wind then smashed the rock, run over the lava in the form of a roaring dragon and washed it up the valley's slope, instantly solidifying it into boulder in a burst of cosmos that spread green and pink glow all over the place, even clearing the air around them. The blocked off lava stream stopped flowing, the ground was sealed up and the trembling calmed down, letting everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Aldebaran and Deathmask walked back over as the streams previously blocking the two groups off flowed down and cooled. The disguised Taurus Saint let out a hearty chuckle at the two dumbfounded trainees. "AH, AH, AH, that was quite the experience, wasn't it?"

Al' still breathed in panic but he was pulled up and held close by his teacher until he relaxed. "W-We're alive!" he gasped, holding to Shinta's waist tightly and feeling fingers rub his hair. "I'm s-sorry, Master Shinta!"

Elda had a polar opposite mood. "Holy SHIT! THAT WAS SO COOL!" she screamed, jumping around the two Bronze Saints. "DO IT AGAIN! I wanna see that dragon move again!"

Shinta chuckled and hugged her too. "Hopefully Saint Cynthia won't find out."

Lance looked upwards and saw the light at the mouth of the volcanoes lowering down, as if lava inside was receding. "I think the worst has passed. She might not notice anything. We're lucky we weren't exactly on top of the common vein, though. Sorry about that..." he rubbed his head self-consciously "Roshi does say I need to relax. Maybe it's best if I head back after all."

While he couldn't agree more, Shinta shook his head diplomatically. "You're fine to me. We'll go back together."

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

Meanwhile,

Austria

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

It took some time to dismantle the fort and get the whole army to move in cohesion, but the False Specters of Lucifer now finally moved northeast in column and left the boundaries of Hades' barrier. It didn't mean they were safe, though, as Sanctuary's fortress of Peloponnesia was nearby and Gryphon Urial's murderer was likely stationed there.

"When are we going to talk, Lucifer?" Priam asked.

The cursed-eyed Specter kept marching, but spoke. "We can talk now, but we're not stopping. My forces are flanked by two enemies; Hades and Sanctuary. We will not rest until our position is secure," he explained. "It's actually quite appropriate that you would show up, Priam. You are an expert at evading Sanctuary, after all. Perhaps you can help us?"

The goggled, burnt man looked back and saw the hundreds of Skeletons and dozens of False Specters moving like shadows. It unnerved him how silent they were while clad in metal armor like this. Anyone else would think that an army like this could sneak up right to the Pope's nostrils without anyone noticing, especially during the night.

But the Civil War taught the former Sagittarius better. "You won't throw sand in Shion's eyes for long with these numbers shambling around. I lost 'my' war because I thought otherwise."

"Priam, why are you giving them advice?!" Daese whispered.

The Black Saint irked. "Well,... they are our allies, Daese." he rather bluntly affirmed.

"They are Specters! They would burn your home to the ground if they had the chance! Let me handle this." she quietly reminded him, sometimes exasperated by Priam's easy-going nature. "Daemon, do you really think you can hide all these guys before whatever your attack will be comes?"

"That's my concern. Don't you two worry; I learned from your failures fighting Shion." the Celestial Pride Star asserted. "And don't compare your successes and means to mine. You've yet to even realize Ainsel had been hiding among you all this time. He kept me quite informed on your mistakes."

As if prompted, Papillon Ainsel, the blue-haired Specter in orange armor and butterfly wings, floated above them with a chuckle. "Hello, Paladin Daese, Saint Priam!"

Daese growled, feeling her Knight blood boiling. "That scoundrel...!"

The other elites, especially Alraune Lemon, hummed in realization. "So this is what you've been doing all these years away, Ainsel..."

Daese irked, wishing she could cut Ainsel down like the bug he was. "I should have known…!" but she focused on why she was there. "On the topic of concerns, Lucifer, perhaps you're thinking you can just turn your back on us now that you're free of Hades' leash?"

Tension snapped in the air at this and Lucifer halted. "Is that a threat?!"

The goggled man took the conversation back over, standing between the Knight and the Specter. "It's not; I said we are allies. However…" he then looked Pride Star straight in the eyes. "I am still a man of Athena. Hurt one soul in Sanctuary, Daemon… and I will put an arrow through your brain!"

A tense stare sparked between the two leaders for a moment. Lucifer took a pause, tisking. "That Gold Saint blood runs hot in you still, does it not?"

Priam narrowed his hunter gaze, sided by his bodyguard. "It always will!"

In his youth, he would probably have been impressed, but Lucifer had seen countless generations of determined Saints like this fall to their deaths. Their bravery to him was nothing but blood in the gutter. "I'm the Prince of Sanctuary, descendant of the Athenian Emperor himself!... Why would I hurt the subjects that are my birthright?"

Oh great, this tirade. "Those dynastic claims are meaningless; they haven't held water for a thousand years." Daese interjected. The Cyrulian knights were a long part of Sanctuary history and, being holy knights, they thoroughly rejected the dynastic ambitions of Pope Arles I the Conqueror. They chose to side with Athena as the deity of Sanctuary, a rejection that still burned in her veins a millennium afterwards. "No one in Sanctuary will take you seriously, even if you hold the Pope's corpse over your head! You know this to be true; so what's stopping us from thinking you will just harm the civili-"

"And what do you care, Cyrulian?" asked Nasu Erika, interjecting herself. Even the younger girl Cerah had irritated her, and her older sister was apparently no better. "Down to two little scared girls by Sanctuary's hand and still you worry for the safety of those that massacred your people? Let the Prince do as pleases; if I was in your place, I would root for him."

But the Diamond Paladin's resolve was untouched. "Our pain goes after our values, Specter. The innocent are innocent, regardless of who they serve."

Nasu Erika cackled. "Unless it's Specters, correct?"

"You people made your own fate. Do you think you're different from Wyvern Rhadamanthys just because you are False?! You all sold your souls to Hades the second you took the Surplices he offered you." Daese argued, making many of the False Specters grit their teeth. She also got an accidental confession from Nasu just then that Cerah was alive, which relieved her slightly. Her blue-armored fist glowed with golden cosmos. "And I won't let you all drag Cerah down with you! I want my sister, Pride Star! Now!"

Sparing her but a glance, the Daemon Specter quickly asked one of his men to scout ahead for interlopers from the Sanctuary fortress. This was before taking a moment to wonder what and how exactly he would tell the furious Paladin. Normally he wouldn't bother entertaining the threats of others, gold-rank or not, but Cyrulians were especially bred to fight the armies of Hades and a Paladin could, before being brought down, deliver significant damage not just to himself, but also to his troops, which he needed to preserve.

The topic of Cerah would be one he wished to tip-toe around for numerous reasons, though. "You have a lot of gall making demands of me like this, Aquila, especially about Cerah. Why do you want her back so badly all of a sudden? She hasn't seen you in years and now I'm expected to produce her to you at your whim?"

The affronted look in her eyes was clear. "Wha… Why would I… what kind of thing is that to ask?!" she demanded to know. "You're going to start a WAR with Sanctuary! That will put her in danger you promised me she wouldn't be in! Don't derail me, Daemon, I know your tricks!"

His head shook. "This is no derailment, it goes right to the heart of the matter. In fact, I worry about Cerah's interests." the Specter dared to argue, shocking the Paladin even more. He smirked and drove in the next jab. "And I don't think you do."

Perhaps it was only due to the discipline of Cyrulians that the mad-eyed young woman didn't jump at him then and there for the facetious remark. "Who the heck do you THINK-"

Priam saw the look on her face and intervened. "Lucifer, tell her where her sister is!" he demanded, also making his concealed fist glow. "Regardless of our differences, you have no right to keep her family apart!"

"Or what?!" the Daemon called his bluff, suddenly flanked by his elite men, including Torak who menacingly folded arms. "You're pathetic, Priam, you know that? If you had half the fiber and honor you claim your 'cause' requires, you wouldn't dare to let your attack dog affront me like this! I'm in the middle of my Holy War and you waste my time demanding back a girl your Aquila Paladin cares so little about that she left in the care of I, a Prince of Hell!"

"WHAT?! YOU BASTARD!" Daese screamed, launching at the Specter before being held back by the former Sagittarius. "You took her from me! I love Cerah, she's all I have left in this world! I would never leave her with you if I had a choice!"

Lucifer folded arms as well, chuckling. "Yet you did."

"You blackmailed us, made us let you take her as your agent!" Daese countered. "You threatened us that Sanctuary would kill her if we didn't hide safel-!"

"And you didn't have the courage to FIGHT FOR HER!" Lucifer bit, delighting Nasu Erika, who just laughed to her hand at the scene. "All it took for you to surrender the 'only thing you had left in the world' was fear! What kind of love is that?! That's not love; that's cowardice!"

The Paladin gasped and paled even more than her skin seemed capable to, her strength failing as her guilt was brought to the surface. "How... how dare you?! I… It wasn't my fault!"

"You let me take her from you, Paladin! It was convenient to you!" the Pride Star further argued. "It meant you could go off and fight your hopeless war without watching over your dead weight! What kind of sister are you?! Cyrulian bonds… pah!" he then spat to the ground, a rare gesture of ugliness from a Dark Prince like himself. "You dare let Priam speak of family when you prefer to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him over Cerah?! Well, it seems that when push comes to shove, you 'knighted' people, or however you prefer to distinguish yourselves from Saints, were just another brainwashed army, dropping any comradeship at the first sign of trouble, no better than my False Specters!"

A mocking cacophony of laughter was then heard from the dark-armoured men within earshot of the conversation, humiliating the woman even further. The idea of these fake bonds overriding logic appealed to them rather personally.

But the Prince wasn't even done. "Don't worry though, Paladin Daese Héloise… your sister is alive and well. She went through some troubles, but she pulled through."

This put a look of confusion mixed with relief on Aquila's face. "W-what did you do to her?! WHERE IS SHE?!"

The Specter raised chin and delivered the news. "I sent her on a little mission two years back, but thanks to Hypnos' machinations she unfortunately ran into some… unexpected trouble, namely a whole company of my own men." he clarified, making her eyes widen. "I lost a lot of resources that night. You would have been proud of her, Daese; when backed to a corner, Cerah didn't flee to the skirt of Sanctuary rebels or betrayed your name to a Specter, she showed true bravery, enough to stand up to my Judge, and fight like a lion until her breath was out, not in the name of herself, or Athena, or any stupid chivalry code -" Lucifer then chuckled amusedly. "- but in the name of someone she cared about, someone she had met that day! Cerah showed true Cyrulian blood, unlike you."

Tears of anger and powerlessness came out of Daese's eyes, thinking of her little sister brutalized in a fight. The humiliation was almost too much, muting her even though her stomach screamed in revolt.

Before the debate could be taken further, Lucifer's Skeleton scout returned, totting binoculars. "Peloponnesia is ahead, Lord Lucifer. It's time to make a decision."

The Prince turned to the leader of the rebels. "You came here invoking our little pact, Priam, did you not? Well, it's time to put our friendship to the test."

"Why should we trust you?" Priam demanded, narrowing eyes. "You betray us, insult my friend and now appeal to friendship?! I never condoned violence on the people of my Goddess!"

The Daemon Specter then unexpectedly raised his hand and Nasu Erika handed to him a papyrus of some sort, which he unrolled before Priam. "Do you know what this is?"

The goggled Sagittarius widened his eyes. It was a big, old-looking parchment with countless names written on it, most of them glowing with a purple cosmos. Running his blue eyes up and down, he saw the names of all the False Specters and creepingly, whispers of death seemed to be heard in the background the more he stared at it.

He reached out to touch it and felt a chill run up his arm, as if Thanatos himself had teleported behind him. "Is this… from the Book of the Dead?"

"You seem to think our trust has been ruptured, so I offer you a deal, Priam. Since you entrusted Daese's sister to me, I will entrust this page to you. With it, the God of the Underworld could wipe out my army with but a command."

Immediately the men around them shuffled, gasped, mumbled worried complaints and humbly protested. "Lord Lucifer, you mustn't!" Torak appealed.

"They will deliver it to Pandora right away!" Troll Grendel panicked.

"Mm, mm, everyone calm yourselves, Lord Lucifer wouldn't risk your safety like that." Papillon Ainsel appealed. "You should have more faith after all we've been through."

But Priam himself was unsure of this. He exchanged looks with Daese, who seemed to regain the sharpness in her eyes at the prospect of having the Prince's neck in their guillotine, ready to chop.

But while the former Sagittarius Saint was often perhaps too naive and easy-going for his own good, he wasn't stupid. The deal was too good to be true. "Your men have a point, Lucifer. Why would you put so much power over you all in my hands? There must be something you want out of me."

Lucifer squinted. "Yes, I'd like to make a certain trip, but I want it to be fast and to skip the customs. I understand from what you did to the Cepheus Saint that you have a rather thunderous knack with that."

The former Saint irked once more. He knew where this was going and he was likely going to assist Lucifer in some sort of cruel attack on Peloponesia, where many of his former comrades lived in and defended. "Not until you tell Daese where her sister is! And not until you vow not to hurt a SINGLE-"

"She can have that information once my Holy War is over, Priam, and don't you bring up violence on Sanctuary's people to me, not when you waged three years of war against them!" Lucifer asserted, stonewalling himself. He then threw the page of the Book to his hand, knowing the Black Saint had no choice. "Do as I tell you, and I'll think about your demands."

Priam stared at the page brimming with names, feeling the fate of Lucifer's campaign in his fingers. Perhaps it was inevitable that Lucifer would shed blood. He wasn't in a position to stop him, not unless he teleported to Pandora's Castle and incur the wrath of the Prince. He thought carefully about his options.

"Well?!" the Prince asked, impatient.

Priam stored the parchment inside his concealing cloak. "You never lie, do you, Daemon? Let's put that to the test."

"PRIAM, don't!" Daese appealed. "This is just another trap, another deal with the devil!"

He took her hand to soothe her. These were the hard decisions he had to make for years. "I hate this too, Daese, but he's not going to let me stop him, but I can prevent a bloodbath at Peloponesia if we agree to work together again."

The Prince scoffed. "Who said anything about attacking this useless frontline? That's a waste of good men for a position too close to Pandora's Castle!" he argued. "So, Sagittarius Priam...have you ever been to Romania?"

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

Hours Later,

Andromeda Island

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

The sun was setting on Andromeda Island and the four younger kids shouted, yelled and threw water at each other by the black-sanded beach while the two Bronze Saints kept watch. After the scare they got by the central volcanic valley, the island's lava activity calmed down and the kids made sure to stay away from irritating the Pegasus, especially after he personally apologised for what happened.

Shinta also made sure to go store the Andromeda Cloth out of sight of Lance. "It's not my fault, Shinta!" the armor defended itself. "I was playing a simple game of hangman. Your friend is just way too sensitive."

The green-haired Saint frowned. "… I don't think you can play hangman with yourself, Princess."

Her round chain patted his innocent head. "Aw, of course you can, Shinta... It's called 'suicide mode'."

Meanwhile, getting her towel, Elda dried herself, still laughing at the sight of Aldebaran dunking Deathmask and Albiore into the water. She walked up the beach to join the Pegasus Saint. "Hey, Saint Lance, can you use that dragon trick to spiral the water up with us? It will be like Aquaworld."

The skeptic look alone he gave her would have been enough. "I think even Aquaworld gets sued for 'reckless endangerment', Elda."

She pouted, felt the temperature dropping with the sunset and put back her shirt over her bathing suit. Wondering how the others could stand the cold in the water, she turned and saw Albiore swimming away from Deathmask, who threatened to shove his head under the water should he lose a race. "Can you explain something to me? How does a jerk like Deathmask get to train at the Cancer Temple?"

Lance frowned empathetically. "Don't judge him too hard. Mephisto went through some hardships back home. You'd have loose fingers and an attitude too if that was what it took to 'eat'." but he then saw her skeptic look match his earlier one. "Okay, truth be told, he could be ten times the runt he is now and he'd likely still get picked for the Temple."

"How do you know that?" she protested.

His red eyes diverted. "I have some… issues too, but I still got in."

"Deathmask literally threatened my life back in Rodario!" she countered.

White-armored arms folded. "And I nearly killed my teacher. In front of the entire Coliseum. And the Pope saw the whole thing, too." he stressed, stunning her. "My trip to Death Queen Island was also rife with problems. Shinta just hasn't heard of some of the things I'm accused to have done there. Who am I to judge Mephisto?"

She then remembered what the Cloth wrote in the sand and put two and two together. "Oh...You must have been trained by Saint Kastiel, then?" she confronted, blunt. This time the volcanoes seemed unresponsive, but a small glow did emanate for a moment at their mouths. "Geez, what did he do to you?"

Lance sighed. "He… did a terrible, irresponsible thing and I was too young to deal with it properly," he then switched topics. "You have a good teacher, though, I've known Saint Cynthia for a while."

"Ehh, she isn't really a Master, just a 'trainer'." Elda complained. "In a couple of years from now she won't be allowed to teach me, whether I move to the Saintia Academy or not. She's not allowed to without Master creds. The only reason I'm with her is because of her Cloth."

The Pegasus Saint believed she missed the point, though. "Have a bit more faith in her, she's a good, upstanding trainer. Thats more than most of the Silver Saints can say. She was the first Silver Saint to get me to start changing my mind about their order. Even foot soldiers respect her." She didn't seem convinced, though. "You would just prefer to go after a Gold Cloth, right?"

She chuckled. "Hell yeah, ah, ah. Those things look amazing!" she then shifted her eyes. "I mean, I've never seen the Gold Saints, but... that's what I've heard. Besides, think about how cool riding a motorbike would be as a Gold Saint?"

Lance grumbled, having a hard time picturing an engine that could be useful to a Saint. This conversation intrigued him, though, and a concern popped into his head. "You wouldn't happen to be a Cancer, right?"

She blinked. "How did you know?"

He scratched his head."... Ah, shit!"

She squinted. "Okay, what?"

There was an odd way in Sanctuary for the planets to align like this. First he finds out Elda shares an element with him, then that her combat scores are high, then that she will likely not have a Master in two or three years time, then that she is running for the Saintia Academy which likely won't tolerate her tomboyish attitude with how prude they were, and now she even has the same Zodiac as him.

He really wanted to stay quiet then. He really did. He already had Deathmask and Aphrodite to worry about, not to mention the responsibility of being the Patron Saint.

In Sanctuary, however, he had a duty to communicate the opportunity should a rare compatibility be found. "You know, Elda, don't put too much stock in this or anything, but if you don't have a Master in a couple of years or the Saintia Academy turns you down… give the Golden Zodiac a call." he begrudgingly advised, making her eyes widen and glitter. "The Cancer Saint isn't allowed to refuse candidates past a certain level of matching. The succession line is too important."

The girl stared at him in anticipation. "Do you mean-"

Lance unpinned the golden, Cancer-marked badge on his belt and handed it to her. "Keep this with you. You know what it is, right?" he asked, to which had to cover her mouth not to scream in excitement. "Don't lose it, and show it at the first Temple if you ever get the chance, and they'll know you have my recommendation and take you to the Cancer Saint."

The Cassiopeia candidate politely took the badge and held it in her hand like a precious jewel.

While she grasped it, a look of hesitation overcame her. The time the Cassiopeia Amazon had patiently invested in her suddenly came to mind. "Saint Lance… I'm so honored, but… I can't do this to Saint Cynthia… I think I should try to become Cassiopeia first." She tried to hand it back. "The Cancer Saint will have to wait."

The Pegasus Saint was genuinely amazed by her integrity and smiled. Maybe this wasn't such a bad call to offer her this chance. "Keep it anyway. You never know."

Shinta walked in just in time to see her give him a hug of happiness before rushing off. "I will, Saint Pegasus!" she messaged, smirking ear-to-ear.

Shinta smiled sympathetically. "What did you give her?"

Lance grumbled, his usual sign of embarrassment and vexation. "Nothing. Just a badge of mine she liked."

Taking a hint that it was another Zodiac secret, the Japanese Saint 'oh'ed and took a seat by his side. "The day went well, I'm so glad." he confessed. "I have to admit I was kind of nervous after you first showed up, but the kids are happy, Albiore and Elda had a great time..."

"I nearly got them killed, too."

Shinta flashed one of his honest, appeasing smiles and shook his head. "Don't worry, that's why I'm here." But it made the Pegasus Saint laugh. "Uh, did I say something wrong?"

Pegasus patted his back proudly. "No, Shinta, actually, that was kind of 'cool'." he assured. Though this elated the green-head for a brief second, Lance then saw him lose his good mood in contemplation. "What's wrong with you?"

He shook his head self-consciously. "Nothing, just… I missed this." he confessed, stunning the Pegasus. "I missed being with you, having these conversations… even working together. It felt so odd not having you around that when I finally got your letter back it made me so relieved I almost cried."

Lance brashly poked his arm with his elbow. "Hey, don't man down on me now. I just called you cool." But even this rough gesture seemed to appease the Andromeda Saint more than teasing him. He rubbed his arm and stared at the swimming kids, so Lance decided to get to the real problem. "Do you miss Guardnia?"

Shinta nodded, a glint of determination in his eyes. "Yes, but it's not the time for it anymore, I realise it now." he turned to his friend. "There's something I want to ask you, Lance; you told me he was wrong for doing what he did, putting everyone at risk… but you never acted like he was unjustified. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know you better than anyone and something tells me you know what made him snap."

The red-eyed Cancer hesitated to respond, taking a brief moment to consider his options. He was frankly surprised at the determination that oozed from Shinta's tone and look. It was not something common to see in the meek pacifist Saint who made sure to hear everyone out before passing judgements. In normal circumstances, the Pegasus Saint would have attributed this to his bias in favor of his teacher, but unfortunately the Andromeda Saint was right on the money about Lance's supposed insight.

He remembered that moment right before Guardnia died when he hugged Shinta a bit too closely. Cetus had just knocked Lance aside, but he spotted it nonetheless. "Does this certainty of yours have anything to do with what might have been his last words to you, Shinta?"

The tension between the two arose again out of nowhere.

But Shinta looked away disarmingly, not wanting to trigger another bad talk. "Maybe, but it was also something that you wrote in your letter; you said you had to take up a position where you couldn't go back on your word. I thought about it for a while and I can't think of anything higher than a Gold Saint other than some sort of confidant of the Pope." the pacifist recounted. Once more he stunned Lance with the unusually determined will to see the matter solved himself, rather than rely on the judgement of an older figure like his teachers or the Pegasus Saint. "And then… there was that time you went to get Aphrodite and Mephisto. You were upset when you came back, I could tell, like you had to do something you didn't like. You even left a conversation with Pope Shion all tense just before getting back to me."

Lance folded his arms.

Shinta continued, sensing he was on to something. "Back then I told you 'one day, you'd look back on it with pride, like Arcadia', but that hasn't come true yet, had it, Lance?" he recounted. These were things Lance had forgotten himself. "The only difference between the two situations I can think of, from what I know, is that Arcadia was our own job that we kind of stumbled on…. But the Isle of Gardens was given to you from the Pope's own mouth, right?"

Red eyes blinked. He wasn't even mad, but kinda curious as to what sort of conclusion Shinta was drawing into. "You'd be correct… from what you know, of course."

Shinta stood up somberly and faced his older brother figure. "...Lance, who did he tell you to kill?"

The odd sensation that the sunset sped up further into darkness was felt by the two Bronze Saints. Lance took a good half a minute to ponder whether he should tell the truth or not, Elisa's burned face flashing in his brain as he did so.

He suppressed his usual instinct of getting defensive about it by telling Shinta the Maiden threatened his life, too, and gave him a semi-frank answer. "In this kind of mission… you are told to eliminate whoever mounts a dangerous obstacle to the Pope's will. Sometimes it includes someone who conspired against him after years of feeling wronged and manipulated by Arles, and sometimes it doesn't."

Shinta paced around with this revelation, arms folded in contemplation. He turned back after concluding something. "I won't question what you did, this is enough, I don't need you to defend yourself to take your side… not anymore." he assured. This was the way to prevent another clash of mentalities like the one they had over Guardnia. "I want your opinion on something, Lance… do you think Sanctuary… is bad?"

Lance sighed and reflected on things. People like Gigas, Elisa, Kastiel, Cetus and even Guilty made the answer come to him, but others like Dohko, Cynthia, Aiolos, Saga and even Shinta himself made him question it back. "It's not good…I think it's too complicated for me to be the judge of it. I think my job as a Gold Saint might be to try to make its better side shine brighter than its worse one."

This all sounded far from what the battle-oriented Saint that Shinta knew so well envisioned himself as. "But it's not what you want to do, right?"

Lance shook his head, thinking of Triangle Noah. "No, Shinta, it's not. At least it's not what I was once inspired to be..."

The Andromeda Saint stood quiet, choosing not to poke Lance's private thoughts too hard. Yet, he wanted to share his own conclusion "Lance, when I have the opportunity to, I want to run to become the Virgo Saint."

Lance widened his eyes. "What?!"

"You can't convince me otherwise, so forget it." Shinta asserted. "And I know Saint Shaka is the current Virgo and he's well beyond anything I could do with the cosmos… but I want to at least secure a place in the succession line. He once said I couldn't become the Virgo Saint because I had 'guilt' holding me back, but I think that now I see where it came from. I've wanted to leave when I know I have the power to stay and do my part to make Sanctuary a better place."

"Shinta, this isn't like you… You never wanted to climb the ladder, just like me. You didn't even want to inherit the Cepheus Cloth! What about getting back to your roots? What about finding your parents?" Lance questioned.

"That is what I want, but not what my job, my role should be," argued the fourteen-year old teenager. "I would love to see my family again, of course... but I've also always wanted to do what I can as a Saint."

"Shinta, it's not what you think it is!" Lance argued. "Being a Gold Saint doesn't mean being a superhero, more often than not it means protecting the bad guys! Power in the Zodiac is a trapping, not a privilege! It's too big a job not to be!"

The winds of the island blew, making the Master's air wave as he took a deep breath. For a brief moment, the conflict inside him influenced the island. "I will try anyway. Someone has to. This is what 'sacrifice' is."

Then, as these words seemed to disappear into the air, the Cancer Saint had an odd sensation in the Cosmos, like a galaxy far far away, one associated with a chained woman, shined a little brighter on Shinta's fate. It was not unlike his own experience with the Pegasus Cloth in that moment where they realised how little they had bonded over the years. Roshi had once taught him that typically the path to a Bronze Cloth finished with obtaining it, while the path to mastering a Gold one started with that precise conquest, but maybe he wasn't entirely right.

While he expected further argument from the Pegasus Saint, Shinta was surprised that Lance actually looked away and nodded. "Well, I hope you're ready to practice sitting under a tree all day."

The Andromeda Saint nodded determinedly.

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

Meanwhile,

Sanctuary, Virgo Temple

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

Aiolia grinned as he moved the checker piece over Shaka's in a triple combo. "Gotcha!"

Still in his meditating pose, Shaka merely moved his captured checker pieces off of the board with his telekinesis. He genuinely enjoyed playing checkers. It wasn't too tactical and there was a karmic risk about eating the opponent's pieces and making yourself vulnerable to counters that personally appealed to him.

Aiolia was also an interesting player, going with his gut instead of his brain. Perhaps Shaka found a new checkers partner.

The Leo candidate then saw the Virgo turn his face away and smile. "You're sure upbeat for someone who's losing. What is it?"

Shaka shook his head in denial as he felt the layer of guilt around Shinta's karma dilute a bit. "It's something else; I think my succession line just gained a new candidate."

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

Andromeda Island

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

With the night falling on the island, the inhabitants and the visitors gathered up by the beach to board the motorboat. To the kids it looked like Aldebaran, Deathmask and Lance would be driven all the way back to Aden Airport in Yemen and then take a plane to Greece, but Shinta knew they would actually just lightspeed their way back instantly once they gained a discrete distance from the islanders.

Aldebaran bear-hugged the Andromeda Saint. "I'm gonna miss ya again, buddy. Whenever you're in Greece, come visit us at the Taurus Temple. The Aries Saint leaves so often I doubt he will object you just passing through."

Shinta chuckled. "Of course!"

Aldebaran then distributed hugs to the kids with just as hard a squeeze, making them squirm like dolls. "Elda, Little Al', you guys too! I'll show you some real soccer practice with some Gold-Rank trainees, ah, ah, ah!"

"Come on, ya losers!" Mephisto yelled, already aching to drive the boat.

Albiore dusted himself from the over-enthusiastic Taurus hug. He hoped one day training at the Second Temple he wouldn't deal with the gardener's nickname. He was a nice guy, but a bit overwhelming. Surely the Gold Saint who cared for him was more mature.

The blonde boy then saw Saint Shinta chatting with Saint Pegasus again. Those two were inseparable all day. He said his goodbye when he got Pegasus' attention. "Hope to see you again, Saint Lance."

The Bronze Saint patted his shoulder. "Yeah, sorry for the scare I gave you guys. Once I set my foot on the boat, you'll have no eruptions to worry about. All things considered, Shinta's Virgo-like patience is the best trait to have on this moody island."

"Yeah, he's okay sometimes," the Argentinean confessed. "Did it take you a bit to get used to him, too?"

Lance's red-eyes rolled. "In our first mission together I yelled at him over his enthusiasm about birds. I nearly sold him off to the Black Saints that day," he revealed, making Albiore giggle amusedly. "He will surprise you, though, so stick by Shinta, Al', okay?"

The boy appreciated the Saint didn't mimic the trend Aldebaran tried to start. "I will, thanks."

Aldebaran made the motorboat rock when he leaped into it. "Hey, watch it, Sasquatch!" Deathmask complained. He then turned to Lance. "Hey, 'Master', let me take the front seat, it's my turn to drive."

Lance grumbled. He had yelled a lot at Mephisto that day so maybe he should give him something to look back on this day positively. "Alright, but watch the accelerator." he warned tossing him the key.

Elda leaned on the pier's barnacle-filled pile with a grin on her face. "Just don't plant everyone's faces in the water, loser!"

Deathmask extended her his middle finger. "Bite me, bitch! I'll go back to my comfy Temple bed and you're stuck on this infernal island forever!"

Elda chuckled mischievously, grasping the golden pin badge secretly in her possession. "We'll see about that."

Lance set a foot on the boat and started uncurling the rope. "Okay, Shinta, I'll see you later. Maybe after I'm done with this session of training with Roshi I'll -" the pink-armored Saint then leaned over and hugged his neck. The surprised Saint sighed and patted him. "Okay, okay, I'll miss you too, now get off me."

Shinta embarrassedly did. "Sorry, say hello to the Master for me."

Albiore and Elda stood together and watched as the two had their final chat. "What an odd pair."

Elda raised her brow. "What do you mean?"

His hand laid out. "I mean that Saint Lance is actually kind of the last thing you'd expect a best friend of Master Shinta to be like." he explained. "Did you see how short the guy's fuse is? He nearly killed us more than once today, directly AND indirectly. I'm just wondering how two people so different could get along so well."

Elda waited until she saw Saint Lance finally step completely on the boat to store the rope in. He was holding his foot on the edge for leverage, but it should be safe to be honest now. "Pfft, you're such an idiot, Al. Isn't it obvious?"

He blinked. "What?"

The tomboy girl rolled her eyes at him. "Dude!... Saint Lance is totally gay for your teacher!"

*THRROOOOROOOOOOMMMM*

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

Meanwhile,

South Africa, Johannesburg

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

In the warm night of the urban cesspool, the two masked Amazons dragged the captured Black Saints involved in human trafficking into the Sanctuary safehouse, roped and gagged. The Tibetan, black-haired girl dusted her black-gloved hands. "See, it was fine, Saint Cynthia. I had it all under control."

But the blonde Cassiopeia shook her head. "Yushira, you're a good Undercover agent and you work pretty hard, and I know you got the kids safely, but-"

Yushira put fists in hips, frustrated. "Yes, but what?!"

The veteran sighed softly. "If you had kept your position hidden a little longer, as your mission plan laid out, instead of busting the place the second you snuck into their boss's room, we could have pulled you out quietly and not have to bribe the police because of stories about 'flying fists of light'."

It took a second of hesitation, but Crane Yushira lost her defensive posture. "Oh… yeah… I guess you're right." she self-consciously admitted. She hadn't thought of this. "Boy, those are coming straight out of my salary, aren't they?"

Cynthia nodded but then started sensing pings from Athens. "Hold on, I think Saint Sagitta is forwarding me something. Yes, what is it, Nam? What? Andromeda Island? Slow down!" Yushira then watched the veteran quiet for a second and then she stepped forward harshly and her hand smashed the spare radio in it and she accidentally blurted out vocally. "A mega WHAT?!"

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

Sanctuary, Pope's Halls

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

"A mega eruption, uh?" sitting on his throne, Pope Arles III waited for the Papal Guard to finish his report.

"Not thoroughly, as it was contained, your Holiness, luckily the Cancer Gold Saint appeared on site and destroyed the pressured mass excess, but several news stations in nearby countries raised panic alarms about the almost-mega-eruption." Maximus detailed. "Volcanic ash clouds are still observed by coastal telescopes but I believe the final report will be of minimal exposure of Andromeda Island, nothing that hasn't happened before."

The masked man nodded. "Thank goodness. I'll have the Cancer Saint called in anyway to give me a personal explanation. You may go, Maximus, and please call the next person in."

The Papal Guard captain nodded and left, totting his halberd and opening the door to the next person seeking audience with the Pope. When he entered, Shion went tense, fingers grasping his throne's arms so hard that the gold-pad creaked. The hall went silent and darker and the young, hooded archer stopped but thirty feet before the Pope, the maximum he was allowed to.

Shion nodded his head respectfully. "Good evening, Leon." Turning his head up, the hooded man allowed the tainted glass windows to illuminate his blue-eyed, silver-haired features, who glared at the Pope with spite in silence. "I'm sorry for calling you under such short notice. Hopefully the shortcut to Pisces gave you enough discretion. I would have summoned you through it sooner, but today I knew you'd be able to cross it without Aphrodite being there this morning."

Leon tucked his black longbow. "Yes, your Holiness."

The tension in the archer's tone cut like a dagger. Shion could only shiver imagining if Mu would ever look at his teacher like this, too. Hopefully that day would never come.

Shion then lifted a document with his mental powers and gently made it float to the young man's hands. "I have a job for you, a job only you can do."

There was a sly smirk from the merc. "What about your Gold Saints?"

The Pope shook his head. "I cannot ask them this… When you read it, you'll understand why."

The hunter unfurled the document and squinted at the picture and name. "Isn't this… he's alive? Are you sure?"

Shion touched the spot he was shot with an arrow months earlier. "Vividly. Find this man, Leon. Capture him if you can, but eliminate him if you must, as well as anyone associated with him. If the past returns to haunt Sanctuary, Sanctuary will be destroyed before the war with Hades ever begins."

The silver-haired youth stared at the Pope, intrigued. "An arrow for an arrow, then. Something tells me, though, Master" his blue-eyes then locked with Shion's mask. "that the reward will be short of what I desire once more."

The Pope just reiterated himself. "Complete this task, Leon, and the Goddess will forgive your sins."

A shine went through the archer's eyes. Death would be soon on the horizon for Sagittarius Priam, then.

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 41 - Second Arc – Episode 8 - The Two Towers - Part 1 of 2

Description: While Lance passes by Greece shortly to deal with the Pope upset about the eruption he caused, Daemon Lucifer and his men make their first strike.

Author's Note: First off, I want to apologise for the long postponement, but if you paid any attention to the author notes above or my Twitter account you'll understand what I wanted to get ready for this chapter.

As for the chapter itself, I just want to make it clear to everyone that this was all written in the spirit of fun, not to establish anyone's sexuality. We're walking into the serious breath of the Arc and we're not gonna come out for a while, so I wanted to have simpler, funner story to tell to give you all a rebreather (though Chapter 41 may have some light moments still).

And this chapter's plot actually came out of a plot bunny that was born in a conversation with Jenny DeVic. One of the reviewers asked if it was inspired by LYKM and it is indeed based on a chapter where Shaina babysits Shun, Spica, Leda and June that you all should totally check out, but truth be told I've been wanting to write something with Lance spending a day on Andromeda Island and meeting Albiore for at least four years. It was actually gonna be the chapter following the very last one written for Version 2 of this story, believe it or not.

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.