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.

41. 2A: The Two Towers - Part 1 of 2

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:

-Just like to make sure I thank all the people I more regularly consult for scenes, mainly the description of Stardust Prison, like Alkonost Storm and my friend Mahogany. Check out Alkonist' stuff, too, she has SS stories on this website;

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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"When we learned that Pope Sage replenished the fallen generation of Gemini Cain so quickly, every Specter in the Underworld guessed that the new ones that took their place, lead by Sysiphos, couldn't possibly be that strong. Yet, here we are, with Minos fallen to but a dead Pisces, thanks to Pandora's scheming. I thought Vermeer was supposed to be the unworthy False Specter of Gryphon, but apparently, even my assertions can be mistaken. Unlike Minos, he at least put up a fight to Cain's Gold Saints.

Outrageous. Once again we face the nightmare of arrogant Specter incompetence.

We have a chance to redeem ourselves tonight, though. Bennu Kagaho, that fool who prances in Rhadamanthys' shadow, has taken upon himself to strike Sanctuary of his own initiative. With the Godslayer in our catacombs and Michael preparing to lay waste to Jamir, Alone will now strike at the very heart of Sanctuary and I will be there to pave the path to him.

But the fortress of Athena is well guarded. I will need an ace on my sleeve to ensure that even I, Daemon Lucifer, will face a foe defeated before the battle even starts. To this end, I've summoned the Specters to plan a coordinated attack on Sanctuary. It will occur when Alone finally decides to announce the Lost Canvas to the Saints. Soon the blood of Gold Saints will wash down my Surplice."

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

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The Next Morning

Sanctuary, The Golden Zodiac, Pope's Halls

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The trip back from Andromeda Island to Greece had been awkward and Lance thanked the 7th sense for making such journeys much shorter. It was hard enough for the Cancer Saint to get Deathmask to listen to him, but now he had almost triggered a massive volcanic eruption because he misheard Elda's offhand comment. Lance felt he had lost most if not all of his credibility as the figure of reason.

It was fortunate that Aldebaran, unsurprisingly, had been the voice of comfort. He vouched for what had happened in Andromeda Island at the Zodiac, patting the older colleague's back and assuring him it was nothing to worry about, but the Brazilian didn't have a pair of miscreants to set an example to while at the Golden Zodiac.

Now the Cancer Saint, in full armor, stood before the head of Sanctuary and tried his best to appease the Pope about how his recently self-announced Patron Saint had his shit together. Tapping the crab-legged headpiece he held at chest nervously, he attempted to brave the passive mask's stare.

"Fortunately no one was injured." the Pope commented. "Now what am I to do about all of this? The Andromeda Island training ground is very important. When things like this happen, news about it travels fast, especially to New Lalibela."

Lance sweated. "It was my mistake... I take full responsibility for it."

"I know it was. As always, your reports are very concise." Pope Arles III assured, sitting on his throne. "But I can't have the Patron Saint be found to cause eruptions in Training Grounds. It gets a lot of attention."

The red-eyed youth sweated self-consciously. "They know the Pegasus Saint caused some trouble, the public is used to it," he argued. Normally he didn't like making excuses, but he was expected to now that he had an important position. "If anything, the Patron Saint solved the situation by containing the eruption."

Shion pondered the matter. It was far from uncommon for novice Gold Saints to cause trouble unwittingly. In fact, he currently had at least nine houses full of little miscreants in golden armor that needed constant oversight. He didn't think Cancer Lance would be the type of causing this kind of problem at this stage of his growth, though. "That's… true to an extent, but I'm sure you understand by now that the Island enjoys joint sovereignty with Cetus."

The image of the vicious blond monarch's smug face popped in Lance's mind. "Yes, I got a mental ear-pull from Cassiopeia about it already."

This made the Pope entwine fingers. It wasn't like Lance didn't seem to comprehend the severity of the situation, but as Pope, Shion had to give his reprimand. "Traditionally the Gold Saints assume roles of diplomacy with the Allies when they reach a certain maturity level. Taurus Daniel was my last representative to New Lalibela. I've been putting off assigning any of you due to the extraordinary circumstances regarding your ages, but you're the oldest and you'll likely be the first pick. A simple ear-pulling is far from what people have in mind about making things right when talks break down."

What? Becoming an envoy to Cetus? Few things in the world would make Lance irk more. There was nothing he could do at this point save of a pilgrimage to New Lalibela to lick the monarch's boots to save Sanctuary some face, but after what Cetus made Shinta do to Guardnia, Lance would sooner shove a pipe up his ass.

So he decided to derail the topic. "Can I have a new gold pin?"

The Pope looked at the page of Lance's report where he mentioned giving the trainee Elda, under the wing of the Cassiopeia Saint, his golden pin. "It was an unusual show of trust from your part, giving it to this girl, but you cited a list of very good reasons for it and you have the precedent of having adopted Mephisto as well."

The Gold Saint stared at the Pope intently. One thing he had noticed from all this is that Shion seemed to have reservations about Elda that he lacked when Mephisto was presented to him as an unexpected adoption from Lance's assignment to the Isle of Gardens. While the boy from Syracuse was obviously far, far closer to a mastered 7th sense than Elda, unlike her he was also not inserted into Sanctuary's system and was prone to stealing, threats and mischief.

Yet, the Pope paradoxically seemed more worried about the prospect of Elda being at the Cancer Temple than Mephisto. In fact, at the time of Deathmask's introduction, the Pope almost seemed radiant with the Sicilian boy's arrival. Now he was hesitant about a better-behaved girl?

It wasn't the time for this, though. Carrying the golden pin of Karkinos around afforded him certain privileges, not the least of which he wouldn't have to put up with the border checks manned by foot soldiers who envied or even hated his guts. While it didn't stop him from being obstructed and assaulted, it did reduce the odds.

Should he try to get the Pope to grant him a new one sooner, rather than later? He sighed. "What do you want me to do for it?"

Shion put down the papers. "Two things, Patron Saint, the first is that I want you to spend the day with Aphrodite."

Red eyes widened. "Uh?!"

The Pope nodded. "You heard me. Unfortunately, Aphrodite hasn't been behaving well recently. He has gotten into another scuffle with Aiolia while you were gone and this morning I've had more requests from Papal Guards and servants to be assigned to other temples. As talented as he is, I can't have a Gold Saint candidate unwilling to contribute to a healthy relationship with the members of the Zodiac."

This was a lot of bullshit, even for Shion. "Then why even make him a Gold Saint? Can't we just leave him be in Pisces?!" he found himself raising his tone.

But he shut himself up when the Pope's head recoiled slightly as if offended. "You're not suggesting he follows the same isolationist tendencies you once had? Do you, my boy?"

Lance's chin lowered. "…No." The problem was, though, Lance had promised from the start he would do everything in his power to help Aphrodite be at peace and, if possible, not become a Gold Saint. It was the only thing that got the cyan-haired boy to listen to him. "I mean... Your Holiness, I understand it's unreasonable for him to stay here if he's not going to become a Gold Saint, but he has nowhere else to go. I can't just go dump him back at his training ground, but one of the reasons he's so frustrated is because we've been pushing him into becoming something he's not."

Unfortunately, in Shion's perspective, there were more things at stake than Aphrodite's right to stay at the Pisces Temple. In fact, Lance was looking at the problem upside down because what Shion was worried was that not only was Aphrodite compatible with being the next Pisces, but perhaps too compatible to not become it. The Swedish boy was clearly Albafica reborn and was destined to become the new Pisces, especially if Shion wanted to do his absolute best to protect Sanctuary until Athena arrived. Negotiating a situation where he could stay around and not be the Pisces Saint was impossible.

He hated acting as if ruled by Hecate's prophecies, but far too much of what she had said had already come true. Athena's safety could be at stake. "All I ask is for you to reinforce your bond with him, Cancer Lance. You've already fought for him at the trial with the nobles, so we can't deter the path he is headed towards."

"Only because you put me in that position, you old asshole! You keep leaving these kids to their own devices to go do God-knows-what! Now you're back all of a sudden and you expect me to train and be with them at the same time?!" the Cancer Saint thought to himself, doing his absolute best to shield his brain from the Lemurian's telepathy. "What is the second thing?"

"I want you to take the opportunity that you're here to work together with Saga, Cancer Lance. After laboring tirelessly on the case, your downstairs neighbor has uncovered a lead to who may have assisted the attack on Sanctuary during the Eighty-Eight Knights Festival."

Lance's red eyes widened, his mood shifting. "Are you serious?" he thought. "Yes, of course, your Holiness." This was an unexpected turn of events. Since the Black Saints struck, the new generation of Gold Saints has been running around like headless chickens about it with barely any info to go on and a Pope acting like he had nothing to say about being almost literally skewered on a stick by the attacker, but now Saga finally made a breakthrough?

"He'll be waiting for you at the Stardust Tower. Take care of these two tasks before returning to China, and I'll authorize a new pin crafted for you," Arles vowed. By the tower, he referred to the famous and historical incarceration facility which existed in the mountain pass between Sanctuary and Rodario. "I'll also order a few extra ones in case you keep this adopting streak of yours up, mm, mm, mm."

Lance frowned and grumbled. What a lame sense of humor. Was this a Lemurian thing or an old thing? He honestly couldn't tell.

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After properly saluting Shion, he respectfully left the throne room and walked out through the main corridor of the Halls, strategizing what his day would be like. He should stop by Pisces first, obviously, to get Aphrodite. Maybe getting his side of the story would relieve Lance's headache. Then he should head out immediately since Saga was probably interrogating people as he stood there and Lance wouldn't want to miss a chance to figure out exactly what happened on that fateful day when the Pope was attacked.

Considering how reserved Shion had been about all this, it actually surprised Lance that the Lemurian Pope was setting him on the path to discovery... which was too good to be true, right? Something told him this 'lead' wasn't going to be as fruitful as the Cancer would like.

Musing about all this, he noticed the head of the Papal Guard awaiting him by the Hall's exit, a veteran man who seemed about the age of the retired Gold Saints like Akassius, Daniel, Kirin, and Malta. Much like the others, he carried gold-ornamented steel armor of denser plates than the average foot soldier, a characteristic halberd, a cone helmet, and a holstered short sword, but unlike his underlings, said helmet had a red, forward-facing Roman plume crest and the golden ornaments throughout the armor were more elaborate.

A thought formed in the Gold Saint's head and he approached the guard. Maybe he could infer something about Shion's behavior if he learned a bit more about his pattern of movements. "Hey, you. You're the boss of the soldiers stationed at the Zodiac, right?"

The grizzled man blinked, surprised he was being addressed by the Gold Saint, but he stayed stoic and professional. "Yes, Lord Cancer." His voice was gruff and firm.

Noticing the stoic answer, Lance deduced the old man shared a strong but silent type with the Cancer Saint, so he wouldn't let loose some details without getting a conversation going more loosely. "What's your name? What did you do before being here?"

This was another surprise for the blue-eyed Italian man. No one in the whole Zodiac took the young Cancer Saint to be anything but a recluse who regularly kicked the help out of his Temple, much less someone interested in getting to know you.

Still, he stood up straight and introduced himself as if to a military superior. "My name is Maximus Trecimus Aurelius, captain of the Papal Guards and former commander of the Capricorn Legion, loyal servant of his Holiness, Pope Arles III. Before guarding the Pope's home, I fought in the Civil War under the new Duke of Thracia, Lord Kirin-"

Lance pouted annoyedly beneath his mask. "Yeah-yeah, okay, got it, I just wanted to make sure you've been around the Gold Saints for a while." He mused to himself, not interested in hearing about the man's surely long war stories. He also noticed the Latinized name. While they were not uncommon in Sanctuary, they were usually a sign that you were from an Italian branch of Sanctuary aristocracy. When he saw the guard about to finish his life story, he spoke once more. "If you're Lord Arles' closest guard in rank, then you must know if he's been moving in and out while I've been gone, right?"

"Yes, Lord Cancer."

Good, Lance's instinct was on point. "Would you mind telling me about it?"

The older man iced his glare. "With all due respect, Lord Cancer… I'm not at liberty to divulge that sort of thing."

The teenager tisked. "Figures…" He needed to ask something different if he wanted to get a hint of what Shion has been up to. "This is a security inquiry, though. The current Pisces candidate has been causing trouble. I've been ordered to look into it and I'd like to know how busy the Pope has been. Can you tell me who Lord Arles summoned here the most recently?"

While the silver-haired bow-for-hire came to the captain's mind, once more the man shook his head. "You don't have clearance to know that, Lord Cancer."

Shot and sunk. "Well, where has the Pope been off to?"

"It's a classified matter, Lord Cancer."

Oh really? "How often has Saint Saga been meeting with him lately?"

"You will have to ask Lord Gemini yourself, Lord Cancer."

A vein popped in his head and Lance folded his arms. "Does two plus two equals four?!"

The man stood the same. "I can neither confirm nor deny, Lord Cancer."

"Fuck the gods, man, what can you tell me?!" Cancer Lance roared, startling other nearby guards but barely fazing the man who had witnessed older Gold Saints vent out twice as terrifyingly. He quieted down, though, when he remembered it was probably a bad idea to yell in the house of a man who could read minds. "Why are all the activities of the Pope such a huge secret? I'm a Gold Saint, it's my job to protect him and this place."

While he wasn't minimally inclined to cede a single inch on this, the captain wasn't unsympathetic to the Gold Saint's frustration, being technically a bodyguard of the Pope himself. "Lord Arles is a very concerned Pope about making sure that the Zodiac's secrets remain secret. This includes your identity. In this matter and all others, we out our personal feelings aside as humans so we can perform our duties as Papal Guards, Saint Pegasus."

Karkinos laughed inside Lance's mind. "Ah-ah, he's got you there, you fool."

The dual-life teenager snarled in vexation at this. "Fine, got the message; I can tell I won't go anywhere through you guys," he concluded, preparing to go pick up his anti-social, cyan-haired protegé. He halted for a second, though, when a question popped in his head. "How does one become a Papal Guard with such tight lips, anyway? You guys are even stronger than some Bronze Saints, but I've met other strong foot soldiers before and they don't get all these apparatus."

There was a slight hand tucking of the man's halberd to his chest as if a swell of pride was felt inside him. "Foot soldiers have several specialization paths available to them should they serve Athena well, Lord Cancer. Elite hoplites that prove their loyalty and prowess in battle often get picked for more medaled posts. Some Saints like Herakles Aguilon even command their own elite teams."

Lance could easily tell that this was his way of bragging he did something impressive. Maybe this would loosen his tongue. "So what was 'your' baptism?"

The aged man's eyes turned to glass as if reliving a moment of intense bloodshed. "I participated in taking Crow's Nest, the Cyrulian tower fortress, under Capricorn Kirin."

The Saint was bewildered. "...Taking what?"

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Meanwhile,

Romania, Brasov County

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It seemed like a cloudy morning at the great, southeastern bend of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Buzau Mountains, which rose high into the air with great dark green forests hiding the dark rock underneath. Between these high rises of these peaks, several paths of various widths, heights and development going between the cities of Buzau and Brasov existed, giving the inhabitants passage a 'relatively' smooth passage through segment of the great mountain range which separated the old Transylvanian region from the Black Sea coast.

Only one, however, you would not find in any map or mountain chart. It was a circling road rising up to the higher mountain jags which, should you cross, would twirl you around without you realizing, till you found yourself in some other road. This was because old seals similar to the ones found at the Golden Zodiac, the Isle of Gardens, and many other places guarded by Sanctuary existed beneath the ground, giving the impression that there was nothing to see there.

But rising from the ground in the midway point of the path, encroached by steep mountain walls, there was a fortress, one remarkable for its disproportionately tall tower-keep which rose up to sixty feet in the air and the dark-grey color of its bricks. It had a strange design, borrowing elements from both antiquity and the middle ages to respectively counter melee assaults and resist missile fire.

Like antiquity fortresses, its outer walls were high, slippery, ceiled and had multiple levels to retreat into should outer ones be breached, but like medieval ones, they were also slightly sloped inwards to encourage foolish enemies to try to scale it, at which point squared battlement lines waiting at the top with cross-shaped slits would fire arrows and toss boulders and javelins down on them, and towered bastions guarded and connected its vertices to stand vigil and provide assisting fire.

Much like the Peloponesia fortress, though, these outer walls existed to provide cover to sudden attacks until the garrison organized itself, as there was not enough stardust in the world to reinforce every brick in every castle of Sanctuary. The floor of the bailey was also at lower level than the castle's surroundings, being dug and entrenched within the walls, which provided its inner grounds with special strategic resistance to high-powered attacks.

Two barbicans with portculli, one facing directly westwards towards the inner Carpathian, to regions closer to Hades' influence, and another positioned southeast towards the outer Carpathian, to lands closer and more tightly under Sanctuary's grip, provided entrance and exits to the fortress and both holstered a flag of Sanctuary at short mast, showing a blue owl not dissimilar from the ancient emblem of Athens itself. Both barbicans, in turn, were connected to the inner walls and, then, to the main keep by a walled-off corridor where enemies would have to go through hails of rock and steel should they choose to strike through the iron gates rather than the walls themselves.

The inner walls, in turn, were not sloped, but stood on even higher terrain and had more menacing battlements with ballistae and scorpions mounted on it, from where they could fire upon the same range the outer walls could. Several more slits were also built into it so defenders could turn the outer bailey, in case of a breach, into a second, deadlier killing ground. Several foot soldiers patrolled its battlements, taking advantage of the height to see far beyond their premises, ready for any attack.

Finally, at the core of the fortress, stood a keep, a tall pentagonal building made of stacked, ever-thinning floors which rose into the sky until a final floor which was suddenly wider, akin to a bird's nest. This was the main, central part of the fortress which gave it its legendary name. The dark-grey of the brick in this keep was now almost akin to black and, combined with its two wall levels, formed a fortification which made crossing the curved mountain path without Sanctuary's knowledge and permission a nightmare to any invader, offering the foreboding sensation that the keep watched you back as you conspired against it.

And a multitude of eyes hidden in the forests surrounding the fortress indeed conspired, many nervous about the task ahead. "What kind of place is that?" asked Nevil, the Mandrake False Specter. "It's got foot soldiers all over it!"

Daemon Lucifer, leader of the False Specters, glanced at Priam and Daese, who begrudgingly tried to decipher his intentions. "It's an ancient Cyruluan castle that has stood here for over a thousand years. It once was guarded by the Knights of Athena, but now her Saints occupy it," the Prince explained. "We, Specters, know it as 'Crow's Nest', former home of the Corvus Silver Saint."

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Chapter 41

Second Arc

Episode 8

The Two Towers

Part 1 of 2

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Sanctuary, Pope's Halls

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The captain blinked. "Pardon me asking, Lord Cancer, but… do you not know of Athena's knights?"

The infuriated teen was tired of being circled around on this. "Do I look like I do?"

Patience was summoned by the guard to handle this. Part of him felt slighted that his feats were so unknown to the youth and part of him wondered how ignorant the Gold Saint was. "Crow's Nest is a former Cyrulian Saint castle in Romania, Lord Cancer." Maximus patiently explained. All things considered, it was normal for younger Saints not to know these places. "It was famous for its tall, towered keep, large size, strategic position in the Carpathian bend and the legend of its castellan, the Corvus Silver Saint."

But the red-eyed Gold Saint was still lost. "Cyrulian Saint? Castellan?"

There was another surprise blink and he only got an annoyed shrug from the spikey-armored God Saint. This time, the captain nodded in realization at how out-of-the-loop the Gold Saint was. He remembered, in particular, that Pegasus Lance initially became infamous for having assaulted his former Master, the Kerberos Saint. It was possible that their current Cancer Gold Saint was heavily uneducated.

With mixed feelings about how well this boded for the Fourth Temple, Captain Maximus took a deep breath and tried to summarize the topic. "Cyrulian Saints, Lord Cancer, also known as the 'Knights of the Zodiac', were an Order of Saints of Athena that swore an oath to the memory of King Cyrul, a mythical Capricorn Gold Saint from the Dark Ages described as the original owner of Excalibur. They used to be one of the five branches of the Army of Athena."

Running through his memory, Lance counted through his fingers said branches. "Saints, Saintias, Hoplites, Amazons… and Knights?" The teenager's brain overclocked, trying to keep up with all the names and designations.

"It's a mouthful, isn't it, Lord Cancer? Just imagine back in times where people said we had assassins or… Ninja Saints, too."

This almost made the Saint gag. "Okay, just don't. Slow the fuck down." The Cancer begged. "First things first, I thought 'Knights of the Zodiac' was a broad term for Saints!"

The aged soldier frowned meaningfully. "Now, it is."

The teenager stood aback, looking aside and back at the captain as he processed this. So there was yet another whole facet of Sanctuary he never heard anything about? And the implication seemed to be that they were no longer around to claim the famous title of 'Knights of the Zodiac'. "Okay… so what was their deal?"

"The 'Knights of Athena'…" Maximus snided, as if he personally found the term ridiculous "...dedicated themselves to exterminating the forces of Hades above all others. Many people believe the fame of Capricorn Saints as chivalrous and loyal to Athena comes largely from Capricorn Cyrul's moral code. It's a crusader legacy that has impacted Sanctuary to this day."

Lance folded arms. This sounded redundant beyond belief. "What's the damn difference between that and what we already do?!"

"The same as a Papal Guard and a mere foot soldier, Lord Cancer; specialization and dedication." Maximus analogized, calling back to what they previously discussed. "Most Saints have more to worry about than just Specters, like Mariners, Black Saints, the occasional terrorist and more, correct?"

This was true. Over the course of his albeit-short career, Lance had fought far more than just Hades' warriors. "Sure, that makes sense."

"Well, some Saints, usually Bronze and Silver, thought they should become something more; something that would consider Hades' philosophy the ultimate evil and put him and his liaisons in its crosshairs before anything else," Maximus explained. "They saw it as their own way to honor Athena, to pay their dues to her in spite of how Gold Saints ogled the war effort to themselves, so they took up the figurative sword and joined the Order."

This, however, seemed ridiculous to the teenager. "That's it? They felt 'left aside' from honoring some absent goddess?!"

The sacrilege made the faithful guard irk. "…Strange as it may seem to you, it has motivated hundreds of uneducated women to live a life of faceless and genderless reclusion for the same reason as Amazons, has it not, Lord Cancer?" Maximus confronted.

This put the teenager to a halt, who seemed to try to say something back but was at a sudden loss for words.

"People will do strange things to earn the favor of the Gods. Athena's folk are no exception." the halberd-armed captain reminded. "If you felt you had sins to make up for, would you just let the Gold Saints tell you you're in the way when you finally have a chance to earn redemption?"

The Cancer Saint held his own chin. "Uh, so this is why Shura is so chivalry-obsessed all the time? Cause of the example given by people like this?" he wondered. While the Capricorn boy technically saved Lance's life at the Isle of Gardens by slicing through Elisa's seals and loops, the Cancer Saint always found his careful speech patterns and more-than-occasional references to training and honor rather odd, attributing it to Kirin's draconic practice regime. "So they had their own castles?"

The captain nodded. "Yes, that's where the title Castellan comes from."

This sounded expensive. "And they would fight a whole side of the war against Hades?"

"Quite bravely, so, Young Lord." confirmed Maximus.

Lance squinted. "How the hell do a bunch of Bronze and Silver Saints accomplish that on their own?"

The young Gold Saint really needed a lesson in respect towards his brethren Saints, so thought the captain. "I like to think their faith helped them, Lord Cancer, but perhaps taking all the Light-elemental Saints with them played a bigger role. Cyrulian Saints were almost exclusively Light-elementals. I'm sure you've noticed these are rather rare back here in Sanctuary nowadays."

This rang a bell in Lance's head. Indeed, his first encounter in his life with a user of the element of Light was when Lance, after six to seven years in Sanctuary, fought the projection of Tenma at Mount Rozan, and one couldn't even say Tenma was from their time.

He still had mental marks from the way Tenma battled. "They must have lived in a way entirely different from us, then."

The captain seemed pleased by the Gold Saint's intuition. "They did; with a society entirely built with light-elemental Saints, they crafted their own art, culture, style of faith and even their own techniques. Cyrulian jewelry and weaponry used to be a popular commodity in Rodario. At their peak, the knights were so developed in their particular way of life that some people believed they would eventually become a revolutionary force in Sanctuary, the new main face in the fight against Hades."

He scratched his head. "And… we fought the Knights, a branch of our own army? Why?"

"For the same reason all the fighting in the world takes place, young Lord; politics."

This just seemed like a rather dismissive response. "Any particular reason? I don't like the idea of working for an organization that backstabs its own people."

Darkness filled the man's expression, reliving the harshness and paranoia of the Third Civil War. "Being holy knights, they were more loyal to Athena than the aristocracy of her land. The fact that Cyrulian Castellans were Golden Line did little to reduce friction about this over the centuries. Cyrulian Castles were passed down through who earned the Cloth they were named after, rather than inheritance, which made political weddings rather difficult. You've had your encounters with the nobles of Sanctuary, Lord Cancer, I'm sure you can tell how dangerous this is."

While his trip to Kastoria and his experience at Aestrea's Court had indeed given him shivers about the people who really ruled Sanctuary, Lance still held some skepticism. "Okay, yeah, those people are jerks and perhaps a bit too possessive and influential,… but that can't be all."

The Papal Guard Captain didn't entirely disagree. "How about military secrets, then, Lord Cancer?" he suggested. "As we discussed, Cyrulian Knights had a particular smith art popular in Sanctuary. Well, where do you think the beautiful trinkets and weapons came from?"

Lance tried to think about it. The only people in Sanctuary he knew could make worthwhile stuff like this was Mu's people. "Did they take it from the Lemurians in Tibet? Is that why Sanctuary got pissed?"

The guard captain shook his head. "You would think so, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong, young Lord." He denied. "Cyrulian materials were 'Lightcrafted'. They could literally forge things out of their own cosmos and a bunch of scrap metal."

If everything so far had sounded crazy, this was the most unbelievable part of all. "What?... You're serious? Could they repair Cloths?" the Saint questioned. This sounded like a fantastical strategic advantage in a place where some armors could require a third of your blood to be repaired. " How…How is that possible?"

"And that, my Lord, is probably the real reason the war with them started." The wise, older man pointed out.

Lance gulped. He's never had to revive an armor entirely before. Despite the trials and tribulations he went through with Pegasus, the Cloth had miraculously never been 'killed'. It had been broken and shattered in critical moments numerous times, but these fractures could be repaired by Mu rather quickly and with little monetary cost. It had never reached a point where the Saint had to slit his wrists open to resuscitate Pegasus. The idea of a cultish group of Saints knowing the secret to circumvent this, doing field repairs and holding it all out, especially during a time of civil war, did sound like the kind of stuff that could cause trouble, maybe war entirely.

"I'd like to stress that there's still many among us who idolized the way they conducted themselves, though, young Lord." Maximus added, wishing to curb any thoughts in the youth to look at the story the wrong way. "Not everyone was elated to see an old friend gone, especially over such a stubborn affair. To this day, the House of Capricorn still honors King Cyrul's faith and ideals. The blade in Saint Shura's arm, Excalibur, is proof of it."

The red-eyed teenager uttered no more words about this topic of knights. There was a possibility that a whole bunch of war propaganda was mixed in with these stories. Telling people the enemy had a secret weapon is a good way to get them riled up against someone you wanted gone for far more nefarious reasons. Shura, in particular, seemed like the type that would unquestioningly eliminate Shion's enemies if requested, being overly lawful as he was.

Still, it could provide a relatable reason as to why the Capricorn Saint was like this. Lance still remembered growing up and moving to Sanctuary drunk on Noah's stories of how they were supposed to be like. Was it possible that the former Capricorn Saint just filled the boy's head with stories, too? "Maybe Kirin had more in common with Noah in that regard than I thought."

"Or maybe Shura just listens to his Gold Cloth as he should, unlike you." Karkinos added.

"…I get a little bit of perspective on that kid and you just had to ruin it, didn't you?" Lance grumbled. "Whatever, it's not like I'm planning on running into him today."

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

Rodario Mountain Path,

Stardust Prison

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

The path through the mountains between the capital of Sanctuary, known as Sanctuary Town, and its nearest village, Rodario, was windy and treacherous, going up through forested valleys hidden from the outside world, but around the midpoint from those who came from Rodario, it leveled out to a wider, densely-forested depression known as the Green Valley. This historical location had been the site of ambushes from Sanctuary forces to invaders, but it was also feared as the area which housed Sanctuary's second most infamous incarceration after Cape Sounion itself, the Stardust Tower.

Built upon an old, exhausted stardust mine, the prison was simultaneously known as one of the tallest and most terrifying constructions in Sanctuary. Nicknamed "Tartarus on Terra", it was surrounded by evergreen trees enclosed by a great ring-wall of stone spanning half the valley, almost to the dirt path people would take between the towns. Its thick, rising edifice was a hundred feet tall, going as high as the Statue of Liberty and overlooking the entire Green Valley from its highest spot. Shaped like a dark, imposing obelisk crowned by an arc built like Nike's staff head, its design contributed to its fame as both a prison complex and a military watch, as its peak evoked to the mind the ancient Syracuse mirror rays.

Unexpectedly, it was not the many inner rooms leading to the top that housed its inmates and detainees, as these were mostly guard stations and weather watches, but rather its basement floors. The Sanctuary Greeks who constructed the tower knew full well how vulnerable high buildings were to Cosmos attacks, as they themselves, as if inspired by the war goddess' wisdom, held with deep affection ways to pummel enemy fortresses like Pandora's Castle with their Cosmos. So, rather than building multiple walls around themselves, the men of Athena dug, dug and dug floor after floor, trench after trench, in the already cavernous, emptied out old mine.

Some people said the Tower went thrice as deep downwards as it went up from the ground, contributing to its infernal nickname, and that the deeper you went, the strongest the stardust shackles were and the more evil and powerful inmates were held. Others said its prisoners were still forced to mine marble in its veins as forced labor, despite the official narrative of the network being completely shut down.

More importantly, though, it was a place for Sanctuary to put its criminals when they had too much strength for regular prisons, but not a crime to warrant Cape Sounion.

Pegasus Lance, who had just dropped off his malicious Gold Cloth at its House in favor of his Bronze, had rarely been to the tower itself, having mostly just escorted the Black Saints he captured, like Ray, to the foot soldiers, who then dragged them off promptly up the mountain pass to the Stardust Prison. He knew, however, that its secluded location allowed for secretive interrogations to be taken by the Saints and hoplites, so for Saga to call him there really meant he had found a lead on the Black Saints of Priam.

Coming along with him was someone many probably wished had been put in the tower for a week or two for his more vicious indiscretions.

"Gosh, what an awful-looking building," Aphrodite commented, already seeing its ring peak through the tree branches as they passed by the ring-wall's main gate. "Is this your idea of spending 'quality time' with me, as you put it? I would rather have joined you and Mephisto to Andromeda Island."

Red eyes rolled. "We're just meeting Saga here for a minute and then we're on our way," he assured, dressed in his golden armor and face-concealing black head sock. Since he didn't have his pin with him anymore, he would have to rely on Aphrodite's so they could be identified as Gold Rankers and get easier access to where he needed. "Something important came up that could help us out a lot in keeping Sanctuary safe."

"Fine, then I'll go on to Rodario and you can join me, the-" but Lance then grabbed his wrist and kept him close. "Okay, OUCH! What's your problem today?"

"My problem is that you've been going back on our deal and threatening others, Aphrodite!" Lance reminded him. Having to explain an eruption to the Pope also left him embarrassed.

"Aiolia had it coming! Besides, you went back on it first!" the Swedish boy bit back. "You think I like having to passively accept becoming something I don't want to just because some old men in togas have been 'pressuring' you and the old man next door to me?!"

"It's not the same, and I'm doing my best to-"

"It's totally the same! How do you think I feel?! You're the only one in this goddess-forsaken place I was supposed to be able to trust!" Aphrodite shouted at him. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just leave and go back to the Garden Isle!"

The Pegasus Saint grumbled. It was so difficult dealing with the Pisces candidate. The worst part was that the boy had a point and Lance couldn't stand the idea of sinking to Kastiel's level by letting convenience sever his word, but with half the high-tier society on his case since the court session and Shion breathing on his neck about making sure every single one of these kids stayed close to Sanctuary, what could he do?

"Aphrodite is smart, Lance, maybe you should rethink your approach if you want him to listen to you," the Bronze Cloth of Pegasus suggested

As much as the Saint hated to admit it, the winged horse was probably right. "...Fine!" he mentally growled before turning to Aphrodite. "Look…. I'm sorry. Don't give me that look, I mean it!" he asserted when he saw the Swedish boy narrowed his eyes at the typical answer. "What do you want from me to make it better?"

The cyan-haired candidate looked at him like he was stupid. "I told you already; one excuse."

The Pegasus Saint rubbed his fabric-covered eyes in distraught. He above all hated being around the Golden Zodiac. "Damn it, I don't know what to do…" He didn't want to spill out some lame motive to stick around for several reasons, not the least of which that Aphrodite wouldn't buy it like the other kids or even that Lance would believe in it himself. He thought really hard on it, but only one thing came to mind. "I'm not gonna force you to be a Gold Saint, Aphrodite… but I can't let you stay isolated either. I know what it feels like to think it's the better choice to make when we don't seem to be able to get along with others, but it's not."

The Pisces candidate rolled his eyes. Lance was very private about his own training days and apparently, even Saga and Aiolos had to go investigate his old spot at Mount Olympus to learn anything concrete about it, but Aphrodite knew enough to tell that it left his guardian with a hard time dealing with regular people too. It was extra obvious in light of how Aphrodite's guardian had to resort to social doormats like Shinta to have any sort of friendship with anyone that wouldn't inevitably break out in conflict, but it was a story that was old at this point. "Says the guy who literally flees to China the first chance he gets."

The two reached the entrance of the nightmarish tower; a conical, iron-reinforced wooden gate guarded by two hoplites. The bricks forming the door's arc had letters on them spelling out a message in Ancient Greek to visitors and arriving prisoners that loosely meant:

"Pray to Athena before you enter, for she shall not be with you inside."

The two sweated hard at the threatening message. "Are you sure this isn't a temple to Hades instead? I thought Athena was all about forgiving." Aphrodite questioned.

"Sure she is, except when you piss off her Saints while she's out..." Lance bitterly remarked.

The eight-year-old smirked. Not being a big fan of the deity and the hypocrisy of her worshippers was a thing the two genuinely had in common. Not wishing to spend more time there, Lance greeted the hoplites who, seeing his Gold Cloth from afar, already stood ready to unlock the gate, open it with a foreboding creak and let them through.

Another pair of guards inside guided them into the prison's ground floor. Even this starting stage of the tower made the building look just as much like a dungeon on the inside as it did on the outside; its dark brick walls, reinforced-glass desks with jaded bureaucrats and lack of plant life was all further dressed by the low electrical lighting surrounding the central passing corridor, creating a pressing atmosphere. A yellow line among other colored ones guided the two of them to the temporary detention rooms. The mind found it easy to imagine how people brought over for interrogation or jail felt with each step taken down their path.

The Pegasus Saint cringed. "What a pleasant place…"

"He, he, I don't know, I think we've both seen worse, Lance."

Lance turned to Aphrodite. "What did you just say?"

The cyan-haired boy blinked at him. "...Nothing, I've been quiet this whole time." the Pisces answered. Aphrodite spotted the red line, attracted to his favorite color, and saw it went further ahead to a huge, iron-fenced elevator guarded by yet another pair of footsoldiers. "Everyone works in twos here, uh?"

"It's a security feature, Aphrodite, though I do find the duality personally appealing." said none other than Gemini Saga, who joined them from the room to the side where the yellow ground line went to. He was dressed in his Gold Cloth and black sock just like Gold Saints would when wishing to keep their identity a secret. "Every main checkpoint requires two keys, at least, and the floors 2b below even require Cloth Boxes of increasing rank."

Lance blinked. He remembered well that the bridge to the 2nd Step of Mount Olympus also had a similar pressure pad for Cloths. It kept him from escaping for four years. "You can't go to the bottom floors without getting a Saint?"

The blue-haired prodigy shifted eyes. "I've heard the bottom floor needs the Pope. Trust me; you don't want to see what kind of scumbags are down there. Judge Meropis probably has his name on the death list of half of them." The presence of two armored Gold Saints and their mean-looking little follower attracted a lot of eyes so the Gemini bobbed his head at the room he came out of. "Let's get ready to work?"

Lance gladly followed him inside, where the three of them stood before the privileged side of a typical one-way mirror. "Sure, but the Pope said you finally caught someone with knowledge of the attack. Is it for real?" he asked, genuinely amazed.

Saga smirked confidently. "I haven't just been attending a lot of meetings, you know? I cross-referenced all we knew about the timeline's events and found there was a rather obvious opening the Black Saint who shot the Pope exploited," he explained. "So what do the two of you know about Star Hill?"

"It's an eyesore?" asked Aphrodite. "Frankly it looks like a big phallic joke to me."

"It's the cliff place the Pope keeps his books or whatever, right?" Lance asked. Saga blinked at both their answers. "From what I remember, it's not exactly a public place; the Amazon village 'Aretias' and a bunch of foot soldiers watch over it. Supposedly it's super hard to climb and even Gold Saints could die trying."

A shine went through Saga's eyes beneath the sock mask at the mentioning of this. "Not quite as much as you might think; many people have scaled Star Hill before with the Pope's blessing and lived to tell the story. In fact, you'd be surprised to know that Chameleon Saints, for example, are required to climb and steal something from it as part of their final 'Path of the Cloth' test. When you try to do it clandestinely, though…

"You get a spear through your back?" Aphrodite asked.

Saga nodded. "Yes, and you'll hardly dodge, much less survive, considering how vulnerable and dizzy you'll be from the stardust-packed cliff wall."

Saga sometimes could be as nerdy as Camus when it came to Sanctuary's little curiosities. "What does this have to do with anything?"

The third guardian of the temples made an appeasing gesture. "I'm getting to that; we know that Priam, the leader of the Black Saints, climbed Star Hill during the 88 Knights Festival so he could target the Pope. Shaka traced the cosmos from his warp technique back there and it's the ideal place high enough to platform you to do so past all the 12 Temples." Saga then tapped his folded arm, "and as far as we know, Priam doesn't have a Bronze Cloth with camouflage powers from Andromeda Island…"

Lance's red eyes narrowed. "So someone looked the other way."

"Someone watching a particular side of the hill, may have," Saga argued. "So after going over the Amazons, at least the ones who wouldn't throw spears at the first sight of me near 'Aretias', and several patrol members, I finally found someone who was supposed to be watching the hill part that the Black Saint likely climbed through."

It was then that the Gemini Saint flipped the switch on the wall and the room on the other side of the mirror lit up, revealing a huge, tan-skinned blonde youth, likely someone with giant's blood, with a deformed large right eye, a white trainer and green, spiked hoplite armor pads handcuffed to his chair. A vertical scar from stitches went over his left, healthy sized eye. Lance approached the mirror, squinting.

"Ugh, gosh, turn the lights back off! He looks gross!" Aphrodite noticed the look on his guardian's face. "Wait, you recognize that mother-loveless face?"

The Pegasus cringed in response. "Yeah, or at least my foot does. I shoved it right in his face the day I came back from Mount Olympus. His name is Jaki and he used to be one of Kastiel's sycophant henchmen."

Saga reviewed the paper he had on Jaki. It indeed said he used to train under Saint Kerberos as a hoplite, but his vicious, undisciplined nature caused him to be discharged and relayed into his new post, a fate Lance almost shared with him, coincidentally. Apparently Jaki would have been kicked out entirely already, but his family interceded in his favor and the Silver Saints were arm-bent into accepting a compromise by making him a Star Hill guard, where he would ideally cause the least amount of damage.

So much for this, as on the day of the Festival, Jaki had been on patrol there by order of the Sagitta Saint. "Well, he's been resisting the questioning. Another Dimension is a lot less frightening when you know the Gold Saints can't really kill you without reason. I was going to try something imaginative, but since you're here, maybe getting him reacquainted with your foot will loosen his tongue."

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

Feeling his huge wrists scratched by the cold metal handcuffs, Jaki wondered when the lights would be turned on again. As the electrical buzz was heard and the room was illuminated, he cringed, blinded temporarily and began rocking his chair in protest once more.

"HEY, let me OUT, you Gold Saint faggot! You can't do this to me! I'm a soldier, I have my rights! Don't think for a second you'll get away with using your powers on me!" The door then opened and Jaki was shocked to see not just the Gemini Saint, but the Pegasus Saint and even a kid with a female Saint mask enter the room. "Hye-hye… hey, what is this, a reunion, Pegasus? I'm so honored."

Both Aphrodite and the Lance irked. The giant teenager's disfigured face was hard to look at. Maybe if he wasn't as unpleasant on the inside, they would feel sorry. "Hey, Jaki."

Jaki chuckled gutturally. He could always tell what people thought of when they saw him. "Did you miss my good looks?"

He cringed. "Not exactly."

"You look like a truck signed your birth certificate!" Aphrodite remarked.

The giant gritted teeth and rocked his cuffed hands again. "You wanna come over here and SAY THAT, little girl?!"

Lance held back Aphrodite and approached the giant. "Saint Gemini tells me you might know something about how an assassin managed to climb Star Hill unnoticed. I don't have all day so I'll get to the point; tell us everything you know, or I'll personally correct your jaw with my fist!"

While being so straightforwardly menaced by the Pegasus Saint, who had a history of following with his threats, made the giant stagger, he collected his thoughts and tried to remain calm. "I got nothin' to say to you, punk, and even if I had, I wouldn't! You high-and-mighty Saints may think you can get away with everything under the Pope's skirt, but I'm different. I'm of the golden line!"

Aphrodite scoffed amusedly. "Oh, great, so that's the reason for the ugly mug; the incest!"

Jaki growled, but even a brute like him knew better than giving Saints a reason to pummel him to the next world, like punching a little girl right in front of them, so he stayed quiet.

"Maybe Lord Karkinos would have been suited for this task." the Pegasus Cloth commented.

"We can have our fun without him," Lance argued. "You might not want to stay too shy, Jaki. I've been spending some time at the Cancer Saint's place, so if you tell us how the Black Saints mysteriously slipped past you, you can save yourself a trip to the Underworld."

The huge foot soldier sweated. "Oh, so that's what you've been doing? Do you think I'm scared, punk?! This ain't the Coliseum no more! Put a finger on me and I'll have that dotted freak Meropis charge you for assault."

The horse-helmeted Bronze Saint turned to Saga, who nodded back in authorization. His face then approached Jaki's. "I didn't realize getting skinned by Skeleton Soldiers qualified as that." he whispered, staggering the giant. "They're not nice with our Bronze Saints, I should know, so can you imagine what they'll do when they get their hands on a Sanctuary Golden Liner? Especially one who might know stuff about Star Hill?"

The giant then spat on the table "You're BLUFFI-"

Lance roared, grabbed the giant's head with a hand drenched in blue fire and shoved his whole body right against the ground, loudly bashing the floor and producing a chilling, damp, shock waving screech from his cosmos that dropped the whole room's temperature. Jaki howled and screamed like his soul was getting dragged through a meat grinder before the disguised Cancer Saint harshly lifted his handcuffed body back up and bashed him against the wall pining him.

Back to his world, the foot soldier gasped repeatedly in panic "Ahh, ahh, AHH, N-NO-OO-OH!"

"I think they got a glimpse of you, Jaki! Want another quick trip to downtown Presaepe?! Maybe this time they'll be alert!" Lance threatened, his voice growling. "I'm not as skilled as the Cancer Saint, you know?! I might accidentally drop you there!"

The man struggled, his tanned face whitening. "S-STOP IT! I just got told it was the Sagittarius Saint and that he was gonna shoot fireworks, OKAY?! I don't know what his face looked like cause he was wearing hoods and shit like all you people at the temples do! I just saw he had a damn bow!"

The Gemini was outraged. "What?! That doesn't make any sense! Who told you that?" Saga demanded to know, not biting this for a second. His shadowed features and heavy gold armor made him look like a terrifying golem that would bend Jaki in two if displeased. "If you don't talk, Jaki, you can forget about Saint Pegasus, Saint Cancer or the blasted Skeletons themselves, because I'll personally send you straight to Giudecca's doorstep!"

Jaki then looked straight at Gemini. "BLUE HAIR, SMUG PRETTY BOY, ABOUT YOUR HEIGHT! H-He looked just like that kid who trains at your temple, Saint Gemini!" he screamed. The Pegasus Saint's grip suddenly loosened on him and Jaki dropped to the floor, wheezing.

Aphrodite and Lance looked at Saga, who blinked beneath his face sock and even stepped back in shock. "What…?"

While startled, Lance happened to know for sure this couldn't be. "Bullshit! I know that kid! He was with me and two other Saints at the time of the thunderbolt." he recalled out loud, remembering well the moment he, Cynthia and Orpheé encountered Saga at the Festival, who claimed he got baited out by a call about a Black Saint infiltration.

Revolted, Aphrodite sharply kicked Jaki on the ground, making him scream. "Tell them the truth!" Above all he detested liars. They reminded him too much of Elisa's worst side. "If you don't, I'll break your leg, sasquatch!"

"ARGH! It IS the truth! He came to me while I was on patrol and even showed me Saint Gemini's pin!" Jaki shouted. "He said the Pope knew about it but all the Gold Saints were too busy to inform me themselves! What was I supposed to do?! Question a Gold Saint's protégé?! Especially the one replacing Akassius himself?! Now LET ME GO before I tell the advocates about this abuse!"

The three gold-rankers were completely bewildered and unsure what to say, especially Saga, who took his pin as if to make sure it was still there, four months after the facts. Lance couldn't blame him; it was a wild story, but the frankness and boldness in it were almost too much to discount, but also impossible. Aphrodite, in particular, gave off energy like he wanted to treat Jaki like one of his old sparring golems for five minutes. The thing was, as far as Lance could tell, there was no particular reason why Jaki would like to incriminate Saga who, as far as he knew, was just one more among ten or so kids training at the Temples.

Saga hesitantly gestured to go outside. "You can go for now, Jaki, but the Gemini House is keeping a watch on you. Expect disciplinary action soon!"

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

Green Valley, Stardust Tower Gate

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

Leaving Stardust Prison behind, the three took off their sock masks after escorting the huge foot soldier out, who begrudgingly headed back to Sanctuary Town and his patrol duties. None of them were sure what to make of the interrogation, short as it had been.

So Aphrodite, the least invested in all of it, made the first move. "You wouldn't happen to have an evil twin or something, would you?"

"NO!" Saga shouted, pacing around in frustration. "Damn it… another waste of time."

Lance wasn't so sure. "Hold on, not necessarily, at least we know now who dropped the ball. It's better than spending all this time second-guessing what went wrong. Also, I don't believe for a second you're the one who told him to look the other way, Saga, but at least we're more in control of the situation. Imagine if we were still trying to figure out how the fuck someone got past all the vigilance in Star Hill."

But the Gemini Saint seemed inconsolable for some reason, likely because he felt all his hard work hadn't paid off.

So Lance tried again. "Look, Saga, that guy is full of shit, no one is gonna believe what he said about you, especially not me. I, two Silver Saints and a whole bunch of other people saw you at the Festival."

Still, his downstairs neighbor hesitated to seem relieved, pacing around like trying to worryingly decide what to do next. "... Thanks, but I need some time to reflect on this… and on what to tell the Pope." the Gemini lamented. He shook his head to focus and addressed his comrade. "Thanks for lending a hand. I was surprised to hear you were back in Sanctuary at all."

His red eyes shifted. "It's a long story, involves a volcano. I was gonna take Aphrodite to Rodario for the day anyway."

Saga raised a brow. "Really? I heard Shura went to spend the day there as well. Maybe you'll run into him."

Aphrodite folded arms. "I hope not. All he ever does is talk about training, chivalry and being a good church-going boy."

"Didn't he save your life?" the Gemini questioned.

The boy showed his tongue. "I was doing fine before Mephisto got involved."

While Lance had his own side of the story, he had chosen back then not to scare the kids with how clueless he felt about how to get them out of Elisa's collapsing, burning temple, so he wouldn't play such an unfair card on Aphrodite now of all times.

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

Meanwhile,

Romania, Crow's Nest Outskirts

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

Doing their best to follow Lucifer's instructions so they could stay hidden from the fortress's vigilant gaze, the False Specters were quiet as rocks and knelt behind a line in the forested ground marked by Alraune Lemon. The only sound heard in the air was that of the foot soldiers inside Crow's Nest sparring, working and generally making a ruckus expected of a military encampment, and of the wind making the branches above their heads rustle.

Feeling the uncertainty in the air among the men, Behemoth Torak was the first to address the Prince. "How would you like this place taken? A frontal attack would not be totally unwise, Prince. We are short on time and these foot soldiers don't look too well trained." He noticed the Prince looked hesitant to agree. "They're just Bronze ranks, maybe a couple of Silvers on top-"

"Do you really think this place would be useful to me if it were that simple, Behemoth?" questioned the Prince. Torak sweated and shook his head. "In fortresses of Athena, even a pack of foot soldiers can mount a staunch resistance. Peloponesia itself back in Austria has almost never been breached by Specters. No, this will require an orchestrated touch."

"Then what are we even doing here?!" questioned Alraune Lemon, eternally distasted by Lucifer's leadership. "If we're going to wage war on Sanctuary when we can't even take a simple castle-"

"This is not a 'simple castle', Specter." Aquila Daese, of all, interrupted him, eyeing the Specter fiercely like someone who had insulted her home. "This is a Cyrulian fortress taken by Saints. It has anti-Specter seals all over it! You will all be lucky if you get to see the top of its outer walls without the floor under you exploding! But there will be no attack, will there be, Lucifer?!" she then challenged. "Cause if there is, you can call this partnership over!"

The red and black armored Pride Star calculated to himself how he would go about this and then turned to Papillion Ainsel. "I want the following False Specters ready to accompany me; Bat Brune, Mandrake Nevil, Nasu Erika, Deep Amphion and you, Ainsel."

The butterfly-armored, blue-haired Papillion Specter nodded obediently. "Of course, mm-mm."

Daese's eyes widened. "Didn't you hear me?"

"You're going to attack this fortress with just six men?!" Priam questioned, not sure if he was more appalled by having to abide by this or by Lucifer's foolhardiness. "You'll get everyone wiped out! I demand you stop this violence immediately!"

The Prince's ferocious red gaze turned on the goggled Black Saint and he showed off the parchment from the Book of the Dead. "You've done your part in teleporting us here, Priam, but if you want this magic page on your hands to really avoid more bloodshed, you will sit quietly by and watch me."

Ainsel brought over the four False Specters, who grouped themselves with the Prince. Even they seemed unsure about this. Mandrake Nevil and Deep Amphion, being less powerful, were particularly concerned, an atmosphere being among them like they secretly wanted to agree with the Black Saints.

Nasu tried to voice it. "Pardon me, Prince, but if the Gold Saints notice our assault before we take the fortress, Prince, we could be annihilated inside it like eggs on the stove," she commented, even being one of the more faithful present. "All they have to do is resist us for seconds after the attack is noticed and we have half of Sanctuary on our heads."

But the Prince just shrugged it off. "Your concerns are duly noted."

As the False Specters seemed to look at one another in nervousness, Priam stepped away and watched the people that were once his sworn enemies organize themselves and listening to Lucifer's plan details, wondering how he ever landed in this situation. He had made peace with having to wage war with Sanctuary over a decade ago, but this was different; he was being strong-armed into standing idly by until the entire fortress filled with his former brethren was slaughtered by his own estranged ally.

"This is all my fault…" But turning to his partner, Priam understood he was clearly the less distressed of the two; Daese was looking away from everyone and covering her face with bated breath like someone discreetly cleaning tears. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Daese…I know this is hard, but-"

"I don't know what to do… this is horrible, Priam. It's all wrong!" she muttered, heart split. Her green eyes looked at Crow's Nest and all she could think about was Cerah.

Priam gulped. It was hard for the warrior girl to show weakness, even to him, so it had to be sincere. "And he had to pick this of all places, too."

She nodded in concur. In fact, her blood boiled in revolt, screaming at her to take up her sword and defend the castle from the Specters. "Lucifer won't give me Cerah back and now...This is the castle of my sister's armor. I hate the Saints, but I would much rather if they had Crow's Nest than these… death worshippers!"

While the Black Saint noticed that the foot soldiers inside the fortress that would soon fight for their lives were not being put into account by the young Paladin, he decided to focus on what mattered. "Lucifer isn't Hades' servant anymore, he's not your sworn enemy, Daese, remember that."

She wiped her tears. "So what?! He's still wearing that armor, fighting the people Hades fought!" she confronted. "How is he different from his God? What do you think he'll do if someone notices his men just walking up to the wall? If he gets to Rodario later, what do you think will happen when some child sees his men marching around with scythes?"

Priam scratched his head. "Cerah is still alive, remember? Even if he's making things harder than they ought to be, at the end of the day, Lucifer still kept his promise to you." he pointed out, though he wouldn't be surprised if Daese thought this was a weak argument. He decided to distract her. "So do you know this place well?"

The Paladin nodded, staring at the far off walls. "Yeah… when things got bad for us during the war… this was the first castle I got sent to help protect." There was a sad cough. "Needless to say I didn't make much of a difference…"

Priam frowned sympathetically. He remembered when he met the Paladin; she was just an eight-year-old holding hands with a crying younger sister. Despite all of Sanctuary's failings, they never scraped the bottom of the barrel so badly that they would entrust the Temples or Peloponesia to children. "Can you tell me about it? Was it Kirin who did it?"

Her eyes froze like glass as she relived the awful night. "Yeah… it wasn't the first time I met the Capricorn Gold Saint, he had come to my home in the Ural Mountains once because Capricorns used to be a bridge between us and Sanctuary,… but it was the first time I saw a Gold Saint doing what they do."

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

1964

Fall of Crow's Nest

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

The night had started cold, dark and quiet, but now the sky was alight with fire.

Outside the walls, tents, siege weapons and armored men filled the terrain. Ballistas pointed at Crow's Nest, firing iron-hooked missiles, and a tunnel dug towards the castle by the Saints was being fired upon by the Centaur Saint, sending an unbelievable amount of heat down the foundations of the fortress, which rose up to cook the defenders alive. Hoplite lieutenants shouted commands, making sure the standby troops were in full phalanx formation for when the breach was finally made, and banners of mutual hate were raised by both sides of the outer walls as cries of war filled the air.

Above a slope, Capricorn Kirin eyed the fortress' inner keep, wondering where its key defenders were, but all he could see was oath sworn Cyrulians manning the battlements. Attacking them would be a waste; he would be killing foes far below himself only to expose his back to the main keep's weaponry. The Gold Saint would have to make his first personal move strategically if he wished to end the siege as soon as possible.

Seeing the next round of flaming missiles ready to be fired, he messaged the siege operators. "Once more, unleash Hades."

With the rattling of chains, the release of cords and sliding of boulders and ballistas on their wooden mounts, the large stardust-tipped spears of blaze launched off and descended on the baileys, towers, and battlements, smashing, blasting and pummeling the reinforced fortress all over. Combined with the cooking tunnel, the heat of it was enough to cook the defenders from the inside out in the more exposed sectors of the fortress. Menacing crows that flew all over the fortress cawed loudly and were taken down by these fire drops as well, while hails of arrows flew over the walls and petered the defenders.

The 'Oathsworn', Cyrulian foot soldiers who served the Knights, Paladins and Castellans, shouted and screamed from either being hit, boiled or to encourage their brothers and sisters to keep defending the walls. Beyond these, in the palisaded enemy campouts, Sanctuary foot soldiers either waited in formation or aided the assault, scaling the sloped walls with ladders and being fought off by the few surviving defenders, while Bronze Saints launched the meteoric attacks that harassed the whole of Crow's Nest.

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

In the inner battlements, a young, six-year-old Daese, armed with nothing but a short sword and an Oathsworn's basic armor, which was similar to a hoplite's but clearer in color, chainmail and with more medieval plate texture, rushed as fast as she could across the walls connected to the keep. Even high as she was, the night was so heated that her young face drenched itself in sweat and she cowered every time a launched cosmos blast flung closed to her. Other Oathsworns pulled her up and pushed her forward, but she had to stop when she saw, below, the outer wall battlements finally being scaled by the hoplites.

A particularly bold one leaped right over the brick teething and shoved his spear right through a young Oathsworn bowman's neck, holding his round shield up high to block the vengeful slashes that came at him afterward. "BURN, MY COSMOS! MINERVA VICTRIX!" he roared, his body set ablaze by his energy.

As he set foot on the wall's top, though, he got suddenly cut down from behind by two defenders, whose own cosmos incandiated their blades with Cyrulian runes. "DON'T LET THE GREEKS IN! FIGHT BACK! For Athena!" one urged, kicking the corpse off the wall down the ladder it had climbed.

Despite his demise, though, the hoplite's battle cry encouraged his fellow men and his fighting stalled for enough time, allowing them to climb the stairs faster and rose their hoplite shields higher to protect themselves from the rocks and arrows, and seeing his body fall down just enraged the hoplites further, whose cosmos burned like ground stars in the night.

The scene, like watching a vicious swarm wash over her house walls, shocked her so much that she stepped back and stumbled her heel over a soft object, making her fall on it. Feeling the familiar cold surface of a cuirass beneath her, Daese raised her head and screamed to the top of her long, coiling back against the battlement, when she saw the arrowed body of one of the young conscripts that she traveled to Crow's nest with. Panic erupted from her chest as her eyes reeled at the child's bloody, still face.

By Daese, an older Oathsworn grabbed her shoulder and lifted her up. "GET UP! Defend the castle!" he screamed at her, taking her sword off her holster and putting it in her hands. "Stop shaking, you coward, and fight!"

Her eyes trembled, moving from the scary adult to the fallen boy and back to the oath sworn. "I C-CAN'T!" she screamed, trembling all over. The short sword in her hand alone felt like it was made of lead. "I C-CAN'T FIGHT THEM, tell me what I else I can do, P-PLEASE!"

Another cosmos blast launched from outside meteored next to them, making the two almost lose their footing. The enraged Oathsworn held her again despite it. "You can't?! Is that what you'll tell your ancestors?! Your family?! Do you think you can just go home and tell them you did nothing to save them and it will be alright?! Will you tell Athena you didn't give your life for your brothers and sisters because you 'couldn't'?! Then what 'GOOD' are you?!"

The fair-skinned blonde girl shook so hard the blood-soaked metal on her body cluttered. She saw more hoplites reaching the top of the walls, this time pushing back the defenders with a loose push of their numbers, bashing shield against swords before letting their friends thrust spears at their enemies, seemingly drilled to do so. All of their Cosmos burned in unison, turning them into a bonfire of united strength which slowly but surely overwhelmed the Cyrulians with the strength of a vast, accumulated team power. The splashes of blood paled her and her armored crotch piece felt wet.

The older Oathsworn covered his nose and pointed at the keep. "Curses!… If you're so useless as you say, go to the Castellan now! And get out of everyone else's way before you shame us further!" he ordered before he rushed to fight the Saints and hoplites too.

Daese would never see him again.

Running inside the big keep, the pale blonde girl stumbled through the weapon-packed corridors as further meteor blasts struck the fortress outside, making her scream and fall over numerous times. She had to find the Corvus Saint, the mighty Castellan of Crow's Nest, who knew everything about the fortress. He would surely know what to do, where to hide, how to set a trap.

She climbed the whirlwind brick stairs of the tall, imposing tower and took occasional, sudden peaks outside to see a flurry of blitzing missiles, blasts, arrows, and battle shouts all over the place from a birds-eye view.

A louder bang was heard and Daese stumbled again, now falling with her hands on the stair steps. Picking herself back up, she looked through the window to see, to her horror, a huge breach in the outer walls where a large contingent of hoplites marched through in tight phalanx formation, burning their cosmos in such a synced way that the combined powers completely deflected the attacks on them, even the ones of the Camelopardalis Knight who desperately tried to toss at them, and their long spears were pushed forward against the Cyrulian troops, the massed iron tips breaking through swords piercing through shields and puncturing flesh, bone, organs and the men behind them, too, regardless of how they defended themselves. Two more columns of phalanxes rushed in from the main one sides and joined the fray, pushing back the defenders impaling any Oathsworn that tried to stand his ground.

It was terrible, like a scene out of the apocalypse. The people of Cyrul were dying by the hands of the ones they swore to protect. The crows flying all over the place made it all seem even more horrifying. Suddenly, a flock of crows descended on them and the hoplites came under attack, trying to bash the birds with their round shields or protect their eyes. Somehow, the cosmos they burned didn't seem to bother the vicious birds at all, as if they were trained against it. This disorganized the phalanx just enough that their common bonfire of cosmos was weakened and their unison came to a halt, weakening their weapons and bodies and allowing the defenders to counterattack.

Daese's eyes widened. "The crows… it must be from the Castellan!" With this last encouragement in mind, she climbed the keep even faster and pushed the door of the main room, a place she would never enter as a simple recruit Oathsworn, to find the grey-armored lord. "L-LORD CORVUS, the Saints have breached the outer wall! We have to push them out!"

Corvus Castellan turned to her, half-dazed, a single bird perched on his shoulder. His hair was black and long, a length that was only allowed in tempered Cyrulian warriors, his eyes were the blue common among their people and his skin was an odd tone of grey. He was an experienced Silver Saint, aged by years of service to Athena, and the obsidian Cloth Stone that would normally store his Cloth hanging by his neck.

"A recruit… no, you're too young," he concluded. "You're one of the emergency conscripts, aren't you?"

With this, more quaking sounds outside rattled the whole fortress, likely from another breach, making the girl stumble into the adult's arms. With tears of despair in her eyes, Daese forgot all protocol and rushed to his waist. "Lord Castellan, what do I do? Tell me how I can help! Save us, P-PLEASE!"

The Corvus Saint knelt down and grabbed her panicked wrist so she would calm down. Things were finally reaching the end, weren't they? Their only hope had been to resist long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but it seemed the Castlellans in the capital had decided against it. Even if the Corvus Saint was famous for fighting from the top of the tower, for as long as he could make Kirin believe the Castellan could be down there with the Oathsworn, the Gold Saint wouldn't risk falling into an ambush by blitzing inside the seal-ridden castle.

However, sensing the brilliant, deadly cosmos waiting outside the walls for its turn to make a move and the cosmos of his own men rapidly flickering out, the Cyrulian Castellan realized he had a choice to make; he could keep disguising his position so the men wouldn't lose their leader in a hopeless battle, or he could give away his position, burn his cosmos and give this child a chance to live. "Listen to me… go to Cyrulia. Tell the other Castellans that Crow's Nest has fallen."

Daese paused. "W-what?..."

Corvus lifted her up and a pair of large crows entered through an open window with blood on their beaks. "These will fly you there across Russia. No matter what, don't burn your own cosmos during the trip. Don't worry, they won't bite you." He instructed, sitting her on the window, helping her take off her metal armor and putting a piece of paper in her hand. "Don't lose this message, it has codes with intel about the enemy.

"You can't tell me to run!" she protested. "I'm a knight, an oathswo-"

"Don't question your Castellan! You're a CHILD! That doesn't change just because the other Castellans put a sword in your hand to defend their property! You're going back to your family NOW!" he yelled, stunning her. He collected himself with a deep breath. "Don't worry, if they see you came back with something, especially a Castlellan's last word, they won't dishonor your escape."

Daese could do nothing but stare, paralyzed by the code in her blood demanding to stand and fight. They had to fight, they had to save the castle, no matter how afraid they were. Even if the Three Judges themselves stood over the walls and promised death to all knights, they were never to lose faith in Athena. It was all she had ever been taught. How could the Castellan be saying this?

Corvus rubbed his eyes. All his life he wished he could have changed something about the awful way that not only Knights but Saints too, raised their kids. He then grabbed his obsidian pendant. Storing his armor in it would give off his position by flaring its cosmos outside of his control, giving himself away to Saint Kirin. Maybe this last act could work towards that lost dream. He took off his pendant and put it in her hand. "You want to help, don't you? Don't let my Silver Cloth fall in Saint's hands."

Then, before she could protest further, with a flash of his Lightcraft, the Saint's armor came off his body in the form of countless rays of light which then converged on the black jewel, imbuing it with the armor and inner shine.

Just as he finished doing this, a golden flare filled the room. "LONGINUS DRILL!" and the wall to their side was suddenly drilled and meteored through by a whirring flash of gold which cratered into the main room, presenting upon them the Capricorn Gold Saint, dressed in his Centurio Apparatus, the holy blade Excalibur mounted on his wrist. The Gold Saint eyed the Castellan like a bird of prey. "There you are...Time to take out the king piece! Now, WHERE IS YOUR CLOTH?!"

"GO!" the Castellan screamed and the crows dragged the screaming Daese straight out the wind into the meteor-filled sky. Clutching the stone and the intel note, the last thing she saw before the birds took her far into the clouds was the Silver Saint burning his cosmos and shouting Athena's name before being immediately impaled across the room by Excalibur.

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

Daese shook her head to send the bad memories away. "After that, I got back to our capital in the Ural Mountains. Even though I had the Castellan's message, everyone looked at me so horribly, like a deserter."

The brown-haired, goggled pacifist absorbed it all. "I'm… sorry, Daese. They shouldn't have treated you like that."

But then she eyed him strangely. "Don't be, they were right. I was a coward. Corvus died for me and all I could do was… deliver a message and give away his Cloth to my sister! People counted on me and I let them down… just like I did with Cerah." she said, taking the Black Saint by surprise. "And now I'm back here, and I'll have to stand aside and watch this place get taken… like a coward again."

A pause was taken by the former Sagittarius out of bewilderment. It was clear as day that Lucifer's rant about Cerah's fate got to the Diamond Paladin in the end. Eagle Daese was, for the most part, a pillar of reliability, one Priam could support himself on in times of crisis. Few in their organization did not appreciate how she went around making sure everyone's morale was high and asking how she could help, but it came at the trade-off of this borderline alien take of hers on matters of duty. It was startling that she could recount the tale of her experience with the Corvus Saint so vividly and yet miss out on what his actions truly meant to teach her.

There was little the Black Saint could take from it other than how he often forgot his second-hand woman came from a highly conditioned society and how crazy the depths of what had been done to her were. When he was still known as Sagittarius Priam, it was common to hear about the Knights of the Zodiac in Sanctuary; that they were insanely devoted to Athena even by their standards and that they would raise their kids with this kind of "honor before reason" obsession. However, it was one thing to hear the gossip and another to witness the truth behind it.

The burnt-face man looked at the fortress again, comparing it to her story. It fit Kirin's profile to a tee as much as he could tell as the Capricorn's former friend and neighbor. The Black Saints had waged their war parallel to the Cyrulians, despite Sanctuary's conviction that they were directly in cahoots with one another. People like Priam and Aeneas weren't present at the sieges to Cyrulian castles, but the way Daese described the fighting was in line to Sanctuary's preferred battle tactics, which went all the way back to the Athenian Emperor.

Said tactics included pummeling enemy fortress with focused artillery, which often consisted of Bronze and Silver Saint ranged attacks or stardust-crusted ballista bolts, and deploying footsoldiers drilled in burning their cosmos as a shared force, creating a power greater than the sum of its parts. In times long past, the dictator of Sanctuary had used such tricks to bring Sanctuary back from the brink of oblivion, destroy his rivals and indirectly conquering the entire world. A thousand years later and they were still in vogue, making even basic hoplites a force to be reckoned with.

Priam had his doubts that Kirin intended to endanger kids like Daese in the fighting, though; despite everything, the Saints were not monsters and the Capricorn would surely refrain from targeting her in the chaos. Part of the propaganda against the Order of Cyrul, in fact, was that they were putting swords in the hands of children to defy Sanctuary, which was half true, and this galvanized many back home to support Shion's war with them even more. If people found out Sanctuary deliberately ended up killing the children that they sought out to save, it would be a political nightmare even for someone as powerful as Shion.

The reality, according to Daese at least, was that the Cyrulians were desperate and believed the end was nigh for them. Their numbers had dwindled for many generations and their friction with Sanctuary had cost them a lot of goodwill and recruits. It forced the corrupt Castellans to employ drastic measures to defend their homes. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.

But this didn't mean Priam couldn't stay true to his principles in the present and do his best to help others like he always had. "It seems you guys went through your own share of horrors from the Civil War. I'm sorry, Daese, it's all my fault."

She shook her head. This again? "Priam, no, you did-"

The burnt-face man was resolute. "I started the war, that's the truth. Shion will forever have that on me," the older warrior imposed, looking away somberly. "I would have to standby something awful if I hadn't, but it still leads to the destruction of many lives, of many friends of mine. Even Guardnia never really forgave me." he then turned his eyes to the Dark Prince, who seemed to be finishing preparations with his group. "Lucifer is right, I'm weak, I always have been, and I have no moral high ground to demand anything of him or these Specters. They're just fighting for their dignity like I once did."

"What about the people in that fortress?" she asked, genuinely preoccupied with the dilemma. "They are people of Athena, just like you and me."

His arms folded and his back leaned against a tree. "I don't know… but I won't let them be without a chance in this."

Before she could ask what the Black Saint meant with this, Lucifer and his five men approached them. "We're attacking when darkness arrives. Anything more to share with me, Priam?" he asked, stern.

The two great warriors met gaze. "No," Priam assured, eyes steeling at the Prince. "This is not my fight, right? May the Goddess have mercy upon them… and may she forgive me for allying myself with you, Pride Star."

The silver-haired man scoffed and folded arms. He had met Athena, and she was the last person in the cosmos who could blame anyone for giving their enemies a chance, but he chose to withhold this to torture the over virtuous rebel a bit. "How cold, Priam, but you should have known better. I never pretended to be Sanctuary's friend. Did you think that just because I helped you take down that monster, 'Eatos', that I, the Celestial Star of Pride, was some sort of hidden ally in the Underworld?" he suggested, making the False Specters chuckle.

The goggled man shook his head. "No, you made very clear from the start what you were after. I just didn't think your thirst for the Teos Cloth and revenge from Shion would endanger innocent people. How low!"

The Prince stood quiet for a moment, giving off a vibe that made the False Specters cringe and recoil in fear. They recognized this way too well from past instances where they questioned Lucifer's honor. "You underestimate me, Gold Saint. Perhaps you should stick around and see if I'm such a terrible man after all."

The two rebels watched them leave. "What did he mean by that?" asked Daese.

Priam blinked. "I'm… not sure, but I'm not waiting to find out." He then made sure his bow was covered before turning to the girl. "Daese, go back to base. Lucifer has made it clear that he doesn't want you here anymore."

While hesitant, the Eagle knew better but to think this was all. "You have something planned, don't you?"

"Yes, and it doesn't include putting more bodies in my conscience." He worded, walking determinedly away from the main group and eyed the fortress' far off keep. "I promise I'll get from Lucifer where Cerah is."

She nodded humbly. "Thank you, Priam…" and while she had faith in his abilities, Lucifer's scrutiny still concerned her. "Don't forget to keep your Lightning Arrows at hand, though."

The half-burnt face smiled gently. "I never do."

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

Greece, Rodario

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

The Pegasus Bronze Cloth was stored inside its box and covered. Standing right by the colorful stand with toy prizes mounted on its inner walls and with moving arrow targets sliding left and right on mechanical teeth, Lance watched, with a lighter wallet in his pocket. The cyan-haired boy took the three red darts all at once and aimed them rather cockily at the targets. The owner looked really pleased with himself with how he convinced the girl to try such a careless tactic of wasting all her three shots at once for one of the best prizes, but the Cancer was happy enough that at least Aphrodite hadn't capped his knees with a rose for mistaking his gender like everyone else.

"Are you sure about this?" he tried to reason one last time.

Without even looking at him, the Swedish boy flicked his fingers and the three darts, to the owner's shock, shot from them like bullets and then split in three separate directions, striking the darker-colored targets simultaneously and making the shop's siren sound victory.

The Pisces pointed at the prize he wanted. "Mm, mm, yup!" and the shopkeeper begrudgingly handed him the snake plushie.

Lance squinted at it as the kid rested it over his nape like the real thing. It had goofy-looking eyes and its tongue hanging out. There were bears and robots on the stand to pick from, too. "What the… Aphrodite, why?!"

"I don't know, I identify with it."

"It's a rat-eating reptile!" The pupil just looked at him like he missed the point. "Fine, whatever, at least you don't pick cuckoo clocks as Mu does!"

The Pisces scoffed and hugged Mr. Monty close to his chest as they walked down Rodario and already people steered away like he was holding the real thing. "I don't see what the big deal is; I'm sure plenty of squares pick the lame toys."

"All I'm saying is that I sometimes you kinda go out of your way to drive people off," the Pegasus denoted. "And that's something coming from me. Even I had to learn to let some shit slide and put up a fake smile."

"Oh yeah, sure, like Esquire over there?" Aphrodite snarked, pointing towards the new Capricorn Saint youth at the end of the street on horseback in hoplite aspirant armor politely waving and greeting everyone he passed by. "Come on, Lance, admit it; you hate Shura's act."

The black-haired teenager grumbled as he saw Shura noticing them and galloped towards the two Gold-Rankers. "It's not a big secret, but keep it on the low, alright?" he whispered before doing his best to appear interested in the Spanish Saint's approach. "Hey, Shura, what are you doing around here?"

The sharp-eyed, black-haired boy smiled and saluted them as a foot soldier aspirant would in the presence of a Bronze Saint. "Just on my way to one of my social duties, Saint Pegasus. A certain figure, renown in Sanctuary society, enjoys the fine art of equestrians in the field near Rodario as much as I do, so I get called frequently to accompany her."

Aphrodite's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean you get to hang around all of the prettier steeds from the rich people, instead of these dirty farm ones?"

Shura cringed, wishing the narcissist boy had not worded it so ungracefully. "Draught horses are just as noble as their cousins, Aphrodite, and the aristocracy simply enjoys making contact with the Golden Zodiac." His eyes then shifted. "It's one of the responsibilities I'm less proud of, admittedly."

Even his careful speech patterns irked Lance. "Okay, so Shion has you suck up to some noble like everyone else has to, it's no big deal."

While Aphrodite snorted amusedly at this, Shura wasn't so entertained. "His Holiness recommends I do. Personally I'd rather box with Aldebaran, but… given I don't have much of a choice, I try thinking of the benefit it gives the Temples in social favors more than how much it wastes my time away from the practice." His young brown steed then got nervous and recoiled a bit when Aphrodite began making hissing sounds as he held Mr. Monty up. "Please don't tease him like that."

Aphrodite rolled his eyes. Why did a lame-o like Shura get access to horses like this? All his life he wished he could have ridden one, but the animals would always steer clear of the poisonous roses surrounding Elisa's home. "I'm just playing around with it."

"Well, horses don't like snakes, even a trained one like Bucephalus here. If you wanted to practice equestrianism, you should have joined the hoplite ranks like me." Shura explained, petting the neck mane.

The 'Alexander the Great' reference was as dated as the rocks Shura sharpened his sword collection on. "Gosh, only you would pick a name like that for him."

Shura squinted annoyedly. What was this supposed to mean? "Really, then what would you pick? Flower Hopper?"

A venomous look was returned. "No, I'd pick 'Tenth-House-Buttlicke-"

"Alright, knock it off, you two, don't start shit in the middle of the street," Lance broke off. An idea came to him. "Shura, you said you were going to join some uppity rich person at the field, right? Do you think they'd mind letting Aphrodite in for the day?"

While he didn't see why he should extend this kindness to a vicious runt like his upstairs-neighbor, Shura's polite teachings bent his responses. "I suppose so… I'm sure he's known in their circles by now after your trial for his right to pick the timing to get the sacred Pisces Cloth."

A gasp and a starry shine went through Aphrodite's mouth and eyes. "Wait, really?! Could I get a white one?!"

"I never said you'd get to ride a horse, you have no practice. I said they might let you in for an hour or two to see them!" Shura pointed out, already guessing how the cyan-haired boy planned to abuse their kindness. He touched his own plated chest. "Horses are expensive to maintain, their owners are very protective of them. I had to earn their trust for the privilege of being Bucephalus' knight."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, just take us there!" Aphrodite demanded, a rare excited grin splattered on his face.

Shura folded arms indignantly. "Only after you apologize."

"What?! No way!"

Lance bumped the cyan-haired boy's shoulder with his fist. "It's either that or we find something else for you to do in Rodario, Aphrodite! And I'm running out of ideas for quality time in this boring place! So unless you wanna go fishing with me, say you're sorry."

Faced with the prospect of having to find out what the bottom of the barrel was for someone as boring as his guardian, the Pisces candidate gritted teeth and measured his options. "... Okay, alright!... I'm sorry, Shura, gosh! I don't know what, but I am. Now, will you please take me to see the horses?"

Spending just a bit longer torturing the Pisces with his silence, Shura eventually hummed and nodded in approval. "Alright, I accept your apology, but embarrass me in front of Miss Ghisi and I'll report you directly to the Pope!"

Lance's red eyes widened. "Wait, miss who?!"

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

Golden Zodiac,

Athena's Colossus

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

As the afternoon rolled in in Sanctuary, the Pope of Athena, Shion, stood by the giant statue of his goddess, looking out the peak to the nearest tall mountain, Star Hill itself. Unlike what many people probably imagined, the pinnacle of the Golden Zodiac wasn't a place the Pope, or anyone at the Temples for that matter, frequented often. There just wasn't much to do by the Colossus other than inspect the place for weathering as even the front of the Papal Halls offered a better view of the valley and Sanctuary Town.

When he wanted to have a particularly secluded moment, away from even his Papal Guards and Gold Saints, the staircase to Athena's massive statue was a good spot to behold the horizon and reflect on things without having to go to Star Hill itself. This time, exceptionally, Shion allowed the company. "You've got my full confidence, Saga… I don't believe you were the one responsible for this."

The Gemini Saint humbly looked down, not daring to face the heavy look of the Pope in that time of self-doubt. "I wanted to dismiss it… but there's no way Jaki would just come up with a story like this out of nowhere." he then grabbed his head. "For a second I wanted to believe very much I had done it. It would set me at ease... but… Lance made sure to remind me that couldn't be."

Shion sighed. It was happening all over again. The curse of the Gemini seemed more terrible than even Hades' darkest hexes at times. He would be lying if he hadn't seen this happening over and over again, first with Aspros in their distant youth, then with his temporary successor Cain whose soul even Ophiuchus Odysseus couldn't completely save, then with countless Gemini Saints along the way in Shion's tenure. Though he had his dark side too, only Akassius, with his will of steel, seemed to have escaped the trappings of the Gemini Cloth, even leading Sanctuary to a glorious comeback from the brink of civil self-destruction. Shion hoped that with the help of this living example, the next Gemini Saint would be spared such tribulations and a new tradition of salvation could begin in the Third House.

But now Saga seemed destined to face the horrors of it too. "Where is he right now?" the Pope asked.

"I dragged him back home from the dimension he's been hiding in, back to the Gemini Temple. He won't say why..., he just laughs at me." the blue-haired prodigy lamented. "... I think he does this to torture me, or teach me some kind of lesson about how I can't control him."

Shion approached the Gemini and hugged him close. "Don't worry, Saga, I won't abandon you to his impulses. You will both get over this one day, I promise." He let go of the boy, who seemed a bit less shaky now. "You've been very stressed lately, managing Sanctuary virtually all by yourself. I would congratulate you, but I think I've pushed you too far, Saga. Perhaps more than a pat on the back, you need real rest."

But the determined Saint shook his head. "I can't do that, who will take care of things? Deal with the kids, manage the guard, balance the account?! There's a mountain of work waiting at my desk right now, I barely managed to squeeze enough time to interrogate Jaki and then report to-"

The old Lemurian chuckled out loud, interrupting his panicked spiel. "I didn't realize I've been written off so soon as the Pope," he commented, making Saga feel embarrassed. "You're going to take a couple of days off, Saint Gemini. I, Arles III, will take it from here while you're gone."

Nothing about this pleased Saga. He wasn't the type to ever relinquish responsibility, quite on the contrary, much less for such a huge personal problem. While other Gold Saints like Aiolos and Lance were immensely preoccupied with the lax attitude that Arles had been taking since they rose to power as the new Zodiac generation, Saga was supposed to be getting things off the Pope's hands now, not put them back in. There was so much he wanted to fix in Sanctuary, so much corruption he wanted to fight, and now he was being told to take a step back from it.

It was humiliating and all because of him.

Pope Arles could tell the Gemini Saint was still unconsoled. "Don't think you are the first Gold Saint to feel like a breach in our defenses was your responsibility, Saga. It has happened numerous times."

Unsurprisingly, this didn't waver Saga's defeatness. "This is supposed to be the world's most impregnable fortress, your Holiness," he argued. "You were almost killed and the Cepheus Saint was taken right at the heart of its sanctum because of me."

Shion chuckled once more. "True, but I'll have you know that, when I occupied Mu's Temple, I've seen Athena herself be attacked by the Worm Specter while out for a walk, and were it not for Dohko's student at the time, I could very well have failed to notice it too late to stop it."

This wild story, however, did poke a hole in Saga's skepticism. "W… what? Your Holiness, you almost let the Goddess die?"

Even at such a wise age, the Pope's pride wouldn't let such a description slide. "Well...that's Saint Dohko's version of the story. I just arrived too late to prevent a scare, but I definitely wouldn't let that Specter lay a single tentacle on her."

This was almost too unbelievable. "Well, your Holiness, then it seems at least you managed to prevent any actual damage."

"Other than to Worm's face, yes," but the lamb could see how it made his analogy fall apart. "Alright, Saga, then perhaps you should know that in the same war the entire Zodiac almost let Hades take Athena right from this place you and I stand on… all because of a bunch of bats."

If the Gemini Saint was having a hard time believe the Pope's testimony, relegating it to attempts to make him feel better, now he truly suspected his word. "Bats?"

He rubbed his masked chin. It was a story with details he couldn't really share with Saga, but did take the Pope down memory lane.

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

1751, The Lost Canvas War

Aries Temple

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

The night couldn't get any worse. Shion walked out of his Temple and stared at the tear in the sky from which Alone descended onto the Fire Clock, seeing him immediately leap like a shadow towards Sasha and Lord Sage's Temple. "Hades… he's attacked us so directly?!"

The Aries Saint then sensed a great cosmos shining in the evil God's hand before, with a gesture, a huge beam of light came down from the sky tear and meteored the enormous clock tower, blasting the grounds around it and setting half the valley on fire. The ground shook all around the holy grounds, countless people went into a panic, with some Gold Saints like Manigoldo even coming out of their Houses to see what was happening, for all to be greeted with the sight of one of Sanctuary's hallmarks surrounded by blazes.

The first guardian clenched fist and greeted teeth. "Alone, you bastard!"

"SHION!" Dohko shouted, running up at the temple and followed by Cygnus and, surprisingly, Phoenix Haisaku, the Amazon who taught Dohko and whom Shion hadn't seen for years. " We just got back! Is everyone okay here?! Did Shiryu, Yuzuriha and Yato come back yet?!"

The Lemurian's mind reeled at all the chaos. "You guys… and even Lady Haisaku?" but he collected himself. "Yes, Dohko, they have. I was just with them and Tenma," he revealed, a happy smile is allowed on his face for an instant in that dark time. "Alone couldn't kill him, Dohko, your little brother is back."

Dohko took a pause, the news making a smile of relieved happiness form on his face. "Tenma… thank the goddess,... He's really back." Tears filled his eyes as he turned to the Cygnus. "I could crush Shiryu with a hug right now. I can't thank you Bronze Saints enough."

The Cygnus Saint smiled, knowing he could have trusted Dragon for this kind of thing all along and relieved that the look-alike of his Pegasus Saint friend from back home was good and well.

He looked at Haisaku and wondered why she wouldn't say anything to her student, considering she was the first to assure Dohko he was alive again by the 'Argo', but she shook her head to gesture at the white-armored Bronze Saint that it wasn't time for it yet. "Let him be happy."

Shion, like the aged Amazon, felt the urgency of the situation tug at him. "Wish we could celebrate now, Dohko, but this is no time to stop. We have to do something about Hades before he puts Sasha in danger. Tenma has the sealing beads heading towards her and Alone is surely not happy about that."

The orange-haired, masked woman stared off at the figure at the Clock Tower. From the far off boy, she sensed a cosmos as black like a deep-sea abyss, filled with nothing but scorn and sadness. Her hand tightened on the ceremonial katana on her waist reflexively. "Is that… Hades?"

"Yes, he's possessed the painter boy from Italy, Alone," confirmed Cygnus. It still reeled him at the vague resemblances between him and his Andromeda friend, but he supposed it was only natural. "Bennu Kagaho wasn't bluffing. His attack on Sanctuary was just a distraction for Hades to roll in."

The Aries Saint's eyes widened. "Kagaho? Rasgado just went off to fight him!" Shion recalled, referring to the Taurus Gold Saint. After the cosmos of their battle had subsided, Shion assumed the Gold Saint had triumphed completely. "You mean the Specter's still alive?!"

Just as surprised as his best friend, Dohko retorted with another question. "And Rasgado hasn't come back yet to tell you the story?!"

The four Saints of Athena then looked off to the valley's horizon, mainly the camping by the ruins that Rodario's refugees were being housed after the battle between Gryphon Minos and Pisces Albafica. While the cosmos of Rasgado and his two students were still felt, the far-off hustle and bustle caused by Hades' attack seemed suddenly quieted down.

This was not normal. "What the heck is going on down there?" Dohko growled.

Haisaku lowered chin, eyes closing beneath her mask. Before long, a screeching, faint vibration was felt. Cries of flying beasts making darkness fall on people's minds and the cosmos of everyone at the camps seemed drenched in dreaming. "They've been put to sleep… all the Rodario refugees have been lulled by a curse."

"What?!" Dohko asked, turning to her. "Haisaku, what can you tell?"

Her head shook. "Sounds… like an evil vibration, likely Nightmare Sonar, if my lore is correct," she explained, pointing at a huge bat that rested in a close-by pillar ruin. "Hundreds of vampire bats are causing it, but it's bouncing off the Temples' defenses. This is the work of the Terrestrial Search Star, Bat Wimber."

Cygnus widened his one good eye. "Another Specter attack? We don't have time for this! Hades himself is about to knock at Sasha's door!"

Dohko's fist shook and he punched a nearby pillar ruin, shattering to pieces. "Goddamn it! I feel like we're being pulled in three different directions! What the hell is going on?!"

But as these two were sent to a flurry, the Aries Gold Saint was surprised by the older woman. It wasn't as common as they would like that Terrestrial Stars were known so intimately. He grabbed his Libra friend's shielded shoulder. "Dohko, calm down." Shion appealed. "This must be the work of one of their strategists. We can't panic now or they will have us where they want us."

The tiger was appalled. "Since when are Specters, such goddamn tacticians?!"

The golden lamb shared his shock, especially after the ridiculous attack the Judge Minos tried to pull, but he shook his head. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter right now. We have to help Rasgado. If he's put to sleep as well, there will be no one to protect the refugees."

Dohko shook like a leaf in anger. Tenma was down there with Rasgado, supposedly. If nothing was done, he could lose his student all over again, perhaps for good.

Suddenly, a flowing, golden cosmos was felt from all the way up the Sagittarius Temple. "Shion, Dohko…" it mentally pinged, getting everyone's attention.

The golden lamb looked up. "It's Sysiphus, the Sagittarius Gold Saint." He announced, getting everyone's attention.

"Send someone to Rasgado, Shion. I sense he's in danger. These attacks are too well coordinated." Sagittarius appealed.

"But what about Sasha and Tenma?!" Dohko protested, stepping up to the stairs as if to the Gold Saint himself.

The odd sensation of a nod of confidence was transmitted through the voice. "Pick one of your own to join the fight up here and I will protect them both, you have my word. The 9th House will mourn another Master before anything happens to those two," he vowed, setting even the volatile Libra at peace. Sysiphus was by far the most admirable of their generation. "Shiryu climbs the stairs too as we speak. We won't let Hades and his Specters get away with more murder. Go to Rasgado, lift the curse afflicting the camp. We will handle Alone."

The two Gold Saints nodded in determination and prepared to set out to go help Rasgado with Cygnus. "Shun must be with Rasgado as well. Hopefully, he's okay, but I want to make sure." Cygnus said. "So we have to decide which one of you will go to Sasha and which ones to go to Taurus."

Libra had a suggestion already. "Kagaho was my responsibility, so I owe to Rasgado to make sure he's safe."

And the future Pope was quick to follow. "Then I will go to Athena. If Hades can get to her like this, then guarding the front door is pointless."

Just as the three set off, Dohko paused and saw the unarmoured Phoenix Saint lost in thoughts. "Haisaku, aren't you coming?"

The masked woman gently nodded. "... Perhaps I shouldn't leave the gateway temples, Dohko. I'm not as strong as you all are, ah-ah."

Shion stopped his climb and Dohko blinked. "Don't be ridiculous, you'll be okay with us."

But the woman seemed terribly hesitant to go face the Specters for some reason. "You all have places to go,… but I can sense Gemini isn't around either. Athena wouldn't want the entire vanguard empty."

Despite his grievances, Dohko couldn't just let his teacher stay there. Seeing the other two were out of earshot, he approached her. "You don't have your Phoenix armor, 'mom'. If someone attacked… The first three temples are empty. Cancer Manigoldo is too far up to help you here."

Cygnus looked back. "Come on, Lord Dohko, Rasgado is waiting!"

"Give me a minute, alright?!" the tiger snapped. "Haisaku, Hades is obviously scheming more than usual in this war, this could be a trap to capture people we leave on their own."

Her orange-haired head tilted and she adjusted her mask with her hand as if to show off her rubied bracelet. "Hades won't bother with me, Dohko. I'll manage, thank you for the concern," she assured, and Dohko reluctantly walked away. "Dohko, one more thing… I'm sorry. I know I get lost in my thoughts and behave insensitively to you sometimes. You were right. I was away during the most important time of your life, but I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Dohko seemed vexed at this. Before he could conclude what to think, Cygnus grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him out of there. "Come on, you two can talk later!"

Shion stood by the Temple's interior mesmerized. Something wasn't right about this. As he felt the darkness of Alone's cosmos encroach on Sasha, though, he hurried up.

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

Present

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

In that awful night in the 18th century, the entire Golden Zodiac had been caught with its pants down by the Specters. He couldn't share some details with Saga, but Shion couldn't pretend it wasn't normal for inexperienced Gold Saints to feel overwhelmed by their tasks. Putting his hand on the blue-haired Gemini's shoulder, the Pope tried to appease him. "Don't let your mistakes get the better of you, Saga. No one is perfect. You happen to be particularly… troubled by the burden on you, but it's no reason to despair."

The teenager, however, reacted with frustration, looking away from the fatherly figure. "It shouldn't! Not by now!... I thought obtaining the Gold Cloth would put me beyond all this. Instead, it feels like it has been getting worse and worse!"

The former Aries Saint could understand his feelings. "Unfortunately, for Gold Saints, the Path of the Cloth begins after you obtain it. It's a rank more important to be filled in spite of its demands, after all," he argued. "But these are the moments where you must show you are ready to advance to the next level."

"How?" the boy asked. "What do I do about him? And please don't say I have to find that out on my own."

The Pope would be lying if he said this wasn't what he had in mind. "Okay, so how about I tell you 'you will find that out on your own if you just don't give up?'" he suggested. It seemed to have a mild effect. At the very least, the Gemini didn't cringe at the clichéness of it.

Had it been any other Gemini candidate, Shion would know exactly what to recommend; a pilgrimage to Akassius, the former Gold Saint with experience beating the path to their Cloth. It was only natural for successors to ask veterans for advice and insight and their generation was blessed with a rare Gemini that didn't develop multiple personality disorders and was an admired figure in Sanctuary. Akassius had the empathy Saga needed to understand his problems and the wisdom and trial experience to suggest how to solve it.

Unfortunately, Saga was as proud as he was brilliant; his belief in his own potential often set him back by making him believe he had to compete with people like Aiolos and Akassius, instead of showing weakness to them. This would probably hold him back for all his life if Saga was to be anything like the late Aspros.

As Pope, Shion would have to do something with material effect, though. He saw the teen trying to hide his tearing up and knew he couldn't afford to have a likely candidate to his successor in such a state of disarray. "It's probably best if no one visits your temple right now, lest anyone find 'him' and wonder if they were seeing things when the Gemini Saint walked all the way up to my Temple. Can you cast your labyrinth illusion on it for the day?"

Saga cleaned his warmed face with his hand. "Sure, that should be no problem, your Holiness."

"Good, do so, and then leave your armor at the Temple and go spend the day in some beach island, Saga." the Pope said, getting an immediate look of shock from the boy. "That's a direct order. I'll deal with the affairs for the day. After stamping out a mega-eruption so close to Somalia, I'm sure whatever paper stack in your desk will be no match for me."

The blue-haired boy tried to protest, but his throat went quiet at the thought of defying the Pope. The last thing he wanted to do was to neglect such a massive problem again. Not when he had so much to do on the side.

The shame of relying on the Pope for such a personal problem made him talk, though. "But… what about-"

"I will mentally speak with an old friend to advise me on what to do. The last thing I want is to intercede in the natural progress you're making with your Cloth." Shion assured, referring to Akassius. He hugged the teenager, setting him at ease. "Don't worry, remember that no matter what happens between you two, even if you feel like you have to hide it from the whole world. I will help you both, Saga. There will come a day where both of you stand proud, shoulder to shoulder, in Sanctuary. I'm sure of it."

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 42 - Second Arc – Episode 8 - The Two Towers - Part 2 of 2

Release Date: February 13th (the fic's birthday)

Description: Shura takes Aphrodite and Lance to the field of a very reach and prominent Sanctuary family, the Solos. Meanwhile, the defenders of Crow's Nest are called to their fort commander after a death threat reaches their ears.

Author's Note: This chapter was technically finished by around December 20th, but I chose to withhold it and do some work ahead of time on part 2 because I was worried I would change my mind about the course of this one. Turns out I was right and had to go back and correct and recourse several things in this chapter, which delayed its released but gave me a much better platform with which to develop chapter 42 on.

As it's the yearly tradition, a chapter will definitely get released on February 13

th, which will be the fic's 9th (?) birthday. I don't pride myself on my inconsistent and tense relationship with deadlines, but this is one I've managed to respect so far and wouldn't like broken.

For those readers who might be confused, Jaki, the foot soldier that Saga has interrogated, is actually an official Saint Seiya OG anime filler character; he is the brute foot soldier that ambushes Marin and nearly kills her when she tries to investigate Star Hill. His appearance is short and you'd probably be forgiven for not recognising him, but he did make an appearance in LR already, namely chapter 3.

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.

Nowadays you may also find me on the SS Reddit Discord server, so if you want to hang out with me and a lot of other passionate Saint Seiya fans, make sure to search for its link online, it has an open invitation to anyone who wishes to join ; )