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.

44. 2A: A Fateful Encounter - Part 1 of 2

OCs/Factions/Generations: 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

Original Concepts: Mount Olympus Training Ground, Sanctuary Court, Teos Cloth, Athenian Empire history, 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 Myth, Golden Line Heritage, Sanctuary Orphanages, Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests, Sanctuary Nobility, 88 Knights Festival

Author Notes:

-The month of April scored almost 700 hits. Thank you for the support and keep sharing the story : )

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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"Perhaps what delighted me the most out of today's battle, aside from putting an end to Taurus Rasgado, was discovering how much Sanctuary underestimated us. By us, I mean the Dark Princes, not the Specters. The Saints were absolutely stupefied at discovering the amount of damage we managed to cause them with just a slight change of planning from what the Judges had originally in mind. Their shock at the turnout is only fair, though, given that the war started off with Minos underestimating their Pisces Gold Saint and costing the Specters a whole third of our lynchpin echelon.

But those Bronze Saints and that masked woman concern me. Kagaho seemed shaken after his battle with them and he's no slouch, not to mention the Andromeda Saint's cosmos burned off the charts when he tried to stop me at my battle with Taurus. Even his Cloth seemed to transform for an instant into something else, something as terrifying as my Surplice in its unleashed form. Is that Cloth secretly special, like Phoenix?

One thing's for certain; after a single night, Sanctuary is down a Gold Saint, with another in a coma, a demoralized army, a terrified populace and the certainty that, beads or no beads, the Holy War's bloodshed will continue.

Thus, I consider this a great victory and Alone seems to agree. Asmita's sacrifice was for nothing!"

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

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Romania,

Crow's Nest, Western Outskirts

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Following the noises and the commotion, the False Specters and Lucifer rushed up the tall tower to the throne-and-war room at the top. Storming into it, they barely got in time to find a completely trashed division and watch someone rushing out the window with their hood on and their hands on a thin zipline reel tethered to a far-off mountainside protrusion.

Immediately, Lucifer snarled and pointed a whirring, beaming ball of light in his finger at the assassin, firing off a recoiling laser blast of purple cosmos. Within the space of less than a second, the perpetrator took his knife and cut the cable, making him swing down the forestry, dodging the beam, touching down and vanishing into the wilderness at the speed of light. "Blast it!..."

Behemoth Torak turned over the wrecked war table. "How in blazes did that guy get up here?! Where's Priam?!"

Nasu Erika scoffed and rested a hand on his hip, pointing at the scorch marks. "Obviously he beamed out of here. He must have been attacked by that guy."

Lucifer snapped off the half of the steel cable that had tethered to his tower's window and stared at it. He felt specks of darkness cosmos that were burned by friction into it, but didn't recognize the personal signature. On one hand it was good news, because it meant that Hades hadn't found a way to send a True Specter to harass his forces, but on the other hand it also meant they had a foreign element to deal with. Whoever did this attack on Priam took advantage of how everyone was distracted by the outer wall with the battle between the Torak's group and Akassius to use a tool that otherwise would have been spotted a mile away.

The Sphinx False Specter also took a look at it over the Prince's hand. Her eyes looked out the window and saw the mountainside the intruder vanished into. As a result of the local geography, the fortress was flanked by steep Carpathian mountain sides which would aid a lone reel sniper in shooting the support zipline that was high enough to reach the main tower keep.

She calculated the enemy's intentions. "If he was with the Saints, why would he pick such an infiltration tactic and at this angle? Letting the others know he slid in would certainly help the hoplites morale." she asked out loud. "It's like he didn't want the Saints to know he was here."

Her words didn't fall on deaf ears with the Prince, who quietly agreed. Not only that, but their cosmos was used to speed up the reeling and then perfectly masked so it wouldn't alert even high-sensitivity Specters. Perhaps Ainsel could have picked it up, but the Papillion was off with Samuel by the underground tunneling.

His fist tightened angrily in realization. "That's because he wasn't with Akassius!" This carefulness, type of cosmos and stealth weren't the style of Saints at all. "Shion sent someone competent for once…"

The tall Behemoth stood concernedly. "If Priam is gone, we can't warp around our forces around the globe instantly, Prince. We'll have to use sub-lightspeed movement to get to our targets undetected."

The Daemon's gauntlet squeezed on the cable. "I'm aware!" and his red eyes narrowed. "Who could have done this?! Especially right under my nose?! Who did you send, you Lemurian coot?!"

"He took the page with him, didn't he?" wondered Troll Grendel, feeling his stomach twirling into a knot. Much like most of the False Specters, he didn't trust the Black Saint nearly as much as their leader did.

The Celestial Pride Star seemed to guess his thoughts. "Don't be alarmed already. That bleeding-heart won't set a foot close to Pandora, especially now that the Pope definitely has her castle surrounded. Priam might not like the way I do things, but he hates Hades and Arles even more."

This didn't calm them entirely, but the female musician stepped forward, deciding to surrender the point for now. "Yes, Prince, but what about the guys we just sent out? What if something goes wrong and we need to withdraw them here?" asked Sphinx Neferti. "Ainsel and Lemon are strong, we're going to need them for the big assault on Sanctuary."

This wasn't a moot point and Lucifer was nothing if not cautious about his war moves. His red eyes narrowed in the determination. "All the more reason for me to be the back-up. Fortunately, it was already part of Ainsel's plan to approach his target slowly, so we don't have to update my orders… but this does give me a good excuse to personally make sure Dohko's head is taken!"

The three elites then watched in alarm as the Prince took off from the war room. Torak reached for him. "Prince, you're going to risk yourself?! What about the Gold Saints outside?!"

The True Specter shrugged him off. "What do you think the three of you went through that fight for?! Shion and Akassius don't need me and Priam to be here to stay right outside, worrying about the hoplites in the cages! They just need to think we are so they won't order a serious assault!" he then pointed at Troll Grendel. "Have these windows fixed and barred and then tell the Skeletons to man the ceiling in shifts! I want the next guy who thinks he can glide, zip or fucking fly directly into my main room to get turned into a spear cushion!"

The terrified False Specter saluted him. "Y-yes my PRINCE!" and he then gulped in terror when the red-eyed warrior stormed down the towerkeep stairs, making clear to everyone the cost of their next mistake.

The elites looked at one another amidst the mess in the room as the Pride Star vacated it. The tension was palpable.

"I don't think I ever heard him swear like that." Nasu commented, chuckling nervously. "And I spent half my life shadowing him."

Behemoth set the huge table back into place. "Then I'm going back to work. I suggest you two do the same… and pray that getting his payback on one of his oldest enemies will improve the Prince's mood. It certainly would mine."

The two female False Specters left the room together. The blond, pale woman clicked her tongue. "What a bore. Does he ever have anything else to say? I don't know about you, but I'm getting really sick of Torak's muttering about his revenge. Why doesn't he go outside those walls and fight Herakles right now? No wonder he took to the Prince."

Neferti stopped. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Erika feigned ignorance. "Isn't it obvious? Both of them revel in these quests for vengeance. They're never actually interested in putting an end to them."

Unfortunately, the Sphinx wasn't in agreement. "I think it's a good way to know we can count on him. Gods know that finding trust has been a problem in all our lives. The last thing I want is more people in power lying to me. Daemon and Behemoth just happen to stave off what they want to do so they can use it as fuel for a cause that serves our group of False Specters…"

The insectoid Specter held a hand on their hip slyly. "Sure, you just like how passionate Torak is, mm-mm. Nothing to do with his size!" Before she parted ways in the corridor to go order the Skeletons around, she saw Sphinx' squint and decided to share a last bit of poison. "And don't give me that go-to-hell look, Neferti… Remember, I watched his precious teacher get in the Prince's way and die because of foolish principles like the ones Urial filled Torak's head with."

The harper didn't like the way this conversation was going. "Are you doubting him?!"

Nasu's finger wagged at her. "You keep saying 'him'… but we are talking about the Prince in this, too, are we not? And I'm the Pride Star's closest agent. I've spent years stopping you fools from being worse than useless to him," she pointed out. Gryphon Urial was no exception in her list of clueless Falsies that kept ruining Lucifer's plans. "Take all the comfort you want in their determination, if you wish, Neferti. Personally? I'm focused on their ability, their greatness, not their whining. People like Torak all die in these wars. They make stupid mistakes and lose them, like our ally, Priam."

Tucking her instrument as if she felt the sudden urge to use it, the brown-skinned woman contained herself. "That guy was totally different! He was a failed Gold Saint who abandoned his Goddess! He was lost from the start, never willing to do what was necessary to…" the words then failed to leave her mouth when the dots connected in her head. "We are…!"

"Mm, mm… False Specters? Who stabbed Hades' back?" Nasu suggested, silencing the Sphinx. "My suggestion? Don't get too defensive about that big blue-armored oaf up there. It reflects poorly on you… as a woman. He can be strong, sure, but that rhino-sized chip on his shoulder is gonna get him killed. I should know… it's what happened to Urial."

The Sphinx was then left in the wide tower's staircase to her thoughts, stuck between anger, confusion, and doubt as Nasu disappeared around the corridor. They had never been close, even as fellow high-ranking False Specters, and the reclusive spy had a gift to get under everyone's skin, figuratively and literally. Neferti did wish that Nasu was more… pleasant. It was bad enough that the Surplice had stories about being worn by cannibals, but the current wearer had to be a bitch, too!

At least Neferti didn't have to deal with Pandora anymore. In fact, the Sphinx False Specter couldn't wait to help the Prince reach his objectives, even if all she could do right then was wait around and make sure the Saints outside didn't get any funny ideas while their champion was out. This is what she felt she had in common with Torak; that great feeling of being in a new path in life, even if a destructive one.

And certainly, they wouldn't end like that failed Black Saint.

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Meanwhile,

Hokkaido, Japan

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The doors to the new compound slid open and the Black Saints carried their leader in. He was bleeding from the side of his head and one of the aides pressed a cloth against it to stanch the blood. It was a small injury, especially compared to Priam's much more painful burn scars from his battles with Akassius, but no one liked seeing their idol down, so the men rushed to his aid.

Aquila Daese, the Diamond Paladin, sat in front of him, holding his hand. "You're back already… I noticed that they took Crow's Nest. Not directly, but the place went 'dark' on the 7th sense, so it could only mean one thing at this point."

The brown-haired, goggle-headed man, panted and looked up at her young face with guilt-ridden eyes. "Yes, I'm sorry, Daese… I also couldn't get where your sister is out of Lucian."

Her slender, blue-armored arms folded. "It's alright, I've had time to cool down and think about this… and after how he mocked me, I now understand that if Cerah was dead, one of those False Specter assholes wouldn't hesitate to shove it in my face," she reasoned. Priam wasn't entirely sure if he agreed with this logic, especially with the grip Lucifer seemed to have on his men, but it made the Paladin feel better, so he held his silence on the matter. "I also felt horrible that you were out there risking your life among those people because of me."

He winced when they treated his wound. "T-that's alright, Daese."

The Diamond Paladin lowered her chin. Priam was always so forgiving, yet she couldn't be with herself. "We got the new place up and running in the meantime. Our contact here in Hokkaido is pretty handy and got us this fully equipped place by the time I issued the order to move. Alaska wasn't compromised or anything, but as I said in the message, I just wanted to be sure." She then saw her medics tending to Priam's head wound. "But enough of that, what happened to you? Did the Specters attack you?"

His face shook. "No, it was very fast. My plan was to stick around until I got Cerah's location out of Lucian, but then someone just stormed through the window and shot at me in the tower when everyone had their eyes on the Saints." Priam admitted, trying to recall the confrontation. He was probably imagining things, but he could have sworn he saw silver hair beneath the shadow of the attacker's hood just like Lucian/Lucifer's.

The Paladin raised her hand. "But nothing you couldn't handle, right? He scratched you a bit, that's all."

His eyes tensed. "The scuffle was short, but I felt his Cosmos. He was strong… very fast and resourceful, too." Priam mused, feeling a bit threatened. "I guess after all these years, Shion had a card up his sleeve that even Akassius didn't know about. It's possibly a henchman of his before he took Mu as his apprentice. Whoever he was, he got past Lucian's layers of defenses to ambush me at the tower. I was really shocked."

The Cyrulian woman frowned. "Oh, that doesn't bode well… Lucifer's almost as paranoid as we are." Daese tried to joke.

It got a smile out of the burned man.

One of the Black Saints added in. "We also have been intercepting communications from some of Sanctuary's fortresses and… they think you're behind these attacks, Priam," he confirmed to the leader. "The Pope now thinks for sure that we are back. What do we do?"

Priam reflected on it. "I want observation dispatches to Germany, at Pandora's Castle, someone who can stay hidden from the Saints and Specters alike and help us get a hand in that situation should an emergency arrive. If what Akassius and Daniel said is true, then Kirin and Malta are there already and likely have the Peloponesia fortress commander at the helm of their siege. A whole war of its own right could spark there if Ionia is in charge."

The young Aquila recognized the name of the Fort Commander. It reminded her of a tall Sanctuary warrior from the war that liked ordering reckless attacks on the Black Saint suspected bases. He accidentally alerted Aeneas and Priam to Shion's moves many times. "And what about the False Specters?" asked Daese.

Priam sweated, calculating Lucifer's next move. "If I know him, he's not going to back down just because I'm out of the game for now. He's got his own cards to play and is going to attack Sanctuary, Daese. His grudge against Shion is almost as big as mine… and he's waited for this moment for centuries."

The woman folded her arms in reflection, but she couldn't picture this going anywhere, not after all the trouble she went through just surviving the Gold Saints' hounding. "But what chances does he really have? I mean… this is Sanctuary we are talking about."

His eyes locked on hers. "More than what I'd like. It's practically unheard of that such a large number of Specters attacking the Temples all at once, at such critical transition timing. All the elite veterans are looking elsewhere and there's finally have a capable leader at the enemy's helm. This isn't some Judge who gets himself killed in a reckless, arrogant attack on a Gold Saint, Daese; Lucifer was personally responsible for one of the most damaging offensives Sanctuary suffered in the Lost Canvas War: the one where Taurus Rasgado died and half the Zodiac was injured or traumatized …"

The look of apprehension was suddenly very visible on her face, probably caused by her very blood being revolted by the idea of Specters setting foot on Athena's sacred land. She also knew her history well, so she took Priam's words to heart. "Then what can we do? What should we do?"

"We watch, and for this, I have something out of all the trouble we just went through." He then got up, took the furled page and laid it on the table. Daese analyzed it and identified it as the page from the Book of the Dead that Lucifer promised them. "After Akassius defeated the Coronis False Specter just now, Lucifer finished him off and his name was crossed from Thanatos' listing."

Her hand covered her mouth pensively. "…Which means we can track their losses."

Priam nodded. "Yes, it's something to help us control the False Holy War, as he calls it… But I can't lie; all things considered, with all that Lucifer has done to prepare his invasion and lay his chess pieces so carefully, we could be looking at Shion's demise by tomorrow morning…starting with Libra Dohko."

There was a worrisome murmur among the Black Saints, who all exchanged glances apprehensively. No one doubted the word of the guy who lived with and fought against the Zodiac for so many years. Doing so, however, was to picture a fortress that stood pure for millennia now drowned in eternal darkness.

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Chapter 44

Second Arc

Episode 10

The Fated Encounter

Part 1 of 2

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Sanctuary, Rodario

Eurydice's House

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The sun now slowly descended to the west in Greece. After a long workday, Corvus Cerah, the housemaid, entered her abode and announced herself to her blind friend. "Eurydice, I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen!"

Cerah put down her keys and went to the kitchen. "I got the groceries you aske- AHH!" she screamed, covering her mouth.

Sitting by their table on his Silver Cloth Box, Iaso was startled by her scream, nearly dropping the small flashlight he held over the nymph's blackened eye. "Geez, girl, you startled me!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect… Dr. Iaso, You didn't show up this morning and I thought you weren't coming today, especially by yourself," the teenager apologized.

There was a clicking of the tongue and the brown-haired man turned off and stored his light. "Yeah, me neither. We can all blame Aiolos for that. That over-concerned scrub ran right out of the hospital this morning saying something about his friend from the Gemini Temple being upset. He forced me to postpone half my consultations! What dribble! This is why interns are a hazard to the patients!" he complained, his fingers fidgeting because of how much he missed having cigarettes in them. "To make things worse, the junior branch of the Solos keep pestering the hospital by asking questions about their recently deceased heir. On top of everything I gotta worry about a potential giant spider infestation!"

Cerah's face went pale. "… Giant spiders?"

Eurydice, however, knew this wasn't the only thing frustrating the medic. "Doctor, don't scare Cerah, it's fine if you tell her about my problem."

Opening their drawer, Cerah stored all the shiny silverware she picked up along the day. "Tell me what?"

The blind woman's ears perked with the unfamiliar metallic sounds. "Before that,… what were you doing, Cerah?"

The smaller blonde girl shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, I'm just storing the forks and knives, but seriously, what did Dr. Iaso say?"

The man himself leaned back and admired what the teenager was up to. "Those are some expensive-looking groceries you got there."

The girl stopped, feeling something in her head screech to a halt and her eyes looking once more at the objects she was holding. It was a set of shiny-looking silverware vaguely familiar to the ones she was holding four hours earlier at her boss' house. "… Oh my goddess, what did I… WHAT?!" She harshly closed the drawer, looked around, and saw that at least she did pick up the stuff Eurydice asked her for. "I'm… nothing! I just… got these the other day and they were scattered around the balcony!"

The two adults both nodded along. "Uh-uh,…. Sure." Iaso muttered, making a mental note of this.

Her face went completely red and she rushed to get the food into the fridge. "Where did I get these?! WHY did I get these?! I don't remember ever bringing them home!"

The obsidian pendant in her chest that stored her Corvus Cloth warmed up. "Don't they look good in your kitchen, though? Don't worry; Eurydice won't notice, she can't see a thing."

Sensing her friend clearly confused and flustered despite her lack of sight, but deciding to talk to her about this later, the Nymph turned to the doctor. "Iaso has been trying another round of medication on me. He wanted to check for any improvements today, Cerah, but I guess this isn't the way, either."

The shift in topic seemed to snap the girl out of her panicked trance. "… Really?" she asked, turning around to them. She didn't expect much, given the origin of Eurydice's blindness being a hex from Hades, but her guilty feelings for not saving her from it made her always hope that Sanctuary's medics could find a way. "Oh, I'm sorry, Eurydice."

Iaso ran his gauntleted fingers through his brown hair. "Not as much as I am, Miss Cerah. Obviously any kind of blindness is difficult if not impossible to heal, but it's been clear for a while that Eurydice's condition isn't medical so… I felt that something could probably get done and wanted to get this right for my patient."

The blind Nymph's head turned in his direction in sympathy. "Doctor…"

He sighed, laying his hands on the table. "It's been a year and I've tried everything I've ever clinically believed in. Your orbs and nerves are undamaged and the ailment seems entirely restricted to your irises, like a cataract, which gives credit to your story that it's a curse the Specters put on you out of spite. Nothing I ever make you take, wash your eyes with or expose you to seems to be making a difference." The rage became clear through the shaking of his head and the tensing of his fingers. "I keep barking at the Golden Zodiac for them to give me the help of one of the damn Gold Saints to see if at least their Golden Touch makes any difference, but asides from an apology note from the House of Sagittarius, none of them seemed interested in making an actual contribution to the well-being of the sick."

The younger girl went somber. This was all her fault. She should have jumped in the way of that blasted Hades projection if she could.

In contrast, the blind Nymph smiled and her hand searched for Iaso's fingers. She found them, grasped them tightly and patted his wrist comfortingly. "Thank you so much, doctor. You come here so often, even though you could have given up."

The skeptic Silver Saint frowned. "Eurydice, you don't have to thank me. I'm a doctor; this is what we do. I swore a Hippocratic Oath, so of course I'll do everything in my power to help you." His foot then patted the Silver box he was sitting on. "I'm also the Ophiuchus Saint… so this is just part of what I have to care about."

The Nymph chuckled. Even if it was because of his profession, the human was so concerned about her. Iaso had no way of knowing this, but the amount of care that the paranoid doctor was putting into a patient like her moved Eurydice incredibly because it proved she was right all along in doubting Thanatos' judgment of their species. They weren't selfish warmongers, filthy polluters, or wastes of living space like the Death God called them. In fact, it seemed humans had more sympathy in their hearts than most of Olympus put together.

"I still appreciate it more than you could imagine, Doctor." she assured, and just as his fingers seemed more relaxed, she leaned over and pecked his cheek, a gesture that to her, as a Nymph, was perfectly caring, but to the ignorant human, it was good enough reason to get tense all over again.

Cerah covered her chuckling mouth at the sight of the man's eyes darting left and right in confusion. "Um… of course! It's my job!" Iaso assured. He then freed himself from her grip and stood up, packing his Cloth Box. "But I suppose there's a second reason I came in here today that I should tell you about. Unfortunately, I might be absent for the next couple of days, probably longer."

Eurydice frowned in distraught. "Why? Did something happen?"

His head shook. "No, in fact… this is because of you." he worded, surprising both women. "When I said I tried everything I clinically believed in, I meant it, and this leaves me only with the options I'm distasteful about, options that I would never use to raise my patients' hopes with. However, given your circumstances…" he then paused, as if he didn't like to say what he was about to say.

Cerah got up from her leaning. "Yes? Doctor, can you help my friend or not?"

He sweated and glanced away. "Ahem, there's something I'm willing to at least give a shot, now that I've exhausted everything else. People in Sanctuary, mostly quack doctors if you ask me, say that there's a spring in Tibet, near Jamir where the Cloths get fixed, with special waters that can heal sight."

This sounded familiar to the Cyrulian girl from her studies under Lucifer. "Wait, I've read about this… the 'Waters of Life', right?"

His hand raised in warning. "Now, don't get your hopes up. People have taken pilgrimages to that place since the dawn of Sanctuary!" Iaso asserted. He seemed utterly embarrassed as a doctor to even be talking about this. "I don't professionally vouch for any of this, it's just something I see no reason not to try at this point."

"But it could work, right?!" Cerah pressed, eyeing the man like he was withholding something valuable. "Doctor Iaso, please, if you think it can do something… anything, I think we should try. I'll go myself if you wan-"

He scoffed. "Miss Cerah, with all due respect, don't be foolish. The place is in the Himalayas. Do you have any idea how dangerous Jamir is, let alone the path to some isolated spring that no one ever mapped? You're a civilian, not a foot soldier or Saint."

This unwittingly reminding the girl she shouldn't hint too much at the fact that she was much stronger than she looked. For this reason, the girl seemed especially distraught by his refusal, widening her eyes and opening her mouth like she wanted to protest, but one look at the older woman made her silence herself.

The suspicious doctor blinked at this. He still remembered Cerah's abnormally strong vitals during her coma. "Miss Cerah… don't overburden yourself with this. Heck, Bronze Saints are scared of going to Jamir. I'm a former Silver Saint, so I will go. I brought my box with me for a reason." He added, tapping it once more. "They say the Aries Saint works there, though people have only really come back with weird stories about a small boy who throws buildings at them."

Eurydice understood his plan. "So you will ask Saint Aries if the waters are feasible. I get it."

"Exactly; it's better than trying every day at the Zodiac, sending Aiolos up all those stairs to ask for a little help and wait two hours for a flat 'no'. Goddamn Golds know nothing but to knuckle heads and destroy." the doctor elaborated, making his way to the door. "I'll see you gals when I return. And keep away from the Solo ranch… not that they'd let you in, but you never know."

The Nymph then waited until the good doctor's footsteps could be heard past the front garden before she turned her face in the direction she last heard Cerah at. "So you got new cutlery for us, huh?"

The younger girl gulped.

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Tibet, Jamir

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At the alchemy tower in Tibet, as the sun as already going down the other side of the mountains, darkening the World's Ceiling, Lance stood back and let Mu pat Mr. Mud's shoulder, causing the hoplite-armored golem to run around like a headless chicken and conduct several terrifyingly fast spear jabs at the air. Eventually, the golem slowed down and went head first against the side of the tower's entrance, slamming it on the railed gate and collapsing on the ground, right before picking itself back up and tucking weapons to its stomach like a broken marionette.

Mu grinned. "Cool, right?"

Lance sweated.

The Lemurian boy tightened the greaves on the golem's legs. "I've been messing with Mr. Mud for weeks! It's so much fun! I change a little tissue circuitry on it and it acquires a wildly different type of movement!"

Oh, so Mu was responsible for it walking like it couldn't tell the floor from the ceiling. "Doesn't that mean you shouldn't be messing with it? What if it feels pain?"

Mu shook his head. "Nah-ah, it's just a clay doll, its movement patterns are completely alchemic, which means it's similar to a Cloth's." The boy knocked on its chest plate as if proud of the humanoid. "Mr. Mud is pretty much like a robot; strong, automated and doesn't feel a thing."

Lance saw the boy kick its leg and could swear the golem squirmed a bit. To think he used to make fun of Mephisto for being scared of these golems. "I should have recognized these stupid clay-faced things; Shura had me bring them back, for crying out loud. What do you even want with these, Mu? These golems were keeping guard at Chrysanthemum village for a reason. Those people need them in emergencies to go into, you know, the toxic, deadly, mystical rose fields that can break through armor when dried!"

Mu grabbed his wrist. "But that's exactly it, Lance! Have you seen the stuff I work with? I need a hazard assistant! It's important I figure out what kind of damage Mr. Mud can take!"

Lance politely shoved him off. "No, you need adult supervision!"

The boy pouted, folding his arms and puffing his cheeks. "Well, who's an adult here? You're still only sixteen! You can't tell me what to do! Maybe you need adult supervision, too!" he then showed his tongue.

The Pegasus Saint was baffled and pointed at the leaking tanks by the wall. "I can tell you that keeping sulfuric acid canisters next to your torches is a bad idea and that you shouldn't use Shion's allowance to stockpile your freezer with ice cream!"

The Aries Gold Saint, however, was a far bigger match to Lance than he thought. "Well, I need the sugar! Lemurian brains work very intensively. Also, what do you think is best? That I keep working on my own because Master is busy all the time, you know, running Sanctuary OR I keep Mr. Mud here to do the big dangerous stuff like carrying the mercury tanks or putting the uranium rods in the laser charger?"

The red-eyed teenager tried to say something back, but only an indignant gasp came out. His brain rushed around the clock to find a way to make his point about the ridiculous danger Mu was putting himself into, but unfortunately the Lemurian had a damn good point about actually doing something about it.

He held his chin, pensively. "I don't know… I should talk to your Master about this."

Mu looked away and folded his arms behind his back. "Okay, if you want to walk all those steps back instead of going to see Roshi as you wanted…" He then glanced slyly at him. "And you probably shouldn't mental message him either. Master doesn't like what he calls 'nonsense pings' to the Chambers."

Lance growled and folded his arms. "What?! Mu, I'm sure you got a line to him around here for emergencies!"

The boy's head shook. "Nope!"

*RIIING!* *RIIING!*

Mu's face paled as Lance saw the black phone tucked between the electronic garbage pile and alchemic bookshelf vibrated like crazy. He sweated. "...I'm sorry…"

*RIIING!* *RIIING!*

Lance sighed, patted the boy's shoulder and went to pick up the phone. Before he did so, he hesitated, realizing how strange it was that he was about to use a physical telephone in a Sanctuary fief. "Hey, Mu, how common is it for you to get calls through this, anyway?"

The boy touched his chin. "Um, not very, in fact… I think the last time was a couple of weeks ago when Master told me to get Milo a birthday present ahead of time. He wanted to make sure he didn't overhear the ping."

The older Saint clicked his tongue. He completely forgot to get the Scorpio a present, too. Maybe he could search Mu's workshop for a toy of some sort later. He picked up the phone. "Yes, this is Jamir."

There was a pause of surprise from the other end, but the undistinguishable voice of the Pope was then heard. "Pegasus, is that you?... Is Mu there with you?"

Finding the soft hint of panic in the voice strange, Lance nodded as he glanced at the Lemurian tinkering with the Golem's equipment again. "Yeah, he's messing around with his little project, do you want to talk to him?"

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

Back at the Sanctuary, there was a subtle sigh of relief from Shion, which he moved away from the phone's receptor to not be heard. Thank goodness, Mu was fine and in solid company.

"No… I was just worried about him. There's something pressing me at the moment and if Mu gives me another one of his beloved reports on Chrysalis' masterpiece, I won't have time or patience to turn my attention to it."

"What do you mean, something is going on? Do you need me back at Sanctuary?" asked the Pegasus. "I was going for Roshi, but-"

Shion turned to his map, where he laid red marks on what was going on in Romania, Germany, and Greece. With the Civil War Gold Saints on the case and Leon on Priam's trail, the Pope had Europe more than covered. He did worry about Asia, though. He had two Gold Saints there vulnerable to attack, both extremely dear to him. Then, less urgently but also a preoccupation, there was Saga to consider; after assuring the blue-haired boy that the Pope would take some work weight off his shoulders so the Gemini could go process what Jaki revealed in peace. The Gemini Gold Saint had taken a leave eastwards for the day, meaning the first three temples were being manned entirely by just Aldebaran.

But perhaps these pieces could be converged. "No, my boy, go to Dohko. I will send Saga to spend some time with Mu. Goddess knows that he needs a bit of fresh air and he always liked kids like Mu and Aiolia." The Pope then recalled something and took the golden object in his pocket that had just been delivered to him. "Also, I suppose you left Greece rather in a hurry, cause you didn't pick up your new pin."

There was a pause in the call where a frustrated grunt was muffled on the other side. "-hit… I mean, yes, that's true, your Holiness. I guess it slipped my mind after spending the day with Adri… with Miss Ghisi."

The small hint of casualness just there intrigued the Pope, whose lips curved upwards. "Oh, are you making a new friend?"

"…No, more like a business contact."

Shion laughed, placing his mouth away from the phone. As if the current Cancer Gold Saint was any sort of the type to do that! This explained Aphrodite's jokes about how well the day went and why the Cancer left in a hurry. "Mm, mm, alright, I see, I hope you two worked well together! Go to Dohko, then. Give him my regards!"

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

Lance squinted and put the phone down. "I can tell he's getting the wrong idea about her." Holstering his Cloth Box to his back, he turned to the Lemurian boy. "Hey Mu, I got to go to Roshi, but your teacher says Saga will be on his way to spend some time with you."

The lilac-head gave him a grin and thumbs up "Uh-uh, okay!" he then tilted his head at the Pegasus Box. "Don't you want me to take a look at your armor before you leave?"

The red-eyed considered it for a second, scratching jaw. He was in Jamir, after all, and practice hasn't stopped since Mu was last checked on by the Pegasus.

The Cloth itself, however, had a different input. "Don't mind me, Lance, I'll heal back. My cracks are minor. You should go talk to Dohko first." The white horse wasn't entirely sure about it, but it knew Lance's mind better than anyone else and the paralyzing surge of fear the Saint had back at the Solo stables could only mean one thing. "What you have to do is more important."

Pausing nervously, the human's fists tightened on the box straps. "You can tell, huh?"

Even though there was nothing of the Pegasus for him to 'see', Lance had a sudden sensation he just registered a nod from it and even a hoof reel, much like Alastor would back on the ranch when the riley black horse affirmed itself. "I may be armor, but I'm not here to just look after your body… your mind is just as important to me."

Rather touched, but unwilling to show it, the owner nodded and readdressed the Aries. "That's alright, Mu. I'll get some more sparring with Tenma's ghost done before I call you back. I'm getting better at fighting him anyway." He then walked out of the tower. "Keep safe, and get some sunlight, Mu! Don't just stay inside this monastery all day. I promise I'll come by more often."

Mu barely peaked over Mr. Mud to wave him goodbye. "Okay, buh-bye! Thanks for visiting!" and went right back to dissecting the golem.

The Pegasus Saint exasperatedly waved back and marched on out of Jamir, passing over its thin rock bridge. He wondered when he became everyone's official mom. To start off, he has to keep an eye on Deathmask and Aphrodite, who he kinda only had himself to blame for. Then he has to give Shura advice because he takes everything even more seriously than Lance does. Along the way, he also is in charge of making sure Saga and Aiolos don't argue unproductively, watch out for the damage Milo causes and finally do Shion's freaking job and offhandedly raise his student who lives all the way alone in the Himalayas after you pass the skeleton caverns and go through the dangling misty bridges.

This without mentioning how he cooks and cleans for the elderly Libra Saint, who could very easily turn young and do his own damn chores, and lastly not forget about Camus. Because the Aquarius is quieter than a mouse, it doesn't mean he doesn't freak Lance out with his freezing powers and the way his Temple feels like a meat locker, both things that do nothing but remind Lance of the brutal nights he spent in Mount Olympus.

At least Aiolia was a nice kid and Aldebaran was a good watch. He could always count on the Taurus for a little peace of mind and help to entertain these kids that go through all these brutal training regimens. Thank God for him.

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

Pebbles slid off by his feet to the precipices as Lance finally crossed the Jamir rock bridge. He sweated, seeing them fall and clink on the armor of Saint skeletons skewered on the spikes far below, echoing. What an awful place, Jamir was. It, too, reminded him a bit of Olympus. An abyss just like this one had kept the Pegasus stuck on the Second Step for four years without a Cloth Box to unlock the bridging mechanism. How did regular Saints make their way to do maintenance on their armor when the Aries Saint was busy?

Speaking of said services, Lance looked down ahead when his 7th sense picked up a human ahead of him walking up the mountain trail out of the caverns. The Bronze and Silver Saint Orders didn't exactly like him, so the Pegasus was immediately on his guard. He was tired of getting assaulted by assholes who thought they had the seal of approval to do what they wanted with 'Master-beaters', as they so beautifully put it.

"Ha, ha, that's a good one! Maybe you should kill this guy? Vent a little, have some fun! No one would know, all the way out here..."

His teeth gritted and his hand swung. "Quiet!"

The Saint up ahead raised his head. "Excuse me?"

Lance's face went red. "Sorry, just swatting a very annoying fly." he lied. He couldn't let Guilty get to him like this.

"Uh-uh…I see." The blue-haired man muttered, bewildered. He stood steadfast before his Bronze comrade, thumb running through the strap of his Silver Cloth Box as if to point it out. "Say, would you happen to know if this is the right path to Jamir?"

Lance raised a brow. So, someone from the lower ranks actually bothered to climb up the mountain instead of dumping his box at the first Temple? How refreshing for Mu. "Yeah, just keep on going ahead, but watch your step when you get to the mist. There is a hidden bridge made of rock, and it is extremely narrow."

The man's mouth gasped. "Oh! That's good to know, thank you –" his head then tilted to check Lance's box. "- Pegasus!... How helpful of you. You can always count on a fellow Bronze."

Lance's eyebrow raised and he stood quiet.

"It's just been so dangerous so far!" the stranger continued, sighing. "I heard it was difficult to get to Master Mu, but the air is so thin up here and there were creepy skeletons in the caves that got up and attacked me! They even moved in formation! How terrifying."

Red eyes glanced sideways. Honestly, the worst thing about those unrestful ghouls was that they kept dancing around and making bone puns as they attacked pilgrims to Jamir. "Yeah, I… know about those. The Jamir lord has a twisted sense of humor, letting those stay there."

Smiling politely, the man with short blue hair nodded his head and passed him to go on with his business.

As this happened, the Pegasus saw his box. He sensed no cosmos in it, which could be an indication it was dead, but he still recognized the emblem on it of a quadrant. "Octans? You're a Bronze, too? You should have said something, I would have offered to help you up the terrain." Lance worded. "Do you mind if I ask why your box is chained up?"

The stranger paused and eyed him. "Oh… it's a long story, Pegasus, but the box itself broke, can you imagine? It fell off a thirty-foot height and nearly landed on my commander's head! All the hinges snapped… If I take the chains off, the whole thing falls apart. I'm lucky I wasn't stripped of my rank then and there."

Red eyes widened. Lance genuinely didn't even realize this could happen. "How the heck did you do that?"

There was a gentle laughter. "Commander Lacaille keeps me up high as a vigil at this big tower keep… I have to confess that sometimes I lean my feet on this thing way too much… and then regretful things happen."

People who lied usually tried a lot harder and this guy just seemed distracted. It put in Lance's head the idea of Sagitta Nam, the most distracted Saint he knew of, which was funny cause he was someone Lance barely thought of, stuck in his little office as he always was. "Alright then… good luck with Mu, then."

The 'Octans Saint' held his arm as he was about to go away. "Wait, one more thing, Pegasus. Is the Jamir lord… as dangerous as he sounds?" he asked, seemingly nervous about it. "I've heard he's quite powerful… and that some of those that climb all the way up here to meet him… never come back."

Lance frowned disgruntledly. Who was spreading these rumors around?

Hey, you could blame Mu if you slit this one's throat, then. What a good thing!

He shook his head. "Look, man, the only thing scary about him is how much sugar he eats. Just go take that Cloth of yours up there before the box falls apart halfway across the pass and he tells you that you have to give him a third of your blood." He then forced himself to move on before Guilty put more ideas in his head. "Sorry, but I have to go!"

The Saint nodded thankfully. "I appreciate it! Good luck!"

Ignoring the man, the Bronze made his way down the Himalayan path. Maybe wailing on those bone-punning cavern skeletons that always attacked visitors would get his frustration out. It's like they think they're hip or something for it, and there was nothing that got under Lance's skin more than fighting someone who kept getting back up, like Guilty and Tenma.

Or maybe he could just do the world a favor and get rid of them entirely with the Underworld Wave. Then again, he was never sure what was worse; letting those spirits stay in the mountain that rarely anyone passed through that couldn't fight them off, or sending them off to hell where they would just be tortured by Specters. Maybe he could ask Roshi what he thought of it before going off to practice. At least his puns were slightly better.

And hopefully, he could tell Lance why the hell Seiryu wasn't doing his job with Guilty. What was the point of nearly getting eaten by a dragon if Lance was still gonna have a masked freak looking over his shoulder?

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

Mount Rozan

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

Calmly following down the path hugging the current of the Rozan River, the old Master's eyes stalked the serpentine figure swimming through the stream. It was as big as an anaconda, too big for a Chinese river to host even, and twirled its long body to propel itself as it seemed to ignore all the fish it could prey upon.

The purple old man chuckled. "Someone's imagination is a bit stiff. You need to think of new forms to take, Seiryu. It is now so easy to find you in the wilderness that I could do it with my eyes closed!"

It slowed down and coiled its body at the bottom of the river. Its bright yellow eyes seemed to see everything around it as its head rested on its long stomach, tongue sizzling out threateningly. The faint shine of green cosmos could be detected by those immersed enough in the 7th sense, but more importantly, the aged Master felt a tremendous lifeforce from the underwater beast, as if its very breathing was somehow really that of a much, much larger creature than it already looked on a superficial level.

Dohko tapped the ground with his cane. "Maybe you should turn into an alligator next. They are endangered in these parts."

"And maybe you could turn into something more sophisticated than a 'bald ape'." The voice boomed in Dohko's head. "Perhaps something worth preserving."

The Libra Gold Saint chuckled. A nerve had been struck. "Have you been taking many walks outside the mountain, Dragon God? All of a sudden you've been so active!"

The extent of the interposer's body language was the frequency of its serpentine tongue's prodding on the riverbed. "Surplices have come to the Earth's surface in a large number again, Dohko, this time more than ever before."

The master's expression paused and darkened. "Impossible!" he asserted, pacing around anxiously, humor gone. He then pointed his cane at the snake accusingly. "Have you been doing your job?! Last time I checked, the seal rock was intact and the sky was absent of eclipses and meteor showers! And you say humans are careless…"

Bubbles erupted from the snake's mouth as if it tried to laugh. "Even if the reach of Specters is limited and they cannot be fully revived by Hades, it isn't like they are chained to walls. If all it took to stop them was a bead necklace, the last Holy War would have been over as soon as Virgo Asmita perished to create it." It then raised its head as if to encroach the human. "But you knew that already, didn't you? You've known since you've known Rozan itself that Specters and Skeletons have more freedom than Sanctuary confesses them to have… or have you forgotten who took you in?"

The elderly Master grumbled. Seiryu won this round.

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

18h Century

Aries Temple

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

The orange-haired woman in a sleeveless shirt and long, symbolled skirt sat patiently by the First Temple's stairs, her hands rested on her lap. With calm breaths, her senses tried to understand the situation in Sanctuary, feeling Hades' forces move like the shadows of tentacles across the valley from multiple points, the God himself already confronting Athena by the Colossus. If the host known as Alone was capable of skipping the Temples like this, there was no telling of how worse the war could get.

As if on cue with Haisaku's thoughts, the cosmos of the Taurus Gold Saint flared like an explosion near where Dohko went to battle. Her masked face rose when the earth shook and the horizon was flooded with the golden light of Titan Nova, letting out the last battle cry of Taurus Rasgado in spectacular fashion and briefly turning night into day.

Just like that, the second guardian was now into stardust. Her hands clasped in prayer and her mask lowered humbly. "Dear Goddess, don't let his death be in vain… Carry his heart into the next world, for it is now with you."

Even as this wish was called, the light of Titan Nova raged on, turning night into day and ensuring everyone knew of the event. In the midst of all the chaos, there was no telling if the great Specter cosmos she sensed fighting there was vanquished. It was hard to picture otherwise, though.

Her heart tugged. Hopefully, Dohko was okay.

As the light slowly waned, surrounding the entrance of the staircase, countless snaked-shaped shadows crawled on the ground from the ruins and rocks. They began converging, forming thicker invaders until they piled on into a great black wave of darkness that rose above the ground and crashed into smog before her.

Out of this mess of penumbra that screened the stairs, many figures walked out, wearing the armor of Skeleton Soldiers. Their scythes dragged on Sanctuary's ground, sizzling sparks of friction on its granite and marble. Their eyes set on the lonely guard at Aries' Temple, thirsty for blood.

One of them took the initiative, fixated on Haisaku. "Well, well, well,… by the cunt of Demeter herself…"

The orange-haired Amazon stood calm at the ugly remark, mildly recognizing the voice.

A second one's head looked left and right. "The Prince was right! The Aries Gold Saint is gone. The fool left the first foothold in this place ripe for the taking! Is he an idiot?!"

A third one objected. "No, this is all just part of Lucifer's prediction. He said these Gold Saints can't resist playing the heroics for the goddess girl-"

"Forget THAT!" the first Skeleton asserted, pointing at Haisaku. "Just look who we have here with us… How long has it been, Selina? Thirty… Forty years?"

While the other Skeletons murmured among themselves, Haisaku feigned ignorance, turning her face. "You must have me confused with someone else. I don't go by that name."

The Skeleton stepped forward and pointed at her. "Oh yes, you do! I didn't recognize you at first with the jewelry, the warlock clothing, and that porcelain face of yours, but Skeletons don't age very much, do we? Decades and masks can't hide your cosmos, or your hair… or the miasma of the Dark Calling mark on your cheek."

Haisaku held the left side of her mask, where just beneath the porcelain cover a black mark vaguely shaped like a winged sword would be visible.

Another Skeleton took a closer look and dropped his jaw in recognition. "… Oh yeah, you're right!" he then laughed. "I remember you now, too! You used to be one of us! I thought you went missing YEARS ago! What, did you get tired of carting corpses?!"

A third one grinned in recognition. "And should you really be wearing that 'virginal' mask? You aren't exactly pure, you know? I remember someone who was a LOT of fun at the barrac-"

Haisaku stood up, katana shaking in waist, making some of them recoil back. For a moment, they thought her cosmos would burn and a slaughter worthy of a true Skeleton would begin as a result of the insult.

But instead, she spoke. "You misunderstood Skeletons. I meant I am no longer that person, …so that name means nothing to me now. Selina was someone I haven't been in a very long time. My name is Haisaku now." Her head then tilted down on them to gesture the intensity of her masked eyes. "'Phoenix´ Haisaku!... So I suggest you all turn back to your 'Prince', because none of you will set foot in this Temple."

Once past their first fright, they didn't seem at all impressed by the speech. In fact, the first Skeleton chuckled, shrugged his shoulders and approached her. "I don't see any armor on you."

The stare was met. "But I see an angry tiger lurking in the dark behind you, Skeletons… Once again, I suggest you leave."

His blunt, free hand then punched her cheek, flooring the woman right then and there to everyone's amusement. The mask fell off, its side cracked, briefly revealing a face preserved by the curses of Hades across the decades before her long, head-banded hair concealed it.

Laughter echoed in the air as her banded hair was harshly grabbed, making the woman scream in pain as the group encroached on her. "Maybe we should remind you of the big SMILE we'd put on your lips! I bet that would refresh your memory, Selina!"

"We'll start with an old-fashioned one!" another Skeleton joked. He took out his side blade. "Then we'll make it permanent! Then we'll hook you to the wall so when Aries comes back he can see how happy we've made you!"

Her body shook as she was forcefully held by the first Skeleton. The horrible experience didn't seem to faze her. "D-do what you will…. You'll d-destroy yourselves in ways I couldn't possibly match."

The first one laughed and his hand reached for her weapon. His fingers burned with the cosmos. "You're not much of a guardian, are you, Selina? Let me take that aw-"

Unlike when the woman was first hit, something unique happened this time. Time suddenly slowed down as the Skeleton's fingers reached for her waist and there was a twisting screech in the air that no one heard or felt but those sensitive enough to the Cosmos. It was as if, rather than the simple act of a hand reaching for someone else's sword, the edges of two great galaxies, one dark and dead and the other burning with magma-like light, suddenly collided with a violence that would shake the universe itself, completely allergic to one another.

Energy was release, like in the shattering of a great invisible glass, made of the explosive force of the Cosmos, the universal power common in all. The center of this burst was between these two actors, these two people in this tiny planet among the countless tiny stars, and it had all the force of both the greed and cynicism in the soul of the unnamed Skeleton as he attacked Haisaku and the astonishing peace of mind the woman had with her insignificance to the universe and her fate.

In the Cosmos, all were equal. All were the same in the realm of energy who, above all, she understood the most.

The cry of the Phoenix was heard in the depths of her mind. The energy from the shock between their two worlds had to go somewhere. Her sword burned in its sheath, being the closest object that could take all this rejective power.

There was a bright surge of cosmos that heated the blade inside the scabbard, a sudden orange flash that straightened like a razor in the air and finally a scream of agony from the Skeleton, who backed off the woman holding his own wrist. "AAARGH! M-my H-HAND!"

The Skeletons stepped back, seeing his hand twitching loosely on the ground, the splashed pool of blood and hearing the clink of the panting Haisaku's katana getting re-sheathed. Her body burned with a light aura of orange. "I w-warned you…"

"What the hell?! I didn't see her move!" one protested, grabbing his mutilated friend.

Another one took his scythe and burned his dark cosmos. "Fuck you, traitorous bitch! DIE!" and swung at the downed woman, but the weapon was parried by her jeweled, golden bracelet, whose ruby burned with an inner light. He struggled to carve the weapon into her arm, but the edge just sunk into the metal as if made of liquid and got stuck. "W-what the f-fuck!"

Her face looked up, revealing a pair of cursed, red eyes, a sign of her cursed bond with the Phoenix, on a delicate, young-looking face for her age.

"Just use your cosmos, moron!" a Skeleton screamed.

"I'm t-trying!" the aggressor screeched. He felt the heat of the room rising and realized what was going to happen. "N-NO! STOP IT!"

"BEGONE!" and her arm burst out a shower of orange cosmos which shattered the jammed scythe, burned the Skeleton and punctured his forehead.

The man screamed, dropping his weapon and feeling his whole body was on fire. "ARGH, HELP ME! I'm BURNING! AGHH!"

The others grabbed him. "Stop it, man, you're not!" one shouted at him. He turned to Selina, who seemed to fall once more in exhaustion. "What did you do to him, you witch?!"

She covered her Amazon face with her hands. "N-nothing… he did this to himself. Now the Cosmos will destroy his soul…"

The Skeletons watched in horror as their friend squirmed around, trashed and wrestled from his friend's hold, running straight out of the Aries Temple and off the Golden Zodiac's hillside, rolling down the boulders and rocks until his screaming just stopped.

They all paled, backing away from the tired woman. "…By the sword of Hades, fuck this! What is this?!"

"I think that was the Phoenix Saint's power!" another shouted.

"You're kidding, right?! It feels like we're fighting Virgo, instead!"

A third one panicked and stepped back, scythe firmly in hand. "D-damn it, she's just one person, we have to get rid of her! If we don't take over this Temple before Pandora is done up the-" his back then hit something solid and he looked over his shoulder.

Libra Dohko stood there, face twisted in rage.

Silence filled the Aries Temple.

As the Andromeda and Cygnus Saint then arrived on the scene, what followed before then was a bare-handed, scream-filled massacre of Skeletons that the green-haired Bronze with the chains had not seen since 'Goldie the Lion' wiped out the Specters that Deathtoll allowed inside the Zodiac, during the Suikyo incident. Arms, legs, heads, and torsos wrapped in black, boney armor flew everywhere before a roaring tiger-like berserk of golden light that slashed the air with gold-laced paws. The Libra Gold Saint didn't stop until absolutely every Skeleton Soldier was torn to pieces before the brute force of his cosmos and he stood before his fallen teacher, panting from the fury.

The Bronze Saints approached the two. "Roshi!"

"Shun, Hyoga, turn your faces away!" the Libra demanded, not even eyeing them.

When the Bronzes saw the Amazon mask on the ground, they immediately took the hint, stopping where they stood and turning from the scene. A certain Ophiuchus Saint sprung to both their minds; if it was so hard for Seiya and Shaina back home, then during this older era, it was surely a mess of a subject.

Dohko picked up the mask, held the woman, and gently put it in her face. "Haisaku… I'm here. You can stand now."

She hesitantly got up, hugging her student and pressing her mask as if scared that it would pop off out of nowhere. "D-Dohko, I'm sorry… I'm a horrible person, I should have been there for you! I d-deserve all this!" she lamented. "Your friend Suikyo diedfighting the Zodiac and I… I was nowhere for you, hiding in the darkness of a ship! Now more of your friends are dying because of the Specters and still, you help me. How c-can you ever forgive me?"

The youth closed his eyes in reflection, hugging his teacher. With the death of Rasgado fresh on his mind, what happened to Tenma at Alone's hands, the memory of his dead friend Suikyo and the Specters still lurking around, it was true that all he felt was that he could strangle every single person with the Dark Calling mark he could see.

But not his 'mother', his teacher, the distracted, hare-brained person who took him in at Mount Rozan, fed him, clothed him and taught him everything he knew about the Gods in the wild. She was the Saint of Phoenix, the lady of the mountain and, shockingly… the former member among thousands of the Skeletons of Hades who he could not bring himself to hate.

No, Dohko was bigger than this. "I always wondered where you really came from, Haisaku... but I never truly cared one bit. That old person has never existed to me. She died decades ago when the Phoenix took hold of her." he assured, letting go of Haisaku. "You're not them. You haven't been for a long time…"

When it was safe to look at her masked face, the Cygnus Saint approached them. "I didn't think it was possible for someone to break free of Hades' grip, much less a Skeleton," he confessed. "Even Suikyo, to the end, couldn't rid himself of his Surplice, like it was glued to him by Hades himself."

Andromeda shook his head. "No one thought it was possible for Hades' host to break free, either, Hyoga…"

The Cygnus felt embarrassed by the fact his friend pointed out, especially considering the source. "That's very true, Shun. I wonder if in this war there will be more people who accomplish it."

As feelings cooled down, though, Haisaku felt a sense of urgency come to her. "Dohko, I felt a terrible power fighting you. If Saint Taurus had to go so far as to take it out with his own life… Is this evil force gone?..."

The three Saints exchanged glances. "We don't know, miss Haisaku." Andromeda lamented. "We had to escape the blast radius. We barely had time to get here with all of the Skeletons attacking Sanctuary, much less check."

Cygnus folded his arms, remembering how well the tactic worked with Kanon against Rhadamanthys. "It must have worked. There was no Specter powerful enough-"

In a rare show of assertiveness, Andromeda shook his head and took his shoulder. "Hyoga, this one was different; just like the person that Shiryu fought at Jamir. We're up against a foe of a whole new level…" he then hesitated to voice the next part, but he needed to make his concerns clear. "I had to tap into our Cloths' 'heavenly' strength to overpower him."

Dohko and Haisaku were confused by the expression, and more so when they saw the Cygnus widen his unpatched eye in shock. "What does that mean?" the Libra asked.

The Swan Saint sweated and waved his hand. "Shun just means that he had to go above and beyond…"

Dohko turned to his teacher. "Haisaku… we're going to Athena's side. Sisyphus needs our help. Are you going to be okay?"

Shenodded, tucking her sheathed katana. "I'll manage…I had no intention of letting these Skeletons pass, either..." She saw him hesitate. "Now GO!"

Before any of them could go forward with their plan, the four Saints gasped when they felt their balance suddenly lost and their feet rising off the ground. "What's going on?!" Andromeda asked.

Cygnus saw himself being lifted into the air by an extraordinary cosmos. He recognized this kind of force. "We're… being pulled into the air! This is Sasha's cosmos, but it's twisting space, like when we fought Saga at the third Temple, Shun!"

Dohko looked down and saw the ground not only distancing itself but spinning away. They were all being transported across a great distance, perhaps to Athena's side. He embraced his teacher protectively. "Looks like Athena is cutting us some slack, for once." He looked at the horizon, to which they sped towards mountains of forest in the East. "We're heading to Rozan?!"

Haisaku just felt the terrible cosmos of Hades coming along with her. "Athena perhaps wishes to seal Hades there and wants our help." Her head shook and she pressed her sword against the Libra. "Dohko, take the Yondo!"

"What?!"

She insisted. "I used to be a Skeleton… Hades used to be my God. If I'm put between him and Athena, there's no telling what he'll make me do!" her thumb pushed out the sword guard, revealing the edge of a brittle blade. "Quick, before Athena gathers us! Cut off my head!"

The youth growled in anger and pressed the weapon back down in its sheath. "Are you mad?! NO!" His arms then embraced his teacher tightly to stop her from doing something stupid. "Haisaku, you're going to be fine! I believe in you!"

The masked woman wept inside the porcelain face. "D-Dohko…"

The night grew darker as their flying bodies approached the battlefield as if the proximity with Hades by itself was a miasma. They could already feel the Pope's cosmos, as well as Shion's, and Sisyphus' at their destination. Slowly, in the distance, the Colossus of Athena became visible. It was likely where the battle was occurring.

The Libra gritted teeth. His logical side knew she was right to be worried. "Haisaku, you can trust me… if for a second I think you're going to do something to Athena, I'll be the first to save you from it… even if by the sword, but it's NOT going to come to that!" he vowed.

Cygnus' one good eye saw the floating figures in the distance. "There they are! I see Tenma and Shiryu, too!" his white aura burned in anticipation. "Get ready, everyone!"

Her grip on the weapon relaxed. "Dohko, why?... You don't know how I used to be. Before the Phoenix, before the Te-"

The tiger's head shook. "I wouldn't be a Gold Saint if I didn't believe in hope, Haisaku. And you're my Roshi, remember? That's why."

The teacher's head sunk into his shoulder humbly. "I see… alright then. Let's do this." Her body burned with orange cosmos. She felt the cry of the Phoenix in her head.

The group then landed like a shooting star on the floating segment of the Colossus peak, overseeing Mount Rozan, where the seal of the Specters laid. The Saints on the field turned to them.

Tenma struggled away from Alone's grip and his face beamed up. "DOHKO!"

So did Dragon's, who sided with Pegasus. "Roshi! You're back!"

A bloody smile of relief filled Sagittarius Sisyphus' lips. "Thank goodness, you guys have come."

Dohko immediately stepped forward to face the enemy. "HADES! We have come to stop you! You will pay for Rasgado's death!" he roared, the background image of a tiger surrounding him. "Tenma, step away from him! He's not your friend!"

The host of Hades, Alone, turned to the Gold Saints. His gaze was like that of a giant bothered by a fly. Both Andromeda and Haisaku immediately shook, feeling their Dark Callings burning in their souls.

Only Pope Sage, who stood by Athena with sealing tags in hand, braved his look. "You fell into my trap, Alone… The Saints of Athena, Bronze and Gold alike, surround you. Surrender now and be cleansed of your evil."

The painter smirked, surveying his new situation, black sword in hand. He then turned to the Goddess. "Mm, mm, …Where do you get these stupid friends of yours, Sasha?" His blade then swept at the downed Tenma!

To the various Gold Saints, the movement seemed faster than light itself, as if to the God that the rules of reality did not apply. They all tried to scream the Pegasus' name, but they were sloths next to a death whip.

Alone thrust the tip of the weapon forward, his black thoughts transmitted to his old friend. "Sleep once more, Tenma…Soon you'll be a part of my new Canvas." but his eyes then widened when it sunk into a round, green, metallic object that rushed into his path, a shattering sound of metal against metal being released.

Blood splashed and dark cosmos burned.

Time resumed its pacing.

Tenma's mouth panicked. "S-SHIRYU!"

The painter god stood stunned, watching the Dragon Saint's shield's crack, taking the cursed weapon's fatal blow. His expression waned with the terrible force he took, yet the green Bronze Saint stood before the Underworld God, defiant, unwilling to see his best friend fall to this cursed weapon once more. More mouths joined Tenma's in crying out the warrior's name as his blind eyes closed in faint, including Sasha's.

But none were as intrigued as Alone when he saw the Bronze Saint's offensive hand grip the blade. His lips curved. "… This is an interesting war, indeed."

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

Present

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

The reptile on the river bed swirled out. Dohko kept pace with it. "You're a funny ape, Dohko… you juggle the lessons life gives you at your convenience. No wonder you can't train a student right," it mocked. "You know of your Master's origin, you forgave her even, yet you still think there's nothing more to Specters and Skeletons than what Sanctuary teaches you; a cyclical nuisance that massacres your population, yet that you pay less attention to than you would spare a cockroach."

His eyebrow raised. "Is this going somewhere, for once?"

Seiryu suddenly swam in the water in sweeping glides, forcing the old, decrepit Dohko to pace along him on the river bank. "It is; I merely ask how many times will you have to learn the lesson of pain that Specters teach, Dohko, before you wise up? How many deaths will they have to cause before you stop relying on my little seals to give you comfort? The war with Hades is never over, and his bag of tricks is endless. I expected more precaution from you…"

Roshi took a handkerchief and wiped his forehead as he got the dragon to stop already at a water swelling. "My, what a cheeky shoe-skin!... Reminding me of these old stories just to hurt my feelings, pah!" he rejected, used to Seiryu's sharp tongue. "Perhaps the Dragon God is just not as sharp as he used to be? You've been racking up the years, you know?"

Its head suddenly splashed out of the water, glaring directly at the human.

"Yo-oh-oh, touched a snake nerve?" Dohko laughed. "Admit it, I may be a twice centenarian in body, but you have always been a multi-millennial in mind! Do you ever offer warnings without wrapping them in condescending riddles?"

The anaconda was terrifying, big beyond its peers and with an unearthly stare in its eyes, like a great green sea hidden between the reptilian slits. It's forked tongue slithered out menacingly, black like the night. It seemed to ponder if it should even respond. "Remember, Dohko, my 'friendship' with Athena is tenuous. We share a common enemy, an Underworld God that seeks to ruin what I am… 'life' itself," it brought back. "A bored, bitter Olympian that makes a mockery out of 'death', turning it into his sport, his tool to shape the world in his image, rather than an important tool of renewal."

The Libra Gold Saint casually nodded. "Yes, yes, agreed, he is rather unpleasant. All those gargoyles and chains…"

"You've been distracted! Idle!" Seiryu chastised.

"Have you seen my job description?" the old man pointed out.

"You've assumed your problems are gone the minute the Holy War ended…like a coward." Seiryu continued, his head turning west, towards the setting sun. "And this has prolonged itself to now… Do you feel it, Dohko? The great circle of fate is spinning once more!"

Turning the same direction, the Master stroked his beard. "Yes… I've been having old dreams, thinking too much about the past. It's almost as if some irritating spirit has been putting thoughts in my head, trying to tell me something…" he then rested his hand in his cane in reflection. "But I have been noticing some signs, yes… or better yet the lack of them. The seal rock stands tall, yet Specters roam the land, killing and attacking our people."

"Your own student has experienced some, has he not?" Seiryu reminded him. "Soon Pegasus will be here… I'm afraid I've had more important things to do than protect him from his fears, too. One immature human and a giant Specter seal is more than enough to look after, after all."

"Oh, are we talking about me? For Athena's sake, I'm a warrior. Occasionally I need to stretch my legs, pump my blood, if you will,…meet some pretty women and bust up a few gangs…It's practically practice!" He tapped the cane. "But frankly, what kind of contract is this where you lax on your side and my student has to deal with that infernal island's influence once more? He must have been so embarrassed… going on his merry way and having hallucinations out of the blue once more!"

The anaconda then returned to the water and swam away, this time seemingly dispersing into bubbles. "The night is going to be rather long. I'd return home if I were you, Dohko… Protect it. Protect your student, too. Anyone would know you need practice with that."

Libra Dohko grumbled. So many years have passed by the Dragon's side and still the beast refused to go a little bit easy on him. This is why Dohko always preferred humans to gods; they adapt a lot faster to other people. They had some sensitivity, too, for Athena's sake.

Still, this wasn't to say he wasn't concerned. After wording to himself a bit about how a good afternoon was spent guessing a giant reptile's thoughts, the old master made his way back home at a rather brisk pace.

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

Meanwhile,

Romania, Crow's Nest Siege

Sanctuary Camp

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

The main tent of the retired Gold Saints was larger than most present in the encampment to the west of the captured Cyrulian fortress. This was both to house the big table where the overhead map of the fortress was laid out and to let the giant occupant, namely Daniel, stand up straight without his head poking through the ceiling fabric.

With them was also the retired Gold Saint Akassius, whose fingers placed pawn pieces on the two roads out of the fortress to signify their forces. He frowned, displeased. "The good news is that we have enough men to control the ins and outs of the area and plan a multi-fronted attack… but the bad news is that the place is too well fortified for a lightning assault."

Daniel folded arms, looking at the thick lines representing the layered walls of Crow's Nest. "In the sense of taking them out before they can get their heads together? I agree, and without enough speed in our offensive, we can't take out the Specters without endangering the hostages. We also have to be mindful of whatever traps and killing zones the Specters set up after morphing the edifice. Blasted necrophiles…"

The former Gemini leaned back in his chair in reflection. "What I don't understand is how we got into this situation to begin with. Why is Priam with these people? Who was the Specter hiding himself? What in the Goddess name is going on with the Rozan seal that Hades feels so bold as to order this attack? Maybe if we got answers to this, we could uncover a weakness…"

The tent's opening was crossed by Herakles Aguilon, who had to lower his head to get through it. "I'm afraid I got more bad news for you two."

"Really? What now?" Daniel asked.

The Herakles Saint's thumb pointed out the aperture. "The Lycaon Surplice just turned to dust." He announced, alerting them. "We still got the Specter's body, but his armor just started breaking apart shortly after we dragged him in. It matches what happened with the Specters that attacked the Ismara and Arcadia zones a year ago. And here's another thing…" Aguilon's expression then tensed. "Just like with the ones from back then, this guy's identity doesn't match what we got in the books about the Specters. Lycaon Phlegyas, the Celestial Crime Star, is a South African according to the Lost Canvas War records, but our guys traced this one's identity to a missing person's library in freaking Morocco!"

The two retirees exchanged glances. This was getting weirder and weirder. "Are you sure?" Daniel pressed.

Aguilon shrugged his shoulders. "Sagitta Nam may be a pansy, but he's a good archiver. He triple checked this. This person also went missing way longer ago than the coroners say this guy's age suggests. They say he is twenty-something, but Nam says the report goes back to the forties... which is in line with how Specters preserve their age."

"But not with everything else we've ever known about them, namely how they make use of resurrections, not recruitment?" Akassius asked, to which he got a nod from the grey-haired giant.

The blonde Taurus scratched his head. "So what… we got Specter imposters?"

The Gemini waved his hand negatively. "It's just one case. Back during the Bennu attack, the Zodiac insisted they had good reason to believe the Bennu Specter was replaced by Hades, isn't that right?"

Daniel thought carefully about it. "Yeah, Arles said the last one, Bennu Kagaho, was purified in a fight with Libra Dohko. It makes sense that Hades would get a new one, but Lycaon Phlegyas was not cleansed at all. Records say a Pegasus Bronze Saint of the time killed him during a raid."

"So what you two are saying is that nothing makes sense?" Aguilon asked, shrugging.

Akassius shook his head. "No, just that we have too little to go by at this point." He then had another regret as Daniel mentioned Pegasus. "We should have called the Cancer Saint. Saint Lance is a novice, but he could have helped us retain this Specter's soul for interrogation."

Daniel frowned and let out a sad chuckle. "Unfortunately, I don't think that's his specialty. He's more of a brawler, but yeah, it would have been nice." He then spared Crow's Nest a glance. "Let's hope those murderers don't have more surprises in store."

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

Crow's Nest,

Basement Floors

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

Followed by their men, Behemoth Torak and Sphinx Neferti dragged the unconscious hostages down the lower floors where the hoplites would be safe from any reckless Saint attacks. They tossed their disarmed bodies into the dark cells and locked them away and ordered the Skeletons to do patrol rounds and keep their scythes and communicators at the ready.

They also watched as the Specters began preparing for their grand offensive on Sanctuary, sharpening their weapons and dining to get their strength up. After the attack on the tower, Lucifer had wisely ordered them to carry all the casual activities below ground level where the Gold Saints would not be able to snipe or replace any of them and to keep the surface patrols confined to just the ballista shooters, the tower watchers and the minimum required personnel to give the Saints the impression that the castle was still fully staffed.

As they descended further to visit the tunnel that Worm Samuel dug, Behemoth noticed that Neferti seemed tense, eyeing the torch shadows and yelling commands louder than she usually would. "Is there something wrong? You look anxious."

The tanned woman in Egyptian armor nodded. "Yes and no… it's just something Erika told me."

The blue-armored man was wholly dismissive, though. "If you're bickering again, I suggest you forget about it. Within just a few hours, Lord Lucifer will need us all to be fully focused on the invasion."

She gritted her teeth regretfully. "I know, it's just…I don't trust her," she confessed. "Erika's too close to the Prince, she never reports to anyone and has so much poison in that tongue of hers when she talks about the False Specters that I could almost mistake her for a real one."

The tall warrior hummed, intrigued. "Mm, maybe she is… She's been around the Underworld longer than most of us. Who's to say she hasn't got a Star to her name?" He theorised, shocking Neferti. "Would it really be that startling an hypothesis? The Prince is a True Specter too, after all."

But the female False Specter shook her head in denial. "No, it's ridiculous, why would any of them other than the Prince be on our side?! They'd have everything to lose! She's just… an arrogant bitch! You should have heard what she said about you!"

Taking a torch from the wall, Behemoth pointed at a path away from the tunnel. "Let's go through here for a minute." As he guided her down the set of stairs to an even lower level, the stoic warrior continued. "Personally I don't care what she says, so long as she does her job. This is what will distinguish us from the real Specters, Neferti. We will focus on our goals and not let our petty ambitions get in the way of the Prince's vision."

She laid out her arms as she followed him. "Look, I agree with that last part entirely, even if Lemon might not, but I can't trust someone to guard my back up the Zodiac's stairs if they can't even keep their thoughts to themselves back here in safety." She then started hearing a faint choir down the depths. "What is that noise?"

Torak hummed. "You have a good point about trust, Neferti… especially considering what we've all been through, but I think your frustration is misplaced."

Her eyes narrowed. "Really? Did you know she called your obsession with Herakles 'foolish'? Did you even know she was there when Urial fought Aguilon?!"

His head nodded, not even turning to her. "I do. She's the one that reported his death."

"Then what about my frustration is misplaced?!" she demanded to know. The choir sound got louder as they reached a wooden door. "Okay, what in Persephone's name is that chanting?"

Torak took the handle and opened the door slowly, revealing the next room deep in the bowels of Crow's Nest. Neferti widened her eyes as she came across a larger chamber with a central dais drenched in blood. None other than Nasu Erika stood there, fully armored but also garmented with a white cloak over her Surplice, a chalice in her hand and a book in the other. She was surrounded by the Skeleton Soldiers assigned to her, who laid their scythes aside and burned their cosmos in dark prayer.

Behemoth led Sphinx into the room, showing her what looked like a ghostly image of the fallen Lycaon False Specter without his armor resting on the bloody dais. "Is that… Coronis?! What the hell is going on here?!"

"Quiet!... We are almost done." Nasu ordered, eyes closed and focused on her low prayer.

While Sphinx was offended, Torak gestured to go along with it. She then dipped the chalice's contents on top of Coronis' spirit, the red liquid somehow landing on it as if solid and dripping all over it. It suddenly howled in agony and turned to a blinding light before bursting into stars that were vacuumed into the tome in Nasu's hand.

The two Specters watched her closing it. It looked like a plain book, perhaps just something to serve as a tool in whatever ritual she was performing. She lowered her hood and turned to them. "Do you mind?"

Sphinx pointed at the bloody unoccupied dais. "What the heck was that about?! Was that Coronis?!"

Erika chuckled. "Yes and no. It was his soul. The Gold Saints have his body. It's one of my Surplices many traditional powers to manipulate the spirits of the deceased, much like a Cancer Saint," she explained before turning to Torak. "How long have you known about this, Behemoth?"

The long-haired youth folded his thick arms. "I used to be a manual worker at the 5th Prison, remember? We lost many False Specters and Skeletons along the way, especially my teacher. I would have seen them in one of the torture chambers by now if no one was doing this to them and I remembered your True counterpart's powers, so I deduced someone was behind their disappearance."

The Sphinx False Specter, who once headed the Second Prison, added two and two together in her head. "…You've been capturing and storing them…all these years?"

An order was issued by the necromancer for the Skeletons to finish the ceremonial steps and get ready to sally out. "This is one of the tasks Lord Lucifer doesn't want me to talk about. The True Specters are so arrogant that they don't even pay attention to who they torture in the Prisons, so it's easy to slip this by them, but all of you have such loose tongues…"

Behemoth then had to hold the Sphinx back from jumping on the Nasu. "Look who's talking!" she protested. "What's the meaning of this?! Why did the Prince tell you to do this?"

Nasu's eyes rolled. "Isn't it obvious?... What would you think would happen if the casualties we suffered along the way were allowed to just descend back into the Underworld? They'd get tortured left and right by the True Specters for information, revenge on us or just to spite the Prince. This is part of Pride Star's design to save us." She then laid down the tome she used as a conduit. "I have the souls of our brethren living in jars even as we speak; for as long as I draw breath, I won't let Pandora get her spidery fingers on them."

As the room emptied of grunts, Sphinx Neferti was speechless before this new information. "I…I thought…"

"Part of the reason we took this fortress was to help Erika help us back." Behemoth elaborated. "With all the work the Prince has done, this building is a perfect monolith to heighten her powers and give use to the souls. We can put our friends' spirits in the walls themselves or in corpses if we want to make our defenses even stronger… It's not pretty, but it's way better than letting them get munched on by Cerberus... or worse."

The brown-skinned woman looked around the walls, picturing their fallen friends coursing through them like blood. Worst of all, Nasu had this delighted smirk on her face like she had just proved her wrong. Neferti was completely lost on how to feel about this.

She had to admit, though, that she hadn't thought at all about what happened to their fallen brothers and how it was that Thanatos wasn't already on their trail.

Neferti's hand clenched her chin. "… So Gryphon Urial and Cyclops Servo who died chasing the Nymph…you have them with you?"

Nasu nodded, pointing at the jars she kept stored on the wall with tags on them. "And Yakos, Shaman, Minotaur, Gorgon… you name them. I wasn't just following them around to be Lucifer's eyes." Erika then shrugged and laid out her hands. "See, this is why I'm such a bitch; because I get most of the work done around here… at least the work that doesn't get done by the Prince himself."

"Don't push it." Behemoth warned.

But the necromancer was adamant. "I won't even get to take part in the main assault because Pride Star wants me to keep this place running. If I die, with each following death, it will be way more than just our Surplices and manpower that will be lost; we will be tossed back in the Underworld's Prisons all over again."

Taken aback by all this, Neferti wasn't sure what to say. It was hard to figure it out after being so thoroughly proven wrong. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Erika's eyes rolled. "I told you; you guys don't know how to keep your mouths shut. Yakos and Coronis nearly blabbed Lord Lucifer's name out to the Saints as they died. Do you think they'd resist bragging to the True Specters about how they can't control us in death?" She then walked over to one of the jars, which was labeled with Lycaon Coronis' name, burned the dark cosmos in her hand and made a piece of her shadow that contained the deceased False Specter's soul go inside it.

"Are these what will fool the Saints?" asked Torak.

Sealing it up, Erika then pointed at the coffins on the other side of the room. "With the Nasu Surplice's Zombification power, I can make new use of our dead men's souls to reanimate corpses. If we put dumb zombies with armor on, it will help us keep the walls staffed and fool the Gold rankers outside into thinking we haven't gone anywhere." She then combed her hair away vainly. "I'll keep a couple of the stronger ones for personal protection, of course… No offense to Urial."

"Just don't waste him. We're leaving now, Nasu. The Prince is already in Asia waiting for us. You'll be in charge of the fortress." warned Torak, who then led Sphinx Neferti back into the tunnels as Nasu gestured a nod of confidence. Making their way even deeper down the dark basements, the tall Behemoth Specter readdressed his comrade. "As you can see, you had nothing to worry about."

The former guardian of the Second Prison irked. "Maybe…I still don't like her though."

Surprisingly, the stoic man scoffed and smirked. "Nobody said you had to; I always thought there was some truth to the rumors about what Nasu does to corpses that she doesn't use." It was a grim comment, but it seemed to improve his female friend's mood. Torak gestured at Skeleton Soldiers that passed by them. "Call all the Sanctuary task force Specters. We will rendezvous with the Prince within five hours."

Seeing the grunts obey and rush upwards, Sphinx sweated and felt her heart beat faster. "This is it, huh? We're really doing this… an invasion to Sanctuary."

"First we have to let the others finish up in Asia, but yes, we are meeting up in Turkey right away. We can't afford to let the state of confusion of Sanctuary's war heroes go to waste." His fist tightened. "Even though I'd like to kill Aguilon right away, my duty comes first. Watch over us, Lord Urial. We are about to make history."

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

Meanwhile,

Rozan Mountain

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

It was now dark in Mount Rozan. Following the light coming through the interior's windows, Lance made his way up the slope to his teacher's house and knocked on the door respectfully. Since no one answered, he used his keys to enter. "Roshi, I'm back. Are you home?"

No one responded, except for the white tiger Ma Chao who rested by the low dining table, long tail wagging and eyeing the Bronze Saint.

Lance tried again, yelling out the house. "ROSHI, are you HOME?!" More silence followed. The kitchen was quiet, too. "Figures…" Lance thought, wondering where the old man had run off to. "If he's turning his youth on again and going around busting up more gangs, I might not see him for days."

He placed his Bronze Cloth box down and headed for the kitchen. There were no signs of cooking in it, which wasn't strange because Dohko rarely bothered to do so, as reliant on the cosmos for everything as he was. It was something that often frustrated the youth, who was ordered to cook for three every day even though the Libra Saint made a point of showing he could go days without replenishing his stomach.

Someone had to feed Ma Chao, though, who already got up and circled Lance like the big tiger it was. Looking in the pantry, Lance thought that maybe he could prepare some fish and veggies done ahead of time. Anything was fine so long as his thoughts were kept busy until Dohko returned and the Pegasus Saint could ask for help with Guilty. He took the big knife and fermented silver carp, a threatened species in Chinese rivers that Dohko had the bad habit of collecting for Lance to cook. It was delicious, but seriously, it was shocking that the Dragon God that lived in the area tolerated such waste from Roshi.

He did notice the big teeth marks on it so he turned to the white tiger. "Wait, did you get this for Roshi?" Ma Chao only answered with a large licking of its furry lips. Lance shook his head and laid the poor dead carp down on the cutting board, shaking his head.

There was a dark snap of the 7th sense! The knife was dropped, Lance's red eyes widened and he turned around in a flash, fist curled!

Nothing. The room was empty.

He wavered, lowering his hand; it had felt like a dense, elastic force bursting all of a sudden, he was sure of it! He looked at the Pegasus Cloth. "Did you feel that?!"

"Yes!" the flying armor confirmed. "We have to go, Lance, he could be in danger!"

"SHIT!" Lance rushed past the room, turned off the lights, picked the Cloth Box back up and ran out the door, not even stopping to lock it.

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

Jamir

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

Young Mu whistled a Lemurian tune as he lowered the torch down on the front gate's hinges. He had to get it fixed before it got completely dark. He had tried to get Mr. Mud to man the vertical sliding metal door but the golem used too much force and nearly snapped it off its rails.

The torch was turned off when the sound of approaching footsteps was heard. "Excuse me?" the guest asked.

Mu raised his torch mask, exposing his Lemurian dots. "Yes?"

The blue-haired man carrying the chained up Cloth Box smiled at him. "Pardon me, but I've come from far away to meet Lord Mu, the blacksmith. Is he home?"

The young boy stared at the chains tensely. "Maybe… Do you want your armor fixed?"

His shoulders shook in amusement as he took off the straps and dropped the damaged box to the ground. "Ha, ah, I suppose it's all anyone comes here for, right?"

Mu shook his head and put the torch down. "Na-ah, sometimes people come here to spend some time with me." He slowly sidestepped towards the gate. "Jamir is closing down, though… I'm afraid you came in very late."

The 'Saint' blinked. "… I didn't realize such an important place had working hours, young lad. Could I speak to Lord Mu? Maybe we can arrange an exception. My Cloth is in seriously bad shape and my Commander will have my head if I don't get back to work with it as soon as possible." He peeked inside the tower's dark insides and detected a vaguely adult shape standing in it. "Is that you, Lord Mu? I know it's getting dark and it's awfully rude, but-"

"He doesn't want to see you, got it?!" the lilac-haired boy screamed, rushing between the gate and the stranger. "You're way past working hours and it's time to go to sleep now! I suggest you turn back and try tomorrow morning, after breakfast!"

The guest smirked, fingers grasping the chains of the Cloth Box. Black energy burned visibly between the ajar corners of the broken object. "I'm afraid I can't do that…He's going to want to see how bad the Cloth looks inside this. I dropped the ball really badly with it."

Mu sweated hard, afraid, and sent out a ping message to Greece. "Master, there's a stranger here! Can you hear-"

But then it bounced back, interrupting him, "Master, …. stranger here!... hear-"

Shocked by the blockade, the boy then turned to the man's head in an attempt to read it, but after only sensing a bug-like sound, he found the stranger's mind to be completely shielded, another sign of a powerful telepath. His small Lemurian face paled and he covered his gasp.

Papillion Ainsel chuckled, noticing his terror. "I was being so nice and careful…What gave me away?"

The boy screamed in terror and practically jumped inside the tower, pulling the lever that made the metal gate immediately slide close as he rolled in, but the Specter tossed the chained box into the rail, causing the gate to pin it against the gate's edge, stopping it from closing entirely.

Mu rushed towards the black telephone Lance had used earlier, which was programmed to immediately dial Master Shion in Greece. "MASTER, HEEELP!" but all he heard was a static sound indicating that the ground line had been cut off. "Can you hear me, MASTER?!"

Ainsel clicked his tongue, hearing the commotion inside. "You runt…It's not polite to leave guests hanging." He gripped the jammed gate's edge and ripped it aside, loosening the Cloth box. He then pulled the chains off the Octans Cloth Box, causing it to immediately open up and vomit out the dense, black sludge of darkness cosmos they filled it with back at Crow's Nest.

The Lemurian boy stepped back, screaming again, as he saw the smog blanket the floor and shadows beginning to move in it. Heads poked out of the ground, as if arising from water, followed by shoulders, torsos, legs and finally hands dragging large, sharp scythes out of the dense material.

The Skeleton Soldiers cringed their muscles, sore from being hid inside the small box for so long, and grasped their weapons in readiness. "Ah finally, we're out!"

The False Specter Sylph Willow, lieutenant in the group, also emerged from the box . "What took so damn long, Ainsel?! That thing was trying to burn us the whole way through!"

The blue-haired False Specter chuckled. "I had to make sure I found this place's phone line to Sanctuary before I tried the front door... You know how careful our Lord wants us to be."

Another Skeleton armed his crossbow and looked around. "Well, where's the blacksmith Mu?! We need to get rid of him and burn this place to the ground!"

The inexperienced Aries gagged, back pinning against the wall in terror. He had never even seen Skeletons and Specters in his life and now Jamir was full of them. His eyes glanced at the blanketed figure in the corner that Ainsel had mistaken for Mu earlier.

But the Skeletons preferred to focus on him. Sylph Willow in particular licked his lips in anticipation of the violence. "We'll just ask this cute little boy about him, mm, mm, mm."

Mu screamed and rushed up the spiral stairs to the upper floors.

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Mount Rozan

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Rushing down the slopes of the mountains, Lance made his way through the forested path that he would often take to go spar with Tenma's manifestation as discreetly he could with the super speed provided to him by the cosmos. His senses were locked on the source of the energy flare he had felt down the depths of the area and his thoughts were on Roshi, who was still missing and not responding to the mental pings the student would send out.

He halted by a clearing and looked up, seeing the pale blue flare light housing out of the woods further down, an indication that the training projection was activated. Nothing about this made any sense. Seiryu was the one that powered this training procedure and for some reason, it was back on? Was the Dragon God calling the Saint to the area on purpose?

Leaping down the ground ramp and sliding down on his heels, the Bronze Saint entered the clearing with the large pond where he would usually encounter his makeshift sparring partner. His red eyes looked up and saw Tenma standing there, flickering like a broken projector image. Stepping into the water, the modern Pegasus Saint sweated and curled his fists.

"Be careful!" the armor in the box warned.

The owner nodded. "Hey, kid, who called you here?!" he shouted out. "Was it Roshi?! Where is he?!"

Tenma slowly turned to him. His wine-tinted eyes had tears of blood on them and his body's image kept flickering on and off. A strange sound, like whispers in the dark, was heard in the background.

Nervously stepping towards it, Lance felt the creeps in his neck from the hologram's twisted state. "… What's the matter, you won't say anything?" He then gasped and stopped when he saw Tenma's head roll off its shoulders to the ground, splashing the water. "What the fuck?!"

"Finally someone shows up!" someone announced out of nowhere, making Lance look everywhere for the source of the voice. "I've been standing by this bait for hours!"

Grasping the straps of his Cloth box, Lance stepped far away from Tenma and charged his cosmos. "WHO'S THERE?! Show yourself!"

There was a sudden blinding surge of black light from the woods beyond Tenma and a surge of dark, Specter cosmos.

*THROOM*

The booming, crashing sound made the ground shake and the forest trees were sliced off their stumps by a concentrated, blade-shaped shockwave of cosmos that coursed through the misty valley, headed straight at the Bronze Saint. Lance dove to the side immediately, barely dodging the slicing wave by rolling on the water underneath it, allowing it to travel on and crash onto the far off ground slope, blasting dirt and water everywhere. A shrapnel wave still sliced the side of his arm, drawing first blood.

The Pegasus Saint irked, held his injury and looked up, seeing a red-haired man wrapped in planetoid, dark armor of overlapping shoulder plates, round helmet, rose-petal shaped plates sprouting out of his back and two long, metallic tendrils hanging from the underside of the arm plates.

Stepping into the pond, the Specter looked at the beheaded Tenma. "This fellow was here when I arrived, so I figured I would wait until someone important in the area showed up. Is this some sort of practice dummy? Mm-mm" he mocked, finding the idea hilarious. His left tendril rose above the air. "I guess we don't need him here anymore, so how about I give you a match with the real thing?"

To Lance's shock, he then saw the hologram that had given him so much trouble in the past be cut down in a beam of light by the cosmos-drenched tendril with a smooth, diagonal slash, bursting Tenma's body and severed head into bright green speckles of energy that flew everywhere, returning to Seiryu's circle of life force.

Once more, the Specter looked the red-eyed youth over. His gaze reminded him of Lucifer, which irritated him in particular. Seeing the Bronze Cloth and the lack of a gold pin, though, the man of Hades deduced this was just a common scrub. "Allow me to introduce myself; I am Lemon, the Specter of Alraune." His fists then tightened and his dark, earth-elemental aura exploded, immersing the battlefield in a dense miasma.

Getting up, the Pegasus Saint gritted teeth and braced himself. "A Specter?! Here in Rozan?! What the fuck is going on?! What happened to Roshi?!"

Lemon saw the sudden panic in the Bronze ranker's eyes and smirked, burning his aura even more intensely. "Not much of a talker like your ghost friend? You were very unlucky tonight, Bronze Saint. I'm in a rather blood-thirsty mood, so destiny saw fit for you to die tonight by bringing you here to me! I will cut off your head first, then destroy that Cloth, and finally use your corpse to snare the Master of this place into my trap!"

As the Specter's energy rose further, hinting a power equal if not greater than the Minotaur and Basilisk Specters that Lance once fought in Andromeda Island, clouds covered the moonlight, clashing with rumbling sounds, and a serpentine figure was briefly seen in its black mist as the last specks of Tenma's energy sparkled away, observing the encounter.

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Chapter 45 - Second Arc – Episode 10 - A Fated Encounter – Part 2 of 2

Writing Deadline: When my laziness subsides. (I'll try to get it done over May ;w; )

Description: Lance and Mu defend themselves from the attacking Specters, while Sanctuary is unaware of their plight. Little do they know, though, that even more powerful adversaries are soon to come as Lucifer seeks the destruction of Libra Dohko personally. A fated encounter between old enemies is about to occur!

Author's Note:

Something that I could have been mentioning all this time in these notes that I've completely forgotten about is the etymology of the names of the False Specters. With some rare exceptions like Urial, who is named after a Yugioh card, I name the False Specters with parodies or mirrors of the names of the True Specter counterparts or even just allusions to the myths of their Surplices.

Notable examples included in this chapter are Neferti, Ainsel and Willow, the latest of which was just introduced here. Neferti is a straightforward reference to Egyptian Mythology, just like Sphinx Pharaoh, while Ainsel is the name of the fairy creature featured in the tale "My Own Self" by Joseph Jacobs. Sylph Willow is a bit different; he is a reference both to a Sylph character in The Magic Kingdom of Landover by Terry Books and to the simplicity of the name of the original Sylph Specter created by Shiori in Lost Canvas, Edward.

I will try to include in the story's author notes more explanations to False Specter names as they are featured prominently (aka as they die or are introduced : p ) though I believed I've already introduced all the ones I will eventually make use of, at one point or another.

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.

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