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.

48. 2A: The Waters of Life

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

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

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

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

Author Notes:

-I want to issue a small apology for the delay, August was a hectic month, but be certain that there will be a special surprise next chapter, which will commemorate reaching 1 million words;

-In addition to Jenny Devic's usual beta-reading, the Discord user Zebulon_Wallace also deserves a shout-out for consultation with the Leon scene;

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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Master Thanatos and Lord Hypnos have shown up. Somehow they heard about Alone's incursion into Sanctuary. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as our Masters are gods in their own right. They came to me and Michael first, through our Dark Callings, and asked where Pandora was. I was happy to point them the right way. Michael was not.

Another thing that didn't shock me; Michael being a permissive coward. Pandora spent the 16th century torturing the two of us, but my one equal in the Underworld still insists on taking what he calls the higher ground. I hope he understands that wretched woman has eyes for the Emperor only. If he's so (scratched text)passionate, he should grow a pair and go (erasing marks)court one of the Skeletons.

Speaking of worthless women in skull armor, now he has even let that Phoenix Sage, Haisaku, go. Michael has always been a bleeding heart, but letting that traitor live was a mistake. We should have wiped her out then and there just to show the Saints that the Underworld is off-limits to their recruitment and that the price for violating that is steep! Specters and Skeletons are the chosen of Hades! Turning your back on the Emperor is to violate a bond as sacred as his love for Persephone!

As soon as I say anything, though, he brings up for the millionth time that the only reason I've become the Daemon Specter is because he… (scratched text)spared me.

After the Twin Gods scolded that witch, we began discussing our next avenue of attack. Master Thanatos seems to think he should take a proactive gesture in the war and has mobilized Nasu Veronica. He says eliminating the Pegasus Godslayer before he powers up further should be our top priority. While it falls under our third function as Princes, I have to say, though, that despite what the other two bronze Saints pulled off, Pegasus hasn't impressed me so far. He's strong for a Bronze Saint, but that's the end of it. I don't see why Master has to show himself personally for it, especially when he can just (scratched text)send me.

At least that Dragon Godslayer is down for the count. Alone's sword only grazed him, but it would take a miracle for him to keep fighting. Unless the Cloth of Hope 'Teos' is real, I will score him as our first triumph over these pesky new Bronze Saints.

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

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Tibetan Plateau,

Twin Peaks Mountain

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The night wind howled fiercely at the world's ceiling, dropping temperatures down in the cold November night. At the end of the range where Jamir was located at, when it seemed altitude began to descend, a single mountain sharply rose back up to the skies, standing out among the rest with not only the contrast of its reach, but also the dark clouds encircling it and, most famously, the twin tower-like peaks it split into, like a pair of fingers thrusting into the sky.

This geological anomaly was a stunning sight in the mountain range, demarcating Twin Peaks Mountain as a site of mythological legend, inspiring stories about Gods that cracked thunders down on it or having their gigantic bodies petrified after colliding with the Earth; anything to explain the origin of the split rock top.

In Sanctuary, however, it was known as a place to challenge Saints, as regular people were often unable to climb it both to the sheer rise of it, which was similar to Star Hill's, and the supernatural forces and stories surrounding the location. There was also little benefit in doing so, as the mountain was not considered a holy site nor was it part of any sacred path towards a Cloth.

Still, four figures, one hooded, one armored and two in casual attire, stood at a nearby rock path overlooking the mountain rise, their eyes in awe at the sight of the awesome mountain. The peaks were a foreboding presence, as if they looked down upon them with their mere rise, warning them against approaching its massif's feet. Dense, rumbling clouds surrounded its top, contributing even further to an unwelcoming atmosphere.

"This is as far as I can take you. Elder Yuzuriha wants me by her side and this place is forbidden for most People of Mu." the masked Lemurian guard said, referring to Lemurians. "You are on your own from now."

Mu nodded respectfully. "Thank you very much! I memorized the way back now. After we are done collecting the Waters, I'll teleport Saint Iaso and Lance back to Sanctuary!"

The guard nodded and turned to Lance and Iaso. "One last warning… The Waters of Life are said to heal all wounds, but those are sayings, after all. You two were given Lord Dohko's permission to climb this mountain to get them, but remember… no one has ever lived to prove the rumors."

The Pegasus Saint, who had been forced to leave his broken armor behind, nodded, preoccupied by the words. He was there to have a drink of it, after all. "Well, the worst that could happen is that it parches our thirst. We'll be fine, so long as it's not poison…"

The masked man, however, did not laugh. "It very well might be." He insisted, sending a shiver up Lance's spine. He then turned away. "Goodbye and… Athena be with you. You are at war, after all…and please remember that there's more than just Sanctuary at stake."

Watching the cloaked, masked guardsmen leave, Iaso put a hand on his hip. "Uh, what a friendly fellow! Are all Shamballa guards that warm?"

Young Mu shook his head, missing the sarcasm. "Not at all, Saint Iaso! The masked men of Shamballa are notoriously restrained and disciplined to help them perfect their minds! They're a bit like the Vulcans from my favorite human TV show!" the lilac-haired boy explained, raising his fingers in an odd V shape. "Live strong and proper, as William Shatner says!"

The coated doctor scratched his brown hair. "Even if you had access to a TV, that line doesn't sound right…"

Lance grumbled. "Don't take what he says seriously… this kid is way too unsupervised. His teleporting doesn't help."

Unfortunately, the child couldn't remember it right either since he's been too busy lately to sneak a visit to Athens and watch Star Trek. Looking at the Pegasus Saint, Mu then had to point something out. "Lance, can I ask you something?... why did you pack all those clothes?"

Iaso also stared at the red-eyed Saint, who wore a thick grey coat and gloves against the cold over his usual set of t-shirts and wrapped hands, not to mention a fluffy scarf. "That's a good question from lilac-head. Why did you pick 'Eskimo' for Halloween, Pegasus?"

The teenager's eyes narrowed. "No reason! I just don't want to catch a fever before a fight!" he lied.

Iaso immediately scoffed mockingly. "I'm a doctor, I'll watch out for that, so take those things off and burn your cosmos for bodily support before you weigh us down at the mountain, Bronze Saint!" And he reached for Lance's coat.

But the Pegasus swatted his hand off. "I'm good like this! This goddamn place is freezing! I don't want to get sick! I'm going like this and that's final!" he asserted. "It's not my fault you two decide to come like it's summertime!"

The Silver Saint blinked, truly bewildered. Was there something going on with this punk?

Aries Mu, having foregone his Gold Cloth and acting as the guide, laid out his arms in presentation. "Well, welcome to Twin Peaks Mountain, guys."

Pegasus Lance and Ophiuchus Iaso observed the place, their sensitivity to cosmos surveying it in search of any threat.

Iaso was the first to speak. "That's… tall. And steep. It kind of looks like Star Hill, which doesn't bode well," he commented. He had to take care of a lot of hiking injuries from the morons who thought the mountain behind the Golden Zodiac was far easier to climb than it looked. "Is this really where the Waters of Life are?"

Mu nodded. "Yes! Master told me once that way at the top there's a grotto from where the water stems from. We have to make our way all the way up to find it."

While Lance wasn't opposed to the challenge, it seemed like it would take some precious time. "Wait, umm…" his eyes shifted. He took the Silver Saint's presence into consideration "Mu, what do I call you?"

The lilac-haired kid thought about it, hand on chin. An amazing idea came to him from one of his favorite tales from the continent of Mu. "Oh, by the way, Saint Iaso, my name is Kiki, student of Mu, Saint Pegasus! Don't forget it!"

They both raised a brow. "Kiki? What kind of name is that?!" the doctor asked. "I thought Lemurians took names of antiquity sites and the sort, like Judge Meropis, not of fruit loop cereal brands!"

The kid raised his arms in protest, cheeks puffing. "Hey, Kiki is totally a respectable name! It comes from one of our wisest ancestors!" he defended. "Besides, there are tons of islands in the Pacific with similar awesome names that used to be part of our continent, like Fiji, Bora-Bora, Futuna… and Waikiki!"

The wily doctor folded his arms. He was used to clinical names as long as his arm and as weird as a cephalopod, but Kiki just sounded like something you'd name your baby doll. "The word 'awesome' isn't what comes to me with that list."

"So… Kiki!" Lance worded. He couldn't believe he was saying such a silly word. "Can't you just teleport to the top? If we have to go through caverns, steeps, and creaky bridges in the dark of night just to get a jug of water, it might take forever even with Mach 5."

"Mm, well, I guess I could try," Kiki conceded. There shouldn't be any harm to it so long as Lance got to drink it and Saint Iaso got some to spare for his patient, according to Roshi. He burned his cosmos very lightly, making sure it wouldn't turn gold, and focused hard on the mountain top. His telepathic mind immediately began to sense the presence of several of the guardian eagles that watched over the place, but he ignored them in search of the presence of the fabled liquid.

His eyes closed and his breathing relaxed. The two Saints watched as the Lemurian stood so still and burned his aura so calmingly that even nearby rabbits poked their heads out of the mountain grass hideouts, losing fear of the humanoids. Mu's third eye searched and searched and eventually, it anchored onto the mountain's peak, from where his ears began sensing the faintest 'sound' of running water. Excited to zoom in on the source of it, he followed the sound, eventually detecting the faintest glow of light reflecting on a stream.

He then widened his eyes open and screamed when the image of a dragon came to his mind, its screeching roar echoing across his brain like the heat of a boiling water pot. Mu stumbled backward in fright and was caught by Lance. "Kiki!"

"A-Ah, it's no good!" Mu gasped, breathing heavily. "There's an intense chi spirit watching over this place! I think it might be Seiryu himself!"

Lance sweated. While he cursed the obstacle, he knew how capricious and powerful the dragon God was. "It's okay. There's no helping it."

Not so educated in Rozan myths, the Ophiuchus Saint had to ask about this. "Wait a minute, what's wrong? Why can't he teleport up there?"

Wiping the sweat off his face, Mu explained it. "It's the Dragon constellation, Saint Iaso. It doesn't want us to take an easy way up."

The doctor was bewildered. "Why not?! We are at war with Specters! Can't it give an exception, given the circumstances?! We're gonna get the water anyway!"

Lance gulped. "Trust me, doc, there's no way around it. The Dragon constellation is…" his red eyes looked away. While there was nothing wrong with being honest to Iaso about this, something told Lance that all these obstacles were part of what Seiryu's meant with the conversation they had in his dream. "… It's kind of a cryptic douche. It likes to test people. Roshi doesn't have a super friendly relationship with it, either."

Owning an armor that wasn't easy to deal with, either, the Ophiuchus Saint snorted and rubbed his chin. "It's one of those, huh? Figures. Alright then-" His gauntlets then encased his fingers in its sharp claws he used to climb Jamir earlier. His aura also burned. "The hard way it is then!"

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Carefully moving along the narrow paths mid-way into the mountain, the three climbers minded each one of their steps, burning their cosmos only to see the way in front of them in the dark and keep themselves strong enough to progress further.

"…I hoped we would just super speed across all of this!" Iaso hissed, going in the rear and helping the small untrained Lemurian child keep his balance.

Leading the way, Lance felt he had lost count of the number of times this hope had been dashed for him. The Isle of Gardens in particular came to mind. "Yeah. Unfortunately, none of Sanctuary's possessions are so simple to transverse."

Reaching the end of another narrow rock path, the trio then helped one another climb up to the top of a steep wall to reach another level of the mountain. Iaso tried to burn his cosmos to speed up the task, but it felt like every time he exerted force on the terrain, half the energy would get sucked up but a strange, suffocating aura exuded by the mountain.

After lifting Mu up, Iaso climbed himself to the next step, eyeing the leader suspiciously. "Is that what you've been doing, Pegasus? Getting to know our many lands and sights?"

The student of Rozan stood calm. "Not exactly. I've been training."

"Lance is a student of Roshi, Saint Iaso!" Mu happily reminded him. "He's a really strong fighter, especially for a Cancer!"

Shifting eyes, Lance wondered what was so wrong about being a Cancer. "Are my predecessors really that weak?"

The doctor's calculating mind made him nod in intrigue. "I bet he is… though it seems it wasn't enough for whoever attacked Saint Libra's home. Is that why he sent you with us, Pegasus? Because he trusts you to get the Waters, as his student?"

There was a suspicious hesitation from the infamous Bronze Saint. "…I can't really talk about that, doc."

Purple metal gauntlets folded together. "…Why not?"

Mu felt the tension rise between the two older teammates but stood quiet. They hadn't told Saint Iaso why they wanted the Waters of Life too. In fact, Roshi himself had been very vague about it.

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You must go to the grove of the Waters of Life, where Seiryu's very blood manifests itself as the purest of liquids. You must then drink it. The rest will become clear to you.

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The legend went that the Waters of Life were a liquid that could cure any illness, which was why Saint Iaso was there. The Saint of Aries, however, was under the very strong impression that Roshi wasn't interested in healing Lance, as his body seemed mysteriously fine after the battle he had with the Celestial Star of Pride. It only stood to reason that the waters had some sort of fortifying ability that would help in the upcoming battle.

However, while Mu was young, he was smart enough to know that if it were this simple, plenty of people would have not only tried to get the water more frequently but would have demonstrated that new fortitude for all to see. Yet all the rumors and legends mentioned nothing about the waters being for anything but healing, much less being the source of some great strength or the blood of the Dragon Seiryu.

Mu asked his friend, "Lance, why do you think Roshi wants you to drink them?"

There was a chuckle from the doctor. "I'd like to figure that out as well, Pegasus." A suspicion began growing in him that the Gold Saints wanted Pegasus on the battlefield for some reason, and not just relaying stuff to the Cancer Gold Saint.

The red-eyed teenager had thought deeply about this as well, adding what he knew of his teacher to the words of Seiryu himself. "It's probably some sort of training. Hopefully, the guard was kidding about it being poison." and then said "Look, doc, I think he's just worried about me. I did recover a bit too fast, after all."

"Sure, and I'm Helen of Troy." the doctor thought, smirking. He then remembered something important. "Alright, so you fought the enemy boss, right? How bad was it, Pegasus?"

Mu sensed Lance getting tense with this, noticing that he slowed his march and grasped the ledges of the next rock obstacle more firmly. "Bad enough that you should stay out of this war, Saint Iaso," the Pegasus sarcastically said.

A grunt was heard from the older Silver Saint as he helped Mu up another level. "Well, alright, so he kicked your ass," he bit back.

It made Mu whimper in concern that he would soon get stuck between two fighting Saints.

The three reached another plateau-like floor. The terrain was slowly reducing the number of upward roads in favor of these, indicating they were reaching the steeper, upper parts of Twin Peak Mountains where simple paths became impossible. The temperature kept dropping as well and the faint sound of crying eagles was heard in the distance.

This cold, being the Bronze Saint's psychological weakness, helped worsen Lance's mood as he picked his response. "I'm used to getting beatings. I can handle it." Lance confessed, red eyes narrowing. "It's way worse when overconfident Silvers stick their nose where they don't belong and force us to carry their weight!"

The tension broke, with Iaso's eyes widening with affront. "Am I really hearing this from a fully-trained Bronze trying to climb a simple mountain with twenty pounds of winter clothes on?"

Mu frowned. "Lance, please don't antagonize Saint Iaso."

The Pegasus paused the march and ignored Mu's plea, eyeing Iaso directly. The Ophiuchus may have been a doctor, but when Lance saw him, all he could think of was Silver Saints like Kastiel who demeaned their inferiors. While Cassiopeia Cynthia and Cepheus Guardnia had taught him by example that there were exceptions, the rule still was that male Silver Saints were for the most part arrogant and neglectful. Guardnia himself had tried to excuse the prejudice Lance went through over the simple fact he had red eyes as if it made Kastiel's abandonment any better.

In the case of Iaso, the Ophiuchus had the habit of provoking Lance whenever they encountered one another, like when he prescribed him to get a better judgment after the poison from the arrows of the Arcadia battle made him sick.

So unfortunately the student of Dohko couldn't say he was thrilled that the Ophiuchus was around.

"Yes, you are hearing it from me," he responded to Iaso, who became even more bewildered by it. "The truth of the matter is, Saint Iaso, that you're in our way. You may not realize it, but 'Kiki' here has been lightening your body with telekinesis the entire time we've been climbing this mountain. Because you have so little control over your cosmos that you've been threatening to cause these bridges and rock paths to collapse beneath us with the force you're using to just stay standing in this environment."

This shocked the doctor the most, who looked back and forth between the Lemurian kid and the Pegasus. "You…" his head then began to visibly sweat.

Mu tugged Lance's pants. "Hey, I didn't want you to say that, Lance! That's not fair! Take it back!"

Iaso looked down at his feet. Widening his 6th sense, he began to feel the faintest impression that a bubble had been wrapped around his lower body to lighten him from the mountain's pressing atmosphere. It was true that the mountain climb had started harsher than he expected and that he had then suddenly adapted rather fast. Was it just the Lemurian kid who had discretely been helping him out?

Lance pointed at the Silver Saint "No, Kiki, what isn't fair is that we have to protect this Silver Saint's ego just because he thinks he should accompany us up this mountain to get something that's frankly none of his damn business!" the Bronze Saint argued. "He's not the one who's going to have to risk his life at the Golden Zodiac, yet he's been bitching about how we're not spilling everything about what Roshi is doing since he got to Rozan! I don't like I'm not being told things either, but I'm not going around using my Bronze Saint card to demand answers of others in the middle of a fucking invasion!"

Mu bit his tongue. "That's… that's still not right for you to say that, Lance. Saint Iaso is also trying to help!"

Moving past Mu, Lance eyed Iaso straight in the orbs. "He's not helping, he's giving us more work and asking for answers we can't give! In all my years in Sanctuary, these Silver Saint assholes are the most self-entitled people I've ever seen!"

While he did feel embarrassed that he forced Kiki to help him out, Iaso still wouldn't take this from the guy who beat up Kerberos. "That line feels like it's more than just about me. Is that how you justify what you did to Kastiel, kid? By thinking he's entitled?" he punctured.

Lance's fist curled, worrying Mu. Two things drove Lance majorly nuts; being around cold and bringing up the Kerberos Saint.

But Iaso folded his arms. He didn't care how mad the Bronze Saint was. He had seen tons like him in Sanctuary. "Sure, it's true that half my Order could use a real cold shower of humility, but do you want to know the real reason the Silver Saints don't respect you, Pegasus? Because you make us see you like the thugs you fight."

"What are you talking about?!" Lance demanded. There was a time he would accept this description, but not since he mellowed out around Shinta, and Iaso met him during that time.

"I could feel it in your Cosmos – hell, in the way you look at people - the day we met after the Arcadia attack. You ooze aggression like you're looking for an excuse to get hurt or do the hurting." Iaso argued, passive. "Sure, what Kastiel did to you was wrong, but you also failed the important test of not letting it get to you. That's why the Silver Saints treated you like garbage for half a year and, let's be frank, that's probably why Sanctuary sent you to China; to chill out!"

The red-eyed warrior felt the battles with people like Guardnia, Lucifer, and Elisa flash through his mind. He had the urge of showing the doctor the real difference between the two of them.

Once again, Mu felt the cauldron about to be turned over. "(Lance, stop it! You're being stupid!)" he demanded. "(I know you're upset about the fight you had and Roshi not being upfront, but it's not Saint Iaso's fault!)"

Even though a six-year-old was displaying greater wisdom than himself, the Pegasus was seeing red.

But to Mu's surprise, this seemed to finally silence the angry Pegasus, who stood there staring with a mix of confusion and anger at what the doctor said. Eventually, the Pegasus resigned himself and resumed the march, a faint grumble in his breath. "We'll see about that."

The Lemurian breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry, Saint Iaso. I swear, Lance is usually a cooler person. You're just catching all of us in a rough time."

Sensing true honesty from 'Kiki', the Ophiuchus Saint relaxed. "Eh, don't worry, kid. I've always heard from my armor that Ophiuchus is the one Saint that gets along the worst with Pegasus, usually cause they're such reckless knuckleheads and we are medics." He then took another step. "That kid will cool off and we'll get the job don-"

Suddenly the Silver Saint's foot slipped upon stepping forward and rock floor's edge collapsed down as Mu forgot with all of this to keep the Silver Saint's body lighter and Iaso screamed as he felt the intense pressure of the mountain's strange atmosphere on his body again, making him slide down the rock collapse and carve his nailed gloves into the edge.

"SAINT IASO!" Mu screamed, getting down and trying to reach down to him.

Iaso sweated. "U-ugh, damn it!" he grunted, burning his cosmos into a purple aura. His eyes looked around and he saw the steep fall, the eagles flying around and the clouds in the sky getting darker.

"Oh my gosh, don't worry, I'll help you!" Mu assured. Seeing that his short arms couldn't reach the Silver Saint, he tried levitating, but Seiryu's intense presence was limiting his abilities, including his teleportation. "Darn it, I can't float around!"

Iaso felt his claws slipping down. "D-damn it, it feels like I got an elephant on top of me! Why isn't my cosmos working?! " he thought. Blinking with the effort he was making; he swore he saw in that brief instant a pair of golden reptilian eyes staring back at him in the darkness. He glanced at the deep fall below him. He couldn't even see the bottom. "At this rate, they won't be able to lift me up either."

The crying of eagles was heard and the flocks began encroaching on them, many landing with hungry eyes by the mountain's sharp protrusions. Mu sensed the viciousness in them. "Oh no, this isn't good, those eagles guard this mountain. They'll drag you out of your hold!"

Iaso sweated. "Go get hel-"

And before he even finished his sentence, a long coat-wrapped arm reached down and grabbed Iaso by the wrist, burning its white cosmos. "Give me your other hand!" Lance urged.

Iaso tried to, but as soon as he attempted to dislodge his claws from the cliffside, his incredibly heavy body began slipping down. "S-Shit, shit!"

"Shit! HOLD ON!" Lance cursed before practically launching himself downwards to the point he was hanging by the tip of his feet to the top, allowing him to catch the slipping Silver's wrists. "I got you!"

Gasping in relief, Iaso looked up, seeing the Bronze Saint red as his eyes with the effort he was making. "P-Pegasus!... Damn it, let me go, you'll fall too!"

The Bronze Saint shook his head. "And prove you right, asshole?! This drop will kill you with this fucked up pressure! So f-fuck you and your dying-for-a-good-reason speech!

"T-THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN, you idiot! Look at those Eskimo clothes of yours! They're making you slip down!" Iaso shouted, pointing at Lance's over-covered body, which now weighed him down on the edge of the drop. "W-why did you bring clothes like you don't have any g-goddamn cosmos to burn against the cold?!"

Lance's face went red with embarrassment.

Mu scratched his head. "Oh, right, Lance is afraid of the cold …"

The Ophiuchus' eyes widened. "W-WHAT?! That's the reason?!"

"K-Kiki, shut the hell up and just grab my damn feet to pull me up!" Lance shouted.

Exerting himself telepathically to lighten their bodies as much as possible with his mind, Mu urged for them. "Okay, Lance, d-don't let him fall!"

"I got him, don't w-worry! Just pull me up on my count! One, two, THREE!" and then, with a roar of effort and a mighty arm pull, Lance raised up Iaso as Mu pull him in turn, allowing the two Saints to fight the strange gravity of the mountain and launch the two back up, landing on the upper flooring with a loud thud.

Breathing out in strain and relief, the three Saints of Athena reeled a bit from the experience and recovered from what happened.

Mu laughed in relief. "Ah, ah, we d-did it!"

The brown-haired, green-eyed doctor sighed out in relief. "Oh goddess Athena, that was by an inch…" he realized, calculating how close he got to slipping down. He looked up at the Pegasus. "Thanks, kid…"

Lance got up and dusted himself. "Don't bother, I don't wanna hear it."

But with the adrenaline dying down, the doctor had to clear something up. "Wait a minute, hold on!...Are you really cryophobic?" Why the hell didn't you say anything? I would have gone up there for you!" Iaso demanded to know. If even being around snow made Lance nervous, then the clothes and the frustrated mood made more sense.

Lance just tucked his arms in as a chill wind blew by, looking away. "I don't want to talk about it."

The Silver Saint quieted down for a bit, pondering. Mu was too young to know what to say or think about this, but Iaso, as a doctor, knew of many Saints who developed psychological issues, especially Amazons, and it was true that in Sanctuary's culture it was usually treated as a joke or a vulnerability to exploit. Considering that Lance was the target of envious foot soldiers and Kastiel's embittered friends for almost two years, it was understandable he wouldn't go around trusting anyone in Sanctuary with this weakness, including his Andromeda friend.

It was a common tragedy in Sanctuary. "You self-conscious idiot, do you really think your pride is more important than your mental health?! If you developed trauma from your time in Mount Olympus, you should have told someone! We could have helped you before you developed long-term fragilities." Iaso thought to himself. "Alright, you know best, Pegasus…"

Lance got up and continued. His head rushed a mile an hour with hidden fury. "Seriously, let's hurry up. I'm fine right now, but if it gets cold enough, I'll get so bad I won't even be able to burn my cosmos… Don't wanna stick around in this climb for that." The bronze Saint covered his face, embarrassed that he would vomit all of this out even though it was probably the healthiest thing he has done about this, and lead the march again. "Let's just go."

"W-wait up, Lance!" Mu called.

Bit-by-bit, what just happened sunk in Iaso's head. Considering the mysterious strain the mountain was putting on the three of them and how close he just got to dropping down from the world's ceiling, the red-eyed teenager seriously just risked his life just to catch him. Heck, Pegasus didn't even seem to hesitate, immediately lunging down the slippery cliffside to catch Iaso as if his best friend had been the one to fall.

He scratched his head, reevaluating the Bronze Saint. "Boy, I feel embarrassed now."

You ARE an embarrassment.

"I'm a doctor, not a hiker," he argued against his armor. "Besides…he's still an idiot kid. I'm just starting to think that maybe there's a good reason this kid caught Saint Libra's eye."

Meanwhile, Lance just felt his head grow hot with frustration. He hated when his fear got exposed. "Roshi, why did you have this guy follow us?! Mu and I are gonna constantly have to protect him!" he called out.

All the way from China, the little old man responded. "You will soon see why I want him by your side when you take the water. In the meantime… I want you to review with me all the details of your fight with Lucifer."

Lance didn't mind it, but he wanted to know more himself first. "Is this because of whatever training you have in mind?"

"Perhaps. I just want to make sure my strategy against that cocky bat is correct, heh, heh, heh…"

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Chapter 48

Second Arc

Episode 13

The Waters of Life

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Meanwhile

Alaska, Point Barrow

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With the last month of the year at play, winter was at full force in the northernmost point of the American slice of the continent, turning an already cold, mountainous tundra into a wide sheet of snow-white stretching to the horizon. The Arctic sea beyond the end of the earth was frozen solid, spreading the endless expanse of ice all the way to the North Pole. Until the new pipeline project began, even the native Inuit population, already historically small, had gradually vacated the area over the decades, but while now new souls were coming to this remote place in search of work, less than one thousand people lived around in the huge swath of Alaskan far-north.

It, therefore, was perhaps no surprise that the lightning bolt fired from Crow's Nest tower, warping the Black Saint Priam away from Leon's grasp, not only had its trail traced by the electrically-sensitive mercenary all the way here, but that it got unnoticed by locals. Accompanied by a local guide from the nearby "Shooting Station" where rocket silos were located and experimented with, the young man of neck-length silver hair and blue eyes stepped on the edge of the crevice surveying the expanse where the trail vanished into, searching for its likely arrival spot.

"Nothing, just more stupid snow." he thought, cursing Artemis herself.

As if compounding his thoughts, a stronger wind blew over, spreading more flakes all over the vast coastal field, burying whatever evidence or clue he could have collected.

The longbow archer had come prepared for Leon had spent a slice of his infancy training with the bow, trapping, hiking, hunting, and surviving the frost with Ainu people from Hokkaido Island, in Japan. There he had woven the thick bear-pelted coat with white appliqués he now wore over his leather armor and acquired the skill to poison his physical arrows (as opposed to his electrical ones) with a coating from toxic plants. The Alaskan cold was harsher, especially as extremely far north as they were, but Leon liked to think that he was adapting way faster to it than any of the tanned Greek Saints that Shion could have insisted for him to bring along.

Gesturing to the Inuit guide that he could wait there, Leon trailed down the hillside with a foot slide till he reached the lowland and marched onward, eyes searching for the faintest trail. Even though there was no one around to ambush him, the movement of his feet was kept as light as a rabbit's, barely making a sound in the crunched snow, all while wondering if there could be a more perfect place to set up a Black Saint base.

Not only were most of Sanctuary's men and women wary of snowy tundra for a variety of reasons, ranging from their Mediterranean upbringing to tussles with Asgard, but there were few places more remote and on the other side of the Earth's curvature to hide yourself from the Pope's all-seeing mask eyes. In fact, it was well-known by the army that Priam's favorite battlefields had been in Central Asia and Siberia, where the land was vast, the eyes were few and the trees were endless. Most of the Civil War's skirmishing had occurred in it and so did most of Sanctuary's failed attempts to pin or even pursue the enemy, as it usually managed to. To pick a similar territory to spend ten years pretending you were dead was the logical option.

There was another possibility, that which Priam merely picked this spot to teleport into because it was a pre-arranged meeting ground or pick-up spot. A submarine vehicle was reported by the Civil War Gold Saints and Leon did not discard the hypothesis that he could have simply met his friends here rather than this being some sort of base. However, it all just looked so perfect for him to hide for Shion that he could not accept it. The reason being that he often himself would set up huts in places like Cape Barrow to get away from the Pope's mental pings.

Moreover, if the battle at Andromeda Island had been any indication, this enemy was skilled at hiding right under your nose and moving their base without leaving a trace behind. As a loner of his own right, Leon appreciated this to a small extent, recognizing it as a vital trait to survive Sanctuary's hounding, with its powerful Gold Saints, spies, use of the 7th sense, and various other extraordinary means of harnessing and processing information. He now understood how this Priam guy had escaped him back at Crow's Nest and lived this long; Priam was likely prepared for any possibility in his war with Shion, ranging from the ridiculous to the impossible.

However, there was only one person more persistent in the world than the Pope, and that was Leon.

He stopped, raising his eyes at the dark, lunged figure ahead, his 7th sense reeling. Taking out, arming and aiming his bow at a speed that would make a Sagittarius blush, the mercenary took a relaxing pleasure in the sound of the cord tensing right next to his ear, his senses and instincts focused on the target. There was no need for cosmos; whatever was ahead, he'd wipe out whatever threat they could present.

Squinting, he detected the vague likeness of a polar bear huffing and scuffing in the snow, its huge paws digging into the frozen water. Carefully, the mercenary lowered the weapon, not because the bear wasn't a threat, but because he found it odd that the bear was there. While male polar bears did not hibernate, they would usually dig in the frost, where they could ambush a seal or something similarly fat. He also knew they had a powerful smell; a sense considered so useful that Virgo Saints often joked it as "being the closest to the 7th". Leon got curious to see what kind of carcass the bear was probably digging out.

Rather than a carcass, though, the bear pulled out a piece of tattered cloaking resembling a snow coat. It growled complainingly, finding no meat in it and yet the stench of blood. After clawing it frustratingly for a bit, the gigantic beast raised its big black nose and finally noticed Leon's scent, turning to him.

The mercenary lowered his bow and met the stare. Faint electrical sparks filled the air. They were not strengthening the young man, but rather setting up a sensitivity zone that would signal the human the instant the bear adopted a sudden aggressive movement, at which point the silver-head would shoot it right through the heart before the beast could even react. As a former hunter, Leon respected the bear's presence and did not wish to harm it, not to mention it was idiotic to turn an innocent animal into a blood bomb, but if it went berserk with hunger it could accidentally destroy the coat and the clues it could have left behind.

In the meantime, he relaxed, calming his own heart.

Growling in disgust at the presence of the strangely powerful humanoid creature in front of it, the polar bear, fortunately, turned away and casually left.

Leon sighed in relief and walked up to the torn clothing. Things turned out for the best, as he wasn't sure if Priam's Lightning Arrow trail was enough to indicate to him the presence of a clue like this. Squatting down, his gloved hands touched and turned the coat, analyzing it.

"Interesting…" he thought, noticing the faint red marks on the snow coat's tears, clearly a sign of a recent attack. The bear was probably attracted to it by the faint smell of blood or flesh. It also indicated that the owner was gravely wounded or injured before tossing it away. If the Black Saints had indeed set up their base here, this was probably the result of an accident with local wildlife suffered by one of them. "I wonder if they even realize they left this here."

Getting back up and with this in mind, Leon pointed his hand at the ground as it glowed with pale blue cosmos. Electrical sparks flowed around his fingers and his hair waved before a blunt, invisible force was fired at the snow below him, wind-blowing it away with the force of a small hurricane, cratering the ground and digging out a large amount of snow in the area the coat was found. The polar bear roared, startled, and fled with this and the Inuit guide ran down wondering if an accident had happened.

However, the blue-eyed hunter found nothing beneath the snow, not even marks on the uncovered dirt that could have indicated a building module's weight pressing on it, like the ones found in Andromeda Island. "Shoot, it seems they were careful with everything else." He cursed, certain that this area must have been where they had either their base or where they met up with Priam.

"(Oi, is everything okay?!)" the guide asked in English, approaching the crater. "(What happened here?! Where did this hole come from?!)"

Leon ignored him and perused the coat again, this time searching really well in the linings of it. There wasn't a card, an identification, nothing! Just tattered fabric that stank of cold blood. He was patient, however, and looked over every little detail, until his blue eyes locked into faint letters precisely in the spot where the blood had splattered the most.

The Inuit approached him. "(Mister?)"

Leon's eyes widened. Some letters were faded but it was all clearly in English. "…ade in… apan. Kid… Co? What?" He rubbed his chin, pensive. "Japan, probably…But Kid….Wait, Kido? Kido Corporation?!" he thought, tensing his face in recognition of not just the spelling, but the style of the logo. "I know this brand. These people make phones and cars now. Mm, mm, when did they turn their business into snow gear?" he turned to his guide. "(Do you know if these are sold here?)"

The Inuit spent a good half a minute looking at the bloody logo. "(Absolutely not, this is a foreign brand. Most stuff in the state like this is made locally or imported from the south states.)" He answered, referring to the contiguous US, rather than the Bible Belt. He then looked over the dirty cloak. "(Mm, it looks like nice quality, though, maybe it can be reused. Just needs a little washing and sewing..)"

Not realizing that Inuit natives weren't so shy about modern-looking gear, Leon smirked and nodded. "(That's fine by me.)" He then faced the southwest, in the direction of Japan. "(I got what I wanted, too…)"

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Twin Peaks Mountain

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After a while, the trio of strong Saints began approaching the heights of the crevice between the mountain's two peaks, where they should find what they were after. The terrain was slowly leveling out again as opposed to the steep walls they've had to climb for the past few thousands of feet. The flocks of eagles following them were becoming more numerous and ominous looking, screeching more and more as if to warn them to turn back. Above all, the trio felt like a pair of eyes belonging to an immensely powerful spirit was on their backs. Lance was especially worried in anticipation of what awaited him.

The longer time had passed, the more the fight was weighing on Lance's mind. Iaso was probably right after all in implying that the Pegasus felt humiliated. Never in his life had he fought an opponent as powerful as the Daemon Specter in a life or death confrontation. His brain began replaying every mistake he made in it and wondering how he got out of the battle alive. The wisdom in Dohko's gesture to hold him down with Ma Chao became clearer as time went on.

Speaking of Ma Chao, Lance then recalled the tiger's role in the fighting; how in the heck did that tiger hold the Alraune Specter down for so long? Lance was sure the feline would have been sliced in half the second it leaped unto the red-haired plantoid man. Instead, the white tiger went to town on the enemy's throat, giving Lance the breathing room he needed to last longer against Lucifer.

With the powerful impressions left in him by Dark Spear Barrage and Dark Revenge Blast, it felt like this was the only viable strategy should he encounter Lucifer in Greece; to count on numerical superiority to just last longer. Hopefully, this detour to Twin Peaks Mountain would broaden their strategic horizon.

Mu rushed ahead of them all of a sudden. "Look! I see it now!" his superior Lemurian eyesight denounced. Laughing happily and running ahead, the lilac-haired boy guided the two Saints to a depression, where a shining spring of water flowed out, forming a pool of liquid. "We found them, the Waters of Life!"

The two older Saints exchanged a look and Iaso turned his flashlight on, pointing it ahead. Before long the glimmer of droplets falling down from a crevice's stalactites into a pool became visible to their human eyes as well. The moonlight reflected rather beautifully on the mountain pond, but the liquid seemed otherwise unremarkable to them.

"Are you sure, Kiki?" Lance asked.

"Uh-huh, it's the only spring around, it must be it!" the Aries child vouched. "I also feel the spirit's energies, that blocked my teleportation earlier, are at their strongest here. If this isn't the water we want, then my name isn't Kiki the Fourth!"

Iaso took his canteen and lowered it into the water, filling it with liquid. Even touching it seemed completely fine. "It seems like pure mineral water, but it's not dissimilar to what you commonly find in mountain springs. It's a rather disappointing discovery if you ask me."

Mu suddenly held the doctor's wrist and shook his head. "Saint Iaso, remember what Roshi said; let Lance drink it first before you take it to your patients."

The doctor closed the canteen and stood back up. "I suppose there's no harm. From what the guard down there said, I pictured this water would have poisonous traces or look like sludge, but I'd be able to pick it up by now if it were true." He patted Lance's shoulder. "Well, kid, go for it. Take a big gulp."

Lance sweated, staring at the liquid. He wasn't so sure about this. "(Roshi, we're at the waters.)"

"(Excellent. I'm ready too.)" Dohko immediately responded. "(Keep the medic by your side and drink it, Lance. It's the only way to give you what you need to fight Lucifer.)"

This all sounded extremely suspicious! "Medic? Ready too?! What the hell is he planning with this?!" Lance wondered to himself. Kneeling down, he hesitantly put his hand in the water to ready a big sip.

The other two saw him hesitating for it. "Just do it, Pegasus, I assure you it's not poisonous." Iaso urged, feeling the clock ticking. "I'm the Ophiuchus Saint, so I should know. We have to bring you back to Greece as soon as possible, remember?"

"I know, don't rush me, it's just…!" But Lance didn't know what words to put to his fear. Dohko had never led him astray on these things, but he had also put him at risk a few times, like when Tenma almost killed him in their first-round together. He had to do it, though, since Dohko seemed so sure it would yield so many benefits.

Yet, what was this intense foreboding feeling he had, staring at the water? Unlike what Iaso and Mu said, it didn't seem like an ordinary liquid at all. All of a sudden; Lance felt like he was staring at a deep, dark pool of an ocean in that small spring, one that extended miles and miles downwards, infiltrating the ground like the veins of life itself. Every drop that fell from the stalactites onto it felt like a heartbeat from a massive creature as if it were blood pumped by a colossal heart and that Lance putting his dirty human fingers on it was akin to smudging a precious, carefully made painting with mud.

It reminded him of the time he first dove into Lake Rozan and encountered Seiryu. Didn't Iaso feel the same when he put the canteen in it? If not, why was it just him sensing this? Lance felt lured into a terrible trap. Any excuse not to drink this water seemed totally reasonable to him just then, as he felt like a tiny soul standing under a spotlight with the gigantic presence of Seiryu looking down on him in the dark.

The familiar sensation of the immense fear Lance usually felt in these situations crept upon him, but reminded himself of what was at stake. With the bloody image of all the Gold Saints dead on the ground in his imagination, Lance took his hand, scooped a big handful, and practically sank his face on it, ingesting as much as he could.

The other two watched expectantly as the Pegasus Saint raised himself, cleaning his face and seemingly okay. "See, that wasn't so bad," Iaso mocked. "Maybe next you can eat your chicken soup as well."

Mu raised his arms to call attention. "How do you feel? Does it feel like you're stronger?"

Lance blinked and shook his head hesitantly. The waters washed his stomach with an intense cold of the mountain, but that was it. "No, I feel completely fine. Maybe this was a wast-…" His throat then shut and his eyes widened in alarm.

….

There was a heartbeat.

A very, very loud heartbeat, deep inside him.

It was so strong his whole body felt like it pulsated.

The Lemurian frowned, seeing his friend trembling. "Lance, what's wrong?!"

The Pegasus's eyes froze and he gripped his chest. "I…Agh…" he suddenly dropped to his knees, the trembling evolving into tremors. "A-AGH!"

"Pegasus!" Iaso shouted, gripping the Bronze Saint. "Can you talk?! Message me what's wrong?!"

"I…I don't k-know!" Another powerful heartbeat was felt inside and a strange sensation of his blood flowing faster and coldly coursed through his entire body. Lance held himself in horror and pain. "AHA-AAGGH!"

"O-Oh my gosh, LANCE!" Mu screamed, sensing his friend's cosmos go completely haywire.

Before the two bewildered Saints of Athena, who shouted his name and asked for answers about what was happening, the Saint of Pegasus was gripped by a horrible, possessing sensation, as if the waters had taken unto him an insurmountable force of nature that threatened to crush him from the inside out.

What began as a cold sensation, as if the freezing water had entered his very bloodstream, now slowly heated up into a burning cauldron inside his chest, which began pumping faster and faster, terrifying the Greek Cancer Saint. His lungs and throat fought to breathe, taking in less air than his body was demanding. His leg and arm muscles shook, taken over by signals overriding all of Lance's will. His back, where the dragon tattoo laid bare, began heating up as the image of the serpentine creature became clearer and more colored, as if more alive.

"I… I feel…" The charcoal-haired youth spoke, unable to breathe words out. The little control he had in his hand made him grasp the doctor's coat. "H-HELP me! I f-feel like I'm going to explode!"

But Iaso himself was bewildered, his green eyes moving between the convulsing Saint and the canteen he just filled up. The seemingly innocent liquid now seemed to be making the Pegasus Saint go into an epileptic-like episode. He pictured Eurydice like this and he tossed the canteen aside.

"G-Goddess Athena, this water…" Iaso then held Lance down unto himself and laid him aside in a recovery position, making use of his strength to keep the hyperventilating Saint from hurting himself. "Kid, use your telekinesis to raise him to the air!"

"Y-yes, right away!" Mu obeyed, focusing intensely and telepathically lifting Lance into a mid-air position, where he wouldn't hurt himself in his flailing. "Doctor, p-please do something!"

Iaso, however, wasn't sure if there was much he could do. Burning his cosmos and placing his hands on the Bronze Saint's head, he measured an intense nervous activity in Lance's brain. It felt like the Saint was getting possessed. "What the hell is going on with him?!" he wondered.

"You're above your station, Iaso. You cannot help him." the Ophiuchus Cloth spoke.

The doctor refused to believe this. "Why the hell not?!"

"Because he isn't sick or injured. He's getting stronger." The armor explained, shocking the owner. "And it's up to him if he can survive the experience."

"Bullshit!" the doctor spoke out loud. "Pegasus, keep talking to me!"

But Lance was lost in his own terrible world, gasping out loud for air and burning his aura insanely, his fists clenching in the air as if he was fighting himself. The two Saints watched his basic orange cosmos manifesting itself and expanding. "AGH, S-STOP IT!" he screamed. His arms were tensing so much that veins began popping out all over the Saint. "It feels…!"

"Yes, it feels like what?!" Iaso tried to guide him.

The convulsing Saint then seemingly pulsated, startling the two onlookers.

"That's right, Lance. It is painful, especially because you are a Pegasus, not a Dragon." Dohko spoke through the cosmos.

"R-Roshi!" Even though he was held up by Mu's mental powers, Lance's body felt like it was sinking back into a deep fall. Mu and Iaso were gone from around him and though his eyes were closed, he thought he saw the stars rushing past him from below, contributing to the vertiginous sensation of spiraling down into a colossal galaxy. "H-Help me! I've… I've never felt anything like this! It… f-feels like I'm going to d-die!"

Indeed it was an unknown world to him. More and more it seemed like as he sank into the cosmos his body would turn into a volcano and explode out of nowhere, unable to come to grips with its own strength. Lance never thought a sensation of power could feel so terrible, so negative and so bad. He wished he had never drunk that water, never even stepped close to that mountain, because right then and right there, the Saint felt, just as the Waters of Life coursed through his whole body, like his heart would explode out of his chest, his limbs would tear to pieces, his lungs would collapse and his brain would split in two.

And as the galaxy swallowed him up, the dragon's roar was heard and Lance felt the tattoo on his back completely come to life, suddenly moving around his body and constricting him like a monstrous anaconda that wouldn't leave his skin, its small hand gripping the Saint's heart tensely. It beat faster than ever before, unable to process the overwhelming force invading his body.

Iaso felt the palpitations easily. He applied the Golden touch to ease the body's heart rate but it barely had any effect. "By Apollo's light, he's going to split in two at this rate!"

"Oh my Goddess, Lance, don't DIE!" Mu screamed, trying to transmit as much energy to Iaso as he discretely could.

"This is just beginning, though," Dohko spoke once more to Lance. "Now you will learn how to truly put your life on the line."

The heartbeat reached its peak, his body felt like it burned up and the Bronze Saint arced his spine in pain, screaming.

The bright light of the galaxy in Lance's vision suddenly extinguished himself, replaced with absolute darkness. His falling body hit the ground like a meteor, rolling around in the strange, unknown location.

The Saint coughed wildly, his body suddenly at peace. He gripped himself like he feared he would vomit with the sheer sense of biological pace. Rolling unto his hands and knees, the unarmored Cancer Saint slowly reduced his breathing to a more controlled rhythm and recovered his ability to sense what was around him.

His red eyes looked up. Where was he? Did he die?

The place was in total silence. The faint noises of the mountain wind, eagle cries, and the spring's water rushing were gone. Iaso and Mu were gone. In fact, everything was gone. Lance stood in a blank, dark place with nothing to sense around himself but the floor beneath his feet.

He took a step forward. The sound of his sneaker hitting the marble-like ground echoed in the undistinguished distance. So he could move. Soon enough, his eyes began making out more features around him. The marble he was standing on became visible, pieces of Greek column rubble lying around were detected and a starry sky formed above his head.

Lance recognized this place. He had crossed past it many times. "It's… the Libra Temple?! I'm in Sanctuary?!"

"No, this is just what Seiryu's blood is manifesting around us." A stern, adult voice spoke.

Lance turned around and widened his eyes. "R… Roshi?!"

Before him, the young Libra Dohko stood, clad in the Libra Gold Cloth, and his body rejuvenated from Misopheta Menos. By his waist, a strange katana Lance had never seen was sheathed; it had a straight edge, rather than curved, a handle with blue cord wrap and a pommel with three hanging red threads with ember-shaped knots which reminded Lance of the Phoenix Cloth's tails. Its scabbard was engraved with a winding dragon on one side and pouncing tiger in the other, while the handguard was hexagonal and, to the keen eye, had a hexagonal pattern carving similar to a turtle shell.

"About damn time! What took you so long?! Were the three of you singing songs as you hiked up the mountain?!" Dohko exploded.

"What? Roshi, the hell is going on here?! Where am I?!" the Greek Saint demanded to know, throwing arms up. He pointed at the weapon at his waist. "And why do you have a sword?!"

The brown-haired Gold Saint scoffed. "Never mind the sword, we don't have time for chit chat. We can talk while we train!" young Dohko interrupted, bashing fist against the palm. "And you better be ready for it, student of mine! Today's lesson will be how to become the world's strongest!"

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Greece, Sanctuary

House of Taurus

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With midnight gradually approaching, activity in the Taurus Temple began dying down and the temple aides, soldiers, and servants took their leave for their homes in Sanctuary Town or the barracks. Aldebaran wished that he could go to his bed at this point after a long day of training, but since Mu and Saga were both out he had to time his rest for during the day so he could stay on guard duty throughout the evening. This was so his friends further up could get their turn to rest. Aldebaran was tough and didn't truly mind. The first three temples had to alternate being the vanguard especially since Aries had such a strong blacksmith tradition. He sincerely hoped his Lemurian buddy wouldn't be away for much longer. It had been a month already, after all.

"Aldebaran, is everything covered down there at the vanguard?"

The Brazilian nodded to no one in sight. "Yup, like always, Aiolos," he told the Sagittarius, the only Gold Saint from the upward temples that would spend time with the Taurus in these hours. "Do you know when Saga will be back?"

There was a short pause, probably so that the Greek could sigh. "Unfortunately it won't be for a few days. It's unfair to you, but I'll help you keep watch at night from my House."

The bull chuckled. "I feel so safe with your bow aimed down here at me," he joked. Aiolos honestly amazed him; not only did Aiolia's older brother spend so many hours working at hospitals and shelters, sometimes under the watch of strict Silver Saints like Ophiuchus Iaso, but the archer also took time to train, raise Aiolia, practice archery, study, and hunt. And he did all this while also keeping up competitively with Saints like Saga and Shaka, who were nothing short of prodigies among prodigies.

It really put things in perspective for Aldebaran to be hearing Aiolos offer himself up to keep him company like this. The Taurus had protested in the first nights, but the tall youth quickly learned it was no good and the archer would just stay up anyway, getting sleep in only Athena knew what hours. What stamina. Maybe Sagittarius Saints were allergic to staying down.

Cladding himself in his armor and taking a position at his temple's entrance, Aldebaran sat down Chinese-style, arms disciplined folded, and stood watch over the whole of Sanctuary Town. Even his relatively low Temple was already high enough for him to get a decent overview of Sanctuary's capital from there. The streets were quieting down, including at the bar avenues, with lights behind windows turning off one by one.

It would be another peaceful, boring night.

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

Turkey, Aegean Coast

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It would be a bloody night. A night of death.

These had been Deadly Beetle Gauromydas' words to Saga, which now resonated in the Gemini Saint's head as he watched Andromeda Shinta and the Lemurian guardsmen scour the abandoned encampment for indications of the enemy. He had been warned about the size of the enemy's army but seeing the number of tents, empty weapon crates, and footprints that had been left behind put in his mind a more concrete image of the adversary's power. Judging by the upheaval, at least one hundred warriors had just been there, which was massive from the point of view of supersonic or lightspeed fighters, confirming the reports by Yuzuriha's men.

The Andromeda Saint approached Saga, finished with searching for clues the way Lance had taught him. He had a haunted look on his green-haired face with one thought in common with the Gemini Gold Saint. "Aldebaran…"

The blue-haired Greek nodded determinedly, clenching his fist. "Don't think of it, Saint Shinta. He will live!" he lied. As kind as he was, Saga didn't share Aiolos' blind and idealistic optimism. He said this out of an obligation as he felt to protect the Bronze Saint's morale.

The older Bronze Saint rubbed his eyes. "Right… he will," he told himself, as if unconvinced. "We just need to time our attack correctly, right?"

However, even as they stood there, they could faintly sense the mass of dark cosmos entering Greece through Cape Sounion. It was like a frightening, black miasma of undefined shape but thick mass in the western horizon, across the sea, and it was moving away little by little to enter Athena's lands.

The thought of it swallowing up Rodario and Sanctuary Town, two places they had grown to see as a safe, undisturbed home, deeply disturbed the two of them. It especially bothered Shinta, not just because he was more sensitive to violence, but because he remembered the cruel destruction that even a group as small and weak as Bennu Kagaho's battalion could cause to unsuspecting Sanctuary holdings.

Saga watched Shinta clench his hand and walk away towards the sea as if meaning to stop the enemy with his own two hands. "I can't take it…" the Japanese boy confessed. "I feel like I have to do something, anything!"

But Lady Yuzuriha's strategy rang true to Saga. "If the two of us try to strike them, Andromeda, we will be immediately overwhelmed. They would surround and outmatch us in mere seconds." He reasoned. "The confusion would likely alert Aldebaran ahead of time, but what difference would that make to him once he finds himself faced with over a dozen Specters?"

It wasn't something he thought would appeal to the Andromeda. Saint Shinta shared some similarities with Saga's rival in the sense they always felt like they should put their own lives before those of others.

However, Saga also knew how to deal with this kind of heroic mindset. "If you get yourself killed, you won't help anyone. In fact, you'll put the enemy on guard. Sometimes we have to measure our steps and make difficult strategic choices like this."

Surprisingly, the Andromeda nodded. "Right… yes, I agree." He seemed very hesitant, given the shaky look in his eyes, but the older teenager didn't put up a fight to Saga. "How do we go about this, then?"

Saga rubbed his chin in reflection. "Right now the enemy is still jamming communications all over the place, but as soon as they reach Aldebaran, there will surely be a big mess. Knowing him, he will light up the night sky with Great Horn if he can, even if just to alert the others." He predicted. "We will stalk the enemy, observe it if we can, and as soon as Aldebaran turns his Temple into a lighthouse, we charge in as well. By then, I'm sure Aiolos will give us support fire, too."

While nervous about this, Shinta was still happy to nod along. Saga was so smart and practical about these things. "Yes, and maybe we'll be able to get there in time to help him?"

Saga's eyes shifted. In all frankness, he pictured the Specters getting vengeful and tearing the Taurus to pieces. "Yes, that's my intention." he lied once more.

Shinta breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes then narrowed in determination to execute all the steps of Saga's idea perfectly. "Thank Athena…. What about the others? Saint Nam, Cynthia, and the rest?"

Saga shook his head. "They won't fight. This is all far above their pay grade. The Silver Saints did admirably at Jamir and Andromeda Island, but we can't afford to expect the same from all the others." Seeing the Lemurian scouts signaling him that they were heading back, Saga thanked their help with a nod and turned to Shinta once more. "Now let's go. We need to get across the Aegean at sub-light speed to stalk them undetected."

Shinta immediately charged his pink cosmos for it. "Yes, Saint Gemini!"

The two of them rocketed off the Turkish coast across the sea surface, leaving trails of geyser water in their wake like supersonic planes flying right above its surface. The Lemurian masked scouts waved a good luck wish and watched them disappear in the horizon like stars.

One of them sweated. "Do you think they'll make it?"

The other felt a bit sick in the stomach. He had felt the monstrous cosmos trails in the ground. "They better,… or our people will be next."

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

Rodario

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

At the famous Bed & Breakfast named Circe's Grove, the regulars of the establishment slowly left, chatting away as the building was ready to close for the night. Three Silver Saints walked in, however, calling for a favor to spend a little time in privacy and comfort.

They went to their favorite table and Cynthia turned to her junior. "Yushira, do you mind ordering us some coffee?"

The black-haired teenage Crane Saint nodded enthusiastically. "Sure thing. No sugar, right?"

While Crane Yuzuriha walked to the front to place the order before they took apart the coffee machine for cleaning, Saint Nam took a seat at the indoor table with Cynthia. He had the look of death on him.

With shifty eyes, the blue-armored archer spoke. "The situation is serious, Cynthia… Aguilon got sent north to Crow's Nest a while ago along with the rest of the Herculean Guard and the MMC hasn't gotten word from the place since."

Getting everyone's order, the masked Crane turned her head to hear better. Few of her friends and co-workers knew how good at intercepting messages she was. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but it wasn't fair either that her Silver Saint equals still treated her like a newbie and this new situation sounded alarming. At first, she was kinda excited at the prospect of some action building up in Europe because it could mean good things for her career, but the jovial girl soon realized that the adults were a lot more scared than they let on, hinting at something truly serious.

Therefore she made sure to follow these two wherever she could. Nam and Cynthia were usually good at getting rid of the Crane, but this time the junior glued herself to them as hard as she could. "I'm gonna find out what's going on, damn it! Don't mess with me like this!"

"Saint Crane, what was your order?" the nice bartender asked.

The masked girl gasped, startled. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Three coffees, no sugar!" She then saw they were offering discounts on the candy and her sweet tooth tingled. "Ooh! Can I get some of those, too?"

The unsuspecting Cassiopeia clasped her hands on the table, fingers fidgeting. "I understand that, Nam, but…. Sagittarius Priam and Specters? That's insane." she argued, in the sense that it was too terrifying to process. One was the leader of a treasonous force that had ruined their lives on more than one occasion. The other was the army of the God of the Underworld.

"We're probably safe here. It's Sanctuary, after all." Nam argued. "What worries me is the way it's being shoved under the rug. You would think Iaso would be the first to notice something after me, but he has gone missing, too. People say he was last seen visiting a patient in Rodario and then just took off."

The Cassiopeia wasn't so worried about this. "He's probably off training, but yeah, he would have a field day with this." she guessed. The doctor spent most of his free time filling their heads about how much Sanctuary sucked and would leave them hanging someday. "So Nam, what do you think is going on, an actual Holy War?"

Yushira's ears perked. This was the juicy part she waited for.

The bartender turned off the coffee machine and presented her with the beverages. "Here you go, Saint Crane. Three coffees, a rice cake and…" the bartender then double-checked if he got what she asked right. "…an eight-pound bag of gummy bears?"

Her eyes shined with happiness and her gloved hand snatched the large plastic bag right away.

Then she saw the stunned look on the man's face. "Umm…It's for a friend…. A group of them," she lied. She could tell from his aged squint he didn't believe a word of it. It reminded her of her stepmom. "It's a special Amazon diet, okay? I need the fructose and sugar for training!... Don't look at me like that!"

Ignoring all of this, the two Silver Saints kept speaking. "Well, a Holy War doesn't really make sense, given the status of the seal," Nam reasoned with her. "I'm thinking it's more like the attacks on Arcadia and Andromeda Island. Probably a bit more serious this time."

"Ah, I see." Cynthia agreed. "So you think the primary threat is still Priam, just like at the festival?"

Nam nodded. "It makes sense."

Her hands rubbed their thumbs together. "Of course… He just won't leave it be, will he?" she pondered, sadly. Nam didn't need any special mental transmission to know how frustrated she felt, especially when she lightly smacked the table and looked out the window with a head shake. "I just wonder… How many times is he going to come back to ruin our lives?"

The blue archer once again nodded. There was really nothing he could say. At that point, with the death of Guardnia on their heads, Cynthia had as much reason to hate Priam as she despised Cetus, her former abusive Master.

Yushira brought the coffees over after paying the order, hiding the gummy bears in her Cloth box. "Here you go, guys! Two coffees for you, one for me! Guess we are staying up all night, huh?"

Grabbing the hot paper cup, Nam immediately took his first sip. "Yup." He felt the caffeine entering his system and energizing him. "I'm going to make calls all night all over the planet. Going to need to stay up."

Cynthia just stirred her cup, though, lost in thoughts. She glanced at the poorly closed lid on Yushira's box and deduced she was hiding junk food again. Young amazons were usually disciplined enough to avoid this, especially after a few good rounds of drilling back at Aretias, the Amazon village. But the young Crane had a weird weak point for sugar. It reminded her of a couple of Lemurians she had met, who were also fatally attracted to the substance.

Maybe Yushira, who idolized the current Lemurian Elder, simply took more than just a similar name and armor after the legendary survivor of the Lost Canvas War, Crane Yuzuriha.

She began to notice that the misstep was enough to dispel her concerned thoughts. Boy, she was tired. She was practically seeing double.

Sitting on her Cloth box, Yuzuriha irked and held her Amazon mask, feeling it vibrate strangely.

Cynthia stared at her coffee cup. She blinked beneath her mask, also bothered by her face concealment. The woman felt strangely melancholic, thinking of lost friends for some reason like she had in her nightmares.

The whole establishment fell into a strange, tired quietness.

Nam dropped the coffee cup, splashing the hot liquid everywhere and collapsing on the table, his body shaking. The bartender also slipped down from his stool to the floor, the mug he was cleaning shattering on the wooden panels. Yuzuriha slipped down to the ground and Cynthia's hands hit the table. "A-Agh…I…"

"W-what's going… ugh…" Nam winced, struggling to raise himself.

Crane Yuzuriha's mind went foggy, feeling exhausted and assaulted by visions of her old night terrors. She saw Nam's coffee cup roll to the ground beneath her, her vision doubling. "G-guys!... I…" She then held her mask against her face. It felt like it could fall off if she didn't. It was resonating, as if in response to a strange vibration in the air.

With the darkness of their eyelids weighing down on their eyes, the three of them then completely passed out, all falling to the floor with loud thuds.

…

In the background, shadows glanced by the windows, coursing through the streets, some with scythes rested on shoulders, others with torches raised high in the air. All paid little mind to the lights inside the inn.

One of them stopped, though, and peeked through the window.

It grinned, seeing the Saints. Nightmare Sonar had done its job.

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

The Past

Lost Canvas War

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

The sun had risen since Alone's attack and the Gold Saints were back in Greece. Working by the new refugee camps that the Andromeda Saint had helped set up, Libra Dohko carried the pillar rubble out of the area to give the volunteers more room to set up the hospital tents. The battle against Daemon Lucifer following the Nightmare Sonar casting had cost more than just Rasgado's life. A lot of people were injured and the Coliseum had been wrecked by a tremor fissure caused by Titan Nova.

He dropped the marble object by the construction deposit and saw Aries pacing around. "Shion, is something wrong?"

The Lemurian nodded. "Tenma was spotted trying to rush out of Sanctuary. He wanted to take his Cloth with him, too. Yuzuriha and Yato had to tackle him down."

Dohko sunk face in hand. "That idiot… I get that he's upset, but it's dangerous out there with those two maniacs."

"We might have bigger problems than the Princes, Dohko," Shion warned. "I just talked with Manigoldo. He says he's heading out under the Pope's orders. You know what this means, right?"

Dohko sweated, picturing Tenma running headfirst into a cruel death god's trap. "… Yeah, that Thanatos and Hypnos are back. That punk… I'll smack his head the first chance I get." He then glanced at the far-off Cancer Temple. "Do you think Manigoldo's plan will really work?"

The pensive Lemurian rubbed his chin. "It's insane to the point only a miracle would make it work… so it's just in the style of us Gold Saints. The Andromeda Saint volunteered to help, too, saying he had experience against Thanatos."

The Libra Gold Saint was agape. "Experience?! What the hell does that mean?!"

The lamb-armored man shrugged his shoulders. "My thoughts exactly, but if anything you said about him and Hyoga powering up last night is true, then maybe these Bronze Saints have way more to them than we imagined."

It was Dohko's turn to reflect on things. "My teacher said their armors were drenched in Sasha's blood somehow. She felt it in Shiryu."

Shion's expression sterned. "The only people that could have helped them do something like that would be my teacher and me. It isn't enough to just bathe armor in blood to power it up like this. There's blacksmithing involved. And I don't think Master Hakurei would keep something like this from me."

Dohko folded arms. Things made less and less sense about these kids, instead of more. "What's your theory about them, Shion? I'm starting to think they're from the future or something."

Shion chuckled. "Don't be silly. Time doesn't work like that. Chronos isn't a fan of our Goddess, either. It's more likely that they are Cyrulians and what you guys saw yesterday was a form of Lightcraft."

The Chinese Saint hesitated to agree with this. It was true that transforming your own armor out of nowhere, especially into beautiful works of angelic art like the winged protections that Andromeda and Cygnus summoned, was something in the line of thinking and ability of the crusader Saints. However, the Cyrulians were also notoriously racist and the chances of them recruiting Asians were slim to none.

Even Tenma, who was a light-user, wasn't allowed in, and boy did he try. After the Pegasus had heard there was an army branch dedicated to fighting Specters, he had seen it as a way to get more opportunities to confront Alone and getting authorization to visit Sasha. The Cyrulian Castellans, however, who were the constables of their fabled castles, repeatedly denied him under the flimsy excuse of his association with Suikyo, a traitor.

Dohko scoffed. A traitor and an Asian, right? One day, Sanctuary's prejudice against students of problematic teachers would come biting it in its ass.

"Speaking of Shiryu, Dohko –" Shion interrupted his thoughts "Sasha called for Haisaku's help again. They're watching over him at my Temple. I thought you might have wanted to check on him."

Dohko's eyes widened. "Yes, thank you, Shion!" he then rushed out of there.

Shion smiled. "No problem, just don't forget to knock!" he joked.

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

Climbing up to the Aries Temple, the Libra Saint immediately searched for whatever room the Dragon Saint could be at. Thankfully the House had been emptied after the attack and he was easily able to find the voices coming from upstairs with his keen hearing.

He walked inside to find Haisaku sitting by a sleeping Dragon Saint. Her hand was on his forehead and the other touched his injured arm, where the skin was blackened. Dohko immediately recoiled at the sight of it, since it resembled a scary tumor. "Oh, Sasha, you're here! Umm…"

The purple-haired girl held the black-haired youth in the bed sadly. "I couldn't leave Shiryu's side after what happened."

The Phoenix Saint turned to the Goddess. "Lady Athena-"

"Saint Haisaku, you can call me Sasha, it's alright." The self-conscious purple-haired girl's voice assured. "All I care about right now is Shiryu's well-being."

Dohko smirked. Sasha was always so approachable. It exasperated some of the Gold Saints, sometimes, especially El Cid.

But much like the Capricorn Saint, the teacher was far too respectful for this. "…I humbly request you the honor of addressing you properly, Milady."

Dohko hesitated. He recognized a tone in Haisaku's voice that he hadn't heard since she told him their pet tiger had passed away. He sat on a chair by the Goddess and listened in.

Phoenix Haisaku continued. "Athena, as per your request, I reviewed Shiryu's condition, and I'm afraid my conclusion is the same as in the battlefield; the Dragon Saint will be able to move and fight, but the more he does, the more this tumor in his cosmos will grow," she revealed. "Unless nothing short of a miracle happens, Shiryu will eventually succumb from this."

Dohko's expression darkened in sadness. "So it's that bad?"

Over the course of their adventures together, the tiger had gained a deep appreciation for the Dragon Saint, even if his origin eluded the Libra. The youth was brave, honorable, respectful, deceptively wise, and didn't hesitate to put his life in defense of others, much like an ideal Dragon Saint. Kids like him only came around every few dozen generations and they embodied a lot of what Dohko admired in warriors of old.

Now he will be another victim of Alone's self-centered cruelty.

While Sasha was certainly in as much pain as Dohko, she kept her calm. "Saint Phoenix… would you tell me more about this? I want to know more about what is wrong with Shiryu."

The Sage nodded. "Certainly. Imagine… a poison. A toxic, corrosive substance like the venom in a monstrous cobra's fangs. This poison, however, does not enter your veins, but rather your spirit, or rather what you take with you when you die and enter the next life," she metaphorized. "Shiryu's body is fine, barely scratched in fact. The damage Alone inflicted on him touched the soul instead."

"The soul? This is because of my uncle's sword, correct?" Sasha asked. "Haisaku, you used to be a Skeleton… is there anything you know about that weapon that we don't?"

"Unfortunately, that would be the same as asking the common hoplite for knowledge about your shield, Athena." The sensation of cosmos being burned to form an explanatory illusion was felt. "However, since switching sides, I have sunk myself in the Cosmos, seeking to understand it, so I may be able to provide a new perspective on your uncle."

Dohko listened intensively. Usually, he would pay zero attention to Haisaku's complicated analogies, but Shiryu's condition doubled his investment. "An Olympian weapon is a refined embodiment of their power, right? Just like Athena's shield?"

The firebird's head shook. "It is, but the question is, is that sword his to begin with?"

Dohko and Sasha widened their eyes. "It's not?" the goddess queried.

"While it is true that the defining characteristic of Olympians is that they can manifest their incredible power in the form of divine items, such as Poseidon's Trident, Artemis' Bow, and other objects of colossal cosmic powers," she said, drawing each object in the air with her cosmos. In addition, she colored their aura the same as the aura of their owners, making the trident glow with a sapphire blue and the bow shine with a lunar silver. "- we also know that Gods can come across possessing new items, like Athena and the Staff of Nike."

Sasha then saw her own staff be projected by the masked Saint, but this time shining with a light shade of yellow like a thunder, instead of the intense gold associated with the Goddess of Wisdom. "Are you saying Hades' sword is the same?"

The sage nodded and replaced the illusion with one of the winged swords. "Yes, Lady Athena. Emperor Hades is associated with the helmet of invisibility, not a sword. That helmet is the true weapon that manifests his power. We know that from the accounts of Perseus." she argued. "As the God of the Underworld, he has the ability to project the nature of the dimension he rules over through that helmet. It does not so much as make it invisible, as it disguises you with the Underworld itself. This is definitive proof that the object with which Hades has manifested his power to battle the Titans with… is the helmet, not the sword."

Dohko saw Sasha's eyes reel in reflection as if a great change of plans was going on in her mind. She shifted glances between the bedded Shiryu's wounds and her own staff as if to compare previous thoughts. "So the sword…?"

Haisaku shook her head. "We are poking in the dark, Athena, but evidence is evidence. The power to cause this horrible curse in someone's soul is not something the God of the Underworld has a right to. That black sword does not belong to him, not in the same sense as your shield. Rather, it is his equivalent to your Staff, an object from a separate God that has somehow been entrusted to him."

The goddess stood up and paced around. She seemed truly distressed, seemingly reevaluating all of her previous intentions in the war. While these were interesting revelations, Dohko wasn't sure why Sasha was so affected. "Athena, this does not really change anything, does it? We have the same Holy War to fight."

But the purple-haired girl disagreed. "I'm afraid it does, Dohko… I cannot say much, but I, Shiryu, Shun, and Hyoga originally came here to destroy that sword. Our objective is to be rid of it in order to save someone dear to us from Hades' cruelty." She revealed. Her head grew hot in distress. "If that sword isn't his…then that means I can save Seiya and Shiryu without killing my uncle."

The two disciples of Rozan stared at their Goddess concerningly. Killing Hades? Was Athena serious? Was she really willing to go that far to help these Bronze Saints? While defeating the God of the Underworld was their obvious mission, to actually murder an Olympian was known by all to be a violation of Zeus' Pax Divina, which could have disastrous consequences for Sanctuary. How important could this 'Seiya' figure possibly be to Sasha, especially when she was known to have been raised around Tenma and Alone?

Neither of them wished to question her wisdom, but something had to be asked by Haisaku. "Lady Athena, is that how far you're willing to go to save Shiryu and this Seiya?"

She hesitated, knowing that her Saints had reason to be demoralized by what could be interpreted as her favoritism. The truth had to be told, though. "These Bronze Saints… they've done incredible things for me, even though I had treated them so horribly. I wouldn't trade anyone else's lives for theirs,… but I would give my own."

Dohko felt pale by this. "Sasha, don't say that!" he shouted, standing up. As a Gold Saint, this was an abominable notion. "You are not here to be our martyr!"

Haisaku stood quiet for a moment, reflecting on the Goddess' words. "Lady Athena, … I'm afraid getting rid of the blade won't help you, either."

The other two people in the room instantly turned to her. "Why not?" the girl asked.

Haisaku raised her hand, highlighting her illusion of Hades' sword. "Because if our assumption is correct, then that thing isn't a weapon, it's a seal," she revealed, shocking them. "This was the first thing that made me suspect the blade wasn't Hades' true object of power; the blade's power stems entirely from a cosmos that is completely unlike the Emperor's."

Dohko irked. Haisaku had always called Hades by his title in the Underworld, and now thanks to the revelations about her past, he knew why. But he put that aside to learn more about the sword. "What do you mean, Haisaku?"

She made the blade lower itself into her hands as if she was respectfully presenting Athena with the real thing.

"The Emperor's cosmos…" she began, taking it slowly "… if you sensed it yourselves, you'd be entrapped by an incredible feeling of sadness and melancholy. At his core, Hades is a being that does not understand anymore the value of life as we know it and he longs for lost days when he did. This is part of what initially seduced me about him; I saw in Hades a sadness and emptiness much like my own."

"Sad? That murderous freak?!" Dohko questioned. The memory of Alone crossing Tenma's painting, killing the Pegasus Saint instantly, crossed his mind. "What in the world does he have to be sad about?!"

Her shoulders shrugged. "Who knows?... Maybe he used to be much like our Goddess regarding humans. Maybe he misses his love, Persephone. Maybe, much like Pandora, he has simply lost the ability to see the colors of life." She theorized. "However, the cosmos I've always sensed from his sword, even last night, was different…"

Sasha listened attentively. This must be what Sage meant with this woman being incredibly sensitive and knowledgeable with the Cosmos, to the point she detected something in her old master's weapon that Athena herself never has. "Can you describe it?"

Haisaku nodded. "…It was cruel, disturbing, endless and insane, like a pitch-black abyss of frightening contours staring back at you. I felt like the more I stared at it, the more lost I would feel in the unknown reaches of the universe, torn apart by the cold hands of a monstrous chimera creature that would eat me alive. The reason why I think it might be a seal is that I can't imagine an inanimate object wishing such ill will to the point of being able to destroy your soul like this. The only ones I've seen with such a strong ego would be…"

Dohko raised his chin in realization. "Cloths of Athena, which house the spirits of old…" he finished, knowing his own armor to be the host of the Tiger God itself. Others like Cepheus, Perseus, and Whale are also qualified. "So what's inside that sword? Some Titan? Persephone herself?!"

The phoenix shook her head. "In the Underworld, Persephone is sort of a black legend. Skeletons who whisper her name in the dark are snuffed out of our pathetic lives." Haisaku explained, remembering her time in the Underworld. "But I doubt even this kind of sadness would allow Hades to manifest such a malicious weapon. That sword… it eats away at your cosmos, like a dark cancer on it. The more you fight it, the more it cripples you, filling your insides with dark blots like the Black Plague before ultimately choking you, shattering your soul like a piece of glass."

The Goddess's face darkened, picturing her two Bronze Saints like this. "So that is what's happening to Seiya and Shiryu?"

"This is why he isn't in any pain right now." Haisaku associated. "But soon he will be, especially as the war closes down. The toll of the effort he will put into fighting for Athena will gravely worsen his condition, causing its damage to manifest physically; Shiryu will first lose his eyes for good, his most weakened sense, and it won't be long before this darkness takes such a hold of him that he will be stuck in one spot, unable to move."

Dohko's fist clenched until the golden metal of his gauntlet cringed, his teeth greeting in frustration. He suddenly bashed his fist on the wall in anger. "D-DAMN IT!"

Sasha just stared at the sleeping Dragon, reliving her battle with Hades back home. It felt like the harder she tried, the worse things ended up.

Yet, even though she had every reason to be sad, she made an effort to smile and nod graciously in appreciation for the Saint's wisdom. "Thank you, Saint Haisaku…At least now I understand a bit more the suffering my Saint is going through."

"This is all those Princes' fault!" Dohko roared, angrier by the second. He looked at the Dragon Saint and felt even more incredibly angry and sad at the same time, blood boiling and tears struggling to come out at the same time. "I wish… I wish I had managed to beat that Daemon guy! If I had I would have gotten back sooner, Athena would have been able to fling us to Rozan sooner!..."

Haisaku lowered her masked face. "And you would have made the same mistakes in ignorance of the future, Dohko," she concluded for him, highlighting the silliness of this rationale.

The thought of how much they had left to battle yet haunted the tiger, though. "There must be something I can do…! A way I can get strong enough to stop them from doing more harm!"

The woman rested her hands in her lap, empathizing with her surrogate son's suffering. She also felt Athena's eyes on her as if graciously asking if there was something she could do. While her protective instincts wanted to keep Dohko away from harm, Haisaku realized it was his sacred duty to fight for hope and that no Saint could be happy without delivering their lives in service of this noble objective.

It's what convinced her to become a Saint, to begin with, after all.

The Phoenix Saint sighed. "Do you want to become the world's strongest, then?"

The brown-haired Gold Saint hesitated to answer this. It wasn't often that Haisaku offered help in acquiring brute strength. Usually, her style was more of wise sayings, cryptic moral teachings, and esoteric trainings. "…I want to do something, anything." He confessed, feeling a deep pain inside. "Because if I stay weak like this… then I'll just have to watch not just Shiryu, but also Tenma die all over again!"

The woman stood up, her sheathed katana clinking with the sudden gesture, tensing the other two present in the room. Her impassive mask seemed to analyze the student up to down, or perhaps she was simply convincing herself still if she should do this. Normally she would never bring this up, but Dohko was feeling the same towards Tenma as she did towards him; the protective, nurturing instinct to wish the best for their student.

Her cosmos burned, manifesting a gentle phoenix burning that was familiar to Sasha. "We have to move fast, then… I don't have much time to teach you."

The tiger's eyes widened. "Haisaku?"

Her arm raised, allowing light from the window to reflect off her ruby bracelet, with which she had blocked the Skeleton scythes last night. "And since my old Phoenix Cloth is still missing… I'm going to need my new one."

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

Present

(?)

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

The armored, rejuvenated Dohko patiently waited for his student to get his bearings in the simulated location of the Libra Temple. Lance was probably still reeling from the effects of drinking the Waters of Life and wasn't sure if he was alive or dead anymore. Dohko himself remembered consuming them for the first time two hundred years earlier when Haisaku began training him in the most dangerous aspects of the Rozan techniques. As the Libra Gold Saint, he had a relatively merciful reaction to it; he was only screaming in horrible pain for a little bit and didn't fall into such a deep subconscious state.

It was useful that Lance was completely incompatible to it, though, because it meant that the Waters of Life were accelerating his senses to such an extent that for him, time was frozen, allowing a deeper union of minds to occur for this training. It wasn't good to abuse Seiryu's patience, though. "By all means, take your time."

The red-eyed Bronze Saint snapped out of it. "Roshi, where the hell am I? What happened?!"

"You ingested the Waters of Life, remember?" Dohko helped out. His hand then pointed upwards, creating an illusionary window to the outside. "And because you're neither a Dragon nor a Libra, you suffered the worst possible effects of it. Right now, Saint Iaso is fighting for your life."

Lance turned up and saw a nearly frozen image of Mu and Iaso focused down on him, the Ophiuchus Saint's hands shining with the Golden Touch and trying to stabilize Lance's body.

The Saint gulped. "So the guard wasn't kidding… it is poison."

Dohko dispelled the illusion. "It's not poison, the truth about the Waters of Life is that their healing properties stem entirely from how, in reality, they are as if the blood of Seiryu himself. The spring you drank from is one of the few places in the entire world where his body comes as if true when coursing through the world's waters. Seiryu is ultimately a God of Life, so it's obvious that merely touching him would heal all wounds. As expected, however,… to actually benefit from the Waters, you need the kind of body and compatibility to drink from a God's essence."

The Pegasus Saint tried to process all of this. Considering how vicious and strong the dragon could be, it made sense that drinking a tiny amount of his blood would have such a visceral reaction. He clenched his fists as if to test his own muscles. "I don't feel any different. Were they supposed to make me stronger?"

Dohko scoffed. "Pah, really, you think it would be that simple?" he mocked. "Right now, due to the effects of the water, your mind is in a state of hyper-acceleration. It is literally under the effect of a power much greater than it was meant to hold. This has caused your perception to temporarily reach nigh-instantaneous levels."

Lance looked around with this in mind. Now that he noticed it, there were no birds in the air like back in Sanctuary, or even so much as the sound of the wind. Even sunlight had a weird reflection upon surfaces, with shadows seemingly having difficulty keeping up with Lance's body movements. He moved his arm up and down and it looked like his own shadow was several seconds behind schedule, which was freaky and made Lance wonder what would happen if he started walking around.

Normally, thanks to the 7th sense, Gold Saints like him already had an extremely high perception of their surroundings, to the point that they could barely see anything when moving and attacking at the speed of light. The precise speed with which they moved, however, wasn't pure lightspeed, but rather a very close approximation. According to what Dohko had taught him, not only were lightspeed movements unsustainable for long periods of time, which was why Gold Saints were conservative about their movements but trying to power up your senses to a real speed of light caused your mind to start having problems in even thinking because, according to the weird mathematical curve he had drawn in his lessons, the rate of information absorbed by his senses "tended towards infinity when approaching true lightspeed", whatever this meant.

The Pegasus, therefore, imagined that the Waters were allowing him a prolonged state of hyper-awareness, a consequence of the acceleration his body was also put through as soon as the liquid entered his bloodstream and that Dohko was linking his mind with Lance's all the way from Rozan.

Lance turned to the far-off Fire Clock, seeing its hands frozen. "So this is what you meant… We are making time for training." Lance's attention span snapped right back up. "You said something about becoming the world's strongest. What does that mean?"

The armored Libra Saint reflected on his own growth. "… To actually power you up right now would be impossible, even with the help of this time stimulant. Your body simply does not have the real rest period it needs for you to grow stronger from training."

The intelligent Bronze Saint widened his eyes. "Oh, so it's just my mind that is like this? Like a dream?"

Dohko chuckled. "Think of it like a really vivid nightmare, like the ones where you're naked in front of the amphitheater." he joked. As always, his student was unamused. "While under the effect of the Waters of Life, one second out there will feel like a week here. So, are you ready for your most dangerous lesson yet?"

Lance scratched his head. "Of course, it's just…. How are you gonna do that? As you said, I can't actually grow stronger here, and yet you're talking about being the world's best?"

Dohko raised his finger correctively. "You do have something with you, right now, something that has also been re-stimulated by the Waters… your Dragon tattoo." He pointed out. At hearing this, Lance realized he did feel the ink drawing on his back unusually warm. "That tattoo is the mark of Seiryu, allowing him to help you shape your cosmos into the Ascending Dragon Force, the Rozan Shoryuha!"

These were old lessons. "Sure, I know that. I've used the move many times by now."

Dohko then tensed his body, spreading feet apart and clenching fists at waist-height. His green, watery aura then activated with a burst of emerald light, encasing him in energy, bashing stale air currents away, and making nearby pebbles resonate. Dohko's eyes closed in relaxation and his cosmos burned to a heightened level.

Then, before Lance could even react, the roar of the Dragon God was heard and the fierce emperor was projected in the background in all his frightening glory. Dohko's aura exploded and his eyes opened, turning into golden tiger slits. "ROZAN!" his hands then formed a whirling ball of emerald cosmos between them and Dohko lunged it in an arc at Lance "HYAKU RYU HA!"

Lance gasped, paralyzed at the power he felt! In an explosion of green light, Dohko's body seemingly fired off dozens of huge, dragon-shaped beams of cosmos like a mass battery firing at a speed approaching the limits of the light barrier. He couldn't even move as the unstoppable force of the dragons flew across the training field, seemingly aimed at him, only for them to deliberately miss Lance and fly out to the lower 'Golden Zodiac', cascading the mountain with a shower of catastrophic blasts.

Exploding as they impacted each temple and staircase, Lance could only feel his soul freeze at the immense power his 7th sense detected in the earth-shattering cataclysm. Each meteoric impact shook the mountain and each blinding dome of sea-green energy exploding from them swelled like atomic blasts until buoying upwards, filling the sky with radiating clouds of debris and water.

The light blinding the area died down, allowing Lance to see Dohko relax his own cosmic aura as the destruction of his attack subsided. "W-what?" he could only mutter.

Dohko stood up straight. "As you can see, my dear student, you know very, very little, ha, ha, ha."

Lance stared down at the craters as the rest of the fallout disappeared. While they weren't particularly remarkable considering that Saints could easily blow away places like Andromeda island, the concentrated energy he felt from them told him that the environmental destruction was being deliberately subdued. "W-What the?! What kind of attack was that?! S-since when could you do something of this scale?!"

The Libra Saint, in fact, barely looked winded, already charging a second aura. "What if I told you 'ever since the Shoryuha first became available to me'?" he challenged. "This is the attack that finished off Daemon Lucifer; the One Hundred Dragons of Rozan!"

Lance was agape. The only other attack he had sensed of being of this scale of power had been Daemon Lucifer's Dark Revenge Blast, which he sensed could have turned half of Asia into a hole in the ground if fired improperly.

Sensing that his student was still in a state of shock, Dohko continued, keeping his aura balanced.

"Pay attention, Lance, for this is important. What you know to be Rozan Shoryuha, YAH- " and the Master performed a light uppercut in the air "- the Rozan Ryusho, YOH-" then he performed a dashing punch forward "- and even the Rozan Hyakuryuha, AYAH -" and he punctuated this final one by repeating the arm toss of the blast, startling Lance "- are all of them just branches of the same technique tree."

Lance hesitantly nodded, sweating with how terrifying the move was. "Alright… the same tree, then? Are you saying these three moves are some just one?"

"Yes, and this is hopefully what you're experiencing when you struggle with the initial effects of the Waters of Life." Dohko then turned around and pointed at his own armored back, beneath which's protection he had the Tiger Tattoo. "As you know, you and I are not Dragon Saints, so when you and I summon the emerald cosmos, what we are doing is to call upon Seiryu to shape our energy through our tattoos. Seiryu, however, has a terrifying strength by the mere presence of his body. You felt it yourself when you drank his blood."

The Bronze Saint nodded, remembering the terrible pain and panic he felt when the Waters took hold of him. "I thought I was going to die like I was losing control of myself."

"In a way, you were." Dohko punctuated. "The Rozan dragon techniques, Lance, are in truth nothing more than inviting the strength of the mighty dragon into ourselves, causing our lifeforce to swell to its utmost limit, much like we do with our cosmos, allowing us to perform devastating martial moves. Like THIS!" Dohko's arm muscles then bulged, he stepped to the side, released a martial shout, and he uppercuts a pillar on the ground with barely any cosmos, smashing it into pieces of rock and white dust. "…This is why your blood flow goes wild, your muscles swell and your heart becomes especially vulnerable to attacks whenever you use one of these moves."

This made sense to the Pegasus Saint. The Shoryuha was indeed a very powerful attack. Even when he was at his most injured, confused, and tired, like the battle with Cepheus Guardnia, Lance could always count on the Ascending Dragon Force to harness his bodily energy immediately and perform a full-power move. Whereas other techniques like his Charge Fist, Flame Attack, and Eruption grew weaker the more Lance fought on, the Shoryuha was like a sudden rush of water in his body, much like the reversed waterfall, and it indeed felt like someone was taking hold of Lance and helping him make use of his remaining strength with full physical and mental capacity.

Hell, it was so effective at harnessing Lance's strength to full efficiency that Lance felt like his Pegasus Cloth kind of got in the way, and felt he needed to strip off the extra weight before performing the move.

"So, Roshi, if these three attacks are just one move… what move is it?" Lance asked.

Dohko's eyes tensed. "And now we get to the dangerous part of our training… Lance, the truth of what you and I have been doing so far, is that we have been getting away with casting the Rozan Koryuha!"

Lance's memory juggled, recognizing this name. "… You've told me about this before. The Enraged Dragon Force. It's some sort of suicide move, isn't it?" he asked, to which Dohko nodded, pleased that his student had been paying attention.

Dohko laid out his arms. "This emerald aura of cosmos you see in my body now… you probably are thinking that this is the charging of Shoryuha, Ryu Sho, or Hyakuryu ha, correct?"

Lance nodded.

The teacher raised his finger. "Can you tell me just by sensing which of the three moves I'm preparing? Take a good guess, because if you're wrong…" Dohko then smirked. "I'll use the correct answer on you as punishment."

The challenge made Lance gulp, especially considering the answer could very well be the One Hundred Dragons. Lance made an attempt, heightening his 7th sense to analyze Dohko's aura. He focused as hard as he could on its tiniest details. The first thing he noticed was that, unlike with most techniques, this aura of Dohko's was still charging up, slowly raising its energy rather than keeping it at a still level. However, as hard as he tried, it just seemed like Dohko was preparing Shoryuha, the classical move. While the Pegasus felt like guessing as much, he then remembered what Dohko said about the three moves being the same.

Snapping his fingers in realization, Lance pointed at his teacher. "… All of the above!"

Dohko smirked. "Oh, that's an interesting response. Could you tell me why?"

"You're really charging the suicidal one, Koryuha. -" the student answered. "-… but you're gauging it! At any moment, with that same energy, you can instead unleash it in the form of any of the other three! Isn't that right?"

Dohko paused, chuckling to himself. It unnerved the student; he couldn't tell if it was because he had guessed the answer right or because he just gave his teacher an excuse to uppercut his ass.

But the old tiger was fair. "Good job, you're correct!" Then, with a burst of cosmos and a martial shout, Dohko projected three after images that released the strength of his aura in illusions of him performing the three attacks. "Although I did give you a better hint than my teacher did. Use the cosmos, Dohko! Let go, Dohko!'

Lance raised his brow. "That doesn't sound helpful at all! Let go of what?!"

The teacher rolled his eyes. "Uh, exactly! It took me forever to realize she meant I should let go of my fear of the gauging and be confident enough that I could rocket myself to outer space! She was always so careless about her lessons! I think sometimes she forgot not everyone had an immortal Cloth like hers or spent half their lives meditating on a volcano!" Dohko ranted.

It genuinely amused the stoic Pegasus, forcing a smirk on him. "Haisaku, right? You never talk about her."

The Libra Gold Saint nodded. "I do not… but then again you don't say much about your Phoenix friend, either, do you?"

Lance figuratively bit his tongue, reminded of Guilty, and looked away. "True."

Dohko exhaled in melancholy, his aura dispelling. "Perhaps, after all this Specter invasion business is done, you and I can sit down and have a more direct conversation about the two of them." He offered. "Ah… I really miss her sometimes."

The younger Saint felt less nervous about this training all of a sudden. Dohko had shown up in this strange world of frozen perception in his young form, which usually meant that Lance was getting ready for a hell of a physical training and lots of sparring and beatdowns, but Lance had forgotten how at ease he felt with the Master when Dohko just acted like himself and was honest about his lessons. While Roshi also did this sometimes in his old form, it came across a bit ingenuine due to the contrast of the visual information of him looking like an aged old prune. But right then, with Dohko being in his young adult form, he felt like he was hanging out with a friend that understood him as well as one that he really admired.

Thus, even though they were in such an emergency, Lance allowed himself to smile a bit. God knew if he would get a chance to do this again after tonight.

But something really worried him, making him shift eyes. "Roshi… you're not really gonna teach me to shoot myself into the stratosphere, are you?"

Dohko laughed. "Ah, ah, that would be a funny sight, wouldn't it? But no, I am not. This is where the whole 'World's Strongest' nonsense comes in." Dohko punched the air forcefully, bursting it as if to demonstrate his physical prowess. "As you know, Lance, I, your teacher, am really strong."

Lance grumbled. He thought Dohko said they had no time to waste with chit-chat. "… Yes."

Dohko rubbed his nose arrogantly. "In fact, you may say I'm one of the best. NAY, I'm truly the greatest fighter there is in the whole world! Hell, I've defeated the Celestial Star of Pride, aha!" he held his chin pensively. "I've spent decades wondering if anyone could possibly defeat me while sitting under that waterfall, and constantly I've concluded that it's an unsolvable puzzle, a conundrum for the ages! Buddha himself could not find a proper opponent for me if his mind stretches to the vastness of the very cosmos!"

The student knew by now that the best way to get through this was to just nod along, and so he did.

Pleased with this, Dohko pointed at Lance. "But, you see, Cancer Lance,… even my incredible strength falls shy to the raw power the human body can unleash when pushed to its limit. This is because my mind, like any others, has safety limits on it that prevent the full use of my capacities. Little things like how much my heart can pump blood, how much force I can output into my bones, and so on. I'm not talking about cosmos; I'm talking about sheer, brutal physical strength!"

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Lance asked, obviously.

"In this case, no." Dohko shook his head. "Lance, you are a good fighter for a Cancer Saint, but do you have a plan to fight Lucifer yourself?"

Lance scratched his jaw, uncertain. "…No, not really, which kind of frightens me. Usually, my opponents are vulnerable one way or the other. I was betting on banking on my Lightning Charge Fist, to be honest." the Saint confessed. "I never got a chance to use it against the bastard. If it harmed and stunned Tenma, I'm sure it can work on that bat freak, too."

Dohko hummed, intrigued. "Mmm… I see, that checks out with how you described your battle with him to me."

Lance sweated. "Do you agree, then, Master?"

"It's not a bad idea for starters… Your new Lightning element will surely catch him by surprise, even perhaps negate his elemental advantage, too… but it's not enough." The Libra Gold Saint denied, knowing Lucifer's power better than anyone. "Lance, as you are right now, you don't stand a chance at harming Lucifer. You lack the pure destructive power to do so."

This was a condemning sentence, which frightened the Bronze Saint even more. Things were already grim in the most optimistic outlook, with most of them agreeing Aldebaran would likely fall, but Dohko putting the enemy superiority to blunt terms like this painted a dark picture to the Pegasus.

Lance, however, was forced to agree. "Okay, is it because of his power level?"

"Yes, but also his armor. Asides from the gap between him and the average Gold Saint, Lucifer also sports the Daemon Surplice, one of the two strongest protections in the Underworld." Libra explained. The battles between Hyoga and Michael came to mind. "I've seen its twin, Dark Angel, withstand the force of god-slaying attacks with but a single specialized buff. It's not a class of protection you can easily pierce through."

The red-eyed youth looked away, frustrated. He thought about how difficult the battle ahead was and punched a ruined pillar. "Damn it…!" Less and less it seemed like he could survive this.

Dohko felt the fear in him and frowned. "… Don't worry, this is why we are here. I won't let you face this alone, Lance."

But the odds were difficult to ignore for the Pegasus. "How? You say it over and over; he's in a completely different class!"

If there was something good he would do in this unexpected war, it would be to stop Lucifer from hurting his student and friends again. Dohko then raised two fingers. "With our training with the Rozan Koryuha, Lance, you will obtain two benefits;… first, you will learn the basics of the Hyaku Ryu Ha, the most devastating attack of Rozan, and second, you will supplement your existing techniques with the strength of the raging dragon!"

Lance's eyes widened. "The strength of the raging dragon?..."

Dohko spread his feet and braced himself. His aura burned green once more, summoning the strength of the Rozan techniques as if preparing to use Shoryuha. "Upon inviting the spirit of the Dragon into yourself, Lance, your body will be pushed to its absolute limits! The power you obtain from it is such that with a simple gauge, the resulting punch can reverse the waterfall of Rozan!" he reminded his student. "In fact, it is such a great power, that you lose control of your body! Your blood reverses its course, you adopt subconscious movements like lowering your left guard and your muscles swell momentarily!"

And to illustrate this, Dohko then paused to allow the technique to show this takeover of his bodily functions, making his chest and arms tense against their protections, his skin to grow slightly redder as if angry and the gentle, watery aura of cosmos to suddenly rage in an upwards draft, echoing the drums of Seiryu. Even his left arm lowered itself slightly, exposing the weakness of Dohko's heart. It was a familiar demonstration to Lance.

"So, Lance, can you imagine what will happen to your body…" and then Dohko allowed the aura to continue charging, causing his teeth to grit with the effort of containing the power, as if he was turning into an erupting volcano "… if you don't unleash this strength right away, but rather let it reach its peak?!"

Lance sweated, picturing the repercussions. "… You would… explode." is all he could say.

And then Dohko's aura absolutely raged, resembling less a water elemental aura and more of a raging flame of a cosmos threatening to burst. At this point, Dohko's whole body shook. "Behold, Lance… this is the Enraging Dragon Force… the final form of the Shoryuha. In this state, my body is so powerful that it is the World's Strongest…. However-" Dohko then hurled all the cosmos he was accumulating outwards in the shape of another round of Hyakuryuha, further bombarding their surroundings. "- that is such a great power that you will literally not be able to contain it. Unless you release it in the form of a Rozan technique, the force will slip out of your control and painfully exert itself on you, breaking your body and worse."

As the green light of the new blasts subsided behind him, the student gulped nervously. "Okay… so I can see what will be involved in casting this Hyaku technique… I charge it as I would Shoryuha, only to a much higher and riskier level."

Dohko nodded "It takes practice, skill, and nothing less than bravery to perfect this, because if you let it get out of control… you'll become the first man in history to have a funeral in space." Dohko then looked around. "This is why this location is perfect for this. The Waters of Life have allowed your perception to transport yourself into Seiryu's realm. We are almost literally in the belly of the beast, a place with no defined time or space, the bloodstream of a God."

"Oh, what a relief, I'll only rocket myself into an endless Hirasaka-like void!" Lance sarcastically quipped.

Dohko hummed. "That is a good way to put it. I suppose Yomotsu Hirasaka is similar to this place in a lot of ways." Dohko then resumed his pose, hand grasping the blade handle. "Alright, let's start, begin charging your technique!"

Lance waved his hands. "Whow, whow, whoa, wait! Hold on! How does all of this supplement my techniques?! And why are you getting that sword ready like you're gonna stab me?!"

Dohko rolled his eyes and relaxed with this delay. "Haven't you figured it out? Remember when you were training to get Lightning and you tried perfecting that dumb Fire-elemental Charge Fist?!"

Lance blinked. This was back when he was practicing the move against a Symplegades rock to figure out how to beat Tenma. "Yes, you told me it wouldn't work because it left me no power to propel myse-"" but Lance's eyes widened midway. "…. Ohh…"

The teacher's hand laid itself out. "I'm not telling you to go back to that move in particular, but right now Lucifer doesn't know you're a Lightning elemental or have any skill with Koryuha… but if you perfect Koryuha, which is strong enough to overwhelm even a Gold Saint, as a rocketing propellant…"

Lance's mind went wild with the repercussions. "The power of my Lightning Charge Fist would vastly increase! I would punch that guy straight across a Temple!"

Dohko laughed, tapping his own head pensively. "Now you're thinking like the world's strongest! If you perfected that power-up, you wouldn't even need to use Shoryuha ever again!" he then resumed his stance. "Also, I told you not to worry about the sword, didn't I? Just try out the move. To cast the Hyaku Ryu Ha, gauge it up as much as you can until you feel your body brimming with energy… and then focus that energy between your hands in the shape of a ball."

Nodding obediently, the red-eyed Pegasus assumed a concentration pose, calming his breath, resting arms by waste with braced fists and placing his feet apart tensely, as if ready to receive an attack. Yet, he couldn't help but hold his pace anxiously. He hadn't thought about this way to approach his Charge Fist issue; namely using the kamikaze-version of the dragon technique to his advantage. He supposed it was too risky to try it now and he should work on the safer, more powerful Hyaku Ryu Ha first.

He began as he usually did with the Shoryuha; letting his cosmos burn up around his tattoo to awaken it as a conduit, shaping the energy into that of Seiryu's. Therefore, his basic white aura first began burning with its characteristic pale blaze associated to the fire-wielding Pegasus before it slowly adopted a green tint and morphed its dancing fire contours into gentle, watery currents. Immediately the sensation of the tattoo's tightening its claw on the spot of Lance's heart was felt on his back, a familiar step.

Just as Dohko described, and just as Lance has experienced before when using Shoryuha, he felt his body heat up and his muscles tighten against his will. He supposed it was a sensation similar to what he felt when drinking the Waters of Life, only much tamer.

"Seiryu is one of the four Gods of life, before he is of water, rivers, and waterfalls," Dohko reminded Lance. "Therefore to invite him into a mortal body is to cause its vital signs, its life force if you will, to be bolstered out of its normal rhythm. To cast a Rozan technique is, hence, to use that power to your advantage."

Lance nodded in accord, silent so as to not lose concentration. He easily reached the stage where his heart began beating slightly faster and his upper body muscles tensed in such a way that his right fist unwillingly closed and his left arm dropped slightly, an imbalance resultant of the heart being slightly to the body's left and the main cause of Shoryuha's critical weak point. At this particular stage, Lance could use either the Shoryuha uppercut or the Ryu Sho dash punch, the latter of which he typically didn't due to being redundant next to his trademark Charge Fist.

So far, so good. Now he would enter the dangerous territory.

Pumping more of his cosmos through the tattoo, Lance caused his aura to enlarge slowly, its watery surface flowing faster like a rapid. He now inhabited himself with a larger portion of transfigured energy than he ever has. It made him feel as if swimming in a refreshing pool of water, his air flowing slightly up as if his entire body was inside real liquid. With his eyes closed, Lance gritted teeth as he somehow felt the sensation of Seiryu's serpentine body wrapping itself around him.

A sudden echelon of charging was achieved, causing his body to tense its muscles painfully. Lance's eyes opened with a scream muffled between his teeth as his muscles felt invaded by an alien, invigorating energy. His aura expanded. Small pebbles around him were blown away by it, creating successive waves of dust that battered the unflinching Dohko.

"Don't lose concentration now!" Dohko urged. His hand tucked his sword nervously, observing his student like a hawk. "It's about to get interesting…"

The student knew why this was said soon enough, for the energy began to swell into pockets of power inside his spirit as if forming something. The Bronze Saint felt as if Seiryu himself was being shaped inside him the more cosmos he put into this charge. If he understood correctly, he needed to persevere past this until he reached a point where Hyaku Ryu Ha could be formed and tossed. It did feel like he was packing the power of several successive Shoryuhas into himself, and perhaps that was the secret.

However, the student had to struggle with himself, tensing his fingers into his palms so hard that he felt his nails dig into his flesh when a whole new level was achieved. His aura expanded once more, this time exerting enough outward force to bash away the strange atmosphere of Seiryu's world like a real wind. Lance began having difficulty breathing, feeling his heart beat faster, his body sweating, and his muscle frame threatening to burst at the seams as the pockets of lifeforce he felt began consolidating into his cosmos. His aura seemingly shaped two golden eyes above his head and the faint roar of a dragon was heard.

Dohko raised his free hand at him as if to calm the student. "Okay, control your breathing…" he instructed, but the student could only take harsh, involuntary gasps. "You're about to reach the point we want! When you do, you need to keep the presence of mind to shape all that incredible power into what you want!"

The pupil tried to nod, but only a frantic sentence came out. "I… I'm going to b-be ripped apart!" His body was starting to shake so much that it didn't seem realistic for his skeleton to hold the body mass together.

Dohko smirked nervously. "Yes… that's what it feels to be the world's strongest, for your limiters to be ignored and to have so much incredible power inside you that you could kick that Daemon bastard all the way across the Zodiac!" His fist clenched at him encouragingly. "Now, join your hands above each other and shape that power into one hundred blasts!"

Struggling to control his own arms, Lance held them out and obeyed, his fingers curling like claws. Facing one palm with the other, he narrowed his eyes in focus and burned his cosmos into his fingers, thinking about the attack form he wanted. Green sparks of energy coursed between the palms, barely meeting but forming nothing. His aura now raged uncontrollably, like a raging volcano.

The teacher still smiled. "That's it, keep at it! Picture the roar of the dragon emperor!"

Following the esoteric instructions as best as he could, Lance gasped in the effort and pictured said sound, but it just caused his hands to misfire more connecting tissues of cosmos, barely forming a small sphere that immediately popped out. "A-agh… I can't! It won't… take shape!"

"You won't get it right the first time, just keep at it!" Dohko urged. His left thumb now gently pressed itself up the katana's guard.

Unaware of this, Lance tried once more to shape the Hyaku Ryu Ha, but now he could barely keep his arms up. They shook almost in revolt against him as his aura, drenched in Seiryu's influence, grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly he dropped to his knee!

Dohko's eyes widened. "No, get back up! You must NOT lose focus!"

Lance's arms dropped too. "I… I need to stop!"

Dohko sweated nervously as he saw the draconic aura rage on even more fiercely, slowly wrapping Lance with small dancing dragons of energy. "You CAN'T! Your cosmos is swelling beyond your control! If you don't release it now, it will become the Koryuha!"

Knowing this, Lance made the ultimate effort, roaring in rage against his own body and ordering it to get on its feet. Small specks of white cosmos were seen suddenly bursting amongst the green.

"That's it! Use your Pegasus side, the one that doesn't belong to Seiryu!" Dohko advised, relieved. He could still salvage this. "Then take back control and fire the Hyaku Ryu Ha!"

With a foot firmly planted back on the ground, Lance rose slowly and forcefully as if a massive weight was on top of him. He could feel the Dragon's claws sunk deep into his heart, hijacking his mortal vessel. "I won't let you…This is MY body!" he urged to himself.

But the aura possessing him just exploded out of control, enlarging so much and with such power that it pushed Dohko back a bit. Teacher and student both shouted, one in appeal, and the other in pain. The aura now spiraled around Lance's body like a whirlpool, taking over him.

Stepping back, Dohko looked up and saw Seiryu fully formed into a mist of green, its ethereal hand seemingly grasping the Pegasus. "How weak." it lamented, before twisting its body upwards and shooting across the sky, taking Lance with him with a raging roar.

Seeing the Rozan Koryuha come out in full force, Dohko shouted. "NO!" and he leaped into the air at the speed of light, blazing across the fake sky like a golden meteor, hand grasping the katana.

Intercepting the rocketing missile of green cosmos, the drawing slash was executed in the form of a blinding, tightening flash of metal white, cutting down Lance instantaneously, somehow dispelling the Koryuha aura and letting out a shower of violent red from the student.

Dohko landed gracefully like a cat, sword in hand bathed in red. Now that it was out, the blade was heavily brittle and was burning with the shine of a green vein across it that quickly faded out into a normal, ruined edge. Lance right afterward collapsed on the ground with a loud thud, unconscious on a pool of his own blood.

The old tiger panted, beholding his own work. "D-damn it… it had to come to this!" he hissed to himself. Walking over to his student and turning him over, he saw the long, deep gash in his chest. "You i-idiot, you didn't keep it under wraps!"

"… What a shame. I had some hopes for this." Seiryu commented on the shine of his power reflected as a green glint on the blade's edge.

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

Twin Peaks Mountain

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

Casting his golden touch on the Pegasus, Iaso worked feverishly to keep the Bronze Saint alive. The spasms had stopped, but his heart rate was still off the chart and the youth remained unconscious.

"By Apollo's bloody arrow, this isn't working!" he complained. His free hand's Cloth gauntlet slid its claws unto his fingers.

'Kiki' held that arm with a shocking amount of strength, though. "WAIT, what are you doing?!" the lilac-haired boy screamed. "You have to help him!"

"I am helping, kid! I'm going to apply a relaxing agent from one of my Cloth's poisons!" Iaso explained. "We need to get this heart's beating down to 60 or pretty soon it's gonna jump out of his throat so fast it will sing Edgar Poe's Tell Tale!"

While Mu was absolutely grossed out by this notion, he let go of the arm. Before Iaso could sink his fangs into Lance, however, the Pegasus Saint's shirt, already red, suddenly became soaked from the inside as a flesh-tearing sound was heard.

Shocked, the doctor raised his garment and saw a deep sash now in the Bronze Saint's body. "What the-… What NOW?!"

Mu covered his mouth. "He's hurt!"

Cleaning sweat off his brown brow, the doctor narrowed his eyes, cracked his knuckles, and focused on his work. "That blasted Water… I don't know what the fuck it's doing to you, Pegasus, but I won't let it kill you! Or I'm no doctor at all!" he then burned his purple cosmos and went to work on closing the wound with his Golden Touch. "Kiki, go to my Box and get me the bowl, the clean fabric, the small bag of meds in the corner, and the BIG tape roll!"

"Y-yes!"

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

Rodario

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

They were still talking about what happened. She could tell from the window it was already dark outside.

Leaning against the wall in utter shame, the Cyrulian girl, Cerah Héloise, had no idea how to defend herself. "E-Eurydice, I… don't know what happened. I'm racking my brain about how my day went and I have no idea when I even grabbed them." Her hands pressed against her crying face. "I would never do this, I s-swear!"

The blind, blonde Nymph sat at the table. She wasn't mad, just bewildered. Even without sight, she knew Cerah wasn't the type to steal, especially something so superficial like silver cutlery. She could also tell from voice alone when people she knew for a long time were lying or not. After a while, sensitive as Eurydice was, she began to notice the slight tremble that liars applied to certain words when they were worried about getting caught. In Cerah, however, all she could pick up was a deep sense of distraught and shame, like someone who just discovered they ran over someone's precious pet when distracted on the wheel.

Her hands reached out for one of the stolen knives. Even if she couldn't distinguish precious metals by touch alone, feeling it up to down once more, she clearly felt they were valuable just from the intricate way the handle was carved, possessing different densities and detailed indentures that no one would ever go through the trouble of putting on something that would go in someone else's mouth unless for the money of it.

"This is serious… we could get in trouble. Even if I've been here for over a year, we are still newcomers." The Nymph thought, picturing the accusing fingers that would soon point themselves at them.

"I k-know, it's aw-wful, Eurydice, I'm so sorry!" the Cyrulian girl cried out, horrified. She took the utensils and piled them all up together. "I'm going to return them first thing tomorrow… no, I'll sneak back tonight and put them back in place! That way, no one will notice they are g-gone!"

With the massive distress in the teenage girl coming off like a fire alarm, the older woman quickly reached out for her. "Cerah, stop, don't be silly!" she shouted, picturing the teenager getting caught in the act. "There's probably guards at your patron's houses at this hour! You'll do it in the morning!"

Cerah's head shook when Eurydice grabbed her wrist. "NO, let go, I HAVE to do something, I MUS-"

The Nymph pulled the younger girl in and hugged her head against her own chest tightly. "No, shhh…Calm down, Cerah…It's okay." she hushed.

Her mind, knowledgeable of the cosmos, had been searching for answers since Doctor Iaso left and the Nymph now had a few suspicions about what caused this.

Her frail, thin fingers touched the pendant's collar on Cerah's nape. "The Corvus Cloth…Cerah once used it to save my life… could it be now trying to ruin hers?"

The terror of getting Eurydice in trouble and the horror of having stolen something from people who trusted her made the girl shake uncontrollably, even in the Nymph's warm embrace. "I… I don't know how… why… what I've done! I'm s-so sorry!"

Feeling the panic stemming off the younger girl's body, the Nymph didn't know whether to chuckle at such jovial anxiety from the principled girl's to get things right or be terribly stunned at the implications this had about her psychology. Eurydice didn't know much about the innards of the human mind other than what her seductive nymph upbringing and personal experience allowed her to, but she did know about Athena's attack dogs, the Cyrulian Knights of the Zodiac, and how they infamously impressed their steeled values on even their small children.

It was in some places said that a Cyrulian child was born with three things; a sword in their left hand, a fistful of Light cosmos in their right, and a heart of steel in their chest that abhorred thieves. This last part was because people knew Cyrulians were very protective of their secrets, especially Lightcraft metallurgy and artisanship, and thus were often very punitive of anyone caught stealing.

And this one Cyrulian had to get a Cloth that taught you to be greedy.

She petted the Cyrulian's hair, relaxing her. "…Take it easy, Cerah, you're exhausted. You had a long day and you made a mistake."

Her breathing indeed calmed. As her face grew less red, Cerah wiped her tears off and left the embrace. "Thank you… I'm calm now. I don't know… where that came from," she apologized, referring to the spectacle of her tears.

The blind woman smiled. "I told you, as soon as the sun rises you'll return the cutlery. We'll then have a conversation about what happened. I have a couple of ideas about what went wrong."

Cerah gulped. She was incredibly lucky to have a friend as understanding as Eurydice. "…What do you mean?"

The older Nymph sterned her sick eyes. "… Do you hear anything?"

Cerah blinked and tried to pay attention to sounds. "Um,… no."

Standing up suddenly from her seat, the heavenly creature became tense. "What time is it?"

Having never seen Eurydice like this, Cerah immediately looked at the clock. "It's close to midnight. Eurydice, what's wrong?"

The Nymph walked right into where the window was as if to hear the street better. "Usually I hear the owls at this hour…I started noticing their cooing soon after we moved in here. They like to perch on the rooftops to look for mice."

The Cyrulian girl got tense, her battle instincts awakening. "You mean…?" She then touched her temple to focus and expanded her limited 7th sense, looking for signatures. "…Eurydice, I can't sense anyone's cosmos."

Deducing something awful happened, the blind adult frowned as a shadowy veil silently glided into the window. "Check carefully outside, Cerah, and hide your cosmo-"

"There's no need for that." A familiar male voice called, getting their attention.

Eurydice gasped. Cerah's eyes widened in shock and she dropped the utensils to the ground. "L…"

A heartbeat was skipped by the unseeing Nymph, recognizing the voice from the sweet proud boy she used to know. "…Lucian?"

Seeing her teacher after a long, arduous year, the Corvus girl covered her own mouth, feeling her eyes wet again. "L-….Lucifer!"

The tall red-eyed man in armor raising himself from the kitchen's floor from his subtle landing stared them down. "In fact, you two should bar your doors. It's a night of death out there."

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Chapter 49 - Episode 14 - The False Holy War

Deadline: Chapter is already written and will finish beta-reading soon.

Description: Eurydice demands to know from Lucifer what he intends with the attack on Sanctuary. Meanwhile, Dohko continues his struggle with Lance to teach him the Hyaku Ryu Ha and the False Specters finally reach the heart of Sanctuary.

Author's Notes:

This was a bit of an awkward chapter to write for me, mostly because I wasn't sure of the finer details of how I wanted to tackle Twin Peaks Mountain and the scenes of Lance training under Dohko. I often felt during the writing that the scenes were too expository or lacked natural interaction in the conversations. Lance's interactions with Iaso underwent a lot of revisions, mostly because their personalities have some similar traits (both of them are suspicious and self-demanding) so I had to find new interesting ways to characterize them.

For those of you who don't remember or have only read the manga, Twin Peaks Mountain is the location in the original Saint Seiya anime where Seiya goes to collect the Waters of Life for Shiryu's blindness. Throughout it he is attacked by guardian eagles, which together with his fight with Crow Jamian fueled the running joke on Saint Seiya's Discord that Seiya is somehow uniquely vulnerable to bird attacks (fucking birds, man).

Anyway, 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 or the Saint Seiya Reddit server, where you can get updates on Sho and ND directly, not to mention chat with me and many other English-speaking SS fans.

Finally, get ready for a surprise with next chapter's release. I will try to publish it around a week or two after the release of this one to make up for the long development process these two chapters took : )

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