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.

50. 2A: The Invasion

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: The 50th chapter has been reached in the story, another milestone. September has also been a healthy month for hits, with a score of approximately 500 readings.

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Please enjoy and review (^_^

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"Contrary to popular belief, it's not often that the Golden Zodiac gets breached and the Aries Temple goes most of its history without ever seeing the enemy. During the wars with Poseidon there was never a Mariner incursion into Greece because the Sea God knew perfectly well he had time on his side, as far as flooding the world went. Why attack Sanctuary when you can get what you set out for from home?

Sometimes, it's outdoor battling that decides the war instead; the Three Civil Wars of Sanctuary were fought entirely on the open field, especially the most recent one, and Priam would likely have claimed victory if he had just managed to keep the Gold Cloths he stole and forced the Pope to the negotiation table. Likewise, in the 10th century, Arles I won the war over for his imperialist party when he decisively defeated the adversary Gold Saints in the fields outside Rodario.

That the Golden Zodiac gets to be the gauntlet it's famous for being is therefore rare. In fact, history usually favors the opposite scenario; Sanctuary, with its numeric superiority, unlimited resources, and pre-established domain, has to sally out with its Gold Saints and take the battle to the enemy, whether it be Atlantis, the Steps of Olympus, the Underworld or the Lost Canvas complex itself, usually before the enemy drops a meteor on the planet or some other sort of ticking time-bomb goes off.

The Fire Clock has been lit more often to time the progress of an aggressive operation, rather than a defensive one. We would be in dire straits if it was used for its stereotypical purpose, for it would mean Sanctuary would have lost the first attack and was now fighting for its survival. Any sensible strategic leader would prefer to fight Saints outside of Sanctuary and bend Athena's arm from afar rather than stick their neck inside a mountain fortress that has never been toppled.

There obviously have been, however, situations where a battle for Sanctuary's temples was fought. But, once you run past Aries, it's unthinkable to turn your back to the rest of the temples, so if you set your foot in it you better have a damn good reason to do so.

-quote from Aquarius Malta's historical treatises.

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1503,

Underworld,

Giudecca Prison Cells

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In a place far removed from the light of the sun or even the stars of the Underworld, in the palace of Hades where all hope was abandoned and the shadows roamed in the halls void of happiness, Lucian still remained chained in his basement cell after Pandora came to mock him for losing the most important battle of his life (*).

(*) See Flashback of Chapter 35

As a jail, it was nothing compared to the actual Prisons of the Underworld. It was just a dark hole in the Emperor's basement for him to sit at for a little while with only a small space to move around and no light. He was not being dipped into boiling blood or forced to roll a boulder like the mythical Sisyphus. It was just a place for him to stew his brain about how life was basically over and his teacher Thanatos would likely slam open the door and personally end his useless existence.

And dark and boring as it was, the place certainly offered him no distraction from his impending doom.

At this point in his life, Lucian, who was to become known as Dark Angel Lucifer should he have won on Judgement Day, was too proud a man to weep and had gone through too much sacrifice in training to feel like his loss was anyone's but his own. But the depression he felt was undeniable; his teenage years spent under the boot of people like Pandora and Rhadamanthys had been for naught and now a pacifist sissy from the streets of Munich had unexpectedly supplanted him. Lucian wasn't sure what was worse; the humiliating outcome of the battle, the disappointed look on the Emperor's face, the angry sneer in Thanatos as he realized he owed his twin brother a large number of his favorite nymphs, or the sadness in Eurydice's eyes at the whole affair being so cruelly fought over at all.

Rhadamanthys' whiskey-stanched cackle ranked very high on the list, though.

What would he do now? What could he do? He spent years mocking his rival to the seat, saying his cowardly attitude would get him killed on Judgement Day. Why should the Emperor spare Lucian any more mercy compared to what Lucian held in store for Michael? He could kiss his dreams of being a mighty Prince of the Emperor goodbye and he could especially say farewell to all the dreams that Pandora filled his head with about supplanting the Pope as the lord of Hades' new world of silence.

Truly, things couldn't get any worse.

Or so he thought.

The hinged door cringed and opened, letting the light of the candles of Guidecca's corridors peer in, and a winged, armored figure descended down the steps to come to visit. Lucian's eyes, uncursed and blue as of this point, squinted and were shielded by his hand. At first, he thought it was Rhadamanthys and his fist clenched, ready to punch the mouth of the English prick right through the cell door gaps as soon as it opened, if possible.

But he blinked in recognition. "Oh… it's you."

Michael's new eyes, red like blood, frowned sadly down on him.

The suit of armor he wore was none other than the Dark Angel Surplice they fought over; and it was just as terrifyingly beautiful as it was promised by Hades. With a primary color of deep Damascus black and a secondary color set of tones of grey, the Surplice was adorned with emerald green jewels and carvings of gold. It possessed a design slightly lighter than a Judge's armor for flexibility, but making clever use of segmented-plating in critical areas to maintain the high defense standard. The reinforced knees, forearms, and belt were encrusted with a central emerald each from the mines of the Underworld.

The thigh faulds and upper shoulder plates were pointy like the Bennu Surplice's, but the lower shoulder guards curved down on the arms. The chest plate, rising uninterrupted from the belt, showed off a metallic abdomen and an upper chest reinforced by a wings-shaped segmentation, and most of the limb parts, including the greaves, gauntlets, and shoulder plates, were adorned with lines of gold like Hypnos' hair. Finally, the black crown, alluding to a corrupted angelic dove, was composed of a piece of grey wings protecting the ears joined by the forehead through a band to a central piece in the vague shape of a bird's head, with two emeralds on it acting as eyes and a smaller pair of dark wings sprouting out of it.

The silver-haired man's awed look was obvious to Michael. "It looks impressive, doesn't it?" Michael asked in his irritatingly soft voice.

There was a humiliated dodging of his eyes, but the jailed warrior could not block off what his 7th sense told him. "The Emperor did not lie…It's as if they made it as close to a Kamui as possible without actually making it godly..." he realized, trying not to think about how he almost obtained it himself.

Michael clenched his fist to show off the gauntlet's flexibility. "It's incredible. I tested it before coming here and it amplified my fire cosmos aura so high that it burned off the Cocytus river ice into a boiling steam stream. I feel like I can take on half the Zodiac by myself with it!" But after this showing off, the Prince looked Lucian over for injuries. "Are you okay, Lucifer? Did they hurt you?"

Lucian irked. "I'm fine! The only wounds I have are from you! And don't call me that, because I sure haven't earned it! What in damnation do you want?! Did you come down here to mock me?!" he accused; his frown venomous. "Or maybe to show me that armor?! It must feel good to parade that around now, not that you were ever especially interested in getting it, right?!"

The new Dark Prince of Hades sighed sadly. For a long time, he had stated to everyone around him that he wasn't interested in becoming a killer, that he wished to serve Hades in other ways. He even had attempted to find a new way to appease the Emperor without one of them having to die. Unfortunately, Lucian and the others had always interpreted this as an attempt to run from his duty, and from a fight everyone expected him to lose.

He had to make amends before it was too late. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Lucifer, but that's not why I'm here. You know I would never do that to you."

This only incensed the silver-haired warrior further and he bashed the cell bars angrily. "Do I?! Do any of us know anything about you, Michael?! Or is that strength of yours all you were keeping under wraps?!" he roared, revolted, feeling like he could toss a bed at the liar. He perused the pacifist once again, the sight of the Surplice driving him insane. "Don't you look gallant in that thing… you even got new eyes, and even dyed your hair like Hypnos! Is that your way to adulate him for favors?!"

The Dark Angel paused, understanding. Lucian had a lot on his shoulders right now. This could even be the last time they spoke. "You're frustrated and scared, it's okay…"

"I'M NOT AFRAID! I feel NO fear!" the would-be-Specter shouted, startling the Dark Prince. His finger pointed at the Angel. "…I will face my teacher when the time comes, so don't you worry about me. The Emperor has no need for two Princes and I certainly wouldn't want to live in a world where my destiny can be stolen like this by a weakling like you!"

And this touched on a sore spot, as made evident by the darkening of Michael's saddened gaze.

Standing upright, the prince defended himself. "Why do you hate me like that?" Michael demanded to know. "For all these years that I slept in terror of the coming of Judgement Day, I feared you, Lucian… but I never hated you! We've done nothing wrong to one another, so we don't have to be enem-"

"I hate you cause you're fucking weak, got it?!" Lucian explained to no uncertain terms.

It widened Michael's new eyes. "…Weak?..." he then let out a small chuckle of disheartenment. "Is that how you see me?... So even if I defeat you in the most important battle of our lives…-"

Lucian nodded cruelly. "That's right!... There's more to being a man among men than a fight, Michael! Sure, you beat me in this one contest of strength… but your endless meekness will ultimately fail you as a Prince! All these years in the Underworld you spent trying to convince the Emperor to get us out of Judgement Day because you don't have the balls to do what needs to be done unless the guillotine is hanging over your neck!" Feeling he let some poison out, Lucian's breathing relaxed and he sat back, confident in his prophecy. "And that will happen again and again with you... because you don't have the drive or the vision to take the destiny of our sin-wretched world into your hands!"

A pained silence followed. The winged Prince seemed to be processing this outburst of Lucian, his eyes looking away in disappointment. Once more, the silver-haired saw signs of what truly laid beneath the surface of the fake blonde's psychology; despite the armor he now wore, Michael thought too much like a Saint instead of a Specter.

In Lucifer's eyes this was Michael's ultimate flaw; his old kind side still clang to the memory of his lost older brother and Michael would never stop pursuing the enlightened solution, as opposed to the practical one. The blonde seemed to fail to see the contradiction in how he became a Specter precisely because Athena's enlightenment no longer worked for him and, yet, here he was, seeking it again.

But even though an expression of indignant should have filled his face, the prince instead sought more from Lucian. "If this armor was on your shoulders… what would you do?"

Lucian chuckled, already seeing shades of Michael's old human life in these words. "You know my answer word for word; I would shove my boot down the necks of these miscreants who think they deserve this Eden the Gods have given us, and I wouldn't stop pressing down until the law of the world was enforced, the law of the strong and divinely mandated! Through my hand, the Emperor would cleanse the weak, dirty life of the world as he wishes to… and I would remake it into something that would bring him to tears!"

The Dark Angel paused, spending a good minute thinking this over, pacing around the corridor. Knowing him as Lucian did, he was probably bewildered by the level of needless violence this entailed and this. "Don't you think that's foolish, though?" Michael finally confronted. "Lucian… I never understood this facet of yours. You are such an intelligent and strong person, so why do you feel the need to uphold this… birthright you claim for yourself?"

"You said it all, it's my birthright!" Lucian confronted.

This made no sense to the Prince. "By whose authority? Yours? That of a dead man from half a millennium ago? If you walked into Sanctuary right now, strong as you are, who would crown you?" Michael interrogated, poking holes in his illusion. "Lucian… you could still be a great man… if you just forgot about that garbage and moved on."

Lucian gritted his teeth furiously. "Is this what you're here for?! To irritate me?!"

Michael stepped forward. "No, to appeal to you. We Specters don't have to stay stagnant like this, mired in the same obsessions. Do you know the first thing that happened after they took you away?" he asked. "Rhadamanthys immediately challenged me. He refused to accept that he would have to take orders from me now."

The failed man took a pause. He honestly wasn't sure who he would root for in that scenario right then. "… What about it? He would have done the same to me!"

Michael looked away pensively. "But to my surprise,… it ended up not happening. The Specters refused to entertain his request and even mocked him for it. Minos says they saw such strength in me against you that it was pointless to watch him take a shot at me." He then beamed, even letting out a small chuckle. "I was so happy… For the first time since I came down here, I had peers, people who…accepted me."

Lucifer truly felt like he could puke.

Michael then faced him once more. "Lucian… even Kagaho nodded at me. Can you believe it?"

The blue-eyed would-be Prince blinked, taken by surprise. Unbeknownst to Michael, Lucian realized how much this meant to the blonde Prince. "… That thug? But he hates you. He thinks you're even more weak-hearted than I do."

Michael looked at his armored hands in self-reflection. "They now call me the Celestial Absolute Star…the mightiest of the Specters. And I realized that, as a Prince, I could do so much good, much more than the Judges have ever dreamed of, but…. to harness their strength, their will to help me… I have to be stronger. No, I have to be exemplary to everyone else." The soft-faced Prince then inhaled deeply and prepared himself for the toughest thing he had to say yet. "It made me realize why you lost against me."

Lucian's eyes narrowed dangerously. "… I would pick my words very carefully if I were you!"

But the Prince was unmoved. "Lucian… it's not a lie that I was as surprised at my triumph as much as everyone else was, but I realize now why it happened; because no matter how hard you punched me down, shocked me, or made me bleed, I had something bigger than myself to get back up with." His eyes then squinted uncharacteristically. "But you only had an old laurel crown in mind, something for yourself… it was a matter of time before my endurance prevailed over yours."

Lucian blinked. "… for myself?!"

Michael nodded. "Selfish motivations don't carry us through difficult moments, Lucian. They only remind us of how miserable and unfulfilled we are. In a dark moment when all hope for victory is lost, when your strength fails you, when your opponent has a card you do not expect or when you just slip on the floor and misfire your greatest move…the only thing more powerful than a survival instinct, that gets you back up, that lets you tap into that unknown strength deep inside of us… is knowing that you're fighting for something bigger than yourself. To me, … it was to get into a place where I could change the world around me, make it as the Emperor intends. To you, it was to embellish yourself, to pay a tribute to your pride."

The silver-haired youth stood there jaw-dropped. "… Do you want me to vomit?! You're talking like a goddamn Saint, Michael!" he roared. "I don't have to listen to this effete shit! I would rather Thanatos order me hanged upside down and dipped into the Styx! Get out, you fairy! NOW!" he yelled, pointing at the exit.

Michael nodded. "Alright, I will." And he began heading out. He stopped short of the trapdoor. "I'm going to speak to the Emperor about you. Don't lose hope."

The endless fake kindness drove him mad. "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU?!"

The Prince frowned. "Because despite everything, as servants of the Emperor, we are like one hundred and eight brothers, Lucian…And I am the Celestial Absolute Star now, not just after you're dead. Me being an example to the others starts now," he argued. "And I'm convinced there's a lot more for the Emperor to gain with you as one of us than as a corpse."

With his fists burning in anger and cringing at his chains, Lucian then watched his detested rival leave him in the dark again for a little while more to steam out his thoughts.

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Present,

Sanctuary Town

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The silent streets of Sanctuary Town were traversed by the slow, shambling force of men in black Damascus armor headed by Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial Star of Pride. Not even the metal hitting concrete was heard. Only a faint shambling of scythe shafts, a tribute to Skeleton Soldier's discretion.

Walking through these Mediterranean homes and the tall, imposing acropolis of Sanctuary's four main streets filled the Prince with nostalgic thoughts. Not only had it been around there that he had fought Taurus Rasgado two hundred and twenty-five years earlier, but he had many times conspired in the past of conquering them, either through sword or glory. He dreamed countlessly of burning the decadence in them to the ground and reshape Athena's holy land into the imperial paradise it once had been.

Yet, he had only actually stopped there once or twice while clad in his battle suit, which was amazing considering that the silver-haired, red-eyed man was the Left Arm of Hades himself. This march along the fabled Herculean Road was therefore a historical moment for himself; more than just the prelude to his triumph. It was a manifestation of his long-awaited destiny, either as the descendant of Arles I or as the servant of Hades. How incredible that it would finally happen only with him released from the leash of both his family and his dreadful, lying God. Truly, destiny was something one should seize yourself, not wait for Athena, Hades, or some other Master to kindly hand it down to you.

As they passed by the church building by the First Acropolis, noticing its objects of adoration to Athena, Daemon stopped to analyze it. Sanctuary Town's four acropolis were famous and had been there since the onset of the town, meaning the ending of the Lost Canvas War. It was there that he wanted to confirm something he had once heard from Charon.

His gauntleted hand rested on the marble of its walls, recognizing its texture. "So impeccable… it really is the same boulder that Alone crafted his Planet Temples with." He concluded, remembering this purity in the white only in the structures of Lost Canvas fortress or the Golden Zodiac itself. His tongue clicked, remembering old news from Charon about the fortress landing on top of Sanctuary after Alone's demise. "Mmm, mmm, you really are a cheap fuck, aren't you, Shion? I bet you thought there was some poetic justice to this. Well, it will just make it easier for me to convert it to a temple adoring me."

The bronze-skinned woman in Egyptian Surplice looked up at the small mountain ahead of them that occupied the center of the valley. "There it is, the Golden Zodiac…" she called out.

Gesturing for his comrades to take a good look at it, Behemoth Torak stood aside to give them a clearer visage. "Take a good look, for that is our rise to glory."

The entire battalion followed her eyes to the rising, tall mound at the end of the road. The massif began a small, safe distance from the rest of the urbanization and it grew much bigger than the four acropolises. While this allowed it to be easily detected from any corner of the valley, only from this closer distance could the Specters and Skeletons make out the most important thing about it; the set of twelve temples linked by long, steep staircases that dotted its height all the way up to the top, where an even larger papal chamber stood as the final obstacle before the legendary Colossus, the gigantic Rhodesian statue made for the Goddess Athena.

Many of them clasped their scythes and spears tighter, seeing their objective in material form; one thing was to be subjected to the propaganda of Hades, and the other was to gaze upon the hated structure itself. Already their feet seemed to grow sore at the sight of the seemingly endless stairsteps going up, down, left and right along the mount's rugged surface. Already they somehow felt the presence of unsurmountable knights of old in each and every building through the many jamming fields they were setting up. Already many of them felt the death cries of old enemies of Athena wail at them from underneath the mountain, be them Specters, Berserkers, or worse, like a ghastly warning from thousands of years of folly and hate against the Saints.

They shivered, chuckled, and smiled; an odd mix of emotions. This place truly looked great, clad in granite and marble from an age where Gods and men walked the earth together, with treasures as vast as Solomon's mines and glory as crushing as that of Alexander's campaigns awaiting those who mastered it. It would be a fitting tribute to their invincible Prince. From there, they realized, the entire world could truly be ruled.

Even Lucifer was not immune to the awe inspired by the Zodiac. He looked at his own left arm, where he last felt the grasp of his best friend (*) "This is it, Michael… the place we vowed to conquer. You and your vision fell to its lies, but I have not. I may have lacked true motive in the past as you said, but now my heart burns with vengeance against Shion and Hades. Nothing, not the Gold Saints, nor that weakling Pope, or even Athena herself will stop me! I will become the master of these impenetrable halls, take its temples and weapons for myself… and from it, I will make Hades pay for lying to us!" He then turned to the red-armored giant near him. "Balgo!"

(*) See chapter 39

The red-armored giant gasped. He was lost in his thoughts after what Alraune told him. "Y-yes, Prince?"

"Use your Surplice's powers! I want to confirm how many defend this place!" he then turned to the beaten Bat Brune, whose swollen face laid low by Torak's watchful eye. "And you keep the Sonar up, Brune! If even one enemy, Saint or peasant, stays awake, you're dead, understand?!"

As the Bat Specter silently and humbly nodded, reinforcing his sound waves by making new waves of winged creatures screech and fly over their heads, the large man in red, horned Surplice stepped in front of the battalion and charged his cosmos, which took the shape of a flowing mass of darkness that dissipated into rock-dust figments of energy, like a crumbling rock.

His large arm pushed away from the Skeletons in his path. "Out of the way, you dolts! I, Cyclops Balgo, will produce the enemy for our Prince!" With a clear way, his helmet began focusing the charged energy on its eye-shaped forehead plate, which brightened up with a golden, frightening color. "Eye of Arges!" he cast, projecting upon the cosmos the great sight of the cyclops.

Immediately, the Skeleton soldiers felt a shiver, as if a great eye orb of a massive predator opened in the darkness of the night above them, watching them, evaluating which one to pluck from the ground like fruit to shove in their maw. Their souls were laid bare before the piercing gaze of Polyphemus, which could peer through rock, tree, mountain, river, or wall, finding all the hot-blooded creatures of the world that the cyclops could gnaw at. The gaze's yellow light, visible only in a darker realm of reality, ignored them, though, and moved like a lighthouse's flare across the town to the mountain ahead of them.

Cyclops sweated as the Eye of Argo reached the mountain. "I see… a bonfire! Like a great godly cosmos stands in front of me rather than a mountain! What kind of place is that?"

Ainsel held his jaw pensively, sensible to these matters. "Mm, perhaps this mountain is not natural at all…It wouldn't shock me if Athena herself had it raised from the dirt to place her temples on, in a distant era." He patted Balgo's arm. "Don't bother with the mountain itself, it's likely too sacred for your dark eye to perceive. Focus on the victims."

Chuckling, encouraged, the giant raised his helmet's eye further ahead. "I see… flesh and blood, at least as far down as the second Temple."

Lemon raised a brow. "Second?! What about Aries?"

Ainsel chuckled. "Mmm, mmm, perhaps he stayed in Tibet, lamenting the ashes of his tower."

The Prince stood quiet for a beat. "… It's likely a trap, keep searching!"

"Y-yes, my Prince!" the Cyclops obeyed, raising its eye further. He saw many heartbeats calm as if sleeping, in the temples, but he felt active ones further up ahead. "I found someone awake!"

"Where?" Lucifer demanded to know.

Cyclops counted the temples. "It's… it's the-"

"Well, well, who is this rabble down there? I think you've peeked far up enough, haven't you?" someone spoke in his mind through a shadowed projection. Its hand raised "TENKU HAJA!" and a shower of golden light in the shape of many lost spirits of the river and mountains was unleashed across the spectral realm.

Balgo suddenly shouted, his purple cosmos suddenly igniting into a golden fire to the shock of everyone else as the spirits took hold of him. "AHH! AHH, HE'S ATTACKING ME!" Balgo screamed, feeling awash in the golden light.

The Behemoth Specter gasped. "BALGO! SHADOW SEWING!" Torak roared, pointing his finger at his comrade as he sensed the powers taking over him casting his black cosmos over the Cyclops. The shadows took hold of the golden light and dispelled the evil spirits away from him, wrapping them up in a dark spiral that was pulled like a cape out of Balgo and smashed in Torak's hand like a bursting grenade. "Relax, they're gone!"

Balgo wheezed "U-ugh…what the hell was that?! I thought I was going to be eaten alive!"

Lucifer squinted, recognizing the move from Michael's testimonies. "It's the Virgo Saint!" Lucifer's eyes widened, his 7th sense expanding in alarm. "BE ON YOUR GUARD! PUT YOUR BACKS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER!" he ordered, causing the disparate men to group up and clench their weapons defensively to avoid being cut off or losing track of the invisible enemy.

"Sati!"

But, before they could do much more about it, a sudden shadow dashed across the floor, taking hold of their feet! Widening his eyes, Lucifer's arm reached for Papillion's. "GET AWAY FROM THIS, AINSEL!" and he lunged him right into the air.

Ainsel yelped and flipped before his insect wings flapped, maintaining his air balance. Looking down, he saw the shadow of a buddha stretching on the ground from the Zodiac's mountain, swallowing the entire army. "L-Lord Lucifer, what is happening to you all?!"

"What is this?! What's going on?!" a skeleton screamed.

"Where ARE we?!" another panicked, his senses losing track of Sanctuary entirely.

Lucifer felt the shadows creeping up his body and an odd sensation of his senses being suppressed by a strange force completely bizarre to him. His red eyes looked up. "Ainsel, just keep the jamming barriers up with your drones! I'll handle this!"

Expanding his telekinetic barrier, Papillion Ainsel appealed to them. "Don't be afraid!" his eyes then searched for Virgo. "It's just a Saint trick, an illusion. Have faith in the Prince. Hades didn't stop us, and neither will this!"

The shadow then swallowed up all the Specters like a thick swamp, transporting them into a realm of pure blackness.

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Chapter 50

Second Arc

Episode 15

The Invasion

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The men mumbled, unsure, but quieted down, calming their breaths. Right then they really wished the prince hadn't traded away the page from the Book of the Dead to Priam, not because it would have made a big difference, but at least give them a little assurance that they were still safeguarded from crazy magical powers.

The prince stood unafraid, though, and even closed his eyes to focus. This had all the characteristics of a mass illusion technique, but he wouldn't fall for it. Eventually, his 7th sense pinpointed the source of the technique. "Found you." And when his eyes opened back up, he found himself in the same dark place, but his hand thrust forward, shooting a shockwave of electrical cosmos that course throughout the darkness like a strange sonar wave.

Eventually, it found and converged unto a shining silhouette of a figure clad in the Virgo Cloth that had been observing from the illusionary background.

Lucifer smirked, victorious. "How unexpected for an illusion to be cast so perfectly to take hold of even my senses momentarily. Are these the powers of the mysterious 6th Temple, Virgo? A bunch of illusions?"

There was a weirdly high-pitched chuckle in return. "Mmm, mmm, it's no illusion, serf of Hades. You're rather…as if standing in the shadow of Buddha himself, a place where the very concept of obscurity will crush you in the currents of time. You are out of his mindfulness (Sati) if you will." he analogized as if somehow it meant a difference. "But honestly, to answer your question, who are we kidding? I noticed you set up a rather large number of jamming points to conceal your forces, but you've underestimated us, Specter. You'll find in this brief encounter I am quite a perceptive person… especially to large battalions trying to sneak inside the land of Athena."

The three elites looked at the silver-haired man talking to himself. "Did you find him, Prince?!" Neferti asked.

Lemon whipped his tendrils around, but they found nothing but vast empty space. He couldn't even tell if his body was still breathing. "Well, he better, or we'll be stuck in this limbo forever!"

Lucifer nodded to them and kept addressing the enemy. "Your powers look impressive… I confess I never battled a Virgo Saint before personally. My old rival got rid of most of the 'problematic ones'." Lucifer alluded, referring to Dark Angel Michael's murder of Virgo Asmita and, in the 16th century's war cycle, Virgo Krishna.

The Saint, a mere child unbeknownst to Lucifer, shook its shoulders in amusement. "Ah, ah, I don't know what you're referring to, Underworld serf, but you're gravely mistaken if you think this farce will continue on from this point." His left hand formed a Buddhist sign and his right one then raised once more. "I'm afraid you're staying in this great oblivion, forgotten by the Enlightened one himself. Goodbye!"

To the panic of the Specters, the presence then seemed to begin to vanish away to leave them there. "NO!"

"W-we have to do something!" Golem Treble roared, feeling the darkness surrounding them suddenly creep up his feet like worms. "I-I don't want to get swallowed by this shit!"

But while the battalion panicked, Lucifer merely scoffed. "A place of forgetfulness?... who do you take me for?! Some Underworld rat?!" he roared, cosmos burning in the shape of a deep, black miasma, summoning his endless strength. "Long before you were even born, Sanctuary cast me down the very pits of Tartarus and, yet, I have climbed back! The shadow of Buddha's mindfulness? Don't make me laugh! I am Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial STAR OF PRIDE!"

This only seemed to amuse the Virgo, who chuckled like a smiling Buddha as he evaporated in the interminable silence.

But the Prince would not stay down and black cosmos began burning in his body as the Prince laughed back. His left hand tensed as the energy flowed down it. "You won't be laughing soon…"

The Specters felt their feet sink into the ground. "W-we're being swallowed!"

The Prince's aura then took a shape that was unfamiliar to even the most devout of his servants. Rather than a screeching mess of electricity and darkness, his entire left arm ignited into a strange black fire of incredible heat which he raised to the sky. "AND SANCTUARY WILL BURN WITH MY NAME BEFORE I'M FORGOTTEN AGAIN! DARK ANGEL FLAMING SWORD!" and the technique he inherited flared out as he raised it to the skies like a torch.

And as the Virgo seemed to escape that realm, Lucifer descended the blade down on him with a straight slash, perfectly razoring his silhouette top to bottom and fissuring the darkness of that world, splitting Virgo in twain and bursting out a cascade of light and speeding stars.

Ignited by the mysteriously powerful flames, it's slashed body screamed out as if in revolt against the very cosmos itself and the shadow of Buddha burned down before the combined will of the ruler of all men.

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

Virgo Temple

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

Sitting on his lotus throne with his armor already on, the young Shaka was a source of emanating waves of light illuminating the whole interior of the Temple. Students and servants of the house observed in awe as the young Gold Saint remained in absolute silence.

"Lord Shaka, what is going on?" a servant in Buddhist toga asked. The Gold Saint did not respond. "My lord, please speak to us! We felt you power suddenly emanating like this… are we under attack?!"

A maid covered her mouth. "Oh Athena, is it true?!"

Suddenly, Shaka's body began burning its golden cosmos more fiercely, calling everyone's attention, and a strange surge of black embers belonging to Daemon Lucifer's cosmos flared out of the Gold Saint's hand seemingly out of nowhere, as if the enemy was entrapped in the child's paw and fiercely struggling to free itself. Then, like a lamp short-circuiting, a stronger spark burst out and Shaka gasped, canceling his burning aura!

Everyone released a common murmur of worry, having never seen this happening. "Lord Shaka!"

The blonde, Indian child sat there, eyes still close yet turning its face to the smudged hand, as if he had been bitten by a disobedient pet.

How interesting.

It was not common for the Virgo Saint to encounter a spirit that could survive the crippling weight of Buddha's oblivion. He had the entire enemy force save for the Papillion Specter caught in his limbo of oblivion, yet their leader's found a way out.

Without the subtlety of the knowledge of Shaka's arts, this was only possible to do for mortals with incredible mental fortitude, the type only developed well beyond one's possible years of life and after enduring punishments similar to it, like a vacation well spent in the deepest parts of Hell that even Hades had forgotten about, for one would have to learn to endure your sense of self be crushed by the eternal currents of the Wheel of Time.

Alternatively, "That was not just his work, and that was no simple blade move. There is a powerful secondary ego behind that technique he used that I was not aware of…Otherwise Sati would have drowned him in shadows just like the rest." Shaka deduced.

While he had been ignoring his servants, there was then a collective call from his Gold Saint brethren, and even the Pope. "Shaka, what is going on?!" Pope Arles asked. "Your cosmos just spiked incredibly!"

The child relaxed. This setback was of no matter. "We are under attack, your Holiness. I advise you to call everyone present in the Temples up the stairs." He spoke out loud as he also messaged it, so his servants and disciples could hear it too.

Predictably, the people around him gasped and began rushing upwards in a frightened tussle. "Oh Athena!"

"You heard Lord Virgo, let's go!"

Shaka then waited for everyone to be gone to project his thoughts further to his other comrades. "Shura, Aiolos, can you hear me too?"

The diligent Capricorn was the first to respond. "Yes! We're under attack?!" Shura shouted, already rushing out his bed in his temple. "Aiolos, what do you see down the temples?"

The older, inspiring voice of the Sagittarius was heard next. "He's right, I can't contact Aldebaran!" Aiolos added, alarmed. "I feel his cosmos, but he won't respond!"

Shaka expanded his consciousness and felt the Taurus Temple invaded by strange soundwaves. "He is likely under the influence of one of the enemies' spells."

"Bastards! They won't get away with this!" Capricorn Shura vowed, likely already sharpening the sacred blade imbued in his arm. "We'll annihilate them right away, right Aiolos?! Shaka, who are they?! Specters?"

The Virgo Saint nodded. "Yes, a small battalion of them including twelve Specters and several dozens of Skeletons. For some reason, they seem to have left the town itself unharmed, likely to increase their chances to sneak into the Aries Temple."

From his position at the Chambers, Pope Arles hummed in reflection. "That matches some of their old tactics… Who is leading them, Shaka? Garuda?" he asked. "I cannot imagine it being Wyvern, impetuous as he is written to-"

"I'm afraid it's a strange element, your Holiness. He calls himself Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial Star of Pride." He revealed to the Pope, before releasing a light scoff. "A rather arrogant character, if I say so myself, but powerful enough to break out of my Sati and burn my armor. He'll be dealt with personally."

There was an unexpected lack of response.

Shaka raised his chin to the air itself. "…Your Holiness?"

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

Pope's Chambers

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

At the entrance of the chambers beholding the entirety of the Zodiac, Captain Maximus of the Papal Guard stood by the leader of Sanctuary with a worried look, calling to the silent masked man. "Your Holiness? What is going on? Are we really under attack? By whom?!"

But the blood in Arles' old veins froze entirely, paralyzing him.

It could not be. It could not. Yet, Shaka's words matched the great shadowy power he felt entering his domain.

Pope Arles' fist curled in utter rejection. "You're… you're wrong! You made a mistake! Check again, Shaka!"

The child was justifiably upset at this. "…With all due respect, your Holiness, I am just repeating the enemy's introductio-"

"They're LYING! It's an intimidation tactic!" Shion shouted through the cosmos, releasing a strange shroud of fear itself right into Shaka's mind, startling the Virgo. "It cannot be him! The Celestial Star of Pride does not exist anymore, it has been EXTINGUISHED!"

"Your Holiness!" Sagittarius Aiolos appealed, horrified by this strange outburst being broadcasted.

The Virgo child remained calm. Nothing was his reply, unsure of what to say that was neither a lie nor would upset the Pope further.

"Aiolos and Shura, get everyone ready to defend the Zodiac or to take haven by the upper temples! If it's a Holy War that Hades wants, it's a Holy War he shall get!" Shion commanded.

A collective answer was given by the two of them. "Yes, your Holiness, at once!"

The elderly man then turned to the captain by his side, who awaited orders. "Maximus, use the landlines to mobilize the Papal Guard. Call everyone down the Houses and tell them to either barricade the Temple of Aries and make sure all the servants are escorted up the stairs, depending on what they can get to in time!"

The guard leader nodded frantically, still a bit bewildered that a truly serious situation had arrived. "Yes, of course! I'll seal the shortcuts as well!" Before he headed out, though, he remembered one last important thing. "Pope Arles, should the clock be ignited?"

Shion faced the far-off tower, which could be remotely turned on, and pondered his choices. The clock being ignited meant they would alarm everyone within visual range of the attack going on as well as psychically alert Saga, Mu, and Lance of the attack, but it would likely also incur political wrath later on, as it meant that he had failed to properly secure against a direct invasion. In turn, this would mean a sea of troubles for the younglings if they survive.

"Your Holiness?!" Maximus practically shouted.

The Pope shook his head, casting away his political concerns. When had he gotten like this that he would hesitate to think of the children's safety first? "Yes, Maximus, have it set to track the enemy's strongest cosmos."

The decorated man then nodded and headed inside.

Waiting a beat for Maximus to be gone, Shion then turned his thoughts to Rozan. He still refused to believe that Shaka was correct, but if he was, then Dohko had to know immediately that Lucifer was back, or he could be targeted himself. If there was anyone in the world that the Pride Star would hate as much as Arles, it would be Shion's best friend.

However, even his powerful and experienced Lemurian mind felt unable to penetrate its thought messages past the limits of Athena's valley, or even beyond Aldebaran's House. Shion turned a private communication to the Virgo Saint. "Shaka… Why can't I contact Dohko?! I need to speak to him!"

"I'm afraid the enemy has selectively jammed mental conversations, your Holiness. They're using a powerful Papillion Specter and their home base at Crow's Nest to power and coordinate a complex network of dome barriers. We are blocked out from the outside." Shaka assured. He then wondered if maybe the enemy's resistance to Sati had something to do with why the Pope believes him to be no more, despite the known revivalism in the Underworld. made the important question. "…Does Saint Libra perhaps know of this enemy leader? Is that why you want to confide with him?"

Shion did not respond. A great shroud of dread and panic was sensed in his karma by Shaka, though.

The guardian of the sixth temple irked, concerned. This was not normal behavior from the pope, but at this point, it didn't matter. "Don't worry, your Holiness. The enemy won't get even halfway through the Zodiac, I assure you. We will save Aldebaran as well." His hand then took out the 108 beads crafted by Asmita, which shone with their dampened, purple and amber bright. "By the end of the night, the beads of the Underworld will become entirely dark once more."

The Pope tugged his own chest and nodded to the air. "Athena be with you, Gold Saints. Do not underestimate the enemy…"

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

Sanctuary Town

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

The shadowy world shook and was filled with the cries of the devil, it's crackling energy seeping into its fabric like a toxic infection refusing to be controlled. Darkness of oblivion fought darkness of pride and the background began to crack as if made of glass about to burst. Eventually, a shattering sound like crackling thunder was heard and the shadows broke away in this clash of wills, with the Specters finding themselves back to the place they were first taken hold of by the Virgo Saint.

They all murmured sighs of relief. "Thank the Prince, we're b-back!"

Balgo touched his own body as if to make sure we're alive. "W-What kind of world was that?! I felt as if the universe itself was forgetting me… like I never existed!"

Golem Treble beheld the temples with disgust. "W-we have to find that Virgo… and crush his head with a rock! Let's see if he's still smirking then!"

Floating down to the Prince, Papillion Ainsel wiped a bead of sweat. "Well, that was surely a fright. For a moment it was like all of you were petrified in place… I thought I would have to carry out the invasion all by myself, Lord Lucifer."

The Prince confidently took the lead, looking at the Aries Temple. "This is just the beginning, a little test he put us through. Now the enemy knows we are here!"

As if eavesdropping, the Virgo Saint spoke down to him again. "…That was not half-bad, but like you said, just the beginning."

Daemon looked up at the far-off sixth Temple. "It will take more than the fear of death, or of being forgotten, for you to take over my mind! I've gotten through much worse by now… and especially much worse than what you can dish out!"

The sensation of the enemy extending its hand invitingly was somehow felt by all of them. "Then I bid thee welcome to Sanctuary, thralls of Hades… enjoy your stay before you are all utterly decimated."

He then tensed his smile with excitement. "(Mmm, mmm, I can't wait to reach your Temple and put that to the test…)" His muscled, armored arm then lunged to gesture a charge. "ALRIGHT, men, the attack begins NOW! Stick to the elites and follow every order or you will die by my hand or that of the Gold Saints! From this point onward, we will be taking over Temple after Temple, planting the flag of Daemon Lucifer in Athena's wretched boy-whore houses and making our way to the Pope, whose head shall hang from his opulent chamber! If anyone resists,… kill them! NOW, to the Aries Temple!"

There was a collective shout and arm raise of support from the Specters, whose roar of agreement almost threatened to undo Brune's spell of sleep. "LONG LIVE LORD LUCIFER!" The large group of shadowy enemies then marched onwards, beginning to climb the first of the countless stair steps of Sanctuary.

Meanwhile, far above, towering next to the Golden Zodiac's mountain, the gigantic tower clock ticked away. As soon as the minute hand-finished another turn, a mighty blue flame was ignited on the Aries.

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

Meanwhile,

Twin Peaks Mountain

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

Still guarding Lance's unconscious body at the top of Twin Peaks Mountain, Ophiuchus Iaso kept an eye on his watch, which was still timed for Greece's time zone, and sweated in preoccupation. This was a bad position to be in, not knowing when the blasted Pegasus would wake up, but it wasn't like the three of them could make a difference against the enemy right then.

'Kiki', however, was not so patient. The lilac-haired child climbed on top of a large rock and looked westwards, towards Greece. "Oh no…!"

Iaso turned to him. "What's wrong?"

The Lemurian child turned back to him. "Someone turned on the Fire Clock!"

Iaso blinked. Never mind the distance or the mountains surrounding Sanctuary, the curvature of the Earth alone would make spotting the tower clock impossible from here. "This isn't funny, Kiki!"

"I'm NOT LYING!" he called out, his face full of dread. He tried to think of a good explanation. "…I just felt a great tug in my heart… like Athena herself is calling me to home, to the Temple of Aries. I only ever felt this when… Master Mu once showed me the Fire Clock being turned on. Saint Iaso, I think… that the enemy is in Greece. They've reached the temples!"

The brown-haired doctor stood there pensively. The child seemed truly scared and so far Kiki had only spoken of helping Lance, not going home, so he didn't think the Lemurian would just make this up because he was bored or cold or anything. "Well… may Athena be with us, because there isn't much we can do, not with our weak powers or with this teenage idiot asleep."

But Mu's hand clenched his chest. He could feel the Aries Cloth screaming and he sweated as if sick. "N-no…I…"

Iaso rushed to him. "Kiki, what's wrong?!"

The terrifying feeling of his dearest home being broken into was felt. Mu, the secret Gold Saint of Aries, was but a child, but because he stood so far away from his temple while it was being so cruelly attacked that he felt as if people were breaking into his home and murdering his loving parents. The horrible sensation of failing as the first guardian of Athena gripped his mind and heart, even though circumstances spoke higher.

"How could you leave your home abandoned, Mu?" the golden fleece spoke. "Your Temple, your friends,… even your teacher?"

Tears formed in the child's eyes as his thoughts were invaded by a strange, cruel force of regret. More importantly, the image of a powerless Taurus Saint being brutally ambushed was projected into his mind.

"N-NO, Aldebaran!" he screamed. His little hands grabbed Ophiuchus' legs. "Saint Iaso, we have to go home now! I can't take this; my friends are in danger! They'll get killed, Saint Iaso, they'll get k-killed!"

The Ophiuchus Saint stood there in shock. What strange turn of emotions was this? He understood 'Kiki' was worried, but his behavior reminded him of the nervous breakdowns Iaso had in the past when the Ophiuchus Cloth pressured him to pass med school and master more obscure medical arts.

Calmly, he hugged the boy to soothe him and then brought him to the downed Lance. Suspicion began to mount in his mind regarding Kiki's true identity. He would first, however, make things right. "We're not in a position to rush things, but I agree we've been waiting here for far too long. I don't care if this is part of some test from Saint Libra or something, but we don't have time to wake up his student."

Mu wiped his tears. "W-what can we do to help him, Saint Iaso?"

The doctor's purple gauntleted sprouted out their metal finger claws, which dripped with a pale green liquid. The Lemurian boy's keen alchemist eyes instantly recognized it as an adrenaline solution of some sort. "Saint Libra, we're running out of time. Forgive me, but we're forcing our odds up a bit…" he tried to message.

But before the doctor could try to resurrect the Bronze Saint, a sudden gasp was heard from Lance, whose red eyes opened wide.

Mu's mouth covered "L-LANCE! You're awake?!"

Iaso's eyes widened. "What the hell?! This shit again?!" It was the second time that night the Pegasus woke up before Iaso could inject him. "For Apollo's sake! Do you have a crippling fear of needles too, on top of cold?!"

Coughing and holding his chest, the Bronze Saint didn't even register what they said. "Ack… W-what happened?!"

"That's a damn good question! You tell us, Pegasus!" Iaso demanded, forgetting about the emergency at hand. "Why did your teacher get us to collect water that gives you epileptic seizures?!"

Mu patted Lance and helped him up right away. "Lance, are you okay? You were suddenly really hurt while asleep!"

Getting his bearings together bit by bit, Lance looked around and remembered where the hell he was. "Saint Iaso… and… Kiki. Right…" he mumbled half-coherently. He grabbed his head like he had a hangover. "Ow, I feel like I hit my head on a rock!"

"Take it easy, Bronze. You went through some serious physical tribulations! Your freaking chest opened up with a gash while you were asleep!" Iaso warned.

The red-eyed Saint blinked. "Gash? I… Can you just explain it to me slower?"

Mu and Iaso nodded and they both recounted more or less what they had witnessed, starting from Lance's reaction to drinking the Waters of Life, to the cosmos they felt possessing his body, to the injuries that Saint Iaso had to heal while he was under asleep to finally him awakening as they were about to give him an adrenaline shot. When Mu mentioned the Fire Clock was lit, Lance gulped and his heart beat faster, feeling the threat of invasion finally materialized.

"We thought you were gonna die, Lance!" Mu yelped, on the verge of tears.

Lance turned to the doctor. "Did you really do all of that?" he asked, referring to his healing efforts.

The doctor folded his arms, bewildered. "What the-… by the ass-shoved staff of Asclepius, of course, I did! What do you take me for, kid?! For Kastiel?!" he asked, truly shocked at the Pegasus' incredulity. "I may treat you like a punk, but I'm still a doctor. Saving lives is my job and oath. I don't care who's on the table."

The way he made it sound so goddamn obvious genuinely embarrassed Lance. "I'm… I see I'm sorry, Saint Iaso." He admitted, remembering his earlier rant as they climbed the peaks. "…I shouldn't have said what I did earlier."

Iaso blinked, being just as surprised by the Saint's capability to be humble when wrong as the bronze was by his willingness to help. "Um, yeah, of course, don't worry about it… but seriously, what happened with that Water? Is it safe to drink or not?!"

With his mind rushing a mile a second, Lance turned to the Silver Saint. "I can't really explain much of what happened, but the water made me go to another place, somewhere where Roshi passed onto me something to fight the Specters with. With it, the Cancer Saint will have a better shot at taking out their leader, but… it might still be able to help your friend." he half-lied. His eyes then shifted. "I'd ask my teacher about it, first, though."

"Well, no shit, kid…" Iaso agreed.

Lance then walked off towards the edge of the clearing to prepare to leave.

Ophiuchus stopped him by the shoulder. "Wait a damn minute!" Iaso exclaims "You just went through all that nonsense and you're back on your feet like it was nothing?!"

Lance then flexed his arm. Even though he had just gone through quite the physical ordeal, his body felt refreshed and strengthened, like he had gone through a vacation to steam baths. "Well, I don't know why, but I do feel better than before."

Mu leaped around Lance, curiously looking over his wounds. "You still look beaten up, though…Perhaps your brain has gone out of whack. Are you sure you aren't much worse, instead?"

Lance grumbled but he took a moment to test his hand movements. "I'm better, Kiki! I feel like I could climb this stupid-cold mountain all over again!" he assured. "I don't know why but I feel like, in the end, that water did help."

Approaching the teenager, Iaso lightly touched one of the Pegasus constellation marks in Lance's arm, which was a way for him to measure levels of energy more directly. "Well, I'll be…He's right."

There was a raise of brow. "I am?"

The doctor seemed as sure of himself as amazed. "Your body had all sorts of untreated micro injuries from sparring and fighting that are just gone now, the type of stuff cosmos can't really heal without many hours of careful work… but it's like the water purified you." Collecting a bit more of the water, Iaso made up his mind about it. "I suppose at the very least I can take some back for emergencies and store it in my Box. Hopefully whatever makes them special doesn't go bad."

The Bronze Saint rubbed his chin, pondering this. "Alright, then maybe this wasn't a complete waste. Time to head back to Sanctuary, then!"

The Lemurian boy presented his hands so the adults would hold on to them. "Alright, stick with me, you guys. It should be safe to teleport out of here." He then closed his eyes after they held on to him and focused his thoughts on Sanctuary.

Lance noticed Mu began cringing. "What's wrong? Don't tell me there's a block?"

"Um, yes and no… I'm feeling some sort of jamming network throughout Sanctuary." He revealed. It felt to his mind like a series of fogs occupying the stretch of the valley that Athena's Land stood on. "That butterfly jerk is probably responsible for it. The good news is that I can still teleport you guys, but the bad news is we're gonna land right outside of Rodario and we have to cross the rest of the way on foot."

Iaso scoffed. "If half of what you people say about the enemy is true, then that's good news to me, too!"

Mu burned a bit of cosmos to strengthen his mental powers, causing the three of them to be enveloped in a ritualistic circle of white energy that he cast upon the ground, wrapping them up with its erupting shine. "Alright, to Sanctuary!"

And as their bodies were caught up in the net of light and their vision slowly blurred, Lance looked around the rock grove, gulping. "This is it…You probably can't hear me, but we're going, Roshi."

Surprisingly, though, Dohko answered "May Athena be with you, Lance. I know better than anyone that this is a great burden to bear." The teacher responded.

"Roshi? Aren't you blocked off from everyone?"

Dohko laughed. "Haven't we been chatting all along? I think Pride Star might have overlooked Twin Peaks Mountain when he sent his goons out."

This made sense. Chances were he had been quiet to the others because he was focusing on teaching Lance. "Any last minute advice?"

"Don't forget what we trained and another thing… don't be afraid to rely on your comrades. This is not a fight you can win with stubbornness." A short pause followed. "…Don't get yourself killed, though. I'll personally come to find you in the Underworld if you do."

The student chuckled nervously before the teleporting beam fully wrapped them and shot the three Saints out of Asia, right towards Greece.

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

Rodario Outskirts

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

Descending from the night skies, the white beam struck the ground of the farm fields right outside the gateway village to Sanctuary and burst into vanishing waves of light, leaving behind three Saints of Athena. Faced with a different position relative to the axis of the earth, the two older Saints fell on the side of their bodies with a complaining yelp while the lilac-haired Lemurian turned his body with the grace of a cat to land on his small feet.

Mu jumped out of the evaporating circle of energy and chuckled happily. "We made it!" he saw the other two cursing and filled with dirt. "Oh… I forgot to warn you about that. Well, at least you aren't puking."

Dusting himself and grumbling, Lance got up and his red eyes looked around, recognizing the 'Trojan Walls' around Rodario and the Solo horse ranch he had encountered Adriana at. It made him briefly wonder if she's safe, but he brushed it off to focus on the emergency at hand. "Good! I'll head over to the Zodiac right away!"

The coated doctor felt dizzy. Warping around was so much more instantaneous than Mach 5 and the sudden change of timezone, climate, atmospheric pressure, and elevation made his ears pop and get slightly nauseated. He would be fascinated by the experience if he wasn't a victim of it.

Getting up as well and stepping towards the village, he noticed that the streets of Rodario were absolutely silent around them. "… Why is everything so quiet?" the Silver Saint asked. "You wouldn't think an enemy army just marched through!"

But Lance immediately deduced why. "Shinta spoke that the Specter he fought tried to put him to sleep. The enemy must be capable of applying the same to large populations." He then cracked his wrapped knuckles, anticipating battle. "… Kiki, Saint Iaso, I'm heading ahead. I'm going to catch up with Shinta and Saint Gemini. You guys stay here in Rodario and do what you can to make sure people are alive and well. There might be ambushers and stragglers in the streets…"

"Uh-uh, okay Lance, good luck." Mu wished, hugging the older Saint. "Please help Aldebaran. Don't die, too."

Lance patted his head. "… I promise." He responded though he was unsure if anything could truly be done about the Taurus Saint. He then shook Saint Iaso's hand. "Thank you for everything, Ophiuchus."

The older adult frowned. "Yeah, yeah! Just go, already!" he urged, to which Lance nodded and departed at Mach 1 across the village. "…Finally, some expedience! We might save some damn lives now!"

Mu looked up at him as they entered the darkened village. "Now what, Saint Iaso? What do we do?"

A snake-eye visor descended onto Iaso's eyes from his Cloth helmet, showing to him the heat of other people's bodies. Immediately he detected a large number of unconscious bodies throughout Rodario, but he also saw certain figures sitting on the rooftops, many in meditating positions as if to focus some projected thought. These were likely the sources of jamming.

His gauntlet's claws sprouted again, this time dripping toxic venom and a coy smile filled his lips. "The same we do every week, Kiki,… we're going to practice medicine."

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

Green Valley

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

The two female warriors moved across the forested valley between the mountains of Sanctuary Town and Rodario at a pace balancing speed and discretion. To the shock of Cerah, who was used to moving quickly and quietly along the Underworld, she found herself losing ground to Crane Yushira, who occasionally paused along the way to let the pretend-Saintia catch up.

In fact, the Crane Amazon was instantly able to find the best-hidden paths to go through at a high speed, all while barely leaving any track on the ground by leaping between hard surfaces like boulders, tree branches and thick pebble ground with the lightness of a cat.

As soon as the valley's flooring began ascending again, a sign that they passed the half-way point to Sanctuary Town, Yushira landed against a large rock amidst the forest trees and waited for her new friend. "Hey, you okay?"

Cerah caught up with heavy breaths. "Ah,… y-yeah, I'm good!" she assured. "I never knew the road between Rodario and Sanctuary was so l-long and tough! Do normal people really cross this e-everyday?"

Yushira shrugged with a chuckle. Saintias were always such princesses. "Ah, ah. You're not the kind to leave the academy in Switzerland often, are you? It's mostly the trepidations and the heavy atmosphere that catches newcomers by surprise. You get used to it after a while," she teased. Her black-gloved hand then pointed its thumb to the north. "More importantly, check that out."

Walking up to the Amazon, the blonde warrior followed the direction with her eyes and saw the terrifying-looking spire with the arc-like top sprouting out of the forest. It looked like something out of that 'Lord of the Rings' book that Lucifer once made her read.

Cerah immediately felt in her cosmos an intense, dreary aura coming from it. "Goddess, what is that place?"

"That's Stardust Prison…Creepy, right? They ought to redo the décor to something less Lovecraftian if they want people to take us seriously as the good guys," the Amazon ominously announced. "They keep all the perps who use cosmos in it. I've had to visit it all the time because of missions and stuff. What's curious is that the bad guys had to pass through here, so I'm surprised the Specters didn't raid the place and free the convicts to spread more chaos."

To Cerah, however, this wasn't the least bit shocking. She knew the Left Arm of Hades well and he wasn't the kind to like or trust criminals. She had to feign ignorance, though. "Yes… it is weird. Maybe they don't want to waste forces taking it."

"I suppose." But then there was a rather loud and obnoxious snicker from underneath the black-haired martial artist's mask. "PFFT, I bet the Skeleton sitting at the top thinks he's real slick, though."

The fake Saintia widened her eyes and paid more attention. Indeed, with a bit of effort, Cerah could spot with her locked 7th sense a small power level right at the top of the tower, where the scary-looking arc sprouted. He was almost imperceptive to the eye, especially in the dark of the night, but once she locked on his position, she could make out a small figure in black armor.

"W-wow, you're right!" she remarked, amazed. "How did you see him?!"

The amazon covered her mask's mouth with her fist, a subtle gesture of humility. "WELL, … I guess he doesn't realize that moonlight reflects off Damascus plates really well! In the right angle, he's shining like diamond dust!"

Joining her at the top of the rock, Cerah could indeed see him much better as the angle of the moonlight rays turned the soldier into a twinkling shine. "He must be there to help his friends jam mental conversation in the area."

"Not just that, he's on the lookout, too," Yushira added. "I bet if he saw us he would pretend not to and then inform his buddies up ahead right away so we could get ambushed. See, this is why I didn't want to wake up the other Silvers at all because all of them moving around and making a mess like they always do would surely get noticed. Then BOOM!" she shouted, startling Cerah. "The Specter boss would nuke Rodario and 'goodbye Silver Saints'!"

The Cyrulian girl pouted, suspicious. "…I'm not sure if this is really about discretion or you just wanting to show up to the golds." But it raised a pertinent problem. "That means that if we attack him, though, we'll risk getting found out ourselves, right?"

Yushira paused. "Mm…. Yeah, good point… "

Cerah blinked. She didn't know Yushira well and the mask sort of made her thoughts even more of a mystery, but something told the knight that the Amazon was pensive. "What's wrong?"

The Crane leaped down the rock. "I have to say, I usually don't deal with enemies that are so disciplined about keeping track of each other's buddies and closing their ranks. Usually Black Saints and such are lazy pricks who just leave their lookouts unattended for me to ambush and replace." She thought about the implication. "I'm not complaining, or anything… but like, their boss must be a really serious guy."

Another conflict of emotion, this time of dread about the situation against the pride of being that serious guy's student, afflicted Cerah. She then turned on her Emission Lenses to get a closer look around. Immediately, the cosmos of the tower and the skeleton soldier at the top stood out to her empowered gaze but, as he faced the direction of Sanctuary Town, she suddenly saw two trails of light landing ahead.

Yushira noticed the cat-like shine in her eyes. "Hey, that's a cool trick. Mind teaching me some time?"

Cerah kept her cosmos hidden and moved towards them. "I found the Gold Saints, Saint Crane!" And after a quick dash through the rest of the forest, she took a hiding spot by the end of it, where the terrain raised slightly into a final mountain pass that descended on none other than Sanctuary Town, where the top some buildings were already visible. Turning off her lenses to avoid being detected by the shine of her eyes, she confirmed it was the same two attractive Saints she ran into in Sanctuary Town.

Her attention was fixed on the Gemini in the double-faced helmet, who shared a constellation with the knight. So if Cerah was a Gold Saint, this would be the Gold Cloth she would wear? It looked a bit clunky, but the shine was unmistakably that of one of the twelve legendary armors.

Perhaps you should apply for the Third House once your teacher kills that bluehead and is done burning Sanctuary to the ground. Unless of course, you're willing to put Eurydice's well-being aside to tell the Gold Saints what they're getting into…

A sense of concern for the well-being of these Saints swelled inside Cerah's heart. If only she could afford to warn them.

Just as she pondered this, her hand scalded. "O-ouch!" she screamed to herself, not wanting to be heard. She realized it was the old feather from Dark Angel's Surplice burning up all over again. "This thing again? I don't get it, I shouldn't be anywhere near Lucifer right now…"

Yushira joined her and Cerah hid the feather away. "I didn't even sense them coming, you got a good eye, Cerah!" She then also took a minute to behold the Saints. "Man, look at that gold armor,… I want one so bad, ah, ah."

Cerah then saw the Crane move ahead for a closer listening spot. "Wait, where are you going?!"

The Crane sighed, grabbed her by the wrist, and practically dragged Cerah further ahead to behind the curve of the mountain pass' massif. "Hush, I want to listen in!"

The knight practically pressed herself against the shadow of the mount terrain. "But they could find us!"

Yushira just shrugged her shoulders. "There's nothing wrong with finding out a bit more about what's going on… we just have to keep quiet. You want to help, right, Saintia?" she asked, to which Cerah nodded, not that she had much of a choice now. "Well, then either grow some guts or point me at something I can gag you with so you won't give us away, but I'm going to hear what they're keeping from us."

The Andromeda Bronze Saint was the first to speak. "This is it, I can see them charging at the Aries Temple." He announced, gulping. The severity of this also made the two girls swallow hard a bit. "I can't believe it, an actual Holy War…"

Saga folded his arms and went through their options. "If we want to save Aldebaran, then we'll have to move soon, but…" he then recounted the enemy. "...even if we get to the Taurus Temple in time to surround them against Aldebaran, is Aiolos' support fire really enough to help him survive? Are four Gold Ranks like us even enough to put a stop to such a large group fresh into combat?... I have to think not."

This dooming conclusion made the Andromeda shake his head in sadness, eyes watering. "A-alright…Hopefully Athena is with him."

Cerah's eyes widened with shock "What?! They're letting Lu-…the Specters in?"

Yushira nodded. "…Yeah, it sounds like they don't have a choice. I'd probably do the same."

Caught up in the moment, Cerah just had to protest. "But, the Gold Saints are supposed to protect the temples, not let a single adversary in!"

"Sure, that's what the fairytale books and the Sunday school comic books say, but is that really pragmatic?" the amazon questioned, giving Cerah pause. She deduced this was another naiveté taught to Saintias. "The Gold Saints are jerks, but we can't just sacrifice them willy-nilly, you know?"

"But they're doing precisely that! They're talking about abandoning their Taurus Saint friend!" Cerah argued. Something deep inside her saw the cruel logic in it, but it wasn't in her Cyrulian heart to abandon comrades when the walls are scaled. "That… that just isn't right!"

Her amazon mask faced the knight. For the first time since they met, she seemed unamused. "…What's right?... Cerah, look at me, I have to wear a mask so I can be treated fairly in the boy's club in this place. A full-scale invasion is going on, too. Sanctuary isn't about doing what's right; it's about keeping up a standing army to protect Athena and her mission to Earth." She faced the other Saints again. "They're not sacrificing their friend, you can't really think it on those terms or they would be monsters when they're not…Instead, think that they are trying not to sacrifice the entire Zodiac twenty years before the real war is supposed to come."

While this made a lot of cold sense, Cerah still felt a sentence stuck in her throat to let out to argue against this further. Unfortunately, the knight wondered if it was really befitting of someone trying to pass off as part of Sanctuary to make so many questions, so she tried to swallow her horror and keep her wits about her.

The Andromeda Saint, however, seemed to share some of her concerns. "Perhaps we should have taken out the scouts on the way here, Saga. That could help us amass our forces to help Aldebaran sooner!"

The Gemini Saint raised a blue brow. "Mm, you of all people, asking that, Shinta? I'm surprised."

The green head turned away self-consciously. "…I'm just worried, so I don't know what to do. I feel like something should be done to save him."

Nodding sympathetically, the Gemini looked over their options. "Attacking their scouts will alert the Pride Star to our presence and initiate hostilities at an inopportune moment. Also, remember, the lives of the Papal Guards will also be at stake, not just Aldebaran's. If we force the enemy into a rash action, more people could end up dying. This… is the time to delay their advance."

Sniffing his sorrow away, the green-head then asked. "Then what do you think is the ideal moment?"

Saga looked up and thought over who occupied each temple. He had the immediate instinct to name his own Temple as the ideal benchmark, but his thoughts turned to Kanon and it made him slip his choice further up. "…I think we'll be able to time our attack correctly if we move in as soon as they get past the Cancer Temple. Knowing Aiolos, he is probably yelling at Deathmask to get on his feet and pick up Aiolia as we speak."

Shinta's green eyes turned to the watchful Skeleton Soldiers lookouts spread throughout Sanctuary Town's ceilings. "They know we're here."

The Gemini Saint couldn't agree more. "They do, and so does Pride Star. Their men are probably hiding about and getting ready to surround Sanctuary's reinforcements, meaning us, as soon as we enter the temples." But he then offered a counterpoint. "However, there is something they don't know."

The Andromeda blinked. "What?"

Saga then smirked and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "We got a trump card on the way…one the Pride Star thinks he has taken out already. So let him think that we don't and pretend we don't know Pride Star is spying on us…Then when they surround us, we'll have the Cancer Saint bursting right through their rear guard."

Shinta's expression brightened up. Of course, Saga was so smart that he was already planning for Shinta's best friend to join the battle. "You really think he'll come in time?!"

Relaxing, Saga lowered his cosmos to a minimum. "He better, or we'll be stepping into a trap without a trap of our own. I certainly don't like the idea of having Specters shooting blasts at me from two directions without the cavalry on the way. Now let's go! We have to stay close enough that we can move in quickly when the time is right."

The pink-armored Saint also lowered his cosmos. "Yes!" and the two of them ran down the mountain pass slope to descend unto Sanctuary Town.

Waiting a few seconds, the two teenage girls came out of their hiding spots. "Ah, so the Cancer Saint is on the way too," Yushira concluded. "Interesting…"

Joining her up the path, Cerah gazed down the pass to Sanctuary Town, gasping. This was the first time in her life she saw the heart of Sanctuary, from the town's famous four acropolis, rises to the Golden Zodiac mountain in the center of the enclosed low ground, to the steep tower-like mound of Star Hill beyond it. Immediately, something in her heart pulsated strongly, as if the very blessed air of this land refreshed her mind, reinvigorated her spirit, and called upon her genes to greater deeds for the goddess. Thoughts of the good of mankind came to her as she beheld the many buildings blessed by Athena and the instinct to protect these innocent people from Lucifer's men grew in her.

Her green eyes then easily detected the flames on the tower clock. "Look, that's the Fire Clock, right? Someone turned it on!"

Yushira clicked her tongue. "Yeah… It's funny 'cause it's just a stupid timer, but kinda helps make all of this seem more real, doesn't it?" She squinted to behold the distant details through her mask's covering. "I think they're all still lit, so it must have been turned on just now. We can use it to time our own attack."

Cerah gasped. "W-wait, are we really going through this?!"

The mask looked at her, somehow transmitting an 'are you stupid' look. "Duh, of course! What the heck did you think I dragged you here for? We're killing some Specters, girl!" she affirmed, before pointing at her. "Besides, do you really think Olivia will forgive you for skipping town to Sanctuary unless you come back with some marks?"

The blonde, pale girl felt trapped all of a sudden. Oh no, she wasn't expecting this! She didn't intend to confront Lucifer's man at all, just to keep an eye on what they were doing and perhaps save someone innocent that the evil ones would try to get their hands on. However, her disguise depended on her acting like a brave Saint.

Still, she tried to have it her way. "Wait, maybe that's not such a good idea! What if we join the Cancer Gold Saint when he shows up? He'll know what to do." Cerah suggested. It was the most reasonable delay she could offer.

This way, the Gold Saint would take care of everything without Cerah directly antagonizing her teacher. However, as she saw Yushira pondering this, Cerah realized the odd moral conundrum she was at. She didn't want Lucifer to hurt innocent people, but she also wasn't willing to stand up to him and his men in the name of it. Was she really doing the right thing, and being the good gal at this? Or was she just looking out for her own interest?

And what would be wrong with that? Look at your new Crane friend; you can tell right away that she's doing all this because she wants a gold star from the Pope, not because she was taught some modern morality lesson in today's soft kindergartens. The irony is, Cerah, that in going after she wants, she is managing to be more of a hero than you.

The Cyrulian knight felt awful all of a sudden and looked down, guilty, her expression freezing into an internally pained look. Was she nothing but a coward? What would Daese say? Cerah's sister may have abandoned her and Lucifer implied that the Paladin isn't in her right mind, but ultimately it must have been a hard choice for Daese in the name of protecting her younger sister. Cerah couldn't stop thinking about how Daese would shake her head at Cerah for daring to hesitate to stand up to her mentor when innocent lives were at stake.

Brash, but not insensitive, the Crane Amazon sensed the grief in her new friend. Was she feeling bad about not being courageous about this? "Hey, Cerah, it's okay if you don't want to do this. I acted tough on you just now, but I'm not really the type to drag unready people to a dangerous fight when they're not sure of it."

Cerah hugged herself in nervousness. Lucifer's face kept flashing in her mind. "… I'm sorry, Saint Yushira, I can't… I'm not as brave as you are. There's… I saw the enemy leader for a brief moment." she confessed. It was technically true. "It's too much, I can't go up against that person…"

Guiding her to a hidden spot by the slope down to Sanctuary Town, Yushira took a vigilant position from where she could see most of the capital. "I suppose it was a bit too much to ask to be the cavalry charge that strikes the rear guard of a big underworld army, just the two of us."

The knight looked up at her guiltily. "Again, I'm sorry, I know you wanted to show your merits to the Golds."

The Amazon shook her head. "Nah, … I mean, I do wanna do that, but not if I put other people at risk." Her mask then looked afar and detected the far-off mass of dark-armored men moving up to the Aries Temple. Her chest suddenly tightened. "There's someone in the Zodiac I wanted to make sure was okay…but I think I can rely on those jerk Golds to do that."

This revelation took Cerah by surprise. "Oh… a friend?"

The black-haired head shook. "Worse, family. So that Cancer Saint guy better not take forever to get here."

The Cyrulian knight nodded sympathetically. If anyone knew the angst of worrying about relatives, it was her. Beholding the far-off temples of the Gold Saints, the Corvus Saint then began to wonder what kind of resistance her teacher would face in his first Temple.

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

Golden Zodiac,

Temple of Aries

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

Time was short, they had to move!

Feet wrapped in thick metallic greaves of Papal Guard armor rushed inside the First House. These were the guards of the Zodiac, whose armor resembled Renaissance knights more than hoplites, and carried shields engraved with the symbol of the house they were stationed at. Having noticed the strange drop in communication with the lower temples, the men-at-arms of the Houses of Gemini had traveled down only to find their compatriots had fallen into a deep slumber.

Suspecting a sound curse similar to the one that afflicted Sanctuary in the Lost Canvas War, they immediately wore the ear blocks and moved back and forth in an all out of the Aries Temple, carrying the sleeping occupants out. The first group of halberd-totting soldiers, belonging to the Gemini House, rested their weapons on the pillars inside the House and found several servants of Mu's Temple unconscious on the ground.

One of them got on his knees and looked them over. He then announced to his superior. "Lieutenant, we found the First Division who guards the Aries Temple and the serfs. They are unconscious in the building as if put to sleep by medicine, just like the Second Division at Taurus."

Agapethos, a thirty-year-old Greek man who was lieutenant of the Third Guard, walked right next to him "Good. Split into two groups, the first carries them out and the second fortifies the House against the enemy." He ordered. "Just make sure to buy time for your brothers."

One guard found his friend by a pillar, spear dropped to the ground, and tapped his face to awaken him. "Come on, get up!" he shouted.

The lieutenant gestured at him to give it up. "Don't bother, the soundwave put him down too deeply. We couldn't even wake up Saint Taurus. Just carry him out."

"Yes, sir!" the soldier obeyed, taking his friend around his neck and rushing out.

When Agapethos turned to the back door, he saw the Cancer and Leo guards, which were pretty much the same 4th Division now after Saint Lance kicked the occupants of the 4th House out, he felt relief in reinforcements joining him so fast. "Thank Athena, brothers, you're here."

The Leo lieutenant, a younger warrior named Diokles, greeted him with a firm chest drum. "It's much faster down the stairs than up. Saint Virgo also bought us some time with his Sati. How are things looking?"

The former pointed at the front door. "The Specters will soon reach the stairs. Captain Maximus ordered the House barricaded, but not to commit to battle," he said, before turning to his second division of men, who were using cosmos to quickly and individually carry heavy supplies up from Mu's basement workshops, mostly stuff they could brace the doors with like wooden beams, benches and spare marble blocks. "GET THAT DOOR LOCKED AND BARRED! I want it as durable as the walls. You have thirty seconds!"

"Yes, lieutenant!" they obeyed, immediately shoving the iron bar over the handles before pushing the large heavy objects against it.

"How many are we?" the 4th lieutenant asked as he observed the Peltasts (shielded javelin throwers) and Toxotoi (archers) moving up the stairs to the wide ceiling veranda.

The third did a quick calculation. "About sixty men when we put our three House groups together. Surely less than the ones probably stationed at Crow's Nest," he confessed. "The enemy numbers in at least one hundred, including crossbows, scythes, and swords. Let's go join ours."

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

The ceiling of the First House of Sanctuary was a wide, ledged space accessed by a central cupula's spiral stairs and was historically an unremarkable section of the house. After the Lost Canvas War, however, Saint Shion of Aries, a man remembered to be as wise as the current Pope, had the ledge reinforced with a short marble fence that could act as battlement during wartime and converted the cupula into a battle tower with the platform with which the ranged fighters could stand on, the reason being that Saint Shion believed that his House would often be unoccupied due to its tendency to pick blacksmiths and would likely need to be more defensible by Papal Guards.

Boy, was it paying off.

Following their men out the upper-floor pass to the Aries Temple's upper balcony, the talented Papal Guards were quickly able to assume a reinforced position, forming a line with their spear-thrower Peltasts at the ledge, keeping their core halberdiers in the rear for protection, and finally filling up the cupula tower with the Toxotoi, who readied their bows by their side in anticipation for what was to come. The faint vibration of Nightmare Sonar was still felt in the air, but their helmet's ear protections were tight around their heads and communication was being done mentally.

The two lieutenants, Agapethos and Diokles, were met with the clouded night sky, the shine of the Fire Clock's fires, and finally their subordinates with torches, halberds, javelins, and bows already keeping vigilance from the makeshift battlement, their conical helmet visages looking out at the incoming enemy.

Taking a leading position by the left flank, the Gemini Lieutenant Agapethos, identified by his red cape with Athens' owl heraldry as opposed to the blue one the normal Papal Guards sported, felt his heart skip when he saw the threatening mass of Damascus armors shambling its way up the Zodiac's first stairs. Headed by three hulking Specters of Behemoth, Cyclops, and Golem, a whole battalion of Skeleton soldiers clunked their feet up the pure marble steps, resting their scythes on shoulders, swords in waists and crossbows in hands already armed. Despite being only around one hundred, they filled the pass left to right and their steps revibrated in the ground, contributing to the sensation of a machine of death going up their way.

Nervousness did not exactly describe what the Guards of the Pope felt, being handpicked from the bravest of recruits and having a deep faith in Athena, as well as in protecting their loved ones, but a lot of them had limited battle experience, which contributed to a subtle feeling of dread. Most of the members that were veterans of the Civil War belonged to companies guarding the upper temples, as tradition in Sanctuary's military laid down from Roman times. Moreover, they would face the brunt of the assault with the enemy as fresh as he would be just to buy time for their brothers to carry the unconscious guards and serfs up the stairs.

Therefore, the hope of them surviving this starting onslaught was slim to none should they commit to battle. The Aries Temple was very much doomed to capture, especially with its owner and two more of the lower House Gold Saints gone. A lot of thoughts crossed their mind as the enemy slowly approached the arrow fire range. Would the three big Specters attack first, or would the enemy leader instantaneously blast them out of the balcony so the Temple itself could be taken? All seemed like outcomes that would test the depths of their courage.

As visual details of the enemy became clearer, the minds of the soldiers inversely became clouded with doubt. Many of them squinted strangely at the force and felt their throats swallow hard; the reason for this was that what stood before them challenged everything they had ever learned about the history of the Underworld's aggressive campaigns.

For rather than a loose group of nihilistic raiders headed by a couple of arrogant Specters out to create a bloodbath in villages, the Skeletons they were gazing down at were following rank, file, and order, being neatly positioned to protect their ranged men while having a Specter heading every ten of them, making sure strong Saints wouldn't just vaporize them from a distance. The Specters even seemed to occasionally be making sure the soldiers kept rank, pushing and shoving irregularities into position and shouting harsh commands of order and organization, like real captains of military troops rather than cynical killers seeking excuses to murder.

Even their equipment and gear were unexpected. The Skeletons, who usually sported light bone armor and impractical scythes, were usually vulnerable to decapitation, having their stomachs stabbed or having their arms hacked off, but these dark assailers had their protections reinforced with stomach, elbow, thigh, and neck plates, known spots of their armor that historically were uncovered for flexibility. They also brought thick broad shields strapped to their back, especially the crossbowmen, which they undoubtedly intended to use to block missile fire. These Skeletons, rather than a levied rabble of scythemen, looked like heavily armored assault soldiers carrying protection befitting against men of Athena experienced against them who would actually be a challenge to take down.

To compound the threat, their weapons were also altered; crossbows were replaced with large deadly arbalests with superior firing thrust of 2000kg of force and toxic bolt heads that would undoubtedly pierce right through anyone who didn't immediately reinforce the body with cosmos. Their scythes were reforged to be straighter, rather than immediately curved down, and with shorter handles to give their berserkers something easier to hack people apart with, and their swords were now singularly edged, foregoing flexibility for deeper cutting power. Whoever redesigned their equipment was not concerned at all with maintaining a prolonged battle, but rather causing as much damage with initial melee contact as possible, which was arguably the superior strategy when the power of Cosmos was considered.

Most terrifyingly, the Specters were positioned as if they actually gave a shit about losing men, rather than literally tossing them at Sanctuary's traps for cheap cruelty points. It all seemed as if these servants of Hades were actually worried about dying, for some reason, rather than constantly relying on the Underworld God's resurrection powers.

Despite the training of the Papal Guards, or perhaps because their training allowed them to understand the difference that this made in one's lethality, the younger men of Athena gulped, wavered, and looked at their lieutenants in preoccupation.

With this, the enemy force halted its loud marching just outside the last set of stairs to the House of Aries, clinking their weapons against the chest in resting position. As the halberdiers took a protective position with weapon standing by chest, the Toxotoi armed their bows from the Cupula tower, cringing their strings to ready fire, and the Peltasts held their javelins above the shoulder, aiming them down at the Skeletons warningly.

The lieutenant raised his hand to signal them to hold.

As his eyes searched for where the sonar Specter could be, Diokles looked up and narrowed them. In the air, a large swath of small yellow lights was crossing through. Sensing little to no cosmos in them, he deduced it wasn't an attack, but still called Agapethos' attention to it. "What are those?"

Agapethos gestured for his men to keep calm as the lights flew above them, many dropping down on high spots in the Aries Temple and its rocky surroundings. One landed on the ledge and the Papal Guard took it, seeing its small wings. "Underworld moths… The enemy is surveying us with the Papillion Specter."

"Should we be concerned?" Diokles asked

The other lieutenant rubbed the fingers to grind the moth to specks of light and then looked at how many there were. "If you have a flamethrower and a couple of hours, be my guest." He then saw the man nervous with the task before them. Diokles just returned a nod of self-affirmation. "Courage, men. Athena is with us. Think of your people."

A young voice then boomed in all their heads. "Yes, guards of Arles, do not relent, for you are not alone."

The many hoplites, hyspatists (swordsmen), toxotoi and peltasts looked all over, recognizing the voice. "Saint Sagittarius?"

Then, before the eyes of the Specters, the many Houses of the Golden Zodiac began slowly brimming with golden cosmos, like huge torches being set alight down the staircase in the rainy night, the sound of Athena's bells briefly ringing in their hearts.

Eventually, the temple of Aries itself was immersed in this cosmos of hope and the many soldiers of Athena felt the thoughts of the Gold Saints spoken directly into their hearts. "Athena has not forgotten you, nor have her Gold Saints," Aiolos spoke, firming his young voice as much as possible. "As the Fire Clock burns, we shall share our strength and courage with you."

A second voice joined Aiolos. "Though we cannot leave our Temples, our spirits are with you, and our arms will swing those swords along with yours." Capricorn Shura spoke. The Papal Guards indeed felt their bodies tensing and readying with unknown strength and vigor as the energy of the 7th sense reinvigorated them and they awed with the amount of force shared.

Finally, a third voice from the sixth house entered the chorus in their minds. "We will feel your fear, your pain, and your sorrow and we shall alleviate them from your hearts so you may fight for a better tomorrow," Shaka vowed, and the soldiers felt the doubt erase from their minds about what they had to do. "Holy War has begun, soldiers of Sanctuary, and we shall be with you every step of the way."

The Skeletons and Specters saw all of this, both the cosmos coursing down unto the Aries Temple from the Zodiac and the defenders straightening their poses, reaffirming their stances and generally voice their renewed spirit with the knowledge they were not alone.

Alraune Lemon twitched his brow angrily. "What is this? The smell of fear in them is gone!"

Papillion Ainsel hummed, landing by the Prince. "They seemed so distraught just earlier…now it's as if the very song of Athena was heard through the valley."

But the Celestial Star of Pride knew very well what was happening. "It's not a spell, it's an imperial war tactic. You've often used it yourselves." He reminded them, referring to battles like the ones they almost fought to flee the Underworld. "In the past, in times of emergency, the brave warriors of Athena have shared cosmos with their champions to overcome powerful Gods many times in history, but it was never a streamlined technique. However, one thousand years ago, my ancestor mastered the art of teaching the hoplites and Saints how to share their cosmos during battles."

Narrow-minded, Lemon was suspicious of the value in this. "What's the point of weakening oneself to strengthen others?!"

Lucifer scoffed at his ignorance. "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A recurrent mistake of Saints was to focus all their strength into one hero, but the Emperor, Arles I, knew that to make one thousand warriors mighty was much more effective in wars." He then smiled maliciously and burned his cosmos, immediately sprouting a black miasma of an aura that slithered its way into the air around them. "Which is why we will do the same."

And, with this, the Specters and Skeletons of Lucifer burned their cosmos together, creating a common dark bonfire of terrible thoughts of death and misery which fused together. Immediately, the warriors of Lucifer felt their shared strength and hatred for those who betrayed them intensify, making even the weakest Skeleton feel as strong as a mighty Specter. The visual clash of golden and black lights filled the staircase to Aries and the hidden strengths of both forces competed for becoming the greatest flame, even flickering against one another with the whim of the winds.

The clash of energy was blunt and mute but sprouted tense sparks of energy that crackled the air and intensified the weight of the clouds. The shadows of underworld beasts and figures of constellations were projected against these night nimbuses, creating brief spectacles of war spirits.

Stimulated, the clouds rumbled and began to drop water, slowly clinking their armor with rain.

The opposing battalions shared looks of hatred and warning, but nothing was roared, shouted, or yelled for a solid half a minute.

Diokles resigned himself to the futility of this match of morale and instead ordered. "Get us the megaphone."

One of the guards handed it to the Cancer/Leo Lieutenant. "You want to speak to them? Is this really a good idea?"

Diokles shrugged his shoulders. "They're clearly not leaving, are they? But no matter what, we have to delay them. Might as well pull the old stalling tricks." As the silence between the opposing forces continued and the faint noise of the door below being barricaded halted, the lieutenant took the megaphone from his subordinate, tested it, and spoke. "*gush* Forces of Hades, you are trespassing on Athena's Land, the first House of the Golden Zodiac and Temple of the Aries constellation!"

Nothing but the sound of rainwater on Damascus plate followed. If anything, there were a couple of venomous smirks from Cyclops, whose mouth unlike Golem's was uncovered. Not even the faint reeling of arbalest bolts was heard and many rested scythes fidgeted in anticipation.

They were so still and silent, staring so intently at the guards, their weapons shining like blood-drenched fangs under the moon, that it felt like predators outside your cave that knew you'd have to come out eventually. It sent a shiver down the spine of every guardsman in Aries.

The lieutenant gulped hesitantly and continued. He wasn't sure what was worse, getting a threatening response or this deadly silence. "*gush* In the name of ATHENA, lay down your weapons and turn away, or be annihilated!" he threatened. Again, nothing but silence. "You have five minutes to comply or we WILL open fire!"

Diokles of Leo looked the passive enemy over. Many of the larger Skeletons were rattling their weapons or dancing their fingers on the assault ladders anticipatingly. "I don't think they mind that."

"Not that we expected them to. Do they even fucking speak Greek, though?" Agapethos asked back.

"Considering they serve Hades, they would be bereft if they didn't."

As if on cue, the blue-armored Behemoth Specter slowly raised his arm, signaling his men. As the Papal Guard readied itself for an assault, they were surprised to see only a uniform rise of scythes and swords from the Skeletons, who held the weapons up. Then, with a lowering of the arm from their commander, the Skeletons banged the poles and edges of their weapons on the steps once.

*bam*

Cyclops and Golem took their large fists, imitating Behemoth, and signaled another weapon drum as they clashed gauntlet against their own chest armor.

*bam* *bam*

It was loud, probably bolstered by the way the cosmos was being shared between their ranks. The Papal Guards collectively sweated under the rain as the Skeletons continued their drumming, hitting the floor with rhythmic synchrony over and over.

*bam* *bam* *bam* *bam* *bam* *bam*

The men of Athena stood there, impassive on the outside but with a heavily beating heart on the inside, as the dark forces of Hades loudened their makeshift instruments, intimidating the defenders with the primal symphony. Soon enough, they began huffing and puffing, with the taller Specters leading the war chant.

"Death! Death! DEATH!" Cyclops Balgo roared, fist still drumming chest. "Rip your flesh! Wash us with your BLOOD!"

Fists rose to the air. "(*bam*) DEATH! (*bam*) DEATH! (*bam*) DEATH!" the Skeletons shouted.

"Death to the Prince's enemies!" Behemoth Torak roared, drumming on his rhinoceros-shaped shoulder pad. "DEATH to the LIARS! To the TRAITORS! And to all of Athena's KNIGHTS!"

Black swords rattled above their heads. "(*bam*) DEATH! (*bam*) DEATH! (*bam*) DEATH!"

Golem Treble then took a large banner holstered on a pole spear and rose it to the air. "Death to ARLES! Death to SANCTUARY! Long live the PRIDE STAR!"

Crossbows were raised to the rain. "*bam* DEATH! *bam* DEATH! *bam* DEATH!" the Skeletons screamed before accelerating the drumming and letting out one last long battle roar "DEAAAATH!"

And the symbol of a single red star shining on a bat-winged crown with dragon horns was danced in the air on Golem's blood-red flag, rousing the men of the Underworld into an even higher chant and even more resounding drum which shook the very foundation of the Aries Temple, drowning out the rumbling of the skies themselves.

The Gemini lieutenant's eyes widened and he turned to his men, who shared some nervous looks with him. Seeing them frightened, he rallied them "Don't be afraid, remember the Gold Saints are with us and hold your fire until ordered not to! Focus your aim on their stomachs below the ribcage plate of their bone armor!"

Some returned him a confused look, noticing the heavily reinforced version of their armors, but the men obeyed, adjusting their aim and relaxing their breath. This was the time to steel their thoughts.

The chanting continued!

"BLOOD! DEATH! BLOOD AND DEATH!" they sang to the flag, the edge of their scythes shining red as if reflecting their bloodlust or dripping from past victims. "SAINT BLOOD AND DEATH FOR THE PRINCE OF SPECTERS!"

Amidst the continued chanting, a figure clad in heavier armor and dark cape then walked through the ranks and joined the three Specters at the front. The Papal Guards saw red eyes, like a curse victim, and the silver hair of lost legends.

Clearly looking like the leader, the man signaled something to the Behemoth Specter, whose young voice was then somehow heard through the army chanting and raining. "HOPLITES! TOXOTOI! And yes, even GOLD SAINTS of Athena!" the tall Specter announced. "The Prince offers you now the choice to surrender to him!… Lay down your arms, or suffer the black, painful ending of death!"

The lieutenants were stunned. "What?! Is he serious?!"

"Prince? What are they talking about?!" Agapethos asked.

The Behemoth pointed right at him, then. "You don't have to die for that coward Arles or his decadent Gold Saints or even some absent Goddess you'll likely never meet in your lives. There will be no five minutes of consideration! Simply fall back from the Aries Temple… or die! NOW!"

There was a serious share of disconcerted looks from the men, which transmitted confusion and bewilderment across the ranks. They did not expect this. Specters did not believe in deals or mercy unless the upper hand was decisively that of their enemies; they were nihilistic killers who looked at war as a necessary cleansing. An offer of surrendering from their leader wasn't just provocative, it was psychologically bizarre.

Diokles gritted teeth. The cosmos he felt beneath his feet from the Zodiac made him even sicker at the notion of surrender. "They can't be serious! Agapethos, send these bastards back to hell!"

And as such, with the knowledge of the battle that this would trigger, the Lieutenant answered out loud. "We REFUSE! We are the Papal Guard, the chosen to protect the Houses in the absence of the Gold Saints! Expect nothing from us, Specters, but a determination to stop you matching that of Saint Aries himself and the tip of our spears if you ignore it! You will NOT PASS!"

With his confident declaration, the Papal Guards retook their poses with new determination. By Athena, they would stop these murderers! Even if they died face in the dirt for it!

The Celestial Pride Star sighed. "Mmm, very well, death it is..." He turned back, cape whipping the rain, and told his Behemoth serf. "Order the attack."

Behemoth Torak nodded and passed the signal to the Mandrake Specter. "ORDER THE ATTACK!"

Known as Nevil, the root-armored Specter nodded with a smirk and climbed on top of the rocks flanking the stairs with a sound horn. His cosmos burned, causing every figure in the Aries House to tense in anticipation, but instead of an attack, the man's chest plate slid out a small opening with a metallic face on it.

The Papal Guards blinked. "What the-"

Seething the horn into its metallic mouth, the armored face then unexpectedly sounded it, letting out the very roar of the Underworld amplified by the instrument into a deep, resounding cataclysm that sounded the beginning of the night of death.

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

Everything shook!

The Guards screamed and shouted, feeling their heads shake with the deafening vibrations, and the entire building trembled, causing pebbles and dust to elevate off its surfaces and the very mount to echo the start of the battle through its deep, secret caverns. Chills traveled down the hearts of every awakened soul in Sanctuary and many men fell to their knees, tortured by the shrill.

The deep roar of the Underworld through it, reverberating through the entire mountain and sending chills to the hearts of every awake soul in Sanctuary.

Cued by this, the Skeletons licked their lips with the sight of the disorganized foe and then drummed their weapons together and celebrated the start of the battle. "FOR THE PRINCE!"

"FOR BLOOD!" others roared.

"FOR THE GLORY OF PRIDE STAR!" Golem Treble finalized, lowering his arm to signal the assault. "Now ATTACK, MEN! ATTACK! Take this temple AND MAKE IT A CATHEDRAL OFDEATH!"

Time began to slow down as cosmos was burned. With a final shout of agreement, the Skeletons of Pride Star charged their cosmos to the max, immersing the entire armor in a shared aura of power that beat with the strength of the dark heart of a Celestial Star, and the force fully mobilized, leading their shielded scythe men onward and as their crossbowmen began to take position.

Seeing the beginning of the charge of the Skeletons up the stairs, the Lieutenants rallied their men. "GET BACK UP! DEFEND THE TEMPLE!" Diokles screamed, manually lifting many of them back into place.

Agapethos answered in tune. "This is it, men! Holy War has begun!" the Lieutenant shouted, earning back a loud recognition from his subordinates who also burned their meager cosmos together, forming a power greater than the sum of its parts as they resumed positions. Agapethos took out his sword and aimed at the arrow men behind him. "TOXOTOI, FIRE! MINERVA VICTRIX!""

A collective, passionate shout of obedience was heard and the tip of the arrows ignited with golden fire from the cosmos of the entire Golden Zodiac. The familiar sound of bows releasing their arrows from the cupula tower, blazing out like a deadly wave of shooting stars in the night at the charging mass of Damascus. Immediately, the shields of the Skeletons raised in rank, and their pace slowed so they could tighten the defense wall, all done with supersonic expedience, and the many arrows hit the shambling mass uselessly or landed on reinforced leg armor plates.

Diokles saw the Skeletons amassing and then sounded the peltasts. "SKIRMISHERS!" he ordered. "UNLEASH DEATH!"

And the ledge Guards obeyed, igniting their spare javelins and hurling them at the mass of Skeletons in the form of an even denser wave of piercing, meteoric trails of light. This time the longer, sharper missiles pierced and blasted through shields, touching flesh and bursting with cosmos. Screams were let out and blood splattered on the steps of Aries, but the resilient force marched on, motivated by the twisted voice of the Underworld.

Covering his body, Golem saw the first few Skeleton Soldiers dropping. With a resounding roar, he took a large rock by the stairs flank and hurled it at the balcony defenders, but the Guards merely blasted it apart with cosmos reinforced weapon thrusts. The large Specter roared with frustration and practically pushed the crossbowmen ahead.

"Shoot them down from their balconies!" he ordered. "Smash their gates! Make the temples of Athena OURS!"

The arbalest men nodded and rushed ahead, protected by the vanguard of shielded Skeletons from the continuous hail of piercing missiles, and took position in their rear. In the meantime, the Specter leader stood back and observed the battle, likely sending out more mental commands.

"Takedown the enemy vanguard! Wash the steps with their blood!" Diokles roused, also hurling his own javelins. The Skeletons felt forced to amass further. "Excellent, get the boulders ready to drop on that amassment, we're going to crush that rabble!"

"BLEED THEM!" One of the Skeletons shouted, raising their large crossbow.

Suddenly, Lucifer's voice was heard in the Skeleton's head. "Aim at your upper right, at the man in the red cape."

The arbalester smirked and immersed his large weapon with the dark shine of the Underworld's stars. When Diokles saw the first glint of the weapon's steelhead pointing at him, it was already too late.

Agapethos hurried the men along when he just heard the loud zipping sound of the super-accelerated missile and saw the first darkness-induced bolt zap through the air and hitting his fellow Lieutenant right in the neck, bursting blood and flesh to the sides and causing him to tussle back with the impact force before dropping down the ledge to the Skeletons with a scream. "D-DIOKLES!" he screamed.

"Kill them! KILL THEM!" the crossbowmen shouted, aiming up more arbalests at the defenders and pulling more triggers. More loud screams were heard and many other peltasts were struck off the ledge by bolting missiles that pierced right through their arm with enough force to launch them back against the balcony's flooring, reducing the resistance to the scythes' march.

Many more sharp bolts razed across the guards' heads, hitting more defenders and spilling more Greek blood, and Agapethos had to duck against the ledge to keep the line secure and gesture commands. Seeing their surviving leader persist and still immersed in the strength of the Zodiac, the talented guards stayed disciplined, but they now tried to take cover from the deadly fire and preserve their numbers, intimidated by the sudden loss of one of their heads.

Seeing this, Agapethos practically held the closest Peltast down and hurled rocks and javelins as best as he could from that position. "KEEP FIRING! DON'T RELENT! FOR ATHENA!"

The exchange of missiles continued, but the Skeletons now had the advantage as the Guards assumed their meeker stance, slowly making their way up as javelins and rocks were hurled down on them with only loud thuds against their thick shield wall resulting from it. One or two were hit from the flanks thanks to the wide front given to the Papal Guards, but this didn't stop them from reaching across the short distance to the lower façade, closing ground with the temple. The firing of the Toxotoi intensified as they felt the threat closing in.

The Pride Star smiled in the rear, knowing it was too late for the defenders. Lucifer turned his red eyes to the Skeleton lieutenants. "Go, show them no mercy." He ordered, before focusing his attention on the balcony. "No protracted duels, just pure warfare…Shion will now see how a real war is done."

The archers of Athena quickly turned their weapons! Many Toxotoi fired at the targets, and the arrows indeed struck the Skeleton lieutenants with loud thunks that reeled them back, but their thick armor and bodies absorbed the impact and the armored hulks rushed ahead regardless like maddened bulls, drunk with the smell of blood.

"KILL THEM!" the peltasts screamed, hurling their last javelins as they dried to avoid the arbalest fire.

One pierced right through the shoulder of one of the hulks, poking out the other side and wetting the stairs red, and the Skeleton lieutenant collapsed forward, dropping the gear. "DEATH!... D-DEATH!" he roared and he lunged unto a large boulder by the Golem Specter.

As more climbed on to it, Golem Treble burned his cosmos and hurled his arm. "ROLLING BOMBER STONE!" he roared, catapulting the large stones packed with Skeletons unto the balcony.

Agapethos' men stepped away from the edge, burning their cosmos protectively. "WATCH OUT!"

The projectiles crashed unto the balcony, landing the hulking lieautenant Skeletons and their scythmen among the defenders, and the bloodthirsty men of the prince drew their weapons and shouted arcane war cries of slaughter while arbalests released more bolts to suppress the defenders.

The red-armoured giant would literally pick up men from the vanguard and launched them at the balcony as soon as the shieldwall covered enough ground. "ARM YOUR SWORDS! SWING YOUR SCYTHES! SLAUGHTER THEM!" Cyclops Balgo screamed, creating a common screech of rattling and unsheathing weapons accompanied by a bloodthirsty battle cry. He then turned to the ones still on the lower ground. "The pissants at the top are busy now! Be ready to attack the gate!"

At the balcony, Cosmos burned across the Papal Guard regiment, creating a common bonfire of white, shared energy, while swords were holstered and halberds were pointed up at the Skeletons.

"DIE, SAINTS!" the first Skeleton screamed, swinging the weapon at the first halberd he saw, swatting it off with a loud iron thwack.

More sounds of metal teeth biting on marble ledge were heard and the entire line of Papal Guards found itself leaped on by berserking scythemen, who wildly swing their large weapons around to create space for their followers. The Papal guards immediately rushed through with their pointy halberds, jammed the scythes or pierced through the thick Damascus armor, wounding or killing these first assaulters "GO! DESTROY THEM!"

The papal lieutenant saw this and ordered his halberdiers forwards. "PELTASTS, GO FOR THE FLANKS and keep targeting the Skeletons below! Hoplites, don't let those killers lay a single foot on this temple!" he shouted, burning his cosmos together with theirs.

But the precious few microseconds opened up by this launching strike, allowed for a larger number of Skeletons to climb up in thicker ranks and fight on with swords.

"KILL THE SAINTS! KILL THEM!" they shouted.

"TAKE THE TEMPLE!" one screamed. "PAINT IT WITH THEIR BLOOD!"

Within a few moments, as the Papal Guards found themselves fighting against a charging wave of swinging blades. With a screeching clash of shouts, metal, and bravado, the two lines of warriors on opposite sides then engaged in the most vicious of melees, with the scythemen creating chaos in the front before, after their fall, their fellow dark swordsmen rushing in with poisoned blades and stab, decapitate or slit the throat of the guards, opening up a further path. The Toxotoi fired from their vantage point, but the crossbows from below now focused their aim on them, using their superior weapon kinetic force to overcome the height disadvantage.

Agapethos bashed off a large scytheman with his shield and then immediately jammed the tip of his sword into his throat, killing him, before dodging a wild sword swing and slicing off the leg of a second Skeleton. Looking up, though, he saw his Toxotoi getting shot down one by one by the array of arbalest bolts which just punched right through the stardust-reinforced iron of their armors.

Blood flooded the ground. He felt himself stepping away from the ledge with the rest of his men, losing ground.

He knew the battle would go badly, but this was worse than he expected. He turned to his closest man. "Signal the fallback! We're delaying them until our rear troops at the gate move up to Taurus!"

"YES, SIR!" the man obeyed, holstering the signal flag.

Seeing this, Lucifer took two fingers and pointed at the far-off Aries gate. "The way is clear enough! Now! Ram the temple doors! Overwhelm their defenses!"

To which Golem Treble nodded. "Yes, prince! We'll crush it!" he then roared and charged up the stairs, immersed in his thick earth-elemental aura. "OUT OF THE WAY, MAGGOTS!" he screamed at the remaining troops in the façade. Locking target with the large wooden doors, he curled his arm and readied himself to bash the obviously barricaded defense.

*THROOOM*

Agapethos and the rest of the balcony defenders felt the entire Aries Temple shake. "What the hell was that?!"

The soldier closest to him fought off a Skeleton. "They're ramming the gate down there! They want to occupy the Temple and cut our exit off!"

The Lieutenant cut off the head of the enemy he was dueling and cursed. "S-SHIT! Hoplites, consolidate your phalanx! The rest of you GO, FALL BACK! MOVE DOWN THE CUPULA TOWER BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

The spearmen obeyed and tightened their formation as they slowly stepped back towards the staircase, assuming a tighter body of shields and halberds while their Peltast and Toxotoi friends fled by their flanks. "GO, GO, GO!" many of them urged as they poked the Skeletons away, who slowly surrounded them.

*THROOOM* *CREEAK*

The temple shook with another ramming of Golem's large armored body against the reinforced gate downstairs, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the wood caving in, unnerving the men and making their feet go faster. "Athena be with you, brothers!" one Peltast wished.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Cyclops Balgo hissed, his deadly cosmos already charging up in the form of a terrifying aura of blood-tinted darkness.

Papillion Ainsel then flew by the Temple from the air and shot his Silky Thread at the Cupula Tower, wrapping it up in steel-tough webbing. "I'm afraid the lid is closed on your pot." The elite mocked as he landed by Cyclops.

The men of Athena gasped and stabbed at it with their swords, but could barely cut through it. "What is this substance?! We're trapped."

Agapethos took a leading position by the guarding phalanx, ready to die to buy his friends more time. "JUST CUT THROUGH IT! We'll hold them off!"

Balgo's fist concentrated his cosmos, readying his Polyphemus Knuckle. "HA, HA, HA! How about I give you a hand with th-"

And then the Specter's foot crossed the midway of the Temple, he finally stepped inside Aiolos' range.

Time slowed down even more.

Ainsel, Lucifer, Torak, Neferti, and Lemon looked up and their eyes widened, their refined senses being the first to detect the burst of cosmos way upstairs and the 9th Temple lighting up with a golden flare that then shot out of its premises.

It arched down on Aries Mu's House, aimed right at the Specters and Skeletons. Ainsel irked, grabbed Cyclops, and tried to drag him back.

Time sped up.

The golden missile descended down on them like a bolt from Zeus' himself and meteored with the force of powerful artillery shot in an explosion of golden cosmos that temporarily blinded the entire battlefield, made huge pieces of marble fly into the air with a resonating sound and spread dust throughout the entire temple. Many Skeletons, Hoplites and Specters screamed and fell back with the shockwave force of the blast including Cyclops and Ainsel.

Lucifer guarded himself with his cape while Neferti and Lemon cursed and recoiled, even in the rear of the army as they were. His red eyes looked up hatefully, seeing the vanishing shine in the 9th Temple, not sure whether to feel happy or dejected that his prediction of this came true. "So that's his range…"

Lemon coughed and dusted himself. "What the fuck was that?!"

Neferti got up. "Incredible… our men couldn't even react. This entire place is filled with crazy defenses and space twists, who could make that shot without us sensing it?!"

The Pride Star narrowed his eyes. "It was Sagittarius…" he stated in an of-course manner. "This is why in cosmos war you go through assault phases because you never know when you're stepping into someone's nuking range. Neferti, Lemon, stay in the rear and on the lookout for the Gemini Saint! It's bad enough we'll have fire raining down on us from the front."

Shaking like a leaf, the Sphinx False Specter obeyed, seeing renewed sense in Lucifer's tactics, while Lemon could only hesitantly accept that the leader he hated was right for once.

Seeing the webbing cleared by the electrical shockwave of Saint Aiolos' attack, Agapethos waved his arm at it. "GO, GO, BEFORE THE SPECTERS REGROUP! We're in range of cover fire from Saint Sagittarius!" he urged, making sure he was the last to abandon the defenses as his hoplites and Toxotoi rushed down the stairs. He looked back on the carnage in front of him. Amidst the charred marble, blood and bodies were visible under the rain. His hand curled angrily before he went down himself. "We'll avenge you, brothers! I swear it to Athena!"

Furious with what happened, Golem and Cyclops got Ainsel off them, faced the broken wooden gate to the Aries Temple, and then collectively rammed it with their large bodies, shattering the wooden barrier and breaking the large marble blocks the hoplites had placed behind it. Pushing the debris out of the way, they led the attack. "GO, SKELETONS! STORM THE TEMPLE!"

The battalion roared as they rushed past the Specters and invaded the sacred house of Aries. Many of them saw the fleeing hoplites at the distance "THERE THEY ARE! SHOOT THEM DOWN!" and opened fire with their crossbows. But while one or two were hit in the back, most of the Papal Guards now had enough distance to escape their range and moved up the stairs to the next temple.

Behemoth Torak was the first elite to step inside. He looked around carefully, more alert to potential attacks from Sagittarius. "Avoid the balcony until the Prince passes through. Search the temple for any stragglers!"

Mandrake Nevil announced the milestone as the dozens of Skeletons moved in. "The temple IS OURS! LONG LIVE THE PRINCE!"

Crossbows and scythes were raised in triumph. "LONG LIVE LORD LUCIFER!"

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

Sagittarius Temple

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

"Fall back to Taurus, Guards!" Aiolos urged from his Temple, firing more warning shots at the balcony to discourage pursuit that further bombarded the ceiling.

"Aiolos, update me!" the Pope asked.

The Sagittarius irked and touched his temple. "Your Holiness, they've stormed Mu's Temple! The guards are falling back with minimal losses, but we've lost our vanguard House!"

"… it can't be helped. The enemy is too organized. Keep providing cover fire for their retreat."

But Aiolos had other concerns. "Your holiness, what about Aldebaran?!"

There was a brief pause. "… If he's indeed impossible to contact, then he might be under a spell. Have the guards ascertain the situation and carry him out, if they must." Shion ordered. He would not lose one of the kids to this, they were too important for the future. "Right now, we can only be sure the temples are safe starting from Shaka."

The young Sagittarius sweated. "I… I understand." He forced himself to rationalize, but there were other problems. "Your Holiness, what about Aiolia and Deathmask? I have to get them out of there. My brother is down there!"

"Aiolos, don't panic, everything is still under control. The guards are moving up the stairs as we speak, correct?" Shion assured, despite having just lost the first House.

"Saint Sagittarius, Athena bless you!" Agapethos, of the Gemini Temple, then sounded in his head. "We managed to escape the Aries Temple thanks to you."

Aiolos did his best to manage both communications at once. "It's nothing, but did you get a good look at the enemy? What can you share with us?" he requested. Amassing the soldiers downstairs had been both an attempt to defend the temple and to get visual info on this enemy that was so tightly blocking communications.

"Over one hundred enemies, though we cut down a tenth of them, I'd say. Saint Sagittarius… these Skeletons aren't normal. They are well regimented and employing war tactics similar to our own."

It was as Aiolos feared, then. No normal force would be able to just prey on Sanctuary's intel weaknesses like this, even the Specters of Hades. "There must be something about their leader, then. Did you confirm Saint Virgo's claims?"

"It's as Saint Virgo said, Saint Aiolos; they kept screaming about a Pride Star." He communicated. "Whoever that is, they didn't officially announce themselves, but we did spot a figure instructing some of the Specters. He had silver-hair and a heavily armored Surplice with a black cape."

Aiolos tried to process this. He had no way to associate the two testimonies together other than the common mention of Pride Star, but it was hard to pretend both the guards and the freaking Saint of Virgo was wrong about this.

The Pope's initial reaction, however, deeply concerned him. "Thank you. Make your way to Taurus and assist my brothers-in-arms… I believe they may be in danger."

"YES, SIR!"

Aiolos turned the mental call off. He then exhaled worryingly. "By Athena, what's going on?... Saga, Lance, you two HAVE to come back!" He then re-tensed the bow, determined to keep the pressure on the Specters on. "THUNDERCLAP STORM!"

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

Aries Temple

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

The rain of golden missiles from the ninth house continued, forcing the invading Skeletons on the defensive! "WATCH OUT!" they screamed, keeping away from the range of the blasts.

"ENOUGH OF THIS! If it's an artillery contest you want -" Golem roared, brimming his hands with cosmos and levitating several boulders into the air over the Aries' Temple. "- then you'll GET ONE! ROLLING BOMBER STONE!" and he cast them off at the speed of light towards the air, filling the air with collisions of rock and light that filled the air like a firework, but the tough absorbing properties of his dark and earth cosmos gave them the breathing space from the fire rain they needed. "GO, INSIDE THE TEMPLE!"

The Skeletons of Lucifer rushed inside, claiming the territory. The man himself made his way into the House of Aries, flanked by his elite and welcomed by the warm fervor of soldiers. Neferti and Lemon kept a watchful eye in the rear and Torak headed ahead to make sure the exit to the next Temple was taken. "How many dead, Brune?"

A group of soldiers dragged a man in dark green bat armor to the feet of the Prince. He was injured and bleeding from the lynching he took. Meekly, he lowered his swollen face to the ground. "T-…T-Thirteen, m-my Prince."

The silver-haired man nodded. "Thirteen… I suppose that's how many more lashes you'll take later for making me lose Amphion. His Grenades would have cleared the upper balcony in seconds… Now take him away, men. Have him reinforce the Nightmare Sonar further ahead."

"Y-yes, Prince. Thank you, Prince!" the broken man whimpered before getting dragged off by the Skeletons to Torak.

Ainsel landed by him and watched the pitiful man going away. "How terrifying, Prince… to think he thanks you for punishing him."

The tan-skinned woman in Sphinx Surplice walked up to him. "The rear is clear, Prince, the Gemini Saint and his helper are keeping their distance. They don't dare to strike us," she revealed. "Your strategy worked. By keeping the Specters in reserve, we took the first temple without getting attacked in the rear."

"The temporary loss of thirteen men was a small price to pay for that. Contact Neferti and have her ensure all their souls are saved from Thanatos' smudgy fingers." Lucifer commanded. His red orbs then glanced at Sanctuary Town, imagining the frustration in Saint Gemini. Knowing the impetuousness of these Saints, he better make sure there's more preventing a rear attack than a strategic advantage. "Also, have the gate to Aries reblocked."

The Sphinx nodded. It was time to do her part in the war. Walking up to the broken wooden gate of the Aries Temple, her cosmos burned.

Lemon narrowed his eyes, seeing the illusion of a pyramid topped by Ra's sun envelop the woman. "What the heck is she doing?"

Lucifer's arms folded. "She's making sure my enemies pay a price for stalking me."

Neferti closed her eyes and focused. Surprisingly, her instrument was set aside for once and her body tensed as if she was about to fight. Instead, however, the temple trembled without a blow, releasing pebbles and dust off its surface as if an unseen force was reverberating through it. Her hands became immersed in orbs of energy which swirled in communion with the sands themselves and her mind was taken to the ancient age of death worshipping.

When enough power was gathered, the Sphinx then announced. "RISE! TOMB OF OSIRIS!" and the floor of the doorway then flared up with flaming cosmos which rose up like a reversed waterfall to the ceiling, curtaining the entry. "LET NOT THE ENEMIES OF MY MASTER PASS ANYMORE THAN THE DEAD CAN LEAVE THE UNDERWORLD!"

Stirred by this command, the energy seemed to hiss loudly before adopting an increasingly more solid consistency, hardening, and hardening until a sandstone-like texture was formed, creating a rock slab gate. Before long, its surface began depressing, creating carvings on the slab in the style of the winged sun of Egypt above large glyphs of Osiris and Anubis.

The Skeletons awed at the creation, sensing a terrifying power from it, but none knew his nature as well as Lucifer himself, who had seen this power put into practice when Alone created the Lost Canvas Fortress. Blessing the true Sphinx Specter, namely Pharaoh, the Celestial Star of Beasts, with an incredible amount of power, the possessed painter was able to create a gate to his new fortress that forced the Saints to use Athena Exclamation on it to get past it.

Naturally, Neferti's obstacle fell short from that, as she lacked the blessings of the capricious Italian painter, but it was still a formidable and easy-to-create obstacle that should delay the Saints stalking him further. "At the very least, the thought of escaping from battle will now be far off my men's minds." Lucifer thought to himself.

Torak returned from the stairs to Taurus. "My lord, the temple is secure."

"Excellent! Cyclops, I want you stationed here for now as a lookout. Order Skeletons up the Houses as the rest of us Specters conquer them!" Lucifer instructed.

Balgo, hesitated for a moment. "Um… yes, Prince, but what if Gemini pulls some trick or just blasts his way through Neferti's gate?"

Lucifer folded his arms. "What do you think? You STOP them!"

Cyclops gasped. "H-How?!" he asked. Didn't Gemini kill Deadly Beetle Gauromydas and Worm Samuel?

The Prince's hand laid out as if to appeal to common sense. "What do you think I'm leaving all these men with you for? I need my elite at the front, taking out the Gold Saints in their temples. I want distance between Gemini and my main force until we take out Virgo! If Gemini shows up and tries to work through the Tomb, fire at him! Let's see how well he focuses then!" his red eyes then surveyed the rest of the army. "Any more impertinent questions?"

"Another thing, Prince," Torak called. "The Fire Clock… The Aries flame has gone out."

This frankly surprised the rest of them. "What? Has it been an hour already?" Neferti asked, blinking.

Torak shook his head. "Not even fifty minutes…"

Lucifer paced around pensively. "Shion, you weasel…" He then announced his conclusion. "He's not tracking time with it. He's tracking me. The Virgo Saint has confronted me already and that Clock has all sorts of powers no one knows about. I wouldn't be surprised if it can track a particular cosmos and just ignores jamming barriers like mine…"

Neferti held her chin. "I see… that makes sense. If they track the Prince, they can keep all the uninformed Gold Saints aware of how far we have penetrated to."

Behemoth Torak raised his fist. "Then we should go to meet them, Prince! We can use this to our advantage!" he argued. "If we blitz through the temples and show the Saints how fast they're losing ground, they'll be demoralized! There will be nothing Pope Arles can do to assure them things are under control!"

The Daemon seriously considered this. He could tell all Torak really wanted to do was get to Taurus Temple in particular as soon as possible, but there was a valid point to his excuse. Moreover, Lucifer would feel immense particular pleasure at terrorizing Shion with how quickly the Specters are coming to take his head and that of his supporters.

He didn't come this far to make rash mistakes, though. "Five minutes ago I would have accepted, but clearly their Sagittarius has good aim. No, Torak, from now on, I'm heading the march, at a pace with which we can counter arrow fire!" Lucifer ordered. "I'm not losing Specters at this stage to an arrow to their face!"

The tall blue-armored man lowered his head, frustrated by loyalty. "Yes, Prince…"

Neferti stared at him, sensing the tension coming off his cosmos.

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Sanctuary Town,

Golden Zodiac Outskirts

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The night drizzle continued. The flag of the bat-winged crown star was being raised above the First House for all to see.

Its first beholders were the two Saints of Athena standing over the ceiling of the house nearest to the pathway to the Aries Temple. The rise of the flag to its peak made the weight of the death of the Papal Guards press on their hearts even more. Saga's whole body was tense with contained anger, clenching a fist and gritting teeth at the sight of the Skeletons filling up Mu's Temple and the squadrons of his own house fleeing up the stairs to Aldebaran's. The Andromeda Saint wasn't reacting much better, covering his mouth in sorrow and containing tears of pain at the sight of the dripping blood, sword-carved corpse, and arrowed bodies dangling from the balcony of the First House.

A deep pain was in both of their hearts, like a sacred home they had not been raised on but felt strangely attached to had been violated and smeared with mud, blood, and salt, never to be restored to its former splendor. More importantly, they had been shamelessly forced to stand there and watch, knowing that attacking the force would be adding two important bodies to the pile with how vigilant the rear-guard Specters were. They obviously knew that Saga, at the very least, was present and looking for a weak spot.

A temple had been taken.

And they just stood there and took it.

How could this be happening?

More mature despite his age, Saga withheld the pain by reminding himself of his greater duty and patted Shinta's shoulder. "We will make things right, Saint Shinta. They will pay for this."

The green-head wiped the tears off his eyes. "I don't want revenge, I want to stop this…" he clarified. He then clasped his hands. "Athena, please have mercy on their souls…"

Saga led the way to approach the entrance of the Zodiac, jumping off the house and walking up just enough to get more visual details without being targeted himself.

He saw the flame of Aries vanishing off the Fire Clock. "The Clock is active. His Holiness must know what's going on already. That arrow earlier was also from Aiolos. The Zodiac is fighting back, Saint Shinta."

Joining him, the Andromeda Saint felt his hopes rise. "Maybe they can help Aldebaran!"

Saga then saw the large mass of Specters leaving the Aries Temple and walking up the stairs to Taurus and his heart sank. Aiolos was strong, but one thousand arrow shots wouldn't be enough to save Aldebaran from a force this big and well-prepared. Not only that but having observed the battle for the Aries Temple, Saga realized this was an uncommonly trained force of Specters.

"Perhaps…" he lied. He then observed from afar the stone slab that the Specters raised over the broken gate of the Aries Temple. "I've never seen obstruction like that before. It emanates an incredibly dark and earthly cosmos, akin to the gates of the tombs of the old Priests of Ra from imperial war times. It might not be easy to get past it, even with Another Dimension."

The Andromeda Saint thought this over, determined to help his Taurus Saint one way or another. They needed the way clear for when they timed their own offensive, even if they were going to wait for the Specters to reach the Cancer Temple and beyond. One possibility was for him to use his chains to climb to the balcony of the Aries Temple and then just walk right over the entire building with Saga, but Goddess knew how strong the Specters waiting underneath were.

If only Lance was there. His headstrong friend would know what to-

Shinta gasped! "Wait, Saint Saga, I know a shortcut!" he announced, intriguing the Gemini. "I and Lance once found a pass on the side of the mountain that the Papal Guard uses to quickly go to the stairs between Leo and Cancer! We managed to use it to sneak inside…" his eyes then shifted embarrassingly. "Um, until Aiolia caught us."

The Gemini, however, was ultimately unimpressed. "That's noteworthy, Shinta, but we don't actually want to get ahead of the Specters." He reminded the Bronze. "We want to surround their forces. If we take that pass we risk both exposing an important way for civilians out of the conflict to the Skeletons, not to mention Aiolia and Deathmask, and we don't benefit positionally since the enemy will no longer be surrounded... You're also asking us to move away from Aldebaran, not towards him."

The older teenager 'oh'ed. He hadn't thought of this. His mind wasn't as strategic as Saga's or Lance's. "Yeah, that makes sense… but then what do we do?"

Saga then sweated. "It's risky, but we'll just have to take the frontal approach, even though their leader might be standing right behind that stone slab. Sometimes it's as simple as that. Come on." He ordered, leading the way. As they marched onward at the same pace the enemy was climbing up the stairs to Taurus, he then gazed up at the 6th and 9th House. "Aiolos, I know you can't hear me through these jamming fields, but you better hold our ground until I get to the leader!" his eyes then lazed down to the 3rd Temple, his own.

More perceptive than people gave him credit for, Shinta noticed that Saga hesitated for a second. "Saint Saga?"

The blue-haired youth shook his head. "It's nothing, I just feel embarrassed that I can't even be up there to protect my Temple." he half-lied. In reality, his mind was stuck thinking about its current occupant. Saga's heart was immediately split between intense preoccupation for his life and the dread of him being discovered. "He'll be hiding from these murderers… I'm sure of it," he assured himself. "If not, then the Gemini Temple's labyrinth will surely disguise him."

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Aries Temple

Exit to Taurus

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Finishing up the preparations to strike the next Temple, the forces of Lucifer began amassing by the exit to Taurus, forming file and rank so they could efficiently march and be protected from arrow fire by their superiors.

The Prince waited, standing over one of the inner balconies for a heightened point of view. "I want at least ten men garrisoning this House, the rest will accompany us up the stairs!" he commanded, getting obedient shouts in return. "And make sure the temple is thoroughly ransacked! Burn the workshops if you must!"

Neferti noticed this order. "Prince, is that really necessary? If we are conquering this place…"

But Lucifer had strategic concerns. "If what Ainsel reported from his battle in Tibet is true, then the Aries Saint is still out there. He might return along with Gemini and use the tools in this place against us. There's no point in burning down Jamir if we then spare the enemy's restorative advantage here, especially since their reinforcements will likely take this place back."

The Sphinx False Specter sweated. "You're assuming the worst about the barricade, Prince?"

The red eyes looked at the Tomb of Osiris slab. "It's closer to that I don't trust Cyclops to competently hold this place, even with your help. Your slab will force the Gold Saint reinforcements to amass their strength after all."

Soon enough, the Skeletons not already in formation were setting the flags and rooms ablaze, including the many bizarre toys and trinkets that Mu fashioned to sell to tourists in Rodario, fearing they might be secret weapons. The flags of Aries were ripped off, the furniture turned over and corpses from the balcony and stairs were carried inside.

Observing all of this, Papillion Ainsel had to agree that these men would likely not withstand the force of a concerted Gold Saint attack. "Prince Lucifer, perhaps I should stay here in case the Aries Saint shows up. My telekinesis is one of the few in the army that can withstand his."

For a moment, Lucifer seriously pondered this. In doubt, however, he favored sticking to the formulated plan. "…No, you're our communication and jamming router. I'd rather you stay close to me, at least until I deal with that Virgo Saint. Cast your nets on the slab to reinforce it, though."

The Specter flew off. "Yes, Prince! SILKY THREAD!" and his palm shot the stardust-reinforced webbing which glued itself onto the Osiris Tomb, forming a dense layer of flexible webbing which further sealed the slab with the gateway's edges.

Jumping off the inner balcony to the interior plaza, Lucifer then gathered his elites together. "I expect you all to be ready for combat. This first battle for Aries was just the beginning. From now on we're facing actual Gold Saints, and the first one is the student of Taurus Daniel, also known as Ajax, a champion of the Civil War!"

Behemoth clenched his fist in a vow. "(I'm more than ready! I'll crush him flat, Prince!)"

Lucifer eyed him warningly. "(You better, because the faster you do, the sooner you'll reinforce us in the upper temples!)"

Alraune shrugged. "You don't have to tell me twice, Lucifer. I'll kill everyone in my way."

Golem walked up next to them. "What about us non-elites, Prince?" he asked, sided by Mandrake Nevil, Dullahan Hedron, Cait Sith Palug, and Elf Rossalier.

Palug's fingers repeatedly tensed and untensed like a cat's paw on your favorite rug. "Yes, we want to shed blood, too!"

"For now you will lead the Skeletons and maintain order in the ranks. Once we have the definitive superiority over the enemy, I'll have you storm the last few temples with your stronger brothers."Lucifer ordered. He would not expose weaker Specters to Gold Saints on their own.

Satisfied with this, the non-elites went to join the march. The tapestries of the temple were burned by torches and the corpses of the fallen Papal Guards were piled for later, so they could eventually tribute them in rituals similar to the ones that corrupted the Cyrulian fortress of Crow's Nest into Prince Lucifer's cathedral. Flanked by their Skeletons and with the air littered by the shining Underworld moths of Ainsel, the strongest False Specters amassed and marched out of Aries, climbing the first steps to Taurus in order.

"ONWARD, MEN OF THE PRINCE! To the HOUSE OF TAURUS!" Mandrake Nevil galvanized, his powerful voice inspiring the men. Their flags of Lucifer's emblem waved in accordance and they huffed war cries, thirsty for more Saint blood. "DEATH TO ARLES!"

"DEATH TO ARLES!" the yelled back, raising fists.

"Front and center, coward!" Golem Treble shouted at Bat Brune, who crawled forward as he cast his sonar, voicing only submissive whimpers and pardons.

Further down below, completely oblivious to these conversations, Cyclops Balgo paced back and forth, lost in thoughts.

One of the Skeletons noticed this. "Sir, is something wrong?"

The red giant roared out, grabbed the soldier, and tossed him at the first pillar he saw, smacking the man flat. "What's wrong with me is that you're all standing here NOT BEING USEFUL! Get to your guard posts or I'll toss you into Dark Crater's Cyclops pit!" he threatened, sending the Skeletons into a flurry of activity like piling the rest of the bodies, looting the workshop, or standing vigil. Cyclops then watched the rest of the Specters leave for Taurus. "(Are you INSANE, Lemon?!" I'm not going to disobey the Prince directly and leave this place!)"

The far-off man plantoid armor physically feigned ignorance, just appearing to be obediently marching up with the rest of the Specters, but secretly he conversed with Cyclops. "Are you saying that Torak is the only one allowed to whine about revenge? You know you want to do this… You're just too scared of another round of whatever that spell Lucifer afflicted you with was."

Immediately, the giant's body shook with the memories of Eternal Darkness. He saw so many terrible things in the dome of shadows that Pride Star locked him inside*, things he never confessed to be his deepest nightmares to anyone. Just the thought of having to go through it again made his knees weak.

(*)See Chapter 33

"(Do you really think the Prince will even notice? He has a whole generation of Gold Saints to keep his thoughts busy.)" Alraune Lemon argued. "(And he told you himself; you don't have to stop any of them from getting past you. You're just filler for that temple, Balgo. You should be out there snapping the neck of the stupid little girl that killed Servo!... and if someone catches you, just say your Eye of Arges spotted weak enemies straggling about in the streets.)"

Balgo's enormous fist clenched, paralyzed by terror. "He…. He will know! I know he will!"

"And what if he does?! Did he take your side when he paid a visit to that blond wench?! Did he have mercy on your ignorance of Hades' tricks when he tortured you with Eternal Darkness?! No, in fact, he raised that girl under our noses and didn't bat an eye when Cyclops Servo, your brother, fell to her wiry fists! Balgo, you don't owe Lucifer anything but an equally painful stab…" Lemon pressured. "So go! Avenge your family! If he finds her dead in the gutter, we can blame anyone, even one of the Skeletons! We can say the Saints have gone mad with the war and killed their own! Revenge is yours for the taking!"

The Cyclops rested against a pillar, head in a mental pretzel. What should he do? His body ached with both rage for wanting to go after the girl and the terror of getting found out by the Prince.

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Pope's Chambers

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Beholding the entirety of the mountain from the Chamber's entrance, Shion also watched Maximus pace around with his fingers pressed against the temple.

"So it's confirmed they've taken it?" the aged soldier spoke out loud, while also messaging it to his lower guards. "Alright, keep moving up to Taurus and carry out anyone who's still unconscious, including Saint Taurus if you have to."

"So, my first House has fallen?" Shion asked, already knowing the answer.

The captain nodded. "So says Lieutenant Agapethos and he's corroborated by the Fire Clock's flames. Without Saint Aries guarding his Temple, it was a foregone conclusion. Hopefully, they've bought enough time for everyone else to get safe and ready, your Holiness."

The Pope gently nodded. "Yes, I'm sure of it."

Something concerned the captain. "Your Holiness, considering our… absences, we may have to consider the possibility we will not be able to stop them from reaching all the way to the sixth, at which point Saint Virgo will be in grave danger."

Shion's brain rushed a mile a second behind the mask's serene look. He didn't want to accept it, but such a fulminating assault was not the type to be achieved by Pandora's rash Judges. Even the most manipulative of them, like Minos, had a history of preferring frontal assaults when it came to attacking Sanctuary, rather than going through the trouble of creating such a gigantic window of vulnerability first.

There was only one echelon in Hades' army who had this kind of strategic forethought. "Aiolos, do you confirm Shaka's testimony?"

"… Yes, your holiness, the brag of a Celestial Star of Pride being present has been repeated."

An old hand pressed against the mask somberly as Shion's heart sunk to his guts. The night immediately seemed darker. Rageful denialism gave place to bargaining. "(This…has to be some sort of mistake.)" He thought to himself, shielding his mind. His eyes looked up at the stars. "(Pride Star defeated me in the final battle, but Dohko fought on, and I remember like yesterday my friend promising me that I'd never had to worry about him again. That Daemon Lucifer had fallen to the depths of Tartarus after Eternal Darkness took over me and no one beneath the sky could bring him back.)"

"I will continue to provide guidance and support to the soldier, your Holiness," Aiolos swore, determined to protect his brother way down at the Leo Temple. "But if you know something that could be useful, we must know of it."

While joining hands behind his back and straightening himself up in this time of dread gave Maximus a visual assurance of serenity from the Pope, Shion was split on the inside. What should he tell Aiolos? What could he tell Aiolos? If he went about saying that an unstoppable Specter was the enemy and he was wrong, he'd needlessly demoralize the kids before the battle even reached them. More importantly, it was too soon. Aiolos, Saga, and the rest were too young to fight a battle like this. Even if they were strong, they had no war experience, much less enough to face such an unexpectedly organized Specter invasion.

Some basic steps had to be taken, though. "Aiolos, I'm trusting you to lead the defense down there, but keep in mind a number of things; number one, do not go down there, at any cost, unless I order it." He instructed. No matter what, the Cloths have to stay in their temples to ensure the Zodiac's defenses wouldn't be compromised, not to mention each of the kids would be their most powerful in their houses. Sensing that Aiolos would immediately object, Shion continued. "If you're concerned about Aiolia, you'll have to trust the Papal Guards to do their work. They will not abandon him."

"…Y… yes, your Holiness."

"Number two, you and the others must avoid battling the enemy leader individually. A special strategy will have to be prepared to deal with him." He warned, but a secret fear haunted him. "…If my instinct is correct, he will try to force us otherwise as much as possible. Do not let him, even if he baits you, even if he tortures someone in front of your Temple to get you out there."

More hesitation was somehow felt from the far-off teenage archer. Fortunately, even if more virtuous, Aiolos was also far more cool-headed than Lance. "I understand…What is our current strategy, then, your Holiness?"

Shion's expression steeled with determination. "We delay the attackers as much as possible, make them regret daring to step on Athena's land until reinforcements from our veterans arrive and we can crush them in one of the Temples with an encirclement." The Pope instructed. It was a textbook stratagem to defend the Zodiac when their forces were split and they would need an en masse assault if they wished to take down the suspected leader. "Just as importantly, we need to find a way to take down their sleep curser and their communications jammer. I'm sure the enemy has Specters dedicated to those tasks. Shaka said earlier that they are using a Papillion Specter for jamming. Aiolos, your bow will be needed for this. If you can detect either one-"

"I will shoot them down! I swear it!" Aiolos assured his cosmos brightening. "And then the battle will be much easier!"

Shion nodded. "Exactly… Athena be with you, Saint Aiolos. This will be a dark night." The Pope prayed, before turning off the call.

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Chapter 51 - Episode 16 - The Great Beast

Description: Entering the Second House of Athena, Daemon Lucifer and his False Specters come across a simple challenge; walking over an unconscious Taurus Aldebaran so they can move on to the Gemini Temple. In the meantime, Sanctuary's disparate forces attempt to speed towards Sanctuary to surround the enemy.

Author's Notes: And so we reach the 50th chapter of Lance's Role, another symbolic hallmark in addition to reaching one million words in the previous one. I hope everyone checked out and enjoyed Bluefeather's art of Lance and Lucifer. It's currently linked on my profile page.

This chapter was a challenge to write because of a lot of experimentalism that took place, especially on the assault to the Aries Temple. I must have lost half a week editing it before it ever went Beta and then after Jenny took a look at it, there were an extra number of problems that had to be taken out, mainly the inclusion of war ladders in the assault strategem. There was also a LOT of stuff that got rewritten and cut out over all in the chapter, mostly obsolete plot threads and stuff that just didn't fit earlier chapters or what was already being written in chapter 51.

As for character names, Agapethos was picked rather randomly, but Diokles was picked for meaning "glory of Zeus", which is a nice association to the relationship the Leo Temple seems to have with Jupiter in Episode G and G Assassin. I needed to have isolated perspectives on what was going on in the assault scene and it seemed reasonable to briefly give life to a small number of Papal Guards, who are so often mentioned throughout the story.

The next chapter is about 45% done. It's undergoing a lot of rewriting but hopefully it will come out even better than this one, I believe.

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