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.

70. SS2: The Curse of Hatred - Part 4 of 6

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; Kido Mount;

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:

-This chapter has been beta-read by Jenny DeVic;

-The fic has reached 30,000 hits! Thank you for reading the story! I'll be releasing a map of Death Queen Island in LR to commemorate the landmark! Keep checking my profile, Twitter and Reddit for links to it and other LR-related artworks by me and Bluefeather;

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Please enjoy and review

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The next night,

Death Queen Island,

Northwest Sector

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To the northwest of the island, a wide and deep depression in the terrain was formed between Fire Mountain and Jangotown's plateau, like the bottom of an empty pewter cauldron digging into the land's heart. Raging winds from the west and north were trapped into this vast space as twisters until dying down like the graveyard of the gods' breath. Said winds carried with them all the poisons, bile, and anger vomited by the three volcanoes of Death Queen Island, forming a deep, immortal mass of yellow mist, trapped in the terrain.

A mist that fogged the senses with an impenetrable lime.

A mist that raged with its own storms, ripping flesh from bone.

A mist that entered the lungs and incinerated your blood from the inside out with the burning in the air itself.

Explorers would see it as a particularly deadly sulfuric acid mist. The Black Saints of Death Queen Island called it the Cloud of Venus.

Dragging the screaming, blinded, shackled survivors of the cruise ship to the edge of the depression, the scarred, brutal men wearing black armors that mocked the Cloths of Athena looked up expectantly at the one overseeing them, the leader of Jangotown.

Standing on a high boulder, a tanned black-haired warrior wore a visored round helmet with a triple crest crown, a set of double shoulder pads flanking a wing-shaped chest plate, sets of sharply-elbowed gauntlets, and, more iconic, a trio of metal plume tails that reached all the way to his lower legs like a cape.

The unseeing victims could tell by the sudden stop after the long march that something terrible awaited them. "P-PLEASE!"

The Black Phoenix took a quick look at the victims and then pointed at the Cloud before his followers hurled them as far in as they could straight into the yellow mist. The Black Saints laughed at the horrifying screams, the kind made by living creatures suddenly assaulted by a yet unknown form of pain from every direction. Their silhouettes in the Cloud were of shackled struggles, running in search of a way out of the burning air before their rapidly dissolving bodies stumbled, crumbled, and made their last disheveled gestures of despair.

The Black Phoenix raised his fist at his men. "Praise the Goddess! Thank her for that strength deep inside us all! Thank her for this island that lets us make it come to the surface! Show her your gratitude and let the entire fucking world burn in her honor!"

A dance and cheer of triumph over the weak were heard from the Black Saints.

A shorter man of black mohawk hair and gray skin approached him. "Don't you think it's too soon to celebrate, Phoenix? The goddess frowns on flames that burn too soon."

Black Phoenix irked, recognizing the voice, and turned with a displeased frown. "Black Hydra…We are saving more than enough for tomorrow's grand ritual. Soon, the entire island will be mine. Why wouldn't I sacrifice some of these fat pigs to thank Her?"

The Black Hydra Saint smirked smugly and shrugged. "I enjoy tossing slaves into the Cloud as much as anyone else here, but me thinks perhaps She'd be more pleased if we saved that blood… and showed that Pegasus Saint first."

The leader growled and ignited his aura. "HE'S STILL ALIVE?! How many of you have crossed the Black Scar to take him already?! It's just one Bronze Saint! Fucking cut his head off already!"

A third, much calmer voice belonging to a long-haired man wearing a shielded dragon armor joined the conversation. "Twenty-seven, by my estimates. We've lost contact with around twenty-two. It's expected; he did wipe out all our raiding groups coming here."

"And whose fault is that, Dragon?!" the Black Phoenix raged, pointing a finger. "You were chosen to lead those groups to deal with problems like these! Perhaps you should be tossed into the Cloud next!"

But the draconic warrior scoffed. "Toss me into the Queen's Mouth if you wish, but an experienced adversary like this needs to be annihilated in a one-on-one battle. They won't fall easily into an ambush. Unless… There are signs that perhaps you, great Phoenix, are the one destined to destroy him…as well as the Master's student."

Anger in the Phoenix subsided into a curious, hanged jaw look. "You mean…?"

"Ah! It can't be!" Black Hydra dismissed, incredulous of the odds.

Black Dragon smiled and snapped his fingers. A pair of his men came dragging a battered-looking Black Saint from one of the groups that tried to ambush Pegasus and Guifi Taitano.

The broken ambusher was tossed harshly at their feet and immediately bowed. "L-Lord Phoenix, I b-beg of you!"

"Tell him what you told me, and you won't be incinerated," Dragon advised, his tone friendly.

"Red eyes! He had red eyes! Just like the Master and his student!" the Black Saint immediately repeated, crawling at the Phoenix's feet.

"…Are you certain?" Phoenix queried.

The Black Saint nodded frantically, not daring to look the leader in the eyes. "I saw them as he wiped out our squad… He is cursed!"

Dark blue cosmos flared around their leader, encircling his feet before raging up like a great bonfire. With a swift gesture of his index finger, a small laser light of orange burned through the air and struck the precise center of the Black Saint's forehead, making him gasp and freeze. Before long, a nail-like puncture slowly opened up in it, causing small streams of blood to drip down his face.

Phoenix chuckled and walked past him. "I believe you."

As Dragon and Hydra laughed, the Black Saint suddenly unleashed a blood-chilling howl and ran off in a panic, seeing horrors that the world would not get to know before he stumbled from the cliff and into the Cloud.

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Meanwhile,

Eastern Death Queen Island

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The Master, still in his orange, shadowed hood, guided Lance and Guifi back to his cabin after a long, dark day of hunting Black Saints. The volcanoes were beginning to rage again and it was no longer safe to patrol the island.

All of their hands were bloody, particularly the Master's. The enemy seemed to have learned their lesson from the day before and were now on hit-and-run mode. Despite Lance's help, they were making little headway in terms of taking the island back from the Black Saints.

"My boat is passing by here again tomorrow. I want to conduct a more direct attack on their Jangotown encampment, as you called it. The sooner I crush their leaders, the better," spoke Lance.

The Master chuckled as he marched ahead. "No, you did well enough today, Pegasus."

The Pegasus Saint rose a brow. Guifi shared a cautious look with Lance, silently advising him not to entertain the man.

"How many did you kill, Guifi?" The Master's grave voice continued.

The student raised his head. "… Two, Master."

A disgusted spit was made on the floor by the teacher. "Just two… not like you, Pegasus, right?" the Master provoked, his shadowed face towards the path he led them on. "I particularly liked when you shattered the neck of the one with the torch and spear. He'll be looking sideways in hell. It was entertaining."

Lance's eyes narrowed. "I'm not here to be your showman, whatever your name is. They're picking me up tomorrow, so I'll have my job done by then, even if I have to do it myself!"

The Master looked over his shoulder at him. "Mm, mm, isn't that just swell? What a thorough professional we have here. You should take some lessons from him, Guifi. Be more open about what a psychotic little shit stain you are."

The mentioned boy nodded. "Yes, Master."

Lance just irked once more at the man's constant comparisons between him and Guifi.

"I did not want you on my island in the first place, so I, too, intend to finish matters with you soon, Pegasus." The adult assured, reaching for his key as they arrived at the cabin. He paused after inserting it in the keyhole and locked the red stars inside his hood's darkness with Lance's eyes unnervingly. "But that's no reason not to… make friends, is it?"

The exhausted Lance just waited in silence for him to open the goddamn door, but the Master just stood there, waiting for an answer. Even after a solid half a minute, the man just held the key into the lock like a statue, staring at him expectantly. Guifi dared not open his mouth, knowing that interrupting his teacher's games would land him in trouble.

Lance thought of the scars he saw on Guifi and Nina and felt his fists tighten. "You want to be friends?... I put the last abusive Master who threatened me in the fucking hospital. And I'll put you in a grave if you hiss bullshit like that to me one more time! Now would you kindly open that door?!"

Guifi stepped back and gulped.

The Master's fingers tightened on the key tensely, like fingers on a neck about to be snapped. The red stars in his hood's darkness narrowed dangerously at Lance, making Guifi sweat and hold his breath.

But the fingers eventually turned, making the lock click open and the metal sheet door cringe ajar. Guifi let out a sigh of relief, and Lance couldn't help but blink a little. For a moment, the Pegasus thought he might have taken it too far.

The Master chuckled as he let Lance in, seeing the tiny beads of sweat in him. "There you go, Pegasus… I'll just respect our… generational differences for now."

Nina was waiting inside. "G-Guifi, are you okay?" she mentally asked. Her first greeting words had to be meant for Father.

Guifi nodded at her. "Yes, we're all still alive. We need to talk, though…Lance is leaving tomorrow."

Her eyes widened. "What?! But-" Seeing the teacher's shadowed face on them, though, she bowed humbly at the Master. "W-welcome back, Father."

But the hooded man ignored her and simply banged the metal sheet door close and locked the hut shut once more, startling her.

The exhausted Lance took off his armor pieces and tried to ignore their stares as he headed to the cell rooms to rest. "I'm going to sleep."

"You asshole! Do you think it's fine to challenge him like you did?!" Guifi snapped. "You don't know what kind of dragon you're poking! Even if you're leaving tomorrow…."

Lance returned his angry look, dropping his bloodied gauntlets into his box. "Go on, what's going to happen?! He'll take it out on you?! Then do something about it! Especially if you care about her!" he challenged, pointing his thumb at a stunned Nina. "It was your choice to come to this island! No one cares about us, remember, Guifi?! You have the Cosmos, so stop being a baby, stand up for yourself, make good on your decisions AND on what you taught me!"

A briskly disarmed Guifi's jaw dropped, feeling long gone words from their orphanage talks thrown back at him after all these years.

Nina held his hand and gently pulled him into their grizzly dining room. "Come on, it's okay… I'll make us some soup."

Guifi nodded but tightened hands discretely as he watched Lance rest against his corner. The Pegasus was changed, but he was right about Guifi having to make a stand on matters.

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(?)

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Lance wasn't sure where he was. His mind tried to understand what was around him. He marched through a path of embers, and there was nothing but dark turbulence all around him, like lying in the middle of a great, shadowy storm. Still, every obscure surrounding was like a head-splitting puzzle. He was sure that he had just gone through a long, dark day of hunting Black Saints with Guifi and the Master.

Why was he here rather than sleeping next to Nina's cell? Was he dreaming? His march through the mirk of shadows felt so vivid, so much he could raise his hand and feel it's cold brush on his skin. He searched for some kind of guidance, direction, or destiny. He could even feel an armor on him, even though he was so sure he took Pegasus off to sleep.

As he pondered these things, the air grew hot, and he felt something crash with thunderous force behind him, knocking him to the ground. He turned and found himself before a massive wall of fire that battered him with orange light. Lance crawled away, horrified by the speed these vast fires spread around him, and covered his face from the heat and embers.

At this point, with the light, he was able to see the metal on his limbs and chest, but rather than the familiar white and red of Pegasus, the Saint gasped to see strange undulating black shapes with sharp elbow beaks, multiple chest segmentations like wings and extruded carvings he did not recognize. He even felt something heavy on his back, like a cape or wing set. "What in God's name am I wearing?!"

The firewalls began to spread apart, catching his attention. A pair of red stars opened in their midst, like waking eyes, petrifying Lance! A sharp shriek was heard, assaulting Lance's eardrums, and shapes began to form in the raging flames. The parting fire waves left the ground like two massive, rising wings of burning; a core body began condensing in the center, sprouting tiny feet that elongated into taloned claws of pure burning. The two red stars extruded forward as the fire shaped an eagle-beaked head, heightening the screech more and more.

The Saint rolled and spasmed, covering his ears to little avail and screaming with pain. The massive fire bird's red eyes felt like they pierced into his skull and set his mind on fire!

Lance screamed again as images of massacre, torture, and hatred flashed in his eyes. He saw blood splashed violently against rocks by blades, lunging fists, and people slaughtering each other with rage stamped on their faces. Humans were forcefully dragged onto slabs and cruelly bashed with stone axes until their limbs came off, their remains raised to the skies. His own body felt every cell of it writhing with anguish, particularly the front of his forehead, like his very blood was boiling. The total cruelty of the world was being shoved through his mind all at once, threatening to make him burst at the seams.

As more violent images flashed faster and faster before his eyes, the bird spread its wings and descended upon the paralyzed Saint, expelling an object out of its beak.

Lance guarded himself, prepared to face whatever monster would come out!

Instead, a masked woman stepped out of the flames, dressed in the eagle of fire.

The Pegasus Saint gawked, surprised; the middle-aged Amazon had a shoulder-length mane of bright orange with a headband, a leather sleeveless tribal shirt with blue maze-patterned lines on the edges and going down on a long skirt to her ankles, a necklace of white eagle feathers, set of golden bracelets with rubies and a pair of Sanctuary sandals. Red ink lines were drawn on her mask, outlining her eyes and shaping tusk-like Ls from the lip edges up the cheeks.

"You're in pain, aren't you?" an echoing female voice asked. "I can make it stop…."

Lance's eyes struggled to understand through the burning in his mind what was in front of him.

Her hand took her mask off and presented it to him. Lance tried to see her face, but like trying to understand a newspaper in a dream, his mind simply couldn't read what her face was. Instead, his gaze kept pressing down on her gift.

"You're alone, aren't you? I was alone, too," she lulled. Somewhere in the unreadable mess that was her face, a gentle smile seemed to form. "This can save your soul. Just like it saved mine…."

He stared in pain at the mask. Lance felt insane, but it looked like the simple Amazon lines from earlier were morphing, extruding a third dimension out of its otherwise smooth surface. The eye outlines seemed to bulge. At the same time, the drawings of teeth became solid, grinning mandibles, its massive canines smeared with crimson.

Gods, the pain was so much! Lance felt like he'd split in two! Like he'd combust at the slightest touch!

"Take it," her voice incited. Lance breathed heavily and saw the firebird woman staring expectantly. "And the pain will stop. Take it… and you will be reborn again."

The Bronze Saint in dark armor's eyes widened. Could it be? Could he stop this terrible agony?

However, a loud neigh was heard before something white and bright landed right between the bird and Lance, with a burst of bright white light, sent a shock wave that split the two apart!

Lance gasped at the sight before him! "P-Pegasus?!"

Shining like a lighthouse, the winged steed of Bellerophon charged at the screeching woman, who burst into flames! "N-NO!"

She was replaced with the monstrous firebird from earlier, flapping its massive wings like cleansing sweeps. Pegasus' mighty hoof stomped on the mask, shattering it into a million pieces in a burst of white cosmos.

The tortured Lance's mouth dropped in distraught. "N-NO!"

With a new screech from the firebird, hands of sharp scarlet claws were formed on each wing's wrist. "Thief…!" and the bird swapped back and forth as if in an attempt to repel the white light. "THIEF!"

The Pegasus only burst into an even brighter light that fought off the bird at all costs, pushing its fiery form back. It turned its head to Lance. "You must leave this island as soon as possible. You cannot stay here!"

Lance blinked, completely lost. "I d-don't understand! What's going on? What's happening to me?"

"LEAVE, LANCE!" Pegasus demanded as it gave its best to repel the monster. The firebird pushed itself like a meteor against the steed's white cosmos aura, bashing it back.

The strangeness of the situation stiffened Lance's movements, though. He instinctively tried to understand the bizarre and the terror of not knowing how to act.

"THIEF!" shrieked the bird once more, charging more cosmos around itself like an exploding volcano before amassing it into one great body of hellfire that flew at them!

Light filled his vision.

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The Pegasus Saint gasped, awaking from his nightmare with a heavy breath and sweating.

Standing nearby was Guifi, with his hand on Lance's shoulder like he just shook him awake.

Lance calmed his breathing. He looked around and realized everything still seemed very dark. "Y-you…. What … What is it? What time is it?"

"You're asking me?" Guifi guessed based on how deep Nina was sleeping on the other cell door. "Two, three am? Who knows? Whatever time it is, it's deep into the night. Were you having a nightmare? You were shaking, and your armor was burning cosmos."

Getting his bearings, Lance blinked in confusion. Why was Guifi still awake at such an hour? And what was Lance dreaming about just now that had him in such a panic? He ran his hand through his hair exasperatedly, trying to recall. Still, all he could feel was a vanishing warmth in the middle of his forehead.

As he finally began to focus, he turned to his Cloth Box and saw the pieces inside glowing. "What the hell…?"

"I take it, it's not common. Maybe you should ask Pegasus?"

The Saint's eyes narrowed. "Sure, and I'll ask my sneakers later why they keep getting ripped too!"

Guifi rose a pale brow. "Does he not realize he can talk to his Cloth?"

"Why are you up anyway? I'm the one with jetlag." Lance questioned.

Guifi folded his arms. "Been thinking all night. About these Black Saints and what you said. I talked with Nina while we ate, and I made a decision."

Lance scoffed. "About what? Finally manning up to that bastard outside?"

The Polynesian student then eyed him tensely. "…Sort of. I was wondering if we could talk, actually. Away from here. Do you mind coming with me for a while?"

This caught Lance by surprise. A talk? In the middle of the goddamn night? "We can do it tomorrow after I'm done with the Black Saints, and we say our goodbyes. Right now, I need to save strength for the offensive tomorrow. Now, if you excus-"

Guifi's hand stopped him sternly from just laying back down to sleep. "It's important. I insist."

Once again, Lance was bewildered. Even back in the orphanage, when he first figured out that Guifi had explosive tendencies he tried to keep hidden, Guifi had never been the first to lay a hand on someone else, preferring to stay ignored. What was this about?

"Alright." He acquiesced. He saw Guifi head towards the basement stairs, gawked, and pointed at the locked door. "Hey, the exit's over there!"

"So is the Master." The student retorted. Lance then realized he did sense the guy's cosmos still standing outside. "Haven't you noticed it last night? He sleeps like that, standing guard outside like some creepy tree."

The Pegasus Saint followed Guifi down the stairs to the room the brown-skinned, scarred boy slept in. Looking around the room, he spotted a small source of light; a small barred slit in the bricks close to the ceiling from where volcano light peered through. It illuminated the insides of what resembled a medieval dungeon rather than a basement, but a loose brick shoved into it by the Master reduced the orange glare down to a shy gleam. The walls were of black brick with chains hanging from bolts. Condensed humidity dripped shily from above them. The floor was smeared with dark gunk that the Pegasus dared not identify.

The Polynesian boy's hand ran down the wall in the dark, poking until he found a soft spot. "The Master closes his eyes, but I learned the hard way that it means not that he doesn't see you. So I busted this open with cosmos during eruptions so he wouldn't hear it."

"Bust what open?"

Guifi's fingers tensed on a particular slab segment, and the student pulled it out, revealing a narrow, short tunnel. "This. The only thing on the island my master doesn't know about."

Lance snorted and folded his arms, impressed. "… Not bad."

Guifi saw him reach to get his armor pieces. "Don't bother bringing Pegasus. You won't fit through the hole with it. Here, I'll go first."

The Bronze Saint watched Guifi crawl into the dark pass and stood there hesitantly. Was this some kind of trap? Guifi and Nina had been acting suspiciously since Lance got on the island, demanding all sorts of things and questioning him. Now Guifi wanted to 'talk' without Lance's armor involved?

With trepidation, the Bronze Saint followed, using his hands to clasp through the darkness, trying to not lose track of the sounds of Guifi scuttering ahead. The pass was deeper and shorter than he thought. He couldn't see shit, and the ground felt close to his chest and moist. Occasionally, his fingers, back, and thighs sensed things with many legs crawling over him. He couldn't shake the feeling that the entire cabin would collapse upon him at any moment. Eventually, the tunnel rose into warmer air, and volcanic light was spotted ahead.

A hand suddenly reached in and grabbed his wrist, alerting him!

Guifi pulled Lance out of the tunnel. "There ya go."

The Saint coughed and brushed the black dust and cobwebs off of him. Being dressed in his simple red shirt and jeans, he hadn't expected to crawl through volcanic mud so soon. He looked around.

The two came out a decent distance north of the cabin, on a turn of the volcano slopes that didn't allow the Master to spot them leaving from his post by the cabin door. It was still quite dark, giving credence to Guifi's claim about the time, making the far-off ocean barely visible on the horizon under the starlight. The rest of the island was shrouded in a steep ash cloud shade. The primary light sources were the orange veins of lava in the Changing Fields to the south and the countless fire pits to the north that Lance was yet to explore.

He also noticed something else when his eyes surveyed the southern grounds. "The Black Saint corpses we fought during the day are gone. Did their friends get them?" he wondered. "Well, you wanted to talk, right?"

Guifi shook his head and gestured for him to be silent with his finger. "Not here. Master could hear us." He then pointed northeast towards the plateau by the Phoenix Shrine. "We're going over there, where he can't sense us. Get ready and keep your cosmos low. There's some dangerous terrain ahead."

Guifi then led the way, sprinting towards the fields of fire, with Lance stalking him from a safe distance. Even if the Pegasus wasn't an experienced assault mission Saint at this point, everything about this screamed 'trap' to Lance. If Guifi wanted revenge for what Lance said earlier, why not just collapse the tunnel with him inside?

When they approached the fire pits, Guifi slowed down. "Follow me closely… we will have to cross the Burning Swamps."

Lance widened his eyes at the natural spectacle before him. Across a vast width between the Queen's Mouth and Mount Lemuria, in a valley that formed perhaps a whole quarter of the island, he saw nothing but uneven black ground marked with hundreds, maybe thousands of large craters of nothing but fire and boiling lava, where burning pieces ranging from tiny embers to large meteoric rocks drizzled. The sulfuric stench was gone, and, unlike the Changing Fields, the ground seemed solid instead of constantly morphing. Still, the air was much hotter, and the paths between the pits were narrow and frail.

Thus, he obeyed Guifi and followed him closely, glancing at the pits flanking him. He saw half-consumed skeletons to the sides and what looked like remains of walls. "What is this place?"

"Master says this is where the last Lemurian city was before Death Queen Island became what it is now," Guifi explained. "The lava of Mount Lemuria is… different. It runs underground, through tunnels older than the Twelve Temples, but there are holes in this land through where the burning comes out. It forms the swamps in these spaces. Old spaces left behind by buildings… old homes, before it all was buried under this hell."

Crossing another path between craters, Lance beheld them with renewed horror. "These holes… were houses?"

Guifi, too, couldn't help but notice new things every time he moved through the Swamps. There was always an interesting old skeleton of some poor victim of the Master or some old object of Lemurians unearthed by the tremors. He'd collect them if he didn't learn long ago the Master would either break or try to use them for sadistic torture.

He noticed Lance wiping his brow. "It's hot, isn't it? First time you walk outside the cabin without your armor."

The sweating Saint gritted his teeth as they penetrated deeper and deeper into the northwest. "T-There must be over 70 degrees Celsius here!"

Guifi didn't even seem phased by it, though.

After a while, they began to reach the eastern edge of the swamps. Lance looked up and saw the road splitting in two, with the southern side leading towards the shrine he saw earlier. "That goes to where your armor is, right?"

Guifi nodded but instead turned to the northeastern split, which rose towards a large plateau. "Yeah. But we're not here for that. Come on, we're almost there."

Happy to leave the Burning Swamps, Lance paced up the rising terrain with him. "Are you going to show me another horrible attraction on this island?"

For some reason, it made Guifi laugh coarsely. "Not exactly…"

The Pegasus Saint frowned in annoyance. What was so damn funny?

However, as they reached the top of the plateau, the Pegasus Saint's annoyance was cut short when he dropped his jaw in shock. Enclosed by the raised terrain like a hidden treasure in a basalt nest, Lance and Guifi stood before the largest, healthiest, and most beautiful field of flowers he had ever seen! Green grass, yellow asphodels, white daisies, and many other colorful species flourished in this closed-off land. Even the sky was unclouded by the ash, revealing a night full of stars like they stood on a completely different island.

The Saint gagged in shock as Guifi leaped down onto it. Of all the sites of destruction, burning, and horror, this and this alone stunned the Bronze Saint the most. "What…. What is this place?!"

"This… is the only place on the island where anything still grows. The only place not filled with hate. The only place Master can't hurt Nina or me." Guifi presented, walking among the plants and turning to him. "They call it the Emerald Meadow. Here, we can talk."

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Chapter 69

Side Story 2

The Curse of Hatred – Part 4

The Promise

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Sanctuary Town,

Mission Center

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While it was nighttime in the Pacific Ocean, it was a late afternoon in Greece. The sun shone brightly in Sanctuary Town. The newly anointed Saint of Andromeda, Shinta Akiyama, felt like the happiest little green-head in the world. Following a joyous celebration with a teary Master Guardnia and Saint Cynthia for finally passing all the Andromeda Cloth tests, the Bronze Saint now arrived in Athena's capital and was ready to make his career as one of the eighty-eight knights.

It had been a while since he's been there. The last time was back when Master took him and the other Andromeda Islanders, Goddess rest their souls, on a field trip to see the outskirts of the Golden Zodiac more than two years ago. He was always happy to visit the city. Not only was it a welcome break from Andromeda Island's harsh training and environment, but they always visited the town during festivity times.

Everyone was so very nice, too. People nodded at him in the streets, and even a few teenage girls waved and winked at him. It was probably just because of his Cloth Box, though. According to Master Guardnia, he should watch out for foot soldiers. He once told him they could get quite jealous of new Bronze Saints since they were all technically dropouts and advised him to avoid the streets with the bars and the barracks.

There was one other thing he didn't like about Sanctuary Town.

"TICKETS! Get your game TICKETS here!" a man in hoplite armor and sandals on the street cried out, holding pieces of paper up in the air with the Coliseum drawn. "COME SEE THE GREAT CIRCUS! Watch the bravest men in Sanctuary fight the biggest lions, defeat the greatest gladiators, and win the BLOODIEST matches!"

"Ooh, that sounds like a great program!" one person cheered, paying for two.

"I won twenty drachmas on Saint Herakles in the last game. That guy is still unstoppable after all these years!" an older citizen complimented as he bought one as well.

The seller saw Shinta passing by. "Saint Andromeda! Would you like to show your skills at the Coliseum? Or maybe enjoy a game in honor of your promotion?"

Shinta cringed. He wasn't sure what was worse; that the man was selling the idea of someone getting hurt for entertainment or that the week's game was supposedly in his honor.

He bowed politely. "Thank you very much, but I, unfortunately, cannot attend. Excuse me."

The man scoffed as the Saint walked away. "Pfft, cheapskate Asians, am I ri-"

Shinta closed his ears off so he wouldn't hear the rest. He could spot the top of the building peeking from far behind the town blocks, and, to this day, even as a Saint, he couldn't understand the thought process behind seeing bloodshed as a sport rather than a means to defend others. "Maybe one day, Sanctuary will be different."

"Oh, Athena, save me, stop being a pansy!" someone suddenly sounded inside his mind.

Shinta yelped, startled, attracting more than a few curious eyes towards his girly shriek.

"If I knew you were such a bore, Shinta, I'd have choked you myself under all that flooding water rather than letting you be my new Saint. The Coliseum is the greatest tribute to our great culture!" the voice ranted. "I expect you to grow a spine immediately and routinely wash my chains with the blood of those who offend m-I mean you."

His face went red, and he smiled embarrassedly. "Oh, it's you, Princess. I'm sorry you feel that way."

Everyone who heard anything about Andromeda Island knew that its armors were pretty expressive. They used their chains at their shrines to move objects around and play games. Andromeda herself was no exception, and Shinta had experienced quite the adventures with her while training for his many tests, ranging from tic-tac-toe to luring raiding Black Saints attacking the island into the range of her deadly chain swipes.

However, up until recently, all that communication had been non-verbal. Now that Shinta was its Saint, he had a direct line of conversation with the Princess, a privilege which was otherwise reserved to other armors (that she approved of), Pope Arles III, and the Saints of Cassiopeia and Cepheus.

The lid of his Cloth box opened a little, and a chain with a spear tip poked out, scoping the area like a submarine. It had been a long, long time since she's been in Sanctuary. "Sanctuary sure has changed, though. I wonder when this dreadful town was founded, especially right in front of the Twelve Houses."

Shinta looked away, trying to ignore the people staring at his Cloth Box's 'telescope .' It also dawned on him how old the armor was since Shinta had been told Sanctuary Town was around since at least the Tokugawa period.

He walked along a few more streets before he reached the MMC. It was a two-storied building with Modern Greek architecture of tall white walls, large windows, and an orange tile roof. Many Saints and hoplite captains walked in and carried files on their missions and assignments.

Shinta walked inside the building. Its interior was straightforward. He looked around. There were just a few attending desks taken care of primarily by Silver Saints. There were a few lines, but they weren't long since the hoplites were represented by captains, and these, even when coupled with Saints on missions, were never too many.

"Who are you looking for?" Andromeda asked.

"Saint Herakles Aguilon. I want to sign up for Saint work. Master Guardnia said he was the best person to get started with."

"Master Guardnia?...You mean 'Father,' surely." she clarified, referring to the Saint of Cepheus. Her surveying chain also searched around but did not find the cosmos of the armor they wanted. It did spot the blue headpiece of Saint Sagitta and pointed straight at the desk. "There."

Shinta shook his head, seeing a familiar blonde Saint of stuttering speech talking with a Bronze Saint. "That's Saint Nam!"

But her chain suddenly struck his thigh like a stubborn mule, making him yelp. "Who cares! Just get in line! I want to leave this uncomfortable place as soon as possible!"

With a red face, the Bronze Saint stood behind the armored person Saint Nam was attending. It was a fellow Bronze Saint. Shinta didn't know him personally, but he recognized the shoulder pads with big spikes, the knee pad rubies, the black plate outlines, and the overall blue-purple coloring of the metal as belonging to the Compass Cloth.

"I don't like this one bit." The Saint of brown, curly hair spoke. "This offer sounds dangerous, and to make it worse, he's on Death Queen Island."

Sagitta Nam, the blonde man at the desk, sunk his shoulders. "Yes, Nova, I know it sucks. In fact, you're the 5th person I've asked already."

"I don't get it; why do you even care, Nam?" Compass Nova pressed, exasperated, dropping the mission paper on the desk like it was a big joke. "He's a punk; he attacked Kastiel. What kind of upstart asshole does that? You're Saint Kerberos's friend. Above all people, you should want Pegasus to learn a lesson!"

While standing far behind a fair bit, Shinta couldn't help but overhear some of this. He guessed one of the Bronze Saints was in trouble with the Orders and tried not to judge the situation.

The shy bureaucrat Nam rested his chin in fist pensively, though, mired in personal concerns. "It's precisely because I know Kastiel that I can guess things with Saint Lance aren't so cut and dry. Cynthia was right in saying he wasn't ready to raise a student. Pegasus is lucky to be alive from Mount Olympus." He pondered. "But I can't talk about that to Nova here; things are bad enough for Kass in the ranks without people thinking he might have deserved losing to a Bronze Saint."

"I mean, Saint Kerberos was his Master! So what if he left him? Pegasus shouldn't have screwed up so badly that he landed on a Jason Exile!" Compass argued, oblivious to Nam's reservations. "The Pope sent him there, didn't he? So let him learn some humility, Nam!"

Nam noticed the Andromeda Saint in line behind Nova suddenly perk up at this. "Hey, keep your voice down, alright? It's more complicated than that." he requested. Compass Nova looked around, embarrassed and acquiesced with a nod. "Here's the situation… Right now, he's there under Papal instructions, yes, but the mission was only to scour territory around Death Queen Island. He was never supposed to enter the place itself, at least as far as the Zodiac understood it."

Compass Nova relaxed, unfolding his arms and raising a quizzical brow. "Oh…So you're saying the Zodiac doesn't know what they sent him to?"

"We don't know either, but if Pegasus chased the hostiles down to D.Q.I., that means Jangotown really is involved, and the problem is far more serious than initially suspected." Nam then tensed his stare. "This, in turn, means there may be a more concerted purpose behind all these recent raids. Nova, Pegasus is in grave danger, and hedoesn't realize it."

The purple-armored Bronze Saint leaned back in his seat, his eyes waving around in dismay. "Shit…"

Sagitta Nam sighed, tapping his pencil on the mission papers. "This is what I've been trying to tell the rest of the Bronze Saint order, but Pegasus is on everyone's crap list after what he did to Kastiel. No one wants to help. They'd rather let him die."

"It's not just Pegasus, Saint Nam, or all those goddamn volcanoes and Black Saints." Nova reminded him, exasperated. "It's that fucking Master, too! He alone raises the danger level to Silver, and he's supposed to be on our side! Remember what he did at Heart of Sasha two years ago?! Pegasus may be a snotty punk, but at least he's not a murderer… I think."

Nam nodded in acceptance. He kept fidgeting with his pencil in anxiety. "Look, Nova, you don't have to say 'yes,' and I understand what risks are involved in all of this, but we have to remember that at the end of the day, Pegasus is still one of ours, and he's owed our help if he's above his depth like this."

Nova eyed the Silver Saint suspiciously. "You still haven't told me why you give a crap. You send guys like Kastiel and Yushira into danger every week. What's different about this other than D.Q.I?"

The blue-armored archer Silver Saint paused pensively once more, and Nova tried to decipher his thoughts. Despite his reputation for mental frailty in combat and for having suffered a stress disorder during the Priam War, Saint Nam was well-liked in the Order because he often went out of his way to support his Saint comrades from his desk, always sending them extra supplies and vouching for them to the Zodiac when they got in trouble, which is what earned him his position in the Mission Center despite his limited combat experience.

However, to the Compass Saint, this felt like a step too far, especially considering Nam was friends with Kastiel before the Civil War. This whole situation was only at hand because Pegasus was supposed to be under punishment by the Pope for breaching mission ethics.

"I ran into Pegasus after the Attila hunt he did," Nam revealed. "I'm also the one that usually does the paperwork about his missions. I think Saint Pegasus… may be suffering from mental trauma."

Nova scoffed. "Well… that much is obvious, I suppose. You think he is a danger to himself?"

"Yes… and I disagree with the Zodiac's way to handle this," Nam argued. Kastiel's stubbornness to deny Lance any real closure on his abandonment probably worsened things. "I believe we need to look at Pegasus as a case of illness, not lack of discipline. In fact, records say Saint Triangle put a seal on him for treatment when he was young. The worse we push him around, the sicker he'll get."

While Nova grumbled at this optic, he respected Nam well enough to entertain it, especially in light of this unexpected info. "I didn't realize he was… blocked. Why isn't the Zodiac handling this differently, then?" That might explain a few things.

The Silver Saint naturally hesitated to voice this. "In my humble opinion, the Pope isn't being… sensible about the men," Nam confessed in a somewhat hushed tone. "Do not misinterpret me; I merely think his wise gaze is focused on the bigger picture while the details get lost."

Compass Nova's tone also decreased in volume, and his eyes darted, searching for eavesdroppers. "…Yes, of course."

"I've been meaning to talk with Iaso about it to make sure, but seeing Pegasus after the Attila thing sealed it in for me. Personally… I believe Pegasus may be just one or two pushes away from becoming another 'Akassius' Black Saint. Unless he gets help."

The Compass Bronze Saint nodded calmly, processing this. An 'Akassius' Black Saint was a loose term referring to the new definition of a Black Saint pushed by Sanctuary. Under the laws passed by Legate Akassius to combat Priam, Black Saints ceased merely to be the monsters of Death Queen Island wearing dark copies of the Bronze Cloths and now extended to anyone using Cosmos clandestinely. According to many, this essentially made it legal in Sanctuary to apply the same brutality, hunting methods, and tactics against Priam as they would against a Phoenix Saint cult, which helped keep the war short.

One of the sources of Nam's own trauma during the Civil War was seeing old friends and mentors of his taking the traitor Sagittarius' side against the Pope and being labeled Black Saints. While to many steeled Saints, the new laws were liberating, to frail people like Nam, it basically meant he had to witness people he used to share hugs and meals with being blown to bits, which precipitated his choice to leave the front lines.

While Compass Nova was a relatively young Saint, he had been around long enough to remember the tense years after the war. "… Fuck. I may live to regret this, but what's the action plan?"

Nam pulled a map of the fabled island. It had imprecise cartography, being just a general sketch of its coastal outline with only a couple of areas labeled as 'safe' and many huge ones with red 'X's marked over them.

He pointed with his pencil at a route drawn on the western sea. "He has the Trinity ship scheduled to pass by here tomorrow to pick him up. We, therefore, expect him to be at the beach at the arranged hour. You will be there sooner, keep an eye on what he does, and then escort him out. That's all."

"Ah, so I don't have to get anywhere near that damn Master? Good." Nova made sure to ask, getting a nod. He took the map and shook Nam's hand. "I expect damn good pay for this, though. I may be a Saint of Athena, but Pegasus Lance ain't worth me getting torn to shreds by that goddamn psycho."

Nam nodded in gratitude. "Of course." And he turned to Shinta as Nova left the building. "Next!"

Shinta's head lit up, and he quickly sat in front of the Silver Saint. "Good morning. My name is Andromeda Shinta Akiyama. I'm here to deliver a letter from Saint Guardnia of Cepheus and a request to present myself for work."

Nam smiled happily as he read the file, his mood immediately improving. "Hey, you're Guardnia's star pupil, aren't you? We met at the festivals. Congratulations on your promotion, Saint Shinta."

Shinta smiled with pride. "Thank you. I worked very hard for it."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have." agreed Nam as he read through the letter. "I'll just look over Saint Cepheus' notes and get started right on inducting you."

A nervous nod was given by the Andromeda Saint. This was it. He was now a Saint of Athena.

{======================|SS2|======================}

Death Queen Island

The Emerald Meadow

{======================|SS2|======================}

On the island of death, misery, and destruction, flowers blossomed and spread a beautiful rainbow shower of petals into the night air, releasing their fresh scent. Like a breath of the angels, it cleansed the lungs of the sulfur and ash that contaminated the rest of the island. The Saint of Pegasus stepped onto the field with trepidation, expecting it to reveal some kind of demonic trap. Maybe the ground would open up with jagged rock teeth? Perhaps the plants were poisonous, or Black Saints would sprout out of some hidden bunker.

But nothing happened. He and Guifi stood safely in the meadow as if this was not Death Queen Island anymore.

Guifi even smiled smugly at him like he could read these worried thoughts on his face. "Catches you off guard, doesn't it?"

Lance frowned. "That's the understatement of the century, considering all the shit you've been parading to me so far. Why did you bring me here?"

"Wanted to catch up with you, more or less. Figure out some important stuff."

"And you thought your date spot was good for that?"

Guifi's jaw tensed imperceptibly. "Told you; Master doesn't look at this place. I feel safer here… Also, don't you want to talk as well?"

Lance scoffed at his words as he explored the place, trying to figure out how it existed on this island. "Me? Talk with you? About what?"

Guifi's red eyes narrowed "… You won't let up, will you? You're still resisting, even after the trouble I had guiding you here." He lamented. "You really don't want to chat? After all this time? After all, we've both been through?"

Lance suddenly turned in a brisk way. "Oh, would you stop dancing around me like I'm stupid?!" he confronted. "I already told you when I got here not to do that! You don't wanna chat, Guifi! You want to smooth-talk me because you got some conspiracy going on here and you want my help!"

While wide-eyed at first, Guifi slumped his shoulders, looking off in embarrassment. "Mm… I guess it's obvious, isn't it?"

"Between you asking for help behind your teacher's back, talking all this time like you got a gun to your head and now taking me here to chat? Yes! It kinda is!" Lance stressed, exasperated. It was apparent Guifi wanted his teacher gone. "So, please, save us both the bullshit of this conversation and just fucking ask already what you want!"

The Polynesian boy scoffed and smirked. Lance almost sounded like he was ready to say 'yes' to what he had in mind and wanted it to be out. Or maybe he just wanted the pleasure of denying it to Guifi's face. Who could tell with how much of an asshole Lance had become?

Putting hands in pockets impatiently, Lance's arms shrugged appealingly. "Well?"

Guifi took a deep breath and looked Lance right in the eye. "Your transport comes back tomorrow, right? … I want you to take Nina with you when you leave."

Lance's eyes narrowed. "… What?!"

Guifi's only clarification was a silent stare.

The Pegasus Saint shook his head to dispel a mist of confusion. "What do you mean, take Nina with me? Just her?!"

The Asian boy nodded assuredly. "Yup."

Once again, Lance looked around like he thought a giant prank was being played on him. "You can't be fucking serious. All this shit, and you want me to just get her out of here?"

Guifi groaned and responded with a distressed expression. "For the third time, yes! Just her! You and her, alone, leaving this godforsaken place to safety! How many times do I need to translate it into dumbass-speech? TAKE! NINA! OUT OF HERE! Got it?! I want her gone from Death Queen Island before the next eruption cycle!"

This was totally preposterous. His teacher was clearly the type to tear him to shreds for it, even if he hated the girl. "What about you?!"

The brown-skinned, scarred boy looked out to the sea. It was an intense look as if, deep down, he wanted to jump off that meadow into the shark-infested waters rather than stay a single minute more on that island.

"What do you care, Lance?" Guifi confronted and surrendered to his old friend's cynicism. "That is my problem. You've made this perfectly clear. But even if you hate me for whatever stupid reason you have, you can at least take her out of here! Or can't you even do a single act of kindness for others anymore?!"

The Pegasus Bronze Saint stepped forward angrily, stopping himself from landing his fist right upside Guifi's head. Everything about this was absolutely ridiculous to Lance. "So what; you're just going to rot here?!"

Guifi slowly exhaled. This was going to be challenging to say. "I have to. It's the only way to save the Master."

At this point, a bolt of lightning might as well have jolted through Lance, whose crimson eyes widened fully in shock.

What?!

Save that guy?!

The man in the hood who clearly abused Guifi and the girl he liked? Who reeked of freshly spilled blood with every step and couldn't utter a word to Lance that wasn't loaded with veiled threats?

The Bronze Saint's body practically shook at this irreconcilable statement of Guifi's. "… Are you kidding me?! Did you go insane on this island?! Save him from what?!"

Guifi was as patient as he could be, knowing better than anyone that making a choice like this was a hard pill for Lance to swallow. "Let me answer that with another question if you don't mind. Other than the stuff I've shown you, what did you know about Death Queen Island?"

"Easy, it's Sanctuary's shithole! Their big fucking burning pen to toss their criminals into is the size of an island! I didn't realize, though, it was a literal hell on earth. Everywhere I looked before this meadow here, it's fire and brimstone, like some goddamn Christian sermon."

Guifi nodded. "Right, you came from those backgrounds, I forgot. I suppose that's what most people see this place as." And the teenager's eyes seemed to glass, lost in thoughts. "A hell on earth…."

Lance folded his arms. "I'm guessing you got a different take on it?"

The Chamorro trainee nodded, and he ran his fingers through the soft flower ground. "Yeah… I'd call it what it's always been since its birth. A forge."

There was a silent beat from Lance, whose brow raised at this less than innovative take. "… You're talking about a Muvian forge for the armors. Right? You said that already."

Guifi stood back up. "No. Not an armor forge. A forge for men…or for the soul, even." Seeing Lance blink, he tried to explain. "Yesterday, you heard from Nina all about the curses and the philosophies of hatred and death…. But I don't think this is what the island is all about. There is an important aspect to the myths of Death Queen Island that Nina didn't mention. When you think about what armor is stored here, that aspect is obvious; Death Queen Island is where bad people come to die, to be brutalized, yes… but also to be reborn."

The far-off volcanoes of the Black Scar seemed to punctuate this with a roar and a tremor.

The skeptical Lance resisted. "What do you mean, reborn? As in coming back from the dead, like a Phoenix? Come on!"

Once more, Guifi groaned, though he could understand the confusion.

He laid his hand out appealingly, trying to find better words for what he felt. "No, it's…not a death of the body, Lance, but a death of the ego. Death Queen Island is where people come… to start over again."

This time, Lance relaxed his stern glare. "Start over?... How so?"

Feeling an opening in his old friend emerge, Guifi elaborated more personally. "You and I know the hardest thing to do is to look at yourself and change. People get so wrapped up in their mistakes, their egos, the wrongs done to us, and our selfishness…. Easy to believe we can't be any better, that we can't be stronger selves. Even easier for others not to believe in us. Right?"

Lance tried to argue. "I…" but he paused, noticing he was doing precisely what Guifi was pointing out.

Guifi raised an expectant brow.

The charcoal-haired Saint groaned and unfolded his arms. "…I suppose so. Go on."

"Death Queen Island is where people are broken and remade, Lance… only into worse things," Guifi explained. "Rather than men and women of hope and strength, the victims of this place are twisted into their darkest, most cruel selves. Their soft, warm souls are put on the anvil and, under the hammers and lashes and flames of some terrible hidden will, are remade into terrible black scythes who do nothing but kill."

Lance closed his fists tensely. A training ground that existed for nothing but to fabricate murderers? Such a description made him sick to his stomach.

"What's the point of such a place?!"

"Because, Lance, every now and then… that hidden will succeeds. A worthy soul survives the island's process and comes out not as a monster but as a knight in shining white armor… That's what the Phoenix Saint is."

At the mere mention of the title, the island seemed to shake, and the mountains appeared to belch more fire. A faint bird cry was imperceptibly felt in the cosmos by Lance, who felt a chill go up to his spine.

Guifi continued. "Here, the turmoil of the island is so severe that no conviction, no egotistical principle can survive. You burn down in its heat, and all your ego, all the shit on you…burns away. And all that endures in you are your strongest bits. The pieces of you that are made of diamond." His crimson eyes shined with determination as if seeing a deeply desired goal at a distance. "You die… and are reborn from your ashes. A new, stronger person, clad in the mightiest Bronze Cloth, ready to flap your wings like the Phoenix."

Lance's eyes then sterned suddenly. "Is that why you came here? Why you sacrificed yourself for some other orphanage chap?"

Guifi paused, gulping at the course of the conversation being reversed. "… Perhaps."

Lance scoffed. "Then you just wanted to escape your life!"

Guifi's chin rose. "Can you blame me? You speak as if I were a monster incapable of having done it for any other reason. Like you were one of the maidens."

But Lance didn't buy this bait. "No, Guifi, I just know you. You and I are many things, but not the sacrificial type. I don't fucking buy that. While I was at Mount Olympus, you suddenly made that many friends at 'Sasha that you'd be willing to suffer this fucking place for? Bullshit!"

Guifi sweated, looking away, feeling shame creep up on him under Lance's stare. The memory of stepping between Master and Saga flashed in his head repeatedly. It was a decision he had come to regret many times.

"You wanted power! You dreamt of fire, and you were sick of that orphanage! So you bought a ticket to hell!" Lance accused. "You heard about this place all your life since Sanctuary picked you from around here! You even mentioned it to me once! Then when you got the chance to run for the Phoenix Cloth, you took it, knowing Sanctuary would never give you any other path! Am I wrong?!"

Guifi slowly returned his gaze to him. "Maybe you aren't, Lance… Maybe I did have all the worst reasons to come here. Does that make you feel better, to drag me down to your level?!" he confronted. "Maybe you and I are pieces of shit! But I ask you, why shouldn't we want to change while we are at it?!... So yes, I came to Death Queen Island because I wanted it to tear me to pieces. I wanted it to destroy me, no matter how hard I resisted! I wanted…"

"To be reborn into the Phoenix Saint, right?" Lance completed, his eyes reproving. "I bet whoever was almost sent here thought you were a big fucking hero, taking their place in that psycho's hands. Guifi, the saintly Saint…Was that worth this hell?"

Guifi paced around amidst the flowers. "I don't know…."

Lance rubbed his own eyes in stress. "Fuck my life… As if it wasn't bad enough that Sanctuary strings me along with these punishment missions, now I run into this guy here of all places, and he's saying these insane things about 'saving' his teacher. What the fuck do I do? I need to get him out of here before he gets everyone killed on this mission!"

Guifi started chuckling, looking off. "For a little while, after you left, I really envied you, ya know? Ya got to go ahead to Mount Olympus while I stayed in Greece for more years… Even if it was Jason's Exile, I was so jealous I thought about biting a chunk out of Agot."

The Pegasus Saint perked up with a disgusted frown. "Don't even joke about that! You don't know what I went through on that mountain."

The Phoenix trainee snapped back to him. "Why don't you tell me? Been yapping about all my miseries in this place so far; it's only fair you get some shit off your chest, too." He argued. "While you're at it, you can tell me how you went from being a Cosmos catastrophe who can't punch straight to a Silver-rank fighter that defeated his Master…. without any help."

There was a defensive step back and lowering of chin from Lance, as well as a glare.

Guifi clicked his tongue. "Looks like you got some secrets, too. It's okay, Lance. I don't really care. Unlike you, I don't give a shit about the skeletons in people's closets. I hate everyone equally, after all…."

"… Except that girl, right?" Lance pressed.

A brief, warm smile appeared on his face. "Yeah…In this hell, Nina is the only person who got me going. She's the only one who never even once treated me like an animal. That's why I want you to get her to safety."

Lance growled. "While you do what?! Why do you want to save that guy, whatever that means?!"

Guifi's eyes sterned, annoyed that even the slightest subtlety escaped Lance's senses. "I don't. But Nina does. She still sees Master as her 'Father'. As another victim of this island."

"You mean the island where you can start over again?" Lance angrily mocked. "You talk like you could turn a Specter into a Saint in this place, but this training ground is nothing but fire, damnation, and torture! Where does your Master fit in your nice little theory about Death Queen Island?! In the exceptions page?!"

Guifi hesitated. He seemed to be shaking, struggling even with Lance's words. "…Sometimes… I…. Lance, you know that not everyone gets to become a Saint. You saw what happens to people here… The broken selves they sometimes are left as. As angry as it makes me, Nina is right in that I can't judge anyone here for what this forge twists them into. No… I have to stay here… especially if I want to claim my armor."

"Guifi, this place should be fucking sunk to the seafloor! It's nothing but a hive of slavers and Black Saints! A single Bronze Cloth isn't possibly worth the existence of this burning piece of volcanic shit!" Lance shouted, trying to get him to see some sense. "Why does Sanctuary even allow this place to endure?! It just proves that fucking old man on the mountain is more out of touch than I thought. Forget the Phoenix Cloth, forget your Master and forget fucking Sanctuary! They have NO RIGHT to torture us like this!"

"I KNOW!" Guifi exploded. He breathed heavily and put his palm in his own heavily scarred chest. "Look at me, Lance! Look at what this place has done! Do you think I don't know what you just said?! That I haven't shouted it at the skies a million times?!"

"… Then why?!" Lance insisted. Lance looked him all over and finally understood why he felt so frustrated at the sight of him. "This… This isn't you! The Guifi I knew wasn't a beaten down dog craving an armor's approval! You're not the person that told me to fight for myself and encouraged me not to let Sanctuary's stupid system win! Who are you?! You're not stuck, and alone here like I was on Mount Olympus! I can give you a way out! Why won't you let go of this place?!"

"Because…" he then began to shake once more. Guifi stared at his hands like they made him disgusted. The guilt was almost too much to bear. "Because I c-can't. I d-don't deserve it!"

Bewildered and emotionally spent, Lance cautiously approached him, sensing something horrible boiling to the surface in Guifi. "…What do you mean?"

And the teenager in front of Lance collapsed to his knees in the flowers, his arms shaking in horror at himself. "I mean… I deserve to be here, Lance! I can't leave before I'm reborn! Because… because I-I'm a monster!"

{======================|SS2|======================}

Meanwhile,

Sanctuary

{======================|SS2|======================}

Andromeda Shinta felt like eternity had passed as he sat patiently at Saint Nam's desk. He watched the Silver Saint copy things from Master Guardnia's letter onto his big dossier papers. He had no idea the red tape in Sanctuary was so thick. Still, when one becomes a Saint, all of one's training records were put on file. Shinta imagined this must be very important since it would decide what kind of danger he'd be sent to.

After a while, the Silver Saint closed the letter and spoke up. "You know, I don't think you really realize what you've accomplished. You're probably the first one to get that Cloth in centuries. Only the Phoenix Cloth is harder. You've pretty much all but earned your pension."

Shinta blinked. He had always heard his armor was difficult, but this put it in perspective. "Wow, really? In centuries?"

"It serves to show how much you should value my approval," Andromeda made sure to stress.

Nam then opened up a large file book labeled 'Sainthood 1974', searched until he found the current date, and started scribbling things on it from Shinta's file. "Yup. I believe the last record we have goes back to 1751, back when all the records we kept were still in chronicles, so you just made me the first Saint to note down your armor being officially back in the army."

Shinta then saw him pause tensely. "Is something wrong?"

Nam looked around like he felt suddenly lost. In reality, he was thinking about an unpleasant coincidence. "Wasn't the last Phoenix Saint also from around that time? I remember seeing it in the books. Ugh, what if these two armors are somehow cycled together? That'd mean the stuff on D.Q.I. is…." But he shook his head to dispel such ill thoughts. "Nothing, just thinking that is quite the occasion?"

But the Bronze Saint stayed humble despite the pride ballooning in his chest. "I simply did my best, Saint Nam. I wanted to make Master Guardnia proud."

Nam's smile spread wider. In a less professional setting, after everything Guardnia was put through by Andromeda Island and Priam, the Sagitta Saint would gladly embrace this kid like a brother in arms.

"So which category of work would you like to apply for? Undercover work?" Nam listed. He was pretty curious since Guardnia's student was famously well-behaved and kind. "Or would you prefer medical training? Saint Ophiuchus has been looking for new interns. I think you'd be fantastic for that."

"Well…" This was a difficult question for Shinta, as he had considered all possibilities. "I'd like the assault branch."

Nam nearly broke his pencil as he screeched it to a halt. "… I'm sorry?"

"The assault branch, I'd like to apply for it," Shinta repeated with a straight-face.

The Sagitta Silver Saint stared at him, his jaw hanging.

"WHAT?!" Andromeda screeched. "No! You'd have me dragged through dirty jungles and forests searching for filthy rogues?! I'm made for delicate work! Shinta, take that back right now!"

The green-haired boy softly groaned, slightly frustrated. He expected this kind of shock.

The Sagitta Silver Saint recovered from his stun with a blink. "Well… um… are you sure, Shinta? No disrespect, but… how to put this? I've always seen you as less of a warrior and more of a saint, no pun intended."

Shinta was glad that at least Saint Nam was polite about it. "I know it sounds… unexpected of me, but my goal right now is to further my Saint career as expediently as possible. I'd love to help others at the medical branch, but… my talents aren't there. I think I'd reach better positions to help if I earned some combat experience that would get the Virgo House's eye."

"Does… Guardnia know about this?"

Shinta nodded.

Nam raised a brow. "Does he agree with it?"

Shinta shook his head. "This was my decision, not my Master's. I'd accept being paired up with someone more experienced at first, though, Saint Nam."

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" Andromeda screeched, making Shinta wince with a migraine. She then sounded like she was weeping. "I'm… I'm gonna have my boots in the mud?! No-oo-oo!"

The Andromeda Saint frowned. "We've dealt with worse, Princess. I'm sure it will be fine. Hard work is a form of sacrifice, remember?"

Her metallic body was trashed inside its box. "I'd rather be fed to that sea monster!"

Detecting a slight shine of ambition in the Bronze Saint's eye, Nam couldn't help but be impressed. "Very well. Right now, there's no one to pair you up with, but I'll put you on the shortlist for assault teams. I hope you understand the dangers, though."

"I do," Shinta nodded, smiling. After all the tests Andromeda Island put him through, from being thrown at lions to almost being drowned, he was ready for anything. "Thank you, Saint Nam."

The Silver stood up, gave Shinta a key, and shook his hand. "It's nothing. Here's your Sanctuary Town household key. The Pope pays for new Saints' first few months before they get their work going. And welcome to the army, Saint Shinta. I look forward to seeing what an Andromeda Saint can do for us."

The Bronze Saint smiled, took his papers, and left, likely to go check his new humble home.

Left at his desk, Saint Nam couldn't help but wish he'd see this kind of excitement to do good in every new Saint that walked into his office to get registered. It felt like being a Saint was no longer the romantic dream it once was, if it ever had been. Everyone these days joined the orphanages and training grounds either to survive, be strong, or because they expected some kind of easy paycheck. Seeing someone young like Shinta not only survive Guardnia's training but then jump right at the next most neck-exposing chance to do good was inspiring, to say the least.

{======================|SS2|======================}

Death Queen Island,

The Emerald Meadow

{======================|SS2|======================}

Lance stared speechless at the horrified Guifi, trying to process what he said. Guifi Taitano, the red-eyed Chamorro child who stood by his side in the Heart of Sasha, calling himself inhuman?

A hot, revolted feeling swelled in Pegasus's stomach. He gritted his teeth and tightened his fist and in an explosion of disdain, he grabbed the trainee and punched him as hard as possible, tossing him into the flowers. "You asshole! A monster?! Why would you even think that?!"

The startled Guifi rubbed his pained cheek and crawled back. "… It's t-true!"

The more he talked like this, the more Lance wanted to sock him again. "No, it's NOT! You would never let anyone convince you of that! What is this self-hating bullshit that they filled you with?!"

"I'm guilty! An awful beast who's done something unforgivable! My only hope is to let the Phoenix burn me to cinders so I can rise again! If I don't…" he slowly stood up and faced his old friend. "…I might as well stay in this hell forever!"

The fury in Lance's veins made him shake, reminding him of Kastiel's voice calling him a failure. "He did this to you, didn't he?! Your Master! What did he do?! TELL ME!"

Guifi only gulped.

Lance shoved him to get him to react. "Answer me, god dammit! This is not you!" But there was no stiffness, no irritation from the physical provocation, only a defeated slouch, which made Lance's face scowl harder. "Was it when he put those scars on you?! Was it the people he made you kill?! For fuck's sake, what was it?!"

The trainee seemed terrified of answering, his eyes more and more frozen on some appalling memory and holding his pale hair to soothe himself before he answered. "It… happened a month ago." The shock and pain stamped on Lance's face were evident to Guifi. Maybe now it was time.

{==============|SSII|==============}

The summer had just begun. The island was turning into its hottest.

Back then, Master was still resorting to personal, one-on-one sparring with me to teach me about fighting and how to hate. He only ever succeeded in making me hate fighting him. He was brutal and merciless, kicking me when I was down and threatening to kill me if I didn't… repent.

He seemed to constantly act like I was guilty of something. Guilty of living. Guilty of believing in things like honor and justice… Guilty of… not being like him. Can't imagine what he'd think of you from before Olympus.

Even when I was exhausted and could not fight anymore, he'd still find ways to hurt me. Starving me, depriving me of sleep, throwing me over the Burning Swamps, letting the Black Saints attack me… Anything to make me suffer. He'd repeat over and over how I deserved to be there. It was a matter of time until I saw what he saw in me… I always just tried to shrug it off. He kept hitting harder and harder in spars… Breaking more bones…

Despite everything, he was still Master.

I didn't know how long I could take it.

Fortunately, after each day of fighting and arriving at my basement cell with a broken, bloody body, Nina was always there for me, to nurse me as best as she could. To dress my wounds and say Master was wrong. I remember thinking that she was an angel.

I also remember wondering why. I didn't feel like I deserved her help. It just seemed to make the Master hate her more. Hurt her more. I kept thinking that, maybe, if she met me anywhere else, she'd never hold my hand or smile at me…Perhaps she was just holding on to the last shreds of humanity inside the only person who cared about her here. Trying to prevent herself from seeing another person being lost in the flames of hatred. She told me many times how horrible that was to her.

One day, the Master didn't take me to the harshest training spot or the hottest volcano to spar. He just told me to fight him right outside our cabin. I didn't argue. Being closer to the cabin meant that I had to crawl less to reach it once he left me to die after another failed attempt at teaching me his ideals.

After a little while, the Master seemingly lost his patience and told me to fight him with hatred once and for all. I, of course, refused to and tried to spar him.

I was a fool. I should have tried to kill him that very instant.

This time, the Master didn't get angry. Instead, he laughed at me and told me he'd prove once and for all I was guilty. He grabbed my wrist and took me inside the cabin. I wondered what he would do. My first guess was that he would lock me in the basement to starve until I ate some poor prisoner.

But no… he joined me down there.

And… and so did Nina! He made her… be naked and put these shackles on herself.

And then… then he put the whip in my hands!

I begged him not to take it. He just laughed and laughed. Said it was my birthday gift.

And then he beat me.

And beat me.

And BEAT me.

And then spat on me and kicked me. And he made my flesh rip open all over my body until I was begging on the floor for him to stop! I couldn't understand why it was so painful…

And when I was lying on the floor, bleeding like a pig, he whipped me some more… and told me I could make it stop… That I could… take my turn… on her!

{==============|SSII|==============}

Cold all over his body, Lance stared in utter horror, the memories of the scars on Nina's body flashing in his head repeatedly. Even the sounds of the volcanoes and storms on the island were distant. He wished deep inside to be far, far away from all that awfulness, yet his feet were petrified in place.

"A-And I DID!" Guifi confessed, furious with himself. "I DID, and I proved him right! I'm a horrible monster who laid his hand on the one person he shouldn't have,… just because I couldn't take a l-little bit more pain! I deserve to burn!"

Lance's face twisted, and he paced out. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

Gasping, Guifi rushed and tackled him down. "N-NO!"

The Pegasus groaned and struggled against him on the ground, but Guifi held on to his arms with incredible strength. "LET ME GO! I'LL FUCKING RIP THAT PSYCHO'S GUTS OUT AND USE THEM LIKE A LEASH!"

With a heavy breath, Guifi's head bashed on his, making Lance. With the Pegasus somewhat stunned, Guifi held him down. "D-Don't you DARE! After everything he put me through, what he made me do, if you ruin my Path of the Cloth, Lance, I'll kill you!"

Lance coughed, feeling his forehead bleed. "You insane asshole! Are you even listening to yourself?! Look at what he's done to you! At what he made you do! What does that Cloth matter anymore?!"

"It's all that matters! Did you surrender yours just because of what your Master did?!" Guifi confronted, making Lance pause. "NO, you earned it, so you kept it! And I'm gonna do the same! You'll let me do the same, or I'll never, EVER forgive you!"

With a roar, the Pegasus smashed his head right back on Guifi, breaking his nose and stunning him back. He crawled out of Guifi's reach. "You think it's the same?! I needed my armor to prove Kastiel wrong and fight him under Sanctuary's rules! You just want it for vanity!"

With a light burn of cosmos and a pained grunt, Guifi pushed his bleeding nose back into place. "Ugh, you fucking asshole… Yes, I do think it's the same! What's not vain about what you did with it?! Otherwise, after you had your revenge, you wouldn't be standing here with Pegasus! Or do you get to keep yours, and I don't cause you're Greek?!"

"WHAT?! GO TO HELL! I couldn't leave that mountain unless I HAD the armor! I'm giving you a chance to leave now!You just want that Cloth to feel better about beating your fucking girlfrie-"

"FUCK YOU!" Guifi screamed, charging against him and tackling Lance out of the meadow.

Lunging out of the plateau outline and falling onto its steep slopes, the two teenagers screamed and wrestled down the rocky side, crashing through rock piles, punching, elbowing, kicking, and insulting all the way down to the edges of the Burning Swamps.

Crashing onto the hot, basalt ground in said edges, the two boys rolled apart and tried to get up before the other did. Guifi was faster and swung a fiery fist at Lance. "You don't know ANYTHING about this place! About what we went through here!"

Dizzy, the Pegasus Saint still blocked the punch with a raised arm and spun to heel kick Guifi's stomach, tossing him back.

The breathing room let him toss some words back. "I know ENOUGH! You won't let me give you the real solution to all this! You have a choice to walk away while I didn't!" Charging white cosmos as well, he thrust a punch forward. "If you cared so much about that girl, you'd let me march back to that cabin and break that bastard's neck!"

But Guifi recovered with shocking speed and dodged with a head bob. His fist swung an uppercut beneath Lance's guard, crashing it on his unprotected stern. With a skilled side step, the Polynesian boy dodged Lance's counter kick and landed his own on Lance's side with a swing. The Pegasus coughed and fell to his hands and knees with it.

"Not so tough without your armor, right?! It Makes a world of difference in fighting!" Guifi snarled, pacing around the Pegasus with raised fists. "Do you get it now?! After everything me and Nina went through, I can't leave without the Phoenix! It's the only way I'll be able to protect and provide for her in Sanctuary! The only way I'll be treated right! The only way the two of us will be able to look back on our lives in this fucking place and feel anything but sorrow and regret! I won't let you ruin that for me!"

With a burst of white cosmos, Lance growled and stood back up. He wasn't unsympathetic to Guifi's feelings, but they were clouding his judgment; as far as Lance was concerned. "If what you said is what it takes to get that fucking armor, then it deserves to sink with the rest of this island! I didn't kill Kastiel, but I'm sure as hell gonna kill yours!"

Guifi growled, prepared to defend the last person on Earth he'd like to. "Then come and get-…" but his fiery aura suddenly canceled, and he looked around in panic. "… S… Shit…. No!"

Lance staggered at this sudden shift in him. "What?!"

Guifi gasped and pointed all-around at the nearby Shrine of Phoenix and the Burning Swamps. "We're not in the Meadow anymore! We fell off of it! We've been burning cosmos…. FUCK!"

But Pegasus saw no harm in this. "Fine! Then if your Master wakes up and comes, it'll just make it easier for me to break his stupid neck!"

"YOU DUMBASS! You don't realize the danger we're in?!" Guifi panicked, grabbing and shaking Lance. "The Jangotown Black Saints are all over the island, remember?! You think Master's the only bastard here who'd like you dead?!"

"Did I hear you mention me?" someone with a low, cheery voice sounded.

The two teenagers froze, their senses going to full alert and turning to the voice.

Lance's eyes widened, studying the man. Sitting lazily on the top platform of the Phoenix Shrine was a laughing adult male carrying a Bronze Cloth he had never seen before. It had color schemes of dark blue and jet black, a round helmet with a trident crest encrusted with a red jewel, his eyes hid behind a blue-glass visor installed on the helmet, and, from his back, three tails of metallic plumes flowed out like a Phoenix' rectrices. His hair was flowy and long like Guifi's, while his forearms and legs were encased in lighter metal pieces than his chest, though with reinforced knuckles and winged ankles.

"You should be more careful, Guifi… Burning all that cosmos and shouting like that will wake up the Master."

"…You!" Guifi hissed.

Lance blinked, having never seen a Black Saint with this kind of cosmos and armor. "Who the hell are you?!"

Jumping off the shrine and landing with bird-like grace, the man mockingly bowed. "I am the leader of Jangotown, the Black Phoenix! I'm pleased to finally meet you, Pegasus… you killed a lot of my men."

The Bronze Saint smiled anxiously and ignited his white aura, seeing the target of his mission land right in his hands. "I'll make you join them in the fucking Underworld!"

"That would be a pleasant vacation from Death Queen Island, Pegasus." he retorted, smirking smugly and turning to the trainee. "Hello, Guifi…"

In for a penny, in for a pound, Guifi ignited his fire aura, raging a blaze of cosmos all around himself. "Come and get me, murderer!"

Lance's hand instinctively searched for his armor box but remembered he had left it at the cabin. "SHIT!...Guifi, what the fuck is going on?! Did you bring me into a trap?!"

"Not now, dumbass!" Guifi snapped, laser-focused on the Phoenix.

Black flames roused around the enemy, who laughed at their spat. "Don't blame Guifi, Pegasus. He can't help but make everyone around him suffer, especially his friends. Don't worry, though; I'll wipe this excuse for a Phoenix right off the Earth… unless, of course, … you want to lend a hand."

The offer stunned the Saint. "What?!"

"I have no real quarrel with you; all the men you killed so far deserved to get tossed into the island's fires for being weak." Black Phoenix mocked, studying the Greek's bewildered reaction. "You seemed pretty intent on killing Guifi just earlier. It was quite entertaining. Something tells me you know leaving this guilty little fiend alive will get you killed, Pegasus."

Guifi became suddenly worried. "Don't listen to him, Lance!"

The very notion of it offended the Pegasus. "Why the fuck should I?!"

"You want the Master dead, don't you, Pegasus?" Black Phoenix suggested. "So do I… and you seemed pretty intent on killing Guifi just earlier for standing in your way. It was quite entertaining. Something tells me you know leaving this guilty little fiend alive will get you killed, Pegasus. Do the right thing... reduce the ugliness on this planet and help me incinerate this islander piece of garbage!"

Guifi Taitano suddenly gulped and stepped back, his worries about which side Lance would pick skyrocketing. His mind went through all the insults he just tossed at the Pegasus, all the string-pulling and provocations….

But the Pegasus Bronze Saint simply made his red eyes stern. "Go fuck yourself! I came to this island to mount your head and of your fucking murderous friends on pikes! After that, I'm going to take Guifi and his stupid girlfriend out of here!"

The Black Phoenix frowned, displeased. "Very well… then I'll have you tossed into the Cloud with the rest of the animals from that boat!"

The Pegasus readied his stance for Charge Fist. "Ah! I've fought worse than you-"

Phoenix's fingers snapped. "ALL OF YOU, ATTACK NOW!"

Their surroundings burst into countless explosions, like a series of cosmos mines in the background detonating. A series of shadows leaped into the air from them to descend with laughter, screams, and cosmos attacks on the two! The combined ambush attacks struck between them as they backed defensively, shattering the ground between the two and showering uncovered magma everywhere.

Lance leaped away, swallowed by enormous clouds of black dust that made him cough. His feet backed away cautiously, and his senses searched for threats.

He then heard something long, fast and metallic whizz through the air!

Jumping aside, Lance dodged the strike, widening his eyes at the sight of a long black chain in the air moving at supersonic speed! Laughter was heard around him, and more strikes blew from the flanks through the smoke, forcing Lance unto the defensive! His arms burned with cosmos to harden their strength. He blocked supersonic blow after supersonic blow from these black shadows attacking through the smokescreen.

Lance's back hit a rock wall. A mighty blow came in, and he dropped in the nick of time to avoid a dash kick that shattered the rocks behind him. With a frustrated roar, Lance's foot swung upward with enough cosmos to penetrate most Black Saint armor he had ever encountered.

The clash, however, was stopped by an unexpectedly powerful block! Lance gasped, and the forces of the impact blew the smoke away, revealing a smirking man of long hair and draconic black armor, stopping his leg with a round buckler on his arm.

"Greetings, Pegasus. I am the Black Dragon!" he then swept away Lance's foot, throwing him off balance, and charged cosmos into his right index finger for a killing stab blow. "And this is your DEATH!"

With his instincts screaming in alarm, Lance harnessed his energies, dodged the finger stab with a sidestep, grabbed the arm, and pulled it into his white-glowing knee blow, instantly shattering it with a thunderous impact. Dragon screamed in pain, backing away with a bent arm, and Lance prepared himself to end things with a chop blow.

The supersonic whizzing was sensed again, though. A chain wrapped around his ankle before two strong hands pulled it, throwing Lance off his feet and dragging him away from Dragon. Reacting as fast as he could, Lance's other foot charged cosmos onto its tip, and he swept the ground, slicing off the black chain.

He saw with horror as it turned into a severed snake body. He then looked up and stood up in alarm at the sight of more armored men emerging from the subsiding dust clouds.

One. Black Andromeda. He had the chains and pulled his broken links back in annoyance.

Two. Black Cygnus. This one had a small buckler and winged headpiece. The air felt cold around him.

Three. This last one was Black Dragon himself, holding his broken arm and snapping it back with a suffered grunt.

The ash clouds in the sky seemed to thunder. Sweating with the odds and feeling the lack of his armor, Lance's red eyes darted left and right between the enemies. Who would attack first?

The offensive resumed with a loud hiss of a lashing chain and a jump of the other two! A metallic spear point angled down on him, and Lance jumped away, letting it shatter the ground. The Pegasus backflipped numerous times to dodge a successive rain of chain arcs that cratered the basalt floor, releasing more bursting magma pockets, before the Black Swan fired a massive beam of black light with a punch at him!

Lance gasped as his heels screeched to the ground, seeing the beam turn everything in its path into a crystal! He jumped aside to dodge it, letting it explode in the background in a shower of dark snow. Flashes of Mount Olympus crossed his mind, making his face paler. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

The three Black Saints resumed their assault, with Dragon taking the lead with another dash and thrust of his finger, which Lance parried by the wrist with his wrapped forearm. The unleashed force of the finger seemed to fire off authentic hurricanes of power that blasted everything in its direction apart behind Lance, making him tremble at the thought of being hit directly with it. A draconic swing kick blasted its boot on Lance's cross guard, sending him back reeling while the figure of Swan was seen dancing in the background…

Lance had to stop him! As soon as he landed, he unleashed a mighty roar, causing shockwaves of white aura to burst and charge his movements to Mach 5. The ground beneath him burst with lash snakes from Andromeda, but the Saint rocketed out of there, incinerating them, and swung his leg over Dragon's raising shield to land a devastating knee blow to his face, shattering his whiskered helmet apart.

Dragon roared and countered with an impressive rear kick that tossed Lance right unto Andromeda's attack range. With a lash of his mystical black chains, this Black Saint landed snake bites all over Lance, shocking and poisoning his body. The unarmored Saint dropped spasming on the hot ground, barely missing the Burning Swamp pools.

Lance tried to raise himself on arms and knees but felt his innards turning and the world-shaking. He had to do something, or Cygnus would finish his stupid dance and turn Lance into a goddamn coal popsicle! Dragon's foot suddenly struck his side, forcing the air out of his lungs. The Saint collapsed and felt the enemy concentrating cosmos for a more crippling blow…

With a hateful gritting of teeth and a shielding of fingers with cosmos, Pegasus grabbed a chunk of burning lava rock by a pool's edge and swung it over, smashing it on Dragon's face! The warrior screamed horribly, feeling hot lava eat at his face, and Lance sprung at him, flinching the Black Saint.

Cygnus finished charging but hesitated in his aim, seeing the two wrestle around. "Dragon, get away!"

"Fuck it, just fire! Freeze them both!" Andromeda shouted at him, sending his chains to wrap the two together.

Wrapping arms around Dragon, Lance swung the Black Saint over and pointed his shielded arm just in time for Black Swan to fire his black beam at them. "BARRIER!"

Lance's technique coated the shield, reinforcing it, and Cygnus' black dust beam struck it! The impact was blinding, flashing black light everywhere and blasting the terrain apart! Dragon screamed, feeling their entire arm freeze except around where Lance's burning fingers held, and his dark shield made the ice currents fire back everywhere, releasing a counter twister of cold that struck Andromeda and Cygnus, shattering the former's chains and the latter's helmet.

Lance let go of Dragon, feeling his own fingers start to go cold, but not before striking the enemy's leg to shatter the bone, disarming him. With a pant and one last charge of cosmos, he aimed his fist and swung at the center of the battlefield. "CHARGE FIST!"

The neigh of a galloping Pegasus was heard. The Saint's body zipped through the three enemies, striking them with one fell swoop and unleashing a twisting shockwave of white cosmos as if the winged horse itself had landed with an earth-shattering clop on Death Queen Island. The three screamed and felt their demonic armors break apart into black dust before collapsing on the ground.

Lance panted, lowering his burning fist and aura. Was it over?!"

Seeing Andromeda and Cygnus unconscious, he marched to Dragon and grabbed him by the collar. "Who are you?! Who is that Black Phoenix guy?! How many of you are left in Jangotown?! T-TALK!"

The long-haired man of Asian features just coughed mockingly. "T-That was… wonderful, Pegasus! Our lord was right! The G-Goddess truly favors you!..."

Lance hesitated, widening his eyes. "G-Goddess…? Athena?! Why…."

But Dragon only laughed coarsely at his face. "Y-you don't know anything, do you? I'm so happy, though… I'll be there to see it…Mara will rise… and he'll make the world burn!"

The light then vanished off Dragon's eyes, and his neck hung loosely, breathless. Lance was about to shove the bastard's corpse to the ground in sheer frustration when suddenly the body cracked and crumbled in his hand like a pile of charcoal!

"W-what the fuck!" Lance screamed in fright. He observed the Dragon's seemingly mineral body crumble down more and more before getting carried by the wind like ashes.

He then looked over and realized the other two were gone as well. Standing there stupidly on a shattered battlefield, he recovered his breath in total disbelief, not knowing what would happen next.

"…Shit, GUIFI!" he suddenly remembered, and he rushed off back to the plateau's edge at full speed. Jumping and running through the Burning Swamps, he soon realized the battle with those three Black Saints threw him farther apart from the trainee than Lance thought.

Not finding him by the shrine, he climbed the plateau once more and came across a figure standing at the Emerald Meadow. Somehow, their battle must have moved back up there.

Lance scowled tensely. It was Black Phoenix, standing strangely still. "S-Shit…. HEY YOU, WHAT DID YOU D-"

But the Black Phoenix suddenly screamed, and his body burst apart down the middle in a zip of fire, echoed by a Phoenix's cry. Burning away to nothing in front of Pegasus, without harming any of the flowers. The Black Saint leader seemingly died in agony, leaving Guifi behind in the flames as if he had just finished some kind of blow Lance's eyes had been unable to follow.

With trepidation, Lance observed him get up and confirmed the success. "Ah, ah…Guifi… GUIFI, you did it!" he praised, jumping into the Meadow. "You killed the Black Phoenix!"

The Chamorro boy panted heavily and wiped his sweat.

Joining him, Lance saw him distraught. "Hey, did you hear me?!" he roused. The adrenaline of having beaten his own enemies was still in him. "You just killed the Black Saint leader, Guifi! The mission is as good as over! We're saf-"

But Guifi suddenly shoved him, glaring. "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP, LANCE! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING, DO YOU?!"

Lance's eyes widened, stepping back. "Hey, fucking relax! We'll deal with your teacher when we get back! This is all just more fucking proof you should forget about that armo-"

"LANCE, JUST….!" Guifi roared, raising tense hands but then hitting a point of exhaustion that made them collapse. "Just SHUT UP and listen to me! Don't you fucking understand?! I already told you! These aren't normal Black Saints! What we did doesn't matter! Your stupid mission doesn't matter!"

Lance blinked. "… Why… why not?! Why don't you fucking explain something to me already?!"

"THIS IS THE FIFTH TIME I'VE KILLED THAT GUY SINCE I'VE GOTTEN HERE! OKAY?!"

The Pegasus Saint gawked, feeling his adrenaline drop to nothing. What?

"Do you fucking GET IT NOW, DUMBASS?! Do you get in your stupid skull why your stupid fucking solutions don't work here?!" Guifi pressed. "We're on Death Queen Island! The island of the Phoenix! The Black Saints here aren't for show; they're for fucking REAL!"

Lance tried to make sense of this, rubbing his eyes and holding his head. "Wait, wait, what do you mean?! How can that be?! I know you don't believe that shit!"

Guifi held his wrist like he was stupid. "You kill them! And they come back! It doesn't matter what I believe! They're not fucking terrorists or cosmos-clandestine or whatever! They're… something fucked up that I don't understand! It's like Hades just spits them back up cause… nothing in the Underworld tops this fucking place as far as making your life miserable goes!"

The Pegasus Saint looked around in utter confusion. The battlefield was left far behind him, and the corpses did turn to charcoal, but…

… they didn't die?!

How could that possibly be?!

"They don't have names…. They don't have pasts…. They don't even have zodiacs." Guifi enumerated, pacing around. Horror was stamped in his eyes. "They just… are. And they're the worst fucking murderers I've ever seen… Master has made me do a lot of things, but… Oh, goddess, the things they do to people at Jangotown..."

"How… How many of them are like this?" Lance demanded to know, not wanting to call them immortal.

Guifi took a deep breath and tried to remember. "As far as I've seen?... Nine, including Phoenix. Other than those that showed up, there's Hydra, Bear, Lionet, Unicorn, and Wolf. The rest stays on the ground just fine; I've seen them change faces plenty. I don't know why these nine, in particular, are different… Maybe Phoenix likes them better. Who fucking cares why...And e-very-time they come back, they're stronger! So no, Lance… I can't leave without what's rightfully mine!"

The rambling in Guifi's voice betrayed an exhaustion in the boy that made all these strange words too real for Lance. Were there really a pack of nine undead bastards dressed in black armor walking around the island, and they were all as bad or worse than Guifi's teacher?

A humbling pause took over Lance. Now he understood why Nina and Guifi didn't see their teacher as the worst thing on the island. On top of everything else, they'd been dealing with a pack of undying killers for years on end, without pause, without rest. Memories of being stalked and chased back into his tiny cabin by Mount Olympus' starved wolves assailed Lance. They were relentless, but at least could be killed.

Guifi eyed him again. "The Phoenix Bronze Cloth is at the center of everything me and Nina have had to survive, have had to be put through…. It's the sharp sword I've wanted all this time to be forged into by these… horrible shits! And if you suggest one more time I leave without it, … I'll goddamn kill you!"

But the Bronze Saint felt numb inside. This went far beyond anything even remotely reasonable, even for a Training Ground.

"How the fuck am I supposed to finish any kind of mission, then?" So he gave up and sat on a rock in the meadow, dropping his hands. "Fine, I won't… it's your fucking problem, anyway. Get bent by this fucking place if that's what you want."

The two sat quietly, their heads sunk and wounds dripping.

The sea breeze went by, making the flowers flutter their petals into the air. Some were smeared with their blood.

For a small moment, as they breathed calmer and calmer, even the mountains in the background seemed to sizzle more quietly.

{======================|SS2|======================}

Time passed. Maybe an hour. Guifi Taitano was not sure how much.

They were still sitting there, refusing to speak or look at each other.

Guifi had no idea if the Master woke up with all the fighting they did, but with all the time they were spending there with nothing happening, he couldn't have. Guifi guessed some kind of miracle had happened.

He ran his hand through his pale hair, noticing how he had lost all the black left in it during his stay on the island. Guifi's crimson eyes stared at his palms. He also noticed all the tiny scars and indentations that formed the thick epidermis layer around his much bigger muscles. Has he changed that much? Finding Lance after all these years somehow helped reset the clock in his head, as if his frame of reference to outside time was restored. They were both four years older and much more brutalized by Sanctuary.

Only one of them was a Saint already, though.

Guifi finally glanced at the unarmored Pegasus, who seemed to be nervously stealing glances. "Can I ask you something?"

Lance nodded. "Go ahead."

"Did it really feel that good?" Guifi queried, studying his body language. "When you beat up your Master, I mean. Or do you regret it?"

Lance sighed and gave it some serious thought. Maybe if he entertained this earnestly, he'd convince Guifi to not give a shit anymore, too. "At first, yeah, it was everything I dreamed of. Now I'm not so sure."

"Why?"

The Saint shook his head sadly. "I don't know… I thought I was that kind of guy that would seek revenge, but... It didn't really work. I think I … wanted something different after all. To just hear him admit he was wrong about me. That he shouldn't have left me up there. But he didn't." Lance lamented, recalling his battle. Guifi noticed that when he said this last part, there seemed to be a particular flash of pain in Lance's tone. "In fact, Kastiel doubled down, called me names, and refused to duel me. Even after I beat the shit out of him, I didn't get that…that…."

Guifi saw him struggling with the word. "That justice from him?"

Lance blinked as if he didn't recognize the term at first. "Yeah."

"What did Noah say about all this?"

Lance shrugged. "I wish I knew… I don't know where Noah is. And Sanctuary hasn't left me time to search." He lamented, seeming truly tired. "Between all the work to feed myself, shelter myself and clear my name in Sanctuary to those goddamn Saints, I just… kinda hoped I'd run into Noah. But it just hasn't happened."

Guifi looked over in pity. "You're in real trouble with them, aren't you?"

Lance's face sunk into his hands, and it then all poured out. "Y-yeah, I am…. Guifi, I don't know what to do. I really think they will make me pay for what I did forever. When the Pope showed up at the Coliseum, I didn't want to admit it, but I was terrified. I really thought they would put me to death… but they've done worse."

The Chamorro boy frowned sadly. "Go on…"

Lance took a deep breath and gazed out to the sea. "Ever since then, I've been sent to the worst fucking places… to fight the worst fucking people. Murderers, mercenaries, slavers, pedophiles, warlords, psychos with more fucking cosmos than they'd ever had the right to. But it doesn't feel like they're sending me to do my job; it feels like they're punishing me instead."

"Mm,… no wonder it took a day or two for this place to impress you." Guifi realized.

Lance shook his head in lament. "Last guy was a cannibal. A bad one. The type who thought he was fucking chic about it and could eat cosmos out of people. When I ran him into a corner, he tried to throw his fucking dessert at my face as a distraction. I just wanted to tear the bastard to shreds after that." He snarled, staring at his tensing fingers like he could still picture the moment he held Attila in his hands. "Then, every time I return to Greece…."

"Take your food and get out. We don't want upstarts in the barracks. Oh, you cleared another mission? What do you want, a fucking cookie?! Just go out there again, Pegasus! That's your job!"

"Sorry, you're not allowed to compete in the Coliseum. If you wanted prize money, you should have thought of that before you used the arena to insult Saint Kastiel…. What, you think you fucking scare me with that glare? Fuck off, red-eyes, before I call the guards."

"Watch your back, Pegasus."

"I apologize, Saint Pegasus, but we can't allow you inside the shrine. The Golden Zodiac has informed us that you've… sullied your honor."

"Get out."

"What are you looking at?I thought people like you were sent to jail."

"Watch your fucking back, seriously!"

"Saint Kastiel fought in the war, you jackass! You attacked a damn vet! Why are you even here? You should have died in that stupid mountain. GET OUT!"

"I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave, Saint Pegasus. You're… upsetting the others."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't let you apply for Silver Cloths."

"You don't deserve that armor. Pegasus should just leave you."

"Watch your baaack…."

Guifi saw Lance stare off in silence. "All that shit for what, because you taught your teacher a lesson?"

"Yeah." Lance rubbed his eyes. "You know, Nina said this place is trying to turn you into a murderer, but honestly, I don't think what Sanctuary is doing to me is much better…."

The white-haired trainee nodded. Guifi knew by now better than most that torture was far from being just the physical; being exposed day by day to the worst humanity had to offer and, on top of it, being put in a position of having to answer that ugly darkness could, over time, put a severe toll on the soul.

Worst of all, he remembered Lance as being this kid passionate about what the Triangle Saint inspired in him a Saint to be, and, now, it seemed that his old friend had been forced to not only tear that important vision to pieces, but live a mockery of it, being ordered to fight evil, not for the good it did to others, but to teach him some kind of humiliating lesson about not having principles about being a Saint.

"Why do you ask?"

Guifi's eyes glazed over. "I wish I had met Noah. Maybe I wouldn't have made such a stupid, desperate decision to come here."

Lance thought over the little he knew of Guifi's past. "Right, you had even less to fall back on than me." But he got a scoff from him. "What? Am I wrong?"

Guifi raised a sly brow. "My dad's loaded, Lance. He's some count or baron fucker in Sanctuary that never acknowledged me."

Lance widened his eyes. "You never told me that!"

"What would it matter? He didn't help me when I needed it for years on end. Wouldn't now." Guifi shrugged. "Just wanted to see the look on your face."

Lance faked a laugh. "Ah-ah! Hope you enjoyed it, asshole…Why would you even get jealous about what happened to me anyway?! That's stupid!"

Guifi looked away. "Pfft, even after all these years, you still don't see the favor Helen did for you-"

"That CUNT sent me to die!" Lance snapped, standing up.

But Guifi gave him a knowing, tense look. "Did she? Or was she saving you from something worse?"

"What do you mean?"

Guifi shrugged. "Just something I've been thinkin' about ever since Master started eyeing you like a piece of candy. I had a talk with Nina, and she thinks the same. Say. You never thought it was weird they were sending you to all those seers? Like they were confused? And then, all of a sudden Jason's Exile?"

Lance scoffed and folded his arms. "Maybe we should ask Agot for a hand in solving the mystery of why I was given that!"

Guifi eyed him weirdly. "… Come on, Lance, even you aren't that dumb! Don't you remember how that day went? Kastiel was already there when that happened! Don't you see? Helen brought him to see you before Agot ever got in his stupid head to attack you!"

The Pegasus Saint froze, feeling something in his brain click. "What? No, but.-… No, what happened was…."

The Chamorro boy patiently waited for him to finish his calculations, containing a smug smile.

Lance growled. "WHY WOULD SHE HELP ME?!"

"Because, and this is just a theory, as bad as Sanctuary's Maiden's are, maybe they would stop before sending someone here."

Lance stood there with anger stuck in his throat, speechless, wanting to put words, any of them, into why he thought this was the stupidest theory ever!

But… the words didn't come.

Guifi Taitano shook his head sadly. "You know what your real problem is, Lance? You're so wrapped up in yourself you can't even see when others are trying to help you."

"What the fuck do you want me to do?! Apologize to her?!"

Guifi scoffed. "Might be kinda difficult for that now, unless you're still Christian enough that you think her grave might hear you."

Lance's eyes widened. "She's… dead?"

Guifi nodded. "She… tried to stop my teacher from coming inside. I saw what was left of her on my way out the door. It wasn't pretty. Still feel like speaking ill of the dead?"

But the Pegasus shoulders humbly sunk. If this was true and Maiden Helen really did put herself between Guifi's teacher and a bunch of brats, then maybe there was truth to the theory she was helping him stay off Death Queen Island after all.

He paced around in confusion. For some reason, he felt his thoughts turn to the vague memories he had of his last dream. "But… wait… what does that mean? That I was supposed to come here after all? That I'm…."

"Bronze and Silver Stars are different from Zodiacs, Lance. They're not locked to your birthdate." Guifi explained. "Maybe you were a Phoenix… once upon a time, but you cleared the Path of Pegasus, so now you're not. It would explain why the Master is so goddamn captivated by you; he senses in you the same he did in me."

Feeling like the weight of the entire island suddenly landed on his head, Lance sat back down and took a deep breath. He pictured himself enduring the last four years of his life not on Mount Olympus but on Death Queen Island. Suddenly he was unsure of which fate was worse.

"When you think about it… it could be the reason behind our eye colors." Guifi pointed out. "We have the same curse."

"Curse? You've got to be kidding me…." Lance mocked. "Now you're sounding like everyone else who's ever treated us like shit! Our eyes don't have anything to do with our fucking situation!"

"Doesn't it have, Lance? Doesn't it really? Just look at us. We're the only people with red eyes we have ever seen, and, now, we stand here on the island of hatred, both filled with hatred by our own personal experiences." Guifi reminded him. "Let's put aside the idol bullshit like Mara for a second; we live in a world where Gods are real, where Athena is real. So, perhaps, the curse is real, too!"

"THEN WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU PROPOSE?! That we pray to Athena to fix it?!"

Guifi shook his head. "No… I'd like a pact, instead."

"A pact?"

Guifi Taitano nodded and stood up, looking serious. "Yes. Lance… you and I, let's become partners as Bronze Saints."

The Pegasus Saint paused, taken aback. In Sanctuary, it was very common for mission Saints of the same rank to form permanent teams, usually of two or three members, but this was seen as more than a professional relationship; team partners in Sanctuary culture were pretty much Saints that were already very close friends or, at the very least, expected to try to become so due to having compatible fighting styles or force of circumstances.

In other words, Guifi was asking for more than simply to work together. "…Why the hell should we?"

Guifi growled, irritated by Lance's pretense of not getting it. "Don't make me spell it out; when I return to Sanctuary, Phoenix or not, I'll still be a fucking outcast! Just as you! You know that! But we don't have to fight that on our own! Lance… Pegasus and Phoenix are two of the best Bronze armors in Sanctuary. The world already insists on putting us two in the same pen, so why not embrace it?!"

"I know what's in it in theory!" Lance asserted. "I want to know… what for? What will be in it other than us watching each other's backs!"

"What better reason than so we can finally start building our futures?" Guifi appealed. "We don't have to like each other… We just need to trust and understand each other. You can go on to fix your situation in Sanctuary with my help, and I can go obtain my armor and provide for Nina. Isn't that good enough a goal?"

Lance rubbed his chin pensively, thinking it over. He looked at Guifi every now and then, wondering if there was some kind of angle to this.

However, the advantages started piling over his concerns. If he had a partner, a real partner, it would be a great weight off his back. Guifi not only never threatened him in any way, but he was solid and reliable, too, and they had a shared history to draw back on. Lance could stop sleeping so lightly, and having an ally in Sanctuary would undoubtedly help him feel less gaslighted by everyone's accusations before he went nuts.

Could he do it? Could he trust Guifi and take his offer?

"I'm not stupid, Guifi… I know this is a way for you to get me to be okay with sparing your teacher and getting your armor." Lance detected.

Guifi gulped, confirming his suspicion. "Maybe, but I want you to consider something else. If I really do become Phoenix Guifi… and we become partners, you and I will have a real shot at doing what we are supposed to do as Saints. Think about it!" he appealed. "We can work towards higher cosmos ranks, set the example for everyone else, and even stop people like your teacher from ever abusing their students again! We've always talked about how everything in Sanctuary is fucked up and complacent. We can stop bitching about it and start doing something, beginning with finishing our armor paths and then… sink this fucking island to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean once and for all! Like it deserves!"

This got Lance's attention. "Now you're being honest."

Guifi's fist tightened. "Lance… I can't let you kill my teacher… because I have to do it myself to earn my armor. It's part of its Rebirth Ritual. But if you let me fulfill my destiny, I can help you fulfill yours. I really do think the two of us can look at things in Sanctuary differently and push for new ways to do things, just like Noah taught you. We can become the warriors of justice you have always dreamed of! We just… need to join forces."

Lance folded his arms tensely.

"Come on, what are you afraid of?!" Guifi demanded to know, shoving him lightly. "Of admitting you'd like someone's help? We can work together! We can shape our own futures! We can prove to everyone that not only are we not bound by our sins and their stupid myths, but we can overcome-"

"Enough! What's your fucking plan?" Lance interrupted, sick of the siren's song.

"Like I said, tomorrow, first thing in the morning before the Master wakes up, you and I forget about your Jangotown mission and take Nina to the boat that will pick you up. With her in safety, I can… confront my teacher without worry," Guifi worded, pausing in sudden fear at the notion. "Once he sees she's gone, he'll know what I've done. Won't have a choice but to fight."

"And if you lose?" Lance confronted. "What if he beats you and starts flaying you over that fucking shrine? Do you expect me to come dashing back to save you?!"

Guifi Taitano lowered his gaze determinedly. "I won't! Tomorrow, everything ends! Then the armor will be mine. I'll…. be reborn as the Phoenix, and you and I can destroy this island and its stupid curses and forges once and for all!"

Lance looked up. "Let's go back already. I'm exhausted."

As if it suddenly dawned on him how long they had been sitting around, Guifi looked around nervously and nodded.

{======================|SS2|======================}

Later,

The Master's Cabin

{======================|SS2|======================}

Pegasus Lance and Guifi Taitano quietly made their way back to the foot of the Queen's Mouth, covering their tracks from any potential stalking Black Saints and avoiding the volcanic hazards until the trainee spotted the passage they took among the rocks.

Guifi peeked over the basalt slopes and spotted the Master still standing by the door. He listened carefully until his ears detected the deep breathing of the hooded man.

He let out a sigh of relief and whispered. "Thank the Goddess… he's still asleep."

Lance was stunned. "Seriously? With all the fighting that happened…."

"It's a miracle," Guifi told himself. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit. It was too good to be true, but maybe after everything he and Nina went through, karma was on their side. He opened the passage cover and crawled in. "Come on. We need to rest for tomorrow."

Lance watched him point to the pass' darkness and halted pensively, wondering if he made the right choice or if the alliance he made was just a fantasy. Was it really that easy for him to turn his life in Sanctuary around? All he had to do was shed some arrogance and anger and work together with Guifi? What would that be like, if Guifi even survived to get the armor to begin with?

The Bronze Saint stopped himself, suddenly realizing the doubt he had in his friend's odds to prevail on his Path to the Cloth. Wasn't the exact same thought said of himself in Olympus?

Guifi realized he was hesitating. "Hey. What's wrong?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, a crushing feeling of shame came over Lance as the anger and frustration melted away. His mouth quivered, and he frowned away, feeling extraordinarily childish all of a sudden. "I'm… sorry."

Guifi blinked. Did he hear right?

"I want to apologize, Guifi. To you and Nina. I've been treating you two wrong since I got here." Lance admitted. It was tough to blurt this out, but he pressed on. "I think sometimes I forget I'm not the only one who got screwed over by Sanctuary's Masters, but… I got nothing else to put all this anger on. Still, I… shouldn't have been taking it out on you."

Why this humility all of a sudden? Maybe Lance really did have some maturity after all.

He had to test it, though. "You threatened us, Lance. Nina and I didn't know if we could trust you."

Lance nodded, looking away. "I realize that."

Guifi observed him for a solid minute, searching for signs of emotional dishonesty. Still, the Pegasus Saint seemed genuinely open to admitting regret, showing too much shame to meet him in the eye and losing the stiffness he carried with him so far.

Eventually, Guifi acquiesced. "It's okay. I get it. I can tell you have your own scars underneath. I did terrible things I never thought I'd do, too. Things I'll never forgive myself for. This shit inside us doesn't come from nowhere." he extended his tanned hand. "But, from tomorrow on, we can forget about all of it, as fellow Bronze Saints. So long as you keep your promise to help."

With a lot of hesitation, born of years of hopelessness, the Pegasus Saint slowly took it, and they shook hands. "Yeah."

"One day, when we're ready, maybe we call ourselves 'friends.'" He then crawled inside the pass. "Come on. You can apologize to Nina yourself."

{======================|0|======================}

The Master of Death Queen Island stood tall and strong in front of the cabin door, scarred arms folded in front of his chest. Those who passed by him would not be sure if it was safe to do so. After all, waking him up could prove deadly. However, even as the Earth shook and as the volcano roared with yet another eruption among hundreds of thousands that had shaped the island throughout its history, the Master seemed utterly immersed in a deep slumber, letting out deep exhales of exhaustion after a long day of massacring the little pretender beasts infesting the island.

Even the ash and embers and the acid carried by the wind and stung his rough skin did not seem to bother him, as if he was no longer a man but a dark, malicious statue standing vigil in the fiery chaos of Death Queen Island. As the constellation of Phoenix covered itself with black clouds, however, a particular, larger, and brighter ember flew through the air and headed straight towards him, floating in the air like a loose bird plume.

Two crimson orbs awoke inside the hood's darkness, and a dark grip snapped out from the folded stance, catching the ember in the air with an extinguishing wisp!

He stood there, enjoying the burning. The Master's iron grip opened, revealing the dying ember in his palm.

The man chuckled at its sight, and his hooded face looked to the sky. "I see. So that's what Guifi's planning. Thank you, Goddess. And don't worry. Tomorrow, when your cries fill the air, I will slick your thirst once again… with the biggest river of blood this island has ever seen!"

{======================|SS2|======================}

Chapter End

{======================|SS2|======================}

Next Chapter: Side Chapter 2: The Curse of Hatred, Part 5: The Cry of the Phoenix

Release Date: May 25th

Description: Lance and Guifi enact their plan to take Nina off the island using Lance's return boat. Meanwhile, Saint Compass reaches the island's premises. However, unbeknownst to everyone involved, the Master's hand will make its move.

The full cruelty of Death Queen Island is yet to be seen.

Author's Notes:

Originally this chapter was going to come out on the 25th, but a last-minute planning for a trip to Spain forced me to change my schedule, since I was no longer sure I was gonna have reliable access to a work computer.

This is one of those V2 chapters that managed to survive in a structural way, in the sense that while I still rewrote most of it to fit my updated depiction of the characters, the beat-by-beat events are still the same as back in V2, and virtually in the same order too. In that version, the chapter is still about Guifi and Lance talking their differences out in the meadow and making a pact to support eachother. The primary differences to V3 are the motivation, characterisation, dialogue and pacing. There was some Shinta stuff I cut out as well to expand the Nova-Nam conversation which, frankly, is far more pertinent. IIRC, Compass didn't even have a name in V2.

Chapter 71 is already finished and sent for Beta-reading. For those of you who remember V2, yes, the events will be the same. Sorry if the author notes seem a little thin these days, but it's just because with my new work cycle, my mind is much more distant at the time of publishing from when I first finished working on the chapter, so I no longer recall all the technical curiosities about it.

ANYWAY, please make sure to share the story, review it, like it on Twitter/Tumblr/Reddit and generally support this project if you enjoy it. Also, make sure to check out the Saint Seiya Reddit Discord server, where I'm currently one of the co-admins. Other writers like Jenny DeVic also can be found in it. You can hang out with the rest of the English-speaking SS community and we host several weekly events, like episode streams, games and now a whole new Horror Movie Night themed after the Underworld.