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.

80. 3A: The Weight of the Past

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; DQI Geography;

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

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Author Notes:

-This chapter has been beta-read by Jenny DeVic

-Important; after the betareading of this chapter, it was decided that what was originally a two-chapter storyline (79 and 80) was going to be spread out to three (79,80 and 81). This, of course, has created some wordcount imbalances across the 3 chapters, with 79 having about 26,000 to 80 only having 14,000. As this can be quite the whiplash, I will transplant some of the scenes from chapter 79 unto this one, so if you already read 79 as of February 13 2023 and you encounter some stuff you already read before, don't worry, cause chances are the website this is being published on hasn't updated the changes done to posted content yet. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I will put a note on the old scenes transplanted into this chapter so if you've read them already as of Feb 13th , you may skip them if you wish.

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Special Thrudgelmir2333 Note:

Finally; as of this chapter, I have officially finished adapting all the storylines from Lance's Role Version 2 into the present version you see published today. Coincidentally, I have also turned 30 yesterday, meaning I have spent my 20s remaking this goddamn story lol. It has taken a decade to do this and eighty chapters of hard work both from myself and. I want to thank everyone who has ever supported me on this:

-Thank you, my betareaders (mostly Jenny DeVic, but also Elly, Zebulon_Wallace, Siena and Caster of Y);

-Thank you, Fireminer, for putting my fic in the official list of "Saint Seiya Recommended Fics" on ;

-Thank you, Fanfiction dot net reviewers (the few I still have left) and readers (who have kept my writing pulse alive for so long);

-Thank you, people who have upvoted my chapters on Reddit and left Kudos on AO3;

-And thank you to my friends who have provided moral and writing support over the years, namely Mahogany, Roseko and Julian Solo, for hearing me out through hours and hours of venting about my anxieties and nerd rages;

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Please enjoy and review ^_^

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Japan, Hokkaido

Daitetsuzan National Park

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In the depth of February, the rugged mountain rises of the volcanic group of Daitetsuzan were covered in their famous snow. Large patches of dark green woods and rock were visible across the snow, but a relentless haze misted the mountains, making visibility drop immensely.

Geared with a white padded hooded jacket with synthetic fur lining, clear hiking boots, rope, icepicks, a set of military binoculars, and his trusted polycarbonate longbow, Leon Iraklidis, the silver-haired agent of the Pope, kept his head low as he crossed one rise to the other. His steps on the snow were light and careful, yet determined, while his blue eyes darted through the environment in search of his target.

It didn't surprise Leon that Priam would pick such a spot for his base. It wasn't just that Sanctuary had a rather dismissive outlook on Japan as a source of real trouble, but tracking was nearly impossible in these conditions. Leon was capable of sneaking inside the penthouse of recluse millionaire Mitsumasa Kido. Yet, in the month he had spent at Hokkaido, he had already spotted and lost track of suspects in the area four times.

Leon was sure these had to be Priam's associates, though. They were far too good at covering the tracks of residual cosmos and watching out for other pointers Saints regularly used for detecting targets. Leon would take bigger risks in pursuit, but it was vital that Priam's group was oblivious to his presence. Leon had already alerted Priam to his stalking back at Crow's Nest (*), after all, so a careless move from Leon would, at best, put his men on high alert and, at worst, motivate another base abandonment.

(*) 'The Shadows Move'

No, Leon had to get them this time. He would make sure of it. In fact, he was in that particular part of the mountain following his latest lead; a group of hikers said they ran into a patrol of national park guards in this area who told them the zone was closed off, but Leon had then discovered they ventured close to one of the Sagitta Cloth's training grounds, which happened to be in the area. Not only was that area not supposed to be patrolled by park rangers, who were under Sanctuary pay to stay clear of it (or rather of the Aries Industries' Environmental Protection Fund), but Sagitta Nam had earned his armor for years so that he wouldn't be sticking around, much less be training foot soldiers in the area. Someone was in the area. Someone that wasn't supposed to.

Detecting shadows ahead, he dropped to the cold snow, letting his white garments camouflage him. He took out his binoculars and took a peek. He had to keep it short, though, so the lens glint wouldn't denounce his presence. Switching to thermal mode, he detected one, two, three human shapes moving towards a fourth one. Leon stayed quiet, and his sensitive ears tried to listen.

He was too far away, though. It was time to burn some cosmos.

Grounding his hand and closing his eyes to focus, Leon made his outer cosmos burn very slightly. He had to do it just enough to activate his technique, but not so much that he'd get sensed by his prey. Soon enough, his cosmos began producing negative electrical charges, causing his silver hair strands to rise slightly. Sound in the air began to be carried beyond their reach to his ear, picked up by positive electrical signals he drew unto himself. Leon started picking up the sound of snow shifting, branches snapping, and far-off birds cleaning their feathers.

Amidst these noises of nature, gargled sounds, like voices in a radio with heavy static, started coming in from the human figures ahead.

"Boss." The three greeted him with a strong Greek accent.

"(In Japanese, Camille, please.)" the arriving figure requested.

Leon smirked, understanding the language perfectly. This suited him just fine.

"(Has our Eagle come back yet?)" the leader asked.

They shook head. "(No, still flyin' around her crow. Must be worried.)"

The leader breathed out and held his chin. "(She's not the only one. Perhaps I should go meet her. I want to reach out to the bulls on the way anyway.)"

Leon lowered his binoculars at this, intrigued. If this was really Priam that Leon was looking at, why would the traitor want to contact a Taurus Saint? Leon doubted it was the one amongst Arles' Children, which left his predecessor and Priam's contemporary Taurus Daniel. The thing was, Taurus Daniel was known as the most steadfast of his class of Gold Saints, so if Priam picked him to talk to, he was a bigger fool than Leon imagined.

They nodded. "(You can go check, boss. We'll be alright.)"

"(Yeah, you're the only one that can go so deep into the wolf' den anyway.)" another argued. "(You make us feel rather lazy, boss.)"

The leader hesitated but nodded. "(…Watch yourselves. And keep that page under the cloth sheets. At the slightest sign of trouble, call me in.)"

At this, Leon perked up. "Page?"

They scoffed, laughing. "(We fought in the same war, right? Boss, we can handle ourselves. Go get our eagle.)"

Staying down and absolutely quiet, Leon watched as the group parted ways. He was sure the leader could be Priam, but Leon wouldn't attack. Yet. Instead, he needed to follow the underlings to prepare a surprise for the rebel Sagittarius. Leon now had a pretty good idea of how quick the former Sagittarius used his Lightning Arrow technique, so he needed to create a reason for Priam to want to stick around and fight.

A mental call came in, startling him! It was a 6th sense ping with an extremely particular frequency, focusing directly on Leon. The agent touched his temple and focused on listening in. "Go ahead."

"Leon." It was Shion's 'voice,' or rather the Pope's particular signal. "Have you found him yet?"

The young adult smiled to himself anticipatingly, like a hunter watching a rabbit about to step on a trap. "I have."

"Good. Excellent. I won't disturb your mission, but I thought you should know-" Shion added. "- I have welcomed Galarian into the 5th House today. He's become my new Leo Gold Saint."

Leon's eyes stayed on the departing rebels. He began stalking them from afar. "Understood, Master. Please send him my congratulations."

"…I… expected more jubilation. You are best friends, are you not?"

"We are. I am just not surprised." Leon Iraklidis affirmed. Becoming the Leo Saint was something Galan had worked towards his entire life. The hunter was quite certain Galan would face some resistance from Arles' Children, but his success was never in doubt to Leon. "Galan is a Steiner, after all. The surprise would come if your Sagittarius had won."

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Sanctuary Town

Ophiuchus Hospital

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After politely knocking, Saint Iaso of Ophiuchus entered room 03 of the intensive care wing, where Cerah Heloise was still unconscious and unresponsive. Attentively sitting by her side on a tiny visitor's table in the corner of the room was the Saintia that brought her in, Equuleus Olivia.

"Good morning, Miss Olivia." he greeted.

The Saintia quickly rose, almost knocking her study materials off her table, and bowed her head. "Saint Iaso!" Olivia then hesitated, unsure which of his titles was more honorable. "Mm, or should I… say 'Doctor'?"

"Whichever is fine." Iaso admitted. He was awed at the whole library wing she brought with her. "Uh, getting homework done? I see the academy is still as stiff as the century old paper they teach from."

The Saintia gave a self-conscious smile. "More or less. It's mostly extracurricular material, but I'm also writing letters to some of my friends."

The doctor scoffed, impressed. He saw the books spread over the tiny table, the ones shoved in the corner of the room, and the ones she kept in her bag. "Extracurricular? All of that? What, did you sign up for every single club available?"

Olivia nodded matter-of-factly. "Yes, I have."

Iaso staggered. He was just joking. "…I see the stereotype of the overworked Saintia student is very much alive at the Academy."

She laughed, seeing the bud of truth in it. "Did you study there, doctor?"

Iaso sighed nostalgically, remembering what passed for his med school. "Now, I know you've never seen male students at that school, Miss Iraklidis. No, I studied in this very Hospital Temple. The Ophiuchus Cloth is kept very close to the Golden Zodiac, much like Pegasus sometimes is."

Olivia nodded in acknowledgment.

Iaso scoffed, remembering an old colleague known for his 'dark' sense of fashion. "If you're writing correspondence to the academy, though, do send my regards to that prick, Severus. Somehow, I just know he's your alchemy teacher."

"Will do." Olivia promised, smiling amusedly. She glanced at the girl in bed. "What can you tell me about Cerah, doctor?"

The brown-haired medic moved to his patient to check her breathing and monitoring equipment. His green eyes tensed and he took notes on his clipboard on all the nothing that had progressed in Cerah. Olivia watched it all with anticipation, but the lack of reaction on the doctor's face to anything he wrote was enough, to tell the truth; it was all more of the same.

"Doctor, do you think she… is going to wake up?"

Iaso faked a soft smile to dismiss the pessimism. "Why wouldn't she? She's stable, which is all we can be thankful for right now, so there's no reason not to be hopeful. It's just a matter of her strength of mind." He turned. "Speaking of strength, you're… Aguilon's granddaughter, aren't you?"

Olivia nodded and smiled, knowing the doctor was a good friend of her family. "That's right."

The Ophiuchus Saint folded his thick arms, studying her. Aguilon had to be at least twice her height and much more crude looking. "Apples fall far from the tree sometimes, don't they? If I hadn't known your last name, I never would have guessed."

Sometimes Olivia felt everyone commented on this at least once to her, but in the doctor's case, she understood why, since they were both Silver Saints. "I suppose I fell 'short' of him, Doctor Iaso."

The bitter doctor laughed out loud at this pun, startling her.

He waved his hand apologetically. "Excuse me, that was just a very good joke. Nothing tickles my bones like a good jab at my dear Silver Saint brothers and sisters." Recovering with a wipe of a tear, he tucked his clipboard. "But it does mean you're not the next of kin of Cerah, correct?"

The Saintia tensed. "Mm-mm, that's right."

He saw the small mess of opened books she brought over, looking like she was getting some studying done while spending time next to her friend, even keeping it all close to the sunlight to preserve her star-reading sight. "Yet you're bunkering down for the day. I've heard Saintias are quite loyal to each other, but knowing Cerah like I do, she would be overjoyed that a senior like you would shower her with such attention."

Olivia staggered, caught off-guard. "Ah, well…"

"Be careful what you say around him. Saint Iaso may look half the time like he hasn't slept in a week, but he's very sharp." Saint Pegasus had warned her. "Any hint Cerah is a Zodiac Knight will be picked up on. He's a good person, but let's not take chances for now."

The Equuleus tilted head, trying to smile as innocently as he could. "I j-just feel responsible. She helped save my life," she spoke as she glanced at the unconscious blond girl, remembering the starry-eyed junior who saved her twice.

The doctor yawned, unbothered. "That makes sense."

While relieved at this, her lips curved downwards. Olivia was certain the Zodiac Knights and her relatives were killed during the 'Topaz Purge,' the sub-conflict of the Civil War where Sanctuary fought the Zodiac Knights. "She… really has no family, does she? Poor Cerah…"

The Ophiuchus Saint rubbed his jaw pensively. "Not quite; would you consider a loving godmother as family?" he challenged, to which Olivia could only blink in surprise. "Eurydice is actually coming to visit today. She and Cerah are from the same village in Austria that got wiped out by False Specters. They've lived together since."

Olivia's blue eyes widened. A False Specter raid? So this is how Cerah got inside Sanctuary? Was Eurydice a fellow refugee from the Knights, too, and the two got pushed into Sanctuary by the recent war? "Dear Hera! How… did they manage to survive all of that?"

Iaso hummed, impressed like he had just noticed an amazing coincidence. "Your grandfather saved them."

Olivia's jaw dropped, surprised yet again. Grampa knew Cerah? Did he also know about her secret? Perhaps she should talk with him tonight, before her date with Saint Lance.

The doctor folded his muscular arms. "It seems like Miss Heloise here has a bit of a traced destiny with the Iraklidis, doesn't she? And that your debt to her is not as deep as you thought. I wonder if your sense of duty to her will falter from this?"

Olivia recovered from the shock. She straightened her pose and she narrowed her eyes as if to take a vow. "Falter? Saint Iaso, if anything, I will be twice as vigilant."

Saint Iaso smirked, seeing all the proof that, despite her size, she was, indeed, Herakles Aguilon's granddaughter. "Fantastic answer. I'll go get Eurydice. She'll be elated to know Cerah has friends like you."

Olivia smiled gratefully. Saint Iaso was known to be quite grumpy, but it seemed the doctor had a good heart. "Thank you…"

Touched by these words, Olivia saw the doctor depart from the room, feeling like she had passed some sort of test. She walked over to Cerah, feeling reassured that the blonde, heroic Corvus had many people who cared for her.

A light knock was heard at the entrance. "Excuse me?"

Olivia turned and gasped, seeing a tall, blonde woman looking to be in her twenties and of intimidating attractiveness. "Oh. Are you Eurydice, perchance?"

She nodded, though a bit hesitant. "Y-yes, that's right." The green-eyed woman looked over to Cerah, past Olivia, with nothing but distraught in her face. Such a pained look on someone's face could only be from Cerah's fabled godmother. "I came to see Cerah after what happened. Do you mind if I…?"

The Saintia shook her head no. "No, of course not. By all means!" she stepped aside, giving the woman clear access.

Olivia saw her tentatively approach the unconscious girl before kneeling at her side, her eyes tearing up. Eurydice's hands held Cerah's with such careful love that Olivia could only be sure she was the person Iaso spoke of. The woman's forehead sunk into Cerah's hand, and Olivia watched, her heart breaking, as she seemed to pray quietly to Athena.

After a minute of whispers, she sniffed quietly and turned to Olivia. "You're the Equuleus Saintia, correct? I've heard… you were there when this happened."

"Y… Yes, I was. I'm her senior at the academy." she confessed. Her throat dried. "I'm so sorry, Miss Eurydice. I put her in this position. I should have done more!"

The woman rose, cleaning her tears, and shook her head. "You don't have to apologize. Even if I thought this was your fault, you wouldn't be the person who's let Cerah down the most in this, not by a long shot. Besides, Cerah is strong; I know she will wake up."

Olivia was quite impressed by the woman's confidence in her goddaughter. Envious even. She couldn't help but feel her own resolve double at this. "I won't leave her side. You can be sure of that."

"That's reassuring. I'm happy she has made friends like you." The woman responded, making Olivia beam with pride. She turned alarmingly at the sound of steps outside in the hall. "Listen, Olivia? Could you do something for me?"

Olivia nodded dutifully. "Anything!"

The godmother smiled in relief. "I won't be able to stay, but if Cerah wakes up, let her know I love her… And if you meet Saint Pegasus, tell him I said 'thank you.'"

"Of course, but…You know Saint Lance?"

The woman hesitated to answer. "It's… complicated. He won't remember me even if you bring me up. I want him to know I'm grateful, though. And proud of him." The blonde adult looked anxious. "Saintia Equuleus, will you let him know that?"

"Of course."

The woman leaned over Cerah and kissed the young girl's forehead, caressing her hair and walking away hesitantly, like she had to force herself to. Eurydice seemed to notice something outside, which spurred her to rush off the room.

Olivia stood there, stunned at the bizarre yet warm meeting.

Iaso then walked in and found her gawking. "Hey, Olivia, I'm back…. What's wrong?"

The Saintia shook her head to dispel her confusion. "Nothing, Saint Iaso, I just met Eurydice. She's a loving person but was acting a bit strangely."

The Doctor gawked as well. "Olivia, what are you talking about?" He reached outside the room and helped a blond, even more stunningly attractive woman with eyes blackened by cursed blindness. "This is Eurydice!"

The Equuleus Saintia staggered. "What?!"

The blind nymph turned her head in confusion. "Saint Iaso? What's happening? Is this the girl watching over Cerah?"

"Yes, she is," Iaso assured, holding the blind woman's arm gently to steer her. He turned to the Saintia with a suspicious scowl and messaged the rest. "Olivia, who the heck did you meet just now?!"

The Equuleus Saint covered her mouth in horror. "I… I don't know!"

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Tibet, Lemurian Colonies

Village of Malachite

Author Note: Transplanted scenes from the previous chapter begin here.

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Marching off the Elder's house after telling off Demetrius, Pegasus Lance paced down angrily, thinking of all the time and resources wasted by that man's ego that could have gone into protecting these innocent children. It seemed like in almost every assignment he took that involved some golden-ringed idiot, he'd always uncover some shenanigan or negligence in it that could have been avoided if their jobs as community guardians were taken seriously in the slightest.

He tried not to think about the problems he just caused himself, but the more he heard the Count weasel his way into being seen as part of the solution, instead of the problem, the more he wanted to punch the guy in the face and walk off. Admittedly, he probably would have back in his days working with Shinta. And then he'd be hearing a bunch about how confrontation wasn't the answer.

While Shinta saying it always sounded naïve, though, when it was Suisho asking, it felt different. Perhaps because Suisho had shown overtime that he was such a hard-working and careful team manager, his request for Lance to act calmly just carried more weight. Slowing down, Lance began feeling shame creeping up at him that he let the Crateris Saint down, especially after all the emphasis Suisho put that this was supposed to also be a diplomatic mission to show the Muvians Sanctuary had their concerns in mind.

He stopped, feeling his anger cooling down into sober rationally. "Shit, why did I do that? What did that help? The others probably hate me right n-"

"HEY, wait up, damn it!" Yushira shouted, rushing to him. She caught up with him and panted. "Ah, you stopped!... G-geez, no holding back, uh? And I thought I was gonna be the troublemaker of us three!"

Lance folded his arms and grumbled, hoping Yushira wouldn't be the one to rant his ears of. "I'm sorry. Whatever you have to say about what happened there-"

Her head shook. "First things first, Pegasus, before my brother tells you otherwise, what you did back there was amazing, okay? Do you have any idea how many times I've met mission overseers who made me want to do exactly what you've just done? I got a long list of people I'd like to show up to at work and you're coming along with me to deliver those rants for me from now on."

The Pegasus Saint couldn't really go along with her, given that she was in undercover usually, while he was in assault, but he was surprised and happy that at least one teammate felt the same he did. "Oh."

Her arms folded and she studied him again. He was certainly more proactive than poor Cerah, who Yushira had yet to see again around Sanctuary. "When my brother said he was gonna bring you along, I really thought it was going to be one of his lame friends, but that? Holy shit. You're like my hero now! My rival hero!"

Lance scratched head self-consciously, now feeling a bit overpraised. "It wasn't that amazing…"

"It certainly was not." Suisho said, appearing from the elder manor. He frowned sternly. "I wish you hadn't done that, Pegasus."

The reproving look actually made Lance frown with the bad feeling it caused in his throat. He disappointed a friend that had trusted him to stay cool.

Yushira scoffed at her brother. "Are you kidding, Sui? Leave him alone. That was exactly what those posh pricks deserved to listen! They let innocent people die and children get taken! And now he was trying to play it off like he was a big rescuer when we are the ones wiping after his ass!"

Lance smiled weakly, appreciating Yushira's spirited support, but in hindsight he had to take their leader's side. "Thanks, Yushira, but your brother is right. This is going to create problems for him back in Greece. I'm sorry, Suisho. I should have kept my mouth shut."

Suisho rubbed eyes tiredly. He couldn't believe he was in a position where he had to defend Sanctuary's corrupt pigs. To another Saint, even. He tried to think of the trust Emperor Hades had in him to motivate himself.

He folded his muscled arms. "Why did you do that, then? Why make an unnecessary mess?"

Lance frowned. "It's a long story, but people like Demetrius are trying to ruin my friends' lives. Watching him say the quiet part out loud just… drove me a bit crazy."

The Crateris Saint's face darkened and he turned away. "I don't like negligence in Sanctuary, either, Pegasus… but we don't make it better by making the people in charge our enemies. Remember, they decide if their victims get help at all from Saints."

The Amazon practically rattled at this "Ugh, I can't believe you, sometimes! You talk like us Saints shouldn't just do our best at all times anyway!"

Suisho turned to his sister with a tense look. Sometimes he really wished he could speak what he thought of Sanctuary and Saints to her. Not as her brother, but as Judge Garuda Aiacos, the Celestial Valiant Star.

But that was the role Lord Hades has given him; of the loyal Saint trying to play by the rules. "One day you will understand, Yush'. One day."

"What's the plan, Suisho?" Lance asked.

The Crateris Saint sighed, putting his hand on his hip and squinting. "Now you want to talk about planning?"

"With someone that isn't just wasting my time? Yes." Lance cut, stern. "They want to send Saint Perseus along with us, correct? I doubt four Saints walking through the woods won't go noticed by the Black Saints. I know we're all thinking the same."

Yushira looked between them, not having the faintest clue. "Right!… We are?"

Feeling the darkness slip out of him, Suisho spoke more calmly. "We're going to split up in two groups, Yush', and flank the forest grounds. I'm more experienced, so I will go around the forest with the Perseus Saint and start moving through it from the East. You will go with Pegasus through the West. He will need help tracking the Black Saints in this terrain you're more familiar with."

"Oh! Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking." the younger sister lied, touching her mask's eye to signify a wink. "…I mean, I was going to suggest using me as bait, you know, make use of my Undercover talents… but I'm probably a bit too old for these creeps, uh?"

The two other Saints preferred not to think about it. Especially her brother.

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Forest of Malachite (West)

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The dense lake of leaves and branches over their heads blocked the sunlight over the dark green grounds thick with roots. The forest had tight paths going through it, but they were dark, enclosed and marshy, with thick swampy puddles rich with malachite crystals that shined with faint green stars, reflecting the little sunlight that pierced through. It was a dreary place, immediately showing off why a group of bad guys would pick it to hold a population ransom from. Even the chirping of birds was absent, though occasionally the shadow of a large bat or buzzard would zip by, silent.

Pegasus Lance and Crane Yushira moved inside the woods, making sure not to produce a sound with their steps. The Pegasus Saint got on his knee and touched a faint mark in the mud in the vague shape of a heel.

"What do you think?" Yushira asked mentally, being weak at tracking. Her specialty was more of letting predators track her, so she could get them.

Lance compared it to his own press marks. "Adult weight and size, rubber imprint… could be a combat boot."

"And everyone in the village wears sandals and junk." Yushira added.

Spotting prints further ahead, Lance nodded for her to follow. "Whether it's the Black Saints or the missing IG, we could be on the right track."

Climbing over a tree with surprising speed and silence, the Crane pointed ahead. "The terrain depresses further down." She jumped off, landing without a decibel. "It could lead to the excavation cabins. We might beat Sui to the kids."

Lance led the way through the forest, keeping an eye out for enemies. He was glad she kept the children first in mind, but he noticed the terms she put it into. "Are you always this competitive with everything?"

She sped ahead of him, as if to make the point. "That's right, gold-rankie."

Lance wouldn't mind it, except she already got the two of them lost in her haste to impose herself. "Is it to show off to your brother? Or do you feel you have to because…"

Though Lance's message cut short, Yushira could easily guess the rest. "Because I didn't have a Master?"

He didn't want to say this part outloud. "Yeah."

She groaned. Everyone always assumed her actions rotated around Suisho, and it really riled her up. "Man, you got the tact of a speeding truck, Pegasus! Why would I want to measure myself against that lame-o? No…It's the latter." She sighed. "Without a Master, if I don't stand up for myself, people don't take me seriously as a Saint."

Lance rose a brow. "You mean as a klutzy Amazon?"

"Yes, I suppose I do!" She looked over shoulder and laid out hand with a challengingly. "You trained at the Zodiac, right? Ever met any Libra candidate there?"

With the current Gold Saint in Mount Rozan, it was tough to get anyone to intern at the 7th House. "Not really."

"I suppose you wouldn't, with the guy holding the armor being over his 200th anniversary and having no plan to retire, right?" She sighed as they entered a steeper descent. "Artemis save me… it's rough in Sanctuary for anyone born in October. You can't aspire to anything higher than a Silver Cloth…"

"Is that what you want, to replace the Libra Saint?" Knowing Roshi so well, Lance knew this was a bit of a tough thing to aspire to. Besides, being a Silver Saint was a higher honor than most people aspired to.

Her head shook. "No! I mean, sort of. Look, what I want is to have dreams, like everyone else. Becoming a Gold Saint is just what our home gives us for that. If I could rise to the top of Sanctuary another way, I would." Her shoulders slumped. "Some people say I should be happy that I got so far, so early, but… I just don't feel my own person with just Crane."

Climbing with her over a set of root obstacles, Lance found her dilemma curious. "Why not? It's a higher Cloth than mine. It's a famous one, too."

"THAT's the problem! It's 'her' Cloth."

"What? Who?"

Yushira stopped to bring him down to planet Earth, waving hand over her metal-feather jacket. "Who do you think?! Who has ever been 'famous' for wearing this thing? The woman my parents named me after; Yuzuriha of Crane." she then scoffed and resumed the march. "Suisho used to joke they wrote my name wrong at the hospital. I can't blame him."

Lance widened eyes, feeling utterly dumb. Crane Yushira, Crane Yuzuriha… It really did seem like a bad baby name registry misspell. Just saying the names in a row almost made him forget which was which. No wonder Yushira kept trying so hard to express herself and rise in the ranks; she felt in the shadow of some woman from the last Holy War she probably never even met. Her copying of other people techniques instead of developing an arsenal from her Cloth was probably a way to distance herself from the myth of Yuzuriha, the third Lost Canvas survivor.

He saw her looking depressed and recalled "I've met her one time."

She turned head. "Is that so?"

Lance shook his head. "You're nothing alike. She's the no-nonsense kind. I thought she might rip my ears off if I said 'fuck' too many times in front of her. Frankly she reminds me more of your brother than of you." He smiled. "You're way more of a complete fuck up."

The Crane Saint laughed out loud. She covered her mask's mouth self-consciously, afraid of getting them found. "You prick! Thank you."

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Forest of Malachite (East)

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Guiding Acrisius into the forest, Crateris Suisho focused on his search, trying not to think about the mess he had waiting for him back home, courtesy of Pegasus. Frankly, if the Bronze Saint wasn't so effective in the actual operation and useful to keep his sister off his hair, Suisho would have a seriously hard time not Garuda Flapping him into Mount Everest for his lack of discipline. It was disgusting enough he had to be after the pedophiles and rogues of the species that Sanctuary kept protecting from Lord Hades' cleanse, but now he, a Judge, would have to argue in defense of a Saint.

That being said, while it caused a big problem, it did feel a bit nice to hear a Saint call out the hypocrisy of Athena's faithful. If he hadn't declared himself to Queen as such a ferocious opponent of the Emperor, Aiacos would consider recruiting Lance to more than just being his mission partner. There were, after all, a bunch of unused Surplices with missing Specter souls in the Underworld from the last war, like Gargoyle and Bennu.

"Boy, that sure was something, uh?" Acrisius asked. "Typical Bronzes. Some Saints just don't have any respect for the veterans and their families."

Suisho grumbled. "Please talk through the 6th sense, Saint Perseus. Otherwise, we might get detected."

Perseus scoffed as he followed. "It will be fine! If anyone attacks us, I can turn them into stone. In fact, I can't wai-"

Suisho glared at him so fiercely it made the forest somehow darken down further. "Just do it!"

Acrisius staggered and sweated. "Alright, alright…" he acquiesced. What a scary guy.

Aiacos groaned. What a complete, arrogant idiot he's straddled himself with! He started wishing he had traded him to Lance for his sister. Yushira might be a screw-up, but even she knew better than treat a mission like a casual fox hunt. The Judge could care less if lives were lost, since everyone would just be closer to Hades' glory, but children were a special case and even Specters were disgusted by the profligacy of hurting them, akin to stepping on innocent flowers.

"By the way, aren't you going to put your armor on?"

"No, the flash might attract the enemy to us." The Judge of the Underworld lied. The real reason was that the Crateris Cloth would burn his skin off if he tried.

Acrisius shrugged. "Your call…"

He looked up and saw a still silhouette which made his eyes widen. "Is that…?!"

The two Saints rushed closer and Suisho widened eyes. What looked at first to be the shadow of a large boulder among the trees was actually a large wooden storage cabin. A bunch of discarded mining and logging equipment was spread around it, as if it got tossed out from the inside to make room for new items.

"That must be one of the Black Saints! Are the children inside?" Suisho concluded. "Acrisius, stay here!"

The noble Silver Saint nodded. "Got it."

He snuck around to find the entrance and indeed saw a snoozing Black Saint sitting in front of the door; a man clad in stolen Hoplite armor that had been cracked and scratched with a gang mark.

Since there was only one guard, he should order Acrisius in so he wouldn't have to pull out Crateris. "Excellent, he's by himself! Alright, Saint Perseus, you wanted to shine?" he turned "Now's the-" Suisho staggered, seeing a large metal medusa face stare right at his face.

"GORGON FLASH!"

The emeralds on the shield burst out, blinding the Judge! Aiacos screamed in pain and rage and tried to claw at the shield, but his body stiffened at the speed of light and darkness overcame him, locking him into a cold petrification. The force of the burst knocked him, landing the statue of Aiacos on the ground.

The guard at the cabin snapped awake at the noises. "Uh?! What was that?!" He saw the Silver Saint. "Oh, it's you!"

Perseus Acrisius lowered his smoking shield and smiled at Saint Crateris' angry frown. A perfect petrification; a feat considering Acrisius was dealing with a Gold-Rank.

He then turned to the Black Saint. "There's two more coming from the West. Get ready."

The mercenary nodded and dragged Suisho away. "R-Right!"

"One down, two to go." Acrisius thought. "I'm coming for you next, Pegasus Lance."

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Author Note: Transplanted scenes from the previous chapter end here.

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Chapter 80

Arc 3

Episode 8

The Weight of the Past

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Tibet, Lemurian Colonies

Forest of Malachite (West)

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"Man, are we there yet?" Yushira whispered, watching Lance study some tracks. She looked around and could only see a sea of shady trees. "I feel like we've been going in circles."

The Pegasus Saint shook his head. The prints he found didn't look fresh, and the soil wasn't transitioning into that of a mining site. Unless they were looking for a cabin in the woods, they were going in the wrong direction.

"Maybe the missing Immortal Guard just got lost like we have?" the brown-haired Amazon jokingly pondered. She touched her temple to focus and tried to ping her brother, bouncing the signal off the forests' perimeters so the enemy wouldn't detect it. There was no response. "Great, and now I can't reach Suisho!"

Lance rose, looking tense. "He could be keeping a low profile, especially with that Perseus Saint weighing him down." He then noticed something shining in one of the trees, and his finger scooped it up. "Or maybe…"

The masked amazon saw his index covered with what looked like shiny yellow snot. "EW! What's that?!"

"Forgot already? Kang and Demetrius said back at Malachite that the trees in this forest secrete stardust in their resin." Pegasus wiped it on his Cloth Box, which sponged up the shiny substance like a sweet. "High percentages of stardust in an area tend to interfere with long-range cosmic communication and cosmos sensing. I've seen it happen before. (*)"

(*) "The Goodbye" Storyline

Yushira scratched her head. "I guess I shouldn't worry then? Man, this really explains why the Black Saints would pick such a spot. The bastards got themselves a nicely defensible crib. Lucky them."

"Lucky, or just that dangerous that they managed to force their way in?" Lance hypothesized, moving on. "In any case, we need a new lead on the missing children, or at least the Black Saints."

Yushira turned and pointed out a new set of tracks in the foliage. "How about these prints?" She knelt to study them. "Look, they're smaller. Maybe it's from the kids?"

The two Saints followed it. Lance saw them leading down terrain that looked a lighter brown and with less vegetation, which could indicate clay. "It looks like you're right, Yushira, but… just one pair?"

The two followed the track, stealthily leading Yushira down a path that slowly lost the density of trees, which made him feel optimistic. Eventually, they saw a group of Black Saints in armor moving slowly through the forest.

He breathed out, impressed. "Mm, not bad, Saint Crane. You really got good eyes."

The teenage girl tilted her head, flattered. "I'm more than a pretty mask, ya know?" She noticed their hunched-over postures and how they combed the foliage with their weapons. "Hey, don't they look like they're also looking for something?"

"H-HELP!" a high-pitched voice screamed ahead.

The two Saints looked up, alarmed, seeing a far-off small figure rushing through the foliage. It was a Muvian child of lilac hair, not unlike Mu's. That explained the single pair; it was of a boy who managed to escape.

Alerted by his scream, the Black Saints pointed at him. "THERE HE IS!"

"Come back here, you brat!" one further back shouted, giving chase. "Get him before he teleports again! Damn it! Where's Faras when we need him?!"

"Bingo." Yushira messaged Lance.

"I hope you can use them for more than copying people's techniques, then." Lance pointed ahead, calling her attention to the boy finding himself cornered against a tree "What do you think?"

The two Saints studied them; for Black Saints. They were pretty well armed; by contrast with Baddub's group in Switzerland, these guys sported even armor with reliable padding, their sabers and knuckle braces looked lined with stardust. They weren't trying to be fancy with the firearms, carrying only small pistols and rifles to use against anyone they didn't want to spend cosmos on. They were also relatively quiet in their work. With some preparation, they could probably kill Bronze Saints.

And they were about to corner a single child with no cosmos.

Yushira, however, was a Silver Saint. She scoffed and crawled forward with the Pegasus, approaching them from the flank. "Pfft, easy-peasy."

"Hold on. If we're quick and quiet, we can outflank and take them out before they signal their buddies that the forest is being swarmed with Saints!" Lance warned.

She shook her head, seeing the child tripping on the ground and being cornered. "What, do you plan every little mook's defeat out that much? We don't have time for that.."

He saw her speeding up towards them. "Yushira, WAIT, what are you doi-"

She got up, revealing herself to the enemy patrol. "HEY, ASSHOLES! OVER HERE!"

The quartet staggered and braced their weapons, turning their cosmos sensing towards them. "What the…?! INTRUDERS!"

The child beamed. "HELP! They have my friends!"

Their lieutenant detected the Pegasus' cosmos heat and pointed straight at Lance. "She's not alone! Get them!"

Lance petrified, gawking at what his partner just did.

With a collective roar, the trio of Black Saints brandished weapons and rushed at the two Saints, swinging their sabers and braces through the vegetation. Lance and Yushira sprang into action, each dodging and parrying their initial assault with the fluidity of water. Using the least cosmos possible, Lance caught a thrusting, spiked punch with a dragon-style grip, twisted the rogue's arm back till it snapped, and then blasted the bastard's face with a rising kick, sending him spinning in the air, splashing blood till he hit the trees.

Yushira, by contrast, held nothing back, sliding beneath a huge sword's swing to let it get stuck on a trunk and then delivered a reverse rolling kick that threw her two adversaries off balance, blasted the first one's chest plate apart with a cosmic punch before he could recover, dodged a follow-up blade swing from his friend by dropping over her back and rolling, then rose off her hand on the ground to deliver a face-shattering heel kick to the third adversary.

The Black Saint fighting Lance rolled his spear aggressively and thrust but missed the bobbing Saint. In frustration and hate, he shouted a war cry. He stepped in closer, unleashing a series of supersonic spear strikes that blasted through dirt and branches. Still, the Pegasus Saint tossed himself aside to dodge them, rolled back up with a chopping strike that shattered the spear pole, and punched the man's face in, blasting him aside.

The two Saints stomped and snapped the rest of the weaponry apart, tossed the metal junk aside, dusted their hands, and flanked the third, last Black Saint.

"I…W-what?! Who are you?!" the lieutenant gawked, seeing his team wiped out in seconds without a single major technique.

"We're Saints of Athena, you child-trafficking prick!" Yushira announced

"F-fuck this!" and tried to run away, shouting. "ALERT, ALERT!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Yushira's aura burned, her voice hummed, and her hands waved, shaping a constellation that didn't belong to her. "Lance, shield the kid! METEOR FIST!"

Rushing over to cover the child, Lance braced himself, "BARRIER!"

Yushira's black-gloved hands fired full force, unleashing Aguilon's famous barrage of white meteor shots on the fleeing Black Saint, breaking his armor and weapon to pieces and smashing him over the ground, defeated. Forestry around them was grazed, tearing trunks, blasting boulders, and splitting the soft soil into a crater trail.

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Eastern Forest

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Having dragged Aiacos' statue next to all the other ones of the Immortal Guards, Perseus Acrisius held up a hand, ready to smash the petrified Crateris Saint. He burned just enough cosmos to break through rock, creating a brim of green energy around his fingers, but not so much to alert the other Saint team. "Mm, mm, say your goodbyes, Crateris."

Suddenly, his 7th sense flared, sensing the shooting of many blasts of white light far off to the east. The forest grounds shook, and he stumbled, almost knocking Suisho's statue over the soft foliage.

Acrisius cursed and held the statue. He might need it as a hostage later. "What the heck was that?!" He then focused his 6th sense to contact his partner, the Cross Silver Saint. "Farbas, what happened just now?!"

"The forest resin is making things murky, but there's fighting with the other Saints. One of the children escaped and must have tipped them off to where I was waiting. I'm tracking him right now."

"Escaped?! What, are you asleep at the wheel?! They're a bunch of Muvian brats inside a cabin!"

"Exactly, they're Muvian. One of them was old enough to do a short-range teleport. You try to keep an eye on that twenty-four-seven!" Cross Farbas argued. "But what does it matter? We can get rid of them as soon as-"

Acrisius growled. "What does it matter, you ask? That kid SAW YOUR FACE! What if they just decide to leave now and alert Sanctuary?! Besides, do you think our employer didn't send that 'ninja' of his to make sure we did our jobs?!" he mentally roared. Sometimes he wished mental messages could transmit anger as fluently as a good dump of capitalized letters on a piece of paper would. "If we mess up, not getting our pay will be the least of your problems! Get your ass off the cabin and collect your Cloth! We're getting rid of the evidence!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Western Forest

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The Pegasus Bronze Saint roared as he lifted the weight of branches off himself and gave the child a clear way out.

"G-Goddamn it! Yushira!" Lance roared, guiding the kid off collapsed debris to her. "Are you nuts?!"

Her fist was still smoking. She shrugged defensively and threw her arms up. "What, the big one was getting away!"

"We could have interrogated him as to where the other children are! Your attack could have alerted the rest of them of our presence with that light show!"

"We needed decisive action! Or did you want to set up an ambush after they cut the kid's throat? Besides, you said it yourself, this whole forest is a big natural jamming field." She then noticed the child next to him within earshot. "Oh, sorry, kiddo. Don't worry; we definitely would have saved you."

The Muvian child shook his head. Somehow the idea of his throat being sliced didn't seem to upset him. "That's alright. Thanks for saving me… Are you Saints of Athena? Are you here to help my friends?"

Lance calmed down and asked. "… That's right. What's your name?"

The little Muvian boy beamed. "I'm Diyu!"

Yushira raised a brow behind her mask, recognizing the word from mythology class. "Diyu? Goddess, Muvians always pick the coolest names. Isn't that, like, a place in hell?"

Diyu nodded. "Yup. My mom and dad renamed me six months after I was born. I don't know why, though. I've been told they weren't getting enough sleep at the time for some reason."

Yushira covered her mask's mouth to restrain a laugh, before ruffling his hair and making him laugh.

"Aw, ain't he a rascal? I love these Muvian brats!" The brown-haired Amazon saw her partner a bit transfixed. "What's wrong, Pegasus?"

Lance frowned somberly. Diyu looked seven or eight and, with his lilac hair, just a good six months of training away from looking exactly like Mu. Sometimes he forgot how thin the barrier between Arles Children and kids playing tic-tac-toe was. It just made him even angrier about Lucifer's attack. Still, he also wondered if Aiolia getting kicked out by Galan was for the best, even if it put him at risk of getting separated from Aiolos. It was a tricky question he didn't know the answer to.

The Pegasus Saint shook head. "Nothing, he just resembles someone I know. Diyu, I know you want to go home, but can you take us to your friends?"

Diyu nodded energetically, excited he'd get to save the day. "YES! If you hold on to me, I can teleport you there."

Yushira put her hand on his shoulder but had a serious question to make. "Hey, wait a minute, is that how you escaped, to begin with? Why not just teleport yourself and your friends out of this forest?!"

"Miss Yushira, I'm only seven!" Diyu pouted. "Mom says if I teleport too hard, I might leave my butt behind."

The two Saints exchanged a shrug of acceptance. Neither knew enough about violating the laws of physics to really argue against this.

{======================|A3|======================}

With a flash of light, Diyu teleported the two Saints holding onto his small shoulders to the deep center of the forest.

He pointed at an enormous, dark equipment storeroom surrounded by trees blotting out the sun. "That's the place! My friends are inside!"

A Black Saint guard, snoozing at the doorstep, awoke.

Yushira and Lance pull Diyu down into the bushes.

"U-uh? What was that?! Faras is that you?! Are you back?" he asked, alarmed.

"Faras?" Lance whispered.

"That's the tough guy with them, Saints," Diyu explained. "He's got a big shiny armor, and he's the one that took us! There's a second, scarier one out there, though, with a big monster face on his armor…."

Lance squinted, not recalling the name in any of Nam's Black Saint wanted lists. Perhaps it was just a new gang, but it was suspicious they were already skilled enough with the cosmos to take over this forest and defeat Immortal Guards. The 'monster face' part didn't surprise him, though; clandestine people with the cosmos liked painting graffiti in their armors as gang markings.

The Black Saint searched all around, walking past the spot. Yushira and Lance shared a nod, blitzed out, and instantly knocked the man out with supersonic elbow strikes and punches.

Yushira dusted her hands. "Done and done! Let's finish this job. I wanna see the look on Sui's face when we return as heroes."

The Muvian child took the guard's keys, rushed ahead, and quickly unlocked the cabin. There was a collection of young happy gasps and a trio of small children with dots on their brows and various hair colors came running out.

"DIYU! He's back!" a green-haired one beamed. "Did you win the game? Where's the cake?"

"Is the monster gone?" a more petite, red-haired one asked, looking scared. "I'm tired of playing hide-and-seek. It's been days!"

"You crybaby!" a blue-haired one lambasted. "Don't you want to win the cake at the end?"

Lance blinked. "They… think it's a game?"

Diyu smiled sheepishly and gestured a shush. "I told them so they wouldn't get afraid."

Yushira rested her hands on her hips, impressed, and ruffled the boy's hair. "You little imp! Great job!"

Lance grumbled, feeling something was wrong. He looked around, studying the lone guard they had just defeated and where the children were held. The humid, wooden construct had mattresses, dirty plates inside, and rope that looked crudely cut through. Diyu must have freed himself before sneaking out, and one of the patrols spotted him, triggering the Saints' encounter with the boy.

Yushira saw her partner looking tense and bumped his elbow. "Hey, Pegasus, what's wrong with you? Trying to win a party pooper contest? We're about to save the day and earn our bonus."

Lance gritted his teeth. "Don't you see it? Nothing about this makes sense!"

The Crane staggered. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you think this was all a bit too easy?" he questioned. He pointed at the lack of blood in the area. "You heard the Elder. An entire squad of Immortal Guards vanished trying to get these kids back! Yet there's no sign of them yet! Not even a bad stench."

She shrugged. "Well, I don't know about the bad stench, but… those guys are probably what, Bronze-ranks at best?"

"Suisho and Nam told me our squad was specifically requested for this, but I couldn't figure out why for the life of me," Lance recalled. "Then I find out they involve all these Saints like this is a huge operation, and we find the kids after encountering only a few Black Saint sell-swords patrolling the woods! And they're screwing with Sanctuary for what? An odd chance that it will pay some ridiculous cash sum? Won't that just get attention from the Pope?"

Yushira stared tensely. "Wait… what are you saying? That they don't want the money? Then what could they be after?"

Lance turned to her. "After us!"

"Correct."

The two Saints snapped into alertness, turning swiftly with raised fists at the threat, but their faces turned into shock at the sight of the medusa-shielded Saint they met at Malachite.

The children screamed at the sight of the person. "It's h-him! The monster!"

"You?!" Lance sneered, squinting.

"You're… the dumb guy who went with my brother!" Yushira realized.

Acrisius gave out an annoyed, evil smirk, then he saw the children. "I see you've found the baits."

"Y-You… You're behind all these kidnappings?!" Crane Yushira stepped back, shaking in anger and fear.

Acrisius huffed, showing himself off with a hand on his hip. "That's right. Took ya long enough to figure it out. Personally, though, I see them as a bit of a bonus. Young Muvians fetch a high price in certain markets."

"YOU BASTARD!" Yushira screamed, stepping up. A flush of fear and anger overcame her. "What did you do to SUI?!"

Perseus laughed and showed off his shield. "Can't you take a gander? Here's a hint; he played paper, I played rock."

Lance looked over his shoulder with a sweat, seeing a second Silver Saint appear from the shadows of the trees, flanking them. "(Yushira, we're outflanked!)"

The man presented himself. "I am Faras of the Southern Cross. You two have met your e-"

"YOU TREACHEROUS SNAKE!" Yushira shouted at Acrisius, "WHERE DID YOU TAKE HIM?! I'LL SMASH HIM OVER YOUR HEAD UNLESS YOU TURN MY BROTHER BACK!"

Cross staggered, looking insulted.

Acrisius laughed at his friend's face and addressed Yushira. "I don't recommend doing that, Crane. Saint Suisho didn't bother putting his Cloth on, you see. A rather bad habit of his that's now put him in a precarious situation. One light touch, and he will shatter into pieces."

"YOU… Y-YOU PSYCHO!" she shook, her blood boiling in fear for her only relative.

Lance stepped in before Yushira went flying off. "What's this about?! Why are you targeting me?! Why involve Suisho and Yushira?!"

The Cross Saint folded his arms, looking impressed. "Mm, you catch on quick, Pegasus…Acrisius, should we tell him?"

Yushira forced herself to calm down, realizing the depth of the entrapment. "What? Just Pegasus?!"

"You lucked out, Crane. Nam paired you up with a Saint that made quite a few people mad for years." Acrisius told her. "But trust me, your brother putting him on his squad annoyed us just as much because we had to devise a way to isolate him again. So we sympathize with your plight."

Calculating the risks involved, Lance realized they were in a more dangerous situation than Yushira knew. "Yushira, have you copied any distraction techniques? If you have, on my mark, take the kids out of here!"

She scoffed at the thought they wouldn't just fight. "What?! How about we just punch their faces?!"

"Acrisius is definitely a Gold Rank. He wouldn't have gotten the drop on Suisho otherwise!" Lance reasoned. "If he targets you, you're done for!"

The Crane nodded hesitantly, signaling Diyu to hold his friends' hands and be ready to teleport.

Lance's cosmos burned, igniting his burning orange aura. He raised a clenched fist ignited in flames. "You wanted me?! You got me!"

Cross Faras stepped back, intimidated by the fiery display of Cosmos. "Acrisius, turn him into rock NOW, before-"

Yushira's aura burst, and launched her fist, "PHANTOM ARROW!"

A shower of supersonic arrows of light shot over and around Lance, startling the two enemy Silver Saints! Acrisius and Faras screamed and stumbled, guarding their faces against the seemingly inescapable barrage of darts that ignored covers and obstacles, going right at the two of them.

However, realizing they felt no pain even as hundreds of arrows flew all around and through them, they exchanged a look. "It's fake!"

Acrisius rose back up, furious. "That was Sagitta's techni-"

Lance's aura exploded. "LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" He burst forward with a hand clad in lightning, punching Acrisius' exposed chest plate before he raised his shield, blasting him right through the cabin, tearing it apart, and crashing through the forest.

Faras gasped, realizing he got separated from his teammate. He focused on the Amazon. "You…!"

"DIYU, NOW!" she called, getting the kids together.

Cross Faras saw them turn into a blinding light, irritating his eyes. Grunting, the red-armored Silver Saint blinked to realize they were gone!

Yet, he didn't worry. "Foolish girl. Why do you think I was chosen to deal with these brats? You won't get far… not in this forest." He then crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and burned his white aura to activate his personal tracking technique. "Axis Crossing!"

Summoning the power of the Southern Cross constellation, Faras detected the leftover signal of the Muvian boy's teleportation. His technique pinpointed the coordinates, and he turned southwest, smiling.

{======================|A3|======================}

Rolling down the forested slope, Lance and Acrisius crashed through foliage, trunks, mud, and eventually, an increasingly rockier terrain as the Charge Fist's force threw them into the forests' mining area, where trees had been cleared and discarded mining equipment littered the field. Grunting in rage, Acrisius smashed his fist on Lance's side, throwing the unclothed Pegasus off of him.

The Silver Saint rose up and raised his shield. "GORGON FLASH!"

Closing his eyes, Lance threw himself aside as far as possible, dodging the massive flare of green cosmos but painfully crashing through several heavy metal objects he could only assume to be shovels and drills. Crawling away as quickly as he could, he took brief peeks until he found an abandoned Caterpillar truck and slid behind it, dodging yet another flare which made the huge vehicle rock dangerously over him.

Opening his eyes and breathing out, Lance was irked, seeing petrified birds fall off the air and smash to pieces on the ground. "Shit! I'm pinned!"

Perseus Acrisius rose hand at the truck the Pegasus hid behind and chuckled, charging cosmos in the shape of a giant, whirring green orb. "Think you can hide so easily?! COME OUT!"

The beam of energy fired, blasting the vehicle apart and forcing Lance to jump high into the air. The Bronze Saint saw his adversary stagger, blinded by sunlight, and reached for his Cloth Box chain to pull it. "NOW, PEGASUS CLOTH!"

Acrisius cursed, feeling his adversary's cosmos explode into a burst of light and fire. He saw Lance land with a heavy set of pointy metal pieces closing around his limbs and chest, forming a full-set white protection complete with a black cape. The Bronze Saint stood before him, boasting a proud knightly armor rather than the glorified metal jockstrap set Bronzes were usually straddled with.

It made Acrisius grit his teeth in outrage. "That's the Pegasus Cloth's new form?!" He frowned angrily, realizing it provided more protection than his Silver Cloth. "Now I see why the hit was put on. You really have no business carrying that thing, do you?!"

Albeit feeling a bit braver with his upgraded armor on, Lance sweated. "I can't keep my eyes on him, or he'll petrify me!" He tried to think of Master Dohko's harsh blindfolded tightrope cross-training. He could use the 7th sense for positioning, but that wouldn't tell him if the guy would punch, kick or hit him over the head with his shield. No choice! He was gonna have to do this the rough way!

Growling, Lance charged his fire aura and leaped forward. Trying to keep his eyes closed, he used his 7th sense to guide him and swung his leg, kicking the bastard's raising shield with enough force to push him back, staggering Acrisius. Lance closed back up with an uppercut that grazed Acrisius' headpiece, then assaulted the mercenary with a series of blind kicks and punches that, albeit fluid, kept striking the wrong parts of Acrisius' arm, landing on strong armor points.

More annoyed than pressed, Acrisius struck back, bashing Lance with a shield charge to push him back. The Perseus Saint punched, kicked, and elbowed the Bronze Saint, who tried to muster defenses but couldn't tell the timing and angle of his strikes, only their direction. Stumbling back, Lance exposed himself to Acrisius, landing a devastating two-foot dive kick on his chest, which shot back screaming, crashing him through the increasingly rougher terrain.

Acrisius panted. As expected, he was dominating the Bronze Saint, but he saw Lance rising back up with his aura burning as fiercely as before. "Blasted upgrade… I should have pierced through that Cloth by now! I wonder what Gold Saint gave you blood for that kind of raise?"

Keeping his eyes closed, Lance tried to breathe calmly. He had to confess this was a bad situation. Even if this bastard was failing to hurt him, there was a chance a staggering blow would make Lance instinctively open his eyes for the smallest of seconds.

For lightspeed fighters like the two, the smallest of seconds might as well be a month-sized window to petrify Lance. "M-Maybe you just don't hit nearly as hard as you think! No wonder a merc with a cloth like you needs that shield to win his fights!"

Acrisius scoffed, seeing the Bronze Saint's heaving chest. "Fat chance; Pegasus we're both Gold Ranks, after all. Normal armors might as well be pieces of paper to us, so you're either burning cosmos on overdrive to compensate or that armor is even more valuable now than my employers think!"

"Mind telling me who the hell are they, anyway?!" Lance roared, frustrated. "I want to know whose door to knock on after I'm done smashing your face!"

"Who do you think, Pegasus?" the green-haired Silver challenged, laughing at his stupidity. "Who's been getting the Zodiac rid of you and all your shit-skinned buddies lately?!"

Unfortunately, this barely narrowed it down. "Between Gigas' clique, Cetus, or anyone else just a bit more desperate than Yushira to create free spots on the Zodiac, it could be anyone…."

Seeing his confused face, Acrisius smirked. "Ya know, if you were a bit more cultured about your armor, you might have guessed already."

The Bronze Saint sneered. "I suppose I'll have to beat out of you how to turn Suisho and the others back!" Lance sensed his cosmos burning in preparation for another assault and braced himself. With nothing but sound, a cosmos signal, and the guy's arrogance to guide the Pegasus Saint, Lance raised his guard in a cross at Acrisius, jumping and landing with a powerful knee drop that shook his bones and cracked the ground beneath. A follow-up air kick aimed at Lance's face was caught before he hurled Acrisius onto a close-by abandoned drill machine. The Pegasus Saint lunged, hitting the shield he couldn't see, and felt something strike his foot hard enough to trip him.

Blindly rolling over to dodge a cascade of cosmos blasts, Lance's hand pushed him off the floor to the air to bullet a powerful kick into Acrisius, striking a blunt spot that felt like the bastard's chest plate. Angered, Acrisius hammered Lance's stomach, stunning him, then blasted his face aside with his other fist.

Dropping to the floor in a dizzy blur, Lance felt his eyes open.

The Perseus was already ready to fire at his face! "GORGON FLASH!"

Spurred by sheer adrenalin, Lance spun over to kick Acrisius' arm, somehow throwing off his shield's direction to make the blast hit the ground instead. The Silver Saint's knee exploded into his face, throwing Lance back. Lance grunted, holding his shaking skull and crawling about. He had to make sure his eyes didn't open no matter what.

Ripping off a portion of his hand wrappings, Lance tied it around his eyes, blindfolding himself.

Acrisius saw it and laughed. All he had to do was charge a Flash to full power to rip right through the fabric. "Think that will keep you safe?!"

Lance actually wished he had access to some kind of reflective protection right now. Still, if a simple blindfold forced his adversary to spend even a microsecond more building up energy, then it was worth it. "Just until I free my friends, yes…!"

"Still gung-oh about that?! Get it in your head, Pegasus –" Acrisius threatened, stepping around the blindfolded warrior to find a good angle to attack. "You're not leaving these woods!"

"I bet if I smash that stupid Cloth, we will!" Lance hummed and charged the cosmos, making the stars of Pegasus emerge and shape a horse with wings of fiery feathers. Igniting his aura into a bonfire of dancing flames. "PEGASUS… FLAME ATT-!"

Just as he swung his fist to toss the destructive beam of fire, Lance screeched his foot to halt himself, gasping in frightening realization.

Acrisius folded his arms, smirking confidently. "Ah, figured it out already? You didn't think I'd pick this place just for the pretty mountain sights and the easy hostage baits, right?"

Lance cursed himself, sweating as he remembered the forest around them. While they were in the mining field now, Cosmos attacks could be pretty far-reaching, not to mention there were tons of machinery around them liable to have forgotten gasoline tanks. A careless use of fire cosmos, or even another reckless electric attack, especially with him firing it blindfolded, could set half of Malachite's forest ablaze in an instant. With Yushira, Suisho, the missing Immortal Guard, and the children still in it.

Acrisius tapped his own head boastfully. "See, I'm a professional, Pegasus."

Turning off his fire, Lance's aura burned a clean white now. He should still be able to use a carefully aimed thunderbolt punch at the right moment, but this did complicate things. "Fine, then I'll get back to ass-kicking basics with you!"

Aiming his shield, Acrisius laughed challengingly and charged the gems in its eyes. "I can't wait to see you try! GORGON FLASH! FULL POWER!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Southern Forest

{======================|A3|======================}

With a pop of light, Yushira, Diyu and the younger children appeared mid-air, landing on the softer, lower terrain.

Yushira pointed further down. "Diyu, can you take your friends out of here?"

The boy nodded frantically. "Y-yes. Come on, guys! Let's race to the-"

"SOUTHERN CROSS THUNDERBOLT!"

A blue crack of lightning in the air came storming down, and Yushira pushed the children out of the way with a supersonic drag, letting the landing enemy bolt blast and scorch the ground into a black-cindered crater, shaking the forest.

"Great, he's a tracker!" Yushira hissed to herself. "Diyu, GO!"

Cross Faras climbed out of the crater, his red Cloth shining with energy. He saw the Muvians fleeing. "Ugh, now I'll have to run after them..."

The Crane Saint, already wearing her armor, went right into a fighting stance honoring her Cloth, raising a clenched left fist and an open right palm while presenting her left side slightly forward and keeping her feet close, a shape akin to a prancing bird. "Don't worry, I'll save you the trip and land you straight in the hospital."

"They won't get far, Amazon," Faras warned, folding his arms. "But you have a chance to walk out of this alive yourself if-"

"Shove it, will ya? You people petrified my big brother and kidnapped a bunch of children! I make a living busting creeps like you." The Amazon sternly reminded him. Her feathered greaves tensed, readying a leap. "Only usually they aren't Saints…."

Cross Faras smirked. "Does that disappoint you?"

The amazon sighed genuinely, half irritated. "It does, but only because it makes me feel like a darn fool." She then laid the bait. "But hey, at the least, I'm not passing off as a creepy pedophile in the woods just to get at my comrades."

Faras roared at the comparison and violently unfolded his arms upwards. "JUNCTION SHOCK!" releasing a massive shockwave of blue lightning in an X beam.

The Amazon's cosmos burned, triggering the echoing of a crane, empowering a supersonic flip over the attack. Her leg swung hard on him as she descended, striking his red forearm guard only for his powerful armor to absorb the shock.

Cross Faras held the defensive, stepping back slowly as he parried a series of successive strikes from the Amazon. "I've been told about you. The Amazon skank who steals Saints' techniques! As far as I'm concerned, you have no right to criticize me for betraying a Saint's trust!"

"Right, me copying techniques is the same as stealing people's children! Tell yourself that!" she sneered, dodging a counter swipe from him laced with lightning, jumping to catch a solid tree branch above them, using it as a bar to swing her legs and stomp his face full force, sending him flying back. Landing, her hands waved, and her fist shot Aguilon's technique. "METEOR FIST!"

Cross gasped and rolled to flee the barrage of huge white meteors, letting it blast the forest to pieces. He dashed back in, striking the Amazon's guard with a flying knee that put her back on the defensive, making her gasp for air. A combo of skillful hand jabs from him struck her body, slowly pushing her back.

He smiled confidently, maneuvering his fists through her pathetic attempts to block him. "Do you see this, then? The difference between a grown technique and a copied one?!"

Yushira tried to mount a defense but fainted into parrying a blow only to expose herself to another. She felt like she was being struck by dagger thrusts. She tried to pay attention to any pattern in them, but the mounting pressure made it difficult.

Cross' foot struck forward, blasting at her stomach, crashing her through a series of trees!

He scoffed. "Amateur… Are you really a Silver Saint, Amazon? Or just got promoted to keep those Aretias witches happy?"

She shook, trying to get back on her feet. "I deserve my Silver Cloth more than you ever will yours, you c-corrupt prick!"

"How am I corrupt? Are we fighting Holy Wars right now, by any chance?" he argued, uncaring. "If anyone is corrupting Sanctuary, it's people like you."

She turned mask. "W-what?!"

"Your Pegasus friends' sins are greater, but he's Greek. I would be fine with him keeping that Bronze Cloth, weren't it for the bounty he got himself." Faras argued, looking down on her. "You and your brother, on the other hand…We could do without."

Disgusted, Yushira lifted her mask just enough to spit out blood. Pressing it back in, she stood up and clenched fists, burning cosmos.

Faras smiled. "Finally shutting up, uh? Good." He positioned his arms in an L, before watching her follow suit. Faras staggered. "W…What are you doing?!"

Yushira burned her cosmos along with his. "Y-you said something about the difference between grown moves and copied ones, right?!" Her eyes narrowed, concentrating so she could follow every fluctuation of his energy. "Let's put that to the test!"

The red-armored Silver Saint growled at the challenge and swelled his blue energy. "You don't even have the lightning element!... What do you think you'll do to me?! Copy me in real time?!"

The Amazon just stood there, her aura matching his own but with a non-elemental white tint. "Now you want me to talk? You think you're so goddamn better, then you should have nothing to fear, right?!"

"I'll make you pay for that arrogance!" Faras swore. The stars of the southern cross shone. He would teach her the difference between having your stars' blessing made in combat. Just as predicted, he reached the peak of his cosmos much faster than her, at a fraction of the energy cost, and he cast his technique with a hand thrust. "SOUTHERN CROSS THUNDERBOLT!"

Once again, the cross of the south was projected in the skies, and a massive fist of lightning came crashing down, instantly blasting an even greater crater of exploding rubble where the Amazon stood. The ground shook, ceding, and the forest echoed the thunderous blow. The foliage was instantly incinerated to ash, an attack of cosmos so clean that the terrain depressed down, cupping the energy into a contorted mass of lightning that popped into an electric pulse. Faras' hairs stood up, and his armor sizzled, while trees shined with their stardust-resin soaking up the residual power.

He lowered his arms and approached the smoking crater, searching for the corpse. "Hmph, you couldn't even copy it in time, could you? That's my advantage; I don't even have to think about how to execute my move, because it's mine. My rightful medal for earning this Cloth-"

"COMET FIST!"

A smashing force struck his flank, piercing his armor and shocking his whole body with pain, making him scream. Faras felt his world shake and go red. He looked over to see the Amazon standing there, unharmed, her fist lodged in his side.

He couldn't believe it! "Y-you….!" He then looked at the crater, seeing another 'Yushira' stuck in the pose she was casting vanish away in a yellow cosmos wisp. "A-agh… that was… a Phantom Arrow illusion?!"

"Nam's got a useful technique, doesn't he?! You didn't really think I'd want one of yours in my arsenal, you racist prick?!" she sneered. Yushira pulled her fist out, leaving behind a gaping wound. She saw his armor starting to crack. "Think that might have been a critical hit… I'd stop moving if I were you."

"F-FUCK YOU!" Faras did the opposite; after stumbling back and recovering from the shock, he laced his arm in lightning and swung at her. "J-JUNCTIO-"

With a martial shout, Yushira dodged his cross swing and spun her body to deliver a powerful whirlwind heel kick to the back of his head! Faras screamed and collapsed, feeling his world go black now.

Yushira panted and stood there, wiping the sweat behind her mask until she felt his cosmos die to a minimum. "G-Good boy!"

That had been too close for comfort; the Phantom Arrow afterimage trick required her to cast the move at the last microsecond, something hazardous to do against users of Light or Lightning, which struck much faster than most Mach Fivers like her could usually handle. However, Cross Faras telegraphed his moves so hard she got a good feeling of the cast timing, allowing her to pick the right moment to get the hell out of his blast zone. All she had to do was make him think she was really going to use Southern Cross Thunderbolt.

The adrenaline died down, and she collapsed back, breathing heavily. Sometimes her copying reputation was helpful in unexpected ways.

She felt a shake coming from a far-off impact, alerting her. "D-Damn, Pegasus must still be fighting." She tried to sense the cosmos, but it was difficult in that damn forest. She hoped that Diyu had found a wait out of the woods. "I should go help, but how? That Perseus guy will turn me into a bird toilet in, like, two seconds!"

Yushira then saw the unconscious Faras. An idea began forming in her head…the kind Saint Cynthia would tell her off for.

{======================|A3|======================}

Mining Grounds

{======================|A3|======================}

"Now you will see the full power of the Perseus Cloth's shield!" Acrisius announced, charging his cosmos to the max. "GORGON FLASH!"

The eyes blasted out their emerald flare, releasing a shockwave across the battlefield, blowing away obstacles.

Lance leaped and rolled far over to the side. Feeling Acrisius charge cosmos again, Lance gritted teeth, realizing he was a pinned blindfolded duck on the pond unless he closed in the distance.

Locking onto him, Acrisius aimed his shield. "I'll tear through that pathetic piece of wrapping in a second… FLASH!"

Charging cosmos unto his feet and using his 7th sense to tell the angle Acrisius was on, Lance braced himself and leaped diagonally, dodging the blast and putting himself a few feet closer to Acrisius.

The Perseus Saint backed away, noticing the Pegasus' strategy. "FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!"

Blare after blare of emerald shockwaves burning with the cosmos of the legendary gorgon assaulted the mining field, petrifying random rodents and birds while also knocking away rocks and work equipment.

Lance dodged them all, dashing and zigzagging to gradually narrow the distance between him and Acrisius.

The Silver Saint panicked and practically covered his face with the shield. "D-Damn it, STOP MOVING! GORGON FLA-"

With a burst of cosmos, Lance kicked the floor with cosmos, spraying huge chunks of rock and clay ground at Acrisius, knocking the Silver Saint back. With a martial war cry, he swung his leg, kicking Acrisius's shield arm off to the side and getting himself at point-blank range.

"LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" His swinging fist became laced with lightning and landed a punch right across the mercenary's face, using the screaming bastard to sponge up the dangerous Cosmos and blasting him down on the ground, quaking the forest.

Stunned by sparks, Acrisius felt half buried in dirt and coughed, seeing the world double. His eyes looked up, and he gasped, seeing the Pegasus jump high in the air and descend with a finisher knee drop. Freeing himself, the Silver Saint rolled off to the side to let the blindfolded Pegasus miss him, smashing the floor. He tried to raise his shield again to petrify the basta-

Lance, however, followed up right away, swinging his heel up to kick his jaw, making Acrisius stagger and scream. The Pegasus tried to keep the pressure on, assaulting the Silver Saint with punches and kicks. Still, he felt his hands and feet land on shock-absorbing metal parts and even the blasted shield. "D-Damn it, I'm losing momentum! If I let up…!"

As predicted, Acrisius regained enough breathing room to bash Lance off with the shield, gaining distance from the dangerous Bronze Saint. He burned his green cosmos to launch his secondary move. "Gorgon's HEAD!"

Lance gasped, feeling arresting forces burst from the ground and wrap around his body. His blindfold made the world dark to him, but his 7th sense 'saw' it as the serpentine hairs of Medusa coiling his body. He fought to move, but his arms and legs struggled against what felt like thick steel cables. He then burned fire cosmos, but the flaming aura he formed merely phased through these wrappings.

Acrisius cleaned the blood on his mouth and laughed. "It's no use, Bronze Saint! I got you now!" He then took his turn and jumped into the air. "Take THIS!"

Lance felt a greaved foot bash him across the face and screamed, knocked down. Still wrapped by the psychic bindings, several more kicks meteored down on his body.

Furious, Acrisius lifted Lance by his collar and swung his fist at him! The paralyzed Bronze Saint used his free neck muscles to smash his forehead on the Silver Saint's nose, caving it in. Acrisius howled and stumbled off, but nothing seemed to ease the grip his Gorgon Head technique had on Lance.

"Damn it! This technique must be 6th-sense operated." Lance assumed. It would explain why his cosmos can't do anything. "This means breaking his focus isn't enough; I need to shock his senses or forcefully free myself, but how?!"

Acrisius cursed out, seeing the blood dripping from his face into his hand and feeling the searing pain in his nose bone. He sneered at the Bronze Saint. "D-Damn you… no wonder the bounty is so high! I should have turned you into rock first instead of Crateris!"

"Y-you won't see a penny of it! You'll rot in jail next to the False Specters for the rest of your life for this, Perseus!" the blindfolded Lance swore. He tried to think of a way out. There was one move in his arsenal that could force a way out of anything. "Perhaps… if I charge a Rozan Koryuha… S-Shit, I'll either get turned into stone, into a lizard monster, or into a goddamn space corpse! But I have no choice! Not unless…"

"I'll just charge extra for the hassle you caused me!" Acrisius swore, aiming his shield.

Lance relaxed and breathed out, recalling Dohkos' advice.

It's not just your locked muscle power, but also your heartbeat, your breath, that flinch you make when I throw a punch at you in practice

It's the power of life itself.

And without that fear for your life, then adrenaline, the key to Chi, is harder to grasp.

Lance felt his heart jump. He tried to burn no cosmos and instead focus on that feeling of fear for his life. This was it! "Come on… fucking WORK!"

Acrisius hesitated, noticing something odd. Even though the Pegasus was just standing there, not even burning cosmos, there was something strange in the air around him. The wind was rustling bizarrely, reacting to a mysterious vortex. He could see it in the minefield dust circling around their feet. He heard it in the far-off forest branches suddenly creaking towards their battlefield. He could even smell it in the air, which grew purer as if the mineral impurities were clearing under a washing force. It was a sensation Acrisius remembered from the time he unlocked his 7th sense, but rather than his cosmos exerting outwards towards nature, Pegasus seemed to be attracting wildlife to him.

Most importantly, Acrisius felt a strange terror in the unseen stars of the Cosmos, like asides from the Pegasus Cloth's spirit, a monstrous, colossal dragon surrounded the two of them with its coiling body, gazing down on the battle from above with a pair of terrifying, yellow, slitted eyes and a long jaw of razor-sharp teeth.

He got a grip on himself. "E-Enough! Time to end this!" Practically cowering behind his hexagonal shield, he made his cosmos flow through it. "GORGON FLASH!"

The battlefield was flooded with greenlight that would tear through any pathetic blindfold. The battlefield rocked with the firing force, knocking the trucks and drills away and making the forest trees rustle like a powerful storm battered the area. Slowly the light dissipated, leaving behind a forming silhouette. A scream was heard from Acrisius' victim, whose body stiffened into rock.

Acrisius laughed triumphantly. "AHA, I GOT YOU!" But then he gasped in horror. "W-What?!"

Standing between them was the sight of a terrified, clawing Cross Faras, who clearly looked like he just saw a train's headlight race straight at him, turned to granite.

Perseus approached him, panicked "F-Faras?! But…!"

Lance gasped, his concentration on Chi broken. "But that means…!"

Acrisius turned, feeling a cosmos explode next to him, but all he saw was a red-clad foot swing at his face!

"STEEL MACE KICK!" Yushira shouted, striking the Perseus Saint with her improvised variant of Kastiel's chained mace technique, smashing him against a discarded truck. "Take that!"

"A-Agh, damn it! Could you have picked something better than that bastard's move set?" Lance bitched.

Yushira gasped. "Hey, you're welcome, beggar! I could have just gotten out with the kids, ya know?"

Lance gasped. "WATCH OUT!"

Yushira turned but was struck with a devastating knee kick to her side, tossing her rolling to the floor. The amazon screamed, feeling the burn of a Gold-Ranker's cosmos on her torso.

Acrisius sneered, angrier than ever. "You stupid cunt! You tossed my partner at my Flash's path?! Now I can't free him without canceling everyone else!" He stomped on Yushira's wound, causing her to scream. "I'll just have to kill you the old fashioned way, then Pegasus is next!"

The amazon struggled against his boot. "D-Damn it, what do you even want with him?! Is this about that guy at the village, Demetrius, or whatever?!" The Perseus Silver Saint laughed out loud. She widened her eyes. "W-What's so funny, you prick?!"

"Demetrius? That coward?! Are you an idiot, Amazon?" Perseus Acrisius asked. "Demetrius couldn't afford us. He's lucky we didn't burn down his manor after this. His incompetence put the reputation of proper Rings into question. Athena would be ashamed of him. But enough of him; time to die!"

Yushira rolled off his foot and struck the back of his leg with her kick, tripping him just enough to give her space to get back on her feet. She charged her cosmos and lunged in at supersonic speed. Still, the light speeder easily parried it with his guarding arm before smashing his fist into her mask, cracking its side, then blasting her off with a kick.

He spat blood aside, seeing her roll to her feet but shake in pain. Acrisius laughed. "Ah, ah, is that Amazon pride keeping you up, Crane? I'd be careful if I were you; you might get your face cracked even more."

Yushira held the damaged side of her mask and panted. "D-Damn it, I can't even touch him!"

"I should twist your neck for what you've done to Faras, but frankly, I don't need some group of resentful Aretias ball-huntresses after me for killing an Amazon, so I'll give you a chance to walk out of this, Crane." Acrisius lied, knowing the ninja was watching. "All I want here is Pegasus' armor. Plus his head!"

"So that's what this is about! Some fuckface with too much power in Sanctuary wants my Cloth!" The Pegasus Saint practically roared. "How much did you get paid to turn your Cloths into assassination weapons, huh?!"

Acrisius scoffed. "Don't act so judgmental, Pegasus. We know what you've done at the Isle of Gardens. Assassination is no line you haven't crossed yourself..."

The two innocent Saints staggered for different reasons. Elisa's charred corpse came to Lance's memory like a horrible memory. He had to stare at it closely as he protected Mephisto and Aphrodite from a collapsing Temple floor (*) and it had rarely left his thoughts alone since.

(*) "Ghouls n' Roses" Storyline

Yushira turned to her new friend. "Lance… Assassination? W-What did you do?"

The Pegasus Saint was irked, distraught. Her mask made him unable to tell how frightened she was of him now. He didn't trust Acrisius, but it might give him some precious seconds to figure a way out of his bind. "Yushira, go! Take his offer."

"You two look like you're trading thoughts." Acrisius seemed to find it entertaining. "As you can see, Crane, you and your brother really lucked out, picking this cursed dog as a partner. You don't have to join him, though. Your brother is known to dislike the rest of us, but if you look away from our task, I promise to let you go and release him."

She stared mysteriously, glancing between him and the enemy.

Yushira looked around. "Uh, a-aren't you all the gentlemen?!" Her fist clenched, and turned to the kids. "Stupid Suisho! This is all his fault! He never puts his damn armor when he should!"

"Is that a yes?" Acrisius asked.

"H-HELL NO! Do you think I'm stupid?! You just said you'd need to release all of us if you wanted one person out!" the amazon reminded him, making him irk angrily. "So you can take your offer and pack it up your Naga hole, you medusa-haired as-"

Closing in at lightspeed, Acrisius' fist blasted on her stomach, making the Amazon gasp out and nearly lose her senses.

"YUSHIRA!" Lance roared. His blood began boiling, and his fire aura burned. "D-Damn you!"

"Go ahead, Pegasus, shout! I'm sure it will save her!" Acrisius mocked, preparing to charge a cosmos blast that would put a hole through her stomach. He then felt his arm gripped tightly. "Wha-"

Yushira's fingers tensed, burned with a white aura, and shoved them into his side. "T-THUNDER CLAW!"

Ophiuchus Iaso's technique flowed with a blunt non-elemental cosmos, striking the Perseus Saint with flawed but still painful energy. Acrisius screamed and felt his mind go blank, releasing his psychic grip on Lance's body without him realizing it.

He stumbled back, dizzy, and bashed Yushira off with a backhanded blow. "B-BITCH! Y-you and your stolen techni-"

"LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" the freed Lance shouted, tossing his blindfold and aiming straight at the Silver Saint's shield.

Acrisius screamed and raised his shield, but the thunder punch smashed straight through the emerald-gemmed surface, shattering it to pieces and piercing through his chest plate. Shocked to his core by the golden bolt, Acrisius howled as the whole mining field flashed in and out with the shadows of a pained man.

The sparking and flashing gradually came to a close, and his body smoked, unconscious. Acrisius dropped unto Lance, who tossed him aside.

The Pegasus Saint panted and wiped his brow. "F-fucking finally, he's down. Yushira, a-are you alright? Can I turn around" He asked, without doing so. The backhand blow she got to her face could have easily knocked out her mask.

The Crane put on her spare, which she kept in her Cloth jacket. "Y-yeah. It's all good. No playing 'marry, fuck, kill' tonight for us…"

Breathing in relief, Lance released his red eyes and confirmed, indeed, that he seemed injured but okay. He helped her up by hand and saw Cross Faras' granite body slowly soothing into flesh before collapsing. "Nice job, there, Yushira…"

The Crane Saint scoffed. "Boy, what are you talking about? He kicked my ass pretty good."

Lance shook his head and smiled. "No, I was in serious trouble before you stepped in. If you had taken longer to beat Faras, or didn't think of bringing him in to take that blast, I'd be gone. I see now what Nam meant; you do have a tendency to surprise."

She laughed happily. This did sound like Nam. She bumped his arm. "…-A-awh, you two." Speaking of the red-armoured Cross Saint, Yushira turned and saw Faras' granite body gradually morphing back into flesh and blood. "L-look! The Cross Saint!"

"The bodies are de-petrifying…. I must have killed the Perseus Cloth." Lance realized. He then remembered someone important. "Ah, Sui' must be waking up right now, too."

{======================|A3|======================}

Eastern Forest

{======================|A3|======================}

Crateris Suisho gasped, feeling air enter his lungs and light from between the tree branches hit his eyes. Raising from the foliage, he rubbed his head. The last thing he remembered was a big green flash…

…from Acrisius' shield.

His eyes widened, and he jolted up, alarmed. His first thought was the sheer anger he felt that some Silver Saint he underestimated got the drop on him, but then… "Yushira, what happened to her?!" His teeth gritted, and his cosmos burned, preparing to give chase. "Acrisius…You're DEAD!"

"U-ugh… what happened?" A voice nearby moaned.

Suisho turned and saw several men with Muvian robes, black masks, and littered halberds emerging around him, also waking up from petrification. "It's… the missing Immortal Guard!"

They regained their senses and saw him. They noticed his Cloth box. "Saint… Crateris? What is going on? Why are you here? Did Sanctuary send you to help?"

Another rubbed his eyes inside his mask. "L-Last thing I remember… We were after the children and we found a Silver Saint just walking around here..."

The disguised Judge tried to relax. "Acrisius must be behind this whole affair. He probably dumped all his victims here, along with me. What is going on?!… Can't go after that traitor just yet. I need to make sure of what's going on." He raised his hands at them. "I'm here to help. Come. I have friends with me nearby. If my gut is right, they already wrapped everything up."

The Muvian guards got their bearings and nodded. Judging by their slumped gestures, they were probably feeling distraught that they failed their duties so spectacularly. "Very well…"

Suisho tried to find the storage cabin where Acrisius ambushed him. "I remembered there being at least one Black Saint near here. Watch out." However, as Suisho rediscovered the cabin, he widened his eyes. "What?!"

The Immortal guard followed him, ready for combat, but also stopped, finding a bleeding Black Saint on the ground. "Did you do this, Saint Crateris?"

He shook his head, just as alarmed. "No, I just…." Suisho squinted. "Keep your guard up; something is afoot! This isn't over yet!"

{======================|A3|======================}

Lance and Yushira tossed Acrisius and Faras together against a mining truck, standing over them studiously.

"What do we do with these two?" she asked, folding arms. "Is it paddling time?"

"We take them to the MMC, of course. Saint Cross shouldn't be here, so even if the Black Saints we defeated don't talk, he'll make it easy to prove he and Acrisius were behind it all." Lance argued. He didn't look forward to the investigative mess this would cause.

Yushira nodded and headed for the crates. "Makes sense. I'll get us some rope."

Lance turned. "I'll help." He saw the wrecked messes of drills, trucks, and carts around them. "This place looks like it could have been cleared up, anyway."

She laughed, seeing a junkyard of vehicle around her. "Some sacred forest this is, that the locals just littered with machines, right?"

His eyes caught the glint of a metal object flying out of the trees, and he tackled Yushira down. "WATCH OUT!"

The air sizzled as a shower of metal daggers flew over their heads, slicing restrains on damaged mining equipment that then collapsed over their heads. The chaos of falling metal followed, separating the Saints from the defeated Silver Saints.

"What the shit, Pegasus!" she shouted. The two then saw a pair of black orbs tossed near them. "Oh, fuck us!"

Lance's hand rose. "BARRIER!"

Rather than burst like grenades, the objects popped into clouds of black smoke that coated the ringed shield of cosmos Lance created. They coughed and rose, surrounded by smoke screening.

Yushira's keen senses detected a shadow leap out from the forest into Acrisius and Faras. "LOOK, THERE!"

"I'll GET HIM!" Lance assured, light speeding after the intruder, but the man, just as apt with the cosmos, grabbed the two Silver Saints over his shoulders and jumped out back to the forest. The Pegasus' senses locked unto him, and he gave chase, all but blazing like a beam through the woods after him. "No, you don't, you bastard!"

The fleeing shadow, however, was much more agile, leaping from tree branch to tree branch and gaining distance despite the weight of two bodies on it. Lance realized he would lose track sooner or later. Timing the shadow's next jump, Lance aimed his finger and shot a beam of cosmos, snapping its next landing spot off! The Pegasus smiled, seeing the intruder forced to land much further down with a stumble, throwing himself off and giving Lance a chance to catch up.

The man tossed something sharp at him, but Lance fortified himself with cosmos and parried the blades, which rattled off harmlessly to the ground. He widened his eyes, realizing they were kunai, a type of eastern assassination dagger, and had tags with Japanese letters strapped to them. He looked up to confront the man.

Standing before Lance and looking rather annoyed was a medium-height male of tanned skin and Asian gray eyes with a body dressed in a heavily altered version of the Wolf Cloth. Rather than a dark-blue set of crowned parts, the Cloth had the fully-shaped helmet of a wolf head, with gray metal and dark magenta stripes. Emerald-encrusted greaves reaching up to the knees with a full segmented chest protection complete with pointy shoulder pads curving up. What looked like a gas mask breather, covered his face.

"W… Who the hell are you?!" Lance demanded.

The man squinted, clearly upset he was caught up. "You've actually made me miss a step… They call me Zenzou, of the Wolf Cloth."

Lance realized his mask-muffled accent was Japanese. "Another merc with a Cloth?!"

"I am not a 'merc.' I am a shinobi." Wolf Zenzou assured, sounding somewhat offended. "And I'm here to clean things up, not dirty them. I have no interest in you."

"But I have plenty of it in those two you're carrying out!" Lance argued, burning his aura. "Hand them back nicely, and I won't punch your ninja face!"

"Ah, you think that's up to you?" Zenzou scoffed. He tried to keep the two Silver Saints' weights balanced so he could free his hands and clasp them into a seal "KATON NO JUTSU!"

The paper-tagged kunai daggers littering the ground at Lance's feet began burning up like lit fuses! A series of mine-like charges erupted from them all around Lance, throwing him up and back to the ground and dizzying him. The Saint coughed and tried to get back up, but Zenzou was already fleeing. "D-DAMN IT!"

"We will meet again, if the Gods will it, Pegasus." Wolf Zenzou sent out a ping. "I would pray against it, for it would mean your passing from this world…."

The Pegasus couldn't help but stare off into the forest, covered in dirt, bewildered by the insane day he was having.

{======================|A3|======================}

Later,

Village of Malachite

{======================|A3|======================}

After reuniting with Suisho and the Immortal Guard, the Saints of Athena made their way out of the forest and found themselves welcomed back by a big crowd of peering villagers. The young boy Diyu had apparently made his way out with the other children and told them what happened, so the people of Malachite had gathered at the forest entrance to congratulate the Saints and show them their gratitude.

Pegasus Lance had rarely experienced such a thing; there were frightened fathers shaking their hands, distraught mothers thanking them from the bottom of their hearts and kids running behind wanting the Saints to put on their armors again or to sign their toys.

"Feels good to win, doesn't it?" Yushira asked, laughing.

Lance and Suisho shared a disgruntled look.

She folded her arms, tapping a irritated foot. "Boy, are you two ever happy?!"

"This isn't over yet, Yushira. You saw what happened. We have Silver Saints doing mercenary work. Heads are going to roll." Suisho explained. He narrowed eyes. "First an ambush on Saint Pegasus, then a ninja? The situation in Sanctuary is far more complex than I first imagined. This could have ramifications for our conflict with it. I must let Lady Pandora know as soon as possible."

Even Lord Demetrius had shown up, though he looked rather embittered. "…Congratulations, Saint Suisho. Your team did a wonderful job."

Suisho nodded. "Thank you, Lord Demetrius. I apologize for… the poor first impressions. I was wondering if it was possible for you to rethink your complaint letter?"

The blonde aristocrat grumbled, looking like he just wanted to leave. "I will think about it."

The Crateris Silver Saint sighed and nodded respectfully. After Demetrius left, he turned to his two underlings. "See, Pegasus? This is the difference that a bit of respect for the rules makes. Now imagine how happy he would be if you hadn't pissed him off."

Lance scratched head. "I get it, Suisho. I already said I was sor-"

Yushira, however, didn't take it in stride. "You blow-hard! Pegasus told him exactly what he deserved! Thanks to him, next time something dangerous happens to these people and Lord Demetrius feels like skipping town, he'll know the Saints of Athena are watching!"

The blue-haired Crateris rose chin, impressed at how quickly she was coming to his defence. "Hm, I see you two made friends more easily than I thought."

Yushira playfully pulled Lance in around the neck like they had known eachother for years. "Friends? Me and Pegasus are best buds." She gestured her finger down her mask's eye. "Jealous?"

Freeing himself from her grip, Lance answered Suisho "I see why she annoys you so much, Sui'."

The frustrated Crateris Saint found himself cracking a laugh at this. "Alright, then… Just don't ruin this friendship like you did all the others, Yushira."

Lance blinked at this and felt the energy in Yushira's attempts to wrestle him closer drop.

The Crateris gave them a tense look at this and walked off. "I know you're tired, Pegasus, but I want you to stick around a bit longer. The Elder will want to personally thank us for what we've done. We shouldn't offend them by denying it."

"Okay…You got it." Lance accepted. After Suisho went away, he faced Yushira, who looked like someone dropped a water bucket on her enthusiasm. "What did your brother mean by that?"

She growled like an angry tiger. "That jerk! What's Sui's problem?! Why does he have to go off and say something like that?! UUGH!"

"Yushira, please focus." Lance asked, squinting.

She turned to him like she could yell. Even through her mask, she looked furious. Lance could see it in her tense shoulders and clenching fingers.

Yet, she stopped herself from venting at her newest friend. Her past was private. Even her outgoing self wouldn't blurt it out to someone she's known for half a day.

"It's nothing…but sometimes I don't understand my own brother." she confessed. "It's like he hates me or something…"

While Lance wanted to console her about it, it did remind him of something important. "Hey, Yushira, speaking of that…" he scratched his neck nervously. "About what Acrisius said of me-"

"You mean that assassination bullshit Acrisius said you did?" Yushira waved hand dismissively. "Forget it, Pegasus, I didn't hear a thing."

The Pegasus Saint's throat tightened. "Are you sure? I'll be honest, I thought you might…"

The Amazon laughed. "Hey, if those two didn't like you, you can't be all that bad, Pegasus. Besides, we saved each other a couple of times and you even covered my butt to Sui, so I don't really care what the Pope made you do; you're cool with me."

The red-eyed Saint smiled, relieved his past wasn't ruining his chance at a friendship again. "Thanks, Yush'."

She shook head. "No big'." Yushira's gestured a brow raise on her mask with her finger "Hey, maybe let me copy a technique of yours sometime? Or one of those Kung Fu kicks? That would be a nice show of friendship?"

He folded arms. "Forget it."

{======================|A3|======================}

Turning a corner away from the crowd of thankful Muvians, Garuda Aiacos found a bench by a house built into a boulder and sat. His dark thoughts began coalescing. Anger, frustration and humiliation.

First, he failed to detect Perseus Acrisius' true intentions.

Then he allowed the Silver Saint to get a drop on him; a Judge of the Underworld.

And then… his sister and Saint Pegasus saved his life.

He had been petrified, stuck inside a prison of Gorgon rock. He wouldn't just fall back into the Underworld like usual; if Acrisius so wished he could keep Aiacos in some garden for the rest of the Holy War until getting himself killed off, if he wouldn't just hide with whoever employed him to kill Pegasus. Aiacos' contribution to Lord Hades' war effort could have ended there, in that forest, all because he underestimated a single Saint pulling an obvious act of dissimulation.

This was unacceptable. Aiacos wasn't just some lowly Terrestrial; he was the Celestial Valiant Star. Aiacos was destined to end the sins of the Earth and wash away the planet of human filth! If not for himself or Lord Hades, then for the dead world he and Violate envisioned!

Reminded of his conversation with Lord Hypnos, his joined fingers clenched tensely, scraping cold dark cosmos, causing drips of hateful sludge to wet the short mountain grass, melting it into black mud. He had to calm down and rectify this! He had to do better or he'd disappoint lord Hades and never see Violate out of her crystal again! First things, first, he should investigate Pegasus' past; between the Paladin he battled and these assassins, Aiacos was certain that Lance was hiding a secret past. The possibility he was a Gold Saint was now not off the realm of reality to him. This could be the key to expediating his mission.

The darkness in Crateris Suisho's face evaporated and he rose back up, ready to face the Muvian crowds with a smile.

{======================|A3|======================}

To the detriment of Lance's climbing sleep deprivation, the people of Malachite had insisted on presenting them with dinner at the Elder's house. It wasn't all bad, though, as they got to try out some rather unique Muvian dishes

After dining, Diyu rushed up to Yushira. "Saint Crane, can you come play with us before you go?"

Feeling chipper than before, she nodded. "Ah, alright, what he heck. You coming, Pegasus?"

Seeing the aged Muvian Elder gestured a call, the Saint shrugged. "In a minute." He then joined Kang in his living room, where a fireplace had been lit. "You wanted to speak, Elder?"

Elder Kang turned to him, smiling. "I hope you don't mind. I wanted to extend final congratulations and ask if you all enjoyed the food."

Lance nodded. He had no idea Muvians could be just as good at cooking as at alchemy. He could still taste the delicious Thenthuk noodles in his mouth. "We did. Sui and Yush' told me I'd be surprised, but…"

"We owe our culinary art to the generous humans of Tibet, but we thank you. It's the least we could do." The old man assured. "Everyone in Malachite wanted to come to bow their heads at you. I had to beg them not to."

Lance indeed recalled Suisho's multiple warnings about the currently poor relations between the Muvians and Sanctuary. "I'm guessing that's a good thing?"

The red-coated elder nodded and spoke rather whimsically. "It's a very fortunate turn of spirits since the Specters' attack in December."

Lance frowned. "You sound like you've gone through this dance with Sanctuary before, though?"

Elder Kang shook head. "Probably a few too many times, yes... but we will endure."

The Pegasus Saint frowned sadly. Having met the Malachite Muvians and Mu himself by now, Lance realized that, for all their isolation, strength and knowledge, it seemed like it didn't take much for the people of Mu's race to be put under the frier. If the assassin hit on Lance and Papillon Ainsel's attack on Jamir were anything to judge by, sometimes it happened not even of their own fault. It really showed to Lance how to many powerful people in the world, Muvians were seen as expendable chess pieces to strike Sanctuary with, or sources of labor.

It just doubled his outrage at what happened. "Me and Suisho will investigate what happened back in Sanctuary, Elder. You have my word."

The old man nodded, looking relieved. "We appreciate it. This day has shown your word is as solid as your Cloth, Saint Pegasus."

He wasn't about to disrespect their sense of dignity by patronizing them, but he still wanted to ask if it was all bad. "You're an Elder, correct? Is there anything you can do on your end? I'd be happy to help?"

The red-coated old man laughed softly and touched the small malachite crystal around his neck to show it off. "Yes, I am an Elder, but a lowly one, barely just of this village. I don't have a voice in this world, Saint Lance. You saw it yourself when you met Lord Demetrius."

Lance grumbled, ashamed. After Acrisius turned out to be the bigger problem of the situation, Lance could only look back on meeting Demetrius with more and more embarrassment in himself. "I did. I'm sorry if I caused you problems with him."

The grey-haired Muvian only gave the teenage Saint a wily smile, like he had wished to do have done the same to Demetrius for years.

Not knowing much about this strange species Mu belonged to, Lance found himself with a chance to learn more. "Are you… really okay with that, though? With Sanctuary taking care of you all? You were people of this vast, prosperous continent once, were you not?"

The Elder laughed gently at this. "We do not have much of a choice, do we? Not with less than five thousand of us left on the planet."

"Only five thousand?!" Lance was stunned at this, remembering the countless villages he had seen on the map.

With this number in mind, he imagined most of them probably had ten, twenty people at best, with Shamballa holding the lion share. The totality of Muvian existence left in the world was therefore comparable to a small European town cluster. Lance was also pretty sure Camus had once mentioned in one of his nerdy musings to the Gold Saint gang that humanity had once been driven close to genetic extinction by dropping down to ten thousand, some untold number of millennia ago. Five thousand, therefore, sounded like a total extinction sentence.

Elder Kang recognized the look on his face. He had seen it even among his own. "Saint Pegasus, the time of Muvians is nearing an end. During Pope Sage's days, we could still count ourselves above five digits. Now we might drop to three by the next century. Perhaps we can live to reach the one after that, but eventually we will vanish from the Earth."

Pegasus Lance argued against this, remembering his secret crusade to end the conflict with Hades. "Perhaps with the end of Holy Wars, you can…!"

"It's a deeper problem than that, Saint Lance. Our numbers drop more every generation, even without war and Black Saint attacks like the one you stopped. Our young just… aren't multiplying anymore." Kang looked out the window to the east, where far away, the Pacific laid. "To have children is to have love and hope. Perhaps a bit of our soul sunk with that continent, long ago… or perhaps we've just lost our curiosity for our future. I think deep down our people feel the real reason in their bones; Mother Nature has simply grown tired of us."

The Saint's energy dropped, thinking of young Mu. He couldn't even imagine facing extinction without being because of some evil force threatening humanity, like Hades, while Muvians seemed to be facing a much more complicated social problem, one beyond the power of any Charge Fist to fix.

His frown darkened. "That's… awful. I'm sorry."

The Elder shook head. "It's just our fate, Pegasus. It was decided long before you or I were born. Part of the modern Muvian wisdom, I suppose, is that we are happy with our destiny."

Lance had to confess he envied such a contented outlook. Yet, he felt sorry for them. So many Muvians he had met, such as Merope, Mu and Yuzuriha, seemed quirky, but ultimately kind, sensitive and intelligent people. Extinction was a frightening thing, after all, and these were sentient, adult people, arguably more so than humans given their talent with the 6th sense.

This made his thoughts reroute. "Elder Kang… what do you know about the 0th sense? Do your people have history with it?"

The pointy-bearded man squinted suddenly. He looked to be reevaluating Lance, making the teenager sweat.

He turned away at the fireplace. "Yes, we do…It's not a very reliable sense compared to the seventh, if you ask me. It shouldn't be pursued recklessly."

The sudden tension was palpable. "Regardless, I am looking to explore that sense, for a very important reason. Even today in my battle I tried to unlock it, but despite being in great danger…it just didn't happen. If you could give me some advice, I'd appreciate it."

The Elder seemed hesitant, though, his purple eyes shifting between the Saint and the fire.

"There are only three reasons one would want to purposely unlock the 0th sense, Saint Lance." Elder Kang answered. "To become the world's strongest man and die at age forty, to negotiate power with the Rozan Gods… or to attack the Underworld. None of these are motives I would wish on someone who rescued this village's children. Which ones are yours?"

Lance rose chin, determined. "All three."

Kang gave him a quirked eyebrow look of a mix of being impressed and thinking he was insane, but the seriousness in Lance's red eyes told the Muvian the boy was serious about this.

The Elder took an iron poker and stabbed the fireplace, making the fire dance more harshly. "You asked if we mind Sanctuary's protection, correct? There are some of us who fear and hate humans, did you know that?"

The Pegasus Saint had to confess surprise. "No, I did not. I don't mean to offend, but…What does this have to do with the 0th sense?"

"Those who hate humans say their Gods ruined us and marrying humans thinned our blood. Others take comfort in that you tend to name our people as your Popes, artisans and Gold Saints. Personally, I think a lot of us envy you."

Lance had to scoff at this. "Envy?" To Lance, the idea that people like Mu had any reason to be jealous of people like Acrisius was idiotic. "What's there to be envious about? Our brutality? Our kidnapping of children?"

Kang thought back to his learned history. The tragic history that humans were not aware of was that Muvians always had a rather problematic outlook on Homo Sapiens. Those Muvians that didn't look down on them, the same way humans did on their Neanderthal cousins, had their prejudices worsened by either the wars with Mariners or, ironically, the Muvian's own isolated prosperity. This had first led to deliberate exclusion of humans, even during times of great catastrophe like the Tonga Eruption, then to much worse things.

Much worse indeed. In fact, Kang saw the legacy of such 'things' in Saint Pegasus' eyes, tinted red by the Queen's curse. He wondered how many walked on the planet today carrying the blood of Mu's slaves. He also wondered how many the Queen had tried to bring back to her fold over the years in her attempts to recreate Mara, perhaps Saint Lance himself even. Sometimes the Elder thought that the best thing that happened to the planet was the wrath of Poseidon being turned on his arrogant people.

The Elder turned away reflectively, his smile turning somber. "Well…. You're Muvanoid-shaped, got opposable thumbs, are good with science and the arts, make delicious food…And you're excellent with the 7th sense. More so than we are. And yet, you haven't ruined yourselves like we have. Yet."

Lance fidgeted self-consciously, feeling he was being compared to a chimp in a cage.

"You do have one important difference, though, don't you?" Kang seemed to remember, turning. "You have shorter lives. Especially your cosmos-users. It may sound like a disadvantage, yes… but it also means you value them more. Hence, you might not make the same mistakes we have. You might even help us figure out which mistakes ours were. Frankly, the potential is incredible…"

Yet, Lance couldn't help but cross-reference what Kang was saying to what Master Dohko had. "Are you going to say the key to the 0th sense is valuing my life? I already understand that part."

Kang chuckled. "If you did, you'd already have unlocked Ki, don't you think?"

Lance grumbled, embarrassed. "I can tell I'm missing something, I just… don't know what."

"You're still young, Saint Lance. Your perspective on what a realized life is, is still limited." Kang argued. "But I will tell you what Muvian studies have always said about it; the key to the 0th sense is the same as to the 7th sense and all the others; love."

Lance grumbled even more. "Oh, for crying out loud!"

Kang laughed outloud at the look on his face. "Skeptical, are we?"

The Saint covered his face, remembering Dohko saying that even sex was a part of what he called 'the breath of life'. "I just feel like my teacher is stringing me along, is all. He's one of those that wants their students to become real men."

The old Muvian nodded in understanding. He could take a gander at who it might be. "You cannot escape this fact, though; love is integral to life. However, it comes in many forms, so I'm sure you'll find one of them comfortable. Is there anyone you have strong feelings for? Or developing them with?"

Lance paused, feeling a certain Saintia's face pop into his mind. A face he had a date with. It made his breath cut short. A terrifying fear that this could all be false cooled down his chest, though.

"I… I don't know yet."

The look the Saint got on his face, though, was enough for the wise Muvian. "I see. When you do know it, though, if it's a real feeling anyway, try to integrate it into your journey of tapping into your lifeforce. The next time you're in danger, think of their face. It might be the key for you to tap into your locked strength, Saint Pegasus."

While the topic embarrassed him, Lance had to admit he saw some sense in it. He did usually feel capable of greater feats when worried about others, other than just himself, and Dohko kept mentioning the example of the 'parent rescuing a trapped child' as a reference point to what Lance was supposed to focus on. Perhaps, then, if he could worry about someone just enough, he could lift a huge boulder without cosmos after all.

"What do you think my chances are, Elder?"

"Of unlocking this sense, Saint Lance? Or getting yourself killed against Hades?"

The Saint sweated. "Both."

The Elder sighed. "Well… humans have been fighting the gods of death for what some of my species have called a foolish number of centuries. That means something, in my opinion. A God drowned in his personal sorrow cannot hope to prevail over a species convinced of its own bright future. Should you abandon hope like we have, though, and cease to search the sunlight at the end of your path? Then yes. He will win, Pegasus. In more than one way."

Lance shook head, a bit overwhelmed. "Sometimes it boggles my mind how long Sanctuary says this has been going on…"

"Perhaps that is the point? Athena believes humans can do much with themselves, if they should only be given the chance Hades wishes to strip them of."

"You're looking from the outside in, are you not?" Lance questioned. "Everyone around me is acting like we are at some sort of crossroad with Hades, but like you said, this bullshit has been going on since the damn Pyramids. Do you think it's really the end of an era? Just cause Hades has had enough?"

"…It's not the impatience of Olympians, Saint Lance." Kang worded. "It's the world. It seems to be catching up with Sanctuary. My species has seen it happening before… to us. More and more Lord Arles speaks with the outside world, perhaps not because he wishes to… but because it's knocking at his door. History's long list of Sanctuary's sins may be about to crash down on it. Mu faced a similar situation very close to the end of its days; when our citadel continent discovered the Pacific Ocean was no longer it's barrier, but its bridge to our enemies."

Lance was almost afraid to ask what this meant.

The Elder fixed his gaze on Lance's red eyes. "Sanctuary dwellers tend to see Muvians as this… interesting tribe from which they can borrow alchemic wisdom from, but... there was a time where you would have seen us very differently… With masks on our faces. Made of flame, blood and a crooked smile of long teeth."

Memories of the Queen's Throat volcano blazing to the skies flashed in Lance's mind. A pained looked formed in him and the room felt darker. "I see…I think I know what you're speaking of."

"However, it does mean that one day, as you see, we couldn't live lives full of happiness, love and hope, right?" Kang chuckled, seeing he finally struck a chord with the teenager. "It's a good thing human memory doesn't stretch so far back as that of these hateful Gods, is it not? We would probably not enjoy so much kindness from you otherwise."

Lance rose and bowed head. "Thank you for this talk, Elder."

"Go with the Buddha, Saint Lance. And don't let the demons of Death Queen Island haunt you. No servant of the Queen would have done what you and your friends did today." Kang wished, showing him out.

Lance smiled, feeling a weight off his chest and strangely wiser. It had been a rough day, but after so many things going wrong lately, it felt so good to have this talk and go home, successfully completing the mission. Best of all, he was looking forward to seeing Olivia in Greece.

Maybe things would work out. Maybe he had a bright future ahead of him. Why the hell shouldn't he?

{======================|A3|======================}

Chapter End

{======================|A3|======================}

Next Chapter: Chapter 81 – 3rd Arc - Episode 9 - The Heart Beats Awake

Release Date: February 25th

Description: Returning to Sanctuary, Lance is accompanied by Yushira to Aguilon's house so as to pick up Olivia for their date, but unfortunately a certain giant has something to say of this budding romance.

Meanwhile, Andromeda Shinta receives a letter from the Zodiac that may reshape his life in Sanctuary forever, and Corvus Cerah awakes from the darkness once again.

Author Notes:

First things first, the word transplanting; originally this chapter was going to include both the mission in Malachite's forest and the date sequence you see listed on the next chapter, but following the beta-reading of this chapter, Jenny suggested that I cut it off at the mission ending for the sake of pacing. This is because the mission part is quite intense in terms of pacing. The second reason is because otherwise the chapter would feel like it had two different stories in it (battle of Malachite Forest and the date)

However, while this made sense, it also created a problem of cutting this chapter down to just 14,000 words, following a setup chapter (79 – Copycat Amazon) of 27000, which in my opinion would just be too much whiplash. As such, I cut out the last chapter at the scene where Lance tells off Demetrius, thus making it look like he just blew up the whole mission, and moved those scenes to the start of this one. If you're reading Lance's Role for the first time after the chapter was already published, originally the last chapter ended with Acrisius petrifying Suisho/Aiacos.

The rest was a matter of adding in the post-mission triumph with the Muvians and what I thought was a fitting scene of Elder Kang advising Lance on the 0th sense while also punctuating how he shouldn't let his past weight him down despite the fact that someone just tried to assassinate him and they almost sabotaged his friendship with Yushira.

This had the benefit of allowing me to post a chapter on V3's birthday (February 13th), just as I'm finishing up where V2 left of. Boy, 80 chapters… I wonder how I'd react if I told myself ten years ago it would take this long to rewrite LR (or that the headaches wouldn't all get fixed).

Anyway, today we will talk about Cross Faras' etymology. Faras's name is based off the history of the Southern Cross constellation. In 400BC, the movements of planet Earth caused the constellation to move beyond the visibility of the Ancient Greeks, southwards, and it wasn't until Portuguese explorer João Faras sailed down the African Coast in the 15th century past the equator, almost 2000 years later, that the constellation was described for the first time, essentially re-discovering Southern Cross.

Believe it or not, there's a hint in this to who Faras and Acrisius' employer is, but you'll learn more next chapter.

Anyway, be sure to leave a review or share the story if you enjoyed this chapter, or if you want to criticize it even. Like it on Reddit and generally support this project if you enjoy it. You can find me online under the Thrudgelmir2333 name.

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, live streams and games.

See ya \owo