Enemies of Sanctuary

The treacherous climb up Jamir served as a buffer between the goal of many Saints who endured constant battling, in particular those of lower ranks whose Cloths tended to be less durable. The other half of the Bronze Saints raised by Kido had chosen to take the risk, as per Shiryu's instructions.

Jabu, Nachi, Ichi, and Geki had to put great effort to cross the narrow passages and to breathe that high up, but all they felt was amplified a thousand times worse for Ban, the one who suffered the brunt of Hyoga's misguided wrath. He had finally left the hospital and went on the trip with them to fix his damaged Lionet Cloth, yet felt resting in the mansion would've made for a better week off.

Nachi looked back at his friend, the only one using a trekking pole to help with balance and reduce any strain. "How are you holding up, Ban?" he asked.

Ban gasped for air and stopped for a short interval. "I'm fine, but this high up, it's really hard to breathe," he said.

"You're not the only one," Jabu told him, "I'm starting to feel pretty exhausted as well. I can see what Shiryu meant about this being a task only a Saint could take. A normal person wouldn't survive this place."

"Should we camp in the next safe spot?" Nachi wondered.

"I don't now. He said we should try walking as much as we're able to before we're out of sunlight. Ban, can you go some more?"

"I think I can."

Geki, the biggest and physically strongest of the group, knew from the looks of it that Ban wasn't doing well. Perhaps it was expected, but in the other hand, he feared this was pushing a limit. "Hey, you can give me part of your load to make it easier on you. I don't see a problem," he suggested.

"No, it's alright. I'll warn you guys when I need to rest."

"Then let's keep moving," said Jabu, and they continued to walk up the steep slopes up ahead.

They moved on and on until the sunset was close, and so they made it their goal to stop at the flattest spot they could find next. In this safe area, they erected a wall with the Cloth boxes stacked onto each other, in the hopes of blocking the oncoming wind from hitting the tents, a hazard they had been cautioned about. "This should do the trick," Nachi spoke. "If the winds come from another direction, hopefully changing the tents' location is enough to solve the problem."

"Goodnight, boys!"

"Goodnight!" They each entered their tents with their duffel bags when the evening came through, and although they were quick to fall asleep despite the thin air, the yammering blows ripping through the mountain range shook the tents about, and thus awoke them with its unsettling cry.

As terrifying an experience as it was, the wall of Cloths did work, and the tents survived the night. Those who were able to ignore it and ultimately fall asleep rested, and the ones too anxious to do so had troublesome hours ahead.

Once the morning arrived, the whistling wind devolved into a persistent breeze, as it oft was that high up in Jamir. They were quick to pack their things back into the bags, strap the boxes to their backs, then continue onward to the stone tower.

"That was a crazy night!" Ichi said with a snicker.

"Yeah, this place is creepier at night. I can't believe we'll have to go all the way back down after getting the Cloths fixed," said Jabu.

"Going down should be simpler."

"I sure hope so."

The further they went, the more varied were the formations they saw that far high, and soon enough they met the plateau Shiryu had mentioned, Geki pointing at it from the front. "Right there! That's the flatland with the stone tower!"

Jabu and the others sighed in delight. "Finally! What a tough hike..."

Nachi walked side by side with Ban and followed his pace. "Just a little more, Ban. Come on," he sung in order to encourage him. He noticed how his friend was more winded than the day prior, so he walked behind him and subtly lifted the Cloth to ease some of the weight. This apparently helped, and Ban was able to walk more freely.

What came after was unexpected. At first, it felt to the Bronze Saints like a painless pressure in their ears pushing in and out repeatedly. The sensation grew, and it was clear that it felt like that of an approaching Cosmos, but its pattern was strange, coming in pulses rather than at a constant rate.

Jabu and Geki stopped and looked back, and the others did the same. "That's… huh?"

"A Cosmos this high up?" Ichi pondered, and Geki put a hand above his eyes to see in the distance.

"It's going on and off." He then pointed with the other hand, frowning at a traveling dot on a side of the mountain. "There's someone approaching, right there!"

They all stepped to the side; despite the space, it was still too narrow for too many to occupy the passage, so when this person flew through the trail, they almost bumped into each other. With a jump scare, Ban fell aside, and Nachi made sure he wouldn't fall any lower than that.

"Sorry," the voice of a woman said, and in the split second where she slowed down to apologize, it was obvious this was Marin. The speed she gained thereafter was well above that of sound, and the shock wave released dust into the air, making the boys cough.

"W-what on Earth was that?" Jabu yelled in confusion.

Helping Ban up, Nachi was also in disbelief. "Are you alright?"

"I just lost my balance there," Ban answered, too winded for comfort.

Jabu went on about such an absurd interaction: "We're killing ourselves and… and that person just flew past us like it's a walk in the park!"

"That had to be a Saint."

"Absolutely," Geki agreed.

"Come on," motioning to the others, Jabu continued walking. "We'd better get to Mu before someone else runs ahead of us. Seems this guy is more requested than we thought."

It wasn't a long way to the stone tower from there, no matter how much slower they were compared to Marin, but Ban wasn't doing well at all. The boys got a glimpse of Kiki sitting on a boulder some meters before the tower, and he immediately recognized some of them.

"Hey, Kiki!" Jabu said.

"Oh, you guys are Shiryu's friends!"

"Yeah, I'm Jabu." He pointed back at the others. "The big one is Geki, that's Ichi, Nachi, and Ban." They all waved and muttered their hellos. "As you can imagine, we came to see Mu."

Kiki dropped off the boulder and walked with them towards the tower. "Master Mu received a visitor just now. He should be inside." The man himself did come out of the tower briefly, carrying a large backpack that he left at the edge of the entrance before going back in. He apparently chatted with the visitor. "There he is!"

Mu grabbed some of the tools off a stone table and began to place them side by side on a strip of cloth. "Did he offer you a reason, or is it simply what is given in the letter?" he asked the woman leaning against the wall.

"I was only told to the deliver the message, nothing else," she answered, and it was undeniably Marin.

"Hmm, and do you happen to know who else was called in?"

"All of you. Aquarius was called back a long time ago, someone else got sent to call Taurus, I delivered Pisces' letter, and I'll deliver Libra's next."

"Ah, Taurus, you say? Aldebaran…" Mu smiled at the memory of his friend, rolling the cloth alongside some tools. "I cannot wait to see him again, it has been so long!" Going to pack the things he prepared, he noticed the group of young men who accompanied his apprentice, and also saw that they carried Cloth boxes. "I fear you caught me at a bad occasion. Are you looking to get those Cloths repaired?"

Kiki was the one who answered: "They are. Those are friends of Shiryu too."

"Quite a shame. I am not in the position to fix your Cloths any time soon."

"What?" Jabu frowned, although his tone was soft enough so as to not anger the only one they knew who could fix their gear. "But we went through a lot to get here, and my friend over there — he's very sick. He came back from the hospital a few days ago." He nodded at Ban.

"I understand and I apologize, though I am being called back to Sanctuary with haste. You should come with me, as I have a forge there too," Mu turned around and went back to grab other things.

"To Sanctuary?"

He chose to continue his conversation with Marin, as short as she was in words that day. "By the way, what was his name…? Aiolia. You two were close friends, if I remember correctly. How has he been?" he asked her.

With arms crossed, she shrugged. "He's spending all of his days in the Temple of Leo now, and no longer comes to the grounds."

"That is unfortunate, but such is the life of a Saint sometimes."

"We're used to it." Marin stretched her arms and walked towards the exit. "I'll take my leave now. My next destination is pretty far still." The way out was blocked by Kiki and Jabu, so she squeezed herself between them. "Excuse me, Kiki."

The boys looked at her with the same disbelief of before, and Jabu interrupted her, as rudely as he felt her attitude was before. "So it is you! You're the one who passed flying past us back there."

She looked at him for an awkward second and responded with a brief "yes."

"You gave us a hell of a scare. You should be careful next time, you know?"

Marin seemed to flinch a bit at that tone and those words. "Huh. You're a lot like him," she said.

"Him who?"

"My apprentice. Anyway, sorry for scaring you, I'm in a hurry." Finally crossing between them, she stopped near Ban and studied his neck a while. First she listened to his winded breath, then pulled his t-shirt's collar to examine something else, a move strange enough to spook him.

Ban reacted with slight panic, saying: "H-hey, what's up? Is there an insect on me?"

She let go and turned back at the tower. "Mu, he's right, this one isn't doing too well — might be cardiac."

Mu answered from that distance. "That sounds serious. Send him in."

"Go inside, he'll patch you up," Marin promised and tapped him on the shoulders. Transfixed by whatever was going on, Ban nodded and obeyed, so she left off first by walking away, then flying at the same impressive velocity she displayed earlier. The Bronze Saints frowned at the power, and wondered what sort of Saint she was after all.

Ban unstrapped the box from his back and left it with his partners, then entered the tower to follow Mu's instructions, who waved at a stone stool. "Sit down right there," he ordered, so the youth did. First Mu noticed the heavy breathing. "For how long have you been winded like this?"

"Ever since yesterday."

"Hm. He said you were in the hospital recently, so what was it for?"

"A bunch of things, but I only stayed for long because my heart was really blown up after a fight."

Mu examined further and massaged both sides of his chest. "Do you feel any pain?"

"Just in the chest when I breathe."

Then he lifted one side of Ban's pants up to the knee, checking the state of his ankle. It was visibly swollen to an unhealthy extent, and all of the signs pointed to what he feared. "You are rather swollen." Mu turned to his pupil and Jabu. "Boys, help me here. Lift his shirt up to the neck."

Jabu nodded nervously. "Uh… okay!" He left his box down and approached with Kiki to lift Ban's t-shirt far enough that it exposed the chest. He breathed so deeply and quickly that it was clear from how his body shifted back and forth, a worrisome view to those present. "You're not doing too hot, buddy."

"Yeah."

"Keep it steady," Mu said, then he placed the tip of his fingers against the man's left chest, digging so far deep that the patient winced from the strain. "You might feel a burn, but do not fret."

"What is he…?"

Kiki interrupted Jabu with a whisper: "Sssh. He needs to concentrate for this."

Mu shut the eyes and focused. Through skin, flesh, bones, and the walls of the heart, a characteristic warmth invaded Ban's body. He released a hoarse sigh and lifted his head to the ceiling to try and ignore that peculiar tingle.

"As I feared, you were having a heart attack," Mu told him as soon as he stopped and released him. Regardless of the bad news, Ban breathed out all the air he had, relaxing from the built-up tension.

"Damn it! Will he be alright?" asked Jabu.

Mu let the boys release the t-shirt and stood up straight. "I cannot be sure, so he has to stay close to me throughout the whole trip. We might have to do this more times before arriving." Then he went to pack the rest of the things, few of which remained. "I will go see if no one else is coming up the mountains. You should rest before we leave."

With him leaving momentarily, Kiki and the others stayed convening at the exit of the stone tower, and Ban continued on the stool to rest like he was told to. He had been stubborn and insisted on accompanying the others to Jamir when doctors had told him to rest for the coming semester, and at that point guilt overwhelmed him. "I'm sorry for holding you all back. Might as well have stayed back in Japan," he admitted.

"Not at all! You couldn't predict this would happen," Nachi said to tranquilize his concerns.

"Besides, it seems this Mu guy is really good. As long as we're with him, I'm safe Ban will do well," said Jabu.

Geki asked Kiki from where he stood in the entrance: "What are you two anyway? I didn't feel a Cosmos when he took care of Ban."

"He used telekinesis," Kiki revealed. "It's just something our people are born with, but we have to hone it to make it useful."

"That's really impressive."

"Mhm, but he's the greatest at controlling the Cosmos too. Master Mu is a Saint like you guys!"

"So that's why he was called by Sanctuary specifically."

Jabu thought back to Marin, the courier who made Jamir look like a joke after what they and Shiryu endured to reach the stone tower. "And that deliverywoman — she was extremely powerful too," he commented.

"Yeah, she was so fast I couldn't follow some of her movements," Nachi remembered.

With all due to respect to Marin, whom he knew was extremely powerful, Kiki had no doubt of his teacher's abilities. "I'm fairly certain he's more powerful than her. Master is the Aries Saint after all!" he said.

"Aries…?"

Nachi furled the brows and observed: "But that's one of the constellations in the Ecliptic!"

"So… that means…"

Nodding and smiling brightly, Kiki almost boasted like an achievement his own: "Exactly! Master Mu is one of the Gold Saints."

On the other end of the continent, Athena and the Bronze Saints flew a private jet from Japan to China. With a Graad employee and Tatsumi on the front seats, they drove rented vehicles down a road and followed Shiryu's directions.

They took all precautions necessary, despite the trip occurring so abruptly, and brought their Cloths along. Due to the logistics, they carried two boxes on the cargo bed of a coupe utility, and the others stacked on a carry-on trailer attached behind. Trailing it came a black minivan with part of the crew, who refused to let Athena ride in the tighter vehicle in front.

The two-hour drive ended in the middle of the afternoon by the side of a humid dirt road. Tatsumi and the other employee stayed back, whereas the rest went up the hills, only a few of them in light hiking attire. Because he had gotten used to it in his last trip alone, Shiryu carried both the Sagittarius and Dragon Cloths stacked on his back.

The Saints often helped their goddess, whose body was not the most used to that sort of exercise, especially since vertigo still came and went at unpredictable flings. "How are your headaches, Lady Athena?" Shun asked her.

"They are fine now," she said, "if not gone for good. I am only dazed ever so rarely."

"That's better." Shiryu said and pushed a branch away from their path to point beyond it. "We're very close to the shack, just a bit more."

Indeed they were quite close. As a tall hill rounded off and plateaued into an open area, the wooden shack where Old Master, Shunrei, and Shiryu used to live together came to view. Shun smiled and complimented their way of living: "Such an adorable home!"

When they opened the door, Shiryu had to stand outside, as it was impossible to walk in carrying the boxes. "Anyone here? Old Master, Shunrei?" he called.

It was Shunrei's eyes that peeked from the back, from the small kitchen area. "Shiryu?" There was no doubt in her mind; she dropped the dishes and ran all the way to the door, the young man bracing so that he wouldn't lose balance. When she launched her body to hug him, Seiya felt the need to hold the boxes so he wouldn't fall. "You're finally back! We were so worried, Shiryu…"

"Y-yeah!" he laughed awkwardly, nestling her deeper into his chest. "I haven't come alone, as you can see. I'm with Seiya and the others."

Shunrei let go of him partially and invited them in. "Please, get inside! We already ate for the afternoon, but I can prepare something else."

"Ah, you're so kind, Shunrei!" Seiya said with both hands on his waist. "There's no need for that, we're just passing by."

"Yeah, I only decided to drop by the shack in hopes of seeing you," Shiryu told her, warming her face and heart. "I always assume Old Master is meditating by the waterfall, isn't he?"

Shunrei chuckled and confirmed: "That's most of what he does! Can I come with you?"

When Shiryu turned to Athena for permission, she responded with a gentle smile. "If it won't trouble you, come along," he said back to the girl.

Thus they all went down the hill and through the ones in sequence, taking a different path towards the soothing splash of crashing waters. The humidity in the air was much more obvious at the cliff whereon Old Master often sat, the place of most of Shiryu's training sessions. Anything that passed through there was bound to leave coated in a sheen of pristine water, cast by thin droplets spread through air so pure.

Everyone stayed behind while Shiryu walked closer to the cliff's edge, where Old Master got up at his sight. "Shiryu, you have returned," he spoke with that hushed voice his, almost drowned in Rozan's white noise, "and you carry the Gold Cloth, so I assume you obtained success."

"Yes, Old Master. It was a difficult battle, but we were able to defeat the enemy without any casualties of our own." Shiryu stepped aside and opened way for Athena to come. "This isn't all I have for you."

So she approached. Dressed like a well-equipped hiker, that hair dangling along lusciously, she was no one but the spoiled Saori Kido to the elder, someone he knew nearly nothing of if not this: "You… you are the one who organized that unfortunate tournament."

"O-Old Master…" Shiryu wanted to make it clear from the get-go, but Athena had other plans.

Stopping in front of Rozan's sentinel, she nodded apologetically. "I am the person you refer to, yes."

"Do you have any idea of the risk you put the world through by doing that?" Old Master continued with disdain. "Were that Cloth to fall into the wrong hands, many people would have died, or worse. Children like you should not stick their fingers in that which they do not understand."

"You are right. I made a grave mistake."

"Then what nerve you have, to come all the way here and ask something of me!"

"Old Master, she…" Athena raised her palm to Shiryu and cut him off yet again.

"I have come to speak to the Saint in Rozan who watches over the Praesepe," she said, now with authority rather than the prior submissiveness.

"Who told you about…" Old Master squinted for a few seconds, taking tiny steps closer to her. His eyes widened as if he knew her from somewhere; not merely some Kido heir, some businesswoman that knew little of the world, but someone more valuable. He saw it in her tender skin, the glimmer in her eyes, and even her hair's texture. His lips parted and he looked at the ground slowly. "I felt as if I recalled you from somewhere, but it would not have made any sense."

"It is you. You are the current sentinel."

He looked up again, having gotten over his apparent shock. "You will have to forgive me, but at risk of sounding like an apostate, I must say I shan't so easily confide in you."

Athena smiled understandingly and brought her two hands together. "Of course. Show me your Cosmos, and I will show you mine," she proposed.

Both began to amplify their energies in tandem, and although Old Master had one larger than the Bronze Saints had ever seen coming from a warrior, it didn't surpass the goddess'. Shunrei came closer and grabbed onto Shiryu's arm, as she, untrained as she was, could feel the hair on her neck stand when faced by that incredible power. The tiny drops of water around her formed curves and traveled downwards then upwards in a heartbeat, Athena's hair lifting at the same rhythm.

Old Master's eyes were filled with tears by the time they were done, the ecstasy of experiencing such godly Cosmos ripping a rare laugh of surprise from his olden lungs. "Lady Athena, here you are, and how elated I am to be in your presence! From as much as witnessing your Cosmos, my flesh trembles!" he told her.

"I am very thankful. I hope you do not mind such a sudden visit, as we had no one else to turn to," said the goddess.

"Not at all! A Saint always makes time for you."

Later on, Athena and Old Master chose to have their conversation in private. They walked under the canopy of the tropical seasonal forest of Rozan, an orange sunset shining through the large leaves and reflecting off wet ferns closer to the ground.

"That is terrible, terrible!" Old Master told her, having heard the truth behind the Pope's strange orders. "To think that the Pope of all people would betray our goddess."

"We do not know yet, but I would not put this past someone working for another god."

"As in, someone infiltrated and corrupted the Pope…?"

"Or worse. I have many reasons to come here, and one is to ask if you saw any signs of an impending invasion."

Old Master sighed. "You and I know the timing itself hints at that, but the Praesepe has not acted strange, and from where I stand in Rozan, there are no signs of suspicious activity," he said.

"That limits our possibilities," said Athena.

"Indeed." They strolled some more, avoiding uneven ground and taking in the dreamy sight above their heads. "What else did you have in mind, my Lady?"

"Seeing that you are the current sentinel in Rozan, I wondered if you could aid us with something."

"And how may I?"

"There is a female Saint who typically serves as a courier in Sanctuary. I wish to intercept her as she makes a delivery, but for that I must know the location of a Gold Saint who might be on the field."

Old Master shut his eyes and shook the head no. "Hm-hm, it is no use. I have no knowledge of the Gold Saints," he claimed.

"Yet you do know of Mu, do you not?"

"To an extent, I do."

"And you do know an apprentice in Jamir is always the successor of the Aries Saint."

"Yes, that too."

"Then you must know who the Aries Saint might be."

"I cannot be sure," he replied, "furthermore, even with Mu being the current Aries Saint, who is to say he has not been summoned to Sanctuary already? On the contrary, with Mu's master being the Aries Saint, he would be in Sanctuary without a doubt, so seeking him would be futile either way."

Athena sighed and looked down at the dirt beneath her boots as she walked. "This is not going to help," she lamented.

So Old Master turned to her with a wide and assured smile. "Actually, I might be able to solve your problem myself."

"Huh? But how?"

"Ah, just leave it to me, Lady Athena. I assume they are sending letters to all Gold Saints on the field."

"It seems so."

"Then I am sure to intercept at least one of them. In the case that it is delivered by the female Saint you seek, she will be pointed to you, otherwise, you will be visited by the wrong courier anyhow."

She smiled back at the elderly man, then bowed her head in appreciation. "That would be wonderful! I was told her name is Marin, but we are unaware of her constellation. She should have a red head of hair," she explained. "You cannot forget to tell her that Pegasus Seiya is the one she will deliver it to. That is sure to catch her attention."

"Oh, Pegasus. I will keep in mind to do that."

Reminded of when they first confronted each other, she also came to note there was something about that man's manner of speech and atypical personality, something that reminisced part of her enormous baggage of memories. She wondered: "When you saw me back there, you said you remembered me from somewhere. Was that from appearances alone?"

"Perhaps, or perhaps I sensed a leftover Cosmos in you."

"Hm…" That was unlikely, she thought. Her awakening wasn't done in ideal conditions, such that it had undesirable effects in her brain, yet at that point she had gone far enough to keep her potential in check. A leftover Cosmos was impossible, nonetheless, she assuaged Old Master's lie. "I have a similar sensation now, like I knew you in a past life."

From her perspective, that was meant as literally as it could get. "For someone who has maintained the same memories across millennia, is it really out of question to experience some déjà vu?" he asked, and ironically, that tone and that question echoed in her mind like a familiar experience, making her chuckle.

When they were done, the two returned to the shack and exchanged all of the information needed to point Marin towards the mansion. The Saints, who had spent some time there with Shunrei, were rested and ready to return, especially since Tatsumi and the other employee had been waiting for long enough.

The time to leave arrived, and the group prepared in front of the house while Shunrei stayed at the door, face to face with Shiryu. "Stay safe. Don't stay away for too long this once, okay?" she asked him, a promise he knew he couldn't make.

"I don't know how long I will take, but I promise to visit again when this is all over." He smiled. Immediately thereafter, Seiya gave him quite a nasty back-handed slap to the arm. "Ow!" Shiryu looked at him, and his friend raised the brow a moment, nodding at Shunrei. "What?" Seiya frowned — and June had the audacity to say he was the dumb one. Finally, he got the message. "Oh, uhm…" Shiryu stuttered and turned back to the girl "… Shunrei, if you want, you can come with us."

She hesitated, tightened the eyes and shook her head, as hard as it was to refuse. "I… I can't this time!" Shunrei said.

"No, it's alright! It's only if you can."

"If just for a while, it would be fine, but not knowing how long I'd have to stay away, I can't go. Someone needs to stay and look after Old Master."

"I understand. I'll return eventually, so it is not a problem." Their awkwardness with each other hinted at both being too shy to admit their feelings, but in the end, Shiryu's duty to Athena and Shunrei's duty to Old Master were things they couldn't deny.

"Goodbye!" Seiya and the others said to the two as they left, waving back, and the evening had already fallen. Leaving at that hour, they would only arrive in Japan late into the night, but it was all worth it to set up a potential meeting with Marin.

What awaited them there was no friend, but certainly foe. Those who had been stalking them even before the Dark Saints' arrival headquartered not too far from the mansion, in an unassuming downtown guesthouse. In the small one-room accommodation, a Saint sat on the floor, surrounded by a mess of ripped pages from the cheap notebook he used to write observations.

He was a fair-skinned man of medium height, black hair down to his neck, and a characteristic arching tuft at the front. His Cloth was of a pure white metal with rose trims, simple half cylinders as shoulders that continued inwards with straps, going into a hexagon protecting the middle of the chest. His belt had a decoration like the outline of a coyote, and his circlet had two long ear-like pieces taller than the top of his hairdo.

As he finished writing, he held the notebook closer to his brown eyes and read through all of the intel he was able to collect over time. A drizzle outside calmed the senses and helped him concentrate, but once a shadow appeared at the sliding door and knocked, he was forced to leave any reasoning aside.

"Who's there?" he asked, having gotten up off the floor.

"Asterion, it's me. Open up before someone shows up," an effeminate tone responded. Asterion unlocked and slid the door open, and who came in was another fair-skinned Saint, the one who had gone back to Sanctuary with information on the Bronze Saints and the Sagittarius Cloth.

Wearing a long red cloak, this androgynous man came to view, with long, wooly, platinum blond hair, round glossy lips, and bright blue eyes. His sideways bangs were hidden below a crown-like circlet, three tapering edges coming from the sides and middle, each with its own cloudy pink gem. The rest of his Cloth clung much closer to his slim body, with equally pointed shoulders, and claw-like protrusions from the side of the gauntlets.

Once the other Saint slid the door shut and locked it, he made sure to stay near it and avoid stepping on the mess, as he knew those were likely important for their operation.

"You're finally back, Misty," Asterion said then went around the papers to grab two of them, aligning each to form the complex sketch of a house plant. "I drew most of the upper floors of the mansion, but they've gone on a trip a while ago and I couldn't track them reliably."

"Keep your cool," said Misty. "As long as they return, we have them under our control. Where else would they end up anyway?"

"Well, they're planning something else, that's what I know for certain."

"Always have that brain of yours thinking, dear." Misty rested a hand on the waist and lifted the other. The seductive, soft way with which he spoke was almost condescending to his colleague. "Now, I gave your information to the Pope and he said we're to prepare for a strike on the mansion."

Asterion clearly found that absurd. "Already? We can't!"

"Yes, we'll be smart, so it should be easy."

"There's no way, it's too early!"

"It's only a couple Bronze Saints. There's no way you're afraid of ants like them, Asterion."

"No, it's too early, and it's just the two of us."

Misty grinned and shrugged. "That's what you think. He didn't send me back alone, you know?" having said that, he unlocked the door and slid it aside, popping the head out to make sure no one was passing. He then walked out to the corridor, which had a large open balcony to an alley below, and signaled a group of three to follow him. "Coast is clear. Come up quick!"

The three jumped up without effort and crammed themselves together into the room, Misty locking the door behind them after they did. Asterion was surprised to see the elite team that had been sent to aid, Silver Saints more experienced than himself, or as famed as a warrior like Misty.

First Asterion took note of the oldest man in the room. "Whale Moses!" he said looking at the tallest Saint, one with a bulky Cloth covered in ridges and blue gems cut like eight-pointed stars, the largest on a plate that guarded his groin. One of his eyes was a typical tight, piercing brown; the other, however, was afflicted by a deep scar that left it pale and hazy, apart from the tiny red veins in the corners. Scars were typical of his incredibly muscular, rough body, partially exposed under the plates, proof that he was a hardened combatant. "The oldest of Silver Saints, and one of the most prolific fighters in Sanctuary."

Then he took note of the second one, the man who communicated Marin of the Pope's request in Sanctuary. "Centaurus Babel!" Asterion called him. His Cloth was slightly less cumbersome than Moses', with large hazardous spikes rising at an upwards angle from the shoulders. "Your fire is sure to help us put them down faster than usual."

He walked to the third Silver Saint. "But you… it worries me that you were sent here," he told her. "Ophiuchus Shaina!" Her fixed mask was undeniable, this time under the ornate circlet of her Cloth, thin strips of violet metal tied by the twisting sight of a polished serpent, whose head reared from the other side. Her gauntlets were forged like the body and hood of a cobra, and the double shoulder pads were sizable and rounded down towards a gentle tip at their ends. The cuirass followed the general shape of her womanly body, polished to a mirror apart from circular thin ridges that embellished it front and back, a motif repeated in the boots, greaves, and thighs. "To have sent someone as ruthless as you, he seems to be taking this as seriously as I thought."

She extended her fingers and tightened them back down to a fist before replying: "We are Saints, and this is our duty. An enemy of Sanctuary is an enemy of our Lady, and an enemy of hers is like our personal enemy. There is nothing ruthless about the truth."

"When are we doing this?" Babel asked, already impatient.

"They're currently out of town, so there's spare time to study our approaches," said Asterion.

Misty grinned and motioned lightly with his hands. "Then let's plan when and how we'll pick them off one by one. With such a crew, I'm sure we have lots of possibilities," he said.

"Right, here's what I got..."