Saints of Athena

by fantasos

A reimagining of the original story of Athena and her Saints, from the Galaxian Wars until the Heaven Arc. Seiya, Shun, June, Shiryu, Hyoga, and Ikki fight against and alongside other Saints, developing their skills, maturing, and doing their best to defend humanity and their goddess.

44. The One Closest To Godhood

WARNING: Violence; depictions of agony, harsh violence, death, severe injury, and animal violence.

The One Closest To Godhood

Once they had left the Temple of Leo behind, so that Seiya could fend with Aiolia on his own, Shun, Hyoga, and June did not take long to arrive before the Temple of Virgo. They saw right above them the sign of the virgin, and from within, they heard a mid-pitched hum supposedly as distant as it seemed close to the ears, due to how it resonated in the face bones.

They entered ever so carefully at the sound of that, and the interior flaunted the vastest and most beautiful hall they had seen thus far, uniformly illuminated by charged crystals caged in brass grills on the ceiling. Not only was it the tallest of temples, its pillars were the widest, and they extended downwards into pools of greenish, opaque water.

On the surface proliferated algae and lily pads which, like the remaining abundance of plants in there, only survived thanks to the humidity, warmth, and light maintained by the Virgo Saint. Emerging from within were statues of maidens, nymphs, sirens, amazons, and representations of Athena and some of her kin, all posing, bathing, or contemplating the available views.

Hanging from nails in the cut blocks up top were ceramic pots, and most of them contained ferns of varying sizes and lengths, the longest extending leaves as far as the pool whereon they floated.

The structure above the water was composed of four bridges that connected each entrance and passage to a great platform in the middle, where even more ferns and a small fig tree grew. It was between those leaves that they saw the source of the humming, that being the temple's guardian.

Virgo sat on a pillow while in deep meditation. A golden helmet lied beside him, meaning his extremely long, brown hair was exposed, as was his golden skin. His toned body was barely visible under the Virgo Cloth, one of great coverage, mostly of white gold yet trimmed in yellow. The shoulder pads were like the leaves of a lotus layered in series to outline the flesh below, and connected to the center of the cuirass, extending up the neck as well. The form was slender and womanly, which betrayed the man's shape, but in its graciousness it was no less beautiful. The imagery raised on the metal bore representations of goddesses like Hestia, Demeter, and Persephone, but most of all epithets of Athena and her sister, Artemis. In particular, on a plate to cover the stomach, a meticulous retelling of a story ended with a depiction of the constellation of Orion, under which two maidens watched as they were offered sacrifices by a band of young girls.

This Gold Saint's Cosmos was careful, and it did not rage aggressively, though it scattered and contorted the light from behind him. This spread with regular breezes to cause tranquil waves on the surface of the water. The new arrivals, too, were caressed by such serene energy.

Shun and his friends found that the hum was an overtone to complement the mantra he emitted cyclically: "Om." His hands rested above his lap, palms aimed up and resting on each other.

The surreal sight of that indoors garden was breathtaking to the Bronze Saints, as was the calming attitude of the one sitting in its midst. "That's Virgo," June confirmed.

"He seems deep in concentration, and it would be rude to interrupt," Shun whispered. "Let's go around without bothering him."

They as much as stepped towards his side, and it came to be that the man noticed them without as much as looking. His hands slipped out of the lap, and the right one pointed down, thumb and medial finger gently in contact. "A war is underway, fellows," he told them, so they froze in place. As gentle and smooth as his tone was, it commanded great respect, even more with how confidently he picked every word.

"Excuse us, we are here after Lady Athena's welfare," Shun looked at him and explained. "We must reach the Pope as soon as possible. I hope it doesn't come as a problem, sir."

"Virgo Shaka is my name," the guardian offered him, then got to his feet in a most bizarre manner, floating to a stand and not ever pushing his weight with a limb. He never turned directly to face them, in fact, his eyes remained shut. "Haply I misheard you, but I am sure you spoke of reaching our Lady's temple."

"Exactly. It's a matter of life or death for her."

"Unusual phenomena seem to take place in Sanctuary these past hours. Many sources of energy spark below, some more impressive than others, thus I awaited news of the war and its ongoings to clear my doubts. Sadly, it was not the three of you whom I expected, but one of my peers, presumably Saga or Mu."

"Oh, Saga was not in his temple at all, while Mu is busy tending for Lady Athena's injury," Shun answered, and so Shaka twitched eyelids and rose the chin.

"I mustn't let you pass, fellows," he revealed.

Rather than committing the mistake of crossing the temple's middle line, Shun walked backwards and grasped the Andromeda Chain, grouping with his allies by the first bridge. "I had a gut feeling that this would happen again, but your demeanor made me believe conflict was avoidable."

"The three of you must pass no matter what, and I must stop you no matter what, a sorry state of affairs."

"You're right," said Shun, "Lady Athena's life is important enough that we must cross this temple regardless of consequences."

Shaka nodded comprehensively. "If you speak the truth, be understanding of my position as I am of yours. I am an obstacle for the same reason you claim: to protect our Lady," he told.

Following Shun, the three Bronze Saints began to ease their power and prepare for battle, although Virgo did not seem as intent. "I hope our battle ends without death, Shaka," the boy wished.

Shaka did burn a massive Cosmos, and the scattering from before densified into diminutive crystalline formations, each splitting the light of his white aura down to small rainbows. Despite this incredible power, he carried on without aggression, saying: "Fear not, for I do not plan on taking your lives. I abide by a code whereby one avoids bringing harm to all breathing things, therefore I shall only incapacitate you till news from below reach me."

"We can't let that happen," Shun retorted.

"I lament that, but heed my command: either return, or prepare yourselves." With that Virgo lifted the right palm forth and his aura grew more splendid.

Shun let the Andromeda Chain spread hurriedly all over the space in the temple, as far as the bottom of the pools and other bridges. June and Hyoga readied next to him too, however, after shifting the position of a hand, Shaka no longer moved.

It was clear then that the Gold Saint assumed a purely and exclusively defensive position, if that could describe it, as he desired to proceed nonviolently. Seeing that no action ever came, Chameleon advanced at her greatest speed, and Cygnus followed thereafter.

Before their eyes, Shaka flashed and ricocheted from wall, to ceiling, to pillar, to wall, many a time per second. Whenever he bounced off a surface, it sparked in colors, and apart from that, his movements could not be accompanied by the Bronze Saints.

That's when June decided to scrap the idea of an attack and, once she landed on the platform, made it for the exit at once. This did not succeed, as Virgo hovered by, swept her off-axis, and bumped her knee aside. He then followed to do the same to Hyoga, although it was not as harsh and did not lose him as much balance, so he spun, landed, and aimed for an icy punch.

Shaka easily stopped that with the elbow, then somehow sped behind him to place stretched fingers over his own eyes, and the fingers of the other hand against Hyoga's nape, dug through hair. The guardian's Cosmos went completely dark, and only a minuscule yet concentrated beam of energy surged from his arm.

A mix of vastness and emptiness took Hyoga by surprise. Suddenly his senses were no longer attached to the objects around him; not the floor, the plants, the water, even the stars or planets beyond the walls. The one palpable thing in that instance was space in its apparent infinitude, stretching to the depths of existence. As much as it flowed on without limit, his mind attempted to contain it, to imagine how it would be captured by the senses, and it struck a gong in the very core of all that was physical. Its sound waves resounded once and spread through air to find the corners of space; at the same time that it took them an eternity to reverberate, it also took them no time to do so, and the mix of quietude and unfathomable loudness flooded his hearing.

Limp and with a sudden headache, he fell to his knees over the platform, but quite shortly regained strength and swung with the back of a hand — Shaka was no longer behind him. Because the square end of the Andromeda Chain had hunted him, he chose to run to a forward position on the platform, standing ahead of the exit bridge.

June crawled off the ground and helped Hyoga up. "Are you fine?" she asked, wondering what kind of terrifying damage a Saint that formidable could bring. Her friend looked up to her mask in confusion, and his vision was tormented by some noise. "Hyoga?"

"I think…" he murmured and then looked at Shaka, as did Chameleon "… I can't hear anything."

"What have you done to him?"

"A temporary ailment," Shaka assured them. "His senses should be degrading after what he experienced, but they will return over the course of time."

Shun's lips parted in shock. "So he's that powerful…" he commented.

"I will deprive you of your every sense, then it should be straightforward to end this without bloodshed."

Seemingly furious, June whipped the ground and prepared to attack him, but Shun yelled: "June, wait!"

"Huh?"

"If we are rash, we might end up useless after this fight. We have to choose our actions very carefully here."

Despite all that, Hyoga rose Cosmos. June waved at him to catch attention, but he had plans of his own. Gaze glued on Shaka, he strode forth and attempted to slam him with ice that now covered the gauntlet, something the Gold Saint simply defended. The frost was shattered with a slap, and when June flipped her weapon from afar, he used the same arm to swat it off.

Once more Virgo ricocheted throughout the temple, slamming June once to stun her, then next to drop her to the floor. Without interval, he did the same to Hyoga, although a single tackle was enough to tumble him face first, and as soon as he had reached the floor, Shaka touched his nape again, Cosmos gone completely dark.

Cygnus returned to the infinitude of before, but this time to look inward into himself. He learned that, while being conscious of this infinite, he was also contained by it. It also paradoxically meant that, by comprehending it, space contained consciousness and consciousness contained space, and thus one was full of the other. His thoughts conglomerated into a single space to collect a brighter shine each phase, until it swallowed the whole and became blinding. Faced by that sudden condition, his eyes felt fully drowned with light.

He was out for a while longer than prior. Shaka had more time to not only evade the Andromeda Chain, but reassume a defensive position up ahead. The square end threatened him, thus he pushed it with a burst of plasma and, watching the weapon fall on his friend, Shun felt insecure and pulled it back.

June and Hyoga stood from their fall, and the latter stared up at the ceiling to watch it blur out and be covered in noise of colors he thought previously impossible. When the girl came to check on him, she saw that his light pupils had been covered with a cloudy, opaque veil.

"I can't see," he said next. June looked at Shun, who deeply breathed out in worry. "But I… understand it now." Both watched him in surprise, seeing that he could speak despite losing two of his senses. "There is… there is a moment when his hand touches the… back of my head. Something washes over me; the first… first time, emptiness; second time, blinding fullness. It overwhelms… my head hurts, like a migraine. It must be like Saga's… illusions."

Shaka smiled, seemingly out of pride for the Bronze Saint. "Fascinating. He knows what he conveys," he said.

"So you overloaded his senses into stopping altogether," Shun wondered.

Virgo maintained his raised palm, but instead of keeping the fingers together, he touched the tips of the index and thumb as he taught: "Meditation may also bring awareness of several realms — states of mind and beyond — that bring its subject closer to enlightenment. If one were somehow forced to experience certain states without the baggage necessary to comprehend them, well, the senses would fall in disarray. I bestowed upon him my discernment of the initial Worlds of Formlessness; that of Boundless Space and Consciousness. Since he is without their required awareness, this has led to failure of the senses."

The explanation was clarifying, and Shun was only made more nervous by it. To him, unlike Aldebaran's case, Shaka was a true impenetrable wall in their current situation. Worst of all, if they somehow found themselves across the exit, he wasn't even sure in which state they would be in, let alone how they would reach the Temple of Athena.

When he sensed the peaks of Cosmoi from behind, he decided to stall rather than pass, a difficult option, but seemingly the more responsible one. Allowing his aura to permeate the air around him, he made the Andromeda Chain become agitated with electricity. "June, take Hyoga back," he told her, and she aided Cygnus to a position behind them on the bridge.

"Do you plan on distracting me with this chain?" Shaka asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but forcing your hand would be detrimental, so I'll do the best I can."

"It is clear you expect those whose great power I sense in Aiolia's temple."

Shun frowned at the man's deduction. "I can't count on them arriving so soon," he argued, but admitted nonetheless, "still, I must hold strong until then."

"Fine. I will take your senses now, then it should be easier to do the same to whoever arrives next."

Andromeda wished to surprise the opponent, however, this came as a failure. He whipped the chain and it rose into a cloud of metal and thunder around his perimeter. To Shaka, however, the movement of all objects could be felt as they neared him, each and every detail magnified to hearing and tact.

More and more the Andromeda Chain encased him in a rotating cocoon of rings, and eventually only a snow-white radiancy could be seen coming from inside. When Shaka's Cosmos inevitably exploded, so did Shun's, visibly dwarfed by it. "NEBULA CHAIN!"

However, the chains flew outwards in total disarray instead of penetrating the radius, and what was revealed was a Shaka with both hands rested by the stomach, long hair flowing with a wind that spread far. A glistening bubble exited the sphere, this accompanied by the sound of his mantra: "OM."

Few seconds passed and the weapon found its pathing once more, but Shaka had already resorted to traveling through the temple at the speed of light. The Bronze Saints collected themselves to defensive stances, Shun with the Rolling Defense, June with the whip at the ready, and Hyoga cooling the air as preparation.

Before the chains had fully engulfed them, Virgo was prompt and dropped Andromeda to a knee with a quick pass by the back of the leg. For a split second, Shun saw that man's image in front of him, thus he swung to parry a shift of a hand. When Shaka predicted this, he elbowed a point in the root of his forearm that weakened it as if by magic, then placed a palm around the boy's eyes and forehead.

The Gold Saint's Cosmos faded into silence like before, and somehow Cygnus pin-pointed Virgo's exact position from this change. Following only that variation, he charged in and came closest to touching him. He was dodged at first, yet kept going to shout: "DIAMOND DUST!" Inexplicably the technique came stronger than usual, freezing ferns and part of the water in its wake, but Shaka gainly spiraled and melted the ice crystals with a momentary wall of warmth.

June had already come in with a flip to pepper Shaka with the point of her weapon, although he always defended without issue. Once he had entirely cut the length to her, he saw Hyoga follow him by virtue of the Cosmos and wished to bump him off balance, so he erred on the side of caution and skipped back. Having landed, Virgo outstretched both arms and grunted to produce a blast; this pushed both Bronze Saints back to a safe distance, though they slid and crashed through some of the plants.

The man strode intent on taking Chameleon's senses next, seeing that she was the most foolhardy, but Shun had regained some composure and hunted him with the square end of the chain. He tamed it in a hand and strode towards him instead.

In that case he would've reached him had it not been for the energies that raced from the stairway below, a sign that advancing was not necessarily the best option. Initially he had thought he would be able to find a secure angle to escape, but the closer they came, the faster they seemed. By the time he had redirected himself to the exit bridge, he was struck in the face by a gauntletless fist, that of Pegasus Seiya.

Shaka allowed his body to relax, corrected it during flight, assumed a calm position, and landed on the opposite end to blockade the passage. What he saw was Shiryu standing in front of his friends, while Seiya helped Shun to get up.

"Seiya, Shiryu!" the boy said in amazement.

"Aiolia should be fine, he just needs to rest up," Pegasus explained, but Shun seemed inquisitive all of a sudden, that being before he saw Virgo again and everything made sense.

"O-of course," he stammered.

Seiya noted by Shaka's stance and Cosmos that he was a fearsome foe, and he noticed how Hyoga, a brave fighter, had already been left with little balance. "It seems things got rough here too," the young man mentioned.

Andromeda allowed the chain to continue spreading along the temple, and he no longer turned to his friend. "Seiya, you will have to excuse me…"

"Eh?"

"Because… because I cannot hear you right now, and neither can Hyoga."

June turned back and growled, saying: "So he used it on Shun too, damn it!"

With scowls to the Gold Saint, Seiya and Shiryu wondered how cruel one had to be in order to toy with weaker opponents in such terrifying fashion. "How could you do such a thing?" Dragon asked him.

"It is not for some twisted pleasure that I do this," Shaka explained. "It pains me greatly to do it to my fellows, however, it is a better alternative than being lethal."

"Shaka is a good man, he… does not wish to kill us," Shun confirmed.

Virgo raised the voice next. "The three of them are as strong as the elite among Silver Saints, but the two of you…" he nodded at Seiya and Shiryu "… have the might of us Gold Saints. How come?"

"I am Dragon Shiryu, and he is Pegasus Seiya. We are this strong because he has awakened the Seventh Sense with Lady Athena's help, whereas I awakened it thanks to my master, the Libra Saint."

"Libra?" Shaka's eyes twitched and he breathed out in astoundment.

"Yes, I was trained in Rozan under his guidance."

Shaka fell silent for a few seconds and warmed up his power. "There are only three Saints I fear," he prefaced, "Gemini Saga, Aries Mu, and the one to whom the vacant Cloth responds — Libra! We were told by Mu that he possesses the ability to reverse every ocean's tide with a stroke alone. Here you stand, in Bronze Cloth yet golden crown, second-hand proof of his abilities. What frightening warrior he must be… are you sure you must force your passage?"

"No choice is left to us but this. Each hour spent here is another closer to Lady Athena's death."

"Then I call for our Lady to guide my hand as to not harm you. Dragon, Pegasus, passage through the Temple of Virgo is restricted, and exceptions shall not be made!" Shaka spoke with authority. Everyone's energies overflowed and the Bronze Saints scattered about the temple to prey on Shaka, who now played an even more fenceful role. "OM."

Again a bubble-like barrier covered him, and whenever the Saints swung at him in passing multiple times, their hands and arms got caught in its thick fabric. This sent waves through that fleeting material, rendering Shaka hypersensitive to every oncoming movement, no matter how fast or delicate.

In this manner they saw that he could defend them without changing stance, and it also meant that, if they were to walk around him, he could easily punt them off, so they focused instead on stunning him. This was difficult; once the strikes came close enough, Virgo's arms looked as if they multiplied into four, then six, each bearing a singular and intricate mudra to the fingers. The hundreds of glints generated by the speeds of those with the Seventh Sense cast shadows that transformed the view into a more absurd one, like thousands of tentacles warding them off.

It came to a point that Seiya offended from above, with Shiryu simultaneously approaching from the front. Shaka understood, by the way both had accumulated Cosmos, that he would not safely defend.

"SOARING DRAGON!" Shiryu screamed and pointed an arm ahead.

Promptly Virgo released the energy stored in the bubble, and the shock wave this generated pushed the weaker Bronze Saints away. He dodged the tremendous move that ripped a few sculptures cleanly off the decorations on the passage, and, like multiple instances beforehand, ricocheted confusingly across the temple.

Seiya and Shiryu could read him comfortably, but Shun and June continued bewildered by that attitude. It was Hyoga who learned to locate him through Cosmos-positioning alone, though his debility meant he couldn't use said realization to its utmost usefulness.

The one who pestered Shaka the most was Seiya, as he was nearest his velocity. Whenever they met paths, he attempted a catch or a wild strike, but the Gold Saint only defended or pushed him off with little to no force. It was during these distractions that Shiryu bumped him off, shoulder against shoulder, onto the central platform.

Hyoga was ready from a stiff placement and swept Shaka's legs, succeeding thanks to the work of allies. That was the perfect chance, so the same momentum with which he attacked, he also used to make it for the exit, finding it by the texture of the ground he stood on.

Sensing the movement, Shaka slapped the ground as he fell; not only did this cause a minor tremor, but his trajectory changed completely and he wheeled in a curve to try and block the passage. June had seen the same and outsped Hyoga in a matter of milliseconds, and both went through, her hair scraped by the guardian's fingers.

Shun, in the other hand, was not as lucky. He was the victim of Shaka's desperate use of violence, struck by the impulse of the strike and launched to skid over marble. The pink hue of the Andromeda Cloth lost some of its shine, and a large crack split on the breastplate, the first one he had suffered by then.

Seiya and Shiryu blocked the way to him, but once Virgo flipped back to a calm stance, it became obvious he was a man of his word, one who intended to avoid violence as much as possible. It was also clear, however, that he felt pressured by their additions.

Shaka recomposed and pointed his right palm leftward, held under the chest. "I am left without choice," he briefly spoke. Once more his Cosmos spread to split lights into rainbows, and its warmth was great enough to melt the ice left by Cygnus on the plants and pots.

The Bronze Saints awaited each other's advance before their own, so it was Pegasus who led the next assault. Because they saw that June and Hyoga succeeded in going up, they wished to find more opportunities of slipping past, though it seemed their goodwill had been exhausted.

Shun sent the chains from afar, each end curving from parallel sides in order to encircle the Gold Saint. It was in that moment that Shaka's eyes opened for the unbelievable to take place.

His sclerae shone in multiple bright hues, and he achieved abilities heretofore thought impossible even by the two who reached the Seventh Sense. Without the need for violence, Shaka tapped Seiya and Shiryu off when they arrived, and he flipped the ends of the chains with a mere toss of the fingers.

From there he leapt to Seiya and struck a vital point on a lower corner of his torso, shoving fingers between the seams of the plates. This stunned him to the floor, from where he rolled and fell into water. Regardless of his revealed strength, however, Shaka still saw in Shiryu a strategic threat.

He avoided a flying kick, then dodged slower punches while keeping the Andromeda Chain at bay, but it was not Dragon's speed he feared; it was the weight of his abilities. In the blink of an eye, Shaka approached the Bronze Saint, covered his eyes and then his own with the hands, and rested the Cosmos for the instant.

Like Hyoga, Shiryu experienced that awareness of Boundless Space, however, it came as no surprise for him. Rather than as an unachievable concept — some abstraction beyond reach of the mind — it came as familiar knowledge, and he comprehended it well with no repercussions.

Since he had not been held back, Dragon peaked his energy and nearly uppercut the man's chin, though Shaka frowned, slid back, and softly tapped the fist away. The force pushed him lightly, and he came to stand meters afar like a falling leaf.

Seiya, wet from the fall, jumped out of the pool and took Shiryu's place to labor the Gold Saint's patience. In that state, Shaka did not even have to turn to parry his strikes, and once he felt it was right, he pushed Pegasus to the marble and focused on defending his greatest preoccupation.

However, during the fall, Seiya grabbed the man's leg and lost him balance, a miscalculation by Virgo. Shiryu hit him in full with two palms in the chest, and when Shaka felt he would be propelled, he imitated Pegasus' tactic and pulled Dragon with him by the arm. With force, the two flew to the edge, rolled off, and tumbled into another pool.

For a second they struggled in the water, but again the guardian won and darkened his Cosmos as to impart onto him Boundless Consciousness. Not unlike before, Shiryu reacted with little issue, and before he bashed him another time, Shaka skipped aside and kicked Seiya back, lest he crossed to the outside.

The Andromeda Chain approached, therewith he aimed both palms forth and spread a wave of light so broad it pushed not only the square end, but also Pegasus further back. Shiryu came out of the pool and landed straight close to his friends.

The Bronze Saints had a full view of Shaka's alien visage, those mesmerizing eyes catching attention, and the heat of Cosmos levitated his wet hair to dry it and diffuse mist into the surroundings. Shaka, in the other hand, had the worrying visage of Shiryu walking with no affliction, apparently impervious to that dreaded technique.

"His eyes have opened," Shun commented.

"Huh?" Seiya looked attentively. "Oh, yeah, I noticed that too."

Virgo pointed without shame to Dragon, yet disbelieving that he had to clash with him. "Libra must have put you through extensive meditation for you not to be affected by what I did," he affirmed.

Shiryu proved his theory: "What you have shown me is something I already experienced under Old Master."

"Then opening my eyes was the correct act. I need something else to stop you."

Shaka's hands assumed a new pose; right hand relaxed, palm forward, yet fingers aimed down; left hand tightened and resting by the stomach, palm pointed up. The Cosmos he emitted was a denser one that made his core shine like a white star. The most magnificent portion of the light, however, came from behind him, where rays scattered into a wheel-like structure. What ensued was an absurd vision.

"Sarvabuddhānāmadhiṣṭhānena sarvabodhisatvānāmadhiṣṭhānena ca sarvanāgānāṃ satyena sarvanāgahṛdayānsañcodayāmi śīghramāgacchatha ratnatrayānumatena!" [By the ordinance of all Buddhas, the ordinance of all Bodhisattvas, the truth of all serpents, I urge the heart of all serpents, with the blessing of the Three Jewels!] he chanted on like an incantation, ever ornamented by the whistle of his overtone. His eyes glowed pure white, hair floating to accompany each line formed by the rays, and, without explanation, seven golden cobras emerged from his back. Their scales were exuberant and lustrous, eyes pale, and heads seemingly malformed into crowns of flesh. They came past the long hair and lined up as an arc from the top of the skull down to each shoulder. Once settled in position, their hoods spread to reveal peculiar curved patterns on the underside.

"What the hell is that?" Seiya said, took a step back, and stared with shock.

Taking in the sight as something he knew, Shun remarked: "That's… a naga!"

The serpents extended out slowly but threateningly, that being until the overtone of Shaka's mantra finally stopped so that he shouted: "SIX-PATH TRANSMIGRATION!"

The cobras neared the speed of light to beeline towards the Saints, and this meant Shun had no chance of an escape. A single head was enough to chase him through the temple, and each time he used the square end to defend himself, he also came to observe that the being's body stood on a strange line between physical and nonphysical, and the material beneath their scales bore colorful and hypnotic figures of its own.

Before he could raise a Rolling Defense, the head of the naga tied around one armpit and slithered up to his nape, partially subduing him. The continuous scrambling came as a waste, since the cobra bit deep to reach the nerves, though no pain came from it, only immediate half-consciousness. Its fangs brought no suffering, but served as a tether between the Cosmos and mind of Shaka and those of his targets.

Shiryu was busy fighting three of the lengthy cobras, such that whenever he struck one away, another appeared and swerved betwixt the limbs. He evaded them successfully for a while, until his leg got caught on a snake and he missed a step straight to the floor. Two of them tied around his arms despite the force he put into being freed, and a third buried fangs deep into the back of the neck. Unlike Shun, he fell limp more gradually, but was defeated too.

As per usual, Seiya was the most slippery of the bunch, so he moved more dynamically around the hall. With each of his allies that fell, more snakes came to hunt him, and soon he was stuck in their entanglement. "Agh, there are too many!" he groaned, diving into the water. He emerged with great speed, but the snakes slithered to trap his legs, and another one reached for the neck as well, biting it as soon as it looked close. "What is… this guy doing…?"

Pegasus' senses faded more quickly, and the last sight he had was of Shaka and his serene stance. Virgo looked especially at Shiryu, to be certain he would not awaken. "This was a more dangerous attempt, but it had to be done. For an instant I thought you would be immune to this too, and were that the case, I would have little left to stop you, Dragon Shiryu," he said, yet it was unclear how much of that the young man could hear.

The naga pulled the Bronze Saints to lie in front of the central pillow, whereon he sat and returned to meditation, harboring the Cosmos necessary to maintain that which ensnared them.

His visitors spiraled towards a strange realm, an irregular bundle of existence layered in on itself. Seiya fell into the outermost part, a condition most terrifying, and found himself deep into a specific section of its terrible tripes.

Seiya is trapped in the World of Hell
From a fend in its gory ceiling, he dropped side by side with a tall branch built of bones and dried matter. Whereas it was dim at the top, it became even darker the deeper he went into the pit, and he could not see when one leg was caught such that he flipped in the air. In that moment he knew no more protection like the Cloth covered his body, and once he fell into a black lake, the piercing pain in that limb hinted at something being broken.

Seiya got up and sneezed out the tar-like liquid; it smelled of fresh blood and oil. The deep pain stopped him from standing fully upright, and the lake's height measured up to half his torso.

"The first path, the World of Hell. In it, existence is solely defined by suffering, and all rage for one's condition serves only to further feed the misery," Shaka's voice echoed from some disembodied heaven, but Pegasus seemed to pay it no heed.

Seiya saw that more branches and mountains of bones continued on quite far up, until they could no longer be seen no matter how much he squinted. Mounds of black dirt were the only islands below, and the nearest one was where he heard a struggle between half a dozen of men.

Much like him, they were all bare, and they shouted in languages he could not comprehend. A couple fell in the tar while exchanging the rawest of strikes, and once they resurfaced, they dove towards each other, clearly fighting to kill rather than survive.

Perhaps by some ignorance or due to perceiving this as a nuisance, Seiya approached them and shouted: "Hey, quit it! What do you think you're doing?" When he was close enough, a stranger threw a punch to his head, and the limited movements meant he took it fully on.

No more words came to him, as he fell inexplicably infuriated and snapped back at the attacker. Dominating him after a set of punches, he pulled the man up the mound with difficulty, stepping carefully over the broken leg. There he lifted the enemy's weight and slammed his body harshly against the dirt, and because some minerals were mixed in, the man screamed on impact.

Pegasus fell onto him and damaged his face with utmost violence, a vociferation coming for every swing. He had the man disfigured by the time the other fighters returned, all coated in that dark substance, so they kicked Seiya's back off his victim. Before he could stand, he took another heavy kick to the forehead, but instead of trying to defend, he wished only to retaliate.

Another stomp descended and this time crushed part of his skull. Things would've gotten worse if they had not been distracted by the arrival of another group, which only worsened the battle. Seiya could only move with slow and weakened movements, his vision was blurred, and his head would not turn to the side, only upwards.

Only a glimpse of the one he had attacked was visible from that angle, apart from the three dead floating near shore. Though it was obvious to him that he would soon join them in his state, he carried no feelings but pain and a resulting anger.

A bloodcurdling screech came from the distance. In that limited position, he witnessed the appearance of a giant being of four long wings, possessing a neck much longer than its already gigantic torso. Little of its details could be seen, since only strange lights shined from deep within the tar, if not the ones from far above that hell.

What he knew was that its head was shaped like a bull's, covered in radiating horns encrusted with bones of men and beasts, and its jaw was adorned with many a sharp fang. The creature continued to shriek without cessation, then it gazed straight at Seiya with its three glowing red eyes, and thus it quiesced. It turned the wings, flew closer, and roared to release a stream of vapor from the maw.

The closer that breath came, the more it transformed into a set of spectacular winds, and this pushed Seiya's body and that of the others far back. A tide pushed some of the tar up, and despite the impact with the bottom of the lake, he no longer felt hurt.

Instead, as the cold sensation of that wind penetrated flesh, he felt reinvigorated and swum in the tar, able to freely move the previously broken leg. His vision came back, and his head no longer felt heavy like the world.

Another attacker ran off the shore and leapt to kick him, but Seiya dodged and knocked him out with a harsh punch to the head. He continued beating the fallen man until another group swam from behind, and, with the shadow of the flying beast above, little could be seen, and only the sound of flesh striking flesh was heard.

He seemed cyclically trapped in this condition of never-ending rage, apparently with no exit in sight, as the key to escape it was beyond the physical.

Shun transcends the World of Hunger
This world faded so that a deeper layer of the dimension could be uncovered, a pale desert under three suns, and on its sands woke up Shun, covered in white drapes and robes. He sat up from his sleep and felt afflicted by a ravenous desire for food and water, therewith he got up to scan about the place for them. In no direction did he see a sign of civilization, so he picked a random point and followed it in a straight line, stepping with bare feet, up and down over scorching hills.

"The second path, the World of Hunger. In it, existence is summarized by gluttony and greed. All desire one experiences here is perduring and insatiable," Shaka explained.

The boy traveled for what felt like an hour, the dryness in his throat only exacerbated by that punishing heat. The blue sky above was as deathly as that realm, and it invited entrants to join the sand below, though Shun persisted.

In the distance, he saw a dark spot in the hills. Equivocally he assumed it to be a mirage, but the closer he got, the more its shape seemed real and of interest. He chose to waste any vestige of energy by running towards it, and finally got to interpret the sight; there lied a pale-skinned, lifeless woman, and her putrefying remains had been claimed by flies. Fallen atop her own robes, she had died with many valuable goods inside a satchel, including detailed jewelry, metal artifacts, a sack of fruit, and a canteen of water.

When he scaled up the hill and inspected closely, her putrid scent stuffed his nostrils, but he ignored that to kneel in front of the body. "She's more than dead at this point," he whispered to himself, "even though she amassed this much."

He ignored the metals to go straight for the canteen, delighted to see that it contained much pristine water. He neatly drank till sated, and a lot remained in the bottle posteriorly. With that done, he perused the linen sack, and it carried an assortment of fruit. Somehow, despite the putrid state of that poor soul, the fruit she carried were yet new and without blemishes.

A rummaging sound grew from the opposite side of the hill as he was about to take an apple, so Andromeda took the sack, stood up, and assessed its source. Whom he met was a derelict man that slithered wearing dirtied rags; he seemed elderly, dehydrated; his skin was stretched and scraped; with how skinny his legs and arms were, the movements reminded one of an insect rather than a person.

This man rose up on both knees, lifted both hands together, and shook them with those stiff, mechanical movements. "I beg you, please, I am at death's door! I beg you! Hand me naught but a piece of fruit, naught but a drop of water!" he said, frail in tone as he was in appearance.

Shun was always one to share, but worst of all, seeing the state of that poor fellow, with an expression at the verge of weeping, he gladly took the apple he planned on eating and offered it: "Oh, there's no need to beg, sir. Here it is."

However, the traveler took that as a rightful distraction and grabbed not only the apple, but the canteen from the remaining hand too. At first the boy resisted slightly, but at second thought, he allowed the man to go with both. The elder laughed, therewith he lost balance and rolled down the sandy hill to its bottom. Shun followed by letting his weight push him downwards, albeit surfing on his soles rather than tumbling.

Once he had reached him, he saw the man was nowhere as frail as he looked. Despite the violent fall, he had crawled many steps, unable to walk, but able to move on otherwise. "I'll have that!" he exclaimed, shaking the apple and the water. "A fool's goods are not his own after all."

"I was going to offer you the water anyhow. How is that foolish?" Shun asked.

"Only a fool shares in the desert, have you not heard? Surely you will end up like that woman."

The Saint looked back to the body on the hill, the flies around her, how forlorn her fate... that aside, he was reminded of her many goods, so he raised an eyebrow and looked back to the thief. "That is nonsense. She had so much! The fruit and the water, even those necklaces, rings, and pearls, yet she lies dead," he said.

"She must have been a fool — certainly more of a fool than me."

Shun looked momentarily at the sack of fruit he had in hands, then stared back to the man, who debauched himself in the water without care. He smiled, shook the head negatively, and approached the man to extend all of the food to him as charity. "Here, have this."

With how cynical he was, the elder thought he was about to be attacked. Soon he noticed such was not the case, and opportunistically snatched the sack all to himself. "Eh! Such a fool as to gift me all your food without a fight, are you?"

"Whether you think of me as a fool or not, take it all."

The man giggled, ecstatic at the sight of those beautiful fruit. "I struck gold today, finally!" he commemorated. "I should survive a month without fear, whereas you shouldn't even make it through the night."

Shun shrugged and retorted: "I'm at peace."

"Hm? You have nothing to eat or drink, boy."

"I'm at peace," he repeated. "I have the impression that it was not the lack of food or water that ended that woman's life. I take it that, in this world, those envenomed by desire are doomed to accrue every good they get their hands on, however, here they will die despite those efforts. Her end was her greed, and I can see your greed does you no better."

"Foolish boy!" the thief lashed out in revolt, yelling as loud as he could in his deteriorated flesh. "A fool! It is not greed, but wits! Fools perish and the wise survive! You shall regret your foolishness, if you have any reason left in you. You should forfeit this drivel of yours, fool! You measly fool!"

His insults never seemed to come to a conclusion, but Shun shut the eyes and smiled, experiencing the peace he had claimed. Bit by bit that irritating voice faded out until it vanished, and the heat of the desert too. Even in the absence of eating, he hungered no longer.

Shiryu transcends the World of Animals
Deeper into the layers, the one who opened his eyes next was Shiryu, though desert gave way to jungle. He got up from a sitting position, apparently startled by something, and turned up to see that the clearing was largely blocked by tall trees of dark trunks. The dirt below his feet was soft, fine, and humid.

Had it not been for the wide river beside him, the sky above would not have been visible, though in that situation he noticed that the sun descended close to the horizon line, and he saw in the reflection that he wore nothing but thick fabric around the waist, which covered most of the legs.

Shaka presented the realm, speaking: "The third path, the World of Animals. In it, existence is characterized by instinct lacking reason, and all signs of civilization and culture give way to primitive modes of survival."

No matter how surrounded Dragon felt by the sounds and calls of animals in the distance, he studied the vicinity and found little apart from insects. He followed the river line and paid attention to the shadows between branches and trees, since he expected threats.

Eventually what he saw, in the shadows cast by a tightly packed trio of trees, were the yellow eyes of a melanistic jaguar perched over a branch. That immediately he stood still and in complete silence, ever aware of his surroundings.

The jaguar winced in preparation for a pounce, so Shiryu leaned to evade it. Quickly did the animal sprung forward such that his prey was deeply clawed in the shoulder, but the latter slammed him down with an arm to avoid him biting the skull, as those cats are wont to.

Having fallen violently to the ground, the animal flailed to touch paws on dirt, yet Shiryu fell on top of him with a hand forced tightly against his neck. With the hurt arm, he grabbed a stone and bashed the beast several times, while the jaguar clawed him violently in the chest, shoulder, and neck.

Once the animal inevitably had slipped out of his grasp and Shiryu got back up, he opened distance and stayed at the ready. He had received many deep injuries, but the jaguar's head was punctured and smashed, and the pain changed the conflict from a hunt to a battle for territory.

Dragon continued to walk backwards, since no immediate advance came; as the cat strafed about him, he noted a tilt in his quadruped gait characteristic of damage to the spine, so he used a nearby trunk as base for his feet to find impulse up. Despite how slippery it was, he gained altitude and reached for a branch, then took another thinner one and cracked it off to use as a makeshift spear, seeing that its tip was decently sharp.

Finally the jaguar returned to warily paw Shiryu, sliding up the trunk, though he was mercilessly punctured in the face no matter how oft he tried. Eventually, after multiple attempts, the animal fell back and Dragon leapt onto him, stomping his body and spearing him as he thrashed.

First the beast sought to bite his legs, but he had no strength and instead crawled off to escape. Watching the animal go gave a slight relief to the Saint, but knowing that felines can be rather tricky hunters, he observed the blood dripping on the dark soil and followed the prints with caution.

A thicket seemed to have been his final destination, presumably where he brought prey after culling it. Shiryu pushed foliage out of his path and searched the insides, and there he found the jaguar loosely curled by a tree, near the remains of smaller prey. It suffered too much and felt too weak to go up a branch, and so, expecting himself to die, he lied his belly to the side and bled.

With how defeated he felt, the cat let Shiryu approach and showed no more signs of aggression. "You admit you're at my mercy now," the young man said, then he found a bundle of thick, fair vines, and pulled on one so hard that it ripped off the rest.

He felt that this had great resistance, then grabbed one of the jaguar's paws that had been superficially pierced by the spear. The cat grunted and moved the head down, so the Saint stood fearfully and placed the tip of the branch between his jaws, where he bit with little give.

As he gained trust, Shiryu let go of the branch and focused on analyzing the injuries. For each limb that showed any major bleeding, he ripped a piece of the vine between the teeth and tightly knit it around the base.

"I don't know how much this will help at this point, but it's as much as I can do for you," he said as he continued to work on it. He ripped another long piece of the vine and tied it above another bleeding spot of a leg. Tending for the jaguar's injuries was enough of a display of civilization to fade that forsaken jungle aground, and like the closing of curtains, it was soon reduced to nothing.

Shun transcends the World of Envy
Deeper into the layers, the next place flashed with cold lights. It was Shun's eyes that stared down the vista of a snowy mountain, one that reminded him of Fuji. The day was chilly, mistful, hazy in its own right, so it made sense that, once he looked down at his attire, he wore a thicker dress. This one was fancier than the sheer robes from before, and his brown hair had been shaped into sharp curls; not only that, make-up had been done on his face with details much more elegant and overt than the ones he made back in Andromeda Island.

He leaned with arms over a wooden railing, and beyond the range there were many pagodas of similar architecture. Because he looked below and saw he stood stories above the streets, he assumed to be in the balcony of a similar tower, and turned to see a passage to a crowded hall.

Once inside, Shun noticed many men and women, the latter often dressed like him apart from the more vivid colors. The major difference was not their clothing, but rather their physical appearance; most of the ones there were taller than the average man, and their heads featured three faces: the usual on the front, plus two extras on each side, with independent eyes, nostrils, and mouths.

The chatter had subsided because a group of musicians and three dancers walked on a stage, all seemingly human like the Saint. A man struck a string with a metal stick, which produced a tone used to precede melody and rhythm for the performers. The tan-skinned women — dressed in orange and blue cloth — swerved with heavenly precision, and they carried veils with which they drew complicated shapes in the air.

"The fourth path, the World of Envy. Together with the last three, it composes the Four Paths of Evil," Shaka told. "In it, existence is characterized by ego, pride, and scorn. The urge to stand above others leads to animosity and ignorance of people's true intentions, resulting in entrapment by one's own façade."

To be able to watch the fascinating performance, Shun found himself at a decent location by three women of those many faces, though he noticed that they gossiped at the same pace that they uttered compliments. They were fancily dressed, bejeweled circlets atop their elaborate hairdos.

The dancer in the middle hopped and spun, her veil spiraling up and down, so the crowd cheered, as did the three women with clap and laughter. Their side faces, however, made awful comments to each other. "Is she going to slip?" one asked.

"She might as well slip with such terrible technique."

"Oh my, is that how they teach to dance where they come from? What awkward form!"

"Atrocious!"

The pirouettes the performers went into were intense and difficult, and Andromeda couldn't help but find it all perfectly fine. Eventually the music swelled till the rhythm fell to a halt, and the dance concluded with a swirl of the veils. Applause filled the hall like the sound of storm.

The nearby women spoke wonderful things too, no matter how it contradicted their past insults, if not their true feelings: "Beautiful!" "Oh, marvelous work!" "Wonderful form, dears!" Consequently, the side faces rolled the eyes and groaned that they had to speak so falsely.

The dancer bowed in gratitude and came down the stage so that they could personally thank some of the patrons, whereas the three-faced women turned to each other and conversed among themselves. Apparently inclusive of Shun by his proximity, they did not mind him overhearing, which he did out of curiosity.

"It cannot be that they are bringing this type of dance to the tower. Imagine if we had to watch this everyday!" one of them said, and this time it was the frontal faces that acted ill, whereas the lateral ones kept up appearances with yellow smiles to whomsoever exchanged stares.

"Really, someone must tell me who is teaching these girls to trot like asses. Throw them in the keep!"

"And remember when I said they would slip? Just like clockwork."

"I was surprised she didn't fall on people's heads and cause an accident."

"I will speak to the mayor and have him veto any chance of this so-called 'art' setting roots in this here tower!" the richest-looking lady said, and it was clear by her tone that she assumed some level of influence in that place.

Shun noticed their sideways looks to each other grow like caricatures, and their murmuring voices became augmented into whisper-screams in his head, hammering the mind. To some, this gossip would've sounded intoxicating, yet to him it grew nauseating.

To resurface before he became genuinely sick, the boy approached and babbled until words came out: "But… w-wait, did you really think it was that bad?"

"Well…" the richest woman raised the eyebrows and nodded, speaking more calmly "… not that bad, I mean, it was certainly dangerous!"

"Not that a bit of danger is of no use, but…" another woman said.

"Danger can be enjoyable when used well," the third admitted.

"Right, but maybe it was too dangerous, don't you think, dear?" To that Shun winced in fear of their reaction. "No?"

"I… kind of don't," he responded.

The women exchanged stares, so the trio's leader sighed, lips pouted. "Perhaps it wasn't that dangerous then," she said.

"Maybe it was the angle we viewed it from," another theorized.

"That's quite the issue!" That soon the next one found a different target for their complaints. "Those rats from the temple always occupy the best viewing spots wherever they go. What makes them so special anyway?"

"I came to notice they do nothing but kick dead leaves and sit on pillows all day."

"I will make sure to speak to the mayor about those vagabonds! It's about time something was…" she paused those words upon noticing the approach of the lead dancer, so her expression and that of her friends shifted to false harmony, apart from the cynicism on the sides. "Precious! Oh, you didn't have to come all the way here just to greet me, you seem so busy!" The gossipers gave her quick half hugs. "How honored I am!"

"Please, madam, I am the one honored by your presence. I hope the performance was to your liking," said the dancer.

"Of course, of course! What stunning dance you have shown us, it was worth every penny!"

The others confirmed: "And the form!" "So precise and secure of itself…"

"Yes, yes, and of what I spoke before, I can assure you the mayor shall receive a letter of recommendation by my own hand."

The dancer held her hands together and smiled brightly. "Is that so?" she said. "You are so kind, madam…"

"Don't be that way. You deserve all opportunity and success coming toward you, dear!"

"Thank you."

"No, thank you!"

The whole way through Shun stared with an estranged face, raising an eyebrow many a time whenever he was reminded of the awful adjectives they had for the performers beforehand. Therewith he took note that the dancer bowed in his direction to thank him: "I'm grateful for your presence too, my lady."

He gasped and chuckled, a redness on his face covered only by the blush. "I… thank you," he responded, "the dance was quite fascinating, but I'm not a lady at all."

The lead performer swelled the eyes and collected both hands to her chest, mortified at the gaffe. There was a silent in the circle apart from the judgmental murmurs of the lateral faces. "Did she just do that?" "Is she blind by any means?"

In her attempt to apologize, she accidentally doubled-down out of nervousness: "I apologize my la… s-sir! Sir, I'm so, so incredibly sorry!"

"Oh, there she goes again." "No respect, I say!"

Shun waved the hands and grinned to disarm the situation. "Please, don't worry, it's a common mistake. Believe me, I'm used to it, it's not insulting at all," he told her.

"It's because you're so, you know…" the dancer motioned with fingers under her chin as to express something.

"The long hair and the soft face, yes." He had not noticed the extent at which he had been produced, but the other women could not help but comment.

"But he's beautiful like that, isn't he?" the richest one commented, and the dancer nodded along.

"The make-up too, so tasteful!" said another lady.

"That dress fits him so wonderfully… sporting white this well is quite a difficult task, but he pulls it off."

"Better keep him out of sight from that wencher husband of mine, just to be safe."

The women spewed huffs of disbelief when they heard that. "Does he continue to ogle other women?" one asked.

"When not with one face, it's with the others. And if more men start looking this pretty, woe is me, I'll have double the trouble!" she replied, and everyone cackled, with the exception of Shun, who felt awash with compliments.

He took in a breath to express how flattered he felt, but suddenly it dawned on him that he had only heard what the mouths on the front had to speak, and that they most likely felt the opposite way about him. Studying the surroundings, it was clear that the vast majority of the patrons in the hall were three-faced, and that although the dancer seemed like a truthful person, he feared how influenced she had been by their daily masquerade.

The Saint feigned a smile and bowed. "It was a pleasure to speak to you, ladies, but I must leave now," he said.

"So early, dear! Is it a date perhaps?"

"I have another performance to attend to."

"A lover of the arts too, how quaint!" He nodded a last instance and began to leave, waving at them. "Goodbye, dear!"

"Bye-bye!" he answered, sighing immediately as he turned away. After he felt safe and left through a wide opening to a corridor, a weight seemed to have dropped from his shoulders. "That was suffocating. Such manipulative people…"

He reached a spiral staircase and went to the ground floor, seeing that a few more of those folk chatted in the precinct. In order to not be holed by any more conversations, he lifted the long dress slightly and made it to the front with swift steps.

Shun is trapped in the World of Humanity
Like in the blink of an eye, once he exited to the hazy exterior, instead he met the sight of a Japanese urban center. Inquisitive and unable to recollect his memories, he looked down at himself and noticed he now wore a buttoned white shirt and navy dress pants.

"What…?" Around the wrist he revealed a watch, and although the glass was blurry, he interpreted some rough value for hours and minutes. "Lunch time, of course. When you're this stressed, you forget such small things."

He turned back and took in the sight of a tall corporate skyscraper, its entrance with a sliding glass door. By the side were many bicycles and scooters used by the employees, including one he recognized as his own. The logo displayed at the very top of the building was outshined by sunlight.

"The fifth path, the World of Humanity. In it, existence is characterized by balancing desire with reason. Those who do not aspire to transcend this, however, may find that such path bears patterns and repetitions its own — obstacles they may never elude," Shaka's voice reverberated from nowhere in particular.

Shun therefore walked down the sidewalk and thought hard about where he had planned on eating that afternoon. From behind him, hard knocking on the concrete could be heard before a pair of feminine hands grasped his shoulder to stop him.

The one that appeared was June in a blue face mask, blue eyes fully exposed. He recognized her by demeanor, height, and hair alone, yet somehow felt as if her stare pierced him in a familiar manner. Her dress was formal too: an office shirt, a pencil skirt, dark stockings, and enclosed high heels. "Forgot something?" she suggestively asked.

He furled the brow. "What do you mean?"

"Eh? On Tuesdays we lunch at the diner, and you're totally walking the wrong way," she said.

"Tuesday…" he mumbled and fell into deep thought, so June squinted "… Tuesday…"

"Someone's got to do something about the coffee machine. You don't work at all without espresso, have you noticed that? You should check with a doc, Shun. No one should depend on caffeine to…"

Suddenly Shun seemed anxious. "Tuesday!" he exclaimed. "I scheduled to lunch with Hyoga today!"

"Yeah?" June hummed under the face mask. "Good riddance, kind of late for that."

Disregarding what she had to say, the boy looked at the wristwatch a second time and paced back towards the stand, straight for his bicycle. "I have to go!" he told her, but June followed him.

"Hey, you won't make it, we're fifteen minutes into lunch hour!"

Shun unlocked the bicycle, pulled it off the rack, mounted it, and left the helmet unbothered in the basket. With his next words, he pedaled off: "I can't leave him hanging!"

"Huh? Sh… Shun, wait!" The girl unlocked her own bicycle and looked down at those hefty heels. Because it would be difficult to exceed his speed in them, she removed both and threw them in the basket to ride off. Shun zoomed beside a sidewalk, avoiding cars that drove counter his direction, but June put her all to close up behind him. She yelled so that he could hear: "Shun, don't waste our time! He works on the other side of the district!"

But she was purposefully ignored. Instead, Andromeda cut the road and cruised towards smaller streets that connected the arterial roads. She made chase, and the closer Shun got to the main square, the more obvious a sea of cars became in the distance.

Once they had reached the kerfuffle, they saw that only pedestrians flowed amid vehicles, whereas the traffic was entirely stuck. Anxiety struck the boy and made him feel like his lungs were shallower than usual, but he coped with it, got off the bike, and pushed between the rivers of white-collar workers.

June stepped onto pavement only with the stockings to protect her skin, but she still hurried to dissuade her friend. "There's no way you'll get there in time," she told him.

"It doesn't matter!" retorted Shun, not even looking back at her.

"Of course it does, we have to eat and get back to work!"

Unable to pass quickly through the people, he finally faced June and stopped. "You don't get it. If I don't show up, he's going to think I don't like him!" he said with a worried tone, and it was clear that he had grown irritable.

"What? What are you talking about? Of course that's not what he's going to think."

"He's going to think I don't care about him," he insisted, and this time his voice subtly broke, so June held both his shoulders and saw that his eyes glistened.

"No, no, he's not going to think that. He's just going to be grumpy for a little while, so you'll tell him there was a traffic jam. I'll confirm it for you," she assured him, but this wasn't enough to ease the angst.

Instinctively, Andromeda approached and rested the head on her, and she hugged him as to offer comfort. Because he had let go of the bike momentarily, she swung an arm down and made sure that it wouldn't fall, but this did not untie their embrace.

She spoke more words of aid, though they were not enough: "It's alright, you can lunch with him another day. Why are you like this, hm? Everything's okay."

Since that struggle saw no light at the end of the tunnel, this image melted. Sure, it could be that the boy would feel better at some point down the line, yet the moment would come when he would desire to be with Hyoga again, and more difficulties would arise from this cycle, a never-ending wheel of imbalance. Imbalance is, in fact, the ultimate curse of humanity.

Shiryu is trapped in the World of Heaven
The layers would've gone deeper than that, though the next stopped into the earliest sections of a beauteous land. It was there that Shiryu sat in meditation over the palm of a huge statue, mist of clouds partially occluding the view. His long hair was carried by a calming wind, and he opened the eyes to reveal a dumbfounding picture in front of him.

With the bottom half now covered in red fabric of metallic, patterned trims, he got up and took in a grand monument uncovered from the fog. It had been erected on a platform of greenish, carved stone, and its gate was like many golden petals, layered in mesmeric fashion. Those were interspersed with large blue gems, and from there the building extended up as an impossible spire of many branches and onion-shaped floors.

"The sixth path, the World of Heaven. In its earlier stages, existence is characterized by the joy upon being released from suffering, as temporary as said condition may be. This contentment, however, may lead to attachment, and those unwilling to transcend it may mistake it for enlightenment," explained Shaka.

The clouds flowed on and a multitude of statues came into view, each of varying expensive materials and sizes, though no less than colossal. Beings came down the stairs of the monument, or meditated on the shoulders of sculptures, diverse in colors and shapes. Though most were humanoid, others not so much, exhibiting the heads of bulls, elephants, serpents, and more.

Shiryu looked behind himself. He felt a deep satisfaction taking in the sight of mountains, towers, temples, and lakes in the purview. The air he breathed in felt the cleanest of any other, and so he found out that the statue above him was one of the Buddha. Suddenly it came to him that perhaps there was no point in reaching beyond this state, or that there could be nothing else past it.

However, a paradox emerged between the Buddha's path in excess of that realm and Shiryu's sudden belief. If there was nothing more to existence than the seemingly truest of joys, then why had so many gone without it, and why had Old Master primed him to understand realms devoid of it?

Seiya, Shun, and Shiryu are trapped by the Six-Path Transmigration
This was a condition opposite the eternal suffering of Seiya, if not the transitory anguish of Shun, yet it somehow became Shiryu's downfall. Leaving the layers of this strange dimension within their minds, the one who sustained it came back in view.

Shaka, who continued to meditate under the watchful protection of the naga, harbored only the Cosmos required to keep the illusion alive. Unlike Saga's falsehood, the trickiness of his power was not in thinking through the ways it differed from reality, but transcending the vicious cycles each path presented to the victim — in this case, the Bronze Saints had failed, and so they were at Virgo's mercy.

He felt another energy come through, this one comparable to that of the weakest Bronze Saints he met that day, and thus he did not fret over it. Steps echoed from the entrance, a pair of boots coming from the bridge and over to the edge of the platform. There it stopped and the owner knelt close to Shun.

Three serpents were busy with their fangs attached to the fallen Saints, whereas the remaining four hooded over Shaka, as strange a sight as it was prior. "They are not dead," the Gold Saint told the visitor, "but merely confined within their own minds."

The voice that chuckled and spoke next was Ikki's. "When I passed by Gemini, I felt something try and toy with my brain, so I wished to meet him. He was not there and nothing came of it, but you will have to do," he said. "Show me what havoc you can wreak in a man's psyche."

Virgo breathed out deeply. "I no longer wish to fight. Turn back, I promise that they will be fine." But Ikki simply burned his Cosmos and the orange hue of the Phoenix Cloth glowed hot, enough of a message that he would not stop until the same that had been done to his brother was done to him. Shaka got up and said: "So be it. You should not outlast the span of a minute."

Swinging both arms forth, Ikki brought forth a maelstrom of flames. "PHOENIX FLIGHT!"

Seeing that impatience reared its ugly head, Shaka simply cut through the fire and flashed in front of the visitor to spin about him and go silent with the Cosmos. He grasped Ikki's neck from behind and covered himself, imparting the first of the Realms of Formlessness. This did not affect him, and the Bronze Saint simply shoved an elbow back, which Shaka dodged with little issue.

Phoenix rotated and tried to stride towards the foe, but the guardian used two fingers to precisely hit a vital point in his torso, between the folds of the breastplate. This stunned him, so Virgo covered the man's eyes as he did his own to impart the second realm, to no avail.

Threatened by a fiery uppercut, the Gold Saint made flight and flipped forward multiple times, the lengths of the naga attached to him by some cursed method. When he had landed on the platform behind the fallen, he looked with subtle nervousness.

"Alright so far," Ikki commented with a grin.

"So you are like Dragon, impervious to the first two Realms of Formlessness, yet you are without the Seventh Sense," observed Shaka.

"Does that make a difference?"

"No, though it is atypical. I wonder how you will react to the third realm."

Bracing for it, Ikki let his Cosmos flow and eagerly invited him: "Show it."

The darkness in Shaka's energy lasted much longer than the usual once he entered meditation, and he rested both hands atop each other, as he frequently did. He did not wish for this to be too drawn out, or Dragon and Pegasus would reawaken from their induced slumbers.

With a burst back to maximum, he zipped forward and pressed an index into Ikki's forehead, thumb and medial finger rested on the cheeks. For a second the Bronze Saint fell blank and stepped back, nearly falling, then turned his head down. Unlike Hyoga, he did not fall, and Shaka frowned at the thought of facing so many powerful adversaries in a single day.

The full vastness that Phoenix experienced in the first and second realms was suddenly brought together to a single point, the earliest point in time, the state of a forthcoming Big Bang. Instead of it all expanding back out to its former infinitude, this point continued to diminish until it was no longer visible, and then it went on not because all matter occupied a smaller volume, but because matter approached extinction. Soon it seemed as if no more Being resided there, yet somehow Ikki remained perceptive; he sensed not some phenomena, but the lack thereof.

This nothingness was something Ikki successfully conceptualized with effort, awakening soon thereafter. He released a chuckle that promptly grew to hoarse laughter, and when he opened the eyes, he took in the sight of Shaka and the naga as akin to a deity. "Your power!" he called with humorous euphoria. "Your power is incredible." Thereon he growled and emitted a sphere of flames, forcing Shaka to create distance between them.

Instead of toying with formlessness, he bet on the method that had worked on defeating even Libra's apprentice, so he released the four remaining cobras to hunt him down. This, of course, by virtue of Ikki's undeveloped Seventh Sense, was an easy ordeal. Despite kicking himself off the floor and steering the serpents aside with slices of ember, he was struck on a leg and sent spinning.

He corrected and leapt to one of the stone bridges at the speed of sound, though the snakes were not shoved by the shock wave. This meant they reached him more quickly than he could run away, and thus tied both his arms. He heated up body and Cloth, something that only superficially damaged the ethereal flesh of the naga, and their injuries were quickly healed with some sacred scintillation.

Nape exposed, he was bitten by a third one, falling prey to the Six-Path Transmigration. Like the others, he was plunged into the irregular form of the Ten Worlds to be trialed through their six lowermost strata. With each second he surpassed a new illusion.

The World of Hell first. "Hell is no challenge to me," he said, "since I have transcended my suffering." Neither the hot nor cold hells could contain Ikki; he had experienced worst and, with Athena's wisdom, learned to surpass pain. The World of Hunger came. "Greed is no obstacle, as it was never my vice of choice." Thus he passed to the World of Animals. "Reason is a thing I know too well to be prisoner of pure instinct." The jungle would not claim him, so he transmigrated to the World of Envy. "Egoism is no issue either, as I feel no attraction to it." He found the animosity of those stuck in that existence too plastic, and so he reached one among the greatest hurdles, the World of Humanity. "The human cycle is something I have long escaped out of necessity." Then the ultimate hindrance to all initiates; Phoenix met the first degrees in the World of Heaven. "Joy…"

He opened the eyes and was transported to the location of Shiryu's endless cycle, the place he would not escape out of his own volition. Ikki felt the same, though with a wildly different interpretation. A breeze fondled his black hair and the golden-trimmed, black robes he wore there, but neither the heavenly beings, neither the sight of the Buddha, neither the comely landscapes infatuated him.

With the usual grin, he shut both eyes as to deny that false gift. "… joy is as ephemeral and important as the next feeling. At this point, I have transcended all pleasure," he claimed, and that realm dripped under his feet, the Phoenix Cloth revealed to still protect him. "I am not its slave, I do not hunger for it, and I do not linger at its onset. I have left the permanent search for happiness behind me."

So there he endured the Six-Path Transmigration with ease. Because the serpent heads had no more power over him, he flexed both biceps and they coiled away in fear, then he reached for the one attached to his neck and pulled on it. Its fangs had not significantly harmed the skin.

Shaka stood in defiance, more fearful of what power he would have to employ than he had ever been with Shiryu. He allowed the naga to fully return, including the ones attached to the three fallen Bronze Saints, who then retracted behind him to vanish without a trace.

"You…" he took a more confrontational stance as he asked "… who are you?"

"Phoenix Ikki," the other presented himself. "And you are…"

"Virgo Shaka. I would never have taken you for a Buddhist."

"I am a man of no religion. Athena is the one I bow to, and she is the reason why I am here."

Shaka lifted both arms into a particular mudra, pinkie and index raised, thumbs rested against the side of the hands. "I apologize — what I am about to do is even more dangerous, but it is my last means to stop you apart from violence," he said.

In that moment his Cosmos disappeared, though it did not leave on its own. The crystals that lit the temple cracked as the energy they stored was sucked out and into Virgo's brain; his hair fell forward to cover the face; lastly, the water in the pools became completely still, as if frozen in time.

Even though he was immobile for such a long time, Ikki continued to focus on him. True ignorance would've been to turn one's back to such a Saint, he thought, but he was surprised to notice his allies twitching back to consciousness on the marble.

Phoenix walked closer to the center and passed by Shun, who groaned while pushing himself up. Seeing his older brother walk past him, he couldn't help but question what was going on. "Ikki?" he called.

"Ugh, that guy…" Seiya was almost fully up and observed that the temple's guardian stood like a statue in its midst "… he trapped us in an illusion or something, it felt like a whole life in there. How long have we been out?"

Ikki came to a stop right in front of him and studied his demeanor. Shaka's meditation was so disciplined that it seemed as if he were partially dead in that very instant; few signs of life were emitted by his motionless body. "It doesn't matter," Phoenix told them. "He will be too busy to stop you as long as I am here, so leave to the next temple immediately."

Having gotten up, Shiryu stretched the legs and looked to confirm what Ikki had said, a matter he understood right away. "He's right. Let's leave!" he warned the others and jogged for the exit.

"But…" Shun collected the chain and did not walk all the way to them, instead feeling drawn to his brother's presence. "Brother, I want to stay and fight alongside you."

"There is no one to be fought here, dear brother. Now go," Ikki simply said, not daring look away from that Gold Saint. Andromeda felt the reason in his words. Indeed, Shaka was not one to be fought or outsmarted, he was no man of violence, but a victim of circumstance like they all were.

"Shun, come on, before he finishes meditating!" Seiya pressed him.

Afraid that waiting up further could worsen their situation, the two Bronze Saints went up, but Shun stopped by the passage one last time to ask his brother: "Will I see you again?"

Ikki stared at him momentarily and assured him with a smile. "We'll meet up later, Shun."

Satisfied, the boy left him and continued on his duty to clear the Ecliptic Temples, though he knew not what would be the man's fate, let alone that of Virgo. When he noticed that his three allies were distant enough, Phoenix walked past to the exit bridge and stood ahead of the exit.

Shaka's Cosmos returned reserved, so Ikki turned to face his back in a fighting stance, arms pumped by the torso and legs flexed with a foot in front of the other, as he expected to be out of it for a couple moments. Forming a halo around his head, the Gold Saint's aura burned to levitate those long strands of hair, soon attracted to form a circle of their own.

After that long time, Shaka opened the eyelids, but they no longer exposed a sublime mixture of hues, rather a liquid black from top to bottom. Ikki could not even see how he turned and approached him, but soon enough, those black-hole gazers judged him from up close like apparitions, and so the man's fingers were tightly wrapped around his skull. This motion came with a great impulse, so the Bronze Cloth's helmet fell onto the bridge.

Phoenix was fully taken by that imparting, no manner of escape at hand. The next time he went blank, disregarding the passage of seconds, he never seemed to return. His mental state could not be described because it could not be investigated, as it was both experienced and not experienced. Though perception did not cease, it would've made little difference if it did; the extinction of the former realm had now been apparently extended to him as observer, and so he was faced with the truth that he studied a realm both without thought and without its lacking. This place could only be described in negative terms, since one knew of it by being aware of what it was not; in the strictest sense of the word, it was unknowing.

His eyes clouded, his hearing was engulfed in ringing, his skin fell numb, his tongue dried, and his airways were afflicted by chills. Worst than this was the last of the effects: his nervous system came close to shutting down, therefore his arms swung wilted. Had it not been for the position and some residuous stiffness in the sinews, his legs would've surely failed him, but he kept some balance and stayed a mere tip away from falling.

Shaka's eyes transitioned from that eerie shade to their usual glow, and seemed satisfied with the result, for Ikki had fallen catatonic. He shut the eyelids and breathed out softly, somewhat in relief.

"Somehow you comprehended the Realm of Nothingness, an amazing feat that must not be understated; now you were made aware of the Realm of Neither Thought Nor No Thought, the summit of the Threefold World. Without that degree of formless-realm awareness, your every sense must be shut down, including most of the Sixth Sense. Nothing remains for you; your heart beats, your lungs breathe, your soul inhabits the vessel; that notwithstanding, you are essentially a husk," Shaka spoke to him, and though one would've been impressed if any of it could somehow be perceived by the victim, he seemed certain that at least part was computed by his degraded senses.

Wherever Ikki was, there was space for nothing; indeed, it was nothingness completed. But by some miracle of the subconscious, hidden deep within the confines of the brain, he could perceive a thing. Simple shapes of unknown colors floated about a dark room, this without making a sound.

Those went from being matter of fact to actual calls for the conscious to return with whichever tools at its disposal, and so the forms gained more detail, from sensible colors, to texture, to complexity, until they began to make sense. Suddenly he could experience sensation through whatever vessel he assumed then, and he floated ever closer to those speckles.

They became familiar — albeit queer — images once he was close enough. In a colorful pareo, it was Esmeralda who lied with legs folded before a body; that was his own, extended over a bier made of many stones. Most of his limbs and torso had already been wrapped in patterned barkcloth, though the girl continued to tie more around the shoulders.

He came hither and reveled in the solace of her sight and presence. There was serenity in her dark eyes, black hair tucked behind the ear where she had placed a small white flower. The girl took a shark tooth from the ground, split the skin of an index, stained the barkcloth in it, then continued to wrap it with utmost care.

"My Ikki is bound to return. This is only temporary," she prayed.

Ikki floated to her side and reached for her shoulder, though his uneven shape went right through her. Having finished, she stood and stared, and much similarly, her eyes saw right through him — he could fathom no pain worse than that, and despite him having transcended suffering, he knew his younger self would've been devastated by the thought alone.

"Wherever we go, we await one another. Between us stands no barrier strong enough, not Deathqueen's, not death, not what succeeds it." She strolled around the body and made sure that it was presentable, then carefully knelt beside the head to admire him more closely. "Yes, and whatever hinders me, I am to rise above. What hinders my Ikki, he shall surpass, so our embrace is imminent. I will hold you in my arms again."

Ikki took a good look at his own body too, in a way not estranged by the idea of witnessing his demise so externalized, extraneous. Some thread of thought was loose in that notion, as if an organ previously left atrophied could suddenly be awakened if he concentrated enough. That, however, felt rather difficult to do in the moment.

"Because between us stands no barrier strong enough, not flesh, mind, nor soul…" Esmeralda continued her prayer.

"Not even ourselves," Ikki was able to speak by some peculiar ability, and at that moment the girl looked up, her gaze meeting his straight on. She had found him, and this filled him with light.

"Not even ourselves," she repeated with a smile, looked down at the body again, and touched her lips to his forehead. In that moment it felt as if he became enlightened by an entity concealed deeper than the subconscious, more alive than one could imagine, and capable of comprehending his whole mind.

Though this took long in his depths, outside, it spanned several seconds. Shaka went past him and paced to the temple's exit. "Now to go after those other boys, but I already sense a struggle upstairs. I hope Milo is being careful with them the same way I was," said the Gold Saint.

He gave a singular step after the portal's line before being interrupted by a blinding Cosmos. The ceiling, pools, floor, walls, and pillars in the temple were quickly coated in golden flames so hot that he was forced back inside.

With how they raged all around the perimeter, Shaka could no longer escape safely. By the time he had turned, his eyes were opened in anticipation, and a lensing aura outlined Phoenix's body. The man was even capable of walking in that state, steps sure yet awkward-looking with how he inspired little balance, and with that he faced Virgo to reveal that flames were buried far in his eyes.

Both embodying unnatural appearances, the Saints rose their Cosmoi, but the guardian was apprehensive. "This cannot be!" he exclaimed. "You lot are no ordinary Saints. You are no Bronze Saints at all!"

Ikki continued to accumulate plenteous sums of energy to bundle up in his core, yet with his newfound Seventh Sense, this meant he could do it seemingly without scruples. At that point the Temple of Virgo distorted both visually and physically.

Shaka ordered him out of desperation: "Phoenix, stop at once! You have no experience with the Seventh Sense. There is no such thing as unlimited power, we are all tied to the edges of existence! If you insist on this, we will both be torn asunder!" Instead, his foe upped that frenzy more irresponsibly than before, so the pillars began to bend and crack no matter how faraway they were. "PHOENIX!"

Ikki screamed and, tailed by heated particles, obliterated the very space rather than the matter between them. The stride he took to Shaka ripped the fabric of existence momentarily, and therewith they were glued to each other and whichever congregated nearby. That tear in existence closed as quickly as they spiraled and stretched into it, and nothing remained but their helmets and that dark, damaged hall.

Outside, Shun felt the intense peak in the Temple of Virgo, then, as soon as it reached a climax, all power inside disappeared. He looked back a moment and wondered if that was a bad sign, but because his colleagues and Athena needed him, he went on to the Temple of Libra. Well beyond it, several sources of energy could be felt apart from the Pope's, and he could only wonder the obstacles faced by June and Hyoga.