WARNING: Violence, blood, severe injury, death, burns, body defacement, mild language.

Soul Hunter

Right after bringing down the North Pacific Pillar, Seiya was dazed by the sudden and extreme wave of dust and debris. Left lying in the middle of the destruction, he had to only push off some large pieces of marble and stone off the back, with no more than a few extra bruises to account for. He could see the extent of the demolition, so much of the place dampened by water.

The Saint walked along the now jagged floor and studied the section near the center, where unknown bloodstains were visible. He neared these rocks and pulled back on them with force, since they were heavy; he knew his enemy had not been located there before, so this could be no Mariner. Rather, whom he met was the body of a disfigured, robed man, no more than twice his age.

This man had been duly crushed by the weight of the pillar, enduring most of its fall's wrath. While busy maintaining the Earth's curse, he was unable to redirect Cosmos to increase his own chances of survival, something certainly expected by one in his position. Therefore that priest died in loyal service to Poseidon.

"So Shun is right," Pegasus remarked. "Those are the guys causing the global storm. We're doing the right thing to focus on the pillars."

His focus was redirected to the other temples where combat continued. As soon as he left towards the South Pacific, its pillar was downed by June, and she headed for the Antarctic. Seiya redirected to the same place, although he was farther and it would take longer to arrive.

However, the war was fast and relentless. As he crossed the rubble on the South Pacific, he watched the Indian Pillar crumble, accompanied by the bright spectacle of Shiryu's strength, one he had no trouble recognizing.

To one who admired power, stopping was like an obligation. He witnessed the way which Dragon left no chances for the obelisk to stand, lips parted in surprise. "That's Shiryu for sure," he spoke of the obvious. When the inevitable wash of dust towered above, Seiya skipped on past the South Pacific and towards a path to the Antarctic.

His arrival in the temple is what protected him from a more distant implosion, that of the Arctic Pillar by Hyoga's hand. The pace at which they were advancing made him excited to face Poseidon and liberate Athena, although there was no telling what state she was in after their failure back in Athens. Such thoughts were so salient to him he did not note a sense of déjà vu befall him upon his entry, one similar to that felt back in the Temple of Gemini.

From where he was, the turbulent tsunami of rock shards was nowhere as powerful as the others, however, it still shook the foundation beneath. He was estranged by the quietude that preceded this, apart from the lack of Cosmoi deeper into the courtyard, but he looked forward to continuing the efforts of his allies.

"We're doing quick work," he said, "but I don't feel Shun and June anywhere. They should be around here, so…" The Bronze Saint walked out to the yard and found the intact structure of its pillar. Indeed, there was naught else to be found out there, the place deserted if not for the many layers of dust that stained it.

Its unexpected state stood out to him. He suspiciously scanned the surroundings ere walking further, watching the pillars skirting the open space. Instead of going forward, he strolled sideways till the area behind the obelisk was visible, though it was as empty as the remainder. Only that wicked energy from the priest made him company. Without obstacles, there was no explanation but June and Shun skipping the Antarctic and going elsewhere.

In silence, Seiya's honed instinct paid heed to the slightest movement. Boots dropped to the ground afar, coming out of hiding from the temple's configuration, and since the distance lent itself to safety, he looked straight on. The one he met was Eagle Marin, not Shun, June, or Ikki.

At first he walked, but then his steps automatically slowed down. He had another sense of déjà vu — certainly an echo of how often he had been in this situation with Marin, he assumed. "Marin?" he mumbled. "They said you stayed back to deliver letters to Rozan!"

Seeing that the Silver Saint approached as well, he stopped and allowed her to circle him. The woman stopped and, apparently pestered, rested a hand on her waist. "You believed that," she said.

"Huh… you had something to do here?"

"I am working from the inside to free Lady Athena since the beginning."

Pegasus' frown grew deeper. "R-really?" his voice raised. "Shun never told me anything about that!"

"It is something known only to the Gold Saints, so he wouldn't be aware of it," the other revealed.

"But you're telling it to me now."

"Because I need your help," she said, and thus she walked around Seiya until reaching his other side. "Things aren't going as planned."

"What do you need from me?"

"Follow me and I'll show." Marin led him back towards the temple, albeit to the passage on the opposite end of the courtyard; the young man obeyed without question, no matter how bizarre this all was. He watched the surreal sight of that giant column beside them, padded with dark energy that now convened at the Mainstay rather than seeping upwards, directly to the Earth. "I'm glad you're alive. Things seem to be pretty rough out there."

"They must be!" Seiya agreed. "Have you seen Shun and June? I'm sure they had to have passed through these parts."

"I've seen them, though I haven't seen them go past here," the woman said. "Sure they haven't gone a different direction?"

"I'm kind of sure, actually."

"Strange." Marin's gaze — hidden behind the mask — was ever distant, yet somehow she became further aloof the closer they came to the passage. The temple's shadow was cast upon her and she quit walking along the way, prompting Seiya to slow down himself. "Come to think of it, maybe it's the right time to tell you something."

The Bronze Saint raised an eyebrow and turned to her, estranged. "Eh, don't get angry, but you're acting kind of weird," he carefully said.

"Yeah, it's…" The woman sighed and shook the head, turning back to the apprentice, a hand to her covering's chin.

Realizing what was about to succeed, Seiya stepped back and looked off with a gasp, though Eagle had no shame in unveiling her face. "What the hell is up with you guys?" he complained in clear frustration. "First Shaina, now you! You can't just go around with a naked face like it's nothing, Marin! You're so strict about that, and all of a sudden…"

Marin was haply caught by some momentary shame and nigh looked away, albeit something pushed her to stare on, directly at him. "That's not my name," she spoke.

Pegasus' attention was that abruptly stolen. His mind evaluated the absurd, and thus he allowed himself the blessing of an amazon's face another instance. What dream-like features he took in — that was not the woman he saw in the Temple of Leo, not merely his master, not merely a Silver Saint.

Her fair skin was freckled and her eyes a recognizable brown, cheeks round and flushed, nose straight, tapered chin delicate... as such that woman seemed younger than he had ever imagined her to be, and more, her Greek features were vaguely East Asian, undeniably of a Japanese tinge.

The more Seiya focused, the less this made sense, yet the less could he deny the obvious. A possibility dawned on him and a voice called his name within, just as desperate as he was to find a long lost soul. "You are…" he paused as if incapable to utter the syllables.

"You see it now, don't you?" Seika asked so casually.

His eyes filled with tears; he recollected the photo shown to him by Athena, and somehow she was right in front of him now, no doubt about it. Voice cracking, he attempted to seek answers: "Why didn't you…?"

"Had you known who I was, it would've gotten in the way," she told, and her eyes shone just as well.

"Seika!" he cried and jumped into her arms, head buried in her shoulders. He had the one he sought always in front of him, no matter how impossible it sounded, and now she took him in an embrace. Seika comforted him; her smell was surreal, a cocktail of nostalgia, as if the youth had stepped back into the orphanage of his childhood.

"Forgive me, Seiya," she said while muffled by his hair. "Forgive me for hiding it this long."

"I thought you were dead, that I would never see you again! Seika!"

"Forgive me, please… forgive me," she insisted. The siblings went on in their embrace, though, regardless of Seika's somber tone, a grin between the shadows did not carry such apologetic air. Instead, that copper hair hid a truth most vile, one too subtle for the Saint to uncover.

Following the fall of the Arctic, Hyoga was prompt in going towards the Mainstay. His thinking was borne out of trust in his friends, despite the number of Cosmos sources in the vicinity falling by the minute. He skipped several kilometers towards the Temple of Poseidon, ignoring stairways and paths, but always keeping an eagle eye on any enemies that might come in view.

What he saw, however, was no enemy, more the familiar sight of red hair running amid rocks and sediment. Once he descended, he confirmed this to be Kiki; since the Saint had landed quite close to him, and the boy was unequipped to sense Cosmos too well, he was surprised by the arrival and almost fell back with the Cloth box.

"G-guh, Hyoga? Sheesh, be careful! I only brought one pair of pants, you know?" he babbled in his scare.

Resolute, Cygnus stepped closer and inspected the box he carried, presuming it to be that of their Lady's Cloth as per its goodly appearance. "Of course, that's what should be done," he spoke to himself, and to that Kiki scratched the back of the head. "Who sent you?"

"The High Priestess," he replied.

"She did well, though she should've sent a Saint instead," said the man. "In order to hand this to Lady Athena, we'll likely have to pass through Poseidon himself. You'll be in great danger."

The boy shook his head and countered: "But I can handle myself alright! And also, she sent me because I'm a part of intelligence. Lady Athena expects me to do these kinds of things."

"Still not ideal," Hyoga reiterated, so the frustrated Kiki sighed and let both shoulders slump forward, "though it's worthless to debate now. You and I will walk into that temple and deliver the Cloth to her. However difficult it may be, we can't fail."

"Yes, yes!" the youth sang reinvigorated.

They deviated their attention to the great Mainstay itself, that screamingly tall, wide obelisk that was Atlantis' most stark element. Hyoga could sense the way which Cosmoi from the remaining pillars was tethered towards it, and how another wicked, godly energy irradiated from the temple's courtyard. To him it was palpable what occurred, and within this muddle a valiant aura fought back the tide, surely Athena's power.

He stood in awe a few seconds before Kiki broke the silence: "Any ideas on how to get the Cloth to her?"

"It seems they have put her inside that pillar," Cygnus told, and so the kid stared at it with a frown. "The curse that before affected the Earth, has instead been redirected there. She suffers in humanity's stead."

"She… she might die for them," Kiki realized.

"We cannot allow that to happen either, but it's just the two of us for the time being."

"So what should we do?"

"We'll sneak in, study the place. What would take seconds to drown humanity, should take several minutes to drown her, so we have time. When it feels right, I'll strike and you'll take the Cloth to her. That is all we can do."

Kiki nodded with determination. Behind that visage of confidence and calm, they both recognized an anxiety, not only regarding Athena's fate, but regarding their own welfare. Facing a god was likely to be a fatal experience, yet while they weighed such end to be probable, they were reminded of their duty. This was heavier than the risk of death itself.

They left more calmly to the Temple of Poseidon, analyzing its features, entrances, exits, and architecture from outside. It hadn't come to Hyoga's attention thus far that the other temples were no longer affected by the Cosmoi of allies. Even the Antarctic, where Seiya last visited, had no source of energy other than the priest.

Doubtlessly the Antarctic's courtyard became peaceful after Seiya and Seika's passage. Minutes passed and no more pillar crumbled, for no more folk fought beyond the front. That unparalleled fierceness with which the Bronze Saints advanced seemed to falter as quickly as it began, for no clear reason.

Boots quietly landed on those grounds, of an orange hue, and strings of oblong plates followed the newcomer in his path. This man encircled the pillar with watchful steps, never coming too close. Once the column's shadow no longer encompassed his body and face, it was clear this was Ikki, no longer accompanied by his younger brother.

The visitor did not stare up at the structure's height; in fact he didn't even stare at the active pillar itself, but at the perimeter about it, ever seeking whichever may hide behind. A feeling he had experienced before — this sensation that he had once been there, in a time he could not recall, perhaps in a past life — came to haunt him. Ikki stopped in his tracks, shut the eyes, and grinned with a hum.

Thereon he continued on a cautious walk, till he had nigh made a full arc around the thing. Who came into view was Andromeda Shun once more, whose delicate eyes spread upon meeting him.

"Ikki, you are here!" the boy called and approached, whereas his older brother came to a full pause. "Where had you been? You vanished without giving us a word!"

Phoenix raised an eyebrow quite subtly and said: "What are you saying? You knew well where I was."

Shun chuckled and shook the head negatively. "I did not hear a thing," he told. "Did you send word through someone else?"

"It does not matter, brother. Tell me what hinders this pillar's fall," Ikki cut in to change topics, although while he said this, he refused to turn to the building. His eyes were peeled on the youth, if not somewhere past him.

"You cannot so simply reappear after this long and not give me a hug," Shun countered, coming hither than prior. "Come."

His arms reached forth to embrace the man, but Ikki did not appear immediately welcoming of this. Despite not pushing him off, he stood still until Andromeda was so close that their Cloths were about to touch; it was then that he placed a hand to the middle of his younger brother's chest, fingers squeezed as if trying to grasp a thing amiss.

Shun's deep blue eyes stared back up, inquisitive as to why their moment had been interrupted. What he saw was his older brother's sarcastic stare, one difficult to forget. The grin he widened was disturbing in a sense, and what he said next did not make the moment any less strange: "Not good with the details, are you?"

What came next was the complete absurd. Phoenix, without a hint of compassion in him, raised the other arm engulfed in flame and slammed it harshly against Andromeda's face. The force was such that the boy was launched away, arms and chains flying about; his ornate helmet was dropped and skid over the ground to reveal luscious strands of hair.

Shun rolled to the side and eyed the attacker; his soft skin had been burned right through, flesh melting from beneath, an eye bloodshot and off-center. "Brother, what is the matter with you?" he screamed with a hoarse tone, though his boyish voice had deepened.

Even seeing the image of his own brother helpless and terribly injured, Ikki's Cosmos burned hot. "Continue to desecrate my brother's liking, and I will burn it off you, Charybdis," the man said.

Shun's burnt face flaked off in an instant. That deepening voice went on to become disgusting grunts, and soon his semblance melted into that of a General-Mariner. This had been the man whom June and Geki fought during the summit, the one capable of grotesque illusions, no different from Gemini, Virgo, or Phoenix himself.

It was not only this illusion that he revealed. With it the sound of war echoed from afar as expected; the Antarctic Temple had been made eerily quiet to lure victims into a false sense of security. Furthermore, three unconscious bodies had been lined up by a corner, near the edges of the courtyard; these were the actual Shun, June, and Seiya.

This Mariner's power was somehow capable of keeping them in a torpor, and had he enough time, he surely would've finished them without resistance. Ikki took note of this and ensured that nothing could befall them. "You are Charybdis Caça, the last of Kanon's commanders yet standing," the man identified.

The Scale worn by the fallen man was reminiscent of the horror after which it was named; with so many edges from the shoulders, to knees, forearms, and elbows protruding like edged fins, he appeared dangerous to the very touch. The plates were many, scalloped and layered, either forming organic-like circles where they entwined, or leaf-like edges where they were left alone. His helmet had a central row of twisted spikes along the skull, which ended in a beaked tip low enough that, once worn, it was sure to hide his identity. On his cuirass was engraved the depiction of a deformed sea monster, whose giant waves were just about to swallow the crude shorelines of an island, presumably in Poseidon's stead.

Caça's diseased, pale skin was severally injured at that point. He reached for his fallen helmet and covered most of the burns under its hide, smiling the pain away while he got up. "Do… do you think that because you escaped my first illusion, you'll be able to defeat me, Phoenix? You're very wrong!" he said.

"Keep your delusions to yourself," Ikki continued. "For your mockery of someone as merciful as Shun, I will hand you a quick defeat."

Charybdis growled and did not waste any more time, though in his slowness, Ikki sped in and struck him first. He crossed the air like a blur of light chased by golden fire; whenever his hands touched the enemy's Scale, it erupted in ember, then blew like a bomb. In that initial romp, the General was perplexed and aimless.

Doing his best to both tend for the others' slumber and defeat the invader, Caça fought with much difficulty. If he did not stop them from awakening, they would join Phoenix and ascertain their victory; if he did not fight Phoenix with all his might, he would be carbonized in an instant.

Before the last attack came, the Mariner spread both arms, sparkling with Cosmos. For a moment his image appeared to spread into two, and the energy clouded along with it, creating doubts about his exact position. It was due to this that Ikki barely missed him, though the way which fire extended from his steps forced Caça to skip upwards and off; he was duly hunted thereon.

Having caught up the pace, now Charybdis saw himself able to dodge the foe's unbelievable speed and danger. This did not come without sacrifice — the core of Phoenix's attacks could be avoided with effort, though the burns from the splash could not. The Scale became warmer and warmer, and wherever the flames touched, Caça's skin felt the same damage of his injured face.

Such situation would not be bearable for long, he knew, thus the Mariner flew from midair to encounter Phoenix face-to-face. Once more they exploded, now both in light, sparks, and plasma, before tumbling to the ground. Like a pesky primate, Caça clung to Ikki's torso and head, arms and legs wrapped around his limbs and neck, so that they would not separate.

Ikki allowed himself to roll onto the now uneven marble tiles, and soon felt one of the opponent's hands veil his face, fingers pressed to both eyelids. There a cold Cosmos could be felt, a kind of technique he once suffered at Shaka's hands — this was a power he was well acquainted with.

No success could come of such thing, for Virgo had become as much his master as had been Guilty, and for he was one knowledgeable of the mind's strengths and weaknesses. Caça pulled back the hand after a second, eyes wide in surprise and fear.

"I… I knew it!" he exclaimed enlightened, but they were roughly separated with a blast of fiery vigor.

In this process Ikki had reached forth before the enemy was too far, fingers tight and packed with Cosmos. At the speed of light, this edged hand grazed Caça's exposed neck as he was launched into the distance, enough to split a wound.

The Mariner rolled and groaned aloud. The injury was not life-threatening, but it made it harder to breathe and, summed with the gritting aches of the burns all along his body, he was stunned. Once he came to his senses, he reached behind with a hand to crawl away, perhaps stand, though Ikki's boot pushed his cuirass down and pinned him.

Caça stared up, not ready to meet the same death he had so casually brought to his every victim, civilian or military. Burning Cosmos in desperation, he took Phoenix's leg in both hands and attempted to push it off, since his breathing was too rugged — a vain act.

"I saw it…" the General commented with a cough "… I saw your weakness! I would've won if… if only…"

Ikki had few emotions to display at that moment other than repulse, though his curiosity was piqued. "A weakness, is it?" he asked.

Caça slowly nodded. "You would've come here… you would've seen her, the one that fuels your will to go on…"

His former vision came to him, the one he experienced while grasping Ikki's mind. As that man wandered the courtyard as he did before, it was not Shun whom he encountered behind the pillar, but someone else. It was one he could not forget — one he did not desire to forget for a second of his existence.

Esmeralda's black hair was as long as prior, if not longer; she was wrapped in a pareo so brightly colored, the likes of which she rarely had the chance to use in Death Queen's. Her taupe skin glistened under Atlantis' disembodied glow, and somehow Phoenix approached with his own steps to meet her midway, rather than waiting behind.

"Ikki!" she gladly called, and to hear her voice soothed him. She embraced him and, without resistance, he took her body in his arms too. Mindful of every detail, in thought was the certainty that this was not real — for the moment he did not care, not for details, not for illusions. "Oh, to feel your warmth again…"

He continued there for the coming instant. They shifted subtly, heads rested onto the other's shoulder, taking in their every long lost aspect, from scent to texture. Esmeralda's hand reached into her bosom, under the pareo, and dug between their torsos, but Ikki would not stop her.

Therewith that same hand pushed a thing betwixt the gaps of the Phoenix Cloth, a shiv deep enough to pierce his gut. This Ikki also did not mind, though they momentarily separated and gazed. In the young woman's almond eyes was worry over his reaction, but he nodded the head left and right to ease it.

"Do not hate me, Ikki. I am compelled to do this," she admitted.

"No," he said and took hold of her forearm. "If you wish to see a man die, you must dig the blade deeper, like this." And with his own strength, he pushed the weapon so far deep into him that he felt his organs be pierced and ripped; blood flooded the wound till it splattered around the blade and fell onto the marble. "Do you see how it works?"

"I… I see," she pensively said. "I will push it even deeper."

"Do as you must, my hope."

"I wish there was another way..." With all the impetus she could muster, Esmeralda shoved the blade further than before. Ikki coughed and huffed in pain, but did not fight back. Rather, he allowed his vision to darken, for the cold of death to take him. That was where she could truly be found after all.

Caça returned to his senses and looked back up at the one whose boot immobilized him. Had he appealed to that hidden portion of his heart, surely Ikki would lie worthless like his brother and friends by the corner. However, that was no ordinary man whom he met. The past of a heart so calloused could not be easily unveiled.

"You... have a heart after all, and it has a fatal weakness... like any other," the Mariner said, breathing more shallowly by the second. "Though… it's so, so deeply buried that not even I could find it."

Now Ikki's frown possessed the least shrouded revolt for the one beneath him. "I once wished to lose my heart and become a monster. Looking down at a monster now…" he paused to press the boot deeper and slide it up to Caça's neck "… I wonder what was going through my mind."

Caça could barely utter words, but he found breath to pathetically plead: "M-mercy! Mercy is Lady Athena's teaching!"

"Unfortunately for you, if I spared you, I do not know what would be of my friends."

"I won't… I won't do…"

There was no arguing with Phoenix's reasoning. The decision was made: as if finishing a repulsive bug, he crushed Caça's windpipe, neck near flattened under the foot. His head went limp after a while and leaned back, while all force left his struggling hands. The helmet lightly tilted to reveal lifeless eyes, so the deed had been completed.

"I am certain your soul shall suffer your actions a long while, Charybdis, so I hope at least the souls of your victims have found solace," Ikki spoke and tapped the man's head to the side with the tip of a boot. He walked over to check on the state of his allies next.

He walked between each one and knelt to take in their situation. It was as if they had fallen in deep sleep, tranquil, albeit no longer ensnared by Caça's terrifying power. One could not tell when they were to awaken, though what mattered is that he confirmed that they lived, so, without bothering to bring down the Antarctic Pillar, Phoenix walked a meter or so away from them and skipped out of the temple. His next destination was unclear, though he seemed to shorten a path towards the other two active obelisks, where more Marina-Generals could be found.

Hyoga and Kiki continued their foray in learning the ins and outs of the Temple of Poseidon, having come to terms that a stealthy entrance was possible, though their safety could never be assured. There were many slender, tall windows unprotected by lattice that one could venture through, at least with some effort and a little acrobatics, yet they soon found what seemed like a porch in one of the temple's laterals. They also observed the occasional cultist crossing the hallways, rarely coming to these outer chambers, for their main focus at the time was the central courtyard and their Lord's influence over the curse.

It was at this time that Cygnus realized the strange shifts in the Antarctic; he knew from prior that most Cosmoi had been silenced, though the fight between Ikki and Caça disturbed that once more. As soon as the fight was finished, someone ventured out of that temple towards the others, but the fact that the Antarctic Pillar did not forthwith fall was sign that the escapee was no ally.

The state of Shun and the others preoccupied Hyoga. He gazed nowhere in particular and wondered if he hadn't forgotten something important, such as an explanation for this strangeness. Nothing came to mind. "They might've gotten stuck in the Antarctic," he paused near a hill and commented to Kiki, looking back at the pillar in question.

"Eh? That doesn't sound good," the boy lamented.

"If there are no signs of the Antarctic falling soon, I'll have to check on it myself."

"But giving Lady Athena the Cloth should be our priority!"

Cygnus turned back to him and sighed, nodding in accordance. "You're right, that would solve most of our problems now," he said, although letting go of the state of his friends troubled him deeply. "When Aldebaran and Mu cross through, they should be able to take down the Antarctic with ease. I hope they do so soon."

"Hey, I get what you're feeling." Kiki came closer and found Hyoga's blue eyes, offering him a resolute expression. "I worry for them too, for Seiya, Shiryu, all of them! Jabu and the others are how I was able to go past the blockade, and I don't even know if they're alive anymore. This whole war thing, it…"

Kiki breathed and took a step back, staring up at the Mainstay as if to distract himself from a pang. The Saint's admiration was further caught by seeing him break, and then he looked at the Cloth box he carried — that child, once tasked with readying for the highest form of Sainthood, had also been tasked with espionage, investigation, till taking a quest that deadly and crucial. Above all, that child had been sent to witness war, the most brutal spilling of blood in existence, to be thrown into its very axis. If he could look on to his utmost goal and rise above some uncertain grief, then he, too, had to attempt it.

"We will get that Cloth to her," Hyoga affirmed. Kiki looked back, yet this once it was his expression that carried doubt. The Bronze Saint emphasized it: "Today I killed an old brother who fought in Atlantis' name. I can't fathom a pain worse, not even death, so whatever awaits me in this temple, I know I can endure. Still, I need you to endure it with me, Kiki. We will deliver that Cloth."

Kiki furled the brow in courage, his will reignited. "Yes! We can do this!" he said.

Thus the duo ultimately invaded the temple, Hyoga being the first to go in with a leap to the porch held up by columns. Next was the Cloth box; as soon as the Saint looked down to aid Kiki, he saw the object float up unevenly, trembling its way to his height. The straps came in reach and he angled them in both arms, as to secure and pull it in.

The delivery was lightly placed on the marble, and Cygnus spied from behind a cover to see whether anyone ventured into the nearby room. Safe that they were alone, he straightened an arm down to Kiki and helped him up with little issue, since the boy knew enough of the Cosmos to give himself a decent jump start.

The kid — carrying the box again — followed the Saint deeper into the temple, past a passage and into a bedroom of many a bed. Although the sheets were immaculate and of refined fabric, the way which the furniture had been disposed pointed to this being a collective quarters for the servants.

Both went on to the next passage, that disembogued into a hallway; this in turn was connected to other quarters, and especially to the main nave of the temple. From the corner, Hyoga spotted white robes traversing a path afar, up the stairs that led to the courtyard.

With the somewhat exposed forearm, he kept Kiki back, and hid to ensure neither of them were seen. When the light steps of the cultist vanished in the distance, he whispered: "It seems Poseidon's servants patrol the entire place."

"Huh… then what do we do?" Kiki asked.

"It will be difficult to burst through that pillar, so I think it's best if we hide you while I come up with a plan."

"But with them walking about, where can I hide?"

"That's what we'll look for together," Hyoga concluded and looked outside a second time. 'They seem to be gone. Come on."

Both went on and checked out the situation of the large hall, observing that, other than the last priest that had passed by, the place was empty. Making their bodies harder to see by staying below the line of furniture, stairs, half walls, and pillars, the two cut a way to the other end, beyond the dining table.

There they entered another hallway, presumably the one that would lead to the room given to Athena, and sneaked closer towards the doors. A distant crackling sound estranged Hyoga and made him stop, as did Kiki. "What's the matter?" the kid wondered.

The Saint's eyebrow raised inquisitively. A burst of Cosmos alarmed him from behind the division nearby, and so he dove against the boy to push him aground. "Careful!" he shouted.

In that moment the wall's materials were blown to shards, a shining trident flying past to be buried in the other end. Hyoga rolled ahead of it and got up at once; the dust still had to settle, but he saw the outline of cape and armor, and sensed an energy no common warrior would carry.

Desperate, he eased himself backwards and waved to Kiki, that had to get up in a daze. "Get out of here and hide!" he ordered, but the kid resisted a moment. That fearsome Cosmos rared to explode a second instance, therewith Hyoga strode off, being struck in the shoulder pad by little.

Even though this was a glancing, unwanted strike, that section of the Cloth cracked into pieces and Cygnus spiraled to a three-point position, already back in the hall. Indeed it was Poseidon who stood in their way, who aimed fingers aside while he used the other hand to retrieve his weapon.

In that moment it became clear why Hyoga had survived the advance: he felt residual power emanating from the god's deviation of the curse. If he spent long enough without feeding this hex, Athena would've known something was astir, and would've surely rejoined the battle. His only fear at that point was her, and as such, he was diligent in this.

"This isn't good," the Bronze Saint admitted regardless. His eyes briefly focused behind the god to realize that Kiki had dashed far into the hallway's depths, and the boy was well hidden in one of the many rooms.

"Every Saint to brave these hallowed grounds shall be slain," Poseidon warned, his attention entirely on Hyoga.

The young man got fully up and opened a slight distance, whereas the god approached without qualms. An escape was unfeasible, however, he could survive his attacks provided that he could read them. "How long will you go on with this? If you don't release Lady Athena, you won't survive Heaven's eventual arrival!" he told.

"So be it!" Poseidon stated. "I gladly give this life of mine for the lives of all Saints now in Atlantis. If not today, faith assures me one day I am to make the Earth my own, and I am to purify humanity of its wickedness!"

Seeing the trident be rotated and braced, Hyoga preemptively bounced off at the speed of light. This was no challenge to the greatness of the gods, so Poseidon sliced himself through the air and struck the man on the same shoulder hitherto exposed. Blood sprayed the stairs, but the Saint did not stop moving, despite being pushed off course for a split second.

Like an entity that bent light in its wake, Poseidon descended over and over to wherever Cygnus might've been, always raising dust and obliterating what stood beneath them. No wall, no pillar, no furniture, no ceramic was left intact where they passed. Growing distracted by the velocity and smarts displayed by the Saint, the god ended up using all his available Cosmos and struck him in full.

Hyoga was launched across a wall and into another one of the servants' quarters. His back ached and he rolled on the marble, painfully coming to a knee. He looked up and saw the foe slowly encroach from the clouds like before, so he prepared for what was to come.

Poseidon meditated in a failure — he had let go of the curse for a split instant, and raised the fingers of the free hand to reinstate it. If that lowly warrior were to take him out of his concentration for long enough, there was no telling how quickly the Mainstay would burst upon Athena's reaction.

Nonetheless, seeing that unassailable challenge, Cygnus breathed in the truth he debated earlier: death was a misstep away. Without the aid of his allies, he would fall as a useless buffer to the head of Atlantis. Worse, once he was gone, there would be no one left to protect Kiki or deliver his Lady's Cloth. Thereon, only Heaven's coming would undo their ruinous fate.

Luckily for him, after Ikki's incursion of the Antarctic, the Saints once enraptured by Caça had begun to awaken. The last of them was Shun himself, who sat up with the slightest of headaches, hearing a distant grumbling and fighting. He felt that his hair was exposed, so he turned to see that the helmet had been left behind him, taking it as to protect himself.

As his senses sharpened, he was able to take a hold of the Andromeda Chain and calmly stand; he could see two other people closest to the active obelisk. One of them was June, lacking her whip and sitting restfully on the ground. The second was Seiya, some steps away from her, seemingly swinging kicks at a body that lied on the marble.

It was Pegasus who yelled complaint after complaint with each attack. Astounded at the aggression, Shun walked closer and processed the reason behind this. He remembered last seeing Ikki, though no sign of him remained. The body was adorned in a golden Scale not unlike Io's, so that was without a doubt a General. Soon his brain connected the probable cause of their current situation.

"You asshole! Goddamn asshole! Burn in hell, you piece of..."

"Stop! Seiya, stop it!" Andromeda interrupted his friend by grabbing one of his shoulders, then pulled him back so he was out of range of the dead. "What is the point of this? The man is gone already!"

The other youth turned. Though there was fury in his dark eyes, there were also tears pooling, oh so close to falling as they had done before. Ikki's image echoed in Shun's head, and therefore he realized what cruelty the Mariner cast unto him.

"This demon…" Seiya's voice deepened out of anger while he eyed Caça's corpse some more "… made me think he was Seika. He appeared to me as my sister, he…"

Shun's eyes widened and he held his friend's arms more softly. "I get it, I get it. He appeared to me as Ikki too," said the boy.

"I fought that guy back in Athens," June butted in and got up from where she sat, while Seiya breathed deeply to calm his furor. "I guess I should've expected something like this."

"What do you mean?"

"Geki and I were having trouble with him. He could make us see things where they weren't," the girl explained. "Then he suddenly took Geki by the head, and he just... turned off — just stopped fighting back altogether. It was a lot like when Ikki used that weird technique on himself."

"Of course, a man who affects the mind with Cosmos," Shun spoke and crouched to study his state. "He has fresh burns on his face, and I can see hints of more under the armor."

"But, June, weren't you the one who defeated him?" Seiya questioned.

June shook her head negatively, saying: "Nah, I fell for a trap too. The guy showed up to me as Shun, but he was acting really weird."

Andromeda studied the signs of brutality in Charybdis' death. The split and flattened neck was the more subtle one, but the most likely cause of his demise. In addition to that, the scathing burns were unlikely to be caused by someone like Shiryu, let alone Hyoga, so evidence pointed back to his older brother.

"It must have been Ikki who finished him," Shun concluded.

June crossed the arms and shrugged. "Really? This would be the only sign that he's even around," she commented.

"I can see no other possibility. These burns tell a very simple story, do they not?"

"Yeah, that's a good point."

"But that doesn't explain why he didn't bring down this pillar," said Seiya.

It was then that they felt peaks of Cosmoi ongoing inside the Temple of Poseidon, unlike the pattern they had experienced until then. "Something is happening near the Mainstay," Shun remarked, then stood and turned back to his friends. "We have no time to lose, things are going fast. Take this pillar down and go straight there. I will deal with the remaining ones."

"Huh? But we can take them down faster if we work together!" Pegasus argued.

"Our priority will always be our Lady's safety," the boy said. "Besides, whoever killed this General has certainly gone on to kill more of them. In this sense, I will not be on my own."

"Ah, fine then." Seiya thus turned to the pillar and walked about it a while. "Just got to find a safe angle to take it down with the Comet Fist."

June, however, went a different way, walking towards the courtyard's edge. "I'll run while you deal with things here, just in case it's an emergency," she told them. The boys nodded and so she leapt off to Athena's aid.

"Seiya!" before leaving too, Shun caught his friend's attention to help him. He pointed with a finger in a direction outwards, where no temple was to be found. "That way is between southwest and west. If you fire in that direction, it should be safe."

"Uh… understood!" Seiya confirmed, and thereon Shun left from the Antarctic to the South Atlantic Temple, chasing the stairs and platforms that connected both.

Pegasus walked several meters off the obelisk's perimeter as to not suffer its fall like he did the North Pacific's. He charged with that unbelievable amount of Cosmos and aimed a hand in the direction he had been told to do so, trusting his friend's judgment. Another pillar was about to fall, and the advance of Athena's troops was as alive as ever.

"PEGASUS COMET FIST!"

His scream echoed loud and far, and all were able to see, after such a long time of silence, that the panorama of Atlantis was changing another time. The overwhelming shine of the Comet Fist glared at the eyes of soldiers, and the sphere of energy whistled for kilometers before wilting. The Atlantean troops, somewhat strengthened by this interval, fell demoralized at the dust's onslaught. Despite how distant was the Antarctic, its wave traveled far enough to wash them in a sea of blindness.

Once more they fought under that veil, and the only lights in the background were of those warriors loyal to Athena. Like a falling star ascending and descending to the Mainstay, Pegasus safely escaped the destruction and followed Chameleon to their next destination, one where they would meet no mere combatant.