Lance's Role

by Thrudgelmir2333

A 'shonen' fic that sequels Next Dimension and Lost Canvas. In 1960, the Pope of Athena receives three prophecies from an old enemy that irremediably set the course of his reign over Sanctuary's tragic history and almost two decades later a Saint of Pegasus finds himself put through the unfolding of a new age of violence caused by the Pope's actions. Please enjoy and review.

96. 3A: Atlae's Inferno

Notable OCs: Pegasus Lance's Saint Generation, Civil War Saint Generation, WWII Saint Generation, Hades' Dark Princes, the False Specters, Maidens of Athena, Priam's Black Saints; Cyrulian Refugees; Genbu Atlae; Patrician Mariners, Shamballa Muvians;

Notable Original Concepts: Mount Olympus Training Ground, Sanctuary Court, Teos Cloth, Athenian Empire mythology, Isle of Gardens, Stardust Prison, Hades' Dark Princes; Desert Beyond, Sanctuary Town Layout & Buildings; Kido Mount; Pact of Seven; DQI Geography; Shamballa;

Recurring/Cameo OCs of Jenny DeVic: Mrs. Schafurwatt, Cyrus

Recurring/Cameo Concepts of Jenny DeVic: Great Bodyguard Legend, Golden Line Heritage, Sanctuary Orphanages, Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests, Sanctuary Nobility, 88 Knights Festival

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Author Notes:

-This chapter has been betaread by EpicElly;

-We reach 2.2 million words on the fanfiction dot net publication today!;

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(?)

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"It is time we discuss a contract, Atlae." The figure demanded. "And that you become the Saint of Talos."

Blue ether flowed around them like soft wind. Atlae and Ithaca exchanged a look at the words of the shadowy silhouette before them, which had the shape of a tall human with shining blue lights as eyes. The Muvian beheld once more the state poor Ithaca was in; bald, scarred, emaciated, pale… a mere distorted memory of his former gallant self. He had just been swallowed by the giant Talos and now Atlae found himself here, before Ithaca and the shadow, after years of not having laid eyes on the Mariner or gotten a clear answer of his whereabouts.

And now he was being offered a chance to, as Talos worded, 'save both of their hearts'… by taking over Ithaca's place? His fists clenched and his cosmos burned. As response he only received a continued stare from the silhouette of shadows standing in front of him.

"Atlae, w-wait, don't." Ithaca begged, his voice weak and raspy.

Talos' blue lights squinted. "You would do well to listen to me, Atlae of Gen-"

Letting out a martial shout, Atlae launched at the ethereal figure, throwing fist! His knuckles merely passed through shadow harmlessly. Swerving his body, Atlae continued the attack, swinging punches and kicks at Talos over and over but merely battering the unphysical shade in front of him like hands through fog.

With a larger swing, Atlae practically threw himself through Talos and hit the floor, injuring himself.

Talos chuckled, seeing him get right back up with a flip. "I admire your energy, especially after the terrors you have gone through tonight. The Genbu Bell test has truly picked the best candidate for wearing me."

"W-wearing you?!" Atlae asked, getting right back up to attack again. "How could you possibly suggest that? You've been keeping Ithaca from us, attacking all these people! And now you want me to take over for him?!"

"Correct." Talos confirmed, dodging another swing without even moving.

The Muvian gawked. None of his attacks were working. And Talos was just going to say 'yes' to all that? He looked at poor Ithaca, who sat there in the ether ruined by everything he went through. Did this shadow person not even give a darn about the suffering he's clearly gone through?

Immersing his foot into a swamp of circling darkness, Atlae lunged a final time, swinging his technique "BLACK HOLE KICK!"

The attack, however, even with the power of the Darkness element, merely splashed through Talos like a rock hitting a lake's pristine surface. Tossed over himself by his momentum, Atlae yelped and crashed into the hard 'floor' of the ether, his technique dispelling.

"A-Atlae!" Ithaca called, crawling to his side.

"It's no use, Atlae of Genbu." Talos warned, watching the Muvian rub his pained head from the fall. "We are not speaking in the physical world, where your strength is grand. This conversation is taking place entirely in our Cosmos, the two of yours."

"Our cosmos? Mine and… Ithaca?" Atlae asked, trading a look with the Mariner. Was that why everything looked light blue? It had reminded him of Ithaca's once strong, confident cosmos, which was like that of a roaring wave rising over you at a coast.

"You care for this human; I can see that." Talos confessed. "But the best way to help him right now is to accept my offer to become the Cloth of your heart, not to pointlessly attack me."

The straw-hair Muvian stared wide-eyed. "The Cloth of… my heart? I... I don't understand what that means."

"A-Atlae, don't listen to him!" Ithaca urged, rising. He stumbled immediately, though, unable to support himself. The Mariner held his face, "You mustn't do this. This is exactly what he's done to me. Talos will eat you, turn you into a monster! And nothing of what he offers you will come true!"

"You've had your chance to do with me as you willed, Ithaca of Delphi."Talos argued, eyeing the Mariner reprovingly. "Just because you failed to control me, it does not mean Atlae should be denied his chance at his destiny."

"D-DESTINY?!" Ithaca roared, wishing for a moment he had the strength to lunge his fist at this uncaring shadow before them as well. "It is NOT Atlae's destiny to become an unthinking animal who steps on those he cares about without realizing it! It never was and never will be! He is a kind boy who dedicated his life to honoring my lord's family!"

The Muvian teared up, moved by his words. "Ithaca!"

"He's not… he's n-not an avatar for some broken machine's destructive impulses!" Ithaca reinforced, standing weakly between Atlae and the shadowy silhouette like he readied himself to take a blow for him. "I will not let you ruin his soul like you ruined mine!"

The shadow narrowed eyes, seeing the two of them resist him together. This complicated things needlessly to him. "Your selfish notions blind you both. I am no broken machine. And certainly am no monster." It's flaring silhouette grew. "I am one of what Sanctuary has called the Four Cloths of Myth."

"Four Cloths of Myth? What does that mean?" Atlae asked. He recalled the mythology lessons in Néa Delphi, for the short time he studied there. "I remember reading about the Colossus of Crete in class. The Mariner School mentioned it a lot. But I've never heard of 'cloths of myth'."

"Sanctuary speaks of four Cloths that existed in the first Holy War, Atlae, but that are unaccounted for." Ithaca explained to him. "Azrael claims Talos is one of those Cloths."

The Muvian recognized the name. "Azrael? He means, the man who attacked us? That miss Daisy is fighting?" How was that Zodiac Knight, as Master Yuzuriha described him, involved in all of this? "But… I always thought those Cloths were attributed to constellations?"

"As I said, it is just what Sanctuary calls us." Talos repeated. "You do not have the benefit of time, Atlae of Genbu, but since I sense you resist me still, I will try to explain."

"We don't have time? Why?" Atlae wondered. He then gasped, remembering how he first landed in this situation. "Wait, is Talos going to explode yet again?!"

Talos moved on before Atlae could ask; its shadowy hand waved at the ether around them, making the blue light shape into images of the past. While first turvy, Atlae saw images of a lost war; of Mariners in an older, less-refined style of armor storming beaches in some sort of conflict. He saw a shining continent in the Pacific, shining with tall buildings and surrounded by great ships of steel.

Atlae recognized it from the turtle school's books. The metropolitan contours were iconic to his culture. "That's the continent of Mu, before it sunk!" He then also saw the sky thundering with divine wrath down on the first Saints of Athena, all whose faces were masked with shadows. "Is this the first Holy War?"

"In a manner of speaking, there was no 'first' Holy War, Atlae of Genbu, because the conflicts of the Cosmos date back to since the universe took its first breath." Talos recounted. "However, what the Sanctuary of Athena might call the First Holy War was, indeed, waged in what Ithaca of Delphi calls in his heart the Age of Myth."

Atlae fidgeted, taking notice of Talos' strange way of speaking, overly formal and technical like the alchemists from Shamballa's labs, not to mention derived from Ithaca's understanding of things. He wondered for a moment if this was how everyone else saw Atlae in Greece.

He pieced the reason why together, though, remembering the little he knew about Cloths. "In Ithaca's heart? You mean, you don't know from anything else yourself, right?"

Talos' blue eyes fixed on him. "I was in that mountain you call Kailash for a very long time. Naturally I have been hibernating until someone rings the Genbu Bell. I therefore only know what I witness together with my wearers, and what my creators decided to let me know as of my birth."

Ithaca's eyes narrowed. "You mean, your creators decided to 'let you know' to kill Mariners!"

The other two tensed, Talos in irritation, judging by the rustling flames of his silhouette, and Atlae in fear.

The mariner, however, let it all out. "I was raised learning of your legend; that you were a bomb with legs that the Muvians made to fight us. From the moment you were born, you were meant to destroy, not to protect! No wonder you call yourself the 'Cloth of Destruction'!"

Atlae felt struck by this as if by a fist to the gut. A bomb with legs? Something his people made?

Talos, however, shook its head. "That is reductive, Ithaca of Delphi, and informed by your own point of view as a Mariner. It's as if to say a blade that struck you was invented solely to injure you, and never to defend or heal those your enemy loves. My purpose is much greater than to defend one island kingdom from one burgeoning empire of Poseidon worshippers. I exist, primarily, to be a Cloth."

At first, Atlae struggled to understand the difference. "To be a Cloth? But if you are from way back then, how does that…?" He then widened his eyes, remembering his conversation with mister Crysanthos and his golems, primarily the passion with which the human toiled with his incomplete dolls. "You mean, you were a prototype?! Of Cloths of Athena?"

"Cloths, Surplices, Scales… there is no difference but of the metal you bound to the stardust, and the manner you impart it with ego." Talos argued. "However, you may look at it in that manner, if you wish. Part of the first generation of attempts to imitate the clothes of the Gods."

"The clothes of the gods…" Atlae muttered to himself, pensive. He

"The Kamui, then." Ithaca concluded. He gritted his teeth, feeling the inherent heresy in it that the Muvians tried to imitate the Gods. "Like Lord Poseidon's trident and scales!"

"Correct. The people of Mu were insatiably curious and questioning. I suppose that is what made their civilization so great." Talos mused. "To imitate Mount Olympus, to uncover its secrets and make it so that the mortal were as if immortal, was but another question their alchemy attempted to solve. Their science, as a result, was always beyond everyone else's, including the Mariners."

Atlae watched Ithaca clench his weak fists. He wondered what thoughts were coursing through his mind at all this, especially with the matter-of-fact tone Talos revealed the information with. Even someone as air-headed as Atlae understood it couldn't be easy to be compared so unfavorably to a rival culture.

"From the technology me and the others pioneered, the Muvians made the Cloths of Athena; armors that embody the stars themselves. The Greek word 'proto typos', the first of a type, would perhaps not be inaccurate to describe me, then. Atlae of the Turtle School." Talos admitted. "But then the world tried to forget we existed."

"Why?" Atlae asked.

"Because they're monstrosities!" Ithaca accused. He recalled the transformation his body went through. "Prototype or not, armors don't just… turn you into giants that breathe fire!"

Talos turned his eyes, as if bored. "What an ignorant conclusion… all four of us had different reasons to be sent to oblivion, as we all were different kinds of prototypes."

Atlae tried to find out more, sensing that perhaps Talos simply sought differently from them, given his nature. "What were your reasons, Talos? You used to protect a human kingdom, right? Why would you be cast away?"

"Because, their King became greedy." Talos revealed "Minos believed he could employ my power himself, instead of relying on the Muvian warriors. More than just protecting his island, the King of Crete sought to use me to conquer others."

Horror at the idea of this overcame Atlae, who remembered every detail of Talos' terrible march towards Shamballa. "W-what? W-why?! Wasn't he happy on his island? Safe from enemies?"

"That is one aspect where humans are just the same as Muvians, Atlae." Talos answered. "They always seek out more, even when catastrophe stares them in the face."

Ithaca glowered. "Unfortunately, in that, we are in agreement, Talos…"

To Atlae, however, who had never wanted for anything but his own martial improvement without ever it being at the cost of others, it made no sense. He supposed it lined up with all the things he's learned about humans throughout his journey with Captain Krishna and Caça, like when they told him about the Pacific Ocean garbage patch, or when they visited Death Queen Island, or met the Papillon Specter. However, after witnessing everything Talos was capable of, how could anyone who controlled and understood Talos' strength think he could be used for selfish goals?

"You seem confused, Atlae of Genbu. However, if you wish to ask the King yourself for his reasons, wait a while." Talos recommended. His shadow shook, as if he was chuckling. "For I hear that he's since been seduced by power a second time and has become a Specter."

Both Atlae and Ithaca staggered at this. "A Specter?! So you mean the Minos from your legend is-"

"The Minos of Hades' army, yes. He sold his soul to Hades to shield himself from the consequences of wearing me, back in the Age of Myth." Talos explained. "Ever since then he has cruelly judged every soul that walks the Hall of Judgement, as if he himself isn't one of the greatest sinners that have walked the Earth. A testament to the hypocrisy of Hades' minions."

Atlae quivered, remembering his one frame of reference for Specters, the Papillon he encountered in Patagonia. How could the world have such terrible people in it?

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Sea Dragon Ruins Battlefield

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Meanwhile, far away in the physical world, where the battle between Serpens Azrael and Aquila Daese had occurred, the Knight of the Zodiac found himself face-to-face with his former partner and brother in arms, who interfered in the battle before he could deliver Daese the finishing blow.

Azrael reeled, his green-slit eyes squinting venomously. "Priam?!"

Dressed in his black priest gown, the bandaged man nodded. "That's right. Long time no see, Ace." His blue eyes turned down towards the fallen blonde girl. "Daese, are you alright?"

Trembling and injected with Azrael's painful toxin, the young woman looked up. "(P-Priam…I'm… sorry! I didn't mean to d-disobey you…)"

His head shook in reassurance. "(I know you didn't, Daese. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't to protect someone you truly cared about. Now, let me take my turn and handle this with Ac-)"

There was a flick of Azrael's wrist and his shining whips lashed out from between his fingers. "SERPENT CHAIN!"

Rushing in as response, Priam dodged with a roll the cascade of golden links that came down on him like biting serpents, letting them shatter the ground to pieces. His hand caught the dropped Aquila Stone from the ground.

By the time Priam recovered, however, he saw Azrael's chains fly once again, this time towards Daese! Wrapping up around the defeated girl once more at the speed of light, the chains tightened, pulling her straight off the ground into Azrael's arms.

Priam gritted his teeth and nocked his bow with his Crystal Shard Arrow. "ACE, LET HER GO!"

The Serpent's hand flashed, turning the chains into a long dagger that he pressed by Daese's neck. "Not one step forward, you weakling!"

The Sagittarius froze, biting his lip. He saw the look of terror in Daese's face and his free hand gestured to calm to them both. "Azrael, please…Let's not do anything rash, we both know you don't want to hurt her."

"You would be surprised, then!" Azrael warned, squinting. At this point he could cut the stealing bitch's neck just to punish Priam for the offense of showing up. He growled. "How dare you show your face like this, Priam?! After all these years?! And to save this disgraceful excuse for a knight?!"

The Sagittarius hesitated, seeing Daese scream in his grip. Azrael must have 'bitten' her. "What have you done to Daese, Ace? Your poison-"

"Will kill her if she isn't given its antidote soon, so I suggest you answer my questions, and measure your choices very carefully, Priam!" Azrael warned, his slitted eyes narrowing. "I ask again; how dare you show your face to me? And where's the rest of your gang?! I bet Ray and Char haven't left your side, have they? If you're alive…!"

Yet, Priam refused to answer. In fact, he kept his bow trained on Ace.

Azrael widened his eyes, seeing Priam's arrow of light shine at his face like he intended to shoot his eyes off. "What? Are you really going to try to save her like that?!"

Priam took aim at Azrael's neck just over Daese's blonde head, where he knew an armor weak point existed in Serpens, even morphed. "Do you need to ask?"

The Knight scoffed, remembering the exorcisms they used to perform together "Ah, I guess that hasn't changed about you, either. You'll do everything to protect innocent lives, won't you? Just to prove it doesn't matter how weak you are if you just give it your best! Even if Hades has his dirty fingers already firmly carved into their souls."

"And you will still judge everyone utterly lost at the slightest sign of fault, won't you, Ace?" Priam accused right back, his blue eyes meeting Azrael's green glare in fierce without daunting. "You always said that made you a better Knight than me. Personally, I always thought you just wanted to make everyone else into villains you could cut down without a thought."

"This is as good a time as any to put our philosophies to the test, then, isn't it?" Azrael asked, hoisting Daese in front of the arrow's path in challenge. "Not to mention your aim."

Priam sweated, seeing Daese shake in his arms. It was time to be realistic and plan out how he'd do this. Could he use a ricochet shot? Or perhaps somehow blind Azrael? No, his Horned Serpent's sight would definitely see through it.

"What's the matter? You look indecisive, Priam!" Azrael pressed his long knife deep towards Daese's skin, glaring venomously. "You should be! I know every trick you have, don't I? We trained together, after all. And we fought in the war together. I know how you time your Lightning Arrow warps, how fast your arrows fly, on what kind of rock you ricochet your shots on and even how you mix your old Cloths' techniques together! But most important of all-" he glared venomously. "- I know exactly where you draw your lines."

This wasn't wrong. Priam gritted his teeth, sweating.

"You will never save this girl, Priam, because you don't have the courage to put a hole through her head to get to me if you have to!" Azrael pushed Daese up so her head would be between his aim and his own neck and eyed his former comrade challengingly. "So go ahead, Priam. Make your plans, pray to our Goddess, burn your cosmos as high as you can! It will just make it easier to get our dear old friends' attention and send you all packing to Arles!"

"Damn it, why are you doing this, Ace?! Haven't you hurt enough people?!" Priam roared, keeping his arrow tense on its string. Perhaps it was pointless to dialogue, but Priam still felt in his nature to try. "Now you're taking a hostage?! Why?!"

"Because I want to take back what's mine! And I am not walking out of this valley without it." Azrael asserted, without a hint of hesitation. He looked at the shining stone pendant wrapped around Priam's fingers on the bow. "So, if you want this girl to live, give me the Diamond Stone, Priam! Now!"

Even tortured by the burning in her blood, Daese shook her head. "(P-Priam, don't! M-my life isn't worth the Aquila Cloth! If you give it to him…)" her eyes wept, wondering if she was never going to see Cerah again, but Daese resisted. "(I will n-never forgive you!)"

"Give me the Diamond Stone, Priam, or I will open her throat faster than you can say Crystal Shard Arrow." Focusing his thoughts to burn a faint amount of Cosmos, Azrael caused two pieces of armor on his back to melt "Not that I'm leaving anything to chance. Starlight Illusion."

Morphing them into half-light-crafted metal, Azrael allowed them to drop to the burned floor without the usual shine of his abilities by keeping the energy in them low. Like two slithering serpents, the two masses of dark, light-crafted metal crawled away through the little grass left on the battlefield, using the strong shine of the Sea Dragon's flames to remain undetected even by Priam's sharp eyes. They moved around the battlefield, each going around Azrael, Daese and finally Priam, positioning themselves like two pools of sludge just behind the disgraced Sagittarius, ready to be sprung.

In ignorance of the pools, Priam sobered his thoughts, calculating the rest of what brought Azrael to this terrible situation. Would his former friend really kill an innocent young woman, the last member of the Zodiac Knights, eight years after the Topaz Purge ended?

As much as Priam detested to believe it, he reached the only logical conclusion. His bow lowered.

"PRIAM, N-NO!" Daese screamed.

The pathetic action from Priam, however made Azrael twist his face in disgust. "Look at you! This is all it takes to neuter you, isn't it?! Part of me wished you'd shoot this stupid girl anyway!"

Priam's blue eyes squinted. "I suppose that's the difference between you and me, Ace. I can't sacrifice others for my own benefit."

The Serpens's green eyes squinted and he growled. "You can't, uh?!" Azrael pointed his knife at him for a moment. "Well, aren't you the Samaritan?! What about all the good men of Athena who died in your war, Priam?! What about me and Aeneas?! Did you hesitate at all in sacrificing us?!"

The Sagittarius only lowered his head humbly.

"In love and war everything goes, right? That's true even for you, Priam!" Azrael pointed out. "We accepted to help you save Anesidora, sacrificing EVERYTHING we held dear, when we should have simply blamed you for the mess she put us all in! We did it because me and Aeneas really thought you would stop at nothing to fight this war to the bitter end. My greatest mistake, Priam, was to ever think you understood that!"

"S-STOP IT!" Daese screamed, between pained breaths. "You MONSTER! Y-You're wrong about Priam! He-"

"QUIET!" Azrael shouted, slamming her side with the pummel of his blade. "This doesn't concern you!"

"Daese!" Priam shouted.

"Look at you, all worked up about fighting me to save this bitch!" The Serpens Saint gritted his teeth, pained. "Where was THAT during the war?! All the years I lost fighting Sanctuary, all the months hiding from Akassius, dueling Kirin as our men dropped dead around us, disgracing myself to all of Sanctuary, simply because I had faith in you! Because I had faith that with the weight of real war on your back, you would FINALLY rise to be the warrior of Athena you always shied from becoming! I wish I had realized it sooner; that you never had what it took to win a war against Akassius! Even with your loved ones on the line!"

The bandaged rebel glowered. He thought of all those he, Azrael and Aeneas lost in defense against Sanctuary. The faces of the hundreds, if not thousands who sacrificed themselves for him in battles like Almaty coursed through his mind.

"I even dragged my brethren, the Knights of the Zodiac, into your conflict, and how did you repay us, Priam?" Azrael shouted out "With weakness and cowardice! AGAIN! With strategies of hiding from Akassius, of talking with him, right until he had us in a corner! A third of Sanctuary entrusted their lives to you, Priam, and you LET THEM ALL DOWN! You are even worse than Patroclus!"

The Sagittarius turned away, pained by his words. "I know, Ace."

"And just like Patroclus, you were too afraid to face the consequences of your weakness, so everyone else paid the price for you! DIDN'T THEY?!" Azrael called out. "Just like you did when you first left the Knights! And just like you did when you lost to Akassius at the Spire! Everyone, including this girl, calls me a monster, but I only took the blame for the Purge because YOU refused to fight the fucking war!" He had to step back slightly, shaking with fury as he was. "Priam, you make me so sick, I can't take it! You never, ever deserved to be part of our common dream! And you don't deserve to save this thieving bitch, either!"

The archer in robe let all these hate-drenched words wash over him, holding no intention to fight back against any of them. He knew them all. And he knew Ace deserved, at the least, to scream them at him at least once.

He then breathed deeply. "You're free to hate me all you want for that, Ace. But tell me, how is hurting all these people, and especially killing another Knight because of me, going to reverse any of that?"

He saw Ace's face drop, turning his eyes away. For a nanosecond, the Sagittarius almost had a chance right then and there to shoot him, but then it was gone. Perhaps it was best, though, he did not prey on Azrael's last fleeting bits of vulnerability. Priam just wished things hadn't come to this. It wasn't like Priam didn't understand the pain in Ace; the loss of Helen and Patroclus, the pain of Arles' betrayal, the Civil War and then its abortive resolution scarred all of them deeply, from the Aries Gold Saint to the Pisces.

However, he couldn't let his old friend allow it all to drag him further into the darkness.

"Ace, no matter what you do, Arles will never give us our golden years back. He can't and he wouldn't, even if you gave him the keys to Olympus itself." Priam urged, knowing it better than anyone else. "Our time to him has passed! Take it from me, this broken burned man that he has casted aside; his eyes are now set on the dawn of a new generation of talented young men he will sacrifice to fight the Holy War. They are being trained as we speak. Hurting another Knight won't make him give us any of it back. Don't you see that?!"

"UNLIKE YOU, I DON'T PLAN ON GIVING HIM A CHOICE!" Azrael roared, pressing arm tighter on the chained Daese. "Not if he wants the Cloths of Aquila and Corvus to help his children fight that war! And not if he wants Talos sent away by someone who can actually put good use to the Aries Cloth!"

He stepped forward, gesturing calm with his hands. "But why hurt Daese? Please…" He raised the Diamond Cloth Stone to him. "Take the armor and let her go."

The girl in Ace's grip gasped, feeling the Serpens' poison burn her. Her mind was blank with relentless torture her nervous system subjected her to, like a million needles were digging into her brain from every direction. Yet, Priam's words inflamed her the most. "(N-NO, PRIAM! Don't give it to him!)"

"Is this a trick?!" Azrael wondered. Even for Priam, this was too much of a surrender. His senses scoped the area, but so far, he couldn't find any back up to Priam, and Azrael remembered the cosmos of all of their old acquaintances quite well. "I don't sense his goons around. What is Priam scheming?!"

"Daese is innocent. And she's also in pain, just like you've been, Ace. Don't punish her for the suffering she went through from my mistakes." Priam argued to the confused-looking Azrael, who stepped further away from him with the girl. He pointed his arrow of light at himself. "If you must, punish me. I'm the one who let you down, right? I'm the one who sent her here. And I was the coward who forced you to make the ultimate sacrifice."

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(?)

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Atlae and Ithaca saw Talos show images of himself taking to the waters of Crete, already in the form of a giant monster, and assault the people of the eastern mediterranean one after the other, both human and Muvian. Talos was shown burning cities to the ground, collapsing entire empires and making enormous masses of people flee across borders, spreading chaos even more, all while plundering gold back to Minos' island.

"I began to be used by the King to conquer others. With my tremendous power, Minos of Crete went from being a puppet oscillating between Muvians and the Mariners to being a contestant to dominate the entire Ancient World." Talos' illusion then showed the Mediterranean of the Myth Age burning down entirely like a map exposed to a candle. "Balance was destroyed, countless suffered and the ancient world was never the same again. It wasn't long before Mount Olympus sent the Argonauts to destroy me."

"The Argonauts?" Atlae wondered. Like the funny men on the boat in Greek myth storytelling? "They were real?"

"Not just real, but before the Gold Saints, they were the great heroes of the myth age, Atlae. Some of them were part of the very first generation of Sanctuary's guardians." Ithaca explained. "It took that much to stop you, Talos?"

"They almost succeeded. In the end, Zeus himself was forced to cast me out." Talos seemed to breathe out, as if recalling unpleasant memories, and the images around them began showing a ship flying out of the water, packed with armorer warriors, towards a rampaging Talos Colossus. "The Lord of Olympus understood the weakness of this Cloth well; that the same power that awakened me could shut me down. He guided the Argonauts in battle and Minos' heart was stopped by mighty thunderbolts. My body was taken by the Argonauts to Mount Kailash, where I since remained sealed, while King Minos fell into Hades' clutches. From what I've gather of Ithaca's knowledge of history, the great Mycenean civilizations would collapse shortly after that point. It is only natural after such a tipping of the balance of power."

"The balance of power…" Atlae mused to himself, reliving the images of the world burning in his head. It sounded a lot like Master's lessons about nature and its balance, too, where great disaster could result if even the slightest side between predator and prey was favored too much. "I don't quite get it all, but it sounds that if Talos is telling the truth, he really was just a weapon in the hands of bad people, imprisoned without fault, and ended up causing the end of the world. But that doesn't change the fact that…"

"From that moment, by Lord Zeus' stipulation, my awakening was meant only to defend the people of Mu, my creators, in a dire situation." Talos recounted. "The Sun Temple was erected to hold the Bell of Genbu, creating a test to determine those who might be fit to wear me; masters of the Turtle Path of Mount Rozan."

Terrible conclusions began hitting Atlae. He needed to make sure of the reason, though. "W-wait, what?! Why did it need to be someone who mastered the Turtle Path?!"

Talos pointed three fingers at him. "Number one, they would most likely be Muvian, so they'd have a vested interest in being Shamballa's guardian and little in conquering others. Number two, the school of Mount Rozan teaches the use of Chi, the power that regulates most of my body."

"So Azrael crafted that mask for me, and made me learn the sense of Chi." Ithaca concluded, making Atlae widen his eyes in alarm. Ithaca shivered, remembering the months of darkness and torment. "I will explain later, Atlae. But Talos, you sound like he missed something? A third factor?"

"Correct, Ithaca of Delphi." Talos praised. "What that human missed, is the training of the Cosmos taught by Muvians."

Being a martial topic, Atlae could understand what this particular part meant, making him widen eyes. "You mean, the way we burn our cosmos, don't you? Instead of a single star that strives to create miracles, we burn it throughout our bodies."

"Cosmos works on top of our natural force, our chi. If Cosmos is a flame, Chi is the firewood. When one burns cosmos, they are merely amplifying their existing strength, rather than create more of it." Talos recalled to them. "As developers of a proto typus of what Cloths would become, my builders believed that Cloths should grant more natural strength for my owners' cosmos to burn on, rather than amplify the owner's burning. This would… prevent complacency in training with the 7th sense."

In different circumstances, Ithaca may have felt fascinated by all of this. "What changed, then? Modern Cloths, Scales and Surplices work the exact other way around."

"The unforeseen danger of it." Talos explained. "In order to fight Holy Wars, 7th sense users burn their cosmos to their limits in concentrated points, so as to reach for miracles. That is relatively safe for mortals to do because they have small bodies for their cosmos to work with, limited lifeforce. Multiplying that strength to such extremely high levels will lead to… relatively controllable results."

Atlae held his mouth, finally understanding. "But you have the body of a huge giant, a huge amount of Chi! So when cosmos is used on top of your incredible strength, rather than a miracle…!"

Ithaca paled, now understanding the meaning of the nightmares he was having under Talos' control. "Total destruction happens!"

"Is that why you kept exploding? And expelling all that destructive cosmos?!" Atlae shouted, horrified. "It seemed that every time you attacked Master Yuzuriha, the entire plateau would suffer with it!"

Talos nodded. "Correct. Without realizing it, Talos Ithaca burned his cosmos on and on like usual, as the trained warrior of the 7th sense that he is. He repeatedly reached for a miracle, and as a result… only caused wanton destruction."

Atlae took it all in, now understanding how someone like Ithaca could be behind such a terrible strategy. In a way, it was neither his fault or Talos. It was just…a bad combination.

"We Muvians learn to burn it at multiple points. Keeping it balanced and covering all our bodies." Atlae completed. He shook, remembering how Talos Ithaca began detonating as its cosmos and chi both got out of control. "The girls at the school were always better at it than me… It makes our attacks a lot weaker than Saints, but…"

"But it is a far more stable form of burning cosmos, lacking in spikes. Therefore, a warrior trained in the Muvian Method, unlike a Saint Method, won't trigger cycles of detonation in me." Talos elaborated, as if explaining the difference between powerful nitroglycerine and mere dynamite.

"So, Talos, you and I would make… a good combination." Atlae concluded, gulping.

Ithaca reeled as he watched the two of them trade their conclusions. He remembered the heat of whenever Talos Ithaca fired its mouth beam, or that Comet Rain attack or even when it detonated. It always felt less like attacks and more like regurgitations of power that had been building up inside, like vomit. So all those attacks, all those detonations, they were the fault of the way Ithaca was taught his entire life to burn his Cosmos?

Atlae felt the fingers of fate all point at him. "T-Then… that's why the Bell is used. It finds your best owner. It's all my fault! I a-awakened you! I made you come to Shamballa after me!"

Ithaca held him. "Atlae, no!"

"It IS, isn't it?!" the blonde Muvian wept. The guilt began crushing him, especially as he remembered how happy he was when he first rung the bell. "If it weren't for me, Ithaca wouldn't be here, all those people wouldn't have gotten hurt and… and…"

"Sooner or later, someone would have rung that bell, Atlae of the Turtle School." Talos consoled. It surprised Ithaca, who did not know he was capable of such sentiment, but perhaps the Cloth of Destruction was merely being factual about things. "You may hide me in a mountain, but I am no myth, and neither are Teos and the others. We exist, heart, body, mind and soul. Sooner or later, we will be uncovered."

"T-Then please go back!" Atlae begged. He didn't mean to offend the armor, but it didn't sound like it had a particular problem with its long sleep, from the way it spoke. "You must not want to hurt people, right?!"

Talos, however, answered in silence.

Atlae stepped back. "Y-you… want to stay awake? W-Why?!"

The figure paused briefly, as if to take a breath of the air around them. "I feel it in the Earth; we live in times of great strife. Figures like that Serpens Bronze Saint walk the land, Specters are reviving sooner than they should and, despite the lessons learned in the Age of Myth, it seems the Gods look upon the planet with envy and greed once more. Teos must feel it as well." His blue light eyes returned to Atlae. "I therefore sense an opportunity to elevate my purpose."

"Elevate your purpose?" Atlae asked. "You mean you want to use your power for something more?"

"Correct." Talos narrowed its blue light eyes. "I wish to be the guardian, once more, of the tethering peace in the Cosmos. Just like I was long ago in Crete. And to do that, I will wipe the Earth's slate clean."

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

Chapter 96

Third Arc

Episode 22

Atlae's Inferno

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

"The guardian… of the peace in the Cosmos? Wipe the Earth clean?" Atlae repeated. He tried to think hard on what this meant. He could interpret it literally like he always did. It had to be some kind of metaphor. He hit his palm with fist when it occurred to him. "You mean… peace between the gods, right? Sanctuary and it's Holy Wars!"

Talos' shadowy head nodded. "Correct. There is a change in the currents of the universe. For Cloths it is easy to perceive, for we are designed to seek users out in times of great strife in the world, so naturally we must be able to perceive that strife. But for mortals it might be something that is happening beyond even the most perceptive of Gold Saints."

"Are you saying that Hades has obtained some sort of advantage, Talos?" Ithaca asked, for the first time worried something even more terrible could be at bay than just this horrible situation with Talos being released.

For the first time, Talos did not seem to have an answer at the tip of his unseen tongue. In fact, his gaze averted.

"T-Talos?" Atlae called. "Is Ithaca right? Is Hades about to win the Holy Wars in this age?"

"No, Atlae of Genbu. I believe it may be Sanctuary who is." Talos revealed, stunning them. "There are great powers amassing in Sanctuary right now. I feel it not just in the Cosmos, but in Ithaca's memories of that land. A number of human warriors with mastered cosmos that is unprecedented has been generated by this age. Although Hades is rallying his forces of darkness faster than expected, that is proof of his fear, not of his confidence."

Ithaca went quiet. There was some truth to what Talos was saying. Mariners were part of the Pact of Seven for a reason; because they, along with the other six factions, felt it was the only way to survive in a world where Athena monopolized heroism and knowledge of the cosmos in the Earth. Lord Arthur had often shared with him fears that, despite everyone's best efforts, men like Cetus of New Lalibela were in power because many below him feared what the wrong Pope of Athena might do with all the Gold-Rankers he's amassed.

"But… but that's a good thing, right? Why are you talking about WIPING THE SLATE CLEAN?" Atlae asked, darting his eyes between them. Even he understood that was bad, that it meant the same as killing everyone. "Isn't it good that Sanctuary will win? It's like miss Daisy said; all that will result in Hades losing is the world being flooded with light and peace! Right?"

Ithaca closed his eyes and sighed. "That depends, Atlae… on what 'flooding the world with light' will mean to Sanctuary. The Saints have been at war with the Specters for a very long time. They might not call it a victory unless they finally kill Hades himself. And if they do…"

"Pax Divina will be broken. Zeus will rescind his protection of his daughter and the Gods of Olympus may descend en masse to the Earth." Talos concluded for the Mariner. "At which point they will all carve the planet out between themselves…. And even all 'Four Cloths of Myth' put together won't be able to stop them. The only conclusion, therefore, is to regress mankind back to a state of non-threat, just as was done to Muvians by sinking their continent."

"What?! Y-YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Atlae begged, reaching for him to grab Talos. His hands, however, only phased through the dark body. He retreated awkwardly from his gesture and continued. "PLEASE, Talos! There's not even a Holy War going on right now! How do you know that… that…"

"I know because mortal nature refuses to change. It will always desire more and more." Talos imposed, its blue eyes becoming stern. It sent a shiver down Atlae's spine, since it seemed that, for the first time, the Cloth was upset. "To allow mankind to keep on its war against Hades is to risk triggering a great conflict that will, at best, only result in shackling all life to the whims of Olympians. Even Athena realizes that, or she would have murdered her uncles and father long ago. To anyone with discernment, a few mortal lives are a small price to pay to prevent that apocalypse."

The Muvian stepped back from Talos, reeling at his words. "A few mortal lives?! How could you say that?! You're… you're a creation of my people!" He held his head, thinking of the nightmares he's been having. "You can't be this way, you just can't!"

"Does Gemini care of the many souls it has driven insane? Or does Perseus regret those it has helped turn into stone?" Talos rose chin. "Everything I do is simply the purpose I was given by my creators. Just as Teos was made to give hope, I was made to give destruction, a critical part of nature as well. The so-called 'Four Cloths of Myth' were not made to please the values of Athena and her warriors. We simply are."

Ithaca held his shoulder. "It's pointless, Atlae." He glared at Talos. "Despite all his talk, this… Cloth is ultimately just as selfish as the rest of us. You should have seen the way he spoke to me of hurting your people. He didn't care at all!"

The Muvian faltered, horrified. He simply had no words to this monstrous callousness from Talos.

Yet, the blue glare of Talos looked unimpressed by Ithaca. "Mm, you shouldn't speak so virtuously, Ithaca of Delphi. I may have lent you my bronze and flesh so I could leave that mountain, but you, above anyone else, were in a position to stop me. So why didn't you?"

Ithaca froze at this.

Atlae looked back and forth between them, unsure of what was being implied. "Wait, what are you saying about Ithaca?! That he's the one who wanted to hurt us? That's not true!"

Seeing his future vessel confused, Talos was happy to clarify. "Atlae, I am but a Cloth. Yes, it was my desire to pursue you, but that desire only reigned free because that man next to you failed to resist it. He does not extend to your kin the same love he extends to his own. Despite that, Ithaca of Delphi hesitated when he saw Marianne Solo in our cusp. He did it so powerfully, even I felt, for a moment, he dominated me."

Atlae stiffened, remembering this. He and Caça saw, indeed, that Talos was struggling with himself when trying to crush Marianne. It had been their first hint that something strange was going on.

"Stop it, Talos!" Ithaca shouted. "T-That… that isn't the whole truth!"

"This man fought with everything he had to save the Mariner girl, but that strength to resist me was out of sight when Shamballa and its people laid before him." Talos argued. "He followed his nature as a Mariner, just as I did as the Cloth of Destruction."

The young Muvian gulped, quiet. He recalled the way Talos excitedly climbed upon the plateau, how it roared enthusiastically at the prospect of battling Master Yuzuriha.

Watching in horror as the young boy's thoughts were turned against him, the Mariner held him close, "A-Atlae…You mustn't listen to him! Please!"

The young Muvian held his head, utterly confused at what to think or feel. He didn't want to believe any of this! No, there was no way Ithaca could have wanted to hurt Muvian people, was there? And yet, all that now rang in Atlae's head were Caça's incessant rants about how their people couldn't get along, or Jeanna and Mia's old accusations about how Marianne was just pretending to be his friend.

No, this was Ithaca! He couldn't be a cruel person!

"Atlae, please! I know this is all very confusing to you. Why I'm here. Why I'm like this." Ithaca beheld his own scarred, emaciated body and had to gulp. "I made a lot of mistakes while you were away at Shamballa, things I regret deeply. Making my contract with Talos is one of them, yes, but these are all things I will pay in kind to my God, Poseidon! You can't let Talos convince you that you should follow down the same path I have!"

"Why not?" Talos counter-argued, unflinching. "Your mistakes, Ithaca of Delphi, and the cruelties in your heart you do not confess, are not reflected on Atlae, nor should they weigh on his decision to make contract with-"

"STOP IT, both of you!" The Muvian boy gripped Ithaca's arms. "Ithaca, mistakes? I don't care what you've done. I've known you forever, Ithaca! I know that you'd never hurt anyone, much less my own, not of your own volition!" His eyes looked away. "Most importantly, I know that, no matter what, you wouldn't be here without good reason. That none of the people Talos hurt are your fault!"

The scarred Mariner quieted down, humbled. There was nothing he could say to these assurances from him.

Yet, Atlae shook his head at Ithaca. "I just don't understand, Ithaca, why didn't you say anything? Why didn't Mari' say something? I was with her all this time! Why didn't she tell me you were missing? T-That… that you could be hurting and in the hands of bad people?!"

The Mariner slumped, silent for a moment. Atlae wondered if he felt nothing but shame, or was going to reveal yet something else he hadn't been privy to about what's been going on with the Solo family while Atlae had been training and sailing.

Yet, all Ithaca eventually did was confess. "We just… didn't think of you, Atlae."

The teenage boy felt a painful lump in his throat suddenly.

Ithaca's eyes shut. "I-I am sorry. That is the truth. I agreed to keep my feelings towards Seraphina a secret because I knew otherwise I'd hurt the only family who ever loved me. I can't guess at Marianne's reasons not to tell you, but it must have been because she was scared of hurting you, too."

Talos' silhouette flared threateningly. "Tell the whole truth, Ithaca of Delphi."

Ithaca breathed out and delivered it. "A-And of hurting her father, mother and… brother."

The mention of the baby sent a spark flying in Atlae's thoughts. "Julian! He… He is yours, isn't he?"

Ithaca hesitated, but eventually nodded. He then turned his face in shame.

This made Atlae widen his eyes as his brain raced with the implications of this. He remembered Talos Ithaca's reaction to the sight of Caça casting an illusion of lady Seraphina. "I-Ithaca… were you going to hurt Marianne's mom?! Was that how this rampage was going to end?!"

"N-No! I j-just…!" Ithaca gritted teeth and dropped to knees, hugging himself furiously. "I love Seraphina! I would never hurt her! But I wanted to…I wanted answers from her!" Ithaca's eyes teared, remembering the months and months in Azrael's captivity. "I wanted to know if she really forgot about me…If she really left me to die in that castle."

Atlae gulped. Then it was all true.

"I know I hurt Seraphina very deeply." Ithaca confessed. Even if it was by Marianne's request, Ithaca knew sooner or later something would force him to break their affair off, just to spare Lord Arthur the pain. Marianne wasn't at fault for his callousness. "B-But… I never wanted to believe I was someone she could just forget about… That I could just die and she'd just move on. It made me feel…" He tensed fingers. "So insignificant! Like the happiest moment of my life was just a passing flare in hers!"

The metaphor struck Atlae's heart, who recalled all the ugly emotions his visions of Death Queen Island brought him.

One day Marianne would die, and he would live on.

She would be insignificant to his life, and he would just forget her like one does a dead pet.

It was only natural. Only good, even, that she'd mean so little to him.

"She held that child so lovingly. O-Our child!" Ithaca recalled, remembering all the times he saw Julian in her arms through the windows of the house. Further memories of her offering that child into Lord Arthur's arms struck him afterwards, making him clench as if hit by a fist. "And to my son, I won't mean anything. I will be a fragment in his parents' memories!" It was all so perfect for them, wasn't it? "I felt so…so used! I was stuck in the shadows, feeling like the Gods themselves were laughing at me for being a cog in perpetuating the Solo line!"

"And you wanted retribution, not answers." Talos confronted. "Not on that Saint of Athena who captured you, but on Seraphina Solo. That's what drove you as Saint Ithaca of Talos, isn't it? To fix everything with my power!"

Atlae stared in horror. "I-Ithaca!"

Ithaca turned away. "I…I just wanted to set something right in my life!" His head slumped. "Atlae, humans are…. Terrible creatures."

The Muvian stared onward, but only got silence. "That's it?! That's all you're going to say?!" he held his head, feeling like he was going mad recalling faces like Captain Krishna's, miss Daisy, miss Rebecca, Marianne, Lord Solo and so many others. All their smiles contrasted against Ithaca's words like cracks on glass. "THAT'S NOT EVEN TRUE! IT'S NOT! I'VE MET SO MANY WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT…" He lost breath and thought of how much Lady Seraphina seemed to love Lord Arthur? How could she and Ithaca…? "D-Dear Gods, no! How could that happen?! What has been going on with everyone?! I-ITHACA, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!"

The Mariner put up no resistance. He didn't even brace himself for a punch. "You're right to be angry. If you wish to punish me, Atlae, please do so. I have been begging Lord Arthur for what I deserve for a year. I will accept whatever you see fit."

The martial artist shook, his tears falling down his cheeks. All his life, Ithaca had been an idol, a figure of what Atlae wished to become; a loyal servant to the man who gave him a new life. Now he discovers that Ithaca betrayed Lord Arthur in one of the most terrible ways possible? And what of Lady Seraphina? And Marianne? What horrible feelings have been fluxing in their hearts all this time, while Atlae remained ignorant of it all during those years in Shamballa?

Suddenly, all of Marianne's changes of subject in conversation, all of her turns of eye at the mention of Ithaca, all of her quietness, started clicking in his head. The tension in lady Seraphina when he asked about Julian's birth, the wrinkles in Lord Arthur and the disappearance of Ithaca all fell like a Tetris puzzle into place.

He wanted to scream, to lash out at Ithaca AND Talos, to erupt his cosmos and Chi in a shower of darkness in that ethereal place they all were in. Suddenly, the love he had for this man disappeared and Atlae wanted to punish Ithaca, smash him against whatever ground they stood on, demand explanations for everything and everyone!

How could they have kept him in the dark about this?!

"W-why?" Atlae asked out loud. "Why did everyone think I couldn't…."

"Atlae, we just wished to protect you and Marianne." Ithaca begged. He held the boy once more. "You're the most precious thing that has ever happened to that family. Everyone in that house loves you. We never meant to-"

"Lies, you wished to protect your duties." Talos accused, making Ithaca falter visibly. "I have felt so in your memories, Ithaca of Delphi; you feared Atlae should not be trusted with a secret that would have put all your master's plans in risk. You considered him fragile of heart, did you not?"

"Fragile… of heart?" Atlae gasped. "Ithaca?!"

Ithaca reeled. "N-no, Atlae that just means that… that…" but his tongue stopped. How could he explain that they feared Atlae's awkward, simple-minded nature posed a risk to the secrecy of what had been done? "There's no excuse for it, is there? We just didn't trust him. Dear Gods, forgive us!"

Atlae stared in disbelief. Was this how everyone else saw Atlae when he said something strange, or didn't understand context? That he was 'fragile of heart'? Something inside him sunk as he realized everyone he loved perceived him in a way he never imagined.

"You wish to become a great warrior, don't you, Atlae? I can give you all the power necessary for that." Talos offered. "Let me adorn you. And you will become the mightiest warrior on Earth. You can use my strength to conquer the planet, or simply become Shamballa's undefeatable guardian, but either way our goals align, do they not? And it's the least you deserve for all the manipulation these Mariners have put you through."

Ithaca fell silent, wondering if Atlae would really say 'yes' to this. The blonde teenager just seemed to stare in a dilemma in his mind, making his thoughts uncertain to even Ithaca. The Mariner wanted the boy not to listen, but what could he say that Talos hadn't completely disarmed him on by now? He could only pray to Poseidon that the Atlae had grown in wisdom as much as he had grown in strength.

Cleaning his eyes, Atlae took a deep breath. "All my life all I've ever wanted was to be happy with my new family. I wanted to be strong, yes, and fight great opponents but I also wanted to make Lord Arthur proud of me. He was so proud of Ithaca, after all."

The Mariner's eyes turned in shame.

"But now, after everything that has happened, something has changed. It doesn't feel right anymore to be doing what I'm doing!" Atlae protested, clenching his fists. "It really is silly, isn't it? The idea that I just want to be strong for strength's sake. I don't want that anymore. It doesn't solve anything that I see is wrong with the world around me. Even if I pull Sorrento out of a wreck, or catch Marianne from falling, or punch someone from attacking my Master, it never seems like it's enough."

"There is nothing that power cannot wipe clean, Atlae." Talos urged. "With me-"

"Stop it!" the Muvian demanded, narrowing eyes. "I don't want to hear those things anymore! You are wrong, Talos! You just want to wipe everything away because that's all you've been taught to do with yourself! And I'm going to prove it to you!"

The other two widened their eyes.

Atlae held his chest with a flare of determination in his eyes. "Take me, Talos!"

"WHAT?!" Ithaca shouted. "ATLAE, NO!"

"It's the only way, Ithaca!" Atlae shouted back. He glowered, feeling defeated. "If we leave things like this, he's just going to keep you and keep attacking people. I'm not going to let him do that to you anymore. I'm going to let Talos take me… and I will stop him from doing anything ever again! I'm going to prove to him all this destruction is just cruelty! And even if I can't do something better with his strength… at least I'll be saving you."

The mariner knight reeled. "N-no, you can't do this! You're just a child! You cannot trust Talos, he will ruin your life!"

"I won't let him, then!" Atlae vowed. He shook, intimately understanding what he was subjecting himself to, but seeing the state Ithaca was in, Atlae'd rather have that than watch his idol's soul get devoured by tragedy any further. "I vow it here and now, Ithaca… that I will use everything in my power to take this monster on. If my dumb strength is only good for this, then so be it!"

Talos squinted, looking impressed. Perhaps the Genbu Bell test had sortied an even better candidate than he thought.

The mariner by their side, however, couldn't bring himself to accept this. He stared back between Talos and the boy, trying to come up with words to protest. Ithaca remembered well the first day Atlae was pulled out of his village wreck by Lord Arthur. He was just a child! That was how Ithaca still saw him. How could he stand by and let Atlae do this?! That would be Ithaca's damnation more than anything else, a greater selfishness than anything he's done so far!

"Please, please, believe in me!" Atlae urged. "I can do it, Ithaca!"

"You're asking me to make you hoist the weight of the entire world in your shoulders, Atlae!" Ithaca countered. The cruel coincidence in Atlae's name being so close to the titan of myth was suddenly comically bare. "I refuse to curse you like that."

His green eyes narrowed. "Then… I won't give you any choice!" And he laid out his hand towards Talos.

The Mariner reached in. "NO, STOP-"

But Talos' shadowy hand gripped Atlae's in a blink, causing his silhouette to rouse as their chis contacted. "YES!"

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

Yuzuriha and Caça watched with trepidation as Talos just knelt there, holding the pulsating, mechanical heart it ripped out its own chest, its fingers struggling indecisively on it. Its body glowed more and more, completing a paint of bizarreness in the giant to the two of them, who weren't sure anymore if the giant was going to detonate again or crush its own beating core.

The Elder tried to think of what to do in this situation. Did she have some kind of opening to save Atlae, or was the giant going to erupt the second she touched it? She stared at the shadows in the heart.

"Where is your nerve, woman?! You just have to do it! It's Atlae!" she told herself, her old eyes reddening. She stepped towards the giant and burned her cosmos. "Just ask yourself; would Tenma hesitate for a second?! I'll just rip him out, and whoever is inside there as well!"

Caça saw her step towards it and an aura of silvery white form around the Elder. "Wait, where are you going?!"

Before Yuzuriha could answer, however, Talos screamed wildly, startling them and releasing a powerful, blunt current. It knocked them on their backs.

Dear Gods, were they too late? Was Talos going to explode again?!

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

The Muvian chilled unpleasantly as Talos' silhouette overlapped itself with his arm. It felt like a ghost was entering his body.

"N-NO! ATLAE!" Ithaca grabbed their hands and tried to dislodge them apart, but Talos' shadowy body simply phased through his fingers, coursing around Atlae's arm, then up his shoulder. "YOU STUPID BOY! THIS ISN'T THE WAY!"

Atlae calculated the rest. "Any other way, and one of the people I love the most in life will just be in hell! Over something I unleashed." His eyes teared, picturing Talos regenerating again and again, no matter how many Gold Saints blasted down on him, until all of Ithaca's lifeforce was spent. "That's… not fair, either."

Ithaca stepped back, powerlessly witnessing the shadows slowly encircle the rest of Atlae's body. Dear Poseidon, the boy was serious about exchanging himself for Ithaca's life. Atlae even began humming his training mantras, perhaps trying to steady his thoughts through this terrible process.

Ithaca fell to his knees, desperate. A deep sensation of misery overcame him and the grown man wept. He had failed yet again. "Atlae, please, don't do this to me!"

Then, Talos began blazing rightly, his shadowy body swelling like a fireplace with oil thrown into it. Now completely immersed in Talos' silhouette, Atlae felt it hardening over his skin, as if forming unseen clothes. He also felt the world shaking more and more, and the air grow hotter and hotter. Something initially invisible seemed to be growing between Ithaca and Talos; a sort of strange tension in the air like current about to explode. They were likely about to bond.

"You are doing the correct thing. You rung the bell, Atlae. You have the blood of Mu. You trained in the 0th sense." Talos mentally spoke to him, cutting Ithaca out from further interference with a barrier. "It is only right you are given the chance to steer my power."

"I hope so." Atlae then saw the state Ithaca was in. "Talos, before you take me, there's something I'd like to ask."

Not without mercy for someone who willingly accepted the contract, the armor acquiesced. "Name it. Within reason."

"Please help Ithaca." Atlae begged as the shadows gagged his face. He didn't want the last time he saw the mariner to be this miserable, tortured one. "Even if he's made mistakes, he has paid enough for them. I don't want him to suffer anymore."

There was a pause in Talos' voice "I am a weapon, Atlae, not a God. I am only capable of bonding with my users' hearts and empowering them. There are limits to what I can do."

But Atlae focused on Saint Noah's words. "There must be something! Anything! With the help of my cosmos, then….!" An idea came to him. "Saints of Athena have told me that their armors can do anything with the cosmos. Why can't you?"

The shadows slowed down around Atlae at this. Did the Muvian's bait work? He got the feeling earlier Talos didn't think much of the Cloths of Athena, so maybe if he used that, Atlae could convince it to try?

"I cannot heal his broken body." Talos insisted. "However, perhaps, as I detach myself from him, I can take away with me the memories he has had that are currently tormenting him. That will give him a bare minimum chance at a new life, I would imagine."

Hope filled Atlae's chest. "Yes! Please!"

"However, bear in mind, Atlae;" Talos warned. "Since you are currently linked with his cosmos, that will affect your own memories profoundly. Especially of everything that has happened here."

"Then… I won't remember what I learned here?" Atlae wondered. This could be dangerous, as he would understand less of how powerful Talos' influence really is. "(I cannot fail, then! I must absolutely take control of Talos, with everything I have!)"

"Even if you're Muvian, you will have to battle for every bit of power I give you. " Talos warned one final time. " Control me, and I will give you such power that even the top of Mount Olympus won't be out of reach. Give in, however…and that power will be aimed at everyone you've ever seen to have hurt you. Whether you wish it to right now or not."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I am born a Taurus! My stubbornness is my strong suit, Talos! Do your worst!"

The air around them grew brighter and brighter, like daylight was arriving, and everything began quaking.

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

Shamballa Plateau Surroundings

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

Leaping out of the abyss while dragging Caça in her hand, Yuzuriha landed in the rocky fields, escaping the chasm as Talos violently tore out of it, its reforming body stumbling and crashing loudly into the fields.

She winced, watching the ugly monstrosity of metal bones and reforming flesh scream, vomit blood and crawl away from her. "D-Dear Gods, what is it now?!"

"AHH! W-Why is it so angry?! Is it going to explode again?!" Caça screamed, dropped on his butt.

"When is this nightmare going to end?! Is it just going to keep detonating again and again, until all of Asia joins the Continent of Mu underwater?!" Yuzuriha wondered. "And dear Genbu, what has happened to Atlae?! This thing just shoved him inside his mouth and now his cosmos and Chi are gone! Is he..?!"

Before Yuzuriha could dare to continue her conclusion, Talos dropped to arms and legs, quaking the earth. Getting on its bony knees, the skeletal beast's' blue eyes shined with seemingly renewed focus and its fingers tensed before clawing deep into its sternum, ripping it out.

Yuzuriha watched the giant piece of metal get tossed out, smashing a tree. "What in the name of Zeus?!"

With a great scream of pain, Talos then dug its hand deep into the new hole in its ribcage, searching and searching. Its body glowed, igniting into blue flames, but it kept on with its macabre task of clawing into its innards. Boiling blood spilled out, setting the sparse grass on fire.

Its bony hand left the ribcage carrying, to their horror, the giant, beating, shining organ that was inside. It pulsated loudly, making the air quake like a powerful music box, while the muscles of its curves looked tense and shiny, as if metallic. Its tops were still connected by thick, segmented cables of Bronze Cloth metal to Talos' insides and a powerful light was seen inside it, where it beat, casting the shadow of two fetal bodies into its walls.

Much to their stunned disgust, Talos then took his other hand and began pressing at it, trying to carve its sharp finger bones into its own heart.

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

Sea Dragon Ruins Battlefield

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

THRROOOOM!

All three of them staggered and stumbled as another explosion coming from where Talos headed off to rocked the entire Himalayan plateau. A great light was seen beyond the peaks, putting the darkness of the night out of sight for a moment.

Priam held on to the rocks as the light and quaking faded. "What was that?!"

Gripping Daese firmly, Azrael saw bright flashes above the mountains to the east. "Talos has likely detonated himself again."

The Sagittarius got up. "Then let's not waste more time, Ace. Take me!"

Azrael squinted. "So, you're going to play the hero part again, aren't you?!"

Priam gulped, praying to Athena he was considering his words. He stored his bow around arm and took out the Diamond Cloth Stone. "This is what you want, isn't it, Ace? Come take it, along with me if you want to. I'm sure that if you bring me to the Pope, he will grant you far more than anything that just this Cloth Stone could."

"For this girl?!" Azrael roared. He couldn't decide what he was angrier with, that this whole situation had been conjured, that Priam had shown his cowardly face to stand in his way of recovering Aquila or that he was offering himself, knowing Sanctuary would likely kill him at the Coliseum. "Have you learned nothing all these years?! Don't you understand that is exactly the attitude that cost us the war with Akassius?!"

The Sagittarius breathed out. "I don't mind. Daese is important to me."

The blonde girl's eyes teared. "P-Priam, don't."

"And I refuse to let anyone else I care about suffer for me, even if it costs me everything!" Priam vowed. He raised the Diamond Cloth Stone. "So, by the Gods, Ace, just TAKE ME AND THE STONE, before you make me shoot an arrow into your eye!"

Azrael's slitted eyes shined, casting the next step of his Starlight Illusion. He then covered Daese's mouth with his hand to silence her. "Oh, I will!"

Daese screamed against Azrael's gauntlet, seeing two masses of metal behind Priam silently erupt into adult man heights, shaping two Lightcraft clones with hardening beam swords in hands. "PRIAM! WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!"

The two Azrael clones swung swords at Priam's back. "DOUBLEBLADED BIT-"

"FLASHING LANCER!"

Tearing through the air, a slash of powerful light struck the back of the Serpens Bronze Saint, destroying his cape and hitting right through the two armor spots he dislodged to form his clones. Azrael screamed, smashed down to the ground by Krishna's golden lance, releasing Daese and blasted by the force of the powerful attack into the floor.

Rushing in, Priam caught the falling Daese as the two Lightcraft clones evaporated. "Got you!"

Daese gasped, seeing the mohawked mariner she accompanied up the Himalayas pinning Azrael. "Captain K… Krishna?!"

The brown-skinned man pressed his lance's handle deep down on the buried Azrael to hold the trashing Bronze Saint. "I HAVE HIM! Get her out of here, Mister Kyosuke!"

The ground beneath him shined and blasted upwards with enormous force, however, blasting Krishna back. Azrael roared, surging out of the shattered ground with a wide swing of his chains.

Battered, the Mariner awed at the golden beaming of his aura as the Serpens pinned eyes on him. "Shiva save me! What power!"

"H-HOW DARE YOU?!" Azrael roared, his face bleeding from being painfully buried into stone. He lashed out his chains around himself in a dance of light. The golden links coalesced into two separate pillars, which fused their own links together, taking the shape of two more clones of himself. "Now you're allying with Mariners, Priam?! This is… unforgiveable! I'll make ALL OF THREE OF YOU PAY!"

Recognizing the attack pattern, Priam widened his eyes and rushed in with Daese in arms to catch Krishna as well. "HOLD ON TO ME!"

Charging all three of their auras, Azrael and his two clones took position by summoning long blades of Lighcraft and making their auras blaze the ground around them in bright swirls. "WING OF THE CROW…"

Krishna gasped, seeing waves of light shaped like blades emerge from their auras, rising taller than them all like emerging skycrapers. Priam's arm gripped tightly around him and his aura of electricity and wind charged, forming a tornado of air-emptying force.

Azrael and his clones exploded their cosmos, swinging their metal swords forward to cast the many gigantic blades of light surrounding the battlefield on his victims."…IRON MAIDEN CRASH!"

"LIGHTNING ARROW!" Priam casted, turning all three of them into a thundering beam.

The countless, gigantic swords of light all came down where they stood. They all coalesced together, blasting the battlefield with a nexus of destruction like the feathers of two gigantic wings of light closing on a single spot. The earth shook and the air became blindingly bright as the cosmos erupted, tearing the ground apart and unleashing a powerful shockwave that battered the battleship ruins around them.

…

…

Azrael panted, watching the light of his own Cosmos recede and feeling the ground beneath him cave with the force of his technique. He saw the ground ahead of him completely annihilated, turned into a crater with pebbles raining everywhere. No sign of his enemies or the Aquila Cloth Stone, however.

"My all-seeing eye has lost them." Serpens spoke. "They've escaped."

His two clones fragmented and his fists slammed his sword into the ground, shattering the blade and cracking the ground even further. "NO!"

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

Far away, Priam's lighting struck the ground, returning the three of them to a field far, far away from where Azrael was. Daese fell to the ground, exhausted, while Krishna had to hold himself with his lance.

"W-We've done it! It worked!" Krishna celebrated, seeing no sign of the Serpens Bronze Saint or the swords of light he summoned. "Where are we?"

Priam cooled his cosmos. He picked a faraway valley close to some old stardust mines he knew in the area. "Somewhere Azrael won't trace us immediately to."

Relieved, Krishna rushed to help Daese up. "Miss Daisy, are you alright?"

The blonde, injured woman trembled in shock and disbelief at everything that had transpired. She stared at the Mariner like she couldn't believe her eyes that he was there.

"C-Captain… you came as well." She muttered, only now just processing his presence. Her arms closed around his neck tightly, pressing in like there was no tomorrow.

Krishna breathed out, a bit startled by the embraced, but relieved she was alright. He felt her shaking and glowered. "I ran into your friend in Shamballa after you went missing." He saw Father Kyosuke nod in reinforcement at this. "We agreed to work together to find you. We didn't plan on having me step in so soon, but then I saw the guy was about to cheat a little."

"I had a feeling Azrael might try it. I am not happy about being right." Priam confessed, sighed. "We had no idea where you went, but I got a sudden feeling you decided to go help stop whatever was heading for Shamballa. It didn't take long for us to see all the flashes from your fighting with Ace." Priam then offered her the Diamond Cloth Stone back, smiling. "Here, this belongs to you."

Releasing Krishna, Daese cupped her hands on the stone, allowing Priam to rest it in her palms. She stared at its white shine. The Aquila Cloth was broken, but its stone was still alive. With some time, she would be able to employ it in battle again.

Blood rushed into her head with all that had happened; not just the arrival of Priam and Krishna, but her mistakes in battling Azrael and the information on Cerah she so carelessly spilled. Everything was doomed, and then these two came to her rescue. She felt stuck between confusion and a wash of utter relief, but also shame of her humiliating loss.

All she could do was cover her face and weep. "I-I'm…I'm so sorry, Priam! I…didn't even stand a chance against him! He was toying with me the entire time! I…I could have gotten you killed! O-Or lost my Stone to Sanctuary!" her weeping face turned to Krishna. "A-And the captain…I …"

Daese suddenly lost words, realizing the significance of Krishna's presence. He ran into Priam. He heard his Gold Saint name. He saw her fighting, like a Gold Saint would. He knew everything!

She stepped back. "O-Oh no!" What was going to happen now?! "Captain, I am so sorry! I never meant to lie to-"

His brown hands held hers. "Don't worry, miss Daisy. That doesn't matter. I don't care what's going on here or who you really are. I am here, because I am duty bound to make sure a passenger of mine stays safe."

Her heart calmed its beating at his words and his touch. She held his fingers back. Was he really telling the truth?

The former Sagittarius Gold Saint stepped up to them. "Daese, captain, I'm afraid I must insist we continue back to Shamballa. I am worried about that explosion from earlier."

"Me too." Krishna agreed. "Fortunately, I sent my men to the shelters before I left."

Daese gulped hard, having seen Atlae and Caça on the battlefield. "C-Captain, wait, there's something I must tell you."

Krishna's head shook. "It has to wait, miss Daisy. Right now, you must go with Father Kyosuke to safety." He gripped his lance and readied himself to lightspeed back to Shamballa. "I'm going to go help Atlae's countrymen. Now go, QUICK! Before that Serpens Saint guy comes after us again!"

The girl widened her eyes. Did he really not care that she lied? Krishna wasn't acting confrontational at all about all the things she's clearly betrayed his trust on. She touched her lips, remembering their heartfelt kiss they shared with each other the other night. Was that why?

Priam held on to Daese and charged his cosmos for another Lightning Arrow. "Let's take you home for now, Daese. Everyone will be relieved to see you okay."

"Alright, Priam." she agreed. Daese's eyes fixed on Krishna. "Captain?"

The Chola heir turned. "Yes?"

Daese gulped. "When this is all over, I'd like to see you one more time. To apologize."

"I told you, there is nothing to apologize for." Krishna insisted. He turned away. "But… if you still wish to come anyway… I will be happy to wait for you."

The girl smiled, feeling her chest warm. Priam's lightning and wind cosmos engulfed them. "LIGHTNING ARROW!" and the two turned into a thunderbolt that blitzed towards the skies, instantly vanishing from the area without a trace.

Krisha sighed, resting his lance over shoulder. "No, miss Daisy. If you're smart like I think you are, you will stay as far away from me as you can. Sanctuary watches Mariners closely, and you know it." This would just have to be another heartbreak he'd have to live through. He'd rather that happen than miss Daisy getting hurt. His eyes turned north, more or less from where he felt the cosmos of Shamballa's denizens. "As for that giant…. What in Poseidon's name is happening right now? Why haven't the Gold Saints shown up ye-"

Just as he wondered this, his 7th sense went off like fireworks, feeling a beam of light cutting through the distances straight towards Shamballa.

It landed right next to him, briefly blinding him with the golden flare. "AGH!"

"Y-YOU!" the person screamed, stomping towards him like he just murdered someone. "Y-You're a gold ranker aren't you? I felt a familiar beam of cosmos here just now!"

Krishna blinked. Thank goodness, it wasn't Azrael. In fact, Krishna recognized the armor from Marianne Solo's great triumph in Sanctuary.

"S-Saint Capricorn?" He gasped, seeing the person covered head to toe in blood. "Poseidon save me, what happened to you?!"

Kirin breathed heavily. She felt her blood drip from her wounds inside her armor and body still shaking from the impact of Titanic Devastation. "It was that giant monster! It knocked me out earlier and I only just woke up again! I don't have time to explain everything! Was that cosmos from you or not?!"

"He must be talking about Father Kyosuke." Krishna concluded, humming worriedly. By all the Gods of war of Olympus, did he just set foot into an enormous Civil War quagmire? "Miss Daisy called him Priam…If my gut feeling is correct, then…"

Kirin grabbed his shirt. "HEY, answer my question!"

"Y-Yes, it was me!" Krishna confirmed, igniting his cosmos to demonstrate. "I'm a gold-ranker, I've been searching for my friends with lightspeed blitzes. I think they tried to escape from that monster's rampage."

The Gold Saint growled, staring at him hard. Krishna sweated heavily. There were many stories about Saint Capricorn 'Achilles', and all revolved around him being someone you definitely didn't want to lie to.

"You better be telling me the truth, or I'm serving your ass to Arthur Solo on a platter!" The Gold Saint relaxed hesitantly. "Athena save me, that monster's punch hit me harder than I thought. For a second, I thought I felt Priam, but that couldn't be!" She shook her head to straighten it out. "I am levying you for this battle. We need every hand on deck to stop that monster. Goddess knows how many lives have been lost just while I was knocked out. You can settle affairs with Sanctuary later if you wish."

"Of course. I don't mind at all, Lord Capricorn. Like I said, I have my crew to worry about." Krishna breathed easier, and charged his cosmos to join Saint Capricorn in their lightspeed least with a Gold Saint helping, things would definitely come to an end soon. "I'm sure Caça is hiding somewhere, like always, but Atlae is the type to rush into trouble. Hopefully he hasn't done anything reckless."

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

(?)

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

Falling and falling, Atlae gasped, feeling dropped to the bottom of an oceanic abyss. Everything around him was dark, murky and blurry, like he was trying to peer through dirty water, and everything sounded thick and echoey. His body also burned in agony. He felt every single muscle in him tighten and grow, threatening to tear through skin, and he couldn't breathe at all. The inside of his lungs felt on fire, like he just inhaled an entire ashtray into them. His hands and knees finally collided on the ground, deafeningly sending dust everywhere and quaking the floor. His head shook in dizziness and he held it. Staring at his hands, he felt his fingers long and heavy, like they were covered in strange gloves, and great heavy weights pressed on his back.

He looked up and saw two small figures scurrying ahead of him.

"Atlae?! Atlae!" one cried out. The voice sounded coarse, but slightly high-pitched, like an older woman. "Dear Gods, can you hear me?! SAY SOMETHING!"

"HOLY SHIT! That's him?!" another screamed, running away. The voice was screechy, making his head hurt, but still thick like that of a young man. "How does everything keep getting even worse?!"

Their words were like screeches in his head, every single one. He winced and held his head.

"ATLAE! JUST HOLD ON! I'LL SAVE YOU!"

He swatted his arms to make the voice go away. "Just STOP!" The two figures scurried back, startled.

Then, a great pain formed in his stomach. Atlae held his abdomen, feeling his skin hard and plated. A sickening feeling came up his esophagus, then his neck. Finally, a great mass came out of his throat and he gagged before expelling it out his mouth to the floor, dropping it in front of the critters.

"W-WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" one voice screamed. "He just vomited … a person?!"

Pained by the screams and the gagging, Atlae got up and tried to run away. He needed peace and quiet. Atlae felt so weak and yet everyone kept screaming at him. His first step sunk deeply into the floor, as if he weighted a thousand tons, and his second stumbled and tossed him straight into a rocky wall, loudly quaking everything around him.

Someone very tiny jumped into his ear. "Dear Genbu… Atlae, please stop moving! You're just hurting yourself! Stay still and let me help you!"

"He can't hear you, lady!" the other voice screamed from afar! "He just slammed himself into a freaking mountain!"

Not understanding a single word, Atlae slammed his hand down on the first voice, trying to catch the strange fly, but it leaped away between his fingers and he ended up just slapping himself in the head! Crawling up, he tried to get his bearings. A powerful drive slowly began pumping out from his heart, making his blood circulate faster and his sight focus better. Purpose began forming in his mind, abstract yet sharp. He needed to go. He needed to fight. What good was he otherwise? He needed to protect… Protect who?

Atlae growled, confused. He felt a call in his mind to something. It sounded like… a promise he made to someone very important to him, a duty he bounded to himself like a steel chain. What was it?!

Blood boiled in his shoulders and arms, inciting him into action! He needed to move, no matter where to. He needed to go find whatever this call was! Sensing great many lives on top of the mountain in front of him, he launched himself unto it, carving his fingers deep into its walls.

His hands moved up to hike the mountain, sinking fingers deep into rock.

"He's heading right back to the city!" the screechy voice whined.

"ATLAE, STOP!"

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

Step after step, Atlae marched, seeking out the heat ahead of him.

Everything looked green, like his own Cosmos. The only distinction was the shadow of hard shapes and the bright green light of lifeforms. It was like a great expanse of tiny lives, all scurrying around, especially as he approached them.

"DEAR GODS, IT'S BACK! R-RUN, RUN!"

"IT'S BIGGER THAN BEFORE?! ELDER YUZURIHA, SAVE US!"

Atlae held his head, gritting his teeth. Why wouldn't the painful shouting stop? How could he hear the voices of these tiny bugs? He felt the heat in his body rising, but tried to stay calm, remembering his training.

Yes, Master would be upset if he didn't balance his cosmos and chi right again. Atlae breathed out, expelling blue flames off his mouth. The heat in his lungs lessened a bit. Maybe he should take a deep breath to calm even more…

First inhale…

The gesture triggered more screams, though. "It's GOING TO ATTACK! R-RUN!"

Then exhale…

His jaw forced itself entirely open, expelling a vomit of air out. It was black and sludgy, flooding his feet with smoke, then it was followed by a sea of flames. His feet became hot with all the warm air he expelled out of his lungs and the ground felt like it was sinking, but at least his chest felt smoother. He looked around and saw that everything around him was on fire. No matter. It didn't hurt. And it made the murky world around him so much brighter.

The tension in his joints and muscles relaxed, relieved from the intense pressure that had been building inside. He marched on, stepping through the flames. Even his head was clearer. Perhaps he should take another deep breath so he could feel even better? Yes. That sounded like a wonderful idea…

Suddenly, a tiny figure leaped in front of him, landing on a tall boulder over the flames and spreading its arms out. "A-Atlae, STOP, it's ME!"

Atlae stiffened. Again, he couldn't understand a word, but the voice was familiar.

The figure took a tentative step. "Y-You're… you're Atlae, aren't you? I can see it." It trembled in horror. "Gods, w-what's happened to you? How could this have happened?"

The sentences sounded like questions to Atlae, and the voice reverberated into his mind more powerfully than all the others. He knew this voice. He had heard it many times. It triggered synapses deep in his brain, firing off foggy memories like firework. Memories of a tree he once sat on, of a smile that once comforted him, of lips that once touched his cheek…

But then, other, strange, more painful memories flooded him. Memories of some sort of strange lie he had to keep up to others about this person. Memories of an arrangement he was willing to do, but secretly pained him. Memories of a sacrifice he had to make one day for this person, that no one gave him any good reason to make, other than… than what?!

"Marianne Solo, stay away!" the first voice from earlier screamed, arriving on the scene.

"Atlae, listen to my voice, please." The person on the rock begged, touching her chest. "You know me, don't you?"

Atlae's blue eyes narrowed. He did!

"If… if you can..." She laid her hands out. "…come out of that… that body, please. I want to see you so much." She smiled. "And don't worry. I'll protect you. And everything will be okay. Atlae, I lov-"

Atlae cried out in rage, his eyes sharpening madly on the figure, making her stagger. This person… is the one that was using him! Using him, his people, and then tossing them all away! Clenching his right fist, forming a sphere of light on it of sheer power and raising it to the air. The figure froze solid, swallowed and frozen by the moonlight shadow of his arm.

"MARIANNE, RUN!"

"TITANIC DEVASTATION!" Atlae cried, flying his earth-cracking fist down on the person!

Before impact was made, the ground beneath him fissured, broke apart and swallowed his feet, making Atlae lose his balance, and several enormous long limbs of strange metal erupted out of the rocks. They wrapped themselves around Atlae's body tightly, constricting him with the force of thick, tempered metal of incomprehensible tensile strength, like the thick arms of the gods themselves. They clenched over his legs, wrapped around his chest, coiled around his arm and even choked his neck, arresting the tossing of his technique to a halt and pulling him away from the tiny figure he tried to attack.

"H-Holy shit, it's the Kraken ship!" a screechy voice asked.

The figure Atlae tried to crush fell to her legs, horrified of what just almost happened. "A-Atlae? You… were going to kill me? W… Why?! Why?!"

Atlae tossed and turned, but the heavy tentacles held him with great power. Why wouldn't it get off of him?! His chest burned with fury, heating and heating and heating, and his body shined with a blue light. Atlae felt a great mass of heat go up his throat. Whatever was attacking him, he should smash it to pieces! Make it pay for attacking him.

A bright headlight emerged from the ground and the creature arresting him became visible; a smooth, metallic monster with a curved, smooth body of hexagonal black plates and eight long limbs that were now all firmly suctioned into Atlae. Pulling itself up by them, it showed a 'beak' in the middle of where its arms birthed that opened up, revealing a tiny metallic tongue that shined with a star in its tip.

A loud siren went off and the star became bigger and bigger. It became so big that it practically blinded Atlae.

"Aurora Cannon, FIRE!" someone declared.

The star went off, exploding into a flash of light. A powerful, concussing, painful blast struck Atlae's chest, echoing through his entire body, and Atlae's mind went completely into darkness.

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

Atlae lied on the ground, motionless.

The last thing he remembered was the bright light and the painful blow to his chest that followed.

Had he been knocked out? Was he alive? Or dead? Everything around him was dark and liquid, like the inside of a closed tub of warm water, and he couldn't muster the strength to move.

Then, sounds of stabbing and sawing of flesh and bone from above. Chuck, chuck, chuck.

Atlae felt a pain in his chest as they happened. It was a pain being transmitted to him from somewhere else, clearly, for nothing was attacking him right then and there, in that warm water.

More stabbing and sawing. Chuck, chuck and chuck.

At this point, Atlae was screaming helplessly into the water, grasping his untouched chest. It was like someone was turning a chainsaw blade's teeth on his torso.

"…one more…" a voice was faintly heard. "…ry, Excalibur!"

The sky suddenly tore open, letting light flood Atlae. His eyes shut in pain and he narrowed them.

"Dear Gods." A figure in a golden suit with horns declared. Their voice felt muffled, separated from him by a wall. Jumping down on him, the figure touched the membrane surrounding the water on Atlae. "Elder, I see him inside the heart! He's alive!"

"Help him, then! What are you waiting for?!"

The figure slammed a fist of cosmos into the membrane that nearly boiled the water Atlae was in, but failing to penetrate the walls. "This organ is too strong! I have to cut it with Excalibur with enough force to counter the regeneration. If your student moves a single muscle, I might cut him in half!"

"I…understand. Please, Saint Kirin, save him if you can"

A second figure with a spear tapped the membrane in test. "If you create an opening, I might be able to dive in and get him, Saint Kirin. We'll use my lance to keep the tear from closing."

The figure tensed its hand and it suddenly shined brightly, casting its light past the membrane.

"Alright…Stay very still, young man. And a prayer to Athena that this works." It asked, before aiming its fingers at him and thrusting. "LONGINUS DRILL!"

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

Days later

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

Sanctuary,

Capricorn Temple

Hall of Cyrul

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

"N-Nine thousand, nine hundred, ninety-eight! N-Nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine!" Shura shouted, swinging his sword in the air in perfect overhead slashes over and over again over the child-like drawing of the fabled Wyvern Rhadamanthys pinned on the training dummy's head. He breathed heavily, feeling his arms burn and his face drenched. With great effort, he rose the wooden sword once more above head. "C-Come on!"

"You can do it, Shura!" young Aiolia cheered from his seat, clenching hands. Aiolos was too busy to babysit him so Lord Kirin had volunteered to watch over the young boy during Shura's practice. Aiolia had even drawn the target himself to inspire the older boy to greater feats of heroism against evil Specters. "Just one more!"

Yet, Shura struggled. "It's no use… I can't concentrate at all!" Every time he burned cosmos to power another swing, the enormous yellow wax pencil marker over the Specter's head destroyed his Shura's focus. "His unibrow is just so stupid!"

"No, Shura, don't give up! Aiolos says that, with the cosmos, you can do anything you set your mind to!" the little boy by him cheered. Aiolia took a pair of small flags of Spain and waved them in cheering. "So burn your cosmos, and use your Excalibur to cut that unibrow in two!"

Harnessing all of his power and focusing all of his wrath on the evil Specter, Shura's burning muscles lifted his heavy sword once more! As the tip of the wooden blade reached the skies, Shura beamed, then felt his balance slowly move over head and the student tripped and fell on his back, exhausted.

Standing watch with her arms folded by Aiolia, Capricorn Kirin timed her student's swings. Her left arm was slinged by her neck after her battles with Talos and her Cloth was resting in its box to fix its cracks, but she still wore all the inner wrappings that let her pass herself off as just an unusually attractive and elegant man. Thankfully Aiolia was too young to notice the subtleties like her lack of an Adam's apple and Shura was too horse-blinded to notice anything but his own training, but she still took the precaution to at least wear a black wrapping around the lower part of her face and tighten her chest just a bit more than usual, uncomfortable as it was.

"It's so odd to see you without your armor." someone confessed, entering the Hall.

The Capricorn turned and pulled her mouth wrapping down to smile. "Hey, look who it is! Sanctuary's greatest war hero."

The tall, black-haired, blue-eyed man that had once led her in battle came into the hall, wearing a white toga over a red shirt, a blue cape, fine leather shoes and jeans belted with a crest of the Steiner House. Beneath his arm he carried a newspaper from the Marathoner, a news bulleting in service to Sanctuary.

Akassius smiled back "It's good to see you." He saw the two boys. "Is this a bad time to talk?"

"Of course not." Kirin clapped her hands. "Alright, Shura, take a break for now. We have visits."

The poor boy sighed out loud "T-Thank you, Master!" he wiped sweated and rushed to the visitor, bowing deeply. Shura then took Aiolia by the shoulder "Come on, Aiolia! My Master is going to be busy right now."

"Okay!" the young boy followed Shura out. "Can we play that 'Holy War' board game again? I still don't get how to win at that."

"No one does, kiddo." Shura confessed. "We'll give it a shot, though."

Akassius waited until the kids were out, then turned to Kirin. "You own a 'Holy War' board? Color me surprised. Didn't you use to say that game was for 'Aquarians and nerds'?"

Kirin shifted her eyes embarrassedly. "I did." The Capricorn sighed nostalgically. "Me and Partita used to play together, way back in the day. Her loving husband was never a big challenge for her."

The stern-eyed man's lips circled and he laughed. "Oh, yes, I believe Kai's style was to 'send a single strong piece ahead and hope it works out'."

Kirin's lips curved right back up. "What can you expect from the 'most Leo Gold Saint' man in Sanctuary's history?"

Akassius rose a brow. "I was a fan of the game. And my Temple was a lot closer to Sanctuary Town, too. Why did she never ask me?"

Kirin's brows tensed exasperatedly. "Because, Akassius, YOUR style was 'intricately plan out my opponents' total destruction, with minimum losses', the total damn opposite of Kai!" She bumped his arm with her healthy fist. "You would take forever to finish a round, like every move you had to calculate how the freaking curvature of the Earth would play into it. That game was already boring, did you have to make it feel like it lasted for freaking centuries, man?"

The Gemini shifted his eyes. He never understood why anyone would enjoy playing anyway else. Wasn't the point to compete for the best strategy? And it always felt so satisfying when he was finally in a position to move all his pieces on turn six hundred and forty-three.

Kirin pointed her thumb at herself. "So, Partita came to me to play. Even though I hate the game… she said she liked my style." The Capricorn smiled; the compliments did make her feel good, especially considering Partita was a champion of the game. "I miss those days. But I'm guessing you're not here to reminisce about confusing board games. So, you heard what happened with Talos?"

The mood tensed in Akassius. "Not everything. I was hoping you could catch me up to speed."

The Capricorn Gold Saint looked at her sling and grumbled. "Yeah, I might as well. Did suffer for it, after all."

Akassius' eyes saddened, finding a good opportunity to ask the proud warrior about her wound. "Speaking of that, how are you feeling. 'Rin? When I heard they sent you to Malta as soon as you returned…"

The Capricorn waved her healthy hand, laughing. "I'm alright, no need to worry about a stupid broken arm. It's not even my Excalibur hand." She patted her sling gently and smirked coyly. "And besides, it gave me a good excuse to have that introverted dummy take care of me for a minute or two…That always feels nice."

The war hero's lips curved up. He knew this reminiscing look on the swordswoman face well. "So, you two are back together. Praise Aphrodite."

"Let's take this upstairs, in private." Kirin offered, guiding him out. "The Pope is trying to keep everything a big secret, for the sake of Shamballa's safety. No need to have Shura gush about me battling a giant in the middle of the Himalayas."

"Excellent. In exchange, I thought I'd let you know on some of the rumblings Cecilia and I have been seeing in the court lately." Akassius offered. "Despite your and Elder Yuzuriha's best efforts, after all, I fear whatever happened in Shamballa did not occur in a vacuum."

The female warrior gritted her teeth and resumed her march up the stairs. "As it never does, I suppose." She cleared her throat. "Fine, then, but you're having a talk with His Holiness after this. I'm still trying to piece it all together, but after questioning everyone at Shamballa, I have a somewhat clear picture for you. It all started with this Muvian boy who rung the Genbu Bell back in January…-"

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

Shamballa Outskirts

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

Leading a surveying party out of the gates, Elder Yuzuriha headed for a vantage point over the terrain surrounding the walls of Shamballa. From there, as the sun rays covered the plateau top, she felt her heart break at the destruction before her left in Talos' wake.

While the road leading to the city was never in smooth terrain, now it stood on what looked like an authentic warzone. The grass was gone, replaced by a vastness of soot and dust. The forests by the southern and western mountain rises, which had grown there for centuries, were now partially or entirely scorched, stripped to their blackened branches and trunks. The bird flocks were mostly gone, leaving the plateau in an eerie silence cut only by the wind. The large lake flanking Shamballa was full of movement as people who had escaped the area via the Kraken were now brought back in, group by group, while the ground was cracked and cratered all the way to the edges of the plateau from the stomps, fighting and blasting done by Talos.

Without her specialists saying a word, Yuzuriha knew this would all take a long time to heal.

"As far as casualties go, Elder, there were many people injured in the clinics." A statistician with a bulletin board numbered. He was a lilac-haired man of glasses and black robe, a typical Shambala Muvian. "While, ahem,… Talos never broke into the city, the panic it inspired and the quakes its attacks caused were felt throughout Shamballa. There were even a few heart attacks."

"Give anyone who needs it asylum at the Turtle School and the Sun Temple." Yuzuriha ordered. "You have my full permission to do whatever it takes to help Muvians and Humans in the city alike. Also, send out groups to collect any villagers that were afflicted by Talos' march. They will need aid, as well."

"Yes, High Elder."

"Were there any more survivors from the Sea Dragon?" she asked, hopeful.

The specialist shook his head. "The search party already returned from the crash site; I'm afraid Miss Solo and mister Weyprecht really were the only ones, Ma'am." He took another look at his papers. "We have counted approximately… three hundred and forty-two Mariner personnel corpses, though some have become difficult to identify due to the fire and crushing damage. The battle that Castellan Azrael fought in the area has also made inspection of the facts difficult."

Yuzuriha gritted her teeth. "All those souls! It's all my fault. I should have protested Marianne's offer to help! Now that poor girl will bear the pain of her crew's demise forever."

"As ordered, we've initiated retrieval of the ship parts." An engineering specialist mentioned. He brightened up, though, at one bit of good news "We've successfully retrieved the Orichalcum engine, but the core is burnt out, likely from overexertion in firing the main gun. If you'd like, we could bring it to our laboratories for further studies? Everyone would love to-"

"Absolutely not!" Yuzuriha cut, before all the laboratory boys got overexcited "That technology is a military secret for the Mariners. Taking it inside Shamballa without their permission will severely damage relations on TOP of everything that has already happened!"

There was a collective look of disappointment from them, but none dared defy Yuzuriha's order. "High Elder, speaking of that, we have also received word from the council." A second specialist, a green-haired middle aged Muvian focused on diplomacy, spoke. "I'm afraid that, in light of what happened, they wish to readdress the negotiations with the Mariner Households."

Yuzuriha held her head. "Gods, not this too…"

The specialist gulped. "Many, like Elder Sung, have expressed that they would like to rescind their signatures. With everything that has transpired, including the evidence supplied by Castellan Azrael, I believe they think the Mariners may be somewhat responsible for this tragedy."

"We just signed the damn renewal! Was it all for naught?!" Yuzuriha wondered to herself. Marianne Solo was surely to take this all poorly, on top of everything else going on with her. "Judge Merope at Sanctuary Town has ruled it all as legal, I'd imagine?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And I suppose my own protests on the very suspicious circumstances regarding all of this have fallen on deaf ears?!" she dared ask.

They all hesitated, then slowly nodded.

A deep breath was taken by the High Elder. "How can things possibly get any worse?!" Yuzuriha wondered to the Gods. "I suppose I have some very difficult conversations to have with Arthur Solo, who was so hopeful for our future cooperation! Is there any more bad news I should share with him? By all means! Now is your chance to line it all up for me!"

They all exchanged worried looks. One raised his hand.

Yuzuriha sighed. "Yes, councilman Lee?"

"Um, thank you, Ma'am, well, it's just to say that we've gotten word back from Néa Delphi, on why Arthur Solo has been unresponsive to your calls." The nervous Muvian shifted eyes. "I am afraid that he has suffered a cardiovascular accident. He's currently hospitalized."

She widened eyes. "What?!"

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

Capricorn Temple

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

"What?!" Kirin gasped out, leading Akassius upstairs. "The deal between the Mariners and the Muvians is off?! And Arthur Solo is in the hospital?"

"Yes, Cecilia learned of it at court this morning. I asked her to send his family my best-wishes." Joining her in her upper hall, where she kept her wine and weapon storages, the former Gemini nodded and tossed the newspaper he brought over the table. "Plus, I got this from my contact at the Marathoner. They plan to release this issue this Saturday."

Kirin took it and read the main frontlines. On a smaller headline, it spoke of catastrophe at Shamballa due to an earthquake and of mass hysteria about sightings of a giant golem, so as to disguise what happened with Talos. However, the main photograph was a group of elderly Muvian figures announcing the severance of the treaty of friendship between them.

"It's very disappointing." One merchant from Sanctuary Town told our reporter. "We've been making good business with Shamballa this past few years. Now prices will go back up and I'll have to return to Néa Delphi."

"It's all so backwards! Are we living in the Myth Age, or something?!" a soldier from the Muvian Guard mentioned. She refused to give us permission to name her. "I was acquainted with the Mariners' Vice-Admiral through an old classmate from the Turtle School, and they are wonderful people! Why are we going back on agreements with them?!"

"I say, good riddance." An older Muvian citizen told us. "Mariners are our oldest enemies, so they shouldn't be trusted. Muvian architecture, science, culture and tradition is our most valuable treasure. I was sick of seeing second-rate Mariner goods take their place in shops and stores."

"This is great for me, are you kidding?" a Sanctuary merchant spoke. "Listen, I make my livin' being a middle man between these two groups. Buy Muvian steel, sell it to Mariners, buy Mariner porcelain, sell it to Muvians, easy! That treaty of friendship or whatever was killing me since the Muvians would just buy things off the Mariners directly. I got five kids to feed, you know?"

The Capricorn Saint returned the paper, sick of looking at the gossiping. "Wow, those guys under the High Elder wasted no time turning back the clock, did they?"

"Correct, which suggests the treaty was on as shaky a ground to be renewed as everyone thought." Akassius argued. "It seems that on top of the stroke he suffered, all of Arthur Solo's hard work has also come undone."

The Capricorn frowned empathetically. "Malta isn't going to like this, either. He's been working as their in-between for Sanctuary." She took a bottle from her cabinet she got as a gift from a town she saved from rogues in her youth. "I guess the Mariner we found by Talos sealed the deal for them…"

Akassius saw her trying to uncork and pour its contents with her one healthy hand. "Let me get that, Kiri-"

Her hawk-eyed glare pierced him. "Don't you dare. Sit your butt down, mister." The war hero sweated and acquiesced, letting her be. Eventually she got the cork off with a pop. "I'll be damned if I can't serve my own wine in my own Temple to my own friends just because of a stupid fracture…"

The Gemini smiled bemusedly. It was good to know she was in strong spirits despite what happened. Kirin did her best to pour the wine in two cups to serve it on her guest table with one hand. To her credit, she seemed to Akassius to be in control of things.

He took his to hand. "Back to the Mariners and the Muvians, I guess it was inevitable, then; another abortive attempt at friendship between the oldest enemies in History, ruined."

"Not necessarily, Kirin. I've always defended people have greater capacity to ally together than they think." Akassius insisted, taking one of the cups. He gently danced it in his fingers to stir it. "The fact Arthur even accomplished the first treaty at all is a greater miracle than renewing it would have been, and could be a sign of hopeful future between them. Humans and Muvians are, after all, both very much stuck in their ways, so it's natural there would be great resistance to what Arthur has been doing, but it often only takes a little bit of bravery to create new friendships and points of view."

Kirin huffed, grabbing a seat with him and pouring a cup for herself. Akassius had always been good with words. "Wow, how idealistic. You don't even sound like the guy who hunted Priam for four years."

Akassius glowered and drank from his cup. "…I suppose I don't."

His visible mood drop made Kirin regret her words immediately. Everyone always forgot that, despite the way it looked in the war, Akassius was one of the people who regretted the Civil War the most. "I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean to say that."

Akassius shook head and savored his drink. "Mm, this is good wine. Sweet, but still strong."

She laughed, relieved he wasn't upset. "Well, it's because it isn't yours."

Akassius scoffed in bemusement, his mood visibly lifting. "I'll win you all over yet. Going back to the tragedy between Shamballa and Néa Delphi; while it would have been heartwarming to see those two ancient enemies finally end that chapter of their history, it seems that, in the end, the Sanctuary court couldn't be happier with how things have turned out."

Kirin gripped her glass tensely "Of course, those snakes." and took her first sip, too. "I bet Councilor Gigas is heading to Shamballa right now to gloat. Or worse, offer an extension to Sanctuary's 'protection'."

Her old friend's sharp black eyes studied her. "Would you be against such a thing?"

Kirin staggered. "No, not at all! Just that, you know," and her lips tensed awkwardly. "I'm wondering how many useless sons of Gigas' rich friends are going to be the ones given castles to protect in Muvian towns? I've heard the last one tried to help himself to the spirit gem of the town he was supposed to protect. That's not a good look no matter how you cut it."

"Thirteen towns are slotted to fall under our protection, last I counted, mostly from the path of the 'disaster'. "Akassius mentioned. He saw how sick it made Kirin look and couldn't say he disagreed. "It seems the failure of the Mariners has been Sanctuary's success. Our power over the Muvians has only grown out of this. It remains to be seen, however, how much corruption will grow along with it."

Kirin stirred her cup, measuring the impact of the news in her head. "You and I should be happy, right?" she recalled how the other day she said the exact same thing to Malta that Akassius was suggesting here, that the Mariners had no place messing with the power balance. "Uh, I feel like such a hypocrite, Akassius, but…well, I had a chance to speak with Delphinus Marianne before I left Shamballa."

The Gemini's interest seemed piqued. "You mean, Arthur's daughter? Go on?"

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

"Are you sure you do not wish me to escort you back, miss Marianne?" Kirin suggested.

The glass-eyed teenager nodded in her bed.

Kirin stared worriedly. "I'd like to make clear it would be no problem for me to do so. The climate right now isn't, um…" Kirin tried to think of how to say it. How could she tell Marianne about all the Mariner Households calling for her head right now? "It is a bit tense, and Officer Sorrento Weyprecht has informed me you ordered him to stay with the Chrysaor crew, effectively leaving you undefended. His Holiness the Pope would be relieved if he knew you made it back to Greece safely, and that he got a chance to straighten everything out with you before your critics did."

"No, Lord Gold Saint, I will face my consequences honorably." Marianne muttered, staring out the hospital window. "My people trusted me, and I have failed them. There is nothing I should be shielded from."

Dear Athena, who was this ghost of Marianne Solo in front of Kirin? While the sense of responsibility was admirable, Kirin recalled a voice full of confidence back at the Triumph from Marianne Solo as she presented the Ghost Saints she defeated to Sanctuary, not this defeated, listless tone.

As a fellow woman in Sanctuary, Kirin felt she should at least say something. "Miss Marianne, I am a Saint of Athena, not a Mariner, but I'd like to say that what happened with the Sea Dragon was not your fault. You and your men fought with bravery any Saint would env-"

"Not my fault?" For the first time, she turned to the Gold Saint. "I commanded that ship, Lord Capricorn. If I'm not at fault, then who is? Me and my immediate officer are the only survivors of a battle that I ordered it to fight, and we didn't even succeed in stopping Talos. Everything about what happened that night is, therefore, completely upside down, is it not? The pride of the Mariners is lost, and yet I live."

The older warrior narrowed her eyes in concern. Kirin did not wish to humiliate Marianne by mentioning her young age, but also didn't find it right that she had to shoulder this much guilt, both out of sympathy and out of worry to the political upheaval that weakness in the mariners could cause. "Ships can be rebuilt, Saint Delphinus."

"But the lives of those Mariners cannot." Marianne recalled. "And they aren't just shadowed faces working in the hulls of a warship. Because of me,… because of a fantasy I was pursuing of turning us into heroes to Atlae's peo… to the Muvians, the Mariners are now much weaker in this world. Those men had friends, family, children, loved ones…and Lords they wished to serve honorably. And now the Households will have to keep fighting for our survival and faith without their help."

The Capricorn Saint saw her turn away once again, staring out like a dead fish. A part of the Gold Saint frankly worried about what this girl might do. "Where do you wish to go next, then?"

"First, to Lady Yuzuriha, so I can beg her forgiveness. Then, I will go to my father and mother's side at the hospital, who need me now more than ever." Marianne listed robotically, like she couldn't feel the pain of her father's current condition on top of everything that had also happened. "Then…I will face justice."

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

"That poor girl. I've never seen anyone tasked with such enormous responsibility at such a young age." Kirin confessed. She then gulped. "Well, except, you know, him."

"The Pope?"

Kirin hoped it would have been obvious. "Yup. Hard to compete with the tragedy of being a Holy War survivor. But my point is that I thought I'd feel good that the Mariners were kept in check in all this, but instead…"

The former Gemini danced his cup to twirl the wine, deeply envying whoever crafted this delicacy of the Gods. "Ultimately, the Mariners are not our concern, Kirin. You should know that better than anyone. We are separate from them despite our long peace period for good reason."

Sometimes the Gemini seemed to feel the need to restate the obvious, which could irritate Kirin. Like any good Capricorn, her loyalty was to Athena's vision for the world, not Poseidon's or anyone else's. "Sure, but…now I worry. The Mariners are heathens, yes, but they're easy to deal with compared with the rest of the Pact, especially since Arthur took over as Head of Houses."

"An advantage that would be lost to us should they unite with another member of it. We should ask ourselves, Kirin, if two seats of the Pact growing closer in friendship is something from history we'd like to be repeated. Take for example;" Akassius held chin momentarily to think. "What if Cetus and the Bluegrad Baron suddenly decided that they had more in common with each other than with all the others, too? Like their greed?"

The thought alone made Kirin pause. "By Zeus's bolts, I don't even want to think about that. It's hard enough figuring out what those two are up to as it is."

"That is exactly my point. I have always defended, Kirin, that the Pact of Seven is paradoxically both Sanctuary's greatest ally and its greatest enemy." Akassius reminded her, setting glass down. "Power blocs forming within it have always inevitably steered towards causing problems for Sanctuary. Whenever two of them become friends, they always start seeing the other five as enemies, if not Sanctuary itself along with them. Sanctuary is then always forced into a position of… unpleasant mediation."

Kirin sweated. "Is that why you're here today? To mediate?"

Akassius gave her a knowing smirk. "Perhaps. Would you prefer Gigas in my place?"

The Capricorn could swear she felt all the skin in her back crawl at the idea. The guy would probably take a bunch of bribes to shut up and then just let guys like Cetus do whatever they wanted. "No, no, go ahead. I'm sure they will listen to you. Most of them, anyway…"

"And the ones that don't, I'll make them listen." Akassius confidently assured, like he wasn't dealing with a pack of ambitious tyrants and warlords that could fuel whole wars against Sanctuary by themselves. "I will not allow vultures like Cetus to take advantage of the Mariner's moment of weakness. This Pact only makes sense if all of its members see each other as equals."

Kirin served them more wine. "Still… this Talos thing." She took out a picture of Atlae that Yuzuriha gave her. "What are we going to do, Akassius? About that boy?"

He smirked again. "You're asking me? You're the one that cut him out of the giant. I'm retired."

"YES, I'm asking you!" Kirin then looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Let's face it, man, you're trying to not act like it, but you're still in charge around here. You've been since Priam punched the Pope! So just tell me what you're thinking."

Akassius frowned, displeased. "I don't like the idea of Sanctuary depending on me to solve everyone's problems, Kirin…"

Kirin shrugged and let out a resigned sigh. "I'd ask Daniel, but he has no opinions about anything anymore unless it's about Aldebaran or his impending retirement. Everyone is asking me and Malta for answers and we don't have a clue what to respond this time." Kirin pointed out, swallowing the rest of her wine all at once. She sighed it out. "I'm good at slicing things up and kicking Specter ass, not… making any of the big ethical decisions. And I think you can concur that having some Muvian boy walk around after having a Godzilla monster inside of him isn't something we can ignore."

"Alright, very well. Let me take a look, then." Akassius took the picture and Kirin's report, crossed legs and gave the file a deep look. "But you owe me for this."

She smiled. "Thanks, Akassius. I'll buy you and Cecilia a new 'Holy War' set, limited edition, promise."

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

Shamballa Hospital

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

Daylight hit at Atlae's eyes, making them open. The peaceful sound of curtains dancing to an open window's current and of soft beeps of medical machinery around him helped awaken him further. He found himself rested over a soft mattress and under clean, thin sheets, with bandages wrapped around many parts of his body. Raising himself on his hospital bed, Atlae winced, feeling muscles from all over his body tighten and burn.

What happened? Where was everyone?

Atlae held his head. He didn't remember anything at all. Why was he at the hospital? The last time Atlae was in Shamballa's big medical building was a year earlier, when he landed on the concrete from trying to ring the Genbu bell a second time. He tried to collect his thoughts and understand how he possibly got the-

Flashes and images went through his mind, making him gasp! Atlae paled and breathed out, remembering himself walking through the plateau's prairie, dressed in the Bronze Cloth of Talos. In particular, Marianne's terrified face came to him. "M-MARI', NO-"

A firm hand held him. "Relax, Atlae. It's over."

The Muvian staggered, seeing the familiar tall youth in military uniform and cut kelp-green hair. "Josef?" he turned his head and saw, as well, Master Yuzuriha. "Master! You're here too?"

She smiled briefly. "It's good to see you awake, Atlae. How do you feel?"

The teenager held himself self-consciously. He hummed and touched his bandages. "I'm okay… I think. I feel like I've been sleeping for a year."

The two grown-ups exchanged a concerned look at this.

The Muvian held his chest, feeling further bandages. He realized he was covered top to bottom in them, almost like a mummy. "W-What happened? Where is everyone? Where is Mari?!" The Muvian gulped, realizing the last thing he remembered was being swallowed by Talos. "Wait, the attack! Did… did something happen? Did I do something terrible?!"

Yuzuriha hummed gravely with unusual hesitancy. Atlae knew Master had never shied away from saying painful truths, but this time, it looked like a cat had eaten her tongue. Somehow this felt more frightening to Atlae than any lecture she could have given him.

Taking the initiative for her, Josef Gerasimov held Atlae's shoulder. "Everyone is okay, Atlae. Miraculously, we managed to contain the situation."

"Talos is gone, Atlae." Yuzuriha finally spoke, tense like a rod. "Do you remember anything that happened after he caught you?"

Atlae scratched his head. He remembered everything being blue, but the rest was a blur. "I'm not sure. I saw Ithaca and someone else, and I remember having a conversation."

"A conversation? Did you agree to anything in it?" Yuzuriha tentatively asked, stepping forward. She had a look in her eyes like she thought he might know where a ransom victim was. "Atlae, think hard, do you have any memory at all of concurring to any kind of pact or contract? Or of communicating with Talos?"

A searing migraine afflicted Atlae, making him wince the harder he tried to piece things together. He frowned. All he recalled were flashes of him moving around and people being tiny.

"I'm sorry, Master, I don't." Atlae tried to relax, relieved, but their indirectness left him anxious. "H-How long was I asleep?"

"Three days. You are very lucky, Atlae." Josef complimented, giving Atlae an admiring stare. "First, you survive being swallowed by that monster, Talos. Then, not only a Gold Saint arrives to help, but you also survive the process of Saint Capricorn cutting you out of Talos' chest. The medics in Shamballa had to buzzsaw a cocoon of flesh from around you, then they carried you straight into emergency care, because half your body had severe burns on it. Everyone's been awaiting news ever since."

Atlae widened eyes. "Is that what happened? I was cut out of him?" He beheld himself curiously. His arms and legs felt completely mummified. A cocoon of flesh? Burns? So that's what all the bandages were about? He touched his body. He looked and felt perfectly Muvian to himself. Atlae hadn't grown any wings or tail and no bits of his skin looked armored with thick scales.

"Then… right now, Talos must be gone?" Atlae wondered, turning to Josef. "If you all ripped me out of him, then the nightmare is over? Talos is dead or back to sleep?"

The Mariner folded his arms. "Well, Atlae, that was actually something we were hoping you could answer."

His fingers clenched on the bed. "It's because I did something, didn't I?

The Gerasimov hummed, darting his eyes. "There's no getting around to it, Atlae, so I will be blunt; you attacked Marianne Solo."

…

A terrible, sinking feeling hit Atlae's chest.

So, it was true. The nightmare he had was all true. Atlae's eyes shook and formed tears. No, no, no! What had he done?!

"Marianne is alright." Josef assured. "But considering the circumstances, everyone believed it was for the best that I'd keep a close eye on you, not just because I felt personally responsible for knocking you out with my battleship's Aurora Cannon, but because in the eventually of… something going wrong, I could use my powers to freeze you solid."

"Freeze me solid? You mean…?!" Atlae widened eyes, realizing Josef's pale blue orbs seemed to watch Atlae for any sign of instability, like Josef thought he was some kind of bomb about to go off. Atlae paled. "W…. what happened to Talos? And Ithaca?! You said you cut me out, right? That means it's over!" The Muvian gritted his teeth and practically jumped out of bed, but felt a strong tug in his foot that made him trip straight to the floor. Startling him more than either of them, Atlae looked down to realize his heel was cuffed to the hospital bed by some kind of shackle. "What is this?! Why did someone put this on me? Master?"

Josef reached over and unlocked the cuff. "Don't worry, it was just a precaution. We didn't know what would happen once you woke up."

The Muvian rubbed his sore ankle. He understood they were just being cautious, but still. "You didn't answer my question about Talos."

"Atlae, listen carefully." Josef spoke "We… don't know, right now."

"After Saint Capricorn cut you out, its body disintegrated." Yuzuriha recalled. It left behind a sludge of toxic alkaline liquid, too, from all the heavy metals involved. "So, we don't quite understand what's become of Talos, which is why we wanted to keep you under observation for now."

"It is very possible Talos might have even abandoned you, Atlae." Josef added, folding arms. He took a hand mirror on the table and handed it to him. "It is very clearly not on you, after all, and none of the tests done by the Muvians here seem to point out anything wrong."

Atlae turned to the mirror in the room at this. He saw a completely normal Atlae staring back, albeit with a couple of faint bruise marks on his face. "So… he's gone?! But…That can't be! After all that happened-"

The heartbeat machines starting going off and Atlae felt his breath cut short.

Yuzuriha came to him and held him. "Atlae!" She saw his face becoming red. "Take deep breaths, remember your training!"

The teenager obeyed, inhaling in and out for a few long seconds. Eventually, the machines reading his heartbeat started beating slower and his face went back to a normal color.

Atlae tried to calmly nod. "I'm okay, Master, thank you." He turned eyes up at them. "Is… is there any chance I can see Marianne, Josef? Master? Please? I need to tell her that… that I didn't mean to frighten or hurt her. Please!"

Josef watched him shake like a leaf and grimaced. It was time, however, to deliver the next part of the news about Marianne. "While I don't doubt none of it was your intention, Atlae, the Vice-Admiral felt it was best to… depart from Shamballa. Not just because of what transpired, but because we've received rather tragic news; her father, the Head of Houses, has suffered a stroke."

Atlae staggered, feeling another tragedy crush his heart. "L-Lord Arthur?! What do you mean?! What happened to him?! TELL ME!"

"There is a lot for you to catch up on, Atlae, and I'm afraid most of it isn't good. We don't know all the details yet of Lord Arthur's condition, either, but I think it's obvious why miss Solo had to leave you for now… and why it might be best for you not to see her as of yet." Josef then exhaled and squinted gravely. "These past few days have been quite terrible for the Mariners as a whole, in fact, not just her. You mentioned you remember meeting Sir Ithaca, correct? Well, word has quickly spread, I'm afraid, that he was involved in Talos' rampage."

"Castellan Azrael found his sword by Mount Kailash, Talos' holding site, next to the bodies of the men I had guarding it." Yuzuriha listed. Her teeth gritted, remembering the final evidence. "And then…"

"And then what? Ithaca…what happened to him?!" Atlae demanded to know, practically jumping out of the bed. "Where is he? Please tell me he's alive!"

"That… may be the strangest detail of all." Josef had to confess, irking. He walked over and got the crutches the nurse left in the room earlier. "Atlae, can you move in these? There's somewhere we'd like to take you."

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

Sanctuary,

Capricorn Temple

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

Akassius Steiner went quiet for a while, studying Kirin's report in his hand, perhaps reflecting on the matter of what to do with the Muvian boy as thoroughly as he could, just like he did with his 'Holy War' games. Kirin was confident she managed to explain everything to him carefully, so hopefully Akassius could, if not come up with a solution, then at least consider a factor she had not foreseen yet.

The Capricorn gulped, wondering what verdict would come out. In all frankness, the swordswoman was unsure what she hoped for out of Akassius. It would be good, first and foremost, that Sanctuary's safety was ascertained, but the involvement of Azrael in the matter, coupled with the tensions in the Pact, made her think that perhaps doing her duty to Athena in this case would be also found in protecting the biggest victims of this tragedy. However, the dangers associated with the monster that rampaged through the Himalayans were now closely tied to Atlae, and there was a chance there was no way to separate the victim from the risk they should eliminate.

"Well, Kirin," Akassius finally spoke, dropping the report on the table. "I am not convinced this Atlae boy is a danger to us."

This was a bit beyond what she had hoped. Had he actually read everything Kirin wrote? "Why not? He almost wiped out Shamballa, Akassius."

"Him or this Ithaca?" Akassius reminded her. It seemed, in fact, he did read everything. "Our generation in particular should know how important it is that we distinguish the motivations of 'Atlae' and the motivation of 'Talos', wouldn't you agree? Moreover, your report says Shamballa does not detect any sign of Talos left in him. There's no armor on his body, not even a Cloth Stone like the Zodiac Knights, and all of his vital signs read as normal, if Shamballa is to be believed. How do we know, Kirin, that you have not slayed this titan when you cut Atlae out of its heart?"

As flattering a notion as it was, Kirin cringed skeptically. "Because… it was too damn easy! And nothing ever goes that easy for us! You know that!"

The Gemini nodded, feeling his own argument turned on its head. He also respected Kirin's instincts enough not to dismiss them outright. "Perhaps you're correct."

Yet, Kirin saw him all quiet, and didn't like it one bit. "But?"

The retired warrior clasped his fingers. "But nothing, old friend. I simply find it difficult to conclude more without first ascertaining Talos' exact location. Did it return to Mount Kailash?"

Kirin shook head. "No, that mountain is ruined." She went back to the place herself and it was nothing but rubble and fire. "Sanctuary has had to issue a quarantine on the Chinese government over it until we rebuild it to its natural state. It actually created a big mess for the MMC to handle. They always get the cleanup for these things, unfortunately…"

"Is it in Sanctuary, then? A Cloth temple?" Akassius took a gander, laying out hand. "Perhaps at Jamir to be repaired?"

The Capricorn Gold Saint scoffed, imagining the giant Cloth hiding under Mu's tower bluff, between all the spikes. "Of course not! Can you imagine?! Just tell me where you're getting at, cause these jokes aren't funny."

"That then we truly only have in our hands one innocent teenager." Akassius argued, as if it was the most obvious thing to conclude. "So Sanctuary, in my opinion, should do what we always do with such troublemakers."

This could mean such a list of different things to Kirin. "Which is?"

Akassius gave his wily smirk. "We turn them into Saints."

The Capricorn felt a chill, which she wasn't sure if it was because she felt encouraged or frightened. On the surface, it sounded like a badass thing to say, the type Akassius loved to spout to keep everyone motivated during a difficult mission. This intuition had always kept their group alive well since their junkyard days.

"If we are indeed dealing with a 'Cloth', shall we put it, then I think the best way to solve this problem is to give this Atlae boy an alternative Bronze armor to earn." Akassius argued. "It is not unprecedented; it's become standard practice, for example, to divert any candidates with compatibility with the Phoenix Cloths to other Bronze armors, and the mariner's analysis of Talos does state it is built very much like a Bronze Cloth. It is the most natural way to fix someone's birth stars."

Kirin held her jaw. "Mm, that isn't the worst idea, no. I've been told this boy is a Mach-three fighter already. It should be simple to have him earn a Cloth like Lupus or Vulpecula."

"At worst, we'll be investing Sanctuary's resources in a youth that was strong and brave enough to even save the High Elder's life from Talos. At best, he will be our primary way to figure out how Talos is operating."

While the perspective was refreshing and seemed on point, Kirin hesitated to agree. "That seems… awfully risky. What if Talos isn't done with him? What if the Muvians see this as Sanctuary appropriating even more from them? We already have Mu going for Azrael's old cloth, after all. And our generation hasn't had the best of luck with Cloth Paths, Akassius."

"I know. But Atlae is not of our generation, or even human for that matter." Akassius reminded her. "And besides, harming the boy, imprisoning him or worse sounds to me like it only might aggravate relations with Shamballa even more than just simply making him a Saint, which seems unnecessary considering we don't even know where Talos IS."

The Capricorn Gold Saint folded her arms. As always Akassius had a better grip of the situation than anyone else, even with just a passing glance. "I suppose…"

Her lack of conviction in his suggestion was blatant to Akassius, though. "Do you doubt my conclusion?"

"You said the worst that can come is that we are just investing in a new Saint." Kirin demanded to know. "You realize that Talos blew up the Sea Dragon, right? And it knocked me unconscious for a good while. It also survived an Athena Exclamation and healed right back up from it. What if that boy somehow becomes Talos again? In the middle of Sanctuary Town?"

He reached for his pocket and took out a card. "Then, I think the best recourse we have right now is to look into ways of definitively limit his ability to tap into Talos, accident or not."

Kirin took it. It was a contact pointing to Andromeda Island. "What? Akassius, this-"

"Priam's former student is a loyal servant of Sanctuary. Saint Gardnia also studied under Daniel, who in turn has vouched for him multiple times." The Gemini suggested. "Being the Cepheus Saint, Gardnia is a specialist in all manners of power-sealing Cloths, like Andromeda. If necessary, he can suggest a good cosmos-sealing Bronze Cloth for him."

Kirin narrowed her eyes. "I see. So young Atlae's fate is to be locked up in chains until we understand he's safe to be around or helpful." But what else could they do? "It's either this, or putting the lives of countless people at risk with his mere presence. I can't tolerate that either."

The Capricorn Gold Saint nodded somberly. Like she said, her duty was to Athena first. And Akassius was right; while it was a tragic fate for an innocent young man, it was either this or potentially letting a giant stomp his way across a city. Kirin had also only met the boy very briefly, when she pulled him out of Talos' inert chest, so it wasn't like she had any reason to feel attached. And Akassius was right; Kirin would rather cut the kid's head off than let him stomp his way through Sanctuary Town, or worse, a heavily populated metropolis.

Still, she had hoped, as a Gold Saint, that some kind of miraculous solution could be achieved. Kirin supposed only time would tell if that was possible, even with the Cosmos.

"Alright, Akassius. I will speak with Saint Gardnia personally about this." However, one thing hung in the air between them "Can we talk about the snake in the grass now?"

"You mean Azrael?" The Gemini exhaled deeply, like he reflected on an old wound. "It… surprises me to learn he involved himself in this. I didn't think he was going to leave Serpent Rock until Holy War finally broke out."

"The Pope believes it's just because Ace is in the Ural Mountains and was closest to the location when the Athena Exclamation was first fired on Talos." Her fists clenched. "I spoke to His Holiness that there might be something more to it, but…"

Akassius leaned back with a resigned exhale. "Let me guess; Arles was skeptical?"

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

"Azrael? Involved in the Talos Incident? How could that be, Kirin?"

"I'm not sure to what extent, your holiness, but I am, at the least, concerned about the slowness of his attempts to stop Talos." Kirin worded, kneeling before the Pope. "While I was unconscious, Talos made it all the way to Shamballa. Azrael was active the entire time, however. I somehow managed to catch up with Talos sooner than he did."

"Azrael's report insist that he came under attack by pro-Mariner partisans near the Sea Dragon's wreckage." Arles argued. "Evidence on the site seems to indicate as much that he battled a number of lightspeed users while the attack on Shamballa occurred. How do we know this Ithaca of Delphi, after all, was operating alone?"

Kirin gulped. It was true that someone did, in fact, battle Azrael. Caça Cabral, however, insisted quite loudly that his party got away from the Sea Dragon before they witnessed such a confrontation, so Kirin had next to nothing to go on. "We don't, your Holiness."

"Correct, so let us be careful with our suspicions." Arles' masked face turned away. "At the end of the day, Azrael is still a Saint of Athena…I know in my heart that he would never do anything to go against Her law. As his brothers in arms, we owe him the benefit of the doubt."

Kirin widened her eyes. "Yes, but…" When seeing the Pope's stare, however, her confidence relented. "I will await further information, then, your Holiness. If you excuse me…"

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

Kirin tapped her fingers. "I worry that Arles still doesn't grasp how self-destructive and obsessed Ace has become, Akassius. I side with the Pope on every matter, of course, but…if Arles doesn't understand yet why would anyone be hurt by what he's done to Ace..."

"It's possible that he does not, Kirin. Arles is clearly Muvian, after all." Akassius pointed out, a fact obvious to anyone who considered Arles' long age. "He might not understand how fragile the human psyche is compared to a species to whom telekinesis comes so naturally. Not only that, but he comes from a generation that deeply valued the integrity of its Gold Saints. Both as a Muvian and as a veteran, Arles might not even conceive the notion that Ace could be so embittered against Sanctuary."

Kirin clicked her tongue. Could Akassius be right? "Maybe." She glowered shamefully. "Well, here we are, the two most loyal warriors of the Pope, asking ourselves if he's lost his damn mind to Muvian senility. Sometimes I wonder if Priam was right and h-"

"That is not for us to wonder." Akassius reminded her, his eyes darting in search of eavesdroppers. "What is, though, is if you think Ace was involved in Talos' breakout?"

The mood in the room went cold, with Kirin feeling a deep fear her subconscious mind had developed out of the situation and that Akassius, who only had a third-hand account on everything that had transpired, has now seemed to have arrived to himself.

"The only person who could verify it is also the one person most interested in incriminating someone else for what happened; sir Ithaca of Delphi." The Capricorn recalled, referring to the mariner that Talos spat out. "But the guy barely remembers anything that happened. We're lucky he's even alive."

Akassius nodded. "I see. And Azrael? What's his story?"

"He insists he was in the Himalayas to do the same I was. Very self-righteously, if I may add, as with everything else he does in life." Kirin pointed out, huffing. She messed with her empty cup, her eyes saddening. "I… want to believe him. But I don't."

The black-haired war hero held mouth, looking like all kinds of terrible conclusions were flashing through his mind. "As you told the Pope, his lack of action during this affair after you were knocked out, combined with his insistence in asking you to contact the Pope and give him the Aries Cloth, casts a dark cloud over this mystery."

"But how can we tell?" Kirin wondered, genuinely concerned. "I've interrogated everyone in the matter, and even the Cabral heir's story matches Azrael's that he was singularly focused on hunting down the Mariner responsible for this."

"That is irrelevant to this. Azrael is a Saint of Athena before he is a Pact Member." Akassius insisted, narrowing eyes. "He should be protecting the innocent first, not investigate a tragedy while it's happening or using it as leverage to advance his interests. I think it's time that I ask a few favors around…"

She saw Akassius close his eyes and concentrate his cosmos on a mental ping. "Contacting someone?"

He opened them. "Correct. It's someone I spoke to prior to coming here. I had a feeling you would corroborate everything I've been hearing about Azrael's involvement in this affair, so I took a few steps ahead."

Kirin widened her eyes. "Wait, you mean… Akassius, who did you call?!"

"Someone he will listen to, undoubtedly." Akassius' dark eyes narrowed, forming a glare that countless in Sanctuary had learned to fear. "If Ace thinks he can get away with this attitude of his and just slink back to his castle, he is sorely mistaken."

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

Russia,

Ural Mountains,

Serpent's Rock Castle

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

The waters of the Emerald River fountain pool inside the keep of the castle were taken by bucket and poured over his naked body. It washed over him, cleansing his wounds of malaises, but the large slash on his back from the Mariner's Flashing Lancer attack still stung. While the cut itself had healed, it had pained Azrael for whole days and nights since his prey escaped, like real sea salt had infiltrated his bare flesh when the technique struck.

He tossed the bucket off, nearly breaking it to pieces, and howled madly. Azrael stared at his reflection in the pool and saw a deathly scowl and glare reflected back at him.

"Blasted Mariners…!" he cursed between teeth, meeting slitted eyes with slitted eyes. The burning sensation in his chest would not leave him. "Blasted Aquila thief! Blasted Priam! He hasn't changed at all! Still resorts to cheap tricks, to relying on others to fight for him! Even after all these years!"

"You still can't admit to yourself the simple truth that you were bested, can you?"

"Bested?!" Azrael roared, turning to the Cloth Stone on the chair by the water. He reached over and took it into his hand. "I was not bested, especially not by him! He tricked me, called the aid of Poseidon worshippers to distract me! If it wasn't for that, Aquila and Aries would be mine now! And everything would be fixed!"

"You knew that about him, though, didn't you?" Serpens asked, freezing him. "All you talk about is how disgraceful your old brother-in-arms was. You already knew Priam would do everything in his power to save those he cared about. Why didn't you consider the possibility he would throw sand in your eyes, then? And what is honorable in comparison about sending two of your clones to attack him from behind, anyway?"

Azrael squeezed the Cloth Stone in his hand, gritting his teeth. "What are you saying, that he and I are the same?!"

"You did fight together against Sanctuary, did you not?" Serpens asked, casting the image of a smirking snake in his mind. "Perhaps you two have more in common than being born out of the trash and hating Arles. Except one thing, of course; Priam never sacrificed his own to get back to Sanctuary's good grace. No, THAT was beneath him…"

The green-haired Bronze Saint scoffed. "If you think I'm buying your little insidious provocations, you're mistaken, Serpens!" Coming out of the water, he dried himself with a towel he brought from the keep and dressed himself, trying to ignore the lingering pain from Krishna's attack. "And this setback means nothing!"

"And why is that? Because from where I stand, it looks like you wasted the last four months of your life torturing a single Mariner only to end up with an ugly scar on your back."

Azrael put on his training shirt, jeans, belt with the Aries emblem and reinforced the dye of the red triangle marks on his cheeks. He smiled in satisfaction, already planning his next move. "Because now I know where Corvus is, and that Priam has the Aquila Saint with him. Sooner or later, I will find those two girls... And I will put everything back where it's suppo-"

The entire castle shook and the steel portcullis of the main gate came flying off from a single, thunderous impact. The ensuing shockwave knocked Azrael down and sent the keeps' dust all over the bailey, sinking him in soot and dirt.

Azrael coughed and burned his cosmos, activating his Cloth Stone to dress him in his armor. He heard the sound of many sandaled feet pouring in through the gate into the bailey. His castle was under attack?!

He stood up and guarded himself. "Who dares to-"

From the smokescreen, two barking shadows came jumping out, knocking Azrael all over again. Snarling and howling, their enormous teeth bit into his armor and their claws pinned him down. The Bronze Saint gawked, seeing a pair of giant grey wolves, each the height of a grown man, on top of him.

He swung his arm, hitting one of them with cosmos. "Get OFF me!"

The beast whined and shook its head, but otherwise resisted the impact that should have shattered rock, only to resume its assault on Azrael, biting and snarling at his Bronze Cloth. The stunned Bronze Saint could barely believe it, barely keeping the two animals from sinking through his bronze metal into his chest. He harness his cosmos, ready to Lightcraft a blade that would teach these oversized mongrels a lesso-

"Romulus, Remus! Here!" someone bellowed, causing the two enormous wolves to cease their attack, whine, and skitter away from Azrael.

The Serpens Saint widened his eyes, recognizing the voice and seeing an enormous shadow walk out of the smokescreen.

The dust settled, revealing the invaders, and a stench of old blood and cinders invaded his nostrils. Towering over Azrael at over eight feet of height, a figure with large round shoulders clad in horned plates, a black wild mane going all the way down the waist, two stomping feet with hoof-shaped metal lacing on its boots and a big red cape with a golden eagle sweeping the ground emerged. Their head was encased in a round helmet with long horns, a red Roman crest and a bull snout mask covered their face, leaving only two red lenses for the eyes that shined with chuckling malice, while their chest was covered in a breastplate inscribed with the symbol of a wolf's head between the breasts and two chariots in the ribs, signifying the Lupus and Capella constellations.

Finally, their gauntleted right hand balanced a gigantic, black, double-bladed battle axe over the shoulder, which blocked the sun with its edges shaped in the vagueness of curved horns around a center of a bull face. It's sharp edges shined menacingly, only having their glare broken by smudges of dried up blood from its victims.

Azrael knew the figure well. He had fought in the past by their side. "Menelaus?!"

The two wolves circled the figure adoringly, which patted one of their heads firmly. "Mm, mm, mm, Ave, Ace." The sound of Menelaus' voice was cavernous through their metal bull mask. "I tried to ring the door, but there was no bell. So, I knocked."

The Serpens Bronze Saint saw his massive portcullis bent inwards on the ground by a giant punch and heard laughter from an unknown crowd. He saw the rest of the dust settle to reveal the dozens of men armored in red and iron, with big tower shields, spears, short swords and segmented lamellar that stormed inside when Menelaus opened the way, completely surrounding Azrael.

The Lost Legion; Menelaus' personal foot soldier army.

The knight shook with the sheer offence of their presence. "You…. YOU HEATHENS!" He ignited his cosmos, blazing like an emerald bonfire. HOW DARE YOU SET FOOT INSIDE A ZODIAC KNIGHT CAST-"

The bottom of the figure's massive foot struck Azrael's chest, slamming him against the floor so hard the entire castle quaked, rocking the countless skulls stuck to the walls. Azrael gasped, feeling his lungs pressed in through his armor as Menelaus pinned their massive weight over him with the magnifying pressure of their enormous Cosmos.

"How about I set my big foot on you, then?" Menelaus mocked, causing the crowd of legionnaires around them to laugh.

The force of the foot crushed Azrael into the floor, making it hard for him to breathe. The ground cracked beneath him, threatening to dig him in. He could barely move.

"You're not looking too good, Ace. You should have been able to stop that with your Lightcraft!" Menelaus noticed. "I can barely feel your cosmos burning, too. Are you feeling under the weather, perhaps? Or have you been spending all your energy acting out recently, like a little bird has been telling me?"

"R-rot in GIUDECCA, heathen!" Azrael cursed, struggling against the huge boot. If he could he'd spit on it. "I'm not answering failed Saints who bow their head to the God of War! Even one sent by Akassius!"

Menelaus laughed. "Oh, you figured it out already? Good! That saves us some back-and-forth; I wouldn't want you to wonder who ordered the biggest ass kicking of your life, after all, old friend!" Their hand's shadow descended on him, drowning Azrael's sight "Now, let's spend some quality disciplining time…just like the old days!"

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

Shamballa,

Sun Temple Garden

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

Accompanied to the Sun Temple's yard by Josef and Master Yuzuriha, Atlae limped his way to the garden on crutches. It was such a beautiful, peaceful day, nothing like the terrible night they had all endured. The sun was shining over the grass, the monks moved quietly and respectfully through the paths in prayer and soldiers patrolled the gates casually like a terrible tragedy had not occurred.

It really drove home how long Atlae had been asleep. Everyone seemed to have had time to forget about Talos' rampage a little. Except him.

There, by a peaceful pond, Atlae saw him, pushed on a wheelchair by none other than Saint Noah. He turned to the Elder.

"Your captain referred Saint Noah to us as a seals and trauma specialist, so I asked Sanctuary to send them here to help with your friend." Yuzuriha explained.

Atlae rested the crutches on a wall and tried to walk towards them.

"Atlae, wait." Master Yuzuriha called, glowering.

"It's okay, I can move." He assured, taking careful steps forward to join the man in the wheelchair staring at the lake. "Saint Noah? I… Ithaca?"

The Silver Saint turned and smiled. "Hello, Atlae. Long time no see." The Triangle Saint patted the person in the wheelchair to get their attention. "Ithaca, do you remember this young man?"

Slowly, the mariner turned head and widened eyes in recognition. "You're… Atlae."

The Muvian's eyes teared up. The Mariner was still in virtually the same state he looked back in Talos' world; emaciated, scarred, bald and pale. If anything, being before a physical Ithaca revealed even more saddening details, like his weak breath, his low voice, the trembling of his fingers on the wheelchair's arms and the agape mouth, not to mention the half-lost look in his eyes. Ithaca was in his late twenties and yet looked like an old human man Atlae had seen in the elderly home Marianne's grampa was taken to.

"I'm glad to see you, Atlae." Ithaca turned head around, looking helpless and confused. "I don't know where I am. Do you?"

Atlae knelt down and held his hand, smiling. "You're at the Sun Temple, at Shamballa, remember? The place that Khan guy tried to ring the bell and fell back down? Look-" he pointed at the road leading inside the temple's yard. "There's a small crack there still."

The Mariner held head and shook it. "I'm trying to, but I just don't remember…"

"We found him in a shell left at the detonation crater, Atlae." Master Yuzuriha spoke, unsure what this would do to him. "You… I mean, Talos hurled him out."

"Sir Ithaca claims to not remember anything about how he got there, that the last thing he recalls is being at Néa Delphi." Josef Gerasimov spoke. His jaw clenched. "It's a shame, because it means we will never truly figure out what drove him to do such a thing. On the other hand, the court agrees we cannot trial a man who is amnesiac about his own crimes."

Atlae hesitated to respond to this. As he began remembering everything he learned inside Talos' world, he realized that there was little he could say that wouldn't make things worse for Ithaca.

The only thing he could do was hold the Mariner's hands tightly. "Ithaca is innocent, Master, I know he is."

"Did I do something wrong?" Ithaca asked, looking between them. "Where is Lord Solo? And Lady Seraphina? Atlae, has she given birth yet?" He scratched his head and frowned melancholically. "I remember them telling me she was with child… It feels so long ago, though."

The Muvian teared again. Just how far back in Ithaca's memories had his life been ripped out of him by Talos? He didn't even seem to remember he was Julian's true father, unlike Atlae who had vague remembrances of that discovery still.

"Saint Noah, what can you tell Atlae about Sir Ithaca's condition?" Josef enquired.

The white-haired Triangle Saint shook head. "It is certainly strange. Usually memory wipes operate on Cosmos, so I am able to trace just how much was taken and by whom, but in Ithaca's case, it's closer as if an entire piece of his mind has been taken out."

"You mean, physically?" Josef asked, looking disgusted.

Noah irked. "Not exactly. Your mind always keeps flashes of your past, even when you think you can't remember it. Pieces of yourself that have been scarred by your experiences leave an indelible mark that ends up shaping the present you, like the fossil of a footprint deep underground. This is why no memory wipe is truly one hundred percent effective, especially when you've been traumatized." The Saint's soft fingers patted Ithaca's shoulders. "But in Ithaca's case, the parts of his mind that should have carried the marks of the past year or so seem yet to even form. I have only seen this level of memory loss in injuries to the head, or after lobotomies have been performed."

"So, its as if a whole piece of Ithaca has been taken out of him." Atlae realized to himself. He saw Ithaca take a piece of bread and toss it at the pond for the fish to eat, without a care in the world. "I feel like Talos might have said he'd do something like that. I wish I could remember."

Josef shook head and growled. "This is no good. If I understand correctly, it means we have little to go on in defending his actions in court. If Sir Ithaca remembered what happened, we could begin to pursue the real culprits, but as it stands…"

"We could always argue he is unable to stand in trial, due to his mental condition." Elder Yuzuriha argued. "Saint Noah has said that it will be easy to demonstrate his conditi-"

"Yes, but the admittance of guilt will be a smear in the honor of the mariners!" Josef pointed out, disgusted. "The loss of the Sea Dragon, the destruction in Shamballa, the deaths… it will all be blamed on us. If you excuse me, I must contact my household about this."

Yuzuriha watched him take off. She squinted in suspicion. Didn't everyone say this one was supposed to be relatively apolitical, among the household heirs?

"What is going to happen to Ithaca, Master?" Atlae asked. "Is Josef right? Are they really going to punish Ithaca and the Mariners?"

Awakening from her trance, Yuzuriha tried to set his fears at ease. "Nothing will happen for now, Atlae, you don't need to worry. However, I'm afraid that, in his current state, Ithaca may never be able to be a warrior of the Mariners again."

"I'm afraid Ithaca's condition goes beyond mere memory loss, Atlae." Noah added, frowning. The androgynous Silver Saint touched the Mariner's star point in his palm and the Silver Saint burned their white cosmos, trying to trigger a reaction. "His star points have been burned out from the inside, making him unable to project his Cosmos out. He might never burn cosmos ever again."

"Oh no, I-Ithaca!" Atlae gasped, holding the Mariner's arms.

The bald man smiled. "Hey, it's okay, Atlae."

"No, it isn't! You don't deserve any of this!" Atlae protested, crying. He couldn't imagine how lost he would feel if Atlae had to stop doing martial arts. "All my life you've been a Son of Arion! One of the mariner's best knights! And now you're… not going to be able to do what you were best at?"

The Mariner shook head. "I don't mind." He turned away. "I don't remember everything that has happened to me… but I feel like I have really done something bad, that I've betrayed someone. I know because it gnaws at me at night. I don't know what it is, but it's there."

"It's a form of phantom guilt." Noah explained, their green eyes saddening. "Ithaca doesn't remember what he's done, Atlae, but he remembers the pain of punishing himself for it. So, he keeps doing it."

The blonde Muvian stood aback, revolted. This was so unfair! Ithaca was innocent, put against his will in Talos, Atlae knew it! Atlae just knew deep down the mariner knight couldn't have done those terrible things without being pushed into it all. And now he had to pay for it like this?

"I will be okay, Atlae." Ithaca assured. "There is a place in Rodario where they keep sick people like me. Your Master told me I can get taken care of there."

Atlae shook his head. "B-But…!" He held it, remembering miss Rebecca's death, the people he met on Death Queen Island, those miners the Specter attacked and all the Muvians who died or were traumatized by Talos' rampage. It was like the pain never ended. "Ithaca… I'm so confused. I don't understand how any of this happened! This isn't the way it's supposed to go. Good people like you shouldn't… suffer tragedies like this! It's not okay!"

Seeing that the boy was inconsolable, Ithaca thought hard on how to make him feel better. "Remember that talk we had at your school, when you saved me from the Black Saint bikers?"

Atlae cleaned his eyes and nodded. "Y-Yeah. You told me to keep trying to make friends with people here. And then Mia and Jeanna were mean to me anyway, and I put them through a wall."

Noah blinked at this. Elder Yuzuriha just gestured with a hand wave for the Silver Saint to roll with it.

The Mariner irked. "Well, let's focus on the other part, then? What else did we talk about?"

Atlae thought hard. There was an important bit. "You said it was easy to get upset. That it's much harder to be the reasonable man."

Ithaca nodded. "That's right. Things were hard and unfair to you, and you wanted to leave the school back then. And that was okay, but you stayed, didn't you? Now look how you turned out. Do you have any idea how many crazy things I've been hearing about you since I woke up? Saint Noah, your teacher, even your captain was here and they keep telling me you've saved all their lives more than once."

None of this made Atlae feel better. He just wanted Ithaca to not be sick. "But, but Ithaca…" the very worst of it was that, somehow, something inside Atlae remembered learned that this had all been his fault. "You're… here because of me!"

Yuzuriha fixed her eyes on him, wondering if Atlae had learned the truth about the Genbu Bell.

"I don't remember what Talos told us, but I feel it in my bones, somehow, that this is my fault!" Atlae cried, holding himself.

"Well, that can't be, Atlae." Ithaca reasoned, frowning. "Because, somehow, I feel exactly the same away about me. We can't both be right."

The Muvian widened his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know what that thing has done to us, or how I ended up here, but I have a feeling in my bones that my own choices led me down this path as well, that I have no one to blame but myself." Ithaca held his chin. "Maybe… Talos had mercy on us both, or we both just got so banged up by what he's done that we're not thinking straight, but I do know one very important thing."

Atlae cleaned his face. "What?"

"That from what I understand, you had something to do with saving my life, as well." Ithaca mentioned, chuckling. Apparently, it had something to do with pulling Ithaca out of a rampaging Cloth or something, but Elder Yuzuriha refused to clarify, or just didn't know the details either. "That makes me feel… so loved. Thank you, Atlae. I feel like I've just gone through a terrible tunnel full of darkness, but now I've never felt so glad to be alive."

Tears rolled down the Muvian's cheeks. He hugged Ithaca tightly, as best as the chair let him.

The mariner patted his back. "I'm glad Lord Arthur rescued you from that village, Atlae. Never forget that."

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

Sanctuary,

Capricorn Temple

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

Akassius was guided out of the Temple by Kirin, towards the exit to Aquarius. "Thank you for everything, Kirin. It was good to spend some time together, like the old days."

"No problem. Come back anytime." She followed him out. "By the way, Akassius?"

"Yes?"

Taking her glasses away, Kirin gathered her thoughts on the whole matter. "You noticed it, too, right? That this whole story with Talos sounds like…"

"A repetition of the disaster Kai put a stop to 12 years ago, yes." Akassius acknowledged, looking stern. "The 'Battle of the Monster', where Kai got himself that silly nickname of his."

"Could it be that whatever he stopped back then was… something like Talos?"

"Everything is possible, I suppose." Akassius acknowledged, shrugging lightly.

Kirin growled. "Damn it, man, that's it?! Does nothing shake you?! One monster is an accident, two is a coincidence, but the next one will be a pattern! What if we have some kind of giant monster problem in the works?! The next Holy War could be an authentic Gigantomachia, with our students having to fight armies of monsters the size of skyscrapers in the middle of a city!"

Akassius chuckled at it.

It made the Capricorn want to strangle him with her sling. "Hey, I'm serious!"

The former Saint shook head. "Forgive me, 'Rin. I was just reminded of those cartoons from Priam and Kai's home country." Akassius explained. His son, Galan, did enjoy that 'Mazinger Z' show a lot, even though it looked a bit goofy. "Rather than a 'giant monster problem', it sounds to me, instead, that we have a mistrust problem. The Muvians, after all, kept the existence of Talos in Kailash only privy to their Elder council, even though they were actively training the exact type of people that could accidentally awaken it. Sanctuary cannot tolerate 'secret weapons' among the Pact Members. Even among our most trustworthy allies."

It was hard for Kirin to disagree with this. She nodded quietly at it. The Muvians would simply have to understand they put Sanctuary in a tough position, too.

The Capricorn saw the Gemini take the stairs to the next Temple. "Are you going up to talk to Malta?"

Akassius paused to answer. "Of course. I came all this way. I might as well say hello to all of my friends while I'm in Sanctuary."

Her teeth clenched. "Right." And her green eyes darted away.

Akassius had only seen this kind of hesitancy in her a few times. He came back down to her. "Yes? You look like you have something to say?"

The swordswoman sweated. Usually, she prided herself in being a tough tell. "Listen, Akassius, before you go up, there's something I should probably say… about me and Mal'."

The retired Gemini shrugged, like he already expected this. "I'm happy for you two."

Her eyes widened. How did he conclude it so fast?! "You jackass! You don't even know what I'm going to say!"

He squinted skeptically. It was obvious from the start to him. "Right, because sudden revelations about you and Malta that can't go through the Pope's line with me can be such a cosmic mystery, 'Rin." Akassius compared, making her face turn red. "Honestly, how many things have frankly made you feel embarrassed to talk about other than your flings with him?"

"You could at least act surprised!" She clenched her arms with her hands and paced around. "I mean, I'm so sorry. I know that it's the worst possible timing with everything that is going on."

This was an understatement to Akassius. "It is true you could have picked a better timing. We are about to have an important word about what the next generation of Gold Saints is going to look like, Kirin. You're also the captain of the guard, on top of being the Capricorn Gold Saint. It's vital we're not seen tripping over the finishing line by the court."

"I know, I know." She guaranteed, holding her head. "You spent half you career trying to legitimize us to Sanctuary. Me and Malta could put all of it at risk again…"

The black-haired veteran rose a brow. "Frankly speaking, what even happened to rekindle it all? I was convinced you two were definitely through with each other after the war."

"So was I!" Kirin took a deep breath and hugged her arms together. "But… we've been spending more time together, since we've both began raising our replacements, Shura and Camus. And recently there was the Triumph for Arthur Solo's daughter, which we worked on together, then Ace made that terrible spectacle at the Solos' house that Malta had to mediate and… I wanted to cheer him up about Ace. He was feeling down over how broken up everything had become between us all."

Akassius pieced the rest of it together and had to cringe a bit. "It's so difficult to picture Ace as your cupid, even if by accident."

"Well, believe it or not, we had a beautiful afternoon together because of that guy." Her eyes turned away. She should probably be upfront about how serious things were getting. "And then a weekend… and then a trip around town… and then we snuck into the library's janitor roo-"

"Please, I get it." Akassius begged, waving hands. "You've rediscovered your passion for each other. What is the problem here, then? Other than the risk of being found out that you two obviously could give less than a damn about at this point?"

She bit her lip. "…Before I left for the Himalayas, he told me he loved me."

Akassius hummed. He understood now well why Kirin felt the need to confess. She's always been terrible with warm emotions, hiding her heart under an armor of ardent training and metallic deflection, mostly out of fear of being judged as 'womanly' by her peers, especially Menelaus. And, with Helen gone and Malta being the object of her strife, Akassius was probably the one she could count the most on respecting her vulnerable side.

"And do you feel like you might love him back this time around?" he guessed.

She scoffed. "I don't know! How do I know that… that it's that?" Her lips quivered. "You know how our group has always been, Akassius. If you put all our photos on the board and drew lines between who has had feelings for whom in the past, we'd all be one big scribbly circle, with Cecilia and Partita pointing at you and Kai from the outside."

Akassius smirked "And Paris?"

She cringed and irked. "Ah, he'd have zero lines! From inside or out!"

The war hero laughed out loud. "And he'd be proud of it, too." Or at least he'd try to convince them all he was. "You're forgetting Priam and Anesidora. They'd be a line from outside the circle, too."

"Ugh… I was not." Kirin irked. "I just didn't want to count the ones that first put us all in this mess. But you managed to get a stable family life, Akassius, unlike the rest of us." Kirin recalled, looking pleadingly at him. "Tell me, what would you do?"

He smiled and patted her arm comfortingly "Just be discrete for a little while. Eventually you will have a chance to be happy together."

She stepped up "But… won't this mess up anything with what you're doing out there and-"

He raised his hand and shook his head. "Quiet. Don't talk about that here." He hissed, making her stagger. His jaw relaxed. "Just worry about not breaking Malta's heart, Kirin. With the way the Pope is pushing the two of you to train Camus and Shura to replace you, I think this is the right timing for you and him to reconnect, again." Akassius' eyes turned up, as if to stare at the Pope's halls through the concrete of her temple's ceiling. "This place has driven the two of you apart for long enough."

Kirin stood agape. Reaching in with her one good arm, she wrapped it around Akassius' neck tightly, sniffing. "Thank you, Akassius!"

The Gemini smiled and patted her back. "Don't worry, 'Rin. I promise that this is just the beginning, too. Even without Patroclus, Helen, Priam and Aeneas, our common dream isn't lost just yet."

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

Shamballa,

Turtle School

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

"So, this was your school, Atlae?" Triangle Noah asked, guided through it by the Master and the Muvian. The Silver Saint marveled at the gardens and sparring spaces. "It looks so cool! I know a lot of Sanctuary kids that would envy you. I bet you have a lot of wonderful memories from this place."

Yuzuriha scoffed. "That depends on his case." They passed by the place where the bulletin board used to be kept. "All this wall here remembers is Atlae throwing Mia and Jeanna through it."

Atlae turned red. "Jeanna and I are friends now, though…"

Noah then saw the empty armor display by the garden's entrance. "And what's this, Elder?"

"Oh, I can explain!" Atlae offered. "That's where the school used to keep the Genbu armor, Saint Noah, long ago. It's a Surplice now, though, way down in the Underworld."

Noah did recall reading up on the Lost Canvas War, and how Capricorn El Cid fought a Genbu Specter. "Oh, I see. That's a shame, I could definitely see you as a Saint of it, Atlae."

"AH! He has to train a lot more before that!" Yuzuriha guided them to the garden, where they could be in privacy. "Atlae, come see me after you two are done."

The Muvian nodded. "Yes, Master."

Saint Noah watched the Elder leave. "Ah, the Elder hasn't changed at all." They saw Atlae perked up. The white-haired Saint giggled. "It's nothing, Atlae. Your Master doesn't remember me, but she and I have met before, long ago. I used to study in this city, you see. Even back then, Elder Yuzuriha was a tough woman, the kind that made you check your posture with a mere look."

The blonde Muvian laughed embarrassedly "Yes, but she's actually very kind, even if people don't see it. You should have seen how hard she fought to protect this city."

Noah guided Atlae through the garden, to set up a sense of peace. "Do you know why we're talking, Atlae?"

The Muvian sweated. "Yes. You guys want to figure out if… I'm some kind of monster now."

"Actually, no." Noah countered, surprising Atlae. "Your master told me you've been having dreams. Since I work with memory and trauma, she asked me to talk with you for a bit."

The Muvian's mouth circled. "That, of course!" He shook his head though. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Not after what happened."

The Silver Saint looked at him like he just set fire to the garden. "Of course it matters, Atlae. Trauma must never go unchecked, especially in people who can bend steel with their fingers." Noah reached in and gently touched the Muvian's forehead, checking the seal they put into him in Argentina. It was such a careful press, like the Saint was handling a piece of glass. Yet, the Silver Saint frowned, looking confused. "I don't get it. The seal is intact. You shouldn't be suffering under the effect of the Genma Ken. Mm…"

Atlae saw the Silver Saint pensive and worried. "Saint Noah, I'm sure you've done a good job. I've just been getting into a lot of hassles lately. It's no big deal."

Noah chuckled. "I'm afraid it's become a bit of a pride issue. I don't care for the idea of Death Queen Island making a mockery of my treatments." The Triangle looked like they realized something. "Unless, of course, something in particular has been bothering you?"

Atlae scratched head, wondering if he should just mention it. "Master says that it is normal for us, that sometimes people of my species have dreams about our old land." Atlae mentioned. "Is that possible, Saint Noah? To carry that curse in you to the present?"

It seemed to give the Silver Saint pause. "The cosmos can be quite cruel, as much as it can be miraculous. Perhaps your teacher is correct, but I know you enough you're not the type to dwell on the past. Is there anything else that's been upsetting you?"

"Well…" Atlae hesitated. Should he say it? "I've been worried about my friend…"

"Friend? From your crew?"

Atlae gulped. "No, my… girlfriend."

Noah widened their green eyes. "Oh!"

"I've done something terrible, Saint Noah. I might have even hurt her! But before even that, I've been feeling terrible things about the way we've been doing things." Atlae confessed. "We have an understanding about how we can be together. I thought I was okay with it, but…"

The Triangle Saint summarized the rest. "I am guessing you two have some kind of long-distance arrangement? But more complicated?"

"These nightmares I've been having… they all involve someone telling me that we're different, that she's going to die before I do and that I shouldn't care about her." Atlae recounted, shaking. "But I do love her! I love her! Why am I having these dreams, then?! Do I hate her, deep down? Saint N-"

The Silver Saint held the Muvian's arms. "Relax, Atlae, it's okay. Breathe." They urged. Noah waited patiently until the martial artist took a few deep breaths. "I am not going to mince words, Atlae; from what I understand of the Genma Ken, the technique always operates on fears already inside of you. It is true you probably have deep seated concerns about what your girlfriend truly means to you."

"But… but why?!" Atlae wondered. The last thing he ever wanted was to treat Marianne the way people in Néa Delphi had treated him back, or how Jeanna and Mia spoke of her. "She has always treated me with love and…"

Atlae suddenly silenced himself. He was about to say 'respect', but some deep-seated thought from the conversation he no longer remembered having with Talos suddenly made him lose his words. Why, though?

Noah's androgynous face saddened, seeing Atlae's subconscious influence him in real time. "Humans and Muvians are more alike than they think. Sometimes, when people are told over and over certain things, they internalize them even if they don't believe in them. Their thoughts and dreams become informed by those prejudices without them even realizing it. I don't doubt for a second, Atlae, that you truly love your girlfriend, who is a human from how you're talking about her, but… love is complicated. Is there something about the way she is treating you that is… confirming some of your deep-seated fears?"

Images of Marianne changing subject when he mentioned their future at the Northern Gate flashed to him. Without realizing it, Atlae felt his eyes tear. His throat dried, killing any words that could have come out of him.

The Triangle Saint nodded, seeing more than enough from the look on his face. "I understand. You have a heavy burden on you, Atlae. Being in the middle of two worlds is walking barefoot in a road filled with cobblestones and thorns, with people on both sides staring at you. Sometimes they will call for you to join them. Sometimes, they will throw rocks. And you might never feel like either side truly accepts you."

"But… but there has to be a place where it ends at, right?" Atlae asked. "The road, I mean? I just have to keep walking, Saint Noah? I just have to keep having faith that there's an end?"

Noah stared for a beat, quiet.

Then, the Silver Saint smiled warmly. "Yes, of course, Atlae…Faith is all you need."

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

Sanctuary Town

Ophiuchus Hospital

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

Io offered her the warm cup of coffee as she sat in the corridor hall. "Here you go, Mari'. How is the baby bro?"

She nodded and sipped it. "Thank you, Io." And touched Julian's belly in his car, making the babe yelp and laugh. "Not a care in the world for Julian, thank Poseidon."

The pink haired teenager frowned. Even with the sleep she just got after arriving in Greece, Marianne looked exhausted. "And how are you feeling?"

Her head shook and her fingers twirled the coffee with the plastic spoon. "In the abyss, unfortunately. Io, I am so grateful for you watching over my parents until now."

He lightly scoffed- "Are you kidding? It's an honor, ma'am."

The Delphinus sunk head, ashamed. She didn't deserve so much kindness from him. She tried to smile. "You don't have to call me that, you know? We were in the same class."

The boy shook his head. "Nah-ah, that won't do. I owe you way too much, ma'am. I'd be dead without you."

Her eyes widened. "Io! Don't ever say that!"

But the Ladrillero heir folded his arms and lifted his chin, proudly "That is one order I will not obey. And can I just say, as well? I'm glad you kicked Baian to the curve. That piece of garbage doesn't deserve to breathe your air, much less wed you. Especially after his debacle with the Sea Horse."

Marianne blinked. "Wait, what debacle?"

The pink-haired teenager blinked. "Oh, you don't know?"

Now that she thought of it, it was strange how little she had heard of Baian after she last left Sanctuary. "Io, the last time I saw Baian, I was kicking him out of my house for harassing Atlae."

The boy laughed out loud. "Well, ma'am, you should know he didn't take that very lightly. Him and his goons made a big show of getting on the Sea Horse and sail after the Chrysaor."

Marianne almost stood up in alarm! "WHAT? He went after Atlae that time?! But… why wasn't I told of this? I was with the Chrysaor crew in Shamballa!"

Io snickered. "Well, that's the thing, Ma'am; I doubt he would have caught up with them, because Baian got the Sea Horse beached in freaking Saudi Arabia."

"Beached?!" Marianne staggered. This was the last thing the Mariners needed. Suddenly, even her catastrophic loss of the Sea Dragon was forgotten. "How is that possible? He's my Rear Admiral!"

Io shrugged and shook his head. "You know that vain man, he told all sorts of wild stories about what 'really' happened. At one point, he was screaming about being attacked by a 'sea monster', that he nearly got pulled underwater, ship and everything." Io recounted, making apostrophes with his fingers. "He's so pathetic. Why won't he admit he fucked up and left without preparing his ship properly? I can't believe I ever liked that guy."

Marianne sat back down and drank her coffee, pensive. "That explains why Baian never followed up on me rejecting him. But how did he lose his ship? I wonder if Josef knows anything? He was in the area around that time, when we first met." Her eyes widened, a possibility crossing her mind. "Did he… no, there's no way. Why would he ever attack Baian? I'm just not thinking straight."

Io put hands on his hip, seeing her distraught. "You look like you need chocolate right now. I am going to get you some at the bar."

She chuckled anxiously. "I would love that. Thank you, Io. You're a good friend."

The boy smiled back and left her.

The Delphinus Saintia sat on the chair by the corridor as her mother went back to her father, keeping Julian and his baby carrier by her feet. For the first time in a while, Marianne had an opportunity to just sit quietly and let everything that had happened wash over her.

Poseidon save her, she had lost the Sea Dragon and its crew.

And her mother was in the next room, sitting next to her bed-ridden father after a stroke.

And Atlae… had attacked her!

A deep chilling feeling crept inside of her and her pale blue eyes teared. Deep down, Marianne knew her sweet Muvian would never dare to hurt her, not in a million years. She had felt in him countless times that Atlae would rather die than let anything happen to her. He was the one person in the world she could count on not having a shred of dishonesty in his admiration for her, that he did not care about her status, family or perceived wealth when he said he loved her.

Yet, actions spoke louder than words and, when the gigantic monster Atlae turned into raised its hand at her, Marianne had felt it; a deep, seething, envious rage of someone she had clearly wronged. Was that how Atlae truly felt about her? Was he holding in all these feelings of resentment towards her for them not being able to be openly together, even as he vowed to her father to protect the secrecy of it? What should she do? Should she go see Atlae right now so they could talk it out?

The sound of two feet stopping by her alerted her from her trance. "Vice-Admiral."

Her eyes looked up and widened. "Captain Josef."

The green-haired youth of pale skin and white uniform frowned sympathetically. "I am just arrived at the speed of light from Shamballa. Permission to sit, ma'am?"

The blue-haired girl exhaled. "I doubt you need it anymore, captain. I'll be lucky if the Households don't take away everything my family has left, never mind keep me in the Navy."

"They would be making a terrible mistake, ma'am." Josef countered, gently sitting by her side. "How is the Head of Houses?"

Marianne tried to appear strong, but only managed a listless look. "My dad is… in need of rest."

"I see. I will ask no more, then." The green-haired Russian reached for Julian, who laughed and grabbed his fingers. Josef chuckled with the baby's touch. "Your brother is adorable, if you don't mind me saying. He reminds me so much of Isaak at his age."

Marianne smiled. Right now, Julian was pretty much the only ray of happiness in her and her mother's life. Unfortunately, he would now have to live the life of an heir to a disgraced household.

She turned up. "My turn. How is he, Josef?"

The Russian captain irked, looking worried about how she might react. "Atlae woke up today. We had a chance to speak. He wants to see you very much, Ma'am. He understands, however, that right now is not the best of times."

"I see." Her pale blue eyes turned and she saw a familiar figure, an agent of the households, sitting at the end of the corridor and watching them. "I want to see Atlae, too, Josef. Desperately. But all these eyes are on me right now and…" Her head sunk into her hands in shame. "I'm such a horrible person! Worse than my mother! All Atlae wants is to love me and I won't even let him do that! All of because of…" her fingers clenched on her thighs as tears dropped on them.

Josef took his handkerchief and offered it discretely to her. "There are worse mothers in the world to compare yourself to than Seraphina Solo, I would say."

Marianne wiped her face and scoffed to herself. "Ah, if only you knew." Marianne loved her mother, but she was sure Josef would think far less of her if he knew who Julian's father really was. "Why did you come here, Josef?"

He hummed, as if he missed why such a question should be asked. "I was under the impression we had struck friendship. And right now, let's be frank, these are terrible times for you and your family. You need friends."

She nodded along. "Right. I suppose it's good household diplomacy."

"Mm, fuck that." He declared, startling her. Josef looked out the corridor window with a spiteful glare. "Diplomacy… No, I wanted to be here. My grandfather has nothing to do with this. I just absolutely despise what is happening right now to your family." He glanced at the same man she saw down the hall, who skittered away nervously. "Even the Vancouvers are acting like they want nothing to do with you now, after all Arthur Solo has done for them. They don't realize that, without your father, the Mariners would be even more slaves to Sanctuary than they are now. The households should be ashamed."

The Delphinus girl studied him for signs of deception, but Josef seemed honest, looking out in genuine irritation by what he saw as typical backstabbing behavior among the mariner nobles. Marianne wondered if there was the chance he was being honest. It was true the Gerasimov endured a lot of ostracization from all the other households. Perhaps Josef found her sudden situation truly empathetic? Or maybe all the myths about the Artic Household didn't have to apply to Josef?

He held his chest. "Marianne, if I may call you by your first name, I can't even imagine what you must be going through right now. You risked your life to protect something your father and your boyfriend cared deeply about, and now the households are going to try to take it all away from you. Not just as a Gerasimov, but also as captain of my own ship… the amount of betrayal you must be suffering through right now must be unbearable."

She stared for a bit, stunned. Her guard went back up, though, remembering the Gerasimov were long known for this kind of trickery. "Josef, if you're trying to convince me that…"

"I don't believe in empty words, Marianne. When I offer my help, I do more than just talk." He took back his handkerchief and gently wiped away bits of tears she had missed on her face. "And I would like to do everything I can to help the Solos not only survive the times to come, but raise themselves back from this injustice."

Marianne carefully watched him for signs of deceit, but Josef's words seemed so secure and genuine, betraying none of the double-facedness that others like Baian usually carried. "Why in the abyss would you do that, though?"

"Your brother is lucky to have a guardian like you; a beautiful woman who was willing to catapult herself at a giant monster to protect her crewmen. That impressed me very much." Josef felt the burgeoning cosmos in the babe. "One day, you and Julian will both be vital to restore the Mariners back to their former glory, I can tell already. As the new generation of heirs to our Households, we must all make sure he grows up to be a great prince of Poseidon's people."

She laughed incredulously. "Please, Josef. How can you possibly tell?" and frowned. "From my end, it feels instead I've doomed my brother to be as big a pariah as me."

The mariner stood up straight. "Take it from someone who comes from a household everyone would rather fear than believe in; I think you can still build yourself back up, Marianne, and restore your honor. You just need a little help."

Her breath cut, sensing the offer implicit in this. "What are you suggesting? Some kind of partnership?"

He nodded. "Miss Solo, let us unite the Solos and Gerasimov in alliance, one whose symbolic strength no one among the households could rival." He then knelt and rested his hand on hers. "Vice-Admiral Marianne, would you marry me?"

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

Shamballa, Northern Gate

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

Master guided Atlae through the streets towards the exit of the city, cutting a path through the crowds with the mere awe and authority of her presence. "So, Atlae, how did your talk with Saint Noah go?"

The student, carrying a full backpack for the final stage of his travels with the Chrysaor, nodded. "It went well, Master. Saint Noah is a very smart and kind person. They helped me figure some important things out."

"I had a feeling it was a good decision to call that person. Your captain insisted Saint Noah was very helpful to you all in Argentina." Yuzuriha then tensed her jaw. "But I wanted to ask you, Atlae… what your thoughts are now about where you come from. And where you're going?"

The blonde Muvian frowned. "Well, growing up, I always thought that our people had just been unlucky. Everyone has always told me that Muvians like me are friends of Sanctuary and we fix everyone's things. I think I was happy with it being as simple as that." He scratched head. "I think I understand now, though, that things are really more complicated than I thought, Master. Maybe we did do a few bad things for Poseidon to be angry at us. What kind of God would just want to kill a whole race? I don't believe at all that Marianne and Captain Krishna would worship someone like that."

The grey-haired woman glanced at him. "Atlae, I'm sorry I kept it all from you. It's not the kind of thing we teach young Muvians. I myself only learned about it well after the Lost Canvas War, when I was married."

Atlae paused, realizing this topic still hanged in the air after all these years. "Master, you never talked about that with me. You were married to a human, right?"

Yuzuriha nodded, her eyes softening. "Yes, I was."

Atlae took pause, trying to sense if his Master was okay saying anything else. He had a feeling she seemed more open than usual. She hadn't responded to his question with a glare, after all. So maybe he should try?

"It can't have been easier for you than it was for me, all those years back." He could number a thousand reasons why he loved Marianne, but his Master was such a stern woman that Atlae couldn't imagine which one had made Yuzuriha of the Crane love a human. "Why did you fall in love?"

The elderly woman smirked slily. "Well, he had a cute butt, for once."

Atlae staggered. "Master!"

The tall Elder scoffed. "What, were you expecting some kind of romantic motive, like how he spoke poetically of my beauty making the stars look dull?" Yuzuriha glared with utter deject at such a notion. "Only children like you and Marianne Solo fall in love for reasons like that. Unicorn Yato was a LOT of things, but a sensitive, thoughtful soul he was not. A grade-A idiot, more like it! Always obsessing with showing up to his friends, yet always needing me to pick up the slack when he didn't…"

While still shocked at the response, Atlae didn't fail to notice a strange nostalgic tone in the words, like Master was listing reasons she loved him instead of flaws. "Was it… difficult? For you to be together, I mean?"

Yuzuriha casted a look at the Muvians around her, who just carried on with their day. "Ah, of course it was. Every single day it was, from the day I met him in Jamir to the day I buried him, someone made it difficult. Sometimes that someone was him. Sometimes it was me."

This prompted Atlae's next question. "Right, you buried him. Weren't you ever worried? About how one day that was going to happen? That he was going to be gone? You were the Muvian of the two, after all."

The woman paused quietly. Her nose took a deep, silent breath and her eyes reddened ever so slightly. It was such a soft reaction, but for a second Atlae felt like he had stabbed her with a knife. He had never, ever seen Master like this.

"That idiot!" she hissed to herself, before another breath, calmed her. "I should have had this conversation with you before, too, Atlae, from the moment I realized all you ever talked about was that Mariner girl. The truth is, it didn't matter to me. I wanted to be with him. I loved Yato. I still do. In the fight of life, death doesn't hold a candle to that kind of feeling."

His fists clenched in shame that he had ever doubted this. Of course, it was so simple. "I see, Master."

"It is only natural you would have such concerns, Atlae. It is profound, even, especially for your… particular straightforwardness." Yuzuriha worded it. It was better than calling him a dummy. "But all they really show is that the feelings you have for that girl are the real thing, just like I knew my feelings for Yato were. This is also all the more reason why you must commit to your journey to perfect yourself as a warrior and as a representative of our people. Unless, of course, that has changed?"

Atlae shook head. "No! I want it now more than ever, after what happened!" He raised fist. "Master, I will be the strongest warrior in all of Mount Rozan and make everyone in Shamballa proud that I was the one that rung the bell! That way, if something like Talos ever happens again, I'll be able to do more than just stop a punch and get swallowed up like a popcorn kernel!"

The Elder smiled, even if she would have preferred a less embarrassing comparison. She hugged the boy. "Good luck, Atlae. Now go finish your journey with your captain. And know that even if you are the exact same the next time we meet, I am proud to have trained you."

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

Caça sat on a bench by the way out of the city, tossing a rubber ball he got at the wall over and over again.

He groaned, seeing the clock turn to twelve. "Can we go, already?!"

"Not until Atlae gets here, I told you." Krishna ordered, sharpening his lance with a stone he got from the alchemists. He studied the results, seeing the old smudges from Azrael's blood were gone. "Mm, these Muvians are good. All the marks are gone."

Caça collected his ball and threw his arms up. "We're gonna miss the monsoon break, you know?! And why is he here with us?!" Caça screamed, pointing at Sorrento. He grabbed the Austrian by the collar and scowled. "Shouldn't ya be sniffing up some authority figure's skirt like the good conservatory pup you are?!"

The Weyprecht heir scoffed and pushed me off. "Please wash your nails before you touch me. And besides, I am under orders from miss Solo. She's asked me to protect you lot until the end of your trip."

Caça folded arms. "Ah, RIGHT, mister I-had-to-be-saved-by-Atlae. What are you gonna do to protect us? Shove your flute up your ass and play farts?"

Sorrento huffed. "You would be the specialist of that, judging by your conservatory grades."

"WHAT?! I WAS SECOND NEXT TO YO-"

"Enough fighting him, Caça! For all we know, Castellan Azrael is just waiting for a chance to pay back for fighting him." Krishna confronted. "And since when do you care so much about the sailing schedule? Last year, I had to search Karachi up and down because you got drunk and overslept at the strip clubs. I found you passed out over a bar counter and had to write letters to all my students families for being late to Trincomalee."

Sorrento laughed. "I would ask if that was true, but of course it is."

"I just wanna leave this square-rigged, high-towered, Muvian-herding place. People have been giving us the stink eye since the attack!" he glanced aside, seeing a group of Muvian travelers taking pictures of him. He growled and stomped the floor to scatter them. "What are you freaks looking at?! Go solve a math puzzle or something!"

Krishna eyed the group. They were leaving the Mariners alone but whispered to each other on the way around the next street corner. "Caça is not wrong about one thing; I get the feeling Mariners won't be welcome in these parts for a while."

"They should thank me for single-handedly saving this city, not give me this shoddy treatment!" Caça demanded, stomping around. He looked up and saw a familiar blonde head make its way towards them. "Finally!"

Atlae beamed and rushed to their side. "GUYS!"

Krishna smiled and patted the kid's back. "How are you, kiddo? You had us scared for a few days."

The Muvian shook his head, ashamed. "I'm so sorry, everyone. I'm okay, though. But what about you guys?"

"I'm fine, but you know Caça;" Krishna hissed, glancing at the pale Mariner. "he's been the biggest victim of this tragedy."

"YES, I HAVE BEEN!" Caça screamed. "HOW IS THAT NOT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TRUE?!"

The Muvian then saw Marianne's officer. "Sorrento, you're here too?"

The cyan haired boy smiled and nodded. "For a little while, yes. Marianne asked me to keep you all covered until you reach Trincomalee. She wanted to make sure you all had a safe journey." He scratched his nose. "I also have a feeling she wanted to shield me from the hearing about to come on the Sea Dragon… You know how she is."

Atlae held his shoulder pleadingly. "Sorrento, please tell me, how is Mari'? Can I see her soon? How is her dad and mom? Master told me Lord Solo is in the hospital and-"

"Calm down, Atlae. One question at a time." Sorrento begged, waving his hands. The officer folded his arms, humming. "I wish I could say you could go to her right away, Atlae, I really do. The times approaching the Mariners, however, are not ones of good weather. I think you and I both know that, right now, miss Marianne being seen with you will only make things worse for everyone."

The Muvian stepped back, frowning. "She's upset with me, isn't she? I… I tried to hurt her."

Sorrento frowned silently, exchanging a look with Krishna, who also turned away. Meanwhile Caça just picked his nosed, looking bored.

"Right now, the Solos have a lot of work ahead of them, Atlae." Sorrento told him. "This isn't to say you can't see Marianne again, but if we care about her, we need to keep our distance until the households sort themselves out."

Krishna saw Atlae glower and patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry, kid. It's not your fault, it's just how we Mariners are."

The Muvian stiffened and clenched his hands determinedly, remembering Ithaca's words. "No, I won't let this get me down. I made a mistake, and I'm going to fix it!"

The captain smiled. "That's more like it! I can help you train some more with lightspeed if you'd like? It will still be a few days of sailing until Trincomalee."

Atlae gasped, starry-eyed. "Would you, captain?! I will try two… three-hundred percent harder! I won't stop until I can achieve it for even a small second!"

"Perhaps you shouldn't stop until you can play that flute of yours without making my ears bleed." Caça suggested. "Have you been practicing at all since we've left the boat?"

The Muvian gasped, touching his turtle-shell Xu flute. "Oh, darn… I have not."

Sorrento shook head. "No worries, I can help with that. I am a masterful flutist, Atlae, it would be my honor to teach you a tune or two."

"Really?" Atlae asked, touched. "Guys, thank you so much. If it weren't for you all…"

Caça twisted his nose. "Ugh, just stop, will you? You're making me feel gross! I can't wait until we get to Sri Lanka so I can leave for Greece!"

Atlae widened his eyes. "You're leaving the captain, Caça? Why?"

Krishna folded arms. "Please don't ask hi-"

The pale mariner laughed outloud, puffing his chest. "BECAUSE, I'm being awarded a MEDAL!"

"A medal?!"

Sorrento rolled his eyes. "Some hare-brained authority back in Néa Delphi was told by your Master of Caça's fabulous feet of running around screaming until Talos fell down the plateau, so the households have decided to grant him a special medal of honor, the Order of Triton."

"YEAH, SUCK IT, SORRENTO!" Caça gloated, dancing around Sorrento and giving him two whole middle fingers, which Atlae interpreted as a double Sanctuary Town 'hello'. He tapped his chest as if the medal already pinned it. "I will rank among this generations' most prestigious mariners, while you get stuck being the guy who let the Sea Dragon crash and burn! How does that feel?!"

"Well, you know what this means, don't you, Caça?" Krishna asked, his eyes following the sailor jumping around.

"Yeah!" the mariner held Sorrento's grumpy chin. "That I have shown my superiority over this fraud and been justly compensated for my heroic deeds?"

"No, that now you'll be put forward in line ahead of all your brothers for the Lymnades Scales." Krishna pointed out, making him freeze. "The Order of Triton makes you skip succession order. You're going to be put in the frontline of your household should the Mariners join Holy War soon."

"Which from the looks of things around here recently, is very likely." Sorrento pointed out, smirking. "Looks like you're going to get a lot more chances to show how brave you are. Congratulations, hero."

Caça stood there, gawking, looking like he saw someone with snakes for hair.

Atlae patted his back, beaming. "Wow, Caça! I'm so jealous! You're going to get to fight all sorts of incredibly strong guys! These are great news!"

"There will be songs sung about the great pale warrior who took the reins of his household and battled the Judges of the Underworld in the 20th century." Sorrento imagined, waving hands lyrically

"A dream come true for him, for sure." Krishna nodded along. He cleared throat, seeing his crewman looking like a ghost. "Atlae, do me a favor, carry Caça on your back for a while, would you? He looks indisposed."

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

The quartet marched out of the city and made its way through Shamballa's road to the west. Along the path, as he carried the comatose Caça, Atlae had the chance to behold the destruction left behind by Talos. While many Muvian workers were already hard at labor digging and plowing over the burned rocks and grounds, there were many giant scars of destruction left that painted a clear picture of what had happened.

"They say its all going to be reported as an earthquake. The people of Shamballa seem comfortable believing Talos was merely a terrible apparition from the Gods punishing them for making deals with us Mariners." Krishna mentioned. He had a chance to talk with many of the Muvians before they left, at least the ones that didn't reject his attempts to ask. "Perhaps that is for the best. We don't want the people to think that, at any moment, one of us could send another such attack on the city."

Atlae frowned, trying to balance Caça and their backpacks together on his strong back. "It wasn't Ithaca, captain, I know it."

Krishna sweated. "I believe you, Atlae, I truly do. I've met sir Ithaca in the past and I know he would never dream of such a thing. Frankly, I think that Azrael guy had a lot more to do with this than he's fessing up to. But until we have proof…"

"If we ever have it." Sorrento added. "Unfortunately, many tragedies and cruelties in history more often than not go unexamined, or have the truth lost to them."

"Like the sinking of my people's continent. I wonder, just how many terrible things were we doing, that the Gods themselves decided to wipe us out, when Athena was already around protecting life on Earth? Were things that out of balance for us?" Atlae recalled. The mention of Azrael, however, made him remember they forgot someone important. "Captain, did you ever hear back from, um…her?"

Krishna put his finger in front of his lip, eyeing Sorrento briefly, making Atlae gulp. He took out a letter from his pocket. "A Muvian came carrying a letter to me this morning. It was from miss Daisy."

Sorrento perked up, raising brow. "Oh, captain? Who is this lady you're in contact with?"

The Sri Lankan smirked. "Just a friend we made along the way, nothing else. She says in it she is very sad she can't see us off, but also that she is alright and wishes us the Goddess' light on our journey, especially to you and Marianne, Atlae."

Atlae smiled. He wished he could thank back personally for everything miss Daisy did, even if they had to keep a secret.

"How interesting. A letter addressed to your group, and yet sent specifically to you, captain?" Sorrento queried, smiling coyly. "Why do I get the feeling that thick letter is more than just an assurance and well-wishes?"

Krishna turned slightly away, alarmed at how sharp Sorrento Weyprecht was. Discretely, while Atlae chatted away with Sorrento, he reopened the letter and reread its more discrete paragraphs, the ones speaking of passion, connection and a starry night in Shamballa above their heads that was shared together while everyone waited those three days for Atlae's recovery.

The most important part of it, however, which he had ripped out for himself, had been at the bottom:

I'll see you again someday, captain

Aquila Daise Heloise

And then the marks of a pair of female lips were faintly seen over the paper promise.

Someday. Yes, someday they would see each other again. He was sure of it. And this time, Krishna wouldn't let tragedy strike before his heart did.

As they approached the edge of the plateau, the group stopped. "We have to be careful from this point." Krishna spoke. "Talos damaged the path up here heavily. I've heard reports there are even lava patches and fissures in some places, believe it or not."

"We could just use lightspeed to get back to Karachi?" Sorrento suggested. "You can do it, so can I, we just have to carry our two friends, captain."

"But that cuts the journey, Sorrento!" Atlae protested. "Plus, I'd like to show you some of my people's lands. You flew here on the Sea Dragon, right?"

The Austrian hummed. He was really hoping they wouldn't have to camp out there in the fields somewhere, like neanderthals. "Very well, just for you, Atlae. You did save my life, after all…I can stomach some new experiences."

Atlae look the lead excitedly, climbing down the cratered road. "This is going to be great! You'll see!"

As he made his way down the sloped path, however, his head saw the fields in the horizon unobstructed by the plateau's edge. He widened his eyes.

Ahead of him, stretching towards the distance, like the mark of a burned trail left behind by Ithaca's march in the rocky fields, not to mention the detonation. It was like a long scar of blackness zigzagging through the highlands, with the occasional crater from Talos either stomping hard or stumbling down or even firing its mouth beam. There were also many burned spots from Comet Rain's missiles, which now had scores of people scouring them for minerals expelled straight out of Talos' stomach.

"Are you okay, kid?" Krishna asked.

Atlae gulped. "Yeah. It's just dawning on me what happened. Captain… how much of this was me?"

Krishna and Sorrento exchanged a look. Perhaps they should be honest. He pointed at a path out of the abyss Talos Ithaca had fallen in. "You crawled out of there, then your teacher and everyone else kept trying to fight you all the way back up to Shamballa."

"The Kraken also left a pretty big hole when it ambushed you, but the Muvians work fast." Sorrento mentioned. "When we passed by it, most of it was already flattened by their machines. I didn't even notice it at first. Those fields ahead of us are probably going to take a while, though. Everything's broken all the way to Mount Kailash, after all."

"Sorrento also told us that some of its attacks were exclamation-class, as in, comparable to the Athena Exclamation in power." Krishna added. "Stopping Talos, therefore, has probably been nothing short of a miracle. I wish you remembered exactly what you did, Atlae, when you were inside it."

Atlae narrowed his eyes. It was still a lot of destruction, even if the rest was all Ithaca. And no one was able to stop Talos until everyone's efforts came together, including that of a Gold Saint. What would have happened if Talos had completely taken over Ithaca? Would the entire planet eventually be in danger? He clenched fists, realizing that he had to be more serious than ever about his dream of becoming a great Rozan Mountain warrior if he wished to stand a chance at challenging dangerous guys like Talos and Azrael.

"Mm, mm, mm, that's the right attitude. You may have some hope of controlling my strength yet."

Atlae stiffened. He knew this voice.

"Atlae?" Krishna called, seeing him frozen suddenly.

"T… Talos?" he blinked, seeing nothing on himself. "Where are you?!"

"Where do you think, Atlae? I am with you." The Cloth revealed, horrifying him. "The Muvians have really fallen out of grace. Their old technology would have easily been able to detect me. I suppose that's the advantage in me being a prototype; they have long left behind the instruments that would have been able to see me inside your heart."

"M-My heart?!" Atlae gripped his chest, like he wished he could rip it off. "G-get… out! GET OUT OF ME!"

Seeing the Muvian breathe heavily and nearly drop Caça, Krishna and Sorrento caught him. "Atlae! What's wrong?! Your heart? Are you feeling well?"

"Now, that isn't such a good idea, right now, is it? You saw how powerful I am. What would happen to your friends if you suddenly lost control?" Talos advised him. "I'm afraid putting me on won't be as elegant as pulling the chain on a box and having metal parts comfortably fly themselves unto you, Atlae. You better get accustomed to that."

"W-What do you want?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Atlae screamed, frightening his friends.

"I already told you. I want the same as you do, as Serpens Azrael does, as everyone with a purpose on this planet want; to set things right for themselves." Talos spoke. "But you were going to prove to me how I'm wrong, right? How your battles could be won without destruction? Well, show me, Atlae. Show me how strong you really are!"

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 97 – Third Arc – Episode 23 – Return to the Present

Release Date: June 25th

Author's Comments:

Okay, we're finally at the end of the Atlae flashback storyline. It is done. Finished. I swear. I promise the next chapter is going to go back to Andromeda Island in the present. I know, because I already wrote it and it's being beta-read by Jenny DeVic right now.

In any case, I guess it's time to reflect back on all of this for a bit; while I did NOT intend this storyline to be longer than just three-to-five chapters, akin to other Side Stories I've written in the past for LR, I think it's been positive in the sense that it was a chance to take a break from my main cast, sort of regroup my thoughts, exercise a little bit of world-building and set up some important characters and storylines that are going to make the rest of the Third Arc richer and more effective.

I don't know if I've been successful or not in telling a good story about Atlae. Some of my beta-readers liked him, others not so much. One LOVES Ithaca. I think I did a pretty good job with characters like Caça and Krishna, who belong to Kurumada. If you're curious about my thoughts on Rerise of Poseidon and how it relates to what I've been doing; the timing of the two releases is just a coincidence. I don't even particularly like the way the Mariners have been written by that mangaka. Then again, I don't like most Saint Seiya mangas. Just ask my betas.

I can't wait to go back to my regular cast of characters. I've been doing pretty well with Lance, Sui and Olivia, but I'm a bit rusty on Cerah and Yushira. I think I really need to go back to writing those two so I can get the hang of them again.

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

For the moment, though, here's a continuation of where we last left off in the present, as a bonus for you all being patient with my story so far.

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

Present,

1977,

Andromeda Island

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

The Hand of Talos glowed, eating into Atlae's bones. The Muvian screamed, feeling it possess his wrist, then forearm. His cosmos and chi erupted in all directions, fissuring and cratering the ground, and his bruised body grew tight against his clothes, heating up. His heart beat faster and faster, electrified by the power of the Cepheus Thunder Flash.

Pegasus Lance and Andromeda Shinta stepped back as best they could, with Lance's leg still injured from his battle with Atlae.

"It can't be!" Shinta observed "I hit him with a blow strong enough to kill a Gold Saint!"

"Why is that guy's strength increasing instead of decreasing?!" Lance thought in horror, feeling Atlae's cosmos skyrocket into entirely new heights.

Reaper Grim and Yeti Zemu, the Terrestrial Stars of Insidiousness and Yin, also stepped away, guarding themselves with their scythe and ice-armor respectively. "Shit, those two activated his Cloth! He's going to detonate!"

Atlae screamed in pain, rising from the crater as his body convulsed upwards and expanded. Glowing more and more with Chi, he felt Talos' voice take over his thoughts, echoing louder and louder. He shook, trying to contain himself, but the brutish, endless strength of the colossus invaded his veins like liquid fire, possessing every nerve of his body.

The dark glove in his left hand tightened, forming sharp claws on his fingers. The metal on its backhand expanded, spreading into his arm by birthing plate after plate and dressing his shoulder in a curved plate, throwing his weight off balance back to the ground. His chest was then swallowed by veins of black metal that closed around his chest like a ribcage and his mouth was grabbed by a cover the sunk deep into his teeth, dressing them in fangs and trying to extend his jaw. His other hand clenched in the ground, trying to keep him balance, but his remaining limbs were slowly consumed by the metallic transformation.

The glow in his body finally burst like a balloon, making the island quake and Atlae scream. The skies tore apart, thundering, and the winds blasted them all back. Falling to the ground, the two bronze Saints watched in horror as the transformation continued, as the shadow of Atlae's body expanded and expanded, swallowing both of them, as his breath and voice got louder and his back sprouted out two useless shell plates. They saw his green eyes turn blue and get encased inside the closing of his mask. They saw his blonde hair disappear inside a wash of metal. They saw his limbs stretching and thickening, multiplying in strength.

Blood and steam sizzled from gaps between the metal plates as Atlae's flesh fully adjusted to his new, armored form; a figure towering taller than even Zemu, around the height of three men, completely encased in a dark green tank of an armor. A tail dropped to the ground, sending sand everywhere, while the wings closed tightly on the back. He now looked like an exoskeletoned lizard, possessing a long jaw, sharp teeth, insane proportions and an aura of uncontrollable power that raged like circling currents of green. The skies thundered more and more above it, as if in response to its presence.

Talos Atlae's gaze fixed on Andromeda Shinta. "You… hurt me." Its large heart beat powerfully as he took a step, spreading pure, maddening range through his system. "You HURT ME! WHY?!"

Getting a grip, Shinta stood up straight and launched his chains, encircling Atlae with his links. "G-GREAT CAPTURE!"

As soon as Andromeda' chains closed around Atlae, though, the beast man screamed and spread out his arms, blasting the chains to pieces with a shockwave of dark green, stunning the Bronze Saint.

"It… can't be!"

"S-SHINTA, RUN!" Lance screamed, seeing his friend cornered. He burned his cosmos, but his leg pained too much. "D-damn it, I can't move!"

"SHIT, he's gone berserk! He's going to kill the Prince, instead of Pegasus!" Grim realized, seeing the situation get out of control as Atlae took another step towards Lord Michael. "Zemu, get ready to freeze the Brute Star! We're going to retreat!"

Talos Atlae raised his clawed, metal black hand, immersing it in a bubble of light. "Die! DIE!"

Shinta gawked, swallowed by the shadow of the attack and feeling his 7th sense reading an impossible power. "W-what are you?!"

"TITANIC!" Talos Atlae roared and swung his fist, drawing a trail of power in the air that shook their island itself. "DEVASTATION!"

Immersing himself in cosmos, Lance exploded it, activating the one technique Seiryu allowed him to keep to rocket himself towards Shinta. Tackling the green-haired Saint out of the way, the armored Bronze Saint's side took Atlae's blow directly and the Saint lost all sensation almost instantly.

Time cut short. He was sure he heard Shinta scream his name. Somehow, he thought Olivia had, too. It wasn't possible, though. Shinta said he had sent her away. He could be safe in that, at least.

The last thing Pegasus Lance felt before total darkness was the thunderous force of a titan hammering him full-force, with such colossal ferocity that his soul itself felt cast down to Tartarus in an instant.