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.

93. 3A: March of Destruction - Part 1

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!;

-A recent reviewer requested I restore the links to Balasdan's art on my profile. I will get around to it, I promise, I have just been having a series of tough weeks distracting me. The art still exists on Balasdan's DA account if you want to check them out, the links are just dead because I deleted my twitter account and now I need to decide on a new host and which pics I'm gonna keep;

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1960 (14 years earlier),

Romania,

Crow's Nest Fortress

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The small company of Zodiac Knights rode through the forests on horseback, keeping their armor on for the final stretch back to their home base. Headed by Paladin Corvus Azrael, the ten oathsworn soldiers were tired and smudged with ash, having returned from a particularly daunting cleansing mission in the border between Austria and Germany. When riding past regular people, they would take their armors into their holding stones and the knights would pretend they were just travelers on horseback. The spread of automobiles in the modern world made keeping appearances to casuals a difficult act for the Zodiac Knights to balance while holding on to their knightly traditions.

As they entered the final roads back to the citadel, they were feasted by the sight of the tall, fortified keep nestled in the Carpathian Mountains. Their advance slowed to take it all in.

"Finally, we're back at base." one thanked, sighing. He was a Romanian boy of brown hair that had just unlocked his cosmos and Light element, having recently sworn his oath to Athena and the Order. "All I want to is go to bed and forget this tour. Paladin Azrael surely doesn't hold back with the missions, does he?"

"You should follow his example." An older oathsworn advised. He was a pale blonde man from France who had been in the Order all his life. His name was Jasper. "Paladin Azrael is doing wonders to bring honor, virtue and discipline back in our Order. These are dangerous times. The Knights of the Zodiac are needed more than ever to watch the border with Hades' realm."

A third one looked ahead, seeing the green-haired Paladin in the Corvus Cloth absent-mindedly stare at their fortress. "Maybe so, but he seems a bit out of it today."

The first young oathsworn shivered. "Can you blame him? The First Knight himself would be ashamed of what we've just done."

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The mountain village was in a blaze. The light of fire illuminated the streets and surrounding forests in the otherwise pitch-black night and many screamed, running away from the group of armored men pushing their way into the manor.

A group of men armored with pitchforks stood in their way. "Y-You cannot enter! GO BACK!"

Paladin Azrael stared them down. "You're housing awakened soldiers of Hades. They will kill you all for the kindness you extend to them. Move!"

"N-NO! These are our family members!" one of them screamed, thrusting a pitchfork in the air warningly. "I don't care if demons have taken them! They just need help-"

Azrael's hand gave the signal and his oathsworn soldiers rushed in, pushing the pathetic line of defense aside with their armored arms. He marched through and entered the manor. Inside, a group of young men were strapped to their beds, surrounded by their sisters, mothers, children, anyone in their lives who loved them. They all quivered in Azrael's presence, terrified of his strange armored visage.

Yet, Azrael's sight was funneled towards the young men. All of them thrashed violently against their restraints and shouted viciously, threatening their loved ones with death and worse. Their skin was greying, their veins dark and an obscure mirk seemed to permeate out of them like an odor. Azrael gripped his sword and advanced towards them.

A catholic priest in the room stood in his way. "Leave this house! These are innocent children of God!"

"Not of the God you're thinking of." Corvus Azrael warned him. "If you want to save your soul as well, I suggest you move, Father."

The priest saw Azrael's men pour into the house. He spread out his arms to block their way, shaking in fear. "This… this is unpardonable! These are sick young men! I will not let you harm them like you did the others-"

There was a high-pitched scream behind him. The priest turned and saw the horror of a young woman with her lover lunged over her, having snapped his restraints and tossed himself unto her to bite her neck.

Ripping her larynx out and spitting it off, he faced the knights, swallowed in shadows that began hardening into armor. "Death! DEATH!"

Others began ripping their wrist braces and attacking their families in similar fashions, spreading further terror. "DEATH FOR HADES! DEATH TO ALL!"

Azrael felt his blood chill, seeing shadows begin to swirl around the young men's bodies. He shoved the priest aside and turned his hands into torches of light. "Zodiac knights, to arms!"

"MINERVA VICTRIX!" the oathsworn all shouted, igniting their Light cosmos.

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"It's tragic. An entire village of people, and we had to burn it to the ground." The first oathsworn lamented. "I know it is our duty to wipe out the weeds of Hades' forces wherever we go, but…"

"That's enough." Corvus Azrael ordered, turning to them.

The men snapped to attention. "Sir!"

Azrael rode out ahead of the group to face them. "We had clear orders from the Castellans. By all estimates, the seal of Hades will be completely faded within twenty to thirty years. This means that, more and more, we will be seeing innocent people 'revive' as Skeleton Soldiers, Specters and even Judges. Our tenure as Zodiac Knights, therefore, will be full of difficult orders to follow."

"But sir!" the young one protested.

"We all know they are not at fault for their sad fate," Azrael continued, eyeing him in particular. "But the truth stands that every single one that is allowed to freely awaken will likely exterminate their homes at the very least. And go on to the Underworld from where they will later fight the Holy War against us at its worst. This is the price they have made for contracting with Hades, in this life or their previous one."

"Cutting this evil at its root is a small sacrifice to make, compared to losing the entire world to Hades, Paladin Azrael." Oathsworn Jasper argued as well. "We will follow you to this grim duty with honor."

"Small sacrifice?" The first oathsworn shivered again, thinking of the flames. "We had to cleanse the entire village so the possessive darkness wouldn't spread. Are… are we going to have to do this every time?"

Azrael halted his horse. He rode by the youth. "Your name is Franz, right?"

Franz nodded, surprised that the Silver Saint remembered. "Yes, Paladin."

"There is nothing small about sacrificing people's lives, that is true." Azrael admitted. "I will also not tell you ingenuine excuses 'that we are just containing a disease', because to any moral and upstanding knight, the protection of innocent humans is paramount. For it also is to Athena."

At the very least he felt relieved the Paladin understood his doubts, but by himself Franz felt he couldn't dispel them. He gripped his chest tightly. "If we're supposed to protect innocent people… all of them, then? How can I protect my soul from this cruelty?"

"Because that is our duty as knights; to put our very conscience on the line for others." Azrael answered. "There is no saving those who make their contract with Hades; they willingly turned their souls over for immortality and will forever be servants of his war machine. However, that does not mean we can't save those whose spirits will be enslaved by proximity to these cruel people. You saw them attacking their families, their village. But that was only the physical. Hades' cruelty goes beyond it."

This notion made Franz widen his eyes. "Beyond the physical?"

The green-haired Silver Saint nodded. "Correct. Hades envisions a world where every human is proven guilty and rightfully enslaved to his Prisons. For that, he will use every method available to him; from seducing humans with immortality, to destroying Sanctuary, to having his thralls murder others to spread his black chains. Had we not done our duty that night, every single innocent person in that village would have been shackled and dragged to Hades' realm. They would have been made to suffer an eternity of punishment, and we would have to answer to Athena for not saving them. This way, they stand a chance at being sent to Athena's light instead."

Franz quivered. It was a noble goal, but a grief gripped his heart that he feared would haunt him at night. "I u-understand, Paladin."

Franz followed his leader, not appeased, but at the very least wide-eyed by the Paladin's words. Now he understood why Sir Azrael was already wielding the Silver Cloth, unlike Sir Priam. The Paladin really did believe in everything the Order stood for, to the ultimate degree. It was hard not to let his conviction fill your spirit and inspire you. Perhaps the veteran by him was right and Franz would do well to look at him as an example to follow.

Azrael resumed their ride, knowing he did all he could to set the boy at ease.

"An inspiring speech, you've just given him." The Corvus Cloth spoke to him. "It must be the same one you tell yourself?"

"I thought Serpens had insidious words, but yours carry their own mirk, don't they?" Azrael asked. At least the good thing about mental communication is that he didn't have to worry about biting his tongue while horse riding. "Doing what we've done is what it means to be a Zodiac Knight. More than any mere Saint of Athena, we wage a continuous war against Hades and his forces of darkness. That fate, however, is a privilege, not a curse."

Corvus's cackle was an echo of mocking caws. "That didn't answer my question."

"You're the type of Cloth that likes prodding into the mind of their owner, aren't you?" Azrael confronted. It was the only way the Silver Cloth could act so insightful about his thoughts and feelings. "So if you want answers, why don't you read it again? I assure you, though, Corvus, that you'll find the words I gave that boy applied to myself before to anyone else."

"I don't need to read your mind to know how fragile your words are, Azrael. It's in the stiffness of your pose, the shame in your sweat and the subtle panic in breath when you speak to your men about their 'duty'." Corvus pointed out. "Whenever you speak of killing others, there's always words about your duty to justify it, isn't there? I've had many owners before you, but you're the first going to such lengths to explain to yourself what you 'must' do. Your spirit is surprisingly fragile, isn't it? Bound only by the glue of duty you inflict in the mirror."

"I made a vow, have I not?" Azrael questioned, refusing to fall for the provocations of a piece of alchemic metal. "As wielders of the element of Light, it is our mission to flood the world with it in the name of Athena."

"And what does that mean, to 'flood the world with light'? To you, anyway?"

Azrael paused his mental words, caught speechless.

Corvus cackled again. "Many Knights would have the answer to that question under the tip of their tongue. Some dream about a peaceful world full of flowers under their feet, or their Lightcrafted swords finally hanged on the wall. But that's not what YOU want, is it? Your most important vow isn't to the Knights. It's to those friends of yours back in Greece. Tell me, Ace, will you use me to flood the world with light, if it means burning down your so-called 'junkyard gang'?"

Jasper looked up, seeing their leader swerve their horse slightly off course. "Paladin Azrael? Are you alright?"

"Not going to answer that either, are you, Ace?" Corvus's beak tipped and tapped in the shadows of the Silver Saint's mind like the clicking of a tongue. "Don't worry. Life has a way to make you answer through actions what you won't through words. And I have all the time in the Cosmos to wait for my answer."

Azrael got himself together and adjusted his course, feeling a shiver down his back. "I am fine. Let's continue."

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Entering the fortress of Crow's Nest, Corvus Azrael headed for the bailey's stable to leave his mount. As wielder of the Corvus Cloth, Azrael was officially keeper of the Crow's Nest castle and thus everyone saluted him with the same reverence they would a made Castellan.

Many, in fact, already treated him as such, despite Azrael being too young to earn the title. "Castellan Azrael."

He nodded, heading for the keep. "It's still Paladin, Sir Gregory."

Another opened the gate for him. "Castellan Azrael."

"Sir Igor." He patiently answered, heading inside.

Two more by the stairs to keep's upper floors raised their visors at him in salute. "Castellan Azrael! You've returned."

Azrael's lips stiffened. While he felt proud everyone came to respect him so much, he didn't feel comfortable with being compared to the honorable Castellans, leaders of the Order.

"Wouldn't you like to be called that, though?" Corvus asked.

"I'm not a Castellan yet." Azrael insisted, ignoring his Silver Cloth. "Is Sir Priam in the fortress?"

"No, Paladin Corvus, he's returned to Lionet's Den for now." one of them notified. "He told us to inform you that he'd be back after finishing his retraining with Saint Unicorn Kai."

Azrael clicked his tongue. "Good, at least he's staying away from the Heinstein Manor for now. But did he realize I sent that letter to the others?"

"Also, the fortress has received a visit from Shamballa, Paladin." The guard informed. He fidgeted uncomfortably and darted eyes, a behavior Ace had seen in oathsworns that failed some duty. "I would have told her not to come in without your permission, but her Cloth outranks us very highly."

He widened his eyes, realizing who it was. "When did she arrive?!"

"Not too long ago, Paladin. We, um, tried to stop her, but she headed straight up to the main keep tower up top." They saw the Paladin rush past them urgently, without even wishing them Athena's light. "May Athena's light be with you, sir Azrael!"

The other guard sweated. "Wow, I've never seen the Paladin this anxious to meet visits. He didn't even go report to the Castellans first."

"You'd know why if you saw that one." the first pointed out. He looked around to check no one was listening. "Forgive the blasphemy, brother, but faced with a rack like that, I'd forget my oath too."

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Rushing up the tower steps, Corvus Azrael entered the war room at the top of the keep. Inside, a young woman awaited, curiously playing with the war pieces from the meeting table in her hand. Although her Amazon mask concealed her face, he knew her eyes were of a deep blue that stood out against her pristine white curls of hair that reached down to her forearms. Her body was encased in a Silver Cloth of thick magenta and purple plates. Many of them, mostly the shoulder and knee pads, had the vague shape of a large flower's petals, while a dark blue cape rested down her back beneath her hair.

He took off his beaky helmet and beamed, spreading his arms for an embrace. "Helen!"

Lotus Helen, the first candidate in line for the Virgo Cloth, put down the piece and joined his hug, closing arms around him tightly. "Ace! I'm so happy to see you!" She wished she could kiss his cheek, but her mask remained between them. "How are you? It's been so long!"

The shadow of his most recent mission disappeared from his mind with the mere sound of her shy, restrained voice. "Only a few months, Helen. I'm perfect. Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I'd have my oathsworn group ride back at double speed."

She laughed with his enthusiasm, but kicked a shoulder up. "Well, you know me; I don't like to make a big deal of my appearances. Also, I didn't want to spoil the surprise." Helen looked around. "I hope you don't mind that I came up. All those knights outside made me feel anxious."

He shook his head, remembering how Helen had always been weary around lots of strangers. "Not at all. Other than that, what do you think of Crow's Nest?"

She looked out at the sight from the window over the terrain. The Carpathian Mountains surrounded the fortress, magnifying the beauty of Crow's Nest's stark round walls and battlements from where Helen stood.

"What's there to say? It looks amazing here." Even the walls rivalled the Sapphire Gate of Bluegrad and the circling walls of Shamballa in decorative and functional beauty. "All these Zodiac fortresses are gothic dreams. Every tower, every battlement and every stone look as if ancient gods of craftmanship made them. I feel like I'm in a fantasy book."

Azrael's chest swelled with pride. "We're not just jewelry makers and exorcists. Zodiac Knight architecture is one of our pride points. But I'm sure it's nothing compared to the Sun Temple." Azrael assured, though half-heartedly. If his compatriots saw him compliment a heathen construction such as a tower dedicated to the Rozan Gods, they'd question his unflinching virtue as a Zodiac Knight. "Speaking of which, how are the Muvians treating you? They must be easier to handle than us humans for you?"

Her head tilted. "Ace, they're not aliens either, you know?"

His arms crossed worriedly. "I just meant being around Muvians would be easier for you. Their culture is less… overwhelming, from what I hear."

Her masked face darted away embarrassedly. "I've been doing wonderfully. I do miss you guys and Greece, though. I think there's only so much stretching around my head I can do with my legs before walking up the Zodiac stairs starts looking like a good alternative."

Azrael laughed out loud. Helen secretly smiled with it; it was such a rare treat to see the sternest member of their group actually take a joke well.

"I'm learning a lot, too." she added excitedly. "The monks at the Sun Temple are very intelligent, even for Muvians. I feel like my understanding of Cosmos has quadrupled since I've obtained Lotus. Here, check this out!"

Azrael watched her take her hands and cup them. Helen then ignited her cosmos, creating a magenta flare shaped like a blooming flower. Then, she made it bloom perfectly, going so far as making every petal individually shift at different tempos and rustles, as if a real lotus rested in her hands. It then birthed the different, yellow colors of the inner pollen. The recreation was so detailed and vivid that it even exuded a sweet lotus aroma.

She grinned excitedly inside her mask. "Cool, right? Imagine how much control this involves! There's enough energy in my hand to blast someone into the sky, too."

He scoffed, amazed. It wasn't a mere reflection of an image, but a total recreation photon by photon. "Amazing, Helen. That's on the level of higher end Light-crafters among the Knights."

She beamed happily. "I had a good feeling you'd praise me for it! That's why I couldn't wait to show off." Dispersing the cosmos away, she dusted her hands. "But really, this is just the start. I really want to do so much more, like the Golden Touch, the 7th sense… If this is what we can do with just the Cosmos of Silver Saints, Ace', imagine what lightspeed could offer us."

The Paladin nodded. Helen had always been like this; endlessly marveled with this power they discovered within themselves. More than anyone else in their gang, more so than even Malta and Akassius, Helen had a fascination with the potentialities of the ability, like she saw a fantastic new world she could create in it that no one else did.

Meanwhile, all Ace' saw it as was as a tool for his duty. "Maybe I'm just dull, but I can only imagine making the perfect Cloth Lightcraft with it."

Helen laughed bemusedly. "Come on, you can do better than that, Ace'. And you Knights have such a wonderful power; with light craft, you could make beautiful jewels like some of the knights, you could build enormous castle towers, you could make beams of light rain from the clouds! You could even heal people from unique diseases."

He shook his head, leaning back. "If I had that kind of potential, I would save those doomed men, instead of…" He stopped himself from remembering what he had to do to stop their revival. Poor Franz had even hurled when he saw the heads rolling.

Helen blinked, seeing him down. "What's wrong, Ace'? You seem dower." She realized suddenly how normal this actually sounded for him. "I mean, in a non-usual way. Are you sad with something?"

He took a seat with her on the war table. "You came to brighten my day at a perfect timing, Helen. I can't say it's been easy here recently."

Joining him, she tensed, wondering if he was fighting with people again. "I thought you loved being a Zodiac Knight."

"I do. It's the best thing I've ever done with my life." He then tried to count in his mind how many towns they had to purge just that month, not to mention adjusting to Corvus' character questioning. "For the first time in my life, I feel I am part of a greater cause than just surviving in the junk. It's everything I imagined becoming a Saint would be. But…"

With such praise, she wondered how could he still find something to be down about. "But what?"

His emerald gaze turned down. "It's just been a dark duty recently. Morale is getting weaker among the men as a result. To make things worse, we failed to meet our recruitment goals again. Less and less children are awakening the Light element, meaning we can't replenish our numbers. Of those who do, more and more prefer working on easier elements or stick with Sanctuary. The Knights have never been this fragile."

Helen tried to keep up with these military things she barely understood, nodding along.

"We do our best, but holding the line against Hades' rise is going to get harder and harder from now on." Azrael lamented, tapping the table. He fixed his eyes on her mask worriedly. "It can't be that long before Pandora awakens, Helen. And once she does, Hypnos and Thanatos will be sure to follow."

The young Amazon hummed silently. Helen couldn't say she envied the position Ace and Kyosuke were in, or rather Antenor and Priam as they were named in Sanctuary. Being a Knight was something many young boys of Sanctuary still had a romantic admiration for, but more and more people saw it as putting your neck on the line unnecessarily for an organization that wasn't in good terms with the main army. This was especially at a time when everyone was readying themselves for another era of Holy War. Out of all the branches of Sanctuary's forces, the Knights always had the worst Holy War casualty rates.

This was because not only did the Knights start off every war with Hades already at his doorstep, but they took the initiative in it; spending the years prior to the war doing their best to sabotage the rise of the Underworld's army. It was often said that, by the time the first Saint died in wars with Hades, most of the Zodiac Knight order would be spent holding back that first wash of violence out of Heinstein Castle.

"Things are getting tenser here by the year, Helen. Priam and I have been made by the Castellans to watch the Heinstein family close, too. They believe Pandora could revive as one of them any time soon." Azrael revealed to her. "At the same time, we are bound by our oath to protect the innocent of their family, so we can't just eliminate them, as much as we'd like to."

She tensed and turned away her mask, horrified. "And you really shouldn't, Ace'. Even if you hadn't made an oath."

He staggered. It wasn't his intention to make her think he wanted these things. "Of course not, Hel'. But I just had to explain to an oathsworn why we had to cleanse a village because a mere battalion of Skeletons was about to be revived through their young men. Everyone in it is dead, Helen. What justification do I have to let the Heinsteins live, in light of that?"

Helen vexedly frowned. She stood up and held his shoulder tightly. "I'm sorry, Ace'. I wish I had the answer, but I don't."

He nodded, feeling powerless. "No, it's okay, Helen. I couldn't stand more platitudes from Priam. Leave the speeches of idealism to him, he's a specialist."

The Lotus Saint laughed, but sadly. "And unfortunately, that brings me to why I am here." She reached into her collar and pulled out a letter, which she placed in front of him. "We got your letter."

Azrael stared at it, gritting his teeth. "I sent that to Akassius, not you."

"And Akassius asked me to respond. He thought you might listen to me." She opened the document up and pointed at the paragraph talking about Priam's indiscretions "Ace, is this true? Has Priam really been seeing this woman from the Heinsteins?"

"Do you think I'd like about something as serious as that?" Azrael challenged. He stood up from the table with his fists and looked her in the masks' eyes and whispered. "He told me he was just her friend at first, too, so I lef him alone. But I caught him in bed with a vessel of Pandora."

Helen held her head. "Yes, Akassius told me. It's… it's quite grave, I won't deny it."

"Quite grave?! Helen, for a Knight, he might as well have punched the Pope while he was at it! Not to mention he took advantage of my trust!" Azrael's gauntlet slammed the wall, making the entire room shake "He fucking LIED to me!"

She staggered, seeing the crack his fist left on the otherwise perfectly cut fortress bricks.

He recoiled at her reaction. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Her head shook. "No, no, you have good reason to be upset." She laughed embarrassedly. "I just forgot how scary you could be when you got angry."

"And frankly I'm surprised neither you or Akassius responded with a visit to Priam!" he pointed out. It was always like this; their Sagittarius and their Cancer were always covered for by Akassius. "Can you imagine how they'd react if I had done something even remotely like this?!"

"Ah, well." she grimaced nervously inside her mask. "It could be that the reason Priam had to go to Lionet Den so suddenly is because Kai is waiting for him there. I, um, I don't think it's a reunion that will go down well."

"Good! I hope Kai kicks him a lesson into him Priam never forgets!" Azrael argued, startling her again. "Imagine what this would do to us if it got out! Akassius barely holds his ground against those snakes in Sanctuary's court! They would destroy us if they learned one of us had sex with Hades' sist-… with that woman!"

She folded her arms and tapped her foot. "Ace', please calm down."

He froze, seeing Helen in a rare 'pissed off' mode. "Again, I'm sorry… I just-"

"You know that does not make it okay. Not to us." She appealed, softening her voice. "We don't know that this woman really is to be the vessel of Pandora, do we?"

The Knight forced himself to cool down with a deep breath. "We do not, but… but it was still so unbelievably risky of him! I wish I had knocked my fist down his head myself, instead of sending that letter!"

"The letter was the right thing to do, Ace. Priam made a mistake, I'm not here to deny it, and I know the Knights are very important to you -" Her hands rested on his shoulders. "- but like you said; this getting out would have hurt all of us in the gang. I know that years ago you would have done something very different. I'm glad you did not."

His emerald eyes looked up at her. "Then why come here?"

Her fingers left him "Well…remember when you got into a fight with all those Saints, when dad first brought us to Sanctuary? None of us had cosmos other than me and those guys were ready to kill you because you said they were no better than us just because we came from a junkyard."

Azrael groaned, already guessing the rest. He hated this story.

She pushed his chestplate lightly. "And who saved you? It was Priam. He didn't even hesitate and those guys could have blown him to bits along with you. I just want you to remember that."

"I get it, Helen." He groaned, turning away. "Fine… I can… forgive him for lying to me."

She studied him for signs of hesitation. Fortunately, she knew Ace to be pretty true to his word, despite his hard-butted-ness.

"Ace, you know he, and the rest of us, wouldn't hesitate to do the same to you, too, right? And we don't need to be in an Order of ancient Knights to do it, either." she reminded him. "No matter what, we stick together. Akassius and I just worried that, from your letter and all your time apart from the gang, that you forgot that."

He sighed and shook his head. "No, Helen…. There's no chance of that.. I was just angry. Sometimes I think no one but the three of us take what we're doing seriously." He gripped his Obsidian Cloth Stone. "I may be a Zodiac Knight, but I will never forget where I came from; the junk with you all."

The Lotus Silver Saint smiled inside her mask. She reached in and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Ace."

Taken a bit by surprise, he held her back.

Corvus's mocking caws sounded in his ear. "So that is the side you pick, then. That was quicker than I thought. Thank you for answering my question."

He ignored his Cloth. "You don't have to take it so well, you know?"

Her head shook and she let go. "You know that's not true. Everyone is working incredibly hard to become Gold Saints. Even Menelaus, who has to go up against my dad." Helen sighed in reflection. "And honestly… it makes me that I can't believe I have such incredible friends."

He scratched head and crossed arms guardingly. "Now you're being sentimental, Helen."

Her hands clenched. "I'm serious. That has gotten me through some difficult moments. Sometimes when the Lotus Cloth tells me I have to keep sitting in a tree and think about nothing, or tells me that I have to stack another boulder even higher with my mind, I feel like I might go crazy. Then I remember we all got through so much together and I managed to do it just a bit longer. That's why I can't stand to see any of us fighting."

Faced before this, Azrael could only admit defeat. "Alright." The green-haired Saint took the letter and burned it with his cosmos. "There, it's done. Tell Priam that I forgive him. Maybe he's right and that woman isn't Pandora."

She tilted her head in appreciation.

Azrael then turned away, rubbing arm. He felt his eyes darting downwards at her briefly. He didn't notice it in the first hug because he was so surprised to see Helen, but on that second time he realized her chest had nearly doubled in size since he last saw her.

She blinked, sensing his Cosmos rise. "What is it, Ace? Why are you spiking?"

He shook head repeatedly "No, no reason! I just remembered how shy you were back at the junkyard, and now you're handing out lessons to the rest of us. You've become a strong woman, Helen."

She hummed, embarrassed, but supposing that happy memories did make that sort of thing happen with the Cosmos. "I'm the adoptive daughter of the Taurus Saint. I have to act the part, you know? And someone has to stop you guys from fighting each other all the time."

He chuckled bemusedly. She did play the peacemaker role pretty well. Helen would make an excellent Virgo. Ace now realized that, with her around, there was no way things could go wrong for the Junkyard Generation.

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Six years later,

December of 1966,

Serpent's Rock,

End of the 'Topaz Purge'

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Rain drizzled on the blood-soaked fortress of the Ural Mountains. Azrael laid stripped of his Gold Cloth before the Pope, himself flanked by Aquarius 'Odysseus' and Taurus 'Ajax'. The Aries Gold Cloth floated gently to the Pope's side, having just abandoned its owner's body.

Azrael, or Antenor as he was still known, growled, shaking. "You… you have no right to take my armor, my… my one triumph in my life!"

"We did not take anything from you yet, Antenor." Pope Arles called him, being Azrael's Gold Saint codename. "A Gold Cloth abandoning its owner is entirely the product of their path in life. Did you think you could commit betrayal to everyone and everything you've sworn a vow to and not suffer any consequences?"

He glared up at the masked man, possessed in anger. Priam's words of what went on in Arles' mind echoed in Azrael's brain "Betrayal?! HOW DARE YOU?! You will pay for this Arles! YOU WILL PAY!"

The two other Gold Saints stepped between him and the Pope at this.

"Threaten the holy father again, Azrael, and I will make sure you lose whatever you have left!" Taurus Ajax warned. "You've been lucky, actually, because the Aries Cloth decided to accompany you until at least your final trial ended. With the violence coming to an end, however, I'm afraid that from now on, you must carry the weight of what you've done on your own."

Azrael shook. His body felt numb with the sheer outrage. "D-Do you think I'll be the only one?! Arles will betray the two of you, too! Don't you understand?!" He pointed an accusing finger at the Pope. "From day one we arrived in Greece, he's been doing nothing but sabotaging us for standing in the way of the Sanctuary HE envisions! And now he's gotten rid of me and my Order!"

Arles visibly staggered. "That is NOT true! I've done nothing but support all of you since you've first reached Sanctuary!" The Pope stepped towards him. "Antenor… No, Ace', please, let me help you. If you just surrender peacefully-"

"LIAR!" Azrael roared, lunging.

Taurus 'Ajax' Daniel widened his eyes, seeing the light birthing in Azrael's hand, and he rushed to shield the Pope. "YOUR HOLINESS, STAND BACK!"

"SERAPHIC FLASH!" The slashing beam fired from Azrael's sweeping hand straight at Arles and bounced off Daniel's armored chest!

Arles gasped in horror, seeing it explode in a distant mountain brightly. That attack could have killed him, if not for Daniel's reflexes.

Malta screamed. "AZRAEL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU JUST ATTACKED THE POPE!"

Azrael stood up, panting. "You l-liar! You TREACHEROUS COWARD OF AN ARIES! Surrender peacefully?! After everything I've done?! All the brothers and sisters in the order I sacrificed for this?! Did you offer that to Priam, too, or are you going to kill him before he can yap about what you've done?!"

The Pope recoiled. "I don't know he told you, Azrael, but it's not true!"

"Priam told me and Aeneas everything!" Antenor revealed. It made the robed man in mask go coldly silent. "Three years hiding from Sanctuary in caverns and mountains makes for a lot of story swapping, Arles! We know what makes you afraid, now! And I know what future you think you've seen!"

Ajax and Odysseus turned from one to the other. Aquarius demanded answers. "Your Holiness, what is he saying?!"

"Nothing! It's the same baseless accusations Priam made! He's convinced Azrael and Aeneas of utter madness!" Arles guaranteed. "Azrael, how can the three of you not understand that everything I've been doing, has been for the peaceful world our Goddess desires? You're a Saint of Athena, in the end! As all the Zodiac Knights were!"

"The Knights are gone now! I'm the only one left!" Azrael hissed.

The two Gold Saints reeled, watching the last bit of brightness that still lived in their old friend's green eyes disappear.

Antenor's fist shook. "You must be so elated… now all their armors will return to Sanctuary, to you! One less member of the Pact to worry about, correct?! One less obstacle to your desired Sanctuary! But rest assured, Arles; I still live! And for as long as I draw breath, so will the Knights and so will that thorn to you in the Pact! You may have taken Aries, but you will not see Serpens back for as long as I draw breath!"

Malta, or Odysseus as he was known, tried to speak. "Azrael, please! Just stop this and return to Sanctuary! We've taken all the Zodiac Knight fortresses. There's nothing in these castles anym-"

"THERE'S STILL ME!" Azrael shouted, and his cosmos flooded out, filling the bailey with light.

The two Gold Saints screamed with the flash and rushed to protect the Pope. As the light subsided, however, they realized no attack had been conducted. Instead, all around them, multiple 'Azraels' stood, one for every great Zodiac Knight castle. All perfect Lightcraft constructions of the original and all seemingly capable of the same deadly feats.

"And as Cyrul and Athena are my witnesses, if I cannot be the Aries Gold Saint, then I shall be the Knights!" Azrael swore. With a wave of his hand, his many clones shattered into shards of light that broke away into nothing. "Now LEAVE! Go fight your war with Priam to its conclusion so you can enjoy peace in Sanctuary! And never step into Serpent's Rock ever again!"

With a gesture of his hand, the Pope's telekinesis made the Aries Gold Cloth pieces reassemble into their marching ram form and he rested it securely with himself. "You may never believe this, Azrael, but… I do regret things have come to this. And I do still see all of you as my children. Including Priam and Aeneas."

"Perhaps you can have them wipe the planet of their own to cleanse their betrayal as well, then!" Azrael spat. "Would you do it, Arles?! Would you have Aeneas burn the Isle of Gardens to the ground, like you made ME kill the Knights?! Dear Holy Father?!"

He saw the Pope stare at him beneath his mask, as if he could not believe Azrael's words. With a saddened slump, the Pope ignited his cosmos, engulfing himself and his two Gold Saints. "Farewell, Azrael. And please remember… we all still love you. And so does Athena."

With a blinding flash of light, the three figures vanished, their cosmos disappearing without a trace from Serpent's Rock. Azrael took his broadsword and swung aimlessly, carving the ground apart in a shockwave of light that made the burning corpses around him fly and burst into bits. He screamed, flesh and blood raining down on him. The red of his brothers and sisters washed his body, pooling his feet in death, and he hammered his fists down on the mountain, shaking it to its core.

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

The Story's Present

August, 1974

Greece, Néa Delphi

Solo Manor

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While night was falling deep in central Asia, in Greece the day was only just barely coming to a close. After another session of managing the affairs of his household, dialoguing with Pope Arles and meeting with the Vancouvers, Arthur Solo arrived home, coated and exhausted.

As he passed the gate to his manor, he turned to his new bodyguard. "Good afternoon, Ith… Io."

The pink-haired youth perked up and saluted. "Welcome home, Lord Arthur."

Arthur winced, ashamed of himself. How could he still trip up with the names? Young Io was a former classmate of Marianne. Recently the Solos had employed him as their new servant and protector as a gesture of friendship to the Ladrillero Household, which governed both the South Pacific and the Scylla Scales.

He was not Ithaca.

The boy unlocked the gate for his boss, accompanying him in excitedly. "Lord Arthur, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity again to be in your employment. My father speaks very highly of you and I've always wanted to work with Miss Marianne's family."

"You were classmates were you not?"

"Yes, and she helped me through a difficult period of my life, too." Io confessed. He wouldn't have been able to take how cruel Baian's macho dismissiveness of Io's feelings was if Marianne hadn't been there to hold Io from falling apart. For someone who was friends with that bitch Adriana Ghisi, the Solo heiress had shown Io a kindness that he never thought possible. "I feel like I owe her my life."

Arthur wasn't sure what the story behind this was, but he could take a gander. "You can just call her 'Marianne', Io. My daughter wouldn't mind it at all."

Io shook his head, chuckling. "Address the Vice-Admiral by her first name? I wouldn't dream of it, Lord Arthur." The young man unlocked the front door of the house for him. "I took the time to take care of the garden, the hedge maze and the lumber shed, as well, sir. I also cleaned the garage, washed your car, and contacted the ranch at Rodario for you. They say they've handled the purchase of new studs for the year already."

Arthur widened eyes. "You did all that on your first day?"

"I'm very good at multi-tasking, sir." Io proudly exclaimed. He then perked up. "Oh! And I accompanied miss Seraphina today to the town, like you asked. We even got baby formula for little Julian together."

Arthur visibly became somber at the mention of his wife. He patted Io's shoulder to reassure him. "Good work, Io. Thank you very much."

Io only hesitantly nodded. Her Lady was so sad he felt like he had done a terrible job accompanying her.

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

Arthur walked inside, closing the large door. Once he was sure Io had gone back to the gate post, he took a breath and unpacked his dark-blue work coat, hat and umbrella in the hanger. Every single move and step on the hardwood floor he made echoed in the house like the innards of an empty cavern. Drips of the summer rain came in outside and tingled in the glass of the windows softly. Yet to Arthur, the rain sounded like rocks striking his house to pelt the guilt-filled man.

Seeing a light was on in the living room, he gathered his courage and went into it.

There she was, the love of his life. The woman who stabbed him in the back. The mother of his children. Of one of them, at least.

Just sitting on the sofa, looking listless at the dead fireplace, hands in her lap motionlessly like someone had ripped her heart out and not the other way around.

The way she had been, frozen as such, since he confronted her with her betrayal.

"How was your day?"

Her head only briefly turned to him, before briskly moving away in shame. "Good, it was good."

"Is my son alright?" He asked, watching for any hint of a smile at the mention of her baby. There was only a slow nod. Tentatively, he sat next to her. "Io told me he joined you to town. Did he treat you well?"

She tried to turn to him respectfully, but her pale blue eyes kept facing down. "Yes. He was wonderful." The words were bright, but her tone was listless. "He asked all sorts of questions about our family. I could barely keep up. Io really admires Mari'."

"I suppose everyone does." Arthur admitted. At this point he'd like to meet a Mariner who didn't act like his daughter was Poseidon's gift from the abyssal depths. Perhaps the Gerasimov would give him that kindness? "He's a very hard worker. I have the feeling he will serve us well. The manor is so empty without Marianne bringing her friends in, too. Added to that, it's a good first step for us to take with the Ladrilleros."

Seraphina nodded. "Yes. That will be good for us."

Arthur shifted his eyes, wondering if he should really take his next step. Seraphina hadn't been able to face his look in months. He'd probably just send her scurrying back to her shell, like a pearl hiding its dirty smudges.

Seeing her like this, however, made his blood boil. Was he not the one with the right to act hurt?

"Even better, Marianne once told me that young Io is attracted to men." he revealed. "So, I suppose we won't have to worry about him fitting in too much either. Won't we?"

The Bluegrad woman stiffened and her face quivered in pain. Her fingers gripped her long, pale blue hair anxiously and she looked away from him.

The sight of her silent shock only revolted Arthur further. His teeth gritted. "I never thought I'd see this day. With you in this state! How is this possible, Seraphina?"

She trembled, her eyes getting wet and her body sinking into the sofa. "A-Arthur, p-please, please d-don't hurt me anymore! I beg you!"

"Why not?" he practically hissed. As far as Arthur saw it, he had every right. "I feel like this isn't my wife in front of me, that I'm sitting next to a stranger in my house!"

Seraphina turned, bewildered.

"There was a time I knew a woman who would have stepped in front of one of Baron's gangsters to protect a miner's small child." Arthur recalled, narrowing his eyes in search of this woman in her. "I used to think, with some worry, that her tears were reserved to nothing but others' pain, never her own! That woman was brave, beautiful and strong, just like her daughter! She was a snowstorm of love in that hell of ice! A star so stark and blue that all others felt dim and dead to me! So much, that I fell in love with her at first sight!"

This was not the first time she had heard these words from her husband. Seraphina had felt the emotion coming from him on their wedding night, as he spoke to all those households in defense of her. At a time when she felt the whole world hated her for interfering with Arthur's arranged marriage to the Gerasimov, this wonderful man had made her forget all the terrible things in the world, that she was the most beloved human on the planet.

A horrible shame, almost as painful as when she first laid with Ithaca, came over her. Seraphina sobbed into her hands, wishing she could sink into a deep hole and die.

"Stop that!" Arthur demanded, grabbing her arms. He shook the frightened woman. "Where has she gone?! Tell me! And who took her away from me?!"

Seraphina cried out. "N-NO, STOP!" If only she could take everything back. Why did she ever so much as look at Ithaca? Young and kind and genuine with his feelings as he was, Seraphina never imagined she could have done what she did with him. Not to Arthur! "Arthur, P-PLEASE, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry, I'm SORRY!"

"You're sorry?!" Arthur rose from his seat, outraged "Do you want me to forgive you, perhaps?!"

The woman shook terribly, sliding off the couch into the floor like an ashamed animal. "N-No, A-Arthur! I just can't take this hate anymore! I deserve it, I know, but… but…"

"Perhaps I am being arrogant, Seraphina" he spoke, gathering strength to admit this "but I want to think I could have forgiven you for what you've done, in different circumstances. I was a poor husband for many years, I'll admit it! After Marianne's birth nearly took you from me, I was scared of so much as touching you!" He brought a hand to eyes. "I neglected you! Treated you like a delicate flower barely surviving in the snow. A flower that would wither and die if I so much as… as gently caressed it!"

Seeing the kind soul she loved lay itself bare, Seraphina reached out to grab his cape. "A-Arthur-"

He turned briskly, denying her the touch of even that. "But that was because I was terrified of losing you! But to see you like this?!" His angry face quivered. "You are not my wife! I… I pushed her away to protect her, and now she's gone anyway!"

Her heart ripped in half at the extent of the pain in his voice. More than the hate he threw at her, seeing her beloved Arthur in pain was a sight from Tartarus itself. She got up and held him. "N-No, no, Arthur, don't do this to yourself!"

He held her face, trying to find through touch the woman he loved. "You didn't shout at me, you didn't scream at me, you didn't defend yourself at all! There were so many things you could have thrown back at me that you didn't! You just… accepted my accusations, my anger. Like… like you did all of that out of evil, or sickness! Like there was no chance at all that Marianne was mistaken, that we were both driven insane by the Gods at the idea that… you could have been with him!"

She was in stunned awe at the mere idea that she could hurt him on such a level. "H-How could I do that to you?! I can't lie to you!"

"W-Why NOT, Seraphina?!" he roared. "Why didn't you deny it?! Don't you see that I wanted to be wrong?! That I would take anything, any deceit?! That I would have kept quiet for years on end if you had just said NO!" he finally screamed, sweeping his arm and bashing the nearby lamp against the wall.

She staggered in fright at it. Faintly, from the room above, she heard baby Julian wake up with the shattering noise and cry. Right then they felt like terrible screams to her. Accusations from their God via the cries of her child of how monstrous a spouse she was.

Arthur slumped his shoulders, defeated by the madness that afflicted his marriage. "It would have been wrong, Seraphina, yes… but I'd still have the woman I fell in love with. And I'd prefer that insanity to this… this death of the heart!"

The woman's eyes searched for an answer in the void, looking utterly lost. "But… you weren't wrong, Arthur! I-" She asserted herself, finally regaining firmness in her voice. "I can't lie to you. I did it. I… betrayed you."

The silence returned to the house. Arthur Solo breathed painfully. Thoughts flurried into his head. Old, suppressed feelings made of sorrow, suspicion, guilt and shame all came flooding out, filling his chest.

He thought of his father Julian Senior, who never approved of Arthur and his ways. He thought of his mariner compatriots like Nikolai, who envied and battled him at every turn. He thought of his Sons of Arion underlings, like Ithaca himself, who trusted him with their lives in the most brutal war Sanctuary had fought in two centuries. He thought of Atlae, whose tragedy had humbled him to the state of hostility between their people and the Muvians. He thought of Marianne, whose growth and rise to stardom filled him with a mish-mash of dread, pride, anxiety and happiness for years.

Throughout all of that, all those trials, one person had remained constant. One person had never given him sorrow or made him feel small or demanded perfection from him or blamed him for the deaths of their children. And now the memory of it haunted him, like discovering a pillar he had laid the foundation of his whole life on was rotten! Please, Lord Poseidon, rid him of this horror!

Seraphina wept. "I b-broke your heart, Arthur I know it! It's all my fault! A-And… and I will never, ever forgive myself. Ever!"

The Patrician gripped his chest, feeling it tighten painfully.

Her eyes widened at his paling, sweating face. "A-Arthur…?!"

The Solo Patrician felt his eyes roll up and he collapsed to his knees, heaving.

"ARTHUR!" she screamed, catching him. Seraphina tried to hold her heavy husband up and bring him to the door. "IO, C-COME HELP! QUICK!"

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

Golden Zodiac,

Capricorn Temple

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Malta's head collapsed back on 'Rin's pillow, breathing out. "W-wow!"

'Rin smirked and got off of him. "Told you that I'd beat you this time, nerd."

The Aquarius Saint nodded in agreement. He saw again how beautiful 'Rin still was, sitting naked to get her black, curly hair tied. "How could you not?" Even in their late thirties, at the gate of cosmos burnout and under all her chest wraps and gender disguises, their Capricorn Saint still held that athletic, amazonic beauty of hers.

Tying her knot and getting her chest wrappings, she saw him stare. "Haven't you had enough? I should start charging for those looks."

"'I think I love you."

Her eyes rolled.

He squinted. "I'm serious!"

"Malta, I know you are. You're serious about everything. Now let's not ruin this again just because we know each other's o-face buttons so well." She struggled to reach around and adjust her wrappings around her back. "Ugh, every damn time..."

He got up close to her. "Let me help." Taking the wrappings, he gently folded them around her breasts, not too tightly. Over and over, he revolved them under her arms and around back, slowly decreasing their amplitude so they'd fit inside her Capricorn Cloth without bulging it.

She breathed in peacefully, enjoying his careful, slightly cold touch. He was so gentle, even after sex. It drove her nuts with happiness that she had him all to her. Kirin's head leaned back on his shoulder as Malta's hands worked just beneath her chests and she nuzzled her nose in his red hair, kissing his neck. If only Malta was five percent less dramatic about everything, Kirin was sure she would be in Elysium with him.

The Aquarius Saint felt warm again with the touch of her lips, but focused on his task. "'Rin, come on. I might love you but we both have to get back to work."

She felt him do the final round and pull. "A bit tighter, Mal'." She felt him pull the wrap slowly, but it barely compressed her chest. Kirin laughed "Come on, tighter! You're acting like you don't you know how adaptable these Gold Cloths are? If Capricorn feels even just a hint of girl nipple, it will pop a C-Cup up like a pair of balloons. It will wait until I'm in front of the court to do it, too!"

The stoic Aquarius cracked a bit at the imagery. Carefully, he pulled the wrapping a bit more, until it made Kirin inhale softly and her chest compressed in such a way he could barely tell she had them, at least if an rounded armor like Capricorn was over her.

She felt him tie the knot. "Maybe next time I'll leave these on? We can do a bit of roleplay?"

"It's a sin you have to hide them in the first place." Malta lamented, closing his arms around her muscled abdomen.

Kirin chuckled. "Then perhaps I should make as Phryne of Athens? And expose my beautiful tatas in front of the Tribunal of Astraea to pursue the freedom of all the women in Sanctuary's army! Just for you?"

He kissed her ear. "No need; I'm happy that I at least still get to see your face this way."

Kirin awed sweetly. "His romanticism has its nice sides." She let him rock her on his lap. "I'm starting to wish we could stay this way."

The cold Aquarius had to admit the same. "Me too."

"I mean with everything, not just the afterglow." Kirin added. She combed a curl and breathed out. "I'm ashamed to admit that ever since we started, you know, doing this again, I've been thinking about what you said that day you ran into Ace; how you wish you could turn back time and have everyone back together again."

He widened his eyes. "Really?" He adjusted her on his lap so he could see her face better. Kirin, of all people, was thinking of forgiveness and forgetting? "Why the change of mind?"

She shrugged nervously. "Well, I'm not sure. This just feels right, and the last time I remember feeling this way was, well…" Her eyes darted away, missing Helen. Their sweet Virgo always made Kirin feel okay with being a secret woman in the Zodiac. "…before it all went to shit. When Helen and everyone else was still with us."

"'Rin, you always were the hardliner about these things, not me." Malta pointed out, ever more surprised at her. "The great Capricorn Achilles, the war machine of the Priam War, who never hesitated to cut down traitors to the Pope."

She scoffed. "Ugh, that name. The Pope made me hide my sex to be a Gold Saint, and then codenamed me after most famous gay man of all time. As if that was some kind of meeting-me-half-way."

"He codenamed you for your skill, Kirin" Malta insisted. "Arles knew you would be the greatest warrior of our generation."

Again, her eyes rolled. "I'm the greatest 'swordsman', Mal, and only really because I got Excalibur. I can name more than a few members of our class that could beat me any day of the week."

Malta scoffed. He'd seen Kirin slice the skin off an apple on top of Shura's head. From a different Temple.

"Name one." He challenged. "And don't name the usual suspects like Akassius and Kai."

She stared out worriedly, wondering what his reaction would be. "How about Ace? He was always better than me."

Malta tensed. He wanted to make his lover feel better, but he was a terrible liar. How could he tell Kirin in a nice way it was ridiculous to keep comparing herself to someone who exterminated their own to escape punishment?

He beheld her slender, muscled beauty. "You're faster than him. And stronger."

"Really? Were you taking measurements of it just now?" she joked, making him turn red. The Capricorn sighed. "No, Mal', you know that's not enough, not when we both have Cosmos. I can tell this about him because no one becomes a Zodiac Knight as good as him without being the very best at sword fighting. He should have gotten Excalibur, not me. And if he had, then…"

"Then he'd get on your case about something else, Kirin, because that's how Ace has always been." Malta reminded her. Nothing ever seemed to quench their Aries' relentless perfectionism towards himself and others. Even Priam and Helen had felt the wrath of his criticisms then and there. "And besides, you do things with Excalibur he couldn't in a million years. I always thought your Centurion Apparatus was a beautiful technique."

She turned, legitimately flushed. "Oh, you!"

He gave out a rare laugh. Stuffy a woman as Kirin was known to be, she had a weakness for people complimenting her artwork and combat skill. "A ballet of light under a sea of stars; that's what I remember thinking the first time I saw you put it into action."

"I bet those Ghost Saints at the time didn't find it so dreamy." Kirin joked. She folded her arms, wishing she could just eat him up. "You say those sweet things, and yet you want us to get back to work. You cruel nerd. I should tie you to my bed right now and make you-"

Shura then suddenly came rushing in through the door. "MASTER, MASTER! The Pope-" The young boy froze, seeing the Aquarius Saint in his Master's bedroom. "Um… Lord Malta?"

Malta rushed to him, covering his sight of the half-nude Rin. "Shura, I was just, um, assisting your teacher in putting up a new sword display in her room. Did you need something?"

Shura tried to peek over the man. "Y-Yes, the Pope has called my Master, but…"

After putting her clothes and armor at lightspeed, Kirin rushed in and took him by the shoulder. "Shura, COME WITH ME! How dare you walk into my chambers without knocking?! I should hang you from the sword rests until you learn some manners!"

The poor Galician boy paled. "I'm really sorry, Master! It's His Holiness! He says there's an emergency!"

The Capricorn blinked. "What emergency?"

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

"The Athena Exclamation has been fired?!" Capricorn Kirin exclaimed, kneeling at the Papal Halls throne room.

Pope Arles III nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so, Saint Capricorn 'Achilles'. A powerful, unmistakable signal was released from Central Asia, near the sacred Muvian site of Mount Kailash." Arles held his chin in intrigue. "Did you… not sense it at all?"

Kirin staggered, flushed.

"To someone with the 7th sense, it would have been like missing the flare of a nuclear bomb." The Pope imagined. "Usually you're so alert, 'Achilles'. If you pardon me asking, what were you doing just now when I had you summoned?"

"I W-WAS, um-" she flushed, mortified. Dear Athena and Aphrodite, did it all go off precisely when Malta made her climax?! That was about the only thing that could have stopped her from noticing a cosmos signal the strength of the Big Bang itself!

The head of the Papal Guards, captain Maximus, rose a brow at the Gold Saint's flustered state. "Saint Achilles, are you alright?"

"I am fine, captain, thank you." 'He' assured. The Pope was sure to look into this, too, and wonder what Malta was doing at 'his' Temple. "I was in deep meditation, your Holiness. In fact, Saint Odysseus was helping me block my senses, so… I deeply apologize."

The Pope hummed in acknowledgement. He saw Kirin look as nervous as when she was ordained into the order. Something was definitely going on.

"Very well, but be more careful next time." Arles cleared his throat. "In any case, the forbidden technique has been used. As you know, firing the Athena Exclamation is against the holy law of Athena."

Kirin nodded in agreement, regaining her composure. Her moment of ecstasy aside, this was a serious piece of news. Were the Muvians insane? "Of course, it is, your Holiness. In the wrong hands, this kind of power could destroy the planet, not to mention it's a cowardly technique. Muvian or Human, anyone who fires such a technique such as this will have their souls damned by the Gods!"

The masked man on the throne nodded. "Exactly. For all those reasons, I am certain it must have been done under extreme circumstances. Only the very best of the Immortal Guard would have the power and coordination to execute it, and those warriors are known for their disciplined adherence to duty and Elder Yuzuriha's directions. Capricorn 'Achilles', you must investigate the situation and, if injustice is found, bring any evil doers involved to me."

She was fine with it, but in Muvian territory? With Muvian transgressors? "What of the High Elder? Your Holiness, perhaps you should come as well to mediate the situation?"

The Pope fidgeted uncomfortably. He just missed visiting Yato's grave on the 150th anniversary of his death. Shion wasn't keen on having to brave the wrath of Yato's widow so soon. "I will handle all the due diligence with her in time. Right now, the priority is to bring the ones responsible for using the Exclamation to Sanctuary justice. That grave sin supersedes all else."

Kirin nodded, just happy that any new affair between her and Malta was off the Pope's mind. "Of course, your Holiness." But part of her really wished her day off with Mal' hadn't been interrupted. "If you grant me this, however, why me? Saint 'Ajax' is, well…"

"Closer to the way out?"

The Capricorn flushed. "Daniel IS the Taurus Saint. Plus, he always says he feels the Pope pities his age these days." She smiled. "I think he would enjoy the action, your Holiness. And Saint Ajax loves Shamballa."

"Saint Ajax is also currently supervising the training of the young new disciple of his, Aldebaran. I do not wish to have such an important bonding time interrupted so soon." While this alone would have sufficed to Kirin, Arles continued with an important detail. "Moreover, confirmation of what happened was given to me by a Member of the Pact of Seven under your responsibility."

Kirin widened eyes. "You mean-"

Arles nodded. "Serpens Azrael, yes. He confirmed the detonation of the technique with his Eye of the Horned Serpent, which lets him see great distances from his fortress. I'm afraid you will have to cooperate with him on this to get a complete picture of the situation."

The Capricorn wished she could slam her head into a wall. "Fuck me!" She was going from getting a good headache cure from her lover to getting a bad headache induction from Mister Edgy Goathorns.

"I'm… very sorry." Arles begged, pitying her fate. "Send him my regards. And, please, avoid mentioning me to Elder Yuzuriha unless you must."

Kirin did their best to salute earnestly. "Your wishes are my commands, your Holiness! For Athena!"

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

Chapter 93

Third Arc

Episode 21

The Cloth of Destruction

Part 1 of 2

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Shamballa

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Yuzuriha stood at the Sun Temple boredly, listening to Elder Sung's excuses for arriving late.

"I deeply apologize, High Elder, it was just such short notice." The lilac-haired Muvian from the southern colonies schmoozed. He was dressed in his blue silk robe and had a ceremonial black hat with the Red Bird on top, a cardinal symbol of his provinces. "And you know how these days the human superpowers keep a tight guard in this part of the world. We had to travel carefully to not get seen!"

She squinted. "You conniving rat! What kind of excuse is that?! You have lightspeed bodyguards that could just zip you in here! You're just trying to delay adding your name to the treaty with the Mariners!"

Sung looked up at the tall Sun Temple tower. "And now I have to climb all those steps… it won't be easy at my age, with all my mortal sins on my back to boot."

Yuzuriha smiled as friendlily as possible, a true trial for her, and took out the treaty. "No problem at all; I took the liberty of bringing it down for you to sign! Would you like a pe-" she then froze, feeling her wrist vibrate.

Sung rose a brow. "High Elder?"

Yuzuriha turned away to conceal her wrist. The seismographic watch given to her by the Muvian labs had suddenly begun to tick like the Earth itself was splitting in half! It couldn't be! She just spoke with Arges! The Immortal Guards around her saw her alarm and gathered.

"Sound the alarms." she whispered them. "Get everyone down to the shelters! Now!"

Their captain nodded hesitantly, knowing what the ticking meant. "Yes, Elder, we'll do it with as much discretion as possible. One problem, though; with all the visitors for the Summer Festival…"

She felt her nerves tense. "I know. Let's hurry up, then. Perhaps the Mariners-"

Sung politely cleared his throat. "Excuse me, High Elder?"

Yuzuriha held her head, fed up. "Elder Sung, please accompany my men to the Sun Temple."

"What?! But I thought-"

The High Elder gestured her Guards to flank him. "I will be with you in a few moments, Elder Sung! Please just go inside!"

"Uh?! This is an outrage!" Sung protested as he was escorted inside. "I will speak of this to the Council!"

Meanwhile, Yuzuriha focused hard and projected her thoughts westwards, to the distant Kailash site. "Arges, Brontes, Steropes! What is GOING ON?!"

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

Mount Kailash Valley

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

The mountainous terrain was in cinders and ash. Their hands still burned from the apocalyptic force they just fired, while their 7th senses ringed painfully from the Cosmos radiation.

Athena Exclamation had just been fired successfully.

White snow of burned leaves and flesh rained down the light of the setting sun, along with an infinity of pebbles, rocks and boulders crashing down from the explosion's force. The ground of the valley was blackened and a colossal crater lied before them as Arges, Brontes and Steropes, the three Elite Immortal Guards, unmade their attack's formation.

Standing up, the three had to awe at their destructive work; in the crater, a colossal, black corpse laid. Its dark ribcage was ripped open and its limbs laid flatly, stripped of most of their flesh. Only the armored head of pronounced, snapping jaw and blue eyes remained intact, having avoided the brunt of the Exclamation from being so far up the impact point on the chest, gigantic as the body was.

"Is it dead?" Steropes asked.

Brontes rubbed his masked chin, feeling nothing in the body with his 7th sense. "It's difficult to tell. It wasn't emanating a lot of Cosmos before as it was. Should we call the alchemy lab rats?"

Steropes shielded his nose. Even his mask didn't block the burned flesh stench. "Or perhaps the trashmen."

Arges held his head, feeling an incoming mental message. "Guess we're done with the communicators. Yes, Elder?" he spoke at the same time he mentally voiced, so his comrades would hear. The mention of Yuzuriha's title snapped the other two's attention to him. Arges nodded. "Yes, it happened, Elder. Someone triggered the transformation. Talos broke out of the mountain."

"HOW COULD THAT HAVE POSSIBLY BEEN ALLOWED TO HAPPEN WITH YOU THREE THERE?!"

Arges winced visibly from the telepathic screech. He tried to stay calm before the Elder's wrath. "W-We are currently investigating. In any case, as you ordered, we took immediate measures, High Elder. The issue is officially suppressed. Talos didn't even make it out of the valley."

"That's good." There was a paused where Arges imagined the Elder was sighing in relief. "How many casualties, though?"

Arges looked around. The three of them had been projected quite far back from the excavation site. "It's hard to tell right away, but, so far, the three of us are the only survivors."

"Goodness, no… all those families. And your souls as well, for having fired the Exclamation."

"They did their duty, High Elder." Arges reminded her. "Unfortunately, Elder, there's another matter. We have grave news."

"There's more?! What is it now?!"

Arges snapped his fingers. The object they found near the cavern floated up telekinetically and landed on his head.

"We found a Mariner sword by the cave, just before the… breakout." Arges spoke. "Also, before we terminated Talos, we all noticed he was growing cerulean blue hair out of its helmet."

….

"Elder?"

"No, no, it can't be, you made a mistake!" Yuzuriha insisted. "No one but a Muvian could have possibly interacted with the Talos machinery!"

"These are just preliminary indications, Elder." Arges argued half-heartedly. He saw Brontes and Steropes shake their heads skeptically. "In any case, we are very sorry. It was our mission to prevent this, not to clean up afte-"

Brontes gasped. "ARGES!" He pointed at the monster's face, seeing the blue light in its sockets emerging. "It's alive!"

Steropes gawked. "Son of a Mariner! It can't be, we hit it head on!"

Yet, the colossal fingers and toes twitched. A low growl began to be heard from its enormous jaw. The disheveled body began shaking and heating, reigniting its mysterious energy.

"What's going on?!"

"Elder, the machinery is still alive! I repeat, Talos is still alive!" Arges then shut off the connection.

Steropes gasped. "It's getting back up, too! It can't be!"

To their horror, the burned flesh in the monstrosity began to sizzle, healing from the colossal blast it just took. Tendons reattached to the black bones, armor plates reconnected and the blue lights in its eye sockets reemerged. It's enormous hands gripped boulders the size of houses in the valley and pushed, allowing it to painfully erect itself off the ground and put up its healing feet.

The three guards recharged and reignited their auras! There was no time to be confused or afraid. Their job was to eliminate this threat to Shamballa no matter the cost.

"It's still recovering!" Arges noticed, putting up hands together and kneeling. "We'll just have to fire the Exclamation again! As many times as we have to! And then again and again, even if it drains us to our bones!"

Brontes and Steropes nodded and joined him, blessing themselves with Genbu's mark. "May the Gods forgive us!" and pushed their power to the limit, reigniting their common aura. "Athena…!"

Talos rose its face, sensing their three stars of cosmos rising and rising. It realized they were going to do it. They were going to scorch him with that infinite, blinding light of pain. Again. As its enormous breath quickened, Talos' forming chest closed, shielding its organs, it then grew hotter and hotter, warming up its throat. It's long jaw and tongue became immersed in light.

Talos needed to fight back. It needed to protect itself!

The three guards became as if a bonfire of gold and formed three stars of cosmos that linked together in triangle of light. "EXCLA-"

Talos roared out and from his gigantic, armored mouth fired a colossal blast of blue cosmos! It tore through the steamy air, instantly annihilating the ground, forest, rock and everything else in its path like a hot beam through butter. Arges, Brontes and Steropes froze and lost their breath, seeing the light head straight for their formation!

The heat swallowed them whole. It tore muscle, bone and skin apart into bits before they could so much as scream. It made sound disappear, the air become lava and their sight melt away. Everything became white and the last thing three powerful warriors felt was the mind-numbing buzz in their screaming 7th senses.

….

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

Shamballa,

City Walls

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

Marianne lost her breath as she and Atlae were welcomed into the main gate castle by Jeanna. From the roofed top of the gate, they could see deep into Shamballa and far out to Lake Shenwa, where the Kraken was moored.

"Wow, it's beautiful here!" she swooned. Mari' looked around and saw the large turtle statue rising above the main battlement. "I've read about this place; we must be in the North gate towers," She then walked over to see a big telescope pointed to the Himalayas. "And this must be an Eye of Erectheus, a super powerful telescope! You only find these in Muvian towns. Atlae, there are models of this that let you see craters in Pluto!"

"WHAT?! That is so cool!" Atlae shouted.

"I KNOW, RIGHT?!" Marianne gushed, practically dancing in excitement. She searched her wallet. "How does it work? Does it need coins?! I only have Drachmas!"

"Don't get excited, you two, this one is just the tourist model." Jeanna bumped Atlae's elbow. "But hey, see? I told you your girlfriend would love it here. All the nerds do."

Atlae beamed. "Thank you so much, Jeanna!" He still felt amazed at how nice she was to him now. If only Mia would follow her example. "But how did you know Mari' would be into this stuff?"

The pink-haired guard shrugged. "I didn't. I just figured human gals were like our guys. Isn't that the same with everything else, all switched with the genders?"

"Hey, I'm not a nerd! I'm just studious!" the blue haired girl asserted, returning to them. Sadly for those poor kids who could be called nerds, she was popular in school precisely because she wasn't one. Still, she smiled. "I love it here, though. This place is beautiful. Thank you, Jeanna."

Jeanna walked over and unlocked the telescope with her key, making it pop out its peek-through. "Here, you two, check this out." She adjusted the telescope's range and pointed it at town. "Try it, Atlae."

Peeking into the lens, Atlae beamed, seeing Krishna and Caça walking down the street below. He could even see the dirt in Caça's teeth as he picked them. "HEY, GUYS, UP HERE! It's US! HELLO!"

Down below, Caça scowled, seeing the pink haired guard lady with Atlae and Mari'. "Ugh, there he is, flanked by yet another hot chick!" Caça then enacted his ultimate technique, the 'heaven piercing double middle fingers'. "Hello to you too, you literal bastard!"

Krishna laughed, waved back and pushed Caça's arms down. "Atlae looks like he's having fun. Today was a good day."

The fowl mood in Caça almost made him want to mention Maiden Daisy again, just to ruin the captain's disposition. "Right, I'm SO glad for him."

At the gate top, Atlae swiveled the telescope around, checking all sorts of cool things, from a closeup of the Genbu Bell to a tiny flower in the garden of the Turtle School. "This is so cool! I never knew this was here!"

"I'm guessing the only time you were up here was when you helped Itha-" Marianna then covered her mouth. Shoot, she almost mentioned him again. "I mean, um…"

He turned to her. "Were you going to say something, Mari'?"

She shook her head frantically. "N-NO, not at all!" and tried to distract him. "Hey, Atlae try to see how far out in the city you can find people!"

"Yeah, adjust it all the way to 'Country-size'" Jeanna suggested. "You'll see all sorts of crazy things."

Swiveling the Eye of Erectheus to the east, Atlae adjusted the zoom by rolling the mid lens. "Yeah, maybe I can find the road our group took to come her-" he then stopped the lenses still, freezing his eyes on one sight.

Jeanna widened eyes at him. "What's wrong?"

The Muvian gawked, seeing the receding, enormous mushroom light of white and sapphire, like a giant blue sun erupting from the ground.

Marianne gasped, seeing the blood leave his face "Atlae, you're pale! What is it?!"

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

Mount Kailash

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

…

Far up above, in the overlooking hills, Serpens Azrael shielded his eyes, as Talos' mouth beam hit the terrain and exploded into a blinding flare. Entire mountains shook. The air itself rocked, making Azrael's body shake painfully inside his Cloth. Countless trees were burned to ash, ripped into the air, disheveled or creaked apart by the shockwave in order of distance.

As the light receded, the valley was turned into an inferno. The dragging of the beam created trails of gigantic flames all through the terrain, while its main impact point was made into an enormous crater. Arges, Brontes and Steropes' powerful cosmos were gone, disappeared from the world in an instant as if three mighty stars gave out their last light. Talos' mouth was covered in receding blue flames of energy, radiating auroras of death that set even more things aflame.

The Zodiac Knight watched as it filled its thighs and legs with flesh, allowing it to stand, to take its first loud step through the death it just caused. It's enormous, useless wings acquired the semblance of a pair of shell halves split apart in the middle, acting as back shields. A long, thick tail began to birth further down, slowly reaching for the ground and acquiring spikes and dark green scales. It's face, more of an armor mask than anything, became almost draconic as it finished regenerating, with a strong protruding jaw jutting out long teeth bathed in deadly cosmos and a short nose bone. A mane of cerulean hair, the same color as Ithaca's, began peeking and growing out of the carapace over its skull. Finally, it's breath was like a trio of powerful gusts going in and out of its mouth and nostrils, making the enormous flames wave and the embers spread.

As for Ithaca, there didn't seem to be anything left. His pathetic Cosmos was gone. Or, perhaps, Ithaca simply became the monstrosity now taking its first walking steps before Azrael? After the vicious ritual of binding Azrael held witness to inside the mountain, it was as if Ithaca had exploded into the Cloth of Destruction, rather than don it. Perhaps the flesh now filling Talos' husk was Ithaca's own, only fertilized and expanded like growing vines by the power of the armor?

Whichever the case, Talos was loose. The Cloth of Destruction was active, just like in the Age of Myth, and its power looked nothing short of everything the legends spoke of. Thirty feet of muscle, bone and living armor now marched with a will of its own, powered by an energy in its core equivalent to the Cosmos of multiple Gold Saints, and manifested its rebirth with a roar to the darkening skies, a piercing screech of rage, half human, half animal.

By the Gods. The stage was finally set for Azrael to repair his broken destiny!

Yet, suddenly the giant had stopped.

Talos stared at the crater it created. Nothing was left but black ash. "No more Muvians… No more… enemies of Poseidon! I can… rest." It slumped, its wings closing like shell and its eyes slowly shutting. The anger was sizzling out. "I can… go back to sleep."

"No, I cannot." Talos' second, booming voice sounded within its own mind.

The giant widened the light of its eyes. "I… cannot?"

"No, I will fall apart if I do." it spoke to itself in its scrambled mind. It looked at its regenerating hands, seeing his fingers resharpen into claws. "I can feel it… the bond of my flesh with my heart is weak. I am using a human that falsified himself as a Muvian. I must move, to HIS life breath. I must find him!"

"I falsified myself… as a Muvian?" It clenched its finished fingers, confused. "Then, find him? Who?!"

"The one that awoke me." Talos thought to itself, taking its first gigantic step eastwards, quaking the ground. "He will make me stable. He will make me whole!"

Meanwhile, Azrael squinted on his rocky porch, seeing the colossal monster gesture and fidget as if having a conversation with itself. "What in Athena's name is he doing?"

Talos stepped forward, raising its head at the distant east. "There, at the distance! Amidst all those lights of cosmos."

"I know that Chi. I've felt it before! When I first visited these lands."

"I have, as well, when the Bell was rung. It must be the one responsible. I must SEIZE HIM!"

Following the stumbling giant with leaps and dashes through the burning valley, Azrael awed, seeing it seemingly find a purpose and move its way out of Mount Kailash, right in Shamballa's direction.

He cackled. "This is proceeding even better than I thought! I don't even have to lure it to the Muvians! Ithaca of Delphi, you have been more useful to me than I ever imagined. Or is this the voice of Talos? Perhaps both?"

Whichever the case, a colossal power now marched towards Shamballa, one that would help Azrael set things right.

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

Shamballa,

Sun Temple Entrance

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

"(Arges?! Can you hear me?!)" Yuzuriha tried to call out to the air as dozens of guards rushed out to the street. There was just silence. "Blast!"

"Master, MASTER!" Atlae shouted, rushing in, accompanied by his friends. "What is going on?! I saw something terrible to the west and all the guards are telling us to go into shelters?!"

"Yeah, and they were really rude about it, too!" Caça complained. "I was busy in the middle of my awesome demonstration of my household's illusion powers to these Muvians and Atlae and your guards just yanked me out of the plaza!"

The Elder held her head. So Atlae already saw an inkling of it? This was getting worse by the second.

She exhaled in relief at seeing him safe. "Atlae, it's nothing serious, just an earthquake alarm. Please take your friends and follow the guards."

But the blonde Muvian interjected. "Wait, wait, earthquake? But… but master, that doesn't make sense! I saw something monstrous and, for a second, I felt an enormous Chi out there, to the west!"

Yuzuriha cursed her student's talent. Of course he'd feel Talos, a machine of pure Chi, releasing its awesome might. How could she get them to keep Atlae safe without telling him what was happening? If he knew Talos was coming, nothing would stop him from trying to help and Gods knew what would happen if that Cloth found the one that first rung the Genbu Bell to begin with.

She tried to minimize the damage. "Atlae, not every pulse of Chi is a threat. That might have been, um…" but Yuzuriha lost words, not knowing how to pretend anything but a giant could be a source of a massive Chi signal.

"It's not just that, High Elder." Krisnha added in. "While out in the city, I felt a tremendous Cosmos surge, like someone fired an immense attack."

Marianne widened eyes. "Captain, I felt it as well while I was out with Atlae! I thought I was having a headache!"

But the Chola heir shook head. "I'm afraid not, Vice-Admiral. That was definitely a pulse of Cosmos. One stronger than anything my 7th sense ever felt. That's why I believe in Atlae, as well." Krishna added, making things even worse for her. He wondered if miss Daisy was alright. "I can also tell things seem a bit too panicky for a mere earthquake. I would appreciate if you told us honestly what is the emergency."

The High Elder wanted to slam herself into the Genbu Bell at this. So the 7th sense users among them felt Arges, Brontes and Steropes firing the Athena Exclamation as well? Not to mention captain Krishna was acting as sharp as he looked. How could this possibly get any worse for her?

Marianne frowned to herself, as well, but wouldn't speak against the Elder to her face. "There's no way this is just it. I believe in Atlae that he's feeling something out there. All of this fits evacuation policy in Sanctuary during attacks. The last thing you want to do during a Specter attack, after all, is making everyone panic that there's a Specter attack. Elder Yuzuriha better have a good reason to make me lie to my boyfriend."

Seeing everyone seemed skeptical, Yuzuriha focused first on getting everyone out. "Miss Solo?"

"Yes?" Marianne asked, stepping up.

"Before I explain what's happening, I could use your help. I need the city's population taken to safety over the next couple of hours, but there's too many people present for the Summer Festival, so my men aren't enough." The Elder explained. "Can I count on your men for assistance?"

She nodded. "Of course. Captain Josef will be happy to assist as well, I'm sure."

"I will help, too." Krishna offered, stepping up. "Though I only have my two crewmen to offer."

Caça fowled his mood. "Ugh, I knew today would be ruined even more by work!"

Yuzuriha breathed out. "I see. Thank you all very much. I am humbled by your kindness." This would also keep Atlae calm if he got to help out. "Now, the plan is the follo-"

"Wait!" Atlae begged. "You're still not going to tell us what it is?!"

The two ranked mariners exchanged worried looks. Marianne and Krishna had to confess they were equally concerned. Was the Elder really just going to roll over the topic? Yuzuriha, however, only responded to Atlae with a tense, silent stare.

"I know this is not an earthquake alarm!" Atlae would probably regret raising his voice at his Master like this forever, but he never thought his teacher would lie to his face like this. "It's an attack, isn't it?! Something gigantic is coming this way!"

"WHAT?!" Caça screamed. He grabbed Atlae. "Gigantic?! What is coming?! Where?! Tell me, Atlae!"

"Caça, I'm trying to find that out!" Gently pushing off his friend, Atlae continued. "Master, I felt that force as much as you did! My sense of Chi has never sensed anything from THIS far away, but it has also never lied to me. There's an enemy out there, a big one! Why are you telling us it's just an earthquake?!"

The High Elder winced. "Atlae, it's just a precaution, so a panic won't ensue! Right now, this isn't something brute force can help with! I just want everyone in the city in safety, including you!"

"Including me?" the Muvian reeled at this more than anything else. "But… but I'm your star student!" Atlae protested, clenching fist. "Defending balance and the people of Shamballa is what I trained for, just like Jeanna!"

The pink haired guard who accompanied them saw the Elder's tense stare on her.

She waved hands in appeasement. "U-Um, Master, don't worry, I will always do as you command! A-Atlae is just using me as an example!"

The Muvian teenager continued. "I even rung the Genbu Bell! Master, let me help! I can defeat whatever is out-"

"NO, Atlae! You don't have the 7th sense!" Yuzuriha snapped. "Without it, you'll just slow everyone else down!"

The young Muvian recoiled, feeling cold. He turned head shamefully.

Yuzuriha held hers. Did she need to call her guards to seize him? She HAD to keep Atlae away from Talos no matter the cost. "Forgive me, Atlae. I know you're strong, but this just isn't your fight. Now head for safety. This is your Master ordering it!"

The Muvian nodded obediently. "Yes, Master." He saw his friends and Mari'. "But… but everyone else?"

Marianne softened her eyes and held his shoulder. "I'll be okay, Atlae. I'm the Delphinus Saint, and I have Sorrento and my crew to help me out. Please, listen to your Master, alright?"

Atlae then saw the two of them head off. He stood there, paralyzed.

"Atlae, COME ON!" Caça urged, throwing his arms up. "This isn't time for a macho crisis! Some problems are just above your head! When are you gonna learn that?! Now let's go for a safe place before that huge tower falls on my head!"

"We'll speak to Josef and try to find out more, Atlae." Krishna mentally suggested to him. "Captain to captain, I doubt he'll hide all that much from me."

Rubbing his eyes, Atlae concurred. After the mess he got them in with Papillon, he supposed he should listen. "Alright, you guys."

Marianne frowned, seeing him miserable. "Wait, Atlae?"

He turned. "Yeah?"

After making sure no stranger was looking, she reached in and kissed his lips, surprising him. "(No matter what, don't let this bring you down. Your Master knows what's best for you. I've only met her today and I can tell that. When everything is cleared, we'll get this all straightened out. Okay?)"

He smiled; a bit relieved. Atlae kissed her back to reassure her he agreed. If both Mari' and Master were asking this of him, then how could he resist so much? "Stay safe, Mari'."

Caça practically dragged him out by the shoulder. "Come on! Whatever's going on, I'm sure Sanctuary already sent a Gold Saint or something to clean it up! Let's just get to the shelter before I punch your face in!"

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

Mount Kailash

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

Beaming into Central Asia at a speed comparable to light, Capricorn Kirin sped from valley to valley, following the Sanctuary paths through the Himalayas. Occasionally speeding up and down to avoid causing environmental damage or being spotted by normal people, the warrior was alike a shooting star speeding through the ground, zipping in one instant, gone in the next.

As she entered Mount Kailash's body, she felt a familiar cosmos flaring its position at her. Directing herself towards it, Kirin slowed her superspeed down and landed safely by the person.

The armored man in the ram-horned helmet turned to her. "You took your time, 'Achilles'."

She irked. "I know, Ace, but you know I can't just speed in nonchalantly into the middle of the Soviet-Chinese border. Someone owning nukes might think they're under attack by missiles."

The Bronze Saint reached around and unlocked his helmet, taking it off. Kirin saw him unfurl his dirty, dark green hair, letting it loose down his neck, and cleaned his pale face from sweat with his gauntlet. Azrael still had the red triangle drawings under his eyes like aways and his venomous frown still resided in his face.

In different circumstances she might have taken a friendly comfort that he hadn't changed that much over the years. "You look better without that ugly thing around your head, you know?"

He glanced spitefully "Ugly? How dare you? I shaped this helmet personally."

"I remember it looking like a snake head, and it's horns faced forward, not in a spiral like a ram's." Kirin pointed out. In fact, she and Paris used to make fun of how it had a big snake tail going down Ace's back. Now it just looked like a grim parody of the Aries Gold Cloth. "Wouldn't a Zodiac Knight think it's a sacrilege you used Lightcraft to shape your Cloth after another you don't own?"

His green eyes narrowed with a red glint. "No bigger sacrilege than Excalibur being in a unknighted Saint's hands."

The Capricorn changed subject before he successfully baited her into punching his head in. "What is going on here, anyway, that an Athena Exclamation got fired?!"

Azrael waved his hand out to the valley. "See for yourself."

She then looked up and gasped. "W… What the?!"

Before the two Saints of Athena laid out a trail of destruction leading out of Mount Kailash's valleys. An entire trail of ground as thick as a large boulevard was left burned, like something made of pure annihilation had left the area, and a side of Mount Kailash itself had collapsed. Further, at the distance, a roaring, marching, armored monstrosity with wings distanced itself. Every step it took, the earth shook loudly and flocks of birds flew from the trees, while a trail of energy fractioned on the ground by its colossal tail set everything on fire.

The dark clouds of smoke ushered in, making Kirin cough. She pointed to the giant. "AZRAEL, What the HELL is that thing?! What in Athena's name happened here?! Is that what made you fire an Athena Exclamation with your clones?!"

"It wasn't me who fired it." Azrael said, pointing his hand at a crater of Muvian bones caused by Talos. "However, the poor souls who did paid heavily for breaking Athena's law."

She staggered at the macabre display. "Okay, tell me what's going on, right now!"

The Knight of the Zodiac then proceeded to explain to her that, apparently, a gigantic monstrosity was hidden inside the mountain. The Muvians of Shamballa were keeping the area under quarantine for several months and, in uncertain circumstances, whatever was inside the mountain had broken free and left the valley.

The Capricorn Cloth shook. "That thing… is a Cloth?!"

Azrael nodded. "Exactly. More accurately it is Talos, the Cloth of Destruction, as written in Greek myths to have protected the island of Crete. And now it's rampaging across the Tibetan Plateau, powered by whoever attacked the Muvian guards and tried to take it. Does this remind you of anything?"

Yes, it very much did. "The 'Battle of the Monster', thirteen years ago. The one that made Kai the 'Titanslayer'." Kirin shook, her eyes widened. "Wait, wait, slow down, this means the Muvians were keeping this giant thing a secret from the Pope?!"

Azrael nodded. "Precisely."

Kirin grabbed his metal collar. How could he be so calm?! "Ace', this is serious! This isn't the time for you to start cracking jokes for the first time in your life! If you're telling the truth, this means the Muvians been hiding a nuclear bomb of a Cloth under their land all these years and now a Mariner set it off! In the best of circumstances, we could have a whole new war in the Pact in our hands!"

The Serpens Bronze Saint wrestled her off. "I am not cracking jokes! When have I ever been the type?! And why do you think I've been warning Arthur about the Muvians?! I didn't need the Horned Serpent to see a disaster like this coming for months!" He walked over and picked up the discarded Mariner sword he 'found'. "This weapon was discovered by the dead Muvians. It can only have belonged to the attacker."

Kirin studied it. She gritted her teeth fearfully, realizing it even had the 'Solo' household emblem.

"The blood on it will likely be Muvian, as well." Azrael pointed out. He held his hand on his hip self-assuredly. "Not that I personally need further evidence; I saw the intruder cut down the guards from Serpent's Rock."

The Capricorn Saint felt a migraine coming. This was absolutely terrible. While she was sure Ace' was mentally unwell from all his years alone in his castle, not to mention the Purge, Kirin also knew even he couldn't forge a Mariner blade THIS accurately. The Orichalcum seal was something only real mariners could craft. The Mariners also had people among them who still deeply hated the Muvians and would probably jump at the chance to end this new diplomatic effort between their people. It was not unreasonable this was a Mariner terrorist attack designed to roll back the two peoples' efforts to reconciliate.

Poor Malta. He worked so hard to help Arthur Solo. Kirin already could see how shattered by this he would be.

"Well, Saint Capricorn?" Azrael queried, mildly sarcastic. "I'm sure you agree order must be set in the land. What are your orders?"

The Capricorn Gold Saint collected herself. "D-Damn it, Ace', what do you think?! We're stopping that… that creature! And then setting things right with the Muvians and Mariners!"

Ace' skeptically looked at the giant walking off, like she just asked up to jump over the Grand Canyon.

Kirin groaned unpleasantly. "What, are you worried we can't?! Am I really getting this from the guy who slaughtered the Zodiac Knights?! I don't even feel any serious Cosmos from it! How strong could it possibly be?"

"That is a very good question, Rin." Azrael then walked over and held his hand up to reach for his broadsword. Azrael burned cosmos, took his broadsword and executed a lightspeed slash in the air, manifesting the power of his old Corvus constellation "SERAPHIC WING FLAP!"

A massive, crescent wave of light fired off, blinding them with its light. It struck the far-off monstrosity in its thick, armored wings, bashing its gigantic body but otherwise doing little more than scorching its shell wing a bit and making it turn its head at them.

Kirin saw it glaring angrily at them.

Talos stepped towards them, recognizing the ram-horned figure in the rocky cliff. "It's him! The one who tormented me. Who destroyed me!"

"So he is. I can feel the pain he inflicted on me." Talos told itself. Its stomach, then its chest began to heat. "I should destroy him, so I can continue my search undisturbed!"

"I should destroy him! So I can make him PAY!" it finalized, roaring its breath out and making fire heat up its throat.

Capricorn Kirin staggered, startled by the power she saw building up in its mouth. "Okay, Ace', what was the point of that?! To let him know we're here?!"

Azrael ripped his sword off the ground impatiently and waved his hand at the unharmed giant. "The point was to show we have our work cut out for us. That Cloth is powerful enough to resist even ambush Gold Saint attacks."

Kirin crossed her arms. "Thank you very much! I guess I should have guessed from how it survived an Athena Exclamation!"

"And you noticed nothing else?" he challenged, squinting.

Kirin thought about it again. She then realized from the way Talos reacted to their presence "It didn't notice us until now, even though I came speeding in! Which means it can't find people with the Cosmos!"

Kirin looked again, seeing the gargantuan, armored creature smash its way through a mountainous obstacle with barely any effort. It was, indeed, like watching a titan break out of Tartarus, guided by some kind of animal instinct.

"I see you've figured it out. Talos does not seem to operate on Cosmos. Its power is likely based off an atypical energy, like Chi." Azrael suggested. "Its concentration should be weak, but it also means we lack conventional means to combat it. Rather than the power of the stars, this is a creature of mass, powerful armor and brute natural strength."

Kirin tensed her hand into a chop. "Flesh or cosmos, my Excalibur will still cut through it!"

"And then it will get back up, just like it did after the Athena Exclamation." Azrael pointed out to her. "We might have no choice but to seal it, somehow."

She noticed his odd willingness to help. "You seem awfully invested, Ace'. This isn't a Specter we're dealing with here, you know?"

Azrael squinted his green eyes. "You and the Pope may have stripped me of my Gold Cloth, Kirin but, I'm still a Zodiac Knight. If a creature offensive to Athena's vision of the world walks the Earth, I will cut it down."

The Capricorn hummed. She saw the light in Talos's mouth now ignite into a flame about to fire on them! "Fair enough. Let's get it done, then, before it blasts us to kingdom come."

The Serpens Saint squinted at her as she charged her sword. "Of course."

Talos fixed its gaze on them "DIE!" and dropped its jaw to fire its gigantic beam of blue plasma.

Kirin leapt high and swung her arm. "EXCALIBUR!" and slashed the air with her chop hand, igniting a line of light ahead of them that sliced the air.

The ground ripped apart, torn asunder by an all-cutting wave of light that then geysered against the giant. The beam of plasma was split instantly, cut right through by the holy blade of Saint Cyrul! Then it struck the beast itself through its hands, chest, throat and face. Talos screamed, feeling the almighty slash burn through its feet and fingers up at its ribcage-armored chest, stumbling it back.

Kirin then activated her power-up. "KENTURIO APPARATUS!" and with a gesture of her arm, Excalibur's light dressed itself all over her Gold Cloth, adorning it with new over plates of energy, ancient Greek runes and a centurion helmet crest over her headpiece, while the sacred sword mounted itself over her forearm plate like a wrist beam blade.

Azrael followed suit. "Lightcraft: BLACKFEATHER PROJECTION!" Small pieces of his armor shot off of his Serpens Cloth and landed all around, igniting into bonfires. These shaped themselves, forming up to ten copies of Azrael emerging all around them, imitating his armor, sword and pose.

The display of light, even from a distance, was enough to catch the monster's attention, which turned its frightened skull face at them. Its long jaw roared, detecting the threat. Before it could act on it, the two gold-rankers fired off the ground and struck its gigantic body all over with the full force of their cosmos and bodies.

The impact was fierce, like being struck with powerful battery guns, scorching his hard skin and rattling his enormous bones. Talos stumbled back, stunned. It guarded itself by kneeling, closing its arms on chests and its armored wings over the arms, forming a half ball of spiked, hardened scales and plates.

The Capricorn descended on it with her bright hand. "EXCALIBUR!" but the powerful all-cutting sword only sliced up a surface layer of Talos' wing, which began rapidly closing its new wound. "Darn!"

Azrael charged cosmos and formed a hanging right, his traditional sword fighting pose. "Blast its guard open!"

Kirin raised her arm, causing Excalibur to burst into the form of a wild tower of light over her head. "GIANT TEMPEST SLASH!" and she swung her arm, unleashing a massive, uncontained wave of golden light.

Rather than cutting through Talos's shielding wings and arms, it blasted him like a tidal wave of destruction, breaking his guard. Talos screamed thickly, his arms bashed back by the enormous force and its skin incinerated by the wash of holy light.

Seeing the giant's chest exposed, the Serpens Bronze Saint followed up immediately, projecting the horned serpent's constellation and sending his eleven clones like a swarm of assaulters with a swing of his blade. "BLADED BITE!"

Talos's blue light eyes only saw the sudden sight of a dozen serpents of light lunging at him, flying in through the gap in his guard and biting down on his body. In reality, these were Azrael's Lightcraft clones carving in their swords deep into fleshy gaps between his armor, injecting him with steel and flooding his nerves with burning Light cosmos.

Talos roared and thrashed its enormous limbs around, trying to swat the humans' beams of light away. Instead of hitting either Serpens Azrael or Capricorn Kirin, it barely even struck through some of Azrael's copies, blasting them into specks of light that merely reformed and struck the same spots again deeper.

Kirin then joined in, condensing the Tempest Slash back to her regular Excalibur wrist drill. "It's overwhelmed! Let's go!"

Turning into bonfires of Cosmos, the two Gold Saints rocketed at Talos, sticking it again with the full force of their auras. The dance of the beams of light continued, speeding around its body, over its arms, under the legs, around the shoulders and multiple other angles to blast it up and down with powerful punches, mighty dive kicks, penetrating sword thrusts and thundering body crashes that, albeit tiny compared to their target, still struck with the force of veteran Gold Saints.

It was a shower of tormenting attacks, but the true purpose was limiting Talos' movement while prodding for a weakness. Most of them failed to do any lasting damage to the thick armor covering the creature's body, wings, head and tail, merely pushing the beast back and forth and making it stumble, unable to counter. The assault continued, however, and eventually a flying kick from Kirin struck a spot beneath the sternum-like plating in its chest and sunk deeper than all the rest, even making Talos spasm.

Leaping away to the floor, Kirin braked with her heels and yelled out. "ACE, I see a weakness!"

The pause in the barrage of blows was enough for Talos to recover. It stepped back and aimed at the real Azrael, whose Chi was visible to it unlike the fake projections he was making fly around Talos.

Talos could perceive him clearly, while the rest were just shades of light dancing around. "Kill him! I want to KILL HIM!"

"Then I will!" Closing its fist and bulging its arm muscles, Talos roared, making a bubble of power form around its punch. "TITANIC DEVASTATION!"

Kirin gasped, seeing the colossal attack head straight for Ace'. Its power was incredible, comparable to Taurus Ajax's Magnitude Atlas at full strength!

Yet, Azrael stood his ground, holding his sword in guard. "SERAPHIC FLASH!" Turning into a slithering beam of light, he flew up, and around the incoming punch, avoiding the enemy impact and letting it strike the ground!

As Titanic Devastation hit, Kirin had to guard herself from the ensuing tectonic explosion that shook the entire valley, perhaps all of India as well! A blunt shockwave was release, bashing her back, and the giant fires in the forests around them were instantly blown out by the wind release.

The serpent of light flowing up Talos arm then lunged for its eyes, splitting into two beams that struck its enormous dark sockets like stabs of thunder, blinding it! Talos screamed and trashed back, adding further to the destruction of its technique.

Azrael jumped off the giant, covered in blood. "NOW, 'ACHILLES'! He won't see you coming!"

She grinned. Ace' may be a murderous dick, but in combat he worked peerlessly. "That sounds like it ought to work perfectly! Alright then!" With an explosion of cosmos, she launched herself high into the air through the distortion field passage and made her Excalibur whirl furiously like a drill. "LONGINUS DRILL!"

The monster roared and lunged its arms at her, but Kirin dove straight in, hitting its chest like a colossal golden beam and digging Excalibur deep into its chest, tossing its whole body back. She felt her feet land on its flesh and suddenly felt aware of its gargantuan size, staggering her. Its scream of pain deafened her, making her head shake. Yet, the warrior focused hard and exploded her cosmos, caving the Longinus Drill deeper and deeper, searching for that flesh core.

With a ripping, upwards motion that made boiling blood erupt everywhere, its chest flesh was sliced open. Kirin guarded herself as its body crashed back, nearly tossing her up! She felt the hot blood shower her armor and face, but looked down in glee to see a beating mass of bright red flesh pumping.

There was a tentative pause as the action died down and the clouds of dust raised by Talos' crash settled in the burned valley.

The sudden peace was almost hard to believe.

Kirin panted. "I think… I think it's done."

Azrael leaped high to land by her. He saw the light in the giant's eyes disappearing. "Perfect. Now for the next step." He sheathed his broadsword. "Yes, for now."

The Catalan warrior widened eyes. "What do you mean, for now?"

Azrael pointed at the burning crater by Mount Kailash, where the Exclamation had been fired. "Those three Muvians before failed to foresee this too. Even damaged to this extent, Talos will not stay down. It will merely use its incredible power to repair itself, like a Cloth would with its owner's blood."

The Capricorn's hawkish eyes turned to the enormous wounds on Talos. She, indeed, saw the creature's blood flooding them but also seeping into the cracks of the armor. Because the body was so huge, she could spot bits and pieces of metal and flesh regrowing. It was very slow, but Azrael looked correct about it.

"We have to seal it up, 'Achilles'." Azrael suggested. "Just like the Muvians originally did."

Kirin scoffed, looking at the collapsed side of Kailash. "That makes sense, but I don't think we're going to be able to drag this thing back into the mountain. Even with Cosmos to help."

"Then we need an alternative." Azrael insisted. He already knew there was only one way, but he wanted her to arrive it by herself. "I am open to ideas of how to clean up this filth."

She thought about it. "My Claymore Blight could physically contain it, but all the technique is, is a trapping technique. It won't make all this mess magically go away. Seals aren't really my area of expertise. I'm more about slicing things up." She turned to him. "Maybe we should call Akassius? He could send all of this mess into Another Dimension until we think of a solution?"

"And then what? Leaving it in the rift between dimensions could make it land in the hands of some evil god. The next wielder of Talos could end up being a Specter."

The Capricorn Gold Saint wasn't a fan of the idea, no. "Then what else should we do?!"

He groaned, irritated. Should he just say it? "It is imperative we seal it up beyond the reach of any of our enemies, 'Achilles'. We need the power of Starlight Extinction for this; the power of the Aries Cloth."

Kirin held her face, her teeth clenching. "Fuck me! I should have known!"

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

Shamballa

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

Marianne followed the Elder in a hurry through the worried crowds. "Please tell me why I had to hurt Atlae's feelings like that, Elder!"

"Atlae will get a heartfelt apology from me later, Vice-Admiral, but currently we have an emergency of the highest degree at hand." Once they reached the privacy of the Sun Temple grounds, she stopped. "We aren't dealing with Black Saints, miss Solo, or even Specters. There is a catastrophe en route to Shamballa."

The blue-haired Mariner gawked. "A… catastrophe?!"

Yuzuriha looked westwards. She could feel the enormous mass of chi getting larger, stepping faster towards Shamballa's exact location, drawn to them inexorably.

"Yes, a rampaging monstrosity that threatens to destroy the entire city if it's let loose in the plateau top." Yuzuriha warned. Her teeth clinched in frustration. "There is absolutely zero time to explain why or how, but it must be stopped! In the meantime, the people of Shamballa need to be evacuated to safety."

Between the 'rampaging monstrosity' and the need to move countless people out of the walled city, Marianne wasn't sure what to respond to first. "But… but there are thousands here! Tens of thousands!"

The Elder nodded. "I am aware. This is why I need your ships' help."

Her head shook. "High Elder, I want to help, but the Sea Dragon and the Kraken are war weapons, not transportation vessels! They cannot carry all these people out in time! And no one has the cosmos to zip back and forth these many people at the speed of light!"

"Then take the children and the elderly out!" Yuzuriha begged. "Even if you take one hundred of them, one dozen at a time! I will buy as much as you need!"

Marianne narrowed her eyes. "No, I cannot give that order out! Not with this little information! What is coming our way, Elder?! Tell me NOW!"

Yuzuriha gawked at her defiance and clenched her fingers in the air. She just had to trust Arthur's daughter, didn't she? "It's Talos, the Cloth of Destruction!"

The Vice-Admiral stepped back, stunned.

Studious of the long history of the Myth Age, Marianne Solo cried out in recognition "Talos?! The Colossus of Crete?! The Bane of the Sea People?! That's what's heading here?!" Her head shook. Many mariners who knew of it had been raised to see it as one of the many ancient weapons Muvians had made to kill her people. "That… that weapon isn't supposed to EXIST ANYMORE! Why is it heading here?!"

The elderly woman cursed her mouth. She had no choice now but to explain. "My people kept it, Vice-Admiral. It's been locked inside Mount Kailash all this time."

"Kailash?!" Marianne recognized the name, from when that brute Azrael visited her house. "Is that what Ithaca was seen investigating?!"

"It was supposed to be asleep! Sealed in! But…" Yuzuriha then hesitated. Should she reveal this? To Marianne? Her expectant, betrayed look, however, pushed Yuzuriha to be honest. "It wasn't his fault, but when Atlae rung the Genbu Bell, he also triggered an unexpected reaction. The 'mechanism' began showing signs of life inside the mountain, its heart began beating."

"Atlae… did that?!" She thought back to how long ago her boyfriend rang the bell. The Elder had so many chances to warn them! "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"It was Muvian business, our responsibility! As soon as it happened, I locked down the site and went to investigate a way to put it to sleep!" Yuzuriha defended herself. To be fair, it did seem like the whole thing would settle itself eventually, from young Mu's words. "But… now someone has gone into the mountain, killed my men and awoke that monstrosity!"

Marianne's mind rushed at the possibilities of who could have done this. "Someone?! WHO?!"

Yuzuriha shook head. "I don't know…" She paced around anxiously. "It doesn't make any sense to me. Only a Muvian could activate and control that machine. That's what it was designed for, according to the Lord of Jamir. I had my Immortal Guard's most trusted and powerful members guarding it twenty-four seven! I am positive none of them would dare to do this!"

Marianne didn't doubt the loyalty of her men, but the fact was, a Muvian must have caused this. "Elder… are there people in Shamballa who would want to ruin friendship with us Mariners?"

The Elder nodded with a grim look. "Unfortunately, yes… but I never imagined that… any of them would dare to go this far! Most of them are just overly comfortable pigs concerned with me trying to end our isolation! They're not warmongers!"

The Vice-Admiral took a deep breath and closed her eyes to reflect. She was going on little information, but she had ways to acquire more on the battlefield. Instinctively, the young woman weighed her options in how to handle the situation. The most cautious approach would be to leave the business to the Muvians, just as the Elder requested, and focus on evacuating their young as a gesture of friendship.

Then, a vital question occurred to her. "Wait a second, why is it heading in our direction?" She turned to the Elder. "If this is just a machine meant to protect the Muvians, why is its course set for Shamballa?"

Yuzuriha frowned. "I am not sure, Vice-Admiral… but I fear a few possibilities."

Her blood almost left her face entirely with a new terrible, but logical conclusion. "It's Atlae, isn't it? He rung the bell, so the machine must want him." Now it made perfect sense why Yuzuriha didn't wish to speak of it in front him. Mari' couldn't begin to imagine how Atlae would handle that kind of horrible responsibility. "Poseidon save me, that thing wants my boyfriend!"

Even though she was on good authority from young Mu that this was likely the case, the High Elder gestured her to calm down. "It's only a theory, one that I'd prefer we did not test, Vice-Admiral. That is why this is such a delicate situation. If we are wrong, we'd be casting everyone's suspicion on Atlae for this disaster unnecessarily. The most important moment of his training would be turned into a horrible mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life!"

"I… I see!" Marianne agreed, nodding along. The Elder was right; they couldn't operate on such rash assumptions, not if they cared about Atlae. It was hard to keep a cool head at all this, but she was an Aquarius, so by the Gods she would!

"Nevertheless, we must be cautious. The priority must be to contain this disaster and prevent the deaths of innocent Muvians. And humans who might be in the city." Yuzuriha held her shoulder. "Are you ready for that?"

The firm touch set her at ease. Even as an experienced member of the Navy, Marianne envied the Elder's calm. She could only imagine that in her shoes, the Delphinus Saint would panic, yet Elder Yuzuriha was here not only managing the affair with the utmost coolness of mind, but helping her by example, too. It really was no wonder she had become the leader of Atlae's people.

Perhaps, then, Marianne should also rise to the occasion and do more than just move people around? What if this was Marianne's chance to show the world that her father's hard work would prevail past all suspicion, all doubt of Mariner honor?

"I will handle the matter, miss Solo. Tell your father tha-"

Her head shook. "Elder, leave this creature to me." she requested, stunning Yuzuriha. "Your people are scared. They need you with them right now. The Mariners of Poseidon will handle this before the Pope can even say 'summon my Gold Saints'."

Her eyes widened. "Miss Marianne!"

She straightened her pose and salute. "I am Vice-Admiral Delphinus Marianne Solo, and I command the hope of my people, the LPS Sea Dragon! Today we will show the people of Mu our actions go beyond signing pieces of paper about commerce and that we are committed to put our very best to ending our history of bloodshed!" She took out her radio communicator. "XO?"

"Yes, Vice Admiral?" Sorrento spoke.

"Ready the engines and load the guns! The LPS Sea Dragon is going to battle!"

"Of course. We'll await you on the bridge."

Yuzuriha stepped up. "Vice-Admiral, your gesture is touching, but you don't fully understand the gravity of the situation! Talos is a tribute to the destructive power of my people's lost technology!"

Marianne frowned skeptically. She pointed out the worried crowds being guided out the streets. "I do understand, High Elder, but your people are scared enough already. I need your help to convince them it's okay to follow the directions of Captain Josef and his crew. They won't trust Mariners on their own."

Yuzuriha had to admit there was truth to this. "Yes, but…!"

Marianne then smiled confidently. "And besides, Mariners have an ace of tech up their sleeve of our own; the very cannon that once blew through the Sapphire Gate."

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

Mount Kailash Valleys

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

Standing atop Talos' chest, Serpens Azrael confronted Kirin. "What are you waiting for, Kirin? We need the Aries Cloth to seal this creature! Call the Pope and tell him to send it our way!"

The Capricorn reeled. "I should have known he was going to ask for it. This is NOT a conversation we need right now!"

"Only Starlight Extinction can give us victory here!" Azrael clenched his fist at her. "Without a technique that can capture and transport all this mass of power, Talos will just get back up again from what we did! We'll put innocent lives at risk again, 'Achilles'." Azrael stepped up urgingly. "We need a power that can let us send Talos into a containment zone. Call the Pope, 'Achilles'; tell him I need to use the Aries Cloth-"

"AZRAEL, NO!" she instantly cut. "I know the situation is… abnormal! But we'll find another way! Can't you cast it without the Gold Cloth?!"

"You know I can't!" Azrael shouted. "Starlight Extinction is one of the most difficult and dangerous techniques passed down by the Aries Temple! It harnesses the power of cosmos to seize light to capture an object and transport it. Do you have a clue of how complex a process that is?!"

The Gold Saint could imagine it well. Kirin rubbed her eyes. The problem wasn't in Azrael's argumentation; everything about it made perfect sense. In other circumstances, Kirin might have considered arguing for a temporary permission. Rather, the issue was the precedent this would create for the type of record Azrael had.

"Well, let me illustrate it; without it, I might as well be asked to repair the Bolts of Zeus with a toy chisel!" Azrael laid out. "So, call the Pope! Now!"

"There HAS to be another way!" Kirin protested. "I refuse to believe there isn't!"

"Name it, then!" Azrael challenged her. "Sure, Malta might freeze Talos, but casting a Freezing Coffin this big is more likely to kill him than anything else! And it breaks my heart to bring this up, Kirin, but we don't have Helen with us anymore to come up with miracle Cosmos solutions! With Starlight Extinction, however, I can send Talos into a contained space, where we can all seal him together!"

"It doesn't matter, Ace!" she insisted, setting her foot down. "You of all people should know this isn't about what needs to be done! Its about what it would mean!"

The green-haired man lowered his chin, disappointed. "What it would mean?! Look at what's under your feet, Kirin!"

Kirin did. She could feel the pulsing strength in Talos in the vibrations of its heartbeat alone. She could imagine the destruction this thing could cause if it reached a city. It was the stuff of nightmares.

"This thing could wake back up any second now and plunge the entire world back into the stone age! WE ARE SAINTS OF ATHENA!" Azrael shouted, clenching fingers at her. "Nothing is more important than our duty to exterminate evil, and you're worried about fucking optics?! Why don't you tell Arles to get over his grudge against me and-"

"GRUDGE?!" Kirin gasped, widened her eyes. How could he be so blind to what he did? She rose a finger. "How DARE YOU?! Let's make a couple of things clear, here, Ace'! Number one, you lost your Gold Cloth's approval, Ace. It wasn't taken by anyone, much less His Holiness! If there's any GRUDGE involved in this, its from the Aries fucking Gold Cloth!"

The Serpens Bronze Saint staggered and gritted his teeth, disarmed by this. He couldn't possibly believe 'Achilles' was being serious! With Talos under their very feet, they would still deny him his rightful Gold Cloth?!

Kirin huffed at the look in his eyes. Now there was the Ace she knew; resentful, judgmental and arrogant.

"And number two, I can't believe after all these years you still think losing your Cloth's approval is just something you're on a timeout for!" Kirin threw her arms up. "What planet do you live in, Ace?! If you were any bit serious about all your talk of duty to Athena, you wouldn't in a million years have the sack to ask me something like that! I can't believe that… that…"

The Serpens Knight couldn't believe how shocked she was acting at his request. "That what?! That I want what's rightfully my own back?!"

She growled, clenching hands to face in disgust with his self-righteous anger. "NO! NO, NO, NO, you murderous, treasonous jackass! What I can't believe is that I was going to say earlier that if we worked together well, and you cooled off a bit, maybe Arles can help you come back to Sanctuary!"

The Bronze Knight lost the anger in his words. "W… What?!"

There was a pause in the shouting where Kirin regained her breath. She very well hoped the shock she saw on his stupid cheek-marked was real. She turned off her Centurion Apparatus with a thought, tired, returning her armor to its default form.

"Ace, I think you should know something; Malta told me he wanted you back." she revealed, making his jaw drop. Kirin held her hand on her hip, taking a bit of delight on the gawk he made at it. "YES, SHOCKING, right? I had the exact same reaction that you're having! I told him to forget about it! That you were a lost cause. That we didn't need a child murderer back in the ranks."

A vein tensed in Azrael's head at this disgusting accusation. It was always the same goddamn story; he had to murder his own brothers and sisters in the Order, and now his closest friends blamed him forever for it, down the most horrible details.

"It's so easy for you all to throw that at my face, isn't it, Kirin?!" he accused. "So convenient, even though we all knew the second you accepted my surrender that the Zodiac Knights wouldn't drop their swords at nothing! Well, tell me, Kirin, If I'm such a monster, why would you ever want me back?!"

"Because, I was thinking that maybe you might disagree. That maybe I can't judge someone for doing what it took to end a radicalized cult like the Knights!" Kirin countered right back. "And that's what the fucking Knights were, let's face it! Like you just said; they were extremists telling their children to pick up swords against adult Saints of Athena. Isn't that right?!"

The Serpens Knight relented, unsure how to respond. His first instinct was to tell Kirin to shut the hell up and not insult the Order he gave his life for. His second was to make her stop standing in the way of his plan and just call the Pope.

The third instinct in Azrael, however, was a strange sensation in the bottom of his stomach, a sensation that felt like… hope?! Was Kirin being serious about this?! It couldn't be!

"So maybe, just maybe, if you played along for once in your life, I could fit in my head that you had no choice do what you did!" Kirin continued. She breathed out. "And… and I could stomach the sight of you again! But you had to be the asshole, Ace! Again! DIDN'T YOU?!"

Azrael turned away, tensing his grip on the sword he rested on. Memories of old times of peace between him and his friends returned as he tried to search why would they offer him this now. Why did Malta say these things? When they met again at Arthur's manor, there was nothing but hostility!

Her hand laid out. "Ace,… we are NOT giving you the Aries Cloth back, ever, but if we just tried…All I'm saying is that we could dial back the clock on a few other things. We could put ourselves in the road back to fixing our fucked-up generation. Wouldn't you like that?"

The absurdism of the situation, however, was too much for the Serpens, who squinted distrustfully. "What is this… machination of yours, Kirin?! You've always been the one the most against bringing me back to the fold!"

Her green, hawkish eyes darted away nervously. She got out of bed with the man she loved to instead deal with this. "I still am! It's not for me, trust me, Ace'. I wish you'd just rot in hell!"

The Serpens widened his eyes. "Then… it's for Malta, then?!" The implication was obvious to Azrael, who lowered his chin in disgust. "Oh, I see! So you two reacquainted your little flame?! Then if it's for the sake of your lust, suddenly my horrible crimes are not that grave?! What kind of Capricorn are you?!"

Her chin rose, adamant to his poison. "A terrible one. But that fits our generation, doesn't it?! I'm a terrible Capricorn who forgets her duty, Malta is a terrible Aquarius who doesn't realise he's not supposed to feel things and you are a horrible, horrible fucking Aries! Who decorates his walls with skulls and ruins people's lives, instead of fixing Cloths! So what's your point, Ace?!"

Azrael shook. He still felt his oathsworn brethen's blood washing him at it, yet equally powerful old bonds with forgotten friends held his tongue shut.

"I remember Malta retelling it word for word." Kirin recalled, referring to the Topaz Purge. "The piles of bodies, he'd say. And then, on top of everything, when you should have bowed your head in shame, you threatened the Holy Father to his face, Azrael! Accused him of wanting to sabotage us! He was giving you a chance! And you tossed it back to him!"

"He betrayed me!" Azrael shouted back, losing his composure. "All so that the Aries Cloth could be free to his new pet project, that Muvian boy in Jamir! And now he's done the same to Paris, to Akassius and Daniel is next on the line! How do you not see that yet?!"

Truth as it was that their time as Gold Saints was coming to an end, the horrible spite in his voice haunted Kirin, who had once known a reasonable version of this man. She saw him grit his teeth angrily, awaiting her response, probably to toss more verbal sludge at her face.

Kirin couldn't say she didn't see this hostility coming. After all these years locked away in his castle, Ace's brain was probably mush with all the poison about everyone else he filled himself with everyday.

But she still wanted to try, for Malta. And for Helen. "Ace, had it been anyone else, and the Pope would have made you bend a knee at the guillotine."

Azrael shook. "That's… that's a fucking lie!"

"Ace, I use to admire you for more than just your skill, remember?" Kirin gulped hard, feeling her hawkish eyes waver against her will. "Everyone was jealous of how you threw yourself into your Sainthood, like nothing! Why do you think I got Excalibur?! It's because I worked so hard every day to be half as good as you were! Now look at you! Look at what you're wearing! You twisted the Serpens Cloth into a horrible joke!"

Azrael beheld his first armor. His morphed Serpens armor, the Bronze Cloth he disfigured with Lightcraft into a mock Aries.

"It's… it's my right! Aries belongs to me!" he repeated in a mutter.

How could he not see it yet? "You've become a gross person like this and… and yet… Malta wants you back with us! Can you believe THAT?! He beats himself to a pulp thinking we didn't do enough, that we didn't try to understand Priam, Aeneas and you!" Her face twisted into disgust at him, wondering how could they be direct peers. "And now all we got left to salvage of those says is you, the worst of the traitor bunch! Shit like this, Ace', is what makes me believe the Gods really DO curse the Gold Saints."

He silently quaked. Every face of every Knight he murdered flashed through his mind, rendering him further and further beyond the edge of the abyss. The song he sang with Roland ringed in his head; his final murder towards the people who trained him! How could his compatriots even suggest it was a selfish gesture?!

"I did nothing wrong… Nothing wrong!" Azrael hissed to himself, clenching his fists. In fact, he stood by his friends, just like Helen inspired him to, and paid the ultimate price for it. He sacrificed everything that was important to him for their group, and they still hated him for it!

Suddenly, the downed Talos' belched out blood, snapping both of them out. The two Gold Saints saw it scorch the ground and felt the body beneath them slowly regain breath.

"Talos is starting to regain consciousness." Kirin realized. Seeing Azrael still boiling, she surrendered. "Don't worry, Ace. I will find a way to make Malta forget all about this. Let's just do our mission. Then you can go back to your castle, I can go back to Greece and we can BOTH forget we had to even see each other today!"

Seeing her turn to face the distancing Talos, he burned his green cosmos, empowering himself. "Very well…"

Kirin activated her cosmos, immersing herself in golden light. "Let's forget about sealing this monstrosity for now. We'll rip it's heart out before it has a chance to recover, then assemble the Gold Saints to figure a solution out." Her hand sharpened with energy into the shape of a sword edge. "EXCALIBUR!"

The armored ribcage ripped right open before her slicing beam of light, geysering a shower of blood, hardened scale bits and flesh over their heads. A terrible stench was unleashed; a mix of microbial gas, body oils, blood and fat that made their stomachs immediately twist in a knot.

Kirin guarded her nose. "A-agh, it stinks like abattoir!"

Azrael suppressed his sense of taste and smell with a light beam to his own mouth, relieving himself. He saw Kirin focus all her attention in her attack. "I won't let you help the Pope deny our destinies, Kirin! I WON'T!"

Feeling the titanic body beneath their feet squirming, Kirin had no doubt of it. She held her drill blade high, aiming to stab the enormous heart down the hole she made. Seeing how massive it was, Kirin realized only her most destructive technique would do the trick.

Azrael lowered his cosmos and stepped towards her, seeing her utterly focused. He lifted his fist, aiming to knock her out. If Kirin wasn't going to call the Pope, then he needed to escalate the situation and force the Pope's hand.

"CRY, EXCALIBUR!" Kirin's aura blazed, turning her Excalibur into a gigantic blaze of light encompassing her arm. She prepared to swing. "GIANT TEMPEST SLA-"

Her hawk eyes widened, spotting the fetal-shaped silhouette in her target, and her foot braked her attack!

Azrael stopped as well, gritting teeth. What just happened?! He couldn't knock her out unless Kirin was completely invested in her technique. "What's wrong?! Aren't you going to tear this thing apart?!"

She pointed at the heart, gawking at the shade inside it. "Ace'…T-There's someone down there!" she turned to him. "I feel a person's cosmos! There's someone inside this monster's hear-"

*WHAM*

Azrael's eyes widened, seeing the enormous, fingered mass of flesh and black armor swat Capricorn Kirin into the air like a fly! Kirin screamed and her armored body twirled, smashing into the mountain side and falling back down. Azrael saw her land in a crevice below, knocked out.

He leaped right off, fleeing the roaring spasm of Talos! Taking cover by the burning trees around them, he beheld the Cloth of Destruction as it made its incredible power manifest and slowly heal the giant hole Kirin cut into its chest, closing it up into a hardened scar. Zipping away, he went to Kirin.

While he wanted to knock her out, Azrael still didn't want one of his friends, much less the wielder of Excalibur, dead. "ACHILLES!"

She rubbed her head, dazed. Looking up, she gasped, seeing Talos rise tall and clench its fist. The beast looked down on itself, seeing the giant wound in its chest.

"She hurt me!" it thought, charging power into its hand.

"She damaged me!" it sneered, making the energy form a bubble of power

"Kill her!" it sneered, raising the black-armored fist high.

"DESTROY HER!" it roared, bringing it down on her. "TITANIC DEVASTATION!"

The armored fist came down on the Capricorn Gold Saint, brutally crashing her against the earth's crust with the explosive force of a tectonic burst. The ensuing shockwave blasted her even deeper and ripped the ground apart in every direction, scarring the Earth, blinding the valley with white light and detonating the Cloth of Destruction's power in full force!

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

Shamballa,

Lake Shen'wa

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

"What was that?!" an older Muvian man in the crowd being ushered towards the docks asked.

"The earth is shaking!" another cried.

"Everyone calm down and follow our directions!" a mariner with a megaphone instructed, gesturing to the Kraken's ladder. "We will take you and your families to shelters on the other side of the mountains."

Standing with his captain and Atlae, Caça shivered. "Yeesh, just what in the heck is out there causing this?! And where are the damn Gold Saints?! Shouldn't they be sweeping whatever is going on?"

"Maybe they are trying to?" Atlae wondered to himself, remembering the horrible sight of the monster and the feeling of the Chi. He looked out westwards. "Master always told me my Chi sense would never be able to feel further than a few yards, because no one was ever so big that their actual bodies compared in strength to a Gold Saint's cosmos, which you can feel from really far away. Yet, I feel THIS Chi from what feels like hundreds and hundreds of kilometers from here."

Krishna, however, seemed distracted, darting his head left and right, his eyes looking through the crowd for someone.

"Captain, what's wrong?!" Atlae begged.

Krishna stopped. He gritted teeth. "Atlae, Caça, I want you to follow the Vice-Admiral's orders for now! Caça, make sure Atlae stays safe! That's a direct order!"

"Wait, where are you going?!" Caça asked. He then staggered. "Wait, you're not-"

"I'm going to find miss Daisy!" he confirmed, rushing off. "She doesn't know what's going on. She might be in danger!"

"B-But!" Atlae tried to call, but their captain vanished through the crowd. "There he goes…"

"He's insane! Look at what's going on!" Caça growled. "The Elder is freaking out, sending all these Muvians to mariner ships, and all the captain can think of is saving a pair of ti-"

"Caça, now's not the time for that either!" Atlae snapped, startling his friend. He gritted his teeth. "Something really serious is going on and Captain wants to protect someone he cares about! There's nothing wrong with that!"

The pale Mariner backed off, amazed. "Geez, um…" Atlae had never snapped at him this badly before, even during their tough Pacific sail.

"I get that you're upset, we all make mistakes, but can't you for once be a nice friend?!" the Muvian continued, fed up. "Right now, we all need to put our problems aside and help as best we can, and all you can think

"Alright, I'm sorry! I'm just saying; having a lightspeed user with us would make me feel a heck of a lot safer!" He looked up. "Speaking of which…"

Turning his eyes up, Atlae beheld as the massive battle ship with the dragonhead bow and the large fins that was previously moored by the lake ascended to the air. It's large rear thrusters ignited, belching out bright white jets, and the ship took off westwards.

He turned and saw the Sea Dragon disappear over the plateau edge, his breath quickened in panic. Marianne was heading towards it; the colossal Chi that Atlae felt was down the mountains. The Chi was heading towards Shamballa itself!

Atlae's hands clenched tightly. There she went, to save the day, and captain Krishna was also doing his best to save someone he cared about, too. Meanwhile, Atlae was just someone else to evacuate. He was just going to sit there while Marianne and her crew risked their lives.

A foreboding feeling came over Caça, who saw the mood Atlae was in. "H-hey, what are you thinking?! Don't get any crazy ideas!"

The captain of the Kraken, Josef Gerasimov, appeared next to them. "Atlae? Caça? You're here, too?" The green-haired young man 'oh'ed. "I see, the Vice-Admiral must have ordered you both here, am I correct?"

Atlae had to admire how sharp the Gerasimov heir was. "How did you guess?"

The light-green-haired tall youth crossed arms. "Well, on the way to Shamballa, she told me that Atlae here was the type that would definitely put himself on the line for others. I have the feeling there is just no way you'd be here with all these people unless someone you cared about directly told you to."

"She said that, uh?" Atlae asked, slumping shoulders. So Marianne thought of him that highly?

The captain of the Kraken nodded. "Correct; Marianne Solo really relies on you, Atlae. On our journey here, it seemed all I needed to do to get her to talk for hours was bring your name up." He smirked self-consciously. "I have to admit, I felt a bit outshined. I thought the introduction of my warship had impressed her, but you're the one that was always on her lips. It takes character to get a high-ranking Mariner like miss Solo to appreciate you so much. That's why I was anxious to meet you."

The blonde martial artist sunk his head humbly. He was already sure Marianne was in love with him, but this really did put things into perspective, didn't it? She even ignored the super awesome mechanical octopus battleship.

"So, are you two coming into the Kraken?" Josef wondered, seeing the two were just waiting around line without their captain. "I'm guessing Krishna will appear later as well?"

Caça beamed and pushed in front of Atlae. "Yes, please! Take us to safety, oh mighty Josef!"

The blonde Muvian shook head. "No, I'm not."

"WHAT?!" Caça screamed. He gripped the Muvian's shoulders to shake them. "YES, YOU ARE! WE'RE ALL GOING IN THE SUBMARINE, NOW!"

But Atlae pushed him off. "STOP IT! I'm not going! I… I can't!" He turned and saw Jeanna, along with many other Muvian soldiers, doing their best to escort everyone they could. "I am the champion of Master's school. I was trained to defend what I care about. I'm… going to fight!"

"FIGHT WHAT?! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HEADING OUR WAY!" Caça roared, ripping hairs out.

Josef squinted, seeing Atlae's eyes glance at the distance. He had heard the Turtle School taught its students powerful sensory abilities, even by Muvian standards. Could Marianne's rumored partner be somewhat aware of the true nature of the threat ahead?

Atlae shook his head. "This isn't your problem, Caça. You're not going to have to follow me like you did in Argentina. If you want, you can stay!" He tucked his gi and black belt determinedly. "In fact… I'd prefer if you did. I don't want you to get hurt, either."

The consideration had no effect on the Cabral, who scowled venomously. "Right, you're so thoughtful! And what will I tell the CAPTAIN, when he hears I let you get killed after he directly ordered me to protect him?!"

"Are you going after the Vice-Admiral's ship, Atlae?" Josef cut in between the two, earning himself a stunned turn. He folded his arms defensively, like he readied himself for a confrontation. "It wasn't a hard guess. I can see it in your agitation. I should tell you, however, that Marianne Solo also guessed you might decide that. And asked me to stop you."

The blonde Muvian braced himself. The Gerasimov had been nothing but gentle with him, but if he was going to stand in Atlae's way too, the Muvian was ready to fight him.

Caça gripped his own hairs at both of them. "Atlae, FOR THE LOVE OF POSEIDON, please don't start a feud with the Gerasimov family!"

"I won't let you stop me, captain!" Atlae insisted, facing the tall captain eye to eye. His body began brimming brightly with his dark green cosmos. "But if you try, I will use everything in my power to go through you!"

Josef shook his green head. "Very well. Don't worry, I'm not in the mood to have my skull rung by someone who kicked the Genbu Bell. Something tells me, too, that if I drag you inside the Kraken, you'll rip your way out through the hull from the inside. And I'd rather not void the warranty Doctor Lantis gave me so soon."

"You… you can't be serious!" Caça grabbed Josef's arm. "Then put Atlae in cuffs, deep in the brig, anything! Do you have any idea what the captain will do to me if this idiot gets hurt?!"

Josef smirked. "Then you better go with Atlae and keep him safe, correct?"

A panicked gawk came over Caça.

Josef then addressed Atlae directly. "Listen well, Atlae; in life, especially for warriors like ourselves, there are times where we think putting ourselves at risk is the right choice, but we must always remember others who care about us will think the same towards us. Putting yourself in danger and forcing the Vice-Admiral to protect you will be nothing but pure selfishness in the end, understood? You will not be forgiven by her for this."

The Muvian nodded somberly. However, Marianne's safety was a bigger priority to him than her approval. It's what he promised Lord Solo, too, that he'd put his life in line for her. "Y-yes, I understand."

"I will cover for your absence with the Elder, if needed." Josef guaranteed. "Just don't do anything reckless. None of us wish the Vice-Admiral to know we let a dear friend of hers be put in danger. Other than that, use every bit of your power to protect her and the city of your people, any way you can."

Atlae had to be in awe at this. When he first met Josef, Atlae somehow had this terrible feeling he would be another force of hostility against him, like Baian. However, slowly he was discovering that the feared Gerasimov was actually one of the kindest and most supportive people he had ever met. No wonder Marianne was so impressed by him as well.

He quivered in amazement. Atlae was never so happy his instincts were wrong. "Captain Josef, thank you! I will never forget this kindness!"

"Don't mention it, Atlae." Josef guaranteed. "We will join the battle with whatever's out there as soon as we can take these people to safety. In the meantime, go with Poseidon."

"I will!" Atlae swore. He grabbed Caça by the wrist "Come on, Caça! Let's go help Marianne!"

"ATLAE, I HATE YOU!" Caça hissed, and got rushed off by the wrist at the speed of sound.

Two of Josef's crewman joined him. "Captain, the ship is at 80% capacity. We risk affecting its subterranean traveling if we bring in more… Muvian citizens."

"You were going to say 'dotted freaks', weren't you, Dimitri?" Josef remarked, accompanying them back.

The crewman gritted his teeth as he opened a bulwark hatch for their superior. "I did, yes, captain. Forgive me."

"Indiscretions like that will not be, next time. Remember, this is a mission of diplomacy." Josef walked into his vessel. "Submerge the Kraken when you're done and initiate the barrier's water-to-tunneling mode. I'll join the bridge shortly. First, I need to contact Lord Nikolai to update him on our affairs." In the darkness of the submarine's corridors, he smirked. "Grandfather will love to know Marianne Solo might be free of her lover sooner than we thought."

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

Mount Kailash Valleys

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

The light of Talos' attack slowly receded, and so did the terrible quaking.

Serpens Azrael peered out. There was nothing but fire and burning ahead of him. And Talos.

Standing amidst the flames with a breath of light, the creature's feet were dug into the ground, which had cracked from the attack and buried them with Talos' weight. There was no sign of Kirin's cosmos and the terrain around them crumbled more and more with the aftershocks of the blow Talos struck, which still rattled the Knight's body. Azrael was sure that, if that attack had been made with Cosmos, it would have a power comparable to a planetary explosion, something capable of destroying even one of the Twelve Temples.

And Kirin got hit directly by it.

Lifting its eyes to the emerging moon, Talos cried out in triumph over its foe, like a brutish animal. Digging out its feet, it then stepped eastwards, towards its original goal, seemingly having forgotten all about Azrael being there too.

Once it moved away enough from the crater of black dirt, Azrael came beaming in. He dug deeply into the rocks and boulders with his cosmos and hands, even shoving his broadsword in to lever a giant rock beneath him. Eventually, he found Kirin's gauntlet sticking out, grabbed it and used all his might to pull the Capricorn out.

He held her, then set Kirin down on a stony slab. She was in a terrible state. Her headpiece had fallen off, revealing the hidden lusciousness of her feminine hair, her bruised body bled all over, her Cloth was cracked in many places, her cuirass was cratered in by Talos' attack and her eyes laid closed, unconscious.

Holding her neck briefly, he felt a pulse. It was weak, but stable. "She's out cold. Her cosmos must have been completely on the offensive still when Talos struck her. You let your guard down, Kirin. That is so unlike you." The last time he saw her screw something up this badly in combat was when Malta broke up with her. He awed incredulously, beholding the giant roaring to the nightsky as it left the valley and headed towards the main plateaus. "Incredible! Even a Gold Saint was defeated by the Cloth of Destruction's might! So this is one of the Four Cloths of Myth, Talos!"

First, Azrael took Kirin and dragged her to safety, in the forests to the west. This wasn't out of any particular kindness; by the time she awakened, Azrael would need her to corroborate his involvement in trying to stop this catastrophe.

Still, as he laid her in safety, he couldn't help but stop before his next move.

"Malta wants you back."

Kirin's sentence haunted him. Why did she have to say that? Azrael felt perfectly fine with what he was doing in his well of loneliness and contempt, torturing Ithaca to shape him into an ideal fake Muvian, pitting Arthur against Shamballa, keeping everyone who betrayed him guessing what he was doing. And now she tells him there was a rope dangling over his head all along?

How…dare she?!

The Emerald stone in Azrael's neck shined.

"Are you really going to blame her for you not foreseeing this, too?" Serpens asked.

"If they wanted to reach out to me, they had years to do it." Azrael argued. "Why only NOW?!"

The horned serpent chuckled. "I suppose they are to blame for you locking yourself in my fortress, too? Right out of reach of their words? You know, for someone who makes such enormous use of my powers of sight, you put such blindfolds over your eyes. How many more will you sacrifice to defend your sins, Ace? Ten? One hundred? One thousand? One hundred thousand?"

The green-haired knight gritted his teeth. "Quiet! What does it matter, anyway?! Our mission is to flood the world with Athena's light! Once that happens… nothing of this will matter! We will all be in an enlightened world, free of the cruelty of death and human ignorance."

"Fantastically spoken, like a true Specter." Serpens characterized. It recoiled in the darkness of Azrael's mind, as if overreacting to a realization. "Oh, pardon me! We are Saints of Athena, aren't we? Zodiac Knights, even; the holiest Saints among the eighty-eight."

Azrael touched his Emerald Cloth Stone, bringing out his helmet again in a shower of light into his hands, and closed it around his head, locking it in. He breathed deeply in inside it, feeling the darkness close the world out.

"Perhaps that's what you secretly hope, Ace? That if you live in darkness you can unsee what you've so cowardly done?" Serpens suggested. "Just remember, Ace; in a world flooded with light, your ugliness will have no shadow in which to hide."

His green aura emerged, closing around his body like a serpent twirling a prey in its body. He then rocketed off the valley to follow Talos as it created its trail of destruction towards Shamballa.

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 94 – 3rd Arc – Episode 21: The Cloth of Destruction – Part 2

Release Date: March 25th

Description: The LPS Sea Dragon, led by Delphinus Marianne, intercepts Talos barely fifty kilometers away from Shamballa. A terrible battle ensues between the two war machines, one witnessed by Atlae and Caça, but also Serpens Azrael. The wrong turnout could result in a massacre, but victory quickly seems like it will not be achieved without a terrible cost.

Back at Shamballa, Krishna searches for Maiden Daisy, and while unsuccessful in his search, he encounters the priest that led her away from the group.

Author's Comments:

I'd like to apologize for the slight publication delay; back in Friday when I received this chapter from Beta, I was finishing up a rather tough week of working while handling a pinched nerve on my back, which made it difficult to make progress on chapter 94. I felt I needed to take Saturday off to rest, and then Sunday turned into a hectic series of distractions that only allowed me four hours to do the starting edits (I ended up requiring at least four more hours for the rest of it today, plus time to publish everything). Chapter 94 is nearing conclusion, though, so unlike with 93, my beta-reader will have more than just two weeks to go through it all.

Today on etymology we discuss Io's household, the Ladrilleros. Juan Ladrillero was a 16th century Spanish explorer who mapped the coast of Chile, Io's home country. Unlike the likes of Cabral and Vancouver, Ladrillero isn't a big recognized name in the history of exploration, with most of the places he named having been renamed since his death, but he was important to the history of Chile and the South Pacific Ocean and was the first man to navigate the Strait of Magellan from west to east. There wasn't any figure more perfect to name Io's household after.

If you are a Io fan, I apologize for having such a limited role for him in this flashback series dedicated to Muvians and Mariners. I understand having him be Ithaca's replacement isn't really a dignified part. I just didn't have a good role for him in the story, but I felt I might at least show what he's up to around this time and where he stands in the grand scheme of things.

Hey, at least he's not written to be a big self-hating asshole like Baian, right? By the way, don't worry, what happened to him in the meantime since he declared his revenge will be covered later.

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 and generally support this project if you enjoy it. You can find me in any web platform, from Tumblr, to Reddit to Discord, under the Thrudgelmir2333 name.

See ya \owo