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.

99. 3A: Chasing the Knight

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;

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Underworld,

Fifth Prison

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The large, commanding Skeleton soldiers' lieutenant climbed over the hill and swept the air with his hand. "GET YOUR BONY ASSES SCRAMBLED OUT AND SEARCH THE AREA! WE NEED TO FIND THOSE TRAITORS!"

His contingent of warriors armed with scythes, bone mail and crossbows huffed, puffed and marched, spreading out all over the dark fields ahead filled with burning coffins. Shouting indications at each other, they turned over stones, dove down the tunnels, inspected the coffins and even tossed out the heretics burning inside said coffins just to make sure no one was hiding underneath.

"No one here!" one shouted from the uphill area.

"The passes to Cocytus are also guarded and clear."

"SEARCH AGAIN! Climb up the damn Underworld Well to Praesepe if you have to!" The lieutenant picked up a slower grunt and tossed him screaming over a pile of coffins for him to investigate them. "They spotted those two Seraphim freaks crawling somewhere around here. There is a huge bounty, issued by Judge Rhadamanthys himself, if we bring the Terrestrial Insidious Star and the Terrestrial Yin Star to him! Don't you want the gratitude of His Honor?!"

"Y-YES, SIR!"

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In a cave far above in the mountains encircling the 5th Prison, overlooking the searching Skeleton Soldiers, Reaper Grim watched with disgust as his fellow Specters combed the Underworld for him and Zemu. The cavern was deep and full of shiny cobwebs sparkling with tiny stardust particles, but also covered in bones of unfortunate undead that had attempted to hide from the punishing overlords of the Underworld, only to meet their end in the maws of the creatures that secretly lived in the dead dirt.

The tall, white-haired man gazed down at the Skeletons under his black-painted eyelids and spat down at them. "Backstabbers! Lickers of the Judges' boots! They're all nothing but unquestioning drones!" He accused, picking up a rock and throwing it down at them. "They're too terrified of Wyvern Rhadamanthys to question who has been truly responsible for all our failures! Do they not understand that even if they found and cornered us somewhere, I could easily escape to wherever I desire with my Levantine Door?! This is nothing but an exercise in ego! The Judges just want to show that, if they so desire, they can put the followers of the Princes on the run from them!"

"And what if they do? Aren't they right about that?" Asked Yeti Zemu, leaning on the cavern wall with his crystal-clad arms folded and his pale-blue mane tied. He was too tall to stand up inside the cavern comfortably. "That does not in the slightest turn our situation into any less of the crawling glacier that it has become. We missed our chance to revive our Master, Grim. Now the Judges are on to us. Atlae won't speak to us and even that Equuleus girl has figured out a way to target y-"

"It's not over yet!" Grim assured, not wishing to be reminded of how somehow the Saintia figured out the weakness of his Levantine Door. "We are the Seraphim, the closest followers of the Celestial Absolute Star! We were picked as such for a reason; because Master Michael knew we would be there for him should the filthy Judges usurp the Princes again! Only he can bring the Emperor's vision of a quiet, peaceful world to fruition. Is the Prince not, after all, the one who defeated Virgo Asmita?! What other Specter has ever showed such clear sign of proximity to our God to be able to single-handedly defeat a Gold Saint of Virgo?! Even Prince Daemon Lucifer never managed it until recently, and the one he got was a mere child!"

The seven-foot-tall ice man turned his visor at him, looking unimpressed. "A hot head stirs up a fight, but a cool one will end it, Grim. I agree with everything you say, but we must face the facts; the Judges have the upper hand on us right now. We need a plan. A better one than our last."

Grim bit his long thumb nail, trying to think of one. "If only Atlae had killed Pegasus! We were SO CLOSE! I could practically see the Prince's black flames igniting in that Andromeda boy's eyes! Perhaps I should just kill Pegasus myself! The Andromeda Saint sees me as an enemy now, anyway. But how am I going to get the two of them together, away from Sanctuary and its damn Gold Saints?!" Seeing the Skeleton Soldiers swarming the lower grounds of the Underworld like ants, however, Grim was unsure if they could even leave Hades' realm themselves. "Damn it all! Only the full might of the Seraphim can stand a hope of reviving the Prince now! Zemu, travel through Cocytus with your powers and call Sinbad and Nezha! We will triumph over our decadent brothers yet!"

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Sanctuary Town

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This time it happened in the region of Strasbourg, France, where the notorious murderer Saint-Killer Jack, a veteran from the Civil War who became the leader of his own gang of cosmos users, had been recruiting delinquents with cosmos to form his own 'Sanctuary' in the Rhine River region. The Swabian hills nearby used to be an important Zodiac Knight fortress, but as the readers might be aware of, most of these outposts have been either abandoned or under only partial use by Sanctuary since the order's disbandment, allowing gangs with cosmos to roam free in the region.

Using his knowledge of Sanctuary tactics, Saint-Killer Jack successfully evaded Sanctuary efforts to investigate his activity and even managed to accrue a reputation for fighting back when cornered. The MMC estimates the maniac was responsible for at least 20 personnel deaths, not to mention the civilians he's victimized with his criminal activities. Contrary to what his monicker suggests, most figures suggest it has been mostly those ignorant of the Cosmos that have suffered under Saint-Killer Jack. It was believed by the MMC that his gang was a fearsome player in the human trafficking and weapon smuggling business in Europe, especially between the two halves of Germany, and engaged in many mercenary activities in third world countries.

It all came to an end last night, though, when Jack and his entire gang were found delivered, hands tied, to Sanctuary's ever emptier outposts in the area, accompanied with the same calling card as other incidents of Black Saint groups being apprehended in the region recently; a letter marked by a half-mask in the vague shape of an owl's eyes signed by Knight-Girl.

"We believe it's a statement by the vigilante that they are siding with Sanctuary, or believe themselves part of it." One hoplite captain on the case told the 'Marathoner'. "They could have dropped these guys at any regular police station, but they chose our bases in the Rhine River valley. We in the Army of Athena would like to make it clear we do NOT approve of these actions, regardless of the vigilante's motives. If you wish to fight Black Saints, join the military now."

"Oh, it was so exciting!" one young woman suggested, claiming to have been saved by the figure calling themselves 'Knight-Girl'. "The hero showed up, struck a pose, summoned the power of the stars and then beat the ass out of all those guys trying to take me into their truck! And he's so elegant, too, not like those ugly muscled guys! I wish he had stuck around and taken me to their lai…. What? It's a woman?!... You're -ing lying! Stop stepping all over my dreams, you piece of s- yellow-paper journalist! Get out of my face or I'm going to scream for the cops!"

"I reckon' it'd be one of them Amazons and such." One Sanctuary-Towner suggested. "I mean, thems a girl, and they wearin' that there mask, it's right as rain. But they be wearin' only half of the darn thing coverin' their eyes, so how come no one can figure 'em out yet? Ain't no one know the faces of all them Amazons to begin with, I reckon'."

"We would never permit such behavior!" the representative of Aretias spoke to us, after agreeing to see one of our female correspondents in the famed Amazon village. "Please make it clear in your news report that if any of the Amazons were caught doing such things, we would be the first to discipline them! We take our role in the military very seriously and we do not condone independent actions!"

There is no clear consensus yet of who 'Knight-Girl' might be yet, but authorities assure the 'Marathoner' that investigations are underway to apprehend the figure and that a Saint squad may even be sent to put a stop to their activities, enthusiastic as they may have been to the public writing to our paper. As you know, independent vigilantism with the Cosmos is strictly forbidden by Papal law and put under the same category as the Black Saint activities they aim to crack on. The 'Marathoner' also explicitly condemns these actions.

We will, however, continue to report every bit of this exciting story to you as it unfolds.

Marching out the MMC with Suisho and the newspaper in hand, Lance finished reading the article for the second time and still felt bewildered. "A super hero? Are you joking me? Sui', this can't be a real story!"

"Oh, but it is." The Crateris Silver Saint confirmed. Ridiculous events like these only further proved to him mankind was doomed. "You see the pictures, don't you? We've had seven events so far reporting the same person identifying themselves as Knight-Girl. The Marathoner has been obsessed with following this story and given everyone plenty of proof she exists. It's actually been quite a nightmare for everyone here, from Nam to the Pope."

"But who the hell would do this?!" the Pegasus Saint protested, tossing the newspaper out. "It's suicide! And not just because of the risks this person is putting themselves in; they clearly know Sanctuary exists and would definitely not approve! What is their end goal here?"

Suisho shrugged. "To be famous, I'd venture to guess."

This just made Lance turn redder. "So that's it? The cosmos is something you use to become a celebrity now?"

Sui' scoffed. Why was the Bronze Saint so shocked? "Pegasus, let's be fair, as far as reckless, Sanctuary-frowned decisions go, you don't have the best track record on the planet. Besides-" Suisho guided him towards the depot where he had requisitioned equipment for their missions, a building not too far from the MMC headquarters itself. "-this isn't the first time Sanctuary has dealt with this sort of thing. Throughout history, whenever the army has concentrated to fight Specters or other enemies, it has left unprotected swathes of countries throughout the world without patrols. This has encouraged many locals with the talent of the cosmos to rise up and emerge as local guardians. Your predecessor Pegasus Tenma, of Italy, was one example."

This was quite the tidbit to Lance, who only knew of Tenma as Master Dohko's first student and wearer of the Pegasus Cloth. "He was?"

"Yeah. He used to be just some kid in some orphanage until the day Specters attacked his town." Suisho revealed, privately cursing the fateful day. It spelled the eventual doom of Lord Hades, after all. "With Sanctuary busy somewhere else, he had no choice but to go 'superhero', just like this girl, to save his town from disaster. It just so happened that a Gold Saint was close enough to pick him up before he took it any further and became a vigilante."

Wild as this backstory of Tenma was to Lance, his partner's extensive knowledge stunned him even more. "How do you know so much about this?"

"Because I've seen this history unfolded myself, fool." Sui thought, smirking to himself. "Well, unlike my sister, I am just fascinated by history. I think it teaches you valuable lessons about the nature of humanity. Besides, I thought looking Tenma up would give me a pretty good idea of what to expect out of you as a partner."

The Pegasus Saint squinted skeptically, remembering his ghost-match with Tenma in Mount Rozan. "I don't think I have that much in common with the guy, to be frank…"

Suisho stopped and turned, raising a brow. "And how would you know? Did you travel through time to meet him?"

"Not exactly." Lance mystified, stunning Sui, further. He read the entire article all over again, making sure he didn't miss a thing. Unfortunately, the crappy picture seemed more preoccupied with capturing a cool shot of the perpetrator leaving the scene than getting a clear image of their face. Only one person popped to his mind, though. "This Knight-Girl… somehow stinks of Yushira. But would even she be this rash?"

"In any case, I don't have to tell you that Sanctuary is going to be breathing down our necks until we fix this. Not only does it break the law, but it makes our military look terrible in the current crisis. Knight-Girl may be popular with the people right now, but not at the Zodiac or the barracks." Suisho mentioned. He tensed, resting knuckles over hips. "Listen, Pegasus, if it happens to be who we BOTH think it is…Don't hold back because of me, okay? Yushira has had a slap over the head a long time and it would be a thousand times better than what the soldiers would do to her."

Lance nodded. "Yeah, of course…" Poor Suisho. Even Lance, who'd had a lot of moments where he went out on his own to put a stop to something, or perhaps because of it, knew exactly in how much trouble it could get you in. If there was one thing the hoplites hated, it was overachievers that made them look lazy.

"In any case, we're going to need special gear if we're going to find this person." Suisho instructed as they reached the depot. He flashed his Silver pin to the requisitioners to let them in, but they seemed familiar enough with Sui already to open the garage doors immediately. "We're going into densely populated, urban European areas, which means we can't afford to zip around with lightspeed like there isn't anyone watching. It's bad enough that people think there's one superhero around."

This made perfect sense to Lance. In fact, he usually preferred to operate in dangerous environments with Shinta partly because those were less crowded and allowed him to use cosmos more freely. "Are you getting us a jeep again?"

"After the Specters trashed the last one? No. I was thinking something we could prepare for having to search separately, to cover a wider area and allow us to give chase on our own if we have to." He headed for the counter, where a bald, mustached man awaited them with an apprehensive look. "Hey Carl. Do you have your Kawasaki bikes available?"

The aged man ran his hand through his bald head. "Yeah, abouts dat…umm… your favorite one is gone. Sorry, cup man."

Suisho blinked. "What do you mean, it's gone? I had both of them reserved for today!"

Carl sweated, darting his beady eyes. "A higher authority came by, let's say, flashing a pin shinier than yours from the crab place. They took one of the Kawasaki and haven't returned them yet. The sidecar too."

Lance widened eyes, remembering who had his pin. "Oh no…"

"Ugh, I can't believe this." Suisho lamented, folding arms. One thing was for Sanctuary to be a wretched hive of profligates, but their Gold Saints stole his vehicle too? "Well, where did the Cancer Temple take them to?"

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Meanwhile,

Winged Slopes

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Northeast of Sanctuary Town, to the east of the rugged hills and chasms flanking the Golden Zodiac mountain, lied the hilly, sloped terrain known as the Winged Slopes. The area took its name from the curvy, undulating lining that the heights shaped towards the mountains, giving it the appearance of wings from people arriving in Sanctuary Town from the higher passes or standing in the Twelve Temples. Rarely traversed or developed because of the tough, rocky ground, the Winged Slopes were home to some temporary Saint households, where Lance himself had resided in early on in his career. The area was also useful to train Cloth students that when, for some reason, the original Training Ground was unavailable, it was reserved by Masters to raise students. This was largely because it housed hazardous features and obstacles to practice the Cosmos against, including an old Symplegades quarry.

That day, however, a less traditional use was being given to the area's muddy roads, rocky slopes and chasms.

"WHOO-OOH!" Elda cried out, revving the motorbike and driving it straight off the large rock to the sandy mountain trails beneath. Albiore screamed in the side seat, covering his eyes, and the young girl laughed in happiness as the bike bumpers went up and down as it landed on the other side. "THIS! IS! AWESOME!"

"OH MY GOD, SLOW DOWN!" Albiore screamed, too terrified to uncover his eyes. "YOU'RE GONNA GET US KILLED!" Albiore gathered all his courage to peek out, but screamed again when he realized Elda was driving them straight towards an even wider mountain chasm. "AH, STOP! LOOK OUT!"

Squinting, Elda focused and aimed their speeding vehicle for the protruding, angled spot in the edge, launching both of them high into the air! "YIPPE KAY A-!"

A blue beam of light suddenly slammed them both in mid-air, catching the entire motorbike in full throttle and taking it down to ground level, startling the kids more than any drop down the chasm could. The two kids shook back and forth with the stoppage of forces and only barely recovered to see Cassiopeia Cynthia turn the keys to shut off their engine, grab both of them by the nape and toss them to the ground.

A porcelain mask stared down on them as the two kids yelped. "ELDA! ALBIORE! EXPLAIN!"

The girl paled. "Ooops…"

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Later,

Sanctuary Town

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"Suisho… I am so…so…so sorry." Cynthia begged, holding Elda and Albiore by the napes to him. "I am absolutely mortified over what happened. I have never imagined in my life these two could have gotten their hands on a Golden pin! I hope you can forgive them for what happened. They're just children. KIDS, apologize now!"

Elda was pushed forward first, being the primary culprit. Her eyes teared. "I am very… very sorry! Please don't put us in the Coliseum."

Albiore, by contrast, was a mess of tears, feeling like he was dragged against his will to all this. "I didn't mean to do this! I didn't even want to be part of it! Please forgive me."

Elda widened her eyes. "HEY, ask forgiveness for us both!"

Albiore pushed her. "You shut UP! If you hadn't badgered me into it, I wouldn't have followed you to make sure you didn't get anyone killed! This is all your fault!"

"Badgered you?! You TRAITOR!" Elda screamed, launching at him.

"HEY, HEY, knock it off!" Lance shouted, pushing them apart.

"Unbelievable. They're lucky they aren't in the Underworld yet. I'd teach them a lesson they'd never forget." Suisho thought, nostalgic for the cauldrons of boiling blood. "Cynthia, it's okay. At least they didn't crash."

Cynthia breathed out. "Thank you so much." To Lance, however, she had different words. "Saint Pegasus, I realize you've just gone through something very traumatic, but… how could you have trusted a child such as Elda with your training Gold Pin? That is such a serious fallacy I can't believe it even from you!"

Lance irked. He tried to speak, but lacked words to explain this terrible situation, especially considering this was Cynthia, an Amazon he actually respected, laying it down to him.

Cynthia tapped her foot. "I don't wish to blame you entirely for this, but the fact is, Elda wouldn't have gotten as far as she did without your pin. That was incredible irresponsible of you. They could have gotten themselves killed."

Somehow, her politeness to him made him feel even more humiliated, though. "I… I take full responsibility." He eyed Elda, feeling betrayed she used his pin like this. The young girl staggered with his look, as she should. "I gave it to Elda, so it's my fault. Still, I would like for her to keep it for now."

Cynthia's masked face retreated like she took a punch. "What? What for?"

Lance took Elda's hand and pressed the pin in her palm, letting her know just how mad he was by squeezing it tight. "I had my reasons to give it to her that have nothing to do with her mistake. Besides, I know she won't do this again… right?"

Elda sniffed, mortified by Saint Lance's red, angry stare. Was her chance to join gold rank training now gone? "R-Right! I swear to every god in Olympus I won't! Cross my heart and hope to die!"

Albiore watched Saint Lance turn away, looking horribly disappointed. He bumped Elda's elbow. "I hope you enjoyed your ride, Elda! Look at what you've done!"

"O-Oh, S-SHUT U-UP!" she cried, covering her face. Somehow, Saint Lance's anger had been even worse than her Master's. "Everyone's already mad at me, isn't that what you wanted?! So, leave me alone already, okay?!"

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Accompanying the two Saints out of Sanctuary Town after leaving the two children with Shinta, Cyntha felt there was no end to how much she could still ask for forgiveness. "I'll pay for the extra time they spent on the bikes, Sui, don't worry."

Garuda Aiacos irked, and pretended to smile. "No worries, Cynthia. They're children. It happens."

"I didn't think that Albiore one would go along with all this, honestly." Lance confessed. The look on Shinta's face when they brought the two of them over was one like he had rarely seen in the boy outside of some horrible Specter ambush attack. "He always seemed the quiet type to me."

Cynthia sighed sadly, being relatively familiar with Al's background. "It's the quiet ones that usually have the most deep inside to surprise you with, Pegasus. You should know that. And Albiore comes from a war-torn home."

It all clicked together for Lance at this. "Oh. So, he's stressed about all this talk in town of the Holy War."

"And with the moving from the Training Ground to Sanctuary Town, and with his Master being attacked so frequently, etcetera, etcetera." Cynthia listed. She folded arms and sighed. "It's really a wonder he's managed to not act up till now. I think Al' understands even better than Elda what's coming down the road for everyone and probably got swept along with her just to feel like a kid again."

This made enough sense to Lance. He was twice their age and felt like so much was on his shoulders, even without his crusade project. "It's true he could have stopped her at any time, or called Shinta…"

"But he didn't." Sui pointed out, silently fuming about all the dirt scratches in his favorite motorbike. "And that makes him just as complicit."

The inflexibility took Lance a bit by surprise. "Geez. I thought Cynthia was the harsh one."

"I know, Sui, I'm also very disappointed in him." Cynthia assured. Elda certainly had a few drills waiting for her when her main punishment was done. "Especially with Shinta getting ready to be tested at the Zodiac. The timing couldn't be worse. The last thing he needs is to be seen as a bad teacher."

"Speaking of that, do we have a date set?" Lance asked. "I want to try to be present there to cheer him on and not away on a mission."

The masked Amazon widened her eyes, surprised at the open show of kindness. Pegasus had changed, hadn't he?

Yet, she shook her head. "Not yet, but soon. Give it about a week or two, likely at the Coliseum event that's going to take place soon. The Zodiac told him they are just waiting for a couple of special judges to arrive. Don't worry, though, Pegasus. Shinta knows you have his back on this. I think at this point, you being there would just make him more nervous."

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Heading outside Rodario with their motorbikes, Suisho shook his head. "Unbelievable. That was a giant waste of time. Pegasus, why did you leave your gold pin of all things with that girl?"

The Pegasus Saint groaned. Was he still on about it? It's not like Lance had ever thought Elda would rent a damn motorbike with it. "Well, then again, maybe I should have."

Sui continued. "I mean, what did you think would happen if that girl and her friend had gotten a bike sooner somehow and were allowed to just stroll into the Andromeda Island volcanoes?"

This made Lance's face warm up. Sometimes he forgot not every kid was set loose in theirs to survive on their own like he was, but Sui was being a bit annoying. "It's Sanctuary Town, man. Also known from ancient times as Boringopolis, Greece. The place is packed up and there's not a lot to do around here except training and hiking. Even the movie theater by the dock is subject to content restrictions."

"Uh, tell me about it." Sui admitted, his temper cooling. He even laughed, recalling the first time he snuck into their projector booth. "Back in the day some guys I knew used to smuggle dirty movies into that place. Me and Yushira would take some and load them up just to startle all those old stiffs in the seats watching old WW2 reels."

Lance snickered, a gesture he found odd in himself. It sounded like a good time, though. "I'd think that'd be something your sister would do."

The Crateris shrugged. "Yeah. We used to have more in common when we were kids…"

"Mm, you did, uh?" Lance took notice, remembering the two could not be less alike nowadays. The Pegasus Saint stopped when they were far away enough from the town walls. He had never ridden a motorbike before and was lost, staring at the mess of dials. He figured the first step was to put the key in its ignition and turn, which he did, causing the Kawasaki to rumble so loudly, he almost jumped. "W-Woah!"

"Take it easy with it at first. You're probably not used to the lightness." Suisho advised, showing by example how he balanced himself on his Kawasaki. "Still, back to giving the pin to that kid, I didn't expect that from you. Why her?"

Lance tested the pedals, trying to get used to how the engine reacted. He did like the rumbling a lot. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's Cancer-kinship, or the fact we share an element, but I see myself a lot in Elda. She's like a little…"

"Fem-Lance?" the Crateris mocked.

The Pegasus grumbled. "I suppose. Please don't call her that, though. It sounds terrible. But yeah, goofing off to the mountains and getting some adrenaline going is probably the exact kind of thing I'd do, if I was her age right now."

Suisho shook his head at the childishness. "Bah. What a waste of time…Somehow it does fit you perfectly."

Lance squinted. Maybe Yushira was right about her brother being uptight. "Christ, what kind of childhood did you have, then? You're telling me that you grew up in the Muvian Colonies and never went to explore the mountains up there?!"

Suddenly, Suisho went quiet, staring out.

Lance waved his hand at him. "Sui'? Hey, are you listening?"

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"Aiacos….Lord… Aiacos…"

Child Suisho stared into the hoods, hearing the dark, lonely voice. He had distanced himself from his village to follow a rabbit and suddenly began hearing it coming from the trees, in the direction where the old 'Ship of Hope' had been resurrected during the last Holy War.

Tentatively, he called back. "Who… who's there?!"

"H-Help me… Lord Aiacos…!"

The black-haired boy gulped and approached the trees, but the closer he got, the weaker the voice calling to him sounded, like it was distancing itself. "Do you need help? Who's out there?! I'll call my mom and dad! Just say something!"

"N-No…It has…to be you! Don't you… remember?" the female voice repeated, now sounding merely like a echo. "It's…so cold here. I've been here for so long! S-SAVE ME! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD! PLEASE!"

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The Crateris Saint blinked and held his head, groaning. "I, ahem,…I didn't have time for those things. Those were Yushira's hobbies, not mine. She always loved to step out of bounds and get herself in trouble. Setting the village pigs loose and all that." He put his helmet on and fixed it around chin. "I, on the other hand, always focused hard on training and studying so I could become a strong Saint and leave that place."

Now that he realized, Lance didn't know much about Yushira and Suisho's past. "You didn't like home, uh?"

The Silver Saint showed Pegasus how to use the pedal with a smooth stepping that made his bike practically sing. "Nope. To be frank, I don't consider it 'home' anymore. I was happy when we moved out of Ruby to Sanctuary Town."

"Ruby? Oh, right, it's a Muvian village so it must be named after its household gem." Lance thought. "Why did you move here, anyway?" Lance attempted. Suisho for some reason seemed more open than normal. "Personally, I hate this place. I try to stay as far away from it as I can."

The youth's blue eyes fixed on him tensely. Had Lance stepped out of line? "We came here for the same two reasons most people come to Sanctuary. Our parents died and I unlocked the Cosmos." He strapped helmet on with fury, like he was angry at the plastic lock. "And it was all Yushira's fault."

Lance staggered. This was a bit more information than he expected to get. "Christ. Their parents died because of her? So, there IS bad blood between them. I better not ask about it anymore for now." Above everyone he knew how annoying it was when people prodded into your past. "I don't think Elda is that type. And with everything being so chaotic for the kids lately, I'm not surprised they're acting up, either. War is coming, they're losing their Training Grounds… and they're probably wondering what Sanctuary is going to do with them."

"Mm, I suppose that makes sense." Suisho admitted. "Well, if you must know, Sanctuary does have a plan for them. They're likely going to put them all in Palaestra."

Lance widened his eyes. "Palaestra?"

"Yes, it's an old, fortified school establishment located in the middle of the Forest of Death's lake to the west, not far from the Golden Zodiac." Suisho explained. "It was built during Sanctuary's old Imperial period, to train vast numbers of Cosmos users for massive war efforts. Not only is it heavily fortified, but the only access to it is a single stone bridge across a lake that is almost a deathtrap for attackers by itself. You've never been there, Pegasus?"

Lance sweated. "They're going to put a bunch of kids next to a place called 'the Forest of Death'?"

Suisho shrugged. "Don't look at me. I didn't name the place."

Lance held the bike still to question him further. "I've always been told anything beyond the Fire Clock was owned by the Amazons and didn't want to get shot in the ass with an arrow just to check out the sights. Now you're telling me there's a big fortress there this whole time?"

"Yushira can tell you later more about the location, since you've become such a buddy of hers. It's where she says she defeated the Cyclops False Specter, after all." Sui mentioned, smirking mockingly. "The high point of her career, if any of it is true."

Lance sweated. "He keeps bringing her up to demean her. Did Yushira really get their parents killed? God, that must be horrible to think about your own sibling…"

"Anyway, let's go. We got a long drive to France to get us practicing these bikes." Sui led, gesturing which handles to turn and which pedals to press on. "When we get there, I want you riding that thing so smoothly that Olivia will swoon at the sight of you riding to her school to pick her up."

Despite the darkness in his earlier thoughts, the Pegasus Saint couldn't help but laugh a bit now. "That does sound like a good motivation for me to learn." He sighed, glancing at the mountains. The ones in Greece were very different from the Alps, being browner and not as snowy, but he still pictured her in that academy, surrounded by them. "I hope I get to see her soon. I wonder if she misses me as much as that letter said. Maybe I can ask Sui to speed this Knight-Girl business along so I can go see her? At the very least, it's going to give me a crazy story to share with Olivia about the vigilante girl I had to arrest."

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Chapter 99

Third Arc

Episode 25

Chasing the Knight

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That night,

Belgium, Central Bank

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The large building housing the bank shook when the wall facing the get-away vehicle exploded from the inside, sending bricks flying everywhere. People screamed and shouted as a group of armed men exited the interior, carrying sacks full of gold bars that they lifted over their bodies with the mysterious power of the Cosmos.

"Muhahaha, this Fire Energy is awesome!" the ringleader, a man in a black suit with a fedora hat and gloves gloated, following behind and showing his hand shining with Cosmos. "Did you see that, losers?! I, Tommy-Tank, was able to rip open that thick safe with one hand!"

"We don't even needed explosives for that now, it's great!" an underling gloated. He pointed his machine gun at the streets and opened fire, sending the people in the street running. "And if the cops show up, the boss can just blow THEM up, too!"

"Yes, thanks to my mighty Fire Energy, I will become rich! No, I will become king of the whole world!" He spread out his arms triumphantly as he jumped into their car and it drove off. "This planet is mine for the taking! Nothing can stop me anymor-"

Suddenly, something large, leathery and heavy crashed into the front of the car, smashing the engine in. The vehicle swerved hard, screeching its tires, and crashed against a warehouse wall, rocking them.

The criminals climbed out of the fuming building, coughing and bleeding. The driver saw a black-armored, large man with green mohawk bruised and passed out over their car. "That's… that's Jessie, our contact with Hans Sargasso! W-WHO THE HELL TOSSED HIM INTO MY RIDE?!"

"It was I!"

The leather-clad robbers halted, their heads swerving left and right. "What? Who's there?!"

One of the henchmen pointed his machine gun up. "L-Look, boss! UP IN THAT BUILDING!"

The group turned up to see a slender, long-haired figure standing over the building's edge, silhouetted by the moon. Their long, black strands danced in the currents along with the silky edges of their short skirt and their hands rested heroically on their thin waist.

The person pointed down at them. "Evil-doers, you have crossed the line of justice for the last time! Surrender now or prepare to meet your end at the hands of…" Then the figure struck a pose, lighting leg and spreading arms like an owl about to take off. "… KNIGHT-GIRL!"

The robbers lowered their weapons, exchanging confused looks.

"What? Night Girl? Is she a prostitute or somethin'?" the driver asked. "Boss, I thought the party was only after we reached the docks!"

The figure above gawked, turning red.

"You idiots! Didn't you hear her?! That ain't no 'hoar! It's one of those Sanctuary cops that Jack warned us about!" Tommy-Tank reached under their smashed seat, pulled out the rocket launcher and pointed it at the figure to pull the trigger, launching the missile. "BLAST HER TO PIECES!"

Snapping out with a burst that wrecked the building edge she stood on, the figure jumped high, escaping the impact point of the rocket on the building's roof. Assault rifles opened fire along with the explosion, filling the night sky with incendiary rounds glazing past the cartwheeling stranger,

She descended on them through the firing like a shadow with a martial shout and a swing of her armored foot, striking the first gunman hard enough in the face to twist it aside and send him flying into another, crashing them into the lamppost by the gawking ringleader.

The stranger landed, striking another pose of clenching her right fist up and holding an open left palm by her waist, and the light of the collapsing lamppost revealed her appearance; a young woman of eyes clad in a half mask vaguely shaped like an owl's visage, possessing a blue tiara that protected her ears with wing-shaped covers. Her pointy shoulder pads flanked a very light blue small breastplate clad with a sapphire gem while her forearm guards covered gloves and white fabric going up to her shoulder. Her fault and thigh plates covered a silky white skirt going half-way down her thighs, while her legs and knees were clad in elegant boots and covers with short heels, toe reinforcements in the vague shape of hooves and small pair of wings on each ankle.

It was an altered, lightened version of the Equuleus Cloth that emphasized protection on parts of her body where guns would likely point at, all while giving Olivia the heroic aesthetic and disguise she needed to strike fear and mystery into the hearts of villains.

"You committed the gravest of evils, using your blessing of the cosmos to hurt the innocent and fulfill your greed!" She accused, staring with a merciless glare of blue. "Surrender now, in the name of Athena! Or suffer the same fate your armed friends have!"

The ringleader tossed out his missile launcher. "W-What is this, a joke?!" And pulled out a gigantic minigun, opening a blaze of fire immediately. "TAKE THIS BITCH! FEEL THE POWER OF MY FIRE ENERGY!"

Igniting her cosmos, Knight-Girl Olivia dashed straight into the blaze of bullet fire, dodging every single shot. Her hands burned with energy and slammed the minigun's tip, lifting it up to point the firing away from the streets before taking it out of Tommy-Tank's hands and swerving it hard like a giant club to his chest, sending him flying over his wrecked car.

Dropping the massive gun, Knight-Girl stomped its crank, snapping it off. "It's over! Surrender now, or prepare to be defeated by the brilliance of the stars themselves!"

"Oh, shut up, you harlot! BURN, MY FIRE ENERGY!" Tommy-Tank roared, getting back up with a blaze of power. He lifted clench fists high to prepare himself to slam them on the ground and cause a massive tremor. "I will destroy this entire CITY before I let some two-bit comic book bitch take me in! TAKE THI-"

"SHOOTING STAR FIST!" Knight-Girl cried out, unleashing the barrage of confusing cosmos shots at the man's exposed chest. Tommy-Tank screamed, blasted head to toe by the dazzling display of blunt, circumventing attacks. With a gasp of pain, the ringleader collapsed, his suit torn to shreds and his body cratered and smoking. Olivia wiped her sweat. "It's done… And it's called 'Cosmos', not 'Fire Energy'."

A flash of a camera went off nearby. "Ma'am! Ma'am!"

Olivia irked and picked up the large man, lifting him over her small body as amateur photographers swarmed the area. She also heard the sound of sirens. "Things are getting noisy here. I'll just leave this guy near the Sanctuary outposts and speed back to the Academy." She took one of Cerah's lightcrafted bombs of light that she used when they first met. "FLASH GRENADE!"

Launching the package of condensed light cosmos, Olivia allowed it to burst in the air, blinding the photographers briefly. With a burst of cosmos, she then took off, disappearing from the city before their sights recovered.

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

Meanwhile,

France, Strasbourg

Sanctuary "Rhine River" base

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

"I'm telling you, man, this whole story has been a total embarrassment for the Europe Phalanx!" Gerard Hermès, a hoplite captain in his early thirties heading the local Sanctuary base told Suisho and Lance. "This Black Saint lady has been leaving every creep, crook, vandal, vagabond, murderer, stabber, mobster, gangster, cockfighter, kidnaper, mugger, smuggler, robber, puncher, rapist, contrabandist, arsonist, pimp, gimp and simp with access to cosmos from La Rochelle to Dresden in our doorstep! We can't even fit them in our jail anymore! Who does she think she is?!"

Suisho took notes on everything, while Lance just stood there stunned. Was this guy seriously complaining that someone was doing his job for him? "Do we have any leads on how to find her? Or who she is?"

The Frenchman shrugged and reached for a stack of small papers in his desk. "We got her calling cards. That's it. She's been leaving them at the scene to try to convince us she's on our side, or something."

The two Saints took looks. It was a series of carefully cut cards with an owl-eye mask painted on them and an inscription in French. It read "Au nom de la lune! Le Femme Chevaliére à votre service!"

Sui blinked. "It says 'In the name of the moon'? What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's a good thing the MMC finally decided to send you guys! My commander has been calling us non-stop asking why a Black Saint is doing our job for us!" Hermés continued, oblivious to the disgust he was inspiring in Saint Pegasus' face. "I keep telling him, how are we supposed to keep this region safe if you take two thirds of my guys to Peloponnesia?! It's insane!"

One of the men attending the phones raised his hand. "Captain? We just received another call. Knight-Girl just left the scene in Brussels."

All three of them perked up. "What?!"

"She took out Tommy-Tank, a gangster recently classified as a Black Saint." The soldier confirmed. "Our guys in the area took him in, but she's gone from the area. Once again, no bounty has been claimed."

Hermès gritted his teeth and turned to the Saints. "Do you see that?!

Lance tensed. "Yeah? And?"

Suisho sweated, predicting what was about to happen. "Oh boy…"

The captain turned to him like the teenager just asked if the Pope shat in the woods. "Don't you see how she's making us all look bad?! That Saintia-cosplayer doesn't even claim her bounties! Pretty soon Sanctuary will decide WE don't need pay to do our job, either!"

The Pegasus pointed at the hoplites on the desk taking calls and staring at the TV. "I count one, two, three, four jackoffs just sitting there doing nothing! You're telling me one girl in a costume can take care of all those problems for you and you guys can't?!"

"It's a big region we watch over, Pegasus! Pretty much a third of Europe! That's about the population of the United States, to give you a faint idea. Try watching out for Black Saints in all that! It's not as simple to work out for us as putting some skimpy clothes on to go out at night and assaulting these gangsters extrajudicially!"

"Extrajudicially?! We're fucking Sanctuary, not the Beverly Hills cops!" Lance pointed out. He raised arms at the building around them, which wasn't legally supposed to exist. "This ENTIRE BASE is extrajudicial! You're supposed to go after these guys using cosmos illegally with no concern for those things. What do you have your cosmos sensitivity and training for if not for-"

"Pegasus, STOP IT! Not now!" Suisho warned, gripping his shoulder.

The Bronze Saint growled, but went quiet.

Hermès narrowed eyes and scoffed. "I've heard about you, Pegasus. The guys told me you were a rotten apple. I can see why, now. Saint Crateris, do me a favor and rid my base of your partner, before I file a report to Sanctuary on him for vocally defending a Black Saint."

"Right. Thank you anyway, lieutenant Hermès." Sui dragged the fuming Lance out.

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

Meanwhile,

Saintia Academy

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

With a leap from the fence, the armored girl dashed past the plaza, sticking to the shadows. When a strange noise was heard, like the growl of a Saint attacking from above, she froze, braking her feet in the soft grass and diving into the garden bushes.

The sound echoed from above, snoring.

Olivia blinked, realizing the source of it was the figure lying on its back over the West Hall roof.

Cancer Deathmask snored loudly, splattered over his watch post. He fidgeted with a dream, making soft gestures with his wrists like he was turning something away. "No, principesca. I don't want to eat spaghetti no more. I want to kiss you…Mm, no, not there…"

Olivia covered her mouth, giggling at herself. What a relief. She wasn't caught after all. With a light burn of cosmos, she dashed off, swerving undetected over the hall and towards the side of the building. Finding the right window, which she had left unlocked, she gently pushed it open and jumped in, entering her room.

"Phew. That was close." She blessed herself, dropping her butt onto her soft bed and cleaning a sweat bead off her forehead. All the muscles in her body felt like the densest of leads, but at least this final part of the night went smoothly. "Still, it doesn't set me at ease that I was able to just sneak past our supposed guardian like that. What if I was someone attacking the academy?" Searching for her bedside table lamplight with her fingers, she clicked its button to turn it on. "And wasn't there a second Gold Saint in the academy anyw-"

The opening light revealed Cerah Heloise sitting in Olivia's desk chair, arms folded and tapping her foot. The senior screamed, startled!

"Miss Iraklidis?" one of the teachers patrolling the hall outside called, hearing her. It was Sybill, the Astrology teacher, who frequently volunteered for night watch thanks to her famous insomnias. "Is everything okay, dear? I heard you scream. Why do I see your light on?"

"E-Everything's alright, professor Sybill! I just had a nightmare." The senior girl waited until the professors' footsteps became distant, then turned to her junior. "Cerah, you scared me to death!"

The blonde girl, however, was uncharacteristically stern. "Miss Olivia, you promised you wouldn't stay out past midnight."

The Equuleus Saintia sweated, wondering if this was what it was like to have a mother around as a teenager. She began discarding her armor pieces to the bed. "I know. I didn't mean to. Security has increased a lot, so I had to journey back at slow speeds. I also had to chase a bad guy much further north than I initially thought."

The Zodiac Knight breathed out to gather her understanding and patience, but that had been an awful night. She thought several times that miss Olivia had been killed, or worse.

Scanning her senior, she saw the light cracks all over her Knight-Girl Equuleus suit. "Alright… let's take a look at your armor. Emission Lenses!"

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

Strasbourg

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

Once they were out of the building in the crowded streets of Strasbourg, Suisho did something he didn't think he'd ever have to do unironically; defend Sanctuary. "Pegasus, it's not productive for me when you antagonize the people that we're supposed to be helping like that. Right or wrong, these are our comrades. Taking a potential Black Saint's side over them isn't exactly a good gesture for you to ingratiate yourself with the army."

The Bronze Saint groaned, but nodded along anyway. "I'm not taking her side, she can go to hell, too, for all I care! That guy was just really pissing me off! I've never heard anyone talk so arrogantly about their work! He clearly treats this base like his turf, not his responsibility!"

"Regardless of whether you agree or not, I will have respect and obedience from my underlings, understand?" Sui requested. He saw Lance raise a brow and collected himself. "I mean… my mission partners. That's what I meant. Remember what we agreed on when we met?"

While Lance thought Sui took the group discipline a bit too seriously, he didn't really have a problem with it. "Yes, I remember. All you ask is for your partners to stick to the orders."

"And it's not much to ask, is it?" the Nepalese pointed out, tapping foot. "Now, if we cooperate with the hoplites here, instead of antagonizing them, we can track down this girl playing super hero before she gets herself branded as a Black Saint. That makes sense, doesn't it?"

Lance groaned. Suisho didn't have to rub it in his face. "Yes, it does."

As they returned to their motorbikes, Sui decided to break to him the next piece of news. "Now, you might have missed it from the way you were fuming at Hermès back there, but the calling card had a hint to Knight-Girl's identity."

Lance perked up. "Seriously?"

Suisho flashed the card again, showing its text. "Le Femme Chevaliére, à votre service. Roughly meaning 'The Knight-Girl, at your service'. A line written in typical French likely meant for the hoplites here to understand it, except for one thing; it's written in the manner of the Swiss to mean 'you're welcome' or 'it's nothing', while typically the people of France will say 'de rien'."

The Pegasus Saint held his chin. "So… she could be a Saintia."

Suisho stored the cards. "And definitely NOT my sister. Yushira is a lot of things, but a francophone she is not."

"Crap. I was sure it had to be her. But then, who? It's probably a Saintia, but…" Hope swelled in Lance's chest suddenly, making a smile form in his face. "So… should we head south? To the Academy?"

"Sorry to break it to you, Pegasus, but you're not going to see your girlfriend just yet. A couple of guys like us will hardly get permission to run our noses into the Saintia Academy and its students' private affairs without hard proof, after all." Suisho argued, dropping a bucket of cold water on Lance's hopes. "But it does mean this person's activity will be confined to anything within supersonic reach of the local region. Furthermore, the 'in the name of the moon' line might indicate she's an Artemis cultist."

The Bronze Saint, however, squinted skeptically. "Isn't that just a comic book line this person chose for themselves? Or something a Saintia might say?"

"Please, Pegasus, get serious." Sui scoffed, folding arms. "Are we living in a comic book world, by any chance?"

"I guess not…" And as far as Lance was concerned, this deduction of Sui was better than nothing. He rose his brow. "How do you know so much about the French? I mean, let's face it, I'm the European between the two of us."

Sui sighed. It was because Rhadamanthys, proud Englishman he was, wouldn't shut up about them being inferior, which automatically made Aiacos curious about their culture.

Still, he gave his fake 'good Saint' reason. "France is home to many Sanctuary colonists. A lot of Saints I've met throughout the years come from here and there's a long history of them influencing French sensitivities, and vice-versa." He smirked. "Never heard of Saint Joan D'Arc?"

"I was thinking more of someone contemporary to us, like Camus, really. So, this superhero girl could be the daughter of some Sanctuary colonist living in the area, not a Saintia?" Lance thought to himself. Still, it was a good thing they were making progress on this case so quickly. "Hey, Suisho, speaking of that, though, maybe if we get this girl taken in quickly enough, I was hoping we could get started on the other project."

Suisho rose brow. "Which is?"

Lance grumbled. Was his squad leader asleep on the job, too? "Sui! That freaking Atlae guy that attacked us!"

The Silver Saint gulped. "Oh,… right."

The Pegasus was agape. "What, were you just going to let all of that go?!"

Once again, Suisho gritted his teeth. "Great, now this! How do I change his mind?" He tried to think of a way to dissuade Lance, but he knew by now he was as stubborn as a winged mule. "That is probably not a good idea to pursue right now, Pegasus. Remember, the guy was after you. And you're going to give the Specters what they want by snooping around after this Muvian?"

"YES, because right now I'm the only one who has the faintest clue how he fights!" Lance pointed out. "He kicked you out of the battlefield right away, so you didn't watch it all go down, but you should have seen him battle; he burns cosmos in a completely unorthodox way, carries some kind of monster cloth and he can use 'Chi', a power I've been taught is the antithesis of being a Specter! He can't be allowed to run loose!"

"And yet, Saint Leo was able to save your life from him. Quite expediently from what I was told." Suisho mentioned, making Lance irk. "I also doubt those Specters are going to come after you again now that the Gold Saints are keeping such a close eye on you, which, by the way, I was VERY surprised about."

The Pegasus Saint looked away. "R-Right… that is because… um…." The Pegasus Saint clenched his fists. "D-Damn it, he makes a good point, but this doesn't feel right! That attack on Andromeda Island was all way too bizarre and perfect! Even without Atlae, there were the other two Specters, Grim and Yeti, to worry about. I don't understand how Sui' can just sit quietly here and not try to find out what hole that guy crawled out of! And what will happen if I go through with my project to attack the Underworld and I run into that Muvian again with no back-up?!" He shook in anger. "Is this all I can really do, with this 7th sense of mine and this Cloth?! Just sit around with Sui' and watch the planet boil into Holy War?! I feel so powerless!"

All that bravado of his telling Malta how he planned to attack the Underworld, and now the sheer force of circumstances was putting him locked in the rear seat of the car like a naïve child who thought they could drive, instead. This couldn't be, after all he went through with the False Specters.

The Crateris Saint frowned, seeing him unconvinced. By Pandora, what would take him to shut up and move on?

Suisho frowned, but patted his shoulder. "I know how you feel, man. Sometimes we just have to take things slow and humbly if we want to get back in the saddle and do good by those we care about." He should know, after all; he's been putting up with these filthy Saints for years so he could have Violante back. If only Pegasus knew how childish the silent tantrum on his face looked. He folded his arms. "I mean, what's the alternative, after all? Us storming the Underworld ourselves, like myth warriors of old? Ha, ha, come on. Even you don't-"

Lance's red eyes suddenly locked with his, sharpening like Sui' just presented a clear target for his Charge Fist technique.

The Crateris staggered. "It wasn't a serious suggestion…Come on."

Lance stared for a solid ten seconds, like a boy whose opportunity to get a prize had just passed by, then nodded in acceptance. He got on his Kawasaki. "Right…"

Suisho had to sit on his bike as well and awe at the Saint next to him. "What an insane bastard. Did he really take that suggestion seriously?!" Turning the engine on, he then laughed and tried to joke "Yeah, you're pretty good, Pegasus, but you wouldn't last ten seconds in that barrier of theirs. Besides, the last thing we need is another vigilante."

"He might be right, but I still set my mind to this. There's no way I'm leaving this Atlae stone unturned." Lance thought to himself. Things seemed to be going crazy all over, but at least there was one shiny thing in his life that seemed pretty safe for now. "At least Olivia would never think of pulling stuff like this Knight-Girl shit. The nice thing about her is that she's way smarter than any Saint I've met combined."

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

Saintia Academy,

Olivia's room

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

Olivia watched in fascination as Cerah ignited her fingers with cosmos and began separating the layers of her cracked greave, showing the source of the damage as being a spot that a hardened rock missile had penetrated. One of the Black that Saint Olivia had fought recently enjoyed blasting bricks to pieces and tossing them like canister shots at his enemies with his bare hands in battle, using cosmos to make them into deadly pellets. One of them had clearly cracked through the outer layer of the greave and miss Olivia risked having it be blasted open in her next encounter, unless it was fixed.

With concentration, the blonde Zodiac Knight activated her Light Craft and projected it out to affect the Equuleus Cloth. Olivia noticed that it made her Sapphire Stone shine, indicating that, somehow, Cerah was communicating with it to instruct it how to change. Marvelously, spots around the cracked inner layer began shining and weaving together like threads of light, mending the crack. They heated down, leaving behind a mended piece. Cerah took a breath like she just ran a lap around the gym from this. Then, she moved on to a second piece and repeated the process.

Olivia frowned self-consciously, watching the alarm clock tick to two am. Cerah was only a third of the way done so far. "I am so sorry, Cerah."

The blonde girl smiled warmly without turning her green eyes shining with Emission Lenses off of her work. "No, I'm just happy you are okay."

The senior held her chest, realizing that under her unassuming looks, Cerah was a secret master of torturing you with guilt. "Are you sure? Because you can scream at me if you want for forcing you to stay up late working on my Cloth."

The smaller girl nodded, turning the greave over to work on the cushioning. "I am, I am! This has been a good opportunity to practice my Lightcraft. I'm learning all sorts of crazy things about how to do it better." She picked it up and showed off the elegant curves of the Equuleus knee cover. "See how pretty the ornaments on this are, without getting in the way of the weight balance? The Zodiac Knights sure knew how to design great armor pieces! I'm so jealous…"

There it was, the silent sigh at the end. Olivia slumped her head, ashamed of herself. "Thank you so much for being my friend in all this, Cerah. I know how insane this all is, and I will never forget what you're doing now."

Cerah paused her work, cooling her fingers down, to turn to her senior. "You sound so serious, but ultimately, you're doing a good thing, right? I've been reading about it on the news, how you keep busting bad guys that Sanctuary can't catch on their own. Everyone is talking about Knight-Girl. People at school are even wondering if it's someone here." She chuckled and returned to the welding. "It could be worse, right? The 'Marathoner' could have some grumpy guy in it with a thick moustache painting you as a menace. Instead, people are calling you a superhero. And it feels good to be a part of that."

She widened her eyes at the specificity, wondering if Cerah was sneaking some kind of joke just there. "Ah, that's a relief. The way you looked at me earlier, I thought I was about to face the wrath of the lost Zodiac Knights from one of my own juniors."

Sparks went off right in Cerah's face as her fingers meld the metal fibers back together. "…My Prismatic Storm is meant to protect, miss Olivia, not punish. It's what my first teacher trained me to do with it."

What a terrifyingly vague statement, one that implied Cerah reserved other techniques for such a purpose. "Trained you to protect that woman, Eurydice, right?"

The mention of the Nymph alone made Cerah's lips curve up. "Yes." She paused again, looking up. "I think that's why I am okay with what you're trying to do, miss Olivia. I only found myself when my teacher first trusted that I could do that, putting my life on the line for someone else, that is. For the first time in my life, I realized I was worth something to someone, and Eurydice has never let me forget it."

Olivia noticed something odd in her words. "Don't you mean… your first teacher never let you forget it?"

Cerah turned away briefly, looking pained, then smiled back as frankly as she managed. "No. I know what I said."

"I see. There's some pain there, too, isn't there, Cerah?" Olivia realized. Now that she thought of it, she never got a straight story out of her about who this 'underworld teacher' was and what went down between them. "Your missing sister, your dead people, your mysterious teacher, your friends hurt in battle… all sources of grief, and now I'm adding on to it, aren't I?"

Putting the boot back together, Cerah laid it out, looking proud. "There, good as new!"

Olivia took it and admired its polished surface. "Thank you so much! It looks even better than before." With a touch on the gem around her neck, she made it disappear into particles and return to her Sapphire Stone. "Soon enough, you'll be as good as a Muvian blacksmith, Cerah."

The girl scratched her head. "N-No, I'll never get there. I have no clue what to do with a Cloth that sleeps in a box, only the ones that sleep in stones."

"Speaking of sleep, you should get some." Olivia begged. She went for her closet. "I'll get a sleeping bag for myself, hold on. I have one from when my grampa used to take me hiking somewhere here that I can take…"

Cerah gasped. "What? No, I can't! This is your room! And your be-"

"Would you rather risk getting caught by our teachers running back to yours? You'll get Diana in trouble, too, since she's supposed to make sure you don't sneak out. It's safer if you stay here for the night, then sneak out when everyone starts moving through the halls." Olivia laid out the bag next to her own bed and sat on it, smiling. "Besides, I used to share this place with Anastasia, remember? It's no big deal for me. You're a bit too old for this kind of thing, but try to look at it as the childhood sleepover you never got."

Cerah teared up, touched. "Really?"

Olivia could tell from the look on Cerah's face that she landed on the perfect reward for the knight's loyalty, even though she didn't think at all Olivia deserved such excitement from the mere idea of a sleepover with her. "I don't have snacks or games, but I think we're both too close to passing out anyway to need any entertainment."

Trying to contain her excitement, the Zodiac Knight beamed and looked around as if she was unsure what to do in a princess' room or something. She approached the bed tentatively, as if it was the Queen of England's. "So… can I…?"

Olivia laughed and nodded. "Go ahead, knock yourself out."

"Oh, thank goodness!" And Cerah promptly went lights out, dropping into the soft bed and falling asleep immediately.

The Equuleus widened her eyes, seeing the blonde girl give out a light snore. "I didn't mean that literally. Boy, was she just pacing herself around here all these hours, running herself exhausted until I showed up? And then fixed my armor on top of it?" She pulled her sleeping bag's zipper up and got one of her old teddy bears to use as a pillow, another gift from her grampa. "Maybe Anastasia was right in a way, and I do use people. But Cerah's suffering is all the more reason I must fight as hard as I can in these outings, so I can discover whatever Galan says is at the end of this 'path of dirt'. I won't let it go to waste. Then, I'm sure of it,… I'll find what I am supposed to do."

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

The Next day,

Western Germany

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

Parking in a Sanctuary outpost in the Rhineland, Crateris Suisho and Pegasus Lance refueled their bikes and reviewed their notes for the mission. They spent the night investigating the old sites where Knight Girl was spotted at, but unfortunately all the Cosmos markings had dissipated by then, leaving them few clues other than what the hoplites gathered.

Still, as Suisho went to check with the soldiers at base and get them some food, Lance sat by a visitors' table in the motor park and laid out his map of the area, showing the lower Rhine region and the Dutch-German border, including towns and highways that Knight-Girl could have used to guide herself to cities. He was fairly sure she had to be a Silver-Ranker, which meant that, most likely, she used highways at night to travel more safely at supersonic speed and guide herself to where she wanted to go. Lance knew this because it was a tactic he and Shinta had employed sometimes. When you could move as fast as a car, there was no reason not to use infrastructure like one, after all.

He tapped the pen pensively, detecting an odd pattern. Picking up their squad radio, he tried to remember the frequency he and Shinta used to use to report their mission completion. He paid attention to their gibberish about clandestine activity, then compared them to the spots on the map he had marked with "KG". Before long, a realization formed in his mind…

Suisho returned from the station with coffee and snacks. "I got us some fuel for humans, too."

"Thanks." Lance took a sip without taking his eyes off the map and immediately felt his brain synapsis firing with the caffeine. He marked the location in the northwestern corner of Germany. "Got you!"

"Say, Pegasus, remember what we talked about yesterday? About your Golden Zodiac friends?" Sui asked, drinking his coffee.

Lance tapped his pencil on his lip, pensive, but tried to pay attention. "Mm, yeah. What about them?"

The secret Judge smirked. "Like I said, that really took me by surprise. I was just wondering what's the story behind that."

"Don't you already know? I spent a period training at the Cancer Temple." Lance responded, looking more focused on his map and notes than on the Judge's questioning. "Me and Shinta got to make a lot of friends there. People we still talk with nowadays."

The flat, uninterested explanation did not please the Lord of Antenora, who lurked closer. "Really? Saint Shinta, too? That explains it. I figured you were the anti-social type, like I said before, and yet they showed up like-"

Lance groaned, putting his pencil down. He wasn't about to talk about Saga and others like this, even to someone he's come to trust somewhat. "What's this really about, Sui? Do you want an 'in' on their training like Elda? Cause that one burned me pretty bad with them, for sure."

"Not exactly. I don't really need the training right now, but I would like a word in with them anyway, if you could." Aiacos responded, a bit ticked that this Bronze Saint was answering so impatiently. "You heard about the Coliseum event coming up later in June, correct? They pay well for Saints doing security for those. I was wondering if,… well, I'm embarrassed to ask but…"

The Pegasus Saint blinked. "You need the work?" He was frankly surprised, considering how well Sui managed the mission refunds. "Christ, you could have just said so. Is something the matter?"

Suisho smiled embarrassedly, scratching his head. "I'm trying to save some money up for the summer. I think pretty soon I'm going to make a big decision in my life. I've, well…-" he gently shook his coffee cup to appear distracted. "- got someone counting on me for the future."

Lance widened eyes. "Oh! Is he…?" He laughed. "Congratulations, Sui'! Does Yushira know you have someone?"

"Not yet. But soon." Sui alluded. He couldn't wait for the reveal, in fact. "In any case, could you talk to your friends to include me in a job? I wouldn't ask, but these high-security details give such good bonuses. It would make all the difference for me and Viola-" Sui closed his mouth with his hand, horrified.

"Oh, Viola? Is that her name?" Lance asked. He went back to scribbling on his map. "You don't have to act so embarrassed about it, you know? It's just a girl. Plus you know me and Olivia also are,… well, you know."

The Judge felt his blood grow cold. Thank the Emperor, he interrupted himself. Aiacos almost gave away the name of a famous Specter to Pegasus. "Right… ah, well, I am just trying to take it not for granted. Like you do with Olivia."

This made perfect sense for Lance. "Alright. Sure, I can talk with people at the Zodiac, but you know what they're like. They'll run a background check on you. Not that it should matter to you, but they can be really annoying and not get it done in time."

The Judge of the Underworld smiled ear to ear, inflating his chest. "No problem with me. They'll find my resumé completely sinless."

"You're probably right. Speaking of Olivia, though…" Lance scratched head, trying to find the best way to ask this. "Listen, Sui', is it okay if we try to deal with this Knight Girl affair as quickly as possible? Maybe even let me get off early? I'd really like to make a stop at the Saintia Academy on our way back to Sanctuary as soon as possible."

The Crateris Silver Saint gave a displeased face. "Why? What's the hurry that you need to cut this mission short?"

Lance groaned. "I'm not cutting it short. Also, what do you think my motive is? I've been in a coma for six weeks and I want to go see her." He sincerely hoped Sui' wasn't this way with this Viola girl. Plus, he was acting intransigent right after asking Lance a favor? The balls on this guy, sometimes. "Let's be honest, this Knight-Girl chick is probably someone we can lay flat in two seconds. You don't need a second Gold-Rank fighter past the point I help you corner them to deal with all the post-fact-reporting."

The Crateris Silver Saint scoffed. Who did this underling think he was? "Are you joking? Absolutely not."

The Pegasus Saint gawked. "What the fuck, Sui?! You literally just asked me a fav-"

"Pegasus, I know you don't give two bits about the hoplites looking bad, but this Knight-Girl affair has been causing some serious damage to the army's reputation." Aiacos could care less, either, but he was a professional spy, damn it, and he was going to play his part. "I've actually had to pull some strings to delay this as much as I have right now, because Iaso told us you were close to waking up and I wanted you to have an easy first job. Besides, it could take weeks for us to find this Black Sai-"

Before he finished his sentence, Lance ripped out a specific part of the map he was scribbling on, smacking it on the table. "She's in Emden!"

Sui blinked, stunned. "W…. What?!" He saw the map with arrows pointing at the small seaport in northwestern Germany. "How could you possibly…?!"

"Well, to be specific, she is going to be in Emden." The Pegasus Saint picked up his radio and began tuning it. He saw Sui stare at him. "Oh please, don't give me that look, Sui. You should know by now that this isn't my first rodeo. I looked up all the spots where the mission files say this Knight Girl has been spotted, because it baffled me that some rando girl just knew where every Black Saint from Paris to Berlin was active and at what point, and I realized that every time she showed up, it was within forty-eight hours of the activity being reported on the military channel."

Suisho picked up the notes and looked through them again. He squinted, detecting the same pattern that Pegasus spoke of. "By Hades, he's right. This profligate girl is listening in on Sanctuary's reports to know where to go! How did no one notice this sooner?" He turned up. "Pegasus, how did you even think of checking this? Only select soldiers have access to some of these frequencies we use."

Lance shrugged. Would Sui believe if he said this was sort of a personal fantasy of his own, too? "Well, I figured it's what I would do if I was some Sanctuary baby and decided to put a costume on and fight crime. Those jackasses reporting back how they can't send anyone to help always irritated me, talking about people having their lives ruined like it's nothing. And speaking of that, here."

"*gush* -re you certain?"

"Yes, sir, activity is rising in northwestern Germany. The Sargasso gang, which has ties to Jack the Saint-Killer, has been known to do business in the port of Emden. Over."

"*sigh* Chalk it up to another fire we can't put out. Not with all our men heading for Peloponnesia. I hate to say it, but maybe this Knight Girl will rid us of the Sargassos, too… Over."

Lance shut it off and put the radio back in the backpack, along with his map. "I'll bet you a million drachmas that's where we can find her next. She probably has no idea someone has figured her little shtick out already and is preparing to ambush the Black Saints already." He turned his bike back on. "When a Gold Rank shows up, this Knight Girl will stand absolutely zero chance."

"Mmm… alright. It's worth a look at least." Sui, however, narrowed eyes. "But you're still staying to finish the mission with me till the end, got it? No running off to the Academy until we have this girl behind bars!"

"Under-fucking-stood." Giving him the middle finger, Lance pressed his pedal and drove off, heading for the highway.

Suisho groaned. "Pegasus, stop!" As Lance braked his bike, he folded arms. "I'll tell you what. You show a bit more enthusiasm in all this, and I won't let you see your girlfriend just yet, but I WILL ask Nam about the Genbu Atlae thing. How about it?"

Lance grumbled. Between the two he definitely preferred to go see Olivia, but Sui was giving him a choice at least. "Okay, alright…But you BETTER ask him for real."

"Mm, I doubt these Sanctuary fools have any real intel anyway." Sui thought to himself. "Of course."

This sounded better than nothing. Lance smiled. "Excellent. Let's take this comic book idiot down, then!" and drove off again.

Sui followed suit, letting his Kawasaki join Lance's in a rumbling cacophony, though he eyed Pegasus for a second, stunned with how quickly he surmised a working theory on this problem. "Wow, he must really want to go see that Saintia ASAP." He scoffed, finding an ironic bit of syntony of motivation with Pegasus. "She must have promised him something quite special in that letter of hers."

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

Sanctuary,

Forest of Death

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

In the mirky forests west of the Golden Zodiac, which guarded the old roads to Aretias and Palaestra, Leo Galarian Steiner took a step back and breathed out, relaxing his spirit. Then, with a sharpening of his blue eyes, he clenched his fist, took aim at a far-off mountain peak and swung his fist. "LIGHTNING BOLT: ARGEAD STAR!"

The blow that defeated a semi-titan fired off spectacularly, knocking out old trees around him with the mere recoil force of it launching from his knuckles and blinding the area with golden light.

What happened next took place in a nano-fraction of a second.

The man standing next to Galan breathed out, his blue eyes focusing on the colossal thunderbolt flying off to the distance and his black bow took aim at its head of cosmos shaped like a giant punch. It already had a huge head start, so if Leon wished to save Peak Alexandros from total destruction, he would have to fire a blow that was faster, more precise and more powerful than Galan's strongest punch.

Manifesting blue electricity in his left hand, he allowed it to stretch like an Olympian bolt and take the shape of an arrow. Nocking it, he drew it back, and upon the string reaching maximum elasticity, the arrow swelled in size, going from a missile of light into a massive javelin of thunder in his fingers. The tip twisted into a spiral, creating a whirring drill of lightning, and the ground dirt began floating up in response to the spike of electricity in the air.

His eyes watched Galan's flying fist go and go and go… almost all the way to impacting the mountain peak.

The Gold Saint sweated, wondering what he was thinking; letting time run out like this! With lightspeed involved, every wasted nanosecond was critical! When was he going to shoot, when his Lightning Bolt hit the m-

Suddenly Leon's fingers released the bolt, firing it off with a shockwave! Galan guarded himself, feeling splashes of electricity batter him and deafening cracks of thunder boom in the forest. The air split apart, shot right through by the drill arrow, creating circular ripples of oxygen that waved the Forest of Death with enough violence to rips large branches off their trunks. With an impossible speed, Leon's arrow not only caught up with Galan's attack in the distance, but correctly intercepted it before it crashed, striking it directly in the capsule head. Blue and golden thunder exploded in the distance, sending off huge pulses of light that knocked out lanterns, radios, and even satellites far up in the sky.

Time resumed its normal pace for them, returning their senses to normal human levels. They heard the echo of their thunders disappear in the horizon and their hairs waved with the force pulsed from the far away impact point. When the light spectacle dissipated, Peak Alexandros was completely unharmed.

Galan reeled, clenching his fist hard, but smiling ear to ear nonetheless. He laughed out, realizing he'd been played. "You bastard! You did it! You had me scared there for a second I'd have to explain to the Pope why I blew up a mountain!"

Leon smirked and put down his bow, resting his hand on it like a cane. "I needed a handicap. Plus, I thought it would be fun to make you sweat a little."

The Leo Gold Saint laughed and patted his back. "Bastard! It's so good to have you back! And look at how good your shooting has gotten. It's unbelievable! I remember when you couldn't get the apple off my head with a slingshot, and now I bet even our current Sagittarius couldn't top you."

The silver-haired youth scoffed, picking a real, physical arrow from the truck they took there. "Please, Galan, stop. Not a single person on the planet could."

Galan folded his arms, recognizing another old trait of his friend. "That arrogance of yours has gotten sharper, too, uh?" He saw Leon turn his gaze at him with a sharp, sly glance. Galan had to let out a disbelieving scoff. "No, somehow, it's reached the peaks of Mount Olympus itself. I can see it in your face."

"Well, I'm not the only one who's been working on themselves. You've gotten much stronger, too." Leon admitted, nocking the new arrow and taking aim at a fly on a fruit in Peak Alexandros. "You didn't use to be able to concentrate all those Lightning Bolts into a single attack. That's good. I need my rival to stay strong, so he can help me grow stronger in turn."

Galan groaned, putting his hand over waist. "I don't exist to be your limestone."

Without a word, the archer took a deep breath. Releasing the arrow, Leon allowed it to fly off like a rocket, striking the insect on the peak on the other side of the forest. They both saw, with their advanced senses, the arrow smashing the bug against the crack of a rock, which then fissured up to reveal a new water spring.

The Leo Saint stood in awe. These shots were getting a little bit beyond just 'pretty good'. "Athena help me; is he going to snipe the crown off of Zeus' head next?"

The mercenary studied the efficacy of his shot, looking unsatisfied despite its miraculous results. "I didn't mean to imply that, friend. I just honestly can't find anyone who can keep up with me these days other than you. It's gotten quite boring. At this point, I believe I really will have to climb Mount Olympus to find someone who can survive more than five seconds against me in the ring."

"I think anyone would be quite proud to have gotten as strong as you have, Leon." Galarian pointed out. "But you sound like you want to get even better. Is that even possible?"

Leon smirked. "There's no limit to the Cosmos, Galarian." He went to get another arrow. "So of course it's possible."

Galarian laughed, a bit taken aback. "Frankly, I think that if you and I get any stronger, we'll need some kind of God Cloth to keep up ourselves."

"What about that Teos Cloth, then?" Leon asked as he searched through his various arrows like they were golf clubs. "I've heard the Specter boss that attacked Sanctuary was stopped by someone wearing it."

Galarian rose a brow. "Oh, that." He glanced at the Golden Zodiac Mountain. "Well, you were with your Master recently, right? So, you must know more than I do by now."

Picking an exceptionally difficult arrow weighted down by a rubber socket that would absorb his Lightning cosmos, Leon took aim again. "My Master still doesn't tell me everything. I think he's waiting to see just how much I behave now."

Galan hummed. "I see. The Pope must fear things are still tense about Leon returning. I guess I can't blame him. After what Leon did…"

Leon shook his head and turned lips back up. "But enough about me. How are things with my sister?"

Galan perked up. "What?"

Leon lowered his arrow and gave him a weird look. "What do you mean, 'what'? Remember what you told me when we last met? How you were going to confess how you felt to her?"

Galarian turned red, something few had seldom seen him do. "Oh, that. I, well,… I never got around to that." He glowered. "And now it might be too late."

The mercenary stared at him hard, seeming disappointed in his friend's cowardice. He then focused on his aim again. "…I haven't spoken with Olivia since I've left Sanctuary, but I know better than anyone what my sister is like, Galan. Sooner or later, she is going to want to fulfill her potential, as an Iraklidis." He released the arrow, which, despite the handicap, shot a rampaging bear down on the other side of a lake before it could close its huge fangs on a small rabbit. "I would prefer if a guardian I trusted was on her side for when she inevitably puts her life in danger."

Even though he said the exact same thing to her at the hospital, Galan was taken about at how firm Leon was in this conviction. "You speak with so much confidence in that. But maybe she doesn't need such a person in her life."

"I told you; I know her." Leon repeated, inflexible, putting bow down. "All my life, she was the type that would spy on my grampa training me in the Coliseum. She wanted to be on that ring just as badly as I did, but was never allowed, which means she has more accumulated desire to do it than even I have. No one is going to stop Olivia from doing something rash sooner or later. And besides, it's the fate of the strong to seek battle."

"The fate of the strong to seek battle… yes, that's what you've always said." Galan recalled to himself. He looked at his own strong, clenched fist, from where Lightning Bolts that could topple an Underworld Judge could fire. "And soon the fate of all Saints will be put to the test… with this new Holy War!"

The silver-haired warrior looked at the time on his watch and began packing his things. "Perhaps I'll go see her myself. Why wait for the Triumph, after all? My grandfather must have let her known I'm back by now and from here to Switzerland it's only a zap away."

"Give her a hug for me. I get the feeling she might still be angry at what I said." Galan asked. Before Leon zipped away, though, he stepped up. "Wait, one more thing-

Wrapping duffle bag around arm, he turned to Galan. "I'm not asking her to forgive you. Fight your own damn battles, little Kimba."

"You're going to be that way? That's not what I was going to ask." Galan assured, folding arms. "This one is meant for you. By some miracle, you've just earned your place in the sun back in Sanctuary, Leon, after all the years you've been forced to stay away from all our lives. Me, your grandfather and Olivia most of all have missed you. Promise me you won't ruin your chance to rebuild her family."

Leon's blue eyes glared like Galan just stomped on his foot with all his might.

Galan narrowed eyes right back, unafraid. "I'm serious, Leon. Ruin your future again, and I will punch your face across Sanctuary AND Rodario myself! Understood?"

"Ruin my future? I'm the 'Hero of Sanctuary', remember?" Leon assured, turning away to leave. He raised a middle finger over his shoulder as he walked away. "I can't possibly make the same mistake twice."

"Hey, this is not a joke! Are you hear-" but Leon zipped away with a lightning blitz before Galan could stop him. "God damn it! That arrogance! But I hope you're right, Leon. We're going to need the strength of guys like you for the times to come."

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

Later,

Saintia Academy

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

The bell rang for her Alchemy Class to end and Cerah closed her books, packing her stuff to head for her next class on Astrology. The room was full of shop equipment, periodic tables, charts of hardness and other physical properties of every metal known to man and even a big board on the wall showing what would happen to the human body if it ate stardust. Despite the long list of scientific reference items, the classroom was still as impeccably clean and organized as all the others, with all the beakers, desks, pen cups, books and tomes set neatly everywhere.

This was partly because it was the norm in the rigid academy and partly because of the black-haired, black garbed teacher watching them leave the room with his harsh, deep glare and pointy stub. Every single girl in class seemed to take steps extra quickly when passing by him, just as politely as they wished Professor Severus a good afternoon.

Cerah's turn came in and she smiled as widely as she could. "T-Thank you for the class, Professor Severus! See you tom-"

"Not so fast, miss Heloise." He cut short, pulling a stack of papers. "This is your homework, is it not?"

The blonde girl gulped. "Y-Yes. Is it not correct? I triple-checked the results and-"

"Quiet." He cut again, pointing cane at the scribbles. "Correct or otherwise, it's a jumbled mess of notes I can hardly read. I expect my students assignments to be delivered in organized and well-readable fashion, under-stood? Or will you mix nitroglycerine in your stardust solutions with the same level of care?"

Cerah trembled. "I was just really tired from last night and didn't have time to copy all my exercises to a neat sheet of paper. I didn't mean to." She looked around and felt all her classmates staring, mortifying her.

The teacher leaned in with his threatening stare, making her feel like her soul would flee through her mouth. "I expect every exercise of every page of every chapter we've covered this year, PLUS the next one, solved on my table to-mo-rrow. Understood, miss Heloise?"

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

She zombie-walked her way through the hall, mortified. Every exercise of every page of every chapter? Plus, whatever they hadn't learned yet from tomorrow's class? Cerah now understood intimately, to her very bones, why everyone in school hated and feared Professor Severus. How would she harness the energy and strength to get it done, with miss Olivia to worry about? Cerah sighed, feeling, rather selfishly, that some of the pressure of this entire Knight Girl situation was dropping on her innocent shoulders.

"Who do you think she is?" a girl Cerah passed by asked out loud to her friend, holding a clipping of Knight-Girl's attack. "She HAS to be a Saintia, come on!"

"Are you kidding me? Who has the time here to do this sort of stuff? We'd be seeing them sleep-walk through the halls everyday." Her friend countered.

Cerah felt completely invisible in that moment, being very well aware her lack of sleep was pretty obvious to anyone who noticed her presence. "Still, everything that is happening… Miss Olivia is the one risking the most out of all of us. If she can do it, so can I."

"By the way, did you hear about Olivia quitting being the head of all the clubs?" the first girl asked. "I was so shocked. I mean, like, who's gonna take care of all those activities for her?"

"I don't blame her. What happened to the fundraiser was a huge disaster." The second added. "It serves to show no one is really perfect around here. But it was kind of awesome how she took responsibility for it. I don't think I'd have the guts to do it."

"Boy, everyone at the school is talking about what happened." Cerah realized, distracted by them, not realizing she was walking right into someone. "I hope this Knight Girl affair doesn't become a seco-"

THOMP!

Cerah gasped, feeling herself hit someone right in the head. "O-OW! I-I'm so sorry, I-" But lost the color in her face when she saw who it was. "EEK!"

Anastasia Ghisi groaned, rubbing her bruised forehead. "Why, it's you again! My sister's little peasant pet! Do you not watch where you're going?! Or do you enjoy ramming your thick head into others like the farm cow you probably milked from?"

Cerah stepped back in terror, feeling adrenaline make her drowsiness vanish. "I'm SORRY! I didn't mean to!"

The wealthy, well-dressed girl collected herself, looking disgusted at the mere thought of Cerah gazing upon her. "You never mean any of the offences you aim at me, do you?" She walked past her, leaving a message right in her ear. "But don't worry. I will extend the same intention back when I finally punish you for your clumsiness."

The girl shivered to her core, watching Anastasia disappear around the hall like a reaper in schoolgirl uniform. "Is… Is she going to kill me or something?!"

In perfect timing, a female screech filled the hall, startling Cerah to her core! Many of them in fact, like a crowd of her classmates fleeing from a terrible monster.

Cerah rushed in its direction, climbing the stairs down to the ground floor. The screams sounded like they were coming from the entry park, where students usually had lunch in open-air. "A Specter attack?! In broad daylight?! No, it can't be, not with the two Gold Saints in the school!"

As she arrived at the entrance of the academy, though, Cerah found, to her surprise, all of her classmates were screaming, indeed, but not at any monster or Specter or even Black Saint.

Seeing her arrive, her friend Diana pulled her in. "Oh my gosh, Cerah, come take a look! You won't believe the piece of smoking beef that just knocked at the gate!"

"Piece of beef?!" Cerah wondered out loud, pulled into the crowd. The two made their way to a spot where they could see what was going on. Cerah widened her eyes, recognizing the tall, silver-haired, blue-eyed young man in the motorbike talking with Professor Dolores. "That's… mister Leon!"

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

"She's not here, young man, so you can turn your disgusting vehicle right around and leave this academy!" professor Dolores ordered, pointing her pen to the Academy gate. "This is a prestigious school for girls and we do not tolerate…visitors with suspicious intentions of our students here!"

"I assure you, I have no suspicious intentions. I am just here to see my sister." He defended himself, looking unimpressed by her show of authority. He handed her his card from the Zodiac. "You see my surname, don't you? I know for a fact she must be the most well-known student in school by now."

The hatted, curly-haired teacher cringed her nose, feeling challenged, but the card left no shadow of doubt. "BE THAT AS IT MAY, this is a girl's school! The academy where all the maidens of Athena are trained. So, I suggest you take your muddy bike out of this establishment's front gate and come back in proper visiting hours, or when you have a permit from Sanctuary!"

The blue-eyed, silver-haired youth widened his eyes, looking truly stunned. Yet, he hummed peacefully and turned away to leave. "I see. Thank you for your time."

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

"Look at that guy! He could be a member of Soldier Red! What is wrong with that hag, miss Dolores?! Does she wants everyone in the school to be grow up to be as miserable as she is?" Diana gushed. She saw her friend irresponsive and peeked at her dumbfounded face. "Yo, Cerah, are you listening?"

The Zodiac Knight snapped out of it. "Just a m-minute, Diana." and, to her classmate's shock, rushed down the building stairs and ran out the campus, past a stunned Ms. Dolores to the silver-haired archer. "WAIT!"

Fortunately, Leon paused. He widened eyes at the arriving girl, seeing her panting. "You. I know you."

Cerah caught her breath, straightened herself up, and smiled. "H-Hi! L-Long time no see, mister Leon!"

"Miss Cerah, do you know this vandal?!" Dolores asked, stunned at the association.

The Zodiac Knight staggered, but nodded. "Y-Yes! I do, I do!"

The mercenary smiled and put his motorbike helmet away for the moment. "Indeed, she does. But we haven't spoken since… last year, correct? Cerah Heloise."

The blonde girl perked up, amazed that he remembered. "Yes, that's right! How did you…?"

The young man chuckled, combing his silver threads away with his gloved fingers in a way that made her heart jump faster in joy. "I told you, didn't I? You caught my eye. Not many have managed that."

Cerah felt her entire head grow hot and red. "Y-You did? You did, right! Thank you!"

The teacher by their side didn't seem to find any of the girl's disastrous spectacle of fluster even remotely amusing, tapping her foot impatiently.

The visitor noticed it with a slight glare. "I will be gone in a minute. Please let me just speak to my friend." Leon begged, earning a rather impatient 'fine' huff from the etiquette teacher. He looked around at the academy, like it was an amazing place. "Now it all makes sense; you were a Saintia student all along, Cerah Heloise, just like my sister."

"N-Not really. I joined recently." Cerah admitted, scratching her head. It was so difficult to talk. Her throat was clamping up and her head sweated. Somehow it was scarier to be here, right in front of this sellsword, than facing a Specter of Hades, and yet her heart jumped with joy at it. "Miss Adriana Ghisi is sponsoring my stay at the school."

This made Leon widen his beautiful sapphire eyes in recognition. "Adriana? Really? Mm, I see. I know the Ghisi family well, especially her. They've hired my services in the past."

Cerah staggered, forgetting about his dreamy looks. "That's right, I forgot! Leon is the type of guy that offers his cosmos for money. The type that kills for it!" Immediately, she tried to suppress her natural instincts as a Zodiac Knight to despise anyone who used the Cosmos for selfish purposes. "But… if he has family in the academy, and he knows miss AG, he must come from a good place, right? Right?"

"And Adriana in particular isn't the type to choose just any protégé." The mercenary recognized, folding his arms, looking truly impressed by her. AG had been one of the few employers he's ever had that had the gall to demand more out of his results in a job. "You've come a long way from Rodario, haven't you? My curiosity about you just keeps growing, Cerah Heloise."

In face of such incredibly brazen remarks, Cerah could only yelp and shake her head. "O-Oh, stop! You don't mean that! I'm nothing special. She was just very kind to me!"

"Uh. I refuse to believe that. Adriana has definitely seen you as an 'asset'." Leon thought to himself. He held his chin pensively, looking melancholic. "I almost worry the next time we meet… you will be in a Cloth, serving as Athena's maiden, and I won't be allowed to speak in your presence, much less get to know you better."

The sadness with which this was spoken made Cerah's heart shatter. "Wait, that's not true! I'd like us… to get to know each other better before such a thing could happen?" She grabbed the bars separating them. "W-would you like to come in and have some tea?"

The teacher by her side howled. "MISS HELOISE!"

The mercenary raised a silver-brow and put his hands on his hips. "Are you asking me out, Cerah Heloise?"

The Zodiac Knight gulped, realizing what she accidentally implied. "N-NO, not at all! I mean, I would love to, but… but…" Her eyes practically spiraled, trying to figure out the right stance to take on this. "I mean…It wouldn't be like THAT, anyway. I mean-… umm…"

Leon's blue eyes saw the teacher that yelled at him earlier eyeing them like she wished their head would drop off their shoulders. "No, let's not get you in trouble with that witch over there." He decided to himself. "I wish I had the time to stay and catch up, but I can't. I was only here to see family and my Master needs me back in Sanctuary."

This alerted Cerah. Leon had a Sanctuary teacher? "Your… Master? But I thought…"

The bowman shook his head. "Wondering if I have mended my ways? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I still hold my current… profession." He confessed, his gaze turning away from her. "I remember from the look on your face last time it isn't one you agree with, but it's the truth."

The young girl felt her heart sink. For a moment, she really hoped that it had all been a misunderstanding and Leon was an upright guy after all. "No, it's alright. And besides…"

"Besides?" he urged, wishing to draw out her thoughts.

Cerah sighed. How could she judge Leon, having as many secrets as she had? What she was helping miss Olivia with alone would fill a court prosecutor's dream book. "I know what it's like to have to do what you must to help your friends and family now. I shouldn't have said such harsh things last time we spoke. I hope you can forgive me. Sincerely."

Leon gave a surprised look. He then breathed out. "There's nothing to apologize for." If only this amazing girl knew how small her treatment was compared to what people had done to him in the past. "Still, it's strange we've crossed paths yet again, somehow, isn't it? Something tells me it might have been fate that brought you and I together again at this moment? Miss Cerah… Shall we test our fates again?"

The mysterious invitation made her interest pique up. "Y-Yes?"

"Next time you're in Sanctuary Town, how about I take you up on your offer? And take you out to tea?"

Cerah sucked her breath, feeling her heart stop. Behind her, she could hear the stunned whispers of all her classmates from the academy windows. Her blood turned her face red. "W-Wait… are you… asking…asking…?"

"Asking you out?" Leon completed, fully confident. He gave her his warmest smile, looking fascinated by her adorable face. "Of course! So, how about it?"

She gulped, picturing herself being seen in the streets of Sanctuary Town with this silver-haired hunk of a guy.

"OH MY GODDESS, SAY YES, YOU DUMMY!" Diana screamed from the crowd, startling her out of her trance. "OR AT LEAST LET ME HAVE HIM!"

Leon laughed. "Your friends seem… very nice."

The Zodiac Knight covered her face, trying to think straight. Was this really happening? Leon was asking her out? What should she say? What should she do?! Should she breathe, beat her heart, or pass out right then and there, die and go to Elysium? Or should she reject him? Say she is very busy as a Saintia and involved in a dangerous super-secret project to invade the Underworld?!

Oh Goddess, give her a sign!

Seeing her in a dilemma, Leon decided to sweeten the deal. "Well, if you're interested in something else other than tea… I have tickets for this band called The Black Sabbath, too-"

"YES! ABSOLUTELY, YES!" Cerah shouted out, practically jumping in the air, startling Leon. She caught herself making a fool of herself in front of the entire academy and straightened up, combing her blonde curls with her fingers. "I-I-I mean, I can go for lunch with you, o-of course! U-Ummm… when?"

Leon relaxed from his shock. "Ah, well, that's great. I have a couple of events I have to attend for my Master, but here." He scribbled a contact on a piece of paper and gave it to her. "Once you and your Saintia friends move to Palaestra, call this number. We'll plan a day out together."

The blonde girl took it, holding it in her hand like a precious treasure, seeing his name and number on it. For a mercenary, his handwriting was so pretty, possessing all sorts of cursive curves connecting into each other like musical notes, from the hand of someone who did it as an artform.

Leon pushed his pedal, making his engine rumble, and placed his helmet on. "I'll be seeing you, miss Heloise. Until next time we meet." And drove off, departing from the academy with a trail of smoke down the mountain road.

The Zodiac Knight watched him disappear down the road into the mountain paths. She held her beating chest, smiling excitedly.

Diana ran up to Cerah. "Holy crap! What was that all about?! Cerah, how do you run up to a guy like that and survive?"

The Zodiac Knight snapped from her trance. "O-Oh, umm… We already met before once." she confessed, as if that possibly explained the easiness with which she approached a guy like Leon to Diana. "He's really nice. I think I might actua-"

"Let me see that, please!" Diana begged, taking the paper off her hand. She gasped, realizing it was a contact number. "WHAT?! Not only did he ask you out, but he gave you THIS?! Oh! Aphrodite, why are you so unfair, you evil witch of a goddess!"

The Zodiac knight sweated, unsure if her friend was happy for her or not. "I-I think I'm just lucky. In some things, anyway…"

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

That night,

Emden Seaport, Germany

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

"Blast it!" Hans Sargasso, head of the Sargasso crime family, cursed. He was a large, obese man with dark glasses, a fur-lined suit of black and green stripes, jeweled rings paid with blood money, leather shoes and a belt with a fish symbol on it representing his 'legitimate business' "BLAST IT, BLAST IT, BLAST IT! How dare he, that Jack! And he calls himself a Saint-Killer?! Look at that ridiculous newspaper!"

The men surrounding him cringed, concerned their boss would start shooting guys. They were all suited men of blonde or black hair packing Glocks and G3s. Disguised as a bodyguard business, they worked for traffickers like Hans Sargasso and specialized in tactics to delay and confound Sanctuary hoplites, usually using trickery like smoke bombs or high-powered explosives like grenades. However, even they sometimes hated dealing with clients like this, that were clearly insane with the power having a couple of cosmos-savvy goons gave them.

"He was supposed to get me my payment for his operation TONIGHT! And now I learned he got himself caught?!" Hans shouted, slamming his hand on the Marathoner issue gushing about the Black Saint's capture. Pulling out a black Smith & Wesson handgun, he pointed at the superheroine's picture. "And by this costumed girl, of all things!"

The gun went off, firing on the newspaper photo over and over in the warehouse, eviscerating the paper and the crate it lied on. The bodyguards covered their ears, feeling them ring with the noise. Hans didn't stop until the gun began clicking for reloads.

With another click, he ejected the clip. "THOSE were my regular bullets!" he took out a new cartridge lidden in pure gold and shoved it into the handle, giving it a shiny behind. "But these! These are my special bullets! The ones I paid a million dollars a pop, straight from the good Bluegrad doctor! The ones that can go through a Bronze Saint's skull like cheese! And they will better go through this superheroine's next, or do you all know what will happen to you all?!"

The henchmen exchanged nervous looks. No one was brave enough to try to answer.

Rolling his eyes, Hans aimed at the closest man next to him and fired at his head, blowing it off his shoulders in a massive splash of blood that wetted the walls. The henchman collapsed to knees, then dropped entirely, letting his machine gun roll.

"THAT! Am I understood?!" Hans roared, feeling his gun hot with the stardust bullet it just expended.

"Y-YES, SIR!"

Suddenly, complete darkness!

The gang panicked. "What happened?!"

"Someone turned off the power to the building!" one screamed, trying to find a target in the dark. "We're under ATTACK!"

Hans fired another shot, flashing the area alight briefly. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! IT'S HER! GET THE LIGHTS! AND FIND THIS RAT!"

One who remembered where the fusebox was poked his way towards it. His hands felt the cables until they detected the metal box on the wall. "I got it! Just a second, bo-"

A bone cracking sound was heard when a metaled foot struck his jaw and splattered him on the floor, tossing him over a friend.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" another screamed, pointing machine gun. "FREEZE OR I'LL-"

A sudden flash of light from cosmos burning around a fist blinded him, making him scream, before the empowered fist smashed straight through his machine gun and punched his guts in, grinding the tremendous force in until he was sent flying into his friends over the crates.

"SHE'S HERE!" Hans roared, aiming left to right to left. "GET HER!"

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

Rushing through the streets, Lance and Suisho headed straight for the docks. "You felt that, didn't you?! Someone's burning cosmos in a fight!"

Suisho nodded, stunned. "I did. I can't believe it. You were right, Pegasus."

They leaped over to a roof to get a vantage point. Lance pointed at a particular warehouse where they could hear gunfire sounds and flashes coming from. "There!"

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

A bleeding gangster crawled up the wall and opened the fuse box to flip the switches, making the darkness vanish away. "B-Boss, I got the lights!"

"I CAN SEE THAT!" Hans roared, firing a loud shout at the blue-armored figure dive-kicking through his men. "JUST GET HER BEFORE I RIDDLE YOU WITH HOLES!"

Dodging a swerve of bullets from another machine gun with a drop to the floor, Knight Girl swept the floor with her leg, knocking the gun man. Someone with a knife lunged at her, but she caught the blade between her armored palms and launched her foot up, kicking the man's jaw so hard he flew over himself into the crates. With a jump, she delivered a double spinning knee strike to a pair of other goons, jumping off their elbows to draw the machine gun fire upwards instead of along the warehouse's length.

She landed on the crates, then jumped back into the fray, fist shining with light. "EQUULEUS! FLYING STAR FIST!" It created a meteoric dash of light out of her hand which ripped through the men and blasted the floor, shockwaving everyone with light as blinding as that of a falling star.

Hans stepped back seeing his men knocked for the count. "Y-You… you bitch!"

Finishing the last gangster off with a palm blow to the chest that sent the tall man flying into the brick wall, Olivia turned to him, striking a pose by stepping her feet apart, raising her left palm at him and keeping her small right fist at waist side. "Hans Sargasso, head of the Sargasso gang! In the name of Artemis and Athena, you're under arrest for human trafficking, racketeering, murder, sexual assault, contraband and conspiracy!"

"By whose law, you pre-school cunt?!" the sunglassed gangster asked, pointing pistol at her. "As far as I'm concerned, you're just a comic book character who's been vandalizing my business! One that ought to get a new hole put into her head for someone to-"

"By Athena's law!" Knight Girl responded, without hesitation. Her body began brimming with energy. "By the law of decency and humanity and virtue! You will now pay for everyone you've ever victimized, starting with Hansa Braun!"

Sargasso irked, recognizing the name. "Hansa Braun, uh? That's the East German meat that Jack let get away. I remember, because I had it branded on her back before I put her to sale. What did she cry to you when you saved her? That I had 'evil things' done to her?"

Olivia irked. She did not wish to recall outloud everything the poor woman recounted to her about this guy and his bloodthirsty gangsters. Her blue, masked eyes searched for an angle to strike the man with, but he had his pistol trained right on her. A careless mistake could get her hurt.

"He's fired only three or four times, I'm sure of it! A gun like his must have at least eight shots left before he reloads. Even with a supersonic sprint, a panicked fire could hit me." she calculated. "But the weakness of these rare stardust guns is that they overheat very easily, according to professor Severus. If I can just get him to fire one more time…"

Next to her, a gangster she missed tip toed towards her from behind, crowbar in hand, sharing a complicit glance with his boss.

The green-coated man saw his goon and laughed, fixing aim right in her head. "Well, let me tell you, it isn't half of what I'm going to do to you when I put you in the cage along with the rest of my stock! After what you've been doing these past weeks, I know more than a few big faces who'd love to watch their cocks go in and out of an ass with your little superhero title on it!"

Olivia breathed out to recharge cosmos, sensing the perp behind her. "No… you're the one that will pay! In the name of the moon and justice, you will rot in jail for all the poor families you've taken advantage of!"

"Cry me a river." Hans provoked, beginning to press his trigger. "NOW, GET HER!"

The perp roared and swung the crowbar!

With a backhand blow, Olivia smashed through the metal piece, then swung her body to kick the guy's face, breaking his bones and dodging Hans's fifth stardust bullet shot. Hans screamed, feeling his gun overheat in his hand, and crawled back.

Olivia finished the attacker that tried to ambush her off with a punch to the face that knocked him out, then turned to take out Hans while he still whined about his hand burn. "NOW PREPARE TO FACE JUSTICE! SHOOTING STAR FI-"

Suddenly, the roof above them collapsed under the force of a duo of dive kicks, crashing down between them. Olivia braked her feet to stop her attack while Hans cried out in terror, almost smashed underneath the rubble.

Two men with Cloth boxes stepped out. The taller one with the silvery box laid out hands. "STOP! YOU'RE BOTH UNDER ARREST!"

The gangster paled. "N-NO! Not YOU people!"

Olivia gasped, recognizing their faces. "Saint Suisho and… Lance?!"

The Pegasus Saint eyed her, looking like was ready to murder her. "So, you're the idiot who's been making the news, playing hero?" He pressed fist into palm in challenge, bulging his bandaged forearm muscles threateningly. "Lay that ridiculous fake armor down now, or I'm bringing you in! Don't think we'll hold back just because you're a woman!"

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

Saintia Academy

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

Diana sat at her desk, watching Cerah march back and forth within the same range of their door room's small space between their beds in amazement. She was clutching the number Leon gave her in her hand like someone handed her a bomb.

"Cerah, why are you driving yourself crazy like this?" she asked, bewildered. "An… extremely hot guy asked you out. Like, the kind I'd step over your corpse to get to. And instead of being up at this hour because you can't wait to see that good-looking silver hair again, you're crawling up the wall? What is there to be so anxious about?"

"I don't know! I was happy at first, but now it doesn't feel right." Cerah lamented. At first, she felt swept off her feet with the magic of the whole moment, but now, the more time passed, the weirder the whole affair seemed in retrospective. "He just drives all the way to this school, to see family, and he ends up asking me out, out of the blue? I don't know, Diane… what if he's after something?"

"He is! He's after you to drag you to the depths of hell to his lust dungeon! Oh, how you will cry in the hands of that angel of passion!" Diana joked, laughing out loud, but stopped when it triggered a reaction of horror from the shorter girl. "Okay, okay, I won't joke anymore. Look, he said he was here to visit family, right? It's not like miss Dolores seemed to think he was lying. Tons of girls decided to go home sooner for the Easter after miss Olivia was attacked by that Worm creep. Maybe he just missed her."

Cerah paused her frantic pacing and nodded. This made enough sense. However, "I didn't remember it at the time, but when we met, Leon said his family was 'long gone'. Now we meet again and he has a sister here in this very academy? Why did he lie to me?"

"Besides, you met him before, right?" Diana recalled, shrugging. "Logically, if he wanted to kill you or something, he'd done it a long time ago. It would have been super easy."

"That doesn't make me feel better that he could have killed me like that!" Cerah protested, terrified.

"I don't know! I just want you to stop panicking so I can go to sleep!" Diana protested right back, folding her arms. "You think it's easy dozing off for the test tomorrow with you muttering 'Leon, Leon, Leon' throughout the night? Give me a break!"

The Zodiac Knight turned red. She didn't sound this ridiculous! Cerah did wish, however, one of her role models, like Eurydice, miss Olivia or even Saint Yushira were around so she could ask for advice. All Diana ever said was that Cerah should let her date do whatever.

This comment, however, made her turn to their clock. "Athena, it's one am already?"

"YES! And I have an alchemy quiz in the morning!" Diana hissed, pulling her covers over herself. "So go to sleep!"

"How can I sleep?" Cerah wondered, looking out the window to the mountains. "Miss Olivia was supposed to be back by now!"

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

Emden, Germany

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

Pegasus Lance jumped out of the rubble towards Knight Girl. She was just staring at him after his warning, irritating him. "Didn't you hear me?! Take off that armor and surrender, now!"

Olivia reeled, seeing her most horrible nightmare come true; that the first time she'd see her boyfriend since he got out of his coma would be him and his partner cornering her in a warehouse, implicated to her elbows in illegal activity. Her heart beat like a drum, for all the wrong reasons.

The girl shook her head, recovering from shock, and stepped back. She paused silently, as if thinking what to say. "I'm… I'm afraid I can't do that. I'd prefer not spending the night in Stardust Prison along with that guy over there."

"You should have thought of that before you put that costume on and acted like a vigilante!" Lance argued. He was aware of the terrible irony, given Saints were little more than vigilantes themselves, from a certain point of view, but anyone who knew of it and the Cosmos had no excuse, past a certain point, to keep acting on their own. "Who are you?! If you're a Sanctuary citizen tell us now! I would rather not unmask an Amazon!"

"I would listen to my subordinate. Whoever you are, you are in huge trouble!" Suisho added, not taking his eyes off the trembling Sargasso gangster. "Whether an Amazon or a Saintia or a Black Saint, you've been repeatedly using cosmos to engage in your private use, all while demonstrating that you are aware of Sanctuary by dropping our most wanted at our bases. No judge in Sanctuary will deem you innocent, but you might still get just a slap on the wrist if you surrender quietly!"

The teenage girl stared out "Do these two really… not recognize me?" then smiled, a bit nervous, but seeing an opportunity to still get away. "My mask hardly matches that of the female warriors of Sanctuary, does it not, Saint Pegasus? You won't have to marry me if you see my face. So, if you want it off…" she struck her guarding pose, smirking slily. "… come and get it, hot stuff!"

Suisho widened his eyes. That sounded awfully like a flirt aimed at Lance disguised as a fire cosmos joke.

The Pegasus, however, only narrowed his eyes, making his fire cosmos aura blaze to the ceiling. "I'm not in the mood for games and teases! I have somewhere important to be! So come with us right now or I am knocking you out!"

Olivia sweated, not realizing how frightening her boyfriend's cosmos aura could be when you were on the opposite side of the court. She was pretty sure she had seen depictions of Hades at art class that blazed infernal fires less furiously. Was this really a good idea, to provoke him? But what choice did she have if she wanted his guard to drop?

Her hand went around back and gripped the Flash Grenade capsule strapped to her armor fauld that Cerah crafted for her. Perhaps the time had come to use it.

Sui gritted his teeth. "Pegasus, capture her now!"

Taking advantage of their distraction, the gangster jumped away towards the exit. "TAKE THIS, SAINTS!" Hans suddenly screamed, tossing a real grenade at their feet.

Lance widened his eyes and reversed his cosmos into defense. "SUI, WATCH OUT!"

The Crateris Saint barely had time to guard himself before the small explosive went off-

THRROOOOOM!

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

With a great roar, Lance pushed up the steel beams off of them both, helping Sui free himself. "G-Goddamn it! He had a freaking grenade?!"

The Crateris Saint dusted his ripped shirt. "W-We got careless! The report did say this guy's gang had a relative amount of savviness about Sanctuary. We'll have to track our targets down!" He looked up and pointed at the shadow leaping up onto the roof. "Starting with HER!"

Lance saw Knight Girl gasp on the roof as she was detected. He rushed after, debris falling off his body. "C-COME BACK HERE!" Jumping high onto the roof after the vigilante, he saw her speed away across the dockyards. "SUI', I'm giving chase!"

"I'll GET THE OTHER GUY, THEN!" Suisho shouted, seeing Hans going in the opposite direction towards the urban areas, to discourage Suisho from using superspeed. DON'T LET HER ESCAPE, GOT IT?!"

"No, need to tell me!" Lance thought to himself, resting his hands on the floor like a sprinter. Tracking her movements across the dockyard blocks, he charged cosmos into a gold-rank level, then launched himself at the speed of light.

Knight Girl barely had time to guard herself when she felt his cosmos spiking. His body crashed against hers, tackling the superheroine with a mutual shout into another warehouse roof, crashing it in.

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

Olivia screamed, tossed at the speed of light by the tackle harshly into the crate-filled corridors of the large warehouse, her body stopping only when her back painfully hit a forklift, knocking the five-ton vehicle over. The Equuleus Cloth absorbed the shock, so thankfully she felt okay, only reeling a bit as she raised herself.

The Pegasus Saint landed before her, his light cosmos cooling down, looking furious. "Don't make me do that again, got it?! Next time I might accidentally splatter you!"

With a martial shout, Olivia launched at him, through fist, but the gold-ranked fighter bobbed his head, grabbed her wrist and threw her over. To his surprise, though, she recovered quickly, spinning her body to land on her hands and deliver and upside-down kick that struck his guarding arms, pushing him back from her. Lance recovered and assumed pose while Knight-Girl flip-jumped to get on her feet and do the same.

Lance realized the two fighters found themselves at a perfect distance to initiate the duel.

"UGH! I don't have time for this!" Lance groaned. All he could think about was if he let this person get away, it could be weeks before he'd get to see Olivia. "Last warning, give up now!"

Knight Girl assumed her pose, breathing heavily. "T-That was close! For a second I thought he was going to smash me on the wall. But am I really about to fight him?!" She looked her boyfriend over. He looked like he was shaking ever so slightly, even though their battle had only just begun. "I only got his letter a few days back, which means Lance must be just off the hospital bed…Should I really fight him, then? What do I do?!"

Lance scoffed, brimming again with energy. "Your face tells me you just realized how deep a mess you're in. So why don't you just stop? How do you think this fight is going to end?!"

She started slow, by brimming defensive cosmos and thinking of a plan. "I'll just stall and look for a chance to get away, there's no need to fight directly. I should also avoid using the Shooting Star Fist and Kornephoros, or he'll recognize m-"

He clenched his fists in a show-off way. "Well? Not going to lay arms down? I would really rather not be forced to beat the crap out of some dumb girl."

…

Olivia narrowed her eyes, ticked. So, she was just some 'dumb girl'? "Oh, beat the crap out of me? Is that so?"

The Saint rose a brow. "YES, it IS so!"

The Saintia's defensive cosmos tightened into offensive one, rousing her aura. "You're talking a lot of garbage for someone with now idea how I battle! Why don't you save it for after I knock you on your back?!"

The Pegasus Saint widened his eyes "'Battle' is a strong word for what you've been doing! I'm a Gold-Ranker! Do you know what that means?!" he asked, but it just seemed to make the vigilante more ticked, somehow, judging by the tensing of her jaw. "That means I can run a million circles around you by the time you throw your first fist. The only reason you aren't down on the floor right now is because Sanctuary doesn't like bombs of cosmos going off in the middle of public streets!"

"Maybe YOU should take this chance to put your Cloth back on, Saint Pegasus!" She invited, circling against him and looking for an angle to attack. "Now I warn YOU; I won't hold back my attacks just because you refuse to put your armor on!"

Lance scoffed, matching her steps in the opposite direction. "Why hold back at all?! You want me to crush you even faster?! I hate to burst your bubble, lady, but I don't need a Cloth to deal with a civilian dressing up as a Bronze-Rank fighter! And I'll show it by breaking that little power suit of yours to pieces with my bare hands!"

She stopped, picking a position, and clenched her fists high, huffing. "UH! So you want my Cloth off that badly?! Are you trying to threaten me, Saint Pegasus? Or show me a good time?!"

He turned red, bewildered. "NO, I'm warning you. I'm not the kind of guy who's going to hold anything back just because… you KNOW! Got it?! I WILL ACTUALLY BEAT YOU UP!"

"THEN DO IT! What are you waiting for, big guy?!" she challenged, igniting her wind cosmos. "Come on! Show me what you're made of! Or are those fists of yours only good for tossing horse crap at peop-"

The Pegasus shined like a bonfire, startling her. "THAT'S IT!" And he practically flew at her, fist raised with a ball of fire. "You asked for it! CHARGE FIST!"

Hardening her body with cosmos and tensing her senses to their full limit, Olivia countered with a cross guard, letting his powerful blow slam on it with enough force to rock her to her core. The Saintia took a deep breath, dropping to her knee.

Lance retreated, letting his fist smoke from the impact. "See what you're dealing with?! Surrender now!"

She got up, reevaluating her whole view of this guy. "I guess this is how he talks when he isn't sparring with a Saintia putting the moves on him, uh?!" His gentlemanly lines when they first martially danced back at Sanctuary Town came to mind. "'I don't hold back' my BUTT!"

Burning cosmos back, she tossed her own attack back in the form of a jump kick that cut the air like a beam of light, intent on teaching her boyfriend a lesson in respecting foes he'd never forget!

The skirted, armored girl kicked her foot up at her adversary's head, but the Pegasus Saint dodged easily, catching her ankle to throw her harshly into a support beam. Falling to the floor, she rolled over on the ground to dodge a succession of blasting fists that cratered the ground, erupting fire upwards. With no choice but to counterattack, Olivia launched herself back into the fray, assaulting Lance with a combination of flying kicks and punches clad in metal.

The Bronze Saint backed up, parrying her attacks with his forearms. "She's fast, like Olivia, but she lacks weight in her blows, to-" Just as he said this, though, her hand landed on his forearm instead of punching it and she balanced herself on it to deliver a powerful knee bash to his face, stunning him painfully. He gasped and stumbled back, giving her breathing room to charge cosmos.

The aura of the Equuleus manifested, shaping currents in the form of wings behind her. "FLYING STAR FIST!" And her punch threw itself at him like a beam of concentrated light, impacting his elbow guard straight on.

Still, the force and the currents hit him with unexpected strength, making his heels trail back. "I-I see! A fighting style themed around a motif of stars and the wind! The impressive ability to focus cosmos harder than most lets her power her attacks higher than her body should support, while the Wind Element lets her keep them fast and nimble despite the added charge! Combined with tactics to make her opponent drop their guard, I see now how she's survived this long!"

Sensing an advantage, Knight-Girl Olivia let her adrenaline power her next move, dashing forward with a hurricane of a step that made crates be pushed back all around them. "AGAIN! FLYING STAR FI-"

The Pegasus Saint, however, recovered faster than she expected, moving his body in to dodge her punch with a dive, before sinking a full fist into her padded stomach, making her gasp and lose focus. Harnessing her strength as she dropped to her hands and feet, she tried a rolling kick to trip him, but the Saint cartwheeled over her and struck her side with a sweeping kick, sending her off to get smashed against the wall, cracking it.

As she dropped again, her rage subsided, letting the one-sided reality of the battle occur to her. She was losing, badly, right from the get-go. All the progress of her hitting him with her Flying Star Fist was reversed just like that.

"Sorry, but I warned you!" Lance cut short, also picking a spot and lightly charging his cosmos. "Looks like I'm ending this before Sui even has time to get back!"

Olivia panted, feeling her fists becoming numb. "This is a horrible mistake. He's seriously going to kill me if I keep this up! I can't even use the techniques he'd recognize." She gritted teeth, though. "UGH, at the same time, I wish I could kill him right now! What a crap-talking bastard he is!"

The Pegasus Saint smiled, oblivious, even gesturing his hand to invite her back into the fray. "What's the matter? Getting tired, Knight Girl? Or did you think you'd only get to battle low-rank punks forever?"

The girl launched herself at him, focusing currents of air around her left punch until it turned into a shining ball of light. "A-Absolutely NOT! FLYING STAR FIST!"

"BARRIER!" Raising right guard, he let her blow crash against his rings of cosmos, absorbing and dispersing the energy of her blow. He then slammed his foot into her armored side with a high kick, tossing her aside into wooden crates. "Try harder! That little pea shooter technique of yours isn't even worth countering."

Burning cosmos, Olivia charged again, burning both hands with energy. This time, Lance attacked right back in the middle of it, aiming a Charge Fist at her, but Olivia revealed the true intent of her charging by pointing hands down and blasting the ground with both palms, sending herself flying up and rolling over him.

This positioned her over his back in the air and allowed her to point and dive a kick down on him with the sharp end of her metal boot, casting the image of a horseman's sword. "CAVALRY SABRE!"

Turning his hand into a shining sword of light, Lance cut right back, casting the illusion of a knight's edge. "BLADE!" the golden beam struck her kick slash, harshly parrying it with enough force to throw her back and splashing sparks of blue and golden light in the air.

Olivia gasped, collapsing. She grabbed her injured, stunned leg and realized, with sudden terror, that last attack cut a deep gash into her greave that only missed skin by an inch.

He then pointed his fist at her falling body. "FLAME ATTACK!"

With her leg still recovering and seeing the fires of her adversary's aura focusing like a typhoon around Lance's hand and shooting at her, Olivia shot cosmos out of her hand sideways, thrusting herself out of the way. All she felt as she rolled down was the torrent of flames blast apart everything in the direction she once stood in, and recovered to see in terror the blaze of cosmos burning down the side of the warehouse complex.

Lance irked. "Shoot…! I better watch it with the collateral damage or Sanctuary will have my head." He didn't want another 'Elisa' situation on his hands, either. Still, he tried to take advantage of it to intimidate Knight Girl. "That was just a demonstration of what I could do to you if I wanted. Drop your Cloth NOW and identify yourself!"

Though shaking, she raised herself to her adversary. "H-have you never read comic books?! I wouldn't be a good superhero if I surrendered to the first policeman that showed up after I busted a bad guy!"

"You're not busting bad guys, you're putting yourself at risk and then throwing the mess on us!" Lance pointed out. "Who do you think has been taking care to hide your activities, and get the guys with cosmos you capture out of public sight, so they can do no more harm?! It's been Sanctuary! Why are you even doing this shit?! Are you trying to show up to the Saints or something?!"

"BECAUSE…!" Olivia gritted teeth, wishing she could say he was a big part of the reason why. "It has nothing to do with Sanctuary! This is the path I chose for myself. The path of dirt!"

This was the most ridiculous thing Lance had ever heard. "The path of dirt?!"

The masked girl cleaned the dirty hair out of her face and repeated Galan's words "And of blood…and sweat… and tears. I thought you above everyone might understand, Saint Pegasus. It's something I haven't come to realize until recently myself; some of us only bloom in this world when put to the fires of battle, when crawling through the mud and vomit of war…That's what I chose to do."

If only he could explain how wrong about him she was, but he wasn't going to dignify some crazy teenager with his secret plans to invade the Underworld. "You're not going to unlock the 7th sense by dressing up and taking out gangsters and low-rank Black Saints."

She smirked, closing fists up in challenge. "You're probably right. Then how about I do it taking out you? Mister Trash Talker?"

That the girl had bravery in her, Lance had to admit it. Again, it oddly reminded him of Olivia, especially with the confident tone, blue armor and black hair. Suddenly he had the urge to entertain her challenge, especially with how long Suisho was taking coming back. Perhaps he should put his Pegasus Cloth on and really put her to the test?

No, that went against his better principles, he decided. Besides, Master Dohko would definitely laugh at him for having to use it against a comic book character.

Nonetheless, Olivia knew this look on her boyfriend's face. She had impressed him. Oddly enough, it made her feel happy, like a warmness in her stomach of pride. It reminded her of the first time they sparred, only so much more genuine, or of how nice it felt it was when she got him to say something sweet to her. Perhaps she was insane for doing it instead of running away, but Olivia realized she might never get another chance to fight Lance as honestly as this again and felt the incredible urge to, somehow, raise the stakes even higher. To find out just how much she could still dig out of him through the language of battle, good and bad.

The girl smiled, "This would be a nice chance to test him, too, wouldn't it?" thinking of a perfect tease, she ignited her aura. "So? Are you going to put it on or what? I'm waiting here all hot with Cosmos for you."

He widened his red eyes like plates. "What did you just say?!"

"Your Cloth, of course." She pretended to reach for a dismantling button in her collar that didn't exist. "Perhaps I should take mine off, then, to make it even? Would you like that?"

The Bronze Saint widened his eyes at her brazenness, finally realizing what the skank was trying to do. "Unless you intend to surrender right afterwards, knock that shit off this second! I'm happily taken! Besides, I've realized by now that suit is probably the only thing keeping you alive in this 'fight', ridiculous-looking as it is!"

"Oh! You loyal you!" Olivia thought, smiling in glee that he passed her test. It almost made her forget all the shit talk. One thing, however, that could not go unpunished, were insults to Cerah's handiwork. "This suit isn't exactly a Gold Cloth, but was prepared to me by a special friend, someone I have total faith in. The last thing it is, is 'ridiculous'. I will make you pay for that remark, Pegasus Lance."

The Pegasus Saint pointed his left palm at her and clenching his right fist. "Unless that friend of yours is a Muvian Gold Saint, then my estimate is that the last thing you'll want in this fight is for me to pop out Pegasus!"

Knight Girl reeled a bit. So, this was why Lance's Cloth was so advanced? She recalled Galarian's words about how little she truly knew of him. Her blue, masked eyes narrowed in determination, realizing this could also be a chance to discover things Lance would otherwise never confide in her. Was it still okay to pursue it?

Before she could settle that dilemma, Lance took the initiative; Igniting his bonfire aura like a machine's engine, the Bronze Saint's fist and feet turned into blinding spheres of light, empowering him. "LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!"

Olivia gasped, seeing the blow that defeated Alraune Queen aimed straight at her.

Instinctively she leaped out of the way with a burst of cosmos, rocketing herself with an acceleration that surprised even herself, allowing Lance's lightning bolt of a punch to hit and annihilate the building behind them. The impact flashed her sight like a real thunderbolt crash and sent the roof of the warehouse flying sky high in an explosion.

Retreating his fist from the debris, Lance irked, wondering how the hell he missed, and followed up with a jump and a flying kick of lightening. The blow struck her guard hard, denting the metal of her armor in, and tossed her sideways against a pillar, bending it with the force. She barely had time to duck when a follow-up punch came in, splitting said pillar in two and causing the warehouse ceiling to cave in partially.

What followed was a terrifying assault of electric punches to her defenses, like getting bombarded with heavy tasers. Every punch she knocked out of herself with her armor seemed to shock her back or even stun her, lessening her ability to resist the follow-up ones.

Lance felt her be pushed back with every blow he threw. "What's wrong?! I'm not even at my top speed and voltage yet! If you don't pick the pace up, I'll use my Lightning Storm Fist to finish you off!" He dashed at her, covering his fist in thunder once more. "LIGHTNING…!"

"This is getting out of hand! I need to create an opening to flee!" Her body charged cosmos as she prepared to throw her own attack. "I-I have no choice! I need to use my Shooting Star Fist, even if to just slow him down! I'll just not call it out!" Focusing in her clenched fist, the heroine swerved her body back and punched the air to unleash the barrage of "BY THE POWER OF THE MOON! Um… Brilliant Stars FIST!"

The cacophony of booming, angled meteors of cosmos was launched and filled Lance's sight, but he was in a perfect position to prepare a counter. "Mm! No problem with lightspeed!" Harnessing his strength, he stepped forward, leaned towards a weak area of the barrage and readied himself to launch his body through it to dod-

Just as he sprang into action and his cosmos burst into its highest level, however, a sudden flash of pain burst inside, making him gasp and lose feeling in his body. To Knight-Girl's astonishment, not one, not two, not three, but all the thousands of blasts she fired struck the Bronze Saint's unarmored body, pummeling him top to bottom.

"PEGASUS!" she cried, seeing him drop to his knees and hands. She rushed to him. "A-Are you okay?!"

He picked himself back up, his body hurting all over. "D-Damn it! Have I still really not recovered from the coma?!"

Knight-Girl gulped. She could tell right away what was going on. "This has gone too far. Please, let's just stop and get you help."

He eyed her strangely. "What?! What the hell do you care?!"

"You're hurt! Why wouldn't I?!" Knight Girl asserted, relaxing her fists. By the Gods, what if she had put him back to sleep again? "This wasn't my intention! I'm not going to fight you like this anymore! Let's just stop and-"

But the Bronze Saint blazed his fire aura with a roar, circling it around his body to dress himself in it. "W-WASN'T YOUR INTENTION?!"

Olivia backed off, startled. She guarded herself from the blazes of embers circling in the air. "W-WAIT! STOP!"

"What do you think a BATTLE IS?! I-I'm not going to give you a choice!" His eyes narrowed, knowing what he was doing was risky, but refusing to lay down arms to a Black Saint, man or woman. "Listen well, superhero, when a warrior fights with their Cosmos, it's for what they believe in! This is a power that can destroy the planet! From the moment the first burn is made to the moment it simmers down to ash, every bit of our life force is put on the line! If you're not ready to face death, then don't you even dare put that armor on and let other people's lives rest in yours!"

The Equuleus Saintia stepped back, worried how high this was going to escalate. Was she really about to duel her boyfriend to the death? Should she just take off her mask, even if the act landed her in the depths of the Stardust Prison?!

"No!" Olivia realized, stopping herself. She saw his cosmos rise to the top for the first time in the fight. "This is what I was after, right? A chance to put my cosmos to a real test! If I don't… I'll never be able to say I walked the road of an Iraklidis!"

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

Meanwhile

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

Running through the night streets with a heavy breath, Sargasso panted heavily and rushed down the length of the lower river bank, trying to find coverage away from the urban sprawl by the banks of the Ems river. Tragically, everywhere he went, night runners and police patrols and citizens attracted by the fires in the dock appeared, forcing him to take even more drastic turns into streets he wasn't familiar with at all.

He found himself tripping over his long coat frills down concrete steps on an alley he turned into, collapsing into the trash. He crawled out, sweating like a pig, his eyes glancing in every direction and gripping his pistol high.

"Stay back! S-STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he threatened, hearing steps approach. Seeing his stalker join him in the alley, hands in his pockets like he was just strolling around, Hans gritted his teeth and took aim. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?! What I have in my h-hands?!"

Garuda Aiacos smirked, cornering the terrified gangster. "All I see is a sinner with a toy weapon. Is that what you're referring to?"

"C…CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU TO HADES!" Hans screamed, pulling the trigger! "DI-"

At the speed of light, Aiacos' hand gripped his, pushing the gun up, bending Hans's fingers and breaking the pistol in two in a single, swift motion. The stardust bullets fell to the floor, harmless, and the Underworld Judge crushed them beneath his shoe, making them crack like firecrackers.

He dusted the metal particles off his hands. "Do not take my Lord's name in vain, profligate. Have the Christians never taught you that?"

Hans Sargasso screamed, his bent fingers shaking and his eyes crying. He stared at the destroyed gun, his lifeline against the pesky men of Sanctuary, as he crawled away. "T-This wasn't supposed to happen! You're no Saint! YOU'RE NO SAINT!"

Garuda Aiacos allowed the shadows of the alley to surround him, summoning the terrifying visage of the Garuda eagle. "Mm, mm, mm… What gave it away?"

Hans's eyes widened, seeing the three-sighted face of a monstrous bird over the Specter's face. Terrifying bird claws made of ice emerged out of the black mirk over Aiacos' shoulders, taking aim at him like execution rifles.

The gangster shook in terror, seeing the shards of ice shaped like blades shake, as if about to rocket straight at him. "S-SOMEONE HELP ME! SOMEON-"

"WHITE LOTUS SPEAR!"

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

With a growl, Lance sped right back into action, intent on catching her. He started with a flying kick aimed full force at her head, forcing Olivia to swerve to dodge. Her hand took to the ground and span her body around to counter with a knee blow, but Lance hardened his arm with cosmos and blocked it, letting the impact sound loudly, but harmlessly. He countered with a swing that struck her cross guard, bashing her back first against a warehouse wall, crashing through it. Olivia gasped, feeling her body rattle under the immense violence of the attack, but her cosmos burned to compensate and she freed herself from the rubble with a burst of cosmos.

She shot her technique again, beginning to forget her boyfriend's fragile state but disguising her signature move with fake color patterns. "SHOOTING STAR FIST!"

The Bronze Saint's body, however, did not fault him this time, and Lance was able to successively block and dodge each of the curved blows. At this point, even Lance could tell the superheroine was getting mad, or at least less playful than before, feeling a heightened aggression and speed to the meteors of light, which were getting smaller, twisting at tighter angles and hitting harder.

Yet, as he dodged, his mind raced. "I d-don't understand! Why does her cosmos feel familiar?! I keep thinking I'm about to figure out who it is, but then it slips away from my mind! If only it wasn't that damn mask!"

He caught her wrist after a final, failed meteor attack and tossed her over shoulder, smashing her through a building's window. He chased after her with a jump and a dive kick, but somehow the heroine successfully recovered, caught his foot and swerved him over herself deeper into the dark building against a pile of crates, smashing him through the hardwood and nails. He burst out of there, ignoring the scratches of splinters and nails, and blocked a flying knee attack from her aimed at his face that shook the entire building when it collided with his hardened cross guard.

Olivia swerved her body to follow up with an overhead elbow drop, but Lance blocked her with a high cross-guard, letting the force of her attack travel to the ground. "D-Damn it, he blocked again! He's so difficult to fight! It feels like every single one of my strategies works less and less every time I use them!" Dropping to the floor, she tried to keep her energy up. It was slowly burning her out, but the more she pulled for her cosmos, the deeper she felt she could tap into with her next strike. "Perhaps if I keep this up,-"

Lance roared, making his cosmos rise as high as the dockyard buildings to create a shockwave. It blasted her straight off of him, making her fall and slide down the length of the warehouse.

He concentrated the rest of it around his fist. "I am warning you… this next attack isn't going to hold anything back!" he tried to urge her. For Athena's sake, he just wanted her to stop! "It will be on the same level of intensity that I kill my enemies with, got it?! If you're going to drop your mask or take off your armor, do it NOW!"

Trembling, the girl fought to get herself back on her feet. Her lungs felt it hard to breathe with how hot the air inside the building was getting. The fires around them were getting bigger, filling the building with smoke. Yet, the stinging in her body, as painful as it was, felt real, and that was the most important thing.

"I… can't!" Knight-Girl let out, stunning him. "Not when I'm finally… seeing what it's like for real!"

Lance was beginning to feel frightened of this woman. "See what for real?! Your death?!"

Shockingly, she nodded, feeling a swelling of hope inside her like a white, blossoming flower. "You wouldn't…understand. Everyone has always… kept me away from this sort of thing. But now I think… this is what it feels like, for brave Saints like you to put their lives on the line for something they believe in. I wanted desperately to understand it…."

Lance widened his eyes. "What the hell for?!" What was she implying? That she was some kind of sheltered rich girl doing some kind of fucked up Saint-tourism? How insane was that? The Pegasus Saint gritted his teeth, realizing he couldn't have less in common with such a point of view.

Clenching her fists, she roused her cosmos to power herself back up. Her lungs eased the need for air and her strength returned the more she pushed for it. "So that no one else will ever feel the need to… shield me with their cosmos ever again."

The Pegasus Saint paused, feeling something finally ring in his head. A tingle of familiarity.

Somehow, she sensed it in him. "Have you ever felt that terrible need, Saint Pegasus? T-To take up the sword and shield someone else has used to save you?"

The Bronze Saint gritted his teeth, recalling the person that first inspired him to become a Saint. The image of a Silver Saint protecting him from a burning building, their leg turned into a bloody stump, came to him. "Yes. With Noah!"

Knight-Girl felt her throat lightening with hope as she recognized conflict in Lance's face. "That is the best we can do with our cosmos, isn't it? To chase the dreams of the world we want to create."

"And what do you do with yours?! Fight criminals in the street like a child?!" He jumped in the air and descended on an angle, rising his fist to throw a fire punch at her that casted the image of a knight with a fire spear in the skies "What do you think the Cosmos is?! A TOY TO PLAY HERO?! PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!"

Seeing the huge wave taking the shape of a fist of fire shoot straight at her, Olivia's thoughts raced, wondering if she was about to get turned into a black spot on the ground or if she should just stop this theater and scream her name out at him to prevent a tragedy.

Instead, igniting her own Wind Cosmos as high as she could, Olivia countered, concentrating all the stars of Shooting Star into a condensed tornado of light and dashing back at him with her own punch. "EQUULEUS… FLYING STAR FIST!"

Then, something strange happened the moment the Saintia threw it. Nothing had been done differently in her new Flying Star Fist, and yet, all the results were. Instead of shooting harshly through the air, her body became light as a feather, flying. Instead of grinding through friction, her punch became fluid, like a needle going in between the fabric threads of the universe. And instead of crossing a mere distance of a few meters in an instant, in an instant she felt her arm stretch across the galaxy itself.

Her mind went blank and her breath cut short, realizing her eyes no longer saw things the same way, at least for a small fraction of a second.

The impact between the two blows was fierce and cacophonous, shockwaving the buildings around them and rattling the cosmos of the two fighters together. The floor below cracked and sunk. Crates littering the area smashed inwards and flew away, blasted to pieces. For a moment, the clash of galaxies between the two sunk into itself, releasing blinding light that irked both fighters and pressuring their arms with the compression of two souls clashing together as violently as possible. Torrents of flames and currents of wind clashed all around, manifesting that metaphysical fight into one that threatened to obliterate the physical one.

Eventually, the line of energies grinding between the two punches burst out, reaching the pinnacle of pressure, striking back at both of them with a painful backlash.

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

….

Lance pushed the crates of himself, feeling covered in soot. The entire building burned.

He coughed, feeling his weak body shake with the forces subjected to it. "D-Damn it, I got knocked out for a second! I'm sure of it now, though; her cosmos is rising the more I fight her! If I don't finish this soon, she's going to unlock the 7th sense and become uncatchable!"

Simultaneously, Knight Girl also dragged herself up from the burning wreckage, looking like a truck just ran her over and feeling like it, too. Miraculously, her owl visage eye mask still held, along with her head piece. She watched, stunned, as the entire extension of her right gauntlet cracked and fell apart, disappearing into specks of light retreating into her Stone, leaving behind a marked hand and arm.

Her whole limb stung in pain, shaking. She tried to hold it still. "I-I can't believe it! How powerful was that punch just now? I threw everything I had and more into that Flying Star, and still…Is this the true strength of the man who defeated Alraune Queen?" She laughed at herself, realizing something oddly infuriating, yet sweet. "He sure was holding back when we sparred in Sanctuary Town, wasn't he? T-This guy... I KNEW he was humoring me. Next time we spar, then, I will definitely make him regret that."

Approaching her, Lance saw the state she was in. "T-This has gone for far enough! Don't you think?"

What remained of the walls around them collapsed, exposing the open air of the street at night. Olivia turned her eyes in the direction of far-off sirens. "T-This is bad. I should have just run. Now I have no strength left! Why did I do that?!" Still, she eyed him defiantly. "Y-You don't look too good yourself, hotshot, you know?"

"Hotshot or not, w-we are attracting attention. And I'm sure Suisho will be back any minute now, too. It's over, Knight-Girl." Lance stressed. He decided to try to be appeasing. It was useless not to after all the resistance she put up. "You fought way harder than I'd give you credit for. If you wanted a bit of my respect, you got it. You're not just a dumb girl like I thought. But prolonging this any further is foolish. You are just not on my level yet."

Olivia panted, feeling everything inside her hurt as she rose from the floor. "A-Agh… that last one really hurt. E-Everything hurts. I don't think I e-ever fought a battle like this. H-he might actually kill me if I take it any further, ah, ah." She smiled, aware of the irony. Maybe Cerah was right all along and this had been the biggest mistake of her life. Or, perhaps, Galan was, and Olivia was experiencing the hardship of laying your life down in a true Cosmos fight for the first time. "A-Aren't you ashamed, Pegasus? I th-thought a brave Saint like you would protect someone like me, not give me the beating of my life."

Bleeding from his head and barely keeping his legs up, Lance irked. "Y-You should never hit a woman… but you chose this path for yourself, whoever you are!" He wiped the blood off his forehead before it blinded him and laid his hand out to show his hand-wrappings soaked in it. "Y-you want to be a hero?! This is what that means! You better be ready to fight me, fight Sui and fight everyone else Sanctuary throws at you, because no justice in this world is accomplished without crawling it out of the dirt with your teeth and nails! Just like you said."

She nodded. "I s-see. I'm glad to hear that." With a pained groan, Olivia collected herself, but half her body shook. "T-The last thing I'd want is for a Saint of Athena to hold anything back against me. Maybe this will be strange to you… but it makes me happy to be acknowledged like that."

Lance groaned, disgusted. "Who gives a shit about what makes you happy?! After all the trouble you caused, you'll be lucky if the Pope doesn't hang you like a regular Black Saint!" He cracked his knuckles, readying himself for round two if needed. "And besides… don't think I'm doing you any favors in treating you fair in a fight! I just know a way stronger Saintia than you I have to get to!"

Olivia perked up, sensing an incredible opportunity. Her lips curved subtly into a smirk. "O-Oh really? What is her name?"

"N-None of your fucking business!" Lance asserted, reassuming his Charge Fist pose. "But you're standing in the way of me going to see her. So, unless you surrender…"

Knight Girl responded in kind, holding right hand up and clenching her left fist. "Oh? You must really like her, then?" Her heart beat in excitement, imagining what would happen if her mask left her face right that second. Would he hate her? Or would he kiss her? "To fight this hard just to lay your eyes on her, just one more time? Next thing you're going to say is that you love her."

His brow twitched. What the hell was up with this one? Still, the very idea of what she suggested made him stiffen in terror. "No!…I can't do that."

Olivia cleared her face. Suddenly, in the moment of truth, there was hesitation from him? "What? Why not?!"

"Because I don't deserve it. Not yet." He confessed. He thought about all the people he let down, like Guifi, to all the people he's mistreated just for being kind to him, like Shinta. "I made her relive a terrible pain. One you'd know nothing about, if this bullshit you're doing is any indication! She had to watch a friend of hers walk the line of life and death for a whole night, for something she thought was caused by her, and now I made her go through that again! For a month and a half!" His armored fist shook in anger at himself. "All I can think about… is how horrible she felt that day I met her. I thought she was going to break to pieces, and there wasn't anything I could say or do to make her feel better! Now all my friends tell me that it happened all over again because of me! And so much worse!"

The words made the girl pause, gripping her Cloth Stone. Olivia's eyes teared up inside her owl visor, her heart stuck between the warmth she felt in how much he cared about her, and how pained he was over what happened. "No, Lance, don't say that. It wasn't your fault."

Lance shook head to try to shake off this frustration he felt inside. "If you had any ounce of responsibility for that friend of yours you mentioned earlier, you'd be joining the army. And help me fight the black-armored bastards that are soon going to slaughter the planet with that cosmos of yours! Not waste it on this… kiddy comic book shit!"

Olivia sunk her chin into chest, pensive. There was a terrible conflict of thoughts in it. The first was that she felt so lucky all of a sudden, even more than when she got his letter. All she wanted was to kiss him, right then and there, even if he found her out and be furious at her for the rest of his life for what she's been doing. She would not, knowing she promised Cerah she'd stay safe, but she desperately wanted to.

The second, however, was that there was one thing she needed to confront him about.

"Saint Pegasus, don't talk to me of responsibility to others like that, or how I put myself at risk without care. I won't admit it." Knight Girl responded. Her teary eyes narrowed. "You may not accept it, but what you and I are doing… is not as different as you think in that regard. You, too, are making that girl you like worry every day, doing things like this, as a Saint of Athena."

Lance staggered. "What?! How the hell would you know?!"

"Call it female intuition, if you must." She merely responded. Her fingers reached inside her visor and cleaned her tears, happy she found someone who cared so much about her, but still mad he didn't fully understand her feelings, yet. "In the end, it's like you said; what I am doing is a silly child thing. But you are part of an army, and about to fight the darkest, cruelest, deadliest force in the Cosmos. A force that has killed 9 out of 10 Saints of Athena that have ever stood in its way. Do you think this girl you love isn't thinking of that every day of her life?"

The Pegasus Saint irked. He turned his face. "It's not the same! Not by a long shot! If you don't fight, some jackoff will get away with grandma's purse! But if we don't fight, the world will come to an end!"

"Maybe to her, a world without you might as well be over. " Knight-Girl Olivia reasoned, shocking Lance and even herself with how far she was putting this comparison. "I am strong. I can take care of myself. There isn't a single Black Saint in the world out there that I will let get the drop on me. Compared to fighting a Holy War, the risks of what I'm doing to those I care about are silly, at worst, wouldn't you say?"

Feeling his words spun right back on himself, Lance had no choice but to bite his tongue for the moment. "I can't be hearing this from someone dressing up like a moony sailor to fight crime!"

Knight-Girl Olivia turned her face away. "Perhaps you should look at me beyond the surface, then."

Lance had no idea what this meant, but no time to figure it out, either. "Well, it's too late now, isn't it, Knight-Girl?" He planted his Cloth box in the ground and retrieved a pair of cuffs from it lined with stardust. "Put these on. It's time to take you i-"

"NOT SO FAST, SAINT PEGASUS!"

Both turned their heads up. The two warriors widened their eyes, seeing a figure prancing atop a tall lamp post, contrasted against the moonlight. A shower of rose petals danced in the air all around them, casting a sweet, numbing perfume, then blew away to reveal the person; a relatively short, male figure with a black suit, a white eye mask, a top hat with a white stripe, a blue cape similar to that of the Gold Saints and a black, silver-rose-handed cane in their hand.

The person eyed the Pegasus Saint down in utter disdain. "Have you no shame, Saint Pegasus? To lay your muddy claws on a porcelain princess of the night like Knight-Girl?"

"Who the hell are you?!" Lance growled.

Olivia's eyes widened, bewildered and amazed at the princely person come to save her so unexpectedly. "Who… is that? He looks… like a hero?!"

"Mm, perhaps introductions are in order, then!" the mysterious figure sang. He struck a pose, stretching his arm out to expose his rose's blossom to the moonlight. "To protect the virtuous from defloration…" the figure hushed to the air, eyes turning to the peerless stars in the night. "To unite all hearts within our nation. To denounce the evils of gods and love! To make roses' beauty to all rise above!"

The two teenagers blinked, suddenly finding something incredibly odd about this character.

The short stranger took out his top hat, revealing a set of tied, cyan hair. "I am…the bloody rogue of the urban garde! The nightmare of villainous Saints! The beautiful guardian of the moonlight! TOP HAT LAD!"

Lance and Knight Girl both gawked, their moods of shock and awe reversed into a common stare of befuddlement. What a terrible name!

Top Hat Lad pointed his cane's rose head at the Pegasus. "And you, Saint Pegasus, are the villain of tonight's episode, targeting the beautiful Knight Girl merely for the sin of combating the evil forces of human traffic!"

Olivia saw her boyfriend squint at her and waved her hands defensively. "Saint Pegasus, d-don't look at me! This is the first time I'm seeing this guy!"

"Are you kidding?! LOOK AT HIM!" Lance pointed at Top Hat Lad, who pouted, feeling ignored. "He looks as ridiculous as you do! You really think I believe you're not in the same gang?!"

"It matters little what you believe, Saint Pegasus!" Top Hat's gloved fingers pulled out a beautiful, blood-red Demon Rose. "I am here merely to assist Knight Girl in her quest for justice! Even if that means crossing swords with Sanctuary pigs like yourself!"

"PIGS?!" The Bronze Saint stood in awe, stunned that this guy would go as far as insulting him and even steal Aphrodite's rose shtick. He burned his aura and pointed his palm at the guy. "That's IT! You're BOTH going down!"

"Ah-AH! Good luck trying!" Top Hat Lad declared, jumping high until the air until the moonlight blinded Lance's eyes. With a dancing swerve, the white-masked lad pointed his foot down at the Saint in a dive kick, covering himself in golden light "Behold the most beautiful of techniques! ROSE ESTOC!"

Turning his fist into a bolt, Lance blazed to the sky. "LIGHTNING CHARGE FIST!" and collided his attack with the stranger's. To his shock, however, he was countered by the power of a full gold-ranker and, upon the cosmos of the impact point detonating, both screamed and were thrown back in opposite directions, crashing hard into warehouse walls before dropping to the ground.

Olivia guarded herself from the shower of flames and rose petals, irking. "I h-have no idea what's going on, but I'm taking this chance to escape!"

Crawling out of the wall ruins, Lance saw the Knight Girl burning her cosmos in preparation for a supersonic blitz. "D-Damn it! W-Wait!"

Olivia smiled at him, glad everything turned out okay. She, winked, pecked her hand, then blew into it at him. "We'll meet again, Pegasus Saint. Sooner than you think, I hope."

Lance widened his eyes, stunned. Did the Black Saint girl just blow him a kiss?! In that moment of shock, the mysterious girl took the chance to sonicboom out of there. "HEY, WAIT!... D-DAMN IT!"

Top Hat Lad smirked, also recovering. "Mm, it appears my work here is done. Love, justice and the Swedish Way have prevailed yet again!"

"YOU!" Lance roared, pointing his finger at him and recharging his aura. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT SHE GOT AWAY! I HOPE YOU'RE READY TO GET SENT STRAIGHT TO STARDUST PRISON!"

The mysterious hero staggered. "Uh-oh." He covered his visage with his Pisces Gold Cloth cape he took for this costume. "A-actually, I'm afraid our time is ALSO short, Saint Pegasus! But know this; justice will ALWAYS be on the side of the pure and beautiful! Top Hat Lad, AWAY! ROSE STORM!"

And with a burst of pink cosmos and a shower of flower petals that battered Lance, blinding him, the warrior in the white eye mask vanished before his eyes.

Recovering, Lance found himself alone in the middle of a ruined warehouse district, surrounded by collapsed gangsters, burn marks, destroyed buildings, broken glass and bruises on himself. He also heard police and firefighter sirens coming.

His face turned red in fury. This all had to still be a coma dream. "G… GOD DAMN IT! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON ANYMORE?!"

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

Hours Later,

Saintia Academy

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

"I can't believe it! You ran into Saint Lance and Saint Suisho?!" Cerah yelped as she dressed Olivia's arm wounds. "And you two FOUGHT?!"

"Y-Yes, be quiet." Olivia hushed, putting her finger to her lips. Fortunately, she heard no one walking in the hall outside her room. "We're both alright, but it was quite scary for a minute or two. I thought for a moment he might kill me."

"Quite scary? Miss Olivia, what are you saying?! You're extremely lucky to be alive!" Cerah lambasted.

She winced when Cerah tightened the fabric around her wrist burn. "O-Ouch! Please be careful."

The Zodiac Knight shook her head, bewildered. She couldn't believe her ears at all the details her senior shared with her, especially after having witnessed how fabulously Saint Lance battled. She tied the dressing so it would hold. "You fought your boyfriend, a trained Gold Rank fighter, in a death match! Why didn't you just take off your mask and tell him who you were?"

Opening and closing her fingers, Olivia tested how much more comfortable she felt. Cerah seemed to not only be great at weaving and light-crafting, but was no slouch at mending wounds, either. If she was part of a Saint team, she'd likely be a great asset.

She thought about Cerah's question, looking out the window. "I'm… not quite sure. I wasn't scared of him finding out, but…" Putting her fist to her chest, Olivia felt it pumping, her blue eyes reeling as she recalled the moment they ran into each other in Emden. The look he gave her, it was like running into a wild animal in the street, something that would tear you apart if you didn't take its threat one hundred percent seriously.

Why was something that should have terrified her to her very core instead be irresistible to face in battle?

Cerah blinked, befuddled. "Well? But what?"

"I think I wanted to discover that side of his." She found herself confessing, half amazed at herself. "He didn't recognize me at all, even though my disguise is so weak, and I realized at that moment that… this could be my only chance to get to know what he truly is like in an all-out battle."

The Zodiac Knight was stunned. She put her fists on her hips. "Miss Olivia, forgive me, but that is nuts. I'm starting to think you really do have the blood of savage giants in you. If I saw Saint Lance's Charge Fist gun straight at me, I would scream and dig into the earth like a mole. You wouldn't see me for weeks!"

Olivia laughed out loud, picturing in her head a cute yellow mole yelping and diving into the dirt away from her boyfriend.

Still, the way Cerah put things raised a good point. "Was this what Galan meant, with making my blood burn in me? That I must keep trying to discover what I am truly like in a fight? There were a few moments when it truly felt my body was burning more cosmos than I ever imagined, precisely the moments I thought I was going to get laid flat in the ground immediately by Lance." She looked at her reddened palm. "For a few seconds it even felt like… I could take a step in the air and fly all the way to the stars. Could that be the 7th sense?"

Cerah put her butt up on Olivia's desk and smiled. "So, what was it like?"

"Mm?"

Her green eyes darted. "You know… having a real match with the guy you like. That must have been intense, right? I can't imagine how hard it was to give it everything you got."

The older girl squinted, exasperated. "Cerah, sweetie, I love you, you're my most trusted junior in this whole school, but you went from 'this is nuts' to 'tell me about your deathmatch date' way too quickly."

The younger girl turned red and fidgeted her fingers over her lap. "Ah, well, I might be asking for some advice…but what would Olivia say if I were seeing a mercenary?" She clapped her hands together. "STILL! The intertwining of emotions! Both rivalry and love twisting together like a hurricane, faster and faster, into an explosion of C-"

"Nah-ah." The older girl cut in, shaking her head. She relived in her head some of Lance's comments. "I hate to break your heart, Cerah, but it was nowhere near that romantic. There were even a couple of moments where it felt pretty good to punch him right in the face."

The Zodiac Knight widened her eyes, stunned. "Oh!" Then glowered, disappointed in Saint Lance. "Oh…"

The older girl nodded further, folding her arms. "It's true. That guy can be quite the trash talker when he thinks you're just an enemy! And to a woman, too! I can't believe some of the things he said to me. He's certainly not the guy I thought he was."

Cerah slumped her shoulders, hoping their relationship wasn't ruined. Was Saint Lance secretly a bastard? "Oh… he isn't?"

Olivia laughed and tilted head happily, recalling all the wonderful ways her adversary spoke of his girlfriend 'back at school'. "Nope! He's actually much sweeter and kinder than I could ever imagine!"

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

The Next Morning,

Strasbourg Base

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

"Ugh, what a disaster! I can't believe how that went down! I've never botched a mission like this!" Lance winced, covered in gauzed bruises. They were sitting at the Sanctuary outpost bar, finishing their breakfast. There was a pocket radio next to their plates talking all about what happened in Emden. "I swear to Athena, Poseidon and Hades, if I ever run into that Knight Girl again, I'm… I don't know what I'll do, but it will end with her locked in jail!"

"It serves to show how useless you are without the Gold Saints." Aiacos thought to himself, sipping the mug of German beer. "Don't beat yourself up. This is just the starting phase of the investigation on Knight Girl, you know that. Besides, I was supposed to be the one who caught Sargasso alive. Instead, look at what happened."

"Authorities gathered in the port of Emden this morning to respond to the massive fire that broke out." the pocket radio in their table spoke. "The disaster occurred overnight, startling the residents of the city, and the local police suspects a gang deal involving Hans Sargasso, a notorious human trafficker, gone wrong may be at the source of the problem. Hans Sargasso himself was found dead on the site, punctured by multiple stab wounds, putting an end to a 14-year reign of terror by the gangster."

"The suspect possessed explosives that could have been responsible for the detonation, unconventional weaponry and was accompanied by several highly armed associates. They claim to have been attacked by vigilantes, but we have evidence of a gang fight breaking out from how one of the suspects was shot with bullets matching the caliber of Sargasso's handgun."

"Fortunately, thanks to the interference of two Interpol agents from Greece present at the scene, who then took Mr. Sargasso away, no one innocent was caught in the accident."

If there was one thing Aiacos had to admit was impressive about Sanctuary, was how good they were at covering their own tracks. "No harm done; it seems. We even caught a bounty bigger than Knight Girl herself. Sanctuary will be happy with us, even if the girl got away."

This was little consolation for Lance, who just groaned.

Suisho sweated and dialed the radio. "I'll change the station, don't worry. Let's see what the Marathoner is reporting."

"-es, you heard it from us first, folks! There is a SECOND super hero accompanying Knight Girl, this one going by the name of Top Hat Lad! Marathoner reports caught the figure escaping the crime scene, wearing a cape, a tuxedo, a cane and, unsurprisingly, a top hat! Could this be some kind of super hero alliance created to show our Saints and Saintias how to get the job don-"

Lance picked up the radio and tossed it into the trash across the bar, earning laughter and sarcastic applause from the soldiers in the bar.

The Crateris Silver Saint rolled his eyes. "Don't kick yourself down even harder than she has. That Knight-Girl turned out to be a much bigger problem than everyone thought, especially with that ally of hers. This is just going to be one of those cases that are just going to take time to solve. And besides-" Suisho reached for his pocket and tossed an object into the table. "-the most important takeaway from Emden is this."

Lance recognized the busted pistol. "Isn't that the gun that Hans guy was waving around? The one that fired as loud as a shotgun?"

"There's a reason why it was loud." Suisho then dismantled the rest of it, letting the cartridge and the chamber bullet drop out. He let Lance pick it up and take a closer inspection, showing how they were capped in silver metal. "Do you see those tips? They're rudimentary, but it's stardust."

"You mean, these things could have actually killed us?!" Lance wondered out loud, reviewing all the cocky attacks he made when the guy was still at the warehouse and could have shot him. "I thought it wasn't possible to create stardust bullets! I always heard the gunpowder needed would bust the gun open in half!"

"Hence the sound. Not only that, but lead, iron and other metals used to make bullets don't mold well with it. There's a reason, after all, Cloths aren't made of steel. The copper jackets also lack the tin required to make it work with stardust." Suisho took the bullet and cut it in half with cosmos from the 'dead side'. He showed its halves to Lance. "But these ones use some kind of special process where all the stardust is at the tip of the jacket and separated from the lead core by an ultra-fine Bronze sheet."

Lance studied it again, squinting, and how only the triangular tip was silvery and the rest was a black mixture of some sort of lead composite surrounded by very thin brown. When ignited by the gun, the lead would probably absorb the impact, fly off and the stardust tip would eat right through whatever layer of cosmos you put between it and your skin.

He shivered, picturing it could very well rip through a layer of cosmos to insert a bullet into a Saint's body. "Christ, so now we have Saint-killing ammunition in the black market to worry about?!"

"Black market? No, I'm afraid there's only one place that would have the know how to create something like this; Bluegrad." Suisho lamented, packing everything back into his pocket. "Fortunately, the gun is terrible. This thing was breaking down with every shot that guy fired, suggesting we are still ages away from a pistol that can reliably fire a stardust bullet. It's still a sign of the changing times, I'm afraid."

"This does make everything Knight Girl did seem tame to worry about, yes." Lance realized, losing a bit of heat in his head at this.

"Just all the more reason to wipe out this species before their technological arrogance offends the Gods even further." The Crateris Saint couldn't help but notice the receding panic in him. "How did you let her go, anyway? Were you holding back that much?"

Lance sweated. "Actually, I was throwing everything I had at her." He gripped his glass tensely, clenching teeth. "I guess I still have a lot of strength to recover from what I went through…"

The black-haired Silver Saint gave him a sly look. "Are you devolving into one of those fighting maniac types, who doesn't distinguish gender?"

Lance breathed out, feeling self-conscious. "Would it shock you if I said I never really saw myself like that? I could have a fist fight with your sister no problem, but I never liked the idea of sparring with other Amazons. After being with Olivia, well,…when I spar with her, I actually… enjoy it. I never felt this way in a match with anyone."

"How so?" Suisho asked, taking another big sip.

"Isn't he drinking a bit too much at this hour? He's starting to turn red." Lance wondered. He scratched his head. "It's like…I don't know… It's how we communicate certain things I can't explain." The weirdest thing to Lance, though, was that Knight Girl was giving him similar sensations of fun in the match. "Is it strange that one of the things I look forward to the most is to be able to train with Olivia again?"

"Ugh. He's completely in love with her. I could just puke at that. That girl is nothing compared to a real woman like Violate." Aiacos smirked; maybe he should ask Violate to crush this guy, then, if he happened to survive what Aiacos had planned for him, as a way to celebrate their reunion. "Just remember, Pegasus,… not every woman warrior you'll meet in the future is going to be like Olivia. Some will be like my dear sister; the type that will destroy any hesitation in you to punch them in the face."

"Yeah, I was meaning to ask…why are we regrouping at a bar, anyway?" Lance wondered, looking around nervously, seeing all the hoplites chatting. "You know I'm not popular with these guys."

"You're the one that wanted to stick around in the area so you could go see your girlfriend in the Alps, right?" Suisho asked. "Or do you want to go back to Greece, already, and deal with the reports?"

Lance beamed. "Oh! You mean…"

"Consider it your reward for helping bringing in Hans Sargasso." Suisho added, smiling, tossing him part of the bonus. "Sure, it was Knight Girl who punched him up, but you're the one who figured out where she was going to be next. So go enjoy seeing Olivia."

Laughing happily, Lance pulled Suisho across the table for a hug, startling him. "Thanks, Sui! I appreciate this."

"It's fine." Suisho pointed out, pushing him off. He tried not to show too much disgust at being embraced by a damn Saint of Athena. Suisho clinked his beer glass to get his attention and laughed. "Why, you got a look on your face. She really has become your whole world, uh?"

"I have more on mind than just Olivia, you know?! There's the fucking war, for once!" The teenager irked. In fact, part of the reason he was trying to focus on Olivia was so that the Holy War wouldn't drive him mad. "Still,… if… you know… you had advice?"

The Silver Saint sighed happily with his drink and ordered another. "Well, make sure you bring her something nice, to show you care about her and missed her. It's been a while since you've been together."

"Mmm…Well, usually I cook my own stuff. Maybe I can make her lunch?" Lance mused to himself, disgruntled. The good thing about controlling fire cosmos was that he could fry, grill, boil and even preheat everything to perfection. He then had a thought that made him gulp. "I wonder if Olivia would like my food, actually? Cerah and Yushira seemed to think it was good. Maybe Olivia would be happy if I cooked her something nice?"

Sui drank down his beer. "It can't hurt, any woman on the planet would kill to get their hands on a guy who takes care of themselves in front of the stove. I get the feeling that one's already pretty into you, but when you show how good a catch you are with a chef hat, too? She's never letting you go."

Lance blinked. Suisho sounded so confident in this. "Are you sure?"

The Silver Saint nodded as he guzzled down the alcohol. "Oh yeah. But you know that Saintia Academy; they watch the students diets like hawks." Slamming another mug down, he wiped his mouth and exhaled. He must have been feeling a bit affected already, because he felt like extending the Saint a compliment. "Ya really oughta think better of yourself in that regard, Pegasus. I mean, you get a hot girl like that, a Saintia hotshot to boot, and ya still act like any second she's gonna rip your invite for her to the prom? Get some confidence, man. Ye've earned it."

"Mm, he's kinda sounding more like Yushira in his speech, the more he drinks. I guess the two really are siblings." Lance noticed. He remembered the last relationship advice he got outside from Dohko had been from Sui', as well. "I guess you must know what you're talking about."

The Crateris burped slightly, satisfied with eight mugs he just dunked. "I've had more than a few heartbreaks, Pegasus." He exhaled sadly, resting cheek on fist. He remembered those warm nights in the past with his lover. "But things will change, soon. Oh, Violante…"

"Wasn't his new girlfriend called 'Viola'?" Lance wondered. "I think you've had too much to drink, already, man."

"She is… so glorious, you know?" Suisho lamented, his eyes glassing at some memory of this person. The sight of her alone in that crystal ice, pure and untarnished, could make his heart stop. "Have you ever met anyone that was just… perfect, Pegasus? Beautiful, loyal, dedicated, focused and unbelievably powerful…'Cause I never met anyone quite like her. She was like a statue the gods made to mock the beauty of lesser women. I wish I had realized that sooner. We would have had more time together."

From the way he spoke, Lance had to imagine he was talking about someone from the past, not the present. "Wait, back up, are we talking about Viola or someone else?"

Sui's fingers pressed around the last mug, making it tense. "Old, new…Pah. Time is meaningless. And I was… unreasonable to her. I asked her to do something beyond even her abilities. We both ended up paying a terrible price."

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

They were at the battlefield of the battleships, the graveyard of the Ship of Hell that had tried to sink the Ship of Hope. Garuda Aiacos collapsed to his knees, staring at the crystalline perfection in front of him with horror stamped on his face.

Cygnus God Hyoga, still brimming with cosmos, stepped away from his cruel creation. He closed his one good eye in lament. "I am sorry, Suikyo. It was the only way. Remember, you brought this on yourself."

Locked inside the enormous Freezing Coffin, Behemoth Violate slept peacefully, her long hair strands spread out in the ice and her limbs laid about, a pose created after being frozen in the middle of the blasts' shockwave. Burning his dark cosmos to the height of the skies, Garuda Aiacos howled and slammed the Coffin with both hands as hard as he could, failing to create even the tiniest of cracks despite his colossal strength.

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

"She gave everything to me, and I still let her slip from my fingers." Suisho lamented. "A man I will never be able to confront took her from me. And it was all my fault."

Vague as it was, it sounded like a terrible thing to go through. "I'm sorry, man. Listen, maybe you should burn your cosmos to process some of that alcohol in you. You sound even slobbier than Yushira right now. You're not even getting your timeline straight on your love life."

"Eh, you're right." Lightly brimming his aura, Suisho stretched arms and rubbed his eyes until the world stopped feeling so funny. "Well, life moves on. Besides, now I will have a second chance at love, if I just have faith."

The Pegasus Saint had to admire the unshakeable optimism he saw in his partner. "I guess some people can just bounce right back from their troubles, especially with booze helping out. Still, if I lost Olivia, I don't know if I'd be so lucky to get a second chance." He clenched his fingers on his coffee cup, narrowing his eyes. "That's why I need to make sure I'm ready for this Holy War, come hell or high water. But how? It feels after fighting that Atlae guy that with my body's strength alone, I don't have what it takes. And then there's that barrier the Specters have to consider. If only there was a way I could push myself to a new level…"

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

Later, Saintia Academy

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

Pisces Aphrodite covered his yawn with his hand as they patrolled the school for another day. He squeezed eyes shut for a second, feeling exhausted. He wished he could lie down in a bed of roses and fall asleep.

Cancer Deathmask rose a brow. "What are you so sleepy for?"

"I've been doing night duty for you, remember?" the Swede expertly diverted. "Because you keep falling asleep?"

"Oh yeah." Deathmask realized, snickering. "Sorry about that. I just get so drained, being this cool all day."

"Idiot." Aphrodite thought to himself. He could always count on Mephisto to miss the big hints. The sounds of a vehicle rumbling at the main gate alerted him. "What is that?"

Deathmask rushed to the gate. "Oh boy, is it something I get to kill?!" But his mood soured, realizing it was another biker arriving at the school. His frown sunk even deeper when the guy took his helmet off. "Oh, it's just our beloved mentor."

Lance unfurled his charcoal hair, combing it with his hand. Iaso was right; it did feel like a rocker's head now. It was so uncomfortable with the helmet on. He looked up and saw the palatial building the Saintias studied at for the first time. The place looked like an estate more than a school, being comprised of several interconnected buildings with northern-european architecture, tall pointy roofs, arches, buttresses and even beautiful stone bridges connecting the nodes to the ones isolated in elevated rocks. The entire complex was surrounded by gardens and sitting on a Swiss mountain lake, while beautiful, snowy mountains were present in every horizon.

Lance sweated. "Cerah and Olivia are studying here? Geez, this looks like some magical Walt Disney kingdom land." He spotted a greasy-haired, black coated man approaching him. "Christ, speaking of evil warlocks…"

"Ahem…!" Professor Severus called from behind the iron gate. "Can I help you, young man? Are you lost by any chance from your journey to the village barber?"

The Bronze Saint squinted. What was with the immediate condescendence? "Olivia said she had some kind of piece of shit alchemy teacher, didn't she? I must have hit the jackpot."

The professor cringed nose. "Perhaps you did not hear me under the noise of your vehicle? If you'd just shut it off-"

Lance revved the bike as loudly as he could, letting the engine's roar call the entire school's attention.

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

Cerah and Diana followed Miss Olivia throughout school as every girl in the Third year tried to get the Class president's attention.

"Miss Olivia, how did you get hurt? How did that happen?!" one rushing by the Equuleus asked, seeing her wrapped arm.

"Oh, it was just a training accident." Olivia assured. "I'll be good in no-"

"Olivia, would you please help me organize the Accounting Club?" one with glasses begged. "I know you passed the presidency to me, but I'm so lost! I could really use your help!"

The Equuleus shook her head. "It will be no problem. But later, okay? Right now, I'm heading for lunch."

"Olivia, are you going to participate in the athleticism tournament?" one dressed for PE called. "Would you please join my team?! Don't join Katherine's! She's said all sorts of nasty things about you!"

The black-haired Saintia sweated. "One at a time, please. I'll be with you all in a moment, I promise."

Diana huffed, witnessing the whole thing with Cerah. "Boy, everyone wants her attention, don't they? Even when she's clearly injured."

"I guess it can't be helped." Cerah acknowledged. "Even with miss Olivia giving away presidency in so many things, everyone still looks up to her like an older sister. And now with Holy War approaching…"

"Oi, Cerah, are you listening?!"

"I am, I am." Cerah assured. She frowned, seeing miss Olivia showing the first signs of lack of sleep, looking dizzy as she was surrounded by a growing crowd of girls. "Maybe I should go save her? Any more of this and miss Olivia will-"

"HEY! OLIVIA!"

The group turned to the main gate, from where all the shouting and engine revving was coming from.

The crowd murmured reactions. "Who the heck is that? Another biker?"

"Excuse me!" Olivia begged, making way past her fans, her heart beating. She recognized the gruff shouting. Could it be? She saw the familiar face and beamed. "SAINT PEGASUS!"

Everyone widened their eyes in shock, seeing the usually composed girl rush across the school. "What is happening? Miss Olivia!"

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

The alchemy professor covered his ears. "WOULD YOU TURN THAT INFERNAL MACHINE DOWN?! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

Lance pressed the pedal as hard as possible, letting it whir like a roaring dragon. "OLIVIAAAA!"

Other teachers gathered, including the headmaster. "Severus, what is going on here?"

"This VANDAL here is turning the entire school into his personal spectacle, headmaster! And he wants to see one of our students for it!" the alchemy teacher pointed his finger. He growled, seeing Lance whir it again. "I SAID TURN THAT THING OFF!"

"Why don't you come outside here and force me, then, Cloak-Man?!" Lance challenged from outside the bars. "You think I'm some eleven-year old girl you can push around?! Lay a finger on me and I'll rip that goatee right off your chin!"

Horror struck the faces of the entire faculty. "The GALL!" Professor Dolores cried out.

Professor Sybil put her hands on her hips. "Who do you think you're talking to, young man?!"

Severus himself approached the bars with a threatening glare. "I promise you, young man… the last thing you'd want is for me to lay my hands on you!"

Only the headmaster laughed, picturing his alchemy teacher without his pointy goatee. "Now, now, Severus, I see a Cloth Box on this young man's back, which means we are talking to a Bronze Saint. And considering it seems to be the Pegasus Cloth, we are talking to a veteran of the Specter attack, to boot."

Lance relaxed, finding someone with sense in the long-bearded man with half-moon glasses. "That's right, sir."

"Severus says you are here to see a student? I'm afraid I cannot allow it unless it's family." The headmaster calmly retorted.

The Saint however, didn't take no for an answer, parking the bike. "Then I'll be here at this gate and see her through these bars, if I have to."

"LANCE!" Olivia cried, rushing in between them. She clamped her hands around the bars. "You're here!"

"Olivia!" He cried back, holding her fingers in the metal. He locked eyes with her for the first time since Andromeda Island and felt every malaise in his spirit lift. "It's so good to see yo-"

Her hands grabbed his face and pulled him in to kiss him. Lance irked, hitting face in the bars, but let himself be lost in her lips.

The whole school practically joined in as Olivia's friends and the other classes arrived to see the Class President making out with the Bronze Saint through the gate.

"Holy shit!" Diana cried out, stunned.

"It's Saint Lance!" Cerah realized. She beamed. "He really is okay! Thank Athena!"

"Miss Olivia is kissing that guy!" someone stated the obvious.

"Miss Iraklidis! You, the school's prestigious class president, are the one this… this motorbike man came here to see?!" Severus growled.

Disconnecting their lips, the girl rolled eyes. "Yes!"

"Do you believe me now, you asshole?!" Lance shouted, shaking the bars. "Or was me shouting her name not enough?!"

Olivia's eyes teared up. "Saint Pegasus, I'm so happy to see you like this…" she muttered, pressing her forehead on the bars to meet his. No costume, no identity, a real encounter after everything they've been through. Still, a question popped in her head. "W-Why are you here?"

He laughed. "What do you mean? You asked me to come see you in your letter." He reached for his Cloth Box and pulled out a tiny box. "Also, I brought lunch."

She covered her mouth, touched. She had only written it in sweet play. She looked around…

The teachers and students widened their eyes, realizing she was planning something. "Miss Olivia!"

Before they could say anything, though, the Saintia gripped the bars, stepped on the horizontal ones and leaped high over the spiked tops, jumping the fence! She landed in Lance's arms, wrapping hers around his neck.

The stunned Lance couldn't help but laugh. "Olivia!"

She kissed him again. "Where are you taking me?"

The bronze Saint hesitated. "W-well, I saw a park in the mountains on my way here. It's not much, but-"

"I'd love to!" she instantly confirmed. She raised her arm high at her school as she climbed into her boyfriend's bike to wave everyone. "I'll be right back everyone! I'll just be taking a little time off, okay?"

"Good luck, miss Olivia!" little Kathya wished.

"Tell us all about your date later, okay?!" one student cried out.

"Why didn't you tell us you had a boyfriend, GOSH!" a distraught one cried out. "Would you please give me advice later on getting one, too?"

"Miss Iraklidis, you will be severely punished if you engage in this kind of… delinquent behavior!" Professor Dolores cried out, turning red and rushing to unlock the gate. "Do you realize what kind of example you're setting for your classmates?! Get off that bike right this sec-""

"UGH, shut up!" Lance shouted, startling her with a light burst of cosmos. "Get a grip, you hag! I'm not kidnapping your precious princess! We're just going to the park to have lunch!"

"Hm, don't be silly." Holding onto him, she kissed his cheek and sang. "We can do way more than just lunch."

Lance turned crimson red and put on his helmet, before she could convince him to forget about lunch with more kisses. Making sure she held on safely to him and put his second helmet on, he drove off, leaving a cloud of smoke for her annoying teachers to cough at.

The headmaster laughed. "Yo-oh-oh, love is, indeed, an arrow from the Gods through your heart!"

"Okay, that's the second guy in a motorbike coming to this Academy handing out dates! In two days!" Diana pointed out. She stomped her foot "And none of them are coming for ME! What is going on right now?!"

Cerah tried to comfort her friend with a shoulder pat. "Don't worry, Diana. I'm sure a motorbiker will come to sweep you away too."

The student sniffed, cleaning eyes. When would her turn to be saved from this dictatorial establishment come? "Y-You're such a sweet friend, Cerah! I hope so too!"

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

Nearby, Anastasia Ghisi observed the whole thing, flanked by her two stooges. Her hands gripped her favorite pen, a gift from her parents, harder and harder until it snapped in two, startling the two other girls.

"Rachel, Liliane, who is that man she just drove off with?"

Shaking on the ground, Rachel cried, holding the blood-soaked hole in the left side of her nose. "I…I don't know, m-miss Ghisi."

The strawberry blonde girl turned her cruel almond eyes at her. "Then find out." her fingers took the jar next to her and put it in the table in front of them, exposing the liquid-soaked eye floating inside to the light. "Or I'll rip the other one out, too."

Rachel gasped, clutching her empty socket. "N-No!"

Liliane held her close and pulled her up to take her away. "D-Don't cry, Rachel! Just do a good job! Got it?! You have to do a good job and she won't punish us anymore!"

Anastasia huffed, turning away from their pathetic sight to the motorbike disappearing in the distance. "Truly, you can't find decent help anymore." She waited until her two stooges vanished off the room to rest her head against the glass, firming herself. "Olivia… my darling. How could you? You picked some Saint over me? Don't you understand?" Her hands pressed the window, letting her pretend to grasp the two human ants at the distance. "You don't have that luxury. You never have. You're mine. Mine, mine… MINE!"

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 100 – Third Arc – Episode 26 – The Great Triumph – Part 1

Release Date: September 25th

Description: Sanctuary Town is in ebullition, awaiting the Triumph of a new great warrior that has supposedly done a great service for the Pope. No one knows who they are yet, or what they've done to earn the ceremony, but few in Sanctuary care, for it's a good excuse to a moment of happiness and celebration in these dark times approaching Holy War.

Being part of the security detail along with Suisho, Pegasus Lance is allowed to see the event for himself, while the Saintias and Saint students finally move to Palaestra, the ancient Sanctuary fortress, to continue their training in safety from the Specter threat.

In the midst of all this, Cerah Heloise gets her chance to know Leon, the mysterious mercenary of silver hair, better over a cup of tea. Is he the villain she suspects Leon is? Why did he choose her, of all the girls in Sanctuary, to ask out? And what is his connection to the top brass of Sanctuary?

Author's Comments:

First of all, I want to apologize for missing the upload date. Yesterday I was at the end of a grueling gauntlet of having my main laptop's charger die out of nowhere, forcing me to order a new one, so while I took my chapter files home for vacation, I just didn't have a good computer of my own to do my personal work in during the past two weeks.

Soon we will be celebrating 100 chapters of LR. Wee! I really wanted to try to make it one big bombastic chapter, and even have 40,000+ words worth of work on it. Believe it or not, I was even planning to make it the 3rd Arc's finale. However, I realized before going on vacation that structurally speaking, it just wasn't working as its own thing and needed to move a lot of the stuff done for it, mostly things involving Yushira, to a chapter of its own. This of course delayed progress even further.

Anyway, be sure to leave a review or share the story if you enjoyed this chapter, or if you want to criticize it even. Like it on Tumblr/Reddit and generally support this project if you enjoy it. You can find me in all those places under the Thrudgelmir2333 name.

See ya \owo