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.

101. 3A: The Triumph - Part 2

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 in the middle of Hurricane Helene. Send your thoughts her way;

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The Past, October 1963

(Fourteen Years Earlier)

The Golden Zodiac

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Dusk was settling on Sanctuary after what had been a long, terrible day for Gemini Akassius. He had now returned from being with the Pope at the Stardust Prison and was conversing with Taurus Daniel and Scorpio Paris about what was going on. The two Gold Saints were in disbelief. They asked all sorts of questions in return. How did he know for sure? Who told him? What would happen now? Did Priam already know? And who was going to tell him?

All questions that even the mighty Akassius struggled to answer.

Then, it had come out of nowhere, as instantaneous as one of the Lightning Arrow's appearances into a battlefield. One moment, he was nowhere in sight, letting Gemini Akassius talk pleasantly to Scorpio Paris and Taurus Daniel about his most recent success, and the next moment a punch clad in gold was hitting him square in the cheek, knocking him to the ground.

The shocking sight of Akassius down to the floor not-withstanding, the other two Gold Saints were wide-eyed as Taurus Daniel attempted, even with his colossal strength, to hold in the much smaller Sagittarius Saint. "STOP IT, PRIAM, RIGHT NOW!"

"LET GO, DANIEL!" Priam roared, wrestling as hard as he could. His eyes were weeping uncontrollably. "L-LET GO! Do you have any idea what he's done?! HE KNEW IT! HE KNEW ALL ALONG IT WAS HER! WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP ARLES?!"

"What the fuck are you doing, Priam?! Are you INSANE?!" Paris shouted, helping a stunned Akassius up. "This isn't going to make anything any easier, you moron!"

"What's going on?!" Capricorn 'Achilles', known to her friends as Kirin, shouted, looking alarmed and arriving with Pisces Aeneas in tow. "Priam, why did you just punch Akassius?!"

"We were on our way back from town and saw Priam's Lightning Arrow landing here!" Aeneas explained, looking panicked. He knew Priam only ever resorted to the technique in serious emergencies. He saw Akassius' bruised face and the maddened Sagittarius Saint. The beautiful youth in the Pisces Armor felt his heart quicken. "Priam… Don't tell me that…the prisoner that the Pope just brought in to the Stardust Prison…?"

"IT'S A-ANESIDORA!" Priam cried out, wresting Daniel's enormous, armored arms. He collapsed, exhausted from the struggle against the bull. "D-Dear Goddess, it's Annie', my wife! A-And she has Shinta with her!"

Kirin and Aeneas exchanged a look of stunned denial. They both turned to Akassius, their eyes demanding answers.

The Gemini rubbed his cheek, wincing. He had expected Priam to come running all along. Perhaps it was best if they got things straight right away. "Priam,… you know that under these circumstances I had no choice-"

"H-how could you do this to us?! YOU SON OF A BITCH! You're Shinta's godfather!" the brown-curled Gold Saint screamed. Every time he managed to free a limb from Daniel, the much older Taurus Saint wrapped his arms all around him again even tighter. "SHE IS MY WIFE! AND YOU PUT HER IN ARLES' HANDS! AND NOW HE'S GOING TO KILL HER!"

Alarmed by his screaming, Daniel pushed Priam down onto the ground, pressing his great weight over him. "ENOUGH, PRIAM! You don't know who's listening around here! Do you want to make things worse for your family?!"

Aeneas irked. "I-I don't understand! Why is Annie' in prison? And with her child, too?!" He looked around at his friends, almost as panicked as Priam himself. "She's not a criminal! She's our friend!"

Both Akassius and Daniel laid quiet, while Paris reeled visibly. Anesidora had been Priam's spouse for two years as of then. While a person of alternative personality, to say the least, they had all learned to love her and accept her as one of their own. Much like Partita and Cecilia, Anesidora had become sort of a satellite to their close-knit group, someone all of them had learned to cherish, love, and admit into their circle despite the lack of Gold Cloth or a common past in the junk, not to mention that the happiness she gave Priam was a source of joy to everyone. Even more so, everyone got to meet and hold baby Shinta in their arms a bit, including even the disgruntled Paris, who would sooner kick a puppy over the Golden Zodiac than hug it.

None of them ever imagined there could be anything seriously wrong with her or Shinta.

So how could any of them accept that the Pope had her and her baby currently in detention? To the point Priam screamed that she was going to be killed?

There was only one thing that could cause this. Kirin gulped. "W-Wait. Guys, don't tell me that she… is the one they're saying that…"

The Gemini nodded with a grave frown. "I'm afraid so, Kirin. Anesidora is the suspect of being the new Pandora that the Pope announced to us all was going to be seized, this morning. He had me escort her to Prison immediately, before she could escape."

There was a collective gasp of denial and horror from Priam, Aeneas and Kirin. Even the cynical Paris couldn't help but shake at hearing it be worded again by Akassius. The idea that Anesidora, out of everyone, was the vessel of Hades' sister was something that naturally made the three young Gold Saints freeze to their core. No, not Anesidora. Not the woman that made Priam so happy to be alive, who gave him a son, who shared so many meals and so much laughter with them all. Not the person who taught Aeneas the beauty of metal music, who listened to Kirin's pain talking about how hard it was to hide her gender without a mask and even who shared a dark joke or two with Paris, away from everyone's judgmental eyes.

She couldn't be Pandora! That was impossible!

Seeing the pain in their faces, Akassius carried on. "I know it may difficult for you all to hear this. It certainly isn't how I wanted you all to find out. But it is true. Anesidora was an Heinstein all along, and Priam, naturally, deliberately held that fact from the rest of us for three long years. The only one who knew it other than him were Aries Antenor and Virgo Helena, who conspired to perpetuate his secret."

Aeneas widened his eyes, feeling a trio of knives into his heart. "W-What?!"

Kirin's rage shifted to Priam. "K-KYOSUKE, IS THAT TRUE?!" She grabbed Priam's collar, mad like a wolverine. Everyone knew that for Kirin, of all people, to forget their codenames, was because she was ready to chop some heads off. Seeing him whimper powerlessly, Kirin slapped him as hard as she could across his weeping face. "STOP CRYING AND T-TELL ME, YOU COWARD! YOU THREE KNEW ALL ALONG SHE WAS AN HEINSTEIN?!"

Akassius her shoulder gently to move her away from Priam. "It was only natural for Ace to know. He patrolled the Heinstein grounds together with Priam when they were both Zodiac Knights. He was a literal witness to them falling in love. But tell me, Kirin, would you risk your loved ones unnecessarily, too, if there was such a high chance they were innocent? All Ac-… Antenor and Helena did was have faith in Priam's judgement and let him be happy. We can't blame them for that."

Daniel turned away, frowning. "And my daughter isn't here to defend herself anymore, anyway…"

Akassius then turned to the entire group. "We all have loved ones here. And we all know what it feels like to love the wrong people. People who hold terrible secrets, or even that are capable of committing the worst of atrocities. Isn't that true?" At the Gemini's strong words, 'Achilles', Aeneas and Paris all exchanged uncomfortable looks. They all understood, in one way or another, what Akassius referred to, recalling the Gemini's own share of a 'shadow'. As much as they all loved Priam, this was something they could not take his side on over Akassius'. "However, things have changed. Now, Anesidora might very well be THE Heinstein, the one destined to awaken as Hades' liaison of this era. The Pope has deemed fit to arrest her and ascertain how much of a danger she represents to all of us and we must, as Gold Saints of Athena, support him."

The most sensitive in the group, Aeneas had to cover his mouth in horror. "N-No!"

Kirin almost threw herself at him. "Wait, wait, a danger to us?! How can that be?!" Especially as a Capricorn, how could she have sat and ate so many times with Pandora's vessel without ever smelling the darkness in her? Granted, Anesidora was always very gothic, but after getting to know her personally… "Akassius, it's Anesidora! We have the wrong person! We HAVE TO!"

The Gemini held his chest, pained. "I promise you all…I did my very best to understand and ascertain Anesidora's… peculiar situation. Antenor suspected she was Pandora's vessel from the moment he discovered Priam's relationship with her, but there was little proof beyond her last name. Now, however, there has come a time where we cannot hide anymore behind our bonds. The truth about Anesidora's destiny has come out."

"Then that means… we now have proof?" Aeneas queried, hopeful there was some kind of hole to this all that could prove Akassius wrong. "We know for a fact now that Anesidora is more than just another False Pandora in the Heinstein family?"

Akassius gritted his teeth and raised a pair of fingers. "Two pieces of evidence so far. The first is that Shinta has manifested the cosmos of darkness. The cosmos of a Surplice. Even as the Pope had me apprehend Anesidora, three men died consumed by black fire when they made her child cry. One of them was a Silver Saint." This next bit was going to be the worst to let all know. "The second is that we discovered the child has manifested a Silver Star pendant… the one historically associated with vessels of the Underworld."

A cold chill went through everyone. What Akassius was saying normally might have been misconstrued as the son of a Gold Saint like Priam manifesting their latent Cosmos in a situation of stress. It was normal for children of Saints to have extraordinary instincts with the Cosmos and was actually the founding principle behind the concept of the Golden-Ring families of Sanctuary. However, when coupled with Anesidora's family and the pendant…

"Perhaps Anesidora is not Pandora, but she is, at the very least, the mother of an extremely powerful Specter about to be revived for the Holy War, twenty-five years from now." Akassius concluded. "And, at the very worst, she is the vessel of Pandora of this generation herself, with Hades choosing her to be his 'mother' rather than his 'sister'. In either case… Anesidora obviously refused to part with her child. A loveless mother she isn't, for sure…"

There was a scream of frustration let out by Capricorn 'Achilles' to the skies. Aeneas felt sick and sat down, holding his stomach and sweating. Taurus Daniel let out a bullish gruff, turning face in regret at what things had come to.

"O-Oi, oi, but wait a minute, WAIT A MINUTE, goddamn it!" Paris protested, stepping up. "That means… that means Sanctuary is going to kill her regardless, right?! Between being Pandora or the mother of a Specter…Whatever line of the Heinsteins produces Pandora, has to be eradicated, or we risk an early Holy War! That's why we've been keeping eyes on them for two freaking centuries!"

The conclusion that hit Paris then hit Aeneas. "So, the poor baby boy, Priam's son, will be…!"

"I swear on my brother's memory… that I did everything in my power to protect Priam and her from persecution!" Akassius hissed, clenching his fists. He didn't accept going to apprehend her until all the facts came together to the Pope, and even then, the journey to her house was filled with pain. "I love Anesidora very much. I consider her a sister to us. But… a Silver Star is a Silver Star! No matter if Priam's son is a mere Skeleton Soldier, a Specter, a Judge or even Hades himself, they will still be hopelessly compelled by that God's cruel power to awaken as an enemy of Athena one day. As an enemy of all humanity! In light of all that…" he then turned face, ashamed, but resolute. "My friends, I cannot stand in the Pope's way. To make an exception in this case only for Priam's child to one day stab his loved ones in the back, when we least expect it!... You may all hate me for it, but it would destroy everything we have all fought and sacrificed for, year after year, for almost a decade by now."

The other four Gold Saints were rendered silent. None of them were even remotely happy with this, but they all understood what was in Akassius' soul. Even Paris, who loved to contest everyone in their group on moral grounds, could only scratch his head quietly, trapped between two terrible options.

Priam shook and wailed on the ground. It was a sight none of them could bear, much less he could bear to expose to them, but an unavoidable one, such was the pain. "H-How could you…?! How could you all talk about my family like that?! She's my wife! He's my son! And Arles will… Arles will…"

Aeneas sniffed. He knelt to hug him. "P-Priam, please don't cry. Akassius said there was only a strong suspicion, right? That's not certainty! Everything will be alright. Let's talk with the Pope! I'm sure that… that…that everyone will be on your side on this! That we can find a solution!" But when he looked around, Kirin, Paris, Daniel and Akassius wouldn't meet him in the eye. "G-Guys? We're going to help Priam, right?! Tell him we will!"

Paris folded arms and confirmed Priam's worst fears. "Tsk… Didn't you hear all that evidence?! Had it been anyone else, would you doubt for a second you were dealing with an Underworld baby?!"

"That's not the point!" Aeneas asserted, standing up to the Scorpio. "Even if we knew for certain that the child is of Hades' army, it's still Priam! We owe him our help!"

"What the fuck kind of help would you have us give, ya junkyard flower fag?!" Paris countered. He always hated Aeneas' act and how attractive he was. What a terrible combo to annoy Paris with. "Hide her and her baby in the woods?! Don't be naïve! Where on Earth can't Hades' cursed magic find them?! We could put her in a Zodiac Knight castle, crush that pendant, melt it into coins and pay the little brat's fucking diapers with it, and it's still gonna haunt him for the rest of his life a ghost! We can't save this child!"

Capricorn 'Achilles' held her forehead, pulling her black hair up with a powerless terror in her eyes. Why did it have to be Annie'? "Even if we did, what would that make of us?! We're not civilians anymore, Aeneas, we're Gold Saints of Athena! And we swore to destroy Her enemies, not abed them. And do we have the right to let this child grow up to be driven mad by Hades' evil? Isn't that worse for both him, Annie and Priam? I love Annie' and her baby, but…but…" Her eyes wept and she covered her face again to hide them. "G-Goddess, I d-don't know what to do! What do you do when there's a mother and her child involved?!"

"There is only one thing to do, 'Achilles'." Akassius reminded her. "If we want to keep everyone we swore to defend safe, then we need to have faith in Arles. He is the man chosen by Athena. It's precisely in times like these, where the moral complexity surpasses the strength of Gold Saints like ourselves, that his wisdom is called for."

Priam shook. Was only Aenas going to defend his family? "S-so, that's it, uh?... The only thing to do…is to just roll the dice on my family's lives and hope Arles will have mercy?"

Akassius sweated. "That is not what I said. Just that-"

"My wife and child are going to die in front of all of Sanctuary! You KNOW THAT!" Priam accused, glaring at Akassius. The Zodiac Knights had taught him, after all, that the wise thing to do with Skeletons-to-be was to kill or exorcise them at the root. "Because of a dumb cosmos color and a necklace! Hundreds of honorable Saints have had this kind of Cosmos! And the Silver Star pendant has always emerged in the wrong people, just so Hades can watch us prove to him how cruel we are by murdering them! Aren't we supposed to prove him wrong?!"

The more experienced Daniel folded arms. "You know it's different these days, Priam. We are in the right years for the Specters to be finally rebirthing. The chances of someone being a Specter because of their cosmos color is no longer a joke to be waved away. You yourself have gone on dozens of missions with Aries Antenor to terminate them, when you two were together at the Knights. You should know better than Akassius that this situation is not acceptable!"

Priam turned to the giant. "W-What?! I should know… it's not acceptable?! Daniel, why do you think I left the Knights?!" he shouted, completely exasperated. He could barely comprehend that all his loved ones were arguing with him on this. "It wasn't just because of getting the right Cloth for me, it's because I couldn't take tearing families apart anymore! Why should I accept it when it's mine?!"'

The giant blonde man shook his head anyways. "Still,… you know Akassius would leave no stone unturned to save Anesidora and your son. For Athena's sake, have some faith in him. Akassius is… he's Shinta's godfather! He wouldn't just abandon you!"

But feeling barred by this only made the blood in Priam boil harder. He looked at their leader, their strongest Gold Saint, the man that had defeated him in a million sparring duels, right in his black eyes, and felt ready to toss him down the stairs and strangle him.

The Gemini couldn't blame him. He tentatively tried to hold him "Priam, please… please understand!"

"Understand what?!" Priam could only hiss, swiping Akassius' hands off. "That you've completely given up on our happiness?! That you've settled for Arles', instead?! What if it was YOUR son in that prison?! What if it was Galan there, crying in Cecilia's arms?! What more stones would you conjure to upturn to save them, before you just tossed the matter into the Pope's hands?!" He then turned to Daniel. "And y-you, Daniel… you lost family among us, too! If Helena was still alive, would you want her on this death row?! Over a necklace and a bit of cosmos?!"

The Taurus Gold Saint stepped back, looking pained. His expression, however, already thick as that of a bull's, then steeled determinedly. "…Don't think I will let sentimentality sway me, Priam. I am not part of your junkyard gang. And my daughter died honorably as a Gold Saint, Priam, defending her Temple from a murderer you all thought you could trust, too! So what do you think I'd want?!"

This silenced Priam, who irked at the memory of Patroclus.

Daniel raised himself to his proudest height of chin. "You are all wonderful Gold Saints… but you have not learned yet just how treacherous this world can be. Now three men have died just from making your child cry. For now, it's all innocent. But, I ask you, Priam, what of twenty years from now, when Holy War arrives, and your son manifests this cosmos of his own will, drunk on Hades' whispers? Would you have Shinta grow up to be a maddened murderer like the one who took my daughter?"

"MY SON IS NOT A MURDERER-TO-BE JUST BECAUSE OF SOME… SOME TOY AROUND HIS NECK!" Priam cried out, desperate. He looked at all his brothers and sisters in arms, the people who swore to love him through thick and thin. His eyes wept. "You call my baby boy a murderer, Daniel…B-But here is, ready to be sacrificed! So who is the real murderer?!"

"Knock it off, Kyosuke!" Kirin shouted, ready to teach him a lesson in having a sharp tongue. "You have NO RIGHT to say that! Not to us! You know that in any other situation we would shed blood until dry for you!"

But Priam did not relent, eyeing her with shame. "I don't have the right?! How do I not?! W-Was my wife not like a sister to you, Kirin?!" He then eyed the Scorpio "Was my son not like a nephew to you, Paris?!" then back to the Gemini. "He is your god-son, Akassius, is he not?! T-Then why?! Why are we sacrificing yet another member of us?!" His entire body tensed, his fists clenched and a brim of cosmos shined around him, alarming them. He trembled, remembering how much he missed Patroclus, Helen and Akassius' brother. He would not have Anesidora and Shinta join them! "It's all because… because of those damn prophecies the Pope got!"

Paris blinked, unsure if he had extra wax in his ears that day. "Wait?! The what?!"

Priam shook his head at himself, lost in incoherent pain, and stumbled away from them like a man drunk in pain. "N-no! I won't let him do this to us!" He turned away from his friends, unable to stand it anymore, and began burning his cosmos. "I will have no more of it…no more death or pain!"

Akassius stepped up, alarmed at the sight of crackles of cosmos around Priam's body. "STOP IT, Priam! Where do you think you're going?!" he roared. He saw a strange purpose glint in their friend's eyes for a brief moment, one they had seldom seen in the Sagittarius outside of when he unlocked a new sense. "Listen to me! Kyosuke, I know you're in terrible pain right now! For Athena's sake, I, above everyone else, knows what that feels like, to have to.. end someone you love so much! But if you do something rash…If you do anything that puts our group in an even more difficult position, never mind forgiveness or punishments, Priam! I will end you! Understand?!"

Lightning crackled all over Priam, like a bomb of cosmos about to go off. The Gold Saint breathed hard, eyeing the mountains to the East that separated them from the Stardust Tower. All of the Gold Saints got the sensation that he was about to bolt his way inside and storm Anesidora and his child out, even if it meant throwing everything he ever conquered in life since the junkyard away.

At the sight of this, Paris had to grit his teeth. "Is he nuts?! Is he really going to affront Akassius like this?! Even if it's his family on the line…Priam has to know he doesn't stand a chance but to let things roll, right?! Even I think that if the Pope is not on our side, no one is!"

Unintimidated, Akassius roused his own aura of orange, ready to fire his Hellfire Cannon at a nanosecond's notice. "Are you listening to me, Kyosuke?! If you set foot in that Prison without supervision, or the Coliseum tomorrow, there will be NOTHING LEFT after I'm done with you!" Akassius warned. It ripped him apart to be doing this, but the future of everyone in Sanctuary was at stake. "Even if what's about to happen is monstrous… even if it makes me hate the Pope more than you could EVER imagine, Priam, we are Gold Saints FIRST! And I will NOT permit you to hurt Sanctuary!"

The other Gold Saints took an instinctive step away, realizing a Sagittarius Gold Saint and a Gemini Gold Saint were about to clash cosmos to the death for the first time in centuries.

Priam breathed hard. "I'm not the only one, Akassius, that Arles has hurt by now in his quest for restoring his past. There are countless men and women of Athena who suffer under him… Under his complacency, under the people he's allowed to rule over them, under his dogmas…" He eyed Aeneas specifically, making the Pisces Saint recoil away. "But you will all find that out… eventually…"

They saw his aura's electricity crackle harder. Scorpio Paris formed his Scarlet Needle, Daniel folded his arms for Great Horn and Kirin summoned her Excalibur. "PRIAM!"

"LIGHTNING ARROW!" and with a golden bolt, the Sagittarius warped away, using his legendary technique to surpass the speed of light and leaving no trace of himself behind but the lightly imploding vacuum his absence created.

"FUCK, he's gone!" Paris cursed. He kicked a rock down the temple stairs. "What now?! No one knows how to trace that technique of his yet! Even Malta!"

"W-what is he going to do, Akassius?" Aeneas begged. "Please, you have to find him! Kyosuke's not in his right mind! What if he…"

Akassius shook. How could it have come to this? His hand rested on Aeneas' shoulder and he tried to smile. "Don't worry, I will, Aeneas. No matter what, I will make sure we stay together."

Daniel clicked his tongue. These poor brats. After all that dreaming of theirs when first coming into Sanctuary, they were finally coming face-to-face with the real pain of being a Gold Saint. "And what if you don't, kiddo? What if Priam shows up tomorrow at the ceremony and he attacks His Holiness? Or worse? Are you kids just going to stand there and let him turn Sanctuary upside down?"

The Gemini Saint tensed. His aura still roused like a flame. He pondered seriously if he was going to have to take extreme action. "I've known Priam all my life. I don't believe he is capable of doing such a thing. But if he does…" He extinguished his fire. "I may be speaking for all of us, but we won't hesitate. Even if it's Anesidora and Shinta's lives at stake for Priam, for the sake of Athena, Sanctuary, and all of you guys,… we will end Priam!"

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Present (1977)

Virgo Temple,

Hall of Innocence

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The sixth Temple of the Golden Zodiac was busier than most days, with not one, not two, but three Gold Saints present in its green-tinted marble hall. Welcomed by Aldebaran, Mu and Milo, Shinta had been taken to it right away to prepare for the scheduled duel he'd have to face with his rival to the Virgo Gold Cloth. He woke up early that morning, double-checked all his equipment, got a good luck wish from Elda, a faint shrug from Albiore and a proud mom's hug from Saint Cynthia, making the Andromeda Saint feel ready for anything that day. Still, even as he put his last pieces on, he felt his shoulders jitter like jelly and his eyes glanced all the time at the door facing the exit to the Leo Temple.

Apparently, whoever his opponent was going to be, was currently with Saint Leo Galarian at the Hall of Herakles, getting prepped as well. The Andromeda Saint glowered, suddenly unsure if he was doing the right thing, now that the time of truth was arriving. When he first got Sanctuary's letter saying Saint Shaka was recommending him to the Virgo Cloth, he was also full of doubt, but that was mostly about whether or not he should be pursuing this idea at all. Lance, thankfully, had cleared his mind of it all, but now that Shinta knew someone had, indeed, accepted an invitation to contest the Virgo Cloth with him, he dreaded the idea of confronting whoever they were.

It wasn't just that Shinta abhorred dueling in Sanctuary; whoever the other person was, they had gotten the attention of the Pact of Seven, to which King Cetus belonged to. Like Lance said, there was a powerful chance that Shinta's rival was just as bit a nasty person as the man who made him murder his beloved teacher was. And they were gunning for the Virgo Cloth, of all things, which just confused Shinta even more! If they were really bad, how could they be worthy of Saint Shaka's armor, that was so spiritual?

Aldebaran patted his shoulders and stepped back to admire how far his buddy had come since he dodged Saint Daniel's first killer soccer ball kick. Shinta was turning into a real man, a true badass. "Ready to become our new neighbour?"

Shinta nodded. "I think so, yes."

Yet, Scorpio Milo saw him shake ever slightly. "What's wrong, man? Nervous?"

The green-haired teenager nodded frantically, relieved someone finally asked. "Y-Yeah! I can't help but be. I haven't even met the person I'm supposed to fight." He gripped his chains tensely, trying to find some sort of comfort source in them. "Everyone has given me all sorts of support, but I can't help but feel like I'm about to do a really difficult thing, like present a doctor's degree at a university."

Aldebaran laughed out loud. "Oh, it's nothing like that! Becoming a Gold Saint is easy! You just gotta be super strong, like me, and smash the other guy's face to the floor. You'll be fine, bro."

"Or be super, duper smart, like me!" Mu added, pointing at his big brain head with both index fingers.

"Or be super, duper, mega handsome, like me." Milo finalized, pointing thumb at his suave looks. He felt faced with a collection of skeptic looks from his so-called friends, though. He scowled. Sometimes he felt Aphrodite was the only person who ever agreed with him on things. Milo was yet to decide if that was a good thing. "Ah, doubt all you want! It's more important for this job than you think!"

Shinta giggled. He forgot how funny it was to hang out with this gang. "Thank you, everyone. I will keep it all in mind. But really…I'm pretty worried about what kind of person I will face." He looked at the other door, from where his rival Saint was supposed to arrive from. "Think about it. It's someone the Pact of Seven believes is worthy of replacing Shaka."

Aldebaran grimaced. "Y-Yeah… it's hard to deny that."

Mu sighed. "Me and Aldie are guarding the front door, and even I feel like Shaka's job was more important than mine. They say the Virgo Saint can decide the outcome of whole Holy Wars by himself, when they're really good! So, this guy must be super, super, uber smart!"

Shinta gulped, wishing Mu wouldn't raise the stakes even more like this. "Y-Yeah. There's that too. If I become the Virgo Gold Saint, I will have a lot of responsibilities in my hands, beyond just raising Albiore." However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense, as well. "This must be exactly what Master Gardnia meant, though. He knew that if I became a Virgo Saint, I'd be in the best position to change things for the better. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a path ahead of me other than just surviving. A path that can change people's lives."

Milo rolled eyes. "Oh, who cares about this other guy?" He laid out his hand. "So, this person got chosen by the Pact. Big deal. My parents always told me those guys were nothing but a bunch of creeps that obstructed everything the Pope ever tried to do. They saw you were picked to replace Shaka and they just did their thing. I bet their representative is some pushover they picked off the streets."

Shinta dropped his jaw. "Lance said the exact same thing!"

The young Scorpio flashed a confident smile, putting his hand on his hip. "Trust me, Shinta, I may look like a young, innocent lad, but I know a lot about what goes on in these shady circles of Sanctuary. It's kind of my job to be cool like that. In fact, I know a real cool secret no one else knows about this other guy!"

Mu perked up like a dazzled child. "Tell us, tell us!"

The Scorpio chuckled, loving the attention. "Well, sometimes I get word from that crazy uncle of mine, Uncle Paris? You know, the missing one that is illegal for me to get in contact with? Sometimes he likes sneaking some correspondence with me. You know, to check on his number one apprentice!"

Aldebaran folded arms. "Isn't his uncle just a crazy bum that abandoned the Cloth? That's more of an embarrassment for the family than illegal…" But he saw how starry-eyed Mu looked. "Milo just really loves looking like a delinquent, doesn't he?"

"Milo, what did you cool illegal uncle say, then?!" Mu demanded to know, jumping up and down.

"He says that all his buddy Gold Saints are secretly backing up Shinta, too!" Milo confirmed, nodding his head. "That means those crazy famous guys like Akassius, and Camus' teacher. Everyone is on Shinta's side on this. Isn't that nuts?"

Shinta dropped jaw, appalled. "W-What? Really? I had no idea!" He had expected Saint Daniel to support him, but all the other Gold Saints, too? "W-Why would they support me on this? They were always so kind to me, but…!"

"That's my whole point, Shinta. Even powerful former Gold Saints like them think you're perfect for the job. So if I say you'll be fine against these jackoffs that the Pact is funding against you, it's nothing short of the truth!"

The Andromeda Saint clenched fists, feeling his spirit hardening into its true Japanese form. Milo spoke so assuredly and with such evidence of his expertise, that Shinta couldn't help but feel boosted! "Milo is right! Everyone believes I can do this! So I will!" He tried to rail the discussion back to what really worried him. "But also,… I don't really want to hurt this person, whoever they are… I just never enjoyed being in this kind of position, no matter what."

Aldebaran scoffed, finding an odd amount of relief in Shinta's consistent kindness, even if it presented a problem. "Boy, buddy… you haven't changed a bit."

"There's no need to be tense, Saint Shinta." An arriving party spoke. "The Cosmos will show you the way."

The quartet of Saints turned and beamed, finding a trio of Saints arriving in the Hall of Innocence led by a familiar face.

Milo was the first to react. "Ah, ah, no way! Welcome back, man!"

"SHAKA!" Mu practically screamed, teleporting right past Milo to hug the blonde boy. He laughed happily. "I missed you so much!"

The young blonde child huffed, taken aback by the force of Mu's embrace. "Hello, everyone. It's so wonderful to see you all again."

The green-armored Peacock Saint with the mask to Shaka's left pushed the Muvian boy back. "Please refrain from embracing Lord Shaka. To approach the reincarnation of Buddha in such manner is a great offence."

The burly Lotus Saint with the mask to Shaka's right then stepped between the boy and the Gold Saints. "Have you no restraint? Gold Saint or not, this is still the child who has unlocked the Eight Sense!"

Aldebaran rose his brow. "Did these two guys just rhyme?"

The former Virgo Gold Saint waved his hand up and down. "It's alright, you two. These are all my close friends." He walked to Shinta. "I've come to both act as judge of this trial and offer my support for the Saint I recommended to his Holiness to replace me. I would be ashamed if I wasn't present for all this."

"How have you been feeling, man?" Milo asked. "We haven't heard from you since you took off for Shamballa."

"Lord Shaka has been undergoing an intense training to sharpen his senses." The masked Lotus Saint interjected. "He has been recovering well, thanks to Lady Yuzuriha's secret art!"

The masked peacock then added "To talk about it is forbidden! Not a whisper, not a whistle, not even a single far-" He coughed out, embarrassed. "I mean, chart!"

Aldebaran gawked. "I was right! They ARE rhyming!"

The Andromeda Saint almost gagged when he saw Shaka approaching him. He got down on his knee. "Saint Shaka! Welcome back to your Temple! It's so good to see you home again."

The blonde boy hummed, uncomfortable with the sight of Shinta's deference. "Please, get up, Shinta. I'm not worthy of such a thing. I am not a Saint and this is not my Temple anymore." He looked around, seeing the green-tinted marble of the many pillars. Some still had the cracks of Shaka's battle with Daemon Lucifer and his Fase Specters, despite the Temple being spared the worst of the violence. "The last time I set foot in this House, I lost it to the enemies of Athena. I don't deserve to call it home."

Shinta rose back up. He wished to contest Shaka's words, but also to respect his position about his own situation. "Thank you for coming, anyway, Shaka." Hope filled him, however, that his presence still meant Shaka was making progress in recovering his lost faculties. "Unless you're also here because… you're healing?"

The blonde boy turned face. "A-Ah, well, to speak fully about that… I still need time."

Seeing his difficulty, Shinta questioned no further. He smiled. "Maybe one day, then…"

"As to why I'm here, the three of us were asked by the Pope to be the special judges of this Cloth ruling." Shaka explained, eyeing the two Silver Saints flanking him. "Me for obvious reasons, and Saints Lotus and Peacock to ensure my vote will not be the only one, given I first recommended you, Saint Andromeda."

This made perfect sense to Shinta. In fact, this explained the long delay in holding the ruling. They were probably trying to find someone other than Shaka to do it, and maybe even waiting for the day of the big Triumph going on so they could take advantage of so many people travelling to Sanctuary Town anyway.

Still, Shinta's principles forced him to give a protest "Saint Shaka, when I got the letter saying you recommended me, I…I felt I did nothing to earn it." He looked around at the walls decorated with Buddhist symbols, the lotus throne and even just the size of the Temple itself. "Isn't this all too great for me? I'm not even a Silver Saint yet. And like you said the first time I ran for training here, I'm just not the type that…"

The child gave him a befuddled look. "Was my choice that odd? So just because you weren't raised under the wise Buddha, you are unworthy of this armor? Astraea is the Cloth's spirit, Shinta, not the Enlightened One. And like I told you when I gave you your chain back at the war; I was wrong to stop you from training here. Well, this is it. Are you ready to take over me as the Virgo Gold Saint, Saint Andromeda?"

The green-haired teenager stood straight, clenching fists up. "Yes! If you believe in me that much, I am! And I won't let you down, Shaka!"

The boy nodded. "Excellent. And may Athena be with you." He then tensed, looking at the door opposite of them in the room, which was opening up. "Especially because… I have no idea who this Saint Noah that Lady Yuzuriha is pushing is…and how on Earth they slipped under even my knowledge."

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

Leo Temple,

Hall of Herakles

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

Returning to his Temple from his morning training, Galarian sighed, feeling his body sore from the hundreds of millions of blows he reflected off of the training board unto himself. To perfect his Nemean Garb technique, the Leo Saint had to fire his most powerful Argead Star over and over and suffer the same unto his body that he so often delivered unto opponents like Sagittarius Aiolos and Genbu Atlae. He was never satisfied until the cosmos meshing that he casted unto himself could withstand the force of at least 900 million volts, the same as three Lightning Bolts combined. The strongest protection, after all, was one you tested yourself.

That day, he had to get it all done extra early so he'd have time to deal with the extremely busy day ahead of him. The first thing he'd do now that he was back at his new home was to take a quick shower to wipe the sweat, blood and exhaustion off his body. He had to admit; after years of only having the creeks of Bulgaria's mountains to wash himself off on, the luxurious accommodations of the Temple made him feel a bit spoiled. Perhaps Leon was right, and the only true home for a real warrior was the grime and hardship of the outdoors.

On that matter, he should probably ping his friend, to make sure Leon wasn't going to miss his own Triumph. "(Hey. Where are you? Back from your date, yet?)"

After a short moment of his enclosed message searching all of Sanctuary for its destined listener, Leon responded. "(Yes. I'm close to Master right now. He's doing his public touring before the Coliseum, giving everyone a chance to have him bless their children.)"

Galarian widened his eyes. "(He is?! Why wasn't I notified?! I could have escorted him out!)"

"(Galan, it's the Pope. He can do whatever he wants.)" Leon reminded him, making the Leo Gold Saint irk embarrassedly. "(I also get the feeling he might not trust you too much as of yet... Perhaps he thinks your father is trying to control him.)"

The Gold Saint shook his head. "(How could he think that?! My father has done nothing but serve his will all these years! Is that why he has me presiding over this Virgo affair, instead of guarding him during this extremely public event?!)"

"(You ARE putting quite a dent in Master's plans. I don't think he intended his Sagittarius to be humiliated and his appointed Leo to be forcibly replaced. For some reason, though, he is quite happy with the two contestants to the Virgo Cloth, which makes me wonder what is it about 'you' in particular, if not your 'loyal father', that worries him…)"

Galarian rubbed his eyes. "(Well, I can imagine the reason;… one candidate is friends with the Cancer Saint that recently surrendered his seat, whom the Pope likes quite a lot, and the other is recommended by the Muvian elder, who has been friends with the Pope since the last Holy War.)" Sometimes Galarian thought the Pope was motivated by nothing but doing favors for his friends.

"(See? It doesn't take a genius, then, to figure out why he doesn't have his guard quite as up with them as he does with you, does it?)" Leon pointed out, making Galan feel quite ridiculous. "(Speaking of which… I got to see the Pact's candidate with my own eyes, when they came to see Master. Triangle Noah…)"

Galan perked up, curious. Leon had powerful instincts, the kind that could determine all your strengths and weaknesses with a glance. "(Really? I got to meet the Andromeda one, and I have to say, I can't imagine who might beat him to this. Saint Shinta even has the former Virgo Saint's recommendation. What's your take on Triangle Noah? Is this really just the Pact obstructing the Pope? You know, it's still not too late for you to back out of our little bet?)"

There was a short pause, the kind Leon loved leaving you with to make you cook on what he was thinking. "(About who gets the Virgo Cloth between these two? No chance. I've never met the Andromeda Saint, but Saint Noah…Mm, let's just say it will be interesting to discover who comes out on top.)"

"(What?!") Galarian gritted his teeth. ("Hey, you definitely know something I don't, don't you?!)

"(What kind of betting man would I be if I told you all my aces in the hole?)" There was a tense pause. "(I'm just saying that Triangle Noah… They're a strange one. Do not underestimate that Saint.)"

He sweated, feeling suddenly unsure. Galarian had rarely ever seen Leon have such inconclusive remarks about a potential fight, especially one he was putting ten thousand drachmas on. The mercenary's senses on fighting with the Cosmos were so sharp, when they were kids he once confidently declared Galan could beat the crap out of this horrible, giant hoplite that was upsetting Olivia with creepy requests. It was a fight even Galan himself thought was impossible for him to win, yet Leon bet everything he had on Gal' winning.

And Leon was unsure about a match between two unremarkable Saints for the Virgo Cloth? Something was up. "(You asshole… You're bluffing. You just want me to cut my losses and forfeit the bet.)"

"(…Not this time. Not in the mood for games, right now.)" Leon suddenly added. "(You also no longer have Olivia backing you, Galan, so think carefully before you sling names at me. I can see your Temple's windows from here, after all….)"

Galan irked, picturing an arrow made pure, laced thunderbolts flying through the slit to his side. "(Wow… I'm guessing that date of yours went horrible.)". Galan remarked, stunned. He remembered Leon didn't answer him straightly when he asked about it, earlier. It served Leon right, though, for being such a smug prick all the time. Still, Galarian refrained from pushing it; he was pretty sure he could stop one of Leon's arrows, but probably only the long-range ones. If he saw them coming. "(I'll keep you posted on the Virgo affair's results, then. See you at your Triumph, Leon.)"

Ceasing communications, Galan then headed for the main Hall of his Temple. Before he could go take his bath, though, he spotted a white-armored, white-haired figure sitting on a wooden bench on the far end of the hall, doing coochy-coo sounds with a purring cat in their arms.

"Saint Noah, I presume?" Galarian asked, heading for them.

The Silver Saint gasped and stood up straight, carrying the cat in arms. "Saint Leo! Y-Yes! I was just waiting here for you."

He saw the calico cat in Saint Noah's arms. "Ah, I see you made friends with Nala already?"

Noah laughed in relief that the Saint wasn't upset. They scratched the cat's belly, making her stretch her arms. "Yes, she's such a sweetie! All I did was sit down a bit and she came rushing to me like I was her best friend." Noah beamed at Nala, holding her up. "And she's so beautiful! I didn't realize the Zodiac allowed pets like this."

Galarian chuckled. "They don't. The mountain is known to even bolt birds that land on its rocks, like intruders. This Temple just has a strange exception dating back to Kaiser the First, where it lets you keep one feline companion. From what I hear, the original Saint Kaiser made a rather abusive use of that exception, so I figured I had the right to, as well." He scratched Nala's head, smiling at her happy purr. He might have lost Olivia as a trusted friend that day Galan defeated Aiolos, but he made a new one in the abandoned cat. "I found her lost at the Coliseum, when I first earned this armor."

Noah clicked tongue. "The Coliseum, uh?" The Triangle Saint could imagine with what purpose this poor girl was left in that place. The Coliseum's lions were known to be Sanctuary's most enthusiastic stray cleaners, after all. Saint Noah put her down, letting Nala go rub herself on Saint Leo's legs. "Bless you, Saint Leo. I hope she gives you many years of joy. I wish I could say she's the only child Sanctuary has abandoned."

This triggered a memory in Galan, who had a chance to quickly read up on Saint Noah's file. "You work with Sanctuary's children, don't you? If anything, it's people in your group that our Goddess should bless." He folded arms. "Your file says you've been at it for almost a decade, but that job is so harsh, barely anyone stays in it that long, especially when they have Sainthood to fall back on, like yourself. I suppose that is why you're here? Did all the terrible things you see in your position made you want to change paths?"

Noah looked around at the Hall of Herakles, forming a gentle smile, like enjoying a pleasant dream. "Not exactly. The things I saw were hard yes, but most of all, this place, these Temples,… they just mean a lot to me. I've dreamed of coming back here for a long time." Noah returned eyes to him "Other than when I spoke with the Pope, the last time I've been here was… probably when you were just a child, Saint Galan?"

The masked Gold Saint staggered. Was there a secrecy breach?! "What?! How did you-"

The Triangle Saint laughed and waved their hand. "Don't panic, don't panic! It's just… 'something' about you." Noah's eyes surveyed him again, looking to awe at his almost seven feet height in particular. "Your height, your voice, even your aura… they're all your father's. With a hint of Lady Cecilia's eyes, though. I could never in my life mistake those."

Galarian relaxed and scratched head. "My aura? Does this person … mean my cosmos?" He supposed he shouldn't find Saint Triangle recognizing his cosmos that strange; countless Saints served under his father against Priam and probably knew every bit of its ferocity.

Yet, Noah stared intently, seeing all the terrible shapes of Akassius Steiner's fiery cosmos in Galarian. Unbeknownst to Galan, they manifested to Noah's senses beyond Galan's control or awareness, like a terrible shadow one unwarily casted over everything around you. It was a shadow Noah had learned to memorize far too well. In the Silver Saint's youth, it became known as Sanctuary's ultimate force of authority; the strength that would both inspire and bind a fractured Sanctuary back together, should it shatter to even the smallest and most mistakeable pieces of glass. It was a strength that proved itself in Sanctuary's darkest moment, and would surely prove itself again in these trying times Hades threatened all of Sanctuary with.

Such cosmos was the kind that would influence everyone around you, especially those born of your loins, and would undoubtedly influence Saint Galan far beyond than just in his genes. Noah could only imagine the burden on this young Leo's shoulders that it caused.

Yet, the Silver Saint curved his lips up. "Shall we go? I've been anxious to meet my adversary."

"Yes, of course." Galan guided the Saint out. "Still, I should warn you… your opponent is going to look harmless, but don't underestimate him. The Saint you will be facing has defeated even powerful Specters in battle and I've seen him execute shockingly powerful attacks with my own eyes."

Noah nodded. "Yes, so I've heard." As they left the Temple to the stairs outside, Noah looked up at the Virgo Temple. "…Another one with a burden, if the stories of his Master's death are true. Sanctuary still does nothing but cause all these young men pain, doesn't it? But he is also the one everyone in Sainthood says became Lance's partner." The last time Noah spoke to the Pegasus Saint, almost two years ago, Noah made Lance promise to find someone to work with that he could trust in life, someone he could call a friend and help him forgive himself. Even if it pained him. "I wonder what kind of person he is, this Andromeda Shinta? If my suspicions are true, then…there is indeed definitely more to him that could ever meet the eye."

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

Sanctuary Town,

Mission Management Center

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

"This concludes the briefing on running security for today's Triumph." Sagitta Nam announced, scanning the hall with his eyes. He was standing over a table over all of his Silver Saint brethren in the hall and just finished about a full two hours of pointing to a map of Sanctuary Town with a cane to tell everyone what to do. "I want you all to do your best today, everyone! It's vital we do not let what happened during the 88 Knights Festival repeat. Last time, only a handful of you guys showed up for this and look what happened! We lost Gardnia to Black Saints!"

The sizeable crowd of Silver Saints nodded begrudgingly. Cepheus Gardnia's death, and later the False Specter invasion, had been a big wake-up call to many of them, who initially thought these big events were no reason to get all hands on deck running security. Now, with those two events in mind and a real Holy War in the works, pretty much everyone in the Order had turned up to make sure Sanctuary's security wouldn't be made a mocking of again.

"I've handed all of you your updated security clearances." Nam pointed out, aiming the cane at the parchments he gave every single one of them. "They'll have details on your specific orders and your new access privileges. You're to find whatever hoplites or Bronze Saints working under you and relay the rest, understood?"

The crowd of warriors and warrioresses all nodded and raised closed fists in agreement and went on to open their parchments.

Crateris Suisho saw the golden-colored heraldry accompanying his orders and his heart raced. "Finally, they've done it! I have the clearance for high-security missions!"

By his side, Cassiopeia Cynthia sighed out. "Oh, thank goodness, they're keeping me at the same level. What about you, Sui'?"

The Nepalese Saint made a disgruntled face. "I wasn't so lucky…I think they're sticking me with all the dangerous work."

Cynthia hummed, holding her hand on her hip. "Really? But that's a good thing for you, Sui'. You're a lot tougher than I am and you've been looking for a raise for a while, right? And I bet now everyone will shut up and leave you alone about your armor, with all the prestige this gives you."

Suisho pretended to widen his eyes in realization. "Oh wow, I didn't even think of that. I guess you're right, Cynth'."

Cynthia chuckled. She remembered Yushira talking about how the two of them had a hard time, being Asian in Sanctuary. This would prove to everyone the two of them were just as worthy as the Greeks. "Congratulations, Sui. You know… I bet you have Pegasus Lance to thank for, for this."

"I do?"

The Cassiopeia Silver Saint nodded. "Oh yeah, no doubt. For once, you showed everyone you can handle missions with even a firecracker like him. And for second…" Her masked face looked left and right. "(Don't tell anyone, but I'm pretty sure Pegasus still has his contacts from his year training at the Cancer House. I bet he filed in a good word for you, Sui.)"

The Judge almost wanted to laugh at her face, having been exactly the one that asked Lance to do it. "Oh,…I see! That makes a lot of sense. I should thank him for this then."

Cynthia hummed. "You're a Cancer, too, aren't you, Sui? Have you ever thought for running for training at that House? I bet anything you want Pegasus would support you on that, too." Cynthia wouldn't mind at all seeing a guy like him become in line for the Gold Cloth, instead of whatever nepo-baby they currently had in the 4th temple. She laid out her hand. "I mean, direct credentials from the Zodiac are pretty much the one thing you don't have in your curriculum right now."

The idea of coming even an inch close to the Temples made Suisho want to gag, which he pretended to be out of nervousness. "Oh, I couldn't, Cynthia… that place, well, it's just a bit too much for me." he laughed. "Besides, can you imagine? It would drive my sister insane. She's wanted to get on the Libra Temple her whole life and I'd beat her to that, too."

"Mm… I suppose, though I don't think you should hinge your career on what Yushira thinks." She waved her hand and went to do her job. "See you later, Sui'. I'm going to make sure Elda isn't stealing another bike of yours."

Suisho followed her out, reading his security upgrade parchment again, grinning ear-to-ear.

"You profligate fool. You have no idea how much Sanctuary has pulled my knife closer to its neck." As he left the building, Aiacos closed the bulletin and let it self-burn, grinning like a demon. "But you're right on one thing, I really do have Pegasus Lance to thank for this! I am now one-step closer to seizing the-"

"Good news, I presume?" a familiar voice spoke outloud.

Aiacos turned in disbelief. He spotted the familiar smug grin with long white hair standing by a house wall nearby. He was flanked by two women, a pair of locals of Sanctuary Town.

"Yes, Mr. Griffin! Yes, I finally told my family I was leaving them for you!" the first woman cried out. Her hands held his shoulders. "Please, take me to your palace, to your bed…. I have nowhere to go now but to you…"

"Mr. Griffin, I took all the money of my sisters with me!" the second begged for attention, showing a bag full of Drachmas. "I always hated them anyway! They always bullied me and treated me like a freak. But you love me, don't you? Say you do!"

Aiacos pressed himself against another wall, facing the opposite site. "What the HELL are you doing here?!"

Gryphon Minos laughed, nodding his head at the deluded women admiring him. "Is that anyway to acknowledge the presence of a fellow Judge; Gryphon Minos, the Celestial Star of Nobility?"

Aiacos' teeth tightened together, "Answer my question, Minos! Or I'll point every Gold Saint in the area right to you!"

Minos chuckled at his threat, pretending to be amused by something the women around him said. "It's not just me. Rhadamanthys is also somewhere in town, probably doing his very best not to immediately start slaughtering every person without a Surplice he lands his eyes on. I also sent out word to Atlae to stay within beckoning distance, just in case one of these Saints dares to put their fingers on me. Trust me, Aiacos, I have better things to be doing right now than being in this vile place."

The Garuda turned his head, resisting the temptation to look directly at Minos. "Then why come at all?! This is MY mission, not yours!"

"Wrong. Lord Hypnos asked us to be here." Minos revealed. His green eyes delighted in the look of shock in his Judge's face. "He said something about reading uncertainty in the cards about your success?"

Those damn cards. What was it that Lord Hypnos foresaw? Aiacos wished he could set that deck on fire right now. "So, the slightest sign of weakness in your fellow Judge prompts you both to come to their 'aid'? What a pair of vultures you and Rhadamanthys have become. Don't worry, Minos; you will find there won't be a single opportunity for you two to steal the glory of my triumph over the Saints."

Gryphon Minos pretended to sound astounded, letting out an audible 'oh'. "Bold words! For someone with family among said Saints…"

Aiacos' fists clenched. He harnessed every bit of will he had not to look in Minos' direction.

The Celestial Star of Nobility sneered smugly. "Oh-oh, I felt that just now in your cosmos! That sneering contempt you have…The mention of that freak you were born right next to still makes your blood boil, doesn't it, Aiacos? Tell me, how does it feel to be permanently reminded you are the least pure of us three Judges? That you share blood with that godless creature of sin? Does the desire to show the Emperor how pure you still are in spite of that person make you want to make sure you achieve, as you say,… your triumph?"

The Celestial Star of Valiance, however, did not cede to the provocation, instead exhaling softly. "Violate is my inspiration, not Yushira."

The Gryphon laughed. "Lucky gal, then, that Violate! She has a true man of Hades all for herself; one willing to sacrifice even his own blood to show his devotion to her and the Emperor. Hopefully that 'true love' of yours will be enough to defrost her cage. I truly mean that, Aiacos."

Many in the Underworld would be overjoyed at a Judge's prayer for their success, but Aiacos knew better by now, though. Every single word out of Minos' mouth was either some kind of provocation or lie. He was virtually the opposite in speech to Prince Daemon, which oddly made Aiacos regret the Pride Star's betrayal. Why couldn't Minos have been the one to storm out of the Underworld with the False Specters? If Minos offered you help, it was because he was delighting in your vulnerability. And if he was complimenting you, then it was because he was wishing for your spectacular failure.

"I must admit, I thought all these years among the Saints were softening you, Aiacos." Minos confessed. "That I'd have to come and marionet you into finishing your mission, whatever it is. But before a vow like THAT you just gave, even I must admit that the man known to the Saints as Crateris Suisho is truly dead. The light of Lord Hades is truly a marvel, isn't it?"

The Crateris Silver Saint packed his Silver Cloth box "Tell Rhadamanthys to stay out of my way. The last thing I need right now is someone who solves every problem he has with a crusade." and departed into the crowds.

The Nobility Star hummed, satisfied. He didn't mind reigning in Rhadamanthys for a bit. He couldn't wait, however, to figure out what was the big prize Lord Hades entrusted Aiacos to get.

"Mr. Griffin, what is it? You're looking away from us." One of the women swooned.

The Gryphon Judge held his head in lamentation. "Forgive me, I thought I saw someone I knew."

"Tell us more about your big palace in the mountains! Will you take us there, Mr. Griffin?" The other begged, posing seductively. She twirled her finger on the buttons of his shirt, pretending to pout. "You promised us you'd show us all your… bedroom toys. You weren't just teasing us, were you?"

He enclosed his arms around the two beautiful Greek women and guided them out. He grinned excitedly, already picturing the terror in their faces as they got dragged by his Skeletons to the shadows. It would be a delightful prelude to their nights of hanging from the ceiling on his strings, screaming for their lives.

"Of course not. I have all sorts of amazing sights to show you both. I'm a man of my word, after all…"

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

Chapter 101

Third Arc

Episode 26

The Great Triumph

Part 2

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

Coliseum

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

The bronze Saint of Pegasus stumbled through the streets, half in daze. The discovery he just made wouldn't leave his mind, clouding his thoughts away from noticing the many shoulders and arms he almost bumped into. Just that morning, he was the same as everyday after he left Mount Olympus, believing that the angel that came down from the sky to rescue him from his prison, to give him the last puzzle piece he needed to unlock the Cosmos, had been nothing but a daze. A dream caused by the very unlocking of his supernatural energies. When Daese vanished from Mount Olympus, after all, there had been no trace left of her. Not a lock of hair, not a footprint in the snow, nothing that could point at what he experienced having been real other than the fact that, one day, he had not the ability to break rock with his punch, and the next, he did.

He still remembered the day he came back to Sanctuary. Many thought the first thing he did was go beat up Kastiel at the Coliseum, but it was not.

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

Three Years Earlier

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

"Aquila…Daese?" the blue armored Silver Saint at the desk asked. Lance did not realize at the moment, but this blonde guy with the look on his face like he was terrified of stepping outside was going to be one of Saints he would interact with the most in his career. "You're saying you want to look that person up?"

"Yes. Can you help me with that?" Lance had asked, on the edge of his seat. "I need to find them. I owe them a lot and they just disappeared."

The Silver Saint called Nam sighed and flipped through his dossiers. "Look, as far as I can tell, kid, the Aquila Cloth is yet to be rediscovered. It's been lost to us since a war from shortly before you got here. There is no Aquila Saint right now. And there probably won't be for a long time, unfortunately." The Silver Saint flipped pages just to confirm things again. "I mean, it's not even supposed to look like the way you describe it. The Aquila Cloth is really light, meant for hand-to-hand-fighters. Heck, I even got to meet its last owner very briefly once, and I know it doesn't look like medieval knight armor."

The young Pegasus Saint leaned back, running his hands over his face. "I can't believe it… Did I really just dream all of that? Was she not real?"

Nam sighed, taking pity on this kid. It was shocking alone that he got out of Mount Olympus in one piece, after all these years. "Listen Pegasus,… don't worry about it. You probably experienced a vision of Athena or something. It happens a lot to Saints when they first unlock their cosmos, and you were up in that mountain all by yourself for a LONG time. Just… take a break for now, okay? You deserve it."

Lance shook his head. "No… If not Daese, I need to find someone else, if you can help me." His eyes sharpened. If Daese was just a mirage of the Cosmos, then Lance at least could have his long-awaited revenge. "My 'Master', Kerberos Kastiel."

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

From that moment onward, Lance walked his life with the firm conviction that Aquila Daese had been just that; a mirage of the Cosmos. Every experience he endured, from his missions, to failing to save Guifi, to meeting Shinta, to becoming a Gold Saint, he did so with the firm belief that he had, in a daze of despair, unlocked his Cosmos in Mount Olympus. That he truly owed that to no one but himself and his capacity to resist the hardships of the death trap Kastiel left him in.

And now, after all this time, he discovers that the words 'Aquila' and 'Daese' really did go together. And that they belonged to Cerah's sister. And that therefore they were also of a Zodiac Knight, someone with the ability to shape the metal of their armors with Lightcraft and hide it inside a stone when needed?

There was no way he could walk out of that conversation with Cerah with a sound mind. Daese, if she was real, was someone that meant as much to him as Noah did. Just like Noah, she had saved him from the burning house that was his life and given him a new path to the future. And she was someone he had forgotten about.

Where was she? Was she out there, still alive? What was she doing? And why did she abandon Cerah, her sister, to Daemon Lucifer? What the heck was going on anymore-

Suisho snapped his fingers. "Hey, Pegasus, wake up!"

Lance blinked. He realized once more he had his feet on Planet Earth, instead of in the clouds, and hummed embarrassedly. "Sorry."

The Crateris Silver Saint led him through the streets. "I was telling I just got the clearance from Sanctuary. They're officially upgrading my security standard, so I get a better pay."

The Pegasus struggled to remember, embarrassed. "S-Sorry, Sui'. Congratulations."

Sui' squinted, folding his arms. "Uh-uh. And what else did I say?"

Lance wracked his brain, trying to decipher the bits and pieces he picked up on his brain radio while thinking about what Cerah told him. "Um, you said…For now, we're keeping an eye on the crowds entering the Coliseum in the morning, then we're meeting up with the security of the Pope for a debriefing about how to proceed in the afternoon, after the big arena events."

"Correct. And then?"

Lance sweated. There was more? How long was Lance out in la-la-land? And how long did it take Suisho to notice, while yapping about work? "I, um,…sorry."

"Then we're meeting with the contact about that Muvian Atlae, remember?!" Suisho reminded him, widened eyes at the state of Lance's attention. "He's scheduled to meet us at Circe's Grove at eleven am! You went through all this trouble during the Knight Girl mission, riding my ass to get to talk to this guy, and now you're not keeping track of these things?!"

A horrible embarrassment overcame Lance, who looked away. Was this how Shinta felt when Lance criticized him for being ditzy? "I'm sorry, man, I swear, I just… I just found out something absolutely insane that I can't wrap my head around yet. The kind of shit that's making me rethink my whole life as a Saint."

The Judge of the Underworld tensed, making the shades in the street slightly darker. Did Pegasus discover something about his mission? "Really? I noticed you had this… look on your face when I found you at the Coliseum just now. Is it security related?"

Lance shook his head. "No, not at all." Without Lance noticing it ever emerged, the tension in Suisho's body dissipated. He looked around, his mind half-hoping somehow, somewhere, he'd spot Daese. "Sui', have you ever discovered someone really important to you, that you thought was dead, or not real, was really there all along, after all? That you didn't imagine all the ways they impacted your life?"

Suisho scoffed, bemused, thinking of his beloved woman in the ice. "Yeah, I have, actually." He still remembered the day he discovered the voice in his head all his childhood was Violate's, begging to be saved. "Is that what happened? Someone you thought was just a vision of the Cosmos was real all along?"

The Pegasus widened his eyes, surprised at how accurate the guess was. "Yeah! How did you…?"

Suisho rolled eyes and waved hand in dismissal. "It happens all the time. Yushira still thinks she met a talking tiger when she unlocked hers, but then Saint Cynthia once told me when she unlocked her cosmos, she had a vision of a Training Ground mate she thought was dead. Turns out the two were feeding each other encouragement through it without realizing it. I don't think my sister will ever encounter Tony the Tiger in the streets, but connecting with people you haven't even met with the cosmos is not unheard of."

Lance had never in his life heard anything about this. He supposed it was to be expected, since Kastiel didn't teach him a thing and Dohko just skipped right to all the advanced lessons. Still, he couldn't stand how he went all this time thinking Daese was just a ghost and it turned out she was Cerah's breathing, living sister all along. If he didn't have so much on his plate right now, Lance was pretty sure he'd get right on tracking her down and asking why she never turned up after he left Mount Olympus. Heck, even Noah, who was always so busy, took time off to meet with Lance after the whole Death Queen Island thing.

But then again, if Cerah was searching for Daese all these years and couldn't find her, then Lance was probably not going to have that much better luck at it, either.

"So, who did you rediscover?" Suisho asked.

Lance scratched his head. "Ah, well… that's the thing… Does 'Aquila Daese' ring any bells to you?"

The Crateris stiffened.

It made Lance's hope raise. "Well? Do you?"

"Aquila?! That's… the armor of the woman that attacked me in Switzerland, when I was still trying to kill this punk!" Aiacos realized, trying his best not to look shocked. He was sure of it. All her attacks were themed after eagles. What was Pegasus' connection with her?! Whatever it was, it explained her sudden appearance to interfere with what he was doing. He looked around carefully. If this 'Daese' was back then likely because of Lance, then there was a chance she was still watching the two of them. "…No, Pegasus. It does not. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Aquila Cloth is still missing. So, it simply surprises me you think this whole thing wasn't just Athena."

Lance sighed. "Yeah,… Nam said the same." He shouldn't expect explanations to what exactly happened to her to start popping up. Perhaps he should just be patient and wait for a chance to ask Cerah for more details in private.

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

"Your Holiness, your Holiness!" the crowd ahead of them screamed.

The two patrolling Saints halted. Suisho perked up, seeing the leader of Sanctuary's golden helmet above the crowd's helmets. "Look who it is, Pegasus. The Holy Father. Maybe he can tell you about Aquila?"

Lance doubted it. Sometimes he felt Shion barely kept up with the Gold Saints, much less the Silvers.

The big crowd of Sanctuary towners and visitors from places allied to Sanctuary gathered around the robed holy man, pleading for attention. The Pope was flanked by the Capricorn Gold Saint and the Aquarius Gold Saint, both fully clad in armor and with their faces concealed by masks, inspiring the fervorous people to keep a minimum distance. Still, Lance and Suisho found themselves with a tough time approaching the group, blocked off by a circle of bodies all hoping to get a mere glance in their direction from the man blessed by Athena herself.

"Your Holiness, bless your heart!" One man pleaded; his clothes dirty from travelling. "We're a family from near the border and we came all the wa-"

"-bless my baby boy, your Holiness! He is sick and frail." One woman begged, holding up her crying baby. "He is the only child I have and I don't know what I'd-"

"Your Holiness, your Holiness! We're with the Marathoner!" one sketchy looking guy with a pointy hat and sunglasses cried out, holding up a microphone and a recorder. "Can you talk to us about the situation with the frontline in Germany? Are we going to Holy War with Hades?"

"Please, please, everyone, one at a time." Pope Arles softly begged, waving hands. "I don't have much time, but I want to try to talk with each and every one of you, if possible."

Suisho watched, in disgust, as Hades' greatest enemy among mortals did his charity act with all these sinners. His nose cringed as they begged for more and more, far beyond what any of them deserved. If it had been lady Pandora in this masked man's stead, she'd dish out the rightful punishment all these sinners deserved for their arrogant demands; a one-way trip to the Third Prison. It was a good thing Rhadamanthys wasn't there, or he'd probably try to assassinate this fossil from the last Holy War, just to show his 'fervor' to the Emperor.

Lance, by contrast, was more focused on the two Gold Saints. He chuckled at the way their faces turned left and right so anxiously "Mm, Shura and Camus look like they don't know who to look out for first. It's probably driving them nuts that Shion is making them protect him while surrounded by people."

"So, Pegasus… do you know who's under the mask?" Sui asked him, playful. "You spent that year in the Zodiac after all."

"Of course I don't." Lance lied. He'd feel bad about it, but he'd rather not get court-martialed. "Even to everyone at the Zodiac, that guy is just 'the Pope, Arles III'".

Suisho hummed gravely. His time with Sanctuary was now approaching its end, and he admitted it was frustrating he never got close to figuring out the Pope's true identity. It would have been a nice bonus to give Lord Hades with, considering many suspected he was a veteran of the Lost Canvas War. He also supposed it was too much pushing his luck to get Pegasus to hand him all his unanswered questions.

"I do know one thing-" Lance felt safe to confess. "The Specter leader that attacked us back in December did."

Suisho widened his eyes. "He means Prince Lucifer! He knew the Pope's name and I didn't?!"

"I never got a clear answer as to how or why." Lance confessed, meaning beyond the little Master Dohko explained that Lucifer was a guy he and Shion fought in the past. "But one thing's for sure; it means there's no knowing just how much the rest of those fucking Specters know about us, Sui. They knew Olivia's whereabouts, they knew to send that Atlae guy to lure me to Andromeda Island and they knew the freaking Pope's name."

"So you agree with what the reporter asked him?" Suisho queried. "That we are going to war?"

Lance looked at him strangely. Wasn't Sui smart enough to tell on his own? "…It sure looks like it, if you ask me. Isn't it what all this partying is about?"

The Crateris Saint tensed. "Who do you think is going to win? If you ask me, I don't think we're all doing our best to prepare ourselves against the Specters."

The Pegasus Saint clenched his fists. He couldn't agree more, on the being unprepared thing. "We will win… I'll make sure of it." Lance took a deep breath. He supposed this was as good time as any to test the waters with Sui. "Listen, Sui…You have your problems with Yushira and all, but… you care about your mission as a Saint, right? About what we're here to do?"

The Judge frowned. What was this all about? "You mean saving mankind and all? Of course I do. Why?"

Lance gritted his teeth. This was it! He had to ask Suisho if he wanted to join Lance's crusade. "Because I want to-"

"(Saint Pegasus.)" Shion's voice suddenly called him. "(How wonderful to see you awake again.)"

Lance turned back. The Pope was still attending the crowd, but he definitely spoke to Lance.

The Pope's mask briefly turned in his direction. "(It's good to see you, my boy. You look well. I was hoping I'd run into you today in town, before all the things I have to attend to, and the boys told me you've been working with this Silver Saint recently. I'm sorry I can't speak to you personally, but, as you can see, I have my hands tied today.)"

For once, Lance couldn't blame Shion for being occupied. Everyone looked like they wanted a piece of his attention.

Shion did his best to attend the crowd while speaking to Lance. "(Did you get my letter?)"

Lance nodded. If Shion was using a secured mental conversation line, then he likely had a big topic to talk about. "(Yes, I did. You're finally moving the Teos Cloth, right? It's about time.)"

"(Not in my opinion.)" A subtle exhale was seen in the Pope, who pretended to be focused on the crowd. "(Despite the urgent situation we are in, I wish I had more time to study the armor. I have only come to this difficult decision because the Specters have forced our hand, pushing their barrier so close to Fortress Peloponnesia like they have. I fear Hades has a much darker design for us than even Lucifer intended, so I will deploy the armor into the conflict, even though we know no more about it today than we did the day it showed up.)"

Lance widened his eyes. It'd been five months since Lucifer's attack, and they discovered nothing?! "(Seriously? But it's been with you and Mu all this time and-)"

"(-and we are yet to even successfully reopen its lid. It's likely, Lance, that the Teos Cloth will only respond to you for the moment.)" Shion explained, stunning him. (However, a powerful armor like this is an asset we cannot ignore, especially with Athena not yet by our side. As such, Saga has conceived of a special operation to transport the armor to Fort Peloponnesia, one I hope you will accompany.)"

"(Very well. I suppose we have no choice. Of course I'll help.)" Lance confessed. Most people would probably be excited about getting to wear it again, but after all the magical bullshit mysteries and curses Lance has had to face, part of him feared that using the Teos Cloth without knowing more about it could come bite him in the ass really badly, especially with how it seemed to suck your cosmos up to power itself. He then realized something important. "(Wait,… the only people who should know about the armor are ourselves, the kids and that bastard, Lucifer, right? Why are we planning this like…)"

The Pope's black mask briefly faced him once more. "(Lance… Saga believes Hades may have planted a spy among us.)"

Lance staggered.

Suisho saw him get pale. "Pegasus? What's wrong?"

The Bronze Saint shook head. "N-Nothing, I'm just a bit sick." He spoke to the Pope again. "(ARE YOU SURE, Pope?! A goddamn Specter spy?! How is that possible?!)"

"(Since the attack on Andromeda Island, our diligent Gemini Saint has been looking into every incident in Sanctuary following our victory over the False Specters, Pegasus. It is Saga's belief that their timing, combined with the prevalence of ambushes and how precise they've been, are indicative of someone having been feeding critical information to the Specters.)" Shion detailed, as briefly as he could. "(You know Saga seldom makes mistakes, especially of this severity. Some of the incidents he referenced were the ones that attacked Olivia Iraklidis, a Saintia you might have met at Andromeda Island, where she happened to be when-)"

"(I-I know Olivia, yes. We're…close.)" Lance confirmed, still rattled. He could tell the Pope was surprised, backing away from a confused bidder at this. "(It's a long story. Shion, you fought in the last Holy War, right? Couldn't you recognize who the Specter bastard is, given they always revive as the same people?)"

"(If only it were that simple.)" Shion wished, as he apologized to the bidder in front of him. "(But I'm an old man, Lance. The faces of the Specters are long in my past and I didn't encounter every single Specter of Hades during my service, only about a dozen. Even in my nightmares their faces have become blurs to me. The only thing I might be able to detect is the Wyvern Specter. He has… unique facial features, and he's not the type Hades would employ as his spy. That is why I beg of you to be extremely careful. Whoever they are, they could be anywhere in Sanctuary.)"

"(Wait! Could… they be a Saint?!)" Lance asked. What if Cerah was still loyal to the Underworld?! Was her 'vulnerable fighter girl' all an act?!

"(It would be difficult.)" Shion reassured him. "(The mark of Hades' bargain with his Specters is so vile, a Cloth of Athena would instantly reject them. The very taint on their soul would be too disgusting for our Cloths to bear.)"

Lance sighed in relief. So, someone close to him like Cerah, Shinta or Suisho couldn't possibly be the spy. Good. "(I will keep an eye out, but I have to say… this is horrible news that would explain a whole goddamn lot. Me and my partner feel like we've been falling into ambush after ambush for months.)"

"(And it is why Saga has worked so hard to consider every possibility on this special plan to transport the Teos Cloth.)" Shion added. "(We fear the Specters know of the armor somehow and may try to intercept it. That is why we will have the Gold Saints of Athena transport decoys through different routes, while you will accompany the real one.)"

Lance held his chin. "(I see what you mean. That way, even if they find US out, I can use the armor myself to save it.)" The Pope wasn't joking when he said Saga thought of everything. "(I'm guessing you can't just have Mu teleport it to Austria with his Starlight Extinction, right?)"

"(We've tried that already.)" Shion revealed. "(It… didn't go well.)"

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

A month earlier…

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

Mu coughed, his hair standing up and his face full of soot from the explosion. He saw the Teos Cloth Box was still standing there, in its starting spot, instead of the one next over it was supposed to have emerged in. "Holy moly! I almost died just now! Master, did you see that?!"

Standing behind the Crystal Wall safety glass, Shion nodded. "I did. When you activated Starlight Extinction, the armor reacted in a way I've never seen before. Typically, your technique allows you to teleport your target into vast distances, sometimes metaphysical ones, whether they are using a Cloth of Athena or not."

Mu dusted himself, still rattled. "But this one just exploded the capsule when I tried! What gives?!"

Opening a hole in his Crystal Wall, Shion entered the research space. "It didn't explode, Mu." He put his hand on the box and felt the heat in it. "Rather, it rejected your technique. You were struck by the power of your own Starlight Extinction."

"Uh?!"

"The way Starlight Extinction works is that it uses the power of the Cosmos and the Aries Cloth to trap its targets in a net, then drags them away to your intended location. However, the reason it is so effective is because most targets are not capable to mount a defense against it." Shion recalled. The origins of this armor still eluded him, but with the Talos Incident to look back on, Shion had a few suspicions. "You remember the day the Cloth appeared to us, don't you? The Teos Cloth travelled all by itself to aid Lance in his time of greatest need. And yet, it carries no constellation, no association with a spirit loyal to Athena and Sanctuary. That implies the Cloth has a sophisticated will of its own."

Mu blinked. "So, what you're saying is, the Cloth's too smart for my Starlight Extinction to work on it?"

"Or, perhaps, Mu is too weak as of yet to override the armor's will? Could Azrael transport this armor, if I gave him Aries back? He claimed two years ago he could have stopped the tragedy at Shamballa with Talos, if he had his Gold Cloth back." Shion considered, but he soon perished the terrible thought. "No, the Aries Cloth has made its intentions to abandon Ace clear. I cannot force it to accept him back just to transport Teos to Peloponnesia."

"So, how do we get this armor to the war?" Mu cried out, rushing to his Master. "As far as we know, anyone could pull its handle and put it on, right? That Daemon guy was sure he could get it to work for him! What if an evil Specter attacks the carrier and puts it on himself?!"

Shion hummed, studying the golden box with the sun-engraving. "I am not convinced it would be that simple. Lance said this Cloth spoke to him of having earned its attention and made him accept a contract of use. The 'Cloth of your Soul', it called itself to him."

Mu pouted, feeling ignored. Whenever Master went into 'thinking mode', he could live in his own world ignoring Mu's needs for days. "Master? You're dazing off again."

"There must be some kind of special condition we are not aware of yet that activates this armor's use for you. Lucifer spoke that he was going to 'impress it' by conquering Sanctuary. He called it a feat that would amaze the Gods themselves, which I would not disagree with. It is possible that Lance making the difficult choice of using the Enraged Dragon technique against him is what did it." Shion recalled. Unlike Lance, after all, Lucifer was incapable of sacrificing anything for someone else. "It stands to reason, then, that awakening the attention of the armor is the key to awakening its power. A Cloth that comes to heroes, indeed…"

"Maaaaster!"

"Is there someone among the Specters that can do that, when Lucian could not? No… Even if all the Specters manage is to take this armor away from us, that is a risk I cannot take!" Shion concluded. "The fates saw fit that we'd be blessed with this armors' presence in this critical time. As Pope, I must therefore do everything in my power to see that it's used for the good of all mankind…"

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

The Present

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

"(The Teos Cloth has a powerful will of its own, one we will likely not reign in so easily. You may be the only one capable of meaningful communication with it at the moment.)" Shion finalized to Lance as he held yet another baby to bless. "(I'm afraid, dear boy, I may even have to put you in the front of all of us with it, should things become dire at Heinstein Castle. I know this is much to bear. Even discounting the risks of the armor we don't fully understand yet, like how it seems to sap your strength to fix itself, facing the armies of the Underworld head on is something I'd wish on no man, much less you.)"

Lance gulped. He could feel the anxiety Shion tried to hide in these words. "(Don't worry, I understand. I mean… it's not like we have another choice, right? And it's better than letting innocent men and women who can't fight Specters and Judges risk their lives.)" He was going to attack the Underworld directly, right? Holding a line with the Teos Cloth in the surface was safe, by comparison. "(I'll do it, Shion. I'll put the armor on when the time comes and fight the Specters!)"

Returning the babe he just blessed to its mother, Shion nodded faintly in Lance's direction. "(Mm. I shouldn't be surprised. Everyone I consulted with, especially Aiolos, told me that would be your answer, almost word for word. I'm proud of you, Pegasus Lance. You've come a long way since we met in that Coliseum. I have to go, but know I will be praying for you and your loved ones during this terrible time.)" He gave the signal to his entourage he wished to move on from the crowd. "Forgive me, people of Sanctuary, but as you know, I must go to the arena."

"Pope, Pope! Your Holiness!" they cried, urging for just one more blessing.

Suisho sighed in relief. "Good, the spectacle is over… We can move on to important things."

Normally, Lance would agree, but his thoughts were haunted by Shion's revelation. "A Specter spy? In Sanctuary? How could this happen? They never found out who was spying for the Black Saints that kidnapped Gardnia, either, and now we have to worry about this, too?" He followed Suisho out of the street with his head in the clouds about it. "I can't afford to let my guard down anymore. Whoever the spy is, they could strike today!"

The Crateris noticed he was distracted again. "Pegasus? We're heading out for Circe's Grove, next. Ready for meeting our contact?"

"Sure. Let me just give Olivia a heads up I'll be late for the Coliseum." Lance focused his thoughts outwards, pinging the one he worried for the most. "(Olivia?)"

…

"(…Saint Lance? What is it? Where are you? We're all waiting for you.)

"(Sorry, I know. I have bad news. I'll have to join up with you all later. Suisho found a lead on Genbu Atlae. We're going to meet it in Rodario, so we're gonna have to join you guys at the Coliseum later.)"

There was a moment of pause, likely of Olivia absorbing the news about it on her end. Lance imagined that as the one that first fought him, she'd likely be rattled. "(I see. You should go talk to that contact right away, then.)"

Lance sweated. "(You're not upset? I know you were looking forward to today.)"

"(Oh, I am.)" She confessed. From the brisk pause at the end of her projected thought, Olivia sounded pretty ticked at him. "(I'm sitting right now with grampa and he's giving me those 'I told you he was a deadbeat' looks. That's not the best feeling in the world, Saint Lance, after all the vouching I've done for you. You have a kick in the head coming to you next time we get in the sparring ring."

The Pegasus Saint gulped. Olivia's aerial attacks were no joke. They hit almost as hard as Knight Girl's Cavalry Sabre technique.

"(But above everything else I think you should take care of this as soon as possible. The last thing I want is for another Andromeda Island to happen.)" Olivia added. "(Please, follow this as thoroughly as you can, okay?)"

Lance sighed out, feeling like a total asshole. He was so lucky Olivia really cared about him. "(I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you, I promise.)"

"(Just go. This is much more important than our date!)" She asserted, making him stagger.

Lance nodded, chuckling. "(Right. Any news from your brother, yet?)"

There was a pause in which Lance imagined Olivia was sighing. "(Not yet. But we'll spot him for sure. He's… not easy to miss to me.)"

Lance imagined that maybe Olivia's mysterious brother was particularly tall, or something, given their giants' blood. "(I see. Hope you find him, Olivia.) but held back so far on letting her know about the spy. If he wasn't going to tell Suisho yet, then he shouldn't tell Olivia. It would just worry her more. "I wish this spy thing was another false lead worrying Shion over nothing, but Saga has never been wrong about anything, especially something as serious as this. I wish I could get from his own mouth exactly what's going on, but he's probably busy helping Shion manage the rest of his Triump-"

THONK

His skull collided hard with another, knocking both men to the ground. "O-OW!"

"W-what the…?!" The other guy stood up, rubbing his own forehead, and saw who he collided with. "Watch where you're going!"

Suisho stopped, seeing them both knocked on the ground. "Pegasus, what is wrong with you today?" He helped him up and dusted him. "I'm sorry, sir. My partner here has a lot on his thick head today."

Lance winced, feeling the pain snap him back to reality. He turned to the stranger and tried to apologize. "M-my bad! I just have-" He felt his words disappear, however, seeing the guy's silver-hair. "What the fuck?!"

The tall, blue-eyed guy with the foldup hat, travelling coat, black gloves, boots and head of neck-length silver hair squinted, irritated. "Yes?! You were going to apologize?"

Lance shook his head. "Christ, I thought it was Olivia's brother for a second! This guy looks just like the kid in her house's picture!" but the picture was murky in his memory and, besides, it would be too much coincidence. He tried to stay composed. It was his fault for having his head in the clouds, after all. "Y-yeah, I'm… Like my friend said, I'm having a weird day. Forgive me."

The guy seemed to take a step back and exhale, as if he knew exactly what he meant. "Well, aren't we all, Mister Saint?" As he did, however, his sharp eyes noticed the gold pin with the Cancer emblem on Lance's belt. "Wait,… you're with the Cancer House?"

The Bronze Saint held his new gold pin protectively. "I am. I spent a period training in that Temple."

His blue eyes tensed studiously on Lance, surveying him up and down, especially his Cloth box. "Mm, is that right? What's your rank, Bronze Saint?"

The question and the look made Lance blink. "It's gold, just like the pin shows," Everyone who spent time training at the Zodiac, like himself and Shinta, learned the speed of light. "What the hell did you think it was?!"

But the stranger's jaw dropped briefly, like he couldn't believe the outrageous lie. "Ah, you, a gold-rank?" He composed himself, shaking his head and laying out his hand. "Be serious; there's no way that is even remotely right. Tell me the truth."

The Pegasus Saint staggered. "Uh?! That IS right!" He clenched his fists. What was with the guy's underestimating tone? Was this another one of those jackoffs that always thought someone like Lance couldn't have earned his rank? He growled. Every few weeks or so he, and especially Shinta, had to deal with a guy like this. "Why would I lie about something like this? Where do you think I got the pin from? A tree?!"

The silver haired guy shook his head. "Oh, please, pin-schmin. That thing on your belt proves nothing, other than that you got it from somewhere. Do you have any idea how many of those things are floating in the wrong hands in Sanctuary Town, these days? Just the other day, a little girl and her friend were caught riding Sanctuary equipment around because they got their hands somehow on a pin of your House."

The Pegasus Saint almost bit his tongue in embarrassment at this. The guy was talking about the mess Elda caused him. "I guess he got me there. But still, why the weird assumption?!"

Suisho stepped up. "Sir, my partner is telling the truth. I can attest that myself." Normally he wouldn't defend a Saint, but he wasn't a fan of these civilians who thought they could question authority all they wanted, either. ""

However, Suisho's intervention somehow made the silver-haired guy squint even more. "…Uh, I don't remember asking you a goddamn thing."

The Judge gawked, "What did this cursed civilian say to me?!" but the Silver Saint staid composed. "Sir, I am just-"

"Who in Hades are you, anyway? A Saint? I believe that even less than that your friend is a Gold-Rank. You don't look like any Saint I know of." the silver-haired guy further asked, pinning Suisho with his blue eyes like he saw a Specter in a bad disguise in him. "I've travelled up and down all of Sanctuary's lands and done work for half the most powerful people in it, and never seen or met you. What Malebolge did you come crawling out of, then?"

If he was appalled before, Suisho was absolutely agape now, thinking for a second he had somehow left his Garuda Surplice on in public!

Meanwhile, Lance growled like a rottweiler. "What the?! Hey, who the fuck do you think you are, man?!" He clenched a fist high in the air. "First you question my rank, then my friend's Sainthood?! What, you need your eyes fucking checked? You see Sui has a Cloth on his back, don't you?!"

But the silver-haired guy scoffed. "My eyes are just fine, thank you. But you need yours checked right away, if you don't see how suspicious your friend looks, Bronze Saint." He confidently retorted, stunning Lance into silence. He glared at Suisho again, especially his neat clothes, the lack of any serious training scars anywhere on his fists or face and the strange dignant pose, like someone who never thought about how his life as a Saint would end in hades' worst Prison. Next to the Bronze Saint, who looked like a pile of trauma and scars ready to explode at any second, this taller Silver Saint was an alien in Sanctuary to the stranger. "If this guy is a Saint, then I'm a Judge of the Underworld."

To say he was bewildered would be an understatement for Lance. "Who the fuck asked you?!" Now he was sure this couldn't be Olivia's brother! She and Aguilon would never act this insane, especially to a Silver Saint! "What, you're trying to say he stole it?! Cause if you do-"

"Take it from me; no one in all of Sanctuary looks this perfect. And if they do, it's because they're hiding something." The stranger added. "If I were you, Bronze Saint, I'd stay as far away from your partner as possible."

"What. The. Fuck?!" Lance thought, ready to punch this guy in the face right then and there!

The last thing Suisho wanted right now, though, was to continue this escalation that would just call attention to Suisho's disguise, so he held Lance at bay. "This isn't worth it. Let's just go, Pegasus!"

"Pegasus?" the stranger noticed.

"Don't 'Let's just go, Pegasus' me, Sui! He's fucking starting it with you for no damn reason!" Lance pointed his finger at the silver-haired bastard. "And YOU;…I'll have you fucking know that just in the last six months, Suisho here has had my back in ways none of the so-called Saints in this place ever have! You're saying he doesn't look like a Saint to you?! Well, if he's not a Saint of Athena, then no one else around this fucking place is! Got it?!"

But the stranger only glared at Suisho again, looking so utterly convinced that there was something wrong with the Silver Saint, that Lance almost faltered in his anger, wondering if had stepped into a different dimension of flying pigs and 'two plus two equals fifteen', picked by Saga to deliberately confuse him.

For all his life, Lance couldn't conceive of what would make this guy say such bullshit to Suisho, other than some weird prejudice. "I can't believe my life! Where the hell do you get off, throwing accusations like that?! What's exactly so suspicious about him to you, other than not looking like he spends every night at the bar like the rest of our Orders?! Maybe Suisho ought to put his Cloth on and punch you across the planet! Would you believe him, then?!"

For a brief moment, the stranger seemed intrigued by the offer, like he genuinely thought this was a good suggestion as to how to put suspicions to rest.

Eventually, however, he retreated, shaking his head. "No, no need for that…I've been asked not to make a mess of today. You made your point, Bronze Saint." He put hand on his hip, studying Lance again. The box on his back in particular. "No, Saint Pegasus. He said you're the Pegasus Saint, right? Interesting…I didn't realize someone finally got that armor off of Mount Olympus. I wish someone had told me."

Lance simmered down, seeing the guy finally knocked it off. "Well, I didn't exactly get an interview from the Marathoner for it!"

This made the silver-haired guy laugh out loud, then hum pensively, looking at the Pope distancing himself with the crowd around the corner. "Yes, I can imagine that. Nothing like this Triumph they're holding today, right? But if you ask me, if Sanctuary was really serious about all the talk it gives of its brave Saints, every kid that earns their Cloth justly nowadays ought to get a Triumph just for them."

The Pegasus Saint hummed, remembering his own experiences becoming a Saint. "Y-yeah, he's not wrong."

"Meanwhile, all this spectacle and fanfare… and it's just because of some guy that did nothing too special. It's really something, don't you think?" The silver-haired guy locked eyes with Lance's. "What do you think you'd need to do, Pegasus, to earn a celebration from this town like this? I'd think you'd have to do something truly special. Perhaps be the guy who stopped that Specter invasion six months ago. Isn't it interesting they never held a Triumph over that?"

"That's hardly surprising." Suisho interfered, not liking the strange tone shift in the conversation. This guy was clearly not a normal civilian, especially if he was brave enough to affront them like this and maybe even sensed Suisho's true nature somehow. "That affair was top secret. We don't even know yet just how many Saints were involved in the fighting."

Once again, the silver-haired man glanced at Suisho again like he wasn't too amazed, then focused back on Lance. "I think that'd be easy to tell, no? Just count the coffins they had to make for it… That aside, what do you think, Pegasus? Would you have to become a Sanctuary hero, to get your Triumph? Like your predecessor, Pegasus Tenma?"

Lance grumbled, feeling his thoughts mixed. He was never a fan of being compared to Tenma, but this time it touched a point he thought was pertinent about all this nonsense going on in town that day. They didn't even know who the person being celebrated was or what for, but everyone was in town to throw all this partying anyone simply because Shion said so. It was a bit vexing.

But triumphs like these weren't why Lance was a Saint to begin with.

"Who knows. And who cares? I'm not here to earn some stupid parade." Maybe he was overestimating himself, but Lance truly felt he'd resist Daemon's invasion all over again if it made the kids at the Golden Zodiac, or Shinta, happy, but it sounded like a total vapid nightmare to Lance. Hell, he'd do it to get a kiss from Olivia, or a pat on the back from Master Dohko, or even an embarrassing bro-hug from Shinta, but definitely not for having all of Sanctuary's eyes on him like this. The only thing that upset him about it was what it said about Sanctuary's strange priorities. "I don't know who they're celebrating at this stupid party, but it must be some golden ring baby who got their asses of their seat to do their job protecting people, for once, just like last time. So what does it matter? I'll just do my duty today, and tomorrow, I'll go do my duty somewhere else. I became a Saint so I could be like the one person in this world I truly admired, not to earn a party."

The silver-haired guy nodded, folding his arms, even looking mildly impressed. "…Agreed." He studied Lance again. "I take it you'll be fighting in Peloponnesia soon, Saint Pegasus, after all this? I hear they are calling all the Bronze and Silver Saints for this new Holy War. Someone like you must be raring to go there and do their part."

"That's right." Lance confirmed, without a beat of fear or hesitation. Especially after Lucifer's attack and his encounter with Alraune Queen, there were few things Lance hated in the world than Specters.

"Can I ask you something else?" the silver-haired stranger tested, eyeing him with what seemed like genuine curiosity. "What do you think of it all; this Holy War our generation is about to fight? I've looked around town for a while and I can sense everyone is scared. No one thought we'd be facing Hades so soon, after all. There must be a part of you that thinks you've been cheated?"

"I'm not sure why it's any of your business, but yes, of course there is. Who wouldn't feel cheated?" Lance confirmed, sweating. Everyone, even Noah, always told him the Holy War would be something the next generation would face. He recalled all the dead bodies Lucifer left at the Aries Temple and imagined that scene spread throughout the planet, enacted by the real Specters. It was a nightmare no one had to think about for two hundred years, and now Lance would be at the frontline of it. "But it doesn't matter… I am a Saint of Athena. That's the path I chose for myself. If it weren't me fighting, it'd be the Saints younger than me, and I want that even less. So I'll do my part to stop those murderous assholes, even if those Judges put a million fucking Specters between me and Hades."

Suisho squinted. "You deluded fool…I wouldn't need even one to kill you. My own bare hands are good enough…"

The stranger raised his chin. "…Even if there's no Athena with us, yet?"

A determined glint formed in Lance. "That's right." He turned his face, disgruntled. He knew a lot of people who'd smack him over the head for what he really thought about this, Master Dohko included. "Who gives a damn about her, anyway? It's not like she's ever been on my side, from the beginning! So, I don't count on her being there in the end, either."

This, above all, seemed to really give the stranger pause. The guy hummed pensively, even looking a bit displeased with himself, like he just realized a mistake he made in something. Part of Lance hoped that it was him finally realizing what an asshole he sounded like.

"All my life, I've only ever seen people use these Gods to tell others what to do. Or justify their fucked-up crimes!" Lance added. Far more so than the Maidens who abused him and scarred his hands in the name of Athena, Lance especially despised Guifi for having put his soul in the hands of that Phoenix Goddess and the Specters for thinking they could just go around murdering everyone so long as Hades promised them a pass to paradise. "Athena, Hades, Poseidon or Baby Jesus, it's all the fucking same! The only magical creatures that have ever helped me in my life are the ones in my Cloth Box and the one my Master trained me to honor! So, when you think about it, what difference does it make for me that Athena hasn't shown up in Sanctuary yet? I'm not going to back down from these Specters just because of that! In fact-"

Lance stopped himself, realizing he almost blurted out his plan.

The silver-haired stranger, however, sensed the sharpness in what he was about to say. "That's right, Pegasus. You don't become a hero by just waiting around for others to do it for you." He presented his hand. "My name is Leon."

"Leon? I was right then. This guy is…!" Hesitantly, Lance stared at his hand. He should accept it, right? Lance was trying to be less of his old short-fused self. More importantly, though, he was feeling a strange syncing of thoughts between himself and this guy, even though this Leon guy had asked all the questions and given no answers of his own. He took the stranger's hand. "Mine is Lance. You don't have to call me 'Saint', though."

Suisho shook head like someone just punched it. What was going on? Just five seconds ago, these two looked like they would rip each other's throats off!

"I apologize for how I spoke about your friend, Saint Pegasus." Leon admitted, looking begrudged. Cerah's rejection still stung him deeply and he probably let it get to his head for a minute. "I will admit that… I am not in the best mood right now."

The Pegasus Saint grumbled to himself, "Aren't we all?" he parroted, from what Leon said before. It made the stranger chuckle bemusedly. Lance still kept his guard up but sensed that maybe they got on the wrong foot after all. "We all have tough days, right? Just don't insult my friend again and we're good."

Leon discretely glared at Suisho again. "Right, of course…"

The Specter gritted his teeth, feeling his dark soul pierced to its core by the profligate's sapphire eyes. "Who is this man?! How is he sensing so easily I am not like the rest of these profligates?! I've never seen anyone like him in Sanctuary, either! And why does it feel like…"

A faint memory of his battle with Daemon Lucifer in the Prisons returned to him. The color was wrong, but somehow the ruby red glare of the Prince emerged like a ghost in his mind. That paralyzing, emasculating look that could put you in your place, like a superior predator finding you in the savannah and demanding you give him your catch.

Crateris Suisho gritted his teeth. "N-No, it can't be! It's just my imagination!"

A thought occurred to the Pegasus. "Hey, will you be at the Coliseum, later?"

Leon nodded. "That's right. Mostly just for the main ceremony, though. Why?"

Even his suspicion that this was Olivia's brother he was talking to aside, Lance had a strange feeling there was more to this guy than met the eye, and now that he saw this Leon guy also thought this whole Triumph was a sham, maybe they had more in common? "…Look for me in the stands after it, then. I will be with some friends. If you still don't believe I'm a Gold-Rank, we can have a match there and then to prove it to you."

"Pegasus!" Suisho called. "What are you doing?!"

The Bronze Saint staggered. "I just…" He looked at Leon again, from whom he could sense a powerful hidden cosmos. Together with what he just said about the Holy War, could it be Lance accidentally stumbled upon a potential candidate for his project? "Call it instinct, but I just know there's something up with this guy. Friend or ally, I should find out more about him." He then disguised his motives. "I don't know! I just want to make it up to him for acting rudely. Buy him a beer and all that…"

"What? That's not like you at all!" Suisho called out, agape. "And he's the one that acted rude to us!"

But Leon nodded, looking mildly intrigued. "Alright, Pegasus… I will. I'll look for a guy in white horse armor first, when I'm done on my end."

Fed up, Suisho gripped Pegasus hard by the shoulder and dragged him out. "Enough of that. Come on, Pegasus, we have a witness to interrogate!"

Leon Iraklidis observed them as they departed, squinting. "That Bronze Saint guy, a Gold Rank? Don't make me laugh. There's no way that's true." And departed as well, his mind fixated on the feeling of Cosmos he got when they bumped heads. "He is way stronger than any of these dullards Master calls his gold-rankers these days."

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

Meanwhile,

Stardust Tower

Giudecca Floor

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

Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial Star of Pride, scratched in the wall of his cell another notch. Every time he did, he felt his strong fingers grow numb as the fine stardust particles embedded into the rock eat at his cosmos. He stood back and counted all the weeks he'd been down there. There was no way anyone could tell night from day in the lowest floor of Sanctuary's Prison, but he had a faint idea based on how regularly they came to feed him and collect.

"Five months…" he counted, talking out to the darkness of his floor. It felt, instead, like he'd been there in the dark for two years. There was a chance he was off a week or two, but he trusted his counting enough not to assume more error. He held his head. "Coming from the Underworld, I have endured some of its worst tortures, but this… is so… boring. I feel I am losing my mind!"

There was no response from the surrounding cells. Most of them were empty, as few people on the planet qualified as enough of a threat to Shion to be so low into the Earth's crust. Still, walking to the edge of his cell, Daemon Lucifer's red eyes peeked down to the one at the end of the hall.

"Sanctuary has to be close to making up its mind about what to do with the two of us, don't you think? They have to let us out, then. Even if just to kill us." He smiled excitedly. At this point, a public execution in the Coliseum would entertain him better than sitting in that prison for one more minute, even. "I don't think Shion is going to want either of us down here for Hades to find, after all, when he comes knocking at Sanctuary's door."

The man in the only other occupied cell didn't respond. It could be because he was unconscious, or maybe the straps and chains and fabric hiding every detail of his body were so thorough that the man couldn't respond in any way. They even added a circle of stardust inside the cell around where the man was chained to, just in case.

The Prince gripped his bars and felt the Muvian's blasted cage sucking up his electrical cosmos. It was a tingly sensation, like putting your fingers on an active battery. "Did you even know that was his name? Shion? Or do you still call him Arles? I've always been curious just how much of himself he shared with your particular generation. Tell me, Priam, how close were the two of you, before he asked you the impossible?"

Again, silence.

Lucian growled, frustrated. He had tried everything to get this failed Gold Saint to speak. He'd even threatened his stupid wife in unspeakable ways, just to see if he fidgeted. Priam, however, was yet to give him any sign of life.

"They really broke you this time, didn't they?" Lucifer lamented. "Normally you'd go on a speech about the necessity of the war you started, like you still think splitting Athena's army in two a mere two decades before Holy War begins is in any way excusable. What did they do to silence you, Priam? Cut off your tongue? Rip your earlobes out so you won't hear me taunt you? Kill what was left of your group?" He scoffed. At least Lucifer managed to save a few of his own men, who now doubtlessly plotted to spring him loose. "I can guess as much, given your comrades are not rotting down here with us, but I'd like to think they'd want that stupid Zodiac Knight of yours keeping us company, away from everyone's eyes. Or did your antics get her killed, too?"

The bound man lowered his head ever so slightly at this, though it was too dark for Lucifer to see it. The pain of his followers' charred bodies still weighed on him like an anvil tied around his neck.

The Specter rested back against the side wall, folding his arms. "You won't say a word, even today? Fine…Maybe now is my chance to get it off my chest, then." He eyed Priam's cell again. "I always thought you were a failure… but I respected what you were trying to do. Of all the Gold Saints of that generation, you're the only one that refused to go along with the wrinkled, Muvian cock the Pope was about to shove up all of your asses. Sure, a couple of them followed you, but only after you took that first step of punching Shion, right?…What were their names again?"

The bound man remained quiet.

Lucifer counted with his fingers. "First was Aeneas…, the second was Antenor, or should I call that one Azrael?" His red eyes turned up and he chuckled, trying to think of that other third person. "And wasn't there a Libra with you from your group, as well? Or does that one not count when Dohko kept the Gold Cloth for himself? I suppose that in this world you only matter to history if you have a gold dressing on your shoulders, right? Lao… Lee…"

The bound man refused to clarify.

Lucifer slammed his fist into his palm "Laodamia! Scutum Laodamia, the Ogre!" he laughed out loud at the ridiculous title. "Of course! I knew it had to be another idiotic Trojan War codename! As if Arles believed it the irony of any war between your friends would be too much for the fates to bear. Where is that one now, Priam? Waiting in the shadows to spring you out? Or maybe they joined Akassius' side, like Azrael? You never know with these Libras, which side they will swing to!"

The bound man said nothing.

Concluding the obvious, Lucifer scoffed. "Not counting on them to show up, either? Well, it figures…We're a dying breed, after all, Priam. Men who are capable of envisioning what the world ought to do, between all its trappings of civility. The sort those in power will do everything to kill, lest they succeed in their subversive dreams." He was habituated now that talking to this broken Priam was the same as talking to oneself. "You ought to know that better than I do. You owe all those burn scars in your body to someone who chose to stay loyal to those in power."

The bound man fidgeted, feeling a flash of Akassius' fire in his mind. In the distance, he heard the gears of the elevator turning. Someone was coming down to their floor.

"And our dreams may have been very different, Priam, but I always thought that likeness between us was what made us natural allies. If you had forgotten about your stupid tribalism and joined me when you had the chance, I would now be sitting on Shion's throne, and I could have rewarded you and those you loved for your help. All of your men would be free to walk Sanctuary, Anesidora and your son would be safe to live their lives, and the two of us wouldn't be down here. Instead… you conspired against me." Lucifer hissed. Out of everything, this was really what soured him the most in this weakling. "And now the page from the Book of the Dead, the Teos Cloth and my Daemon Surplice are all in Shion's hands."

The elevator gears grinded louder and louder and light from its lamps began entering their floor. The restraints all around the bound man's body became visible to Lucifer.

The Daemon Specter narrowed his eyes. "Now our era is over. The two of us have nothing awaiting us but death. But mark my words, Priam. Unlike you, I don't plan to go down without a fight just because they put me in this hole." He then laughed, suddenly finding an advantage over his contemporary he hadn't considered, one born of the very conflict that first defeated him. "In fact… you might say that, like Bellerophon and Perseus before me, in my worst defeat, I have found my flying horse to my Elysium…and Hades will pay dearly for all the lies he ruled my life with!"

At this, Lucifer could swear Priam had raised his head. The Prince smirked, knowing this was something impossible for him not to be intrigued by. After all, just like Priam, Lucifer had never imagined someone like Pegasus Lance would show up to ruin everything he ever worked so hard for, and, at the same time, present such a delicious opportunity to get his revenge on Hades anyway.

"Ha, ha, ha! Curious about it, aren't you, Priam? Let's say, then, I have an ace up my sleeve no one in this world, even the Gods themselves, suspect!" He raised and clenched his fist. "I may no longer be able to follow in the footsteps of my forefathers anymore and become king of Sanctuary, but I will show this blasted world that Daemon Lucifer, the Celestial Star of Pride, isn't someone you can just tuck in a dark hole and forget about!"

The bound man raised his head. "(I-Is that really what you think, Lucian?)"

Lucifer perked up. "Oh ho? Finally talking?"

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

Ground Floor

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

For a place built around a former open-air mine, the ground floor of the most terrifying building in Sanctuary was surprisingly clean and ordained, much like the Mission Management Center. The waiting room was a large hall with rows of plastic chairs lined against the wall, opposite of a series of bar-guarded desks manned by prison bureaucrats and guards. It had waxed tile flooring, dusted wooden walls, portraits of former wardens without a speck of dirt on them and even the middle corridor which took to the big elevators to the underground prison floors was clean of any kind of footprints or blood, despite the struggling many prisoners presented as they got dragged through it. One wouldn't guess that, a thousand years before, the location had been one of the most polluted places in Medieval Europe, full of slaves miserably digging every bit of stardust out of the ground.

Some said it was done on purpose to contribute to a sensation of limbo-like transition from Earth to Hell. Sanctuary wished to remind you of all the civility and peace you had surrendered when you first chose to abuse the cosmos, the crime that most people beneath their feet were responsible for. Others said the wardens were just typically encouraged to make the place look normal to distract visits from the horrible conditions the prisoners were kept in, hundreds of meters below the surface.

Daese fidgeted her feet, feeling absolutely ridiculous in her housewife outfit and skirt. She wasn't the type to wear a non-battle skirt around, much less this kind of stuffy, padded shoulder shirt that looked straight out of The Facts of Life. "I can't believe you talked me into dressing like this! You even got fake wedding rings for us. Isn't this all too much?"

Erika flipped her magazine, dressed like she was going to a funeral with her webbed-face black hat, puffy elbows, indoor sunglasses, black hand-to-elbow gloves and shiny dark shoes. "We're just here to visit our no-good husbands, remember? We have to look the part to these profligates while we look for a chance to free our bosses. Pretty soon the Gold Saints will be by to escort one of them out, if not both. Also, I don't want all these nosy guards to ogle me, hence the rings."

It was a tough logic to argue against, but Daese somehow felt that this was another way for the False Specter to embarrass the proud Zodiac Knight. Also, if the objective was to dress like a wife, why was Erika in all black, then? Was this part of the False Specter's so called 'goth' style?

"You know, I once heard this place also used to be a Temple to Hades. You know, from back when he wasn't mad at his cute little niece." Erika mused, finishing her magazine. "Is that true?"

Daese irked. "How should I know?"

Erika chuckled. "You're a Zodiac Knight, right? How could you not? Especially during those days?"

The Paladin folded her arms. This was the second time Erika pushed the topic. "I know what you're doing. I know you're just dying to know everything about when… when…"

"See, when you clam up like that, like what happened all those thousands of years ago between your ancestors and the God that betrayed me still somehow burns in your blood today, I can't help but be dying." Erika pointed out. She folded her legs and leaned back. "But alas! It's just the root cause of existence of your entire Order, isn't it? The one you want to avenge?"

Daese's head lowered. Azrael's cruel, poisonous words echoed in her mind.

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

"There's only one person who could have done such a terrible job teaching you our heritage. That idealistic fool, Priam."

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

"My only interest is in distributing the justice of Athena. A real Zodiac Knight would know that."

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

"Like your family?" he cut, guessing her outrage. He squinted hard. "Did you even know your parents that well? What were their names?"

Daese staggered, not expecting this, "T…They were Henri and Marie Heloise! And you k-"

"That is not what I asked."

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

She didn't want to admit it, especially to this Specter, but the truth was, Daese's understanding of the birth of the Zodiac Knights was questionable. She knew the essential. Just enough to know they were her family and she should avenge them. But also just enough to make the rest of their history quite frightening to consider. She knew there was a great hypocrisy, a great betrayal at its core, and that it all had to do with Hades. Daese even felt at her core that she knew the truth behind it, that she was born with its black vines firmly around her heart. Nasu Erika's sick interest in it only confirmed it all. She probably already knew from Lucifer the truth and just wanted to watch Daese squirm spelling it all out.

That was something Daese refused to grant such a shifty ally.

She looked around. "It's surprising how few people are here, isn't it?" Daese asked, seeing all the empty chairs around them. "This is Sanctuary's biggest prison. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds of convicted Black Saints and stardust contrabandists below us, but even in a day like this when everyone is coming to Sanctuary Town, no one visits these people. Are they really all just the worst of the worst criminals?"

Nasu Erika smiled amusedly, giving her a sly look. "You really have spent your whole life with that Priam guy and his speeches, haven't you? Not everyone Sanctuary arrests is a poor revolutionary being kept from their family."

Daese turned red, feeling completely naive. "I k-know that!"

"You know, the Prince once told me that most people in Sanctuary have no idea how many dangerous psychopaths are being kept here. That there's enough monsters in the lowest levels of this Prison to form an army to take over the Zodiac with." Erika sighed, picturing all those lonely, tattooed, muscled souls with interesting thoughts about knives, all cruelly behind bars. "He made me so curious about them… Do you think Sanctuary allows 'conjugal visits' to this place?"

The Paladin squinted in disgust. "No. In fact, if half of what you say is true, I hope everyone down these floors enjoys several years of nothing but darkness and their own gross company."

"Mm, mm, cute words, for someone planning to bust one of them out." Erika thought to herself. She knew bringing it up would just trigger a self-righteous rant from the Paladin. Her eyes spotted a duo of gold coming into the building. The False Specter bumped her elbow, calling her attention to the two gold-clad young men with masks arriving to the elevator. "Speaking of dangerous guys…"

"Please wait here, lord Gold Saints." The guard requested, guiding two youths completely clad in golden armor and wearing masks that attracted the attention of everyone in the room. He called the elevator by the button, causing the large chains in the shaft's to begin moving. "The elevator takes a while to come up from the lower floors."

The Gemini Gold Saint nodded. "Of course."

The Sagittarius Saint sighed softly. "Is it really okay for the two of us alone to be handling this? Maybe we should call our old Cancer Saint to help?"

But the Gemini shook his head. "This guy is going to be in chains and stardust shackles, Aiolos, strapped to a portable gurney, the same way he was carried into this place. Hephaestus himself would have to come down from Olympus and make the metal melt to the floor to free him from those. You're worrying too much."

Off in their seats, Nasu Erika lowered her sunglasses to try to discern their identity. "Ugh, those pesky masks of theirs…What do you think, Paladin? Recognize any of them?"

Daese sweated, her eyes fixed on the blue-maned bucket-helmeted Gold Saint. "Yes. Both were present at Andromeda Island when Priam tried to rescue Gardnia, a year ago. I don't know much about the winged one, but…"

Nasu widened eyes. "You know the Gemini Saint?! That's the more surprising one of the two to know!"

The Aquila Silver Saint shook her head. "Not him, specifically. I know his 'other half'. They are Sea Prince, Priam's special contact inside the Zodiac."

Erika widened her eyes, mind boggled. Was this the mysterious adversary that the Prince ran into at the Gemini Temple, during the war? She wanted to whistle to show how impressed she was. "You're telling me your spy is the current Gemini Gold Saint's shadow? I gotta say, I underestimated you Priam Black Saints. Not bad at all…Maybe you do stand a chance at saving Priam, especially with green-looking Gold Saints like these."

Daese gloomed, though. "They're here to pick up your boss, not mine."

"Really? How can you tell?"

"These two already know and fought Daemon Lucifer, but the Pope would never allow his new generation of Gold Saints, especially his Sagittarius, to come close to Priam. Much less so after what happened to Gardnia." Daese asserted. She always regretted how out-of-hand that whole affair got. The Cepheus Saint seemed like a genuinely good man and Paris did nothing to help defuse the tension at the time. If only Priam had gotten the chance he wanted to speak with him clearly. "My boss's greatest threat to Arles has always been his ability to turn the Pope's closest friends into enemies. Arles's not going to let his prime heirs anywhere near Priam."

Nasu Erika hummed. "That explains why even after that silver-haired young man knocked him out, they carried him out in Japan in all that kinky bondage gear… they must fear his words more than they fear his Cosmos."

"I'd imagine Priam is bound the same way even now, so deep into the Earth." Daese concluded to herself. Her eyes wetted, remembering the terrible scene of everyone's deaths in Hokkaido that burned itself into Priam's eyes. "Or maybe… they broke him so much they didn't even bother. Gods above…No matter what, I must save him!"

Meanwhile, Saga and Aiolos, not suspecting that the two sad, stuffy-looking ladies in the seat were spies, patiently awaited for the elevator to arise. There were all sorts of security checks down the underground levels that were probably being cleared, and even then it was going to take a while for the elevator to reach them.

Aiolos sighed. "I have to admit, Saga… this isn't what I'd hoped I'd be doing as a Gold Saint."

The blue-haired Gemini shook his head. "Does it bother you that much? You know this is a uniquely dangerous and resourceful enemy. Even chained top-to-bottom, Daemon Lucifer isn't someone we should let the guards transport on their own."

"I meant where we are taking him to." Aiolos specified. "Is this really who we are? A bunch of executioners?"

Having known Aiolos for almost a decade by now, Saga understood his concerns, but hoped he'd be past this sort of stuff by now. "We don't know yet if that's what will happen. The Pope's orders were simply for us to bring him to the Coliseum."

Aiolos looked at him like he was acting stupid on purpose.

Saga, however, held his own. "You know what I mean; just because it's the Coliseum, it doesn't mean it's going to be a public execution. Remember; officially, no one in Sanctuary knows yet the False Holy War actually happened or how. Just that there was a violent attack. This could be that the Pope has just decided it was time to show everyone what happened that night, especially with the real Holy War about to happen."

The Sagittarius 'oh'ed. "You're saying Arles wants to encourage everyone? To show that we already defeated a major Specter at the same time he announces Holy War?"

Saga laid out his hand "Exactly. Remember, the scariest thing about all of this to everyone, is that we may be the first generation of Saints to face Holy War without Athena having returned yet. To a lot of people, even Saints, facing down the hordes of Hades' Spectres without her must seem like suicide. However, if everyone knows we have defeated them in a major way already, the impossible may seem possible to many, all of a sudden."

As always, Saga seemed to understand something about the predicament Aiolos just didn't. "I hope you're right…" He looked at the elevator. "Man, what is taking so long? We have to be at the Coliseum with Daemon by midday."

A guard arrived next to them. "L-Lord Gold Saints, my apologies, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a bit longer than predicted." He gulped before their combined, masked stare. "Y-You see, my comrade from the previous shift failed to mention it to me, but a very important group was already going downstairs to that floor… and…"

Saga widened eyes, stunned. "What?! Who in Sanctuary has clearance to go down to Giudecca?"

The guard gulped. The Gemini spoke up so loudly that even the two ladies in the visiting seats turned their heads up. "It was… well, it was someone everyone here already knew. Even the warden gave them a personal welcome."

Saga and Aiolos exchanged a look. Someone everyone at the Prison already knew? Considering most of the guards were hoplites or former hoplites, then that could only mean…

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

Giudecca Floor

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

Lucifer leaned on his bars. "Well, Priam?... you sounded just know like you finally had something to say to me?"

The man wheezed, struggling to project his thoughts through his stardust confines. "(Just another meaningless speech…It hurts to project my thoughts out through all this…stardust…but it's as you say, isn't it? This is the end for me, anyway.)" The harder he tried, the more his eyes went dark, like Shion taxed him by the word he dared to let out.

The Specter laughed. "You must have something nice to say, then? Are you going to convince me to turn to the light of Athena, in my final moments? I can't wait!"

"(N-No…)" Priam rejected, shaking head lightly. "(People say I talk too much to my enemies, but I know no one could possibly change a rotten mind like yours. Y-You have all your plans of revenge, all your speeches of conquest, all your schemes against the Gods… but you're in the mine hole, same as me,… but what will that matter, when you can have your so called revenge?)"

Lucifer gritted his teeth. "That's right. Do you think I feel the need to be a hero about it, like you and Dohko's new student? My entire world has been dead for half a millennium, Priam! I have no one on this planet anymore I wish to save! As far as I'm concerned, everyone left on this stinking ball of a planet can just become my slave, and they'd be better off than the-"

"(Can I ask you something? You joined the Specters because of your dead family, and betrayed the Specters because of what Hades did to your best friend… and then you saved Cerah, didn't you? Daese's sister?)" the bound man brought up. He tried to look in Lucifer's direction to ease the aiming of his thoughts, but the thick chains weighted on his body. "(You raised her for a decade, all by yourself, hiding her from Hades…You could have bargained her away in exchange for some kind of lenience from Shion, yet you didn't. She remains a secret, somewhere in Sanctuary, from what the Book of the Dead's page told us. Tell me, Lucian…was she also someone you wished to enslave to your dominion?)"

The Specter stiffened. What was this anarchist brat doing, trying to put the two of them on the same level? "That's right, Priam! She was a convenient pawn. Someone I could use to give Thanatos one final spit in the eye. Nothing else."

The prisoner thought to himself silently. "(I see… I was curious to what led you to do the one kind thing in your life. It saddens me that it was to serve your revenge, too. It must be difficult, living the life you have, Lucian. Half a millennium of being unable to admit to yourself that you still love someone in this world. Half a millennium of having nothing on your mind but to make someone else pay for your misery. Half a millennium of rejecting bonds… your former Specter servants, your current False Specter ones…even the girl you raised with so much care or the woman you had her escort out of Hades' clutches.)"

The Celestial Pride Star wanted to laugh. This failed Gold Saint thought he knew so much, didn't he? "Now you pity me too, Priam? Do You still don't see that naiveté is what cost you your war?"

"(No, Lucian. I know why I lost to Akassius. I was too weak of heart, not too strong.)" Priam countered, his weak voice sounding fully earnest. "(If my heart had been stronger, I'd have been able to fight those I cared about, for those I cared about even more. It was because I kept thinking I could have it all that I failed the hopes of having 'enough'. I didn't love my wife and son enough to be brave in the face of all the others I cared about, so… call me a failure if you want. I will carry that acknowledgement gladly… till the end.)"

At this, Lucifer's tongue retreated, for once, disarmed.

Priam shook, almost harnessing the strength to stand up against the chains holding him down, such was the disgust filling him at the Specter he allied himself to. "(But you…. You say those things, spit all that poison about the world around you, calling everyone no better than potential servants and slaves, just because the world left YOU behind…Is there truly no one in the world that ever made you forget yourself?! No friends? No loved ones?)" Weakness made him simmer down, but not without one final whisper. "(It makes me wonder why you think Shion would ever decide to finally let you out of this dungeon and kill you… when you already make your life as hellish as this.)"

The elevator finally stopped at their floor, illuminating the hall of cells.

He saw the silhouettes of the trio visiting them. Lucifer clicked his tongue, recognizing them. Anyone would. "Well, look at that. I thought they'd forgotten you by now. …It's your loved ones."

Akassius Steiner, Kirin and Malta were let out by the guard and pointed in the direction of Priam's cell. After thanking him and asking for privacy, the trio paced briskly towards their destination like they had a fire to put a stop to.

Lucifer met Akassius' eyes briefly as they passed in front of him. "Come to take your revenge on Priam? I suppose you and I are not so dissimilar, fellow Gemini…. " He grinned, taking delight in declaring his celebrated name. "Akassius Steiner, savior of Sanctuary."

Kirin, the former Capricorn Gold Saint, bared their teeth at the Specter. "Arles put this one on the same floor as him?!"

Malta, the former Aquarius Gold Saint, quivered hesitantly. "Akassius, perhaps we shouldn't have come. This Specter will see everything we do here!"

The Pride Star dropped his jaw and laughed out loud at the panic in their faces. "So, I was correct?! You three are down here to settle affairs with Priam?" The Specter clicked tongue. "How the virtuous have fallen…"

Kirin tried to step around Akassius' arm. "What the hell does a revenge-obsessed Specter like you know?! You're nothing but an arrogant murderer, who couldn't even beat our students in his so-called Holy War!" She pointed finger at him. "What does an unholy immortal freak like you understand of the pain we went through?!"

"I know of all the times I heard Priam's speeches about how he wished to make peace with you all. How he held back so often against you in battle during your so-called war." Lucifer countered, raising his chin. It was enough to give even Kirin pause in their wrath. "What a sad end for a Saint like him; killed in dark by the ones he so often showed restraint towards. Like a trio of cowards."

Kirin was practically screeching with rage and tried to jump over Akassius. "COWARDS?! AM I HEARING THAT FROM SOMEONE WHO SOLD THEIR SOUL TO HADE-"

But the Gemini held them down. "Enough! Stop it, Kirin! He doesn't deserve that!" The Gemini then faced the satisfied-looking Specter. "… You must be proud of yourself, Specter, thinking you can prey on the feelings of Kirin and Malta for a cheap bit of entertainment."

The Specter Prince smirked at the stern gaze in Akassius, the most feared and admired warrior in all of Sanctuary. "Mm, mm, I remember that look, from when you and I met each other at Crow's Nest. And when we met again at the Zodiac? It's the same look Cain and Abel had, back in the day, when they were riddled with each other's sickness. Are you sick in the head, too, Gemini Akassius?" He recalled his encounter with Kanon. "Of course you are. With that Cloth you used to have,… how could you not be?"

Akassius lowered his arm, freeing his friend. He didn't respond.

Lucifer's red eyes sterned studiously on his, trying to find whatever curse the Gemini Cloth left with him. "Maybe… I'll get to bear witness to it right now, when you finally end your most hated enemy? The sickness the Cloth left in you? Or are you going to say Arles made you come here, just like he made you fight your war with him?"

But the black-haired hero was not impressed. "No. The three of us are here of our own choice. The Pope has no idea we've come."

Malta widened eyes. "Akassius, don't tell him that! You'll-"

The Gemini nodded at them in reassurance, "It's alright, Malta." then eyed the Specter harshly. "We have the most right to be down here, right now, out of everyone in all of Sanctuary. This Specter can shout at the top of his lungs what we are about to do in front of the whole Coliseum, if he wishes, and my mind on that wouldn't change a single bit. Besides…" His eyes harshened on Lucifer. "This man is nothing but a lost soul, who will be seen as someone willing to say anything to make Sanctuary turn against itself. No one would believe him."

The two lesser Gold Saints relaxed, albeit hesitantly.

Seeing this, Lucifer bared his teeth in disgust, gripping the bars of his cell. "…I have to say, even I am stunned at how low Gold Saints have gotten. That's how your generation rewards those who stood up for their loved ones?!" Even after everything he experienced in life, including having to murder Michael, Daemon Lucifer couldn't help but be surprised by this. "All that talk about how united your generation was from Priam, and look at you now; assassinating him in the dark! At least Specters kill their enemies in the open."

The trio of retired Gold Saints returned a mix of cold or discomfortable reactions, from Kirin narrowing her eyes, to Malta turning his face in shame.

Lucifer retreated from the bars, disgusted. "You sincerely make me pity that failure even more than I already did. Perhaps, in Cocytus, Priam will meet Anesidora? You do plan on sending her his way, when you're done here? A nice parting gift to your former junkyard gang comrade?" He smirked, delighting in how disgustingly low his fellow race members were turning out to be. "Tell me, Akassius Steiner, how many more will you and your generation sacrifice to make Shion happy? Maybe the two Gold Saints next to you are next? Maybe your wife and son? YOURSELF?!"

But Akassius only looked more fortified, his voice not ceding an inch or crack to his provocations. "Don't worry, Daemon Lucifer. I will get my turn. And you will get yours." Akassius advocated, his black eyes meeting his without fear. "All of Sanctuary will bear witness to your fate today, and see what happens to those who let their souls be eaten by Hades to their core. As for the three of us… Athena shall judge our fates."

Daemon Lucifer stood agape. "This man…! What is he thinking?! Is he really driven insane by loyalty to Sanctuary or…?!" He shook head. Harnessing saliva, he spat at their feet through the bars. "Go, then! And end Priam's misery, if you think your Goddess will reward you so for it! I'm sick of the sight of his weakness, anyway."

Malta and Kirin didn't hesitate, moving away.

There was a disgusted frown from Akassius, who spared the Specter a final, studying look.

Lucifer banged his bars with his palms to snap him out. "What are you looking at?!"

"If I recall correctly, you met my godson during that war, didn't you?" Akassius confronted, black eyes sharpening.

"Godson?" Lucifer wondered. He ran the False Holy War through his mind, searching all the Saint faces that could be referring to this. A green-haired face popped to mind, one he knew was secretly important to these Gold Saints. "You mean Micha-"

Akassius' hand clawed the air very suddenly, shooting a blinding beam of light that struck the powerful Specter's face hard enough to project him back against the wall of his cell, cracking it. The Specter collapsed onto the floor, coughing emptily. He held his throat, feeling it burn as if struck from the inside with a torch.

"What have… ahh!" Lucifer wheezed out, feeling no words come out his mouth. His tongue wasn't numb, but his throat simply failed to send its air out into the Prison space.

"Just applying a little insurance. I know you're a capable sense restorer, Daemon Lucifer, but I think you'll find my particular technique difficult to get around." Akassius explained, "I know you almost uncovered Hades's curse on him, and the last thing I need is you continuing to be a liability to my godson's safety. That you haven't already in these five months is a power over Shinta's fate I will not allow you to continue to have."

Lucifer got on his knees, feeling his suspicions confirmed. "Y-You… you know that kid is Dark Angel Michael?! That he's Priam's son?!"

The Gemini smirked. "You have this look on your face like you suddenly realized you underestimated me. First time for you? It was the final for many." Akassius then departed as well. "You called yourself a fellow Gemini just now, didn't you? I did not realize that when we first met. Or perhaps you spouted it out at some point and I just did not care to remember. I'm glad to discover it, in any case. Now I know what I'd become if I had failed in my Path."

The Specter held his throat and tried to speak, but nothing came out. He snapped fingers at it, applying every sense-restoring technique he learned in his long career, but nothing changed the numb emptiness he felt going from his tongue all the way down to his lungs. What had Akassius done to him?! Put a portal in his throat that sent his voice to another dimension or something?!

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

Golden Zodiac,

Virgo Temple,

Hall of Innocence

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

Arriving in the room through it was Galarian Steiner, dressed in his Leo Cloth, sided by a cloaked adult with green eyes, small chest, lumped throat, fine nose and white, curly hair down to their neck.

Milo stood aback. He couldn't tell if this was someone he'd like to date or tell to buzz off. "Who is this guy… gal? I've never seen them before."

Centering himself between Shinta and the cloaked person, Galarian turned to the stranger. "Well, are you ready?"

The strange Saint smiled. "Yes, thank you."

Aldebaran felt a bit of apprehension about this, "I gotta admit, I pictured someone a bit more threatening-looking. Especially from the Pact." but he patted Shinta's shoulder. "Well, good luck, man. Kick his ass."

Shaka observed the challenger briefly, feeling an odd aura about them, then headed off with Saint Peacock and Lotus to the side of the sparring circle opposite of Galarian.

Shinta observed his adversary. He was so incredibly nervous, his stomach felt like it was pushing against his spine. Yet, as he took his adversary in, Shinta had to confess; for the first time in his life, he sort of understood how easily someone could misplace his own gender. The Andromeda Saint was having a tough time guessing how to address this person politely.

Still, he tried. "U-um… hello. My name is Shinta Akiyama. Nice to meet you!"

The androgynous Saint only stared back tensely, in utter silence, as if in deep observation of Shinta. The Andromeda Saint gulped, somehow feeling like he was being scanned top to bottom by their serene, grass-green eyes. How were they so oddly penetrating, rendering Shinta utterly naked in his mind? Was this Silver Saint already employing some kind of secret weakness analysis technique?

He tried again. "I know we're about to fight and all, but… whoever wins, I really don't want you to think we can't be friends." Shinta offered. Still no answer. Maybe the Silver Saint was like Shinta and felt it more difficult to fight someone that they got to know better? In which case, Shinta felt he should probably shut up. "S-Sorry. I'll just be quiet, then."

They could at least say something? Perhaps Shinta wasn't being careful what he wished for, as Lance always told him it was tougher to fight people if Shinta kept trying to 'get to know them better' beforehand, but if this white-haired Saint at least gave Shinta some sign of being a human, and not some kind of God sent from the skies to crush him in this test, the Andromeda Saint would feel a bit more at ease.

The Leo Saint waited until everyone was in position, then raised his hand between the two challengers. "The judges are here. So are the challengers; Andromeda Shinta and Triangle Noah. And I, Leo Galarian, have been appointed by his Holiness as witness and arbitrator to this duel's battling. Judging the outcome will be Saint Lotus, Saint Peacock and the former Saint of Virgo. Any issue to declare with this?"

Shinta exhaled deeply, then raised his chains with his hands. So, their name was Triangle Noah? Shinta couldn't say he had heard of them, but that was irrelevant to the matter at hand. "This is it! I have to fight this person! Even if I hate it! If I want to follow the footsteps Master Gardnia left for me when he died, if I want to change the world… I must become as high a Saint as I can!" Then spoke. "No, Saint Leo. We can beg-"

"I have an issue to declare." The challenger spoke up.

The entire room snapped attention to them. Galarian lowered arm. "Y… You do?" He scratched his head. He didn't actually expect there to be a problem. This step was more of a formality than anything, as real Saints battled with whatever they had at hand, as they were expected in Holy War.

The Triangle Saint turned to Shaka and the others. "Saint Galan, I don't feel my opponent is at ease with what is about to happen here. Also, I don't think putting two Saints in a duel ring should be the correct way to decide who is going to be the next Virgo Gold Saint. Isn't this the Hall of Innocence, after all? Above everything, its next guardian should be someone who only sheds blood as a last resort to solve their problems."

The Leo Saint grumbled annoyedly. He should have expected this from the Virgo Temple candidates. "You may believe that, but that is the tradition in Sanctuary for Gold Saint challenges." Galarian countered. It was how he got his own Leo Cloth, too. "We are training men to fight the Holy War, not to meditate under a tree all day. Even the Virgo Saint can't escape that."

Shinta went glum at this. That was the unfortunate reality, wasn't it? For a moment, he felt hope Saint Noah's protest would change something, but in the end, it was true that even the most peaceful Saint among them had to be ready to fight.

Yet, the Triangle Saint shook their head, shutting their eyes in lamentation. "Dear Athena, is that how far the principles of this Temple have fallen?…If that's the case, I refuse to participate."

Milo widened his eyes in his seat. "Wait, what?!"

Aldebaran gawked. "So that guy doesn't want to fight?!"

"Holy moly, this is great for Shinta!" Mu cheered. "Is he going to surrender right away?"

Galarian was speechless. So was Shinta himself.

"Saint Noah, are you suggesting you want to forfeit the match?" Saint Peacock asked, stunned. "But you are the chosen of the Pact! What would Lady Yuzuriha say?"

"The fate of the Virgo Cloth must be decided." Saint Lotus added, stern. "Holy War is coming! This decision cannot pass this day!"

But the Triangle Saint shook their head yet again. "I told you all; urgency or not, this is not the way to go. Even if it disappoints the Pact, I refuse to be the first Virgo Saint in history that earned their Cloth by hurting another soul, just because this era has blessed us with two viable candidates rather than one. Knowledge, patience and devotion to the principles of Athena and Buddha must always be the most important deciding factors." He turned to Shinta. "Though, I'm not sure if Saint Andromeda believes the same?"

Caught in the limelight, Shinta staggered and harnessed his confidence to speak up in front of so many. "I-I… I do, Saint Noah!"

Galarian palmed his face. "Oh, for Ares' sake!"

The green-haired Bronze Saint turned to the judges. "Please, Saint Shaka, Lotus and Peacock, isn't there any other way this can be decided? All my life, I too believed that the best way to be an example to everyone else was to stand up for understanding one another and deciding things peacefully. I also don't want to become a Virgo Saint that hurt someone else to get there. I'm…" Shinta then gulped, remembering the horrible two times he had to fight his teacher in Cepheus' Castle. "I'm tired of doing that! If I have to go the rest of my life staying as a Bronze Saint so I won't hurt another one, I'd gladly do it!"

Saint Noah smiled, looking positively impressed. The judges scratched their heads and discussed things privately between them.

Milo scoffed, seeing Galan's red face. "Man, our new Leo looks pissed. I guess he really thought every Saint in Sanctuary was like him, deciding everything through big bad Lightning Bolts. For once, Shinta's wussy ways of whining have scored a victory in battle a guy like him never could."

Aldebaran chuckled at the sight of Saints Peacock and Lotus arguing in rhyming hushes with Shaka stuck in the middle. "Master Daniel always used to say to me that was secretly Shinta's biggest strength, Milo. And he was right; look at all these big shots who don't know what to do with these two anymore. Serves them right for trying to push my buddy into doing something he hates."

Shaka stood up to speak. "Saint Noah, Saint Shinta, you two have put us in a difficult position, but not one I am insensitive to." It made the Andromeda Saint turned red. Shaka sounded something between disappointed and befuddled. "I was hoping that the solution to this would be a quick duel that minimized violence between Saints, but with the two of you staunchly refusing even that, you force us to ask… what else you propose?"

"Mm, perhaps a game of hopscotch?" The Andromeda Cloth suggested to Shinta, twirling her circle chain. "Oh, oh, no, let's play hangman! Whoever survives longer hanging from the ceiling by the neck gets to guard the Temple!"

Shinta scratched head. "A-ah, well, I'm not really sure…" His green eyes turned to Saint Noah, hoping they'd have a thought.

And, indeed, the Triangle Saint stepped up. "I have a suggestion, judges. I'd like to ask for the test to be changed to a simpler, non-lethal format. Rather than a brawl, it should be a test that makes use of what really matters to be the best possible Saint of Virgo for Sanctuary; the control and application of one's Cosmos. Would that be okay?"

The Andromeda Saint felt a flux of excitement. A cosmos control match? That would be perfect for him! "Oh, I'd agree to that!"

"Is this Silver Saint nuts?" Aldebaran asked, folding arms. "My bro Shinta here is an Andromeda Saint. His whole shtick is directing cosmos through those chains of his in various crazy ways."

Mu blinked. "So, you're saying this is good for Shinta's chances?"

"Good?" Milo asked, scoffing. "Mu, this is excellent for Shinta. This guy… gal has no idea how hard he's shooting him… herself in the foot." He clicked tongue, frustrated. "Damn it, this is hard as balls!"

Cursing aside, Shinta had to agree with his friends. In fact, he agreed so much he felt the need to interject himself. "Wait, Saint Noah… are you sure? It's just that..." How did Shinta say this without appearing arrogant? "Saint Noah, I was trained very well in that precise field! To the point I fear it may give me an unfair advantage."

The Triangle Saint laughed. "Then perhaps you should accept, Saint Shinta? It's not a very competitive thing to do, interrupting your enemy when they're making a mistake?" Noah waved a hand reassuringly. "Besides, I know I don't look like much, but don't think I'm some kind of pushover. Controlling the cosmos is my specialty, as well."

Faced with this, Shinta could only beam. "Wow…I …. I double accept then!" How amazing was this? Shinta felt for the first time he was meeting a fellow pacifist Saint, one who even mastered the same field of cosmos as his! No matter what happened in this duel, Shinta needed to know more of who this person was. Had he found a kindred spirit in Sanctuary, finally?

The trio of Judges discussed Saint Noah's request in mental messaging. From the looks on their faces, they seemed positively impressed by the idea, but unsure. Finally, Shaka spoke up. "Saint Noah, if we were to entertain this… what kind of test would you suggest?"

Without a beat, Noah answered. "The Lightning Round."

Galarian widened eyes. "WHAT?! Are you insane?! After all that talk about not shedding blood?!"

Shinta scratched head. He was fine with whatever, but he never heard of this test "Lightning Round? Okay… What are the rules?"

In the sides, Mu saw Milo gawk like he just swallowed a frog. "Milo, what's the Lightning Round? Is it a quiz game? Does Shinta have to answer the names of all the Popes dating back to when Master's Master's Master was in diapers?"

"Are you kidding me, Mu?! No!" The Scorpio Saint remembered Galarian's duel with Aiolos, when he defeated their Sagittarius Saint, clad in Gold Cloth, with a single blow! Didn't this Silver Saint know who their duel arbitrator was?! "The Lightning Round is Shinta's worst damn nightmare! Now no matter what, we're not walking away from this Temple without a fresh bucket paint of blood all over the walls!"

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

Stardust Prison

Giudecca Floor

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

Lucifer still struggled to find his voice, watching as the three gold Saints approached Priam's cell to murder him. "D-Damn it! What has that Gemini done to me?!" Try as he might, none of his powers worked to restore his voice. "I refuse to be sent down quietly the same hole as Priam! I refuse!"

Producing the keychain they got from the guard, a veteran of the war they all fought together, the three unlocked the door and confronted the prisoner inside. The bound man shook. Even tied head to toe in chains, stardust shackles and bounding, he knew who stood in front of him. They had been through so much together, both good or bad, that he could recognize them from across the depths of the cosmos, or inside the darkness of Poseidon's deepest abyss.

The whole time he watched it, Lucifer's mind reeled. "But I don't understand! If that Gemini knows Andromeda is Priam's son, why has he tolerated Michael's presence in Sanctuary all these years?! It doesn't make any sense! They fought that whole war to make sure he and his mother were beheaded and Priam was brought to justice for saving them! Akassius should be crushing Shinta underfoot like he did with every other Black Saint he got his hands on these past fourteen years!" He was also sure that Priam or Shion would have let him know somehow if they knew this was the case. "He's even here to murder Priam, too! So why…?!"

The trio first stood in a discomforting quietness, reeling. They looked like they couldn't believe or process that Priam was really there, kneeling before them. Kirin was gagging, asking Akassius quiet questions in whispers for guidance in what to do or think. Akassius himself seemed unsure, slumping his shoulders like he felt powerless about something. Kirin shouted something at him, making gestures with their hand like they wanted to activate Excalibur and rip everything in the cell to pieces, starting with Priam.

"…FINALLY HAVE HIM, Akassius! He's here, right in front of us, and he can't get away this time!" he heard Kirin shout. She covered her face, sick of the pain and the lost years. "Why can't we just do what we came here to do?! I-I want this all to be over, once and for all!"

"You know it's not that simple! Imagine the mess it would cause!" Akassius urged. Lucifer could imagine he was telling the blood knight to forget about cutting Priam top to bottom with their Excalibur in sheer rage. "We've come too far to let this slip away again, Kirin! We need to do things the clean way or none of what we worked so hard for all these years will matt-"

Malta took the first step, getting the attention of his two friends. "Stop it, everyone! Right NOW! Just stop it!... There is only one way to end this, once and for all!" He then approached the bound man, raising his hands like he was about to cast Cosmos. "Priam… I…I am sorry. All of us are. Please believe that we always, always loved you! Please, from the bottom of my heart,…-"

"Mm, Freezing Coffin it is. I don't understand at all what's happening in their heads anymore, but maybe they consider this mercy." Lucifer concluded, bracing himself for the moment Priam's weak cosmos would be forever whisked from this Earth. He saw Malta approach Priam. "Fare well, Priam. Maybe in my next life, I will encounter your sorry, frozen corps-"

Malta 'Odysseus', the former Gold Saint of Aquarius, who had fought an entire war and planned whole battles against Sagittarius Priam and his traitors, who had battled and sacrificed every inch of his soul to punish the one who betrayed the Pope, wrapped his arms around the bound man in embrace, sobbing. "-…Forgive me!"

Lucifer widened his eyes. "What?!"

"F-Forgive me, Priam, please!" Malta cried out. Kirin's hand rested on his shoulder and the Aquarius held Priam even tighter "You were right all along!"

He saw Kirin, the merciless swordsman, follow suit, embracing the Aquarius and Sagittarius with a soft-pitched weep. "P-Priam, I am so sorry! I'm sorry we hurt you and your family!"

Then Akassius, the ruthless general, the man who fought so many duels to the death against the bound man, joined the embrace as well, looking the most distraught of all. "Forgive me too, Priam. I was wrong, all these years! But not anymore! For everything I've ever done to you… For every betrayal, I swear, from now on, things will be different!... We will save you, Priam!"

They all wrapped the bound man tightly in their arms like they encountered a friend that had been lost for decades, someone they turned away to the wastes only to discover how much they loved him after all. It was an impossible sight that would have cracked the minds of everyone in Sanctuary who had lived through the Civil War, something everyone in the land of Athena would reject even thinking about. But it was a sight that Lucifer was now privileged to, and would likely carry to hell, incapable of voicing it.

They were here to save him?!

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

Chapter End

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 101 – Third Arc – Episode 26 – The Triumph – Part 3

Release Date: November 25th

Description: Lance and Suisho meet and interrogate the source on Atlae at Rodario and discover the connection between the Muvian and the Mariners. Meanwhile, Leon is confronted by an old friend with an irresistible proposal to assassinate a God.