Notable OCs up until now that I own: Pegasus Lance; Andromeda Shinta; Heracles Aguilon's Silver Saint Generation; Taurus Daniel's Gold Saint Generation; Daemon Lucifer;

Notable Original concept (until now): Pegasus Temple; Sanctuary Town; MMC; Sanctuary Forts and Outposts; Sanctuary Court & Nobility;

Recurrent/Cameo OCs belonging to Jenny DeVic: Cassiopeia Cassandra; Behemoth Torak (Toruk); Mrs. Schafurwatt;

Recurrent/Cameo concepts belonging to Jenny DeVic: 88 Knights Festival; Golden Line Heritage; The Great Bodyguard legend; The Sanctuary-sponsored orphanages; Andromeda Island's geography and tests; Golden Line Nobility.

Please enjoy and review.

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"I have spent all my life in Rozan and I have had no other master than Dohko. Yet, I feel that, even after his death, there is still much in this mountain that is unknown to me. Up until a few months ago I was unaware, for example, that it harbored the seal created by Virgo Asmita which prevented the full resurrection of Hades' one hundred and eight stars. It is not impossible that there are libraries of occult knowledge still hidden for me to find.

I feel overwhelmed by that as I take the role of Dohko in the mount. It feels like a great responsibility to uncover all those secrets has fallen upon me. Master, if you were still here, what would you have advised me to do? I imagine that you would mock my incessant need to take on more obligations than I should; that I should relax and accept the fact that a single man cannot bear as much weight as he would want in his life, for good or bad, and that I should probably move on from this old place filled with dust and memories.

You used to say that a lot to me, even when I had not yet my armor. Have you told that to many others? I know you did to Ohko, who was always so much in desperate need of approval from others. It has always been your answer to the anxieties of your pupils.

I look at the lake. I know it stares back. I know Seiryu is there, waiting for me to make a move; waiting me to grow up and move on, just like you always said, and take the mantle he has ready for me. Will I turn my back and care for the ones I love or embrace my destiny as the new Master and fight on the holy combats? It's all a matter of what is more important to me.

And as Shunrei shows me the baby once more with the happiest smile I've seen in her since your death, what is more important becomes exceedingly clear."

-Shiryu's thoughts upon returning to Rozan after Dohko's death, dated February 1992

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The rejuvenated Libra Dohko, now equipped with full undergarments from within the Libra Gold Cloth Box to hide his shame, put his hands on hips, stared down on all around him and let the wind hit his youthful skin for the first time in almost a decade. The feeling of his restored muscles, renewed heartbeat, recovered blood flow and a head full of hair announced a new era of enjoyment of life and freedom for the old master, who now rejoiced in the sight of his latest student's flabbergasted expression.

Ah, it had truly been a while. The last time he had the opportunity to go all out was during the Civil War a decade before, when Gold Saints from both sides of the conflict tried to get him on their side and, when flatly refused, believed to be most wise to get rid of the Tiger of Rozan lest he turn his fangs against them. He had made sure they would keep Misopheta Menos a secret, at the cost of some of their health and pant dryness of course. He would never forget the amazing look of shock on Daniel's face when the decrepit old man under the waterfall who insisted on remaining neutral promptly handed them the cocky young butts of their best trained Gold Ranks.

He grasped his tightened muscles with a smile of satisfaction, finding that the technique, just like Athena promised, had not cost him any of his conserved build. He was, however, anxious to jump around all over Rozan, hit the nearby bars, fighting clubs and gangster hideouts and, above all, his stomach roared so much he swore he could eat a horse.

First of all, a deep breath so as to feel all that air revitalizing his lungs. As he inhaled deeply, he scratched his arm, feeling irritation all over it. His brown eyes shot wide open, his face went pale and the Master grasped his chest as intense pain exploded around his heart. Lance awoke from his suspended state of shock as he saw his Master vomit something red and leaning down on his hands.

"Master!" he rushed to Dohko's side and helped him up. "What's wrong?"

Dohko shoved him off politely. "N-nothing! Just…a s-simple heart attack! I can handle it!" The Libra Gold Saint practically coughed his lungs out and banged his chest with his fist. Like hell he'd look weak in his moment of triumph. "I-I'll be fine…! I-I guess I'm not g-gonna be able to go all out right away just yet!"

"All out?! You look like a vampire on a hangover! You need to go to the hospital!"

Dohko thought of the nurses. "Right, the hospital!" He then thought of Shion finding out about this, so he wiped the blood off and crossed his trembling arms. "Wait, no, I said its fine! My heart regaining its normal pumping all of a sudden caused a little stroke, that's all!"

Lance glared at his Master suspiciously. "Alright… I guess this is something I'll have to get used to… So all this time, you could have just popped open and match my age?"

"Yes." Dohko then started counting with his fingers. "Well, considering the amount of times I've popped back and forth over the last two hundred years… I'd say I should be about twenty five.

"Including all those times you complained about back pain, help you get to the top of the mountain, sat on me as a weight for pushups and told me to go on errands?"

"Of course, but don't tell Shion, though. He doesn't have to know about any of this, understood?"

Honestly wondering how he wasn't getting angrier at finding out about Master's hundredth and greatest trick, Lance simply sighed. "Understood, Master. May I ask why?"

"No."

"I assume then this has nothing to do with the fact that you don't pay so many wine taxes to Sanctuary on the account of being 'elderly'."

Dohko squinted. "…You're a cheeky little student, aren't you? Do me a favor, Lance, and attack me with all your might."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Dohko jumped around and waved his arms, as if exercising. "I feel groggy. It will obviously take a few days for my body to recover its full power. I need something to get it alert, to warm me up if you will." He then relaxed his stance, dragging a foot forward, raising hands at chest height and tensing his fingers into feline claw shapes. He then gestured a tease. "Go ahead; use your most destructive attack." Fire raged from the floor at Lance's feet upwards, dancing around in a bonfire that encased him. Dohko smiled at the challenge. "Come on, can you only burn that little cosmos?!"

The sound and heat of the flames intensified. Lance kept his cool, having already learned to focus his anger internally thanks to Dohko's teachings. He even noticed how his fire cosmos seemed brighter as a result of that. He waved his arms around, causing a dark background of stars form the intimidating constellation of a Pegasus.

Dohko laughed hysterically. It seemed the Master was not done with the taunting.

"Oh my God, the old hand waving trick. I've actually forgotten about that one! Tenma used to do that all the time! It's a common rookie trick to help gather your cosmos properly. Oh, Lance, don't you know? Only dumbasses shape their constellations with their hands! It's a waste of time for anyone skilled with cosmos! Unless, of course," Dohko gasped and covered his mouth dramatically "Oh, no, don't tell me… you're a dumbass, too! OH, NO!"

Lance jumped in the air as the flames focused into an orb around his fist. "FLAME ATTACK!" The fire blast shot furiously as a torrent of burning orange at the Master.

Dohko closed his eyes and calmed his breathing. He completely lowered his guard and let the attack come at him. When it was about to swallow him whole, the Master unleashed a 'kiai' battle cry to help unleash his energy as his palm suddenly thrust in a tiger claw, bursting the fire blast and stopping it in its tracks. The bonfire raged furiously against the palm, as if stopped by an invisible brick wall. Dohko's hair waved with its anger and the Cancer Saint watched in awe at his own attack twirling itself into a blazing orb of fire trying to burn the Master.

Dohko clicked his tongue. "Is this all?" He then casually jumped over the ball and heel kicked its side, shooting the small sun over the waterfall and against a far off mountain, blasting its rocky surface in a far off explosion. He turned to his once again overwhelmed student. "Wow, you really have a lot to learn."

"W-what? I…H-how did you do that?!"

Dohko scoffed. "Well, it's easy when you're as good as me!"

Lance waved his hands. "Master, please, no…bullshit! No more theater; I've run over Celestial Stars with that attack! How did you seriously do that?"

Dohko folded his arms and smiled cockily. "Oh, is that admiration I sense in you? It's about time. I knew you'd eventually recognize how incredible my skills are. Well, Lance, I am a Master, you know?" He got distracted by his own gloating, scratching his nose nonchalantly. "But even a super genius like myself started as a rookie. It doesn't take merely knowledge over the inner workings of the cosmos to learn how to pull off the amazing feats I do. In my time I, too, had too-"

An aggressive kick to his head was easily dodged by the Master with a head bob, who then caught the leg, threw the yelping student over his head and smashed him against the floor.

"LIKE I WAS SAYING, even I had to shut up and listen to my Master when I was young. The ideals of humility, servitude, recognition of one's failure and loyalty are essential-"

"Oh, god, he's not gonna shut up!" thought the floored Cancer as he tried to get up his own kicked ass. He ignored the Master's rambling and gathered his thoughts. Dohko reacted really fast. Further curiosity burned inside the student and he prepared himself for another attack.

"-mastering one's reaction regardless of the situation. Most students who've only been learning for a couple of months, like yourself, would not endeavor in such a path, but I'm confident that with such an obscenely talented, and handsome, Master such as I, even a loser like yourself can become a proper warrior and learn a Rozan Martial Art."

Lance coughed, patted himself clean from the dirt and looked up at the master hopefully. "You'll actually teach me fighting moves?"

Dohko nodded. "I suppose I could share my awesomeness with you…"

The Cancer Saint narrowed eyes, suspicious that his Master would hand him over an actual lesson so easily. He then noticed Dohko seemed to be relaxing once more into that Tiger stance of his and once again smirking confidently. "So that's how it is." he thought to himself, realizing his Master wanted action from his part. He calmly harnessed his energy, taking all teachings so far into account. He tried to keep in mind the limited space of that stone bridge they stood on, took a deep breath and braced himself for whatever counter attack his Master had planned.

When he was finally ready, he blitzed straight at Dohko with a flurry of blows.

The first couple were blocked with a cross guard, but the third seemed to be swiped away by the Master's hand in a gesture most similar to a feline paw slash. Cancer maintained the assault, limiting his attacks to an array of punches for a while that succeeded in pushing Dohko back. The Master wasn't concerned, and even let himself reach the edge of the bridge before making his move.

Lance felt a palm blow suddenly catching his punch before a tiger swipe diverted the other fist, opening his guard. A lightning kick hit him straight in the chest before laser like punctures struck his chest. Lance gasped and stepped back just in time to block a side kick with both arms but leaving his face open to a punch Dohko quickly executed. He tried to counter, but Dohko's intense offense allowed him to completely push the student back.

"Your skirmish is weak!" he criticized, prompting his student to attempt a desperate side blow that was easily blocked. His tense fingers struck Lances chest viciously as punishment. The promoted Gold Saint could barely put up a guard; much less reverse the tide of what was turning into a one-sided onslaught of tiger strikes. "I'm barely pushing myself here; you have to do better than this!"

Lance gritted his teeth frustratingly and allowed himself to be struck by Dohko's attack. The intense pain of the nail-like impacts was a small price to pay for catching Dohko's fist. The Master was quickly able to twist himself free, spin kick his student straight in the nose and execute a perfect twirl jump over him to his back.

Lance adapted quickly this time and took things up a notch. "CHARGE FIST!"

Dohko widened eyes at the sudden burst in speed from his student who forced him on the defensive for an instant with the powerful, accelerate punch which made the air shake around them. His effective cross guard took the hit, reducing the impact significantly, but still putting a smile on the Master's face after starting to see what his student was made of. Dohko lowered his stance and counterstruck, once again pushing back the youth with his super fast swipe blows.

The student was patient and grudgingly endured the blows as defensively as he could, all the while trying to figure out the angle to Dohko's attacks. Every time he adjusted his guard, however, Dohko seemed to find another glaring hole in his defenses which the Master quickly punished with his feline-like blows and devastating kicks. He studied the pace of the Master's furious attacks

All the meanwhile, Dohko teased him, wanting to see his student surprise him once more. "Are you playing turtle?! Come on, force me to do what you want! Don't wait for your opponent to screw up; create his mistakes in him."

The student took the lesson to heart and practically tucked his guard against his chest while foot working Dohko so as to prevent the Master from adjusting distances, forcing Dohko's arms to stretch punches so as to not sacrifice his pace. His idea worked and he soon spotted the attacks more easily. Meanwhile, his bruises piled up. He realized the Master was aiming more intensely at his chest and shoulders, the spots which protection the youth was used to leave to the Pegasus Armor. The pain in his muscles and joints started limiting his movements.

Dohko noticed with enthusiasm that Lance was correctly adjusting his foot work and decided to feint him a payoff by falling into the student's game. He kept up the tiger-Style blows until Lance was finally able to deduce his timing.

The red-eyed suddenly caught Dohko's wrist and countered. "CHARGE FIST!" The powerful blow struck Dohko, but was, much to his shock, also caught, locking them in a power stance.

Dohko laughed. "So that's your main move, Charge Fist? HA, HA! Powerful, but risky! I like it!" He saw the student quiver in pain, barely able to keep the contest of grip and strength. He threw both arms upwards, leapt and delivered a series of kick blows that brutalized the student's upper body. After landing he lowered his stance further and pounced.

Lance stumbled backwards after his guard was struck by another kick. He started seeing double. Dohko wasn't even using any offensive cosmos and still the Pegasus felt like about to fall apart. He once again adjusted his foot work and braced himself tightly for the tiger blocks.

Dohko, however, tensed his fingers into a fist that struck his tight defense with a single, straight, heavy blow impact that made his whole skeleton shake, blasting his guard wide open. The Master seemed to assume a more serious look and stance, almost as if switching persona, and prepared himself to deliver a finisher.

Unwilling to resign himself to such a harsh defeat, the student tried to put up a defense and took advantage of Dohko's sudden switch of style. "P-PEGASUS CHARGE FIST!" He stepped forward in an instant into Dohko's area of defense, causing the illusion of a Pegasus clopping forward to overlap him, and struck Dohko's straight in the face with his signature attack, making his head arch backwards.

The Master stumbled for the first time and stepped back, grasping his reddened nose like he had no idea what just hit him. He stared at the blood collected by his hand and something changed in him. The tired, hurt student saw the master's eyes tighten their pupils and turn gold. When Dohko finally turn his focus from his injury to the student, Lance had the feeling he had a beast in front of him.

His preemptive attack then failed completely, easily swiped by Dohko. The Master's punch was a different story when it blasted his face, and so was his heel kick, his spinning elbow blow, his head-butt and his side swipe, all which completely ignored Lance's pitiful attempts at blocks and dodges and pushed him almost to the edge of the sparring bridge.

And with the waterfall overlooking the both of them, the seemingly possessed Master tensed fingers into claws, pushed aside Lance's guard and descended his paw on his prey's neck in a killing blow. There was as sudden gasp, a spray of red and the sound of a tall body collapsing on the ground.

Moments passed in which Dohko calmly stared down on his 'enemy', barely breathing. He eventually came to his senses, though, blinking repeatedly until his eyes lost their tiger glare and realizing where he was. He saw the blood on his finger tips and the pool accumulating by his unconscious student's body.

"…Uh-oh…."

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Chapter 16

First Arc

Episode 12

Ascending Dragon

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(?)

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Cancer Lance sat on the floor, smiling at the discovery he had just made. Before him laid a bunch of fallen corpses from his most recent battle; many of them still fresh. He took his finger up in the air and called upon the Meikai Ha, unleashing a wave of ghastly telekinetic power which caused all the souls around him to pop up into sight in the form of will-o-wisps, one for each fallen warrior.

A winged horse arrived next to him and asked him what he was doing.

Lance smirked like a child showing off a skill. "Oh, Pegasus, it's you. I was just gathering the souls of the dead. It's something Karkinos taught me."

The winged horse asked why.

"Oh… for no special reason, I was just practicing." He explained as he made the many spirits dance around like marionettes. "I've become a Gold Saint, you know, I have to learn these things."

Pegasus shook his head. Maybe there were things Lance should be doing with the Meikai Ha asides from that. He complained that the spirit dance looked scary and that maybe Lance shouldn't be doing it.

"What, why not?" protested the Saint. "They're dead! It's not like they'd complain."

Pegasus wasn't so sure and asked Lance if he could do other things with the Meikai Ha.

"Well, I… I'm not really savvy of this. Karkinos said I could use this to defeat my foes. I suppose it could be useful for combat, especially if I can just rip the souls out of anyone who stands against me." He gathered the spirits into one focused point, causing them to form a tennis-ball sized fire in his palm. "When I gather them like this I can form spirit fire. Isn't this useful?"

Pegasus asked for what.

"For what?! I…I don't know, light, warmth, and combat? Pegasus, what kind of dumbass question is that of 'what fire is good for'?"

Pegasus then casually remarked that Lance could very easily form fire of his own, one much stronger and brighter than the one he was burning by disturbing and tormenting poor souls like he was doing.

"Tormenting? Don't be ridiculous! I'm not-" Lance then happened to notice something in the blue spirit fire he was handling. He squinted at it closely so as to examine it. His face went pale when he spotted the many tiny skulls of spiritual matter screaming in agony, packed together in a frenzy of sorrow and pain. He screamed and dropped the fire, which fell on the ground harmlessly. "AHH! WHAT…WHAT WAS THAT?!"

The small ball of fire changed from its pale blue to a bright orange. It flared up in the air furiously, unleashing the screams of agony of the skulls in an opera of pain. Lance crawled away in terror. "What are you?! What's going on?!"

The screams united into a single screech, one he was all too familiar with, as the fire expanded upwards and split two ways into wings. A beaked head popped out, causing the crying flames to take the shape of a bird glaring down on him with eyes of red light.

Pegasus stepped protectively in front of him and said he'd do his best to stop the creature, but that Lance should run.

A final screech of terror was heard before the bird exploded into a bonfire that consumed horse and Saint.

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Dohko heard his student gasp and rushed to his side. He had taken him inside and patched him up following Dohko's accidental throat piercing blow and spent the ensuing hours making sure the Cancer Saint didn't bleed or choke to death. Though the Master managed to save his life, Lance still spent most of the day unconscious and convulsing in his sleep.

He held the youth's chest and patted his back to help him cough is pain out. "Hey, there, take it easy. You're still in a recovering phase." he warned. He saw Lance's agitated and sweaty state. "Bad dream, huh?"

The confused Lance, not recollecting how he ended up on that bed, massaged his neck and felt bandages wrapped around it as well as the distinct impression of round marks beneath them. The memory of a tiger leaping at his trachea sparked back to him, startling the Saint and reminding him of his Master's slip up.

"Master?...I…What happened?" he rubbed his forehead and recalled his nightmare. "Yeah, it was just a dream."

The reassurance did little to calm Dohko's concerns. "He kept saying 'fire' in his sleep. This isn't the first time I've overheard him dreaming about flames…" He glanced at the Pegasus Cloth, who always seemed to be around, staring at its Master intently in each of those night terrors. "He may not realize it, but that Bronze Armor seems to be protecting him in more ways than the physical one." His wise eyes diverted. "Sorry for …you know, almost tearing your windpipe out… Shion doesn't have to know about this either, okay?"

Lance looked around and found himself back in the house, with a concerned Dohko watching his every gesture and his Bronze and Gold Cloths standing nearby in rest forms. Pegasus, in particular, seemed to eye him very intensely while the Libra Gold armor rested by the Master's table. His 7th sense detected the Libra's Cloth energy still burning; had it assisted Dohko in his healing?

His red eyes glanced at Dohko with a whole new sense of danger as the sensations of their battle returned to him. The man standing in front of him in that room had just nearly killed him with a blow so casual that the Master wasn't even immediately aware of having made it. The fact that all he could remember was the image of the feline attacking him also unnerved the inexperienced Gold Rank, who would from then on think twice before treating his Master with any sort of hostility.

Used as he was to the harmless image of the frail old man by the lake, the ferocity of the rejuvenated Dohko took him completely by surprise. For the first time he truly realized what kind of warrior he had for a teacher.

Noticing once more the bandages on his neck and the concern in Dohko's eyes, he also realized he had experienced the first true gesture of unrequited kindness from a Master's part ever since he joined Sanctuary. He found himself smiling.

Dohko raised a brow. "…You're unusually happy for a choke victim."

Lance got up from the bed, feeling fine. "I just… realized something." He breathed out, having difficulty talking. He coughed once more and wondered how extensive the damage to his respiratory system was. "That was a really devastating move. I can't believe how easily you got me. I really could still learn a lot. You are strong, Master… Stronger than anyone I've ever seen…"

Seeing the reserved, stubborn student admit something so flattering brought a smile to the teacher, whose fears of having mortally wounded Lance subsided. Had Dohko genuinely amazed his student? "Well, I won't make you go outside again after seeing you clearly can't keep up with me" he obnoxiously remarked. "So I thought we could use some of this down time to talk about your less-… What's wrong, Lance?"

The Cancer Saint looked away and wiped his watery eyes. He tried not to think about how overwhelmed he felt. "G-god damn it, get a hold of yourself!" he demanded, trying to hide how moved he was. Was he really so disturbed by what Kastiel did to him that all it took was the minimum gesture of good will for his emotional walls to break down?

God, how pathetic he was! Either Shinta was rubbing off on him or Kastiel was right and he really was just a whinny little kid wanting attention.

Finally done processing all that pent up emotion, he was able to control himself and get back on track. "I'm fine, Master. You were saying?"

The Master dragged a chair close to him and sat. There was still none of that excited smile Dohko would often see in Tenma's face, but he could detect the obviously lowered guard in his student's aura, telling him he had accidentally made a breakthrough with the Pegasus Saint. Was getting Lance to completely admiring him as a Master really as easy as showing off his own strength?

He thought about the background of his two students, comparing them to each other. Dohko had saved Tenma's life from a Specter attack in Italy and took him in as a student after Suikyo joined Hades' side as the new Garuda Judge, going on to guide the Asian kid for much of his training in cosmos and the Holy War. It was easy for Dohko to get Tenma to take him seriously because, to all effects, he was Tenma's big hero.

With Lance Dohko did not have that advantage, but the Master had also gotten the student to admit once that he started respecting that Andromeda Saint partner after said partner showed off his full power in Andromeda Island. It dawned upon Dohko that maybe it wouldn't be wisdom alone that would get to his current student. If so, his decision to reveal his true form would prove wiser than he had judged.

"Thanks Athena you're alright. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to break out my youth so soon. Like I was saying, I wanted to resume our lessons, but… I've hit indecision."

Lance tried to figure out his Master's intentions. "You were talking earlier about… Rozan Martial Arts or something; you were saying I was ready for them, right? You don't think so anymore?"

"It's not that." The Master waved his hand and burned his cosmos, creating the illusion of a battle between two Saints in his hand. "For now, I wanted to take the chance you're down for the count to talk a bit about your capabilities and what the next step in your training is gonna be. I was thinking about teaching you how to fight."

"Master, I think it goes without saying I already know how-"

"No, you don't!" Dohko interrupted, his narrowed eyes leaving little room for goofiness. "You have no idea how to fight! In fact, few people in Sanctuary do." Dohko made the two Saints in his hand duke it out, more specifically by throwing techniques at each other. "What people in Sanctuary do know is how to battle and I would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the military that can do anything other than throw lame punches, careless kicks and weak spear jabs asides from the usual back and forth of techniques. It's a pity, but few Cloths and Masters still hold the tradition of teaching their students advanced fighting techniques and who could blame them; why practice complex combat maneuvers when you can just overwhelm your opponent with super speed and power moves?"

Dohko then swiped away the illusion and closed in on his student with a sly smile. "Then there are delinquents like you who like when it gets rough and personal. Of course you retain some fighting lessons from all those brawls, but it's all unrefined and inadequate. You could do a lot better than those technique spammers who call themselves warriors." He mocked.

"Hey, I fight!" Lance protested. "My techniques don't always work, so sometimes I support them with close combat-"

"I would say; if your main technique, this Charge Fist, is anything to go by, you create time lapses all over your fighting in which you are recovering and repositioning from your own attacks. I like your risky style, but not when used carelessly." Dohko envisioned how much he could improve his student. If Lance were to learn a proper martial art to compliment his style techniques, he could potentially overcome any foe by shielding his weaknesses with impenetrable blocks and counters. "Yes, this is very interesting…"

Lance frowned at the way Dohko seemed to be staring at him like some potential science project. "…Master?"

Dohko bit his lip and finger-framed his student. A smile of an excited teacher denounced his intentions of wanting to see Lance perfect himself as a warrior; a tribute to his own genius. "Yes, I can see it already. The Dragon Style is perfect for you!"

"Dragon Style?" Lance then recalled the way Dohko reminded him of a feline before. "Is it like the Martial Art you used against me earlier?!" Lance suddenly tightened his fist. "Master, that was amazing; I could barely do anything against you! Please teach me about it! How many styles are there? How long will it take for me to master one?"

"Calm down, it won't be that easy." Dohko saw his student relentless in his stare. Lance would clearly not let it up. "Boy, you are in need of this. Did it really impress you that much?"

The red-eyed youth calmed down. He was not one to get excited about much, but he had his reasons to grow stronger. "You said I could grow a lot by learning one, right? I get that feeling myself, too, and I promised myself I would grow stronger both on the inside and the outside." He sat on the bamboo floor respectfully. "It isn't about power, Master. I'm just… tired of not being able to change things around me. When I was fighting Heracles the feeling of helplessness I got was horrible; I thought I would lose the Silver Cloth and be stuck as a Bronze Saint pushed around by the Pope for the rest of my life. Not only that… but I've lost much due to being weak in the meantime, too."

"…Power can't bring back anything that you've lost. You know that, don't you?"

"I do, but I also know it can help me preserve what I have left." argued Lance.

Dohko's eyes averted. "Technically speaking… there are four different styles. Unfortunately, the Rozan Turtle Style is a lost art. There are no longer any living Masters of it. The Rozan Bird Style is forbidden-"

"What? Forbidden?! Why?"

"It was considered… disgraceful." Dohko left it at that and moved on to the remaining two. "I have trained extensively in Dragon and completely mastered the Tiger Style. I don't think the Tiger Style is suited for you, though."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think it compliments your techniques well. Its focus on aggressive action would give you little of the position you usually require for your favorite techniques. We'll talk about it more when you are ready to train." Dohko put away the medical supplies and started heading off. "I'll go see if I can get us something to eat. Maybe Ma Chao caught some fish."

Lance saw Dohko step away. He got the urge to ask him something important. "Wait, Master!" His red eyes glanced at Pegasus, who still eyed him intensely as if he had truly been part of the crazy nightmare he just had. "You understand cosmos pretty well."

"Yes, I would say so. I am a Master."

"…Can it affect dreams as well?"

Dohko halted his departure and eyed his concerned pupil, wondering what his question was about. Certainly, whatever nightmare he was having had some true significance to Lance. "Of course, dreams are affected by external stimulus. Sleeping by a cool fan might make you dream of being on Everest, so why wouldn't your 7th sense do the same?"

Lance held his tongue nervously, as if about to unleash an embarrassing secret. "I know fighting. I also know how to perform missions well. However, even though I know how to cultivate its strength, I never understood much about cosmos and what it can truly do. It took me…longer than I thought to awaken it. Some people told me it was because I started working on it when I was too old, but I don't think it's just that. The point is… there's a lot about Cloths, Cosmos and Sanctuary that I just don't understand."

Dohko folded his arms. "I can teach you what you want. You know you can just ask, right?"

"After Pegasus took me in as a Saint of Bronze…" The student kept hesitating in his speech.

Dohko saw easily he was trying to hide something."…Yes?"

"Master, what I wanted to ask was if Cloths protect you from nightmares."

Dohko rubbed his chin, intrigued. It started making new sense why the Pegasus Cloth watched over its sleeping owner so intensely over the course of the hours while Karkinos couldn't be bothered. "Cloths have been known to protect their owners in more than just the physical way. If you've been having nightmares… it is common for troubled Saints. Your uncertainties and fears often project themselves in your cosmos, just like all your other emotions and thoughts."

"I see. So it's not like something has been attacking me, right?"

Dohko covered his mouth, slightly horrified by the notion. "…Attacking you? No, of course not! What a dreadful thing to consider. The idea of something consistently attacking you in your dreams is… well, not impossible, but very unlikely nonetheless and horrible to be thinking about. Besides, you have nothing to fear, not in Rozan."

"Why not? You just said it was-"

"Because Seiryu watches over us; this is his land. He wouldn't let some lowly curse or ghoul in his domain. Not a chance!" Dohko assured, certain that the Dragon God would never let something foul like that slip his watch.

While the Master was visibly rock solid in his reassurances, the student wasn't so sure. As he started remembering more and more of the nightmare he just had, he realized it was not the first time he's had similar sleep terrors. Arcadia sprouted very quickly to mind, where amidst the flames of Bennu Yakos he dreamt of hateful fire, but also the most dreadful experience of his life; Death Queen Island.

He tightened his fingers intensely. Up until that day, he knew not why his nightmares were of fire rather than his sworn fear of cold. It was ironic that what haunted his dreams was not only his own power but the best counter to his cryophobia. He hid his suspicions and thoughts of fear from his Master, not ready to fully talk to him about them.

Yet, something else Dohko said sparked his attention. Did Seiryu really look out for those walking in his realm from such darkness? Was the terrifying Dragon God he encountered on the bottom of the water fallen lake truly an enemy of the fire that haunted his dreams? Though the notion of meeting that monstrous creature in the midst of all that liquid cold once again was one he'd usually back off from, the Saint of Cancer wondered if perhaps there was more he could take out from Mount Rozan than just the teachings of a wise warrior.

{======================|0|======================}

A few days later…

{======================|0|======================}

The panting student finally joined the teacher at Dragon Bridge after hours of climbing, where once his throat had almost been separated from his neck by the teacher's deadly tiger blow. His hands fell on his knees and he breathed heavily in exhaustion. Tied to his wrists and ankles were dense training weights the size of basketballs which made every step and rock climbing of the way ten times harder.

"M-Master, can I take these off, now?" he begged. Usually it was a walk in the park to get to Dragon Bridge, even without cosmos, but he had fallen multiple times due to the new weights unbalancing him, greatly delaying his efforts. He struggled to stay up despite the lead-like weight of his new accessories. "I'm not going to be able to spar with you if I can't throw punches and kicks with these things. A-at least let me use cosmos!"

"No, this is part of your new training regimen." Dohko mercilessly denied, his folded arms accentuating the uncaring look he gave. "If you're going to learn the Dragon Style, you need better upper body and leg strength. Trust me; you're gonna be jumping, side stepping and uppercutting a lot, so you might as well have the muscles to make it actually effective! So, are you ready to learn some martial arts?"

"Master, I've been ready since I first got to China! You've just preferred to be an old man and do character tests instead."

"Well, that's because Rozan Martial Arts are dangerous and should be respected."

"Alright, Master, can we just get on with it?" Lance was in no mood for the Master's usual theater. "So… what do I do? How do I start? Why is Dragon so ideal for me?"

"Ah, the good stuff! Let's start the lessons!" Dohko cleared his throat. "The Dragon Style Martial Art is one of four combat styles developed in the Age of Myth by the first Libra Saint, Libra Laozi, in conjunction with the four Taoist Gods he served. Their purpose was to teach the Saints how to fight hand-to-hand 'en masse'. It wasn't practical, however, because, like I said before, Saints prefer a more streamlined version of combat focused on their speed and techniques while foot soldiers are not usually skilled enough to employ one effectively."

Lance nodded. "Okay, so why are you teaching me it? Isn't it just better for you to teach me a technique?"

"Usually, it would take a high mastery of a Rozan Martial Art to make it worth more than streamlined combat, much like he who brings fists to a sword fight. Due to the brilliance of my teaching," Dohko resumed, ignoring Lance's interruption "I believe that you, thanks to your self-developed style of techniques, will be able to reap more benefits with less mastery due to how the Dragon Style functions. Tell me something, Lance, what kind of fighting do you think would best go with your techniques?"

Lance sat down so as to not wear himself too much with the weights and thought hard. "I would say… something that would keep me alive between my techniques. My Charge Fist, after it hits, puts me in very close range to my opponent which could be dangerous. If it misses I'll be even more vulnerable. Flame Attack uses a lot of cosmos, so I need to find a way to cause more damage with less cosmos in my physical blows so I can save it for the fire. Dealing with concentrated attacks could also be useful since my Barrier is only effective against unfocused ones. Also, my Blade could also be more deadly if I learned how to use it better in close combat."

"Good deduction; the mark of a sharp man is the comprehension of his own weaknesses. The Dragon Style is perfect for all those flaws; it focuses on effective defense and devastating singular blows. If you can learn how to execute medium level Dragon Style fighting, you should be able to perform far more effective blocks, evade in manners that set up your counters rather than compromise your position, attack in forms that make more use of offensive skill than cosmos and be generally more effective in close combat."

The student gasped. "Really?! It is that perfect?!"

"For your technique style, oh yes! Why do you think these styles were developed for Saints? They were meant to compliment technique warfare."

Lance let out a rare chuckle of excitement and disbelief. "Gods, that's amazing! I could really become a much more powerful fighter! Wow… I can't wait to learn it!"

"Don't be so excited! It's not an easy style to learn. There's a reason why streamlined fighting took over martial arts in Saint Warfare." Dohko then smiled in excitement. "I'm glad you like it, though. You'll be my first student I'll pass down my Martial Arts to."

"I am? What about Tenma?"

Dohko sighed and rolled his eyes. "I wanted to teach Tenma the Tiger Style, which is focused on rapid fire strikes, wearing down your opponent and then pinpointing his openings. It would be perfect for him to enhance that lame Ryu Sei Ken of his. But NO! He thought it was difficult and dangerous! He kept saying I was an unreasonable teacher with disproportionate expectations. It's not my fault he was lazy! I swear-"

As Dohko went on into his rant about Tenma's supposed laziness and his own unavenged frustrations to quench his magnificent teaching on a troubled young Pegasus from the 18th Century, the Pegasus Saint of the 20th raised his eye brow. From the little he learned of Japanese from Shinta casually teaching him the words the green-head knew, the red-eyed youth could swear Ryu Sei Ken translated into something like Meteor Fist, which was the name of the technique employed by Bellerophon and Herakles Aguilon.

And this was something he had not given a lot of thought up until that moment. Why did Aguilon have Bellerophon's move?

Discarding it all as coincidences, Lance instead focused on rhetoric. "Sounds like Tenma had you nailed."

Not wanting to accidentally tear off Lance's neck again, Dohko pretended he didn't hear. "…As I was saying earlier, Dragon Style focuses on dramatically increasing the effectiveness of your defense and singular blows. You'll need therefore to increase your physical strength to a more appropriate level so you can absorb more damage in your blocks and dish out more in your heavy strikes." He looked over his student's frame. "We'll spend today exercising and conducting light spars. We'll leave the muscle building to the former and focus on teaching you moves in the latter."

"Alright, I understand, Master Dohko." Lance hummed in reflection and recalled something important. "But going back to actual techniques, Master; is there any technique integrated in the Dragon Style that you'll be teaching me?"

The Master nodded hesitantly. "Yes, but… I'm not sure you should be learning them. Your element is fire, so…Usually; Saints are capable of unlocking a second element with enough specialized training. Tell me something, have you ever in your life got the feeling you could do with water what you do with fire?"

At first the student raised a brow, but recalling his experiences with cosmos, he was forced to shake his head. "I don't think so Master. If I have a second element left to unlock, it will probably be 'Darkness'."

Dohko went pale and widened his eyes. "What?! What makes you say that?!"

Once again, this related to his mission to Death Queen Island, a part of his life he wasn't comfortable talking about. "I was once in a very dangerous battle and, after almost dying, I was able to tap into a black cosmos that was very much like a dense fog. It was only for a short while, though."

Dohko sighed in relief. For a moment he thought that the nightmares Lance had were getting to his head. Even so, this presented a problem. He turned to the waterfall running by the natural bridge they stood on and gathered his cosmos.

Lance saw Dohko's golden aura burst up. A tiger tattoo that the student hadn't noticed before also appeared on the Master's naked back. Eventually the burning gold turned into a watery green, Dohko shouted and uppercut the descending water. "Rozan Shoryuha!"

There was a burst of water that showered the both of them upon impact and the roaring crash of the cascade silenced itself to give place to a searing rush upwards of liquid. The wide-eyed pupil stepped back in fright and saw the water reach the height of the stream above it came from, go beyond that and reach for the skies in the shape of a screaming dragon.

The recreated creature collapsed under its own weight and crashed back into the lake as a resumed waterfall, leaving a flabbergasted and soaked Lance in its wake.

"Rozan Shoryuha, or the Rozan Ascending Dragon Force," presented the Master "is the main technique of the Dragon Style. From it, the kamikaze Koryuha, or Enraged Dragon Force can be formed." Dohko's green aura then purposely charged further. The gentle waving of it, like a calm sea, suddenly turned exploded into a raging energy of furious oscillation when driven over its edge, soaring upwards as if trying to escape Dohko and making his dark brown hair fly.

Dohko explained further. "Shoryuha is a powerful, but dangerous attack. It uses a large mass of exploding cosmos while harnessing strength from your entire body to execute a single uppercut, truly a tribute to the Dragon Style's preferences, creating a blow capable of perfectly reversing a huge waterfall. Do not let its theatrics fool you; a well-placed Shoryuha is powerful enough to knock out a Celestial Star in a single blow!" he hyped.

Lance gulped, seeing the tense muscles in Dohko's arm relax very lowly and the green energy he emitted refusing to be told what to do. "A-and Koryuha derives from it?"

"It's the same technique, only driven over the edge of its charging." Dohko stressed. "The technique has the imprint of Seiryu's rage on it - even the uppercut itself could be said to be slightly off your ability to direct - so when you call for it too strongly, the energy soars out of your control like that of the dragon itself and becomes strong enough to shoot you against a wall." He saw the look of interest in Lance's face. "Don't get any ideas. The last guy who tried this shot himself through the stratosphere."

"It has nothing to do with that, Master, I was just thinking that Shoryuha is a good technique for me, too. Charge Fist is best at medium range and Blade can't cover everything up close. I could use a powerful point blank attack like that." Lance looked at his hands and burned his cosmos until it turned flame orange. "But you said I needed the water element to make it work and I don't think I'll be able to get it. I guess I'll have to think of something else…"

Dohko's eyes darted left and right, wondering if he should share the piece of knowledge he had about it with his student. It was in his interest to see Lance complete himself as a warrior and he'd probably find out about it sooner rather than later, so why not?

"Actually, there is a work around…" Dohko then showed off the Tiger Tattoo on his back. "I was born with just Water, allowing me to learn Seiryu's techniques, but I can execute the techniques of the Tiger, such as the Grand Tiger Whirlwind, just as well. When you don't have natural access to an element, it is possible to obtain a foreign object or blessing that will allow you to do so. This Tattoo is an example of such blessing."

Realizing the severities involved in such a method, Dohko's tone got sterner as he gave more details. "If you wish to obtain a blessing from Seiryu, I can help you with that, too. Arranging an encounter with the drake shouldn't be too hard, but, Lance, you'll be dealing with a God, and one who takes matters of honor and pride very seriously. You realize the risks involved, don't you? He could just as well eat you on sight."

He had only seen his Master get so serious once, when they were preparing for the session with Karkinos, and as it turned out Dohko was worried that Lance would turn into some sort of insane necromancer. Though taking the warning to heart, he also realized the master wouldn't mention something so enticing and risky to a student if he didn't believe it to be possible for things to turn out for the better.

Either that or Dohko just really wanted to pass down all of his techniques to someone. It could go either way, in all honestly. "You'd be watching over things, right? You saved me from him as an old man…" Lance gulped when reminded of that episode, as the creature's massive presence, both cosmic and physical, still seemed so unreal. "I think I'll be fine with you as a young one. Besides, a blessing from a God sounds nice as a protection against darker things, don't you think?"

The Master frowned, not convinced by his student's reasoning. Truth was, he agreed with Lance's opinion that Shoryuha was a good close range technique for him, even being part of the Dragon Style that was so ideal for the offensive-reliant Saint. He wondered, though, if the student's motivation included the nightmares he occasionally had. It was not uncommon for a Saint, especially one born under Cancer, to be tormented by spirits of the past.

Dohko looked at the skies. "Spring is arriving, which means Seiryu's mood improves accordingly and so will the frequency of his visits. However" he counter argued "I don't think it's a good idea for you to meet him."

"What?! Why not?!"

Dohko folded his arms. "Seiryu is benevolent, but he does not take kindly to greed. He won't give you his sacred blessing just because you want a good move for yourself."

"Master, you can't just tell me all about this method get me excited over its possibilities and then just expect me to forget all about it! What am I supposed to-"

"In the meantime" Dohko insisted, paying no mind to Lance's protest. "I'll just train you like we arranged. Get those gonads ready, Lance! We're gonna jog around the mountains till midday and if you can't keep up with me I'll just be eating your lunch."

"Ugh! Fine. If you say so, Master!" The student rubbed his temples. He wished the Master hadn't told him about the blessing in the first place if he was just going to forbid it.

The student stood up from the ground at cost thanks to the weights he carried. Gritting teeth in determination, he'd do his best not to lose so pathetically, even if the Master would get to eat most of the rice. He's gonna need the strength to keep up with him in the afternoon in the light spars, after all.

{======================|0|======================}

Weeks passed in the mountain of Rozan, which the Master spent keeping his promise of training his student in the morning, sparring with him in the afternoon and adding whatever extra lessons he came up with at night, all in the meanwhile awaiting the Spring to arrive at its fullest for a chance to catch the wrathful Seiryu in the best mood possible. The tropical weather of Rozan was not one to be radically affected by the season of Genbu, winter, but one of the most noticeable differences was the change in the weather. It would certainly not be the arrival of the season of the God of rains that would put an end to Rozan's famous pluviosity, but little things like longer days and not-so-chilly nights were appreciated by the Master and his cryophobic student.

Just as expected, Dohko's methods to increase his pupil's physical strength and combat skill were appropriately brutal and severe. They did not limit themselves to simple jogging, heavy lifting and harmless sparring, things the Master often mocked as being kid stuff for Bronze Saint trainers. Pretty soon weightlifting of several dozens of pounds per limb became integrated into all of his daily habits. From small chain balls attached to the toothbrushes and utensils to massive dumbbells tied to his arms and legs while carrying water and food to the house, the Master made sure every repetitive task in Lance's daily life then cost at least ten times the normal physical effort.

All, of course, without the 7th sense, which Dohko still refused to let him use.

Even swimming up the rapids that lead to the waterfall became part of his habits, something which Dohko amusedly alluded to mastering the way of the salmon. The Cancer Saint would then fill up on nutritive diets of the east at midday, which started involving a lot more chicken, beef, beans and mushrooms as opposed to the usual fish and rice he had gotten used to since living under the Libra Saint's and Ma Chao's roof. This was the better part of the training and the teenager avidly consumed the tasty, exotic recipes he was quickly growing attached to now that it was his most important source of forces for the day, never having thought vegetables could taste as good as meat.

The pump up of the morning, exhausting as it was, was nothing compared to the brutality of the afternoon. Whoever spoke of Dohko as a person of great mercy had no idea what he was talking about, because the youthful sage was absolutely relentless to each and every one of Lance's pose and movement mistakes. The tiger fighting style, just like Dohko said, attacked very rapidly the smallest openings in the opponent and that made it ideal as a punishment. Dohko would always strike with the same tiger hand swipes right in the spot or muscle he believed to be the source of Lance's mistake, making sure to leave the negative reinforcement imprinted on his very nerves.

"No, raise your hands a little higher, relax your joints more and bend your fingers correctly! Left foot forward, right one back! You must be ready to receive the attack!" Dohko would reprehend, often in rhyme to make it easier to remember. "Index and middle bent high, ring and pinky together like bone. In order to form the third claw, the dragon's thumb rests alone."

The youth would do his best to adapt, turning his hand into a semblance of a three fingered dragon hand, but his basic Dragon Style fighting pose was the least of his problems. Dohko had authentic field days with Lance's patience as a defender, and would always flawlessly detect all the tiny movements he executed wrong in his kicks, punches and bashes. Even the distance he kept from Dohko was target of mocking. Lance would always get too comfortable with specific distances as he tried to become a better defender, but that was an error, too.

"A good defense is about flexibility." warned Dohko. "Half the battle to nullify a blow without sacrificing your other advantages is to set up the block. Always face the attack. If I take a step to your right, take a step to your left. If I move forward for an uppercut, lean back for a dodge and counter. If I rush for a jab or feint, be ready to ruin my distance by closing in with a tight guard! If I go for a deep strike you have to be prepared to turn it upside down on me. You can't do that if you're so TENSE!"

A blow would then strike Lance at an unforeseen angle in a spot he hadn't realized was too rigid to allow a cleaner movement. He would scream and he would curse Dohko, but at least he wouldn't make the same mistake so soon. The problem was, there were a lot of mistakes to correct, apparently, and the dark bruises would pile up until night came and Lance's body looked like a Rorschach test made out of swipe marks.

In a way, he started missing the old cane Dohko made him hate so much.

It was indeed amazing the amount of imperfections a Saint could have in his fighting postures and movements. Having lost count to the number of micro corrections he was suffering through, a new understanding was achieved in the Cancer Saint of how much was wrong in conventional dueling and how much he could take advantage of the next time he fought a Saint. It also started making more and more sense how Dohko believed a warrior with a good martial art could defeat a Specter or a Saint without a single technique; the Master could strike Lance's precious arm joints and legs with his graceful and unorthodox punches and kicks faster than he could say 'Charge Fist', much less execute it.

That was all without counting the number of times he almost fell off Dragon Bridge. The fighting field was only thick enough to allow a small encirclement around an opponent before a step in false cause him to slip off the edge to the lake. Many times he stepped back while setting himself up, under pressure from an assault or in just plain fear of his Master's swipe teases and he would find himself without a floor to land his toes on, taking a big fright as he lost balance and being caught by the wrist by a laughing Master.

It reached a point where so many mistakes were being pointed out that the student couldn't help but admit the master had a point in being so cocky. Dragon style was hard. It was really, really hard! It had complex stances and took many things in consideration and many basic defense scenarios in mind. For every move the opponent could make, there seemed to be some small adjustment to be made to the basic dragon stance that would then set up a billion other steps resulting a perfect block and Dohko seemed to know every little thing about them like the back of his hand.

"And Roshi said he only mastered it 'partially'!" Lance would rub his temples at how mindboggling this was. "Can I even call him Roshi (jap. Old Master) anymore?! This is nuts…"

The only thing consoling the Saint was that, unlike his training with Cosmos in Mount Olympus, he had at least some sort of idea of what he was doing and a few superficial progresses were being visibly made. It took weeks before the intense morning regiment started making differences, but eventually he started noticing a slightly increased muscle size in the mirror which then allowed him to perform better in the afternoon. Just like the Master predicted, the physical stress of practicing Dragon style was slightly hampered by the few pounds of muscles Lance put on.

Said slight growth, however, made a world of difference in the sparring field, especially as Lance's responses became more optimized by Dohko's tips. It seemed slightly easier to take in the attacks and divert or absorb their strength and the increased stamina surely made it easier to keep up with Dohko's shifts of position and timing. It was no longer so exhausting to keep up with the Master and it was no longer so dreadful to face the barrage of tiger blows in store for him each afternoon.

Eventually, the student was able to execute a counter after a rather flimsy arm block above his head. The rush he defended himself with caught the Master off guard and Lance was able to see an opening for a stomach kick. Knowing it would probably be his only chance to do so in months of training that would follow, he put all his strength into it with a growl of wrath and struck the Master's chest straight on, forcing the Master to step back for the first time since their first spar.

Dohko seemed barely fazed by it. He recovered quickly and Lance quickly reassumed the Dragon fighting pose. Though there was a faint smirk of satisfaction on the Master's face, the day went on normally, with no prize or compliment, the Master mercilessly and enthusiastically engaging the student's frail defenses until night fell.

{======================|0|======================}

Standing on top of a cliff far off from Dohko's home that overlooked Mount Rozan and the surrounding valleys and ranges, the Libra Saint Master pointed his hand burning with golden cosmos at the distance and charged his energy, causing stars and threads of light to gather into his fingers and palm until immersing them. His aura of cosmos burst all of a sudden and, with a flash of light upon touching the air, the cosmos fired off in a large blast. Their hair waved and the ground dust jumped with the backlash of it and the huge light arrow sore through the wind into the horizon, thinning and thinning until it blasted some unknown target at a distance.

Right by his side, Cancer Lance pathetically and to the best of his exhaustive efforts tried to do the same. The much less experienced Saint with a much less mastered 7th sense bit his lip, gritted teeth and trembled in concentration as he tried to gather the necessary energy. Sweat ran down his temples and his aura of energy seemed to be trying to turn into the fire cosmos against his will.

The Master pushed his arm up a bit and to adjust Lance's pose. "Come on, this is 7th sense 101. The mark of a Saint who has mastered the seventh sensation is not the free movement on par with the photons, but the free use of cosmos in all its possible forms. Forming a simple blast of pure cosmos is not in a Bronze Saint's capacity, but a Gold Saint, who has colossal reserves of power and the 7th sense to completely control it, should be able to pull it off. You got to learn the Ki blast before you do the Kamehameha."

Lance had no idea what the master was talking about with that comparison, but he tried his best anyway, struggling mentally like he did when learning telekinesis with Karkinos in the misty valley, except this time he risked nuking someone by accident.

He saw Lance's hand brighten and heat up. "Steady. Take your ti-"

The soaring sound of firing the blast was heard and the flush of light blinded them both. The missile flew off uncontrollably and threatened to hit the mountains. Fortunately, it passed right between them and into the sky nearly at light speed, harmless but demonstrative of Lance's inaptitude. The Cancer gasped and fell to his knee holding his wrist, sweating bullets and panting in exhaustion.

"Hmmm… I don't think you did it right." Dohko ironized. He took out his handbook and wrote. "Note to self: pick more remote spots for cosmos blast training; maybe the Gobi Desert?... Better not; you might incinerate some gecko and Seiryu would be pissed. He loves those little bastards."

"I-I'm sorry «pant» Master." He wiped his forehead and rubbed his temples. Tapping into his immature 7th sense and shape cosmos with it still demanded a lot from him. "I-I'll try… a-again…"

Fearing that the forty-seventh attempt would be just as disastrous, Dohko decided to not risk having his exhausted student repeat the folly with a tired mind. "Don't worry about it. Let's take five and we'll get right back on it." The Master relaxed by the rocks, laying down on a flat one and staring at the cloudy sky. He snickered as he passed a bottle of water to Lance. "Don't want you to feel too much like a loser again."

Lance made sure to take big gulps off the bottle to alleviate his headache. He sat on the ground and tried to relax as well. He started hearing the Master humming some random song that sounded like 'Johnny comes marching home' for some reason. Too tired to question the Master's eccentrics, he put up with the tune and tried to recuperate himself mentally.

The training had been far from easy or even narrow minded. It seemed like every day there was some new way to teach an old thing or a new thing to be shown about an old way. From martial arts to sensory deprivation to all sorts of toleration tests, lessons under Dohko seemed to have it all. Lance wondered if the master had spent those two centuries alone coming up with these things so that, when one day he decided to have a student, he would have an endless supply of tricks to shove knowledge into his stupid students' heads.

Or maybe the experience with Tenma was just that valuable for Dohko as a teacher. Now that the Master was out in the open with Lance regarding his experiences and his true capacities, there was no longer a day the Master wouldn't mention the previous Pegasus Saint and how frustrating or delightful it was to teach him. More often the former than the latter, apparently, but there was a clear joy in recalling the days he spent with Lance's predecessor every time Dohko opened his mouth to talk about lessons.

Which made Lance wonder why he had never heard anything about Tenma prior to coming to Rozan; the late Saint was his predecessor both in Cloth and Master, after all, and skillful as Dohko was both as a warrior and mentor, why was it that Lance had never heard of Tenma's accomplishments? Maybe the guy never got to accomplish anything special. There must have been a reason why he's only remembered as a Bronze Saint so maybe Tenma never really got past that rank, both in power and importance.

All this made him wonder about that time when Dohko was young and partook in the Holy War. He looked at his Master, who seemed about to fall asleep under the warm rays of the sun like a lazy cat sunbathing, and recalled how truly bizarre everything about Dohko was. He had expected someone who had gone through a Holy War, which usually resulted in a few massacres in Athena's army, to be sterner or less laid back, yet Master Dohko in many ways still acted like some the same age his body was, not seemingly caring about much wrong that happened around him even though he was the appointed guardian of the Specter seal.

The Master stretched his arms to the sides, "Ah, boy, you have no idea how good this feels after two hundred years of being a shriveled old plump sitting in the rain. Anyway, don't worry about failing your cosmos blasts." assured Dohko. "You'll get it right. We got plenty of time. You should work on controlling your element, though. I noticed you rely too much on it because every time you power up you now instinctively change to it. It's a common bad habit that wastes energy, you know?"

Fascination hit the Gold Saint once more as he became more and more curious about his Master each day since reveal of Misopheta Menos and he absorbed Dohko's tip like a sponge. Now that he caught the man in a particularly relaxed mood, he felt the time was appropriate to slit his curiosity.

"Master, can I ask you something?" he requested. Dohko's eyes opened and he perked up. "You always mention things here and there about the past. I don't know much about Sanctuary's history because I didn't spend my childhood in its orphanages. What was it like, back then?"

Dohko's jovial smile softened into a melancholic one. "You mean… the Lost Canvas war and all that?" Lance nodded. "Ha, ha, well, there's not much to tell you, in all honesty, that you wouldn't find in a book back at Sanctuary Town. Shion made sure everything got chronicled after he became Pope; wouldn't want people to forget how brave he was. Let me tell you one thing, though; there were a lot less Black Saints."

"There were?"

"Yeah…well, inquisition was far more brutal and thorough back then-

"Inquisition?!"

"-and they tended to be less numerous during Holy Wars, so I guess that's to be expected. Black Sainthood, as we know it today, is more of a result of idiots thinking they can take advantage of cosmos than anything else." Dohko opinioned. He folded arms behind his head and rested it on them. "Of course, back then, the definition of a Black Saint was a… little more specific and mystic. The Civil War changed a lot of things."

Not knowing much about the civil strife that engulfed Sanctuary more than ten years earlier, Lance decided to change the topic to something else that interested the both of the more. "What was Tenma like? You talk a lot about teaching him stuff. Did you teach him much of the same you do me?"

Dohko chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh, no, Tenma had different needs… When I first met him, I wanted to be his teacher but I couldn't because he still couldn't handle my training. He hadn't awakened his cosmos completely, you see, much less unlocked the 7th sense. Shion and the Pope of the time didn't think it was a good idea for me to teach him the ropes, so they gave him to Suikyo, the Crateris Silver Saint."

The name of the Silver raised Lance's interest. Had he heard it before? "I didn't know Japanese were accepted back then already."

"They weren't; Suikyo and Tenma were the only ones. There's a reason why Suikyo was chosen; nobody else wanted to take the 'half-breed nip' as a student so they gave him to the full-blooded Silver Saint one who forced his way through the ranks by sheer talent." He explained. "Years later, however,… Suikyo proved all the bigots right by defecting to Hades, triggering the famous 'Suikyo Incident' which you've probably already heard about. In the meantime Tenma, who had come of age, passed to me and I finished his Bronze training."

The matter was left at that and the master didn't seem interest in prolonging the discussion about Suikyo. Lance 'ohed', finally remembering where he had heard the Silver's name from. Shion had mentioned it a number of time at the ball when speaking of Akassius Steiner's ancestry to Gemini Cain was pretty familiar with the prejudice against Japanese in Sanctuary, which basis he wasn't very sure of but imagined was related to some obscure historical fact, thanks to his time spent with Shinta.

"Still, you fought in the war, right?" Lance insisted. "What was it like? Were you scared?"

Dohko frowned worriedly. "You're not worried about what's to come in twenty years, are you?"

Lance quickly shook his head. "No, no… I'll probably be in reserve by then since Gold Saints nowadays seem to be all retiring in their thirties. I was just curious. You always talk about Tenma and Shion and you've mentioned your friends from back then a few times every now and then so I wondered how things were back in the 18th century."

Dohko took a deep nose breath and rubbed his chin, recalling his past as he considered Lance's words. "Well, we didn't have TV."

"Master, you know that is not what I meant."

"We also didn't have cars. We had coaches, though, those were cool. Fat guys got all the chicks, too; it was crazy!" he patted his perfectly ripped chest and handsome hair which he worked so hard to gain. "Still sore over that bullshit…Sign of wealth, my ass; I could be rich, too, if I wanted!"

"Master…" Lance calmly asked.

"Kardia was the worst! All he had to do was point out his heart condition like a sick little orphan and the nurses were all over him!" His eyes narrowed in pouting rage. "I could always tell which ones were assigned to him each week based on whether they had a Scarlet Needle mark on their skirt butt from all the groping. When Dohko does the same, though, he gets a slap on the face and a speech about celibacy! Yeah, good times…"

The student persisted. "Master, I'm sure this… Kardia was an authentic douche, but that is not really what I'm asking."

"Not to mention the small pox outbreaks! Those were fun! Influenza was a tight contender, though. And when the measles broke out in the Thirteen Colonies… boy you just had to be there. Nothing really topped dysentery when it came out, though…those trips to Oregon…real nostalgic…"

"Master!"

Dohko scratched his head and smiled to himself. He had his most fun when testing the length of his student's fuse, which, apparently, had been increasing since under the Libra's mentorship.

"Those were different times… Sanctuary was still on top of most of things and it didn't try to control every little thing like it does now. I don't really like comparing eras like some bitter old man because it's not like those were the good old days. We had… just as many problems, only different." True nostalgia hit him, though, when he recalled Shion berating Rasgado's laughs, Kardia's charm and all the other little good things that compensated all the bad ones. "Yeah, I like to talk about those guys but, truth is, I know that time is long over and I can't be stuck in the past. That's one advantage I always had over our Pope, the luxury of realizing I can't change what is done. Shion always was… more regretful."

"You lost a lot of comrades, right?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't hurt as much to think about their deaths as it once did. Time does much to heal those wounds and I've had 'plenty' of it."

Lance looked down. "I can't picture what that's like. I don't have a lot of friends. I don't feel really connected to my supposed 'equals' either. I'm either a handful of years older or a handful of times bitterer than anyone who's ever treated me nicely." He confessed. "You probably think I'm being foolish."

"Of course not, you… bitterangry… I thought all those times you made that face were when you were holding a fart in."

Lance overlooked Dohko's mock. "Do you think about the war a lot?"

Once again, the Master recollected his thoughts with a deep sigh. "I don't let it be a big part of who I am," he explained "but at the same time I try to honor what it meant to me and my comrades… It's a strange balance to make, isn't it? But Lance…I pray to the Gods you really are retired by the time Hades decides to pop up, because chances are those kids you've met at the Golden Zodiac will all be dead by the end of that scuffle. You can't expect a war with Death to go dandy, after all. Heck, I'll probably be among their corpses, knowing my luck."

Lance's eyes widened all of a sudden at the notion of Dohko dead. Having tasted the 'old' tiger's strength, he gained for the first time a hindsight on the true depths of what probably awaited him, Saga and the others beyond the last grain in the sandglass as said tiger expressed fear towards what was to come. The man Lance could barely touch in battle, who had such a deeper understanding of life, nature and the cosmos and who had been amazing him practically every day was honestly worried he would die at the Holy War? For the first time in his life, that old tale of only one percent of the army surviving each Holy War, a statistic any normal person would rather ignore, gained a rather vivid meaning to him.

With such meaning returned the reality at hand that most of the ranks in the Golden Zodiac were being filled with kids. Sure, by the time of the War they'd be adults and he could see Saga and Aiolos in combat, but Lance, who only knew Mu for his childish grins and goofing, felt a sudden urge to protest his inclusion in the conflict.

Talking about the possible deaths of the upcoming war reminded Dohko of those of the past one.

"Hades is a complete monster… and so are his Specters. Never trust a single one of them. They are not interested in deals or truces. I've learned that the hard way." He closed his fists and gritted teeth as he relived Rasgado's death in his mind. He never thought any of his friends could end so brutally after the Suikyo Incident was resolved. "They'll make you wish you were stronger… that you would have just done something to stop their cruelty or that you hadn't been so stupid! These kinds of thoughts are dangerous, though, especially in the minds of people as powerful as the Gold Saints. It's best to be superior to them…"

The young Cancer Saint wondered if the Master was talking about greed again. "Roshi, you know that the blessing is not about power, do you?"

Dohko however, shook his head at himself as he realized what he was spouting out. "Wow, look at me being all somber. I didn't want to give you such a bad impression of what was to come." He smiled and waved his hand apologetically. "Forget about what I've said. You've fought Specters, so I'm sure you know how to handle them."

"Maybe you and I will be fighting them side by side one day, Master." suggested Lance. "That is to say that your prediction was true and you'll have to fight the next Holy War as well."

"And hopefully you'll be able to shoot straight by then so you won't get me killed! Come on, break is over! Let's practice." Dohko demanded, leaping from his rest place and lifting Lance up. "If we still need so much work to do to get you doing simple cosmos blasts, then we're gonna need every second of the fifteen years or so we have left till Hades decides to destroy the world to prepare you." Lance readily obeyed, following his Master back to the cliff edge without a protest. "I have decided… to take you to Seiryu. I think you truly deserve a chance to get his help."

Lance widened his eyes. "What? Really?! What changed your mind?"

"I don't want those feelings of helplessness haunting you like they once did me. If it took me a bit to get over it just imagine a moody kid like you handling that. Ugh! I don't need emo little Cancer Saints on my side in the battlefield!" Dohko raised a finger. "On one condition, though. Once you're through with him, you are telling me why you are making such a big deal about this!"

Lance nodded, simply happy with just having his Master's full approval.

{======================|0|======================}

The rest of the day progressed as usual, with the usual training and diet that had become routine and the usual discussions about Lance's progresses and lingering flaws. That night, however, went a little differently. Maybe Master was more impressed by the progress than he thought, or maybe it was simply time for it, but Dohko that night decided to take Lance along to the shores of the lake Rozan right away, where once he had fallen into and met the Dragon God.

They kept their distance from the shore and hid themselves amongst the tall grass that surrounded the valley in a spot where they could watch from afar the entirety of the water and the fall. Lying down on the ground, Dohko gestured him to be quiet and they both waited.

After minutes of silence, Lance enquired in a whisper. "Master, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"What are we doing?"

"Seiryu will come out tonight." He revealed. "The signs are clear. The rainclouds have been more frequent and the duck hasn't quacked in weeks."

"Duck?! What duck?! Also, why is Ma Chao here with us?!"

Dohko turned his head and, indeed, Ma Chao the white tiger was crouched right next to Lance and watching the lake just as intensely as Dohko. His golden eyes spared disdainful looks to the both of them every now and then, as if reveling in human stupidity. "Don't worry about him. Ma Chao is a big boy. He knows what he's doing."

Lance saw the dignified four hundred pound tiger suddenly perk up his ears and swipe his claws madly at a huge mantis he saw in the tall grass, bite down on it and eat it in one gulp.

He frowned in disgust. "Sure…"

The three of them rested patiently for several minutes. Dohko obviously wanted to show him something prior to talking to Seiryu. It was getting darker by the second as the moon rose higher behind dark clouds. It would probably start raining soon.

All of a sudden, Ma Chao growled. The tiger snarled like a large angry cat whose territory had been stepped into, its ears perking alertly and his golden eyes tightening their irises at the lake. It remained still nonetheless and Lance wondered what was wrong.

Dohko pointed at the other side of the lake, by the grassy shores. Lance's red eyes followed the direction and squinted at the blades of green and bamboo, but detecting nothing of suspicious. He was, however, eventually able to notice a snake crawl out from between the blades.

The Master enforced the silence by pressing his fingers to his lips. The snake was nothing particularly large or threatening. Its green scales and size looked fairly normal. Ma Chao, however, snarled in silence, as if threatened by the far off reptile. It was while the student wondered what was so goddamn important about the snake going into the lake that his face went pale and his eyes widened at the sight of the lake turning darker with the snake's dive, almost as if the creature melted into oil.

Dohko stood up on his knees. "Okay, he's in."

"That was Seiryu?!"

"Yeah, sometimes he shows up as a salamander or a Komodo Dragon, but snakes are usually his thing. The clouds are getting darker and Ma Chao is barely containing himself. It was definitely Seiryu." The three of them walked by the shore and stared at the shadow-filled lake, already sensing its depth increasing somehow. The white tiger roared gutturally as it patrolled the edge of the water, as if trying to find the god. Dohko rested a hand on its head to calm him down. He did the same to Lance's shoulder. "Listen, I… don't really know what to expect with you down there. I've never had to ask Seiryu from much anything asides from his teachings, much less a blessing. Are you absolutely sure you want this?"

Lance took out his shirt, making sure to carefully store in it the Yours Ever pendant. Shinta wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he lost the trinket in the lake. He also made sure Dohko didn't see it. He didn't want his Master to know he carried jewelry. "…Yeah. I'm going to try it. What's the worst thing that could happen when I have you, Roshi, watching over the whole thing? If something goes wrong, just pull me out of the water with Shoryuha like you did last time."

Dohko narrowed his eyes. "You are about to meet a God. Don't do anything rash or stupid. Talk politely and accept whatever comes your way. If he agrees, great, but it tells you to sod off… you turn your back and swim away as fast as you can, understood?!"

"Sure." Something then popped up in his mind. "Wait a minute; if he says yes, does that mean I'll have a tattoo on my back?!"

Dohko saw his student have second thoughts and slapped his head. "Kind of late to be worried about that, don't you think?! Idiot!"

Lance rubbed his hit temple, mumbled something, took a deep breath and dove in the water.

Dohko sat down on the pebble shore and assumed a meditating pose as he hummed in preoccupation. Hopefully Seiryu wouldn't just mistake Lance for a fish. Shion would kill him if he found out Dohko let his new Cancer Saint be swallowed by a giant sea serpent with superpowers.

More serious preoccupations haunted his mind, though. He never imagined himself encouraging such a plan; letting one of his students approach Seiryu for a blessing so soon, that is. However, the red eyes in his student, a clear mark of an evil birth curse, gave credibility to the hypothesis that Lance's nightmares weren't something to be ignored. If so, it was true that obtaining some sort of protection should be done sooner rather than later. He cursed himself, wishing he had been more honest with his one student, and prayed that Seiryu would confirm that Lance's nightmares and eye color were nothing but that.

He saw Ma Chao swipe his claw at the water. Tigers, unlike their cat cousins, weren't afraid of getting wet, but Ma Chao knew better than openly pissing Seiryu off by stepping on the god's turf. "Trying to get to your sworn enemy, huh?" A fierce, sudden growl was all he had in response from the large animal. "You know Seiryu would just beat your butt, right?"

Almost as if understanding Dohko's words, the tiger snarled lowly, as if mumbling a complaint or insult. It rested by the side of its owner, who closed his eyes to complete his entrance into a meditation state. It wouldn't change or help him control anything, but it would at least enhance his senses so as to better tell what goes on in the lake.

{======================|0|======================}

The familiar shock of the cold water was an unwelcome balsam to his body and the Saint found himself entering and being pulled into the dark depth created in the lake's innards by the presence of the draconic deity. This time he was able to maintain his calm and breath much more easily than when he fell off the tightrope so the frosty murk of the water didn't shock him as much as last time. Still, the chilly feeling assaulting his bones made him wish he hadn't been squeamish with getting his shirt wet and just brought it along for the dive.

Soon he felt pulled more strongly into the bottom and let himself be dragged into the bed floor of the lake. Fear invaded him once more as he once more saw before him, amidst the thickness of the shades, the concealed, breathing massiveness in front of him. Despite the darkness, he was able to make out more details, though barely.

It was large, gigantic even. The green-scaled serpentine creature of crocodile belly looked, even coiled, several stories large, the thickness of its body surpassing the teen's height. The Saint barely expected to be larger than its tongue. Just as expected from a Chinese dragon, it possessed pairs of relatively small arms spread out along the long length of its belly, the actual number of pairs untellable amidst all the shadows, with clawed three fingered hands that could crush an adult human in each one. Two very long whiskers sprouted from the sides of its large snout and a set of ramified brown horns shot out the back of its head. A mane of pale green fur went around its earholes and horns, waving with the water and giving the beast a strange wise elegance.

The small, terrified human felt paralyzed, barely holding on to the breath in his lungs. He was in the presence of a monstrous god, an animal so large that, just like Master said, could very easily eat him whole in one gulp. He forgot what he came to do for a moment, overwhelmed by the difference between the two of them in size, power and importance. Even the coldness of the lake didn't seem that important when, at any second, a lightning fast bite could come down on him.

And why stop there? The thing in front of him seemed capable of far greater horrors than just swallowing the stupid human. "Roshi said… he used to swim with Seiryu?! Dear God, what is this thing?!" he thought in a panic.

Seiryu's bright eyes of green light stared at the human, not seemingly entertained. He seemed bothered even, like someone awoken from a nap by an annoying pet. Moments of tense silence followed the mutual stare between uncaring god and overwhelmed human and Lance truly wondered if riding himself of his nightmares was worth this risk.

Noticing no interaction was being changed, the Saint took an experimental initiative. He wouldn't talk of course, underwater as he was, but he tried to send out a mental message to the gargantuan god, merely broadcasting it to his front and hoping it would be enough. "A-are you Seiryu?" he asked. It was amazing how he was so terrified that even his transmitted thoughts came in a stutter.

As the mental message fell on deaf ears, the immensity of what was before the human truly sank inside his mind. Having been raised in a catholic orphanage, the little human was taught to believe in things like sin, redemption, the kindness of Christ and the incomprehensibly omnipresent idea of 'God'. Before coming to Sanctuary his religious life had limited itself to obeying the nuns' orders, shut up in class and learn the names of all the Saints who, throughout history, demonstrated the surprising capacity of men to love others and create miracles.

And while this last belief turned out to be somewhat true as he was introduced to Sanctuary by the Triangle Saint and shown the men in armor making miracles and known as Saints, Lance never imagined that the idea of ' God' would be matched and at the same time challenged by anything he could witness in Sanctuary. It was possible that, in a way, he had never truly believed that Athena and Hades were real because it was still a part of life he hadn't been confronted with by Sanctuary.

Until that moment, that is.

There he was, swimming in a dark lake in the middle of countryside China, encountering what was possibly the most fantastical thing he had ever seen. Years of belief in what was possible and real were challenged, overshadowed and stupefied by the simple sight of the gigantic mystical creature known as Seiryu, who know watched him like a spider seeing a fly fall on its web and the last thing on the entirely belittled human's head was that what he was looking at could not be real. It was there, right in front of him; Lance was looking at a God!

Trying his damn hardest to maintain his composure, the human tried to keep a train of thought and a coherent talk. "If you are… My Master said you could help me." There was a bored snort from the creature, which sent out bubbles the size of Lance's torso. A simple gesture that proved to Lance that what he was looking at wasn't a mirage or a shadow and drove home the horrifying reality of what he was seeing by showing movement. "H-he said that you could offer me your blessing and that, if you did, I'd b-be able to…"

The god didn't seem interested in the slightest, resting its bored snout on its folded arms and coiled body, like a human bored with a television show. Lance wondered if the dragon was even receiving the messages he was sending out. He felt his lungs complaining about oxygen. He had to make it quick, but how?

He thought about the nightmares of fire he had. He grabbed the lake's bed floor to help him 'get on his knees'. "Please! I need… your help. I must obtain your blessing so I can learn the Ascending Dragon Force! I have become a student of Dohko, who told me you used to train him. I…" Lance struggled to maintain his composure and message as he ran out of air. "I'm not leaving without it! I can't leave without it."

He lost control of his breathing when it became too much and opened his mouth, letting out a flurry of bubbles. However, there was a sudden tap of finger on the ground from one of Seiryu's many arms and, all of a sudden, a huge dome of oxygen appeared around Lance. The Saint felt a sudden loss of pressure in the air and the gas entering his lungs. He coughed with the change of atmosphere. The God had created a space for him to be like as if it was outside the lake.

He looked up to the Dragon after regaining his breath. Had he gotten its attention?

"No."

Lance blinked. The Dragon talked? No, his voice had boomed in the human's head, but the Dragon did not move its mouth. It was a calm male sound, similar to that of a man in his thirties or forties, but with a latent wrath that threatened to explode at the minimal indignant.

Best of all it was Greek, rather than an ancient Chinese language, which meant that Lance truly could talk to the dragon. "What? Why not?!" he found himself able to talk.

"I know why you're here, Greek." It claimed. How did it know Lance's origin? "I know what dark evil torments your sleep. I've sensed it on your spirit as soon as you reached the Mount for the first time, all those moons ago. Your cosmos practically shakes with its weight. You seek my blessing because you believe my power will protect you from the guilt you've collected from Death Queen Island."

The red eyes widened in shock. Even the dragon knew about Death Queen Island. Had the mortal no secret for the god? "…Yes, that is true, but… you won't help me? Why?"

"As a Saint, you must accept your predetermined path. You've already been taken under the wing of Pegasus." It argued. "Had you been born without a bronze constellation watching over your fate or, better yet, born under my stars from the start, I might have considered the option. I will not, however, slick the greed mortals have for power not meant for them. Your fate is already decided! You are a Pegasus, not a Dragon. Follow the path of the winged horse, which is what you've trained so hard to embrace. There is nothing for you down here in this lake…"

The denial sunk Lance's heart, and so did the reason behind it. Would something so fatalist as the protection of Pegasus deny the solution he foresaw in Seiryu's protection. "Wait, no, Master… he would have known it was like that! He knows I'm a Pegasus! There must be a way!"

"There is not!" the Dragon assured, impatient. "Turn back the way you came, human, and seek salvation from your curse elsewhere. Ask Pegasus if you want, I will not help you!"

The space of air then started slowly shrinking around Lance. The human saw the water closing in around him and panicked.

"No wait, please! I beg of you! Master told me your power was great, that of a raging storm capable of quenching fires of destruction. I felt the same in your cosmos back when I first met you." he argued. "When I fell on this lake for the first time and I saw you, I could sense your energy. Even my immature 7th sense could tell it was that of calmness, of clear mind, of patience and serenity!"

"You claim to understand my power, human?" wondered the deity.

The question took Lance by surprise, who wondered if he had picked the Dragon's interest somehow. He decided to invest in that chance. "Yes!"

There was a faint chuckle, like that of a wilier man amused by the naiveté of youths. "What a bold claim…and not corresponded one. I am a being of serenity, yes, but not for humans who do not accept their fate; be gone!"

The water closed in faster. Lance sweated in fear and gave it his all. "PLEASE, I beg of you! Pegasus… isn't strong enough!" The Dragon squinted harder, obviously judging the human to be unhappy with his chosen Cloth, something that probably spoke to him personally as the personification of the Dragon Bronze Cloth. As so, Lance was quick to elaborate. "He tries, I can tell that. Of the many times I have dreamt of fire, he always seems to be there, but…" he looked down in shame. "This is an evil that is stronger than him, stronger than him and I combined."

Seiryu apparently calmed a bit, as the water slowed down significantly. Lance could sense he was being given a chance, but also that he was one false step from being drowned, so he chose his words carefully.

"I'm not asking you for your Cloth. I'm not asking you to replace Pegasus as my Bronze Constellation either. Master told me, however, that he was born with your element and your stars but that he was able to appease the Tiger and get his blessing. All I want is that; the tattoo."

Seiryu's eyes narrowed. He didn't seem intent anymore on punishing Lance for his impudence, but he was far from convinced to help. "Dohko…that arrogant brat! Just because Byako blesses any human it thinks can help him challenge me does Dohko think my power is at his convenience, too? Why should I, Seiryu, do as you ask? Yes, human, 'tis true my power perfectly counters that of Death Queen Island. That hate-filled fiery place has you cursed, but its flames and hate are nothing against my serene, watery cosmos. 'Tis not true, though, that my blessing comes not at a price…"

"What is the price?!" Lance begged to know. "How do you know I am not willing to pay it?"

Seiryu raised its head and prepared himself to swim away. "…and 'tis not true it is a bargain I'd do with every monkey seeking an audience with me. Bear your lot, mortal; you've brought it upon yourself!"

"No, wait, don't GO!" Lance's heart sunk once more as he saw the relentless, unconvinced dragon untwirl its body and lift itself from the bedfloor to leave the lake, probably to never let it be approached by the human again. His red eyes widened in despair at the thought of one day the Saint being consumed by the hate of Death Queen Island. No, he could not let that happen!

He would prove Guilty wrong!

Lance screamed and made his cosmos explode to the max, burning it up until it turned golden. "I SAID, COME BACK!" His hand punched the air and from out of it shot a large fire blast in the god's direction. The meteor of fire flew at the speed of light and aimed itself at the beast' belly.

It was consumed by the thickness of the dragon's cosmos, leaving but a shocked and insulted Dragon in its wake.

The Saint stared at the sight of pure anger in front of him. "…Uh-oh…"

There was no movement other than Seiryu burst his green eyes wide open and, all of a sudden, a tremendous invisible force like the Saint had never seen before smashed him against the ground. The youth screamed in pain as his body tore through bedrock, crushed beneath a power capable of blasting a Gold Saint across the Sanctuary. The excruciating force persisted until his body could no longer sink and the Dragon descended on him, eyes still wide open in anger.

"Crap! Perfect idea, Lance, piss off the dragon god who's got the key to save you from your nightmares! What am I going to do now?!"

It saw the Saint conscious, but bloody all over and unable to move due to the force being pressed on him. "Are you that greedy for power, mortal, that you would risk life and soul to get my attention? Do not think death will save you from me, Gold Saint! I can keep you alive throughout this entire torture just as punishment for your insolence!" It made the Saint scream further by increasing the telekinetic pressure for a few moments. "I know exactly what bones will hurt more to crush and what flesh will burn more once I tear it. My blessing will be the last thing on your mind as I leave your broken, smashed but still living body at Dohko's feet."

Lance coughed out blood. He struggled to stay awake. No matter what, he had to pull through. "I…can't go on without your blessing!"

Seiryu let out an enormous roar, showing off its saber-sharp teeth the size of a person, the putrid smell of fish and almost deafening the Saint with the volume of his terrifying cry. "I may form one of the constellations, but I fear neither Sanctuary nor Athena! Don't think I won't destroy you!"

The human, though used to war and evil people, felt unable to face the dragon frontally. Every time he locked eyes with it he was unable to move away his face, still disbelieving the fact he was talking to a dragon, much less a god. It was at this point that he realized that, both as a dragon and as a god, Seiryu was being immensely patient with the human. He may have crushed him against the floor like he dropped a truck on Lance, but he was still alive. Either Seiryu was not as unbound as he boasted, or he was far kinder than he let on.

He decided to bet all on this. "W-would you let an innocent soul be tormented by something that it cannot control; something that preys on the w-weak and fearful? A-as a God, you should know better than I the evil lurking on that island. I have become a G-Gold Saint, one that dwells w-with the dead at that, and I still can't do anything about this curse." he argued.

"My blessing would allow you to perform the Rozan techniques you lust after and would protect you, but I have my own price! You would be switching one cross for the other!"

"I-if I don't overcome this, my life will have little meaning…and little will it matter what cross I am carrying." His eyes started closing against his will. "Do what you want… it's better than letting that place take my soul…"

Seiryu watched the Gold Saint lose consciousness right in front of him. He released the telekinetic pressure and pondered on the human's words.

The silence of the bottom of the lake of Rozan which Seiryu so loved returned, allowing his thoughts to deepen, and the deity felt conflicted. He had half a mind to ignore the human's whining and just leave him at the shore. Unfortunately, the other half thought differently. Now that he thought of it, this was the first student Dohko has interested himself in since Tenma, who turned out to be the God Slayer himself. The God could say whatever he wanted about the Libra Saint's jovial attitudes and messes, but Dohko had one of the best instincts he's ever seen in a human, perceiving far more than his youthful smile let on.

Having witnessed the cycle of wars between Athena and Hades more times than he could count, Seiryu had little fascination in the potential of the Gold Saints, which is why Dohko always struck him even more specially for how much the deity now cared for him. Something that interested him far more were people like the Great Bodyguards, namely the boys Shun and Shiryu, who seemed to have the strange capacity to alter the cycle in ways he had not foreseen, something the dragon had only witnessed in the God Slayer himself. Nor Seiryu, nor Byako nor any other deity predicted the appearance of those four strange Bronze Saints, one of them even wearing Seiryu's Cloth, in the Lost Canvas War, much less the recycled existence of the Pegasus Saint throughout the ages who was such a huge threat to Hades.

As such, it had been in Seiryu's interest to keep a more careful eye in unusual humans. Being cursed by Death Queen Island and being under the watch of Hypnos, Cancer Lance definitely fit in that category. Maybe it was indeed dangerous to let Death Queen Island stalk a Saint with such capacity. Moreover, being a fierce enemy of Hades, Seiryu wondered if perhaps there was great reward to reap from investing in this Cancer Saint, whom Dohko had chosen as a student despite his picky tastes.

"Foolish creatures, all of them!" it complained itself. "The folly of your kind is what is at fault regarding the evils and accidents of this world. Dohko, I should leave your student to suffer his fate on his own and let the fires of Death Queen Island consume him." One of its small hands grabbed the human. Its claw burned with cosmos as it pressed on Lance's back. "But if he thinks the risk of being consumed by me is better than accepting his curse, then we shall soon see what mettle he is made of."

{======================|0|======================}

(?)

{======================|0|======================}

The quivering Lance's eyes slowly opened and let the blur that was his initial sight vanishes to give place to a sky darkened completely by clouds. The chirping sound and burning heat of several fires were felt around him and the hard floor felt irregular, dirty and warm.

He rose up his chest, rubbing eyes and grunting in pain and discomfort. A pressing sensation was on his chest, as if a truck had fell on it, and he was having a tough time breathing deeply due to the ash he felt in the air and the pain in his ribs. The youth coughed and struggled to get rid of the trembling in his head and the shake in his vision. He saw the many fires cast orange light on the basalt ground and heard deep roars at the distance accompanied by strong vibrations coursing through the floor in sync.

Where was he?

The far off sound of steps was heard. "Bam, bam, bam, bah, bam, bam, bah…" someone sung.

Lance's red eyes shot open and looked left and right, all his senses going to full alert as he tried to find the source of the humming. He heart beat faster and sweat rain down his temples as he failed to detect anything amongst the flames.

The steps became closer. Each bump on the ground sounded like frail rock crumbling slightly. "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, pah!…" the same voice continued.

Lance turned around completely, having thought to detect the source but seeing nothing amongst the many spread out tall flames once more. "What?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" The Saint started panicking, feeling helpless as the approaching steps got louder and louder, echoing more and more in the dark environment.

Eventually, a shadow was seen basing by a nearby rock side, causing the Saint to snap in its direction. The steps now sounded extremely close. "Mister Guilty…give me a mask!" it sung nonchalantly as it approached. "Make it the cutest… that I could ask!..."

Lance's face went pale. "N-no…NO!" He stepped back carelessly and tripped with a scream, falling helplessly on his back. He tried to crawl away but couldn't take his eyes off the shadow amongst the raging heats. "STAY BACK!"

"Tear off my face...so you can burn it to bone!" it twisted. A bare, scarred foot stepped out of the fire, revealing the man whose mask stared right through Lance's soul. "Carve me a smile out of red brimstone!"

He was tall and strongly muscled, baring his upper torso and feet completely to the cruel elements around them, and his neck-length hair was white and flared all around his head. His skin was heavily tanned the color of bronze and even darker crisscrosses of scars marked several spot all over his body, probably even within his green trainer pants. The mask on his face was that of that of an Asian demon, being mostly red, possessing big eyes of thin red irises and a swollen nose. White brows decorated the full, mad stare of it and a mouthful of orange gums and gigantic canines that protruded out the lips completed the visage.

He approached Lance, taking his time, and carrying a second mask on one hand and a knife on the other. He knelt next to the terrified Saint's face. "Hello, best friend!"

The Saint tried to get away, but he felt hypnotized by the mask. It was like in that realm he had no strength, no magical cosmos to draw upon. "F-FUCK OFF, YOU MANIAC!"

"What happened, buddy? Where's your horse pal? Isn't he here to play with us?" Guilty asked. "What bad luck for you to have two dreams with me in such a short span. He must still be too tired and hurt, so he can't join us…"

Lance recalled all his other dreams of a sudden and, indeed, Pegasus was always there with him. This was the first time Guilty and the fires approached him so soon after a nightmare, though, and Pegasus didn't seem to be there to save him. He swiped at the psychopath with his fist. "I SAID FUCK OF-"

Guilty's hand was faster, dropped the spare mask and tightened on his neck, pressing him on the floor to stop his struggling. "Now, now, don't fight. Pegasus isn't here, but that's okay! That means… more time for us! He, he, he…" He raised his knife, the edge started glowing a hot orange, and pressed it against Lance's face. "Now, I need you to be very still… or not. Either way is fine, it's just a matter of how much of a mess I make, really! HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!"

The Saint screamed, his eyes glaring at the burning edge in terror as it approached his temple to carve off his face. Guilty laughed on. The hot metal touched his skin and cut down, tearing skin and sending the victim's nerves into complete shock.

All of a sudden an enormous, animalistic roar startled the both of them and Guilty looked up. There was a torrent of watery green cosmos which blasted the two of them away from each other, saving Lance's life and spiraling a screaming Guilty against the rocks. A larger wave of power washed over that world, putting out the many fires in the volcanic field.

Guilty coughed out water and struggled to stand up, feeling his strength depleting. "W-what?! W-what is that? What have you done, Lance?! "

Lance, too, and wondered what happened. A third assault of greens cosmos struck Guilty and the nearly unconscious Cancer Saint could only see from the corner of his eye the shadow of a serpentine creature of draconic head raised from the water and glare down on the murderer. The shadow came down on the fallen Guilty with a bite and claws, letting out sprays of blood and air tearing screams before an explosion of light engulfed him.

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"LANCE!" The aforementioned woke up with a gasp for air, blinking rapidly and breathing heavily as the feeling of panic and terror lingered in him. "Oh, thank the Goddess you're alright! What happened to your face?"

The Cancer Saint recovered his senses and realized where he was and what had happened. Judging by the water all over Dohko and how alarmed the Libra Saint was, the Master took a dive to retrieve his student from the dragon's clutches and had been trying to wake him up since.

"My…my face?" he ran his thumb by his left temple, which felt more humid than it should, and retrieved drops of red. "I…I don't know…I…" The searing headache he had darkened his vision and made him wince. "What happened?"

"I sensed Seiryu's rage and interfered. Forget about the blessing and the Shoryuha, I am never letting you down there again!" His concerned face turned to an angry frown and he slapped Lance's head. "What the hell were you thinking, you MORON?! What kind of idiot thinks it's a good idea to get a god's attention by blasting him?!"

"OW! I was desperate, god damn it! Besides" He stood up with the help of his Master. "I think…it might be a little too late to forbid anything." Before Dohko could ask what the student meant, Lance turned around and showed off his back, where he was sensing the burning cosmos of the dragon all over it with his 7th sense. "I got it, didn't I? He gave me his blessing?"

Dohko widened his eyes, witnessing the shape of a dragon raising his hand at the spot of Lance's back where his heart would be in the form of a layer of green cosmos that was rapidly burning down to nothing. The tattoo wasn't fully visible and it was vanishing very rapidly, but Lance definitely got him. "…It seems so. Looks like Seiryu was merciful this time."

Lance didn't miss the ominous concern in Dohko's tone. "I thought he was mad at me. He knocked me out, nearly killing me. Why do you think he accepted in the end?"

"You tell me; you're the one who talked to him! Idiot! I should never have let you down there in the first place! Even if you got it…it wasn't worth the risk of now having Seiryu on your back all the time!"

Lance rubbed the cut on his face once again. "It was worth it to me, master. In fact, I think it might already be starting to pay off. If we were right, I should stop having those nightmares from now on." A look of relief filled the student's eyes, who sighed deeply like a weight was off his shoulders. "This is good to know…"

The Master took a blanket and put it on the wet, cryophobic student's shoulders so he wouldn't be cold. He was still infuriated, but he didn't feel right with that anger because, above all, he felt irresponsible for putting Lance at such risk of life.

Ma Chao the tiger, who had remained at the shore the whole time, approached them and sniffed Lance while growling in suspicion, almost as if meeting a new person. It snarled menacingly, sensing the presence of the dragon, but didn't lash out at the human it normally considered its slave. Indignant, the massive tiger contented itself with walking by its human tenants.

Lance found this strange. "What's wrong, Ma Chao? Aren't you going to swipe me?"

"He's fine, just keeping his birches. Tigers are always mindful of their dragon rivals, even if they are clearly superior to them." explained Dohko. He petted the beast to comfort its bruised ego. He exhaled deeply. "Well, we have a lot of work ahead of us, haven't we? Honestly, I thought Seiryu would snort you off and be on his way and we could get back to our regular training. Seems like I now have to teach you how to make use of the blessing to get water cosmos from him, huh?"

"Master, you're the one who told me about this method. You agreed to take me to Seiryu. You just thought I'd get scared and you'd get off your mistake with no consequen-"

"YES, yes, I know what I did! No need to get all uppity with me."

"Well, Master, I'm not like that!" Lance set his foot down. "If I see a path ahead of me I'll take it, no matter how hard it is. That is partly why I've stuck around as a Saint so far. If there are consequences, so be it. I may now have a dragon to keep happy, but it's surely better than the situation I had before."

Dohko rolled his eyes at the bravado. "Yes, yes, we all know how you just can't help but sabotage yourself."

"This isn't about sabotaging myself." Lance shouted all of a sudden. "It was a solution! Something I needed to keep from going insane!"

They stopped their march by the house with this outburst. Ma Chao encircled them, wondering why the humans halted and demanding someone opened the door by scratching it. It was starting to rain again, after all. The humans ignored him, however, and Dohko decided to break the silence.

"Yes, you said something like that before. I told you, though, that power is not the solution. Strength can't bring the dead back and it certainly can't solve whatever you feel you've done wrong." he reminded. "I should know… Shion, that idiot, the Pope chosen by Athena, should know. Why won't you take this advice and stop seeking power to solve whatever you feel is wrong with you?"

The student's eyes wavered and he turned his face, making it seem like he was wondering if he should reveal some secret. He had promised Dohko he would tell him why he was so hell bent on this after all.

"Come on, Lance, tell me what's wrong? Why did you do something so crazy?" the Master insisted.

After a deep breath and a moment of recollection, the newest Gold Saint of Cancer decided to speak out. "A couple of years back, when I was a Bronze Saint, I was picked to take part in a mission in Death Queen Island. Once in there I… found out that… a person I'd met before was in need of me."

"A person? Like a friend?"

Lance seemed hesitant to agree with this idea, as if it showed weakness in him or something. "He wanted me to save him… and I could not. He died in front of me." He confessed. His eyes blinked as they reddened, not wanting to show the latent sadness. "Ever since then, I've been haunted by the thing that ended him. I felt so responsible for what happened that I kept having nightmares about that place and I personally took charge of every mission related to that island since then. I don't know why…I think I didn't want others to become victims of that place…"

"Like your friend was?" Dohko asked. He knew very well of Death Queen Island and its curses. He could imagine what went on there from the little Lance was telling him. "Still, what does that have to do with any of this?"

"Ever since then… I've had nightmares. They come and go and I don't know why they do it. I dream of fire… fire from Death Queen Island engulfing me and driving me as insane as that place. There were times when the guilt alone almost drove me nuts." He then waved his hand at the mount. "And then you told me about this place and Seiryu and, when I felt his cosmos, I could sense it was something completely different from Death Queen Island's. It felt like a balsam to the madness that had been stalking me and I wondered for a while if there was a way to use it…"

"And I told you about Seiryu's blessing…" Dohko concluded, tying the threads by himself.

"Yeah, and I couldn't let go of that opportunity. I… I never told this to anyone. Not even Shinta." Lance sat on the porch's steps. "I don't know why I told it to you just now, even if you said it was your condition for showing me Seiryu. It's always been this weight I felt that was too personal so I never showed it to anyone. In a way…what happened on that island became sacred to me because it was the biggest, most horrible failure of my life; bigger than Arcadia, bigger than Andromeda Island, bigger even than my training under Kastiel, because, in that place, I failed to save the one person other than Shinta that made me feel like I wasn't so alone…"

Dohko sat by his side. "What was his name?"

The red eyes met the brown ones. "He was a better person than I was. He deserved to be a Saint a lot more. He'd certainly not commit the mistakes I made…His name was Guilty."

The clouds rumbled as they clashed, darkening Mount Rozan and pressing the threat of rain. The Master stared at his student, blinking in disbelief. The friend Lance failed to save had the same name as the legendary demon of Death Queen Island? After a moment in which he could only assume Lance was lying, a much deeper understanding of what went on in the place hit the Master all of a sudden.

His frown deepened sympathetically. He wrapped a hand around his student's shoulders, who seemed like very much in need. Dohko needed no 7th sense to see the turmoil in Lance's soul, now. Instead, he just spoke.

"I see…So something has been attacking you and you just wanted Seiryu to protect you… It all makes sense now…"

"I told you it wasn't about power."

"I'm sure your friend does not truly blame you for whatever happened to him. Men are flawed creatures by definition and we cannot help but misunderstand everything that goes on around us. Ignorance is our cross and helplessness our curse. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm also glad that there was sense in your pursuit. I thought you were trying to get Seiryu's aid for the same reason you rose in the ranks; to give everyone around you the finger. I see now that there was a desperate search for salvation in your quest."

"Master?"

"Carry a heart light as a feather; you were not at fault for what happened there. I'm sure the good will he once had now lives through you and that you'll be honoring him the most by living on and becoming the Saint he never could…"

Lance stared at his wise, youthful Master, wondering how much he knew of Death Queen Island. This curiosity, however, was drowned by relief and a surge of happiness he had not felt in a while. "It was good to let it out. People often remembered my mission to Death Queen Island as the one from which I brought back two bodybags. I didn't want to talk to Shinta about it. He's a pacifist who doesn't understand the hate and violence of that place, after all."

Dohko saw Lance cover his tearful eyes. "He would mock you for crying, I bet."

A coarse chuckle was let out. "Yes, yes he would!"

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Chapter End

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Next Chapter: Legends of Sanctuary

Description: The Cancer Gold Saint returns to Sanctuary with a letter from Dohko addressed to the Pope, who waits the youth in a place full of art.

Author Note: This chapter deals with the gross of Lance's training in Rozan, covering most of its important points such as the martial arts and the understanding of Rozan matters the main character should attain under Dohko's tutelage. Since this is a shounen story, this is thus the most important chapter of Lance's stay in Rozan and old readers could tell you that a big part of Lance's fighting comes from what he learns here.

I'm sorry there weren't a lot of breathers in it, not to mention that it has add on of being the longest chapter yet, ranking up to 20,000 words. Saint Seiya Soul of Gold should be about to premier by the time this chapter is posted but, believe it or not, the second version of the fic predates Omega itself.