Notable OCs: Pegasus Lance's Bronze Saint Generation, Heracles Aguilon Silver Saint Generation, Gemini Akassius' Gold Saint Generation, Daemon Lucifer, Maiden Elisa
Notable Original Concepts: Training Ground, Sanctuary Court, Teos & Athenian Empire mythology, Isle of Gardens; Stardust Prison
Recurring/Cameo OCs of Jenny DeVic: Mrs. Schafurwatt
Recurring/Cameo Concepts of Jenny DeVic: Great Bodyguard Legend, Golden Line Heritage, Sanctuary Orphanages, Andromeda Island's Geography & Tests, Sanctuary Nobility, 88 Knights Festival
Author Notes:
-Olivia is a character of the new SS spin-off Saintia Sho and therefore not an OC. Remember to support SKD Scans.
-Also, LR now has passed the 350 thousand words milestone, yay ^_^
-Finally, thank you very much for the anonymous review from 'AWESOME', I really appreciated your enthusiasm and words.
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Please enjoy and review. ^_^
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"If your reality is rotten then it will catch up to you. Sanctuary has created an idea in your head that following Athena is the proper way to go; she has chosen to take us under her wing, as opposed to all the other Gods that scorned us, so as long as you persevere under this rule you will thrive and be kept safe from Specters, but no one living in this city really knows who in Sanctuary really understands who or what Athena is, do they?
If you say 'the Pope', then you have not really given that answer much thought. There's a reason why he's the person popping in your head at my question, and it's the same reason why we've had the same ruler for over two hundred years; it's because our Pope has lived since the time Athena has chosen him. He has SEEN her, spoken to her and was chosen by her specifically to guide us in her absence. However, if a man were to suddenly replace him, no one in Sanctuary in power would have direct knowledge of Athena and we would truly be reduced to a classic theocracy in all its dogmatic glory, a situation where power truly dictates reason and justice.
But who cares? Everyone one is safe and happy. That's the important part. I understand why most people do not bother with these questions. This is because neither had I...
…until today, that is."
-Pisces Aeneas, speaking on the day of the Third Civil War breakout
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Thirteen Years Earlier (1963)
Sanctuary Town
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Guardnia shouted in anger and punched Kastiel's face, tackling him to the ground.
"NO, STOP IT, YOU TWO!" Cynthia screamed, rushing to the scene along with Nam.
The two young Bronze Saints screamed and wrestled each other on the ground. "You son of a bitch! I'll KILL you!" Guardnia spat, punching Kastiel again, hell bent on teaching the vandal a lesson, but a bent orange-clad elbow suddenly swung from the side, hitting him right in the face.
Kastiel grabbed Guardnia's collar and pulled him straight into his own forehead, smashing the Piscis Austrinus' nose and jotting blood to the ground. He roared and bashed Guardnia against the wrecked pavement.
"Kill me?!" the Canis Minor Saint angrily ridiculed. "You are going to kill ME?! What a fucking joke! Mr. Perfect is on the defensive for the first time and he starts shouting threats?! Look around you!... Everything is fucked!" he spat, waving his hand at the smoking roofs and broken down homes. "We're at war! They're building walls around Rodario! You're lucky by the end of this we aren't all DEAD!"
"That's enough!" Nam shouted as he and Cynthia broke the two apart and held them at bay. Guardnia struggled against Nam. "Stop it, Guard', what the heck are you doing, exploding like that?! We have to keep it cool!"
"Keep it cool?!" Kastiel protested, also trying to rid himself of Cynthia. "Did you hit yourself on the head, Nam?! People are killing each other left and right. Tomorrow we might all get drafted into some hopeless death trap in the middle of a rainforest! I got interrogated and lashed for twelve straight hours and it's all that guy's teacher fault!"
"And your answer was to start another fight?!" argued Cynthia. "We all got hurt by this! It's not Guardnia's fault that his teacher –" she then had a moment of gulping hesitation. "It's not his fault that people attacked the Pope…"
The memory of the powder keg that had set things off to begin with seemed to have somehow defused the situation, perhaps due to its gravity. All four of them calmed down as the events leading to their present situation seemed to settle in for the first time. As the red from Guardnia's face and Kastiel's killing intent faded, the young teenagers took deep breaths and took in the scenery around them.
The sight of the Herculean Road, once the main artery of Sanctuary Town, had become a cornucopia of smoking craters, burning walls, marching soldiers and desolate families caught in the crossfire. A battle had erupted in Sanctuary's Coliseum the day before when, literally out of nowhere, a group of armored men, which some were saying that included Gold Saints, cowardly attacked and attempted to murder the Holy Father himself during an execution ceremony.
The hours that had followed were of mass panic and devastating, all-out fighting. Gold, Silver and even Bronze Saints were attacking their former friends and comrades while crowds tried to flee the scenes without getting trampled, shot or wiped out of existence by the showers of cosmos. The Army of Athena, finding itself with enemies popping up from within, had been instantly sent to a state of confusion and was unable to effectively combat the threat, leading to the most protracted and painstaking battle that Sanctuary had felt since the Lost Canvas War two hundred years earlier, and all right in the heart of the realm. Even though the Pope's life was fortunately saved, all of the major enemy figures had escaped, leaving behind blackened streets, corpses of families, destroyed walls, tired men, appalled women and crying children while sabotaging the ports in their wake, paralyzing the capital of Athena.
Even after the brief moment of calmness, Kastiel could still feel his rage boiling from just the mere thought of it all.
"The Gemini Saint has declared martial law! He said we are at war with these… 'Black Saints'. And your teacher is among them, Guardnia! " He growled with the memories of the revolt still clear in his voice. "They're interrogating everyone… suspecting everyone… drafting everyone because your stupid traitor of a teacher decided it was A GOOD IDEA TO PUNCH THE FREAKING POPE!"
"I told you to SHUT UP! How could have I known that he would do something batshit crazy like that? How could ANYONE KNOW?!" Guardnia shouted back, tears suddenly in his eyes.
"You're his student! YOU COULD! Did you know about this, uh, that he was fucking crazy in the head?!"
"He NEVER told me anything about this! He was acting just fine yesterday! I- " Guardnia grabbed his head and fell on his knees, feeling memories of the interrogation rushing back. "…. I don't know. I just don't k-know!"
Another moment of tense, distraught silence followed between the four youths, who tried to come to terms with the situation without getting in the way of the people still rushing back and forth to harness defenses.
Nam was the first to try to calm things down. "O-okay, everyone… so we are at war… it's fine, we are going to be alright,… right?"
Kastiel rolled his eyes and 'ugh'ed at Nam's unwillingness to treat the situation as angrily as he did.
Cynthia couldn't agree with Nam, either. "No, this is bad… Kastiel is right, there's going to be a lot of fighting and they have Silver and Bronze Saints on their side too. Sooner or later they will call for us."
Nam laid out his hands. "B-but, but, our training isn't even complete! They can't have us fighting, we are barely Bronze Saints! Surely the Gold Saints can handle this by themselves! No, I'm sure people haven't gone completely crazy to the point of drafting kids like us." Cynthia and Kastiel looked away in denial. Nam turned to Guardnia, pulling for his arm. "Hey, Guard', come on, you're the smartest guy here, tell them I'm right!"
Guardnia tried to desperately think things over, but even after all the hours he's had to do so his mind still rang in shock. His stomach felt like a bottomless well. "I… I don't know…"
"W-what do you mean, you don't know? Stop saying that already!"
"Mr. Perfect means he's not the hotshot he thought he was!" Kastiel rattled. "He couldn't even see right in front of him that his teacher was treacherous rat, how do you expect him to know 'what will happen now'? Get over yourself, Nam, gosh!" He raised his fist in the sky. "But I'll show these bastards! If they really do send us to war I'll smash the face of every Black Saint I can just to get back at what they made Sanctuary do to me!"
Nam was agape. "W-what? Do you know what you're saying, Kass?! They have Gold Saints on their side, our Gold Saints. Do you have any idea how strong they are?" His own face went white at the memories of once seeing the Pisces Saint, Aeneas, who now was part of the enemy; humiliate Nam's own master, a veteran Silver Saint, without lifting a finger in the battle that had erupted the day before. "If they send us to battle… we won't stand a chance. My Goddess, we're all going to die…"
"We are not going to die!" Cynthia took charge. "We just… None of us had any idea of what was going on in Priam's head, especially not Guard'. They say there's other teachers involved in this, not just his. If they managed to hide their plan even from the Gold Saints… what chance did any of us had to prevent this?"
"Does that mean that we shouldn't complain about being held in cells and water boarded until they decided our shitty Bronze Saint powers were not threats?!" Kastiel roared, raising his fist at the Amazon.
"No! It just means that… that…"
"Cynthia means that there was nothing we could have done." Guardnia completed her thoughts. He sighed, wiped his tears and stood back up. "… I'm sorry, guys, I wish I could have seen something about my teacher, but I couldn't…. He… He tricked me. He tricked me like he tricked everyone else here."
The admission of defeat seemed to disarm the rest of the group. Nam patted his back. "Hey, Guard', it's okay, just… I just don't want us fighting like this with each other when we could be doing something to make things better. But everything is so crazy, right now. What exactly should we do?"
"We'll think of something together, Nam-"
"Fuck you!" Kastiel pointed at the Pisces Austrinus Saint. "Don't you dare think you can keep deciding for the four of us what to think; you proved to be just as stupid and ignorant as we are!"
"Yeah, but Guard' isn't punching people around" Cynthia defended as her mask turned sternly to the blonde, red armored Greek "anymore at least." she stressed harshly to remind Guardnia to show the example.
"I'm not going to die in some Siberian trench because that guy's teacher-"
"I think we can ALL agree we drew the last straw on the teacher department." Cynthia reminded him, the tone in her voice poisonous for once.
Kastiel staggered and sweated, reminded of the Amazon aspirant's master, and folded his arms resigned. "Alright, fine… It's not like kicking blondie's ass again will do me any actual good."
"Um, saying 'again' implies you've managed to do it before-"
"Shut up, Nam!"
While the two youths argued, the future Cepheus Saint picked up a wrecked piece of pavement from the ground and stared at it solemnly, reminded of the time Priam first taught him to smash one with cosmos. He remembered thinking how lucky he was getting such a kind teacher, especially compared to Cynthia, Kastiel and Nam, who all seemed to get stuck with Sanctuary's creepiest, harshest and most emotionally violent wrecks of educators. What a fool he was.
Cynthia saw him think hard about Priam and couldn't help but feel sorry. "It's going to be alright, Guard'."
The consolation landed harshly on the skepticism growing in Guardnia's heart, unleashing a sudden teeth-gritting rage. His hand glowed blue in contrast to its red glove as his fingers tightened in a surge of anger, smashing the rock into pebbles and white dust. This got everyone's attention and Guardnia took advantage of it.
"Yeah, I'll be alright, I won't be like him." He declared.
"… What do you mean? What are you going to do?" asked Nam.
Kastiel folded arms. "More peppy nonsense, I'm sure."
"I'm going to be a better teacher than him!" vowed Guardnia, his blue eyes sharpening on the dust in his hand. "After this war is over I won't rest till I get the Silver Cloth. I'll get it in the meantime if I can. After that I'll become a Master and prove to this place I had nothing to do with his betrayal by being a better Master than he ever was!"
Kastiel laughed. "HA, HA, HA, next thing you'll say is that you'll surpass him as a fighter as well!"
Guardnia stared his uppity friend right in the eyes, silencing him with a glare and bold words. "I'll do that too if I have to!"
Kastiel sweated. "… You're not serious, are you?! How can the runt of a traitor have any hope to become a good teacher?! Once I get my Kerberos Cloth I'll have a hundred subordinates trained before you can put out a Bronze Saint for this shithole. Hell, I'll have Bronze Saints trained better than you ever could before you get someone to survive a training ground!"
"Then I'll do it on Andromeda Island, too, the worst training Ground in all of Sanctuary, to prove you wrong, too!" Guardnia's fist tightened. "I'll show my students life in Sanctuary isn't the hell that was thrown at the four of us! You watch me!"
Cynthia had to intervene, shoving her friend away from Kastiel to anchor him to reality. "Guardnia, do you know what you're saying?! Andromeda Island has a nearly impossible training difficulty! We've all heard the stories from the orphanage that it's a death sentence! Kids are lucky to survive the pre-test! Besides, have you forgotten? You are talking about replacing Cetus as the Master of Andromeda Island, my teacher! Do you think that will just happen by itself if you wish it hard enough?!"
The teenage girl's words carried extra weight since it was known her path was on the island Guardnia was challenging. Her compatible birth stars with Cassiopeia had doomed her to tutelage under Cepheus Cetus, who many knew to be a bastard of a trainer who delighted in watching his trainees suffer the horrors of Andromeda Island.
Guardnia's resolution, however, only seemed to steel under these circumstances. "That's all the more reason for me to do this since I can't stand the thought of that guy as a teacher, either. If Priam betrayed Sanctuary for a reason, I won't let him be right about it. I'll change this place for the better!"
Out of the four of them, Nam seemed the least enthusiastic about this. "I… I don't want to fight, guys." The weakling Bronze Saint looked down in shame. "Haven't we done enough, reaching as far as our first Cloths? Can't we just let this breeze past us and go on with our lives? Guardnia, how crazy do you have to be to want to go challenge that monster, Cetus? I seriously don't understand you guys…"
Kastiel growled like an angry dog. "That's because you're a whiny coward! What the hell did you become a Saint for if not to fight? Do you just wanna sit around in the lounge doing nothin' all day?"
"Just a moment ago you were punching Guardnia around because his teacher dragged us into war, and war is pretty much what we are being trained for. I don't think you get to call Nam a coward, Kass." mentioned Cynthia, embarrassing the ruffian.
The marching of armored men around them in the streets reminded the four of them of the present state of affairs. "Guys, we should go. They'll probably yell at us for causing trouble if we just stand in the way of the adults trying to put order in this city." argued Nam, convincing Kastiel to join him. "Guard', let's forget about this fight, okay? We'll be at the Coliseum refugee tents trying to get some food. They say the traitors sabotaged the water and refrigeration so there's only some supplies left. We'll save you a seat."
Guardnia nodded. "I'll be right there."
Cynthia waited till Nam and Kastiel walked away before grabbing her friend's arm. "Hey, Guard', don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"Cynthia, I'll be fine, we fight all the time. I'll just shrug this off and-"
"I'm not talking about Kass, I'm talking about your little speech earlier. Don't mess with Master Cetus, he is a dangerous man!"
Guardnia's blue eyes blinked in surprise. Although years had passed since she took up her mask, the lack of facial warning before a stern yell from the amazon still startled her friends every now and then. "Alright, I won't, it was just a figure of spee-"
"Don't give me that, I know you! You're not the type to kid about stuff like this. I get that you're hurt because of what Priam did, but walking around shouting like crazy about changing the system will cause us all trouble from the grown-ups. You've never been an idiot like Kass, so don't get a crash course on it now!" She saw him divert his gaze so she tightened her grasp on his arm painfully to get his attention. "You never liked Cetus, but I am stuck with him, like it or not, and you should probably get used to the idea of becoming his subordinate too now that Priam is gone! Sanctuary won't want loose ends like a half-trained Bronze without a teacher now that we found out half the Gold Saint Order was planning a coup!"
He pushed her hand away. "I won't let that happen. I won't even give him a chance to claim me as a student."
Cynthia lifted her chin slightly "What? What do you mean? What the heck did you do, Guard'?!"
"… I'm going to apply for Silver Training straight away. I'll go to the Taurus Temple and ask the Taurus Gold Saint to finish my education."
She stood appalled. "…. WHAT?! Guardnia, are you serious?! That's your plan?!"
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?!"
"Where do I even start?! How about the fact that, even though I hate agreeing with Kass, it's highly unlikely the Gold Saints will just accept training the disciple of a Black Saint teacher?! How about the fact that ninety percent of applicants give up or die by the first week? How about the fact that we need you to stick with us these months rather than high tail to hide under a Gold Saint's temple while the rest of us fight a war?!"
The young Greek, however, never intended to offer Cynthia much argument. "I've already filed for an audience. We'll see if they accept me or not."
There was a moment of tense stare in which the Amazon undoubtedly was twisting her masked face into an expression of pure rage before she violently punched his chest, causing the Bronze Saint to stumble back. "You IDIOT! What is wrong with you?! Do you think you get the right to do something dangerous like that just because of what Priam did?! Go to hell! I hope the Taurus Saint does accept your application and shatters your pelvis on your first training day so you can see how much of a pain in the ass you're being to your friends today!" She then walked off angrily.
Left alone with a pained and bruised shoulder and a lot to think over, Guardnia tried to make sense of the way he would make the gang understand his decision. A lot would ride on this undertaking of his to tackle on the Taurus Temple challenge, but if he went through with it then at least he wouldn't have to think about the possibility of being taken under Cetus' wing.
Truth be told, he was unsure if he had the strength to keep going with his training after what Master Priam had done. His mind was still reeling from what had happened and the occasional outbreak of tears still assaulted the otherwise taciturn star student. All he could do was focus in going through with what he had declared to his friends about becoming a better teacher than Priam, and do his best to ignore the bleeding in his heart he had hidden from the others.
Yes, he had to ignore it. Dark days awaited everyone in Sanctuary and his friends could die, so he could not afford to lose focus.
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Eight Years Later (1971)
Andromeda Island
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Guardnia could not ignore this.
He tried hard, very hard, but he just could not.
Wrapped in a cloak on top of his armor, he was still sitting there in that rock, in the middle of the chilling Andromeda Island night, just staring at the cross with Cyrus' name, hand cupped on mouth in sorrow. It should have been very easy for him to walk away by now, after all these murders, or at least that's what the Cepheus Cloth had assured him when Guardnia first learned of the False Freedom Test he had to administer to his students, but instead of apathy all he felt was the crushing weight of his sins torturing his humanity from the inside out.
He had been doing this for years, forced to lure his students with the promise of freedom and everything they could ever desire should they accept to abandon the Path of the Cloth; but what would they get for being true to their desires? A stab in the heart by their teacher for not being loyal enough to Athena to forget everything and everyone they cared about.
That was the cruel lullaby of the False Freedom Test; an innocent, yet determined, speech of seduction he would have to sing every time a student passed a major test of their desired Cloths or scored enough losses in sparring practice. If the student declines to leave three times they would pass and he would allow them to live, but if the conditions are met again, he must conduct the test again. This had been Cyrus' fifth False Freedom test, not that the student was aware of it; Cepheus' offers of liberty and peace had all been rejected until then, but it seemed that the prospect of seeing his loved ones once again spoke higher in the student's heart this time, who finally failed the test by saying 'yes' to it.
What was all of this deceit for… tradition and loyalty? To make certain every single student who got to know the secrets of Sanctuary would only leave the army in a coffer? Would Priam or Cetus have killed him or Cynthia had they said 'yes' at some point in their strange discussions and offers to release them? And what good would another cross on a desert island do to Athena?
Would there have been no Civil War if all Training Grounds had this test? Guardnia had tried to tell himself that before, but now he felt sick to his stomach to even consider it.
It was as he wailed on another tragedy that his senses picked up on the slight slide of a foot on dirty ground behind him!
Guardnia reacted like a bullet, turning around instantly and launching his chain. "I SEE YOU! THUNDER SLASH!" The sword-edged chain swiped the air like a whip but the figure dodged with a side slide, allowing the attack to cut apart boulders behind him.
The cloaked figure touched his wrist as if preparing a move, but the Cepheus Saint roared in fury and unleashed another attack by pulling his sword edge back and launching his cross-edge. "You're not getting away! Cepheus SHADOW CROSS!"
The figure's aura burst into a flare of white light as it high-sped out of sight, but the slivering, dark-blue cross chain tracked him like a snake, wrapping around something invisible that upon feeling tightened collapsed on the floor with a grunt.
Guardnia panted in adrenaline, feeling his coolness of mind return to him now that he secured his capture. He tightened the cross chain of Cepheus as the figure stood back up, coughing and grasping the metal links around his wrist as if they stung him. He chuckled to the Saint's surprise. "Ha, ha… not bad… You haven't changed a bit; only your sub-space chain technique could get the drop on my own technique like this…"
Cepheus's blue eyes widened in horror as he recognized the voice "Y-you… You B-BASTARD!" His dark blue aura exploded and the chain zapped the intruder, sending him screaming back to the ground. Waves of shock followed, blasting the cloaked man over and over until all signs of fortitude vanished. It was not until the stranger was coughing out in pain on the ground that Guardnia eased the attack. "You're supposed to be dead! Go back to Hades and suffer your punishment!"
The figure struggled to get his senses back together. "I… I might as well really be in Cocytus already…" he managed to whisper, his voice thickened by what could only be a background of pain. "… but it seems it was not my time yet, I had things left to do."
"You… fucking-- You brought us nothing but misery!" Cepheus growled, uncharacteristically rough in his speech. "If you rebels are still alive you're lucky I don't wipe you out right now, or worse, bring you to the Gold Saints!"
The trembling man gathered all his strength and, in a feat that took even the enraged Guardnia aback, stood back up against the pain and faltering in his zapped muscles. Looking up at the Silver Saint allowed the moonlight to pierce his hood just enough to reveal the scars and burns on his face, stunning the Cepheus out of his bloodlust state.
His hands raised slowly in peace sign. "Please, I didn't come here to fight, Guard', I just-"
"Don't you call me that!"
"Cepheus Saint!...I apologize."
"Damn you…Why shouldn't I kill you right now?!" he demanded to know. In truth, only the sheer stun of seeing that man once again had stopped him so far.
"Because I came with an offer to you, man to man," he pleaded "an offer that I think you should consider."
Cepheus Guardnia felt his stomach turning. He didn't need any elaboration to guess what the man wanted. The timing of his appearance was no coincidence. He could tell the intruder was observing and waiting for Guardnia to doubt his own convictions before making a sweeping appearance with a seemingly irresistible deal.
"If you're gonna say what I think you will, forget about it! I'm not joining your insane crusade! I didn't watch my friends get whipped to the battlefield and bleed out in Bluegrad so you would just live, surviving in whatever dark hole the Gold Saints couldn't find you in, come with me with this ridiculous offer and accept it! In fact," he stepped menacingly towards the chained intruder, raising his other bladed chain, "something tells me the right thing to do is to chop off your head right now so you won't throw more young lives at Athena's swords."
The man's arms dropped in defeat. "Yes… I imagined you would say that."
"Yet you came here anyway!"
"And you don't know why?" the rebel asked. He then pointed at the fresh grave behind Guardnia. "What was his name?"
Disgust overcame Guardnia's expression. "What right do you have to know?!"
The rebel merely read the name carved on the cross. "Do you think…. Cyrus … deserved any of this?"
Something felt hollow all of a sudden inside the Cepheus' chest.
"Saint Cepheus… I can tell… that you've killed for too long. Too much innocent blood is on your hands. I know because I, once upon a time, held a similar position."
Maintaining a secure grasp on his chain, Guardnia allowed himself to glance away in sickness at the words spoken to him. "And yet your answer was to spill more innocent blood!"
"No! You don't understand, you still don't understand what we're doing…. but I don't blame you." The hooded rebel looked all over the island's landscape to contemplate its natural mysteries. "You're thinking 'Sanctuary is a very old place, very old indeed. It represents something bigger, more important than all of us. The Goddess holds salvation from the gods at the end. She has fought for us and our values again and again. We must simply persevere and protect'. I know all those arguments. I preached them myself with a great passion once before."
The hooded rebel then took a cautious kneeling forward, making sure all of his movements were within Guardnia's boundaries so he wouldn't feel threatened, and took up the cold, ashy sand of Andromeda Island to his hand.
He continued his reasoning as he stared at the grains. "Yet no man or woman worthy of the cloth lacks empathy. You must think of this too as you look at your student's faces when you stab them; why is it that you conduct this ritual in secrecy, killing the children that fail Athena away from the eyes of others, or why conduct it at all? Why is it that 'Erectheus', who famously crafted all of this island's armors, tells you in his ancient scroll to lie and encourage the innocent to take a step forward to their deaths?"
The rebel opened his hand just as a gust of wind passed by, wiping away the sand from the palm. "It's because, just like Sanctuary tells us, there are bigger matters at hand. The wars with Hades, with Poseidon, with Ares, with the Black Saints…" he stressed this last one in particular "and on and on, but there is no war too big to be unjust, Cepheus Saint, even when conducted by the goddess Athena. There is no murder that is wiped clean of uncertainty… I thought otherwise too until my loved ones were targeted by Sanctuary's insanity."
Guardnia's fists clenched and raised in protest. "And what do YOU want, then?! More war?! To fight the Pope and the Gold Saints endlessly for a lost cause, further setting us back?! Causing my friends to have to slaughter each other?! You people are just as bad as Ares, Hades and all those Gods put together! At least they won't pretend to be on our side!"
"All you want is peace, is that not right?" the rebel suggested, already guessing what counter speech the Silver Saint had prepared. It was only through a visibly inordinate amount of energy that the Cepheus stopped himself from attacking on this cue. "My offer will remain on the table-"
"Fuck you! I'm not doing anything you want!"
"Why not?" The rebel demanded to know, steeling his tone for the first time. "Have you ever wondered why you are forced to do what you do? Have you ever wondered why your Cloth whispers to your heart to finish off the worthless candidates and throw them at the volcano?"
"OF COURSE I HAVE! A THOUSAND TIMES I HAVE!" Cepheus exploded, breathing heavily afterwards. "But I know your blasted answer to it isn't right! You people tried it your way eight years ago and failed! All you managed to do was cause more death, more bloodshed, more suffering, and even lose your battles against the Gold Saints that had the decency not to fall for your siren song! What did you accomplish, huh?!"
This time the man did not seem to have a counter ready in the tongue tip. He even glanced down in shame.
"What did you manage to prove?!" Guardnia continued, feeling the conversation tide completely in his favor. "That you're as hypocritical as everyone else?! Your precious freedom-fighting group was shattered throughout battles across the world and nothing changed! My friends, all innocent Bronze Saints, fought your curs on the snow fields, shed their blood on the swamps so we wouldn't have to pay the price of your insanity any further! How many innocent young Saints died that day when you first attacked us, as opposed to the children I've had to kill?! How many young boys and girls would be alive today, helping me keep Sanctuary safe, helping me not to have to take in more unfortunate candidates, if you had not decided to turn rabid eight years ago and wage war on a place that has never known defeat?!"
The man shook his head tiredly. "There is… no knowing."
"And yet you dare to ask me to join you… because of Cyrus' death... and I thought I was the one dishonoring him today!" Cepheus was done, sick of the sight of the man in front of him. Dark blue cosmos ran down his bladed chain, which crackled with warm fiery sparks.
"Cepheus Saint… don't do anything rash. Please listen to what I have to say."
"I have made my decision! I vowed all those years ago that in the wake of the war you caused I would become a better teacher than my Master, that I would help restore the seeds you burned! I intend to keep that promise, no matter how much heartache I suffer in the meantime."
The rebel tensed his body. "Sorry, Guard', I can't allow you to kill me today-"
"ENOUGH!" The Silver pulled the man to the air towards himself with the chain. "CEPHEUS SHADOW GLADE!" Guardnia screamed as his body jumped towards the target like a shade and conducted his decapitating, glazing fire slash combo. There was a burst of white light on contact and the sound of his edge cutting through cloth.
… but his sword flailed helplessly, merely slicing a garment that fell to the ground without owner.
Guardnia tensed and looked all over "WHAT?! How did he-"
"Like I said, my offer remains on the table, Cepheus Saint." A voice echoed all over the place. Guardnia's blue eyes searched helplessly for the source his ears failed to home in on. "We will meet again when you are ready to accept it."
"I'll do NO SUCH THING!" Guardnia affirmed.
"You won't have to… destiny will play the cards for you." The voice reassured, now sounding like it was distancing itself. "Sanctuary hasn't changed, after all, and just like it did with me… it's rotten core will show itself and you will know what you must do on your own..."
Guardnia rustled his chains around franticly as the voice echoed away. "DAMN YOU! Come back here!"
"Not today …"
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Present Day
Golden Zodiac
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Cepheus Guardnia stood in the Pope's Chambers, waiting to meet the Pope but instead met with a pair of Papal Guards, two men heavily armed with capes, triangular shoulder plates, lamellar, helmet, sword at the waist and halberd at hand, blocking him in front of locked doors. They gave him stern looks under the shadow of their visors, stoically risking their lives guarding the Pope's gate in a place where at least a dozen people should be able to split their world apart.
Papal Guards, however, were deceptively strong; while most assumed them to be on equal standing with foot soldiers, they were handpicked to guard the temples for a reason. It was thought that their position was initially filled with ceremonial cannon fodder, but after the events of the Third Civil War they began constituting an increasingly fearsome force. Many were conflict veterans who thought little of cutting down intruders with their halberds and swords. Some theorized that the strongest members were secretly Gold-Ranks, the name given to warriors who could reach the speed of light but did not necessarily have Gold Cloths, and that they had fought against Gold Saints in the past. Few people wished to test them on the battlefield other than their rivals, the Herculean Guard.
It was hard to picture someone getting past this division to attack the Pope, even if the Gold Saints were absent. "Then again, I imagine the Pope himself is no slouch."
However, even the mighty warriors could not help but join Guardnia in the feeling of stun and exasperation at the loud noises coming from the throne room. The large wooden doors, behind this particular pair of guardians, were booming with indignant yelling from the inside. The Silver Saint could distinctly make out the sound of a riled up young girl arguing with His Holiness, Pope Arles III, demanding explanations, actions and restitutions despite the vain efforts of Sanctuary's leader to calm her down. Guardnia wondered what kind of person would have the gall to talk so boldly to the man who ruled Athena's land in her absence, especially in his own chambers.
As if on cue with Guardnia's thoughts, the Papal Guards reached for the door handles and opened them simultaneously, letting out the brave debater, and Guardnia felt his mouth drop a little at the sight of a young girl, no more than ten years old, stepping out of the room accompanied by her pet owl flying by her shoulder.
Olivia, provisional leader of the Saintia Order, walked out of the Pope's throne room with a bone to pick with the world. She had dark hair running down her back and decorated by a thin hair band on top of her head, a typical white gown of classical Greek fashion, a set of golden, carved metal bands on her neck and lower chest, a long skirt running down to her ankles and a set of sandals typical of Sanctuary dwellers. Despite her small size her eyes seemed as fierce as the owl accompanying her march, telling the Cepheus Silver Saint there was more to her than a runt's temper, and the fact that she just seemed to leave an exasperated Pope in her wake confirmed his suspicions she meant serious harm.
She halted, annoyed, at the sight of the Silver Saint, allowing her pet owl to land on her shoulder and coo. "Hmph… So you are the one behind all this trouble!"
Guardnia couldn't help but blink. "I'm sorry, I…? Can I help you?"
"Don't play games with me!" she shouted, pointing her finger at him. "It's because of you the Pope won't give me that Cassiopeia candidate for my academy! Do you enjoy advancing your career at the expense of others' sacred missions?! The Saintia Order has protected Athena for countless generations; we are her most trusted guards! I see no reason to spare any more potential 'maids' to the Amazon Order so the Silver Saints can get their Master merits! If you had any decency and piety, you would ask the Pope to transfer Elda to me as soon as you entered!"
Guardnia let out an understanding 'oh', figuring out the situation. Since it was a kid yelling at him, no older than some of his former students, he decided to contain a chuckle and be patient. The young girl was probably appointed prematurely to her demanding post (though the necessary talent for it shocked him) and was probably just trying to defend her side.
"I apologize, miss… Olivia, is it?" the girl only returned an angrier look, obviously not being the kind of person who enjoyed having to remind people of her name. "I assure you I had nothing to do with this decision; my friend, the Cassiopeia Saint, is active and healthy, so I would have no reason to ask the Pope to let me teach a replacement for her. I know about this as much as you do, you can believe me-"
"I don't believe you!" the young girl rudely asserted. "We only have 88 available Cloths and we already can't count on the Pope for the best twelve! I know most Silver Saints make their living and fame training new generations and competing for career bonuses so you can stop pretending you're not part of the wild dogs packs fighting over the small bone that are the girls of Sanctuary!" She then let out an infuriated sigh. "I should have known this task would not be easy…! No one respects the Saintia Order because we don't wear masks and Her Lady isn't with us at the moment, but that doesn't mean our traditions should be trampled on!"
Guardnia scratched his head, amazed by the girl's determination to be as aggressive as possible, but the matter was off his hands. "I promise I will mention to the Pope your concerns."
"Don't bother! I already did myself, so what 'good' could you do?" She gave him one last scornful look and walked past the Silver Saint. "What would Her Lady Athena think at the sight of my order in such a state? This is not the end of this. I will get Elda to join the Saintia ranks, mark my words."
"Saint Guardnia, please come in," the Papal Guard pleaded.
The Silver Saint happily followed the command, entering the throne room and letting the wooden doors close behind him with a loud clunk. He found himself in the presence of the grey-haired, masked man who commanded Sanctuary and was quick to take a knee, lowering his head to the floor in reverence.
"Welcome, Saint Guardnia of Cepheus, Lord of Andromeda Island." The Pope then waved his hand upwards. "Rise, I hope your journey to Sanctuary wasn't too much an inconvenience from your affairs."
"Not at all, your Holiness." Guardnia assured, standing back up. "Even if you had not directly summoned me, I would still attend the festivity; my old teacher, the Gold Saint of Taurus, is retiring, and I wouldn't dishonor him with absence for the world."
"I see. That's very devout of you. Then I hope the leader of the Saintia did not give you too much trouble on her way out. Poor Olivia, every year I have to tell her that I can't afford to bolster their numbers in Switzerland at the cost of the Amazon division. I wish they could cooperate somehow." The Pope lamented.
Guardnia remained silent about this. It was not his place to criticize the efforts of his comrades. "I am surprised at her age, your Holiness."
"All Saintias are very young, priding themselves in their grace and personal connection with Athena, but Olivia IS an exceptional case. Enough of that, though, I called you here for a reason; to discuss your new two students. I hope I can count on your talent to temper the coming generation of Saints."
Guardnia humbly nodded.
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Chapter 23
First Arc
Episode 15
The Goodbye – Part 2
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"LADIES and GENTLEMEN! Saints, Amazons and Saintias!" shouted the announcer to the microphone, waving his hand past his sunglasses and onto his hair, as he entered the sandy field. "Welcome to Sanctuary Town's COLISEUM!"
The people erupted in cheering, having waited long enough for the spectacle to start, and threw roses, coins and ripped admission tickets at the field.
The announcer pointed at the sky sharply. "I see everyone is very excited today, and that is just FANTASTIC because we have an exciting show for you in this glorious afternoon! Boys and Girls believe me when I say; we scratched the bottom of Sanctuary's barrel to bring you the BEST, the BEASTS and the BESTIALS to honor the sunset of our three BE-LO-VED Gold Saints!"
"Get the show on the road already!" one audience member screamed amongst the cheers with a huge smile.
"WHO-OOH!"
"I wanna see blood flowing!"
"Let the lions out!"
"Oh boy we got a tremendous audience today!" the announcer admitted. "I see faces from all corners of the globe here! Who's from Africa?!" There was a small cheering and lifting from one of the stands. "Now who's from America, uh?!" There was an even bigger cheer from another part. "Now give me an even louder cheer from the people from our sweet home GREECE!" A loud eruption of happy shouts across the Coliseum from myriad spots filled the air, one that probably echoed across the entire town.
The announcer clapped his hands in amazement before dramatically grasping the mike "People of Sanctuary, we have an amazing show for you and we're starting right off with a bang! Welcome to the Sisyphean Challenge!"
"YEAH!"
"Bring the fighters!"
"In this spectacular tournament, students from all across Sanctuary signed up for the chance of a grand Battle Royale, but since we got so many candidates this time, we had to set up a little elimination round first. Only the four winners of these first rounds will get to fight each other in the finale for the chance of being graced by his Holiness and join the HALL OF FAME!" he hyped, pointing at one of the Coliseum outlying towers that let down a carpet of numbers with past figures, figures that were topped by none other than a student named Saga. "Now let's get this show on the ROAD!"
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Coliseum Outskirts
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Just outside the Coliseum, on one of the open roofs of the town's streets, a young girl of dark brown, neck length wavy hair, blue eyes and a set of sanctuary-style padded training clothes stacked a box she found on the street and stood on it. With a visor in hand, she attempted to see past the tall walls of the Coliseum.
She growled frustratingly "Well, this couldn't suck more! I can't see anything! All I can hear is the dumb announcer hyping those idiots above everyone's voices. Hey Albiore, would you please stop fiddling with that and give me a lift? I wanna see the fights!"
The equally young, blue eyed blonde Argentinian boy was by her side, in his blue trainer, sitting against the roof's edge. He used a crayon to nonchalantly draw on a small paper block and was just in perfect disposition to give her a hand.
He didn't seem interested, though.
Elda saw him ignoring her and wasn't one bit pleased "Oh, sorry, Al. You want a punch in the face instead, don't you?"
"Not really." he casually responded, drawing deeper lines of color into his masterpiece.
"...Come on, don't be a lame-o like you always are! We came here to spend the day together before we get shipped to our respective Masters, remember?" she asked, getting off her podium. "We don't know if we'll get to see each other again. Within a month's time we could be dead due to some dumb pretest. Get your butt off the ground and help me pretend this isn't the last time we'll ever see each other!"
This seemed to reach Albiore just enough for him to break away from his carving. "I know, El', it's just...I just don't see what's so interesting about watching our former orphanage friends fight for a pat on the shoulder from the Maidens. They're not even that good at it."
Elda fumed so hard her face almost turned red. "They didn't let me in cause I'm a girl so I wanted to at least see the others get theirs butts kicked! What's wrong with that?"
"You mean other than the obvious spite in it?" he realized he was pushing boundaries with his friend so he decided to cut her a break. "Look, Elda, there's a ton of other things to do. There's a huge festival in town, remember? We got rides, souvenirs, cotton candy, the card game… only to name a few. There's no reason to hover around a dumb Coliseum game. The audience will just want you to lose an arm or something, anyway, why not have fun like everyone else?"
Elda spotted the younger kids shouting in the streets about the dumb trading game. "Yeah, other than dying of boredom...You know, you could kick all their asses if you subscribed yourself! You could even get me a ticket to the Coliseum! I don't understand how someone can be so good at fighting while being so disinterested in it. I'll tell you, it ain't fair one bit! What kind of boy are you?"
"Fighting is for idiots like Dante who got nothing better to do than trying to be the alpha bully in the sparring rings. I kind of wish we had a friend our age who was inclined to arts, honestly. Besides you could have my fighting grades if you just focused a bit…instead of, you know, reading motorbike magazines." he asked, his tone still infuriatingly uninvested like he's had this talk a hundred times before. He smirked. "I mean, what kind of girl are you?
"UGHH, shut UP! Seriously! You don't even sound like the kind of kid that got drafted from a war." Elda hesitated and gulped, however, when she saw Albiore widening his eyes hurtfully. She glanced away remorsefully. "Um, sorry, Al, that was mean."
"It's okay."
She rested her arms on the roof's balcony, looking down at the streets and trying to take solace on the huss-and-fuss of the festival, which seemed to be going well all things considered. She gasped when she spotted a pair of young, blue haired boys by the Coliseum's entrance calling attention to a hurdle of tickets one was waving in the air.
"Hey, look, Al, some entrances are still available!" She grabbed him by the wrist and practically dragged him off the roof with a yelp towards the two kids. "HEY, you, are you selling tickets to the games? Ah, ah, I almost gave up hope."
"Ahhhhh? What do you poor fart-knockers want? I'm selling these to people with CASH! Piss off!" the taller, older one with darker blue hair griped.
"WHAT?! Hey, what's your problem, we got the money!"
"Hey Deathmask, don't aggravate the clientele, grub is grub." the shorter one berated before charismatically fiddling back his hair bangs. "Pay no mind to my partner here, he's just looking out for my interests. We can sell you some leftover passes for the games, I'll even make a special deal for you and…" Milo then noticed the young blonde boy by the amazon trainee (or so he assumed she was) "Oh you have a date already..."
"Uh? Date? This is just my friend Al." Elda obliviously clarified. She ran through her pocket for cash and embarrassingly pulled out the measly sum of ten drachmas. "Um… how many tickets does this get me?"
Deathmask burst out laughing. "None, from the looks of it. Look, snotty kids, get outta here before I force you out. You're scaring off the rich customers with your stink."
"... WHAT?!"
Albiore seemed offended for the first time and stepped forward. "Hey, there's no need for that, we just want a way in. We'll make a deal." he reached inside his own pocket and pulled an extra amount of cash. "How's this?"
Elda gasped. "Al, that's the rest of your allowance for the festival."
"It's fine." he assured. "We sneaked out to have fun together, we'll work something out for cards and sweets later."
Deathmask gave one scrooge look at the two miserable offers and huffed. "I said to beat off, ya street curs. I can sell our tickets to the rich kids for three times that amount!"
The two kids ignored the bully and instead addressed Milo, who seemed more interested earlier to accept the deal. "Hey, you can work something out, right? Come on, we just wanna see one of the most important fights of the year." Elda pleaded, doing her best to replace her angry look with a pleading one.
But the incognito Scorpio Saint refused with a heavy conscience "You two seem like nice dudes but… this ain't a good deal at all."
Elda stepped back and thought her options over. "Well, alright…."
Milo sighed. "Thank you for under-"
"You give me no choice. GUARDS! HEY GUARDS!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Deathmask, Milo and even Albiore widened their eyes and tried to cover her mouth. "HEY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY?"
"ELDA, don't!"
But the strong young girl pushed their hands away and kept them at arm length. "GUUUAARDS! THESE KIDS ARE SELLING SWINDLED TICKETS-!" she looked back at Milo. "Sell us the tickets or else!"
"STOP IT, ALRIGHT, alright!" Milo pleaded as he saw passing patrols turn their heads at them. He wasn't afraid of a simple guard but a spanking from the Pope's maidens, especially Mrs. Shafurwatt. "We'll sell you a pair! Just shut up!"
"Oh HELL NO!" Mephisto refused, pointing a finger at her. "You shut the hell up right now, missy or -"
Elda folded her arms. "Or what?! You'll make me? We're offering fair prices-"
Mephisto's fingertip ignited into a startling blue flare, silencing them all. "Or I'll burn your tongue off, you stupid girl!" he threatened, vein popping on his forehead.
Elda gulped and backed off, along with Albiore.
The scene was interrupted by the arrival of a fifth person, a tall, adult Silver Saint with greyish hair and unfriendly mood on his face. A large, brown-furred bloodhound of equally foul mood was by his side, collar chained to the man's wrist.
"Is something going on here?" he asked. Milo pulled Deathmask's arm down to hide the flare and all four kids faced the man innocently. "What's this yelling about?"
Deathmask paled at the sight of the canine. "U-ummm nothing Mr. Silver Saint-"
"It's not Mister Silver Saint, it's Saint Kerberos!" Kastiel enforced, letting his dog, Mr. Aguilon, bark a few times menacingly to enforce it, making the four kids scream a bit and back off. "And I think I heard the words 'swindled tickets' being thrown around."
"Here, they're yours!" Milo threw the tickets at Elda and blitzed off with Deathmask. The bloodhound still tried to run after them but Kastiel held the beast back, noticing the unnatural speed the two kids possessed.
Elda and Albiore backed off from the floating pieces of paper. "We weren't doing anything wrong!"
The Silver Saint seemed distracted, and so he was as Kastiel was blinking and staring at the faint trail of cosmos he detected on the ground the other two kids had fled through. He recognized the younger one for having been the kid giving prank tourist tours in Rodario and messing around with the cafeteria's food containers. It was clear the poor girl was telling the truth and that the two kids there just earlier were Gold-Rank trainees from the Zodiac Temples that were probably abusing their abilities for a cheap laugh and profit. He would have to tell the Pope about this later.
"It's alright, I know you're innocent. Still, I think you tried to buy them anyways and that would get you in trouble too." He loosened the chain on Mr. Aguilon just a bit to let the bloodhound sniff the two children. While Elda seemed threatened by the large dog, however, the blonde boy tried to pet him for a second before being barked away with a startle. Kastiel chuckled. "Ah, ah, don't worry. He looks mean and strong but he doesn't bite bad guys, just like the real Aguilon… unless you mess with him…. just like the real Aguilon too, I suppose."
Albiore and Elda both made an effort to brave through the dog's growling and patted his head slowly, slowly regaining their smiles as the canine whiffed and arfed contently. "Aww-oh, who's a good boy?" Albiore asked.
"What are you two kids doing in town?" Kastiel asked though. "Orphanage trainees and Master students travel in groups during festivals, you are not allowed to be out here on your own without a guardian. You could be in big trouble unless you give me a good excuse"
Nervousness returned to both their faces. Both the taciturn boy and the punkish girl exchanged glances and decided with a nod to tell the truth.
"We sneaked out from the Heart of Sasha Orphanage nearby. We wanted to see the festival." Elda confessed.
"We both got called out for soon receiving Masters. Since we had no idea where we would be sent off or if we would be seeing each other again, we wanted to take the occasion to have fun for a bit." Albiore elaborated. "So Elda and I split up from the rest of the group and left the grounds to come here."
The heart of the Silver Saint did not exactly melt, authoritarian as Kastiel was. His usual instinct even told him to turn the two kids in straight away. The girl's name, however, rang a bell in his head. "Is she the same Elda running up for Cynthia's Cloth? The other one must be the kid vying for Guardnia's tutelage then." he pondered. "Hmpf… that wimp. Keeps crying over killing his students but then takes more and more in every year. If it were me I'd just -" Just as the Silver Saint's thoughts turned to their usual berating rant about soft teachers, an old pain on his chest from a humiliating loss to a Bronze Saint two years earlier sparked him. "Ugh, whatever, it's not like I'll do this out of kindness. You two are coming with me!"
"You're not gonna takes us back, are ya?" asked Elda, sweating and narrowing her eyes. "Come on, we're just trying to have fun one last day together. We were gonna return by the end of the day anyway! What's the big problem with this?!"
"I'm not turning you in." he assured. "But I am taking you to people of proper authority to handle you two. Now come on before I change my mind and sic Mr. Aguilon on you kids."
The two young candidates nodded nervously and glanced at each other, making silent assurances that everything would be alright. With this done, they followed the Silver Saint to unknown destination.
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Golden Zodiac
Pope's Chambers
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"Have you had the chance to look around the festival, Guardnia?" the Pope asked, walking up to the Silver Saint.
"Yes, your Holiness, everything looks beautifully animated. I love visiting Sanctuary Town during festivities."
The masked man looked away. "Hopefully you didn't run into any shady characters. I always have to invite… troublesome VIPs to these events. And so many merchants and citizens visit the capital, too… I've had to put so many of your colleagues on full patrol."
The Cepheus Silver Saint instantly imagined the Pope was carefully trying to tell him that Cynthia's teacher was around. It didn't shock him, though, as Cetus held an unquestionably important position, and Guardnia was mature enough to be within 500 feet of the man without flipping.
The mention of his Silver Saint comrades did bring a smile to his face. "I'm pretty sure I saw most of them goofing off, your Holiness. Saint Nam has a hard time making them take him seriously, unfortunately."
Pope Arles seemed concerned. "Really? That's no good… I gave clear instructions to the MMC to rally the men. I don't want any safety measure uncompromised. I must have a stern talk with your friend."
Guardnia felt a bead of exasperated sweat on his own temple; did he just accidentally screw over Nam? "Your Holiness, I'm sure he did his best. Sometimes it's just hard to organize a division that is usually spread across the globe unto a single operation."
There was a moment of hesitation but Arles III seemed to acquiesce. "Yes, yes, I suppose…." he shook his head. "Forgive me, Saint Cepheus, sometimes I forget you and your comrades know the small realities of Sanctuary better than I do. It clouds my judgment to look down on your efforts..."
The Silver Saint blinked, taken aback by the Pope's humbled tone. "Um…. Your Holiness, you don't need to be so apologetic, I just meant-"
The raising of a hand interrupted Guardnia's assurance, requesting a moment for the elder to think. Pope Arles clasped hands behind his back, seemingly in reflection, and took a small, disconcerting walk to Guardnia's side, as if pondering how to start a difficult subject.
Finally the awkward gestures and silence were broken. "I do apologize too much, do I not?" the Pope didn't even give Guardnia a chance to deny him his venting before elaborating. "They say men who do not err or lie have nothing to feel sorry for. Sometimes I feel all I have done is make mistakes and beg for my Saints' pardon. You must truly hate me, young Guardnia."
Once again, Guardnia was stunned by the Pope's behavior.
Eventually he was able to form words in his mouth. "Your Holiness, forgive me, but you are acting most strange. We were here to discuss the training of young Albiore and Elda, correct? You wanted me to teach them?"
The Pope nodded. "Yes…. and at quite convenient timing, correct? Your last student quit and your schedule should be clear." The addressing of Guardnia's unfortunate duties towards trainees that abandoned the Cloth Path brought a pale, astonished look to the Saint's face, as if an unspoken ghost between the two was brought to light. "I did call you here to discuss the two children, Guardnia…. but also to make amends with you."
Guardnia gulped, staring widely at the masked man. "Your… Your Holiness, I…It's just the traditions, the commands of the Cloths that demand from their owners-."
"I have wronged you, Guardnia." the Lemurian interrupted. "For far too long I've forced you to walk a bloody path against what you dreamed to become. Instead of the kind exemplary teacher you strived to be, I have forced you to become a murderer."
"... What are you saying? Why are you telling me this now?"
"Before we go any further I'd like to confirm what you're probably wondering by now; King Cetus, your other overlord other than me, IS present at the festival. He should be arriving at the Golden Zodiac soon. I invited him along with the other six of the 'Seven Allies' to attend the festivities. Hopefully this will remind you of the stakes at hand regarding the Cloths of Andromeda Island and how important you've been to all of us so far, especially with what I'm about to tell you."
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Still perched on the hardy mountain side of Sanctuary's outskirts, the hooded man looked intensely through his binoculars at the foot of the large inner cliff that housed the Temples, specifically where the stairs to the first temple were located. He had seen the carriage of Akassius Steiner arrive and the man himself walk up the stairs, as well as several workers, soldiers and maids going about their busy day, but that was not what he was watching out for. Instead he observed the ins and outs of some very special people.
Tilting his sight slightly, he saw a single carriage making its way through the busy streets, escorted by Ethiopian Guards and topped by an ivory, castle-like crown. It obviously belonged to King Cetus, considering the signs, who doubtlessly wanted to stride along the Golden Zodiac to show off how untouchable he was.
Surely a commotion would be caused, drawing the Gold Saints' attention.
In fact, the hooded man counted on it.
Storing his binoculars, covering his trail and lacing his wooden case around his back, he leaped off his hiding spot towards the lower forestry, making his way northward past the Golden Zodiac.
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Sanctuary Town,
Inner Streets
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The few moments after their confrontation with the Lalybelle King were spent in tense labor, with the three Saints trying to pretend the bewildering series of events had not happened while rushing from street to street putting out civil fires. Orphée was the most astonished, not having in his wildest dreams expected to see a king, a so-called friend of Sanctuary, walk out his carriage and order a civilian dead right in front of the Saints, but still tried his best to appear hard working and committed, hiding the beads of sweat and the nervousness in his stutters.
Lance saw him suddenly drop his lyre and pick it back up for him. "Hey, you okay, kid?"
Orphée nodded embarrassedly. "Y-yeah, I'm ok, just slipped… my hand…"
The red-eyed Saint rubbed the black hair beneath his own horse helmet. "Don't let what happened affect you, we got a job to do."
"I know, I'm… not bothered." Orphée lied.
"Sure, you're right…. kids see people acting completely insane every day. Pretty normal, right?" Lance then walked ahead, catching up with Cynthia.
Lost at words, the stunned musician tucked his lyre close to chest, wondering if the Saint took offense at him not being frank. The Pegasus had been nothing but demanding and questioning to Orphée ever since they met, but after what happened with that crazy man telling his soldiers to attack them he seemed to be acting more considerate. Orphée wondered just how many strange surprises he would get that day.
He caught up to the two older saints to see them acting rather tense with each other, as if they had just been discreetly arguing. Cynthia pretended nothing was wrong, fiddling a string of blonde hair back distractedly.
"Orphée, take a break, okay? Your face is white like your armor." Cynthia ordered, to which she was answered with a hesitant nod. "I think we got the town rolling on a more peaceful speed now. I spotted some of our comrades finally picking up some slack on the street, too. Aguilon must be hard at work supporting us on the sidelines just like he promised, ah, ah."
The awkward silence made her face red inside her mask. Young Orphée still tried to chuckle back but Pegasus was silent as a statue, staring off into the distance sternly. Cynthia knew, however, she was lucky they weren't demanding explanations.
At least out loud that is.
"What was that all about?" Pegasus Lance asked her mentally, using the 6th sense and the cosmos as a conduit for hidden speech.
Cynthia sighed and wondered when Kastiel ever had time to teach him this in those two weeks he bothered to train Pegasus.
"Sometimes diplomacy… is difficult, Pegasus." she tried to explain. It was true. Many of Sanctuary's allies were just as dangerous as Hades.
"Diplomacy… sure…You know, just because Shinta is a shitty liar, it doesn't mean he made me a shitty bullshit sucker."
Having spent years with her face hiding behind a mask, the degree of confidence in letting out her discreet feelings through her it was unshaken, so the Silver Saint allowed herself a soft sigh and slow blink.
It was true that what happened was suspicious to anyone that would look at it; nothing about the way she defused the situation with Cetus, using some obscure connection to the strange, provocative creature of a king to make him go on his way, was normal. She could feel the respect she had conquered from the usually uncontrollable Saint on the line. Really, what was there to gain with keeping him in the dark?
Before giving her a chance to continue, Lance folded his arms and 'spoke' "You know… it's this kind of shit that always made me angry about us Saints; always high and mighty and never giving the example, and I was never an example of the contrary. I do think, however, you are one of the good ones." he appealed, sounding very upstart at first but then surprisingly humble right at the end. "Shinta always spoke very highly of you and Guardnia. He's not wrong about you, is he?"
Cynthia walked up to Orphée to check up on him so the young boy at least wouldn't be suspicious of the weird silence going on. "I wish you wouldn't speak so carelessly with my rank. Silvers are very proud and tend to hold grudges on Bronzes that talk back to them." she confessed, deflecting the issue. "You'd probably not have half the people hounding you if you did."
The Bronze Saint looked away, not in the least interested in letting her change topic. "I don't see what that's got to do with-"
"We have our shitty past, too, Pegasus." Cynthia reminded him, talking soft words to Orphée in the meantime to encourage the musician Saint. "I know you have a hard time seeing it like that because of the unfair way you were treated by my friends, but people like me, Saint Cepheus and Saint Kerberos used to be kids in Bronze just like you. Unfortunately, I may have given you too much leniency because, you see, -" she built up, turning her mask back at him. "-you're asking a superior officer something very personal and, out of all my closest Silver friends, I'm the one with the shittiest life to look back to… and the one least inclined to share it to you."
A small moment to let this sink in her underling's head was allowed. The Cassiopeia Saint was no fool of an adult and didn't expect the wild bucko of a Pegasus in front of her to just take these unprecedented stern tone and words and shutting up. They had better things to do, however, so they'd just have to carry on with their work day. Such was life.
Life, as it would turn out, would shock her. "Understood. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry I asked, Cassiopeia." he then casually resumed his vigilance on the streets, not a hint of resentment in his transmitted voice. "You got your stuff to deal with, so I'll respect your privacy. Just tell me if I should be worried about Shinta or not."
It took the Amazon a minute to process the fact that the horse-headed Saint wasn't shouting at her, demanding answers like a kid that felt fooled by the grown-ups. What in the name of… had Lance just followed her command with no complaint whatsoever?
Her mind then popped back to her the fact that the Pegasus Saint had been more or less out of the picture for almost six months. Not since his embarrassing defeat at Aguilon's hands had anyone heard of the kid some people were saying would be Sanctuary Town's next Black Saint rebel. Where had the kid been all this time? He had not shown up for Saint callings, nor at important battle events in the Coliseum or even on the street, yelling at Shinta about how unfair the world was. It had occurred to her that when casually asking Shinta about it while he studied under the Taurus Saint, the green-haired kid would only say that the Bronze Saint was off training somewhere after his defeat.
She thought the rebel had returned as expected when she saw Lance pushing Orphée around earlier, but it seemed to only take a few hours for him to grow protective instead and debate things in a calm (or maybe just calmer) manner. But then the most important thing was noticed by her, not by her eyes, not by her ears, but by her locked 7th sense, which albeit locked could still feel the radiant warmth of other's energies.
Lance was emitting no cosmos… at all! When had he learned to control his energy like that, and for what purpose was he hiding it? Usually the kid would let off an unrefined radiation to ward off people meaning to pick fights with him.
Was this the same unrefined assault mission brat that trashed Kastiel and shouted at her and Ionia, two major superiors, back in Arcadia?
Resting hands on hips, Cynthia decided to throw him a bone, even just for the sake of settling his mind. "King Cetus is a dangerous man." she started her explanation. Lance's head snapped back at her in surprise, having honestly not expected Cynthia to continue. "Both as a ruler and as a man, he's very powerful and a deeply rooted ally of the Pope. Affronting him is not a small offense. You could be thrown in jail for as much as touching a hair on him. I have personal business with the King, yes, and so does Guardnia, but the most important thing to retain is that he's not our concern."
Pegasus rubbed his eyes, exasperated by the amount of skeletons in sanctuary's closet that he kept finding over the years, but having somewhat grown used to it after his less than normal encounter with a dragon god. "Alright, I understand, I won't ask anymore about him, but what about Andromeda Island and Shinta? Should we stop them from meeting?"
"I'm concerned about Shinta, it's true, but maybe their encounter is inevitable given the fact that Cetus is, ultimately, the true lord of all Andromeda Islanders. I just hope Shinta has sharpened his instinct enough to tell that Cetus is the kind of man you keep at sword's length."
{======================|0|======================}
Golden Zodiac,
Aries Temple Entrance
{======================|0|======================}
Having just finished showing off and attempt to sell his latest cuckoo bird model to the Andromeda Saint, the armored Aries Mu turned his curious eyes to the bottom of the stairs leading to his temple, where a curious, white-castled carriage guarded by several threatening-looking men stopped. "Oh, we have visitors to the Temples, Shinta. I wonder who it is."
A small but silent opening of mouth was all Shinta returned at the sight of the newly-arrivals. He recognized the decoration on the carriage. "Those people…. are they from New Lallybelle?"
"Uh? What's that?"
"It's a hidden city in Ethiopia my teacher once took me to, Saint Mu. They give Andromeda Island food shipments and other important things. It's a very pretty place but I… didn't realize there was someone from there to invite to the festivities." Shinta confessed, bewildered by the sight of a single short blonde man in caped armor stepping out of the vehicle.
All of a sudden the man's eagle eyes locked with his from a distance and Shinta felt a shiver go up his spine so coldly, his back straightened up and his lips quivered.
Mu noticed this. "Whow, Shinta, what's wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost."
"I-I…. I don't k-know, I just had a terrible feeling just now!" he then gulped involuntarily when the escorted man began climbing up the stairs towards him, and even took a step back. The Andromeda Cloth herself was silent as a gravestone.
The Aries Gold Saint saw the man stoically approach the terrified Andromeda Saint and decided to do something, covering his face with the black mask to conceal his identity and stepping between the two.
Cetus barely registered the golden obstacle in front of him, sparing Mu only a look of bored spite.
""Halt! This is the Golden Zodiac House of Aries. Who are you and what do you want from the Gold Saints?" Mu demanded to know, making an effort to sound as grown up and authoritative as possible.
Cetus narrowed his eyes. "Is this how the Pope treats his guests and allies now? With empty threats from amateur Gold Saints? I am King Cetus of New Lallybelle!" he proclaimed, his escort guards taking stance around him.
This prompted a rush to confrontation, with the nearby Papal Guards of the Aries Temple immediately flanking Aries Mu to face the affronting party. Mu raised his hand to signal them to take a defensive poise.
"Step aside, Aries Saint, I have business with Gold Saints of much greater caliber than yours!" Cetus demanded, not afraid at all of insulting the Aries guardian.
"Oh! You will go no further, especially with that attitude, even if you do buy my carefully crafted trinkets at reasonable prices now." Mu ascertained, resisting the urge to show his tongue from behind the mask. He folded his arms too. "I have soldiers too, ya bully. I'll let you go on your business once you tell me what it is and apologize…. and buy a thing or two from my workshop!"
There was an especially tense stare from the King. Was he talking to a child? "...You have no idea who you're standing in the way of, do you, Lemurian?" he assumed, based off the Gold Saint's behavior and uncalled-for comment on his craft. A very thin line of golden cosmos sparkled through his eyes. "You have less than a minute to step aside, or else…"
The sense of impending violence overrode Shinta's strange terror of the man. "W-what? W-wait, hold on, why is this degenerating into a fight so fast? L-Lord Cetus, I..." Once the man's eyes were back on him, the Bronze Saint paralyzed.
"You! You're Guardnia's student." he noted, observing the pink Andromeda armor on the boy.
"You… know my teacher?"
"Of course I do! I'm the real king of Andromeda Island, not a sniveling, weak aspirant like him."
Shinta's eyes narrowed fiercely for the first time since he faced the man and Cetus' comment on Guardnia's status completely flew by him. "What?! Sniveling and weak?! Master Guardnia is a great-"
"I'm sure he's told you nothing about me, even though I know perfectly well how he brought you to visit my capital, to get to know MY patrimony and MY people." Even thought the king was seemingly calm, there was a subtle weight put in these words that felt like a anvil on everyone's ears. "Dear Cynthia made sure to let me know that on the way here. I will forgive you based on your ignorance, therefore, but I am your liege, Andromeda Saint… and I command your respect. Kneel!"
Once again Shinta was completely overwhelmed by the revelations taking place about this man; so much he didn't register for a second Cetus' order.
"Shinta, just kneel right now!" Andromeda suddenly yelled at him. "Quick, before he- GAH!"
The Cloth's owner could not even react to her sudden scream and silencing, as he too felt his body go tense, a strange invisible veil gag his mouth and the plates of pink armor become ten times heavier. He stumbled a bit at first, his entire body trembling in resistance to the forces being applied to him, but slowly, bit by bit, his foot dragged forward on the ground, much to his horror, and the weight of his shoulder plates pressed harder so as to make him lean.
Mu and the Papal Guards stood flabbergasted at the sight of the Bronze Saint struggling to let words out his mouth and being somehow forced to get on his knee without anyone touching him.
"Shinta, what are you doing?! Get back up!" Mu ordered, but the older Bronze Saint just kept tremblingly lean more and more and move his arm over his knee. "Alright, I'll stop this myself!" Mu thrust his hand in Shinta's direction, trying to use his massive telekinesis powers to save Shinta from the strange force binding him but, to his shock, it was like Shinta's body was out of reach of his powers.
King Cetus chuckled. "Your powers have no authority over him while over my own, Aries. I am his Lord and no one else."
"Stop this, Cetus! That's enough." Aries demanded as Shinta completed his humiliating kneeling stance, sweat and an expression of horror filling the Japanese boy's face. His golden aura flared, making all soldiers step away in caution.
A small, close-lipped scary smile as that of a staring psychopath emerged on Cetus. "You are truly a rare gift to me, Andromeda. That Cloth, my daughter, is so hard to please and conquer. I must thank Guardnia for this wonderful present of a subject."
A ball of light beamed on Mu's hand. "You'll be floored yourself before you meet him!"
"Aries, don't!" a male voice shouted.
Everyone's attention turned towards it, even Shinta whose body suddenly was released, dropping him exhausted to the ground. The Gold Saints of Capricorn, Aquarius and Taurus, the very ones that were retiring, stood with their armor at the entrance of the Aries Temple, accompanied by a fourth man known as Akassius Steiner. All four of them were joined by a young uni-browed Brazilian boy who rushed to Shinta's aid.
"Bro, are you okay?" Aldebaran asked. "What the heck did he do to you?"
Shinta grabbed his own chest painfully. "I… I don't know. It's like he had chains around my entire body. Even Andromeda herself was gagged. I couldn't talk or move or do anything."
Aldebaran growled and turned to Cetus. "Hey, YOU! What's the big idea?! What the hell do you think you are, hurting my friend like this."
Cetus, however, completely ignored the large kid, facing the four adults behind him. "Finally, a proper welcoming party."
"DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!"
The red-haired Aquarius Saint was the first to engage the monarch. "King Cetus… as arrogant and vicious as ever. Even when known as Cepheus Cetus you were a problem. Tell me, young king, do you believe your status as one of the Seven Allies gives you the right to treat our people and Saints like you do your own?"
This was the third revelation about Cetus that shocked Shinta. "This man used to own Master Guardnia's Cloth?" he thought, his face pale.
"Only as far as your people and Saints do not seem to respect my status, Saint Aquarius." Cetus argued. "I ran into quite the lowlifes on my way here, including a Bronze and a Lyra Saint that threatened to attack me. They now thanks my dear Cassiopeia their lives were spared. I hope this is not the way you allow the 'King of Asgard' and the 'Bluegrad Baron' to be treated too, Saint Malta…"
Malta's eyes squinted, knowing Cetus mentioned these two of the Seven Allies since it was the Aquarius Saint's zodiacal responsibility to ensure good friendship with them.
"It is not, but he is not the one you should worry about, Cetus." Capricorn Kirin interfered, being responsible with dealing with New Lallybelle himself and making sure to casually flip his Excalibur arm underneath his cape. "You will come with us to the ceremony, where we can ensure you receive the proper welcome you so desire, but I will not have you cause more disturbances with your cruelty!"
The eagle-eyed blonde man seemed at last satisfied, smirking at the sight of the four legendary warriors bent to his whim. While very powerful himself, he knew better than challenging the Civil War Gold Saints, especially with Akassius Steiner, the former Gemini Saint and predecessor to Saga, standing right here. It gave him a twisted giggle to know they, the stars of the day, would personally ensure to accommodate him to the Coliseum, where the Pope would crown them.
"Very well, I accept the honor." he then waved at his soldiers. "Park my carriage… somewhere in this city where it won't get filthy. I will walk along with the Gold Saints for now."
"Yes, your Highness." Cetus' captain saluted, marching off with his men.
Cetus spared Shinta one last terrifying glare. "It was fitting to meet you today, Andromeda. You look very powerful and I'm sure you'll serve me honorably." he lip-serviced, delighting in the trembling of Shinta's terrified eyes.
Taurus Daniel stepped forward, literally overshadowing the short king as he menacingly folded arms into a Great Horn stance. "One more quip with my protegé and I will flatten you so hard no Pope alive will be able to make 'reparations' to you."
"Hmpf, crude as always, but your threats are empty, Taurus-"
"But mine are not." Akassius casually reminded him, stepping over Taurus to lead the three Gold Saints in their demands to the king. To everyone's amazement Cetus was, for the first time, visibly on his guard. "Now walk, your majesty!"
Cetus chuckled angrily. "Very well, Duke Akassius." Cetus conceded, but stressing the 'Duke' part for one last reminder of how he outranked everyone there. He did, however, obey and the five men walked off, leaving a stunned trio of Mu, Aldebaran and Shinta in their wake.
The Brazilian boy scratched his hair. "Goddamn… I got the chills from all those guys. I hope they don't detonate on their way cause that powder keg looks lit. Nobody wants Sanctuary Town nuked today."
"Actually Aldebaran" Mu reminded him "Spontaneous combustion is a very unlikely event for humans and most natural explanation theories point towards smoking-related incidents, which I doubt any of them will do on their-"
"Mu, it was a figure of speech!" Aldebaran turned to Shinta. "Hey, bro, are you sure you're alright? Let me take you to the hospital."
Shinta shook his head, still trying to process in it all that happened. "I'm okay, Aldebaran, thank you. I just…" Everything that went on and was said rushed through his mind. "That was all just very startling."
The Lemurian Gold Saint quivered. "I'm going to tell Master what happened, guys. He needs to know."
"Huh? Can't you just send a mental message?" asked Aldebaran.
"In the Golden Zodiac? Not a chance…Master Sh- I mean the Pope won't let me." Mu confessed. He still wondered why Master Shion wouldn't give him one of those. It was probably so the infant wouldn't make another annoying habit out of spamming everyone with messages like most Lemurian kids his age would do. "I'll just ask Shaka to do it. He's the closest one nearby that knows how to send it."
"Isn't he way back in his temple?"
"Yeah, but Deathmask and Saga went somewhere and Aiolia is no good at this kind of stuff. Aldebaran can you stick around here? I promise I'll be right back."
Shinta ran off as well, sweating bullets. "Aldebaran, I'll be right back, I need to find Miss Cynthia! Please, stay here and watch the entrance, I promise I'll pay you back!"
"WHAT?! Wait, wait! I-" Aldebaran shouted, but both Shinta and Mu just sped off hearing distance. He grunted, folded arms and dropped a bead of exasperated sweat. "Yup…. my best buddies, everyone...hope this shtick of leaving me to guard the front door doesn't become a habit!"
{======================|0|======================}
Now perched at a spot nearby the forestry of Sanctuary Valley's northern zones, the hooded man's binoculars observed the scene at the Aries Temple, lip movement by lip movement. He stored the set away once he was satisfied and counted on his fingers the number of zodiacs.
Libra, Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and now even Gemini were away. Six Gold Cloths out of their temples… usually this would be enough, but the disciplined presence of Virgo still unnerved him.
It was time to throw caution to the wind, however. Enough waiting had been done and he should be glad Cetus played his role as well as expected. A short chuckle was allowed; he never thought he'd get the urge to thank the 'King of all Andromedans' for being the insufferable bastard he usually was.
The hooded man dashed through the forestry surrounding the Golden Zodiac Mountain's northern slopes, case tied to his back. His eyes darted with the sign of movement and he stealthy took over behind a tree, making sure his cosmos was low beyond detection, and waited for the threat to pass.
His hidden blue eyes spotted a young Amazon Bronze Saint patrolling the wilderness. He had probably approached their hidden village and was now in enemy territory. He took comfort in this however, because, in this case, the Amazons were the guards of the place he was looking for, so at least he was on the right path.
Once the masked woman passed by him, he silently blitzed past her route, almost invisible to the 7th sense, towards the depths of Sanctuary's northern forest. It was risky to move so daringly so near to the female Saints' sacred land, but he was about to commit something far more sacrilegious so it weighed little on his mind.
After a few minutes of careful-minded, expertly covered dashes across the bushes, boulders, trees and forested slopes, a bare clearance of branches opened way to what he was looking for; the steep, nearly smooth wall of rock that was the base of Star Hill.
The man's eyes looked upwards, aweing at the perfect and terrifying geographical marvel that towered in front of him; Star Hill was the most dangerous climb of all and anyone could see why as its peak pierced past the clouds in the blue sky beyond sight, no stepping stones, scratches or rocks on its nearly vertical rise to use as support. He would have to use every bit of his power to claw his way up to the top reserved only to the Holy Father, all the while remaining undetected, and pray to every god out there he'd make it past a third of the way.
Certainly any sane man would turn back right then and there.
His case dropped to the floor, opening up to reveal the special equipment his friend had prepared for this event many years before, and his eyes squinted with purpose flaring in them. A short prayer to the Gods was made that they would not abandon him.
It was time to put his life on the line and get to work.
{======================|0|======================}
Golden Zodiac
Pope's Chambers
{======================|0|======================}
Cepheus Guardnia excused himself, discreetly coughing into his hand. "I apologize, your Holiness… You're sounding very strange and the topic of King Cetus… unnerved me."
"Perfectly understandable, Saint Cepheus." reassured the masked Shion.
"I may still not understand some of your actions, your Holiness, but I accept them. I am completely loyal to you; no matter what Cetus says. You and Athena are my true lieges."
The Cepheus Cloth chuckled in his ear. "Ah, ah, ah, how typical of you. This is why you'll never be King."
Deeply tuned with the movements and patterns of the armors after a lifetime of repairing them, Shion easily detected the Cloth provoking its owner and felt the chessboard of his conversation truly set. The 88 Cloths played a critical part in the growth of every Saint. Shion himself had been driven nearly insane by their influence on him during his youth, before he ever became the Aries Gold Saint. He could almost feel the hissing the Cepheus Cloth made on Guardnia's ears. The degree of which Guardnia had allowed himself to be influenced by the armor would play its part on how the young man would take this talk.
"As you know, young Guardnia, Holy War is no longer than two decades upon us. The cycle of Hades' sealing is coming to an end and evidence has piled over the last few years that his forces are on the move. A dreadful duty many generations of Saints have been able to forego since the end of Lost Canvas until now will return and only Athena would guess what the Underworld God plans this time."
Guardnia nodded, knowing full well what concerned the Pope. His generation had been lucky in a small way, being born and formed just before that critical window of preparation for the bloodiest war cycle Sanctuary faced. He and his friends would most likely not stick around long enough to face the Specters, but Shinta would probably already have to face the horror of it, and the generation right after the Andromeda Saint would definitely become the cannon fodder.
It was tragic, but it was the truth; Sanctuary needed young, passionate blood that could resist the darkness of Hades, not bitter old men who could doubtfully still draw their full cosmos.
"During my rule," the Pope continued "I made it my personal mission to prepare for this war, because I too once had to face it. Well beyond making sure the coffers were full and the fields remained green, I had to make sure our army was ready for Hades' return…. as such, I forgot to tend for other important duties, like the well-being of the Saints I intended to sacrifice. I betrayed many of my own, including you."
Guardnia shook his head.
"Quite recently I had to issue a difficult order to my Cancer Saint." the Pope interrupted him, making sure to keep Lance's identity concealed. "I learned a young woman named Elisa, who had served me for decades, conspired against me. A girl I knew ever since she was little, whose dreams I personally saw blossoming in her Training Ground, wanted to betray me, take her desired Cloth and kill every Saint that got in her way. I learned right after her demise from Cancer's own words how deeply she despised me…and her destruction at his hands brought me no happiness."
Guardnia was stunned. He had heard of this event. In fact, he had met Elisa, the maiden of the Island of Flowers, once in his lifetime. She had caused him no peaceful impression, seeming like a warm-hearted and dedicated person, but also one holding something strange in her smile, like a spider that knew you were caught in her web.
"She was young… and very talented." sighed the Pope. "I even trusted her with the education of one of my Gold Saints. I was sure… I had made amends with her long ago, but I was wrong. I had stabbed her heart far deeply than I thought and as a result I lost a valuable Maiden, one that could have been a vital ally against Hades. Maybe her ambition was just too great, but I left that darkness rotting in her heart and now I paid the price for it. I do not wish to repeat that mistake."
"I...T-there was nothing you could have done, your Holiness."
"I…. I wanted to make her my Pisces Saint. I truly did!" Shion revealed, his fists tightening. "But I had no choice! My hand was forced! The stars just meant the Cloth for someone else, a person that I desperately needed to have in my ranks! If she knew what I knew, she would surely…." He held his own mask's forehead, as if indisposed. "I want to make peace with you, Guardnia, before the same happens to my beloved Cepheus Saint. I will not make you a second Elisa."
Cepheus sweated nervously. He wouldn't lie; there were things about Sanctuary he truly despised. His obligations as the Cepheus Saint to murder those that failed his tests and the Pope tolerating and even defending men like Cetus based on a strange need for allies against some unknown threat sometimes made him doubt his own purpose as a Saint, but…
"Do you care about your comrades, Sanctuary and Athena, Saint Guardnia of Cepheus?" asked the Pope.
And here lied the answer. As soon as the Pope mentioned his friends and Athena, Guardnia was reminded of why he still served Sanctuary, their faces flashing through his eyes like a balsam on his soul. "Yes, your Holiness. I would have not endured so many years as the Master of Andromeda Island if I did not."
The Pope stood tall, sobering and immense like a true master of men, clasping hands behind back, and his deep, aged voice came out heavy like an anvil. "Very true, and so it is time you learned the truth."
The Saint's eyes widened. "...Truth?..."
"Yes, Guardnia, for you see, many years back, when you were still a trainee vying for the Pisces Austrinus Cloth, I received a strange visit in Star Hill, a visit that left me with three missions I have tried to accomplish ever since…"
{======================|0|======================}
Many hours later, at Sanctuary Town's Streets
{======================|0|======================}
The afternoon rolled over uneventfully, with the trio of Saints sweeping the last few streets for straggling visitors. Orphée seemed in a better mood; maybe being busy with his duties helped him forget the fact that he almost witnessed insane bloodshed without being able to stop it. He casually hummed a few notes from his favorite melodies as he helped an old lady get her shop stand in shape after a careless kid knocked it down.
"You know, guys," he confessed as he took gratitude in the old lady's smile. "This day was actually alright. I got to know my new comrades, I met tons of people, I did something good today and I might even get in time to watch the music plays later on-"
"AGHH, this day is BULLSHIT!" Pegasus shouted, dusting hands after putting a nearby dumb bar brawl back in order. "All we did today was put retarded people in order, tell our friends to get back to work, pay lipservice to the ambassadors of Doop-Doop County and try to keep people from generally turning this festival to a fucking tomatofest! I swear every time I get back in this town I'm reminded of the thousand reasons I can't fucking stand it, and that if someone else asks me 'why the long face, little horsey' I will shove my helmet so far up their AS-"
"Okay, Lance, settle down." Cynthia asked, instantly getting the youth to take a breather. "Bullshit Day's almost over and the next shift will take over. Nam promised me he'd get people working by now. Don't be such a baby."
"I'm sorry if I held you two back earlier, Miss Cynthia." he apologized, referring to how dazed he was all day. "I really didn't want to screw up so badly on my first day."
"Awh, don't worry, Orphée, you'll get the ropes of this. Besides, no one's really testing you or anything. This is just scrub work," she tilted her masked head to gesture a smile in Amazon tradition. "Saint Lance on the other hand has had plenty of time to get used to the routine."
"Well, excuse me!" Lance snorted.
"MISS CYNTHIA, LANCE!" Shinta screamed, arriving on the scene to everyone's surprise. He breathed heavily and rested hands on knees. "Oh, thank the Goddess, I've been looking for you two all day! You really were together."
It took a second for the both of them to register Andromeda's sudden arrival. "Shinta, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I...*gasp*... I'm sorry, Niss- I mean Lance, it's just…"
"Oh mother, it was that horrible man!" the Andromeda cloth cried out to Cynthia, whom the princess fully regarded as the rightful Cassiopeia queen. "He was at the Temple of Aries! He saw Shinta and made me 'obey'! I couldn't do anything, mother, but I tried to resist, but…. I hate that man! Make him go away!"
"You met Cetus." Cynthia guessed. Shinta confirmed her suspicion with a nod. She held her masked face with a sigh. "He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
"That man again?" pondered Orphée. "What horrible thing did he try to do this time?"
"Oh… Um, pleased to meet you, Silver Saint. I'm Saint Andromeda Shinta," the green haired boy nervously said, only now noticing he was in the presence of a superior.
"Get to the point, Shinta!" demanded Pegasus.
Andromeda held out his hands and detailed back all the events that occurred at the entrance of the Aries Temple, making sure to point out how the man seemed to have some sort of power over the Saint and even threatened Aries himself. Holding back the identity of the Gold Saints from Miss Cynthia and Saint Orphée, Shinta made sure to recollect how the King spoke very strangely about the Andromeda Islanders, how the Gold Saints made sure to escort Cetus off the premises of the Zodiac into the Coliseum, where they probably now watched the games and how he spoke of running into Cynthia.
"I was off duty at the Zodiac temples so I asked to come here straight away looking for you two. I was worried something had happened and… I didn't feel safe there anymore and had questions to ask."
Lance folded arms. "We're fine, Shinta, he just acted like a bastard right in front of us." he held back, not finding need to let Shinta know how Cetus almost had a mother and her child speared to death.
Shinta faced the Cassiopeia Saint. "Miss Cynthia… I was just with master Guardnia and… is it true what that man said? Does he know the both of you? Is he… some sort of master of me as well? He said he knew I visited New Lallybelle once, but…"
The woman took a second to answer. "Yes, it's true. All of that."
"What is going on, why didn't you two tell me anything?" he questioned, his green eyes trembling in doubt. "If he's the real king of New Lallybelle, doesn't that make him, like… like the King Cepheus of myth? But Master Guardnia is the one with the Cepheus Cloth!"
"It's… It's very complicated, Shinta." she whispered, holding his arms.
"Why didn't you tell me about him when we visited New Lallybelle all those years ago?" Shinta pleaded, remembering his walks with Master Guardnia and his fellow trainees among the African people and the ivory-carved houses in the Ethiopian mountain.
"It's simple, Shinta; we didn't want you to lose faith in Sainthood."
Orphée blinked in reeling and Lance narrowed his eyes with this sentence.
Cynthia continued however. "Shinta, a long time ago… I was taught by that man. He used to be the Saint of Cepheus before the civil war. He's the one who showed me the ways of the cosmos and the cloth of Cassiopeia."
"So… he was your Master."
"Yes… but he was also a very cruel man. I don't see him as my teacher. I never will." she hissed to herself, remembering the dark days of her childhood. She raised her face to gesture pondering. "Unfortunately, yes, he is the lord of all Andromeda Islanders, the man chosen by the Cepheus Cloth to be the new King. He holds a special power over all of us, as a result."
Shinta, however, struggled with a doubt, shaking his head and letting go of the woman. "But… but I would never think less of any of you for that, and even if he's a cruel man... I don't understand why you kept something so important about the Cloth I was getting from me."
Lance dragged Orphée away from the two of them, sensing the conversation was getting personal.
"I don't understand why would the two of you think… I would lose faith in Sainthood for knowing about this. That's just so strange!" Shinta protested, seeing no sense in Master Guardnia's and Miss Cynthia's choice. For the first time in his life, Shinta narrowed his life at his makeshift godmother. "... You're hiding something else! I can tell!"
The Amazon felt self-conscious talking about this in the middle of a busy street but made an effort to give Shinta some answers. "Guardnia wanted you to succeed, Shinta, that's all there was to it. You were a talented applicant, a young boy who surprised him every day with his kindness; he didn't want you to lose motivation on getting the Bronze Cloth no matter what."
"What? Why?"
"So he wouldn't have to kill you…" Cynthia thought to herself. "Because he wanted what's best for you." Cynthia lied…. well, only by half, since Guardnia obviously did want what was best for Shinta, and so did Cynthia….which was why Guardnia would have to forgive her for what she was about to do.
"Was Master Guardnia taught by that man too?"
"No, he was taught by a different man. Someone before Saint Taurus. A man that was known for his virtue and heart, but was killed by Akassius many years ago."
The name of the Greek Duke made Lance's ear perk, who didn't even notice how the street for some reason went quiet.
Shinta stared blankly at her. "Who… who was that man?"
"His name was Priam."
"Is something the matter, Saints of Athena?" an arriving man commanded to know.
All four of them turned over. "Saint Gemini!" Cynthia gasped.
Lance's eyes widened, Orphée's jaw dropped, Cynthia got to her knees and Shinta had to be dragged down by her so his flabbergasted state wouldn't accidentally offend the black-masked, fully-armored Gold Saint that had walked into them, silencing and aweing passer-byes. The Pegasus Saint had to pull himself out of a surprised stance too so he'd act natural.
"Saga?! What the hell are you doing here and why did you leave the Gemini Temple?!" he asked mentally.
Gemini Saga tightened his left first and held it at is waist to conceal Kanon's blood on the knuckles. "I was returning from an important commitment away from my House and I spotted this strange gathering of Saints here." he lied. "Saint Andromeda, are you not supposed to be at the Taurus Temple in servitude? Also, I was told an emergency was occurring at this sector. What's this about?"
"Um…. emergency? Lord Gemini, I'm not sure what you refer to, but if you mean the incident with King Cetus from this morning it has been dealt with by now, I assure you."
"King Cetus? No, I was told there were Black Saint suspects spotted in Sanctuary Town around this area and to address your group."
Lance's eyes couldn't widen more. "Wait, WHAT?"
"Lord Gemini, I…. I made no such calling!" Cynthia once again assured.
Saga's mouth opened a bit behind his black mask. "... Saint Cassiopeia, cease your instructed duties and rally the Silver Saints to be on full alert! Saint Pegasus and Andromeda, come with me right away!"
"Yes, Lord Gemini!" all four of them responded in unison, with Shinta and Lance promptly rushing to Saga's side.
Saga led them off the area and touched his temple, focusing on the cosmos he felt at the far-off Sagittarius Temple. "Aiolos, are you there?!"
"Saga? What is going on? Why are you calling me?"
"There's no time to explain! Something terrible is going on! Tell me, can you reach the Pope?!"
"Saga, you know I can't send mental messages to the inside of the Pope's Chambers and from it to the outside are not allowed. It's why we hold meetings there, remember?"
Saga turned the Shinta. "Have the older Gold Saints left the Houses already?!"
"U-um, yes, Saint Saga!" Andromeda confirmed.
Saga mentally counted the armors and focused back on Aiolos. "Just try to reach the Pope mentally!"
"... It's bouncing back as expected. I'm hearing my own call reflected to me. Saga, you know only those that are authorized by the Pope can get through the Golden Zodiac's core defenses, why are you asking me this?!"
"Damn it, I'll explain it on the way, Aiolos, but leave your Cloth in your House and run as fast as you can to the Pope's Chambers! Tell the kids to stay put in their Houses, too and ask Shaka to open his freaking eyes! Mental message anyone you can from the lower temples to get back to their posts!"
"Saga, what's going on?"
"I think someone wants to attack the Temples!"
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Meanwhile, at the Golden Zodiac
{======================|0|======================}
Cepheus Guardnia sat in the chair offered by the Pope, reddened face completely sunk in his hands.
Shion could not blame him.
"I'm sorry, my boy." he repeated, yet again, shaking head, the voice as monotone and low as Cepheus's spirits. "I am so sorry."
"I can't… can't stop thinking about the kids…" Guardnia sobbed, his voice trembling. "My friends… my mentors…. all the children I've had to kill! I can't- stop hearing their voices."
"I know, Saint Guardnia, but you must be strong-"
"HOW C-CAN I?" Guardnia shouted. He kicked the chair away to the wall and screamed at the ceiling, arms spread out with closed fists.
The commotion attracted the guards outside who opened the door. "Your Holiness is something-"
Shion waved his hand at them. "Please leave." he waited till the Papal Guards politely sealed the room before readdressing the poor broken man in front of him. "Guardnia, please listen to me. Now that you know about the prophecies you cannot allow yourself to make decisions based on passion. You must stay level-headed as always."
"Passion?... PASSION?!" Cepheus asked back. "The same passion with which you ordered a war on your own people?! The same passion you asked of us at the end of it to pick back the shambles of the lives you ruined?! That you ruined because…" Guardnia's eyes spiraled back to the depth of his hands, uncontrollably trying to console himself. "Because a witch told you we'd be at war?!...I…. I do not believe this..."
"Guardnia…" Shion softly called him.
The Cepheus Saint had nothing but despair though. "I do not believe this! I cannot believe all that has happened, all that we have sacrificed… was because of some…" Guardnia still had trouble saying this following word. "...prophecy... Your Holiness, you were lying to me, were you not? This is a test to see if I'm still a teacher good enough for Albiore and Elda? It is, right?"
The Pope's voice suddenly rose. "Cepheus Guardnia, I am as serious as the day I knighted you with that armor, so calm yourself immediately! I did not share this with you with light heart! If you really do value all the things that were lost for the sake of these missions, you will compose yourself as a rightful King of Andromeda and step up to the faith I have placed in you."
The reminder of why the man standing before him was the leader of all Sanctuary rang true in Guardnia's head, which responded to the Pope's authoritative volume with a cease of tears.
His strength, however, was depleted. Guardnia's arms laid flat, his posture and demeanor unable to straighten; the sound of the children's voices was just too strong.
"Saint Cepheus… you must understand that all I have ever done was according to the mission laid out to me by Athena and I, the Pope, had good reason to believe these prophecies had merit to them." he argued, referring to how the second prophecy of his generation's return was fulfilling right as they spoke through the unfolding of the new dawn of Gold Saints that had the faces and spirits of Shion's old comrades.
"A war in the future…. a generation of Gold Saints reincarnating… and a potential ally." Guardnia recounted as Shion revealed to him, still unaware of what the Pope meant with any of these.
Truth was, Shion had not revealed to him too much, merely recounting his encounter with Hecate, how she showed him Sanctuary was deeply in danger by possibly a multitude of gods conspiring against it this time, how his friends would return to the roles of Gold Saints and finally how details of a potential secret weapon were shared to him by Hecate that could prove crucial. This secret weapon was, of course, the child with red eyes, but Shion was fully aware Pegasus Lance was an acquaintance of Cepheus due to the attack on Andromeda Island and had decided to mask that particular prophet.
"Yes… that is correct." he misled.
As expected, the Silver Saint did not how to react. What could anyone expect of him, having discovered that the war that displaced him, robbed him of his teacher, and led him across a path of ruthless trainee recruitment that ended so awfully was likely the result of Shion's post-Hecate policies and actions? That he owed his misery to a witch in rags telling the Pope to watch out for a bunch of kids showing up to be Gold Saints?
"You told us… we had to heal from the War. That we had to refill the ranks…"
"Yes."
"I took so many students… so many kids that you insisted I could guide… and I failed them all…and… after all that, it was all pointless..."
"Cepheus, it was not in vain, you have a wonderful student that has surpassed all my expectations!"
"Adele, Beatrix, Cyrus, Denis, Hercule...so many crosses. I could list their names all day..." The image of the Elysium Cliffs littered with graves, each carved with a name he still remembered, phased through his eyes and the mention of his one surviving student by the Pope only served to make a bead of tear swell in each of his eyes. "In the end… only Shinta… only poor Shinta...s-survived."
Seeing the grown up fight with all his might to not breakdown in tears was too much to the Pope as well, who had to recount all the reasons that motivated his quest to not fall in sadness too. "All those names will be remembered by Athena forever, into the afterlife, I promise you that, Cepheus. Right now, however, I have to ask you something difficult, Guardnia. I have to ask you for your help."
This seemed to snap Guardnia out of his mad trance, even just for the sheer boldness of the request. "H-help?"
The Pope's hand reached inside his own cloak sleeve, from where he pulled out a single, curious object. It looked like a small, ornamented, wooden box that you could hold in your hand, but on closer inspection Guardnia realized it had a slid over it with an Asian dragon painted on it.
"Do you know what this is, Cepheus?"
"I?… A...a box? How would I..." Guardnia's head was so distorted it reminded him of a miniature coffin instead.
The Pope realized this so he offered a hand, using his fingers to take the lid out to reveal an elaborate second lid inside consisting of a slide puzzle of what looked like a dismantled Asian Dragon. "This is a Yosegi-Kaiso, or a Japanese Puzzle Box if you prefer. It was entrusted to me a long, long time ago by Athena and her legendary escorts, the Great Bodyguards. It can only be solved or locked by a combination of over 200 steps using lightspeed, or otherwise the encrusted stardust will shatter and seal it forever. Inside the box is something extremely important to Sanctuary and the coming war. Guardnia, are you listening to me?"
Guardnia was not.
The blue-armored Silver Saint stood staring dead ahead. His mind was trying to focus on a particular voice he heard among the seemingly hundreds of screams his knife silenced over the years. This voice was somehow stronger for some reason, reaching out to to him.
"...nia… Guard…. to me…"
"What?! Who is this?!"
The Pope hid the box away. "Cepheus, what's the matter?!"
The blonde Greek held his head like it ached. "I… who are you, what's going on?!"
The voice grew stronger "...nia…. Guard'! Guard', please are you there?"
Cepheus's eyes widened to their limit. "Cynthia?!" he called out.
"Oh thank goodness, I found you! I've been pinging mental messages with your name everywhere. Look, I ran into Saint Gemini who said-"
Meanwhile the Pope stared in bewilderment, wondering what was going on. "Guardnia… perhaps all this information was too much of a shock to you."
"Cynthia how are you talking to me?!" Guardnia demanded to know.
"How? What do you mean? Where are you? Haven't you left the Temples already?"
Cepheus Guardnia blinked; but if Cynthia's messages were reaching him in that place, then...
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After hours of dangerous climbing, risking life and limb, the hooded man stood at the top of Star Hill before the great temple that held Sanctuary's most intimate secrets. With his equipment intact, he was in the most secure place of all of Sanctuary, the access to it being so dangerous it was said that even Gold Saints could not climb it, but the ancient forces that carved Star Hill never accounted for the special climbing gear developed by the deceased Civil War Aries Saint to playfully sneak into that place.
The man pulled back his hood, letting his face breath fresh hair. He had dark neck-length brown hair of wavy lengths that covered his ears and forehead as well as some of the scarred skin of his Mediterranean face. A set of pretty blue eyes adorned him but they were surrounded by landscapes of battle burns on his face that had luckily not disfigured his face's shape but were still very visible, showing off the fights of cataclysmic scale he had survived. A red handkerchief tied to his neck and a set of plastic goggles pending on his forehead completed the look, often reminding his friends of an adventurous aviator.
The case he carried with him was dropped to the ground and opened, from where he took out a radio and a long, composite bow which he quickly assembled using his experience and skill in archery. He flicked the string to test the elasticity and rotated the radio's button to check the batteries on it, but the man carried no arrow. In fact, right after taking these objects he pointed his hand at the case and blasted the object with a sudden white cosmos flare, loudly and instantly atomizing it.
No need to carry dead weight or leave behind evidence. Another hand thrust blasted the climbing harness he used, taking no chances in leaving hints to the enemy.
After a bit he managed to sync the radio with the channel he need. "...repeat...gnal. Re… signal." it stuttered to the man. "The 3rd is off. Repeated Signal. The 3rd is off."
The man shut the radio down. "Gemini took the bait." he concluded. Years of spying paid off immensely. After counting the number of Cloths one more time, he gulped in anticipation and felt his heart beat faster.
His window was opened.
"I'm so nervous." he confessed to himself. "It's been years since I've had to do something like this so I guess it's normal. Hopefully the gods won't abandon me this time around either… unless that stunt with Sarah pissed them off, too."
The man, apparently, was not interested in the large temple housing the terrible, delicious secrets of Sanctuary, instead lowering his goggles into his eyes and focusing on the other mountain around him, that of the Golden Zodiac. It stood massive right in front of Star Hill, and the man was actually perfectly seeing the Pope's Chambers, the Colossus of Athena and the staircase between them from a comfortable distance.
He stood upright, without tension, placing his feet shoulder-width apart and holding the composite bow on one hand. His eyes closed, allowing his mind to wander freely. His 7th sense felt every cosmos in Sanctuary at the moment, magnified by the magic of Star Hill peak which was said to allow the Pope to read the future. It wandered into the Golden Zodiac's peak, where the Pope's Chambers were located. There he felt a number of cosmos, including two extremely familiar ones in the throne room.
Strange, dark clouds suddenly blacked the afternoon sky a bit and a small rumbling was heard.
{======================|0|======================}
The Pope tried to make conversation to soothe the Cepheus Saint. "Guardnia, believe me, I know this must be hard for you, but I need you to focus, I have an extremely important mission for you. Lend me your ears so I can-"
The Cepheus Saint stared blankly at the Pope but his mind was focused on Cynthia's voice. "I'm at the Pope's Chambers, how are your messages reaching me?"
"What? Still? But aren't there like a thousand barriers on that place?!"
"I KNOW! How are your messages getting through to me?!"
"I don't know! But Guardnia that's not the most important thing right now! Saint Gemini was just here and he said there was an emergency going on and told me to rally the Silver Saints to be on full alert. I… He didn't tell me what was going on but I think something is!"
The teacher's jaw dropped and he noticed the man before him still blabbering. Wasn't the Pope noticing the defenses were down?
It was right there and then that Guardnia noticed yet another something else. Not through his eyes, of course, but through his seventh sense, which at the moment should be blocked in or at least hindered by a miasma of static in the air due to the Golden Zodiac's defenses. It was like a warm, golden light at the end of a very long tunnel right in front of him, far past the Pope, or so his particular mind perceived it. It glared more and more, mixing with his sense of sight to the point it looked like the Pope stood in front of a far off train light.
Radiated by the energy, Guardnia's heart skipped a bit and his mind rushed back all those years to that day, on Andromeda Island, when he buried Cyrus…
… and the traitor approached him…
Guardnia's eyes widened when he felt a sudden drop in air pressure and the papers in his hand dropped to the floor.
"That… that bastard!" he realized. "This is what he meant all along!"
The Pope talked on, oblivious. "-and it's for the light of Athena that we, as Saints, must persevere!"
"LIGHTNING ARROW!"
The entire world shook and flashed when a massive thunderbolt struck the temple, blasting through the roof and crashing on the throne room between the two of them, cratering the ground and sending the two men flying off with screams in opposite directions.
Guardnia and the Pope crashed against walls and objects, coughing, sensing the air in their arms and feeling their noses breathe in sulphur. Papal Guards came rushing inside the room, halberds and swords holstered. "YOUR HOLINESS, WHAT HAPPENED?! ARE YOU-... " They took offensive poses. "WHO ARE YOU?! IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"
The man knelt on the crater, as if he himself had been the bolt, and crackled his whole body with sparks of golden electricity, ignoring the cannon fodder demands for explanations. He raised his goggled blue eyes at the Pope in front of him, weapon in hand.
Shion gasped. "You?... You're supposed to be dead!"
The rebel nocked the energy arrow out of nowhere into his the composite bow string. "DIE, SHION!"
"YOUR HOLINESS! NO, STOP!" screamed Guardnia, who threw his sword-chain into subspace. "CEPHEUS SHADOW GLAVE!"
"CHRYSÓ FOS VÉLOS! " the man screamed, firing off the blast.
"CRYSTAL WALL!" The Pope shouted, erecting a transparent wall of glass
The transparent, thin glass wall emerged and took the blow with a blunt shock that shattered it and the Pope's chest was immediately struck by the long, burning spear of golden flare, impaling the screaming man against the wall. A subspace portal opened around the assassins and tried to slash him at an unforeseen angle, but the man's hand caught the chain and pulled the Silver Saint through the gap, striking his stomach with a spinning elbow blow.
Guardnia gasped as he felt a hand pulling up his collar. "U-ugh, DAMN YOU- *THUD*" the head-butt knocked him right away, blacking out the Silver Saint.
The rebel caught him as he fell. "Sorry, you're coming with me!"
A young boy with a red bandana rushed inside the room at light speed. "Oh no, Saga was right, what happened here?! Hey you, stop right there!"
The man smiled. "Sorry, kid, but I'm not sticking around! I've made my point!" his golden aura swirled around his body and a strange drop in air pressure was felt. The man's mind wandered to the rendezvous spot.
"Enough of this! EVERYONE, ATTACK!" the guard captain screamed.
Aiolos was stunned, for he recognized the energy patterns of the technique. "NO! Move out of the way! ATOMIC THUNDERBOLT!" screamed Aiolos, bursting his aura and punching forward to fire off the lightning cosmos darts, but all they managed to hit was a whizzle of a lightning bolt spiraling upwards to the sky through the hole it arrived in, dragging the man and the unconscious Cepheus Silver Saint along with it. "NO, DAMN IT! They're gone!..."
"Saint Aiolos, the Pope is bleeding out!" a guard pointed out, rushing to the floored masked man as the arrow protruding through his body crisped into nothingness, letting blood jut out.
{======================|0|======================}
Chapter End
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Next Chapter: The Goodbye – Part 3
Description: The Pope's life is in danger and the Gold Saints rush back to the Zodiac as the Sagittarius Saint sounds the alarm! Meanwhile, far away, Cepheus Guardnia wakes up at the hands of his captors in a familiar place.
Author's Note: Oh hot damn was this chapter hard. Once again, oh my god, I apologize profusely for the delay, but life has a way to ruin your writing day…. several times across several months -.- Once again, I am so sorry.
Anyway, this chapter was, in retrospective, a narrative kinda hard to ignite since I'm not very used to fast-paced story-telling and pace shifting. Hopefully I didn't trip over myself too much, but I managed to accomplish most of my major objectives, laying out important plot points for the rest of the storyline. Also, I know this chapter focuses a little too much on the Andromeda Islanders, who may not be my most exciting group of characters, but it's okay cause this is the finale of the First Arc within the next two chapters, tops, and then we can move on to the old readers' favorite Arc ^_^
As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please do review your thoughts, any thoughts, whatever is on your mind. Also do not forget to check out SKD Scans, because Hitagigahara is furiously working to get everyone translated Next Dimension and Saintia Sho chapters in English, so do drop by Batoto or the Saint Seiya Fan Forums to give her work an hello.
