93 — A STRANGE GOD WARRIOR
The God Warrior had caught a spy in the vicinity of the road leading to the gateway to Asgard, who was none other than his old friend Dragon Shiryu, an Athena Saint. Hilda's accusation, therefore, was correct: the Sanctuary of Athena did indeed plan to invade Asgard and thwart the plans of its greater governess.
The two were face to face and Shiryu was sure that the altered voice she heard under the mask was undoubtedly Hyoga's, as well as the cosmos she felt shining in front of her. It was different, but it was him, the Cygnus Saint. An inattentive observer or one who trusted his eyes too much would be easily deceived, for Hyoga was nothing like the Cygnus Saint who had once produced miracles in the name of Athena; his protection was not as pale as the Siberian snow, nor was his hair down, much less his features escaped the mask that left only his blue eyes on display. And his voice, muffled by the porcelain mask, could disguise even his Russian accent.
But almost none of those details mattered to Shiryu, blind as she was. The muffled voice did not eliminate the remnants of the timbre that she knew so well, but much more important than any other detail, Shiryu was unmistakable as Hyoga's Cosmo was still burning deep in his chest. Shiryu would be able to recognize her friends just by the frequency and sensation their cosmos made her feel. If Hyoga there wanted to hide from his former allies, maybe he was unlucky to run into the one who would recognize him even if he was unrecognizable.
"Hyoga, is that really you?" she asked, pleased. "We've been worried about you for weeks."
Hyoga let out a low laugh and Shiryu noticed that something fell in the fluffy snow they were in; the boy's voice sounded much clearer and, now, unmistakable. It was really him. He had taken off his mask.
"It's been a while, Shiryu." he said simply.
But the Dragon Saint, as well as she could recognize her friend's Cosmo, could see that there was something unique about him too: Hyoga's Cosmo carried an ethereal and ancient feeling, as if aged for a time that had certainly not passed. There was something mysterious about her friend.
"Hyoga, what happened to you?" she asked finally.
"It's been a long time since I was abandoned here." he replied, and Shiryu guessed a certain bitterness in his words.
A chill even crossed Shiryu's stomach.
"We didn't abandoned you, Hyoga. Forgive us, but… Master Mayura didn't let anyone come to look for you, trusting that you would return. Where is Jamian?"
"Jamian returned a long time ago." Hyoga said, without any trace of pain in his voice.
"Returned?" asked Shiryu. "For he never arrived at the Sanctuary."
"And now you're here." Hyoga said. "Not alone."
"Hyoga, we've lost contact with you and Jamian, as well as Seiya and the others. So we came to know what could be happening."
The God Warrior watched as Shiryu took from her robes a golden cylinder, which he immediately recognized as the Seal of Athena; she seemed to show it to demonstrate her good intentions, as it seemed to her that Hyoga had some confusion in her attitudes.
"We also came to seal the last Relic of the Sea. All the others have already been sealed by Seiya. Now there's only one left. The one from Asgard to keep Poseidon from rising."
"You won't make it to the Relic." Hyoga said, sharply.
"Do you know where it is?" Shiryu asked, interested. "Shun believes we can peacefully ask for the Relic with those ruling Asgard. I'm so glad we finally found you, Hyoga; Do you think you can help us? Perhaps talking to that one that your old master used to know."
"Asgard won't let you get to the Relic." Hyoga said, his voice very hard and suspicious. "And what I see here is the Andromeda and also the Phoenix Cloths. This means that there are other invaders in the region. I'll have to alert Valhalla."
"Wait, Hyoga!" Shiryu said, holding his friend's arm in the dark. "What's the matter with you?"
The God Warrior affectionately held Shiryu's hand as he replied tersely:
"The matter with me is that invaders are on the loose in Asgard, and it's my duty to protect the walls of Valhalla."
Shiryu's right arm started to freeze from where she had touched Hyoga's arm, so that the Athena Saint could not get rid of her friend anymore. Doubly amazed, with pain from the ice that was eating her arm, but also with surprise that her friend was so far from what she remembered, to the point of attacking her in that determined way.
"Shiryu, you will never use your arm again." Hyoga said, between sarcastic smiles.
And threw her friend by the frozen arm into the air, sending her body flying high above the height of the snowy pines; the God Warrior jumped towards Shiryu and landed a hard knee in her back, causing her to fall back against the snow. The Dragon Saint was in shock, but God Warrior Hyoga didn't care and ran forward to land a hard punch on his friend's stomach, lifting the girl up again, causing her to drag herself against the trunk of a nearby tree.
Hyoga's strength was so overwhelming that the tree not only swayed away its birds, but its roots left the ground, and it fell backwards leaving Shiryu to roll to the side. The God Warrior again tried to hit Shiryu and, for the first time, the girl dodged the furious onslaught and used the moment to unbalance her friend using her only available arm.
"Why are you doing this, Hyoga?" asked Shiryu.
"It's very simple, Shiryu." said the friend. "You are here as invaders of Valhalla, and a God Warrior's duty is to protect Odin's Palace."
"What are you talking about, Hyoga?! All we want is to seal the Relic of the Sea!"
"You won't go near the Relic!" Hyoga shouted at his friend, again trying to hit her, now without success.
Shiryu jumped and was once again distant from his friend.
"I don't want to fight you, Hyoga!"
"Leave Asgard and don't come back, Shiryu." asked Hyoga.
"No, I will not abandon you here, Hyoga. Not you, nor Ikki or Shun."
"Then you will die here with them."
Hyoga ran and hit Shiryu again, throwing her away; the Dragon Saint hooked her left arm on a log to redirect the force of her fall towards the God Warrior, finally hitting her friend, causing his helm to fall into the snow letting his blond hair finally come loose.
The God Warrior rose to his feet again, ready to fight to the death; Shiryu noticed that her friend looked really changed, although she wasn't absolutely sure that he was possessed, as he still seemed to maintain a certain logic and sense, even if he was on the wrong side. At least from Shiryu's perspective.
The fight dragged on along the road, through the trees, through the carpet of snow that in some places was dyed with the red blood that both spilled in that terrible battle between friends. And while Hyoga fought with all his strength, Shiryu insisted on dodging, defending herself with her Dragon Shield and trying to defuse that terrible battle with beggings for him to stop; but the more she was beaten and the farther she got from where she was, Shiryu seemed to understand that if she didn't do something, she could even die at the hands of a delusional friend.
"Have you finally decided to fight, Shiryu?" asked Hyoga.
For Shiryu's hair was in the sky as they were when her Cosmos rose with violence; she had spent the last few weeks training alongside Aioria, so her Cosmo carried certain golden sparkles that amazed even Hyoga, who seemed surprised to see his friend with such an effervescent Cosmo.
"Wake up, Hyoga! Rising Dragon!"
With her only available arm, that of the Shield, she lifted the snow around her as if controlling the waters in its particles and painted a wonderful Dragon that violently hit Hyoga's chest at an impressive speed, which dragged the God Warrior away making him crash into a huge tree trunk, finally falling unconscious.
For if Shiryu thought she had won the battle, she couldn't be more wrong, as her entire body was frozen in an ice skiff, which exploded in the next instant, throwing the Dragon Saint to the ground.
"When did he… Damn it."
And on one side Hyoga fell, unconscious, and on the other side Shiryu fell, fainting. Among them, a brilliant Sapphire.
Sid, a God Warrior in Divine Robe all black as night, escorted Shun through the dark and cold tunnels and corridors of Valhalla Palace. The man had an impeccable posture, his hair was cleanly cut, his expression was always very calm and his manner was always polite and well-behaved; a stark contrast to the taut rope that stretched between all the other counselors. Perhaps precisely the one that pacified the dynamics of all of them.
He walked in silence with the boy in front of him; Shun didn't have his Bronze Cloth at his disposal, but even if he had, he wouldn't use it, as he firmly believed in peace to be able to seal Poseidon, after all, it wasn't such an absurd request they made and Seiya had managed to seal six of those seven Relics of the Seas. He didn't know the circumstances under which they were sealed, but Shun always liked to believe in peace.
Ahead of him, indeed, the warrior Sid seemed to have one of his most cooperative captives since he had assumed one of the seven posts as God Warrior of Asgard; brave people, their villagers were seldom taken prisoner quickly and easily, to say nothing of their eternal rivals beyond the borders. It was even a little disconcerting for a boy so young, so delicate, to lend himself to that dungeon lost in time.
In a corridor of many cells, a dozen northern warriors saluted that imposing warrior who walked among them to one of the empty cells, with an iridescent metallic gate and beautiful details, forged in antiquity by the artisans of the mountains. One of the guards opened the cell for the God Warrior to enter with Shun in front of him.
"Turn around." he asked the boy.
The boy stared at the man, who was bigger than him and white as the snow that terrified that region, as well as cold as a block of ice; the God Warrior Sid trapped both of Shun's hands in shackles of purple amethyst held by chains of thick, dark links on the walls. As Shun found himself finally trapped, he felt the chains being pulled by any mechanism in the darkness, lifting his arms and lifting him off the ground, held only by the amethyst shackles on his wrists. Without another word, Sid left the prisoner in his solitary cell and let the guard lock the cell behind him, leaving those half a dozen soldiers the almost unnecessary guarding of Valhalla's cells.
And as the God Warrior's footsteps faded into the distance, Shun noticed curiously how those amethyst shackles that bound him had a certain ephemeral purple glow in the darkness he was in. He reflected on the mission he had gone to carry out in those icy lands and thought of Ikki, who had let herself be trapped at the entrance of the kingdom so he could reach the Palace, or even Shiryu, who was waiting for them in a fixed plex with their Cloths, after all, they did not want to be seen as threats.
In the darkness of the prison, Shun guessed groans from other prisoners in the cells next door, and immediately wondered if they were Hyoga or even Jamian, since those shackles seemed especially capable of preventing him from breaking them with his cosmos. They weren't even common fetters, and the God Warrior's confidence to leave him with simple sentries to guard him was proof enough that he really couldn't free himself from what bound him.
He closed his eyes, for everything was still under a certain control, after all his eyes saw clearly that the lighting of that corridor of cells was done in the old way: by torches and lamps.
He knew very well what was going to happen.
The light coming in through the crack in the cell flickered as if the flames illuminating the hallway had been fanned by puffs of kerosene, increasing the intensity and glow on the walls. The dozen guards outside reacted and their roars reached muffled into that almost airtight cell; an unbridled scream woke all the prisoners in that ward, as bodies seemed to slam against the wall, voices yelped in pain, and the metal of the prison doors twisted with the force with which the guards were thrown at them.
Surely they had all been beaten by merciless invaders.
And when silence finally took over the hall, the thick reinforced metal of the door received a slam that sent him sinking; and then two, and on the third finally she fell to the ground, revealing the silhouette of a girl with braids in her hair: it was Ikki, framed in fire. She entered the cell and saw the boy lifted and suspended by the black chains, while the amethyst shackles gleamed on his bruised wrists. The Phoenix Saint was surprised when she saw the sorry state the boy was in and, with her fiery feathers, broke the two dark chains, taking the boy in her arms.
"Seiya, can you hear me?" she asked worriedly.
In the boy's wrists, Ikki saw the amethyst's purple glow die until it crumbled to ash in the air. Slowly, Seiya opened his eyes and marveled to see before him the face of Ikki, whom he had left in the Sanctuary months ago when he left for the Seven Seas.
"Ikki?" he asked, delirious, in disbelief.
"Yes, Seiya. We're here." she said. "Is everybody in this prison?"
Seiya was exhausted and could barely speak, when Ikki heard a familiar voice in a nearby cell call out to her. She put Seiya down slowly and broke into the next cell in that corridor, also rescuing Shun from his shackles.
"Take care of Seiya, he's in the next cell, Shun." she asked.
"Seiya?" The boy was surprised.
"Yes, he is bad. Very bad."
"If Seiya is here, maybe everyone is."
"I got this." said Iki.
Shun ran to the only open cell besides his own and there he saw Seiya slowly getting to his feet with great difficulty, his fists badly bruised, his face sunken with fatigue, his mouth parched with hunger and thirst. Shun took him in his arms with longing.
"Seiya, we're here." he tried to soothe his friend.
"Oh, Shun. It's so good to see you."
Outside, Ikki banged on doors and effectively seemed to find more prisoners left to their fate.
"What happened, Seiya?" asked Shun finally.
"We managed to seal six Relics of the Seas, Shun. But when we arrived in Asgard…" he swallowed hard. "As soon as we got here, we were captured and thrown into these cells."
"We'll free everyone." Shun assured when he heard the blows that Ikki delivered to the cells.
"We're not all here." Seiya said to him. "Only June, Geist, and me."
At the entrance, they finally saw Ikki emerge with June on his lap and Geist staggering and leaning on the Phoenix Saint into the Pegasus Saint's cell, who was wearing only what was left of his once beautiful maritime overcoat.
"Did you say you were captured?" asked Ikki, surprised. "Are the God Warriors that strong?"
"They are very strong, but they took us by surprise." Seiya said, panting.
"They welcomed us with great courtesy at the port, and when we let our guard down, they surrounded us." said Geist. "We tried to fight, but it was too late."
"These shackles are special." Shun observed. "I couldn't break them with my strength."
"None of us could." said Seiya. "If it weren't for you, Ikki…"
"It doesn't matter, you are free now."
"What about the rest of the crew?" Shun asked.
"They fled. They're in in the skies." said Geist to them. "Safely, I hope…"
"We don't have time to talk, we need to get out of this place soon." Ikki said, guessing that it wouldn't take long for guards to show up to find out what racket had happened there in the dungeons.
"Wait." asked Seiya. "Our Cloths. They took them when they arrested us. Perhaps they are still here."
"I don't think so." Ikki said, and everyone looked at her. "A Holy Cloth is not something one would leave in dungeons like these. It is certainly too valuable a treasure to be left here. And I've heard there's a place for valuable treasures. The Cave of Surtr."
"A cave?" Shun asked.
"Come on, I'll tell you everything when we get out of this place." said Iki.
It didn't take a genius to guess that the riskiest route for them would be to climb the obvious spiral stairs of that dungeon to what must undoubtedly be the lower floors of Valhalla Palace. Luckily, as it turned out, the corridor of the now broken-in cells continued ahead, where it plunged deep into the rock of an underground Asgard complex.
With Ikki carrying a torch ahead of them, they abandoned the prison for what was effectively an abandoned mine of their ore carts, gorgeous pickaxes strewn across the floor and rock recesses from ancient excavations. There was no one there, as it had been many years since it had made any sense to mine treasures either, as Asgard had no one to trade with.
They followed abandoned tracks until they emerged in a colossal cavern lit by the white sky that entered through a gap in the ceiling and then spread out reflecting in ice stalactites, topaz stones and rock crystals. The breathtaking scenery of that cave, which was as high as it was deep, was crisscrossed by train tracks that cut through the ground, but also ventured to cut stalactites suspended by thick ropes through the air.
A loud voice caught their attention behind them, for no doubt the prison break was discovered; the unconscious bodies of the guards, as well as the empty cells. They were already in pursuit and both Seiya and Geist were in no condition to fight, while June was still unconscious.
"You can't be serious." Seiya protested when he saw Ikki bring one of the carts close to them that still had its four metal wheels working and, surprisingly, without so much resistance, as if they had been used only a few minutes ago, such was the quality of the materials of the ancient craftsmen of Asgard.
"Get in." she said.
Geist jumped in and so did Seiya; Shun passed June's body to Seiya so that he could sit her in the back of the cart and the two brothers placed themselves on either side. And when the rampage of soldiers with torches chasing them broke through behind them, the two of them ran, pushing the millennial cart of the ancient dwarves of Asgard so that it picked up speed along the abandoned tracks.
"Jump, Shun!" asked Ikki.
The boy jumped into the cart at very high speed and soon Ikki also jumped in as the car, fast as it was, climbed a twisted track that threw itself up to curve upwards from a stone spire, from where they saw, already far in the ground, the soldiers who were chasing them.
"You are crazy!" shouted Seiya.
The cart took a sharp turn and then descended violently to pass under the platform where the men and women were shouting madness at them, hurling torches and shooting arrows, which whizzed aside but hit no one. They were already a long way from being caught, but they had no idea where this wild flight would take them.
The violent jolt of the pristine cart accelerating against the abandoned tracks of that mine made June snap out of her daze at the exact moment the cart picked up speed and climbed a ramp ahead of them that seemed to never end; and if the beginning was powerful and strong, the ascent was such that gravity soon stopped them so that they almost returned in reverse to where they had started. The cart finally took the platform, steadied, gained a little speed, for the track went down a short slope until ahead of them they saw with amazement that the fall they would take would be even more terrible.
That's when June woke up fully.
Her roar caused stalactites to fall around them, such was the violence of her screams, but the fall lasted little more than five seconds; the speed they took was such that, as soon as the cart returned to horizontal, they broke through a wooden barrier and the cart was launched from that track to another, breaking through the darkness and reappearing on the outer face and side of the mountain, outside.
"For the crying out loud!" shouted June, finally awake at a bad time.
The speed was too high and the track path around that mountain curved too sharply, so that if that extreme speed continued, the little car would derail, sending them plummeting into a forest that covered the plain below.
And that's exactly what happened.
The cart flipped against the face of the mountain so many times that it broke apart, as the Five Saints of Athena fell together through the chasm of Asgard. In the distance, however, a keen observer of the forests below the mountain saw how, from the sky, five different colored sparkles seemed to slowly fall like shooting stars into the heart of the forest.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: If anyone guessed that the final scene was based on Donkey Kong, they wouldn't be all wrong. I also wanted to allude to a bit of adventure, like in the RinTinTin movie and give the Saints a prison break worthy of great adventures; put them in situations we've never seen and with ingenious solutions. Mainly because it would make perfect sense that the interior of the mountain would be a huge mine of the ancient dwarves of Asgard. =) The fight between Shiryu and Hyoga is exactly as it happened in the second movie of the series and I wanted to pay homage to that wonderful look of Hyoga in the movie.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE STELLAR ODIN SAPPHIRE
After escaping from the dungeons of Valhalla, the Athena Saints are faced with a terrifying threat that doesn't seem to understand anything other than the howling of wolves.