109 — HOPE AND IMMORTALITY
Siegfried had never felt so much pain.
The most powerful of the God Warriors inherited the post of celebrated figures in Asgard like Folker, defeated by his own son, and his brother Sigmund, whom he had already surpassed even before he fell from grace, locked away in the depths of Valhalla. Siegfried had his fame, for in Asgard no one dared to challenge his authority, and the beasts of the Forbidden Forest, when they went mad with sin, as the villagers said, were killed by him to prevent greater disasters in the city.
In battle, he was never defeated by any of the aspirants who sought a post among the palace guard, nor was he challenged by those who trained hard to become God Warriors in the future war that would victimize all Gods, the northern apocalypse known as Ragnarok. The final battle of them all.
No one had ever made him feel that pain. More than that, what frightened him in that moment when he was kneeling was the fact that, for the first time, he feared for his life. He was afraid. He was afraid of being afraid.
But then he swallowed the rest of the blood in his mouth and got up, realizing that Dragon was lying stretched out behind the dying body of those three Athena Saints. The God Warrior's God Robe protected him in a much more decisive way than that fragile Bronze Cloth that Shiryu wore; but, at his chest level, he realized that his God Robe was shattered with a small hole where Shiryu's fist had hit him.
"Magnificent, Shiryu." he said, even though she couldn't hear him. "But even though your strength is impressive, my God Robe was able to protect my weak spot from your mighty fist."
Siegfried faced the three Saints of Athena ready for battle.
"That's enough." Seiya said, placing himself in front of the group. "Now Shiryu has shown us that you're not immortal at all. It is possible to hit you. And put you on your knees, Siegfried."
"Do you think can do this? When not even Dragon was able to defeat me at once?"
"Shiryu was stupid. She sacrificed her Shield and almost her life to show us your weak spot."
"Don't say that, Ikki!" Seiya protested with her.
"But now I know, Siegfried." Ikki threatened.
"And what can you do about it, Phoenix?"
The Phoenix once again ignited with fire and, before Seiya could argue anything, it once again jumped towards Siegfried to restart their battle. Right away, the God Warrior noticed how Ikki's strategy was now much clearer than before; because if before she sought to use the sky to her advantage, now Ikki seemed to fight rooted to the ground, just like Shiryu, and always seeking to reach Siegfried's birch heart.
But even so, Phoenix Ikki felt the pain of her previous battle, so the fight was somewhat unequal, and Siegfried had a clear advantage, taking down the Saint now and then too. But she got up and kept trying, until the God Warrior hurled her body over his shoulders to shatter and destroy a pillar of that huge courtyard. From the cloud of dust that rose, Siegfried had to jump to dodge some rays of fire that Ikki shot in his direction, and it was at that moment that the furious Phoenix jumped towards Siegfried in the sky to try to hit the God Warrior's chest.
But the Dragon of the North opened his arms and legs, generating a pulse of energy that repelled Ikki's charge, throwing her back to the ground, where the God Warrior landed, untouched. But she got up again to keep fighting, keep trying to hit Siegfried's weak point.
"Come on, God Warrior, our fight is not over yet!" shouted Ikki, staggering.
"But that's not possible, why don't you give up and stay on the floor next to Shiryu, Phoenix? Why do you get up? Why do you insist on fighting when there's no chance for you?"
Ikki didn't answer and remained staring at Siegfried.
"I've never seen anything like it." he said, seeing that even Seiya and Geist were ready to fight, even though they were badly hurt and practically without their Cloths. "Where does so much strength comes from?"
"It comes from Athena." said Ikki, finally firming up her legs and surprising even Seiya. "It comes from a girl who took an arrow through her chest and hovered between life and death for an entire day. And still rose to vanquish evil from her Sanctuary. That strength comes from her. And also from all of us!" she pointed at her shattered friends in the distance. "You are not fighting just me, God Warrior. The cosmo of my brother-in-arms burns within me every time I spread my wings. As my Cosmo burns in each one of them."
Siegfried was the one who remained silent for a moment, as in Asgard they didn't know the heat of the sun, and for a moment, he wondered if that was the strength that the God Warriors lacked. Of all those who had fallen in battle. Even Hagen, forged in cave lava, didn't seem to have such fiery energy as that Saint of Athena.
But then he was faced with a group of warriors who, even though they had suffered terrible blows in recent months, were of unshakable faith in their missions. Very different from what Siegfried observed among the Warriors of Asgard. The nation's greatest warriors had fallen, either to death or to sin; and the new, young warriors to whom the mission fell did not have the unshakable spirit it would take to protect Valhalla, he thought into the silence.
Fenrir was a beast abandoned by humanity, Hyoga was not even a God Warrior, while Alberich have always been a high advisor of the land, but never a warrior. Only Siegfried, Hagen, and Sid had dedicated their lives to becoming the incredible God Warriors that they had become. But Hagen and Sid were beaten. And Siegfried was alone.
While Ikki had all her friends by her side.
"Do you understand now? You can knock us down as many times as you want, but we will always get back up. At least one of us will be standing to fight you!"
The fire around the Phoenix intensified again.
"Now come on, Siegfried, our fight is not over yet. Use your Dragons, God Warrior!"
"Do you think you can strike my heart, Phoenix Ikki?"
"I'll prove that as long as you're under the same sky as the rest of us, you're a warrior like any other we've ever faced."
Siegfried closed his eyes, locking a fury inside.
"I will show the Colossus of Odin who protects you that there is no immortality before me. All I see is..."
"I'm not immortal!" shouted Siegfried, finally interrupting the girl and stopping her speech.
Everyone was astonished at that passionate revelation of the God Warrior, for his voice had indeed been the roar of a sleeping Dragon. He followed in the calmest voice.
"I am not immortal." he repeated, more restrained. "Nor would I ever want to be. Seeing my friends fall one by one, knowing that forever I'll watch others die as I drift through an endless life?"
Ikki stared at him.
"Only the Gods are immortal." he said, pointing to the Colossus of Odin that was behind them all. "I am but a warrior abandoned by death."
"Abandoned by death?"
"You heard it right, Phoenix. I heard you can come back from the ashes of death if you want, but I don't even get the privilege of being visited by Hel. I am the one who never fell ill, nor was I ever afraid of dying. No one has ever been able to defeat me, and even though my enemies grow tired in battle, I carry on and hunt my enemies until they ask for mercy. Just like I am doing with you."
"Abandoned by death." Ikki repeated to himself.
"But just as nothing seems able of killing me forever, I've also been denied the right to take anyone else's life. I'm not immortal. I am the one who was abandoned by death. Can't die and can't kill."
"What are you talking about?" surprised Ikki.
Seiya and Geist looked at each other before the revelation and if the boy seemed to work on his injured brain, the Silver Saint felt some facts fit in that really didn't seem to make much sense in that final battle. That was not only the last, but also the most powerful God Warrior; and the Athena Saints were the executioners of practically all of their brotherhood in Asgard. However, there was Shiryu's body stretched out, very wounded, it is true, but alive. Seiya in rags was still able to stand up and even she wouldn't die anytime soon either.
And that Dragon of the North had strength capable of killing them all at once if he wanted to. Or could.
"That's nonsense." said Ikki finally. "I don't have time for all this drama, all these tragic Asgardian operas. Stop talking and attack me, Siegfried!"
The God Warrior stopped a fire fist thrown by Ikki with just one hand, deflecting the blast of fire to the side. The two faced each other for a moment, when a voice cut through that courtyard to attract everyone's attention.
"Finish her, Siegfried!" cried Hilda from a pulpit on the edge of the abyss that lay below the Colossus of Odin, where the stairs of that mountain led. "Get it over with!"
Siegfried looked at his mistress, surprised by that apparition, and a strength that he had not experienced until then invaded him; for there was Odin's representative giving him a clear order. And his life was devoted entirely to serving that order. Siegfried made his seidr appear around his body, as he was determined to overthrow Phoenix so that she could no longer flap her wings of fire.
"Are you ready, Phoenix?"
"I will bring you to your knees, God Warrior."
"You will feel the rage of the Dragon of the North and wish I could kill you, Phoenix Ikki. Face the might of the Dragon Bravest Blizzard!"
"Phoenix Phantom Strike!"
Seiya saw how Ikki was absolutely obliterated by Siegfried's fist, to the point where her body was thrown far away, her Bronze Cloth cracked in several places, her feathers were scattered in the air and, far away, a little girl woke up in the middle of the night in despair when noticing that the red feather she had under her pillow had never glowed so dimly.
"Ikki!" Seiya shouted at her.
Her body crashed against the wall of the Valhalla Palace and she returned to the courtyard, inert, still trembling, out of breath, drained of blood and with her eyes glazed with pain.
"By Athena, Ikki, what have you done?" Seiya asked as he turned over his friend's body and terrified that she hadn't even made a move to defend herself.
"I… hit him in the heart." she stammered.
The helmsman looked back and realized that, again, Siegfried was on his knees. If Ikki let herself be hit to have a chance to counterattack, she did so in the most unusual way, because although her Cloth was shattered by the Dragon Bravest Blizzard, Ikki landed her Phantom Strike directly in Siegfried's heart.
Phantom Phoenix Strike.
Ikki's tenebrous technique that Seiya knew was capable of destroying the enemy's mind, making her opponent relive moments of absolute terror to the point of leaving him catatonic, as she did with Jab, Shaina and other enemies. The reports were always terrifying. Because if the Phantom Strike was that technique that haunted the worst nightmares of a person's mind, Seiya couldn't imagine what it could manifest when cutting through someone's heart. And when he saw Siegfried suffering on the ground, the boy felt certain pity, because it was as if he was desperately gaping for the air that was missing in his lungs, his right hand at the height of his heart seemed to scratch the God Robe trying to find the animal that was chewing his chest, while his head shook with despair.
The pain that ripped through Siegfried's heart was something he had never felt before; it wasn't exactly the impact or the force with which he was hit, but the depth with which that blow seemed to have poisoned the blood pumping from his cursed heart. He looked ahead and met Seiya's brown eyes, but his vision shimmered impossibly, mixing shapes and colors, mixing people and enemies, love and pain.
His own hearing betrayed him, as it reverberated throughout his body only the drum that was his heartbeat, echoing in every vein that ran through him, calming all the sensations of the outside world. His skin tingled as if chewed by thousands of ants and his eyes seemed to have a crimson screen in front of them. He looked behind him and, in the distance, he guessed his mistress Hilda shouting something that he couldn't hear; on the other hand, the bodies of Phoenix and Dragon, while Pegasus and Geist rose to their feet, watching him as one might watch an animal in distress.
He put his hands to his head so that he could stop that terrible feeling, when his eyes not only darkened for good, but his labyrinth spun like the revolution of a fast star, making him fall dizzy and vomit on the floor the blood that accumulated in his stomach. And in the reflection of that dark and accursed pool of blood, Siegfried saw his brother's eyes and rose, frightened.
He raised his eyes and found himself in the same courtyard where he had been hit, but in front of him now was a figure he did not expect to find at that moment. Princess Freia running towards him in tears.
"Get out of here immediately, Princess Freia!" he shouted, for that place and that moment were very dangerous in his presence.
Hilda could defend herself, but Princess Freia wouldn't stand a chance, no matter how brave she was.
"Siegfried, you need to help my sister." she cried.
And then they were no longer in the outer court, but in the inner chambers of the Valhalla Palace.
"She is different, Siegfried. Why don't you listen to me?" she tried.
"Princess Freia." he said, panting, and looking around without knowing how he had ended up there. "We, the God Warriors, that are trained our entire lives suffer from the inffluence of our Odin's Sapphires. I cannot imagine the force that must be the influence on your sister when wearing the Ring of Nibelungs."
His voice spoke clearly, but Siegfried felt like a passenger in a body that had already lived through those moments.
"This is not right." Freia snapped. "This is not the time for the Ring to awaken, it was supposed to happen during the Fate of the Gods. The End of Days!"
"Please, Princess Freia, who knows the will of the Gods? And who will say that this sadness and misery that our people are going through is not a sign of the end of times, anyway? The Long Winter to which we are subjected. The disasters at sea."
"I don't want her to die, Siegfried." Freia cried in the arms of the God Warrior.
"I will protect her with my life, Freia. With my life." he repeated to her, for he knew the stories they told about his impenetrable life.
And in Siegfried's arms, Princess Freia cried for mercy and understanding, but Siegfried's strength had been forged to follow Hilda and Odin through whatever battle, never to dare to defy her or doubt her sanctity. But, like the sands of time that blew through the life of the God Warrior, Freia's sad body in his arms melted to flow through his fingers and join the creases of the marble floor of Valhalla.
Once again, the God Warrior found himself knocked down by immense dizziness, to the point where he needed to lean against the wall to keep himself upright. As he pulled himself together and opened his eyes, he realized that he was now far away, in a place much deeper than the darkness of those halls of Valhalla. The dungeons where a wounded man was tended by the Palace doctor.
"I'll leave you two alone." said Ol' Andreas, letting Siegfried face the prisoner who was none other than his own brother, Sigmund.
They stared at each other. Sigmund found deep disappointment in Siegfried's eyes, while Siegfried saw that his brother had torn out his right eye, using a bandage to hide the healed wound; but in his left eye he guessed a plea for forgiveness.
"So it is true." said the distant voice of Siegfried. "You attacked Hilda."
"You know better than anyone how miserable that would make me, my brother."
"Then why, Sigmund?"
"It's wrong. These are not Odin's designs, brother. Hilda shouldn't wear that cursed Ring!"
"How dare you doubt Odin?! We've cried out for His voice all these years, and now that it's heard through Hilda, do you dare to raise a hand against it? Raising your hand against Hilda is the same as raising your hand against Odin, our Almighty Father. How could you do this?"
"It is for Odin that I did it."
"Shut it, Sigmund!"
"I saw it, Siegfried. This gift is not from Odin. There was someone else in the shadows."
"The Ring of the Nibelungs can only be a gift from Odin. From no one else. That's what you've been telling me all this time."
"No, don't think that of me..."
"The Ring of Nibelung is capable of bestowing immense power on its wearer, and immense envy and ambition on those around it."
"No, Siegfried!" protested the prisoner. "I can't believe you think I'm doing this out of greed, Siegfried. I'm your brother."
"That wound in your eye..." Siegfried began to speak. "It is the strength of the Ring of the Nibelungs. It's a message from Odin."
"It's not Odin!" cried Sigmund, echoing throughout the dungeon and then wailing, as if seeking to forgive himself. "I had to defend myself."
"You raised your hand against Hilda, Odin's Voice! And that mark is proof of your sin. You shouldn't be anywhere else, Sigmund."
"Siegfried! Siegfried!" called Sigmund, seeing his brother leave the cell. "Forgive me, my brother."
"I can't Sigmund. Not if Odin Our Father can't as well."
"Please, wait!" asked Sigmund for one last, plaintive word. "There was someone else there, Siegfried. By Odin, there was someone else. There is someone in the shadows of Asgard. Someone terrible. I couldn't save Asgard, Siegfried. Save Asgard!"
His brother's voice reverberated that last request forever and now Siegfried remembered that he never forgot his last words. His chest was burning with pain, but he was also gradually calming down when he realized that he was back in the cold outside courtyard of Valhalla Palace.
In front of him was no longer the fragile figure of the Princess Freia, nor his wounded brother Sigmund; the two people that that terrible Phoenix technique seized to rip out of his heart to remind him of what made him suffer so much. Two people who burned with more strength the deepest feelings he kept inside his chest: abandonment. The fear of having abandoned the ones he loved the most. His brother. And Hilda.
Ahead of him now were the Athena Saints who, little by little, rose to face him again.
"Again they rise." he commented to himself, also getting ready for the battle that would start again. "The strength of your bonds is truly impressive. I wish I didn't have to fight you, but..."
Among the four Saints of Athena, while Geist watched over Ikki's pain, Seiya walked ahead of them and waited for the God Warrior to be back in the battle to make his Cosmo burn deeper. And Siegfried, for the first time, saw the burning and magnanimous cosmos of the Pegasus Saint shine.
Because there before him was Seiya. And, even without his Cloth, he would always be the Pegasus Saint, miracle bearer and savior of Athena.
He only had with him the uniform of his travels across the Seven Seas on his body, but maybe at that moment he didn't need anything other than that torn garment, which kept little of the original colors, although it still had Athena's insignia bright on the chest. Surely he would have been better protected with his wonderful Bronze Cloth, but that almost destroyed overcoat was still the remnant of his adventures across the Oceans, entrusted with his post by Captain Kaire himself.
And there, before him, Seiya knew that was the chance to complete the sacred mission for which they left Greece so many months ago. And the Cosmo that shone around his body was incredible, as it would never stop being with Seiya, the Saint of Hope. His cosmos burned, because he remembered Lunara, wherever she was, as well as Marin and her face always hidden and distant, and especially his sister, who he still wanted so much to meet again.
There was no one like him to achieve purposes within himself to make his cosmos shine to infinity.
"What do you think you're going to do? You don't even have your Armor at your disposal. Your cosmos is bright, but your body is that of a boy."
"You can't kill me, isn't that what you said? That you were abandoned by death and that you can't kill your enemies, is that not true?" the boy asked, his life burning around his body. "But even if you could kill me, I wouldn't give up. Shiryu sacrificed her Shield to show us your weakness and Ikki was able to hit your heart with the Phantom Strike."
"Now look back and see how the two of them are doing."
Seiya didn't need to do it, because he knew they were both passed out. But alive.
"Why do you think it will be any different this time?"
He did not know. But Seiya rarely knew anything when he always got up to move forward. Because if he didn't know, at least there he remembered something that made him smile.
"You know, Siegfried. Once, a great Captain of the Sea said that I was capable of performing miracles. And that he would like to be by my side to see me accomplish them." Seiya shone and made that entire courtyard shine. "And I know he's with me right now and he's going to see me perform another one of those miracles."
Their universes burned each in its own way; Seiya shone his Cosmo-energy and Siegfried made the external patio freeze with his seidr. But his cold didn't seem to be a match for the miracle that was Pegasus' strength, because Seiya had at his side and inside his heart something that Siegfried lacked.
Athena's faith.
Athena was with him through his cosmos, his memory of Meko, the bonds of his friends and even the longing for his sister.
Perhaps Odin was not with Siegfried.
Siegfried armed his Dragon Bravest Blizzard, which could prove to be a terrible blow for Seiya, who was without his Bronze Cloth, but the boy had attentive eyes and, even very injured, his Cosmo reached the Seventh Sense, awakening the miracles that Meko loved so much. Miracles he was capable of only because he believed so strongly in Athena.
Athena, who at that time was praying for him and his friends, kneeling before the pedestal of Cape Sounion.
Her divine cosmos, which she so begged to surface, finally appeared around her body and invaded the entire planet with her strength. And even Worlds away, Seiya felt Athena's call and his Cosmos reverberated with that force.
His Pegasus Meteors converged into a single point.
Siegfried's heart.
And the last God Warrior was finally hit in such a way that his body was hurled away and all the left protection of his God Robe destroyed by the force of Pegasus.
The boy also fell to his knees, exhausted from the effort and breathing with extreme difficulty, but without taking his eyes off his opponent's stretched body. Shiryu crawled on the ground towards him calling his name, while Geist appeared behind him with a smile on his face. Ikki was also slowly regaining consciousness, as if they had been awakened from a nightmare by that moment when Athena reverberated through the World.
Seiya opened his palm and saw the six Odin Sapphires that his friends had gathered so he could have that last chance; for with Siegfried's Sapphire he could summon the Balmung Sword and free Hilda from its spell, giving them a chance to seal the last Relic of the Sea without having to face yet another useless resistance.
But when he saw Siegfried's body stretched out, he was startled again.
For Dubhe Siegfried rose slowly.
If Siegfried lacked the protection of Odin through Hilda who operated under a spell, in fact what was left within him was the faith in himself and the faith he deposited in Hilda. And so he got up.
How Shiryu got up so many times. As Ikki did. Like Geist. And mostly like Seiya always would.
Well, so did he.
Seiya had never seen such a determined enemy and, for the first time, he felt that he was fighting someone like him. Unshakable.
Geist stepped forward in front of everyone, even Seiya, to his surprise, and walked towards Siegfried, who faced her, finally standing up as his whole body shook.
"It's over for you, Dragon of the North."
"Never." said Siegfried.
The Argo Saint, who at that moment was wearing half of the Silver Cloth of Ophiuchus Shaina, raised her arms to the heavens and made her silver Cosmos appear before everyone. Her voice reverberated in that courtyard as her body emitted a light that blinded everyone for an instant as they listened to her voice scream to the four winds in a prolonged manner, until her breath disappeared.
"Argo!"
Siegfried put his hand to his eyes with the certainty that he would finally be defeated, but absolutely nothing happened; when he opened his eyes he saw in front of him Geist very out of breath and, behind her, the three Saints of Athena anchoring themselves to remain standing. His heart had not been hit.
"Now it's my turn." he announced, his voice wavering.
But before he could use his Dragon Bravest Blizzard to sweep Geist away from him, everyone heard a deep roar echo in the white sky of Asgard. A low clatter of timbers twisting in the air until the very floor of Valhalla's outer court began to tremble in a very subtle way. The spectacle proved to be unbelievable and, while Siegfried was waiting for something to sprout from the ground to take him to Hel, only very late did he notice that the thick and eternally white clouds of that sky of his land had broken like a torn curtain showing the bow of a huge galleon appeared in the sky like a miraculous apparition.
"But…"
Siegfried took a few steps back, not being able to believe what his eyes saw in that sky. For the ship made a sharp turn downwards and the tip of its bow nailed Siegfried's body and dragged him, destroying the entire outer courtyard of that Palace, sweeping away the God Warrior until he and the immense galleon collided with an eternal wall of the mountain that veiled Valhalla, completely destroying the ship and finally silencing the last of the God Warriors.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: I really wanted Siegfried to be a really terrible and difficult opponent. As it was in the Anime. He knocked everyone out and I wanted to make that comparison with Seiya. The whole story is written from the point of view of the God Warriors, so I wanted the main God Warrior to be as resilient as Seiya. And yes, I decided to drop a ship on the God Warrior's head. And I thought it was too cool.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE EMISSARY FROM THE DEEP
The battle between Siegfried and the Athena Saints is finally interrupted by a strange apparition.