Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Hades smiled again as the Mariners and God Warriors managed to forget their differences for the moment... they couldn't really afford to be diveded at the moment anyways. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, seriously," Isaac answered, turning away from Fenrir and Cecil and instead looking at the wheel. "But why don't you just let us leave since you want us to do it anyways?"

Hades shrugged. "Just the way the rules are... sorry."

"So how're we going to do this?" Charybdis added, wanting to get this over with.

"Well," Hades said as walked behind them and took a look around before grunting in frustration. "Dammit... Radamanthys, Aiacos, and Minos ought to have finished with Lune by now..."

"Coming sir!" shouted a voice that Fenrir recalled being Radamanthys as three figures came running into view, each wearing a Surplice depicting a winged animal. The blonde, Radamanthys, arrived first and Chary, Isaac, Cecil, and Fenrir all quickly discerned his Surplice to be based off a Wyvern although his helmet was at his side. "Apologies... we had a little bit of a debate about a couple of people..." He turned to the four, nodding his head. "Hello, I am Radamanthys Tudor, the Wyvern of the Celestial Fierce Star."

The other two came into view quickly afterwards, the first also carrying his helmet, letting his violet hair flow freely. His Surplice seemed to moreso a bird than a dragon like creature, but the exact animal wasn't discernible. He bowed down to Hades before turning to the others as well. "Again, sorry for being late... I'm Aiacos Higashi, the Garuda of the Celestial Valor Star."

The last of the three finally arrived, his helmet on his head and blocking the view of the upper half of his face. Locks of silver hair drifted freely, and while Aiacos and Radamanthys seemed to be sorry and ashamed for being late, this third, Minos, showed no embarrassment. "Hello... I'm sure you all know who I am, and I am the Griffon the Celestial Nobility Star."

"Rather terse," Cecil snorted, but Minos didn't seem to mind. Hades didn't either, and instead the young boy clapped his hands.

"Well, we're all here, so let's get this over with. If you'd all just give the wheel a spin, we can get this out of the way."

Cecil, Fenrir, Charybdis, and Isaac all obeyed, four red arrows spinning around the symbols as Radamanthys, Aiacos, and Minos stood away and began talking with each other.

"Hope they get some of the easy Specters like Ivan..." Aiacos said as their markers continued to spin.

"Yeah..." Radamanthys agreed. "Some of those guys are downright hard to beat... thankfully there's only about five that are really anywhere near our kind of power. What about you, Minos?"

Minos, however, stayed focused on the wheel, letting out a sigh of defeat as Radamanthys, Aiacos, and Hades saw who the four would have to fight...

"The Harpy of the Celestial Mourning Star..." Fenrir said.

"The Minotaur of the Celestial Solid Star," Isaac read off his opponent.

"The Alruane of the Celestial Devil Star," Cecil remarked.

"The Papillon of the Terrestrial Demon Star," Charybdis announced before she looked up at Hades. "Is that bad?"

"They'll be challenges... serious ones," Hades answered after a moment. "They're not unstoppable, though, any of them."

"Great!" Isaac suddenly said as he pointed at the Judges. "Then we'll beat them and then take down one of you, and we can set things right!"

At least one of them is determined to fight, Hades thought as he walked away with Radamanthys, Aiacos, and Minos. "Very well then... you'll have the fights in nine days, I'll arrange for a Specter to train you since you don't have your Scales or God Robes. You'll find rooms and food down the hall to your left... I wish you the very best."
_
The next few hours went slowly as the two groups split up, Fenrir and Cecil taking one room while Charybdis and Isaac took another, the God Warriors lying on their beds and staring up at the ceiling.

"Weird twist, eh?" Fenrir said... "And things are going so fast too..."

"Yeah," Cecil answered. "Whatever... Hilda has no right to be doing all this... and the fact that Sigurd and Hagan attacked us show what's really going on too."

They stayed silent for a few more minutes before Fenrir again spoke up.

"Cecil..."

"Hmm?"

"Is it true... about you being a bastard?" Cecil sighed as he nodded. "Yeah... Frigga Bodu, my mom, had an affair once... all but threw me in the forest upon birth to hide the evidence. Been there ever since... scraping by on my own. What about you?"

"You know most of it," Fenrir said, "Volsung kid, abandoned during a bear attack, yada yada yada. Family goes down the gutter; Polaris family liquidates the Volsung assets, splits up the estate... I could easily have stopped it..."

"But you wanted the whole 'Tarzan' lifestyle, right?"

"Something like that. But after this... I'll show all of Asgard that there's a Volsung out there that stands his ground and doesn't back down. What about you?"

"Me?" Cecil shrugged. "Dunno... really not in the mood for revenge..."
_
Isaac had been lying in his bed, thinking about everything that had happened and the fates of Thetis, Baian, Calypso, Krishna, Sorrento, and Casa when he heard Charybdis's bed break. He sat up and looked to see that she had slammed her hand into it, splitting it in half.

"I hate this," she muttered, "I hate what's going on and how we get a chance to come back when nobody else does..."

"Yeah..." Isaac answered. "I mean, Calypso's get reincarnated and everything but... the others and-"

"It's my fault," Chary stated, loud and yet sadly. "It's all my fault. I was the leader, the-"

"It's not your fault," Isaac said.

"What the hell are you talking about Isaac!?!" Chary snapped as she looked at him. Isaac noticed her eyes were puffy and red... she probably hadn't got any sleep. "I was in charge and I blew it! They're all dead, dammit! What the hell do you mean it wasn't my fault!?!"

Isaac looked at her and then slipped out of his bed. He didn't think he'd be able to do it to his superior, but...

He slapped her. He slapped her hard on the face, and he didn't feel bad about it.

"Why don't you just shut up!" Isaac barked. "You know about Hyoga? He couldn't say goodbye to his mom! No, he had to keep swimming down and visit her body under the ice! And that's how I lost my eye, dammit! Saving somebody that couldn't let the past go!" He slapped her again, amazed he still didn't feel any shame in it. "If you want to blame somebody, hate that bitch named Hilda Polaris for all of this and hate all the God Warriors that killed the people we knew!" He pulled back for another slap, but this time Chary caught his hand and shoved him away.

Charybdis looked down at the ground and shook her head before turning and walking out. "... Thanks."
_
The next day, Fenrir, Cecil, Charybdis, and Isaac ate breakfast together in silence, each one not looking at the other group.

The silence was broken, however, when a door opened and they all turned to see a woman in a black robe there, her long red hair hiding pale skin.

"I'm not disturbing anything, am I?" she asked. The four shook their heads. She smiled and walked in, another man with short, white hair following her. "My husband said you all were hesitantly trying to get along. Again, thank you for doing what he's barred from."

"We have to earn our second chance," Cecil mused in between bites of toast.

The woman shrugged. "He has rules he has to follow, as do we all. But he and I were talking last night and we thought to lend you a hand. Sylphid?"

"Yes, Persephone?" The man turned to her and then to the four, Fenrir, Cecil, Isaac, and Charybdis getting the feeling they had met him before. "Oh, that... I used to be a Specter for Lord Hades, the Basilisk of the Celestial Swift Star... He requested that I would train you for your fights. Zelos Myu, Gordon Cratos, Valentine Bia, and Nike Queen are some of the strongest non-Judge warriors of Hades, and he wants you all to have the best shot to beat them."

"So you'll be showing us the ropes?" Fenrir asked. Sylphid nodded.

"Yes."
_
After breakfast, the four had followed Sylphid, passing through the courthouse of the first of the eight prisons of the Underworld and then reaching the second prison... a mountainous region that was constantly raining.

"Are we going to catch a cold or something for training?" Cecil asked, but Sylphid shook his head. The four were wearing plain clothes, nothing fantastic, but they wouldn't have anything more in their battles in eight days, so it would make sense to train in them.

"No..." He stopped, looking around and then running a short distance to a gigantic waterfall. "Charybdis, this will be your training."

"What?" the sole female in the group asked as she looked around. "Climbing up or something?"

Sylphid shook his head. "Far from it. You're going to reverse the flow of the waterfall just by striking it while being underneath the downpour."

"You have got to be kidding me," Chary said as she shook her head. "That can't be done!"

"It's your training, now get it over with," Sylphid said as he led the three boys away, leaving Chary alone in the rain. Hesitantly, she walked under the waterfall and clenched her fists.

Okay... how to do this... She punched up into the water, but nothing happened. This would take a very, very long time.
_
"Is that even... possible?" Isaac asked as Sylphid nodded. Now they were in a much sunnier location, although they were all still soaked to the skin.

"Of course. It's to teach her persistence and to see something through to the end. She lost to Dubhe Alpha Sigurd solely because she gave up after losing the power of One World. As for you," Sylphid turned to Fenrir and pointed to a small wooden plank standing up at the top of a hill. "That's your training. I want you to punch it over and over until you can break it."

Fenrir initially looked like he thought it would be easy, but then realized that there obviously would be some secret behind it. He slowly walked up to it and punched it once. His fist slid off almost as soon as it touched the wood.

"Training for precision," Sylphid explained as Cecil and Isaac followed him further.
_
The three continued deeper into the Underworld, they eventually stopped at the sixth Prison, finding a gigantic pool of boiling blood. With speed that shocked Isaac and Cecil, Sylphid grabbed the latter and threw him into the dead center of it, ignoring the screams as the God Warrior of Alcor Zeta howled in agony.

"Training for determination!" Sylphid shouted as he looked at Isaac and shrugged. "It's all in his head... feelings of doubt. He has to have the drive to overcome the odds no matter what. Besides, he's done it before."

"And what about me?" the Kraken Mariner asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What else? Training for resourcefulness."
_
Sylphid led the last of the four to the final prison... Cocytus... the icy domain reserved usually for those that rebelled against the gods and died in the process. Sylphid and Isaac stood on a hill, looking over the suffering and freezing millions.

"All you have to do, Isaac," Sylphid said as he walked away, leaving the Mariner alone, "Is to survive. Survive and be content... something nobody else here has ever done."

 

A/N: See? Chapter's a tad longer than before! In actuality, these early chapters were originally very small, but when I started posting them on other sites, I stitched them together. A few more liberties with names… nothing serious.