Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 10 ( Chapter 10 )

As Isaac walked back into the room, little worse for wear, he nodded at Cecil. "You're up."

"Sounds good," the God Warrior said as he stood up and walked out. After a few steps, however, he paused and looked back at Fenrir. "Thanks again... first time we met you could have easily killed me."

"What would've been the point?" Fenrir asked. "But whatever, take down the Alraune Specter so we can move on so Chary here can fight."

Cecil agreed, and walked through the door into battle. Isaac sat beside Charybdis, and they both stared at Cecil.

"You have no right to call me by that abbreviation," Sea Dragon said flatly.

"It saves time, and we called a truce as it is," Fenrir countered. "I didn't kill your sister, or Thetis or anybody else."

"You were still a God Warrior," Isaac pointed out. "There IS such a thing as 'guilty by association.'"

The sat in silence for a moment, all three of them before Fenrir spoke up again.

"Justice isn't clear-cut."

"And why the hell not?!?" Isaac roared, standing up. "You certainly didn't try to stop it! Thetis died, dammit! She's not coming back and she had no right to be killed like that! She was a sweet girl and a good friend and-"

Isaac stopped as Charybdis put her hand on the Mariner's shoulder. "It hurts," she said, "He'd never understand." She then looked at Fenrir. "Volsung, we may be united in this, we may even end up fighting together in a tight-knit team, but we are not your friends. Not after what happened when Asgard declared war."

"Point taken," Fenrir remarked as they all sat down again, just staring at each other in perfect and complete silence.
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When Cecil stepped out into the arena, he immediately noticed the damage the ground had taken from the previous two battles, but he saw no Specter to fight against him.

And then playful, feminine laughter echoed throughout the entirety of the coliseum.

"What's going on here?" Cecil asked as he looked around. He suddenly saw a slight greening around the him, and then flowers burst out everywhere, along with a giant red rose, closed but with an alluring scent that burst from the ground. The Specters began cheering madly as it opened up, a pale-skinned, blue-haired woman emerging from it nude before her Surplice erupted from another flower and flew onto her.

"A peep show?" Cecil asked, unfazed as the woman stood in front of him. "So you're the Alraune of the Celestial Devil Star?"

The Specter nodded, bowing mockingly as a red rose appeared in her hand. She smelled it once and then looked at Cecil. "Correct, Nike Queen."

"Quite the regal name," Cecil shrugged. "But who the hell to you think you are, Tuxedo Kamen?"

"More like the Pisces Saint of Athena," Nike answered. "The move is yours."

Cecil looked at her and then at his rapidly flowering surroundings. Most likely Nike would use them for an offensive purpose... so Cecil figured he should try to finish this quickly. Without his God Robe, he couldn't afford a screw-up, especially the way things were looking.

"Thank you, and I accept the offer." He hunched over and curled up a fist, "Moko Reppu... Shiden... KEN!" His fist surged forward, but stopped on contact as Cecil suddenly felt his legs grow weak. Nike didn't seem bothered at all as she walked away, smelling the flower in her hands as countless roses appeared everywhere in the ring.

"Just a magnificent smell," Nike sighed as she twirled it around in her hands before it vanished. Instead, a single white rose materialized and she threw it on the ground at Cecil's feet. "It can make so many people swoon over, become dizzy, disoriented. Shocking, no?"

"In some ways," Cecil growled as he looked down at the white flower below him. "What's this for?"

Nike shrugged. "After my next attack, it'll be red from your blood." She then momentarily pointed at Cecil and grinned. "Pirhanna Rose."

Suddenly the flowers all around Cecil turned black, pitch black, and flew at him. Nike closed her eyes as they fell down on Cecil and smiled again. "Even the great Surplice of Lord Hades would be powerless to resist the destructive power of my Pirhanna Roses. They eat through everything... human flesh is no-"

"IMPULSE!"

A blast from Cecil's general direction blew Nike off her feet. She saw Cecil standing there, a few cuts and scrapes around him, but the entirety of the Specter's roses had been blown away. Nike was awestruck as Cecil looked her dead in the eye.

"Any great force of wind can blow a few petals away," Cecil answered. "Mizar Zeta or Alcor Zeta, I don't know which I am. But I spent eight days in the pools of burning blood of the Underworld... the pain was considerably unbearable for the first hour. But I stayed, and I overcame it."

"You mean you became desensitized to it," Nike said. "It's the same way with my poisons or toxins, you gradually work your way to an immunity. Any idiot knows that."

"WRONG!" Cecil snapped ,"Because that pain, in its entirety, stayed with me for all eight days! I overcame it not because I got used to it and blocked it out, it was my drive to not be defeated by it! For eight days I lay in there, realizing that in fact it was me wondering about my own worth! Seventeen years, my whole life, I was some damn wild man in the forests of Asgard, suddenly becoming a God Warrior and having a chance to prove myself a true Bodu, only to be stabbed in the back upon my first defeat! I wondered if all Bodus suffered from this fate... but I refuse to believe it's the truth."

"Then what is?"

"The will to fight on," Cecil said as he gathered up his strength for another strike, "The determination that lets me know I am only a Bodu by blood, otherwise I am Cecil, the White Tiger of Asgard! I can never lose sight of this will to continue living, never let thoughts of my birth or defeats drag me down into failure!"

Nike laughed as she readied a red rose in her hand. "I get it... focusing on what you are now and what you will be in the future... ignoring faults of the past after learning your mistakes. Well then, all I can say is your will to survive fails against an imapled heart. Let's finish this!"

Cecil nodded and charged. "No problem! Face the full force of the White Tiger! Moko Reppu Shiden Ken!"

"Royal Demon Rose!"

Fist and red rose surged out each aimed straight at their opponent's heart. Tiger and Alraune clashed again and again, and then...

The Tiger destroyed the flowers...

Blood spewed from Nike's mouth as her heart crumpled from the strike. Her legs grew weak, and she staggered away.

"The will to fight..." Nike rasped as she collapsed on the ground, her eyes opened wide. "The power to overcome any obstacle... because of hope for the future... incredible..."

She closed her eyes as darkness took her, Cecil unmoved as he walked back. As Charybdis stepped out, he nodded to her.

"Last one, don't screw up."

"I'm a Mariner, we don't screw up," Chary stated.