Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 32 ( Chapter 32 )

"I never thought I'd be back here so soon..." Isaac said as he, Fenrir, and Cecil stood at the base of the North Pacific pillar. Poseidon's Scale was in his hand, and he knew what he had to do. "Or what would be required of us..."

"Well, let's get it over with," Cecil said proudly, pointing at the pillar. "We've got seven pillars to strike down, so let's get to it!"

One Kholodnyi Smerch, Ankoku Moko Reppu Shiden Ken, and Buster Wolf later, the pillar shattered, going to pieces. Looking around, Fenrir sighed. "We're on a tight schedule... unbelievably tight. I'd hate to say this with a goddess and her four Coronas out there... but we're going to need to split up..."

"Agreed." Cecil and Isaac answered. They ran off in different directions, knowing how small the odds of them pulling this off were.
_
The earthshaking force of the North Pacific pillar falling surprised Mina as she looked to the northwest, watching the grand pillar of the ocean be destroyed once again.

"I suspect it is the Mariner and the others," Asuka spoke up. Mina turned to see her friends bowing down to her, the goddess she was. Truth be told, it was a little uncomfortable for her.

"Very well then," Mina decided, "Go and safeguard four of the remaining pillars... as long as at least one still stands, Main Breadwinner cannot be harmed by a mortal."

"Yes, Lady Ambrosia," Horoki, Asuka, Mana, and Mizuki stated as they stood up and ran to meet their opponents.
_
As Minos stared down at the whirlpool that would lead him to Atlantis, far north in Asgard, he smirked. Odd how this all came full circle.

"I'm coming too."

He turned to see Hagan standing there in the rain, repaired God Robe on him.

"No," Minos answered. "Take a look around. It's raining, and it's going to keep on raining until Poseidon is saved. You're needed here and-"

"I'm going with you!" Hagan shouted. "In case you haven't noticed, two fellow God Warriors are probably down there, fighting for their lives without their Robes! I can't just stand by and let them-"

Minos punched him in the face, knocking Sleipnir down. "Don't be stupid," Minos said as he held four string-formed bags in his hands, Fenrir and the other's armor inside them. "There will be other times for you to redeem yourself. For now, make sure Asgard doesn't slip into madness. Clear?"

Hagan looked up at him and slowly nodded.

"Good." Minos jumped into the water, and was gone.
_
"This was not part of the scenario," Rei spoke as she and the other Hakkeshu stood ready to attack and kill their single opponent at a moment's notice as Charybdis charged.

"We'll make due, Rei," Akagi answered. "It's only one woman... she can't be too difficult..."

"Agreed!" Toji added as the eight attacked Chary.

She saw them all coming, her left hand clenched into a fist, her right hand held straight. Toji was already on her, grabbing out and stopping Chary's Kairyunagi from even starting as Shinji punched her in the gut.

Things went black for a split second, but the Mariner, even without her Scale, held her ground. Kaede was punching too, straight at her head, but she kicked him away into the others.

"Let's go... GRAM!"

She chopped down on Toji's arm, cutting through without any resistance as inhuman screams permeated the city, red blood mixing with the clear water that was soaking all of them to the skin.

Less than a second later, Chary scored her first kill.

"REPPU... KAIRYUNAGI!"

The other seven Hakkeshu couldn't believe their eyes as a tremendous ripple in the fabric of space smashed into Toji's head, crushing it instantaneously.

"Im... impossible..." Kensuke said as they all watched from a distance as Chary threw Toji's body onto the ground. "Toji had the most physical strength out of all of us!"

Chary turned to them all, seeing the blood still on her right hand. "And the Sea Dragon shows her teeth to her opponents... legendary sword of Asgard, Gram."

"ASGARD!?!" They all shouted in shock, save for Rei who just looked at Charybdis with those red eyes, water beading on her white jumpsuit.

"That's right..." Charybdis answered. "And I assure you, either Gram or One World will be the death of all of you!"
_
"You think they know we're here?" Aiacos joked innocently as he and Franziska ran through another hallway at the Nerve headquarters, alarms blaring continually.

"Don't be a fool here," the younger girl commanded. "You don't have your Surplice here, and- AIACOS, DODGE!"

The Garuda Specter saw it coming, more importantly, he could hear it too. Both prosecutors hit the ground as a flurry of surgical scalpels whizzed by. They looked up to see a man, in his early twenties and looking like he just came out of performing surgery.

"Doctor Kousuke Tsukimori," the man announced, grabbing another scalpel from under his jacket. As Aiacos stood up to face him, he smirked. "Oh... and somebody is picking a fight with Nerve's top surgeon? Such foolery... I'm just going to have to kill you!" He threw the scalpel at Aaicos, who watched it fly at him.

"OBJECTION!" Aiacos answered, pointing at Kousuke as the knife suddenly shattered. Then a series of gashes appeared all over Kousuke's body and he collapsed onto the ground, dead.

"Okay, with you around," Franziska remarked as she got back up, "Maybe we CAN afford to fool around a bit."
_
"Okay... there it is," Cecil said as he slid around a corner. He had finally reached it, the South Pacific pillar...

"Hi...YAH!"

He jumped to the side just as Horoki came into view, jumping from above and slashing down at the Alcor Zeta God Warrior. He rolled away, cursing the weighted clothing that Chary had forbade him from removing until the last possible moment.

The Corona looked at him, holding her sword in both hands. "You've got nowhere to run to, Mariner!" she said. "I wield the legendary Kusanagi no Tsurugi blade... a weapon with unmatched power!"

"Uh, actually..." Cecil said nervously, "I'm a God Warrior of Asgard..."

Horoki looked surprised for a moment before lunging forward and slashing Cecil across the side, drawing a great deal of blood in the process.

"Don't really care... and it doesn't make much difference, does it?" she asked in return.

Dammit! Cecil thought, Without my Robe, I'm at a serious disadvantage here... and if she blew by me like that... just how powerful is Ambrosia going to be?!?
_
"Dammit!" Franziska said as they stood in front of an elevator, the stupid thing not working.

"Relax," Aiacos answered as he looked around and smiled. "Whew... stairwell..." he walked over to a shutter and flipped a switch, a red light appearing above the door. "Okay, I guess it'll take a few minutes but-"

"Aiacos... we've got trouble..." Franziska said. The Specter looked back to see Kousuke's body rising up, the skin falling off to reveal some sort of humanoid monstrosity with a black exoskeleton. It turned to look at them with disturbing yellow eyes, but Higashi walked straight at it. It reared back for a punch, but Aiacos dodged to the side and elbowed it in the face, sending it smashing into a wall.

"Just wait around and then take the stairs. I'll catch up eventually." He ran off after the creature, Franziska amazed.

Valiant indeed.
_
Horoki smirked as Cecil turned to her, trying to catch his breath. "What's the matter... out of breath?"

"You have NO idea..."

"Aw... well unfortunately, things are just going to get worse for you!" She jumped into the air, slashing down. Cecil rolled away and quickly retaliated with a Black Impulse wind blast, but Horoki just turned to it and smiled.

"Fourth-stage Kusanagi, INTANGIBLE!"

Cecil looked in shock as Horoki slashed through the wind, her sword having changed shape into being a flat and rectangular blade. "What the..."

Horoki smiled. "The legendary Kusanagi is second only to the world-creating spear Amenonuhoko, which Lady Ambrosia wields. It possess ten forms, each one designed to overcome every possible situation. For example, Intangible doesn't physically exist, yet it can cut anything a normal sword can't, such as magic, wind, fire, etc. In short, you can't win."

She blasted by Cecil again, more blood soaking the sword which was now as thin as a rapier. He collapsed on the ground, Horoki spinning the Kusanagi in her hand.

"That was third-stage Kusanagi, Mach Insanity... let's me move five times the speed of sound."

"That... that all?" Cecil asked as he tried to get back up, surprising Hikari.

"Seriously, just call it quits. I'm not just fighting for my goddess, but for my friend here. There's no way to overcome that, let alone the Kusanagi, so just walk away and I won't bother you again."

Yet Cecil stood back up, staring right at Horoki. "No... I'm fighting and I'm going to do this for everybody on the planet! Besides, I've stared down the legendary spear Gungnir before... this can't be much worse."

"You'd like to think that!" Horoki shouted as her sword suddenly became a massive, two-handed broadsword at least twice her size. "Seventh-stage Kusanagi, MEGATON!"

This is it... Cecil thought, I can't win this if I don't throw the clothes off!

Megaton smashed into the ground, a gigantic crater bursting up before hitting the ground. Horoki shook her head sadly. "Such a shame... getting hit by a weapon that weighs more than a planet is not a nice way to go..." The dust and smoke that had risen up blocked Horoki's view of everything, but she was sure her victory was achieved.

"Well, I'd hate to agree with you, but the thing is just so slow and all..." Cecil announced as a burst of wind revealed himself to Horoki. "Getting hit by that thing really would be humiliating."

He was standing on Megaton. "ANKOKU MOKO REPPU SHIDEN KEN!" The fist plowed into her, knocking Horoki away and drawing a great deal of blood in the process, but the Corona quickly got back up.

"YOU BASTARD!" Horoki snarled as suddenly a bright light emanated from the sword. "Eighth-stage Kusanagi, Supernova!" Cecil staggered back, unable to even see straight. "Alright then, first-stage Kusanagi, Initial Trigger!"

The sword slimmed back down to it's initial form as Horoki slashed.

"ANKOKU MOKO REPPU SHIDEN KEN!"

Cecil punched out, hitting the shaft of the blade, the weapon breaking in half.

YES! I DID IT!

Horoki just smiled as she instantly countered, grabbing the broken half. "Fifth-stage Kusanagi, Twin Celcius!"

TWIN?!?

Kusanagi morphed into a pair of short swords, one red and one blue as Horoki slashed out, hitting Cecil across his chest in an "X" format. Cecil screamed in pain again as one sword left a scalding-hot incision while the other was downright freezing. Horoki kicked Cecil to the ground and then reuinited the weapons. "Second-stage Kusanagi, Auto-destruct!" She slashed down, Cecil getting knicked by the weapon as he rolled away. Suddenly an explosion burst out on his arm, the God Warrior screaming in agony.

He was REALLY wishing he had his Robe.

"I'm not giving up on this," Cecil announced, trying to regain his focus. "I understand you're doing this for friendship above all else, but it's still not right!"

"I'd rather betray the world than my friend!" Horoki answered, "Sixth-stage Kusanagi, Vacuum!"

Suddenly a gust of wind similar to Cecil's Black Impulse shot out of a twisting Kusanagi, freezing Cecil as Horoki lunged.

"Ninth-stage Kusanagi, AGONY!"

One slash later, Horoki walked away from Cecil's bloody body, the God Warrior slowly getting up before suddenly screaming.

Everyone in Atlantis heard it. It was that loud. To Cecil, it seemed like his entire body could know only pain, such terrible pain that blotted out all other feeling.

"Idiot," Horoki smirked. "You couldn't possibly-"

WHAM!

Horoki went sliding to the ground, amazed to see a bloody Cecil standing there and looking down at her.

"I spent some time in the Underworld. Your 'Agony' was nothing compared to a burning pool of blood. And even though I have no armor, and can't use my Shadow Viking Tiger Claw since I don't have the claw extensions on my God Robe, I'll still fight to the very end!"

As Horoki rolled up to her feet, she blinked once, confused.

Was she seeing the slight images of a Manticore and white tiger behind him?

"Very well then. One last exchange, Cecil Bodu! Tenth-stage Kusanagi, Full Circle!" She raised the sword into the air as it split in two again, grinning. "Full Circle has the powers of the previous nine stages combined! You can't possibly win!"

"I'M A GOD WARRIOR OF ASGARD!" Cecil shouted back. "SO BRING IT!"

He pulled back for a punch, Horoki readied to stab with her swords.

"Ankoku Moko-"

Cecil stopped in mid-punch, his eyes going wide. The swords had stabbed into his gut, Horoki smiling.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, but it's over for you. Now just to push the swords in and..."

But she couldn't. She looked to see Cecil smiling back at her, fists clenched and ready for some clobbering. She tried to move, but suddenly discovered an incredible gust of wind was keeping her from moving.

And unlike last time, her swords were perfectly still, Cecil's body being an unorthodox sheath.

"Thanks... now these things are pinned down..." He raised his hands up, tracing the image of Ursa Major with his hands. "Alcor Zeta... no MOKO RANBU SEI!!!" (Violent Tiger Dance of the Alcor Zeta Star)

His fists pummeled into the Kusanagi swords, shattering them piece by piece before they were nothing but dust on the ground. Horoki took a step back, unable to believe what had just happened. Cecil, wasting no opportunity, went to work on her.

"SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE SHIH-NE!!!" One punch knocked Horoki up into the air. "SHIIIIIIIIHH- NEH..." as she fell, Cecil gave the finishing blow. "SHIIIIIIIIIIHHH-NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!!!"

He made sure to punch her through the pillar, killing two birds with one stone.

Well, not kill, per se.

Horoki's bloody body lay on the ground, looking up into the air. "Just... just kill me... I fa-"

"No chance," Cecil answered, "You at least were doing it for a decent reason. I'll be back as soon as this is over." He took off running, wondering how Isaac and Fenrir were faring.

 

A/N: Cecil's contraditory nature shining through… sparing an enemy he had yelled at to die in Japanese…