Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 72 ( Chapter 72 )

It was rather late at night when there was a knock on the orphanage door. Wondering who it could be, Elly felt that a precaution or two might be wise-

"It's me."

Fenrir's voice came as the door opened, Elly seeing wolf-boy step in with Isaac in tow, although his left eye seemed to actually work now. "Oh... what's the special occasion?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well... we were in the general area, sorta." Fenrir's answer was good enough for Elly, just glad to see Fenrir standing there in the flesh.

"And your friend?"

"Fenrir tagged along, we were on business, you could say," Isaac explained. "We were hoping of staying here for a night or two and then heading back to Greece."

"Well... I'll see what I can do," Elly said with a smile on her face.
_
"So... why did you bring me back here?" Cecil asked as he and Shaina stood on the beaches of Death Queen Island, the Gold Saint looking very irritated at him all the same.

"You say you spent a whole month here?" Shaina asked. Cecil nodded.

"Yeah. One whole month with Fenrir, Chary, and Isaac. Not that bad when we really start-"

Shaina's hard slap caused him to stagger back. "Then you know how painful it can be... I don't care what you did here to cope, you felt the brutality of it." Her fists were clenched, this was obviously painful for her. "Ever even bother wondering why it's called 'Death Queen Island'?"

"Old superstitions," Cecil answered, surprising Shaina. "You can learn a lot by overhearing the right people discussing things in the forests of Asgard."

"Okay..." she sighed, "You're half-right. Congratulations." She walked away from him a bit, wondering why she was even doing this. "Death Queen Island was the original sealing place of... I guess you could call them the Black Saints... darker, perverted versions of many of the traditional Saints... although in fact they're just another facet of Sanctuary's dirty little secrets."

"They were supposed to keep hold of something, right?"

Shaina chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah... the infamous, indestructible Phoenix Cloth... where any other Cloth can very slowly repair itself provided it is not too severely damaged, the Phoenix Cloth, despite being a Bronze, is damn near immortal, as is its user."

"Yet he still died in the battle against Typhon, no?"

"Don't ask me how... I really have no clue." She turned back to Cecil, unamused. "Ikki Phonis... ironic that while his younger brother was the reincarnation of the god of Death... he himself was a figure that Death shouldn't have been able to claim. The Phoenix Cloth enabled its user to be revived from any kind of gruesome death... even being atomized was no problem. The Cloth itself would reforge itself within minutes of being reduced to dust as well.

"But the Phoenix Cloth eventually had to be claimed... a decision of Pope Arles. So a number of Saints mounted an attack on Death Queen Island... confronting the various Black Saints and spilling a great deal of blood on this damn-near lifeless isle. I was one of them."

"I see-"

"No, you DON'T see!" Shaina roared, glaring at Cecil before attacking him. Her hand shot down, tearing his shirt, but he knew well that the attack would barely scrape his skin. Shaina's fury didn't diminish at all... and she was cursing Combat Awareness more than before. "My younger sister... Geist... was one of them."

"............... you... you had to kill here... didn't you."

Shaina punched in the face, knocking Cecil to the ground. He rose back up, much more downtrodden than his traditional upbeat personality. "Heh... like you can compare?"

"I killed my own brother, if you must know," Cecil answered, Shaina's mouth going dry at the statement.

"You..."

"I tore his throat out, if you must know. But at the same time I refuse to just cry about the actions that I have been forced to do. I kill if I have to, refrain from it if I can win without doing so. If I were to just succumb to sorrow... I'd never see the difference, and you'd be dead by now."

Cecil's words were slow, and calm... but Shaina saw the pain that the Shadow God Warrior's eyes. "Does it hurt?"

"Less when his spirit talks to me," Cecil answered. "He gave me a few pointers while I fought you... as well as when I confronted Ambrosia." He stared at Shaina as a silent confrontation echoed between them before the Ophiuchus Saint suddenly just broke down, grabbing Cecil by the waist and crying uncontrollably.

"How... how the hell do you do it?!?" Shaina choked out between sobs. "Face each goddamn day with a goddamn smile on your goddamn, bastard, Shadow God Warrior, brother-killing face?!? HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE DO IT!?!"

The older woman's grip was rather tight, but Cecil thanked numerous pantheons that he could still breath as he answered her. "How else can one live if they take the time to notice the good things in their life? Frien- no, a family that's stuck with me through this whole struggle... and many more instances in which I can look and say 'Yeah... I know I did good there.' keep Hope alive... that's all I can really say..."
_
I can't believe I'm the one having to do this... Charybdis thought as she sat at the terminal, playing through some Sudoku while scanning the crowds for Minos and Hilda. Fenrir and Isaac should have been back by now. And I have no idea where Cecil went off to...

Standing up, Chary was about to give up on it when she finally noticed Minos in the crowd, carrying two boxes on his back... one for his Surplice, the other likely for the Odin Robe. Smiling in relief, she promptly walked over to them, nodding as she saw Hilda next to Minos.

"Hello there again... feel better about all this?"

"Enough to fight," Minos answered before noticing something. "Behind you."

Charybdis turned, seeing four figures standing there... one of which she recalled being that of Shion. The others, however, she didn't recognize. The first was a man with dark violet hair, wearing a black business suit that Charybdis wouldn't be surprised to find a silenced pistol in, while the second had almost-black green hair, and the third, the shortest, had a cocky grin on his face, auburn hair, and a colorful shirt with a tiger and dragon on it.

"So... Mr. Griffon Specter finally returns..." mused the violet-haired individual, Minos looking at disdain at all of them.

"Angelo... Shura..." Minos addressed, ignoring Shion and the fourth man.

"Oh no, you're not entitled to call me that anymore," the violet-haired man began, "Only Gold Saints get to call me by my real name. You... you can call me Deathmask."

"Wow... creative," Charybdis shot, although the dark-haired man pointed at her.

"You will not insult the honor of my teammate," he said, his voice holding a Spanish accent. "The Shura Family does not tolerate disrespect to its friends."

Minos, however, took control of the situation, taking a step up and then looking straight at the last man. "Dohko."

"Sylphid." The Libra Saint smirked, clapping twice before sighing in amusement. "Four years... four years since you gave up right in the middle of your fight with Shion here... you've been busy since then. Kira Yanosuke... Thanatos and Hypnos... Zephyr... her..." He pointed at Hilda.

"I'm surprised you finally decided to show your face here again," Shion said, Minos shooting a dirty look at him. "Cowards who give up in their fights usually aren't tolerated any more than people that see the Pope's face."

That last line touched off a nerve in Chary, her hand slashing down at Shion before clanging against Shura's.

"Don't think..." the Spaniard slowly drawled, "Don't think that you're the best swordsman of the gods here... with a stolen blade, you're nothing."

The tension was clearly there, but then Dohko turned and walked away. "Very well then. Three days... three days and then you face the God Team, Sylphid. I look forward to seeing your abilities first-hand there." Shura, Shion, and Deathmask turned away with him after a moment of hesitation.

"Dirty little parts of Sanctuary... I can see now," Hilda spoke up, Charybdis and Minos turning to her. "Coming here, Minos... I might have been-"

"No," Minos answered as he began walking off, Chary catching up and pointing out where their ride to the hotel was, "This is necessary. This is something I should have done a long time ago."