Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 78 ( Chapter 78 )

"So... worried that if the Kraken wins then your dearest Sea Dragon must face the blades of Shura?"

Kanon turned around, seeing Aiolia leaning against one of the sides of his private box. "I'm more worried about Isaac right now," the Gemini Saint responded. "Besides... why should I worry about her? Shaina herself has admitted that she would have died if she were one second slower in their fight... and I've seen her not just fight, but kill the Hakkeshu."

Aiolia glared at him at the reference to the group their goddess had been part of. "She would have killed Athena."

"I stopped that," Kanon answered.

"As you should!" Aiolia spat. "Look at them... two of them killed their own God Warrior comrades-"

"Fenrir and Cecil were backstabbed due to their comrades' pride. They had right on their side."

"Don't speak to me about right and wrong, Kanon," Aiolia growled. Aiolia, of all the Gold Saints, was the most impulsive... a noble strength that let him be willing to face any challenge for Athena... yet at the same time, it was also his weakness. An arrogance backed up only partially by his brother being Pope, stemming moreso from his confidence and proud nature... the belief that Athena's Saints far surpassed the strength of the other soldiers of gods.

And here was a single group of five... that had vanquished every enemy they faced... and had already defeated over a quarter of Athena's Saints... some of the best too.
_
"AURORA BOREALIS!" Isaac shouted again, coating the floor of the temple in ice, enabling him to quickly and deftly slide and evade every telekinetically-controlled rose in Sepal's arsenal, although that damn whip was getting on his nerves.

Flipping backwards, the Mariner of the Arctic tried to think his way out of this. Comparing strength, Isaac knew a Gold Saint was a level or two above a Mariner traditionally. Cecil and Charybdis together had only barely beat Shaina, and Fenrir's victory over Milo was partly due to the Scorpio Saint's formulaic fighting style. Minos... well, in his mind, Isaac doubted Minos would lose to any Gold Saint, for whatever reason.

But here he was, fighting for his life against an enemy whose offense was easy enough to freeze up, but held a defense Isaac was unable to breach. Isaac wondered how Combat Awareness could possibly help him in this fight...

And then a forceful punch to his unprotected back sent Isaac sliding across the ground, the Mariner cursing himself for losing focus on the battle. Turning around, he barely dodged Aphrodite's whip as it cut through the slick ground, Krylov flipping back to his feet and charging. "KHOLISO!"

The icy binds shot out of his finger, entrapping Aphrodite's whip and enabling Isaac to disarm the Saint before punching him twice in the head. The helmet of the Pisces Saint went flying off, the light blue hair now far more obvious and furthering the Saint's feminine appearance. Aphrodite swung his right arm sidewise, attempting to hit Isaac, but the Mariner raised his arms up to cushion the force. He was sent flying to the left, his gauntlets cracking from the fight, but he was otherwise still on his feet... although in retrospect, Isaac realized if he wasn't, he wouldn't be in pain right now.

Need a plan! Isaac thought, hoping in vain to come up with something as Aphrodite charged.

"RAZOR PLANT SHOT!"

Isaac jumped over the attack, landing quickly and charging again. Melee strikes to Sepal's few unprotected areas was his only hope. Fist smashed against fist as the two looked at each other with hatred, Saint despising Mariner for not hesitating to use forceful measures to bring about his view of justice, the Mariner loathing the Saint for believing life without pain to be possible.

The force of the impact knocked both of them back, but they charged again. "Allow me..." Aphrodite said as Isaac reached him, "To show you the full power of the Pisces Saint!" Isaac kicked at him, but Aphrodite effortlessly jumped back just enough to evade the blow before throwing a petal behind Isaac. Turning away, Aphrodite grinned in almost sadistic pleasure. And here he thought he wouldn't have to use it. "Surprise Rose."

Surprise?!? Isaac thought, looking around, raising his defenses... right before Aphrodite vanished from in front of him.

It happened too fast... fast enough that Isaac doubted even Combat Awareness would have saved him. His foe vanished, appearing behind him as a massive plant stem blasted through his chest, blood splattering everywhere as Aphrodite suddenly laughed joyously.

"FANTASTIC!" he said as Isaac looked down in agony, seeing the wound. The Mariner wondered what just was with his opponent's attraction to impale him... both Hilda and Yuki had done it before. True, Minos had sewed up his injury from Gungnir, and Ambrosia's blow from Amenonuhoko had been lessened due to her shoddy aim and the arrival of the Sphinx Surplice... but this...

He was going to die here... and he heard Aphrodite, in the back of his mind, applauding him in sarcasm for not screaming, therefor Aphrodite had no guilt in delivering a silent death devoid of agony.

Isaac slumped down, blood continuing to fall. I... he couldn't believe it, and likewise couldn't believe what this all meant. Chary... Minos... Cecil... Fenrir... I can't do this... I didn't discover Combat Awareness... I...

He stumbled forward. I can't believe I'm going to die here... and lose us the Kamui. Jeez... I helped take down a goddess for goodness sake!

All of a sudden, however, Isaac blinked, straightening up as the entire rose that was impaling him froze and shattered. He turned to Aphrodite and smiled.

"Scratch that."

Aphrodite's jaw dropped open... the boy was bleeding out in the buckets' worth! How the hell was he standing?!?

"KHOLDNYI SMERCH!!!" Isaac screamed, charging, knocking the Saint into the air. The ploy was more or less useless... at least on its own. He couldn't hit Absolute Zero just yet... but he needed a moment to recover from this injury. His vision was already getting hazy. Freezing the injuries on his front and back shut, Isaac stumbled over to the pool of his own blood and reached his hand into this.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus. A loss of blood could be countered in many ways, but he didn't have much time... The Mariner finally decided on a course of action, willing his body temperature to decrease significantly. Although it would kill a normal man, Isaac was anything but normal. Falling to his knees, he saw his breath forming a mist as he rose back up. By forcefully slowing his heart rate in this manner, it would hopefully keep him going if only for a little while longer.

The sound of Sepal hitting the ground foot-first caused Isaac to turn around, but the Saint seemed much less intimidating now. "You..." Isaac said as he pointed at the Saint. "You have absolutely no chance of winning anymore."

Aphrodite just chuckled and shook his head. "What can you possibly do? Your techniques, at their current strength, are inferior to Hyoga's-"

"I'M NOT HYOGA!" Isaac shouted as he charged, kicking at Aphrodite hard enough that the Saint needed both hands to cushion the force... just like Isaac wanted. "EAT COFFIN!"

The sudden darkening of the ground around him caused Aphrodite to look up in horror, seeing a gigantic Freezing Coffin falling from the top of his temple... the opening Isaac needed for another Kholodnyi Smerch that knocked Sepal into it. An audible groan of pain escaped the Gold Saint... but it was easily surpassed by the scream that followed as it hit the ground as Isaac sprang away. All right! That got him!

The block then shattered, Aphrodite standing there with a significantly more bloody face, but Sepal had not lost his resolve, and again created the deadly whip and lashed it at Isaac. The Mariner dodged to the side, slowly speaking. "Aphrodite... do you know why Combat Awareness is so hard to for people to obtain?"

"What?" Aphrodite asked, raising an eyebrow.

Isaac flipped away from the attack and shrugged. "It's damn near impossible to obtain... because it requires the assistance of another!" He pointed at Aphrodite, smiling at his revelation. He was fairly certain this was how it worked. If not, did it really matter? He already possessed Combat Awareness, so that helped him bridge the gap. "And not just another person, you need a God or Goddess's help!"

"I don't care," Aphrodite said as he charged again. His lightspeed strikes flew rapidly, Isaac going on the defensive and blocking most of the ones he didn't dodge. The few that landed still hurt badly, and Isaac's grievously damaged Scale was in need of repairs again, but that's wasn't important at the moment.

"You should," Isaac bend his body out of the way of Aphrodite's uppercut, grabbed his arm, and threw him into another Freezing Coffin. The coffins were the only measure he had that was anywhere near effective against Sepal anyways. "It requires one to raise their hand against a god or goddess in a life or death situation... and live to tell the tale!"

"What?!?" Aphrodite grunted as he stood back up, wiping the blood from his mouth. "That's insane! Numerous people throughout history have done that! During the Holy Wars, numerous Saints fought Hades and survived, no matter how badly they were injured!"

"That's only part of it," Isaac continued. "Gods and goddesses are part of this world, and they are in-tune to the needs of their respective territories. It is similar to Combat Awareness, just on a much, much larger scale. Of course, on such a large scale, many little things slip by. By making it short-range, this basic awareness becomes much sharper and exact... able to detect the nature of attacks and people around you..." Isaac looked down at his frozen wound and grinned. "Even how to undo nearly lethal attacks. But one must also make peace with that god!"

"Peace?" Aphrodite repeated... this was getting... strange.

"Of course... we must prove ourselves capable of forgiveness like a proper god would, proving that we are worthy of the same power they are. Mizuki raised her hand against Julien Solo and nearly died for it, saving Mina Yuki from being impaled by his trident! Yet they're still the best of friends... although they look back at that moment and still feel that their actions were for the best... just like me, Cecil, and Fenrir fighting Ambrosia and Charybdis fighting Athena!"

Isaac tried to not show his surprise. He had just been going on with that... but it did make a lot of sense... and Aphrodite certainly looked surprised, at least for a moment before charging again.

Okay... Isaac thought desperately, Need a new plan. Freezing Coffins no doubt are starting to get old... Raising his hands up, the Mariner slowly began tracing an image, Aphrodite ignoring it... which was his undoing. "Aurora..."

Aphrodite swung at him, but Isaac knew where to dodge. Then came a Razor Plant... again, easy to side step now that he knew where the move's blind spot was. He realized now Sepal's straightforward attack style... intimidating to the uneducated... but now pathetic against him.

"Ice..."

Aphrodite tried the Surprise Rose again, Isaac spun around and deftly kicked it away with his foot as he completed his action... tracing the image of the seven seas, his right hand raising up and into the region of the Arctic. Aphrodite charged again, but Isaac dodged around the side.

"BREAKER!"

His fist smashed into the side of Aphrodite's head as a high pitched "AH-TAH!!!" escaped his lips. Isaac jumped to the other side of Aphrodite's face, hitting him again with the same shout and force, the Saint staggering forward, dazed as Isaac decided to join the "rapid fire punch" club.

"AT-TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT ATATATATATATATATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Aphrodite sailed backwards in the air, screaming in pain. Isaac realized that hadn't been so-

"VAMPIRE ROSE!"

WHAT?!? The shock was too much, the surprise costing Isaac the focus that would have let him dodge the rose and it stabbed into his chest, Aphrodite flipping and landing on the ground. He didn't look like he was in a good condition, but the Saint was nowhere near as hammered as Isaac had hoped.

"Rapid-fire teleportation to the same point over and over again. Your punches were fast... but not at lightspeed. Combat Awareness has it flaws, after all. It doesn't actually strengthen you at all, remember?" Seeing Isaac's jaw drop open was priceless. "I'll be honest, if had been a little slower, I wouldn't been hit by more than the twenty or so that I actually hit... but now..." he pointed at the rose in Isaac's chest which was slowly turning red. "Your next few moments will be your last." The whip again appeared, about to slash down. "Decide! Evade and die from blood loss as the Vampire Rose does its job... or remove it and become a victim of the Crimson Thorn!"

"I choose neither," Isaac stated as he pulled the rose out, the weapon still shooting down at him before stopping in mid-air, freezing solid. Aphrodite's torturous screams permeated the temple as a thin sheet of ice slowly appeared all over his skin. "Your fate was determined, Pisces Saint, the moment you took the first hit... your Gold Cloth might freeze at absolute zero, but you don't." He walked up to the now frozen Saint and pushed him over before walking away. "My Aurora Ice Breaker his your face, causing a chain reaction and drastically lowering the temperature of your whole body."

Exhausted and glad that only one member of the Gods Team was left, Isaac began the long walk to the Capricorn Temple, where he expected Charybdis would engage in her duel against Shura any moment now.

 

A/N: Fenrir gets Jotaro's battle-cry, and Isaac gets Kenshiro's.