Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 92 ( Chapter 92 )

"This fight... it's just getting started," Charybdis said as she viewed the fight between Minos and Shion from the massive viewing chamber of Aiolos's palace along with Rei and the others. The dastardly Pope was nowhere to be found, but the Mariner doubted he was up to anything good. A digital screen had been in place for them to watch the class, and as the five of them viewed the struggle, they all knew that the initial relatively bloodless stalemate was quickly going to Detroit into a nightmare.

"Naturally..." Cecil responded. "But Minos is Minos... he'll win." Looking over at the young, red-eyed girl next to him, he suddenly blushed slightly. "Uh... no offense, though."

"None taken," Athena responded. "I suspect Sanctuary will do quite well with such powerful armor locked away."
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Minos roared again, moving as fast as he could and evading the torrential blasts launched at him by Shion, nearing the Saint and managing to punch him in the head. The Gold Saint flew away from Sylphid, but teleported behind him, blasting Sylphid from behind with the destructive force of the Stardust Revolution again, finally connecting.

Minos screamed in pain, being knocked forward as blood flew free, but he rolled forward and wasn't hit by too many of the shots. String flowed from his fingers, stitching the injuries close as Minos spun around, parrying Shion's kick before retaliated with a blow to the chest. In spite of having no armor and his opponent wearing a powerful Gold Cloth, Minos grinned in victory as he felt Shion grunt from the pain. The joy was short-lived, as Shion spun and kicked him in the face. Minos flipped backwards, jumping into the air to avoid Shion's Stardust Revolution again before firing two strings at the ground. The first latched on and pulled Minos back down while the second was aimed at Shion, serving the role of suppression fire.

"Griffon..." Minos began as he dove at Shion, grabbing his leg and throwing him up in the air. "FLAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!!" He watched Shion shoot up and quickly marked an "X" on the ground, doing some quick mental math. "In three seconds, you'll hit the ground here."

The most proficient Gold Saint in regards to teleportation and telekinesis suddenly stopped in midair, keeping himself up with the power of his mind only before shooting back down at his armor-less foe.

"LUNMINOUS WEAVER!"

Golden strings shot at Minos at an incredible clip, faster than Minos would have expected as Shion landed, grinning at the cut up visage of Minos in front of him as he began laughing.

"You..."

"I've mastered your own fighting style... exceeded it!" Shion gloated before pointing his finger at his former friend. "ARIES MIND SHOT!"

"GRIFFON MIND SHOT!"

Gold and silver cables shot at each other at blindingly fast speeds, but upon contact, Minos's strand was cut in two, the halves going off at angles and missing Shion as the Griffon Specter had to hit the deck to avoid Shion's attack.

"You spend four years away from here... more or less hidden from the world doing something," Shion began as Minos got back up to his feet, the Saint believing victory to be his now so certainly he walked away, showing his back to a still relatively unharmed opponent. "Your are a coward, Minos. You didn't even have the courage to kill our master in fair combat!"

"Actually," Minos responded, "I had my reasons... which I've gotten over quite recently. A few were handled in the days before this... but something else finally made sense to me now that we've fought.

"And I assure you, Shion, your fighting skills are excellent, but not on par with mine anymore." Minos charged full speed, jumping to the side and avoiding Shion's string before firing off a volley of his own, most of the attacks being deflected off of the Gold Cloth. However, it stunned Shion long enough for Minos to generate his real offensive measure.

"LABYRINTH DRILLER!" He punched at Shion, then a single string erupting from his hand, suddenly shooting out in a spiral pattern and shining brightly. Shion covered his eyes, firing off string of his own, only for his mouth to go dry as Minos's ripped through his. The attack nicked his shoulder, and Minos was suddenly on him, hitting him in the head with his elbow before pulling back his fist and screaming out "SKYLDIG!!!!!!!!!!!"

The first, thunderous blow left a large dent in Shion's armor, and the others that followed were just as painful as Minos howled "SKYLDIG SKYLDIG SKYLDIG SKYLDIG SKYLDIG SKYLDIG SKYLDIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A final strike had the force to spin Shion around, but he continued and slammed Minos in his side with both his hands, Minos coughing up blood before Shion punched him in the gut.

"Luminous... WEAVER!!!" torrents of string shot into Minos's body, the Specter sliding back and falling to his knees as Shion grinned at him. "Game over."

"Was... was that all you had, Shion?" Minos asked as he stood up and stitched his wounds up again before creating a massive netting off string. The Aries Saint took a step back, confused as to what Minos meant as the Griffon of the Celestial Noble Star sent the net flying out in the direction of the stadium before pulling it back, his Surplice brought back as well as Minos placed it back on his body.

"Impossible..." Shion started to say, shaking his head on shock. "That should have killed you!"

"I've had experience with lethal attacks in the past. Much more than you have had," Minos answered, cracking his knuckles. "Malphas Zephyr... in hindsight, a fool that didn't understand his own power. That was one reason why I was able to defeat him. Yet I also learned a lot about taking on opponents stronger than myself, and also enemies near my level of power, in that fight. You can't beat me Kiki. You've been here in Sanctuary... true, the Typhon incident probably gave you some real battle experience... but nothing like I've had." Minos punched out, Shion launching a Stardust Revolution at his enemy, but it didn't seem to matter strings burst out of nowhere, not to hit the attacks head on, but something far more cunning.

The strings spread out and then shot in, impaling Shion's attacks from the side and then carrying on, stabbing into the Saint's body.

"Dance for me, Shion," Minos announced, the Gold Saint helpless as Minos snapped his fingers. "Cosmic Marionette."

The cables suddenly pulled, snapping every joint in Shion's body out of place and dropping him in the ground. Minos, however, kept looking at his opponent, knowing this wasn't the end just yet.

"You're telekinetic. Put yourself back together." He pointed at Shion's body and fired a string down, missing the fallen Saint's body by a few inches.

Growling, Shion vanished, reappearing in the air where he placed his body back into place, Minos flying up to meet him. Just as Minos reached him, Shion threw a punch at the Specter. Sylphid bent to the side, striking back in response-

Right before he suddenly felt his body stop and be snapped back to the ground as Shion laughed, landing next to him. "You were saying?" Shion asked as Minos suddenly screamed, looking down at the sight of countless gold strings all around him, bursting into his body.

"My god..."

"Dance for me," Shion taunted as he snapped his fingers, the Gold Saint returning the favor done to him not to long ago. Minos screamed again, collapsing to the ground as Shion walked up to him and kicked the Specter into one of the remaining pillars of his temple. "Game over." He walked up to Minos and grinned. "YOU WON'T SURVIVE THIS ONE, MINOS! STARDUST REVOLUTION!"

The red bursts of energy shot down at Minos, but suddenly his Surplice's wings flapped, the force beyond anything Shion had ever thought possible. Just as they reached Minos, the attacks froze before shooting back at Shion, blasting through him forcefully, the wingbeats continuing again and again, summoning a gigantic tornado around the Saint. Shion screamed in pain, his entire body in agony as strings burst from the ground, spinning with the tornado to drastically increase their speed and power, grinding the Gold Cloth of the Aries Saint into nothing before slashing into Shion's body, spilling a tremendous amounts of blood.

Eyes wide in horror at the fact the crippled Griffon had succeeded in such a painful attack, Shion collapsed as Minos smirked.

"Shion... this isn't like four years ago. I can beat you now. This much is obvious. The second I realized that the Starlight Extinction doesn't kill someone but instead transports them somewhere else... that was the point that I realized you never killed anyone that day... and neither did Dohko. It was that damn woman... she tried to use me... like she used Ambrosia."

"What... what are you talking about?" Shion choked out, confused. "What woman?"

"One I've never met... but I know her methods..." Minos continued. Strings suddenly shot out of nowhere, stabbing into Minos's body again and placing his joints back into position as the tired yet determined Judge of the Underworld rose back up to his feet. "It blew up in her face, although mainly due to the support that Radamanthys, Aiacos, and Laimi gave me. I conquered the sorrow from that day... the day I thought you killed Seika and Shunrei..."

"Dohko merely asked me..." Shion coughed out, "To send them away... I can't teleport other people except with that move..." Growling, Shion forced himself back to his feet and looked at Minos with pure hatred. "And if you thought that move killed people... THEN YOU'RE EVEN DUMBER THAN I THOUGHT! ARIES-"

"It doesn't matter," Minos stated, his Surplice's wings spreading out again. "I can stop looking at you with bias, even if it's subconscious."

"MIND-"

"A Judge of the Underworld can never be defeated when he truly holds the ideals of his position in his heart, abandoning pre-existing opinions!"

"SHOT!"

"Annihilation Flap." The Specter's wing-beat blew the string away, Shion losing his footing and sliding and backwards, Minos slowly walking towards him. "Game over. Uskyldig!" (A/N: Norwegian for "Innocent"). He punched Shion in the gut, the force of the blow travelling through the Gold Cloth without leaving a crack before striking into Shion's stomach, sending him flying away uncontrollably, the world going black for the Gold Saint.
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"We... we won!" Fenrir exclaimed in victory, Isaac and Cecil joining him in a victory cheer as Charybdis and Athena turned to see Pope Aiolos standing there. If his headpiece would not be visible... they would have know what he was planning. And not even Combat Awareness would save them...

"Congratulations," the Pope dryly and sarcastically praised. "Team Pentrine is the winner..." He turned and began walking away. "The Kamui are stored this way..."

Slowly, Charybdis stood up and walked after Aiolos, Athena following her. Fenrir, Cecil, and Isaac went after them as well, not knowing of the golden statue, just out of the range of their Combat Awareness powers, hidden in the shadows... with an arrow at the ready, aimed at Rei Ayunami.
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Master... master... I failed you... Shion thought as he weakly opened his eyes. I... I lost... he's still alive... He tried to figure out where he was... the Libra Temple? That was ironic...

But then a calm, soothing voice spoke up, and Shion bolted upright, looking around... "It's okay, Shion... give in... just cry. You failed. Accept your failure and the pain behind it." Behind that familiar voice and its words, Shion felt something... like hundreds of thousands of voices, moaning in agony. He blinked, tears welling up as he fell to his knees.

"I... he's still alive... you... you haven't been avenged, master! You...you haven't... haven't been avenged!!!!!!" He screamed as he felt his heart being ripped in two... an auburn-haired man wearing golden armor walking up to him from behind, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling.

"Then give into the sorrow," Dohko commanded, "Give into the sorrow that is the only thing remaining in your life."