Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 95 ( Chapter 95 )

Eight minutes... Rei sadly thought as she felt her life slipping away more and more with each second. I will die in eight minutes... and at the same time... She clutched the arrow in her heart tighter, cursing her fate. To be born six months ago, conceived by Nerve and then killed again and again until she became the reincarnation of Athena, to be used as a pawn. Kanon had saved her from a terrible death, Kanon and also Charybdis... but what of it? Her hesitancy to act had cost her everything. I... I fail as a goddess...

Groans of agony caused Rei's blood to freeze... the only person that could possibly doing that would be... Fenrir. As difficult as it was, she slowly turned her head as much as possible to him, but found herself to do anything else.

Sensing the action through Combat Awareness, Fenrir smirked weakly through all the pain, forcing himself back onto his feet before stumbling forward a few steps. "I... I know what you're thinking..." Fenrir coughed out along with some blood before falling to his knees again. "I'm as good as dead, right? What... what possible good could possibly come from trying to save myself? Well..." Volsung fell forward, but caught himself with his hands and pushed up again, refusing to give into the pain. "...It's about hope... If I can't believe I can get out of this, have hope of that... then I'm already dead. I'm still standing here, aren't I? I'm not going to be scared by these damn arrows sticking in my heart..."

Seven minutes.

"Shield... Cloth..." Rei found herself saying. In surpass, she opened her eyes... seeing Fenrir lying against a wall, eyes half open. This boy... such strength in a simple human... in spite of a dark and sadistic mind... a pure heart never hesitant to do the right thing... He was fighting against his ultimate fate... to die in only a few minutes... finding the strength to move... and she didn't even have the strength to move otherwise with one arrow.

Or maybe she just didn't think she could.

Slowly, Rei let her hand let go of the arrow, seeing it tremble before she clenched it and roared in fury, finding herself on her feet.

He doesn't have much time... if one arrow alone would kill a god in twelve minutes, the red-eyed goddess assumed three would do the job in four. Fenrir had only two minutes left... at best... She had the strength to stand, maybe even struggle through the palace and the Ophiuchus temple... but could she get to those precious objects that would save her life and give her the strength to save this brave wolf-boy?

I will save him... Rei said, running away as fast as she could. "Thank you... for giving me the hope to carry on, Fenrir Volsung."

As he watched the blue haired girl run away, Fenrir proudly smiled. Don't thank me, thank Minos.
_
"So... this is how it ends..." Dohko mused as he looked at his armor-less students, standing together and against him. "I'm going to kill both of you... Well, to be fair, this was going to happen no matter what, just didn't expect you two to set your differences aside and all." He raised his arms to point at them. "Rozan Hyakuryukoh Ha!"

Immediately the images of green dragons and tigers appeared out of nowhere, stampeding at Minos and Shion, who countered in perfect synchronization.

"Crystal Wall!"

"Spiral Duct!"

A transparent energy field and elastic spring-like creations of string appeared in front of the two Aries-born fighters, and the initial attacks were deflected away. However, Dohko screamed in exertion, a greater deal of strength being poured into the attack as the defenses broke, Sylphid and Kiki being slammed into a wall as Dohko walked towards them. "Game over..."

He took another step forward, but was suddenly repulsed, being sent backwards. He turned, seeing that a number of strings had latched onto him from behind, throwing him into another Crystal Wall that Shion formed. The impact was painful, the strings then launching Dohko into another wall and then another after that. Finally the onslaught ended, Dohko being slammed into the ground as Minos and Shion stood up.

"Good teamwork," Shion gave him a thumbs up.

"Thank Rajoshin and her Makai Tempest for the inspiration," Minos responded. They looked back as Dohko rose up again, Minos's smile vanishing instantly. "Any idea how to kill him?"

"His brain's wrecked after your mind shot and he's not slowed down in the slightest..." Shion responded. "We're going to need to hit him with something off the charts then..."

"He's a Gold Saint, though... he'll just teleport away." Minos answered as Dohko charged. They jumped away, Dohko attacking Minos first and striking at him with a swift punch. Minos countered, the blows hitting dead on as Dohko smiled.

"Ryuko Ranbu!"

"Hangan-Baishin-Keiri Taikyokuseiken!"

A rapid flurry of attacks proceeded, student and master attacking each other without giving an inch as Shion unleashed a Stardust Revolution straight at Dohko, who just vanished and telekinetically smashed the attack into Minos, hearing the Specter scream.

"Minos!" Shion shouted before Dohko appeared in front of him and blew him away with a point-blank Hyakuryuko Ha. Dohko side-stepped Minos's flurry of string, laughing all the while as Shion and Minos looked at each other and nodded.

"It's obvious..." Minos said, blood dripping to the ground all around his ravaged body. "It's obvious now your ability works now..."

He figured it out? Shion thought, surprised as Minos pointed into the air as string suddenly burst out of the floor, trapping Shion, Dohko, and Minos in a very small fighting arena.

"Dohko..." Minos continued, "You have the lives of countless Saints in your. Therefor, we need to strike with the force to kill all of them!!!" He charged, ignoring Shion's words of caution and attacking Dohko full-force. Kido took the Mind Shot head-on, literally, yet it didn't stun him at all as he kicked Minos in the gut and knocked him away.

"MINOS!" Shion shouted as he unleashed the Stardust Revolution again, but Dohko simply countered and overpowered it with another Hyakuryuko Ha, leaving Shion on the ground again. Dohko laughed in victory before Minos suddenly spoke up.

"Dohko... you just lost. Shion... would you case to try that Starlight Extinction one more time?"

Getting to his feet, Shion was confused by complied, spreading his arms out as Dohko shrugged.

"Idiot... your strategy is obvious..." Dohko responded as teleported away, punching Shion into the ground and knocking him to the ground. "You were going to make me teleport into a position where Minos could act out his ultimate strategy... no? Well, student... time to di-"

His eyes went wide as Minos's iron-clad grip came crashing down on his throat from behind.

"Far from behind, Dohko." Minos answered. "Take a look at the matrix all around us... bathed in the light of the Starlight Extinction... and my Mind Shot is not only connected to it... but you as well."

Minos punched Dohko painfully in the back, sending him up into the air. "If you teleport, the string goes along with you! This is it, Dohko! No escaping this move!" Pointing at Dohko, Minos was glad he could do this tribute to the man that was so much more than just a teacher to him... Laimi... this one's for you! "LABYRINTH TOWER!!!"

Strings appeared everywhere, shooting straight into Dohko's body from every angle imaginable over and over again, perforating him until his entire body was impaled by the strands. Looking back at Shion, he smiled as the string formed a sphere around Dohko's body. "Time to finish this... would you do the honors?"

"Gladly," Shion responded, firing off another Stardust Revolution but immediately afterwards using the Starlight Extinction to teleport the attacks inside the sphere, where the attacks would ricochet off of the string over and over again, thoroughly annihilating Dohko's body...
_
When Shun opened the door, flanked by Malon, he was surprised to see Julien Solo standing there with his Scale in his hands.

"It's time, isn't it?" Poseidon asked.

Hades and Persephone nodded. "It's time we ended this with that vile woman."

"But what about-" Julien asked, although he stopped as Shun waved his hand.

"I can't do anything involving Earth without a god's involvement. Would you please be the 'involvement'?"

Julien nodded, reaching out a hand as he shook hands with the young boy. "No problem... although I expected Hades and Persephone's reincarnations to be a bit... taller..."

"WE'RE THIRTEEN, YOU IDIOT!" the two death gods retorted, shouting at him like little kids.
_
"We... we did it..." Shion said as he

Isaac, Charybdis, and Cecil all froze. "Someone's here... I know it..." Cecil said.

"Show yourself," Charybdis commanded, looking around before striking out with a World Finger, seeing the air distort around it as a figure wearing a Gold Cloth appeared, the man having long blonde hair, his eyes closed, and a wide grin on his face.

"Another Gold Saint?" Cecil suddenly said, although Isaac explained to him.

"We never saw or heard anything about the Virgo Saint. You're him, right?" The Mariner asked, the man nodding.

"Correct... I am the Virgo Saint, Shaka Agni."

"What's with the wide grin?" Charybdis asked as Shaka turned to her. The Saint walked up to her, and Charybdis suddenly took a step back in shock, as if something more powerful than she had ever faced suddenly had approached her.

In short, that was true.

Shaka turned and walked away from them, wondering what to start with. Eurydice would be the obvious place... but no. It would be better to see if they were worthy of such knowledge first. "For one... you are probably wondering where you are." Shaka turned to them and nodded once. "Rest assured, you are not dead."

"Then where are we?" Cecil asked, confused as to this.

"In short," Shaka answered, "In a sub-dimension between worlds. Many years ago... there were three young saints in training... the oldest of which being the great Aiolos Talos. A few years younger than him was your double, Tiamet... a man named Saga Kastor Slate. And lastly... there was me... the youngest of all, yet the most powerful by far."

"How come?" Isaac pressured, wondering what Shaka was getting at.

"Because," Shaka explained, "I was, as many might say, a 'Buddha'... one who had reached Nirvana. More accurately," he walked towards them, "I am the Buddha. However..." he continued, "This did not become a threat or danger until roughly ten years ago... when the selection for the Pope was to begin... Due to his sometimes murderous actions, Saga relented the title, and Arles deemed me the better of the two remaining ones..."

"However, suddenly Arles changed his decision, ordering Talos and Slate that I was too much a risk, a possible scandal for the Pope to be 'The man closest to the gods'... who could use borderline divine-right for whatever I wished... However, I knew better. Arles was already dead, Aiolos masquerading as him. He battled me with the help of Saga, but instead of killing me... he trapped me in this dimension with the power of the 'Golden Triangle'... threatening the Gold Saints with death if any of them ever disclosed this information to Kanon or any of the other Saints."

"That explains that then," Charybdis muttered. "Why I saw a young man instead of the old Arles..."

Shaka walked up to her before looking at all of them. "There is only one way to escape here..." suddenly Shaka's hands glowed gold as he spread his hands and blasted all three of them away. "Only one way!" His eyes snapped open, the full power of the dreaded Virgo Saint nearly completely destroying the three of them. "The Golden Triangle has three sides... you three, and the center, me! Only the sides or the center can escape this dimension! And the cost of the ticket would be the death of the other!"