Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 97 ( Chapter 97 )

"This is crazy!" Hilda said in frustration before turning to Pandora and Radamanthys. "The Odin Robe should be sealed unless its user's life is in danger! I know that from personal experience!"

Pandora was about to respond when Radamanthys stopped her. "Polaris, that's certainly true... but are you its user?"

"Of course! Minos and I staged 'lethal' battles so he could spar against me with it when he was preparing for coming here."

"But did you engage in any kind of pact?" he asked. Hilda shook her head. "That's the difference then. It's also connected to the God Warriors, so I'm assuming that Fenrir or Cecil is in danger."

"I guess that's possible..." Hilda started to say before Shaina suddenly teleported in front of the trio. They all took a step back in surprise, seeing the female Gold Saint look at them before speaking in a very tense manner.

"You three... we need to haul ass." She suddenly took off running, Pandora, Radamanthys, and Hilda following her full-speed.
_
"Hmm... help from beyond?" Shaka asked, raising his eyebrow as Cecil stood in the Odin Robe, Isaac with the Poseidon Scale, and Charybdis donning the Papillon Surplice. "It doesn't mean anything."

"That's quite a load of crap," Cecil responded before charging. Having felt the power of the Odin Robe when I fought Polaris, I have a good feel for fighting with it now. Swinging Gungnir swiftly, the spear glowed blue as Cecil unleashed the power of the Merciless Desolation, yet Shaka didn't even move an inch as the weapon came slamming down into his neck.

Gungnir stopped on contact, Cecil shocked by the absurdity of it as Shaka moved forward to strike.

"Cecil!" Charybdis and Isaac shouted, but it was too late, and Cecil was blow away. Suddenly a spectral butterfly appeared in front of Shaka's face, the man confused for a moment before it exploded, blasting the Saint into the air. Isaac jumped after him, stabbing with the trident, but Agni effortlessly spun and dodged out of the way.

Dammit! "Aurora Borealis!" Isaac shouted, punching out... but nothing emerged from his hand as Shaka looked at him, the two fighters quickly descending to the ground.

"Ice is just frozen hydrogen and oxygen. Easy enough to separate with Extension. One of those is explosive... the other is flammable. Terrible for you, no?"

Before Isaac could even understand what Shaka meant, a tremendous explosion blasted him away into the ground, Shaka teleporting in front of Charybdis and chopping her in the side of the neck. Tiamet stumbled forward, and then he kicked her away before spinning, slapping Gungnir away, and then calmly pressing his palm onto the Odin Robe's breastplate. "Suffer."

Cecil's scream was wordless as he was blasted in the air, hitting the ground hard as Shaka teleported away from the three fighters. "You have done nothing to me. Your powers are pathetic... you are not worthy of leaving this sub-dimension."

Standing up, Cecil, Isaac, and Charybdis exchanged glances as the female Mariner glared at him. "It's that 'breath' thing, right?"

Shaka nodded. "Even if you have complete knowledge of it, I fail to see how it will help your efforts in this fight. Consider it Combat Awareness's big brother. I see the flow of life in every object, the 'breath'. It is something quite similar to the flow of energy or 'ki' that the Japanese believe, or its Chinese equivalent with 'chi'. Even your armor... I could truly destroy it if I applied myself to do so. But there's no need for that. Just three dead bodies here."

"Yeah... well," Isaac said as he readied Poseidon's trident. "Defend yourself from this!" He stabbed out with the weapon into thin air, Shaka confused by the gesture-

Right before the weapon's blade suddenly appeared in front of his face, stabbing at him.

I forgot about One World!

Agni teleported away just in time, kicking the weapon away from Isaac's grip before slapping Gungnir away. "Tenma Kofuku!" The ensuing blast of energy blew through the three, sending them reeling as Shaka closed his eyes and began breathing in and out slowly, the image of a giant open lotus appearing behind him. "Skillful... but still flawed."

"Oh, we found something out though," Isaac said as he punched out, sending an icy blast at Shaka. "Namely, if you're going to use the 'breath', you need to actively call on it!"

"Extension," Shaka countered, planning on using the same technique he had evoked before to stop the Aurora Borealis, but suddenly the attack seemed to crush itself and become very compact, right before striking squarely into Shaka's chest, causing him to grimace in pain. Looking up at Isaac, the near-godlike mortal was confused. "H-how did you do that?"

"Condensed the attack so tight that even your extension couldn't separate the molecules," Charybdis said behind him. "Oh... and by the way..."

"ANKOKU MOKO REPPU SHIDEN KEN!"

Shaka turned just as Cecil's fist connected with his face, sending the Gold Saint skidding on the ground. He teleported away to by him time to recover, but that wasn't too much anyways. Isaac and Charybdis charged as well, kicking away Charybdis's Gram-empowered arm and at the same time mentally belittling the Mariner for using a pointless attack as he slipped around Isaac's strikes without being hit before slamming both of them away. Groaning in frustration, the three fighters got up again, looking at each other in desperation.

"We squeeze in a few lucky shots... but otherwise this fight is completely in his hands!" Isaac growled, Shaka looking at them as if this was all some kind of big joke.

"Strength... skill... speed..." Shaka suddenly spoke up as he pointed up in the air, ghost-like creature coming down and shooting at the trio, "All of these are useless against me." Before they could move, Charybdis, Cecil, and Isaac found themselves paralyzed by Shaka's telekinetic power, the ghosts blasting through them.

"Spirit's Prey," Shaka said as the three looked at him and suddenly dropped their mouths and collapsed onto the ground. "Pathetic."
_
"What's the situation?" Radamanthys asked as he, Hilda, Pandora, and the Gold Saints save for Shion; who was still in one of the other temples, Aiolia; who had locked himself up somewhere, and Kanon and Deathmask; who were still in the hospital ran full speed through the Aries temple.

"Athena triggered the powers of the Ophiuchus temple. Being its Saint," Shaina explained, "I sensed its activation."

"Powers?" Hilda asked.

"Athena's symbol traditionally was a snake," Milo stated. "Therefor, the Serpent Handler protects and heals its own. No matter who critically injured Athena is, if she smears a little blood on her Cloth and Shield in that temple and then dons her Cloth, our goddess will regain her strength."

"Nice perk," Radamanthys mused. "Not even Hades has that. But why don't we just teleport to the temple and find Athena there?"

"Because," Shura grunted in frustration, "Athena's power prevents anyone, even Gold Saints from teleporting through the temples except in cases of the tournament. Closest we can get is teleport from the entrance of a temple to its exit. That's it."

"Joy..."

"My temple's coming into view. We'll reach her in mere moments," Aldebaran soothed.
_
"Funny..." Shaka said, "I was expecting to leave here when those three died..." The blonde then chuckled. "Oh... wrong line of thinking. They're not dead yet." Turning around, he saw the three back on their feet, panting slowly in frustration. "Your willpower is notable, commendable. Be that as it may, willpower itself will not save the day for you."

"We're keeping Hope alive, that's all that's needed." Charybdis smirked.

"You can only hit me if you use every trick in the book. And in spite of thoroughly damaging my Cloth, I bear hardly any injuries whatsoever."

"That's only that damn breath!" Cecil announced. "And we're going to break it! Ready, Isaac?" He turned to the fighter, readying Gungnir. "Of course, I can't do this on my own..."

Do what? Shaka, Charybdis, and Isaac all thought in confusion.

"I won't let you do it!" Shaka shouted. If he really did figure out some way of tricking the breath... then this fight will get considerably more difficult for me... I can't let that happen! He charged, striking quickly at Cecil, only to stumble and find himself behind Cecil, Charybdis standing right in front of him.

"REPPU KAIRYUNAGI!"

Shaka screamed in agony, flying backwards, slamming into the ground and looking up as Isaac looked at Cecil, blinking in surprise.

"This... this was-"

"Shaka knows there are flaws in his technique. At least I hoped so... and it turns out Shaka got scared enough about it to lose his cool."

Shaka groaned, getting up and looking at them before taking a deep breath and grinning. "Ah... that was all then?" He breathed in relief and then took a few steps forward. "If you don't know what-"

"Let's go, Cecil!" Isaac suddenly shouted, charging at Shaka, trident raised into the air as Cecil suddenly charged in accordance with the Mariner's wishes, mirroring his gesture as Shaka watched them charge.

"Motion-Stop: One Wo-" Charybdis started to say before she suddenly felt as if every thought and all her focus was driven from her mind, stumbling forward as Shaka shrugged.

"Null thought... enabling my opponents to experience Nirvana by cleansing their mind. Of course, some people's fighting styles don't work well when you suddenly lose your train of thought. And now for those two stupid weapons..." He stood firm, Gungnir and Poseidon's trident slashing down-

And then inhuman screams followed, Shaka screaming in agony as two large and imposing slashes ripped through him, cutting down two vertical line on his chest as blood fell down. Shaka staggered back, looking in horror at the duo as Isaac pointed to his trident.

"Dumbass," the Mariner said. "Take a look at it."

"I... Ice..."

"Same on mine," Cecil explained. "All we needed breach your defense was coat our weapons in a thin layer of ice. That way you'd see a different breath on them, and defend yourself accordingly."

"And just so you'd think we were planning something else," Charybdis finished, "Motion-Stop was the perfect way to trick you."

Spitting up blood, Shaka suddenly grinned. "Well well... maybe you actually have some chance of winning this after all... a chance, yes... but still a very small one!"