Seiya silently put away the envelope. At this moment, he didn't know how to describe the thoughts in his heart.
Was it excitement? A desire to cry? Or was it some other, more complex emotion?
But the stirring in his heart made him look up at the Heretic Athena before him. Gazing at her profile, Seiya once again reached out and took her hand.
This time, Athena did not pull away, but faced Seiya directly. She faced him head-on.
From long ago, she had known that Seiya did not belong to her. But as Athena, she still wanted to forcibly make him her Pegasus.
She was a Greek god, unable to defy her own destiny, so why would such an unrealistic thought arise?
It was probably because she had a heart. Because she had a heart, she was jealous. Because she had a heart, she consumed. Because she had a heart, she plundered. Because she had a heart, she was arrogant. Because she had a heart, she was slothful. Because she had a heart, she was wrathful. Because she had a heart, she wanted everything that was Pegasus.
"Don't look like that, as if this is a final parting." Seiya took a deep breath, reminiscent of the scene of his first meeting with Athena on Sardinia after his revival.
He knelt on one knee and reached out to kiss the ring finger of Athena's left hand.
"In the Gospel of John, it is said, 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.' Throughout this journey, it is you I should thank the most for granting me hope and strength. It is like the blood and flesh of Jesus, which brought me salvation. I swear to you, believe in me." Seiya looked at Athena with a burning gaze.
"Is there any gift you want? I will bring it back for you."
"Bring back a bag of chips. Matcha flavor. Go."
Athena smiled, patted the back of Seiya's hand, and then watched him depart.
After his figure vanished into the ancient night, Athena took out a series of sketches from the darkness. One paper depicted the scene by the hot spring in the hidden forest, where Seiya kissed her ring finger. The next showed him sitting at a long table, feasting with a petite girl. Following that was a scene of meeting the war goddess under the moonlight, and then another of him kneeling on one knee before Sasha, who held a golden scepter, surrounded by the twelve Gold Saints.
Every painting was of Pegasus and Athena. On the fifth sheet, a blurry figure had been outlined. One could faintly recognize a girl who looked very similar to the Sasha in the fourth picture.
Under the night sky, Seiya took out the envelope. Although he had already obtained the Authority of Karmic Retribution and could lock onto his desired destination, the guidance from this envelope would make his landing smoother.
With a thought, the Pegasus Cloth instantly adorned him. The Wheel of Friendship appeared behind his head, and as it slowly turned, the dual Authorities once again achieved the effect of resonating throughout the heavens.
"I am the strongest, and he who holds all victories! Call my name often, and only victory, never defeat, shall you know! I am the breaker of obstacles, the strongest and most victorious of guardians! O Strong Wind that guides the traveler forward, I command you, take me to the side of those who need help!" Seiya called out the true words brought by the Strong Wind.
In this moment, the figure of the Saint, Seiya, was rapidly fading. Like a landscape painting whose colors were being blown away by the wind, he gradually disappeared from this world.
Compared to his first experience of this tearing through spacetime, a pain that felt as if his very soul would be thrown from its shell, this crossing was exceptionally calm. The wall of space before him rippled like a water surface stirred by the wind.
"Shatter, Gate of Fate." Seiya declared calmly, his words simple to the point of being blunt, even carrying a natural flatness. "One's own path must ultimately be forged by oneself."
That was all. For a Saint and a Godslayer, what did it mean to face destiny head-on? It was already an instinct carved into their bones, as natural as breathing, requiring no flowery words or grand declarations.
Because their very existence was to raise their fists to the gods time and again, to seize victory from the impossible time and again.
That was all.
...
An invisible ripple, yet one powerful enough to rewrite the shape of the world, suddenly spread out from Seiya's body as its origin point. It was the manifested resonance of the "Karmic Retribution" and "Invisible Blade" Authorities.
It was not a destructive force, but rather like the most precise scalpel, accurately cutting into the "Threads of Causality" that constitute all phenomena in the universe, entangled and intertwined. It gently dismantled and reset the vast and complex tapestry named "Destiny," returning it to its most primitive and pure "uncolored" state.
This ripple spread silently but firmly, its range of influence long surpassing a single world, touching every corner of the multiverse.
Propelled by the Authority of Karmic Retribution, a perceptual horizon beyond the five senses—akin to a sixth or seventh sense—began to form for Seiya.
He "saw" it. Countless stars flickered in an ocean of consciousness, each star representing a unique world. Among them, several stars were emitting strong calls to him.
The world shimmering with a mottled blue-and-white light was the Athena from the Type-Moon world. If he were to land there, he would probably be cloaked as the Alien God or, as the King of a Lostbelt, transform the entire world into Athena's Sanctuary.
Another star was suffused with a dreamlike pinkish hue. That was the domain of the Olympian pantheon in the "High School DxD" world, and Athena's aura was also within it. This world faintly stirred his spiritual sense, and a vague yet strong premonition arose—if he descended there, it seemed he would trigger some... extremely tricky and hard-to-resolve situation?
There was another strong call coming from what was likely Saintia Sho. Although it was also a Saint Seiya world, he either couldn't descend there, or if he did, he feared he might not even be able to keep his gender, while shouting that the strong must defeat the weak and engaging in battles and yuri.
And the world emitting an ominous dark red light was unmistakable—the world of God of War. Kratos's ferocious killing intent almost burst through the barriers of spacetime. Seiya had no doubt that if he landed there, the bald God of Slaughter wielding the Blades of Chaos would unhesitatingly see him as the next Olympian god to be cut down.
Then there was the Athena from the Greek pantheon of DC, the Athena from Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, the violent girl Athena from One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes, and the Athena from Olympus Guardian.
Seiya looked back. He could cross any dimension of time in the Godslayer world he had just left, traveling to any point in the past. At this stage, nothing was absolute anymore.
The next moment, he found himself in a colossal ancient arena, seemingly pieced together from countless spatial fragments. Deafening roars impacted his senses like a physical force, and the air was filled with a mixture of blood, sweat, and divine power. This was the stage of "Record of Ragnarok"—the ultimate arena for the battle between gods and humans.
His appearance was silent, like a speck of dust falling into the ocean. The Valkyrie nymphs serving on the sidelines remained focused on their work, and no one noticed the arrival of this uninvited guest.
"How's it going?" Seiya sat down very naturally next to a girl who was watching with great interest while holding a huge tub of ice cream.
"It's you, Pegasus!" The Athena beside him showed no surprise, as if Seiya's appearance were the most ordinary thing. Her eyes sparkled as she watched the intense battle in the center of the arena. At the same time, she generously pushed the massive ice cream tub in her arms toward Seiya. "It's been super awesome! After you left, there's been one amazing match after another!"
"The strongest god in Norse mythology, Thor, versus the strongest warrior of East Asia, Lu Bu! The father of humanity in Western mythology, Adam, versus his second uncle, Poseidon! Heracles versus Sasaki Kojiro! And right now it's Shiva versus Shakyamuni..."
Seiya glanced down at the two gods on the field. Since the match list had to be submitted in advance, it was more or less the same as he remembered. It seemed things had returned to the original track after his own duel with Zeus, except that he had apparently replaced Raiden Tameemon's spot.
Seiya shrugged, seeing that humanity's win count was still in a clear lead. He finished the tub of ice cream with Athena and then vanished from that world.
The world of the Lost Canvas mythology, in the Goddess's Temple behind the Pope's Palace.
Before her conscious mind could register it, Sasha's soul was the first to react, sensing that familiar Cosmo.
"This Cosmo... this feeling... It's Tenma! Tenma has returned! He's still alive!"
Although Seiya did not intentionally flare his Cosmo, the resonance from their soul bond allowed Sasha to clearly perceive his return at the first moment. Having been baptized by the Holy War, she could now skillfully command the divine power of Athena within her.
When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer in the sacred temple but standing amidst the ruins of a remote and desolate mountain village in Italy.
The traces of a great fire still remained here, and it had long been uninhabited. In a small alley of the village, Seiya crouched down, touching a blackened part of the wall, then turned his head to look at Sasha approaching from behind.
Though she had a thousand words in her heart, the moment she truly saw Seiya, they all vanished into the breeze.
The Godslayer Pegasus and the goddess reincarnate Sasha. It was as if nothing had changed, yet it also felt as if a corner of their souls was forever missing.
Sasha spoke slowly, "A few months ago, Sisyphus of Sagittarius came here too. He asked me, or rather, he asked himself, if he hadn't taken me away that day, would this world have remained as it was?"
"Sagittarius Saints always like to take all the responsibility upon themselves. What conclusion did he come to?" Seiya turned his head to look at the gracefully standing girl before him.
"It's meaningless. Discussing things that have already happened is inherently meaningless." Sasha raised her head, watching a flock of wild geese fly across the blue sky. "But he still wants to take responsibility for his sins and undergo even more arduous training."
"To be alive is to redeem oneself." Seiya followed Sasha through the alley, strolling through this village.
"There aren't so many 'what ifs'. Because from the very beginning, Hades was fated to be reincarnated as the young master of that castle, Pandora's younger brother, while I would be the son of a maid, and Alone and you would live on as brother and sister."
Only kind people suffer from internal turmoil. If you really trace it back, the true culprit was his own scoundrel of a father, that naturally evil Pegasus. He was Kairos, the younger brother of the primordial god Chronos. Through long years of scheming, he managed to become my father, took Hades's soul, and shoved it into Alone's body. Then he incited the Gemini Saint to turn against his brother.
Seiya and Sasha once again walked past the church, past the large banyan tree where he, the king of the kids, used to bully others, and even passed by the orphanage that held all his childhood memories.
A cool wind swept over the empty hillside, kicking up fine dust. Seiya looked back. There was no one here anymore, only his and Sasha's memories remained.
Under the deep shade of a surviving ancient olive tree, Sasha told Seiya about the major events that had occurred in the Sanctuary after the Holy War ended.
The most pressing was the vacancy of the Pope's position. With the successive passing of the two venerable old Popes, Sage and Hakurei, the question of who would wield the authority of the Sanctuary and lead the Saints became the most crucial unresolved matter.
The two original strong candidates—Sisyphus of Sagittarius, who was pursuing spiritual perfection on a path of asceticism; and Deuteros—were both currently unable to take the position.
Aldebaran of Taurus, beloved by the Bronze and Silver Saints, firmly refused the duties of the Pope. He preferred to be a teacher to the Saints.
And when Sasha found him, he was wearing an apron, at the orphanage, explaining helplessly that he felt the heavy political duties of the Pope would take up the time he spent caring for the children in the Sanctuary's affiliated orphanage.
The final result was that the sage of Aquarius, Degel, took on the role of acting Pope. He formulated a hundred-year plan for the Underworld and the mortal realm, to ensure victory with the greatest advantage in the next Holy War.
"That's great. An Aquarius Saint serving as Pope in an era of peace is the best choice," Seiya said.
Seiya subconsciously avoided the expectant gaze Sasha cast his way. He knew her too well—she hoped he would take on the role of Pope.
But after he refused, Sasha instead took his hand, rewove the flower crown from her own head, and placed it on Seiya's wrist.
"This flower crown is our bond. You have to promise me you'll never take it off." Sasha extended her pinky finger.
"I swear." Seiya hooked his right pinky with Sasha's, and their thumbs pressed together.
Looking at Sasha's face, so close to his, Seiya moved closer, and closer still, then kissed her forehead.
"Then tell me, is Alone still alive? Can he still be alive?" Sasha asked suddenly while leaning in Seiya's arms.
"Maybe he is." Seiya pursed his lips. It would depend on whether the one who ultimately bore the brunt of his god-slaying golden fist was Hades, the King of the Underworld, or Alone, the vessel of Hades.
Seiya himself didn't even know if his heart hoped for Alone to be alive or dead. As a friend, Seiya naturally hoped beyond measure that Alone was alive, but as a Saint, Hades was an enemy who had to be defeated no matter what.
The starry sky once again covered the heavens. Stepping outside the world once more, the will of the Saint swayed like a riotous pendulum. Among the countless brilliant worlds, there were still calls related to him.
But Seiya, long prepared, used the connection from the envelope to transform himself into a strong wind crossing the multiverse, transcending the concept of space to arrive at his destined stage.
He thought.
Tokyo, Japan. At the headquarters of the Kido Group, Saori's eyes snapped open as if she had sensed something.
Feeling uneasy, she walked to the terrace and looked up to see a shooting star streaking across the sky. For some reason, seeing that meteor filled her heart with a sense of peace.
But soon, she realized the meteor was speeding northwest... That was the direction of the Sanctuary in Greece, ah!
At the same moment, in the Greek Sanctuary.
Even late at night, the mountain range of the Twelve Houses was still shrouded in a solemn and sacred glow.
However, within the highest temple, which symbolized the Goddess's authority, the atmosphere was abnormally tense.
Seiya's figure appeared silently in the center of the temple. His gaze immediately locked onto the high platform, at the figure robed in pure white, holding the golden scepter that symbolized supreme authority.
"Saori, your Saint has answered the call... Huh?"
As Seiya looked at the goddess before him, holding the scepter and draped in white gauze, he was about to kneel when he noticed something very important.
The girl before him was not Saori, but an empty puppet.
But the golden scepter she held was a genuine divine artifact of the goddess.
The girl before him isn't Saori, but she's holding the scepter. What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?
Actually, there was no need to think. The blaring alarms and the overlapping cries of the Saints shouting that the goddess had been attacked were closing in.
But what truly made Seiya's smile vanish was the massive shadow looming over him from behind.
Seiya turned around. A man completely enveloped in a black robe appeared behind him.
Pope Ares. At least, under the cover of this mask, he was a man named Ares.
_____
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