When the sunlight, condensed from the lives and convictions of all the Gold Saints, shattered the Wailing Wall, Doko's consciousness also fell into silence.
"So this is the eternal darkness?" Just as Doko was about to calmly accept his end, a warm golden ocean enveloped his consciousness.
That warm power dispersed the darkness.
Doko opened his eyes with a puzzled expression. What greeted his sight was a magnificent, solemn giant palace.
The dome of the palace was impossibly high, as if inlaid with stars.
The surrounding pillars were carved with vivid reliefs depicting the battles of Saints against evil gods throughout the ages.
"This is..." Doko looked around in confusion.
Meanwhile, surprised and uncertain voices sounded around him.
"Where is this?"
"Didn't our souls completely annihilate?"
Doko looked around and saw Aiolia, Mu, Milo... all the Gold Saints who had participated in that attack, slowly and confusedly getting to their feet in various parts of the palace.
"Hey, Doko!" A voice suddenly clapped him on the shoulder.
Doko turned abruptly. The person greeting him was a young man with a somewhat cynical air.
"Manigold-nii?" Doko was overjoyed and surprised. The other party was the Cancer Gold Saint from the previous Holy War.
"Haha, a two-hundred-plus-year-old geezer like you calling me 'nii' feels really strange." Manigold spread his hands and laughed.
"Yeah, we were only in our twenties when we died. You and Mu are both over two hundred now. It's quite a mess if you think about it." Another lighthearted voice sounded.
"Sisyphus-nii, you're here too!" Doko was very excited. This was the Sagittarius Saint from the last Holy War.
"Not just us. Everyone is here. Even our seniors' seniors' seniors are here." Sisyphus shook his head with a smile.
It was only then that Doko noticed there were many other Saints like them deep in the hall.
Some of these Saints he had even seen depicted in carvings in the Sanctuary.
"Wh-what is happening?" Doko felt dizzy and hadn't yet calmed down from the excitement of reuniting with old friends.
"As you can see..." Pope Sage walked over, his voice gentle as he explained. "All the Gold Saints who sacrificed themselves protecting the earth and Athena in all the previous Holy Wars are gathered here."
Although they had already suspected it, hearing this confirmed answer from Sage still shook Doko and the other Gold Saints to their core.
All the Gold Saints from all the previous Holy Wars were actually gathered here!
"How was this done?" Doko could hardly believe it.
Manigold laughed heartily, forcefully putting his arm around Doko's shoulder. "Haha, that kid Setsuna did it. I knew that kid could do it!"
"Setsuna-nii?" Doko was stunned.
"Correct!" Manigold's eyes sparkled. "I'm only now learning that his ambition is greater than all of us Gold Saints combined!"
"What he has his eyes on has never been just one Holy War, just one Hades..."
Sage took over the conversation, his voice steady as he explained:
"In the last Holy War, Setsuna not only successfully wounded the true body of Hades, but in that final battle, as a mortal, he seized a part of Hades's divine essence!"
"Then, using that part of the divine essence, he opened this Hall of Fallen Heroes deep within the Underworld, resurrecting all of us Gold Saints who had sacrificed ourselves..."
Sage said with a somewhat amused and exasperated tone, "Setsuna granted us new bodies, allowing us to fight once again as Specters to protect this earth."
Upon hearing this, Doko couldn't help but chuckle wryly. Having them, the Gold Saints, protect the earth as Specters was truly a bit of an infernal joke.
Manigold clenched his fist, his eyes burning with blazing fighting spirit. "That's good. Let those gods who wantonly toy with death know that they too will ultimately be consumed by death!"
Sisyphus was succinct. "As Specters, declaring war on the gods… that is the meaning of our being here!"
"As expected of Setsuna-nii!" Doko murmured, his eyes full of admiration and excitement.
Aiolia, Mu, Shaka, and the other Gold Saints also snapped out of their initial shock, their hearts filled with immense excitement.
After their 'death', instead of ending, they had joined an even more magnificent and sweeping great journey.
...
Elysium.
This sacred land, created by Hades, which should have been eternally peaceful, was now violently fluctuating.
Thanatos, the God of Death, was already sprawled like a beaten cur in a mess of ruined flowerbeds.
His divine body, symbolizing the end, was covered in cracks. The radiance of his divinity was dim. He had temporarily lost the ability to fight.
Hypnos, the God of Sleep, knelt not far away. His usual calm and elegant posture was completely gone. His magnificent divine cloth was damaged, and golden divine blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
He stared fixedly at the five figures before him, his eyes full of disbelief.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible! Mere Bronze Saints, even if by chance you have awakened your God Cloths..."
"With your Cosmo, as insignificant as dust, you simply cannot drive, let alone exert, the true power of the God Cloth!"
"But why... why did we lose in the end?"
The God Cloth was an existence superior to the Gold Cloth, equivalent to divine armament.
Theoretically, even if a mortal who had not reached the divine realm put one on, it would be difficult to exert even a ten-thousandth of its power.
However, he did not know that Seiya and the others could never be measured by common sense.
Facing Hypnos's questioning, Seiya and the other four did not even have the leisure to look back.
Their gazes were locked on the deepest part of Elysium… the giant mausoleum radiating the divine power of Hades.
Before the entrance to the mausoleum stood a golden magic jar, engraved with countless mysterious runes.
Through the faint light penetrating the jar's walls, they could see Saori's figure trapped inside, her aura weak.
"Saori-sama!"
The five let out a roar, pushing their remaining power to its limit, transforming into five golden meteors, recklessly charging toward the mausoleum.
In the skies above Elysium, a dimension imperceptible to ordinary people.
A soul phantom quietly floated there, like a detached spectator, watching the ultimate showdown between mortals and gods below with keen interest.
This was Setsuna's soul projection.
Setsuna took in the complete defeat of the Twin Gods, his heart full of reflection.
'Athena is truly powerful!'
In his view, although Shiryu and the other three had also attained the Eighth Sense at the last moment, they were clearly new to this realm, belonging to the first stage of the Eighth Sense.
Whereas the Twin Gods were at the second stage of the Eighth Sense, and also had their own exclusive divine cloths.
Logically, the Twin Gods should have easily crushed the five Bronze Saints, but the result was the exact opposite.
Apart from the fact that Seiya and the other five had indeed burned their Cosmo to an incredible limit, the [God Cloths] were also the key to them, as mortals, defying and defeating gods.
Setsuna sighed softly in his heart. 'Simply stained by Athena's divine blood, evolved from Cloths stained with divine blood, the divinity they contain surpasses that of the Twin Gods' divine cloths.'
'And that magic jar...' Setsuna looked at the golden jar sealing Athena. Hypnos claimed it was a powerful artifact that even the thunder of Zeus, the King of Gods, could not break.
But Setsuna remembered that Athena had only pretended to be captured. She could even break the magic jar from the inside.
Setsuna recalled the Sanctuary's records and his own knowledge of mythology. 'Looking at all the previous Holy Wars, the reincarnations of Athena have successively defeated Ares, the God of War, and Poseidon, the Sea Emperor, both among the twelve major gods...'
'Even in the original 'plot', without her true body ever fully awakening, relying solely on the power and wisdom of this generation's reincarnation, Saori, she completely annihilated the true body of Hades...'
A conclusion grew increasingly clear in Setsuna's mind. 'If she were to truly exert the strength of her true self, the [Goddess of War and Wisdom]...'
'Then, among the twelve major gods of Olympus, her strength would absolutely be second only to Zeus, the King of Gods, as the strongest god!'
Thinking of Athena's final fate, Setsuna couldn't help but shake his head. 'Unfortunately, since ancient times, Athena's true body has never completely revived.'
'She always descends in a reincarnated form, her power severely restricted, and most of her memories sealed.'
'Otherwise, in the original work, Apollo, the Sun God, might not have been able to force Seiya to kneel...'