Saint Seiya: Heretic Athena?

Closing his eyes, he saw it again, the scene from that dream of long ago. The sky was a hazy mist.

The ten-lived demon king and the world-destroying hero, a battle to the death between a benefactor and a beloved. The earth mother goddess who should have made a choice had instead fled to this Far Eastern country. For some reason, during this time, the Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess found herself unconsciously recalling things from the very distant past.

This is the realm of life and undeath, where humanity cannot dwell. A world where the soul is more important than the body.

The Spirit World, the Eternal Pavilion. The gates of countless overlapping spaces were stacked together.

In the original pavilion, only the figures of the archmage in black, Tenkai Sōjō, and the Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess remained. The mottled courtyard had been washed by a torrential downpour for a whole night. In this land, the storm was the symbol of Susanoo.

"I see. So he has reclaimed his entire myth," the Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess instantly understood.

Susanoo had controlled this country from behind the scenes for a thousand years. The reverence accumulated on this land, and his own deep cultivation of his myth, were enough to allow him to step upon the earth and return to the form of a Heretic God, possessing all of his related myths and completing the accumulation of his full power.

This was Susanoo's trump card, the ace he held to kill the Saint... but for some reason, the palpitation in the Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess's heart grew even more severe.

The sky was a hazy mist, the candlelight flickered nonstop, and an owl sat on the windowsill, gazing into the distance.

Tenkai Sōjō was the first to sense something. Just as he was preparing to use his divine foot power to teleport to another part of the country, this overlapping spirit world was sealed in reverse.

"Princess, you...!" Tenkai Sōjō looked in disbelief at his friend of four hundred years beside him. He couldn't believe she would betray him at this critical moment. But her face was also one of astonishment. "It wasn't me...!"

A giant shadow tore through the dome of the sky. It was a winged serpent, a human-faced owl with beating wings. This eternal garden had been sealed inside and out by giant dragon-serpent beasts. And from among these hideous divine beasts, a young woman in a white robe, holding a winged staff, slowly appeared.

"Athena. It really is you," the Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess was the first to realize the problem.

The heart palpitations of this period, and the deep darkness that prevented even her, a Divine Ancestor, from perceiving the root of the problem—only a more primordial earth mother goddess, perhaps even one among the earth mother goddesses who held the Authority of darkness, secrets, and the night, could accomplish this.

Tenkai Sōjō, who had been trying to escape, was already entangled at the waist by a giant snake. He could certainly struggle free, but looking at the merciless, cruel bright eyes of the goddess before him, he also knew that if he made any rash moves, all that would greet him was a torrential, stormy assault.

Tenkai Sōjō's face was full of suffering as he softly chanted a Buddhist sutra. The one saving grace in this misfortune was that this terrifying earth mother goddess's target was not him. The Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess also realized this. She watched as Athena slowly walked towards her. Grass and trees grew where her feet touched, but in the next instant, she dispelled this power.

"You're not going to try to resist me? You won't even try to struggle?" Athena said.

"Because I have always been a woman who runs away when faced with a choice. Naturally, I cannot compare to Your bright-eyed Majesty." The Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess looked at the valiant and heroic war goddess before her. "But I will not submit to you either. At worst, it is just a return to myth."

"If you were really going to return to myth, you would have done so long ago. You linger in this world for no other reason than an unfulfilled wish, and a person you want but dare not face," Athena said, ruthlessly piercing through her lies. "Right now, the only one you can still rely on is Susanoo, who is fighting my beloved Pegasus in the Izumo Province of today."

The Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess was stunned for a moment and offered no defense.

"Then why don't we make a wager? As fellow earth mother goddesses, you should still have that much pride," Athena said, weaving her words flatly.

"Are we betting on who will win and who will lose?" The Lapis Lazuli-Eyed Princess smiled. "Even so, I..."

Athena raised her palm as if in contempt, revealing ten slender fingers.

As if by coincidence, in a connection that seemed to transcend telepathy, the Saint in the mist of the San'in region made the same gesture.

Although he had descended in his complete form, although he had struck with all his might in a surprise attack, after the mist dissipated, the radiance of the Saint still stood there.

Was it divine speed? Or does he possess a mind's eye? Or did he seize some extremely powerful defensive Authority from that goddess of the southern seas? Susanoo cautiously circled the Saint, looking for any possible opening, and then to unleash a fatal blow.

Although He had descended in his complete form, he was still incredibly wary of the God-slaying Rakshasa before him. This Godslayer named Seiya still hid a tenacity that He could not see through. If his opponent hadn't been so aggressive, he might have chosen to retreat to the spirit world and rule this country alongside him, or... even temporarily hand over the rule to him.

And his opponent's suddenly outstretched hand made the warning bells in Susanoo's mind go off. Was this the opening motion of some fatal technique?

"Ten." The Saint, Seiya, opened his hand, then clenched it into a fist.

"You think you can defeat me in ten moves?" Susanoo was so angry he laughed. "You naturally evil god-slaying brat, watch me now..."

Susanoo's words were not finished, but he was forced to swallow a mouthful of blood. The lower half of his face was destroyed. The Saint, Seiya, had already closed in on him. Susanoo could even feel the aura that was crushing him.

"Nine." Susanoo's pupils contracted. Not ten moves? Ten seconds?!

This was an insult to a god! Susanoo was furious, more furious than ever before. His rage became a storm, his anger changed the color of the sky and made the seas heave.

But a scorching golden light covered his rage. In that moment, it was as if a sun had risen before him. Susanoo was completely unable to defend. The Ame-no-Habakiri he had just raised felt a sharp pain from his wrist; the armor on his entire right arm shattered! His bones let out a wail, and the Ame-no-Habakiri flew spinning from his hand! All of this happened in a few hundredths of a second.

But in the next moment, the Ame-no-Habakiri landed in his left hand. "Susanoo-no-Mikoto is here! Leading a thousand evil gods to raise an army and steal the country! Ten-span swords are planted in the earth, using them as castle walls and shields to resist the enemy! A thousand swords are lost, but Susanoo-no-Mikoto repels the Yamata no Orochi! Sword of the gods, this is the Ame-no-Habakiri! The steel of ten thousand swords! The might of the divine sword, shining brilliantly! A single stroke reveals unparalleled dominance!" An equally brilliant golden light covered the heavens and the earth. With this powerful weapon in hand, he believed he still held the advantage. As for that incredible fist of divine speed... then he would change the venue, let an even harsher fighting environment limit his opponent.

"Eight." Susanoo's vision was completely covered by gold. In this moment, hell descended.

The divine blood of Susanoo was spilled across the sky. He was no longer aware of his own existence. The Saint, Seiya, burned his Cosmo, and under his fists, Susanoo was just a rice cake wrapped in armor. There were no fancy moves, only—the Pegasus Light-Speed Fist!

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