As the sun set in the west, the coronal heatwave blew across the land. The fully ionized plasma delivered a final, destructive brilliance.
The guardian god and the solar halo.
The resilient Camel and the galloping Pegasus.
Immense divine power and a burning Cosmo.
After the Pegasus wreathed in the corona had made its charge, it was as if the sky had been briefly enveloped by night. In the world that returned to the light, the young god Verethragna stood, a giant white hole burned through his chest. The golden sword in his hand disintegrated, and the divine protection of victory was gone.
The horrific wound in his chest was like a bottomless pit, constantly absorbing the divine power that permeated the surrounding atmosphere. The White Horse that carried the sun was itself a symbol of Mithra, whom it guarded. To put it in the terms of a certain six-character game, He had well and truly taken a massive super-effective hit.
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Sardinia, the Spirit World.
With the assistance of the Demon Princess Salome, two figures appeared simultaneously here in the Fairy Realm.
One was a fair-skinned young woman with golden curls that formed elegant curves, accentuating her exceptionally beautiful features. The other was a knight in full armor, completely enveloped by a hood.
The Divine Ancestor Guinevere and the war god in his guise as Lancelot. Although they had told Seiya to complete his ordeal independently, they had still made their way to the spirit world of this battlefield. Looking at their expressions, it was not difficult to guess their intentions.
"To raise a child for three years, only for him to become a god-slaying beast, my sworn enemy. Is this fate?" Divine Ancestor Guinevere, despite her youthful appearance, gently stroked her cheek, a thread of sorrow in her voice. "What do you say, Uncle? Perhaps it would have been better to let that child stay in the Fairy Realm forever."
The White God of War, in his guise as Lancelot, did not speak. Sometimes he too felt that this Divine Ancestor he protected was a bit too noisy. If one cannot overcome great hardship and obstacles, how can one be called a warrior?
He was thoroughly satisfied with Seiya.
Guinevere's thoughts ran deeper. As a former earth mother goddess, and now a Divine Ancestor, she could easily encompass the entire battlefield within her scope of observation just through spirit vision, and she could clearly understand the brutality of their mutual slaughter.
Should she be happy for Seiya's valor and growth, or should she be worried that he might become her nemesis? The Divine Ancestor, prone to anxiety, became even more confused in the next moment.
"This aura is?"
The Divine Ancestor's former self was an earth mother goddess of the distant past. As a Queen of Witches who stood at the pinnacle of heaven and earth, she sensed the traces of another earth mother goddess.
This Mediterranean island was getting a little too lively.
In the spirit world, space has no meaning. The aura Guinevere sensed was in a forest in another part of the spirit world. This was the temporary residence of the goddess of wisdom.
"I see. So it is Pegasus." Athena looked at the brilliant halo before her, a look of realization finally dawning on her face.
Although her reserved little face showed little change in expression no matter how surprised she was, she could now be certain. Before, while she could confirm that the warrior named Seiya was her follower, she did not yet know his essence or why he walked his path.
But after witnessing his glory, especially after seeing the galloping Pegasus with her own eyes, she finally understood.
"So he is this humble one's child. This is the reason he is a warrior." A gleam of wisdom flashed in Athena's eyes.
Pegasus. In Greek mythology, after Perseus killed Medusa, a winged horse sprang from the blood that gushed from Medusa's neck. This divine winged horse immediately flew to the heavens. Later, it landed on Mount Helicon, where it created the Hippocrene spring, which later became the source of inspiration for poets.
And the half of herself that Athena had now lost was the face of Medusa, which symbolized the replacement of matriarchal society by patriarchal society and the gradual demotion of the original chief goddess, Metis.
Although her lost half had not yet been recovered, there was no doubt about it. The Pegasus Saint—is this humble one's child!
—The Mortal World, the Battlefield.
Of the two combatants, Verethragna's divine body was disintegrating, and Seiya had already burned himself away.
But separated by space, they both looked at each other and smiled.
There was no hatred or enmity between them.
They had just happened to meet on this isolated Mediterranean island, to test their strength against each other, to compete in willpower, to display the divine skills they were so proud of before one another.
And this was the bond forged between the Saint, Seiya, and the war god Verethragna.
"That's right. I'm certain of it. The hostile relationship between gods and humans is merely a catalyst. Even if you and I were to cast aside these identities, in the not-too-distant future, our swords would still clash."
Even in this situation, the war god Verethragna still spoke in his familiar, aria-like tone.
"Actually, before you reclaimed your divine name, I quite enjoyed my time with you," Seiya said, also smiling.
"Is that so? Then I am relieved." The corners of the war god Verethragna's mouth turned up. "Speaking of which, your essence has broken the limits of my understanding several times, yet you have not yet experienced my limits. This time, regardless of the outcome, let this third match be the finale."
His words made Seiya frown, as they seemed to hold some ominous meaning.
Now that the resilient Camel had been defeated and his divine body could no longer support his divinity, shouldn't He just gracefully admit defeat and say something like, "I'll be back"?
"Did you think you were the only one with a chance to start over? Open your eyes and behold this power of resurrection!"
The war god Verethragna chanted his final spell.
"I am the strongest, and the one who holds all victories! O bounteous Ram, cross the gap between life and death and bring me back from the brink!"
—The eighth avatar, the Ram, flew out from the golden disk.
The Ram is the guardian of kingship, and also a symbol of fertility. In ancient times, when livestock capacity was directly equivalent to wealth, the sheep, which could grow rapidly and had a vigorous reproductive capacity, was a symbol of vitality and wealth. Bountiful, prolific, prosperous. The ability to manifest this life force was perfectly suited for the sheep, which represented these characteristics.
Its effect was to turn death into life. As Verethragna had said, to cross the gap between life and death and be resurrected in a newborn state.
In this instant, the situation was completely reversed!
A newly reborn war god versus a Saint who had already burned away his mortal shell. The outcome was self-evident.
But there was no joy or nervousness on the white-robed youth's face. In fact, he was even more cautious and on high alert. Although he had been reborn, his divine power was only at one-tenth of its original strength. But more pressingly, He didn't know if his opponent, whose body had already been burned to a husk, could squeeze out any more power. Past experience was no longer sufficient to judge the limits of the Saint before him.
There was, of course, only one answer.
At this moment, there was no fear of death in the Saint's eyes, only a fighting spirit directed at the war god, at the god before him. Seiya raised his fist high above his head. A golden light enveloped his entire body, and then radiated outwards like a solar corona.
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