"Aiolos, why did you betray the goddess Athena? Can you explain?" Shura glowered, eyes locked on Aiolos ahead of him, who was holding a baby girl.
When he first heard the Pope say Aiolos had tried to swap an ordinary infant for the goddess's reincarnation, Shura didn't believe it. But seeing the baby in Aiolos's arms now, he was more than half convinced. How could he be so brazen?
"Shura, actually—" Aiolos tried to reason with him.
"Silence! No more explanations, Aiolos. I thought you and I would be the goddess Athena's most loyal subordinates! I never imagined you'd dare attempt to replace the goddess with a common baby girl! Do you know how utterly heinous that is?" Shura cut him off with a look of pained indignation. On his nine-year-old face the expression looked a bit odd, but his solemn tone showed he meant every word.
"This baby is actually—" Failing once to reach him, Aiolos refused to give up.
"You even colluded with an outsider to assassinate His Holiness the Pope! I, Shura, am ashamed to be counted with your kind!" Before Aiolos could finish, Shura broke in again, seething with anger.
"Actually, the Pope—" Aiolos still wouldn't give up and kept trying to reach Shura.
"Enough talk, Aiolos! Raise your fists! Fight me like a man!" Shura cut him off yet again.
"…" Aiolos let out a long sigh. He'd known Shura was famously hard-headed among the twelve Gold Saints, but he hadn't expected stubbornness to this degree.
Perhaps it was this very stubbornness that let him don the Gold Cloth at the age of nine. But facing such obstinacy wasn't good news for Aiolos.
"Holy Sword, Excalibur!" Without another word, Shura unleashed his signature technique at Aiolos. Because he had to protect Athena's reincarnation, Aiolos was forced to fight passively.
Their battle didn't last long. Shura pressed the attack relentlessly, while Aiolos, to keep Athena from being hurt, poured most of his Cosmo into protecting her. Babies are easily injured; being the goddess's reincarnation didn't change that.
The Cosmo Aiolos had left was nowhere near enough to fight Shura. He couldn't even counter, let alone unleash his proud Lightning Atomic Light-Speed Fist.
Meanwhile, Aiolos's injuries grew more and more severe.
"What's wrong, Aiolos? Fight me like a man! Or do you feel too guilty for betraying the goddess to strike? At least you've got a scrap of conscience. In that case, die like a man by my hand, Shura! To fall on the battlefield might even be an honor for you." Shura seemed lost in his own world, spinning out a jumble of unrelated drama in his head.
Aiolos, meanwhile, was so depressed he could scream. Guilty for betraying the goddess? Which ear of yours heard me say that?
Let me tell you, the one in my arms is the goddess!
But Shura wouldn't even give him the chance to explain.
We can't drag this out. This is the Sanctuary—more Saints will come as soon as they hear. If other Saints join the fight, things will become extremely unfavorable for Aiolos.
After all, the Pope whom Saga was impersonating hadn't slipped much yet, and in Saints' hearts, outside of the goddess's words, the Pope's word carried the most weight.
Even being one of the twelve Gold Saints wouldn't help Aiolos then.
And his stamina was draining, thanks to the injuries from Saga's ambush.
If this drags on, I might actually get cut down by Shura!
"Atomic Thunderbolt!" "Holy Sword, Excalibur!" Seizing a moment, Aiolos staked everything on unleashing his strongest Golden technique.
His faster-than-light fist smashed into Shura, blasting him into a massive building.
Shura's hand-as-blade—his "hand-sword"—left a huge gash on Aiolos at the same time.
Aiolos wasn't wearing a Gold Cloth, and part of his Cosmo was protecting the Athena in his arms.
Though Shura was badly hurt, compared to Aiolos it was only a minor injury he could recover from with a few days' rest.
"Cough, cough…" Glancing at the Shura he'd briefly driven back and left unable to pursue, Aiolos spat several mouthfuls of blood.
His body was in terrible shape; without timely treatment, he wouldn't live long.
Fortunately, he'd shaken off this troublesome opponent.
To save the goddess Athena, what did it matter if he sacrificed himself?
"Aiolos… as a friend, this is all I can do." Lying in the rubble, Shura stared after Aiolos and murmured. He knew Aiolos well enough and couldn't fathom why he'd do something so defiant. He also had some doubts about the Pope's orders.
The Pope's behavior had been far too abnormal these past few days.
Gold Saints might be battle fanatics with terrifying destructive power, but they weren't fools.
As the goddess's most loyal Gold Saint, Shura felt the baby in Aiolos's arms had something to do with Athena. In both reason and feeling, he couldn't deliver a killing blow. At the same time, as a Gold Saint he had to do something—partly so the Pope wouldn't suspect him, and partly for a Gold Saint's pride. So while he hadn't killed, he had fought at full strength.
Now he truly couldn't pursue. But if he chose, he could still force himself to keep fighting Aiolos.
"Huff… huff…" Because his injuries were too severe, Aiolos's vision was starting to blur.
"So here you are. If not for those two powerful bursts of energy just now, I might not have found you." Meruem's figure appeared behind Aiolos.
"The girl in your arms is Athena, isn't she? I can feel an extremely strong power in her. So this is the divine power of this world? Athena—one of the Twelve Olympians. Fascinating. I wonder what class I count as in this world now."
A spark flashed in Meruem's mind—an interesting idea took shape. "Since this infant is Athena… how about I adopt her?"
"A warlike warrior-goddess? Like Athena serving as the main offense in the war of the Bailisaiqi generation? Hmm… worth considering." Once the idea appeared in his mind, the cascade of follow-up images only grew stronger.
Meruem thought it an excellent plan. Isn't Yoma that guy who claims to toy with time and manipulate the future? Then let me change this world's plot.
Zeus, Kronos, and Kairos—come on, let me join your game.
This was getting more and more interesting.
Athena's talent for combat was never low. Ares, that piece of trash—send a few of him and they still wouldn't be her match.
In Greek myth, Athena was a great god second only to Zeus; even in contests of divine power she lagged behind only a handful like Zeus.
Of course, in myth Hades wasn't a god obsessed with power and conquest; he chose the Underworld to avoid conflict. It's said Hades possessed divine power even greater than Zeus's.
But in the Saint Seiya plane, Hades was a wicked god bent on annihilating all humankind.
"Hey there, young man. What happened? Need a hand?" Once he resolved to carry out his Athena-raising plan, Meruem stepped out in front of Aiolos.
He claimed he was a tourist who'd come to Greece and gotten lost, wandered into the Sanctuary by mistake, and was trying to find his way out.
Incredibly… Aiolos actually entrusted the infant Athena and his Sagittarius Gold Cloth to him.
Aiolos, are you grabbing at any straw you can find? The Athena you've staked your life to protect—handed off to a stranger with no background? Really?
What if I were some shady old creep with a twisted heart? You're not afraid I'd raise Athena into a mere plaything?
Well, it seems my kingly bearing has won a Gold Saint's trust.
He scooped the infant Athena into his arms, then—under Aiolos's astonished gaze—slung the heavy case holding the Gold Cloth across his back as if it were nothing.
Without a Gold Cloth's acknowledgment, lifting one is basically impossible. It's several times heavier than pure gold.
But that weight was nothing to Meruem. Even a hundred times gravity was child's play to him now.
"Over here! This way! Search! Don't let that traitor Aiolos escape!" At that moment, the shouts of the Sanctuary's lowest-ranked grunts rang out.
"You truly have a loyal subordinate. Pity he's about to die," Meruem said as he teased the infant Athena in his arms. Whether she understood or not, Athena giggled merrily in his embrace.
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