Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

51 - The Giant Warrior

The House of Leo, with a facade as opulent as imposing with its pair of wonderfully carved lions guarding its entrance, was undergoing an unusual process of destruction incompatible with its beautiful entrance. Several fallen columns, broken slab sections and stretches of stone in a trail of destruction had already spread across the battered and uneven ground. The temple was very well lit by many great torches of fire hanging from the columns that still stood.

The person responsible for that disregard for the structure of the temple was none other than its own owner: Aioria, the Leo Gold Saint.

His victim crawled across the uneven ground stained with his own blood; leaning on a crumbling, fallen column in front of him, he finally managed to get back on his feet. Aioria did not spare him from his terrible power and, were it not for that Bronze Cloth restored by Aries Mu, perhaps the boy would have been dead for a long time.

"You don't know when to give up."

Aioria's voice was deep and terrible.

Seiya looked up, wiped the blood that insisted on running down his face and took as deep a breath as he could. In front of him, the imposing figure of Aioria had his white cloak placed delicately over his left shoulder, so that his figure was both elegant and terrible.

Him, of all people, who Seiya remembered well having sworn loyalty to Athena when he was shocked by the cosmos of the Sagittarius Cloth, his brother's Cloth. The Bronze Saint arrived at the House of Leo with renewed spirit, believing that there he would have a powerful ally in that race against time. But the fury with which he was repeatedly struck by Aioria's golden cosmos immediately when he arrived before the Gold Saint was only no more violent than the destruction of the light and hopeful expectation he carried with him.

"What happened, Aioria?" Seiya asked, putting in a few words the immense anguish he still had in his chest.

Aioria was silent, eyes closed.

"You saw the Sagittarius Cloth wake you up from the lies you were living, why are you attacking me like that? You look like someone else. What happened to you, Aioria? Please tell me!"

He said nothing again and that was actually the first time Seiya seemed to have any opportunity to try to talk to him.

"Miss Saori is unconscious in the House of Aries, hurt by a Golden Arrow! She needs our help!"

But the man looked distant, as if he had suddenly passed out.

"The Camerlengo is the only person who can remove the arrow and that has to be done before the clock's flames go out, otherwise Athena will die. Do you understand that, Aioria? Athena will die!"

"Athena will die?" Aioria asked, finally opening his eyes, startled.

With open eyes, Seiya saw from closer that Aioria had an obsessed expression, his eyes seemed glazed and the color of his irises were much smaller. He immediately put his hands to his head, as if trying to contain within his mind any monster that tried to open his skull. He trembled with the effort to ward off those terrible pains.

Seiya had seen that before and tried to reason with him.

"That's why we need to get to the Camerlengo anyway, you need to help me!"

Aioria then closed his eyes, as if to prevent what was causing his enormous pain from flowing through his eyes, locking himself inside and controlling what was hurting his mind.

"Do you understand now?" Seiya tried. "There's no point in fighting here, let me go by the House of Leo, Aioria."

"No, I can't!" he roared angrily, gritting his teeth.