Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

63 - The Other Side of the Mask

Side by side, Seiya and Shiryu pushed open the huge double white doors with gold motifs that led to the sacred chamber of the Athena's servant. The Altar where the Golden Throne was. They opened them with difficulty, as they were as heavy as they were huge.

As in the Sad Night that they remembered thanks to the Cosmos of the Sagittarius Cloth, that door opened into a wonderful chamber whose floor was made of marble and at the end of it was a beautiful altar on which a golden throne stood, where someone was sitting.

Shiryu noticed how there was a low blow sounding inside that altar, as if the air was passing through the stone of that chamber in a way purposely designed to cause that feeling that the voice of the Gods was meditating. Their footsteps echoed off the marble as they approached the dark figure who sat on the golden throne. Seiya didn't even need to say what was wrong with Shiryu, as she could clearly feel a magnanimous presence on that altar and the two could only be silent as if it was an unpardonable sin to interrupt that grave whisper.

The Camerlengo seated. The black cassock, the golden helmet hiding in the shadows his mysterious face while his long hair fell down his back.

Before the impressed Bronze Saints could find the right words to force him down to Saori and save her, Seiya saw the Camerlengo rise from his throne. He was a huge man, not like Aldebaran or Cassius, descendants of the giants, but as tall as the huge Capricorn Shura, though his shoulders were more heavily armed and the cassock that ran down his legs gave him an even greater build.

He placed his hands on the golden helmet and calmly removed it, revealing his face to Seiya.

"He took off his helmet, Shiryu!"

"What?" she gasped, trying to keep as quiet as she could.

What Dragon Shiryu couldn't see, Seiya didn't miss any detail. As he took off his golden helmet, the face that appeared before him was that of a calm, perhaps even sad man with bright, beautiful eyes; the large, tapered nose, the delicate eyebrows.

If Seiya had to guess the owner of the face under that golden helmet who once tried to kill a baby with a golden dagger, he would never describe him as that bright and beautiful figure. That was a face in which one could not implicate the heinous crimes that history blamed him for it. He then sounded his voice, which had a low, calm tone.

"Congratulations, Bronze Saints, on getting this far." he said, helmet in hand. "You have proven that you are indeed Saints of Athena with great power and courage."

Again both Seiya and Shiryu were attacked by the strangeness of his calm voice, his soft cosmos yet frighteningly powerful. Without speaking to each other, both reflected on the same thing: they enumerated all the sins that now converged in that figure who manifested himself as a saint with sweet words.

"Don't be fooled, Seiya."

Shiryu's voice was low, but there was no doubt that although she tried to maintain a certain politeness in front of this holy figure, the Camerlengo had clearly heard her warning. Seiya knew very well that he couldn't afford to be fooled again by illusions, especially when the enemy, it seemed, was the Gemini Saint himself.

Seiya took a deep breath and spoke with deep courage, as they also had little time.

"You won't deceive us! Don't pretend to be good now, as we know all too well what you did fifteen years ago and we don't have time to stand here listening to your lies and tricks."

Seiya's accusations made the calm man close his eyes, as if it truly hurt deep in his soul. He spoke again.

"I really admire you all very much for what you were able to accomplish today."