While the flame of the House of Scorpio was slowly dying in the Fire Clock, Hyoga opened his eyes and wiped the tears that were running down his face. And then realized that he wasn't crying. It was his entire body that was wet while he was sitting in the sunlight, his hair plastered to his face and a puddle of water around him. Beside him was Shun's unconscious body.
His memory then reminded him of the reasons why his chest was so heavy with grief, for he had been locked in an eternal ice coffin by his own beloved Master. He did not understand what Shun was doing at his side, unconscious, but when he put his hand on his friend so that he could better see his face, he felt a crackle inside of him that brought a strong memory.
Shun's tender embrace. Andromeda's hot cosmos.
"Hyoga, are you okay?" Shun asked, opening his eyes with difficulty.
"What happened, Shun?"
"We managed to get you out of the ice coffin, but your body was almost frozen."
"What did you do? Don't tell me you sacrificed your Cosmo for me?"
"I would do the same for all my friends."
"Oh, Shun..."
Hyoga lifted his friend and hugged him while tears finally came down from his eyes.
"I couldn't be strong to face my Master and my feelings, I slowed you down at that House of Libra and put Athena's life at risk. Not to mention that I couldn't get out of that prison by myself, I needed you glowing Cosmo so I could get a second chance."
But Shun was again passed out and Hyoga realized that the tears in his eyes were exactly the reason why he was out of combat. He got up and wiped them angrily; he could stand there mourning, but he realized that the best way to go on was to march up the steps to the next temple and redeem himself with his friends. He took Shun's body in his arms and followed.
Throughout the climb, Hyoga felt weak, but with each step he decided that he would be stronger. For Shun in his arms and for his friends who were already fighting in the House of Scorpio, he was sure, for it was clear that with every step he took, a terrible battle was being fought in the temple ahead.
As soon as he arrived, he soon felt Seiya's and Shiryu's Cosmos suffer a drastic interruption in their universes, as if terribly hit. He wasted no more time and entered the temple at once to see a figure in Gold Cloth about to deliver what appeared to be the final blow to the bodies of his friends, who were conscious but at the mercy of their opponent.
Both Seiya and Shiryu saw, as they were so close to the Gold Saint, that he hesitated to end their lives and turned his attention to the entrance to the temple. The two looked over their shoulders and watched as Cygnus Hyoga walked into the temple with his icy Cosmo burning. Shun's body in his lap.
The boy's face was resolute, no one would ever imagine the sadness burning in his chest and the tears that welled up in his eyes a few steps below.
"Cygnus Hyoga? That's not possible, it cannot be!" the Scorpio Saint was surprised. "Camus defeated you in the House of Libra. What are you doing here?"
Hyoga continued marching towards him.
"How could you have gotten out of the ice coffin?" asked the Gold Saint.
With Shun in his arms, Hyoga stopped right between the body of Seiya and Shiryu injured on the ground and faced the Scorpio Saint in front of him. His Gold Cloth had a thorn on each shoulder, pincers retracted in his arms, and his helmet stretched across his back like the tail of a terrible scorpion. That was precisely the magnanimous Gold Saint who interrupted his battle against the Ghost of Eris, now many days ago in the Ruins of Discord. The terrible day when Hyoga lost a part of his heart.
The boy saw how on the Gold Saint's face a short smile was drawn, as if Hyoga had already arrived there overcome by the pains he could not overcome in his chest.
"Hyoga, are you okay?" Seiya asked from the floor.
"Yes," he replied, not taking his eyes off the Scorpio. "And I have all of you to thank for."
Hyoga took a deep breath and continued.
"I thought all my tears had dried up, but Shun managed to consume his burning Cosmo in a way that touched deep in my frozen body." and tears again ran from his face to drip onto Shun's young face in his lap. "No, he did more than that. He brought my frozen heart back to life again."
"I just reminded you of your enormous will to live." Shun mumbled, opening his eyes.
The Andromeda Saint woke up in Hyoga's lap and got to his feet with some difficulty. Hyoga had a brief smile drawn on his face to his friend, and then he looked sternly at Seiya and Shiryu.
"Get up from there immediately. These kind of injuries means nothing to you!" he ordered his friends. "We have to get to the Camerlengo!"
Seiya smiled at his friend and, with immense difficulty, both he and Shiryu slowly got up.
"You are dreaming." said the Gold Saint to them all.
"Dreaming?" asked Hyoga.
"Exactly. Getting to the Camerlengo is nothing but an innocent dream, Hyoga."
The Gold Saint's eyes opened as if he had turned into a maniac, so that both Seiya and Shiryu felt their bodies froze at the terrible presence. Hyoga closed his eyes and then opened them to face the Golden Cosmos; he spoke in his resolute voice.
"Gold Saint, are you saying that a dream has the same meaning as something impossible? Only those who have given up on living feel that dreams are impossible."
Hyoga pointed towards the Gold Saint and from his finger a freezing energy shot enveloping and spreading a mist around Scorpio. Upon dissipating, the mist left Scorpio surrounded in white rings of ice.
"I know your technique, have you forgotten, Gold Saint? And this is the Ice Circle. Now it's your turn to stay still."
The number of ice circles around the Gold Siant increased, locking him in even more tightly. Hyoga turned to his friends.
"Seiya, Shun, Shiryu. Go to the next temple."
"But Hyoga..." Seiya began, worried. "You may not be in a position to fight, since..."
"Leave it to me, I will win and soon I will be with you." he said.
"Hyoga..." Shiryu tried, also worried.
"You all went to great lengths to save me from death and I'm grateful for that." he said, smiling briefly at them. "I will not waste this life."
Seiya and Shun looked at each other, determined.
The three Bronze Saint left the House of Scorpio and Cygnus Hyoga stayed behind to face the Scorpio Saint. The Gold Saint pulled the white cloak from his back and opened his arms, breaking the circle of ice that paralyzed him.
"You are very naive, Hyoga. Did you think you could stop my movements with such weak freezing energy?"
"Scorpio, that wasn't my intention. I just wanted my friends to get out of this House safe."
"I see now. You want to fight without anyone disturbing us. All right, I'll fight as you like."
"I see you already know me, Gold Saint." Hyoga commented, because in fact there was a familiarity in that man's voice.
"You are Hyoga, the disciple of Aquarius Camus. Your Master asked me permission to go through this House of Scorpio to give you a worthy burial."
Hyoga remembered his Master in the House of Libra and his terrible lesson, as well as his lack of strength that buried him in that unbreakable ice coffin, which he needed the help of all his friends to get that new chance. A new chance to fight. Fight for Athena, who needed him.
"I remember you too, Gold Saint. You are the one who appeared to fight Eris in the Ruins of Discord."
"I'm Scorpio Miro." he finally introduced himself.
"And what are you doing putting yourself in our way, Scorpio Miro? Did you not witness the presence of the Goddess Athena on that occasion?"
"So you also believe in the delusion of your friends that that girl fallen in the House of Aries is the Goddess Athena? You, more than anyone else, should know that the Goddess Athena was able to defeat the evil Eris at the same time that she rescued and changed the terrible fate of those girls. That wounded girl in the House of Aries wasn't even able to fend off a single arrow."
"That's not a simple arrow." shouted Hyoga. "It's the Golden Arrow."
"And what difference would it make to a Goddess like Athena? For that Goddess Athena capable not only of overcoming Discord, but also of changing people's destiny?"
"Mu and Aioria are at our side."
"For those have never been on the Sanctuary's side anyway. What we have here are invaders who by any miracle have defeated a Gold Saint like Death Mask and for that reason should be considered enemies. You should have stayed in that ice coffin your Master created for you, Hyoga."
"I have no interest in dying, Scorpio Miro!"
"Well, that's exactly what will happen if you're willing to fight me and you know it very well. Your own Master told you that."
"What do you mean?"
"You are not able to defeat the Gold Saints as you are still weaken by so many feelings that bind you, Hyoga."
The Cygnus Saint was silent for a moment, for that Scorpio seemed to know more about him than he thought possible; but there was also a brief irony that Hyoga remembered very well.
"What about the chance you gave Shoko and her sister?" Hyoga finally asked, remembering her.
"What?"
"I remember every word that was said on that day, Scorpio Miro. Shoko asked you to give her and her sister a chance, and you replied that you had given them a chance before."
The Gold Saint narrowed his eyes, searched his memories of those events, and let a smile slip onto his face.
"You love her, don't you, Hyoga?" he asked with his eyes closed, as if speaking to a child.
"And you gave them a chance. How can you judge me, Scorpio Miro? You're no different than me!"
Miro, however, did not respond and blazed his golden cosmos; when he saw his eyes again, Hyoga noticed that the paralyzing technique manifested itself even more strongly. His eyes gained a certain crimson depth and the outlines of his Gold Cloth became sharper and gave a certain illusion that small thorns proliferated through the golden metal, resembling the carapace of a scorpion. It was effectively like looking at a venomous scorpion on the ground. A paralyzing fear.
"You should have realized by now that your paralyzing skill doesn't work on me, Miro."
Hyoga had a whitish body, which the Gold Saint soon realized was the reason why his restriction did not reach the Cygnus Saint, as he covered himself with its freezing energy preventing his blow from working.
"I recognize that you are indeed a great disciple of Aquarius Camus, known as the Ice Mage." observed the Gold Saint. "I won't try to paralyze you anymore. I'll pierce you with my Scarlet Needle!"
Miro burned his Cosmo intensely and Hyoga saw a scarlet sphere form in his hand; he then decided to equate his Cosmo, ascending the wings of his Cygnus Constellation bringing a cold, freezing mist to the House of Scorpio. The two cosmos challenged each other and their voices echoed against the columns of the temple.
"Scarlet Needle! Diamond dust!"
Hyoga's freezing energy passed through the temple and crashed into Miro's crimson poison; the two forces interpolated at the center and the two were engulfed by the energy vortex. Hyoga was sure that he dodged Miro's blow when he passed him and saw behind him how the Gold Saint was slowly covered by a layer of ice from head to toe.
"I did it." he thought.
But it wasn't long before the ice began to crack, revealing, even inside, a golden aura.
"I said you couldn't stop my movements with such weak cold air." said Miro, with his back to him. "You should worry about yourself, Hyoga."
Cygnus tried to take the opportunity to attack him again, but felt a terrible pain in his chest. A sharp twinge that radiated down his right arm. He looked at his bronze protection and found a barely perceptible hole; it was as if, in fact, a needle had pierced his Cloth and his chest. The pain was excruciating and radiated to his arm and the rest of his body.
"That's the Scarlet Needle's poison." said Miro, turning to him. "You were wounded by the sting of the Golden Scorpion."
He again extended his arm towards Hyoga and the boy saw, for the first time, that Miro had a single red, long and sharp nail on his right index finger. The Gold Saint pointed it towards Hyoga and again fired some imperceptible crimson strands in his direction.
Another three Scorpion stings hit Hyoga. He howled in pain, for with each sting a sharp poison invaded his body.
"The Scarlet Needle attacks the central nervous system and paralyzes your entire body, causing a very intense pain." explained Miro.
Hyoga got up with difficulties and saw that there were other small holes in his body where he had been hit.
"But the Scarlet Needle won't finish you off all at once. You have the option to choose between surrendering or dying. And I'll give you time to think about it. You have fifteen bites to think about your life, Hyoga. These fifteen stings represent the fifteen stars of the Scorpio Constellation. Surrender or die long before you receive all of the Scorpion's stings."
The Gold Saint again lit his Cosmo and his crimson nail flashed again, threatening to hit Hyoga once more.
"So what will it be, Hyoga? Surrender or death?"
The crimson nail flashed and another sting bit Hyoga in the stomach. It was already the fifth star of the Constellation.
"There has never been anyone who has received the fifteen stings of the Scarlet Needle, Hyoga. No one can bear to pass the seventh sting, and then those who face me begin to cry out for mercy."
"You should know I'm not like any of them, Miro! I'll fight until the end, do you understand?! Get ready!"
Hyoga got up with difficulties and lit his Icy Cosmo remembering the immensity he felt when Shun saved him in the House of Libra. How big the universe was and how he could touch all the stars if he burned his life in his cosmos.
"As long as I have these wings, I will fight to the end!"
He danced commanding the ice around him.
"You will regret it when you lose those wings, Hyoga." mocked Miro.
"Diamond Dust!" exclaimed the boy.
"Your cold air can barely freeze my skin, why don't you give up?"
Hyoga wouldn't give up, but he was hit another four times by the stings of the Scarlet Needle in his body. Now two of his legs had been hit twice each at different points.
"That was the ninth bite. If you get one more, you will be like a living corpse, if you survive." said Miro. "Now choose: are you going to surrender or are you going to die?"
The Cygnus Saint was lethargic and his ear was ringing, such pain that it radiated through his entire body. Putting his hand on the floor and forcing it so that he could get up caused him excruciating pain; the boy gnashed his teeth and sought the support of his legs, which also tingled with pain.
"Do not waste your time." Hyoga spoke again. "I won't choose any of them."
Miro's eyes were confused with all that resolution and saw Hyoga again get to his feet, somewhat shaky and unsteady.
"My answer will always be the same!" Hyoga spoke with his speech impaired between his teeth. "I'll fight to the end, Miro!"
"Looks like you're not going to change your mind." said Miro as he saw the boy sway from side to side trying to balance himself. "You must be completely paralyzed with pain by now, but out of respect for your unshakable fighting spirit I'm going to give you another sting from the Scarlet Needle; so you will become the first opponent who will have the honor of reaching the tenth."
"Do you really think..." Hyoga began to mumble, to Miro's astonishment. "Do you really think you can attack me like that, Miro?"
Hyoga finally balanced himself and Miro couldn't believe it, but when he tried to move, the Scorpio Saint realized that his feet were frozen and nailed to the temple floor.
"How can that be possible?!" Miro wondered, unable to break free of the ice that held his feet.
"I can't freeze your entire body, but I focused my Cosmo so you couldn't escape my strongest blow. Are you ready, Scorpio Miro?"
The Cygnus Saint ascended his Cosmo causing his hair to vibrate with its enormous energy; the more lethargic the Scarlet Needles made him, the more his Cosmos seemed capable of reaching the universe.
"Aurora Thunder Attack!"
Hyoga rushed forward with fury and hit Miro with a powerful hook that manifested a typhoon of crystallized ice that lifted the Gold Saint in the House of Scorpio and hurled his golden helmet away. The Cygnus Saint was filled with the comforting feeling of one who had managed to finish his Herculean task, but Miro's body didn't splinter in front of him as he'd expected, but landed gracefully, smiling down at him.
"Hyoga, I'm sorry, but your Aurora Thunder Attack didn't do anything to me. You are paralyzed all over from the Scarlet Needle, the strength of your fist is far from what you believe it to be." and he smiled at Hyoga pointing to his body holes. "On the other hand, look at what's happening to you."
The Cygnus Saint looked down and noticed that his entire body was bleeding from all the terrible stings that had opened small holes in his Cloth. He was trembling as he lost a lot of blood from his wounds.
"The holes caused by the Scarlet Needle have dilated, causing all your blood to spurt."
Hyoga finally dropped to his knees not knowing what was happening to his body, as he slowly became numb. Miro walked in the trail of blood that drained from Hyoga's body, his vision was already starting to become slightly blurred. He also found that he couldn't hear that clearly, so his senses were fading one by one as the blood left his body. He tried to shake his head as if to reset his brain, but it was useless.
"That's right, Hyoga. You are losing your Five Senses because of my Scarlet Needle. With every drop of blood that leaves your body you lose more and more of your life."
With a monumental effort, the Cygnus Saint again swayed, but on his feet, and tried to land a naive punch, weak and slow on Miro, who dodged easily and hit him in the face, knocking Hyoga and his pretty winged helmet down on the ground.
"It's time to give up, Hyoga. Can't you understand Camus' feelings?" asked Miro.
"Camus' feelings? From my Master Camus?"
Miro looked at him seriously on the floor, trying to get back on his feet, without success.
"Well then. I'll tell you while you still have some ability to understand me. I'll tell you why Camus went all the way from Aquarius to Libra to try to bury you forever."
Hyoga straightened up as best he could so that his already impaired hearing could hear clearly.
"First of all, Camus wanted to know how much you were determined and what capacity you had as a Saint. For that reason, Camus did not end your life at once."
The Cygnus Saint remembered how his Master Camus had fought.
"Camus used his last resort when he saw that you refused to fight him, trapped by your feelings."
His mother's boat, Hyoga remembered. His feelings bottled up and shackled to those figures he loved so much and that he lost one by one.
"You told my Master about her, didn't you?" Hyoga guessed on his knees, but Miro didn't answered him.
"You have to reach the Essence of the Cosmos to fight the Gold Saints. And Camus tested you to see if you could awaken the Seventh Sense." Miro then looked into Hyoga's eyes. "But you failed. You can't."
Hyoga clearly remembered that Miro seemed to repeat the words of his Master Camus, as if between them there was really any kind of relationship to the point where the Scorpio Saint had full knowledge of what had happened.
"Camus was afraid that you would say that, Hyoga." Miro spoke seriously, because in fact he knew what Hyoga had confessed. "But that was true to you and then Camus..."
Miro hesitated, but Hyoga remembered the eternal sensation that was to stay in that ice created by his Master.
"Camus preferred to bury you with his own hands in the ice coffin instead of leaving you in a desperate fight against the Gold Saints, because without a doubt you would die. He did it in the hopes that someday, after however many years it took for the World to be at peace again, you could come back to life."
The Cygnus Saint felt a pain in his chest that did not come from the Scarlet Needles.
"It was with with this idea in his mind that he tried to spare you from this cruel battle." said Miro, seriously, and added, "This one and many others to come."
"Master Camus..." Hyoga babbled.
Miro then stepped away from the Cygnus Saint's bleeding body.
"Hyoga, I will spare your life in respect of Camus' feelings. You'll have your senses again in a few days. Use that second chance and leave the Sanctuary."
The Gold Saint's steps echoed away in his House of Scorpio; Hyoga tried to breathe, but he had difficulties doing so, he wanted to get up, but his legs didn't responded to him. He wanted to live, but everyone insisted that he was weak. His quivering chest burned remembering her, and he wrenched where he could to get back to his feet. His howls of pain caught Miro's attention.
"I can't." Hyoga spoke in a broken voice, his body swaying from side to side. "Neither you, or even my Master Camus, has the right to decide what I'm going to do. Listen to me now, Miro!"
He stood up to face Miro, who stared back at him in surprise to see him resolute again.
"I have friends that I swore to give my life for and they continue to fight desperately, I don't want them to let me sleep just to survive the battle! What is the point of getting out of that coffin when peace was restored? My life is worth it because I'm here now and it's a joy to be able to walk the same path as my friends."
His Cosmo rose again around him.
"No matter how difficult it might be. There was a time when I cursed my unfortunate birth, but now I am grateful that I had the chance to live next to them all."
He tried to attack Miro, but the Gold Saint dodged twice and hit him with a flying kick, so that Hyoga's body flew through the bottom of the House of Scorpio and went outside the temple, where the sun was still shining.
The Gold Saint approached the dying body, shedding Hyoga's blood, admiringly looking at the strength with which Hyoga was trying to get back on his feet. He didn't stop appreciating the Bronze Saint and then he looked up at that huge mountain and spoke aloud.
"Did you hear that, Camus?" he said, his voice echoing in the mountains. "Aquarius Camus, did you hear what he said? We will be insulting him if we were to be merciful. Taking his life will be my acknowledgment that he is a valiant warrior and a true Saint. And so I will."
Miro looked again at Hyoga who was bleeding under a sun that was already on its way to set.
"On your feet, Cygnus Saint." ordered Miro, but Hyoga had immense difficulty getting to his feet. "Come on, Hyoga. Stand up! Isn't that what you wanted?"
The pain that Hyoga felt through his body was immense, but he heard that voice of Miro from far away and once again stood up, lighting up that afternoon with his icy cosmos that seemed to waver around him. He could feel, far from his senses, the presence of Saori. He clearly felt inside his chest the cosmos of the Goddess Athena resonating with his own; and, impossible as it was, his clouded eyes seemed to be delirious, but not only did Saori's face appeared to him between the blinks of his eyes, but also the ponytailed girl he adored.
"Although I'm losing all my senses." he stammered. "The face of the Goddess Athena is imprinted on my mind along with all the feelings they want me to let go of. And they will never leave me. And most importantly, I have dear friends who saved me when I chose to die. They used all their strength for me. My life no longer belongs to me. It belongs to all of them. And I need to fight for our victory!"
His Cosmo cracked the ice around the stairs with force.
"That's why I came back to life. I have no doubt about that."
"We are at your side, Hyoga." he heard Saori's voice echo in his shaken ears.
"Now Miro, maybe this will be my last blow! But I will put my Cosmo to the maximum and if I fall defeated by you, my friends will make our dream of victory come true."
"Very well, Hyoga. I will finish you off like I promised."
"Goodbye friends!"
Hyoga exclaimed, raising both hands joined above his head; His Cosmo reared up hard and his voice sounded for the last time strong like it was calling out for the Aurora Thunder Attack that would finish off the Scorpio Saint. But it had no effect, as the result was like every other time: Hyoga was stung five more times by Miro's Scarlet Needles.
The boy stumbled towards the Scorpio Saint and finally fell to the ground towards the stairs leading up ahead. He looked defeated after all.
Miro picked up his Cosmo and looked around as if he'd seen a ghost.
"What was that?"
He took a deep breath and his eyes landed on the Fire Clock that slowly started burning the fire of the next temple. His expression became strained. He looked again at Hyoga, who was still trembling before dying and then again at the clock. He let the breath out of his resigned body before walking back inside the House of Scorpio with a confused mind, as he was sure he had heard a voice and felt a familiar Cosmo in Hyoga.
He stopped walking when he heard the Cygnus Saint move crawling over his own pool of blood to the stairwell. His cosmo burning on the floor again.
"He's still alive, but it won't last long." said Miro. "Where are you trying to go, Hyoga? Want to find your friends? Your Master? You don't have the strength for that anymore."
But he went on and, with great effort, made it to the first steps, climbing as he crawled with his body, leaving a trail of blood behind. Miro turned his back on the dying corpse again, but a shiver haunted his mind and he remembered Pegasus and Dragon's vows as soon as they arrived at the House of Scorpio. And then that Cosmo that had shone in Hyoga.
"It can't be..." he mused. "Is that girl really the Goddess Athena?"
The question that popped in his mind when he saw Hyoga's effort to go forward was already born with an answer, because all he needed was the doubt. Or he didn't need to.
For if there was any doubt, any chance, however slight, that those kids were right and that, after all, the force that carried them forward to the Eighth Temple, the House of Scorpio, it was really the Goddess Athena who suffered at the foot of the mountain, then his existence as a Gold Saint would be forever marred by having stood against those children who did not give up fighting everything and everyone to save Athena. Like Hyoga, who was still trying, almost dead, to climb the stairs.
That doubt was enough poison for him to feel the chill that made him run back to Hyoga, distressed and determined to believe.
"Hyoga." he called.
His eyes were fading as his body shivered from the cold. Miro ascended his golden cosmos and hit Hyoga with his crimson nail in the middle of his chest, sinking into the skin; the golden cosmos seemed to evaporate the poison that ran through Hyoga's body, separating it from the blood. Hyoga's eyes opened more clearly, almost as if freed from a spell, such power that Golden Cosmo had.
"Are you feeling better, Hyoga? I have reached a point where the bleeding will stop and your senses will soon return to normal."
"But... why, Miro?
"If that girl really is the Goddess Athena that I saw fighting Eris, then I am terribly mistaken."
"Miro..." smiled Hyoga. "Will you fight by our side?"
"For now I want to believe." replied the Gold Saint. "But you must make your way to the next temple as quickly as possible. Get up and go at once."
"We need to get to the Camerlengo." Hyoga tried to ask. "Come with us!"
"I will, Hyoga. But first I need to stop two idiots from killing each other."
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Little change here as well, I just used the fact that Miro had seen Saori/Athena in the battle against Eris within the plot, without forgetting what had happened.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE SAD NIGHT
Fifteen years ago a sad night forever ravaged the Sanctuary. The day when the traitor Aioros attempted against the life of little Athena and began that time of misfortune.