Hyoga, the Cygnus Saint, walked that slow funeral march with his eyes fixed on the ground; his long arms at the sides and the wavy back like a hunchback. An infinite line of sad souls wailing inaudible words and always walking forward, as if impelled.
Shiryu called his friend's name more than three times, trying to get his attention anyway; she asked where they were and asked for his help, but the Cygnus Saint was catatonic and paid no attention to her. Shiryu then jumped off the gray boulder she was on to run towards her friend in that line, but a familiar voice called to her side.
"Don't go there, Shiryu."
The girl turned to the side and saw Saori.
She had sad eyes and a downcast face, looking at the ground in a lost way. In her right hand, however, she still held the Golden Staff, which there seemed to have lost its divine luster. A shadow of its beauty.
"Miss Saori!" Shiryu despaired.
The girl went to her aid and took her in a long hug; she felt, however, that her body was extremely light, which left Shiryu very disconcerted. Her hands were also strange to touch and her stance was similar to that of all those souls who walked in that infinite line. Her voice, however, still carried the vitality from before, which contrasted with that weak figure in front of her.
"Those people are going to the Underworld. If you go there, you can never go back." She spoke to alert Shiryu. "Your body is still in the House of Cancer, but your spirit came here, to the threshold of the Underworld."
The threshold of the Underworld, Shiryu repeated inside her head. That smell of death, the Cosmo of Hyoga that burst on the horizon, the arrow in Athena's chest. She finally understood with amazement.
"That means that Death Mask's cosmo really is capable of throwing people to the door of the Underworld."
"Come back, Shiryu." asked Saori beside her.
She, even with her eyes lost on her feet, brought her Golden Staff in front of her.
"But what about you? And Hyoga?" Shiryu asked, worried.
"You can't do anything for us here." She spoke firmly, though her body was fragile.
Shiryu saw how the Golden Staff in front of Saori regained its golden glow and sounded a distant bell on that threshold of the Unerworld, lighting up her eyes with its huge Cosmo.
"Come back, Shiryu." asked Saori's firm voice.
The House of Cancer, with its mists and blue torches, had many faces scattered across the walls and floor. A smell of death and the eternal feeling of a living cemetery. Before the eyes of many imprisoned faces, a wisp floated suspensely illuminating everything around it until it nestled in the chest of Shiryu's fallen body.
"I can't believe." Death Mask spoke to the faces around her, her only audience. "Shiryu has returned from the threshold."
With amazement, she saw Shiryu's body in front of her shift on the ground, regaining consciousness.
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Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya
FanfictionThe novelization of Saint Seiya. The story of Seiya reimagined, written and told with some important alterations on the story. Cover Artwork: Tiago Fernandes (@tfernandes)