Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 75 ( Chapter 75 )

"Prepare yourself, Sylphid!" Deathmask shouted as he pointed at the man, his finger glowing white for a second. Minos raised his defenses, and Deathmask couldn't help but smile at the foolishness of the gesture. "This next attack... it's like nothing you've ever seen!"

"I'm sure I've gone up against worst," Minos answered before charging.

With a sigh, Deathmask quickly announced, "Sekishiki Meikai Ha!" Minos sprang away at the last second as a stream of energy blasted by him, but Deathmask had already predicted that and teleported to the Specter's side, unleashing the attack again. "Sekishiki Meikai-"

"You..." Minos said as he bent out of the way, "You've lost the thinking game with me."

"Wha?" Deathmask stopped his attack, turning to Minos in confusion. "What do you..." All of a sudden, a small, silvery string shot down from the ceiling, right through Angelo's finger. He screamed in pain as Minos kicked him away, the Gold Saint skidding on the ground before teleporting again, if only to get on his feet faster.

"If you charge in recklessly against me... there is no possibility for you to even hurt me," Minos continued. "Your attacks are direct, straight to the point. They offer no room for diversity. I don't know what the Sekishiki Meikai Ha does necessarily... but as I said before, attacking me head-on gets you nowhere."

Deathmask growled at the man, charging again only to find himself caught in a gigantic spider-web, which Minos was smirking at before punching him square in the gut. Deathmask teleported away before he slammed into a wall, kicking at Minos's unprotected head from behind. Surprisingly, he connected, and as Minos staggered away, he had a small smirk on his face.

"Finally... some actual headway."

"More than just headway..." Deathmask said as Minos suddenly realized that the temple was going rather dark for some odd reason. "Checkmate."

Before Minos realized it, he blacked out.
_
"Dammit... what the hell's going on?!?" Charybdis asked in frustration, as the other members of Team Pentrine had no choice but to sit and watch... "Did Minos just get K.O.'d by one kick?"

"Impossible," Cecil countered. "There's no way he would..."

Quiet laughter from across the arena caused all four of them, however, to look at Sepal and Shura's smug figures. "Angelo is no ordinary Gold Saint..." Aphrodite said jovially while he played with a red rose in his hands, "While his powers on this planet are... sub-par compared to other Gold Saints... with Sekishiki on his side..."

"Sekishiki?" Fenrir asked.

"Oh crap..." Isaac said in shock, "Not that!" Charybdis, Cecil, and Fenrir turned to him, and he quickly explained. "I... heard about it once from a Silver Saint that traveled to Siberia... the word was so confusing I didn't remember it until Mr. Sports-bra over there actually said it and jogged my memory..."

"What's it necessarily do...?" Fenrir asked, hoping Minos could shake it off.

"Unfortunately..." Isaac began, "It-"

"It transfers people's souls away to the gates of hell, so to speak, where their spirits forever suffer, never to truly cross over, eternally suffering pain and agony..." Aphrodite summed up from across the arena. He flung the rose over to Isaac. "But bravo for remembering such a little tidbit of info..."

Looking down at the rose, Cecil blinked. "Poison..." he said, tapping into his Combat Awareness. "Isaac... be careful with that guy... or girl... Queen said something about her powers being similar to his own."

"Yeah... well right now... I'm just worried about Minos."
_
Deathmask smirked as he saw Minos's unconscious- no, dead- body lying on the ground. His soul had been forever ripped away from his physical form...

"But I'm never one for leaving matters half-finished..." Deathmask mused as he walked over to the body. By breaking and mangling the soul's vessel, it removed all possibility of him returning to this world whatsoever...

Well, not the possibility, but if he DID return, he'd be dead anyways.

Raising his fist up in the air, Deathmask sent it shooting down... Only for Minos to roll out of the way.

"WHAT?!?" Deathmask said in confusion and frustration... the Specter rolling back up to his feet but with a dumbfound look on his face. "What is he... how did he..." Deathmask charged, punching and kicking at him... but to no effect. Minos simply ducked and dodged out of the way, matching Angelo's speed perfectly.

How... how is he... how is he doing this?!? He should be dead, dammit! After several futile moments, Deathmask clenched his fist in frustration before noticing something...

String...

For some odd reason, some of the pillars and statues in his temple had been cut, and in the smoke, he could see strings that...

"So that's your stupid little game," Deathmask said with a chuckle, clapping loudly and watching Minos's body react to it, "You wired yourself and me up in your last fleeting moments on the planet, so to thinking that you could trick me with you acting as a marionette..." Deathmask teleported away, making sure that all the strings that had connected to him didn't come along for the ride. "Well, tough luck now.... DIE!" He charged... and that could have been his undoing...

"Griffon..."

NO!

"MIND SHOT!"

Minos spun around, his eyes focused, and his fist smashed into Angelo's forehead, the string that followed knocking his headpiece off as Minos walked past him. Deathmask stood there, in shock, all the while choking, "Str... string... not meant to make me think... you could move... but that you couldn't..."

"Easy enough to leave there for a Specter," Minos said calmly. "What... did you ever even bother testing this out on someone from the Underworld!?!"

"Shut up," Deathmask growled, turning around and raising his hands in the air. "If... if I can't beat you conventionally, then... I'll open it!"

"What 'it'?"

"The means for me to kill you!" Deathmask shouted as a tremendous void suddenly was ripped open in the temple, Minos feeling himself get dragged into it... He tried to fire a string off to latch onto something... but it didn't work. And as he turned... he saw himself.

So his soul and body were separated again...
_
The Griffon Specter woke up, finding himself standing once again... in the barren, mountainous wasteland... seeing numerous dead bodies stagger by him towards a massive void...

Whereas Hades had installed a number of "safe houses" on the planet in which one with Specter status or something similar in the case of Pandora could access the Underworld, this was the first time Minos had see-

No... not the first time... he vaguely remembered being here once before...

"Four years ago... right?"

Minos turned, Deathmask standing there and chuckling. "I heard about your little bit of 'losing heart' in battle. Cost you your life... or should've, anyways..."

"What are you going to do?" Minos asked. "I plow through you and leave this place like before, and I win."

Deathmask laughed loudly. "Try... but don't be surprised when it doesn't work..."

Minos lunged at him, the Cancer Saint just standing there. Without his headpiece, a Mind Shot would kill him... and Minos knew something like that would only further incriminate him in Dohko's untimely death. Of course, there were other options for the creative to employ...

"Griffon Scrambler!" He punched Deathmask anyways, walking past him with a grin. "That was foolish... in ten seconds, a blunt string will smash into your head, shutting down all actions of your nervous system for an hour..."

Deathmask shrugged, keeping track of the time mentally. "Three... two... one..."

Nothing happened, and suddenly Minos was punched in the gut hard. He slid away, panting uncontrollably as Deathmask just stood there, grinning.

"Dumbass... this fight has officially been won as of this point," Deathmask said before pointing at Minos. "Whereas only your soul has traveled to the Sekishiki, my body and spirit together have come here!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Minos asked.

"Ever hear of the phrase, 'the body fails when the mind is weak... and the mind fails when the body is weak'?" Minos nodded. "Good. This functions similarly. While you might be able to move around and everything, you lack the strength of your body, fighting with just your spiritual strength. While you might have been stronger than me earlier..." Deathmask grinned sadistically before blasting by Minos before he could even blink. "I AM AS A GOD TO YOU NOW!!!"

Minos was knocked into the air, in terrible pain, before landing awkwardly on the ground. Deathmask laughed again as Minos rose to his feet, raising his arms up and attempting to fire a volley of string at him.

Nothing happened.

"Since normally there aren't any beings here with physical form," Deathmask said as he vanished and appeared behind Minos, gripping his neck and then punching him in the back, "You cannot create anything here with a physical form whatsoever. Tough luck, eh?"

Minos was sent rolling on the ground... this was going to be hard, but not impossible. All that he required was still with him...

"Heh... what are you trying this time?" Angelo asked. Minos slammed his foot into the ground, his wings spread wide. "Not gonna work..."

"ANHILLATION FLAP!!!"

The wings beat furiously, yet nothing came out of it.

"No weather here and no atmosphere," Deathmask elaborated. "Therefor, impossible for wind." Minos then was charging at him... how desperate... and at the same time, pathetic... "You're just rushing towards your own demise here." He struck out, and by some miracle, Minos ducked under the blow, grabbing Deathmask's leg and throwing him up in the air.

"GRIFFON FLAP!"

"And..." Deathmask said as he suddenly appeared next to Minos, "I can teleport, remember?" He punched him in the face, Minos groaning in pain as he staggered back. "This is an impossible situation for you, Sylphid... but don't you just love the irony?"

"Irony?"

"The great Specter... dying at the gates of the Underworld!" Deathmask began strolling around, almost ignoring Minos as he continued speaking. "You know... I was always rather jealous of your amazing achievement... becoming a Judge of the Underworld... I can't imagine the fun I'd have with that position."

"Fun?" Minos asked, raising an eyebrow. In spite of his injuries, his Surplice was holding strong... or at least this spiritual part of it.

"Yeah..." Deathmask continued. "I would have loved having that privilege, that power. To determine the fates of every single person that died... to torture them with the absolute worst fates possible..."

"What?!?"

"Well, I'm the assassin of Sanctuary for a reason... as you can tell. Don't act surprised or anything!" He dodged Minos's next strike effortlessly, chopping him in the side of the neck. Toying around with the killer of Malphas Zephyr... it was a dream come true!

"I'm assuming... that's where the nickname 'Deathmask' comes from?" Minos asked as he rose to his feet.

The Gold Saint grinned, "You catch on quick... at least some of the time..."

"Well then," Minos sighed, "It looks like I'm going to have no choice in the matter..." He blasted his armor off, staring right at Deathmask who seemed to rejoice.

"Excellent! Without the protective measures of your Surplice... you're as good as dead right now!" He lunged, only for Minos to match his speed, roll backwards, and plant both his feet into Deathmask's head. He was sent flying away, but regained his composure, teleported next to Minos, and was about to impale his unprotected heart...

Except Minos flicked Deathmask's finger that had previously been pierced by the string to stun Deathmask with the pain before furiously beating him left and right.

"You made a mistake in your tactics... you're probably going to die from it," Minos said as Deathmask glared at him... unable to believe what was happening. "It has to do... with your body."

"My... body?"

"Your spirit merely projects an aura making everything within a very short radius of you have a physical form. Since my Griffon Scrambler starts too far out, it didn't appear. That being said..." Minos grinned, "My speed matches yours now and my fists will gain physical form for those moments right before they bury themselves in your body!"