This was a completely unexpected turn of events, and it had left the war god Verethragna severely wounded.
Yet, after accepting this reality, the expressions of both Him and Seiya remained placid. Seiya swung his injured arm; the Cosmo he had ignited by burning his very life forced his bones back into place. Ignoring his grievous injuries, he continued to fight.
"You talk too much. Enough with the hypotheticals. If I had my Seventh Sense and my Gold Cloth, we could take this to another planet," Seiya finally retorted, responding to the young war god's earlier comment about possessing the Bull and Camel avatars.
"Is that so? Is that so? I see. This world is still full of things that exceed expectations!" Verethragna clutched his wounded arm and laughed. He was completely unconcerned with his own injuries, even finding the unexpected attack genuinely amusing.
While He was a god, He was also a warrior.
With the utmost respect for his opponent and friend, He drew his sword.
If the avatar that best represented Verethragna's nature was the Wind, then his core avatar was the Warrior. And in Verethragna's hand was a sword forged of gold. It was a massive piece of golden steel, a colossal blade whose length was no less than its wielder's height, a sword with two edges.
Seemingly sensing the bone-chilling cold, Seiya's eyes narrowed slightly. He felt a dreadful possibility, but he still showed no fear.
"O Athena, please release your divine light to protect this warrior trapped in darkness! I swear that I will be fearless in the face of death, unafraid of evil, with every ounce of my strength, every inch of my will, and every fiber of my soul. I swear, with my soul and my faith, I will expel all enemies who would harm humanity and the Earth!"
He too began to chant, but it was not an incantation of power, but a prayer of faith. Then, with the same determined steps, he advanced toward Verethragna.
He unleashed the Pegasus Meteor Fist once more. The brilliant light was sliced apart, and the resulting energy detonation set off a chain reaction of explosions. A dazzling firelight swallowed the Saint.
There was neither joy nor sorrow on Verethragna's face, for what He held in his hand was a peerless divine sword. The divine sword was the warrior. He himself was a god who held the Authority of victory, able to easily perceive his enemy's weaknesses and combat techniques, to achieve victory against a stronger foe. In fact, it was the human before him, able to fight him to this extent, who was the truly unbelievable one.
The moment He drew his sword, victory was already sealed.
But at that very moment, He, the Saint in the firelight, and even Erica all snapped their heads to look in another direction.
It was the white horse Seiya had spotted earlier. Now, finally drawn by the radiance emanating from the war god Verethragna, the magnificent, sun-like steed galloped towards Him.
"Haha, good child! You have returned to offer your power to me!" the war god Verethragna roared with laughter.
But there was another who also reacted to the approaching white horse.
It was the Saint, Seiya. The stone tablet in his possession was now burning hot. Seiya had now perfectly fulfilled the prerequisites to use this most ancient of grimoires. He had kept this tablet with him all this time, even using his Cosmo to protect it, precisely for this moment.
—The white horse. That was the Authority most compatible with him.
In that instant, the grimoire from the Age of Gods spewed blue flames.
And at the same time, the young god's form vanished.
His exquisitely beautiful body, like that of a divine statue, disappeared, replaced by a gust of wind.
—A tornado! Erica realized at once. She had seen it twice before, the sacred wind that had swept up the divine beasts. This was another of the youth's divine powers!
He had, at this critical moment, placed himself between the blue flames and the white horse.
The tornado that was the young god vanished immediately, but the charging white horse crashed into the young war god's chest. He successfully devoured it, and after a burn that lasted a dozen seconds, his eyes burst forth with the radiance of the sun.
"Did you think I was unaware of your plan? Though you have the insight of a Saint, I too hold the Authorities of guidance and victory! I was long prepared for this final trump card of yours!" the war god Verethragna laughed, not at all concerned that one of his avatars had been snatched by Seiya. What made Him even happier was that he had finally overcome the trump card of his friend and rival.
"The divine power remaining in that stone tablet is now completely gone. What will you do now? Will you use my avatar to flee?"
Seiya felt the searing heat in his chest. It was the avatar symbolizing the Authority of wind and travelers.
So you really can't underestimate anyone, especially not a god.
If he were to use this wind avatar, the one that best represented Verethragna, he could indeed escape, even to any corner of the world.
—But, Seiya smiled.
The last of the life within him was still burning. His smile was his choice.
A figure emerged from the dazzling firelight, treading upon the roaring wind and thunder. As he leaped gracefully, the sky behind him seemed to erupt with the neighing of ten thousand horses. In that moment, Seiya's physical body broke the sound barrier, closing in on Verethragna.
Verethragna raised his golden sword. The warrior's blade that could slice through divinity itself clashed with a Holy Sword from a distant shore, drawn from its sheath.
"I see now. You are a warrior who has descended from outside this domain, a follower of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. Where your own power falls short, it is supplemented by heavenly grace. Every Saint possesses their own guardian constellation."
Words were light; incantations were light. The key to victory on the battlefield was to perceive the enemy's true nature.
If Seiya were a god, the moment Verethragna deciphered his essence, his sword would have even been able to slice through the opponent's divinity and seal his Authorities. But even now, he could still perceive the entirety of Seiya's power, including his strengths and weaknesses.
"You are the Saint, Seiya. Pegasus is your guardian constellation. To fully unleash its power, you must obtain the corresponding constellation's Cloth. After billions of years of such large-scale evolution, even the North Star is by no means eternally fixed. Stars reach the end of their lives and become supernovas. In the great evolution of billions of years, to adorn the star map more beautifully, the stars themselves will change positions."
Wielding the essence of victory and unleashing the Authority of the warrior, the war god Verethragna now possessed a combat technique similar to that of a Saint, but even more exceptional in its ability to perceive an enemy's information.
"Therefore, Cloths are not eternally unchanging either. Your fate, and the fate of your kind, is to be born and to die according to the destiny of the stars. The stars are a mirror corresponding to the world. If the world changes, the stars will change, and the Cloths that symbolize the constellations will of course change with them. Right now, why don't you look up? Without a guardian constellation, only the Star of Death descends upon your head."
_____
Greetings! ✨ Walnut here with another translation! Saint Seiya united by their strength!
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