Saint Seiya: Heretic Athena?

Eh? Stella looked at the scene before her in disbelief. A white ribbon swiftly moved her to a safe location.

Although she wasn't on the sea, Stella was still capable of short-range teleportation. In other words, her Authorities tended to be geared towards convenient movement, maxing out survival, controlling enemies, and borrowing the power of others.

She stood behind Seiya again, and quickly figured out why.

It was because she had signed the contract with him in the guise of Athena. Therefore, when she issued the command to attack Athena, he had raised his fist against her, such a cute and beautiful goddess. That must be it, it had to be.

Stella's face once again revealed her usual arrogant smile. She raised a finger and shouted haughtily at the goddess Athena standing before them, "It's her! Seiya, use the Pegasus Meteor Fist on that unromantic old spinster!"

Pika! Light surged once more, and this time there was no mistake!

Under Athena's watchful gaze, Seiya's Pegasus Meteor Fist blasted towards Stella, stopping just one centimeter from her face. But the terrifying light still rushed past on both sides of her. That power, that light—just watching the Meteor Fist streak past her was enough to make Stella tremble all over, nearly collapsing to the ground.

Stella slowly walked towards the smiling Saint before her, all the previous bewilderment gone from her face. She said in disbelief, "You weren't affected by me. You deceived me. This is impossible. This humble one signed a contract of friendship with you!"

It wasn't that Stella still couldn't face reality at this point. It was just that she believed in the power of love with all her being, just as a Saint believes in their Cosmo. This was the foundation of their very selves.

"You really are hopelessly stupid. After all this time, you still haven't realized that I possess an Authority with an essence similar to yours?" Seiya squatted down and patted her cheek.

It wasn't the Victorious God of Combat. It was the first one Seiya had obtained, the one that had unexpectedly fused with the Pegasus Cloth—the Strong Wind avatar.

Verethragna was the god of victory, and also the god who ruled over kingship. But during the Parthian and Sasanian dynasties in ancient Persia, he was widely worshipped and eventually became a guardian god of the people. And the avatar that best represented Verethragna's nature was the wind.

To become a gust of wind blowing by to protect the people—especially travelers. It is said that the ancient Persians would chant Verethragna's spells to pray for a safe journey, or carve small statues of him to be placed on the streets as guardian deities. Verethragna's first avatar, the Wind. In myth, the war god appeared before the prophet Zarathustra in the form of a strong wind and said thus: I am the strongest. I am he who is ever-victorious in battle, and I am he who crushes the enmity of men and demons.

Because Seiya preferred a more straightforward style of combat, he had not developed this avatar much. It could, like the Belt of Friendship, traverse space to teleport him to the side of one who called for him. Likewise, based on the legend of Zarathustra, it could frustrate and expel the influence of the Belt of Friendship.

But even without this Authority, a Saint's constitution possessed extremely high resistance and adaptability from the inside out. To want to directly control him and make him a slave to love was nothing but a foolish fantasy. At most, it could have restricted his movements.

But there was no need to explain all this to the goddess before him. Her appearance was indeed lovely and pitiful. If he said any more, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to bring himself to strike.

The Saint Seiya had naturally heard of the fame of the goddess of love and beauty. But such adjectives for beautiful goddesses existed in the myths of every part of the world, so he hadn't paid it much mind. But now, having been in such close contact with this goddess, and even sharing a friendship of the lips, he found it hard to describe Stella's charm. If he had to say, it was a perfect yet dangerous beauty.

Things of extreme beauty often inspire a sense of awe, like Guanyin, making one feel piously inclined to worship. But Stella's beauty inspired a desire to invade, to seize, and even to crush her in the palm of one's hand.

The Saint closed his eyes, his heart clear. He placed his index finger against her forehead.

"Checkmate, my lady goddess."

The Pegasus Laser he had newly mastered after breaking through the Sixth Sense shot from his fingertip, easily disintegrating Stella into fragments. But he soon realized something was wrong, because the ruined limbs of the goddess torn apart by the laser turned into foam, and then, following the bond of friendship established with him, appeared within his own body.

It was a dream, an illusion, a spiritual world.

"I will not lose! Especially not to Athena! I can lose ten thousand times! But this last time, I must win!" Here, Stella had returned to her complete female form. She was a woman of breathtaking beauty, with long golden hair, skin like white porcelain, like the most vibrant and dazzling rose in a sea of flowers, vying with the sun for splendor.

But this woman was now pouncing at him without any rhyme or reason. Even after being knocked to the ground by his counter-punch, she still came at him. The Saint had never seen such a ferocious fighting style. She was crying and screaming, tears streaming down her face, her milky-white orbs swaying. Pouncing along with her were the sky-full of white ribbons. "Why did you refuse me! Pegasus! If you had just submitted to me, none of this would have happened!"

The Belt of Friendship, the most representative divine artifact of the goddess of beauty.

In myth, after her birth, the goddesses of the seasons, the Horae, were already waiting for her nearby. They placed a glittering golden crown on her head, dressed her in gorgeous and fitting attire, and tied a golden belt around her waist, which made Stella even more moving. Afterward, Aphrodite sat in a chariot pulled by a pair of doves and flew to Mount Olympus. The gods on Mount Olympus, seeing the extraordinarily beautiful Stella, all praised her without reservation, completely smitten.

And this was the Belt of Friendship. At this moment, it was continuously approaching him along the connection they had just established. If his entire body were to be wrapped in the ribbons, he would become her slave.

But—in this process, he could kill her a hundred times over. No, a million times!

The reason Seiya hadn't acted was because the second effect of his God of Combat Authority was now locked onto the goddess before him. Seiya had never encountered this situation before. As he was pondering, a familiar power, a familiar feeling, was transmitted from the outside world into this spiritual world.

—It was the power of Athena.

It was almost as if time were reversing and replaying itself. The triune goddess cupped Seiya's cheeks, her breath fragrant with thyme.

"O guardian god from the great god's declaration, defend my Pegasus! Come forth, Aegis, the guardian artifact bestowed by Zeus! O Winged Staff, O Gorgon's Stone, come to my side as well! Offer the fruit of victory to Athena, who presides over wisdom and war!"

As for her most despised, yet inextricably entangled nemesis, she would cast Stella into a hell scorned by all the gods. This was the punishment of the triune God-King upon her!

After softly chanting the spell that declared victory, she lowered her head and kissed Pegasus on the lips.

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