CHAPTER 15

"Be careful!" Yūto shouted as he used his sword to deflect the beam of energy the lion-like creature threw using his mouth. Tetsuya had to jump to the side to avoid the attack, while Issei was dragged to the back of the gym by Koneko since his reaction speed is the worst of the group.

"What the hell is this thing!?" Tetsuya shouted as he punched the creature on the head, although no damage was visible.

"Just another stray devil, but this one seems to be much tougher than usual," Rias commented casually, as she and Akeno cast bolts of energy to attack the creature. However, everything they threw at the beast was reflected by its skin somehow.

"Damn it! How do we kill this thing!" Issei jumped out of the way as the Lion waved its scaled tail breaking the wall behind them.

"Just punch it to death!" Koneko shouted as she used her best punch at the creature, making it drift across the gym until it hit a wall.

"Grryyaaaah!" The lion shouted and once again conjured a beam of energy to attack them.

Tetsuya couldn't help but curse as he watched that thing wreaking havoc, apparently, it was once a rook that already specialized in defense, when it fled from its master it eventually became this beast that seemed to have come out of Herakles's tales, a Nemean lion!

Distracted by his own thoughts, Tetsuya didn't manage to avoid the beast's claws and got entangled with it in a competition of pure strength!

"Tetsuya!" The group shouted when they noticed Tetsuya being forced against the ground.

Sweat poured down his face as he struggled to hold the beast, barely saving himself from being crushed to death.

Wasting no time, Yūto extended his hand and a sword came out of the ground, he grabbed the handle of the sword and using unbelievable speed he appeared beside the lion, with his sword covered in flames he started cutting the lion's paw, each strike was faster than the other, seeing how blood started leaking from its paw, the beast roared in pain and jumped away from them.

"Thanks..." Tetsuya thanked Yūto who nodded and helped him get on his feet.

"So that is its weakness!" Rias exclaimed as she noticed a white cold mist leaking from the beast's injury, which started healing soon after. "It's using ice to protect and heal itself..." She looked at Akeno and they both nodded at the same time. Extending their hands forward, two magic circles appeared, and soon after a hurricane made out of fire engulfed the beast.

"Kyaaaaagh!" The lion cried in pain, it tried to leave the fire inferno but it could barely move in that situation.

Everyone weaved a sigh of relief seeing that, they thought that it was over, but Tetsuya had a bad feeling lingering in his heart, soon his worries proved to be right, the beast eyes became red and blue bolts of ice that seemed like lightning started leaking from its body.

"What!?" Rias and Akeno were caught off guard when the beast somehow ignored the fire and jumped with extreme speed towards them.

Its claws extended to almost a meter in size, it had clearly gone berserk, at this point, it didn't care if it would die or not, it just wanted to take one of them to the afterlife.

At that moment, the world seemed to slow down for Tetsuya, he felt a hot feeling in his chest, purple bolts of lightning crossed his body as he stepped forward, a light path of energy forming a tunnel of sorts appeared in front of him as he ran towards Rias and Akeno, there in the middle of the tunnel a silver box floated when he approached and touched it, it exploded in a blinding light and in the blink of an eye he was completely clad in silver-blue armor.

When Rias and the others finally recovered from their initial shock, they couldn't believe their eyes, Tetsuya seemed to have teleported from one place to the other, and that armor, it was the same as before! Where did it come from!?

Tetsuya's back was covered by a white cape but his whole body was being protected by the cloth, he didn't know how he managed to summon it, nor where that feeling of power was coming from, but he was holding out to it and using all his willpower just to keep himself in that state.

The lion seeing him there didn't though much and opened its mouth, it wanted to swallow him once and for all.

But Tetsuya scoffed at him as gathered all that energy that coursed through his body in his hand. He punched forward and what happened next was at least unexpected for them, a beam of energy surrounded by purple lightning was shot through his hand and went through the beast's mouth without anything to stop it, the results? A hole the size of the beam of energy on the back of the beasts and all its organs being turned to charcoal completely charged with electricity.

Panting Tetsuya looked at his hand, and smiled, finally, after so much time, after so many battles had to depend only on his hands, he managed to touch on that power!

"Tetsuya, this is..." Rias asked, not believing her eyes.

"Hehe, yeah, I somehow managed to summon it." Tetsuya turned to look at her, but he soon frowned when he noticed that she seemed to be moving out of his field of view. He was about to ask why she was moving away when he finally noticed what was really happening for real.

Seeing Tetsuya falling on the ground, everyone sighed, well, at least he already made some progress.

"Tetsuya! What happened, why did you suddenly fell!?" Asia asked as she approached the group, she had been hiding behind everyone from the start, after all, she was the weakest of the group despite her talent.

"Don't worry, it's just that the armor is really heavy... sigh..."

...

Tetsuya carried his pandora box as if it was a backpack thanks to the two shoulder straps on it. Somehow its weight was greatly reduced when it was inside the box, not that it was a problem though, it was just... too surreal for him.

"How much time has it been since those events started?" He asked himself. While it was merely two weeks he felt like it was actually more than that. And time itself had become some sort of puzzle for him.

Because time held the answers for many questions that he has been wondering about all this time, what will he do in the future? Where his aspirations lie with? He has always dreamed of getting a cute girlfriend, but is that all that there is to life?

He was wondering if he had been too naive in his previous life. He stopped at the bus stop and looked to the sky, today the night has been especially beautiful, all the stars are as visible as they could possibly be. And with his vision which had been enhanced after being revived, he could even see the beautiful light of the more far away galaxies, for him, the sky was like those 4k wallpapers on the internet, of a sky full of beautiful dots of light.

"Beautiful." Tetsuya smiled.

"Indeed, really beautiful."

Hearing a voice behind him, he turned to look and was surprised by the sight of a man covered by cloak from head to toe.

"Who are you?"

"Me?" The man looked at him for a moment before turning his eye towards the sky. "I'm nothing but a messenger."

Hearing those words, Tetsuya frowned, but feeling no hostility coming out from him, he just looked at him with wariness.

"Why do you fear me?" He asked.

"I don't know you."

"Oh... so what you fear is actually the unknown..." He nodded and crossed the street, he stopped a few meters away from Tetsuya and removed his hood, revealing the face of a very handsome man with golden eyes and golden hair that went to his waist.

"Do you know how each constellation came to exist?"

Hearing his question Tetsuya shook his head and turned once again to look at the sky.

"The humans have many tales to explain this, some come from the myths, others came from history, science, etc. But the truth is quite different." He leaned his back on the wall as he looked at the sky. "In ancient times, the gods fought for the control of earth and the humans, they wanted this place more than anything because it would grant them the power to defy their bigger brother.

"But one person stood in the way, she wasn't afraid of facing them and would do so even if it costed her life, but she was weak, and she was losing the war, not yet ready to give up she then begged to a group of descendants of Hephaestus, to use their power and knowledge to build for her armors to protect her knights. When those knights died, their souls and armor became one and they ascended to the skies, to protect their goddess and the humans for as long as she needed."

Hearing this, Tetsuya couldn't help but think of the cloth he carried, could it be that the so-called protection of a constellation, actually meant that one received the blessing of those warriors of the past? The man's next words however made him frown.

"But she was naive, the humans don't deserve all that protection, they pollute and destroy this beautiful world, had she not intervened, my lord would have made this place a paradise that even Zeus would be jealous of. The humans would have been saved, and no one would have to go through the real hell that this place is."

"Who are you!?" Tetsuya asked once again, this time prepared to fight.

The man smiled and looked at him from the corner of his eyes. "Open your eyes Tetsuya! She brought you back, she knew what it meant to do so!" He walked towards him and grabbed Tetsuya by the collar of his shirt. "As we speak, the seals are breaking and the time of our return approaches. Those fakes that dared to take our position, that dared to claim the creation as theirs are this close to finally meeting their end.

"And he, that coward who runaway to that miserable version of the Earth to play alone as the supreme ruler even gave you the key. Tetsuya, come with me, you need to pledge loyalty to my lord! Without the power of the cloths, she will be incapable of stopping what's about to come, and Poseidon that fools only wish to change the world to become a complete domain of water, Hades is the true savior of this world!"

On the man's forehead, the symbol of a purple star started shining, and Tetsuya finally recognized him. "This... Impossible! How...!? You are... Hypnos!"

Tetsuya's eyes opened wide as he looked at the god in front of him, what the hell was going on!? Could his theories be right!? Could the world of Saint Seiya be part of this one?

"No, not yet, this body isn't real, but in two years, not only I but the others will also be ready to reclaim what they lost, until them, I'm nothing but an illusion." Hypnos retracted his hand. "Use this time to think about it, Tetsuya. What my lord promise is true peace, a real paradise for both him and humankind."

His body vanished into thin air, but his words still echoed in Tetsuya's ears, that's right, they are about to return, and that means... Something horrible is about to happen.