It was only natural for Shaina and the Crow Saint to swallow hard; after all, they were the ones sent by the Pope to cause trouble for Saori Kido.
Seiya recalled the unpleasant conversation he and the others had with Saori Kido before walking out, and when he thought back to her temper as a child, he felt quite lucky that they hadn't had their heads bashed in.
Ikki felt even more fortunate. Back when he had tried to steal the gold cloth, this young lady hadn't attacked him directly. Otherwise, if that staff had come crashing down, his cloth's ability to resurrect would have been useless—he and the cloth would likely have been smashed into a puddle of blood and mud!
And that was just a basic attack, without even using a finishing move! If she used a finishing move, just how strong was this young lady Saori?
As for the Cerberus and Auriga Silver Saints, seeing the Perseus Saint beaten to the point where his life or death was unknown, and their own weapons completely destroyed, they lost all will to fight and turned to flee.
Saori Kido frowned slightly and raised the staff of victory. Her Cosmo burned to the limit, instantly breaking through the Sixth Sense to reach the realm of the Seventh Sense.
"Plasma Beam!"
Almost all of Saori Kido's experience with Cosmo had been inherited from the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, so her finishing move was naturally a signature technique of Sagittarius. However, unlike the version performed with fists, Saori Kido had adapted this move to be performed using the staff of victory.
The terrifying beam passed between the two Saints, and the air currents it stirred up grazed them, immediately cracking their Silver Cloths.
As for the beam itself, it naturally didn't strike either of the Silver Saints directly; otherwise, the two of them would likely have been vaporized into atoms.
A gold-level Cosmo combined with a gold-level finishing move went without saying, but the key was that the staff of victory was an accessory to a god cloth. With the amplification of this weapon, Saori Kido's move far exceeded the power of a typical Gold Saint's finishing move, with power roughly equivalent to the Athena Exclamation that required three Gold Saint to perform.
This could be seen from the trench that had been blasted several kilometers long and at least five or six meters deep. Because of the barrier on Earth, the destructive power of Cosmo was compressed to the limit; even for someone as strong as a Gold Saint, creating a crater seven or eight meters wide during a battle was considered the absolute limit. A normal Gold Saint certainly couldn't unleash this level of destructive power.
The two who had originally wanted to flee were swept up by the air currents and thrown to the side. After crawling back up, they were dazed and confused, but they didn't dare to try and run away again.
They were stunned—the two of them didn't think for a second that Saori Kido had missed on purpose; there had never been a Saint who could miss their target while attacking.
The power of this move from Saori Kido had already exceeded their imagination. Neither of them had seen a Gold Saint in action, but they imagined that even a Gold Saint couldn't possibly be this strong.
At this moment, the Crow Silver Saint Jamian rushed up like a sycophant and began punching and kicking the two Silver Saints: "Are you blind? This is Goddess Athena! Do you have any idea what a grave sin it is to attack Goddess Athena?!"
The two Silver Saints, dizzy and disoriented, took a few blows before Saori Kido hurriedly stopped the Crow Silver Saint. At the same time, she reached out, and a vast, warm Cosmo began to heal the two Silver Saints.
One playing the good cop and the other the bad cop, combined with Saori Kido's strength and kind nature, caused the two Silver Saints to immediately kneel after sensing Athena's Cosmo.
Although Saori Kido might not have thought that much—and in fact, her brutal attack earlier was likely because she had seen the stone statues of Shun and Hyoga—treating the two Silver Saints now reflected her true personality. Yet, invisibly, it had indeed achieved the effect of using both the carrot and the stick.
Seiya, standing on the side, felt a bit ashamed. After all, he had initially rejected Saori Kido's invitation, only to be saved by her now. This made the hot-blooded little cockroach so embarrassed that he was almost digging a hole in his cloth's greaves with his toes.
Shaina was even more uneasy. Goddess Athena? Are you kidding me?
She had just been following the Pope's orders to capture a few rule-breaking Bronze Saints and mortals. There was also a bit of her own selfishness mixed in—she wanted to see Pegasus Seiya again, though she hadn't really thought about what she would do once she saw him.
And now you're telling me that the person the Pope wants to hunt down is actually Goddess Athena!? Is there some mistake? Why did such a bombshell suddenly explode here?
If Saori Kido really was Goddess Athena, then the problem was huge! This meant that the current Pope had already betrayed the Goddess!
But sensing Saori Kido's Cosmo, Shaina had to admit that this was the most likely possibility.
If Saori Kido hadn't demonstrated her combat prowess, even if she were the Goddess, the Silver Saints might not have listened to her orders. But seeing this Goddess Athena being so insanely powerful, combined with long-standing propaganda and faith, immediately caused these Saint to completely waver.
Being further inspired by Athena's Cosmo, those two Silver Saints were naturally won over immediately.
Having dealt with the two Silver Saints, Saori Kido's eyes turned toward Seiya and her. Shaina felt completely at a loss. What should she do now? Surrender immediately, or remain loyal to the Sanctuary?
Unfortunately, Saori Kido's gaze only flickered past Shaina and instead turned to Seiya, a smile appearing on her face.
"Thank you, Seiya. It seems you are still willing to help me."
Just now, Saori Kido had learned the sequence of events from the two defeated Silver Saints. Actually, there wasn't much to tell; the Bronze Saints and the Silver Saints had bumped into each other on the spot because they had sensed each other's Cosmo.
Upon learning that the Silver Saints were looking for Saori Kido, the little cockroaches were immediately unwilling to let it happen. The Silver Saints, on the other hand, didn't see these Bronze Saints as much of a threat, believing that dealing with the Bronze Saints was the job of the Lizard Silver Saints, and they hadn't really intended to fight Seiya and the others.
But Seiya and his group of hot-blooded little cockroaches naturally couldn't let them go find Saori Kido directly. Not running into them was one thing, but running into them was another matter entirely.
The two sides fought a few rounds at first. Seeing that both Hyoga and Shun were quite troublesome, and having other missions to attend to, the impatient Perseus Silver Saint shook the Medusa Shield in his hand and immediately took out Hyoga and Shun in a split second.
Only Seiya managed to keep his life, thanks to Shaina's intentional or unintentional shielding, and the fact that this female Saint wouldn't allow the other Silver Saints to intervene.
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Now available - Chapter 698: Finale (ENDING)