Although Asgard and the Greek Sanctuary are not in a subordinate relationship, because Asgard's current leader, Lyfia, has a close relationship with one of the Greek Sanctuary's top Gold Saints, Aiolia of Leo.
The two of them are so openly flirting it's ridiculous. Among the Twelve Temples, aside from Deathmask—who's already settled down and started a family—every other Gold Saint is variously jealous, envious, and bitter toward Aiolia.
As an aside, Deathmask has already married Helena. The wedding was hosted by Meruem, and it was unprecedentedly grand.
So the Greek Sanctuary could not possibly sit back and watch the Little Sanctuary attack Asgard. The Greek Sanctuary had already been full of hostility toward the Little Sanctuary, and it finally erupted at this moment.
And Meruem also believed that the fundamental reason Mars issued this order was that he thought the timing to go to war with the Sanctuary had matured.
"Since you want war, then war it is!" With Meruem's order, countless Saints of the Sanctuary immediately launched strikes against the Saints throughout the Little Sanctuary's sphere of influence.
Not only the Greek Sanctuary—Death Queen Island's Black Iron Saints entered the war as well.
The Black Iron Saints displayed power that was in no way inferior to ordinary Silver Saints. In just three days, every faction under the Little Sanctuary was wiped out.
The speed was so fast that even Mars himself hadn't anticipated it. He had long expected the Sanctuary to attack him, but he never imagined the offensive would be this fierce—and this rapid.
Wasn't Athena always supposedly a lover of peace? How could she possibly approve such an order?
Shouldn't she have personally led the Saints to Babylon to negotiate with him? Only then could Mars defeat Athena at the negotiating table and seize control of the earth.
Just like before—and the Seiya of this world definitely wasn't as strong as the one in his memories. If everything followed the script Mars had envisioned, he should have been able to take control of the earth easily.
Why was Athena here different from the Athena he remembered? Why would Athena here choose war?
Why would the Athena of this world issue this order? She was practically a different person from the Athena he knew!
For once, Mars grew uneasy. Something was off.
In his dreams Mars would never have imagined that the Athena he was calculating and the current Saori were, in fact, two extremes of personality—one dominated by the wise god persona that favored peace, the other dominated by the war god persona.
One was gentle and scheming, the other warlike and straightforward. They were fundamentally opposites.
Mars executing this plan based on the Athena in his memories was, in itself, a mistake. Besides, the Sanctuary also had Meruem.
Mars originally hadn't taken Meruem's existence seriously at all. But the failure of this plan made him start paying attention to every person in the Sanctuary. And the most dazzling existence in the Sanctuary at present was none other than Meruem, the master of the Guardian Temple.
The Saga incident, the war in the north, the Sea God Temple, and the recent Berserker disaster and the descent of the former Sun God—these events' resolutions were all inseparable from Meruem.
Once Mars connected these events, he could arrive at a conclusion even he found hard to believe: this man's strength might rival a god's—and not an ordinary god's.
"So the plan's failure can't be separated from this man… but why have I never heard of him before? Meruem… He definitely never appeared in the era we used to live in. My memory can't be wrong."
"Then… who exactly is this man?" Mars's blood-red eyes beneath the Galaxy Cloth gradually sharpened.
Vast Cosmo continuously overflowed from Mars's body.
But what Mars did not notice was that his wife in name, the holy sorceress Medea, was watching his every move from the shadows.
On those crimson, seductive lips, a mocking smile appeared.
"Just a little more time. Just a little more. Eden—so long as it's for you, even if Mother sacrifices everything, it's worth it. Soon, soon a new world will appear. And then you will become this new world's… king."
After realizing his plan had gone wrong, a different scheme rose in Mars's mind.
He planned to do what he had done in Omega—summon a meteor from beyond the heavens.
Unfortunately, before the meteor could even approach Earth, it was destroyed outside the planet by black tech developed on Bigao Star.
"Damn it! Does that mean I can only fight head-on?" Mars, burning with rage, flipped the nearby table completely over and roared.
He hadn't experienced a situation this helpless in who knew how many years.
But in the end, Mars was still a god who could take it and let it go. Since only war remained, then war it would be.
Gods do not fear humanity's challenge, even though Mars himself had once been human for a time.
"Meruem, be careful… I keep feeling this man called Mars isn't simple." In the Sanctuary, Saori said to Meruem, who was about to set out.
Of course he isn't simple—besides Mars, there's also the dark god Apsu. Meruem muttered to himself, but to avoid making Saori worry, he didn't tell her about Apsu.
Now that they were already at war with the Little Sanctuary, and the Little Sanctuary's territory had been reduced to the one Sanctuary in Babylon—and ordinary Saints couldn't take that Sanctuary—Meruem planned to personally meet this war god Mars and the dark god Apsu hiding in the shadows.
In the original story, Apsu hid inside Kouga's body, but Kouga doesn't exist here now. So Meruem couldn't determine where Apsu was hiding, but one thing was certain: Apsu was in the Little Sanctuary.
This time, Meruem planned to bring along the now well-trained Bronze Boys as well. Besides them, he also brought Saga, Wang Hu, Bardo, and several elite Silver Saints.
As for the Gold Saints, by Meruem's intent he didn't plan to bring any. But Saori insisted that he take them; with no choice, Meruem brought three Gold Saints.
Mm, at least that made a set capable of firing AE. Capricorn Shura, Taurus Aldebaran, and Scorpio Milo.
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