When Seiya, wearing the Pegasus Cloth, arrived at the scene of the great battle, he found nothing.
Other than wreckage everywhere, there was nothing else.
Mountains had collapsed and the ground was cracked, as if the place had been bombed, a scene of utter devastation.
"This is residual Cosmo. There are traces of a clash between Cosmos this overwhelmingly powerful."
In Seiya's perception, two peerlessly powerful Cosmos had collided here. Both were so strong that their clash was like a planetary explosion.
"Cancer's Dismask is really strong!"
Seiya couldn't help but feel his heart pound in shock.
This magnitude of Cosmo and destructive power was beyond comparison for him, utterly out of his league.
Fortunately, he arrived a step late. Even if he'd come earlier, not only would he have been no help to Damian, he might have been caught in the blast.
The other residual Cosmo was intensely aggressive, unlike Dismask's and unlike Damian's.
Against a Gold Saint, Damian would likely have been reduced to ashes, without even a chance to strike.
It must have been another Gold Saint.
Sigh...
Though he hadn't exchanged many words with that gravekeeper, the man's voice and smile lingered in his mind, leaving him oddly reluctant to let go.
"Rest in peace, Damian."
Seiya bowed toward the ravaged land.
He hesitated, wondering whether to tell Marin the news of Damian's death, unsure whether Marin would be happy or sad to hear it.
.
Other Dimension.
A small rocky hill drifted in the endless void, and atop the hill was a stone dais.
"Achoo!"
Damian let out a huge sneeze.
"Is someone thinking of me? Shaina or Marin?"
Sitting on the dais, Damian stared at the Ark before him, zoning out.
He racked his brains but still couldn't figure out Saga's intentions.
After all, the Ark was a treasure that could sway the Holy War, with unimaginable strategic value.
The gods of Death and Sleep were famed Second-tier Gods in Greek myth, wielding extremely powerful divine might and combat strength—one could say they tipped the scales of the Holy War.
Once the twin gods' souls were released, Hades would gain two formidable enforcers out of thin air.
Since the mythic era, every time these two deities appeared in a Holy War, they inflicted enormous damage on the Sanctuary, with countless Saints dying miserably at their hands.
So much so that, despite the talents under each Athena in every generation, victory in the Holy War eluded them, the stalemate dragging on for millennia.
This Ark was too valuable, tied not only to the outcome of the Holy War, but to the main storyline as well.
Now Damian had to consider what to do with the Ark.
The best method, of course, was to bury it in the cemetery.
Next best was to stash it in the Other Dimension.
At worst, hand it over to Athena.
"Dismask, is anything different in the Sanctuary?"
Thinking more was pointless. Damian tried to contact Dismask with mind power.
A few seconds later, Dismask's voice came through:
"There's no special upheaval in the Sanctuary, but some strange things happened in the cemetery. The little girl guarding the graves disappeared—rumor is she was kidnapped."
"After His Holiness inspected it, it seems there was a spatial rift in the cemetery."
"The rift has been repaired for now, and the cemetery is under heavy lockdown."
"You're also wanted by the Sanctuary now. I reckon His Holiness may send pursuers."
"Also, I got chewed out by His Holiness for failing my mission..."
Damian cut the mind link before he finished, not interested in hearing him gripe.
Pandora is missing?
She gave up the cemetery?
Makes sense. After being exposed by him, even if she could keep lurking there, making any headway would be next to impossible.
Coupled with Saga's suspicious nature, the cemetery was definitely a cage.
"Pandora has probably returned to the Underworld."
"The Ark must be dealt with."
After making his decision, Damian locked onto a coordinate in the Sanctuary and vanished from the Other Dimension.
The next moment, Damian was already in the Sanctuary.
That's the beauty of the Other Dimension: leave a coordinate and you can more or less drop into the approximate location.
Though Damian hadn't mastered the rules of the Other Dimension, he still landed precisely in the Sanctuary's cemetery.
"Uh... where is this?"
Damian was a bit surprised. His mind coordinate was a particular gravestone deep within the cemetery.
Yet he had arrived in a strange place. It was pitch black all around, the air heavy and damp.
"It reeks of the cemetery—so why have I never been here?"
Damian looked around in considerable puzzlement.
For light, a golden orb rose in his hand, illuminating the surroundings at once.
This was a peculiar cavern.
Inside were many broken marble columns and some crumbling ruins.
It looked more like a dilapidated underground palace.
"My coordinate should be right. I can feel the mind coordinate directly overhead."
"Which means I'm beneath the coordinate."
"Didn't expect another world hidden underground."
Striding on, Damian kept moving forward.
He could sense a strange aura suffusing the place—like Cosmo, yet not—its fluctuations odd.
He went on, and it opened up; the space ahead grew broader, and soon he saw a statue.
Though badly damaged, the statue made Damian frown—because it was of a man.
The chest was flat and the body all muscle. Even after the erosion of time, his athletic build was evident—though the head had long since shattered.
This statue wasn't normal!
The only being permitted to have a statue in the Sanctuary was the goddess Athena. No one else—not even other deities—was allowed one.
Yet here in the depths of the cemetery stood a male statue. What was going on?
Damian wanted to delve deeper, but after only a few steps he stopped.
He had sensed a barrier—extremely solid. The strange fluctuations from before were emanating from it.
It blocked mind power, blocked Cosmo, blocked nearly every force—even sound.
Through the barrier, he could see something moving slowly in the dark—shaped somewhat like an animal, somewhat like a person.
At this distance, he couldn't make it out.
"Holy Sword!"
Without hesitation, Damian raised his hand and slashed at the barrier.
Clang!
It was like chopping metal—no effect. A fine scratch on the barrier healed in an instant.
Such incredible hardness!
Probably only Titan Nova could blast this barrier open.
The trouble was, this was beneath the cemetery.
If he fired off a palm like that, this whole section of the cemetery would collapse, and it would surely alert the enemy.
Looks like he'd have to open this barrier some other way—avoid brute force if possible.
This ruin was likely from the mythic era, and surely hid unknown secrets.
Given the chance, he would thoroughly study this cemetery and uncover just what secrets it held.
For now, better to bury the Ark first.
Damian retreated to his original spot and slashed upward, splitting the soil above, then burrowed to the surface.
A thin mist blanketed the cemetery's surface, obscuring distant figures, and shouts from soldiers drifted from afar.
"Plenty of people in the cemetery. Are they looking for Pandora?"
Damian chuckled, pulled a shovel and a headstone from the Other Dimension, and started building a grave.
As a gravekeeper, he had to have a full kit—shovel, headstone, coffin and more—and he'd stockpiled a ton in the Other Dimension before setting out.
That way he could dig and raise graves anytime, anywhere.
In a short while, a dedicated grave for the Ark of the twin gods of Death and Sleep was dug, and a marble headstone was planted.
[Soul: Sealed Hypnos, god of Sleep, and Thanatos, god of Death]
[Level: Second-tier God]
[Yield: Tomb level insufficient]
[Extractable abilities: Tomb level insufficient]
[Tomb grade: Black Iron]
[Status: Mortal, it's crowded in here—let us out! Mortal, let us out at once and you will be rewarded!]
Damn it...
The tomb really was under-leveled.
Those two gods could even sense his presence.
The headstone seemed unable to bear their power and began to crumble, turning into a pile of rubble.
Uh...
So the headstone was the problem.
Damian: What a waste ε=(ο｀*)))
We're short one good headstone.
Looks like he'd have to find a god-blood headstone to squeeze the twin gods of Death and Sleep.
Athena, I'll have to ask you to bleed!
(End of Chapter)
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