Setsuna waved his hand, opening a spatial passage, and led the three inside.
Before them lay a smooth, flat land, desolate and uninhabited.
The spatial gravity was ten times that of Earth, but for Seiya and the other two, this level of gravity naturally meant nothing.
They excitedly surveyed the barren surroundings, waiting for Setsuna's special training.
Setsuna calmly announced, "Your next training content for the three of you is to defeat my pet."
"Pet?" Seiya blinked, looking around the empty world, somewhat confused. "Setsuna-sama, where is your pet?"
Deathmask and Aphrodite also looked around but saw nothing.
Setsuna did not answer. He simply stomped his foot lightly.
Boom!
The entire earth suddenly shook violently. A terrifying aura came from beneath their feet.
"What is this?" The three exchanged glances and decided to fly into the sky to survey the land from above.
They rose higher and higher, until they reached an altitude of hundreds of thousands of meters, before finally taking in the entire land at a glance.
Then, they saw a sight that froze their very souls.
What they had been standing on was not 'land' at all!
It was a small section of the torso of a giant serpent, so vast it surpassed the scale of a planet!
The serpent's body coiled and writhed. Each of its scales was the size of a mountain peak.
This serpent was naturally Titan.
In the Gourmet World, Setsuna had ultimately shared the remaining 'scraps' of the star feast with everyone, and Titan had naturally enjoyed this delicacy as well.
Its size not only surpassed that of the former Snake King, Mother Snake, but even surpassed the Space Taipan, which was 80 million kilometers long, becoming a truly cosmic-level creature.
Seiya watched in shock. The Aquatic Duo were even more numb.
'You call this ultra-ultra-ultra-super giant monster a pet?'
Seiya's voice was dry. "We have to defeat this kind of monster?"
Setsuna calmly nodded. "If you cannot even defeat my pet, what makes you think you can defeat Hades?"
The Aquatic Duo's mouths twitched wildly, 'Don't lump us in! We don't have such unrealistic fantasies as defeating Hades.'
However, Seiya was inspired and regained his confidence. "That's right! I will definitely defeat it!"
As his words fell, Titan's tail, like a starry orbit, swept across from the chaotic void with the terrifying force to shatter stars.
Its speed surpassed the limit of the Seventh Sense, leaving only a destructive afterimage trail.
"It's coming!" Seiya's pupils contracted sharply. His Cosmo instantly burned to its limit, and his body instinctively charged rapidly upward and sideways.
Deathmask also reacted instantly, teleporting out of the way.
However, Aphrodite, who was standing slightly further back, reacted a beat slower.
Or rather, faced with this attack that exceeded his cognitive limits, he instinctively chose his most habitual reaction.
"Royal Demon Rose!"
He swung his arm abruptly, and several roses, crimson as blood and containing corrosive power, shot like bullets toward the sweeping giant tail.
However—
Ding ding ding!
A series of crisp sounds, like raindrops hitting a steel plate, rang out.
These roses, capable of penetrating Gold Cloths, struck Titan's dark scales. They didn't even leave a white mark before being deflected, crushed, and turned into drifting petal dust.
Aphrodite's realm far surpassed Titan's, but the gap in power level was simply too great.
"What?" Aphrodite's face was full of disbelief.
'My attack couldn't even break the defense?'
In his moment of shock, Titan's giant tail was already before him.
The huge shadow enveloped his entire field of vision.
Bang!
A dull impact, so loud it seemed to make the entire world tremble.
Aphrodite didn't even have time to scream before being crushed into neutrinos.
A cloud of blood spray diffused, then instantly scattered by the gale stirred up by Titan's tail.
"Aphrodite!" Deathmask's eyes were about to burst.
Although he was a scumbag, he was also a rare good friend to the equally scumbag Aphrodite.
Seiya clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with anger and helplessness.
Too strong! This was simply a battle on a different dimension!
And this was just the pet of that legendary Pope!
Setsuna sighed softly and waved his hand lightly toward the void where Aphrodite had died.
The next moment, Aphrodite, who had been shattered to pieces, reappeared.
As if the scene of him being reduced to ashes had just been a vivid illusion.
"I... I'm not dead?" Aphrodite instinctively touched his body, his face full of the dazed feeling of surviving a disaster.
Setsuna said calmly, "Resurrection... is not difficult for me, who controls the authority of death. In theory, I can infinitely pull you back from death."
"However, if you make no progress, I will not bother to continue wasting power to resurrect a worthless waste. You should be able to understand that, right?"
Hearing Setsuna's words, the sense of relief that had just arisen in the three's hearts instantly dissipated.
Setsuna continued, "Stimulate all your potential, enhance your Cosmo as much as possible, and then defeat it..."
Setsuna added, "By the way, let me remind you of one more thing. While you are progressing, Titan is also growing."
"If your rate of progress cannot keep up with Titan's rate of growth, then die here."
"What? This kind of monster can continue to grow?" The three exclaimed in shock.
"Is that strange?" Setsuna raised his eyelids. "Titan is still in its infancy."
Although Titan had already surpassed its racial limits, in terms of age, it was indeed still a baby.
"Infancy!!!" The three's mouths twitched wildly. So the monster before them was actually a snake baby?
The Aquatic Duo had already begun to regret their decision, wondering if it wasn't too late to become 'deserters' now?
"No time to complain!" Seiya abruptly looked up at the super giant serpent. "If you don't want to die here, then stake everything on fighting, on becoming stronger!"
The battle began again.
While Seiya and the other two were fighting Titan, Setsuna did not focus all his attention on them.
He came to the edge of the world and took off the Heavenly Chief Star Surplice he was wearing.
The Heavenly Chief Star of the previous Holy War was precisely Kairos, the younger brother of Chronos, the God of Time.
More accurately, it was Kairos's reincarnated self… Yoma.
To take revenge on Heaven, Yoma secretly manipulated the Holy War, attempting to obtain Pegasus's god-slaying power. However, in the final battle, his soul was sealed by the then Gemini Saint, Aspros.
Fourteen years after the Holy War ended, Yoma broke the seal and attempted to attack the new Pope, Shion, while the Sanctuary was empty.
However, he was punished by the Shield of Athena, which had returned to the Sanctuary, and completely dissipated.
However, as an ancient god of the major god level, even with his divine power sealed by Chronos, Yoma's soul would not completely dissipate.
And what Setsuna was about to do now was, using the connection of the Heavenly Chief Star Surplice, to summon Yoma's soul.