Ever since the battle of the World Tree in the north ended, the whole world entered a rare stretch of quiet. No gods suddenly popping out of nowhere, no some-kind-of-X Saints awakening from who-knows-where. For the Gold Saints, who had to run around whenever there was a mission, this counted as a pretty good thing.
But even in this rare period of peace, Meruem had no intention of letting the Gold Saints off. The resurrected previous-generation Gold Saints were drilling their juniors hard. Feeling their strength improve little by little really was nice.
It would've been even nicer if it were just a bit more relaxing.
The most relaxed group of Gold Saints was probably Shaka and Asmita. Both had the Eighth Sense, and Shaka was a man who could converse with gods and buddhas from childhood.
The two of them cultivated Buddhist teachings together, though Asmita had practiced ascetic "suffering meditation" since he was young. That alone was enough to show just how astonishing his willpower was.
Their identities were also similar—both were incarnations of the Buddha. Asmita and Shaka basically just sat cross-legged with their eyes closed beneath the twin sal trees behind the Virgo Temple, chatting and discussing the Way, utterly at ease. At their level, to be honest, it was genuinely hard to improve any further.
Not far behind them was the Gemini pair, but with one key difference: the previous-generation Gold Saints Aspros and Defteros demanded training standards for physical conditioning that could only be called insane. They pushed right up to the absolute limits of what a human Saint could endure.
Don't forget Defteros basically trained in boiling magma—hell, he even slept in magma. In Defteros's view, resting on the ground, resting in bed, and resting in magma were all the same thing.
So even though Kanon and Saga didn't lag too far behind them in Cosmo alone, in physical conditioning, burst output, and mastery of ultimate techniques, they were completely outclassed.
It wasn't even comparable to Kanon getting toyed with by nothing more than the rise and fall of the tides.
As for ultimate techniques, Defteros's self-created Black Rock Magma Burst was a top-tier move that could rival Galaxy Explosion. It was genuinely terrifying. Aspros's other-dimensional space abilities could even open a divine passageway—powers that were basically at the level of a god, and not an ordinary god at that.
The Saga brothers were trained brutally by the Defteros brothers, with the focus not on Cosmo cultivation but on physical conditioning and technique.
Aside from those two groups, the most relaxed was Pisces. Aphrodite and Albafica walked different paths: one followed Pisces's traditional route, the poisonous-blood style that could even take down gods, while the other followed a talent-based path of communicating with plants and the earth.
Still, their techniques were extremely similar, so there was plenty they could exchange.
The Leo group was a bit unusual. When little Leo Regulus died in battle, he was only fourteen. In every physical aspect he hadn't reached his peak yet. But his talent was downright terrifying—seeing something once, learning it, perfectly copying it, and then improving it. A solo-version AE, the unrivaled ultimate roar of the Twelve Temples, and that nearly miraculous unity of man and nature.
Aside from his father Ilias's ability—refining the light-speed punch to the extreme so enemies couldn't even find its trajectory—Regulus's abilities were almost on par with his father's. Compared to Aiolia, Regulus really did have a lot more he could teach. But Regulus wasn't a qualified teacher; there were things he understood but didn't know how to explain to others.
As for what the remaining Gold Saint predecessors could teach, most of it was more or less the same—like Hasgard's Titan Nova, Aquarius's Diamond Dust: Zero Light, and so on.
One of the more special groups was Capricorn. Shura specialized in the Holy Sword, training every part of his body to the highest Holy Sword realm. El Cid, meanwhile, specialized in the Holy Sword in his hands, pushing one sword—two swords—to the absolute extreme.
So El Cid (the commander) actually had quite a lot of technique he could pass on to Shura.
As for the "commissar" Sagittarius pair of commissars, there really wasn't much to say.
Last came the big crab, the Cancer group. To be honest, Manigoldo was much stronger than the current Deathmask—but not in terms of Cosmo. Deathmask, now having broken through to high-rank Gold Saint level, wasn't weak. But whether it was mentality or other aspects, he was still a long way behind Manigoldo.
Fortunately, Deathmask now had a bond—Helena. Only with something to hold onto could he unleash even stronger power.
And the two of them happened to be the same type—somewhat rebellious and hard to tame. The moment they met, Manigoldo and Deathmask fought. The winner, of course, was Manigoldo, no question. And then Deathmask's days of suffering began.
Deathmask thought about resisting, but Manigoldo suppressed him without mercy. Manigoldo put it simply: whenever you beat me, you can stop following my arrangements.
And the result was obvious. Deathmask, who learned later and mostly taught himself, could never match Manigoldo, who was born able to communicate with souls. Manigoldo's Sekishiki play was just insanely good.
So yeah—tragic.
Of course, the twelve Gold Saints guarding the Sanctuary were still the current lineup. Neither Meruem nor Saori planned to replace anyone.
It just so happened that not long after melting down Aphrodite's God Cloth, plus the Corona Saints' Cloths and some special materials, Meruem made twelve new Cloths—low-key black in color, but each one gleaming with a unique sheen. Their designs were modeled after the Gold Cloths (including Shion's Aries design).
Since Libra Dohko had never been replaced, Gemini got two sets. Otherwise, making one of the Defteros brothers wear Libra would look awkward no matter how you cut it.
To the outside world, Meruem claimed these twelve Cloths were Black Iron Cloths—the dark Cloths from Death Queen Island. But anyone who knew the inside story understood that among the Dark (Black Iron) Saints, there had never been a "dark" version of Gold Cloths.
At most, they only went up to Silver Cloth level.
Of course, that was just an external line to fool the ignorant. As for the truth? Who cares what it's called.
In terms of toughness and Cosmo amplification, these twelve Cloths were not inferior to the original Gold Cloths at all. Wearing these Cloths, the previous-generation Gold Saints officially settled in the Sanctuary.
But the calm days didn't last long. A year later, news came from the outside: atop some mysterious ruin, a place resembling the Twelve Temples had suddenly appeared. Then rumors spread that within this newly born Twelve Temples, warriors wearing something like Gold Cloths had emerged.
After that, a man suspected to be the leader of this new Twelve Temples publicly declared that they were the true Sanctuary, and that the Greek Sanctuary was a fake.
"Little Sanctuary"—that was what the Greek Sanctuary called this newly appeared Sanctuary.
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