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"I pledge my life and loyalty to Saturn and to Asphodel. I humbly request your aid, so that I in turn may give you mine. Amen."

This was said flatly, begrudgingly, and without any pretense of sincerity about it. All the same, it still worked. A pillar of light transported Asphodel Knight and guest to the rooftop of a crumbling building on Saturn, where a heavy fog was almost finished creeping through. The tendrils of clearing air revealed an urban ruin that seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions.

A nauseatingly wet crunch punctuated the cold air, and Asphodel lifted his boot to reveal the fruits of his instincts. The still-wriggling remains of a large roach now stained the stone they stood on.

"That's new," he said to Kerberos. His wisp floated down to hover over the tiny corpse, as if inspecting it. "Anyway, welcome to my little piece of paradise."

"That's what I thought the first time I came here," Asphodel grumbled. "Not exactly what you would expect, right?" He let Kerberos take in the cityscape that surrounded them as he thought about what the Code had said about Wonders, that each one was considered a 'sacred' place. There was barely anything in sight that made the place seem sacred, at least at first glance.

"I was expecting," and he sighed, somewhat embarrassed at himself in retrospect. "Well, you know. What the ancient Greeks described. An endless field of flowers where simple people lived a simple existence. Instead, I get roaches." It wasn't just eerie, it was disappointing. "But look over there."

He pointed to a space that could have easily been lost amidst the buildings and the streets. In the distance, there it was -- the curious little village, with its curious little houses, and the curious Grecian-looking pillars decorating the space they encircled. Once noticed, it stood out plainly from how different it was compared to its urban surroundings. "My ancestor lived in that area. She's a headache to deal with, honestly. But some of the things she said..."

His brow knitted, and his arms crossed, as he recalled a thoroughly unpleasant conversation. "She called me the Knight of the Meadows. And she was furious that I exist at all. She said that this Wonder is dead, and that my Knighthood is an insult to her people." One veiled face turned to the other, and their eyes met briefly. "She refused to teach me anything. I'm not about to try and change her mind, but... this place has a story, Kerberos. I want to find out what it is."

Like on Kerberos?

Well, that was interesting. Something about it made Asphodel's heart quicken a bit, for just a moment. It brought back the memory of that intense dance they shared at the Star Festival, and the senshi's mention of fate -- but -- ultimately, it wasn't enough to draw any conclusions off of. After all, similar architecture could also be found on Greece.

"Only if we go to that specific area, I think," the Knight suggested. "I hope so, anyway." She'd only appeared to him when he entered her own house, after all. "If you want to go meet her, we could..." He visibly grimaced at the thought. "But there's other some places I wanted to check out. They might be more informative than she is."

He pointed to a site east of the village, where a sculpture garden was visible, the nature of which was hard to discern from a distance.

"It'll be a bit of a walk either way. Did I mention I really miss being able to teleport?"

Asphodel sighed in sympathy as they jumped down to the stone-paved ground and started heading eastward. "I have that problem twice a week," he admitted with a sour tone. But then, brightening a bit with intrigue, he asked, "Is your boyfriend a Knight, then? Pass him an invite to the Piercing Sun for me. I'm sure he'll fit right in." He couldn't resist the opportunity to advertise, even though that wasn't the reason for the invitation. "Who knows? Maybe the Code will give us that power back if we all get together and ask really nicely."

Doubtful. But, a Knight could dream.

The ever-observant wisp at his side bobbled a ways in font of them, seeming to lead the way. Asphodel was silently grateful for it. This place was still a maze to him at ground level. Along the way he caught sight of some occasional bits of bare land along the road and in front of some of the buildings -- tiny little patches, many no bigger than a windowsill planter. Some only afforded a flower pot's worth of space. Curiouser yet, some had jagged or uneven edges, as if carved out of the roads after they had been paved.

He stopped at one for a moment and took a closer look. "How much you want to bet these are just potholes?" he asked. "It's cold and wet enough for that, and these roads aren't in great shape either..."

Still, something about that explanation seemed off. Something about the weathered damage to the roads seemed... purposeful. Angry. He could practically see his ancestor's face in them, staring back out at the city in her rage.

"Anyway, we're almost there... I think."

All three of them... Asphodel couldn't help but stand up a bit straighter at that. "I'm amazed so many of us have gotten out," he said. "Used to be you couldn't even think about leaving. But ever since that deal in Elysium..."

To this day, he still had mixed feelings about it. No one should ever had gone in there. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder if that invasion had done something to loosen Metallia's grip on the world, just a little. Ultimately he couldn't prove anything... but it would explain why she had been so furious about it. "Knights started appearing right after that. One of the first was a defector, actually. It's a pity she got swallowed right back in." He shook his head, disappointed in Linarite. She had been so proud to have defected, just like he was now.

Then the sculpture garden stood before them, menacing as everything else.

It had the look of a derelict courtyard, studded here and there with the same pillars found in the village. Asphodel counted six of them, arranged in a large circle. One was toppled and another was broken. What was menacing, though, was the statues themselves -- grotesque carvings with multiple faces that blurred and blended into each other, in chaotic combinations of joy and despair and rage. They seemed lost, but also reveling in their madness, silently inviting their audience to join them.

"Now I'm curious," the Knight asked to the senshi. "Does Kerberos have anything like this?" He peered around the garden further, and noticed what may have once been a raised garden bed in the center -- here, too, was some unpaved land.

"I don't think so," Asphodel answered. Then, he thought further, and concluded, "No, definitely not. Elysium is this realm connected to humanity's dreams. A bunch of senshi found their way in, Metallia lost her s**t about it, and... all hell broke loose." He shook his head grimly, unwilling and unable to elaborate more on the tale. "I don't remember more than that, honestly. I don't even know what the senshi were doing in there. I just know it was wrong for anyone to go in there at all, if I'm right about what that place was."

The reasoning was obvious: the dreams of humanity were linked to the minds of humanity. No one had the right to meddle around in such a place. He was glad that the Negaverse hadn't found a way back in.

The mention of Transcendence and the protections it granted made him raise an eyebrow -- an expression hidden by his flamboyant headgear -- but he didn't inquire further.

An array of wrought-iron benches were found here and there among the statues. A ghostly figure with wild pale hair sat in one of them, glowering silently at the pair as they wandered through the garden and took in the sights. She went unnoticed for a moment while they studied the statues, and silently sneered at her descendant's lack of understanding; at his continued presence in her homeland in spite of her insistence that he didn't belong. Then, the unworthy Knight's guest turned, revealing features she hadn't seen from her vantage and she straightened up in surprise and deepening disgust.

In her dry voice, she called, "Sailor Kerberos."

Asphodel stopped in his tracks and his blood ran cold.

And she continued, in an acidic growl,

"How dare you bring him here?"

"Your predecessor did nothing," the ghost quipped, sounding almost amused. "Exactly like he was supposed to." This was said with a bright ring of approval that, for just a second, cut through all the bitterness.

"But you."

Asphodel's breathing tightened. The wisp at his side nested against his neck.

"You were never supposed to bring him here." Her frown deepened the creases in her face again. "Look at this --" An angry finger jabbed at the cobblestone Sailor Kerberos stood on. "-- his feet are touching our ground! And of course you don't understand what that means, of course. Stupid child." Her voice escalated into a wail full of rage. "How many ways are you going to spit on our graves, boy?"

The air felt heavier with each word. Something about Asphodel's ancestor seemed to sap the power out of his being. He stood quietly, with an unreadable face, unsure how to respond.

The ghost had started laughing bitterly before Kerberos had even finished speaking. It was a dry, cold, sour cackle that escalated in volume, as if the intent were to drown the his voice out completely. Beneath the senshi's feet, the flowers drooped, wilted, and blackenly crumbled at the edges, as if caught at the edge of a fire.

"What you know or do not know is of no consequence," she growled. "The fate of this place has already been sealed, and senshi like you are to blame." In the center of all the coldness she projected, her eyes burned with unextinguishable anger. "Neither of you have any business picking at our corpse, and the Knight you call friend? He has no right to exist."

A tense breath from Asphodel cut through the venom. "Let's get out of here, Kerberos, she's useless. This --" -- his dark gray glove gestured flippantly and wearily at his ancestor -- "This is all she does. She hasn't even told me her <********> name."

"Because you don't deserve to know it!" she snapped back.