Tenma grows up in an Italian village alongside the gentle, painting-loving Alone and Alone's sister Sasha, two centuries before the era of the original Saint Seiya. The coming Holy War pulls the three apart: Sasha is recognized as the earthly incarnation of the goddess Athena, and Alone is chosen as the vessel of Hades, lord of the underworld. Tenma takes up the Pegasus Cloth as one of Athena's 88 Saints and fights his way toward his friend across a battlefield of gods and warriors.