Caelestis returns to the Transylvanian battlefield to discover that her troops have been decimated. While few have been killed, some have died via the curse of Cheat Hope. Most have passed out either due to complete exhaustion or been severely wounded by the last massive attack from the "enemy". She's also wondering just who possessed the Covic Demon Soul Eater Virus and released it. Even the Supreme Deity didn't want to mess with that virus and certainty didn't want to wipe out the demon half, just defeat them. Despite the infected demons weakening rapidly, they showed great resilience and keep fighting even as they grew weaker. The goddesses too, even those fighting for Caelestis weather they want to or not, are showing signs of becoming ill. The biggest blow came when Polish Demon Queen Elizabeth (no relation to goddess Elizabeth) went assault mode and used her version of Revenge Counter, which Meliodas can also use, and decimated the Supreme Deity's forces. After recovering their ill and wounded, Elizabeth's remaining allied troops, demon and goddess alike, have temporary fallen back to recover and regroup, fully aware that Caelestis will attack again. It'll take the queen a little while to regain enough power for another fight. Polish Demon Commander Gregory, Roman/Greek Goddess King Titus, and Goddesses General Cornelius, who were all transported by the now collapsed barrier along with over 200 troops, will surely return before long with further reinforcements.
There's even an African volacish near the area, a friend of both Queen Elizabeth and King Titus. Plus, the Seven Deadly Sins have yet to emerge from the fortress nor taken part in this main battle.
Caelestis quickly sends commands to those who are left. She heals much of "her army" and undoes any and all last limits on the Cheat Hope curse, as well as casting spells and curses to undue any physical and mental limitations on just about everybody left in the fortress (with a few expectations). Many are also refueling with drugs and magical injections, which are extremely dangerous and even deadly in large and uncontrollably doses, treading their mental health and well-being for extreme, often temporary, powers.
"JUNO! Where the hell are you?"
Juno appears before her leader, all covered in mud, or rather, lava mud, and speaks in a sarcastic voice. "You rang, Her Royal Highness?"
Caelestis hits her second-in-command with lighting, forcing Juno to crash into a mountain. She barely has enough power left to heal herself and to get up. "What the hell is going on here, Juno?!"
Juno, who isn't afraid to speak her mind, is clearly angry. "Excuse me! You disappeared and left me in charge of this...chaos. I've been locked in a deadlocked battle with a VOLACISH for the past three hours!" Juno doesn't dare mention that even her devil powers burned out after so much use, as the Supreme Deity isn't aware that her second-in-command and some others have gained devil powers through Occult Devil Worship, which she completely forbids. To think that once a upon of time Juno and her small goddess branch on an isolated island had once blindly worshiped, build alters and prayed to this psychopath. The fight had endured for so long because Juno allowed her devil powers to take complete control and couldn't stop attacking and fighting. Both opponents had been put into several perfect cubes and other barriers but kept bursting out of them. The volacish only ceased the fight when Juno's powers burned out and she started to ease up on the fighting. Juno would have been beaten for sure if not for her opponent being distracted by Queen Elizabeth's Revenge Counter. The goddess actually didn't believe the queen would result to such a desperate, devastating and power-draining attack that could potentially kill her, but she did. Juno just barely got out of taking a direct hit from the attack. The volacish, just as the queen predicted, took a huge direct hit from the attack to protect civilizations, doing little harm to her.
As the two goddesses argue, an agonizing scream is heard from the direction of their enemies. The sky itself seems to be going out of whack. Multicolored lights burst through the sky, resembling a disorientated aurora, or northern lights. The earth starts shaking like a major earthquake.
"What the hell!" shouts Caelestis; "WHO FORCED OPENED THOSE GATES WITHOUT MY AUTHERAZION?!"
They hear those same agonizing screams coming towards them. Juno hightails it out of there as the African volacish unknowingly lands in front of the Supreme Deity and explodes.
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Inside the fortress, the five members of the Seven Deadly Sins, plus Inuyasha, Hawk, Melidy, Bluey, Arwin, and Hana are caught up in the violent shaking. Jasmine, having kept her distance from the others, after a long and hard internal fight, tells the group that she's sorry and suddenly jumps into the air and crashes through the ceiling. Out of seemly nowhere, a ball of bright light appears and also goes through the hole in the same direction that Jasmine went.
Debris, rubble, and dust fall all around them. They even feel some of the volcanic heat and ash drift down to where they are. Then, as quickly as it started, the shaking stops, and all is silent.
"Is everyone alright?" ask Diane brushing dust off her clothes. Having protected Hana with her own body, the 4-year-old says she's scared of the earthquake and ask if there's going to be aftershocks.
"Man, is that what a full powered volcano is like;" asks Ban as he emerges from the rubble.
"That was nothing more than a mild earthquake with a temper tantrum;" replies Inuyasha.
Bluey, who's never experienced earthquake like shaking, finds it thrilling and thinks she wants to experience a full-blown volcanic explosion. Inuyasha clonks her on the head and tells the goat that she doesn't.
"Actually, that was kind of fun;" Meliodas says while brushing himself off. Everybody looks at him like he's crazy. The dragon sin knows this isn't the time to be joking but he just can't help himself. Plus, he actually does think that experience was fun.
"What happened?" asks King; "Where's Jasmine? Is she ok?"
"I fear, something from the Earth;" replies Merlin. "Or from, something happened in the atmosphere, possibly the earth itself, to cause that reaction in her. I've heard of volacish having massive pain if something is wrong with the natural order of the earth that gives them their powers. She must have left so she would explode in the upper atmosphere, hopefully to soften or lesson the effect her explosion would have on the people and environment."
"Nuri probably felt it too!" adds Willie; "but Vesuvius and the Naples volcanic chain shouldn't be effecting us this far away, I don't think, unless it's a Pompeii level eruption.
"We'd better get up there;" says Merlin; "Something massive has happened. Lilith might have done the same thing."
"What was that light that passed us?" asks King; "That was intense."
"That was Lady Iris;" comes the voice of Gowther, who's just arrived; "She must have went after her sister."
The sins have a quick but jovial reunion with Gowther. The goat sin then remembers about Vald, who snuck away from him during the shaking, much to Inuyasha's dismay, who wanted to give Vald way more than a piece of his mind. Not only does Vald possibly got his mental mind shield up, but all the chaotic energy in the air is making impossible for Gowther to locate him, but they don't have time to go after the male goddesses right now.
Gowther senses something, as does everyone else who can sense magical, or non-magical, presence. They are meet by 8 purgatory enduras, including the snake one Meliodas fought earlier, and some other power enhanced beasts, including some more of those fire boars, who are three times the strength they were before. It soon becomes obvious these creatures have gone completely psycho, now nothing but mindless killing machines, and are fighting to the death. The group, even the Sins, have their work cut out for them. Merlin and King create a double barrier over Melidy and Hana to protect them. Willie and Arwin add threads and vines to block the girls' view of the action, although Hana wonders why because she's seen plenty of fights. Meliodas quickly jumps in front and takes the lead, with no weapon except whatever rocks or debris had can get his hands on. The monsters somehow sense not to use direct magical attacks against the dragon sin, and the captain's full counter proves useless against these beasts' anti-magic, physical, and supernatural attacks. Although it takes nearly 30 minutes, the group, with the sins in the thick of it, is finally able to work around the enduras power and destroy four of them by getting to their hearts and completely burning them to ash in order to prevent them from regenerating, which both Merlin and Gowther figured out. Still, the other three enduras mysterious back off, as if being recalled or something.
Inyuasha, who ended up protecting Hana and Melidy from the fire boars and other creatures, is furious that he was kept out of the core of the battle by force and didn't give any of the more decisive blows. Despite agreeing to stay on the outside of the main fight, Willie still proved his usefulness with his threads by mostly moving the cube containing the girls to prevent them from getting hit and offering some support for the main battles from time to time. Arwin, while only having half the individual strength of any of the sins, still proved effective in battle, mostly as a support. What surprised the sins the most, however, is Hawk's much improved strength, despite still not being anywhere near the level of the sins, Hawk's not only stronger physically, as well as faster, but have much better control over his transformations. He once again transformed into a miniature fire boar and is no longer bothered by breathing fire through his nose. Hawk even helps destroy the enduras hearts with his fire. Bluey, to the amazement of the others, demonstrates some crazy and creative abilities with her monster balls, including exceptional speed and a new one she's trying, the rubber ball which turns her body into rubber, freaking the others out, even her friend Arwin.
With almost no time to even catch their breath, the sins and allies are suddenly engulfed by a black mass. Everybody can barely see a thing in the pitch-black darkness, with the exception of Gowther and Hawk, who both have some vision in the dark. Merlin and others make several attempts to add some light with their magic, but their attempts keep getting blown out like candles. They are met by several dozen glowing dark red eyes belonging to shadow beasts. With little to no visibility and the beast taking on other forms, nobody except for Hawk and Merlin are able to land any hits on the beasts. Everybody keeps bumping into each other and accidentally attacking their comrades. Before long, everybody's attacked and in battle with literally their own shadows, except for Hawk and Melidy.
Merlin tries to shout out a warning about these beasts, but in an instant, she finds herself completely all along in the darkness. Everybody else has disappeared, except for her shadow.
"Merlin, child of Belialuin. Try as might, you'll never know everything. You can't control everything and everyone. You can't solve every problem; you can't undo all the bad and harm you've done. You can't even control your own feelings and destiny. Try as you might to convince yourself otherwise, you really only care about yourself and satisfying your own emptiness. Everybody else is only second rate to you. You only care about using them to fulfill your heart's desires, and even you aren't sure what that is anymore. Was it worth it?"
Merlin gives her shadow a look. "I know what you're trying to do. I've already faced my flaws and insecurities. I don't seek redemption or forgiveness. I've excepted my punishment and I only want to fulfil my promise to my sister. I'm done using people."
The shadow goes deeper into her psyche. "Your sister? Do you really care about her? Do you really care about what she wants? Her feelings? Her well-being? What about Escanor? You once considered giving up on your quests for chaos thinking that Escanor's love would be enough to fulfil your emptiness, your longing for love. But he wasn't, and you had come to far to turn back at that point. You enjoyed Escandor's company while it lasted and you didn't want to break his heart like yours had been broken so you allowed him to be sweet on you and indulge you. Perhaps you really did love him, but his short life wasn't going to be enough, so you gave up on Escanor too, the only one who really loved you. Now you must live with that guilt. What about you mother? Would your mother be proud of you, of the person you've become? Of course she wouldn't. Your mother never would've done the things that you've done. Despite hating him, you've become your father."
Merlin knows the shadow beast is trying to break her will, and she fights to maintain her stability. Yet despite the mental fight she's putting up, the deeper her own shadow gets into her psycho, the more she realizes she's going to have to face herself.
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Not too far away, Vald is staring in the direction that his "captors" went and struggles to remove the devil cuffs to no avail. He nearly avoids the shadow beasts which have either escaped or been let loose, as have the enduras and other beasts. Vald doesn't care what the other goddesses and people of the fortress are doing. He just wants to find the keys to these devil cuffs and get to his lab; hopefully find something he can use to rescue his beloved Artemis. Maybe she'll finally come to her senses and start to return his one-sided affection. He's been infatuated with her since he was a young boy, only a child. Unfortunately, what started out as a precious crush turned into a full-blown obsession by the time he was an adult. He always bragged to everybody that he was going to marry Artemis, of which people only laughed at and mocked him about, especially since Artemis was literally old enough to almost be his grandmother. These taunts only further fueled his desperate obsession to be with her. Despite his relentless attempts to get the goddess's attention, she came to see him first as son/little brother figure, then as an apprentice, then as a brother and trusted comrade, but never as a potential romantic partner. Vald had tried dating others and move on from his obsession, but nobody else would do. Vald's heart was completely shattered when Artemis fell in love with Konrad, a widowed demon from Eastern Europe and the father of her apprentice Stormy. After trying to respect their union and privacy for so, Caelestis encouraged Vald to "getting rid" of his competition. Even after being the shoulder for Artemis to cry on and convincing her to make him her personal assistant, she still won't give Vald the time of day except as trusted friend and comrade, never once suspecting that he killed her husband. This eventually led him into the "loving" arms of Caelestis, although Vald's heart always belong to Artemis despite being content with her older sister.
Vald opens the door to his laboratory when he notices out of the corner of his eye what looked like a four-legged animal with a long neck and red pajamas escaping through an opening. "EYELASH! How many times have I told you to stay out of my lab?! How do you even keep getting in here?" Eyelash disappears into the darkness. Vald has had it up to here with these snoopy animals, especially that busy-body llama in red silk pajamas. As to way he hasn't killed that llama up till now, he still doesn't know why, except for the fact that Artemis has ordered him not too.
Thinking that he glanced a black box in the llama's mouth, he looks through his secure hiding places in a panic. One of his cabinets is opened, and he realizes what's missing. HOW?! How could that llama possibly break into a secure, burglar proof, magical and physical commination safe? Vald and Caelestis have caught the busy-body Eyelash snooping on them during their "pillow talks" before and wondered what he might have overheard. However, Eyelash, almost as good as Bluey, is an expert around this fortress and is as slippery as soap. Now for sure he regrets not getting his hands on that llama before now. And just what does "he" want with that black box. Eyelash might be a rude, crude, busy-body prankster with a weakness for the ladies, but he's benign at heart and would never truly want to harm anybody.
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Eyelash exits a secret passageway and head's straight for Ching Ling and another demon slayer. The llama is in a hypnosis trance and has no idea what he's doing. He'll have no memory of any of this once he wakes up. Having finally realized that Artemis has disappeared and that Caelestis has taken over, the slayer, with her patience running thin, decided to abandon the whole operation and focus on her number 1 desire and priority, to finally locate the bodies of her parents so she can take them home for a proper burial and soul-honoring ceremony. Fully aware that Eyelash is an extremely noisy busybody and having let it slip that Vald had been in Britannia (although he stopped at that), she had Eyelash hypnosis to get information out of him, maybe something to use even against Nuri's sister Merlin in order to force the volacish to cooperate. It was an extreme long shot at best, but Ching Ling is desperate enough to try anything and everything. Another slayer, who has the power of Invasion, telepathy, and hypnotism, had invaded and read Eyelash's mind and discovered something very important that Vald had brought back from Britannia, that Eyelash had overheard Vald and Caelestis discussing one night. He then hypnotized the llama to retrieve what he unknowingly revealed and bring it to them, or rather, to Ching Ling.
The Chinese demon takes that black velvet box with a wicked laugh, believing she finally has the tool she needs to fulfill her mission.
"Ling;" ask the male slayer in Chinese; "What do you have there?"
Ching Ling hits her fellow slayer's uncovered head with a battle axe, causing his ear to bleed.
"NEVER again call me by my given name! You're not my friend."
"Ouch! Sorry, Lieutenant Ching, ma'am." Ching Ling insists on being addressed by her former rank, despite the fact that she's been dishonorably discharged from the Chinese army and stripped of her citizenship. After dismissing Eyelash, she opens the box to find a magic golem in the shape of a skeleton. Her fellow slayer is in shock, then ask a very uncomfortable question.
"That's not what I think it is. Who's in there? I sure hope they're not Chinese."
"They're not Chinese stupid. Now I'll finally be able to put my parents to proper rest and restore my families lost honor. My brother and sister will no longer be outcasts and can have the normal and honorable lives they deserve."
"But...by using an innocent soul, trapped by forbidden black magic? Chinese or not, that goes against everything we stand for. What about our honor and moral codes?"
"What honor and moral codes, the ones I'm no longer expected to uphold? This is for my parents and my family's lost honor. Maybe my honor can never be restored, but theirs can."
Two other slayers arrive, although they aren't native Chinese, their homelands where invaded by China and are tectonically now part of the empire.
"I have to agree Lieutenant Ching;" says the female; "I think you're taking your need for revenge way too far."
"You dare question me? And never forget that without me, your nothing. You were a washed up homeless, street worker when I found you. Nobody wanted you for free, and you were eating out of trashcans and drinking sewage water." She turns to the other male slayer; "And YOU. Helpless, hopeless, brainless, useless. Do you want me to send you back to where you were, unemployed, in Nepal."
The other two slayers shut their months, and reconfirm their hatred of demons as well as volacish, whom they blame for their unfortunate life circumstances. Ching Ling also hits her so-called team for their failure to bring Nuria Shila to them, which should've been easily with her power burned out. She holds up the magic golem and tells the other three what she wants them to do.
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Hawk is freaked out. All of his friends, except for him, seem to have gone crazy. After the shadow beasts, then their own shadows, attacked them, all the shadows seem to be absorbed into everybody's bodies, then everyone started talking to themselves and fighting something invisible like crazy people. Hawk seems to be the only one who isn't effected, and he shadow remains normal. He's also the only one who's been able to touch the shadow beasts, as far as he knows, and the only one not harmed by any. He keeps calling to his friends, but none of them are answering. He then hears Hana and his sister scream. He finds them, no longer protected. Hana too is acting crazy and seems frightened, but Melidy's still got her shadow and seems normal. She's actually on top of Hana and holding the little girls struggling shadow in place. At first Hawk can't believe it, but them he remembers something Wild was trying to teach him in purgatory. Trying to remember the technique and incantation, at first nothing happens and Melidy is instictivaly struggling to keep Hana's shadow from going into her body. Then Hawk remembers about remaining calm and having a serine mind. Remembering to focus on his love for his friends and faith, and letting go of his worries, a gray light suddenly glows from him. Melidy is also glowing. Hawk jumps on Hana's shadow and says the incantation. A shadow beast emerges from Hana's body, and her shadow is back to normal, attached to her like it's supposed to be. Hana is overjoyed and thanks both Hawk and Melidy. The shadow beast isn't done, but Hawk gets an idea. He straps his sister to himself and attacks the shadow beast. He only succeeds in making a giant hole that the beast must repair, but it's long enough.
"Captain Scrapes Disposal."
"Gowther!"
Gowther, with his powers of invasion, hasn't been affected as badly as the others and has been able to leap in and out of "reality", seeing what Hawk just did. As Gowther's shadow is only slightly outside his body, Hawk quickly leaps to catch it before it retreats, and with help from Gowther's own will, the shadow completely exists his body and out comes the shadow beast. The goat sin sends his power of invasion to everybody else to help them fight and tells Hawk to quickly get to Merlin as her powers should be able to enhance Hawk's power and defeat the beasts. The beast tries to return to Gowther's shadow, but the goat sin is ready for it now and able to prevent it from reentering his mind and soul. Hawk, with Melidy in tow also glowing a pretty light gray, gets on top of Merlin. Inside her mind, Merlin is able to confess to her insecurities but also acknowledges that she does care about the happiness and well-being of her friends, does want redemption and forgiveness, and ready to face the consequences of her sins and whether or not she can free or even have a relationship with her sister. She admittedly still struggles to accept what she can't change, know, or control, but it's ok to not be ok.
Merlin is free. Using her secret treasure the Morning Star Aldan, she helps to harvest both Hawk and Melidy's powers, as well as help from the others as confront their own insecurities, everyone is soon free and the shadow beasts are forced to flee. The darkness disappears as well, and everybody is back where they were before. Once everybody has a few minutes to recover and return to their sense of reality, there's some talk about what they were facing but the sins quickly realize that it's ok to have fears, concerns, and to even be vulnerable, and "human", whether or not their comfortable about it. Inuyasha is furious about the mind games and bringing his fears full force, especially his fear of going full demon mode and harming Kagome, or worse, losing her forever, especially through him doing something stupid. Arwin is stun silent, still in shock of her nightmare. Bluey is still shaking, and Willie has head down, barely acknowledging anybody else.
When the sins realize that it was Hawk and Melidy who really drove out the shadow demons, Meliodas approaches Hawk and puts his hand on his head, bends down to Hawk's level and smiles. "Hawk, you've always impressed me, but today; actually, I should've done this a long time ago. From now on, you're our equal comrade. Not mascot, not support, not honorary, but our equal. And don't ever forget that buddy."
Hawk gasps at what he hears. He looks around at Meliodas the Dragon's Sin of Wrath, Ban the Fox's Sin of Greed, Diane the Serpent's Sin of Envy, King the Grizzy's Sin of Sloth, Gowther the Goat's Sin of Lust, and Merlin the Boar's Sin of Gluttony, touching her burn scar on her mouth left by Escanor the Lion's Sin of Pride. They are all in perfect agreement. Hawk cries uncontrollable tears of joy and jumps on Meliodas. Melidy senses that her big brother is happy and makes happy sounds while wagging her tail, although she doesn't understand why her brother is happy that "sister eater" is touching him. Hawk then remembers that Wild isn't present and says that he wished Meliodas had waited to do the honor when Wild could be present to share it. Meliodas chuckles as he puts his hand behind his head and admits that he didn't think of that.
"Tell you what buddy;" Meliodas says with a big smile on his face;" We'll celebrate with Wild and everyone with a ginormous feast and party with lots and lots of drinks after this battle's over. Then we'll have an even bigger party with an even bigger feast and more drinks at the Boar Hat."
Ban and Diane give a jovial cheer. Gowther and Merlin remain calm but give little smiles. King is annoyed, as is Willie who wouldn't go within miles of such a gathering. Arwin hates crowds and prefers "calm and cozy" celebrations. Inuyasha hates parties. Bluey and Hana assume it's a party with wholesome, light-heart fun with games, yummy treats, party favor gifts, and everybody dressing up. Melidy doesn't know what a party is but hopes they'll have bubbles.
Ban then points out that Willie looks really down in the dumps. Meliodas goes to him and asks if he's ok. Suddenly everybody is grabbed and taken up to the surface. There they are face to face with Juno and Halbert. Behind them is an army that looks complete and totally insane.