Disclaimer: I do not own Nanatsu no Taizai
Prologue
The beginning of the End
"What's meant to be will always find a way."
—Trisha Yearwood
...
Gloxinia dodged a blast of hellfire, cursing under his breath.
Two weeks after the failed siege of Edinburgh, the demons had grown bold enough to attack the outskirts of the Fairy King's Forest.
Two of the Commandments, Grey Road and Monspeet, more commonly know as Pacifism and Reticence, had attacked the northern boundaries of the Fairy King's Forest in the Common Realm. Gloxinia doubted that they would have been able to rip a portal from there to the Faerie Realm, but it was worrying.
And as his duty was, being the Fairy King, he had gone to defend the forest.
Gloxinia had dismissed his sister's concerns, suggesting that he take anyone with him, and gone to take care of the intruders himself. It was his duty as the Faerie King, after all. No need to involve others.
The demons had led him far into the giant's territory though, into the vast mountain ranges of northern Britannia. Anytime Gloxinia tried to escape back to the forest, he was met with hellfire and dark claws that herded him back.
It was infuriating.
Gloxinia scowled. "Spirit Spear Basquias, Form One: Basquias!" he shouted, hurling the spear at Pacifism who hissed and chattered as she reformed around the spear.
Reticence summoned a massive bird, a phoenix made of hellfire.
Basquias was too far away for Gloxinia to summon and there was no time to block—
Gloxinia gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for the burning agony of hellfire—
And it never came.
Gloxinia opened his eyes.
A massive column of rock shot out of the earth, knocking Reticence and Pacifism out of the sky. A giant, over seventy feet tall probably, with skin like sapphires and four arms stood in front of Gloxinia, the glint of metal vanishing as he straightened.
Pacifism hissed, making another move towards them, but Reticence stopped him. "No. Our orders were to engage with the Faerie King only."
Grayroad reluctantly backed away, and a dark portal appeared between them.
Before either Gloxinia or the giant could move, they vanished into the rift.
Gloxinia finally relaxed, sighing.
"Thank you," he murmured in a raspy voice to the giant. "What's your name?" Gloxinia asked, looking up.
The giant smiled at him, and Gloxinia noticed that he only had one eye.
"Hello. My name is Dolor."
.
.
.
War.
It was a bloody affair.
Meliodas sighed, surveying the battlefield.
Half of the forces he'd sent laid demolished in this field, their blood staining the ground red with the goddess's.
The two Commandments he'd sent out into the conflict, Derieri and Galand were back at the base stationed nearby, having minimal injuries.
The goddesses had attempted to ambush the demons near the human settlement of Camelot two days ago; the fighting had raged on for a good day and a half before both sides had been ordered to pull back.
The Goddesses had lost over two-thirds of their troops.
A victory.
But it wasn't enough.
The goddesses and the demons had been in a stalemate for far too long. Something had to give soon.
Meliodas scowled. The alliance between the goddesses and the fairies had gained a participant. The giants. Rumor had it that the Fae King had managed to negotiate with the Giant King on behalf of the goddesses.
The giants had been formerly neutral in this war, along with the humans—although in the human's case, it was mostly ignorance—but the giants had recently joined the goddesses side in the Great War, the alliance now being called Stigma.
A fitting name.
No matter though, Meliodas thought, sheathing his sword, letting the ice of his demon mark bleed away, pitch-black eyes fading into bright green.
Stigma would be crushed soon enough.
And then, Meliodas thought darkly, his father's throne would be his to take.
A flash of silver hair on the red-stained, ravaged battlefield catches his attention, and emerald green eyes meet bright turquoise.
.
.
.
Rou looks into the sky and wonders if he is doing the right thing.
He is tricking his way into Stigma, lying to the faces of the Faerie King and a demon he knows has turned the tide almost single-handedly.
The Fae King smiles and calls him a bright soul, a good person. The demon who has hair like sunshine and eyes like clear-cut emeralds and radiates a power unlike anything Rou has ever felt laughs and grins, and the goddess who seems to be nothing like the rest of her cold, distant Clan smiles kindly at him.
Even the Jotun King seems gentle and kind, thanking him for protecting their people, and he starts to doubt for the first time in years.
These are not the people who destroyed his home, his family, his friends. They are good, and they are kind...—but so was his family.
(a young girl holding a flower smiled at him shyly, thanking him)
Grief hardens his heart again and he gives a smile sharp as a blade's edge.
He is talking to a beautiful young faerie with a shining smile and hair like golden fire.
(he sees that girl again, for the first time in years, in a stranger faerie)
Her eyes are the violet of twilight and she makes him laugh and smile for real for the first time in years—and he hates himself, for what he's about to do to her.
"Are you alright, Rou?" Gerheade asks, pale indigo eyes shining with concern.
Rou looks into violet eyes and smiles.
I'm sorry.
.
.
.
"B-big brother?
"Yes, Gerheade?"
"...I-I'm scared. I'm scared that the war is going to go on forever and that I'll die and everyone will die a-and—"
"Shh...shh...It's alright. The Goddesses will win the war, Stigma is too powerful for the demons to defeat us. And don't worry...I'll protect you."
"Promise?"
"Yes. I promise."
.
.
.
"I am Gowther of Selflessness, of the Ten Commandments… Pleased to meet you, Faerie King Gloxinia."
-no why were they here why was he here why was he stopping him no
"I know everything about you. Even things that you yourself are not aware of. It's all up here," the doll pointed to his temple, a cruel smirk playing on his lips.
-nononono what was happening no he couldn't no he had to get to Gerheade she was in danger nonononono
Gloxinia stared at the Commandment.
He'd heard tales about him—a mind reader, and illusionist, someone who could know everything about you and more if you slipped and let him in, and Gloxinia couldn't care less about all those things because Gerheade was in danger, the Forest and Basquias were telling him there was danger, and he was in the way.
(There was a faint memory, slipping through the edges of his consciousness as he remembered something Mael had told him, drunk and crying about innocence and death, and seen in the Archangel's heart, a red-haired demoness whose last words had been of wishing to see someone)
He knew he looked as startled and angry as he felt, Basquias humming dangerously, scowling as the demon burst out laughing.
"Hah! Thank you for the reaction...I do still get a kick out of these exchanges."
He didn't have time for this.
"Get out of my way!" he roared, flinging an arm and sending a blast of magic towards the amused pink-haired demon.
He dodged it, tilting his head to the side.
"Ah...yes. The Forest is under attack, is it not? By a group of humans…" Selfless frowned slightly.
Gloxinia froze. No. There wasn't…
He shook the thought off. "Get out of my way!" he snarled, sending another blast of magic at the demon, shooting off towards the Light of Grace as he dodged.
Selfless sent a blast of magic after Gloxinia, almost lazily, it seemed, but Gloxinia couldn't find it him himself to care as it tore a gash in his wing.
.
.
.
No. No. No
"No...this...isn't...happening…"
Gloxinia stared, floating in shock, ignoring the fact that his wing had been slashed and was dripping red, red, blood onto the grass.
No.
No.
No.
This wasn't happening.
"...Ger...heade...?" he asked faintly, staring at her.
She didn't answer him.
This wasn't real.
It couldn't be.
But yet it was.
Rou (Rou, Rou, Rou, all his fault, all his fault) stood there, in the middle of a bloodbath, the bodies of fairies and goddesses and giants torn apart and littering the once peaceful clearing, blood dripping down his face as he stared up at Gloxinia, covered in blood with his shirt in tatters.
H-How could you..?
In his arms, he was holding Gerheade.
A Gerheade he barely recognised, torn and bloody and ripped apart with her legs cut off, her right eye slashed out in a bloody mess and the ends of her wings lying torn off on the red-churned earth around them.
"No...It... can't be...Gerheade?" Gloxinia asked hollowly, eyes blank with shock.
It couldn't be.
No.
Gerheade was too smart, too cheerful, too full of life to die.
And Rou wouldn't betray them.
He wouldn't.
Rou was a friend. He was a human, yes, but he was a friend.
But all the evidence is right there, and even though Gloxinia doesn't want to believe it, because Rou had been so kind and friendly and Gloxinia had thought that he was a friend, Rou had Gerheade hurt and bleeding and dying in his arms and who else would have dared to hurt the sister of the Fairy King?
Who else would have had the chance to but the one who he had trusted to guard her?
Rou doesn't respond, and neither does Gerheade, lying limply in his arms.
"Rou...take your hands off my sister…" Gloxinia clenched his fist, feeling rage and power well up inside him.
Basquias swelled with power, snarling and too consumed with anger to communicate with anything but emotions and impressions.
More and more magic pours out of him, so much that he's on the verge of wasting it, because this would be almost four times as much as needed to kill a human, but Gloxinia just can't find it in himself to stop.
Basquias growls, vibrating and humming with power and eagerness to destroy everything because Gerheade was dying and he needed to protect her and everything was a threat.
"It's okay. I'm fine with it like this," Rou says softly, locking eyes with him briefly before looking down at Gerheade again.
Rou, smiling down at Gerheade, gently, said something that Gloxinia couldn't make out through the din of his rage.
He can't find it in himself to care, either.
"It looks like this is goodbye, Gerheade," Rou dropped her, letting her crash onto the ground. Gerheade's eyes slip closed, as though she's sleeping. She isn't.
Gloxinia snapped.
How dare he.
Basquias wails with anger, and Gloxinia agrees.
She was gone, and Rou has to pay.
"If you'd be willing, we'd love to join you as your allies."
He slowly raised his hand, opening it halfway, enough magic power to level Belialuin gathered in him now, pooling together and turning into a whirlpool of destructive magic centered around him.
"Leave the Forest to us humans!"
How dare Rou betray them.
Gerheade was gone because of him.
Gone.
Gloxinia screamed, tears streaming down his face as Basquias was fully summoned above him.
(When I'm reborn again, I will protect you, no matter what, a heart whispered, but Gloxinia paid it no mind
He didn't care.
It didn't matter.
The only thing that mattered right now was Gerheade, and she was deaddeaddead and it was Rou that had killed her.)
Snapping his hand open, he shot Basquias towards Rou with a single gesture, the maelstrom of magic shrieking as it incinerated Rou even as Basquias stabbed him.
He was swept away in the wind, nothing but ashes.
Gloxinia dropped to the ground, curling into himself with a sob as Rou's ashes swept away in the wind and magic that was blowing everywhere, Basquias still shaking with anger and fury as he curled his magic around Gloxinia comfortingly.
Gone.
She wasn't breathing.
Any hope that he'd had of her still being alive shriveled up inside him, wilting and dying like a flower without the sun.
He wailed to the sky, desperately hoping that this was a dream, and he would wake up and Gerheade would be there, full of life, alive, warm and trusting like what had gotten her killed.
But it wasn't.
Because this was all too real, focused, too sharp and contrasting for it to be a dream, for him to be able to wake up and to just have everything be alright again.
Gloxinia sobbed harder, closing his eyes as tears streamed down his cheeks.
It was his own fault.
All his own fault.
He should have known better.
Better than to trust humans, better than to leave the Forest unguarded.
And Gerheade had paid the price.
He'd promised to protect her…
He'd failed.
… as of today...I am no longer the First Fairy King Gloxinia...