An icy breeze swept across an old rickety barn that stood proudly in a small field just outside of an old frozen town, piercing its flimsy walls and filling the domicile with cold air. As the dawn began to pierce the horizon, I stirred from my peaceful sleep, the cold air tickling my exposed arms and feet. I blew hot air into my hands and curled my legs up to my chest, my loose top and pants made of cheap burlap material made it easy for the chilly breeze to permeate throughout my body and wake me up.
'I cant believe she's living in this wasteland. What human would willingly decide to live here?' I thought to myself. I shrugged off the light layer of snow that accumulated on my body as I stretched out my stiff limbs. I staggered to my feet from the bale of hay I had camped out on for the night, pulling out a mirror to make myself presentable before I headed out onto the town. I stared at my reflection, a tall, light skinned man staring back at me, his dark brown hair fell to his shoulders, he hadn't bothered to touch it in months, too focused on the carnage unleashed by the demon clan to worry about something as trivial as styling or cutting it. Bags had formed under his bloodshot eyes due to a lack of sleep, and their dark green colour only seemed to intensify the sunken look of sleep deprivation. I brushed my lips, my reflection following my movements, they were cracked and slightly swollen, ganged up on by the dry, cold air and the lack of moisture due to me not packing enough water. I drained the last of my canteen, rubbing my mouth to help the moisture seep back into my lips. I slicked my hair back with some gel and water and tied it into a bun. My hair wasn't too cooperative, some it fell out of place, but it worked for me. I was growing out quite a bit of stubble at this point, but I'd clean myself up later. For now, I had business to attend to out there in the cold, icy northern town hundreds of miles from the capital of Britannia.
The pyjamas I'd thrown together were hemorrhaging heat, so I changed out of my beat up sleepwear and into my formal warrior attire. I vested myself in a thin white cloth gambeson tied together with leather straps, fitting my armour on top of that. A leather chest-piece ran down to the bottom of my rips, further down the armour got lighter and fit tighter to my midsection. pauldrons protected my shoulders and upper arms, along with stronger metal jutting from the armour to protect my neck. A large, sturdy belt worked its way around my waist to hold my many armaments and tools, and my legs were coated only in a pair of brown pants, with steel toed boots and metal shin guards that wouldn't restrict my movement but would protect my legs. My entire wardrobe was coated with fur to muffle its sound, protect from blows, and keep me warm up north. I swiped my hair back one more time before I strutted out into town, snowfall following shortly afterwards.
A rumour had brought me to that snowy town, supposedly there was a holy knight training here that had saved the town from a demon invasion singlehandedly by wielding the power of ice against them, fitting for the setting. My boots left deep prints in the snow as I walked through the town, stopping in at a local bar, hoping to fill my canteen back up and ascertain the location of this mysterious knight. I was as quiet as possible as I gently opened the door to the bar and made my way to the granite counter-top. The bar was quite fancy considering the state of the rest of the town, an upscale oasis in an old, rickety desert. I drew many eyes as I walked to the counter, but that wasn't odd considering I was clad like I was going into a war. I sat down, the bartender shooting me a look that said 'I see you, and I'll be over in a second.' I settled down a little, releasing a tension that had been building in my shoulders over the past month of travel. I wasn't running from the demons anymore, and I'd reached my first destination. Everything was starting to look up for me. The bartender made his presence known,
"That's a funky getup you got there, you friends with that knight who helped us fight off the demons?"
"No, but I'm looking to find her." I made my intentions known. The bartender seemed uneasy. He was a very tall and muscular man, far more than myself, but I seemed to put him on edge, but with demons that looked identical to humans that could level a city running around, I really couldn't blame him. "I'm no demon, friend, you can relax, I came from Liones." I extended my hand, and he shook it tentatively. I continued my story, "The Kingdom has fallen to the demons, along with the kingdom of Camelot. I did everything I could to help, but it wasn't like I could do much in the end by myself."
"A holy knight of Britannia, eh? Drinks are on me, then. I'm sorry to hear about the demons. We've been getting them up here as well, but things have been alright ever since that other holy knight came along, we owe her a lot."
"She sounds strong."
"She is, but I don't really know that much about her. She just kinda showed up here a year ago, started renting some cheap house on the edge of town. Most people 'round here know each other pretty well, but she was always so quiet, wasn't really out to make friends. She's out in that snowy field training for ten hours a day. Hasn't picked up any work, don't know where she's getting all of the money. But, if you are looking for her, I guarantee that she'll be in that same spot right now. Just keep heading down the road, you should see her in one of those distant fields."
"Thanks."
I handed the man my canteen, and he gladly ran it under some water and handed it back over the counter, giving me a nod and a smile as I thanked him for his help and headed off to find this elusive knight.
I trudged through the snow lining the edge of town. A lone warrior dotted a distant field, just barely grazing the edges of my sight, especially with the limited visibility from the intense weather. I approached her slowly, keeping her distant and making my presence less obvious, I crept closer to her, noticing her training regiment as I tried to get close enough to scout out her power level. She seemed to be working on her footwork at the moment, spinning in circles as she progressively sped up her pivoting, adding in strikes with her sword, performing some kind of complex kata. This mysterious Holy Knight's long, silver hair spun with her, tugged along by her powerful movements and blending with the snow in a beautiful display of grace and power. The snow seemed to follow her, probably due to her supposed ice powers. She was fast, almost faster than I could keep up with. I could ballpark her strength level as somewhere near 1 400. She appeared completely unhindered by her heavy looking metal armour, and even less hindered by the cripplingly cold weather. I saw her stop suddenly, and knew I had approached too close to her, I stopped moving, waving from a distance of about 50 metres. She waved back to me, before continuing her kata, treating my presence as a non factor. I walked closer to her, so that we could talk over all of this snow.
"Excuse me, are you the knight who saved this town from the demons?"
"Yeah, but you really don't need to thank me. I'd just like to train in peace."
"I'm not here to thank you, as much as I appreciate you helping this town. I actually have something far more important to talk to you about-"
I was cut off by a curt, "Wait." by the Holy Knight. I sensed it too, but I kept quiet. Whatever presence had spooked her, it was evil. Demons, if I had to guess. Luckily, the presences weren't coming from the town. I recognized the amount of power, it was obvious they had been tracking me since my narrow escape from Liones, but this was good timing, I had the support of a clearly powerful Holy Knight, and could finally turn the tables on them and keep the town safe.
"What is it?" I asked, trying to bait her into telling me it was demons so that I'd have an excuse to fight them with her.
"Get behind me." She ordered as she raised her sword to face the tiny specks that had just started to appear in the distance. I obliged, knowing it would be safer if she could fight without having to worry about me, but also knowing that I could support her if she got overrun. The first of the specks to appear in front of us were two small white creatures, known as white demons, they were the lowest caste of demon.
"Demons… They're weak."
The knight easily sliced the first one in half, not putting in much effort. The second one tried to jump at her from the side but she merely caught it by its throat and squeezed until it stopped moving, dropping it to the ground unceremoniously. I was satisfied that she was at least Holy Knight level, but there was clearly more to her strength. The next demon to arrive was a green demon, resembling a half centipede, half man. The holy knight looked up at it with disgust. It stampeded towards her, but she merely lifted her hand and shredded it to pieces with icicles before it could come anywhere near her. Blue demons appeared above us in the sky. One swooped towards her but she twirled to the side and slammed it to the ground with her sword, stabbing it through the heart. Another only began to dive before she threw her sword at it and lodged it into the demon's chest.
It seemed that the heavy hitters had arrived, a red demon and a grey demon trailing it. This would prove her strength to me. If she could slay the red demon, I'd intervene before the grey one arrived and invite her to join me in my journey. The red demon fired a powerful blast which she dodged, retrieving her sword from the corpse of the Blue Demon as she rolled to avoid another burst of fire. However, the demon predicted her trajectory and fired an incredible fireball directly at her. I prepared to intervene, only to find her completely unscathed, having blocked the attack head on with her sword. A blade of ice formed along her sword as she held it behind her, extending back an insane distance. She unsheathed it and cut the demon directly in half. Upon its falling to the ground she shredded it with more icicles to ensure its destruction.
The grey demon had arrived, and I moved to assist her, but she motioned for me to stay where I was, her expression telling me she would be able to take it on, but I readied my magic just in case, her calm and determined face contrasting powerfully against the panic I felt welling up inside me as the grey demon reached our location. She held me behind her as she squared off against the demon. It seemed to acknowledge her strength, as it stopped when it saw her, before firing a powerful beam directly at her, I began preparing a spell to stop it but the silver haired knight merely lifted her hand and created a massive wall of ice that clashed with the beam, creating a massive cloud of ice and snow that obscured my vision. The shards of ice from the explosion shot everywhere like shrapnel, a piece of it flying at my head, I flinched, but the impact never came. I opened my eyes, to find that all of the ice had stopped moving, even the snow in the sky obediently sat still. With a wave from the knight it began to gather around the grey demon like a cyclone, shredding into it with the ferocity of a full blown blizzard, ice slashed at its body as the demon began to loose blood. It fired another blast that scattered the snow and ice and activated dark nebula, a powerful attack that would destroy everything in a 50 metre radius, including clearing out all of the snow, perhaps a strategy to rearrange the battlefield more favourably.
"I know the secret to your little magic trick, demon. Dark nebula acts as a bubble, which means if you can tear it, the whole thing pops." The knight showed no signs of fear, and I found her willpower in the face of this monster incredible. She fired a massive lance of ice into the nebula, which instantly shattered it and skewered the Demon's heart clean through. She walked to it calmly, the demon desperately tried to fire another beam at her, but she simply slashed through it with all of her power. Standing on its chest, she plunged her sword directly into its second heart. Her face didn't seem content, just sad and angry. Her face contorted in a twisted manner as she wrenched her sword, watching the demon twitch beneath her boot. She wiped her forehead as she stepped down from the demon, turning to face me.
"Incredible..." I was amazed by her power. The knight shot me a friendly smile, scaring me slightly since just a moment ago she appeared consumed by rage.
"Thanks for staying out of the way, do you need help getting back to town?"
"No, I'm good on that front, but you-"
"I need to get back to training, if you're good to find the village, I'll leave you to it."
"No no, you misunderstand, I'm also a knight, much like you. I have some news for you from Liones, I've come to ask for your help."
"I'm sorry, you're really asking the wrong person, sure I can take on Grey Demons, but the Ten Commandments that are destroying the kingdom? I need to keep training if I want to help with them. You're better to ask a group of knights called the Seven Deadly Sins."
I paused. She didn't know, then. I drew a deep breath,
"The sins are dead."
Silence hung in the air, the knight froze.
"Dead?"
"Yes, all of them." She seemed shocked by the news, almost seeming to not believe it.
"What about... the Fox sin, Ban?"
"Yeah, him too. I don't know how they did it, but they've bested all of the sins." The previously stoic, almost emotionless knight slumped to the ground, defeated. She steadied herself, taking a sitting position. I slumped down with her, even I couldn't still entirely believe my own news. We sat in silence for about a minute before she finally spoke up.
"He was like a brother to me, you know. He never got angry at me for being such a nuisance, he was there for me when a demon killed someone I loved. He was supposed to be unkillable, he was supposed to never die. There were times I was confident that the Ten Commandments would wipe out all of Britannia, and that all of my training was pointless, but then I would think about that immortal bastard Ban, I thought that as long as he was out there fighting, we had a chance, you know?" I wasn't sure how to respond, I never really knew the sins, but I knew that with them gone, the commandments ran unopposed. I suddenly remembered something the king had given me, I'd kept it stashed away so I almost forgot it entirely.
I pulled out a three sectioned staff, the one used by Ban, handing it to her. "He wanted you to have this if something ever happened to him." The knight looked at it with overwhelming fondness, twirling the staff between her fingers.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it." We sat in silence for another minute, before the knight put the staff on her belt and stood back up, I followed. "Listen, with the sins... gone, Britannia is falling to the demons, the king sent me out to look for a group of knights that could train together to hopefully one day challenge the commandments, and fill the empty spots of the sins." I didn't even have to finish my story,
"I'll join you." She said, her stoic look returning in force.
Her answer surprised me. "Are you sure? It's going to be tough."
"I'm positive. I wont run from those demons anymore." It was obvious that her heart was committed to this mission.
"Alright then." I had gathered the first of my new group of knights. "Hey, I never asked, what's your name?"
"Me? I'm the new Fox sin of Greed, Jericho. Who are you?"
"The name's Mordred, the new Lion's sin of Pride."