Chapter 4:

Author's note:Hi there! Long time no see. I've slacked off because I was reading the whole Nanatsu no taizai-manga. And I'm screaming it out because I'm now at the end of chapter 243 and can't wait for the next chapter. I've a feeling it will stretch until around chapter 310, maybe even further just like Fairy Tail (yes I've read the whole manga too and have seen a lot of episodes of it, not all of them I think, it's been a while and was almost crying when it ended). Soooo, since the manga of Nanatsu no taizai is much bigger than the anime-serie, I've decided to write this story gradually based on the manga too, but not yet. There's so much going on in there and so many characters to write about that for now I'm just focusing on the anime first.

Anyhow…Tawnypelt37was right. You'll see why ;)

Enjoy!

Elizabeth couldn't remember she returned to her bed last night, but when she woke up she lay again on her stomach with the warm sheets around her. Through her hazy thoughts she felt a little better. She sat up and stretched her back until it cracked. With a satisfying sigh she looked at her one of her hands. She made a fist, concentrated on gathering a small amount of energy and opened her hand. Her once empty hand now held a small orb of her energy, ready to be unleashed. She closed her hand again and absorbed her own energy.

Suddenly she was aware of voices behind her door. She recognized the voice of Meliodas. It was unmistakable.

"…wonder if this would be enough beer."

"Meliodas."

"Hmm?"

"That's enough for the whole winter."

"You sure? I don't want to run out of beer as long as we are heading for the next village."

That was obviously the voice of Meliodas. The other one probably belongs to a woman he has spoken to before. What was her name again? Mara? Merlene? No…

"You pig! There's enough for three whole villages! For two weeks straight!"

A third voice? That's new.

"…pig?" said the other two more familiar voices.

The curiosity within Elizabeth conquered her tiredness and she carefully climbed out of bed, the soft creaking of her bed filling the silence in her room. The rambling outside her bedroom continued about the amount of food they gathered last night and probably this morning. When she opened her door, she was quite shocked.

In front of her was the room just like she had seen last night, but now in the back there were wooden chests filled with all kinds of vegetables, fruits and meat. Behind those stood a few dozen boxes of bottles, all of them looked the same. Those were probably the beer they talked about.

Indeed there was more than enough.

The large kitchen table was more lively now. Meliodas and the tall woman with long dark purple hair sat at the kitchen table with all different kinds of stuff. By the looks of it a full breakfast table. There was one plate unoccupied next from Meliodas, maybe meant for her. On the floor stood a huge pink pig eating from a plate as well. What Elizabeth noticed was that the huge wings of Meliodas are gone. Maybe he has retractable wings?

The woman was the first one that noticed her appearance.

"Good morning," she said with a smile. Meliodas and the pig looked in my direction as well.

When she spoke, a shudder went from Elizabeth's toes to head. Since she have heard her voice a couple of times now, she suddenly remembered a conversation between her and Meliodas. And what Meliodas said before she slept again that first night here.

"I've missed you Merlin."

His voice back then sounded like they haven't spoken to each other for a long time. Also, the way Meliodas said those words, it sounded like she meant more to him. By thinking of that Elizabeth's heart begun to pump a bit heavier.

What is this feeling, she thought.

"Morning Elizabeth!" Meliodas said while Elizabeth walked over to them. His sudden voice wiped away her newly discovered unclear emotion and instead brought a smile on her face. The demon smiled also, satisfied with seeing Elizabeth in a better mood after what they had been through.

"Yo you're awake!" The pig was surprised to see the goddess finally awake.

Elizabeth bowed. "Good morning to two you as we.." She look up in surprise.

The pig can talk?!

"YOU CAN TALK?!"

The pig smiled and showed his white teeth. "Yes ma'am I can talk . The name's Hawk. Nice to meet ya."

Elizabeth sniggered. So that was the third person she heard talking before. "Well hello there. My name is Elizabeth, but you've probably noticed by now."

Hawk's grin went only wider as he wiggled his eyebrows. "Still nice to meet ya."

Elizabeth turned her attention to the woman whose name was still unheard yet.

She smiled politely. "I saw you have drunk my potion to the last drop. You are looking much better already," she said, bringing her hands under her chin to support her head. "My name is Merlin. I am the owner of this house and a friend of Meliodas and Hawk. I took care of your wounds. Yours weren't dangerous, but your shoulder was bleeding too much. I had to stich it."

Elizabeth smiled again. The bothersome feeling in her heart has somehow disappeared. "Thank you." She then bowed her head. "It's nice to meet you at last. Thank you for taking care of us, while I have nothing to offer..."

"Nonsense," Merlin interrupted. "Just be yourself and that's fine. Come sit with us, we have much to talk about."

"Hey," Meliodas said, watching Elizabeth carefully. "When did your right eye become blue?"

"Oh," Elizabeth said. "I think when I slept. When there is no danger my eyes return to normal."

His smile only became wider. "That's good to hear!"

When the four of them ate together, Merlin talked or questioned most of the time. Sometimes Meliodas or Hawk said something, but it was obvious who was really eager to catch up. She first explained where they went last night. Apparently it was for a plan they had in mind. They wanted to start a bar. It explained obviously the enormous amount of food and beer they had bought, but the reason why was left unspoken.
Elizabeth was still feeling uncomfortable. She had gotten used to the fact that Meliodas hadn't betrayed her yet and even brought her to safety, out of the battlefield, but Merlin had been kind enough to heal and take care of them (even though she and Elizabeth were practical strangers to each other). Why is it that a demon (who was anything but a heartless) and a human (who has a surprisingly wide range of knowledge) are being this kind, generous and friendly? Not even once they had made a rude comment, assaulted or ignored her.
While Merlin, Meliodas and Hawk continued to talk, Elizabeth couldn't do anything else but mentally stare ahead of her. She was simply blown away with the idea that there are beings out there with simple manners and are most definitely not simple-minded who would say whatever anyone else says to fit in.

She felt relief washing over her. Pure bliss.

You know that this won't last long. Not until they find out who you truly are.

That voice again.

Would you please stop speaking into my head?

Not until you stop this nonsense and return to where you came from.

Where? My own hell in heaven?

You do not belong here. Neither does your so called 'friend'.

Neither of us have somewhere to belong for now. We…we are actually free. Free to be who we want to be!

You will always be who you have been your entire existence. You'll always be a goddess. A goddess who should stop this nonsense and go back!

Be silent! I was suppressed! Now nothing holds me back for who I am!

You'll always be you. And deep within you you'll last wish shall always be to become part of the goddess-clan.

She was that much in argue with her voice that she couldn't hear Merlin talking to her and calling her name.

"Elizabeth?" Hawk was confused by her sudden stiff body and her clouded eyes that looked ahead and at the same time in the distant.

"Can't she hear us? Has this happened before?"

"I think yesterday. I held her and suddenly it was like she was tripping. Eventually she came by when I kinda shouted in her ear." Meliodas layed a hand on her not-injured shoulder and shook Elizabeth while calling her name. Unexpectedly she came to her senses.

"Wha..what is it? Did I stare? Sorry, that's rude of me," she said, hiding her true reason of spacing out.

"Elizabeth, are you alright," asked Hawk with a sad voice. "It was almost like you were hypnotized. It looked scary."

"Oh," Elizabeth said with a quivering voice. "I'm sorry for scaring you. All of you, but I'm alright." She tried to smile, but failed to.

"Interesting," Merlin said out of the blue, which made Elizabeth look at her with a surprised face.

"What? What's interesting?"

"Well," Merlin begun. "you seem to only come by when a condition in your environment changes. For example, Meliodas explained he brought you back to your senses when he shouted. Before that he just called your name."

"But," she continued. "This time we all spoke to one another, but there was no touching. When Meliodas shook your shoulders however, a condition changed and your senses came back again. I wonder, what have you seen?"

Elizabeth hesitated. On one hand she didn't want to tell them. She was so used to hide this secret because no one ever believed her. She once told Veronica and Margaret a few decades ago about this. They clarified her insane and to punish her for saying something like that, she was chained to the "Pillar of dishonor". It's one of the few steps for becoming more distant towards her clan, a fearful punishment for every goddess or god.

However, there was a part of her that would love to spill her secret.

She decided to tell them, but with a twist.

"Sometimes," she started. "Sometimes I get flashbacks of memories that make me unaware of my surroundings. It's a habit which I have no clue of how it started. I don't know why I react like this too." Elizabeth smiled, this time it didn't fail. "But don't worry about it. I do this to sort out my memories. After all I'm already 64. I need to sort them from time to time or I might forget something important."

They bought it.

"Not to be rude towards you Elizabeth," Merlin said while looking directly into Elizabeth's eyes "but I have a question. I actually always have known that gods and goddesses were that much proud of their clan and had such tight bonds between one another that no one would even consider to run away. So why have you?"

Elizabeth hung her head, letting her bangs covering her eyes again. "I'm not a typical goddess I'm afraid. I have a different experience with my kind…".

Merlin waited for Elizabeth to continue, but she didn't. Merlin could only guess which made her head burst from the many ideas she had. Hawk felt sorry for Elizabeth so instead he continued eating his meal. Meliodas on the other hand had a fairly idea of her story since he had met Angon. An uncomfortable short silence fell.

Suddenly Elizabeth looked up and into the eyes of Meliodas. "How rude of me, I haven't asked about your well-being! Were you seriously injured? How are you feeling at the moment?"

Meliodas laughed nervously. "Nah, no worries. Merlin patched me up. She's the best. Come to think of it." He turned his attention to Merlin. "Merlin, since you are aware of the situation out there right now, I was wondering what's here on Earth? I can't imagine the war up above doesn't affect someone down here."

"No," Merlin started. "It doesn't affect anyone in particular."

Meliodas, Elizabeth and Hawk sighed in relief. What a disaster it would be if the clans on Earth are also in war.

"It doesn't affect anyone in particular because we have a world war down here."

Hawk spit out his meal while Meliodas and Elizabeth looked horrified.

"SAY WHUT?!" yelled Hawk.

Merlin continued. "Between the clans on Earth and the sky, thus the giants, fairies, humans, druids, beastmens, the vampires and the demons and gods and goddesses, were always arguments, fights or small wars, but never to this extinction as today. Most of the time was about dominance of an area or small arguments. To keep it short, at some point a few weeks ago, something or someone has triggered the ultimate battle between all the races. No one has witnessed so far who was responsible. Neither do I have any clues. It all started at one. I'm afraid that, at this rate… may the guiding spirits know how we would survive this."

Elizabeth looked worried at Merlin. "Is there a way to stop this world war? Or at least for some time?"

No one said anything, but kept looking at her.

Elizabeth bowed her head just slightly from embarrassment. "I know it sounds naïve, but there must be something we can do. I cannot bear the thought of innocent men, women and children being victim because of this."

"Well," Merlin begun. "Your idea isn't as naïve as you think it is. I've heard of people that there is a book with a forbidden spell to seal anything the caster desires. The price however is to sacrifice something, but I cannot remember what that was." She suddenly stood up and unconsciously made Elizabeth blush, while Meliodas and Hawk didn't seem to be bothered by Merlin's appearance. Merlin wore barely anything, but enough to keep her private parts… private. She wore a very thin dark purple coat that only just covered her breasts and a underwear-like pants, sorter than most female underwear Elizabeth has ever seen. She didn't wear a bra.

"If you have eaten enough would you be kind to clean up," Merlin spoke, already walking to wherever she might be going "I'll check my collection of books to see if I have the miraculous book with the forbidden spell."

When Merlin came back, she had brought a book that looked as normal as it could be. The difference though was it was untitled.

She dropped the book on the now clean table and scanned quickly through it, obviously looking for something in particular.

"Aha!" She laid a finger on the page she was looking for. She read and then rubbed her hands together in excitement.

"Elizabeth, dear. We have indeed a way to put this war to a little time out. The only thing we need to do once I cast this spell is to find some knights equally to the amount of clans in this world and above and equally to the sins of life. Since gods and goddesses are the same, as well as the druids and the humans, we need…"

"Seven knights." Came Hawk's voice through Merlin's explanation.

"More specifically, seven knights of the deadly sins."

"But how are we supposed to find them?" Elizabeth couldn't imagine where they would have to start searching for them.

Merliodas was smirking. "I told you it's a good time to start a bar! The Boar's Hat will be on her way!"

Somewhere inside Elizabeth began to melt from the warmth she felt flowing through her veins. She couldn't explain why she felt this way, but all the years of being the "unlucky bird" of her kind had blackened and weakened her heart, almost doubting her value of being alive.

Maybe, after all this time, she wasn't as useless as she thought.

"But first we need to get Elizabeth some clothes."

Author'snote: And that was number 4. Leave a review if you'd like. Or fav/follow this story. Or both? I was thinking of a question for you, but it makes kinda sense where this story goes for now. BUUUT, might you have an idea what spell Merlin was talking about and what it requires? I'm curious :)

Bye for now!

Es12