Chapter 11: A Little Girl's Dream

To save her kingdom, Blake Belladonna, third princess of Liones, began searching for the legendary rebels,

The Seven Deadly Sins.

On her journey, she was accompanied by Yang Xiao Long, Dragon Sin of Wrath.

They encountered a demigod girl in the Forest of White Dreams, who turned out to be the Sin known as Nora Valkyrie, the Serpent Sin of Envy.

Just as she agreed to join them, the Holy Knight Adam Taurus appeared in pursuit of Yang.

After a close battle, it appeared as if Yang had fallen at the Holy Knight's hand.

However…

"Awesome!" Yang leapt to her feet, golden curls bouncing as she gave Adam a grin and a wink. "Little Addy,"


Adam Taurus made no move to finish what he started by killing Yang in cold blood, but he also did not move to retreat either.

"Baste Prison and the Necropolis huh?" she voiced, snapping her fingers as if making a decision on the fly before swiping her hand across her cheek to wipe away a smear of her own blood. "I'll check out one or the other."

The masked Holy Knight before her only sighed, disappointed that his power had not been enough to kill the Sin of Wrath. "So that was it?" he spat. "You wish to know your comrades' whereabouts, so you allowed me to strike you down, right?"

The blond woman gave a nod and a smirk, "Why don't we finish this another time, okay?"

His hand itched to take hold of his sword and run her through as many times as it took before her heart stopped beating, just as she had done to his father. "I think not." Adam pulled his weapon and thrust it towards her chest with every intent to pierce her sun kissed flesh, but before his blade could touch her, Yang moved behind him too quickly for his eyes to comprehend.

He let loose a roar of fury, swinging and stabbing for her repeatedly only to be met with air. His anger clouded his sight, but the burn of the snake around his arm brought him back, making him realize his foolish mistake. Yang's dodging of his strikes were not random, but meant to direct him to be cornered between her and the demigod known as the Sin of Envy.

Adam growled, "This is goodbye."

Yang gave a curt wave, "See yah!"

Nora thrust her arms towards him, her tendrils of lightning wrapping around him like sentient ropes and binding him tightly before he could flee. "You heard the captain!" the ginger-haired demigod chirped, using her magical thrall over the lightning to lift Adam off the ground. "Some other time!"

"Unhand me!" he shouted, chains of crimson glowing iron emerging from his body and attempting to break Nora's hold on him, but the power of Thor the Almighty was not magic easily outdone, as her electric bounds held strong.

"Here's a tip for you, okay?" she smiled, warm and inviting but alive with the glee that came from defeating an enemy. "Girls get really annoyed when slimy Holy Knights like you hit a princess!"

Her power exploded with lightning as Adam was thrown far into the horizon, disappearing into the fog as Yang waved goodbye. She gave Nora a grateful two-fingered salute, "Hey thanks, nice throw." The pink-clad girl had her eyes squinted at the distance, trying to determine how far he landed. Despite her new record, her armor was in terrible shape.

Yang grimaced slightly, "Whoa… that chest plate is ruined."

Nora glanced down at her breasts, pouting when she saw the various cracks and dents in her armors from Adam's chains coiling too tight.

"Aw…" she whimpered.

After unbuckling the various straps that held her armor in place, Nora disposed of her ruined breastplate, exposing her bountiful chest squeezed into the white blouse and armored corset she wore, declaring it salvageable. The only damage done to her clothing was the tear in the center of her chest, displaying quite a bit of cleavage, but it made no difference to her, she was never stingy about the human body as much as other people were anyway.

"Hey!" an irritated voice barked, turning the heads of both Sins. When he had been let loose of Adam's chains, Zwei was quick to lead Blake back to their companions, even if the princess was still somewhat dazed from her childhood friend's brutal hit. "You've got some nerve leaving me dig a hole like some dog-tied mutt! But it'll be my turn next time!"

The corgi stomped his little paws, steaming with anger at being left behind, while Blake seemed oddly unaffected by the notion. "Are either of you injured?" she asked, her voice grating and scratchy from her fall, but slowly being healed by her Aura.

Another fun thing about Aura, was that not only did it allow people to tap into their individual magical power, it also supplied healing abilities. Sort of like how a cut scabs, only cranked up to eleven. Blake's face did not even show any bruising or swelling from Adam's strike.

Yang wanted to check her over when they had more privacy, just to be sure of course. "We're good," she replied, Zwei mumbling angrily all the while.

"Dirty dog, that guy was!" he yipped, clearly still upset at being hog-tied, or in this case, dog-tied.

"Zwei, you're a dog!" the blond-haired woman jibed, snickering into her hand as her canine friend gave her a scowl that was just too cute to be intimidating.

Nora squealed, locking her hands together as she gushed. "Who's so adorable!"

The corgi tensed up, inching more towards Blake so she could protect him from the animal-constrictor who wanted nothing more than to squeeze him into oblivion. The Faunus princess rolled her eyes, her feline gaze falling to the blond woman's torn and bloody coat, letting a small gasps escape her lips as she rushed to Yang's side. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed, gently feeling up the woman's arm to pinpoint the exact location of her wound beneath her ruined clothing.

Lilac eyes blinked, honestly having forgotten about the injury Adam had given her, remembering that it was her blood she was covered in. She shrugged, "I'm fine, it's not that big a deal."

Blake scowled, "Not that big a deal? You're covered in blood!" it was likely the pair did not notice how Blake's hand had moved from Yang's shoulder all the way down her arm, or how they had locked eyes in a very heated conversation. They might not have noticed, but Nora certainly did.

She hated to ruin the moment, but she just had to speak her mind. "Hey!" two heads turned to the ginger-haired Sin. "You should remove the coat so you can better see where the injury is, so go on and take it off!"

Blake blinked as her ears turned pink. "Wh-what?"

"The Captain's been looking for a right-hand-girl anyway, and that job obviously belongs to you, if she's hurt you should take care of her!" she explained, starry-eyed and bushy-tailed the entire time while Yang smirked with a wiggle of her eyebrows and Blake looked like she wanted to sink into the earth and disappear.

Zwei sniffed and waggled his paws angrily. "Hey, aren't you guys forgetting something here?! I just got my butt kicked!" the small dog's owner kneeled next to him, softly petting his lower back.

"Right here you said? Feels kind of swollen," she asked.

The corgi shook his head. "No, I'm just a bit husky."

Yang moved to rub his front paws. "Here?"

"No, nothing besides my hush-puppies…" Zwei seemed to realize that his blond friend's snickering was because she was setting him up for more of her dog-related puns. He swiped his paws back and barked, "Quit fooling around!"

Before he could yip any further, Nora had scooped him into her arms, snuggling her face into his plush body and giggling. "Don't worry! I'll give you plenty of belly-rubs later!"

As much as he hated to admit it, belly-rubs sounded like just the needed remedy for his injury as well as his temper. "Why is it that the dog-lady is the only one who cares about me?" he whimpered, the gazes of both Yang and Blake taking on amused and unamused expressions.

Being spoiled by Nora was not shaping out to be good for Zwei.


Miles away from the Forest of White Dreams, in a small village on a small hill, laid a church filled with people. A dozen at most, many of the village goers had heard rumors of the return of the Seven Deadly Sins, and desperately sought answers through their prayers.

They were all kneeled before a statue at the front of the chapel, a female figure dressed in flowing amber fabrics and holding a cornucopia filled with food to her breast. One of four virgin deities worshipped by a large population of Liones. The villagers knotted their hands together, whispering their blights to the Fall Maiden so she may listen and heal them.

"Gentle Lady…please return the young men from this village who have been taken away by the kingdom…"

"Dear Maiden… I pray you will punish the Holy Knights for what they've done…"

A breeze entered through the window, caressing a man's face softly, prompting him to look up to the Maiden and see a flash of light outside the window behind the statue.

Like an angel fallen from grace, the form of a man, in a blinding ball of powerful light, came crashing through the ceiling of the church in a violent thunder of crumbling stone. The blow shook the earth, sending vibrations throughout the entire village as they watched the house of their faith collapse before them.

The bodies of the one who sought prayer lay scattered among the rubble, dying slowly beneath the obliterated remnants of the Fall Maiden statue.

"Retri… bution… Dear Maiden…" one of them moaned as he breathed his last breath.

An armored boot fell in step, walking right past the lifeless man with an upturned nose as if his corpse bored him. "Someone… help us…"

The cries of the dying fell on deaf ears as Adam strode through the chapel that had fallen to his might. His wrist tightened as he felt ruby-eyes gaze up at him through the sleeve of his coat, and the microscopic pinch in his chest simply faded away the farther he walked away from the destroyed church.

"Oh well…" he told no one, turning away from the suffering people, and leaving them behind him.


The sun was high in the sky by the time the group had made it out of the forest to find Beo waiting for them, being quick to climb atop the mighty demon and make their exit post haste. Now they sat comfortably around a table in the bar while Yang was off with her own devices, leaving Zwei at the complete mercy of the Sin of Envy.

Which turned out to not be all that bad.

The ginger-haired girl was rubbing, scratching, and tickling away at the corgi's fluffy white belly. Zwei let his tongue hand out as he shook his leg for more. "That hit the spot… so good…" he moaned, making Nora smile as she rubbed him some more. A growl teetered in his throat, still holding a grudge against the jerk who chained him up like a pound-hound. "That Holy Knight bastard, next time I see him I'll give him rabies!"

Blake did not seem to be paying any attention to the pair, opting to rest her almost entirely healed cheek in her palm and stare out into space. She had a lot on her mind in regards to Adam; she felt like such a fool for being so blind. As she got older, the boy she played with began to train without her, and though she was hurt by it at first, she had brushed it aside as him just being a normal habit boys had as they grew. If only she had seen his corruption sooner... she could have done something, she could have…

"So is it true? You actually know that guy?"

Feline ears perked up at Zwei's question, seeing that he took a break from Nora's affection and now they were both looking at her curiously. The princess stared down at her interlocked hands, brushing her thumb over her knuckle, as she tended to do when she was upset as a means to comfort herself. "Yes."

It was hard to see Adam in a way so different from the way she saw him when they were young. As the boy who helped her climb higher trees, and pick more flowers, and chase her through the palace halls when her sisters and father were too busy to play with her. "Adam was originally assigned to guard my older sister Pyrrha, but he felt like a big brother to me… he watched over us as if we were all a part of the same family."

It stung to remember such innocent times, of when Pyrrha, as the eldest princess, became engaged to the crown prince of a neighboring kingdom, spending more time with her new fiancé instead of playing with Blake and Adam. The two Faunus children had formed a bond like no other, Blake would always say he was her best friend so easily, but now… calling him an enemy put a painful branding over her heart.

The princess sighed, pulling her yellow orbs away from her folded hands. "His father was the Grand Master, and even after he was killed… Adam continued serving us… so… why…"

Her mind drew back to the innocent village of Vanya, plagued by Adam's desire for vengeance and forced to turn on one another because their resources had been cut like a measly thread by his sword. Or how Yang had nearly been killed by the Holy Knight's spear that had struck her from the sky like a falling crimson star. Her fists clenched as she remembered wandering weakly through the Forest of White Dreams, dizzy from the hit she had taken from his hand, and being forced to watch as her friend cut down the kingdom's last hope, as if she was nothing more than a nuisance to him. Her throat clenched as she tried to call out, but her shock and fear had frozen her in place.

She hadn't felt so weak and helpless since the night she escaped the palace; running like a coward as the doors to her father's throne room were destroyed in a burst of molten red…

Blake gasped, her eyes dilating as she was taken to another place in her mind. "It… can't be…" she whispered, hoping, praying, that what she was now remembering was a lie. Her ears were folded flat against her head, her fists trembling slightly, "Was father arrested by…"

She was so lost in her emotions; her fear, her bewilderment, her betrayal by the boy she had once called a friend, that even Zwei resting his head on her lap could not coax her out of her blank state. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

Blake did not answer him for a long time.

"There's no going back to the way things were… is there?"