For a split second, the entire area was silent, but that second seemed to last for ages, at least to Rize. Her legs began to go numb, and she staggered. It took all of her willpower just to stay on her feet, and judging by the reactions of the armored soldiers, she wasn't the only one struggling to control her own limbs.
She couldn't bring herself to speak, either. But all around them, people were talking amongst themselves. "I-I can't stop shaking!" One of the Camelot soldiers announced, his voice trembling. "We-We've gotta get the people to safety!"
"His Combat Class is certainly higher than I'd imagined." Merlin commented, just as calm as ever despite the circumstances. "Hawk, how high is his magic?"
"Hm? Magic? Let's see..." Hawk stared across the way at Galand. "It's zero! What gives! This thing's gotta be busted!"
"I see." Merlin mused. "It must be the effects of the goddess's seal."
"You mean...if we're gonna strike, it better be now?" Diane asked, lowering into a fighting stance.
"So this is the human's nest." Galand spoke up again, taking a few steps forwards as he looked around, seemingly unimpressed. "It's changed quite a bit from 3,000 years ago. But their habit of shuffling about in swarms hasn't changed at all." He stopped and raised the giant spear he carried. "It's crowded." He stated before an enormous blast of power came from him. When the power finally dissipated, they were left standing in the center of giant crater where there had once been a town.
"The town...those people..." Rize staggered again, beginning to fall to her knees, but she used her hands to force herself to stay upright. No matter what happened, she couldn't collapse; she wouldn't let herself.
"Now it's a little easier to move around." The demon announced before turning back around leisurely. "Well, then. Meliodas, I've always hoped to have a good tussle with you."
Within the span of less than a second, Meliodas had disappeared from where he'd previously been standing in front of Elizabeth. He lunged at Galand, slashing Lostvayne directly through the neck of the monster. At first, it seemed like his strike had done damage, but that wasn't the case. Instead, as Meliodas landed behind him, Galand thrust his spear backwards and impaled him clean through.
For a moment, Rize thought that was it, but then she noticed the other four Meliodas figures all rushing towards the demon standing against them. Unfortunately, none of them lasted long either, each of them immediately being completely eradicated with a single swing of his spear. The force of the strike nearly sent Rize and all the others flying backwards several feet, but they somehow managed to remain where they were standing. Meanwhile, Meliodas continued his assault on Galand, but it was clear he was far outmatched.
Every one of the Meliodas figures he'd created lay across the field at Galand's feet, all of them decimated. They began disappearing one by one. Galand seemed to be thinking to himself, predicting what Meliodas's next move would be.
"Next one will be behind," He said to himself. "As only a diversion, so above!" Too quickly for Rize to see the movement, he had reached up above his head and snatched Meliodas from the air, where he'd been about to land another strike. "That's a really neat move you've got there. But I'm not really a fan of cheap tricks." He told the struggling Meliodas while his body double tried fruitlessly to attack the demon. In a single movement of his spear, he had stabbed the body double through the head, and it disappeared.
"H-He's a monster." Rize breathed. Suddenly, a purple colored box appeared around Rize, Hawk, and Elizabeth. A few feet away, an identical box encased the king. She recognized the spell as Merlin's "Perfect Cube." Elizabeth started banging on the walls of the spell, tears in her eyes as she watched Galand practically strangle Meliodas.
"You're the real Meliodas, aren't you?" He mused, tightening his grip.
"If this keeps up-" Rize started to say, only to cut herself off as Diane suddenly launched herself at the demon. Merlin stretched out her hand, calling out he spell to cancel the magic keeping her small.
As she advanced, she grew. By the time she'd reached where Galand and Meliodas were, she was full sized again, carrying her war hammer with a murderous look on her face. "Let the Captain go!" She screamed, rearing back to strike. But just when her strike was about to land home, the momentum seemed to work against her, instead slamming the blunt end of her hammer back at her. She fell, cringing in pain as her hammer flew from her hands.
Merlin raised her hand, snapping her fingers. "We'd best rethink our strategy!" She called. The spell she cast seemed to teleport him somewhere else, but Rize wasn't foolish enough to think that meant this was over.
Meliodas crashed to the ground, but he didn't stop to bother with his own injuries, instead heading straight for Diane. "Diane, are you okay?" She groaned, clearly in extreme pain, but nodded nonetheless.
A few feet away, Arthur pressed himself up against the wall of the shield. "Galand...vanished?"
"Merlin used teleportation magic." Rize said, her fists clenched so tightly at her side she swore she could feel the skin under her fingernails.
"Merlin is amazing..." Elizabeth breathed while Hawk snorted again. "I hope she teleported him straight into the mouth of a volcano."
"I didn't make him vanish." Merlin announced. "He instantly leapt several miles out of my magic's sphere of influence and escaped." Sure enough, seconds after she'd finished making the statement, he reappeared, this time standing directly behind Merlin.
"I hate slippery magic users like you most of all." He said.
"Merlin! Get away!" Arthur shouted, reaching for his sword like he could help her. Luckily, she was able to teleport herself away just in time to miss his strike by mere inches. Rize grit her teeth; she hated this more than anything, watching and not being able to do anything to help as her friends were beat right in front of her.
"Wait," Merlin began, seemingly having regained her normal calm composure. "Let's make a deal."
"Oh?"
"Galand of the Ten Commandments, who serve the Demon King, your skills and strength are honestly stronger than I'd presumed. Now, Sir Galand, if you wanted, you could kill us off at any moment. So how about we strike a deal? In return for telling us what the Ten Commandments are after, I'll promise to cooperate and give you all the information I have."
There was another rumble of power, similar to that of when he'd first landed, but much less forceful. "Huh? What? What's happening?" Hawk asked.
"Merlin!" Meliodas shouted. "That won't work on Galand!"
"You're lying," Galand spoke, his voice much louder than it had been before. Merlin's skin began to turn gray, until all of her had been completely immobilized and turned into stone.
"Merlin, no!" Rize and Arthur both cried out in shock and despair. Galand burst out laughing once again, hefting his spear behind him.
"I am Galand, "Truth," of the Ten Commandments!" He yelled. "Lie to me, and I will turn you to stone! This commandment was bestowed upon me by the Demon King, and there's no way to undo it. Now..." He cracked his knuckles. "To crush her into a million pieces!"
"Stop! Don't do it!" Arthur shouted at the same time that Rize's knees finally gave out. It was too much; she couldn't bear to watch as Merlin was killed, not knowing all the things she'd done to help her mother.
Luckily, the clang of metal on metal pulled her attention away from the thoughts of Merlin's demise, and she saw that Meliodas had attacked once again. Something was different about him, this time, though. A strange, dark symbol had appeared on his forehead, and his eyes had darkened. "Whoa!" Hawk exclaimed. "Meliodas's Combat Class is 4,400!"
The bravery of his attack plus Hawk's statement seemed to reignite something in the Camelot soldiers, and they began rushing to follow Meliodas's lead. It ended much the same as it had before, however, as all of them were instantly slain with a single strike from Galand's spear. Meliodas tried again, but this time Galand swung his spear hard enough to lop off Meliodas's whole arm.
"Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth cried.
"This is a mess. He's way too strong!"
"Stop it! Stop killing them!" Elizabeth shouted, banging on the walls of Merlin's spell again. Rize got back to her feet and forced her to stop; she wasn't sure just how much longer the spell would last, but she was sure that banging on it probably wouldn't help it last longer.
Miraculously, however, Meliodas was still conscious. He coughed. "You've left me...no choice." He said before struggling to his feet. When he raised the stump of his arm, a dark smoky magic stretched from the stump to his severed arm, and they had reconnected within another few seconds.
Elizabeth gasped. "Look!" She exclaimed.
"That happened at the Fighting Festival, too!" Hawk shouted.
Meliodas began advancing once again, but his entire demeanor had changed. It was almost as if he'd given up control of his human senses, instead surrendering to the instincts similar to that of an animal. The dark, smoky substance that had reconnected his arm now surrounded him. The odd symbol on his head had gotten bigger, now covering the entire left side of his face. His expression had turned totally cold and emotionless.
He launched himself at Galand once again, landing a kick with both feet directly into his armored gut. "Wh-Whoa!" Hawk cried, his ears flapping upwards. "His Combat Class is 10,300!"
He continued landing strike after strike, the force behind them picking up all the dirt and rocks around them so that it was nearly impossible to see what was happening. But even though they couldn't see the fight, they could hear it loud and clear. Every strike echoed loudly in the empty space. Over all of this, however, Rize realized Meliodas was speaking. It was so quiet that he was probably only saying the words to himself, but Rize couldn't not hear them.
"Don't...fall..." He muttered to himself, and the strain in his voice suggested that he was speaking through his teeth. "Don't fall...into...the darkness...Keep...a grip..." The smoky substance began to spread, despite Meliodas clearly trying to fight against whatever the stuff was. It quickly came to cover his whole arm, and yet he continued to struggle against the stuff.
"What are you muttering to yourself?" Galand demanded, standing up straight again. Before he had a chance to attack again, however, Meliodas thrust out the arm that had been covered in the black smoke. A black beam of power erupted from underneath Galand in response to the movement.
"Meliodas...is controlling that incredible magic!" Elizabeth exclaimed.
"You're...responsible for this dark magic." Galand spoke up, his voice strained as he fought to withstand Meliodas's attack. "I can't believe...you would become such a softy!" He lifted his spear once again, and tossed it across the field at Meliodas, impaling him through the chest and running him clean through. He collapsed, the spearhead sticking from his back and keeping him a few inches off of the ground.
"Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth cried, banging on the walls once again.
Galand hopped off of the island that he'd been standing on after Meliodas's spell had destroyed the land around him. "I've lost interest." He stated, sounding utterly bored. "Time shows no mercy, after all." When he reached Meliodas, he pulled his spear out, the blood pooling around his body. "Meliodas, you backstabbing soldier, and you fools who stood against me of the Ten Commandments." He raised the spear again to land a second strike. "You will be punished for your incompetence in the afterlife!" This time, he aimed his strike for Meliodas's head.
Diane pushed herself to her elbows, her eyes wide with shock at watching the sight before them. "Cap-" She began, only to be cut off as Galand turned his attention to her. He slashed his spear through the front of her chest, making her collapse into a heap, blood rapidly pooling underneath her. Then he moved onto Merlin, smashing the stone statue into pieces before finally facing the people encased in her "Perfect Cubes."
He attempted to slash at the shields, only to get thrown backwards by an enormous blast of power. "Huh?" He mused after being unable to break through Merlin's spell. "Oh ho...so this is the secret force field, "Perfect Cube." Not even I will be able to destroy it that easily." He turned around, as if he was about to leave, only to turn and look back at them over his shoulder. "You guys are very lucky!" He announced. "Very few can be left standing alive before the great Galand!" When he'd finished his statement, he launched himself back into the air. Within another few seconds, he had disappeared.
Silence loomed over the field. Rize hadn't even realized she'd been biting down on her tongue until she began to taste blood in her mouth. She shouted in anger and frustration, taking out her dagger and striking the wall. She didn't know what had possessed her to attack the shield, but once she started she found that she couldn't stop herself.
Neither Elizabeth nor Hawk made any move to stop her, and she started to see red. She was so focused on unleashing her emotions on the poor shield that she totally missed the initial arrival of a familiar face. She probably wouldn't have noticed it at all had Elizabeth not reacted to it.
She stopped at the sound of her voice, panting from exertion. "Y-You're..." Elizabeth breathed. Soft laughter began to fill the silence, and that was when Rize saw him.
Walking across the field of chaos was Gowther, although he was completely naked and not acting at all like himself. Instinctively, Rize's hand moved to her pocket, only to find that, sure enough, it was empty. He must have fallen out of her pocket at some point before Merlin had cast "Perfect Cube."
The laughter, which Rize only then realized had been coming from him, began to get louder. He stopped when he was standing right in the center of the bodies, laughing like a villain straight out of storybook.
Alright, I know I said that Chapter 35 would be the last update until this weekend, but I had more free time than I'd expected today (well, technically yesterday, since it's currently 2:30 AM, but y'all know what I mean) so I decided to get one more up for you guys. I don't think I'll be able to update again after this one, though. Until after this weekend. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not ending the book here. Hell no I'm not ending the book here, we're just getting to the good part! That's right, next chapter is that Rize and Gowther moment I promised! Look forward to it, you guys! See y'all next time! Bye!