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Chapter 14 – In Mother's Chest
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Listening to Escanor's screams in pain, Elizabeth tightened her grip on Meliodas' body as Melody using her miasma to heal Meliodas "is Sir Escanor really gonna be okay?".
Lilith crossed her arms before her chest "...perhaps".
"perhaps, you said?", Ban jaw-dropped "so you're not sure too!".
"he will. He's strong, after all. He has to", Morgan clenched her fists "otherwise, I'm not gonna forgive him for dying and leaving mother's side, twice".
Lancelot lifted his fingers "it will be thrice, if we count how many times your father died included on our time".
When Morgan cried silently, Titania kicked Lancelot "you insensitive rude man! Don't mention it in front of her so casually like that!".
Griselda carried Morgan and threw some several throwing knives to Lancelot, a vein popped on her head as she swaying her on her arms "sup, it's alright. Titania has started beaten him, see?".
Only after Griselda went to outside with Morgan, King said it out loud "...when you said she's Merlin and Escanor's daughter, we thought what kind of daughter she would be. We don't expect at all to see that she can be... crybaby".
Tristan who head-locked Lancelot, sighed heavily "well, what do you hope of her? Morgan was born and grew up without even knew her father's face. In her young age when she turned 9 years old, Merlin's curse was active and knowing she hadn't much times left on her, Merlin gave her Infinity magic power and all she has as Sorceress to Morgan".
Elizabeth sucked in deep breath "what happened to Lady Merlin in the future?".
Titania turned to Elizabeth and clapped her hands after slamming Lancelot to the ground "well, we're not too sure. Morgan never told us specifically".
Ban crouched near Lancelot, narrowing his eyes "boy, are you seriously not gonna do anything to fight back your cousin?".
"if I fought her back, she'd give damned 10 times worse, Dad", Lancelot whispered as he lying on the ground "and I swear you're not gonna want to see it".
"what we knew, that time all Seven Deadly Sins members that was left... uncle King, uncle Ban, Aunt Diane, Aunt Gowther, father and mother were panicked. We didn't know why, father only mentioned about going to the Enchanted Woods where Aunt Merlin lived with Morgan, saying something about the urgent or someone was dying", Melody remarked "when they found them on the Enchanted Forest, they only saw Morgan crying alone, that she was left alone. Everytime we asked her about her mother, Morgan only said that her mother would never open her eyes again or she was sleeping peacefully on Avalon under the Lady Of The Lake's watch".
Elizabeth lifted her hand "wait, what about Sir Escanor?".
"he died on the latest battle when we fought against the Demon King. We won, with high price to paid with", Tristan narrowed his eyes with grim expression "no one expected that Merlin would be the one who die next, after we have lost Escanor".
In the middle of his pain, Escanor witnessed what happened to Merlin and Morgan. In the latest battle when they fought against the Demon King, they won but Escanor reached his limit. Due to using Grace 'Sunshine' too much, even using his own life, his body was burned into ashes. Before his body fully turned into ashes, Merlin wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him before she kissed him for the last time, ignoring the burns on her lower face, both her hand and her chest. Merlin told him that she loved him and she didn't mind at all about the burns, that she would take it as the symbol of the one and only man who ever loved her and she ever loved.
Merlin only smiled and reassured them all on the feast but when she was alone in the laboratory of her house, she leaned her back on the door and sunk to the floor. Hugging her knees, she cried silently for her, alone, before she heard something. Looking up and ignoring the tears tracks on her cheeks, she saw something in the flask moved. It was an embryo.
Next day, Merlin disappeared and the five others of Seven Deadly Sins couldn't find her wherever. Ban, King, Diane, Gowther, Meliodas and Elizabeth did their best to find her but they couldn't find her until one day, Arthuria told them all that she found interesting place on her latest expedition on Britannia. Its name was Tir na nÓg, a Kingdom where all races lived peacefully together.
Arthuria told her father "the Queen of Tir na nÓg is Lilith, Merlin's mother. Maybe we could ask her about her daughter's whereabouts".
Meliodas and Elizabeth quickly sent letter to gather Ban, Elaine, King, Diane and Gowther, telling them all to come with them and Arthuria to Tir na nÓg. Unfortunately, they didn't find Merlin there. Lilith only told them to go to the Enchanted Woods, the woods where spirits of nature lived. Its location near the utopia where the Lady Of The Lake lived, Avalon. There, they saw something unexpected because they found Merlin lived with a little girl.
Merlin carried her and introduced her to them all "her name is Morgan Le Fay. She is my daughter with Escanor".
Elizabeth cried and hugged Merlin "you could have told us before you're gone or at least, send letter to us sometimes so we wouldn't this worried sick!".
Merlin apologized to them all, telling that she also didn't have any idea about how to tell them all. She was also shocked because everything happened so fast but she reassured that she was fine, thanks to her mother who had been helping her ever since she came to her place with Morgan. Naturally, they were friends so they also brought their kids to visit Merlin and Morgan.
There was once when her friends that she considered as her little family visited with Arthuria. Griselda (as Zeldris and Gelda's daughter) and Melody (as Meliodas and Elizabeth's daughter) as the closest to her, realized something was off so Morgan told them, she just knew lately from her grandmother, Lilith, that her mother, Merlin's body was no longer able to give birth or even to bear her on her womb.
Lancelot blinked his eyes "what do you mean that you're different with us?".
"mother never got pregnant with me, she only created me using father's and her own genetics. Mother created me with IVF methods where the sperm and egg is combined outside her body... long story short, I grew up in the flask fulfilled with liquid from embryo-sized until I reached a baby-sized", Morgan explained as simple as she could because she knew, people like Lancelot or on the same level brain would have difficulties to understand the complicated explanation. Hugging her knees, Morgan sighed "I wonder if I was born only as one of her successful experiment... and I'm too afraid to ask her about what did she think of me, honestly...".
Griselda crossed her arms before her chest with disapproval frown "Morgan, Aunt Merlin, your mother always wears veil and gloves to cover the burns on her face and her hands. Do you think why?".
Morgan blinked "to hide her burns, right?".
Griselda snapped her fingers to her forehead and chided her "it's for you, you idiot".
Griselda told Morgan that she once overheard the conversation between Merlin and Elizabeth. Merlin really meant it when she said that she never thought of her burns unsightly and she never mind the burns on her body at all because it was the symbol of the one and only man who ever loved her and she ever loved but Merlin didn't want Morgan fighting with someone else just because of the burns on her body. There was once when Merlin visited Tir na nÓg with Morgan, but Morgan fought against several kids (obviously, she won) and yelled to adults with one reason, because they mockingly talked bad about Merlin, calling her as an ugly woman just because of Merlin's burns and Morgan was displeased at all.
"Aunt didn't want you to get hurt or fought against someone else because of it again, thus she started to cover her burns. Though, it was not only her reason", Melody leaned her head on her palm "mother once offered Aunt Merlin to heal her wounds but Aunt refused, instead Aunt asked mother to give her veil and gloves to cover the burns. After father asked Aunt about why should she keep the burns when she covered it in the end, Aunt only smiled and told him that she simply didn't want anyone, the Seven Deadly Sins and their kids aside, asked the reason of why she's got the burns from the first place".
Titania patted her head, encouragingly smiled "all jokes aside, isn't it all enough to be the proof that your mother truly loves you as her daughter?".
Morgan only narrowed her eyes and nodded, although she still had her doubt. One day when her doubt had disappeared, it was too late because Merlin was leaving her, forever.
Merlin held her hand "why do you think the sky is so blue?".
As a smart girl she was, Morgan excitedly explained it just like an expert scientist would do but when Merlin led her to the border between Avalon and the Enchanted Forest, Merlin crouched in front of her and smiled sadly.
"you are my only hope, Morgan Le Fay, my only child", Merlin cupped her cheeks and blinked away a single tears as she leaned her forehead to her daughter's "forgive me, I have to leave your side this fast but I believe you will be the greatest Sorceress that Britannia would ever have, even surpassing me".
"mother?", Morgan felt the dread churning her stomach before she reached out her hands further as her mother's body started burned by blue fire "mother!".
Using her magic power to control water, Morgan could put down the fire but after Merlin's wings turned into flower petals, Merlin's body dropped to the ground and she never opened her eyes again. When Meliodas, Elizabeth and Lilith found them, it was too late.
Morgan tugged Lilith's sleeve, begging "wake her!".
Lilith touched her daughter's already cold body and shook her head as she blinked her tears away "we can't... we can no longer wake her up".
Elizabeth carried Morgan and leaned her body to Meliodas' embrace, sobbing "don't cry, sweetheart. I swear no harm will come to you as long as we live".
"Meliodas, Elizabeth, please bring Morgan to your home and take care of her", Lilith said as she cried silently, carrying Merlin's body on her arms "I have to bring her to her last resting place and ask The Lady Of The Lake to watch over her body".
When they passing through the frozen woods, Morgan felt like she could hear her mother's voice as the wind caressed her tears out of her cheeks, just like the tender and warm touch of her mother's hand "I pray the grief and sadness of the world will not bring harm on you. Don't be scared to live. Don't cry, my daughter. I will always be with you".
On the Holy Grail War, Morgan joined and called a Servant. When she was asked by her Servant about what was her wish, she said as she remembered of her mother's warmth as her mother hugged her when she was only a child "I know this is only my selfishness... but I want to save my parent... I hope I can save my father, so my mother will not leave me...".
Looking to Arthur who still hugged Arthuria, Diane asked with blushing face "...um, is she gonna be okay?".
"obviously, she will", Arthur lifted his thumb "because I'm charging her right now".
"with that position?", Ban snickered "wonder what the Cap'n would say about this~".
Lilith smirked "it can't be helped at all. They should touch each other as long as Arthur 'charges' with transferring his magic power to Arthuria so the skinship is unavoidable".
"knowing Meliodas, he will be overprotective but as long as her daughter is gonna be okay, he can't possibly protest about it at all, right?", Gloxinia tucked his hands behind his head and floated on the air before he pointedly stared to Arthur "well, as long as the young man didn't take advantage of this".
Arthur smiled broadly "I have no idea about what you're talking about".
"no problem, right? they are husband and wife on the future, after all", Dolor sighed but when all the eyes turned to him, he was baffled "...what?".
Okay, that was new because they didn't know about Arthuria's relationship with Arthur in the future because it was not one of what they saw or more exactly, what Tristan deliberately didn't show to them all due to his twin's request. Obviously Dolor knew thanks to his magic eyes when he saw through the young King Arthur's heart.
"whatever, I hope the Cap'n and her would wake up soon~", Ban narrowed his eyes, thinking back of all his words and actions from what he had been doing (or what he would have done) to Arthuria and Meliodas in the future "I have to apologize properly to them".
King nodded his head, feeling the same "me too".
When Escanor burst out of his confinement where he was going through his transform after he opened his eyes, Lilith clapped her hands "congratulations. You have successfully passed the transformation. From now on, you are the part of our Clan. You are no longer a human. Are you really okay with it?".
In her heart, looking at Escanor who had wings on his back and without mustache on his face, it truly reminded Lilith of Helios, Escanor's previous self. Thanks to his transformation, now Escanor was in his golden age, even with new power once he got back half of the Purgatory Fire from Merlin.
"of course I can do this. I don't mind at all as long as I can live with my beloved woman and daughter", Escanor walked to Morgan and reached out his hand to her "let's wake her up. You're not gonna lose me or your mother this time".
Morgan nodded her head and with smile on her face, she shook his hand "yes, father".
When Tristan using his power Dive to send Escanor and Morgan to Merlin's mindscape, they prayed their friends would succeed and they could be together again.
Looking down to Meliodas, Elizabeth sighed "Sir Meliodas, I wonder if you have a nice dream or not? I hope you will open your eyes as soon as possible".
In fact, Meliodas was dreaming of the future, or to be more precise, what kind of the past that Arthuria and her group had been going through.