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Chapter 17 – Beauty Of The Sun
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Meliodas was sure that his oldest daughter Morgaine Le Fay a.k.a Lily was on the good hands under the young King Arthur's care, so he chose to follow Guinevere and Elizabeth, accompanied by mother son piglets, Hawk Mama and Hawk. Hawk, Guinevere and Elizabeth were running the tavern together and Guinevere was doing a great job in lieu of tavern's Master (at least Guinevere could cook more edible foods compared to Elizabeth who still learned).
"by this point, we can't deny it if there's someone who said that we keep a corpse like a pet", looking down to her father's lifeless body on the bed, Guinevere turned her body around, patting Elizabeth's shoulders after she had cleaned his body like she always did every morning when Elizabeth and Hawk ran the tavern. She understood Elizabeth's need to check on him after their encounter with Golgius "I will be outside, just call if you need something, Ellie".
Guinevere always gave privacy for Elizabeth when she needed to check on... well, his body. Looking at the way Elizabeth hugged him as she whispering how she couldn't afford to live without him in this world with tears on her eyes, or looking at how Guinevere wiped her tears away as she leaned her back on the door when their daughter listened to her mother's lament, it really crushed his heart. Just if he was stronger and not die, they wouldn't have to face this. Then they heard Hawk's squeal in fear before they descended downstairs immediately.
Elizabeth walked downstairs first "what's wrong, Hawk? What are you getting all all worked up about?".
Guinevere followed her in tow "oh, it's just a customer. Why do you wet yourself just because of this, Hawk?".
Ignoring the argue between Guinevere and Hawk, the Knight started speaking before he took his helm off "...oh, you sure have grown up wonderfully into beautiful woman, Lady Elizabeth. You also don't change at all, Lady Guinevere. I only can imagine the pride His Majesty Baltra and Sir Meliodas must feel to have such exquisite beautiy as their daughter".
Elizabeth gasped and lifted both hand to cover her mouth "it can't be... you are... Great Holy Knight Zaratras!".
After watching the exchange between Elizabeth and Zaratras, Hawk concluded "this dude's gotta be an imposter".
Zaratras shocked (unseen by them, Meliodas laughed it off) "WHAT!?".
Elizabeth convinced with sweet smile on her face "no, he's the real Zaratras and he hasn't changed at all".
Hawk shocked with both ear stood up "SERIOUSLY?!".
"you should be dead. How could you still alive?", Guinevere hummed in approval when she noticed the death magic on Zaratras "ah, I see... it must be the influence of Melascula's death magic".
Hawk offered ale to Zaratras but he declined, telling he was a lightweight so Elizabeth poured him the tea and Guinevere served the scone she had baked. Normally, people who had been brought to life by Melascula temporarily must have had the strong lingering emotion such as regret, hate or any kind of grudge back to their bodies. Hawk scared to death when the poor pig thought Zaratras was revived to life in order to settle his grudge against Dreyfus and Hendrickson for his assassination, but after Hawk looking at how laid-back and carefree Zaratras had been, Hawk fisted both its ear in irritation, asking Elizabeth if the pig could just knock some sense to Zaratras. As Elizabeth calmed down the irritated pig, not only Meliodas, but even Guinevere also laughed.
"seriously... you haven't changed at all, Sir Zaratras", Guinevere wiped her tears, laughing brightly, so sincere that Elizabeth and Hawk had to stare. Guinevere flinched, a bit nervous "what's wrong?".
Elizabeth waved her hands "oh, sorry, it's nothing! It's just... I thought this is the first time I saw you sincerely laugh brightly like that".
Ever since Meliodas died, yes, Guinevere could hear it wordlessly before Elizabeth tried to divert the conversation, asking Zaratras "so... have you met up with Gil already, Sir Zaratras?".
After Zaratras smiled lopsided, Meliodas only could facepalm when Zaratras went all out of ranting about his son in front of Elizabeth and Guinevere "and how exactly would I face him if I did?! If his deceased father just suddenly sprung up in front of him and said 'hello there', he'd probably have a heart attack! And what if... and it's a possibility... he doesn't even recognize my face anymore? If that were to happen, it might just be me who dies of shock!".
Elizabeth chuckled nervously "maybe you're overthinking things a bit?".
Guinevere tilted her head in deadpan expression "in fact, you died already, dude. How could you die due to shock again?".
"that's right! Besides Gil has always been far more attached to Sir Meliodas than he ever was to me!", Zaratras lifted his head upwards and crossed his arms before his chest "argh... just thinking about it is starting to tick me off...".
Looking at how Elizabeth and Guinevere froze with sting of pain on their eyes, Hawk shouted "damn it! Try and read the atmosphere a bit there!".
SLAM!
Meliodas flinched "uh-oh... this isn't good...".
Elizabeth, Hawk and Zaratras turned to Guinevere who slammed her hands on the table.
"who decided that? How could you know about it for sure if you don't even try to meet him? True, maybe for your son, my father is his idol but you are his father, Sir Zaratras. If anything, on top everything else as a child, we would surely choose to meet with our dead parent above anyone else. Think about how us, the children must have felt towards their parent, you moron old man!", panting, Guinevere covered up her face before walked away to outside "...I apologize for my outburst. I just... sorry, I just need some fresh air outside".
Elizabeth turned to Zaratras "I think what Lady Guinevere said is right, Sir Zaratras. After all, Gilthunder had been waiting for ten years to take revenge against his father's murderer. Why don't you try to meet him even if just once?".
Hawk followed Guinevere to outside and stayed by her side as long as Guinevere hugged her knees, burying her face on her knees. Once they came back to the tavern, Zaratras said "I wish to see Sir Meliodas. I've got several things I need to get off my chest. Something like hearts stop beating is not enough to kill him, after all".
Guinevere froze "...you know it?".
"well, I can't remember it well but I thought, when he was drunk which rare of him, once he rambled on and on about his death", Zaratras scratched the back of his head "what would you say to asking Sir Meliodas yourself?".
Using his power as Druid, Zaratras showed the memory of the past. Elizabeth was surprised to see on the destruction of Danafor, Meliodas came out of the destructed Danafor, carrying Elizabeth as an infant on his arms. Not only them, Tristan and Isolde also came out of the destructed Danafor with flying, both carried something on their hands. Tristan carried his twin on his arms bridal style and his wife, Isolde carried Guinevere as an infant on her arms. Elizabeth wondered how could she who still a baby was on Meliodas' arms and turned to Guinevere but Guinevere said nothing with cold poker face as always. After the vision of the past that Zaratras provided had ended, both Guinevere and Elizabeth lowered their head further. Elizabeth convinced that she was alright because Meliodas promised her that he would always come back alive to her.
Deep down in its heart, Hawk had grown fond of her as friend because Guinevere was really a good girl. Looking down to her teary-eyed, Hawk sat by her side "...Gwen...".
"no, Hawk... it's alright... I know it already... it's the curse... no matter how many times father died... father's gonna back to us no matter what... but still...", Guinevere sobbed, wiping her tears "it doesn't make the pain of losing him... though temporary... given how he's dead... would be less hurt for us... right?".
Zaratras scratched his neck "I guess I owe him for make his daughter crying... how could I not notice it? True, it wouldn't make the pain of losing him, though temporary, would be less hurt for you all, his children".
Later on, Guinevere explained about the curses on her family (except Elizabeth's, of course) "for not telling you, I apologize, Ellie... it's not that I don't want to tell you, but I'm afraid and I'm not sure... what if the curse on my father weakened and he's not gonna come back to us again...".
"give how all his children loved him, he must have a great father for you all, right?", Elizabeth smiled in the middle of her tears before she hugged Guinevere, patting her head "sup, it's alright. Believe on him, he's gonna come back to us for sure".
And as always, it was their mother (with or without she herself knew it) who never stopped believing on their father and always supported them. Digging her fingers on her back, Guinevere closed her eyes, burying her face on her shoulder "...yes, you're right".
After they heard the news about Demon Clan invaded the Capital of Liones so King Baltra ordered to evacuate all people from the Capital, they headed to the Liones Castle.
Meliodas scratched the back of his head "well, well, well, now, I wonder how everyone included Lily and Tristan are holding up on their battle?".
On the Capital of Liones Castle, after they took a month to recover from their grievous wounds post the deadly match in Vaizel against Tristan and Isolde, six of Ten Commandments who had recovered (Zeldris, Estarossa, Monspiet, Derieri, Grayroad and Fraudrin) went to invade the Capital of Liones Kingdom although they didn't expect their opponent in the Capital this time. As Fraudrin and Zeldris took care of the citizens, Estarossa went to the Castle with Grayroad, Derieri and Monspiet. When all Holy Knights on Liones Castle (Ban, Gilthunder, Howzer and the Dawn Roar included) were helpless and unable to fight back against them, not even able to raise their weapon, two figures went to Liones Castle full speed, they came riding on their own beast, flying on the sky before landing in front of four members of Ten Commandments.
Lily wore black armor and wielded the spear on her hand, riding on black stallion.
Arthur wore his usual golden armor and wielded the Excalibur Sword, riding on Cath in form Primate Murder.
"thank you for your aide to find this Holy Spear for me, Arthur", Lily dismounted of her stallion as the young King mounted from Cath as well "stand back, he's my prey".
"it can't be... aren't you supposed to die along with your father a month ago?", Estarossa wondered "also, how could you not be afflicted by my Commandment when you're supposed to hate me?".
"there's a curse on our family. I guess I needn't to explain here about what kind of curses that have befallen on our parent", Lily scoffed, sliding her bangs behind her ear "but it's not only our parent... even us, their children also have to bear the curses. Well, as for me...".
"her curse is related with Sir Meliodas, her father. Had something happened that caused Sir Meliodas' death, her heart would explode and once she revived to live again, Lily would lose all her feelings and emotions after Sir Meliodas' death", Arthur walked forward, clearly not be afflicted by Estarossa's commandments as well "you said any who holds hatred in their hearts before you lose all their means to hurt or inflict damage on anyone, it's the curse of your Commandment, 'Love', that bestowed by Demon King, right? Well, obviously it will not work against someone without heart who only feel nothing like her right now".
Arthur narrowed his eyes, he remembered when Lily told him about their curse that night. It was rain outside and they had to share the bed to warm themselves together.
"it's needed three conditions to regain back all my feelings and emotions. First, I have to get rid the Ten Commandments. Second, earn my True love's kiss, or third, my father has revived. Considering my emotions and feelings haven't returned yet, it only can mean one thing, father hasn't revived back to live yet", Lily held his hands with pleading looks "please, Arthur, in case I cross the boundary, you have to stop me. You are the only one I can trust with this task right now".
Arthur snapped out of his reverie when he heard Lily stepped forwed "true, I'm supposed to hate you for killing my father but without emotions or feelings, I feel nothing so going by logics, I may take this advantage to get rid of you, even if you are my father's little brother, Estarossa".
Out of the fact they hadn't able to move yet, they were too shocked to know the truth. If what Lily said was the truth, then it meant Meliodas was killed by his own little brother, right? No one stopped her, except Arthur who wrapped his arm around her shoulder from behind. The gentle gesture was not based on desire, it was passionate and delicate but somehow it felt intimate. With differences of their body-height (Arthur 170 cm and Lily 154 cm) where her head was only reached his shoulder, Lily did not move a single muscle, totally froze in her place. It didn't take too long time for her to regain back her composure, though.
Once she regained back her composure, Lily frowned and looked behind over her shoulder where his face was really close to hers "let go. I thought we have talked about this?".
Arthur straightened his body and lifted his sword "no, you're not doing it alone".
Estarossa caressed his jaw, looking down to them with so much interest "and how about you, young man? Why did you not be afflicted by my Commandment?".
Squeezing his hand on her shoulder, Arthur boldly said "the answer is simple. I'm worried about her well-being over everything right now. My hatred to you for what you did to Sir Meliodas, is nothing compared to what I feel towards her".
"Arthur", cupping his cheeks, she leaned down to lean her forehead into his "trust me. I'll come back to your side no matter what. Take care of everyone here as long as I fight against him, can you?".
Arthur narrowed his eyes, clearly not pleased but nothing he could do. He had realized it ever since he was entranced by her as he saw the beauty of the sun inside her that burning him and giving warmth to his heart "...it's so cunning to persuade me that way, you know?".
Cath who had been silent, finally spoke "you two, is this really the right time for this?".
Lily retorted "oh, shut up, Cathy".
Arthur laughed awkwardly "it's Cath".
"should I say congratulation, sister?", Tristan clapped his hands as he sat on the fence of the brick wall above "and I'd like to say, please share your prey with us".
Along with everyone here, Arthur and Lily looked up to see Tristan and Isolde had come back. Even if she didn't show it that much, Lily felt relieved "finally. Took you rather long to take a nap, huh?".
"yeah, no wonder they can heal this fast. I am the weakest amongst my siblings, after all", Isolde who sat beside her husband, hummed "my big sister Merlin and our deceased older brother, Helios are far stronger than me. Now, you may feel their wrath, the wrath of my big sister and her lover for losing their friend".
"such a big mouth you are, little sister", Merlin with a pair of wings came out of her back, jumping off of the brick wall and flying down "Escanor!".
Escanor jumped and landed in front of his comrades, right behind Arthur and Lily. Lifting his hand, Escanor revealed a fire ball, to be more precise a little sun above his palm "step back, young King and young Lady. I understand that you want to take revenge on your dearest friend and your beloved father, but for next generations, you two are needed in the future. Not to mention, I also really want to take revenge on my true friend's death, for I think of your father as my true friend, Lady Lily".
Looking at their comrades after Escanor "I've got your point. Very well, but if you two fight here, I'm afraid our comrades will be melting because of your sun as well".
"then I may give you help to send him somewhere for your battle with him. He's all yours, but please make sure that you will get rid of him, Sir Escanor", Lily lifted her spear and her spear turned into the tower of light that she directed to Estarossa "Rhongomyniad!".
Using the Holy Spear Rhongomyniad on her hand that Arthur helped her to find and gave her, Lily sent Estarossa flying to the lake where Escanor needn't to worry about their fight.
"go, Escanor. Needn't to worry about us here, we've got this", Merlin came flying, floating on the air right behind Grayroad "your opponent will be me. It's time to make you as my guinea pig, the Ten Commandments".
Escanor smiled as he took a flight "you are really beautiful woman, Merlin".
As Escanor went flying near her, Merlin only smiled as they exchanged glances before she snapped her fingers "ah, no one said that you can go, Fraudrin. You will be my students' prey".
When Fraudrin and Zeldris felt the strange presences possessed powerful magic came from the Liones Castle, they immediately came here to check and splitted into two, because Zeldris went to follow his older brother Estarossa and Fraudrin who wanted to go follow them too, was pushed back by Merlin to the Castle's ground.
Ban lifted his shaking finger, pointing to Lily "oi, your form...".
After using Holy Spear Rhongomyniad, a pair of white wings and a pair of dark wings came out of Lily's back "ah, I forgot to tell you all... I'm the daughter of Demon Prince Meliodas with the princess of Goddess Clan, so obviously I've earned my parent's magic power, for I have both the Darkness and the Light power as half-Demon half-Goddess in my blood".
Derieri stomped her foot hardly, crumbling the Castle's ground beneath her and lifting her claw-like fist. Looking at the goddess-like aura from Lily, Derieri snarled "she's all mine".
Tristan jumped and landed in front of Derieri "oops, not so fast. Walk over my dead body if you want to mess around with my twin sister".
When Monspiet stepped forward and came for Derieri's aide, Isolde went down flying and floating by Tristan's side. She wrapped her arms around with smile on her face before she lifted her palm, two little sun above her palm "your opponent will be us, but I prefer to move to another place".
Lifting his hand, Arthur saluted as Tristan and Isolde successfully sent Derieri and Monspiet flying to the nearest mountain from Liones Castle before those husband and wife went after their opponent "I admit I never feel bored to see those two... well, those two really get along well together".
"what do you expect of them? They are husband and wife, after all", Lily shrugged before turning to Fraudrin as the only one who was left behind "so? What should we do about this guy?".
Fraudrin was stiffened but then he relaxed, as long as he was in Dreyfus' body, nothing they could do to hurt him. Not to mention, they also had back-up and hostages "Grayroad, get them all out!".
It turned out that mostly the citizens of Liones had turned into slave for Demon Clan due to brainwash from the curse of Commandment Piety that belonged to Zeldris. Not only that, Fraudrin and Grayroad even took some workers and powerless people in Liones Castle (included Jericho and Zeal) within the cocoon of Grayroad. In the process which everything happened so fast, Gilthunder was kidnapped by Vivian and Gustaf died when he sacrificed his life to save Jericho. Fraudrin challenged them further about what should they do, helplessly waiting for their death in their former comrades' hands or kill all hostages. Looking at the calmness of Merlin, Arthur and Lily made him really unsettled, though.
"O' the Wind of the Heaven, purify all evil entity came from the Darkness", Lily stepped forward, she closed her eyes and lifted her hands to the side "Tranquilize".
After those citizens had been freed from the curse of Zeldris' Piety commandment, Arthur asked as he looked to the hostages within Grayroad's cocoon "now, do you have suggestion to free the hostages, M'Lady?".
"all of you still remember 'the Demon Seed' that would turn people into Demon like New Generation had?", Lily tilted her head "simple, I'm gonna pull out the Demon Seed from their body after Merlin froze them to keep them in stagnant temperature and you have to slash the cocoon to break them out of the cocoon, Arthur".
Merlin lifted her Aldan "sounds good plan to us".
Arthur smirked and lifted his Excalibur "as you wish, Lady".
Just like Lily's instruction, Merlin froze the Demon's cocoon "Frozen Coffin".
After the symbol of goddess member clan appeared on both her eyes, Lily reached out her hands "Let There Be Light".
Merlin landed behind the young King "Arthur!".
The young King Arthur closed his eyes, he lifted his Excalibur Sword and lunged forward "the Dance Sword Of Avidya".
After the hostages had been freed, Merlin revealed her true identity as the Daughter of Belialuin. The Ten Commandments surely knew who was she, knowing they had no chance to win against her, as the coward they were, they tried to run away.
"wait, wait, no one said you are allowed to go. I will be quite in a pickle if my precious guinea pig run away", Merlin lifted both her hand to the side "Endless Whirl!".
Arthur quickly hugged Lily before they both got down on the floor.
Looking up, Lily mumbled about how bad the impact of Merlin's attack "she's not holding back at all as usual".
Howzer called out "oi, Dreyfus is running away!".
Hendrickson chased after him "Lady Merlin!".
Merlin reached out her hand, her Aldan glowing above her palm "Power Amplify".
Hendrickson touched Dreyfus' back "Purge".
Unfortunately, Hendrickson's Purge didn't enough to kick Fraudrin out of Dreyfus' body. Fraudrin kicked Hendrickson before lunged to Arthur who stood in front of the door, his only way to run away "move aside, you weak King!".
Arthur smirked and lifted his Excalibur Sword, simply pointing his sword to him "Deathpecker".
In result, Fraudrin got kicked by the waves of wind that hit him. After his back slammed on the wall, Lily fisted Fraudrin by the hair.
"idiot, what did you say about Arthur just now? Weak King, you said? I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you. Being trained by Cath Palug has increased his power level to 40.000 and with Excalibur Holy Sword, Arthur's power level right now is 63.000 meanwhile your power level only 31.000 right, Fraudrin?", lifting the tip of her spear on his neck, Lily glared down in disdainful "come to think of it, you are only the substitute, right? I believe you're the weakest amongst Ten Commandments but you have been acting all mighty... the likes of you, weaklings who don't know their limit or their place, unaware of their discapability, thinking they are inevitable while in fact they are nothing but the weakling ones, I only will give you one chance. Get out of this body right here and now or—".
Fraudrin scoffed "Or what? Are you gonna kill me? In case you forget, princess, your father, the ex-Crowned Demon Prince, that traitor died on our hand that night. That traitor—".
Ban gritted his teeth and stepped forward, about to yell at him but Arthur lifted his hand, halting him with hard expression on his own face. Lily slapped Fraudrin before slamming him on the ground.
"...I understand well, you really want to die", with cold fury on her blue eyes that sharp as the blade, Lily lifted her spear "I have no choice but to kill Dreyfus along with you".
Hendrickson pleaded "Lady Lily, no!".
Next second, Lily felt her heart lurching out of her chest. She clutched her chest before she dropped to her knees, her spear falling on the floor. Fraudrin didn't waste this chance, he lifted his sword to send the death blow to her but Arthur was faster.
"Deathpecker!", ignoring to where Fraudrin would land, Arthur quickly picked Lily and patted her cheek "Lily, hold yourself together!", when Lily regained her consciousness and she blinked away her tears, Arthur grew more concerned "what's wrong? Where does it hurt?".
"this feeling... no doubt, it's him!", wiping away her tears, Lily clutched his white cape "Arthur, bring me to my father!".
"...are you sure he's back already?", earning Lily's earnest nods, looking down to joy sparks on her eyes and the sincerity of her bright smile (he remembered this was the first time for him to see it and he carved to his heart how lovely it was), Arthur made sure that her feelings and emotions, her heart had returned. Now he was sure as well that finally, Meliodas had revived back to life "okay, can you stand?".
Lily smiled sheepishly as she reached out her hands to him, truth to be told, her legs felt like jelly right now after she was using her magic power too much "well, it's a shame of me... but I can't stand...".
Arthur knew it well about what happened, this was not the first time, after all "hold tight on me, then".