"Meliodas and the others realized the Holy Knights were coming," Elizabeth murmured, barely audible above the rabble. "That's why they put on that act, to get everyone away…"
I nodded in agreement. I had sensed the approach as well, but only moments before their arrival. Now, I was frozen in place, terror running through my veins. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?...
"That equipment… is on par with Sacred Treasures."
"Guila's probably incomparably stronger than when we met in the Capital of the Dead. Especially since there's three of them. Let's first split up!"
I had only barely caught the conversation between the sins before they disappeared, splitting into different directions. Their departure was marked with another explosion, this one directed at the town near the base of the boulder. My ears rang from the sound, and I quickly covered my ears, focusing only on regaining my composure. By the time I focused back on my surroundings, I was alone. All the civilians had left the area. Even Hawk and Elizabeth were gone.
Truthfully, it was the first time I had been truly alone in many, many years. If it wasn't for the distant screaming of townspeople and the sounds of ongoing fights, I might have thought that I was the only person left in the world. Wait, now that I think about it, have I ever actually been alone?
Another explosion - this one shaking the ground on which I stood - pulled me out of my revery. Not the time for daydreaming!
"Well, if I can't fight," I spoke to myself, rising into the air, "then perhaps I could at least help evacuate people."
Soon, I was standing in the rubble-filled streets of Vaizel. Many colorful tents still stood, but just as many were ripped, torn, or buried under fallen chunks of stone and brick. Almost everyone was already gone, but a few panicked voices sounded throughout the area. A little ways down the road, where more people were swiftly making their way away from the town, one of the contenders from the festival was helping people to evacuate. I remembered that his name was Howzer, and that Harlequin had said that he was a Holy Knight.
So three Holy Knights appear and attack, not caring if civilians are hit, and another is helping the people? What's going on?
Howzer caught a child that had tripped, setting him back on his feet. "Gotcha!" His voice travelled to me, loud and clear. "Listen everyone! Get away from the town, and don't look back!" Another explosion landed near him, making him jump away from where he had been standing. "Damn those Seven Deadly Sins. They've made a real mess of things now!"
"What?" I couldn't help myself from saying the words aloud. "They aren't the ones causing trouble, though. The Holy Knights are!" Is he trying to make the people hate Meliodas and them more, or does he really not realize?
But he didn't hear me. Instead, Howzer was helping a couple of the civilians that were struggling. Once he got some of the other people to help them, he turned back towards the direction of where the fighting festival had been - towards me. He dashed towards me, and I tensed and prepared myself mentally to have to fight, but apparently that wasn't what he had in mind.
As he approached, his eyes momentarily locked onto me, and he called out. "Hey, you! Don't you see that everyone is leaving? The Seven Deadly Sins decided to attack the town. You should get going." He passed me, and by the time that I turned to see where he was going, he was already a good ways down the street, turning a corner.
Letting out the breath I had been holding, I realized something. "Oh, I guess that most of them wouldn't recognize me. Only that Griamore guy would…" I'll just have to hope he doesn't show up. Then I noted, "Hmmm, if he already got everyone out of here, I guess there's no point in my plan to help with evacuations… Now what?"
As if in answer, another explosion went off in the distance, away from where I had come from. It was followed by yet more explosions and shouts. That must be where most of the fighting is going on. Do I go towards the fighting or away from it… If I went towards it, I'd just get in the way, so away it is! Decision made, I turned back towards the boulder on which the tournament had been held. The path I took followed in Howzer's footsteps, but I was certain that this would be better than going towards the explosions. Surely most, if not all, of the Sins were over there anyway; there'd be no point in my being over there. Right?
"It's gone! Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone!" Diane's voice sounded from up ahead as I approached my destination. "My Sacred Treasure Gideon is gone! Maybe the Holy Knights hid it somewhere… Aaaargh! What do I do?!"
"That's the giant hammer that was here, right?" I asked when I came into sight of her. At this point she was even larger than she had been before the group separated, and she towered over me. Though she wasn't nearly back to full height yet.
She whipped around to look at me, her face relaxing a degree upon recognizing me, only for another voice to make itself heard from behind some fallen rocks.
"Diane, the Seven Deadly Sins' Serpent Sin of Envy… That's as far as you go! Don't try anything funny!"
Diane turned again so quickly that I was surprised she didn't get whiplash, and called out a name. "Howzer?!"
For that's who it was that stood before us. Howzer, in full armor that only left his head bare, stood there, glaring at Diane. In his left hand he held a lance that had a corkscrew pattern going down the length of it. "You're after your Sacred Treasure, aren't you?"
"You mean Gideon?" The giantess's face was innocently curious before an accusatory note made its way into her voice and she pointed at the Holy Knight. "Ah! So you hid my Sacred Treasure, didn't you?!"
"How would I know?!" He seemed slightly confused.
"I mean," I finally spoke from my place behind Diane. "Wouldn't you know whether or not you were the one to hide it? Though I highly doubt you did, since I just saw you in town evacuating civilians…" My voice trailed off, uncertain.
"Y-you!" Howzer exclaimed. "I thought I told you to get out of here! It's not safe for a kid to be here. And why are you here with one of the Seven Deadly Sins?"
"But I'm not a kid…"
He shook his head, as though dismissing me, before turning back to Diane. "For the murder of the Chief of the Holy Knights and plotting to overthrow the kingdom ten years ago, I am putting you under arrest as a Holy Knight!"
"But I didn't do any of those things," Diane said with a slight tilt to her head.
"L...Liar!" Howzer seemed flustered as he denied her words.
"I doubt she's lying, though." I also doubted that my words were of any use, but I spoke anyway. "While the Seven Deadly Sins may do some crazy things, I don't think they'd betray anyone. I mean really! Meliodas-san just stopped those other Holy Knights from destroying a good portion of Vaizel and killing all of the people attending the fighting festival. Not to mention that Diane-sama saved my life just a few days ago. And all those explosions destroying the town are coming from one of the Holy Knights! I think her name was Guila…?"
Diane glanced at me, seeming a little surprised as my outburst. Though a smile showed her gratitude, along with her agreement with my words.
"You would defend traitors to the kingdom…" But his face looked uncertain. "And Guila… She certainly is a Holy Knight, but she'd with Hendrickson's faction… I didn't know anything of her coming here… In… In any case!"
A muffled noise sounded from behind, drawing Diane's attention, and a man's weak voice could be heard. "My legs…"
Ignoring Howzer, Diane turned and rushed to the origin of the voice. A man - obviously a civilian that had been caught in the crossfire - was pinned under a large pile of fallen rubble. His legs weren't even visible under the remains of the house on top of him. "Oh… Oh, no! He must've gotten caught in Guila's explosions!" She started pulling at the chunks of house, quickly unburrying them man with her giant strength. "Just hold on!"
"H-Hey! I told you not to move!" Howzer complained, taking a few steps towards the collapsed building.
"You want her to just leave the man crushed under rubble?!" I couldn't believe that he would want that. He just didn't seem like someone who would think that way. But when I had turned my attention to the Holy Knight, I noticed that there was another man in armor approaching behind him. Another Holy Knight? This one was wearing red armor that completely hid the shape of his body, making him look almost like some weird kind of shapeless bug or something. He held what kind of looked like to rounded clubs that rattled slightly with every step he took. Musical instruments?
"Well…" Howzer ground his teeth together.
"What'cha waiting for?" the bug-looking knight asked when he was right behind Howzer. "If you can't do it, how 'bout I do?" And when Howzer turned to look at him, he added, "Howdy."
"Marmas! You came too?"
This guy seems like a weirdo…
"I'm supervisin' the New Generation. Though… Without their Sacred Treasures, even the Seven Deadly Sins ain't no enemy to us," Marmas said before starting to shake the instruments he held. He started to shake them up and down, dancing a little around them as they rattled, and singing seemingly nonsensical sounds.
Quickly, Diane urgently called out to the one closest to her. "Hey, Howzer! Take this man-"
Suddenly it was like an invisible force was pushing her to the ground. She was using all of her strength just to keep her body upright while being crouched over the civilian.
"Wha-?" I started, only for the Holy Knight Marmas to speak over me.
"Gravity X10!" he chanted.
"What… is this? My body's so heavy…!" She had to shout to get the words out.
I guess I didn't get away from the fighting, after all! The words passed through my head as soon as I could register what was happening.
The man that Diane was holding started bending over under the weight of his own body, making unnerving cracking noises.
Realizing what needed to be done, Diane threw the man to Howzer. "Hold onto him, Howzer!"
As soon as the Holy Knight had caught him, the earth broke open under the giantess, causing her to fall deep, deep into a dark chasm that now yawned in front of me. Her shouting lasted for a moment, before it, too, was swallowed by the darkness.
"Di-Diane-sama?!" I murmured, only to be overshadowed by Howzer's louder wail.
"DIANE!" He stood at the edge of the precipice, looking into the the gaping hole with a horrified expression on his face.
"If- if only Zephyr wasn't hurt. If he were here, he could've caught her in those shadows and brought her back…" I spoke to myself.
"Why'd anyone wanna save one of the Seven Deadly Sins?" Marmas asked, suspicion glinting in his eyes. He held his weapons slightly higher than where they had been resting at his sides.
"Y-you!" Anger bubbled up in me, causing me to shout. "You! Didn't you see that she was saving an innocent bystander?! Of course I'd want to save her! She's one of the good guys, no matter what anyone else says. And even if she wasn't, Diane is my friend!" It's now or never… I grabbed my emerald cloak from my shoulders, throwing it into the air. In doing so, my wings perked up, catching the light of day and throwing colors everywhere. "Dyrnwyn First Form: Dyrnwyn!"
My cloak - the one that I always carried - was suddenly engulfed in light. A second later, the light dissipated, revealing a spear floating in the air. The shaft was the same dark green as it had been as a cloak, but it was tipped with a gold-colored spearhead. But instead of being flat as Harlequin's Chastiefol had been, Dyrnwyn had three edges that all came together to form a single point. A matching blade, only much smaller, adorned the bottom of the spear. And under the three sided spear head were what appeared to be three outward-curving bladed crescents in a matching gold that attached the spearhead to the shaft. Or, it looked like there should have been three, as they were each under one of the three edges of the spearhead, but there were only two crescents - one of the spaces was empty. Other than said crescents, there was only a thin, gold beam that connected the spearhead to the shaft.
It's been a long time since Dyrnwyn has been out of its cloak form. I just hope I still know how to use it - if I ever really did...
(A/N)
Here it is: one of the chapters I've been dreading. It's revealed what Zinnia's cloak is. I've been really worried about this, because I feel that there might be readers that get the wrong idea from this reveal. But it's an integral part of the story, so I guess I'll just have to bear with it if people decide to leave.