"We finally meet, sin..." the knight said as he walked up to us.
"This power... he's..."
"Yeah," Meliodas agreed. "No mistake about it. He's a Holy Knight."
"Gilthunder, why are you...?" Elizabeth shouted at him.
"Elizabeth, you know him?" Meliodas asked her.
"He's... the Holy Kight... Gilthunder!" Elizabeth explained through her pain. "He's a Holy Knight very close to... the King... my father..."
"Gilthunder...?" Meliodas mumbled under his breath. "I remember that name from somewhere..."
"He always took care of me like a real little sister... He's... like a big brother to me..."
"Hey, Meliodas..." I started and he just nodded.
"Yeah, this lightning, the dammed river at Bernia, and the attempt to wipe out the villiage... it was all you, right?"
"Meliodas-sama! That's a terrible thing to say!" Elizabeth shouted at him. "He's not the kind of person who would do such a..." She took another look at Gilthunder and shivered at his cold, dark look. "This... is the same feeling as Bernia... It's a lie... right? You... can't be...!"
"Elizabeth," Gilthunder stopped her talking. "The kingdom's top priorityis to ensure your safety, but that's got nothing to do with me." He raised his hand and pointed at her and I prepared to jump in if needed. "Whether you live or die... is like a grain of sand in the path to the Holy Knight's rule." The lightning disappeared from arund her, her pale skin red from where the lightning danced over her. "Leave. I only have business with the sins." She moved in front of us and held out her arms trying to protect us from him.
"I won't let you lay a hand on them! Release your spell and let them go!" She ordered.
"BRRRRRRR...!" Hawk crawled to Elizabeth, his hide roasting between the two bands of lightning on him. "I'm finished."
"Hawk-chan! Hang on!" Elizabeth bent down to him, but Gilthunger kicked him away from the rest of us. "Hawk-chan!" Elizabeth immiedatly trailed after him and we all watched her go when Gilthunder held his blade at Meliods' neck.
"Do you know why we're after your heads?" Gilthunder asked us.
"I dunno." Meliodas told him. "Seriously, no idea."
"Some say it's because the Holy Knights want to purge the traitorous knights who tried to over throw the kingdom. While others say it's because we want to prove our strength by fighting the legendary Eight." Gilthunder explained.
"And... which might you be?" Meliodas asked him.
"Both. Revenge for killing my father, the great Holy Knight Zaratras, who was once called the strongest Holy Knight. And by killing you all, I can prove I've surpassed my father." He explained to us.
"The son of the great Holy Knight...?" Meliodas questioned while thinking on the knight's words. "Oh, I remember! Little Gil!"
"The kid who was always following us around, saying he wanted to be like us?" I questioned looking the man over and comparing him to the boy I remembered from 10 years ago.
"You sure have grown!" Meliodas said excitedly turning to him, but the knight had moved from his position behind my brother to standing right in front of him.
"That's in the past," Gilthunder told him. "I'm stonger than any of you sins, now."
"That might be true," Meliodas agreed looking at him from the corner of his eye. "But you don't know that for sure."
"Then I'll let you go, and we'll see." Gilthunder raised his hand to release his lightning, but Meliodas just shook his head.
"Nah, don't bother." The three of us broke the lightning containing us. Meliodas stretched out his shoulders while I raised my arms above my head in a long stretch. "If I'd felt like it, I could've broken out whenever I wanted."
"If I felt like it, I could wipe you out along with the forest." Gilthunder told us and I just shrugged.
"Hmmm..." Meliodas appeared to think on it for a second before grinning at the knight. "That's impossible."
"Then I'll kill you."
"Right back at you." Meliodas kept his eyes on his former student while speaking to us. "Don't interfere, Diane, Ashlee."
"You're taking all the fun, again." I sighed before taking a more relaxed position.
"'Kay Captain."
"Too embarrassed to lose a fight, even if it's three against one?" Gilthunder asked him while they both slammed a foot next to the other and stared. "Don't you get it? I'm trying to be polite." Lightning wrapped around Gilthunder's hands and sword while Meliodas grabbed the handle of his broken blade. As Gilthunder brought his blade down, lightning fell from the sky where Meliodas was standing, but Meliodas swiped his blade once sending the magic back it its owner.
"Didn't I say? Right back at you." Gilthunder appeared behind Meliodas, lightning still running up and down the blade he held above his shoulder.
"Didn't I say? I'll kill you." Gilthunder brought his blade down once more and this time he cut Meliodas through his shoulder and down his back. I heard Diane gasp next to me and I clenched my hands until my nails dug into my palms. Meliodas turned as he fell so he landed on his back and stared up in shock at the sky above the fog still swirling around us. "Meliodas, the Dragon's Sin of Wrath, any last words?"
"The other... s... The other Eight... The rest of our group... I wanted... to know... what hap... pened to... them..."
"Very well," Gilthunder agreed. "Of the remining five, the whereabouts of three remain unknown. But we already know where the other two are. The Fox's Sin of Greed is imprisoned in the Baste dungeon, the the Grizzly's Sin of Sloth perished in the Capital of the Dead." Meliodas slowly closed his eyes before they slammed open with another grin to show the world.
"Thanks!" He brought his legs over his head before jumping onto his feet squatting.