I do not own Seven Deadly Sins or any of their characters.
Leftovers
Oswald watched from the top of the wall in silence, Jericho standing at his side. It had been days since Meliodas's death, and Melascula, who had somehow survived Escanor, had summoned an army of Red and Grey Demons. The Holy Knights of Liones had been trying to fight them, but it was a losing battle. A single Red Demon could kill a dozen Holy Knights before dying, without a Sin or their close friends present. And the Grey Demons were even worse. As a result, they were being rapidly pushed back. On the other hand, Jericho's training was coming along rapidly. She was quickly getting the hang of her ice power, with her brother's help, and her sword skills were quickly getting back to where they were after drinking Demon's Blood.
And then, of course, there were the other things that were coming along. For one, both Arthur and Merlin had begun trying to woo Merlin, who had been...receptive to their attempts. However, she was almost equally receptive to both of their attempts, much to the other's ire. She didn't seem to care about one over the other, despite clearly caring for both. She seemed to love them both equally. Diane and King had also finally gotten together, and had both gone to protect the Fairy Forest, everyone agreeing that Liones had enough protection with Merlin, Ban, and Oswald all staying there.
"Arthur's heading south to fight the demons tomorrow," Jericho finally said, breaking the silence. "That weird guy with the katana's going with him, I think."
"Yeah," Oswald nodded, glancing down and to the left where he could just see the tip of his bow's lower blade sticking out beside him. "Merlin's probably not too happy. Escanor's probably excited."
"Yeah," Jericho snorted. "Three whole days of having Merlin to himself."
Oswald nodded, eyes drifting up to the horizon, senses extending until he could feel Derieri. The moment he did, he felt her own senses lock onto his, thought she made no move to go after him.
"We could go after her, if you want," Jericho said, resting her hand on his. "We could try to capture her."
"No," Oswald said. "The others would just interfere. If that was what I wanted, I could just have Merlin bring her here herself."
Jericho nodded. "What is she to you?"
"She's...it's...complicated," Oswald said.
Jericho watched his features sink for a second before reaching up and cupping his cheek, turning his head so he was looking at her. She reached up, pausing for a second to see if he'd pull away before closing the distance, pressing her lips to his. Oswald sighed, turning toward her and leaning into the kiss slightly. Jericho let out something close to a whimper and wrapped her arms around his neck. It wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first one that wasn't in the middle of sex. It was also the first time Oswald had reciprocated immediately.
After a few seconds, she pulled away, smiling. "For a second there, I almost thought maybe I was making progress."
"Maybe," Oswald mumbled, Jericho staring at him. "Come on. It's time for your training."
She nodded, smiling and following after him to the training room where Veronica and Guila were training. Apparently, Guila had been training Veronica ever since they had sent her back to Liones, but had failed to find Oswald's new weapon because she had been sent to reinforce Bartra's brother, Sir Denzel, in the outer regions after Fraudrin had destroyed their base.
"Hello you two," Guila smiled. "How'd you sleep?"
"Not to bad," Oswald said, drawing his weapon and separating it. "Almost didn't have any nightmares about fighting the Ten Commandments last night."
Guila nodded, returning to her sparring session with Veronica while Oswald turned to Jericho, the two beginning to clash rapidly. Jericho did well, managing to hold her own for several minutes at a time before losing. Not that Oswald was doing anything even remotely resembling using his full power, but it was still improvement. After about two hours of sparring, they called it a day, Jericho leaving to get cleaned up while Oswald, not having worked up a sweat, headed out of the castle, walking through the town in silence. It felt wrong. Without Meliodas, the world seemed...darker. Emptier. And everyone seemed to feel it, because everyone was walking around like they were lost.
Oswald slowed to a stop as he reached an intersection, seeing Ban walking along a road off to the side, Elaine floating along beside him. Oswald was torn by the fact that Elaine was still alive. One the one hand, it meant Ban wasn't alone. On the other, it meant Melascula was still alive, despite Ban's insistence that he had crushed all of her hearts. Oswald sighed. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe she was too weak to move, or even recover properly, and would never be a problem again. He seriously doubted that was the case, but if it was, he was perfectly fine with letting Melascula live in that condition.
"Oswald," Merlin's voice said from behind him, Oswald turning and raising an eyebrow upon seeing she was alone, which hadn't happened since Vaizel. "Would you mind coming to my workshop for a bit? I have a million questions to ask, and I could use your help with a couple experiments."
"I suppose," Oswald shrugged. "But you're not cutting me."
Merlin chuckled and nodded, teleporting them both back to her workshop, one of the many experiment rooms. In it, Escanor was seated on a table in his massively over-muscled form.
"Hey Escanor," Oswald greeted him.
"Hello," Escanor replied.
"So, first question, can you shed some light on Escanor's...abilities?" Merlin asked. "You've been around longer than I have, so I figured maybe you knew something I didn't?"
"Not by much longer I'd guess," Oswald said. "You're definitely too smart for the age you look. As for Escanor, as I'm sure you've already riddled out, his power, Sunshine, isn't just a magic power. It's one of the Graces."
"Graces?" Escanor asked.
"The four Graces were powers given to the four Archangels that once rivalled the Ten Commandments for power," Merlin said.
"Sunshine was the power given to the strongest of the four, Mael," Oswald said. "Sunshine outclassed the other three Graces combined, and with it, Mael was unbeatable. Or, so everyone thought. He was eventually killed by Estarossa, the same Commandment that killed Meliodas. With his defeat, the Goddess Race lost hope of defeating the Demon Clan, and sealed them all away in the Coffin of Eternal Darkness. At the same time, Mael's death was thought to have erased Sunshine from existence. So how you came to have it, I can't fathom. Not only should any Grace burn a human being to ash if they acquired it, but Sunshine in particular should be impossible for a human to wield. If nothing else it should have turned you into a supernova the first time it activated, if not just burning you to ash. Maybe you're not all human."
"I had considered that, but aside from Sunshine, there's no indication that he's anything other than human," Merlin said.
"Maybe he's Mael's reincarnation?" Oswald offered. "Sunshine could have followed him to his next life, if he had one. Or maybe he's the embodiment of Sunshine. Maybe Sunshine's power created him so that it'd have a host?"
Merlin hummed thoughtfully. "All interesting ideas. No way to prove any of them, of course. And even if one of them were true, Escanor is still Escanor first and foremost."
"True," Oswald nodded. "So Escanor, just how high does your power get at noon?"
"The highest Merlin has recorded is in the neighborhood of sixty thousand," Escanor said.
"I figured," Oswald said.
"Why?" Escanor asked.
"Sunshine multiplies its hosts power," Oswald said. "In a Goddess, it would take them to the hundreds of thousands if they naturally had a decent power. But with you, if it went much higher than sixty thousand, it'd kill you, even if you are able to survive having it. However, I'm sure there's a time limit for that as well. Sunshine will burn you out eventually."
Escanor remained silent.
"So, did you need anything else?" Oswald asked.
"I want to know your story," Merlin said.
"Solid no," Oswald said.
"Then no," Merlin said. "That's all."
Oswald nodded and turned, walking through her workshop to the exit, then left, heading to the nearest blacksmith. It had been a while since he'd forged anything, but he enjoyed doing it, so he got a job working for the blacksmith for a bit, earning a handsome reward for it as well, since he more than tripled the blacksmith's usual work. Then, once the blacksmith had paid him, he set to work on his own projects. First, he pulled out the pieces of Meliodas's sword that was gifted to him by Elizabeth, reforging that while also adding his own Holy Magic, strengthening the magic and making it extremely effective against demons. It wasn't Lostvayne, but he had made it a lot more useful for whoever ended up with it. Then, he used some leftover metal the blacksmith had, which he first purified multiple times over, and reforged his broken sword. He had liked that sword and he was mad it broke. Granted, he was stronger and better with the bow, but he had taken a liking to the sword.
Finally he finished his work as the sun was setting and sheathed his sword before picking up Meliodas's and walking away, heading back to the castle. Jericho met him at the door.
"Where were you?" she asked, hands on her hips. "I was worried when you didn't come back."
"I had to find a blacksmith shop, then traded my services in order to be allowed to use it," Oswald said. "I wanted my sword back. And I wanted to reforged this while we had the time." He held up Meliodas's sword.
"What's that?" Jericho asked. "It's so short."
"Yeah, it's really only useful for child-sized people," Oswald said. "But it's now strong against demons, so it should serve someone well. Maybe Elaine."
Jericho nodded, following him as he walked inside and toward the stairs. They walked in silence, reaching the room they were sharing, at Jericho's request, after a few minutes and Oswald dropped onto his front on the bed.
"Boots off the bed," Jericho said, not even looking over at him as she started to get ready for bed. "And go clean up. You smell like a forge."
Oswald sighed loudly before complying. A few minutes later, he returned and climbed into bed, Jericho scooting over and laying her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him, one of his wrapping around her as well. After a few minutes, he felt Jericho drift off and sighed, looking down at her. He gently brushed a couple strands of hair out of her face, smiling to himself. She was beautiful. And he had to admit that she was important to him, despite his best efforts. All of the others had accepted him, despite being a Nephilim, but none as openly or readily as Jericho. He felt bad for ever having doubted whether she would or not. He still hated himself for being one, but he was glad she didn't. And because she didn't, he had to admit she had managed to worm her way into his heart a bit. However, as he lay there, watching her sleep, a different face flickered into his mind before being forced out again. No. he wouldn't allow those thoughts to surface. He forbade them from showing themselves, and he refused to allow them. Finally, he managed to drift off to sleep, only for the face to dominate his dreams.
Oswald drew his sword, leaving his bow where it was. After all, he was supposed to be training, no point in using the weapon that made it easiest yet, right? The Grey Demons lumbered toward them and he and Arthur crouched, readying themselves, Jericho standing behind them, holding her own sword at the ready.
"Watch for an opening Jericho," Oswald said.
"Right," Jericho nodded.
Arthur shot forward first, sidestepping the first slash before jumping and splitting the demon across the torso, making it fall backward, crashing to the ground, wounded but alive. The second Grey Demon opened its mouth, firing a blast of flames like a beam, only for them to explode against Oswald's Heaven's Shield. Then, as the flames faded, Oswald smirked.
"Now!" Jericho shouted, sprinting past him and into the smoke as Oswald shot into the sky, the Grey Demon firing another blast at him, missing this time. Then, Jericho leapt out of the smoke at the demon. "Godspeed Ten Slashes!"
Her sword tore into the demon rapidly, making it stagger backward at the end, wounded but still standing, at last until Oswald dropped past it, splitting it down the front with his sword and killing it. He turned as the other demon pushed itself up and reached for Jericho, only for her to turn and swipe an arm toward it, massive chunks of ice forming and stabbing into it, making it collapse again, Arthur landing on its chest and stabbing down into its head.
"We won!" Jericho cheered.
"Well done," Oswald smiled. "You've come a long way."
"Only thanks to you," Jericho smiled.
"You have too, Your Majesty," Oswald said.
"You're an excellent teacher," Arthur said.
Oswald snorted. "Hardly. I've been training you for all of two days before this trip. It's all because of your own raw talent."
"Jericho improved that much from a couple days training with you," Arthur said.
"Not nearly," Oswald snorted. "She got faster, sure, but her power only went up when she learned to use her magic properly. And also, Jericho's got some natural skill of her own."
Jericho blushed slightly but blushed, however, it faded as she looked up, seeing Blue Demons flying toward them.
"Reinforcements," Jericho said.
Oswald sheathed his sword and drew his bow, drawing it back and firing rapidly, dropping demons quickly. However, the last dozen or so opened fire, Oswald forming a Heaven's Shield to block the fireballs.
"Alright Merlin," Oswald said. "I think we're about done here. Bring us home."
After a moment of nothing happening, all three blinked and found themselves in Liones Castle, Guila, Gowther, Ban, Elaine, Veronica, Escanor, and Merlin all present. Merlin walked over and hugged Arthur, smiling.
"Welcome back," Merlin smiled. "You did well."
"Thank you," Arthur smiled. "Thanks for pulling us out."
"You could have handled them," Merlin said. "Or, at the very least, Oswald could have."
"Yes but they would have been in danger," Oswald said. "For now, the Blue Demons are fine to do whatever they're ordered to do, which is basically nothing."
Merlin nodded. "It's hard to believe it's been almost three weeks already. The war is progressing better than we expected."
"Barely," Oswald said. "We're barely holding any ground, and we have yet to even begin to try to retake Camelot. Yet we still lose Holy Knights every day. By the time we do try, we won't have the manpower anymore."
"It'll be alright," Jericho said. "We'll have you and Merlin. If nothing else, Merlin can just put us all in Perfect Cubes and we'll ram the Ten Commandments."
Oswald actually laughed at that. "That would be something to see. Come on Arthur, Jericho. It's time for training."
Both nodded and followed him out of the room.
Oswald narrowed his eyes as he stared at the smoke curling into the air just beyond the wall. A little over a month. They'd held out for as long as they could, but eventually they'd been pushed back to the wall. All that remained was Liones. Behind Oswald, Jericho was hurriedly strapping on her armor. Oswald turned, walking over to her and catching her hand as she was reaching for her sword.
"Stay with His Majesty and the queen," Oswald said.
"What!?" Jericho scoffed. "Not a chance! I'm going to help fight! It's what I've been training for!"
"You're not strong enough," Oswald said. "There are six of them here. You can't fight them. Please, stay with the king. For me."
"I'm going to be helping you fight for you," Jericho said.
Oswald leaned in, capturing her lips for several seconds before pulling back. "I need you to promise me you won't leave the king's side, and that you won't go near a Commandment."
"I...I promise," Jericho said. "But you have to promise to come back alive."
"I promise to try," Oswald said.
Jericho nodded. "Okay. Go."
Oswald nodded, pulling his cuirass on, then his trench coat over it, grabbing his sword and bow and turning, jumping off the balcony and flying toward the Gate.
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