The kids screamed, scrambling away as the flames hit a stone wall. Ban tilted his head towards Gelda when she silently stepped to his side, glowering at the kid who had dodged her attack. From the corner of his eye, Ban spotted Ellen and her brother rush back towards their house, and he relaxed minutely.
Now they could deal with this brat.
Well. "They" wasn't entirely correct. Gelda could deal with this brat, Ban had to deal with the spear currently impaling him.
Hands still ablaze, Gelda held very still as she glanced around, listening intently. There was a tutting sound behind them, and she whirled around. She snarled silently at the child - though she was beginning to doubt whether it was truly a kid, or at least a human child. Human children don't typically fly or have control of spears.
Gelda shot another ball of fire at him before he could say anything else, forcing him to fly higher and out of her range. He scowled at her and with a flick of his wrist, his spear shot out of Ban, leaving him keeling over and coughing up blood. The spear transformed, hundreds of small knives taking its place.
She bared her teeth at the boy and just as the kid sent the knives rushing toward her, Gelda vanished and appeared just out of his reach. Her fingers sparked, preparing another attack - if she could just get behind the kid and knock him out, she would have time to think and maybe they could find out just who this person was and why the hell they seemed to have a grudge against Ban.
The Fox Sin seemed to have the same idea, having just narrowly dodged the attack meant for Gelda, his chest almost completely healed now. He was glaring at the kid, who looked to not even be breaking a sweat.
A cocky grin split across Ban's face, and Gelda let the small flames dwindle into nothing for a moment. The heat remained in her palms, ready to set something alight in a moment's notice, but if Ban was about to do what Gelda thought he was going to do - which, she was fairly certain he was; he wasn't known as the second most arrogant Sin among the group for no reason - then she would have a moment to figure things out, plan on where to go from here.
Because things were just not adding up.
Ban used Snatch on the rake Ellen's brother had attacked him with and lunged at the floating boy.
Gelda backed further out of their range while watching the boy closely, watching as he effortlessly glided out of Ban's way but so easily fell for the bait, no longer paying Gelda any mind, instead focusing his attention solely on Ban.
A spear that could turn into knives. Or was it knives that could transform into a spear?
His weapon transformed smoothly, and when he wasn't dodging Ban he managed to get in a few good hits. The only thing Ban had going for him in this fight was his healing.
And the kid seemed to know that.
Gelda narrowed her eyes as he consistently aimed for Ban's chest. It wouldn't kill him, obviously. Nothing could - Ban's body would always return to its previous state. It was why Ban tended to take a lot of heavy hits in battles past, or so she had been told. However, leaving a massive gaping hole in Ban's torso seemed to take just a little longer to heal than most of his other wounds.
Scratch seeming to know anything, this kid did know.
He knew exactly how to fight Ban. Maybe not win, but certainly he knew how to slow him down.
The question was how?
How would a child know how to slow Ban down?
Almost as though reading her mind, the kid laid a hit on Ban that should have sent him halfway across Tala. Before Ban could go flying that far, however, not even before he would have been sent over the wall of this little courtyard, the kid's weapon transformed into a green pillow.
Ban fell to the ground, and Gelda felt almost as stupid as that Twigo guy.
Ban hauled himself up, swaying only just slightly, and silently damning Gelda for stepping out of the fight. Seriously, what was she waiting for? He had given her plenty of openings to light this brat up.
Well, whatever, Ban thought, huffing and turning to get an eye on the kid again. So lame, his mind continued, that you're getting beat by a goddamn child.
He didn't get much time to process more than that as the thing he'd slammed into the last time he was sent flying transformed again, once more that irritating spear, and damn was that a stupidly fast weapon. It shouldn't be that fast, not if it was just your everyday magical weapon. There weren't many in this world to begin with.
He braced for the impact, for the spear to once again impale him, his body moving too slow now to properly dodge.
Nothing happened.
When he twisted around, Gelda was standing between Ban and the kid, the spear inches from her face with only a ball of fire in her palm keeping the spear from progressing. The kid was clearly agitated, scowling at Gelda as if she had just murdered his puppy.
Gelda raised a single brow at the kid, utterly unimpressed by the look he was giving her.
The kid drew the spear back, slowly at first, but with a flick of his wrist the spear was sent flying and Ban was about to look away, keep it in his sight, but stopped dead when Gelda extinguished the fire in her hand and began signing.
"King."
Ban and the kid both stilled, two pairs of eyes trained on Gelda's hands. For a moment, no one moved at all.
"Wait, what?!" Ban yelled, stepping back and turning to the child, looking over him. The kid glared as he was scrutinized, hands clenching but not daring to make a sound. "How the fuck is that King?!"
If Gelda weren't facing the kid, Ban was sure she'd be staring at him like he was the biggest idiot in all the realms. As it were, her head rolled slightly, and Ban could imagine the eye roll she just did, barely containing a wince.
Before she could answer though, the sound of their captain rang out over them.
"Oh, you found King!"
Gelda and Ban turned to the blonde. Zeldris was close behind him, but there was no sign of the princess or the pig.
Meliodas was beaming, hitting a fist against Ban's chest so lightly that if it weren't for the captain's little brother tailing him Ban would have questioned if it was really Meliodas and not just a terrible imitation. Said brother was leveling the boy - the boy, because that was definitely not King, no matter what Gelda or the captain said - with a glare that spoke of all the things Zeldris likely wanted to do to the kid for even trying to harm his wife.
"Captain, do you need your eyes checked?" Ban asked, ignoring the hysterical note that entered his voice. "There is no way that's-"
There was a gasp far above them. "King!"
Ban jumped at Diane's exclamation, spinning to face the giant who had snuck up on the little group.
"Am I the only one who realizes that is not King?" His words echoed slightly through the empty village.
Zeldris raised an eyebrow at him over Meliodas' shoulder, unimpressed while Meliodas just looked a bit baffled. "What do you mean it's not King?" Meliodas asked. "It looks just like him! Right Zel?"
What Ban could only assume was understanding dawned on Zeldris' face before he huffed out a short laugh. "You never heard of King before the Sins," it sounded like a question, but it was clear there was no response expected because the answer was as clear as day.
Ban looked around at everyone, noting Gelda's amusement beside him and Diane's confused excitement as she stared at the boy. But most interesting was the kid's expression, a blank mask that was so familiar to what he'd seen on his captain numerous times it looked wrong on someone else's face, and it was so wrong it was too easy to see past it. It was almost too easy to see the conflict in the kid's eyes as they darted from the captain to himself to Diane then to Gelda and Zeldris then to the captain again.
More conversations were ensuing, Ban could vaguely hear it, but he wasn't paying much attention now. Probably wasn't important anyway. He narrowed his eyes at the boy.
He supposed the kid had some things similar to King. The hair color looked pretty spot on if Ban thought hard enough about what King looked like. That spear was too much like the one King had for Ban to be happy. The glare the kid couldn't help but send Ban's way had heat only those who had to deal with Ban could ever have.
It took him a bit to notice, too, but there was a familiar magic thrumming around them. Which was harder to explain through coincidence. But that wasn't what felt like the last straw.
It was Diane getting a little too close to the boy to see him better, putting him under her sole attention even as she debated with the captain. It was the boy realizing how close the giant was, and as soon as he did, the flush which overtook his entire face was too great for it to be anyone but King.
"Holy shit."
Somehow - and King didn't know how it had happened exactly, only that it happened - they had all returned to the tavern, giving a brief explanation to Princess Elizabeth and the talking pig. The two actual kids were with them too. The tavern was eerily quiet as Meliodas, Zeldris, and Gelda all signed to each other, far too quickly for King to keep up with after a decade of not seeing anyone signing. The little boy and his sister were sitting, confused but patient and quiet, at a random table inside. King had resigned himself to floating on Chastiefol outside, where Diane too was quite quiet and looking off past Tala.
King didn't know what was going to happen moving forward. He scowled at no one in particular, because Ban was in the kitchen but that was too far for King to hear. The pig - Hawk, King reminded himself - was there too; probably hoping that Ban would give him some scraps of food. The princess was sitting on the porch not that far from King, staring down at pages she kept tucked close to herself, only occasionally turning a page.
Eventually curiosity won over and King drifted closer to the princess, not once coming close to landing. She startled when he cleared his throat, the book almost tumbling off her lap. She didn't quite relax but a small, polite smile flashed across her face.
"Sir King! I didn't realize you were there," she said with a small laugh.
King hummed, nodding to the book. "What's that?" Her face flushed and she drew the book closer. "If you want to share, of course. You're under no obligations to," he was quick to add.
Elizabeth did relax at that, shaking her head with a small sigh, gaze returning to the book. "It's not- There's nothing too personal, I suppose. I… Before I started my journey, I compiled all the information I could on the Seven Deadly Sins, from what I and others remembered and from books." She chuckled. "I don't know why I'm reading them again. A lot of them are old stories, and some are just so vague they could be about pretty much anyone. Even my added notes."
She uncurled herself, settling more comfortably on the porch with King and splaying the book between them. King let Chastiefol drift down all the way to the ground so he could see.
The book was open to some notes about Gowther, which King guessed were probably the barest pages in the book. It was then King noticed some colored tabs poking out of the pages - seven total, equal space between them, but some pages looked more worn than others.
The page currently facing King was a theory he'd heard much of as well - rumor that the Rust Knight was one of the Sins. King leaned closer, the princess' scrawl much harder to read when it was clearly written in a rush. Her reasonings were pretty basic, but King supposed they were logical conclusions, and it wasn't like he had any evidence to the contrary. He didn't even know what Gowther actually looked like - only Merlin and the captain did.
To be fair, King thought, she did find some of us already. So maybe she's on the right track.
"Well, you've found four of the Sins. Which of us do you think we're likely to find next?" he asked.
"That all depends on where we go next, I think." Elizabeth flipped to the beginning of her book and unfolded a map she had tucked there. She pushed the book aside to flatten the map, allowing King to see exactly what path she had taken so far.
She tapped the Liones capital and traced her finger along a line of red ink. "I'll be honest, I started off in a random direction without much thought other than just… a gut instinct, I suppose. It was completely by chance that I stumbled into the Boar Hat and found Sir Meliodas." Her finger stopped on a circled hill. King vaguely remembered Twigo being rescued from that area. "I also compared my map to the one Sir Meliodas, Sir Zeldris, and Lady Gelda already had. I'm not as well-versed in geography as I'd like to be, and names of places are harder to remember, so when they started helping me I couldn't remember what I had already ruled out and what I hadn't."
"You didn't just grab this map because…?"
Her cheeks once again took on a pink hue. "Would you believe me if I said I forgot?" King raised an eyebrow, and Elizabeth's face flushed a deeper red as she laughed nervously. "I guess I was so caught up over the fact I'd managed to find just one Sin, and distracted by some other things I was slowly learning, it really just slipped my mind."
King hummed again, squeezing Chastiefol. "You didn't answer my first question."
"What ques… oh, right!" Elizabeth drummed her fingers against her leg. "Next sin. It might be Sir Escanor. I have heard stories of his abilities, and they are rather hard to miss. It would be a massive amount of power someone would have to try hiding, and that would take a very powerful spell. Then again, he has evaded arrest for a decade now.
"Lady Merlin is much less likely to be found. From what my father has said, Lady Merlin is crafty, and her magical prowess is extraordinary. Which means if she does not want to be found, we probably won't be able to find her."
"And Gowther?"
Elizabeth hesitated. "Sir Gowther is… complicated. No one has ever seen what he looks like, only his armor. And armor can be abandoned. Sir Gowther could be dead, in hiding, or wandering the world somewhere in broad daylight. And considering what's actually known about Sir Gowther's past is very little, it's near impossible to assume where we might be able to find him.
"Our best bet," she continued, "would probably be looking in the Necropolis first. Not only for Sir Gowther, in case he's dead, but for any of the others since… well, death is unpredictable… even the most powerful person in the world has to die at some point."
"I don't know Princess." Elizabeth and King jolted, heads snapping up to see Ban leaning against the doorframe with an infuriating smirk. Gods did King not miss that face. "While I wouldn't dream of calling myself the most powerful, technically I can't die. I won't ever die. There are some things in the world that are just… going to last forever."
King scoffed, uncurling from Chastiefol and floating up to be at Ban's eye level. "Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you're invincible-" King gestured to his own neck, mirroring the place Ban's scar resided, "-and you can still pseudo-die." Ban's smirk fell into a contemplative frown and he glanced away.
"What's this about Ban being able to die?" Meliodas asked, ducking under Ban and plopping down beside Elizabeth. "Because, gotta say, I'd be devastated to lose him after we only just got him."
"You'd be devastated, huh?" Ban was grinning, utterly disbelieving in the captain's words.
Meliodas nodded, a grim expression on his face. It only lasted for a few seconds before he laughed, settling more comfortably on the wooden steps.
"Well, I'd miss your cooking!"
"That is the one thing he's good for…" King muttered, crossing his arms as Ban barked a laugh.
"What King, are you jealous because Diane eats the food I make and not the crap you-"
"Alright children," Zeldris chided, elbowing Ban in the ribs as he passed with Gelda and the two little kids in tow. "Enough bickering." He looked down at Elizabeth, tilting his head at her. "Do you really think it'd be worth it to go to the Necropolis, even though we found King?"
Elizabeth hesitated for only a moment, before schooling her expression and nodding. "Absolutely. Even if we don't find another Sin, it wouldn't hurt to look."
"Then it's settled! To the Necropolis!"