Everyone stares at the pink haired sin, looking to him in shock, others in relief to see the being alive and well. Ban jumps to Gowther's side, hands in pocket, and looking down at him with a smirk. Gowther looks up to the tall man with an expressionless look.

"Woah, so back then you were wearing that armour huh?" Ban says, walking around Gowther to see just how small he was compared to his armour - Gowther following his gaze. "Guess I always figured it was some giant old man who was stuffed inside there."

"Given your posture, gait, tone of voice, attitude, as well as that scar, I presume that you're Ban, the undead." Gowther says, looking up at him.

"Now that's the Gowther I remember." Ban says with a chuckle.

"He's one of the Eight Deadly Sins too?" The brown haired woman says as Gowther looks to Meliodas.

"And that young boy who appears just as I remember him from years ago must be..." Gowther trails off.

"You got it! I'm Captain Meliodas, alright!" Meliodas says, smiling and pointing to himself.

"Hold on, this little squirt is the leader of the Eight Deadly Sins!?" The boy standing in front of Meliodas says, looking to him in shock.

"Yeah, surprised?"

"It's astonishing." Gowther adds.

"You saying that you can't tell from his face?" Ban says, walking to the other side of Gowther again. "Then what do you think of that guy?" Ban points up to King, who is still wrapped up in the electric, "You're ready for this one? That's King!"

"No, that's someone else. Bone structure, voice, and body odor, it all indicates another person, not King." Gowther says, staring up at King.

"Odor?" Ban questions and King just sighs before poofing into his other form.

"Creepy!" The brown haired woman says, jerking back and the electric around King dissipates.

"It is him then, undoubtedly" 

"Oi, watch your mouth lady! He is not creepy!" Y/N shouts, glaring at the woman as her wound heals itself up as Gowther stares over to Y/N.

"Given your protective nature over King, as well as your body shape, height, scent and scar, you must be Y/N."

"Hey, I'm not being protective! Just no one slanders anyone in this group!" Y/N says, turning her head to hide her slight blush, King doing the same.

"Aww how cute, they're blushing~" Ban drags out, only for clapping to interrupt them.

"Wonderful!" Slader says, "To meet not only Gowther but four of the Eight Deadly Sins? So happy!" He raises his arms to them, "Given the chance, I would love to challenge you but it's such a pity. In the very end, our mission is solely to return home with that Armor Giant's head."

"By the way, who's inside of that amour?" Meliodas questions, ignoring Slader.

"Well, I'm not really sure." Gowther replies, turning his head back to the giant. Y/N gives him a head tilt, resting her hands behind her head.

"You mean someone just walked up, took your amour off you and put it on, and you have no idea who?"

"Now then, time to get to work!" Slader says as he and his team ready their weapons.

"I'd actually prefer it if you left him alone, would you?" Gowther asks.

"What's going on, Gowther?" Ban questions, looking to him. "Just let those guys do what they want."

"Yeah, the fact is the only reason we tried to protect him in the first place is because we thought it was you." King adds as the armoured giant begins shaking.

"Right!" Meliodas agrees.

"Yuppers, but now we can just leave them to deal with this." Y/N says, gesturing to the Slader and his group. The giant suddenly lets out a loud roar as it stands up, destroying the armour from it's chest and showing it's muscly and scarred body.

"You felt this magical power first-hand, still think you can defeat him?" Gowther asks, looking up at the giant.

"That's right." Slader says. "I'll admit that two of us, no, make that one, will surely to die. But will surely claim this one's head too."

"A cool-headed assessment, I have no choice then." Gowther says, raising his hand, to which Slader tightens his hold on his weapon. Gowther then shoots his hand up, slicing the head of the giant, causing everyone to gasp out in shock. Gowther holds the head in his hand, walking towards Slader. "Take it with you."

"What are you doing?" He questions.

"It's the most peaceful way of resolving this." Gowther replies, "If a three-way battle were to occur between us now, the aftermath would mean the inevitable annihilation of Ordan's villagers below. And this way, the night's who perished wouldn't have died in vain."

"Hm, I accept your offer." Slader says, grabbing the head.

"Are you sure about this?!" The white haired knight questions. "That was our prey you just-"

"Silence!" Slader orders, "I like you, Gowther, the Goat Sin. So, out of respect for your legend, we'll withdraw." Slader turns his head to the sins, "But if by chance we're given the order to go after your heads one day, when that time comes, well, ta-ta!" Slader and his group turn and begin jumping away, leaving the Sins with the dead giant.

"Yes, Ta-Ta!" Gowther says, waving after them while the other four sins share a look.

"I'm kind of surprised, it looked like you had some sympathy for this monster." King says.

"Oh really? Was I sympathizing with him?" Gowther asks, tilting his head. King and Ban share a look of confusion.

"He was wearing your armour, wasn't he?" Y/N asks, looking to the giant. "Was he like your stand in or something?"

"Stand-in? No, though he effectively became one." Gowther replies before looking to the Giant too, "After all, you did mistake him for me."

"Yeah, well, it's not like we've ever seen your real face." Ban says, hands in pockets.

"I see, in other words, my disguise was unnecessary." Gowther says, playing with his pink hair.

"Sill, I've never seen a monster like this before." Meliodas says, walking over to the monsters hand.

"There's a faint odor wafting from the very depths of his magical power." Gowther says. "He was very likely human once." 

"Huh?"

"Human?!"

"Human? This thing?" Y/N says, kicking the monster lightly. Not even a second later one of it's smaller hands begin to move before it begins to rise up, and Y/N turns around with a sheepish smile. "Uhm...did I cause that? Oopsie daisy." The sins look up at the monster rising, King shifting into his big form and staring up in shock.

"Well then, let's try to contain him, the five of us." Gowther says, ripping off his yellow rain coat.

"Hold on...What's going on here?" Meliodas questions.

"As I said, the chaos would have been extreme if we clashed in a three-way battle."

"You-you chopped off his head, but he's still alive!" King shouts.

"Yes, it was already ornamental, anyway."

"What part of him was once human then? This is really weird!"

"Naturally, he was no ordinary human. That's the shell of a former Holy Knight." Gowther says, and the four tumour looking balls on it's chest open up to reveal mouths with long tongues, all roaring as a blond haired man is settled in the middle, seemingly fused with the creature.

"A shell of a Holy Knight?" King, now back to normal, says in shock.

"I'm sure you sense it." Gowther says, "Drifting alone the torrent of evil magical power... is the great power of the Holy knight. In order to suppress this incredibly evil force,  I had him wear my armour." Gowther explains, "But after repeated damage to it, the seal was broken."

"So, that's what's going on. Well, it doesn't exactly seem like the kind of guy you can reason with!" Meliodas says, readying his fists to fight. The giant raises it's hand before bringing it down to wear the sins were standing, all of whom have jumped away. "Let's do this!"

"Right!"

"Hell yeah!" 

Ban, Meliodas and Y/N all jump at the monster, kicking and punching at it's four faces on it's chest, however not long after they are hit away, and go flying back towards a rock. Luckily, King changes his pillow into the teddy bear and it catches the three sins safely.

luckily King used his pillow to create a wall to catch them. King floats above with his hands behind his head, snickering. 

"Come on, guys...when you go into battle, you should wait to see how your opponent strikes first." King snickers, floating above them.

"Ah, shut up, King!" Ban says, pointing up at the fairy while he himself is held by the giant green teddy bear pillow.

"It's so fluffy!" Meliodas says,

"Good teddy bear!" Y/N says, rubbing the teddy bear's head with a smile. King holds back a blush as he keeps his eyes on the monster.

"Spirit Spear Chastiefol, second form, Guardian." The guardian carefully places down the three sins, before standing back up and staring at the monster. "To protect against external enemies, the Holy Tree's own moss is given shape and send into battle." The monster slowly makes it way over to them, "Made of moss, its body can parry any attack, and with its high concentration of water, its highly resistant to fire!" The guardian floats up into the air before one of the monster's face opens i's mouth and releases it's frozen breath, freezing the guardian before punching it.

"But it isn't so great against the cold." Meliodas says.

"Don't worry King, you'll get him next time!" Y/N adds, smiling lightly at him,

"NO!!" King shouts, eyes watering lightly at the slight embarrassment. The four then look to Gowther, who is stood in front of them, and covered in white snow.

"Hey Gowther! It's your turn next!" 

"My glasses clouded over." Gowther replies, taking of the said glasses and squinting at them before walking past the four sins, still looking down at the glasses, "You four hold him off for a little while."

"Oi! Where the hell are you going!" Y/N says, shouting to the man before looking up to see a fist coming her way "Uh oh" She and the other three sins jump out the way in time.

"Man what a pain, fighting him barehanded is gonna be tough, Captain!" Ban says.

"Aww man, I always forget my axe~" Y/N whines, crossing her arms. "I'm telling you, I'd forget my own boobs if they were attached to by body."

"Oh, you won't be forgetting them, King would never allow that to happe-." Ban jokes, causing Y/N to slap him on the head. Meliodas turns around to pick up a sword and shield from one of the dead knights

"Guess we can't be too choosy about weapons, then. I'll take these." Meliodas stands up and Ban and Y/N follow in suit, Ban dawning a whip and Y/N carrying just a spear. Meliodas jumps at one of the heads,  which shoots out acid like venom, Meliodas using his shield to block it from hitting him.

"Will normal weapons work on that thing!" King questions, floating in the sky with his broken chastiefol behind him. 

"Enchant hell blaze!" Meliodas shouts, slicing the beast on it's shoulder, a black and purple flame covering the wound. Ban and King look to it in shock.

"Wait, black flames?!"

"Just like-" Ban remembers back to when he got his scar, seeing the same black and purple flames covering Meliodas's sword.

"Meliodas! Do it in one shot!" Y/N shouts.

"Right!" Meliodas responds, jumping into the air with his sword raises, letting out a yell however once he gets close to the middle section he freezes.

"Don't...do this...please..." The holy knight whispers.

"Hurry up and finish him off!" Ban shouts, one of it's tongues then wrap itself around Meliodas.

"Crap, this is bad." Meliodas says, keeping his sword raised.

"Dumbass!" Ban shouts, running forwards. Suddenly a light arrow shoots through the monster's middle, more specifically, right through the holy knight.

"A light arrow?" King says, "This is your chance, Ban!" Ban uses his weapon and his ability to wrap the whip around Meliodas and pull him out of the tongue of the monster, catching him in his arm.

"What's the matter Captain!" Ban questions, "You could have destroyed it!"

"I just heard him say something! It must have been the Holy knight!" Meliodas says.

"You mean he's alive in that thing?" Y/N questions, looking up to him.

"Like that really matters." Ban says, dropping Meliodas out of his grasp. "Just kill him already!"

"He's still alive in there!"

"We can't kill him!" Y/N adds, stepping between Ban and the holy knight.

"Stop being so naïve!" Ban asks, looking to Meliodas and Y/N.

"What's up, are you two fighting?" Gowther, now cleaned, asks as he walking between them, purple bow in hand.

"Gowther." King looks up to the monster, who still had the light arrow in the holy knights chest. "He's stopped moving, did you take him down?"

"No. He's trapped in an a illusion." Gowther answers, "That's my magical power...Invasion. Right now, he's inside an illusion of the distant days he most wanted to return to."

"You're still the same annoying freak you always were." Ban says, Gowther lowers his hand, putting the bow away. "Now stop yapping and kill him already."

"I'm incapable of killing him." Ban looks to him in surprise, "It isn't as if he made the choice to be born this way. Therefore, I cannot kill him."

"Like there's anyone in this word who get to say on how they're born." Ban says, smirking before stepping forward and raising his hand, "Move it, I'll kill that thing." A hand then grasps around Ban's wrist, stopping him.

"Back off." Y/N says, lowering Ban's hands and glaring at him, "There's still a part of him that's human inside that thing." Ban and Y/N lock eyes, glaring with long cold stares. "I am death, I bring death, it's only right that I bring it to his lost soul, don't you think..."

Back at the boar hat, Elizabeth, Diane and Hawk have arrived back safely, Diane and Hawk are outside, looking over the land.

"The captain and lieutenant sure is late." Diane says, sitting on the floor with her Gideon resting on her back and Hawk sat besides her.

"Maybe that means they ended up catching something really awesome!" Hawk says. Inside the Boar hat, Elizabeth stands at the window, staring out with worry.

"Why aren't they back?"

"Hello? Are you open?" A voice says, as they knock on the door. "Every other place seems to be closed for some reason." Elizabeth opens the door to see the old man from the Vaizel fighting competition.

"Welcome, Sir" Elizabeth opens the door to see the old man from the Vaizel fighting competition, the man just looks to Elizabeth with a jaw dropped expression. "You're Cain, aren't you? You and Sir Meliodas fought in Vaizel, isn't that right?"

"My word," Cain begins crying, "Could I be dreaming right now? Liz!" Elizabeth could just look to the old man in shock.

【Ａｓｐｅｎ】

Completed: 27/09/2023

Published: 27/09/2023

Last Edited: 29/09/2023