"Ladies and Gentleman of various races, welcome to this ultimate time killer... no, I mean the Great Fighting Festival! First, let's prepare the arena where you'll be fighting" Gloxinia says. "Drole?" the Commandment says and Dianes head shoots up.

"Drole?" she repeats his name.

"Gigant Gauntlet!" the Commandment shouts loudly and giant stone pillars shoot up in the sky. Meliodas glares at him angrily as he watches every step of their doing.

"Magnificent!" Gloxinia applauds. "This is the arena where you'll be battling. Since I'd like to get started right away, I'll be cutting off entrants now. I'm going to wipe out all those little worms still lurking in the maze, okay?"

"No!" Princess Elizabeth shouts but there are screams to be heard immediately.

"How dare you!" Yami exclaims madly and glares at the fairy.

"No way! The magical power emanating from that monster is definitely of the Fairy race!" King thinks out loud in surprise. "Not only that, it's so strong, it's mind-blowing!"

Yami turns to face her beloved best friend. "Meliodas, who are those two? Do they belong to the Ten Commandments?"

Meliodas nods just slightly, so only Yami can see the small movement as he doesn't look away from his enemies.

"Is that..." King starts. "I mean... Basquias was the legendary spirit spear bestowed upon the first one chosen by the Sacred Tree!"

"What do you mean, King?" Yami asks as she's getting mad. Something is surely wrong here. She had never seen those two before. So how can they belong to the Ten Commandments?

"How can it be you... First Fairy King, Gloxinia?" King asks surprised, like he hasn't heard Yami at all.

Gloxinia turns to face King. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in ages. Currently I'm the Ten Commandments Gloxinia of Repose."

Yamis mouth is wide open as she doesn't understand what had happened within the past 3.000 years. During the Holy War, Gloxinia surely wasn't one of the Ten Commandments. She shuts her mouth again and grits her teeth. "Weren't you defeated at the hands of the Demon King in that battle 3.000 years ago?" King asks still in disbelieve.

"You're also a member of the fairy race, right?" Gloxinia says. "If you want any answers, you should try to win this festival. If you wish for it, I'll tell you whatever you want." Then he turns to face everyone else. "All right, then. Time to get this Great Fighting Festival started!"

"This looks interesting!" Ban says. "I only came here to deliver Escanors alcohol but maybe I'll take part in this, too."

"The opening bout will be a two-man tag match" Gloxinia explains.

"Two people to a team, right?" Drole repeats and raises his hands. "Divining Board Spell!" he shouts. "Those standing on the same floating stone right now are comrades-in-arms chosen by fate. Entrust each other with your lives and pride and fight your hearts out!"

"Comrades?" Meliodas asks. "You mean teammates, right?"

"Yo, Captain!" Ban says right behind him and Meliodas turns around in surprise. "How about we kick some butt?"

"Sure" Meliodas giggles and high-fives his friend.

"Diane!" King shouts in surprise as he sees the giant next to him.

"You know me, too?" Diane asks surprised and Kings face drops.

"You still don't remember me" he says quietly.

Yami takes a look around to see her ally and spys a man dressed just like Ban. 'So this must mean...' she thinks to herself and then just shouts his name. "Hey Escanor! Do you even know how long we've been searching for you?"

"That's Escanor?" Gilthunder asks in disbelief as he looks at the weak man standing on the same plattform as Gowther.

"I only came here to deliver some alcohol..." Escanor mutters. "How unlucky can I be?"

"So that's supposed the Lion Sin Escanor?" Yami asks as she rubs the back of her head, not believing what she's seeing. The man in front of her is thin, insecure and already trembling all over.

"We'll now start the tag match with our 16 teams!" Drole announces. "You will each arrive at a random arena and the other pair that also arrives there will be your first-round opponents.

"Sixteen teams?" Meliodas asks and looks around the arena. "I thought we were only fifteen in all." He then meets the blue eye of Princess Elizabeth that looks around surprised.

"Elaine!" Ban shouts as he sees her standing next to Elizabeth.

"The first rule of the Great Fighting Festival is: all weapons, magical powers and underhanded tactics are permitted. Second rule to win - you must either kill or neutralize the other team or force them out of the arena."

"Gloxinia!" Meliodas shouts angrily at the Commandment. "Elizabeth has nothing to do with this!"

"And if you lay a finger on Elaine, I'll make mincemeat out of you!" Ban adds and looks at Drole and Gloxinia angrily.

"Unfortunately, once they entered the maze, they were considered participants." The dark soul can't hide his amusement as saying those words and as Ban and Meliodas try to jump down the arena, Gloxinia blocks their way with roots that suddenly sprout from the ground. "Third rule" he just continues "forfeiting a match is strictly forbidden."

"Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth shouts up to him. "Please don't worry about me! For now, just concentrate on yourself, please!"

"Ban!" Elaine shouts as well to the man she loves. "You don't worry about me, either! Do as Elizabeth says, just concentrate on your own battle!"

"Meliodas!" Yami shouts his name as well, worried about the upcoming.

"Yami!" Meliodas breathes out as he remembers his friend is here as well. He turns around to face her. "Please keep the promise you made!" he shouts down to her and she nods sternly. She will help him protect Elizabeth with everything she has.

"Don't worry, I will. Now, focus on the battle!"

and right after the battle between Gowther and Escanor

"I win" Gowther says sternly. "Scraps Captain, give me back my glasses."

"Yes, Sir. Here you are" says Hawk as he walks over to Gowther. I still stand there in shock, not wanting to believe what I've just seen.

"This is winning?" I shout at Gowther angrily as tears form in my eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Gowther!"

"I only stated a fact" he answers. "He's down and I'm still standing."

"Gowther! Can't you understand what's in Escanor's heart?" I ask him from where I'm standing.

"Escanor's heart?"

Then I realize. "It's your heart, right?" I shout. "You're just here to wish for a heart!"

3.000 years ago

"What's that with Gowther?" I asked Meliodas and Zeldris as we sat in one of those big rooms of the demon castle we lived in together.

"What do you mean?" Meliodas asked me.

"He just seems so different from the rest of you."

"You mean even more different than Galand who's just a soul in an armor?" Meliodas giggled and even Zeldris couldn't hide his amusement about his brothers joke.

"You shouldn't worry about it, Yami" Zeldris said then all serious and Meliodas nodded in agreement.

"Okay guys, I can tell something's up. Spill it out" I said and Meliodas looked at Zeldris, that shook his head but this was just anoter proof that there really was something wrong. "Now, come on, guys. What are you trying to hide from me?"

"Knew she'd find out" Meliodas said. "Can't hide anything from her."

"Zeldris?" I said and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Don't be so hard on me! You know I won't give up asking. And you know very well how annoying I can get."

"Sure know too well" he sighed and then nodded at Meliodas because he was already annoyed that I didn't give up.

"Gowther is just a doll" Meliodas told me. "He was created by the real Gowther in the imagine and likeness of his lover but to feel no attraction for him, the real Gowther gave it a male body. The real Gowther of selflessness is locked in prison. That's why the Gowther you know is being somehow weird sometimes."

"Why?" was the only thing I could ask my friends, shocked by Gowthers fate.

"Gowther was a really powerful wizard and his commandment was forcibly bestowed upon him by our father. Since denying his commandment and refusing to fight, he was thrown into prison so he can't be seen as a thread in our fathers eyes anymore ."

"This is terrible..." I mumbled and looked down on the floor.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw Meliodas eyes look at me concerned. "You can't tell anybody. No one but Zeldris and I know about this."

"What about Estarossa?" I asked but Meliodas just shook his head. I nodded to tell the boys I understood. "Your secret is safe with me."

"That's what Escanor was trying to show you was in his heart!" I shout at Gowther angrily as I can't hold back a few tears. I wipe them away angrily. How can Gowther risk killing his own mate and put his trust in the wrong people. Even when I barely know him, I'd have never expected him to do something like that.

Gowther walks over to the edge of his plattform and looks down at Drole and Gloxinia that got hit by Escanors attack. His eyes widen in surprise and everyone looks concerned at the hole the two Commandments lay in, wounded.

Meliodas jumps down to them and I shout his name in fear. He's unpredictable and almost every of his actions gives me a moment of worry as I don't know what he's up to. He then jumps at Drole and starts attacking him. Within seconds, blood flows from Droles wounds. I take a closer look at my friend and see that his green eyes have changed into the dark black I know just too well. He's in his demon mode. But why on his own? I make myself ready to jump down to him but Meliodas turns around. "No!" he screams. "Keep the promise!" I stop immediately. Meliodas turns back around to face Drole and pulls his weapon and attacks him just slightly but it's enough to get him hurt some more.

"Meliodas is kind of scary!" Diane says and pulls King, who's in her hand, some closer.

"You anticipated this, huh?" Drole says and licks his own blood from his fingers.

"I've been waiting for this moment. For the chance to land a definite blow!" Meliodas says sternly, his voice filled with anger and revenge.

"Waiting for this chance?" Hendrickson asks surprised.

"What's he talking about?" Gilthunder asks.

"If I attacked you head-on by myself, you'd both definitely be on guard, right?" Meliodas says and doesn't even face Drole anymore. "Under those circumstances, even I would definitely lose. To get you to drop your guard, I came here as a participant looking to have fun with my comrades. Naturally, I never mentioned that to them."

So he planned all of this from the start?

I look down at my friend angrily and grit my teeth. He said we would go through this together but now I feel just as left out as I have felt 3.000 years ago. He's not telling me anything.

"Meliodas!" I shouted as everyone flew out. "Meliodas!" I ran through the castle, trying to find my friend.

"He's not here" Zeldris said and scared me by his sudden appearance. "He's left real early to meet up with " He spit out the last word with a lot of disgust.

"Don't talk about them like that, Zeldris" I said and slowly walked closer to him. "He loves her."

"He's betraying his family. He's even betraying you" he said madly.

"He's not betraying me."

"Then tell me, Yami, has he ever taken you with him?" I looked down to the ground. Zeldris was right, when Meliodas left to the other worlds, he always left without me even though he knew how much I hated this place. And since he knew Elizabeth, he was barely home at all anymore. I had barely seen him anymore and had no idea what my friend was doing. "That's what I thought" said Zeldris as he looked at me pitiful.

"Your Magical Eye can see through any ploy, after all" Meliodas continues his conversation with Drole. "And then all I had to do was wait for you guys to leave yourself unexposed. Escanor created the perfect opportunity."

I look at the Lion Sin that's still not moving. Gowther walks over to him and picks him up carefully. "Why did you do such a thing?" he asks him as Escanor is slowly regaining conscious.

"Gowther, even if you have no heart..." Escanor breathes out. "You're still my fellow Seven Deadly Sin. That's why I couldn't let them get away with toying with my friends heart."

"You're contradicting yourself. You just said I have no heart."

"Are you really sure about that?" he asks the doll.

In the meantime, Gloxinia heals himself and I shout Meliodas' name to warn him. I jump down from my own plattform to Elaine and Elizabeth and put them both behind me. Ban joins me, standing protectively in front of his girlfriend.

"I see" Drole says as he stands up on his feet and I see that Meliodas has cut off two of Droles arms. "I admit that it would've been a struggle for us too if we'd been forced to battle you one-on-one. However, you've made one fatal mistake." Drole raises one of his two arms that he has left and shouts "Gigant Embrace!"

The ground underneath everyone of us starts moving and shaking and I hear Hawk shout "What's going on?!" as we all fall down from our plattforms.

We find ourselves again in a dark cave. "Merlin, where are we?" I ask the woman next to me.

"It seems like we're underground. But I feel a strong magical power. We seem to be in an underground prison."

"Can we still see Meliodas?" I ask her. "Can't we use your sphere again?"

"Well yes, we can" she says and lifts up her sphere so we can watch Meliodas once again.

"I've taken them all hostage" Drole says to Meliodas. "Resist and they'll die."

Once again Drole just gets hit by Meliodas. "I'll defeat you before that happens." He keeps attacking Drole and I can't stop the madness rising inside me. We promised to go through this together but now he's up there fighting them alone. I should be with him.

"Oh my, I came close to departing for the afterlife" Gloxinia says before he attacks Meliodas. "I'll heal you soon, so please wait, Drole. Starting now, the two of us will turn things around."

Meliodas' friends just watch everything in shock, trying to understand what is happening. The Fairy Kings armor crushes within seconds and Meliodas appears in front of him. "Give up" Meliodas says to him.

"Lady Merlin, why can we hear them this time?" asks Hawk.

"Well, the captain and his opponents are close by. Just a few meters above us, I assume. This is different from sending him across half the kingdom."

I turn to the sphere again and see Meliodas' demon mark on his head. "You don't stand a chance" says Meliodas.

"The three of us once joined forces to defeat the Demon King and now we're enemies" says Gloxinia. "Fate sure is twisted, huh? Meliodas, I want you to tell me the truth. You don't really want to fight us to the death, do you?"

I can't help myself but ask him the same question silently. I know he said he's going to do whatever it takes but is killing them really neccessary?

"Of course not" Meliodas says. "I know why you two went over to that side and how you felt about it." He does? Pain in the form of disappointment and betrayal grows inside me as I watch my friend with his dark aura. I thought we had no secrets from each other. But there happened so much within the few hours in Vaizel and so many things have come to light that for the very first time, I get the feeling that I don't know my friend as well as I have always assumed.

"Gloxinia, you were betrayed by the people you trusted and lost something you cared about more than your own life. Drole, you were a warrior who always strove to be the best. But then your pride was ripped to shreds."

"If you know all that, then why..." Gloxinia begins but Meliodas cuts him off.

"But still... Once you switch sides, it's all over!" Meliodas shouts and jumps up to Gloxinia to attack him. But Gloxinia attacks him first with such a power that we can feel the shock down to us.

"Taking on those monsters by himself... how reckless is that?" Howzer asks.

"Merlin" I begin and walk up to her but she stops me with putting her arm in front of me, telling me to wait. For a short moment, I feel just like Arthur, listenting to her without hesitating. "You made a promise to the Captain" is all she says.

"Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth says sadenned. I walk over to her and put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "He'll be fine" I say but fail to convince myself.

"Can't we help him?" Hawk asks.

"How many seconds would we be able to last out there?" Ban says angrily and I know he wants to help just as bad as I do, yet we both are caught in here. "We'd be only in the Captain's way."

"Ban is right" King says sadly. "Those opponents are on a completely different level. To be honest, the only one who can put up a fight at this point is Meliodas."

"That's not fully right" Merlin says. "However, our separation has not had a particularly positive effect on our strengths. The only advantage of the others is that we are not adequately prepared."

"We can't get out here anyway" Gilthunder says as he loses hope for just a second.

"Again, that's not fully right. I can use Teleportation to bring everyone here on a safe place" Merlin says. "And I think the time for that has just arrived."

"You can move this many people all at once?" Hendrickson asks her.

"Well, let me try. I haven't done that in a while." Merlin rises two fingers and only seconds later I find ourselfes in new surroundings.

"I-is this Liones Castle?" Elizabeth asks surprised.

"Merlin, what is happing?" I ask worriedly as we can't see what's happing to Meliodas anymore.

"Hold on" she says and lifts up her sphere again. Everyone stands there in shock as we see Meliodas attacking the two Commandments very hardly.

We feel the ground shake once again. "The shockwaves from the battle in Vaizel have reached here..." Gowther exclaims.

"The Ten Commandments never should have been revived" says Merlin, lost in her own thoughts and I see Hendrickson look away in shame.

"Hey Hendri" I say and force him to look at me. I lock eyes with him. "It wasn't your fault. You weren't in controll of what you did. Stop blaming yourself."

"They're now natural disasters and that's not an understatement" says Merlin as she watches the happenings.

"You're not helping right now!" I complain.

"What about Sir Meliodas?" Elizabeth asks worriedly.

"Meliodas has the upper hand" Merlin says and we watch Meliodas fight his comrades with his demon powers. It doesn't take him long until they both land on the ground, unable to fight any more and I feel a slight relief to see that my friend is safe.

"Taking on two of the legendary Ten Commandments" Gilthunder says in awe.

"A-Amazing" Ban stutters.

"His demonic power is overwhelming" King says. "To me, it looks like he's holding back."