Chapter 35 - The Holy War

I step out of my room into the hallway and when I turn around from closing the door behind me, I can see Elizabeth standing in front of her room and looking at me as if she has been waiting for me. She wears new clothes as well but it's not an armor but close to the outfit I met her in thousands of years ago. It's a white dress with a pink jacket and boots. "Elizabeth, you look really cute in your new outfit but I still think you shouldn't join us" I say when I reach her.

"You all have fought for me and the kingdom so hard and often already. All I want to do is help. I don't want anyone of you to get hurt any more."

A warm smile forms on my lips when her kind words touch me deep. "You really haven't changed in all this years. Now, what's that you wanted to talk about?"

She looks at me with from surprise widened eyes but then giggles. "Really can't hide anything from you" she says with a smile but it fades just seconds after. "There's something I want to ask you for."

"I guessed. But what's it?"

"Please promise me to take care of Meliodas. I don't want him to suffer any longer. Please, make sure to break the curse someday."

"Whoa, Elizabeth!" I say shocked and put up my hands in defense. "You're not dead yet! Please, don't say something like that in front of me."

"Yami, please" she begs me with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to loose him! But if his heart is going to break more and more..."

"I know!" I say to cut her off. "I... Really, I know. And there's nothing I want more than the two of you to be finally freed from this curse. But you still have weeks to live so who knows if we can't break it together."

Elizabeth grabs my hand and our eyes meet. "We both know I have a month at most. It may just as well be that I'm more likely to die. Maybe even today. I just want to make sure he has someone who takes care of him."

I grind my teeth from the tension and look to the side in shame. Even if I promise Elizabeth to take care of them both today, it is true that time is against her. And to be honest, I'm scared for her and Meliodas too. "I'll always be by his side."

Elizabeth nods at me thankfully and gives me a warm smile. Suddenly, we hear footsteps walking up the stairs and Meliodas waves us a big smile. "Hey you two, what are you doing here? We have some guests downstairs!"

"Guests?" I ask confused. I know that we sent the Holy Knights away to protect the castle this morning, so who else could it be?

"Come downstairs and find out" he says and looks at Elizabeth with loving eyes. "Elizabeth, you look beautiful."

Ignoring how Elizabeths cheeks turn red, I walk past my cheesy friends and down the stairs but I can hear that they follow me right behind me. When I reach the main floor and turn around the corner, no one is inside and I turn my head to look at Meliodas in confusion but he gesticulates with his head towards the door. When I push the door open and step outside, I can see everyone in their new armors and they look really good. But then my eyes see two people that don't belong here. "You?" I ask surprised.

The two new members turn around surprised and look at me questioningly. "You're the woman that saved Meliodas" one of them says as he seems to remember me.

"And you're the two members that replaced the empty spots in the Ten Commandments. Drole and Gloxinia, am I right?" They both nod and take a closer look at me as when we saw each other last time, I kind of kicked their asses. "Now, I don't see any sign of your commandments. Does that mean-"

"Yes, we gave back our commandments" says Drole and smiles slightly. Just now, I can see that their black eyes are gone as well.

"They're here to fight with us" says King proudly.

"You are going to need all the help you can get. Because even if the divine seal has greatly weakened the powers of the commandments, Zeldris and the others have already become much stronger again already."

"Well then, welcome in our team" I say.

"Hey Meliodas, don't do something stupid. Remember that whilst your wounds have healed, you still have lost most of your hearts" I say sometime later and Meliodas turns his head to face me just to look at me in confusion and surprise about my words. "Remember, I can't follow you to Purtagory."

"Don't worry Yami, I'm not going anywhere this time" he says confidently and smirks widely. I try to hide how worried I really am but Meliodas seems to know it anyway, as his smirk grows some more. "Well, you have lost some of your hearts as well. So be careful, too. Because you can't return at all."

"Encouraging" I say sarcastically but can't hide a small amount of amusement about his words. "We'll go through this together, right?"

"We'll end this war for good" he says encouraging and smiles at me widely. He then turns around to face the rest of the Deadly Sins. They all nod at him encouraged and together we head off to meet the Ten Commandments.

"Over there!" says Merlin when we are really close to the Ten Commandments. I can feel it too because the power inside me feels really strong. They're on a completely other level when I don't need to hold them in.

"They're right behind this hill, I believe" I say.

"Get ready, everyone!" shouts Meliodas and everyone hurries to get there. Shortly before we left, Meliodas asked Gloxinia and Drole to stay at the kingdom to help the Holy Knights protect the kingdom from the other demons that came back already.

When we get to the Commandments, I take a look around our surroundings. We stand on stony ground and even tho it's past lunchtime, the sky looks unusual dark, like the sun doesn't feel like shining at all. The Commandments stand opposite us and glare angrily. They probably felt our presence like we've felt theirs. Meliodas stands in front of everyone as the first in line and gives the Commandments a deadly glare. Right in the front stands Zeldris and returns his angry gaze. His brother Estarossa stands just inches behind him, followed by Melascula. Even Derieri and Monspeet are here but I notice that they stand apart from the rest. They glance at Meliodas madly but when their eyes wander over to the mine, it seems like I can see a hint of uncertainty in them. Maybe I couldn't stop them from fighting with the Commandments but it looks like, that at least, I made them think about their actions.

"Well then, well then, well then" says Meliodas and breaks the minutes of silence and deadly glares between everyone. "If those aren't my two brothers. Long time no see."

"Meliodas" mutters Estarossa his brothers name angrily but Meliodas simply ignores him. A final time, Meliodas turns around to face me and smiles at me encouraging before turning back to face our enemies. I let my eyes wander over to Zeldris and my heart feels heavy. The way he stands in front of us is like nothing has changed in the past days. I can sense nothing but anger and aversion coming from him. And he either can't feel my eyes on him or he simply ignores it because he doesn't look at me for even just a second. Is that really what you want, Zel?

It was late night when I heard one of the heavy doors in the castle close loudly. It was a rough, cold and rainy night in the demon world and I had spent all evening on my own. I knew it could be only one of the brothers but Meliodas used to sneek in more quietly. I left my room to see whom of the two other brothers came back when I saw Zeldris lean against the cold stone wall exhaustedly. His face was full of bruises and some of them were still bleeding slightly. His eyes were closed and he was breathing heavily, probably to regain some strength. It looked like he'd gotten here with the last of his strength. I rushed over to him and put his arm around my shoulders to underpin him. "What happened?" I asked him but his dark eyes simply looked at me in confusion.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you think? I'm helping you" I said whilst helping him walk to his room. I knew that he tried to refuse my help but he was too exhausted to push me away. I pushed open the door to his room and stayed by his side until he could sit down on his bed. I knelt down in front of him to have a better look at his bruised face which he tried to hide from me. One of them looked more worse than the rest. "We need to take care of that one" I said and gesticulated to the left side of his face. Without waiting for his refuse, I got back up and hurried to get a clean linen cloth. When I had everything I needed, I knelt back down in front of him. I moved my hand with the cloth slowly closer to his face but he turned away.

"It's nothing" he mumbled.

"Zeldris, you barely made it in here. Stop being so stubborn and let me help you!"

I tried to lift the linen cloth to his face once more and this time he didn't refuse anymore. I guessed he was too exhausted to argue with me. Carefully, I pressed down the cloth on his wound and he flinched from the pain. "I'm sorry" I said quietly because our faces were pretty close and I tried my best to be real careful. I moved the cloth slowly down his face to whipe away the dirt and blood when Zeldris opened his eyes again and looked at me. His dark eyes met my blue ones and for a short moment, I got lost in them. At first, all I could see in them was the reflection of my blue color but then it seemed as if I could look deeper and seemed to see a mixture of different emotions but mostly tiredness. I continued to clean his bruise and lifted my gaze just when I was done and lifted down the linen cloth. "There, all better" I said with a soft smile when in reality, I was really worried about him. I've never seen him coming back in such a bad state.

Zeldris continued to look at me without saying a single word. My skin heatened up under his gaze and I began to get goosebumps all over my body. "Thank you" he said finally in a low voice, without lifting his gaze away from me. I continued to look back at him as I didn't know what else to do. Actually, he needed to rest but I didn't want him to stop looking at me.

"Stop that" said Zeldris and took me by surprise as I didn't know what he was talking about. "I don't want your pity" he grumbled but I could see that he was still in pain, so I ignored his rude words.

"You should be nicer to the ones that care about you, Zel. There aren't many people we can rely on." I stood back up and looked at him from above. "You should rest some. But if you refuse to, I'm here to listen to what has actually happened. I've never seen you in a state like that."

"You mean in such a bad state? You can spit it out, I know what you're thinking."

You have no idea what I'm actually thinking when I'm around you, I thought to myself. But I stayed quiet. Zeldris sighed as he realized I wasn't going anywhere sometime soon. "A hard fight, that's it" he explained.

"This could not have been a simple fight. You're too strong to get bruised up like that."

"Fine" he sighed another time. "Let's say that I didn't took them by surprise, like I had expected."

"How many did you have to fight against?" I asked nervously when I knew I was right. This wasn't just a normal fight he had fought.

"I couldn't count them" he said exhausted. He really needed some rest now.

"I'll let you sleep now" I said and turned around to leave whilst Zeldris leaned back down.

"Why are you doing this?" Zeldris spoke up again just when I had reached the door and I turned back around to look at him in surprise. I thought he couldn't wait for me to leave but now he continued the conversation we had.

"Doing what?" I asked confused.

"Helping me. After all, there's nothing you hate more than fighting. You shouldn't care about me."

"Oh, Zeldris..." I mumbled and walked back closer to him. I sat down at the edge of his bed and once more looked deep into his dark eyes. "How can I not care about you when you and your brothers are all I have left?"

"Even when I'm doing these terrible things?"

"Zel, what's your reason to fight?" I asked him inquisitive. "You seem to dislike it. Why are you doing this to yourself?"

Zeldris looked at me for seconds before he opened his mouth to say something but then he closed it again and lifted away his gaze. When our eyes met again, all the emotions in his eyes had vanished and his voice was back to being as cold as all the time before, when he actually spoke up. "You're wrong. I don't care about what I do. Now... I would like to rest some."

"I understand" I said and tried to not show him how much his words and behavior had hurt me. Whenever I thought we're finally coming closer to each other, he pushed me away once more.

Meliodas takes a step closer to his enemies and whilst I wonder what he's doing, he lets his gaze wander along every single Comandment that is left. "You don't have to do this, Zeldris" says Meliodas but his brother just glares at him angrily.

"You have no right to tell me what to do" he says.

A playful smirk forms on Meliodas' lips as he crosses his arms and looks as if he is superior to him. "I see you're still loyal to our father. What has he ever done for you? Is that all you can do?"

"Captain!" Ban says surprised and clenches his hands into fists. "Do you think it's a good idea to aggravate him?"

I understand Ban just too well because I'm asking myself the same question.

But Meliodas ignores his male best friend and just continues to talk straight to Zeldris, like he's the only Commandment around us. "I think I can tell why you're still following his orders. It's because he lends you his powers. Without them, you'd be too weak to face us, right?" Meliodas giggles.

Just like Ban, I clench my hands into fists as the tension surrounding us rises. Whatever Meliodas is doing, being rude to Zeldris isn't helping at all. And last time I checked, they were kind of okay. So why is he acting like that? Meliodas, what's your plan?

"Don't be ridiculous" Estarossa speaks up behind his younger brother. "We will destroy you within seconds."

"Sure you will but remember it's only because the demon lord, our father, is helping him out." Another time, Meliodas lets out a giggle and faces Zeldris again. "It's too bad actually. You could have gotten so much stronger, but you allowed him to suppress your true powers by never having to develop them."

"Meliodas! What are you doing?" I hiss behind him. For some reason, he tries to drive Zeldris mad.

"That's it!" Zeldris says angrily and when I see that he pulls out his sword, I catch my breath. What the hell are you doing, Meliodas? Zeldris mumbles some words I haven't heard in a very long time and a dark purple aura comes to the surface. It surrounds Zeldris for some seconds before it's gone.

"What was that?" mumbles Diane from behind me.

"This looked so familiar... Why does it remind me of Meliodas' power?" King mumbles next to her.

I turn around to face the two of them. "That's because it was something similar. Zeldris deposed the powers the demon lord gave to him. He's going to fight Meliodas with his own powers."

"WHAT?!" Gowther, King, Diane and Ban shout together and I see their eyes widen. Can't they try to keep their composure for at least once?! I turn back around to look at Meliodas and Zeldris, who stand frightening close to each other.

"This time, you're dying for good" Zeldris says and lifts his sword to attack his brother but Meliodas eschews his attack and pulls out his own sword, his secret treasure. I stand there like frozen when I watch the two of them fighting just minutes after we have arrived. None of the Commandments or the Sins move as we all look spellbound at the two brothers attacking each other and waiting to see what happens next. It goes so fast that I hardly notice how Zeldris knocks the sword out of Meliodas hand with a skillful blow and it flies a few meters higher through the air. I quickly jump up and catch it before it falls into the wrong hands. When I land again and look at the two brothers, Meliodas is holding his brother by his suit.

"What do you say when we end things where they began?" Meliodas says to his brother and then glances over his shoulder, right at Merlin. "MERLIN! NOW!" he shouts and whilst moving his head back to face Zeldris, our eyes meet for just a second and I can see all his love and encouragement for me in them. Suddenly, the two brothers are gone and leave us back startled.

"W-what just happened?" Diane mutters unsettled.