—Next Morning—
Arriving at the Castle early the next morning, today we planned to launch our attack on the God of Deceit. Usually I would have liked to wait a few days to gather more forces, but we were running on borrowed time. Since I had killed Vermillion, his only real fighter, his last option was to start using his hostages and the civilians around the Temple as leverage. Not wanting more innocent people to die in this world, we had to move our time table up to prevent that from happening.
“Everyone ready for this?”, I asked as I walked into the War Room, “We will need to head out in a few minutes during the guard change.”
“As ready as we will ever be…”, Ban sarcastically responded as he yawned, “So what’s the plan again, I forget.”
Looking at him with an irritated expression, we were none to happy about his joke. Having stayed up till nearly 2 am planning out this operation with Gilthunder and Griamore, some of us were still partially asleep. The plan was very simple, I would fight the God of Deceit alone while Holy Knights focused on rescuing the hostages and evacuating the civilians. They would lead everyone to a portal that Merlin would create that linked back to our capital. Our remaining forces, the Sins, Commandments, Archangels, and Heroes, were responsible for keeping the Apostles away from the fleeing people. Once everyone was safely back here, I would release a Ray Sphere Pulse that would kill all the remaining enemies around the Temple.
“Now isn’t the time for jokes, Ban! Please take this seriously!”, Elaine scolded Ban as she firmly smacked his back.
Sending him flying into the thick stone wall closeby, he let out a low groan as King and Diane pull him out a moment later. Dusting himself off, Ban explained that he was just trying to lighten the mood as everyone was on edge. Understanding what he meant, I could sense the unease of those present here. Asking them if there was something wrong that we didn’t discuss earlier, Elizabeth stepped forward to speak.
“All of us are concerned that we don’t have enough power to fight the Apostles.”, Elizabeth said looking at the map Gilthunder and Griamore had drawn, “In previous battles, we barely held our ground against ten or so Apostles. Today we are looking at fighting almost four hundred of them without the aid of soldiers.”
Having expected that this would be brought up, I had already planned ahead for this.
“So all of you finally bring up the elephant in the room, it’s about time.”, I chuckled with a grin, “If that is your concern, I am willing to boost your powers for the duration of the operation.”
“Wait…you can do that?! Why didn’t you just do so without us needing to ask you?”, King asked in confusion.
“I am supposed boost the powers of everyone here without a contract in place?”, I remarked in a sarcastic tone, “Just do it without taking into account that there are ten bloodthirsty killers among you that enjoy eating souls, sounds like a great idea!”
Realizing what I was getting at, everyone turned to look at the Commandments who were momentarily taken aback. All of them had grown accustom to living among the races so much that they had forgotten their past crimes. Understanding why I was hesitating to grant them more power, they all agreed to accept whatever terms I wanted to impart on them for this operation.
“That said…would it be okay if we captured a few Apostle Souls for snacks?”, Melascula requested with a devilish smile, “While the food and drink are good here, I still occasionally have a craving for souls. To clarify, up till now I haven’t harmed anyone civilians in this world to sate that craving.”
“I am sure you haven’t…”, I replied not sold on her sincerity, “If you can safely capture a few without endangering everyone else, I will allow it. That said, if you leave your post to hunt some down you will pay dearly for it.”
“Fair enough I guess.”, Melascula shrugged, “I promise not to abandon the group for Souls.”
“Moving on”, I said casting a Contract Spell, “Here are the terms of the agreement…the power boost I will give all of you is for the duration of this operation. Once this operation is considered complete by me, your powers will return to exactly what they are now. You are forbidden from using your powers to harm one another or the civilians, it is only to protect them and yourselves from the enemy. If anyone violates the terms of this agreement they will instantly lose the power I have given them and have their powers sealed till I deal your punishment out.”
Verbally accepting the deal, I held my right hand out and allowed lightning to arced out striking each of them in the forehead. Multiply their powers tenfold, I restored Meliodas and Zeldris’ Demon King Forms and granted Mael an exact copy of Sunshine. Outside of the agreement, I made changes to both Escanor and Elizabeth deserved to longer suffer as they had. In Escanor’s case, I changed Sunshine so that it would no longer harm his body while using it and also healed all the injuries he’d sustained up till now. As for Elizabeth…
“What is wrong with Elizabeth!?”, Sariel shouted noticing that she was beginning to glow.
“In addition to a power boost, I am restoring her status as a Goddess and giving her powers back to her.”, I told him as Elizabeth’s wings popped out of her back, “The reason I am doing this is simple…if nothing is done Meliodas would end up all alone in less than a century. Several of us know the pain of losing the people we love, it’s not something we ever want to experience again.”
Understanding what I was saying Ludociel, Derieri, and Zeldris knew exactly what I meant.
“Alright then, is everyone confident now they can carry our plan out?”, I remarked as I severed the connection.
Before completely doing so though, I stealthily copied all of their abilities for myself. I wouldn’t need to use them for the moment, but they might be handy to have in the future…especially the Full Counter variants.
“Let’s do this!”, Gilthunder said drawing his sword, “Today we break out of our shackles, and free ourselves of the Living God!!”
Releasing their battle cries, the Holy Knights pumped themselves up for battle. Quickly opening a portal, as it was time to leave, I wished everyone luck and told them to come back alive so we could drink tonight. Wholeheartedly agreeing with me, L’Arc swore that if we succeeded today that there would be feasting for days to celebrate. Leading us into the fray, I stepped through the portal first to clear the immediate area.
—Living God’s Temple—
Stepping out into the entryway of the Temple, I immediately eliminated the Apostle’s standing guard with my Precision Lightning. Killing them before they could alert anyone of our arrival, I motioned for the team to start coming through. Quickly searching for where the God of Deceit was hiding, I discovered that he was barricaded in his room with several Apostles standing guard outside.
‘Something is wrong here…why doesn’t he have anyone in his room?’, I thought before searching for the hostages.
Finding them still locked up in the Dungeon, I advised Gilthunder to take a team down there to get them. Of course this confused a lot of people as we had all assumed he’d use them as shields for this fight.
“You are absolutely certain that he is alone?”, Gilthunder asked in confusion, “The man we know would have several women in his room at all times!”
“No, he is all alone with only a few guards outside his room. The hostages are still locked in the Dungeon, but it may not stay that way once they know we are here. Getting moving now before they get that chance!”, I ordered him.
Not wasting another moment, he selected several Holy Knights and quickly took off toward the Dungeon. Heading off as well, the rest of the team ran into the surround city to begin the evacuations. Reminding them to be careful and to watch their backs, I continued on further into the Temple to confront the deity.
Reaching the hallway to his bedroom without any resistance, the Apostles were waiting for me with Divine Weapons in hand. Pulling Gáe Bolg and Excaliber out of my storage, I ran at them quickly closing the gap between us. Lunging at me with swords and spears, my body turned to smoke allowing the weapons to harmlessly pass through me. Reforming my body once their weapons were clear of me, I unleashed a powerful slash with Excaliber that bisected all of them instantly. Spraying their blood all over the walls and floor, the God of Deceit wasted no time in his counteroffensive.
Blasting the doors to his room off their hinges, I rolled out of the way to avoid the heavy steel doors. Walking out of the dust cloud he created, the deity I recalled from Vermillion’s memories wasn’t standing there. Instead of a beautiful elderly man, someone more like Freddy Kruger appeared in front of me.
“What the hell happened to you!?”, I snickered, “You look like shit!”
“Who do you think did this to me!?’, he howled, “Your nightmares ruined me, I can’t stop the feeling of those damn bugs devour my flesh!!”
Watching his skin start to heal, he quickly started to tear it off as he tried to stop the sensation. Realizing now just how effective the Nightmare power was, I decided to start perfecting my control of it as soon as possible. Telling him that I could make this quick if he wanted, he spit at me and told me to go fuck myself.
“I don’t need your compassion, I want you to pay for doing this to me!!”, he shouted, “The God Sealing Chains weren’t the only thing I stole from Heaven!”
Pulling out a blade from his own storage, I quickly used a spell to identify the weapon. It was a blade called Caliburn, and according to the flavor text it wielded the ability to cut and manipulate space freely. Not wasting anytime, the God of Deceit began violently swinging the blade around like an insane madman. Dodging the dozens of fissures that opened up around me, his blade barely missed cutting my coat.
“Watch it jackass, my wives made this especially for me!”, I spat as I began countering his attacks, “I gave you the painful way out, now you get the excruciating option!”
—Next Morning—
Arriving at the Castle early the next morning, today we planned to launch our attack on the God of Deceit. Usually I would have liked to wait a few days to gather more forces, but we were running on borrowed time. Since I had killed Vermillion, his only real fighter, his last option was to start using his hostages and the civilians around the Temple as leverage. Not wanting more innocent people to die in this world, we had to move our time table up to prevent that from happening.
“Everyone ready for this?”, I asked as I walked into the War Room, “We will need to head out in a few minutes during the guard change.”
“As ready as we will ever be…”, Ban sarcastically responded as he yawned, “So what’s the plan again, I forget.”
Looking at him with an irritated expression, we were none to happy about his joke. Having stayed up till nearly 2 am planning out this operation with Gilthunder and Griamore, some of us were still partially asleep. The plan was very simple, I would fight the God of Deceit alone while Holy Knights focused on rescuing the hostages and evacuating the civilians. They would lead everyone to a portal that Merlin would create that linked back to our capital. Our remaining forces, the Sins, Commandments, Archangels, and Heroes, were responsible for keeping the Apostles away from the fleeing people. Once everyone was safely back here, I would release a Ray Sphere Pulse that would kill all the remaining enemies around the Temple.
“Now isn’t the time for jokes, Ban! Please take this seriously!”, Elaine scolded Ban as she firmly smacked his back.
Sending him flying into the thick stone wall closeby, he let out a low groan as King and Diane pull him out a moment later. Dusting himself off, Ban explained that he was just trying to lighten the mood as everyone was on edge. Understanding what he meant, I could sense the unease of those present here. Asking them if there was something wrong that we didn’t discuss earlier, Elizabeth stepped forward to speak.
“All of us are concerned that we don’t have enough power to fight the Apostles.”, Elizabeth said looking at the map Gilthunder and Griamore had drawn, “In previous battles, we barely held our ground against ten or so Apostles. Today we are looking at fighting almost four hundred of them without the aid of soldiers.”
Having expected that this would be brought up, I had already planned ahead for this.
“So all of you finally bring up the elephant in the room, it’s about time.”, I chuckled with a grin, “If that is your concern, I am willing to boost your powers for the duration of the operation.”
“Wait…you can do that?! Why didn’t you just do so without us needing to ask you?”, King asked in confusion.
“I am supposed boost the powers of everyone here without a contract in place?”, I remarked in a sarcastic tone, “Just do it without taking into account that there are ten bloodthirsty killers among you that enjoy eating souls, sounds like a great idea!”
Realizing what I was getting at, everyone turned to look at the Commandments who were momentarily taken aback. All of them had grown accustom to living among the races so much that they had forgotten their past crimes. Understanding why I was hesitating to grant them more power, they all agreed to accept whatever terms I wanted to impart on them for this operation.
“That said…would it be okay if we captured a few Apostle Souls for snacks?”, Melascula requested with a devilish smile, “While the food and drink are good here, I still occasionally have a craving for souls. To clarify, up till now I haven’t harmed anyone civilians in this world to sate that craving.”
“I am sure you haven’t…”, I replied not sold on her sincerity, “If you can safely capture a few without endangering everyone else, I will allow it. That said, if you leave your post to hunt some down you will pay dearly for it.”
“Fair enough I guess.”, Melascula shrugged, “I promise not to abandon the group for Souls.”
“Moving on”, I said casting a Contract Spell, “Here are the terms of the agreement…the power boost I will give all of you is for the duration of this operation. Once this operation is considered complete by me, your powers will return to exactly what they are now. You are forbidden from using your powers to harm one another or the civilians, it is only to protect them and yourselves from the enemy. If anyone violates the terms of this agreement they will instantly lose the power I have given them and have their powers sealed till I deal your punishment out.”
Verbally accepting the deal, I held my right hand out and allowed lightning to arced out striking each of them in the forehead. Multiply their powers tenfold, I restored Meliodas and Zeldris’ Demon King Forms and granted Mael an exact copy of Sunshine. Outside of the agreement, I made changes to both Escanor and Elizabeth deserved to longer suffer as they had. In Escanor’s case, I changed Sunshine so that it would no longer harm his body while using it and also healed all the injuries he’d sustained up till now. As for Elizabeth…
“What is wrong with Elizabeth!?”, Sariel shouted noticing that she was beginning to glow.
“In addition to a power boost, I am restoring her status as a Goddess and giving her powers back to her.”, I told him as Elizabeth’s wings popped out of her back, “The reason I am doing this is simple…if nothing is done Meliodas would end up all alone in less than a century. Several of us know the pain of losing the people we love, it’s not something we ever want to experience again.”
Understanding what I was saying Ludociel, Derieri, and Zeldris knew exactly what I meant.
“Alright then, is everyone confident now they can carry our plan out?”, I remarked as I severed the connection.
Before completely doing so though, I stealthily copied all of their abilities for myself. I wouldn’t need to use them for the moment, but they might be handy to have in the future…especially the Full Counter variants.
“Let’s do this!”, Gilthunder said drawing his sword, “Today we break out of our shackles, and free ourselves of the Living God!!”
Releasing their battle cries, the Holy Knights pumped themselves up for battle. Quickly opening a portal, as it was time to leave, I wished everyone luck and told them to come back alive so we could drink tonight. Wholeheartedly agreeing with me, L’Arc swore that if we succeeded today that there would be feasting for days to celebrate. Leading us into the fray, I stepped through the portal first to clear the immediate area.
—Living God’s Temple—
Stepping out into the entryway of the Temple, I immediately eliminated the Apostle’s standing guard with my Precision Lightning. Killing them before they could alert anyone of our arrival, I motioned for the team to start coming through. Quickly searching for where the God of Deceit was hiding, I discovered that he was barricaded in his room with several Apostles standing guard outside.
‘Something is wrong here…why doesn’t he have anyone in his room?’, I thought before searching for the hostages.
Finding them still locked up in the Dungeon, I advised Gilthunder to take a team down there to get them. Of course this confused a lot of people as we had all assumed he’d use them as shields for this fight.
“You are absolutely certain that he is alone?”, Gilthunder asked in confusion, “The man we know would have several women in his room at all times!”
“No, he is all alone with only a few guards outside his room. The hostages are still locked in the Dungeon, but it may not stay that way once they know we are here. Getting moving now before they get that chance!”, I ordered him.
Not wasting another moment, he selected several Holy Knights and quickly took off toward the Dungeon. Heading off as well, the rest of the team ran into the surround city to begin the evacuations. Reminding them to be careful and to watch their backs, I continued on further into the Temple to confront the deity.
Reaching the hallway to his bedroom without any resistance, the Apostles were waiting for me with Divine Weapons in hand. Pulling Gáe Bolg and Excaliber out of my storage, I ran at them quickly closing the gap between us. Lunging at me with swords and spears, my body turned to smoke allowing the weapons to harmlessly pass through me. Reforming my body once their weapons were clear of me, I unleashed a powerful slash with Excaliber that bisected all of them instantly. Spraying their blood all over the walls and floor, the God of Deceit wasted no time in his counteroffensive.
Blasting the doors to his room off their hinges, I rolled out of the way to avoid the heavy steel doors. Walking out of the dust cloud he created, the deity I recalled from Vermillion’s memories wasn’t standing there. Instead of a beautiful elderly man, someone more like Freddy Kruger appeared in front of me.
“What the hell happened to you!?”, I snickered, “You look like shit!”
“Who do you think did this to me!?’, he howled, “Your nightmares ruined me, I can’t stop the feeling of those damn bugs devour my flesh!!”
Watching his skin start to heal, he quickly started to tear it off as he tried to stop the sensation. Realizing now just how effective the Nightmare power was, I decided to start perfecting my control of it as soon as possible. Telling him that I could make this quick if he wanted, he spit at me and told me to go fuck myself.
“I don’t need your compassion, I want you to pay for doing this to me!!”, he shouted, “The God Sealing Chains weren’t the only thing I stole from Heaven!”
Pulling out a blade from his own storage, I quickly used a spell to identify the weapon. It was a blade called Caliburn, and according to the flavor text it wielded the ability to cut and manipulate space freely. Not wasting anytime, the God of Deceit began violently swinging the blade around like an insane madman. Dodging the dozens of fissures that opened up around me, his blade barely missed cutting my coat.
“Watch it jackass, my wives made this especially for me!”, I spat as I began countering his attacks, “I gave you the painful way out, now you get the excruciating option!”
