'Where am I?' Elizabeth looked around the tiny room. The walls were stone, the flickering light of a candle washing over them. There was a heavy looking metal door in front of her and a wooden chair with a jug perched on it. The whole place smelled musty and damp, like it hadn't been used in a while. If Elizabeth had to guess, she would wager she was underground.

'I don't understand,' she said. 'I was just at the Boar Hat, wasn't I? [Y/n]?'

Instead of hearing a reassuring voice, Elizabeth heard a sinister one.

'I happily welcome you home to Liones,' it said.

Elizabeth screamed and looked behind her. It was the woman who had appeared in the Boar Hat, the one with the red dress and creepy helmet.

'Are you the one who brought me here? I beg you, take me to [Y/n] and Sir Meliodas!' Elizabeth took a step towards the woman with the intent to grab her, but the woman disappeared.

Looking around in bewilderment, Elizabeth thought. 'It can't be ... This is Liones?'

The loud roar of a mighty beast answered her. Elizabeth screamed again. Such a ferocious sound could only come from a creature so terrible -

'Is that you, Hawk?'

'Where the hell are we?' the pig screeched. 'I've had it with all this crap. Let's go, let's go, let's go!' The pig charged the door with a battle cry of 'Super Roasty Illusion!'

With a great shrieking crash, the door was torn from the walls. Elizabeth stared at the warped metal.

'Okay, mission accomplished,' said Hawk, reappearing with a proud smile and blood spurting from his backside.

'Oh, Hawk, you're bleeding!'

The sound of a door creaking reached Elizabeth's ears. She peeked round the corner and saw a man looking right at her. Luckily he was yawning; he must have just woken up. But Elizabeth still started to shake. She clutched at the stones of the doorway and shivered.

'The hell's going on out here?' said the guard.

'Quick, hide,' whispered Elizabeth. 'It's the lookout.'

'ROLLING HAM ATTACK!' Hawk barrelled down the corridor and slammed into the guard at top speed. The guard's head smacked against the wall and knocked him out. 'All right! Now let's beat it.'

'Okay.'

And Elizabeth and Hawk started to run down the long stone corridor.

¾

'Don't let Meliodas use Full Counter!'

'Aim for a direct hit!'

The fight had started up again. Your excitement to see Merlin and Arthur again was swamped by your worry for Elizabeth. You duelled two knights at once, knocking them down impatiently before moving onto the next one.

To your right, Meliodas was fighting another knight and didn't notice one sneaking up behind him. Before you could warn him, though, Ban was there, punching the guy down easily.

'Don't think you can beat us without using magical powers, dumbasses,' said Ban. 'Of course even with them you'd still lose.'

There was a break in the fighting. You stood beside Meliodas and watched the oncoming hoard of Holy Knights.

'Geez, these guys don't let up, do they?' said Ban.

'Looks like we're gonna have to wipe them all out after all,' said Meliodas.

You groaned. 'That's going to take too long.'

'There's a simpler way,' said Gowther. He walked unhurriedly past the three of you and raised his arms. 'Sacred Treasure Double Bow Harlit.'

Two jagged streaks of light grew from Gowther's palms. They were vaguely pink.

'Seriously?' cried Meliodas, eyes wide.

'Where in the hell was he hiding a Sacred Treasure?' asked Ban.

You just stared in amazement as the light formed a giant bow and arrow around Gowther's arms. He drew back the string and said, 'Now, Rewrite Light.'

The light broke into streaks, splintering into more as they travelled. The light tore across the ground and found the charging Holy Knights. A beam of light struck every single knight and they cried out in shock. But then the light faded and the knights were fine.

'Gowther, you know those arrows didn't do a thing don't you, buddy?' said Ban.

The sound of metal clanking reached your ears and you looked up to see the knights dropping their weapons to the ground. You blinked and the knights were charging again.

'Meliodas! There you are!'

'Ban! I really missed you, man!'

'[Y/n]! It's been too long!'

You raised an eyebrow and felt Meliodas's confusion but before you could say anything more than 'Huh?' the knights were upon you.

You winced as your face was pressed up against a breastplate, the cold metal not exactly welcoming. Beside you, Meliodas was also wrapped in the arms of a knight and Ban was being tossed about.

'My darling Gowther,' said the knight who had Gowther in his clutches.

'Hey, Gowther, what's going on here, man?' asked Meliodas.

More and more knights were pressing in on you. You just managed to squirm out of one's arms when another one embraced you.

'It's actually a very simple trick,' said Gowther as he readjusted his glasses. 'The Holy Knights now view us as loved ones they haven't seen in a long time, stopping them all in their tracks.'

'So you rewrote their memories, huh?'

Gowther shushed him. 'It's nothing more than a stopgap. Once they notice the discrepancies in their memories, they'll return to normal. Moreover, their memory of being under this spell will be deleted.'

'Don't you ever use that on us, got it?' you, Meliodas and Ban shouted.

'Roger that.'

Now inside Liones, your palms began to sweat. There were knights everywhere, some scratching their heads as Gowther's spell wore off, but they were all talking about one thing: finding you guys.

Crouching low, you followed Meliodas as he led the way. Using a broken wall as cover, the four of you crept further into the city.

'Okay, we all managed to get into the capital, but what are we supposed to do from here?' said Meliodas, looking at the crowd of knights.

'We can't just recklessly start battling in the city,' said Gowther.

'Man, I was really looking forward to knocking some heads together,' Ban complained quietly. You poked his side.

'With all these Holy Knights around, trying to find Elizabeth could be a real pain,' you whispered.

'You think we should head to the castle?' Ban started to smirk. 'Who knows? It might be like one of those fairy tales where the princess is locked up in an underground dungeon.'

You frowned and looked at him out the corner of your eye.

'Don't you mean the top of a tower?' you and Gowther asked at the same time.

'Castle, huh?' said Meliodas.

You were running again, still keeping low, but there was no one around in this part of the city. As you ran, you cursed the fact your wings were still out of commission. It would have been so much easier to fly to wherever Elizabeth was.

Stop blaming yourself.

Huh? You stared at the back of Meliodas's head, his blond hair bouncing as he ran. Like you're not blaming yourself too.

I meant about your wings. You'll be back to normal in no time and then we'll get her back no problem.

Yeah.

It was quiet, the only were footsteps as your feet hit the cobbled street. Until an explosion shook the ground.

The four of you stopped and stared at the huge cloud of dust rising in the distance.

'What was that?' asked Ban.

'Judging by the sound and vibration, it's half a mile away,' said Gowther, 'between the South and Palace Gates.'

'Come to think of it, weren't we just sensing someone with crazy magical powers?'

'It's faint, but I'm fairly positive it's Hendrickson. Ten years ago he was a Holy Knight who bore the title of Platinum.'

'Enough talk, let's go,' said Meliodas harshly. He ran towards the explosion with you hot on his heels.

'Huh? You mean we're not heading for the castle now?' asked Ban.

'If we're going to rescue Elizabeth, the fastest way is to take them all out,' you shouted back to him without turning around.

Hendrickson. You shivered as you remembered the demon in the forest.

Focus. We're here for Elizabeth.

So you don't think the demon had anything to do with the Coffin?

It doesn't matter either way. We're going to stop Hendrickson and get Elizabeth back.

¾

Diane stared at the ground as she walked. Unable to take it anymore, she asked King the question that had been bugging her for a while now.

'Hey,' she said.

'Yeah, what's up?' asked King.

Diane kept looking at the ground. 'I've never seen that look on [Y/n]'s face before. Or the captain's. Have you?'

'Nuh uh. Kind of caught me off guard a little too. After all this time, I can't remember seeing either of them so upset.'

'Do you think that if I were the one who got abducted instead of Elizabeth, they would've gotten that worked up over me?'

'Of course they would,' said King quietly before he shouted, 'Absolutely, Diane, there's no question about it. You mean a lot to them.'

Diane smiled at King. 'Yeah, I know they're really kind people.' She twirled some hair around her finger before pulling it to her face to try and hide the blush she was sure had spread over her cheeks. 'But I still doubt they'd get that look on their faces for me.'

'I would!' King said defiantly. Diane stared at him. 'Trust me; I'd totally get worked up for you! I'd rescue you by myself if I had to!'

Diane looked at him and felt her heart squeeze. She remembered what [Y/n] had said that night, how King was the first person she'd said would defend her. He was so cute. Wait, what? Diane forced herself to laugh.

'Oh, King,' she said. 'You're just trying to make me feel better.'

'No, that's not it,' he stammered. 'I'm just letting you know that -'

But he was interrupted as Hawk's mum snorted. The gust of wind caught King off guard, blowing him backwards. He stopped upside-down. 'Uh, yeah, you're right. Guess we'd better get going. Oh! Hey wait a minute, I almost forgot.'

King spun back the right way round and took a deep breath before bringing two fingers to his lips and whistling long and high pitched.

Diane stared as a hole opened up in the sky. Something long poked out of it and waved around like a tail. It was a tail. The creature it belonged to tumbled out of the hole and barked happily.

'Oslo,' said King.

'Is that a dog?' Diane asked, pointing to the animal that had landed on King's Chastiefol. It was kind of cute, the way its tail wagged and its tongue lolled out the side of its mouth.

'No, it's a Black Hound,' said King. 'He's a special type of fairy who lives in between the human world and the fairy world. He's an old friend of mine too. He's got this mysterious power that lets him teleport whatever he swallows to another place.'

As if to prove King right, Oslo opened his mouth wide. Diane stared at the black abyss at the back of Oslo's throat in awe.

'So does that mean he can send us straight to Liones?' Diane asked.

'Exactly!'

'You really shouldn't've waited such a long time to introduce us to your little friend here, you know?' Diane admonished. 'And it's not like the captain would've gotten angry. Having another pet around could be fun.'

'Not when Oslo's favourite food is pork.'

'Maybe you're right.'

'Okay Oslo!'

At King's command, Oslo began to grow. The tiny Black Hound grew into a humongous Black Hound almost as tall as Hawk's mum and charged at Diane. She couldn't stop her heartbeat speeding up and gripped Gideon tighter but didn't dodge and the next thing she knew she was in Oslo's mouth.

It was a very odd sensation. It wasn't wet like she expected. In fact, Diane noted as she moved her hands, it felt very much like stone. But something had gone wrong. No matter how much she wriggled, Diane couldn't move.

'I can't be in Liones already, can I?' Diane groaned. 'It's so dark in this thing's mouth, I can't tell what's going on. Plus my butt's stuck and I can't get out!' She could still feel the sun on her legs even as her arms started to get goosebumps from the cold. 'Hey, King? Could you please give me a little shove?'

Diane tried moving again but nothing happened.

'Hurry up!' she shouted.

Suddenly there was a loud rumble. Light started to creep into Diane's vision and she blinked. Now she could see what was around her. There were stone walls and a lot of dust and ... six Holy Knights? There was Howzer, Guila, Gilthunder, Dreyfus, the one with orange armour who fought Meliodas in Vaizel and one she didn't recognise.

'Look, the Serpent Sin,' said Guila.

'Diane?' said Howzer.

'Woah,' said Diane. 'Look at all the Holy Knights here.'

¾

The ground was shaking again. You stopped and looked in the direction of the disturbance and gasped.

'Captain, look,' said Gowther.

'Yeah,' said Meliodas. 'That's Ground Gladius.'

'That means Diane must be here,' you said.

'What's she doing in the capital?' asked Ban. 'That seems kinda weird.'

'However, this magical power definitely belongs to her,' Gowther pointed out.

'So what's gonna be our next move, Captain?'

You gripped your sword tighter. What to do? What to do? You wished you could split in two so you could help Diane and find Elizabeth. You could feel Meliodas's hesitation as well.

We can't split up, said Meliodas, not after last time.

But Diane needs help. We can't just leave her.

I know, but -

'I'll help her.' Gowther's voice broke into your thoughts. 'You make saving the princess your top priority.'

'Gowther.' You grabbed one of his cold hands in both of yours. He looked at you with impassive eyes.

'Okay, thanks,' said Meliodas and he tugged on your sleeve. You let go of Gowther and started running again. But you looked back one last time.

'Be careful,' you called to Gowther. He looked so small. You wrenched your eyes away from his lone figure and scrubbed angrily at the tears that threatened to fall from your eyes.

It had barely been a minute since you left Gowther before something else happened. This time it wasn't a rumble or any magical power. This time it was a voice. Dreyfus's voice, magically amplified, boomed through the streets. You didn't stop running but listened carefully as houses blurred by.

'I am Holy Knight Grand Master Dreyfus. People of Liones, listen. We've been infiltrated by traitors known as the Seven Deadly Sins and they've begun ransacking the kingdom.'

'Damn that bastard,' Ban muttered as he ran and you couldn't help but to agree.

'The Holy War of ancient legend is finally about to begin. But have no fear! Liones will be guarded by the power of the Holy Knights. For those who can fight, take up arms and make your stand.'

Dreyfus's voice faded out and was replaced by the occasional booms of explosions. You gritted your teeth but kept running. This was not a fight you were going to lose.

~~

Okay, so I just wanted to say thank you. Like, there's over 6000 reads. :O Amazing.

Also, I LOVE reading your comments!! I love reading your theories and ideas and thoughts. Seriously, I legit cried this morning. So keep sending them in :D (if you want to, of course. no pressure)

See you in the next chapter!