ᴍʏ ɢᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ ᴀɴɢᴇʟ | ᴢᴇʟᴅʀɪꜱ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ ꜰᴏᴜʀ

"Shock, sadness, anger, jealousy," the Priestess of Chaos continues with the story. "Young Merlin was assailed by the dizzying maelstrom of emotions. Even so, she could not bring herself to hate the two of them. She returned to Belialuin on her own and filled the gaping hole in her heart by devouring knowledge but her heart still hungered and she spent her days troubled. One day, Merlin heard the wisemen speak of Chaos. Chaos was the one who created the world, birthing the Supreme Deity, the Demon Queen, and its third offspring, the Sacred Tree. The Supreme Deity created the Celestial realm and the Goddess race, the Demon Queen created the Demon realm and the Demon race, and the Sacred Tree created the Fairy realm and its Fairy race."

So this ancient entity, Chaos, created my mother? And also the father of Meliodas and Zeldris?

"Chaos then created the fourth race, Giants," the Lady of the Lake goes on while I narrow my eyes, pursing my lips. "But they were savage and power-hungry and harmed one another. Disappointed, Chaos created Humans. Kindness and cruelty, bravery and cowardice, love and loathing, beauty and crudeness, everything went into them. Though incomplete, they were perfect and came the closest to Chaos. In light of such perfect work, both the Demon Queen and the Supreme Deity were filled with jealousy and dread. They feared that the love and respect their own races devoted to them would be stolen by their creator, Chaos. So the Supreme Deity and the Demon Queen worked together to seal Chaos away."

"That sounds like something the Demon Queen and my father would do," Zeldris mutters.

"Upon hearing this treachery, Merlin spent the next 3,000 years aiming to resurrect Chaos," the Priestess of Chaos states simply. "She believed that if she could revive Chaos, giving rise to virtually endless possibilities that her starving heart would finally be filled. There were several requirements in order to revive Chaos. Defeating the Demon Queen was one of them. Merlin used the Seven Deadly Sins as a means to accomplish that. But I'd say that makes you all even now. You've definitely used her plenty as well."

"Are you kidding me?" the Serpent Sin of Envy yells. "What do you know? How dare you judge us like that! Sure, there might be a lot of things I don't understand about all of this yet but still, Merlin fought with the Seven Deadly Sins as a comrade alongside us! We didn't use anybody!"

"Indeed," the Lady of the Lake hums in agreement. "It's true that I haven't lived with her or even spoken to her that much and I know you all far less. But what I do know is that Merlin asked the Giant craftsman Dabuzu to forge the Coffin of Eternal Darkness in order to seal away the Demon Queen and the Supreme Deity. Also, she intentionally delayed the spell to stop time in order to resurrect the Demon Queen. And in the final battle, she guided your Combo move into the lake. Lastly, it was she who reactivated the curse on the two sons of the Supreme Deity that the eldest daughter of the Demon Queen had broken."

"You did what now?" I growl but Zeldris holds me back, his emerald-green eyes wide in horror.

"You—You stop talking all that nonsense!" Diane cries out, enraged. "That's impossible!"

"Merlin, please!" the Grizzly Sin of Sloth begs. "Don't just stand there. Say something!"

"To revive Chaos, it wasn't enough to seal away the Supreme Deity and the Demon Queen," she says instead. "One or the other had to be completely destroyed in order to disrupt the balance."

"You knew, didn't you?" the Fox Sin of Greed says with a dark scowl on his face. "You knew all along the Captain's body would be taken over yet you still let the Demon King revive like that?"

"And yet there was one more condition," the Daughter of Belialuin continues, her yellow eyes screwed shut. "To obtain the key to reawaken Arthur, I needed an explosive amount of magic."