The Hydra Sin (SDS)

Chapter 31- Save Her

King's POV

It had been two days, two days since the battle, two days since Janis had been killed by Loki, and two days since Ban had gone into a near comatose state. We put him into a bed in the Hogs Head and he's been there ever since, staring at a wall, not responding to any of us.

We were sitting at the bar, drinking and telling stories about Janis; everyone else had left not long after the battle was won, though it certainly didn't feel like a victory. We had all been reacquainted for such little time that we were at a bit of a loss of what to say; I could practically feel the disappointment we fall felt in the awkward silence that swirled around the room like a noxious gas.

We were torn from this by a loud crash coming from above us, from where Ban was, "What in the world?" I heard Meliodas mutter to himself before running to the stairs and promptly being bowled over by Ban.

Our teammate had messy hair, bloodshot eyes, and the odor that comes from sitting in a room for two days without doing anything; but there was a wild light in his eyes that I had never seen from him.

"She's alive," Ban gasped, grabbing Meliodas off the floor and shaking him like a sheet, "She's alive, I can save her; we need to go now!"

I looked around, hoping I wasn't the only one who was confused; I wasn't, we all were staring at Ban with a mix of shock and utter confusion, "Ban," I began cautiously, not wanting to provoke him, "What are you talking about?"

"Janis, she's not gone, we can help her." He choked out desperately.

"Ban, we all watched her die," Meliodas was the one to speak this time, and I could see the sadness in his eyes at his oldest friend struggling so badly, "She was stabbed in the chest with a sword that could kill immortals, there is no way she could come back from that."

Ban shoved Meliodas away from and glared ferociously, "Then where is her body? I've killed Banshee's before, and their bodies didn't disappear when they died; I know you all think I'm in trying to deny that she's dead because I'm struggling, but trust me on this." His voice got quieter as he spoke until he was whispering.

Merlin was the first one to speak after that, "I suppose you're right, banshee bodies don't disappear after death, that's been bothering me as well; but where is she if not dead?"

"I'm not sure, but Hel gave me a lead," He said, nodding in thanks at Merlin, he was about to go on, but Diane interrupted him.

"Wait, you've spoken with Hel? Janis' Hel?" Her voice held a note of incredulousness.

"Yes, as I was about to say-"

"Why didn't you mention that first, when did you speak to Hel?" Diane jumped in again, not satisfied by Ban's one-word answer.

"She contacted me a few minutes ago, okay? Now can I continue, or are you going to waste more of the little time we have left to save Janis?" Diane said nothing, and Ban turned back to the rest of us with fire in his eyes, "Good, Hel told me that Janis was being held captive by her brother Fenris for breaking one of the banshee's rules; apparently, she intervened on Janis' account once before this, she has no authority to save Janis this time."

"So how can we do anything?" Meliodas voiced the question I was thinking, "We all have felt how powerful Hel is, so what can we do that Hel can't?"

"We can go talk to Odin, just like Janis did; well, either we do that, or we fight Fenris, and likely lose." Ban's voice held more energy than I had heard in it since, well, ever.

It took a moment, but when what he said finally hit us, we were all left staring at him blankly, hoping this was a joke and he would tell us the actual way any minute now. When that didn't happen, I took a deep breath and spoke hesitantly, "I'm scared to rephrase Meliodas' question, but how do you plan on doing that? We don't know how Janis did it in the first place, what makes you think we would be able to do anything?"

"With this," Ban's small grin was infuriating, to say the least, it yelled at us that he was superior as he pulled out an intricate horn that looked oddly familiar.

Of course, Merlin was the first to react, rushing to Ban and taking the horn from him with a childlike glee, "This is the horn Janis used to get rid of Loki, isn't it? How does it work? I can feel a powerful magical energy within it, but it's abilities are unclear."

Ban shrugged and put the horn to his lips, preparing to blow before all of us jumped in to stop him, "Are you an idiot?" Merlin yelled as she swiped the horn from his hands, "All we know is that this horn made Loki disappear when Janis blew it, do you really think it's a good idea to blow it right now?"

Of course, he just shrugged, "It is the only lead we have right now, how are we going to figure out what it does if we don't use it?"

"We could study it, you know, there is magic that can help us understand that better," The glare she sent Ban showed contempt and I couldn't stop the sigh that left my house at their fight; at the same time, I was relieved that there was a feeling of purpose that filled the room that had been missing for the last two days.

Ban grabbed at the horn and pulled it to his chest protectively, "Yeah? And how much time will that take Merlin? Janis is trapped now, the longer we wait, the longer it will be until we can free her. She's given up her life for us, we owe it to her to free her now," Before any of us could do anything, he had once again put the horn to his lips and sounded it, blowing long and hard, drowning out our cries for him to stop.

"You idiot!" Sadly, that was all I had time to yell out before a golden light encompassed us and everything faded in the light.

Ban's POV

As the light slowly faded, I became aware of a huge person standing above me, all I could see was a golden and black blur, but that only lasted a moment before I was lifted off the ground and pushed harshly into something that I assumed was a wall.

"Who are you and why are you here?" I blinked several times trying to clear my vision, but that wasn't working super well, so I decided to answer the person so that he would let go of me; not that I thought he could hurt me or anything, it was just annoying to be held against the wall like this.

"I'm Ban, and these are my friends, we are comrades of Janis, she was here before, wasn't she?" A suddenly as it had come, the pressure holding me up disappeared and I slumped to the floor and rubbed my eyes, slowly pushing away the fuzziness in my sight. I quickly looked around and saw that everyone else was stirring, it looked as though Janis had done her Banshee Screech on all of them; thankfully, none of them seemed to be injured.

"You know Lady Janis?" I looked up at the tall, black guy wearing loud golden armor; he reached down and picked up the horn that had fallen from my grasp and considered it for a moment, "How did you come by this? I entrusted it to Lady Janis alone, and what I've been able to learn about her tells me that she wouldn't idly allow something like this to fall into the hands of others." He looked back to me expectantly, but before I could say anything, yet another loud voice echoed through the golden dome.

"Heimdall, I was informed that the Bifrost was activated; what is the meaning of this?" I jerked my head towards the entrance, deciding it would be best for me to stay quiet for now until we were noticed again, right now this golden man seemed to be fixated on the newcomer.

"Prince Thor, these people sounded Gjallarhorn, I brought them here to retrieve the horn, and discover why Janis no longer had possession of it." Heimdall? Bowed suddenly as he spoke to this prince, and I lazily cast my eyes around, trying to remember if Hel had mentioned a Thor when she told me that Janis was still alive.

Unsurprisingly, the only thing I could remember from that whole thing was the fact that Janis was alive, and that I had a chance to save her.

"These fools stole the horn from Lady Janis?" The new voice seemed outraged, and in a moment, I was once again lifted into the air, looking at a huge man in a red cape and silver armor as something like lightning seemed to crackle around him, "Where is Lady Janis, mortal? Tell me and I may spare your comrades lives."

I smiled wryly while considering him, I felt slightly threatened, so I did what I always did in situations like this; I opened my mouth, "Do you think your barber could give me a snazzy haircut like yours? I always like trying new looks."